Dutch King

The National Remembrance Day commemoration on Dam Square in Amsterdam will continue on May 4, but without any audience, chairman Gerdi Verbeet of the National Committee 4 and 5 May said to NOS. All 14 Liberation Day parties on May 5 are canceled, in accordance to stricter measures against the coronavirus that the government announced on Monday. 

King Willem-Alexander addressed the nation of the Netherlands on the situation surrounding coronavirus Covid-19 on Friday. In his address, he stressed the need for people to find it in their hearts to be as compassionate and assertive as possible during the coronavirus pandemic. He also offered his gratitude and praise for many of the hardest working people in the country.

Another 534 people in the Netherlands were diagnosed with coronavirus since Thursday, which took the country's total number of infected people to 2,994. Thirty of those patients died since Thursday, meaning that 106 people with coronavirus have died in the Netherlands, public health agency RIVM said on Friday.

Another 111 people in the Netherlands were diagnosed with coronavirus Covid-19, public health institute RIVM announced on Thursday. This brings the total diagnoses to 614, up from Wednesday's 503. 

Noord-Brabant is still the most affected province in the Netherlands, with 273 of the Covid-19 patients living in the province. Utrecht is second most affected with 80 patients, followed by 68 patients in Zuid-Holland, 53 in Limburg, and 48 in Gelderland. 

King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima will, with a few possible exceptions, not shake anyone's hands during their State visit to Indonesia this week. This is to reduce the chance of catching the coronavirus Covid-19, was reported during the briefing ahead of the state visit on Monday, AD reports.

The Royal House released photos of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima enjoying their annual winter holiday in Lech, Austria with their daughters Princesses Amalia, Alexia and Ariane.

This year they were joined by Princess Beatrix, as well as Prince Constantijn, Princess Laurentien and their children. 

King Willem-Alexander is currently in Jerusalem, at the invitation of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, for the World Holocaust Forum. On Thursday, the Dutch King will visit the Yad Vashem museum and the Dutch care home Beth Juliana, ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day next week.

Yad Vashem is the official Israeli memorial center for the Jewish victims of the Holocaust. The institute documents and commemorates the fates of European Jews during the Second World War and honors the people who worked to help the Jews at the time.

In his speech at the General Assembly of the United Nations, King Willem-Alexander called on Russia to cooperate in the investigation into the downing of flight MH17. "The relatives of the 298 victims expect justice and we will not rest until justice is done", the Dutch King said. King Willem-Alexander also spoke on climate change and LGBTQ rights in his speech. NOS reports.

Today is Budget Day, or Prinsjesdag, in the Netherlands. This is the official opening of the parliamentary year. King Willem-Alexander will give a speech and the government will present its budget plans for next year. Here's what to expect.

After opening the new Museum Sophiahof in The Hague on Thursday, King Willem-Alexander stopped to speak to a group of demonstrators protesting against the opening of the museum, which focuses on the cultural and historical legacy of the Dutch East Indies. The protesters are descendants of soldiers and civil servants who worked under the administration of the then Dutch East Indies, but never received salary during the Japanese occupation between 1942 and 1945, NOS reports.

King Willem-Alexander and Prime Minister Mark Rutte are attending the Bilderberg Meetings in Montreux, Switzerland this weekend. The Bilderberg Meetings are an informal discussion between important people in Europe and North America. A total of some 130 people will attend, including politicians, directors of multinationals, influential media and large institutions like the United Nations.