Flevoland

Forestry association Staatsbosbeheer is still not allowed to cull any more red deer in nature reserve Oostvaardersplassen, the court ruled on Monday in a lawsuit filed by multiple nature organizations, NU.nl reports.

Only 15 percent of Netherlands residents are stuck in traffic at least once a week, with most saying that they are much more likely to face difficulties during evening rush hour than in the mornings. The majority, 51 percent, only sporadically end up in a traffic jam. People in the Netherlands are also less and less annoyed by being stuck in traffic jams, defined as stop-and-go traffic that barely rises above 25 kilometers per hour.

On January 1st there were 2,000,404 businesses in the Netherlands - the first time ever this counter topped 2 million, according to figures from the Dutch chamber of commerce KvK. The number of companies in the Netherlands increased by almost 100 thousand last year, an increase of 5 percent, NOS reports.

The Dutch government is in discussions with the school boards in five cities hard-hit by a shortage of teachers to roll out emergency plans to address the problem. The ruling cabinet announced on Monday it will have a plan in place to tackle the issue in Amsterdam and The Hague by the end of January, and then it will begin addressing the shortages in Rotterdam, Utrecht and Almere.

The 11-year-old girl who was the subject of an Amber Alert was found within 30 minutes after the alert was issued, a spokesperson for the Amber Alert system told NL Times. The girl was found in her hometown of Lelystad because of the mass notification, the spokesperson said citing information released to her by the police.

"The missing girl has been found. Thank you all for sharing [the bulletin]," Lelystad police said on social media.

Forestry service Staatsbosbeheer and the province of Flevoland must stop the large-scale culling of red deer in nature reserve Oostvaardersplassen, the Midden-Nederland court ruled on Tuesday. Multiple nature organizations lodged an appeal against the mass culling of red deer in order to reduce the number of large grazers in the nature reserve, NU.nl reports.

Delft hyperloop company Hardt Hyperloop received millions of euros in investments this past year and plans to use this money to build a 3 kilometer long test track in the Netherlands. The test track will be part of the company's yet-to-be-built European Hyperloop Center. If all goes according to plan, Hardt Hyperloop hopes to launch the first commercial hyperloop connection by 2025, AD reports

The police arrested a gang that stole 122 mobile phones from attendees of the Defqon.1 in Biddinghuizen in early June. Many of the phones have since been returned to their rightful owners, but 75 still remain unclaimed. The police are looking for people who lost their phone at the dance festival so that it can be returned to them.

Seven members of the phone stealing gang were arrested in the past weeks, according to De Stentor. With these arrests, 122 stolen phones were recovered. 

The average national rent increase in the second quarter of 2019 was the lowest since the second quarter of 2015. Rents in the Netherlands increased an average of 3.1 percent in the second quarter of this year, according to figures from Pararius. This clearly shows that the price increases are slowing down, the housing platform said, NU.nl reports. 

Rent increases fell below 5 percent for the first time in 3.5 years in the last quarter of 2018. And that slowing down effect is continuing, according to Pararius.

An investigation into the discovery of cocaine hidden in a flower shipment in January led to a much larger drug bust in April. Ten people were taken into custody who worked for a logistics firm at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam after 160 kilograms of cocaine was found in another flower shipment.

It was not revealed when the arrests took place, but eight of the suspects were still in custody on Thursday.

An argument at a pay terminal inside a parking garage erupted in gunfire, leaving one young man badly wounded. The man, identified by family as Orpheo Gefferie, died from his injuries at an area hospital, police said.

The mother of his seven-year-old child called Gefferie "the best dad" their son could have had. "We will forever love you," she said on social media.

Gefferie, from Almere, was identified by police as being 26, although at least one newspaper report said he was 24. He spent time traveling back and forth between his Almere home and Suriname.