DutchNews Podcast

It's been a week of blaming and shaming as the king and queen flew into a storm of outrage over their pandemic-busting trip to Greece. A Dutch hacker hijacked Donald Trump's Twitter, AZ snatched an unlikely win in Naples and the egg-pilfering gay penguins were up to their usual tricks. Further lockdown measures loom larger as coronavirus infection numbers continue to climb. And there's concern tha...

Mark Rutte was in no mood to celebrate his 10th anniversary as prime minister this week, but there was a party outside Parliament as drinkers packed the bars for a last round before lockdown. We ask if the new restrictions will be enough, why Germany is bailing out the Dutch ICUs again and whether circle parties will ever return. In crime news, the chances of being murdered go down but the stakes...

After months of delays, the coronavirus tracker app gets the green light just as the country's infection map turns a deep shade of red. The disease even manages to get sucked into the black hole of ophef that is the renovation of the Binnenhof. In another long-running saga, Willem-Alexander is thwarted again in his quest to become the Sun Energy King. And in sports news, Kiki Bertens is accused of...

They can cover our faces, but they can't mask the awkwardness of performing a full U-turn in a matter of days. Mark Rutte grudgingly agreed this week to mask up at the grocery store and advised everyone else to cover their faces wherever the sun doesn't shine. That prompted an even more startling U-turn from Geert Wilders, who suddenly decided he didn't like the government telling people what to w...

Autumn is a season of missed opportunities and mellow fruitlessness for the Dutch government as its coronavirus strategy unravels. Rising infections, waiting lists for corona testing and no trace of a tracker app - we ask what's gone wrong. Also going nuclear are the VVD, who want to build more power stations if they remain in government next year. The socialists and D66 also kick off their electi...

A low-key Budget Day brings sober news on the economic front, unless you happen to be a princess approaching her 18th birthday. New coronavirus restrictions are imminent as a surge in infections puts even more strain on the testing system. The tension also took its toll on Rotterdam's Erasmusbrug and the prosecutor handling a high-profile racial abuse case. Plus we tell you why zoos have been hit...

Despite a new surge in coronavirus infections, there were signs of normal life returning this week. The government's budget plans were leaked ahead of Prinsjesdag, the football season geared up for a restart and there was a bitter row in parliament about refugees. While D66 decided not to pick a self-confessed forger as its leader, Geert Wilders announced his discrimination trial would run for ano...

The podcast returns from the summer break to find the Dutch border has advanced further than the coronavirus tracker app. We explain why Ferd Grapperhaus's wedding turned into a political horror show and why Hugo de Jonge still can't celebrate his CDA leadership win. Plus we weigh up Tom Dumoulin's chances of winning the Tour de France and Dick Advocaat's chances of a fourth term as national footb...

In this summer special, the podcast team answers your questions. The Dutch in EU negotiations. What are the best flavors of drop? (Hint: None) Are Dutch BBQs a hate crime? We've posted an excerpt of the full episode publicly, but if you want the answers to all of these questions, help keep the podcast going by supporting us on Patreon. Want to support the DutchNews podcast and keep our stocks of d...

It's the last podcast before we head off for our holidays in sunny Spijkenisse. We tell you who won the Christian Democrat leadership election, how many people joined the unemployment queue in June and why neighbours saw red over a green house. In sport, calls grow louder to overturn a ban on singing in football stadiums. And love knows no bounds as campaigners persuade the government to relax tra...

There's a lot of outrage on this week's podcast. At the beheading of André Hazes. At lockdown measures. At a change to ID cards. But most of the podcast's outrage is directed at the inadequate compensation for nazi snitches. And while the CDA leadership election wasn't rigged, we do try to influence another election by encouraging you to vote for Sluisje McSluisface.

The lockdown has eased to the point where we can focus on less distressing subjects than a global pandemic. So we've put together a podcast packed with news of slavery, institutional racism and Brexit. One of Groningen's favourite sons comes home to revive the city's footballing fortunes. New laws come into force on paternity leave, organ donation and holiday letting. And there's a spike in popcor...

As the threat of coronavirus fades and the temperature rises, the podcast team ponders the new normal. Will packed train carriages lead to a second wave? Will any of the political leadership contests this summer descend into civil war? Are Amsterdam's canals less culturally significant than 'that Oranje feeling'? How will football fans be stopped from singing in stadiums? And which will be finishe...

In a week of cancellations, we bring you possibly the most distressing story ever to feature on the podcast. Wopke Hoekstra cancels himself as the next prime minister, the cup final is finally abandoned and Thierry Baudet causes ophef with his itinerant boreal bouquet. In better news, circle parties are saved from oblivion as Hema finds a buyer. We bring you up to speed with the lifting of the loc...

The podcast team looks back at a week dominated by bread and circuses, as the fairground wagons circled on the Malieveld and the first batch of new herring went to a good cause. The government is told to beef up its nitrogen reduction plans and warned of dire economic times ahead. Coronavirus testing is rolled out amid questions about why it took so long, while trials of a potential vaccine take a...

It has been a week of protests. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema touched the hot button issue of slavery opposition while an unsocially-distant crowd gathered on the Dam to protest racism. Those demonstrations spread to other cities without incident but an anti-lockdown protest over the weekend saw multiple arrests. A skating rink protested the decision by its insurance company and internet providers...

On the eve of the first big relaxation of lockdown rules, the podcast team asks if it's safe to take a seat on the train or in the bar. Police close an abattoir in Gelderland following a coronavirus outbreak, shining a spotlight on conditions for migrant workers. The Netherlands continues to aggravate its EU partners over financial support for corona-hit countries, while at home there are more uns...

The nation took its first tentative steps into the 1.5-metre society this week. Children started going back to school, hairdressers started hacking though their waiting lists and the American ambassador resumed his love affair with fake news. In parliament, defence minister Ank Bijleveld narrowly survived her second motion of no confidence over the deaths of civilians in an air strike in Iraq. We...

As the nation prepares to emerge from lockdown, hand stitched face masks at the ready, we examine the government's plans in detail. Libraries, acupuncturists, sex clubs and campsite toilets all featured in Mark Rutte's schedule as Dutch society slowly returns to normal. Coronavirus also gave this year's ceremonies to commemorate the end of the war an even more sombre atmosphere than usual. While t...

The podcast team overcomes 'coronamoeheid' and the horror of 'coronakapsels' to bring you the latest news on the lockdown as well as a few of the 700 new Dutch words that the epidemic has generated. Ministers come under more pressure over face masks, the economic outlook goes from terrible to abysmal and researchers warn of a hidden danger for intensive care patients. Mink farms are cordoned off a...

As the schools prepare to reopen in May, we examine the government's strategy to release the lockdown. What's the impact on regular healthcare? Is it all over for the football season? How did KLM manage to stir up outrage about executive bonuses twice in a week? And most importantly of all, when can we stop cutting our own hair? In other news, there are fresh disclosures about the bombing raid in...

In this week's coronavirus news, demand on intensive care beds appears to be easing off but there is growing concern about the spike in deaths in nursing homes. There's also news of research into what proportion of people may have developed immunity, a rash of scams involving face masks and why idiots are burning down phone masts. As the sense of apocalyptic doom intensifies, a church's Easter lig...

Our socially distancing podcast team updates you on the state of the lockdown as the first signs emerge of the outbreak being brought under control. What do privacy campaigners have to say about the government's plan to use tracker apps? Why is Wopke Hoekstra persona non grata in Italy? And will the football season end sooner than the row about whether to end the football season? Away from the cor...

We bring you up to date with the latest news on how the Dutch are dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Find out how the government is planning to ramp up the number of intensive care beds, how an ambulance got held up for 20 minutes in Belgium and why finance minister Wopke Hoekstra had to eat a large slice of humble pie. The competition for 'most awkward bodyswerve of the year' award has two st...

Our latest quarantined podcast brings you news of the latest coronavirus figures, the government's strict new social distancing rules and the efforts to step up testing. The KNVB still hopes to finish the football season and the MH17 trial is postponed to June for non-corona reasons. The virus is separating not just friends and families, but the men's and women's clothing racks in a shop on the Be...