News

Car parks at The Hague’s beaches have reached capacity during a busy Pentecost weekend. The municipality is advising visitors to switch to public transport or other alternatives. Those arriving by car are being redirected to the city centre.

European Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis emphasized the need for increased economic growth and private investment in the EU to address significant investment demands in areas like defense and competitiveness.

AI developer Anthropic is reportedly finalizing a new funding round next week to raise more than 30 billion dollars. The investment could push the valuation of the Claude chatbot creator past 900 billion dollars, overtaking rival OpenAI. Both artificial intelligence firms are also rumoured to be preparing for stock market listings later this year.

Police have arrested Extinction Rebellion activists after they blocked the railway tracks at Utrecht Centraal station. The protest, which follows a sit-in in the station hall, has brought all train traffic in and out of the major rail hub to a complete standstill. Protesters are demanding that the government immediately enforce tougher sanctions against Israel.

Eindhoven has officially launched the countdown to DE OPENING, the three-day festival that marks the start of the national cultural season this August. The event will bring theatre, music, and dance to stages across the city, featuring a mix of regional and national artists. Alongside live performances, a new festival app and a city-wide museum ticket will help visitors discover new cultural experiences.

The Amsterdam benchmark AEX index hit an all-time intraday high of 1,044.63 points on Friday, driven by market optimism following comments from US officials hinting at a swift end to the conflict with Iran. Despite ongoing disputes over uranium stockpiles and the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz—which pushed Brent crude prices up to $105.19 a barrel—European markets rallied broadly, with payment firm Adyen leading the Amsterdam gains. The morning session was further shaped by major corporate deals, including a formal €7.8 billion takeover bid for locker company InPost by a FedEx-led consortium, a €160 million European and Australian tech division sell-off by recruitment firm Randstad to LTM, and a €10.7 billion private buyout bid for Italian pharmaceutical company Recordati by a consortium led by CVC.

The Dutch government has approved a three-year ban on the trade of goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and the Syrian Golan Heights, while exploring whether the restrictions can legally expand to services and investments. The independent move follows a lack of support for an EU-wide boycott, with ministers citing deep concerns over how settlement expansion and settler violence are undermining a two-state solution. While the ban applies to both direct imports and Dutch companies operating abroad, Ministers Tom Berendsen and Sjoerd Sjoerdsma warned parliament that enforcing the measure will face practical limits, prompting the Netherlands to coordinate with nations like Belgium to boost its effectiveness.

A patient has been admitted to a secure isolation ward at the Radboudumc hospital in Nijmegen to undergo testing for Ebola, though health officials stress the risk of an actual infection is considered low. Doctors are currently running diagnostic tests with results expected over the weekend, following a safety directive from the National Coordination Centre for Infectious Disease Control. While the Ministry of Health has declined to comment on the patient's identity or condition, this precautionary admission comes shortly after a Red Cross warning regarding an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and its neighbouring countries.