DutchNews Podcast

In the wake of the recent asylum riots, we unpick the Dutch far-right landscape with the help of Leiden university professor Sarah de Lange. Voters' confidence in Rob Jetten's cabinet has plunged in the first 100 days as it struggles to make progress on key policy areas such as asylum, welfare and housing. Palestinian students with visas for the Netherlands will get more help leaving Gaza. The NS cut-price summer train ticket arrives a week early. And in sport, Jesper de Jong feels the love in Paris as he bows out of the French Open on his 26th birthday.

Social affairs minister Hans Vijlbrief cans the cabinet’s plans to extend the retirement age in the hope of avoiding a summer of strikes. Accusations fly in parliament in a bad-tempered debate on asylum, as the reception centre in Ter Apel continues to strain at the seams. The sale of DigiD is blocked at the last minute to the dismay of Donald Trump's man in The Hague. Schiermonnikoog wants to use heat-seeking drones to round up its stray cats. And a Dutchman is king of the hill in the ancient English sport of cheese rolling.

As the atmosphere outside asylum centres grows heated and the debate becomes increasingly poisonous, Rob Jetten sends in a crack team of civil servants to lend moral support. A changing of the guard at Schiphol leads to long queues at the airport, while unions warn of more disruption over the summer. The crew of the MV Hondius look forward to six weeks in a dockside cabin in Rotterdam. Art detective Arthur Brand traces a painting looted by the Nazis to a flat in Utrecht. And in sport, Dick Advocaat's latest comeback leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

An outbreak of a rat-borne virus on a cruise ship triggers mass anxiety as phrases like "self-isolation" and "test and trace" re-enter the lexicon. Local mayors are growing increasingly frustrated with The Hague's reluctance to condemn violent protests outside refugee centres. Environmental campaigners are distraught as the man who led a string of successful court cases against major polluters takes Tata Steel's shilling. And in sport, the passportgate saga is resolved while crisis club Vitesse Arnhem are thrown yet another lifeline in their battle to survive.

The army is feeling the heat after several wildfires break out during training excercises in tinderbox conditions. The king gets his skates on and straddles some Frisian dikes for his birthday bash this year. Protests against refugee centers turn ugly when a former council office is trashed by roving hooligans. The government signs a data security deal with the owners of Lidl as it tries to become less dependent on US tech firms. And owl watchers are stunned by some fly-by-night high jinks in Limburg.