Tag: Dutch

Dutch court orders sperm donor to stop after 550 children

[ad_1]
Dutch judges have ordered a man suspected of fathering more than 550 children through sperm donations to stop donating, in the latest fertility scandal to shock the Netherlands.
The man, identified in Dutch media only as Jonathan M, 41, was taken to court by a foundation protecting the rights of donor children and by the mother of one of the children allegedly fathered from his sperm.
Dutch clinical guidelines say a donor should not father more than 25 children in 12 families, but judges said the man had helped produce between 550 and 600 children since he started donating sperm in 2007.
The court therefore “prohibits the defendant from donating his semen to new prospective parents after the issuing of this judgment”, judge Thera Hesselink said on Friday.
Jonathan M may also not contact any prospective parents “with the wish that he was willing to donate semen … advertise his services to prospective parents or join any organisation that establishes contact between prospective parents”, Hesselink said in a written judgment.
Should he continue with his donations, he would face a €100,000 (£88,000) fine for each transgression, as well as additional fines, the judge ordered.
The mother of one of the children in the court case, identified only as “Eva”, said she was grateful that the court had stopped the man from “mass donations that [have] spread like wildfire to other countries”.
“I’m asking the donor to respect our interests and to accept the verdict, because our children deserve to be left alone,” she said in a statement.

More than 100 of Jonathan M’s children were born in Dutch clinics and others privately, but he also donated to a Danish clinic – named as Cryos in court papers – which then dispatched his semen to private addresses in various countries.
“The donor deliberately misinformed prospective parents about the number of children he had already fathered in the past,” the district court in The Hague said.
“All these parents are now confronted with the fact that the children in their family are part of a huge kinship network, with hundreds of half-siblings, which they did not choose,” it said.
The court considered it “sufficiently plausible” that this has or could have negative psychosocial consequences for the children.
This included psychological problems around identity and fears of incest.
“The point is that this kinship network with hundreds of half-brothers and half-sisters is much too large,” court spokesperson Gert-Mark Smelt told AFP.
“The interests of the children weigh too heavily and that is why it is forbidden for the gentleman to give further semen.”
Mark de Hek, one of the lawyers in the case, said: “It is the first time that a judge has ruled on such a case and it is encouraging to see this behaviour immediately dealt with.”
The case is the latest in a series of fertility scandals to hit the Netherlands.
In 2020, a deceased gynaecologist was accused of fathering at least 17 children with women who believed they were receiving sperm from anonymous donors.
The year before, it emerged that a Rotterdam doctor had fathered at least 49 children while inseminating women seeking fertility treatment.
[ad_2]
#Dutch #court #orders #sperm #donor #stop #children
( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

April 28, 2023
Soccer Podcast | “We are missing a Giakoumakis in the Dutch league”

[ad_1]
Brobbey, Douvikas, Pavlidis, Simons. They are the footballers with the most goals in the premier league so far: 11. There is no clear top scorer this season. ,,That is striking” responds Maarten Wijffels. “I had to think back to 2012/2013. Then Siem de Jong was Ajax’s top scorer with 11 goals. And the following year Klaassen and Sigthorsson were both with 10 goals. They became champions with that. You can do that this year too. Brobbey has eleven hits, Kudus nine and the first of Feyenoord, Danilo and Kökçü, have scored eight times.’
While there is still reasonable scoring in the premier league. The sanctuary for a striker. “You don’t see a player from Heerenveen or AZ scoring so many goals this season. There is no Giakoumakis. Luuk de Jong is also missing from that list. That can be explained. It is not served at PSV. The early cross a la Arias or Willems is missing in Eindhoven.”
The first pre-selection of Ronald Koeman will be announced next Friday. Maarten Wijffels looks at the possibilities of the national coach in the AD Football podcast. “Koeman has plenty to choose from in the back, but in the front… I think he will reward Feyenoord as leader of the Eredivisie with players in the pre-selection. Gertrude is interesting to me. As far as I’m concerned, he can be added, but there are already so many defenders. And Koeman wants to play with fewer defenders. Offensively it will be a challenge. Memphis is not playing. Gakpo does, but with a team out of shape. Mountain wine out of shape. Weghorst. I was recently at Club Brugge, which was positive.”
Listen to the entire AD Football podcast now via AD.nl, the AD App or your favorite podcast platform.
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and don’t miss a thing of the stars.
Yes, I want free unlimited access
[ad_2]
#Soccer #Podcast #missing #Giakoumakis #Dutch #league
( With inputs from : pledgetimes.com )

February 28, 2023
Dutch govt expels Russian diplomats for alleged espionage

[ad_1]
The Hague: The Dutch government has announced the expulsion of a number of Russian diplomats for alleged espionage.
The Netherlands will not allow more diplomats to work at the Russian Embassy in the Hague than the number of diplomats who work at the Dutch Embassy in Moscow, Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying.
About 10 employees of the Russian Embassy will have to leave the Netherlands, he said.
The Russian trade office in Amsterdam will be shut down from Feb. 21. In addition, the Dutch consulate-general in St. Petersburg will be closed from February 20.
The Dutch Embassy in Moscow will remain open, Hoekstra said. “It is important to keep the embassies open as a channel of communication, even now that relations with Russia are more difficult than ever.”
Following the Dutch move, the Russian foreign ministry said it will respond to the decision by the Netherlands to limit the number of its diplomats, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported.
In March 2022, the Netherlands expelled 17 Russian diplomats for alleged espionage. In response, Russia then expelled 15 Dutch diplomats.

Subscribe us on
[ad_2]
#Dutch #govt #expels #Russian #diplomats #alleged #espionage
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 19, 2023
Zelensky discusses defence aid with Dutch PM

[ad_1]
Kiev: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and visiting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte discussed defense aid for Kyiv and new sanctions on Russia.
At the talks, Zelensky thanked the Netherlands for the decision to transfer Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine and the participation in the “tank coalition”, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the presidential press service.
The Netherlands together with Germany and Denmark are preparing to hand over about 100 Leopard tanks to Ukraine, Zelensky said.
This year, the Netherlands allocated 2.5 billion euros (about $2.67 billion) for helping Ukraine in the military, financial, humanitarian, and legal spheres, he added.
Zelensky has called for imposing new sanctions on Moscow over the Russia-Ukraine conflict, including restrictive measures against the nuclear sphere, the missile industry, the IT sector, and all industries and enterprises that contribute to the implementation of the Russian missile program or the production of drones.
For his part, Rutte said that his country stands ready not only to supply tanks and air defense systems to Ukraine, but also to provide training and exercises for the Ukrainian military.
Rutte also announced that the International Center for the Investigation of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine will be established in the Netherlands to collect evidence of crimes.
Rutte arrived in Kiev earlier in the day for his second visit since the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict nearly one year ago.

[ad_2]
#Zelensky #discusses #defence #aid #Dutch
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 18, 2023
Dutch PM Rutte wants EU to play it frugal in face of mega US subsidies

[ad_1]

Don’t inject fresh money into the European Union — just reform national policies, says Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
That’s the best way to prevent EU industry from getting wiped out by U.S. companies under Washington’s major new green subsidies scheme, Rutte told a group of journalists at the office of the Dutch embassy to the EU in Brussels on Tuesday.
“There’s so much money at this moment in the system,” Rutte said shortly after meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo. He also argued for deeper reforms, stressing how some European countries spend so much on their pension systems — “all money you cannot spend on innovation and green tech.”
Rutte is often viewed as the key leader of the so-called “frugal” group of European countries, comprised of like-minded fiscally conservative nations. The group, which also includes Denmark and Sweden, has been reluctant to increase national contributions to EU coffers — at least until the coronavirus pandemic forced them to partly adjust that line.
The discussion among EU decision-makers on how to preserve the bloc’s industrial base is taking place ahead of a meeting of EU leaders next month as the U.S. moves to roll out a $369 billion industrial subsidy scheme to support green industries under the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.
The U.S. legislation has stoked fears about consequences for European industry and sparked calls to revisit rules on state aid. Another concern is that such subsidies put the EU’s single market at risk by conferring an outsized advantage to countries with larger fiscal capacity, such as Germany, which have more space to financially maneuver.
Rutte, who was recently in Washington to visit U.S. President Joe Biden, said: “There are a number of consequences to this Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — but unintended.” The IRA “forces us to think about how we organize ourselves” to remain competitive, he added.
On the one hand, he sees U.S. attempts to meet climate targets as a positive development. On the other hand, he pointed to risks to having a level playing field, like with electric mobility. “Companies might shift investments from the EU to the U.S.,” he said, parroting a much-repeated fear.

But EU subsidies should remain unaltered, Rutte argued. Regarding calls to adapt to the IRA by changing EU aid rules, he conceded: “I can accept some changes as long as they are limited.”
Rutte was clear on his belief that no fresh EU money should be put on the table. “I mean, not grants, but even not loans,” he said. “There’s so much still around” — for example loans in the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the centerpiece of the EU’s pandemic recovery plan.
A draft of the text that leaders would seek to agree on at their upcoming European Council meeting hints at opening up new sources of EU funding. The draft, seen by POLITICO, makes calls “to take work forward building notably on the success of the SURE programme,” referring to the EU’s loans-based program to support employment floated by Rome and others.
Rutte stressed that he would not like to see this proposal in the text, which will be discussed by EU ambassadors on Wednesday.
On the question of whether he’d be in favor of a new SURE program, “My answer would be that we have serious doubts,” he said.
Barbara Moens contributed reporting.

[ad_2]
#Dutch #Rutte #play #frugal #face #mega #subsidies
( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

January 24, 2023
Don’t use TikTok, Dutch officials are told

[ad_1]
Public authorities in the Netherlands are being told to steer clear of TikTok amid growing concerns across the EU and U.S. that the Chinese-owned video-sharing platform poses privacy risks.
Dutch ministries and agencies are mostly following a recommendation to shun TikTok accounts and stop government communication and advertising on the platform, two government officials told POLITICO. This is despite the app’s skyrocketing popularity in the Netherlands, where it has around 3.5 million users.
The Dutch pivot away from TikTok follows advice issued by the general affairs ministry to “suspend the use of TikTok for the government until TikTok has adjusted its data protection policy” announced in November. While the recommendation resembles a recent U.S. government decision from December to ban the use of TikTok on government devices, the Dutch guidance is far more limited in scope and enforcement.
It’s the latest example of how TikTok, owned by the Beijing-headquartered ByteDance, is facing headwinds in Europe, adding to its troubles in the U.S. The firm is already under investigation for sending data on European Union users to China. One of the video app’s fiercest European critics is French President Emmanuel Macron, who has called TikTok “deceptively innocent” and a cause of “real addiction” among users, as well as a source of Russian disinformation.
Dutch officials have sought to strengthen ties with Washington in recent months as the U.S. pushes for more export controls on selling sensitive technology to China, including machines made by Dutch chips printing giant ASML. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte this month met with U.S. President Joe Biden, where they discussed how to “quite frankly, meet the challenges of China,” the U.S. leader told reporters ahead of the meeting.
The Dutch policy on TikTok, which is effectively a pause rather than a ban, is mainly targeted at stopping the use of TikTok for “media” purposes, a spokesperson for the general affairs ministry said, and doesn’t explicitly instruct government officials to delete the app from phones.
The spokesperson said it’s hard to evaluate how strictly government services have abided by the advice since the ministry isn’t monitoring separate services’ use of the app. But the two officials said the advice had triggered a clear shift away from the Chinese-owned app, in line with growing security concerns across the West.
A junior Dutch government coalition party called in November for a full ban on the app “in its current form.” Asked by reporters what he thought of this proposal, Rutte said this was “the opinion of five seats in the Dutch lower chamber.”

TikTok admitted in early November that some of its China-based employees could access European TikTok user data. It also came under intense scrutiny in the U.S. over a report in Forbes magazine in December that employees had accessed data to track the location of journalists covering TikTok.
This month, TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew visited Brussels to assuage concerns in meetings with EU commissioners including Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, Vice President for Values Věra Jourová and Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders.
“I count on TikTok to fully execute its commitments to go the extra mile in respecting EU law and regaining [the] trust of European regulator,” Jourová said in a warning shot at the company. There could not be “any doubt that data of users in Europe are safe and not exposed to illegal access from third-country authorities,” she said.
TikTok said in a comment that it’s open to engaging with the Dutch government “to debunk misconceptions and explain how we keep both our community and their data safe and secure.”
UPDATED: This article was updated to add TikTok’s comment.

[ad_2]
#Dont #TikTok #Dutch #officials #told
( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

January 24, 2023