Energy expert Ronald de Zoete believes the European energy plan has a chance of success because the advantage of joint purchasing is that large volumes can be purchased. “Prices are now around 30 to 50 euros per megawatt hour, and I think the parties want to be somewhere in between.”
Energy prices are the latest concern for former US President Donald Trump. He was found guilty of sexual assault and defamation this week and must pay his victim $5 million. That’s what the jury ruled in the civil lawsuit that writer E. Jean Carroll filed against the former president because he allegedly raped her in a dressing room of a New York department store in the mid-1990s.
Politicians in the Netherlands have problems of a completely different order, because only a quarter of the population trusts them to work. “It’s about me,” says Sophie Hermans, party leader for the VVD. ‘It took too long for us to find solutions to the major existing problems. But start by looking at yourself.’
Such self-reflection is not spent on Russian President Vladimir Putin. This week Russia celebrated Victory Day, the day the Soviet Union won the war against Nazi Germany. In a short but angry speech, Putin blamed the West for the war he started in Ukraine, which is also very disappointing for the Russians. According to journalist Laura Starink, there isn’t much to celebrate for Russians this year.
This also applies to the thousands of Dutch victims of lost cryptocurrency exchange MtGox whose data is on the street. The database with Dutch names is part of the worldwide client base of the cryptocurrency exchange, which is owned by BNR. MtGox customer data goes back to 2014 when the stock market crashed.
In Germany, industrial production fell more than expected in March, so a recession looks inevitable. Despite the fact that unemployment has not yet risen sharply, there is bad news according to BNR internal economist Han de Jong. “A year ago the unemployment rate was 5.0 percent, now it’s 5.6 percent. The number of unemployed has increased by 250,000 people in one year, so I would definitely say that the recession has already begun.’