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Publisher and journalist Derk Sauer (72) has died
(NETHERLANDS) Derk Sauer (72) has died. This was announced by Het Parool, the newspaper for which he wrote a column for 34 years. The publisher and journalist passed away surrounded by his family at their holiday home in the province of Zeeland.
"He was completely paralyzed," friend and businessman Boudewijn Poelmann told the NOS. "They couldn't operate there. He was taken to Athens, but it was actually too late, because spinal cord injuries require intervention within twelve hours. And that took them almost 48 hours."
Sauer is best known as the founder of The Moscow Times, the first English-language newspaper in Russia. It was published in 1992, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the communist era.
"Under his leadership, the newspaper became a reliable and independent source of news for millions of readers at home and abroad, and he helped dozens of prominent journalists launch their careers," the newspaper wrote upon Sauer's death.
In a statement on behalf of the family, Sauer's son, Pyotr, expressed his immense loss. "Words fail to describe what an exceptional father and husband he was. He dedicated his life to defending the independent Russian media. At the end of his life, he urged us to continue supporting the free press."
Independent Media also published The Moscow Times, initially for free. "It was my first real project in Russia, setting up an English-language daily," he told Nieuwsuur in 2017. "That was quite extraordinary at the time. Gorbachev and Yeltsin had just come to power. When we started, anything was possible; there was complete press freedom here under Yeltsin."
Even when it had to be paid for, the newspaper was operating at a loss. The income from magazine publishing more than compensated for that. Independent Media was a huge success. In 2005, he sold the company for almost 150 million euros.
In the years that followed, the political climate in Russia changed. Under the Putin regime, freedom, including press freedom, was increasingly curtailed. Last year, the Russian government blacklisted The Moscow Times as a banned organization.
Journalists at the newspaper have since faced prison sentences. It has also become a criminal offense for readers to share articles from the newspaper online. The newspaper had been under fire for some time. The last print edition appeared in 2017. Sauer then launched a digital version.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Sauer and a large part of the editorial staff fled abroad. They feared persecution and further increase in censorship. Since then, the editorial team has been based in Amsterdam.
(Source: NOS.nl)
Most asylum applications come from Eritreans, number of Syrians continues to decline
(NETHERLANDS) Of the people applying for asylum in the Netherlands, the largest group comes from Eritrea. For the first time since 2016, most applications are no longer coming from Syrians, according to figures from Statistics Netherlands (CBS), based on data from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IMN) for April, May, and June.
According to CBS researcher Luuk Hovius, the number of asylum applications is always higher in the second quarter than in the first. He attributes this to, among other things, better travel conditions for traveling to the Netherlands during the summer months. The number of applications from Eritreans has almost quintupled compared to last year, increasing from 235 to 1200.
"It has always been one of the most common nationalities in asylum applications," Hovius explains, but the reason is unclear. "We don't really know exactly where this is coming from."
Therefore, according to Hovius, it's difficult to say for sure about the coming months. "We can't say whether this is a one-off or whether we can also expect many people from Eritrea in the near future."
Fewer asylum applications have been coming from Syria since the fall of President Assad's regime at the end of 2024. The number of asylum applications from Syrians has decreased by 78 percent compared to the second quarter of last year. After Eritreans and Syrians, the majority of applications come from Turks. A third of asylum seekers who submitted a first asylum application are under 18 years of age. Nearly two-thirds of applications from Eritrea also come from minors, primarily men.
In the second quarter, 3,700 family members also arrived in the Netherlands, roughly the same number as in the first three months of this year. In the same period last year, there were approximately 2,800. The vast majority of these family members came from Syria.
(Source: NOS.nl)
HIGHLIGHTS FROM TODAY'S NEWS IN THE NETHERLANDS IN BRIEF
- Injuries due to severe turbulence on flight to Amsterdam(USA / NETHERLANDS) Passengers on a plane en route from Salt Lake City to Schiphol Airport were injured due to severe turbulence. The Delta Airlines Airbus A330-900, with 275 passengers and 13 crew members on board, was forced to land at Minneapolis-Saint Paul Airport. Twenty-five people were taken to the hospital.
The plane landed around 7:25 PM local time. Emergency services were on hand to assist the passengers. The nature of the injuries is unknown. It is also unknown whether any Dutch nationals were among the injured.
According to aviation website Flightradar24, the plane climbed approximately 300 meters in about 30 seconds. In the following 30 seconds, it descended 410 meters. (Source: NOS.nl)
- Sports Football: Vitesse loses professional license, KNVB appeals committee rules
"The appeals committee concludes that there has been a multi-year pattern of deception, circumvention, and undermining of the licensing system, and a lack of transparency. In the opinion of the appeals committee, this pattern has proven to be structural, serious, and persistent. The appeals committee is therefore of the opinion that revocation of the license is justified," a statement reads.
Vitesse has one remaining opportunity to regain its license: through the courts. An emergency hearing before the start of the competition should provide clarity, but lawyers have previously indicated that the chances of success are slim.
This appears to mark the end of the second-oldest professional club in the Netherlands after 133 years. (Source: NOS.nl)
