Dam Daily w/ Chris W | 4 April

News and chat out of Amsterdam, a 📞 call with NL Times’ Zack Newmark, and Chris’ 🎶 music picks.

Listen back on the mixcloud player above to this edition of our Dam Daily show. 

Chris’ notes:

• • European tech firms are seeing an increase in sales as companies and individuals move away from the likes of Outlook and Gmail to European services.
  • President Yoon in South Korea has finally been sent home
  • No national firework ban this year – the fine detail and the rules for exceptions still need to be worked out
  • Pentagon finally starts investigating the Signalgate affair to see if Mike Waltz leaked state secrets
  • Head of the Nederlandse Bank says Trump’s tariffs – announced yesterday – are shocking and disturbing because they are based on no economic logic whatsoever.
  • You’ve heard of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, now Bruce Springsteen will be releasing seven albums for the sixth month of the year. 82 tracks and he says you’ve heard 74 of them! All recorded between 1983 and 2018, many of them completely finished and edited and mixed at his home studio and then shelved. During Covid he decided it was time to do something with them again, and June 2025 is when it will all happen. Tracks II (following from Tracks (1988) which was 4xCDs with 66 unheard tunes.
  • Sunny Spring – should be about 12 degrees right now – nearer 20. Not a lot of rain this Spring: means that already in some parts of the country there are hosepipe bans in place for the likes of sports fields. Dryest March since 1906 which I think is when records began.

AMSTERDAM

• Dam Square was closed off yesterday afternoon after a car drove onto the square and burst into flames. Police believe the driver – who also caught fire – set the car alight in a suicide attempt. The 50 year old driver has been arrested and is being treated in hospital.
• The Earth Sciences school at the Free University in the city could see courses transferred to the University of Utrecht. The Free University wants to shut down the course as part of the cut backs it’s being forced to make. They hope students can finish their studies in Utrecht and allow researchers to complete their theses. Utrecht is still looking into how many students they can accommodate. 40 faculty and staff in Amsterdam are likely to lose their jobs.
• A cyclist was badly injured on Wednesday evening after an accident with a scooter. Emergency services were called to Klaprozenweg around 10.15 yesterday evening. The 27 year old scooter driver has been arrested and police are appealing for witnesses.
• Last Saturday police dished out 375 fines to individuals taking part in or watching a street race which took place in Westpoort. The police revealed on Wednesday that also 290 vehicle registrations. Of the 375 fines, 300 for disturbing the peace and 75 for ignoring no entry signs and road closed signs. Police say there’s a lot of speeding in the Western ports area and street racing makes things worse: last September a motorbike rider was seriously injured in the same area.
• A rider of a fatbike – one of the ebikes with wide tyres – has had the bike confiscated after police found it to have been souped up. During traffic monitoring the Overoomsesluis police spotted the bike doing 20km using a throttle, instead of pedalling. Ebikes are limited to speeds of 25km per hour but using the throttle, that’s a max of just 6km. The fatbike rider had already had a warning which is why his bike was confiscated. The local prosecutor will decide whether the bike will be destroyed.

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