As the dust settles at the National Museum of Brazil after its devastating fire last week, Samuel Franco Arce is gearing up to help. Arce has twice rescued his own small museum in Guatemala from floods and storms, and has just completed a Dutch leadership course to teach others this unusual form of emergency aid.  More >

An unkempt stretch of tall grass, wildflowers and weeds in front of a train station doesn't look like much — but it may be crucial to solving one of the world's biggest environmental puzzles. While scientists around the globe have been sounding alarm bells over the decline of bees and pollinators crucial to the growth of crops, the diversity of wild bee and honeybee species in the Dutch capital has increased by 45 percent since 2000.  More >

It’s not yet 8.30am, but the Royal Van Lent Shipyard is a hive of activity. Carpenters are carefully laying teak decking, engineers are threading a nest of cables through a boat skeleton, and someone is wondering whether paying €1,250 per bottle of Cristal champagne is excessive for a boat's christening.  More >

In January a young Dutch woman drank poison supplied by a doctor and lay down to die. Euthanasia is legal in Holland, so hers was a death sanctioned by the state. But Aurelia Brouwers was not terminally ill - she was allowed to end her life on account of her psychiatric illness.  More >

When I visited the dark web for the first time some years ago — for a story I was working on, not to treat myself to some crack cocaine — I remember users constantly reassuring each other how truly anonymous it was. 'The FBI does not have a prayer of a chance of finding out who is who,' was how someone put it in one of Bitcoin‘s forums in June 2013.  More >

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has partnered with footwear and apparel brand Vans for a collaborative collection based on Vincent van Gogh’s iconic paintings. Drawing from his famed Almond Tree, Sunflowers, and Skull paintings, the collection includes sneakers in Vans’ classic silhouettes as well as shirts, bomber jackets, hats, and a backpack.  More >

ReGen village, in the Netherlands, will collect and store its own water and energy, grow its own food, and process much of its own waste. Also: no cars.  More >

Astrid Holleeder has arresting eyes—they are swimming-pool blue—but that’s all I can reveal about her appearance, because she is in hiding, an exile in her own city, which is Amsterdam. For the past two years, she has lived in a series of furnished safe houses.  More >

If you want to understand how far-reaching the effects of smart city technologies can stretch, look no further than the Netherlands. As a country with roughly 26 percent of its land below sea level, the Netherlands is used to supporting and maintaining major technical engineering projects. Today, it’s learning how to use data to take the country into a sustainable future.  More >

From Amsterdam to Rotterdam, there’s a talented rap community sprinkled throughout the Netherlands that’s bursting with global potential. A wave of new artists has emerged, leaving behind their inhibitions and channeling the country’s multi-cultural essence into their music.  More >

Nearly 200 Dutch people died when Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine. Four years on, the relatives have to battle Russian disinformation, as well as their own emotions.  More >

A 40-foot Keith Haring mural was uncovered last week in Amsterdam after almost three decades behind insulation panels, following a campaign by the Dutch graffiti artist Aileen Middel, known as Mick La Rock.  More >

Injera, Ethiopia’s staple food, was invented by a Dutchman in 2003. That’s according to the European Patent Office, which lists the Netherlands’ Jans Roosjen as the “inventor” of teff flour and associated food products. Teff is a plant endemic to Ethiopia, and the grain is used to make the spongy fermented pancake that Ethiopians eat with their meals.  More >

3D-printed housing, experimental communities, ‘living labs’: barely a month goes by without news of innovation in the Dutch city. But are there downsides?  More >