This week’s podcast brings you up to date on the process of forming council administrations after this year’s local elections. Elsewhere, torrential rain causes havoc around the country, the Dutch government gets tough on Russia over the MH17 inquiry, opposition grows to reforming the 30% tax ruling, and a court makes a groundbreaking ruling on gender neutrality. We also look at how Tom Dumoulin narrowly missed out on the Giro d’Italia title and what happened when a purloined lion-shaped pearl went under the hammer.

If you live in the Eindhoven area, you can now listen to the DutchNews podcast on Radio 4 Brainport at radio4brainport.org or on AM radio at 747 mHz.

Ophef of the week: sad trampolines protest against new flight path over Lelystad

Wij zijn er klaar voor! Doe ook mee onder de laagvliegroutes met deze actie!@hoogoverijssel@novliegrouteede@airportnee@liegveld@stildrenthe@2019NEE@reddeveluwe@hoogoverwezep pic.twitter.com/EiSnWhhMRd

— Stg Red de Veluwe (@st_RdV) May 30, 2018

TOP STORY

Heavy rain causes flash flooding around the country (NOS, Dutch)

NEWS

Petition on 30% tax ruling for expats gets 30,000 signatures

Dutch trade unions back campaign for transition period for 30% rule

Netherlands and Australia blame Russia for shooting down MH17

Foreign minister Stef Blok calls on Russia to take responsibility for MH17 missile

Adult wins case to be defined as gender neutral on birth certificate

Cases of meningococcal meningitis on the rise

Sleeping Lion pearl sells for €320,000 in The Hague

SPORT

Dumoulin happy with second place in Giro

Promes strike saves Oranje from defeat in Slovakia (NOS, Dutch)

DISCUSSION: LOCAL GOVERNMENT COALITION TALKS

Amsterdam unveils plans to make city ‘greenest in Europe’

Groep de Mos and partners agree coalition deal in The Hague

GroenLinks, D66 and ChristenUnie agree pact in Utrecht

Leefbaar Rotterdam frozen out of city’s coalition talks (RTV Rijnmond, Dutch)

Labour MP Sharon Dijksma swaps The Hague for Amsterdam

Amsterdam launches campaign against Brits behaving badly on stag weekends

Rutte: ‘Amsterdam has been lost to the left’ (AD, Dutch)

Municipalities across the country finalise coalition deals (NRC, Dutch)

Survey shows older white men still dominate local government