They can cover our faces, but they can’t mask the awkwardness of performing a full U-turn in a matter of days. Mark Rutte grudgingly agreed this week to mask up at the grocery store and advised everyone else to cover their faces wherever the sun doesn’t shine. That prompted an even more startling U-turn from Geert Wilders, who suddenly decided he didn’t like the government telling people what to wear in public. Elsewhere, the Covid recession started to bite as major companies unveil job loss plans and a suspect in a long-running murder investigation went on trial. Plus we ask how Sergino Dest will cope with the traffic in Barcelona after growing up in the parallel universe that is Almere.

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Ophef of the week: Twitter loses its shit over civil servants’ toilet paper bonus

Coronavirus news

Tougher corona restrictions brought in as cases forecast to reach 5,000 a day

Full breakdown of rules on the Dutch government’s English website

Dutch reluctant to wear masks despite cabinet’s change of heart

Retailers won’t enforce mask guidelines and call for national regulations

Majority of MPs back masks in public places to end ‘confusion’

Other news

KLM agrees restructuring deal with cabin crew as job losses rise

Shell to cut 9,000 jobs worldwide in rationalisation drive

Trial begins of man accused of killing Nicky Verstappen in 1998

Local councils call for help eliminating the American crayfish

Fishermen in Enkhuizen plagued by giant catfish (Dutch)

Police spend 90 minutes chasing escaped pig in Enschede (Dutch)

Sport

Four Dutch clubs still in Europe after PSV win in Norway

Sergino Dest signs five-year deal with Ronald Koeman’s Barcelona