In the news

I've lived abroad for quite a while so I'm reluctant to speculate too much, but here's two paragraphs from https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2021/11/21/kritische-grens-is-in-zicht-de-politie-vreest-nog-veel-meer-rellen-a4066310 (translated with DeepL) which you might find interesting:

The pattern of violence was the same as for the curfew riots in February. First evening: too few officers on the scene because the police had not anticipated the huge turnout: Violence. Second evening: copycat behavior in other cities and towns: Less violence, because the police were now up to strength.

Why did things go wrong again this weekend? Judging from social media reports, there were at least three issues at play in Rotterdam, says security expert Marnix Eysink Smeets of InHolland University of Applied Sciences. "There was anger about possible 2G policies. Soccer supporters have not been allowed to go to matches since a week. And on Friday a general fireworks ban was also announced for New Year's Eve. That's sensitive in the neighborhoods where the people come from who are stirring things up."

"2G policies" here refers to policies restricting access to buildings/events/etc. to those who have either been vaccinated ("gevaccineerd") or have recently recovered ("genezen") from COVID-19 (and are therefore expected to be reasonably immune).

These (proposed) measures are in response to the recent sharp increase in infections, see the attached screenshot (source: https://coronadashboard.government.nl/landelijk/positief-geteste-mensen).

This is also rapidly filling up IC beds. Thankfully there's still room, but it has started eating into crucial buffer capacity already, see second attachment (source: https://twitter.com/YorickB/status/1462428679628279808).

In summary: Things are bad and on track to get much worse. People are unhappy about it and letting it be known. Violently. :(.

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