25 years of gay marriage • leading role for PSV players: you want to read these stories

Rob Jetten about 25 years of gay marriage, Martijn comes up with April Fool’s jokes for brands and the first asylum seekers arrive at Breda shelters. You must read these five stories on Wednesday.

Martijn from Vlijmen has been coming up with April Fool’s jokes for years for major brands such as HEMA, Dirk and Kruidvat. From ‘Schultenfrau’ (pink beer) to socks on a string – the best ideas often come in the shower or while folding laundry. According to Martijn, a good April Fool’s joke is credible and responds to recognizable irritation points. These types of jokes ensure that consumers have a positive feeling about brands. Read the whole story here.

The first asylum seekers arrived at the Breepark event hall in Breda on Wednesday for the new emergency shelter. The hall can accommodate five hundred people and has been converted into a sober shelter with bunk beds and communal sanitary facilities. The COA expects to have all beds filled on Friday with asylum seekers from Biddinghuizen, among others, where the shelter closes due to the festival season. The shelter is open in April, July and August. The hall must be available for events in between. Check out the story here.

The first gay wedding in the world almost took place in Best, reveals former editor-in-chief Henk Krol of the GayKrant. The idea for gay marriage arose 25 years ago in Best, where Krol and lawyer Jan Wolter Wabeke discovered that the law did not explicitly prohibit it. Mayor Hans de Widt wanted to make Best the first municipality in the world, but the court advised Amsterdam for better chances of national implementation. Krol is now calling for a monument in Best to mark this piece of world history. Read his story here.

Prime Minister Rob Jetten looks back emotionally on 25 years of gay marriage in the Netherlands. For the Ude resident, the first gay marriage as a 14-year-old high school student was confirmation: ‘I belong, just like everyone else’. In Amsterdam, Jetten attended three new gay weddings, exactly 25 years after the first ceremony. Although the Netherlands was a pioneer for many years, the country has now fallen to 13th place on the list of gay acceptance. Jetten himself marries the Argentinian hockey player Nicols Keenan in August. You can read the story here.

There is also sports news. PSV players Matej Kovr and Esmir Bajraktarevic played leading roles in their countries’ historic World Cup placings. Kovr saved two penalties in the series against Denmark, with which the Czech Republic qualified for the World Cup in North America. Bajraktarevic scored the winning penalty for Bosnia and Herzegovina against Italy, which played with ten men. It is Bosnia’s first World Cup participation since 2014. Read the whole story here.