Mission Statement: to assist the integration of foreign residents living in Spain and this is never more accurate than when you establish yourself as a foreign resident in a new country Being able to quickly familiarise yourself with the culture and customs can help ease the transition during a challenging time This is why Euro Weekly News makes it our mission to provide you with a free news resource in English that covers both regional and national Spanish news – anything that we feel you will benefit from knowing as you integrate into your new community and live your best life in Spain you can forget about translating articles from Spanish into awkward English that probably don’t make much sense Let us be your convenient and essential guide to all things that will likely affect you as a foreign resident living in Spain The Netherlands’ Custodial Institutions Agency (DJI) could be allowed to take down flights by unauthorised drones over the high-security prison in Vught who heads the  Justice and Security ministry confirmed that this possibility was currently under discussion Parliament would be updated after the summer as they were seen over the Vught prison on December 24 last year although Coenradie admitted that it was impossible to estimate the exact number The same drone could have been spotted several times but declined to reveal whether the drones had flown over Vught’s Extra Secure Institution (EBI) Prisoners who are difficult to handle elsewhere are transferred to this high-security prison Some of the Netherlands’ most hardened criminals are housed in the EBI including organised crime and drug kingpin Ridouan Tahi and another gang leader Following the sighting of the Vught drones the authorities searched the prison but found no trace of smuggled goods that the drones could Airspace over the prison was closed to civil aircraft and drones in 2022 but there is nothing to prevent illicit drones from entering the area and while the DJI is equipped to detect drones it is legally powerless to take down or disable them That can only be carried out by the police and the Agency now wants the authority to take independent action drones over prisons are not exclusively a Netherlands problem Sophisticated drones costing thousands of pounds with a one metre-wingspan and equipped with thermal imaging are able to fly at night carrying loads of several kilos that the problem of drones flying drugs and weapons into UK prisons was a threat to national security and needed to be tackled “urgently.” Taylor claimed that the police and the prison service had practically “ceded the airspace” over high security HMP Manchester and HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire where organised crime groups used drones to deliver contraband to prisoners According to a report by Taylor’s inspectors so many drones were flying at night to HMP Garth that one prisoner compared it to an airport Subscribe to our Euro Weekly News alerts to get the latest stories into your inbox Euro Weekly News is the leading English language newspaper in Spain by delivering news with a social conscience we are proud to be the voice for the expat communities who now call Spain home With around half a million print readers a week and over 1.5 million web views per month EWN has the biggest readership of any English language newspaper in Spain The paper prints over 150 news stories a week with many hundreds more on the web – no one else even comes close Our publication has won numerous awards over the last 25 years including Best Free Newspaper of the Year (Premios AEEPP) Company of the Year (Costa del Sol Business Awards) and Collaboration with Foreigners honours (Mijas Town Hall) All of this comes at ZERO cost to our readers All our print and online content always has been and always will be FREE OF CHARGE Download our media pack in either English or Spanish refuted the claims through his current lawyer Taghi believes the arrest of his defense attorney was strategically timed to disrupt his defense team in the ongoing Marengo trial Shukrula was detained after a meeting with Taghi at EBI where the two discussed various aspects of the Marengo trial The Public Prosecution Service (OM) confirmed that the arrest stemmed from an investigation that began in December 2024 The AIVD allegedly uncovered evidence that Shukrula had been passing messages from Taghi to members of his criminal organization Shukrula was remanded into custody and is currently subject to strict restrictions including limited contact only with his own lawyer expressed concern that the timing of Shukrula's arrest coincides with a pivotal moment in the Marengo trial where an intelligence agent is reportedly set to reveal sensitive information the arrest was intended to undermine the defense team’s ability to challenge evidence and continue the legal battle in his defense Weski's lawyers also raised concerns about the conditions of her imprisonment, claiming she was isolated in a secret facility under harsh conditions. She was reportedly denied medical care, leading to serious health issues. After her release, she underwent emergency heart surgery. © 2012-2025, NL Times, All rights reserved. Independent journalism at the University of Twente The turbulent phase in which the UT finds itself is familiar territory for former board member Frans van Vught. He was rector of the UT for eight years and president of the Executive Board for four years, in the period 1996 to 2004. There was a major reorganisation, but the university also picked itself up. What lessons can be learned from that period? Declining student numbers, lack of focus, mass and cohesion in education and research, lack of international orientation, organisational fragmentation and a considerable overhead of support staff. We are talking about the late nineties of the last century. The future of the UT was worrisome, Van Vught thought when he took office as rector. In short, there was a lot of work to be done. And that is why we can draw a comparison with the current situation. 'Redesigning education and research was the most difficult part. But financially, it was the real estate. In the end, we were able to take out a loan with a consortium of banks for the renovation of the property, as well as for new construction, such as the new cleanroom. However, given the declining education and research income, this did lead to the need for a reorganisation.’ 'We developed four lines of action, which together represented a new strategic profile for the UT. This strategic profile was given the name 'Hartslag' (‘Heartbeat’, ed.). The academic heart had to become stronger. The four lines were; Strengthening education and research, reorganisation of the faculties, restructuring of service departments and the real estate plan. 'It attracted new students fairly quickly. And we became visible; in 1998 we were 'best university in the Netherlands' for the first time, according to Elsevier. We managed to hold on to that title for a number of years in a row.' 'And a crucial part of the reorganisation was, of course, the faculty reorganisation. We went from ten to five faculties. This led to a strengthening of the faculty boards, and to a more integrated central board, in particular through the establishment of the 'central management team'. 'The merger of faculties meant that some functions became redundant. The restructuring of service departments also played a role in this. Some service departments were terminated and others were merged. That wasn’t a pleasure at all, and even threatening at times. But there was also a redundancy plan, and in the end, most of the redundancies were absorbed through natural attrition and a hiring freeze. Yes, I've been awake at night thinking about that. It was difficult, but also inevitable.' 'By talking a lot, and repeating the message. The note Hartslag implied a new perspective. That's what we were trying to convey. Fortunately, it also led to enthusiasm and support, such as for the establishment of the spearhead institutes; They offered great new opportunities for many researchers.' 'Yes, I think so. Stronger, more powerful in terms of content. The UT was given a new profile; More reputable research was created, more students came and activities grew.' ‘No, that never happened. And of course I'm reluctant to reach out and give unsolicited advice.' 'Above all, I look at the UT with a lot of nostalgia. It's the university with the most beautiful campus, and I've seen a lot of them. There are also a lot of my footprints. I see a modern university, but also a university like any other. The UT has matured. But the distinction we used to have in the field of innovative education, cutting-edge research and entrepreneurship is no longer there.' 'First of all, to see challenges not as a problem, but as an opportunity. It takes guts and courage to do that. It is also important to want to tackle the problems together. And for that, you need to develop a vision. The substantive initiative for this lies with the Executive Board and with the deans and directors. But such a vision should not only be abstract, you should have the courage to take the plunge towards concrete changes.' 'Some people might have been happy when I left in 2005' ‘I may have pushed or pulled too hard at times. This was sometimes at the expense of public support. I consider myself lucky to have had the support I've had from many, but I know that because of all that pushing and pulling, some people came to dislike me. There were plenty of positive noises though; At least something happened. And yes, some of them might have been happy when I left in 2005. I see it as the duty of a director to guide the institution to the next phase of life. You have that responsibility. You also need a thick skin and perseverance.' 'Then I would say: think again about the next phase of our profile.' Frans van Vught (1950) studied urban planning and sociology at Utrecht University and urban planning at MIT, in the USA. He was affiliated with American universities (UCLA, University of Colorado) for several years and then became a professor in Leiden and at the UT. Van Vught was rector and president of the UT in the period from 1996 to 2004. In it, he implemented important innovations for the UT. These included the establishment of the Industrial Design Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Technical Medicine, Health Sciences, Psychology and Applied Technology programmes, the merger of ten faculties into five and the formation of UT research institutes. The development and the first phases of the UT real estate plan also date from his period.  After his departure, Van Vught became a top advisor at the European Commission in Brussels and received several honorary doctorates. He was named the most influential figure in higher education by ScienceGuide in 2008. Since 2022, he has been president of the European University Institute in Florence. Van Vught still lives in Twente. A majority of the University Council voted in favour of the budget for 2025 on Wednesday morning. This is despite a number of major concerns, particularly regarding how realistic the budget is and how concrete the UT's financial measures are. Een meerderheid van de universiteitsraad stemde woensdagochtend in met de begroting voor 2025. Dat ondanks een aantal grote zorgen, met name over hoe realistisch de begroting is en hoe concreet de financiële maatregelen van de UT zijn. Financially speaking, 2024 was a particularly turbulent year for the UT. As the end of this calendar year approaches, we'll take you through the latest state of affairs in five questions and answers. 2024 was financieel gezien een bijzonder onrustig jaar voor de UT. Nu het einde van dit kalenderjaar nadert, nemen we je in vijf vragen en antwoorden mee in de laatste stand van zaken. De turbulente fase waarin de UT verkeert, is voor oud-bestuurder Frans van Vught bekend terrein. Hij was acht jaar rector en vier jaar collegevoorzitter van de UT, in de periode 1996 tot en met 2004. Er werd toen stevig gereorganiseerd, maar de universiteit herpakte zichzelf ook. Welke lessen zijn er uit die periode te halen? Alle UT-opleidingen krijgen vanaf komend collegejaar een verplichte budgetteringsopdracht om inzicht te geven in hun kosten en opbrengsten. Zo moet het onderwijs toekomstbestendiger worden. Rector Tom Veldkamp en ‘lead dean’ Tanya Bondarouk lichten de ontwikkelingen toe. From next academic year, all study programmes will have a mandatory budgeting assignment to provide insight into their costs and revenues. The goal is to make UT education future-proof. Rector Tom Veldkamp and 'lead dean' Tanya Bondarouk explain the developments. With the magazine ROOTS we want to connect students and companies. We do this by bringing stories of starters on the labor market. They talk about living and working in the region. We also publish advertorials. In this way, companies come into the spotlight of students and students get an idea of the life that awaits them and what opportunities there are in the region. Hartford likely to demolish large portions of high school because of PCB contamination Barnard reconsiders terms of lease with BarnArts for former fire station BARNARD — The Selectboard and BarnArts Center for the Arts have reached an agreement on the nonprofit theater’s lease of the old fire station. By using this site, you agree with our use of cookies to personalize your experience, measure ads and monitor how our site works to improve it for our users © Ossip van DuivenbodeThe design ambition endeavoured to connect the residential functions while maintaining the detached traditional farmstead typology. To this end, a half-sunken corridor, concealed beneath a grass mound, links the taller landmark volume with the barn’s living room. The barn containing the cooking studio and guesthouse is completely detached, maintaining sightlines from the courtyard to the surrounding landscape.  © Ossip van DuivenbodeWood is used for both the structure and interior finish a material that is at once sustainable and visually warm The three buildings have a cross-laminated timber structure and European silver fir interior surfaces a type of wood that has an exceptionally smooth and uniform texture Compared to other solid construction methods relatively little energy is needed for the production and processing of cross-laminated timber It contributes to sustainable CO2 storage as well The villa has an Energy Performance Coefficient (EPC) of 0.26 and is heated and cooled with electric heat pumps You'll now receive updates based on what you follow Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors If you have done all of this and still can't find the email Drones seen flying above the prison with the country's only super-maximum security facility led to a substantial response from police on Monday night The drones seen flying over the Vught Penitentiary Institution disappeared by 10:15 p.m A spokesperson for the police confirmed the investigation after initial reporting by Omroep Brabant She emphasized that the drones were not part of an elaborate attempt to break someone out of prison There is a no-fly zone over the prison in Vught which is why the police responded en masse when the drones were spotted Officers were seen wearing bulletproof vests as they tried to track down who was responsible for the drones Police were considering using other measures to knock the drones out of the air The number of drones involved was not clear The police are also investigating why the drones were above the prison The Extra Secure Institution (EBI) is part of the Vught Penitentiary Institution Among the prisoners in the EBI are some of the country's most notorious convicted criminals including Heineken kidnapping mastermind and organized crime leader Willem Holleeder who is currently appealing convictions for multiple homicides He has been at the facility since his extradition from Dubai was also arrested in in Dubai on Dutch allegations of drug trafficking money laundering and participation in a criminal organization he was placed in pre-trial detention at the EBI the Nazi occupiers of the Netherlands began the construction of a concentration camp in the forests near the small town of Vught The camp’s initial purpose was to act as a transit centre to hold Dutch Jews before their transportation to the death camps in Germany and Poland The first prisoners arrived at Vught in January 1943 Jews in all the provinces outside Amsterdam were rounded up and most of them were sent to Vught Several hundred lost their lives in the first few months of the camp’s operation Those who survived Vught itself were slated for deportation trains More than 34,000 were transported from the Netherlands to the Sobibór extermination camp in Poland between early March and the end of July 1943 the Nazis transported almost 1,300 Jewish children from Vught to the death camps There were 140,000 Jews living in the Netherlands before the Nazi occupation Activists in the anti-Nazi resistance were also imprisoned at Vught who had been a leader in the struggle against Dutch colonialism in Suriname traces the long history of resistance to European rule in Suriname from the Indigenous “red slaves” through to the guerrilla wars waged by bands of escaped African slaves against the plantation system and the struggles of indentured workers from India and Indonesia De Kom demonstrated that slavery did not end with its abolition in 1863 but continued in new forms: the Dutch arranged emancipation “in such a way that the freed slaves had no other choice but to voluntarily take up the slavery which had just been legally abolished.” Under the colonial system the various categories of workers were not truly free because they were still “forced to sell their labour-power albeit in a different way than during the days of slavery.” As such the plantation system’s “physical pains have mostly been replaced by mental torture De Kom had organised a protest of Black and Asian workers at the governor’s office in Suriname The authorities imprisoned De Kom for three and a half months without trial before exiling him to the Netherlands There he continued his anti-colonial organising collaborating with Indonesian students fighting for their country’s liberation from Dutch rule and joining the underground resistance after the Nazi invasion he was transported to the camp at Sandbostel an annexe to the Neuengamme concentration camp in Germany where he died of tuberculosis in April 1945 He was one of perhaps 2,000 Black people who died in the Nazi camps Another prisoner at Vught was my grandfather a Dutch Catholic who worked as a bookkeeper at the town hall in Roermond He was arrested for “unlawful dealings with ration cards” The Nazis placed him in the “a-social” category and listed his crime as “economic deceit” he had fallen ill with malnutrition and was sent to the camp hospital he never spoke to his children about what happened My grandmother told them he had been in the resistance and had stolen ration cards to help Jews in hiding when an aunt of mine investigated her family history she met the daughter of another deceased Henricus van Herten who had lived in the same region and had talked to his family about his assistance to Jews in hiding during the war This discovery suggested the possibility that the Nazis had mistaken my grandfather for someone else with the same name There is nothing in the archives to confirm what happened a national memorial exists at the site of the Vught concentration camp The main building is a museum with exhibits on the history of the camp and Nazism in Europe Outside are life-size reconstructions of the camp’s living quarters Various components of the memorial commemorate those killed at Vught or murdered after passing through it The final part of the memorial is a reflection room where several short films convey the message that you should not be a bystander when you see others needing help presents three characters discussing stereotypes A blonde woman talks about how people assume she is unintelligent A white man with tattoos explains that people sometimes think of him as “white trash.” A North African man says people are surprised by how well he speaks Dutch In the memorial’s understanding of anti-racism we all make unfounded assumptions about others based on their appearances but education can help us overcome these prejudices It is a message that seems designed to make no one feel uncomfortable in a place that should be discomforting But more significant is the lack of discomfort at another aspect of the Vught site Walking around the grounds of the memorial it is impossible not to notice that alongside one of the memorial’s walls is a much taller wall topped with barbed wire and closed-circuit TV cameras On the other side of that wall are prison buildings their arrangement mirroring that of the memorial’s reconstructed camp buildings takes up only a small part of the original concentration camp site A larger part is occupied by a functioning prison If you look left from the memorial’s main entrance the tall metal doors of the prison entrance are visible flanked by lines of people waiting to visit inmates a result of the fact that the Vught prison includes a high-security unit where anyone suspected or convicted of being a terrorist or “Islamic radicaliser” is automatically separated from other prisoners and held under especially punitive conditions Because almost all of those imprisoned there are Muslims the unit has come to be known informally as a “Muslim detention centre” Dutch prison authorities opened the high-security unit in 2006 Prisoners held there are isolated and confined for up to 22 hours per day who was eventually acquitted of all charges spent two full stretches – one for ten consecutive weeks and the other for three – cut off from anyone else This kind of isolation has been a focus of research for Craig Haney a psychologist at the University of California who writes that prisoners held in long-term solitary confinement suffer effects that “are analogous to the acute reactions suffered by torture and trauma victims” Former United Nations special rapporteur on torture Juan E solitary confinement for longer than 15 days can amount to torture when used during pre-trial detention or as a punishment and therefore should be absolutely prohibited Adding to this mental torture in the Vught high-security unit are the regular and invasive full-nudity strip searches of inmates many prisoners choose to meet them separated by a glass barrier because that option does not require such a search family visits are monitored to such an extent that they become superficial encounters every word and movement of the prisoners outside their cells is observed and recorded Approximately 170 prisoners were held in the high-security unit at Vught in its first ten years of operation The majority were not convicted of a crime but were awaiting trial Among those at Vught who had been convicted were a woman found guilty after reposting a single tweet that allegedly encouraged people to fight in Syria and a man convicted for giving €1,000 to a childhood friend who had travelled to Syria a group of prisoners held there went on hunger strike and complained they were treated worse than animals They said they received punishments for speaking Arabic for trying to shout to prisoners in neighbouring cells and for refusing to cut short their prayers humiliating searches and continuous monitoring at the Vught high-security unit is modelled on those that operate at so-called supermax prisons in the United States Supermaxes were largely a response to the rebellions that erupted in many US prisons in the 1970s techniques of extreme isolation had been developed by psychologists working with the federal bureau of prisons could break inmates down to a kind of blank slate more docile personality could be constructed The carceral sites that emerged – at Guantánamo and countless other places – followed the supermax model with practices such as prolonged and indefinite solitary confinement force-feeding of hunger strikers and systematic secrecy Today’s practices at Vught can only be understood as part of this global infrastructure that imprisons Muslims around the world A site built by the Nazis to carry out the genocide of Jews now serves as a “Muslim detention centre” where people are The visitors to the memorial at Vught are literally bystanders to racist oppression taking place on another part of the site What happened at Vught in 1943 and 1944 and what happens there today are Yet neither are the uses to which the camp has been put in these two periods entirely separable The Nazis sought the complete elimination of European Jewry; incarceration was a means to this end The European and US governments that implemented a global “war on terror” have a different aim Their goal is the integration of Muslims into what they call “liberal” society What is regarded as the cultural identity of moderate Muslims is celebrated within a framework of diversity and inclusion have their mosques and community organisations closed down their clothing regulated (as with the Dutch ban on wearing a niqab or burka in certain public spaces and children have been needlessly killed by the US and its junior partners But the number is certainly over a million To understand how nominally liberal states can administer violence on this scale requires that we understand the particular form of racism that is bound up with it Former UK prime minister Tony Blair described this violence as being aimed not at regime change but at “values change” Influenced by neo-conservatives such as Bernard Lewis Blair had come to believe that Muslim cultural values were so antagonistic to his idea of liberal modernity that only a war to tear apart Iraq’s social fabric would make possible the new kind of Iraq he envisioned This was part of “an elemental struggle about the values that will shape our future […] a war but not just against terrorism but about how the world should govern itself in the early 21st century.” According to this logic Muslim terrorists express the deep flaws of their culture while the West’s much greater violence is a rational aimed at modifying their barbaric behaviour Genocidal violence does not always announce itself in the rhetoric of overt hatred; it can also be hidden by the managerial language of cultural reform Vught is thus a place haunted by the presence of multiple forms of oppression Nazi antisemitism instigated the construction of the original site of incarceration Dutch colonialism led to the imprisonment of one of its detainees The “war on terror” shaped a new logic of confinement decades later Echoing the logic of US efforts to stem Black-led prisoner radicalism during the 1970s extreme isolation is today used at Vught to break down the personalities of extremist Muslims and remould them as moderate Muslims – part of a broader program of violently imposed cultural change All of these different oppressions can be described using the term “racism” Yet most of these racisms remain invisible The usual assumption is that what happened in the 1940s at Vught is the defining example of racism while what happens there now has nothing to do with racism we become bystanders to the other racisms that surround us To make fully visible the different forms of oppression at Vught requires that we move beyond the narrow conception that the Vught memorial implies in which racism is an individual attitude or unconscious bias can be exploited by political extremists and become a threat to liberal values of individualism But there is another way of telling the story of racism which we find not at the Vught memorial He wrote about racism in terms of the everyday colonial hierarchies through which labour is categorised and differentiated as part of nominally liberal ways of organising society – backed by the routine administrative powers of the state racism expresses itself in individual attitudes but these are themselves expressions of the deeper social and economic forces that organise the world – what we might today call racial capitalism Only with an account of racism along these lines will we be able to understand how a Nazi concentration camp could be turned into a detention centre for Muslims This article is an edited extract from Arun Kundnani’s new book What is Antiracism? And Why it Means Anticapitalism Arun Kundnani is a writer on racial capitalism Our supporters keep us entirely free to access We don’t have any ad partnerships or sponsored content We are always working to improve this website for our users. To do this we use usage data facilitated by cookies and external services. For more information read our Privacy Policy Drug gang boss and Kinahan Cartel partner Ridouan Taghi is among a group of inmates in a Dutch prison taking part in a hunger strike this week Eight prisoners are protesting ‘inhumane detention conditions’ in the high-security unit (EBI) at Vught Prison by refusing to eat or drink from Tuesday morning through Thursday morning the detainees are taking action over the prison’s failure to improve conditions as highlighted in a report by the Council of Europe's Anti-Torture Committee (CPT) last year the committee describes highly restrictive regimes and various security measures in the EBI as “excessive” The report also notes the poor conditions in Vught Prison’s old buildings “due to the presence of rodents and poor ventilation” It recommends providing EBI inmates with “sufficient meaningful human contact” to improve the current regime The EBI is the strictest prison unit in the Netherlands with prisoners spending an average of 23 hours a day alone in their cells but the only physical contact permitted is a handshake regardless of whether the inmate and visitor are separated by a glass wall All letters and phone conversations are monitored And while prisoners are not allowed to access the internet at all who heads up one of Europe’s biggest drug gangs and has been responsible for a wave of murders in the Netherlands is reported to be one of eight EBI prisoners taking part in the protest who was arrested in September 2023 for drug trafficking human trafficking and was also named a leader of the ‘Angels of Death’ crime gang criminal organisation by police The Dutch citizen was arrested in Dubai in September 2023 at the request of Dutch authorities and was extradited to the Netherlands earlier this year Faissal is segregated from his Moroccan-born father in the EBI spending his days in complete isolation in another section of the unit His lawyer Kamil Karakaya is now taking legal action against the 'inhumane and disproportionate' conditions of his detention there are serious concerns about the client’s physical and mental health “The placement under the strictest regime in the EBI amounts to torture as defined in the European Convention on Human Rights.” He adds that his client “does not belong in the EBI at all” and should not be subjected to such “severe” conditions in solitary confinement Ridouan Taghi’s right-hand man Saïd Razzouki who was jailed for life alongside Taghi earlier this year for his role in six murders in the Marengo Trial is said to also be taking part in the strike who is suspected of large-scale cocaine trafficking Other participants include Dutch gangster Willem Holleeder and Urvin W who was arrested alongside Dennis G in the Dominican Republic in 2015 and is suspected of murder Fellow EBI prisoner Benaouf Adaoui is not serving a life sentence but is in the unit following a failed attempt to free him by helicopter while Omar Lkhorf was transferred to Vught in 2020 after attempting to escape from Zutphen prison There are eleven detainees currently in the EBI three of which are not participating in the hunger strike due to health issues Please check your inbox to verify your details Now download the free app for all the latest Sunday World News, Crime, Irish Showbiz and Sport. Available on Apple and Android devices Villa Vught designed by Mecanno in the Dutch countryside is a contemporary reinterpretation of region’s farm typology built with three elements according the use of program.  the Dutch ‘hoeve’ is an ensemble of farmhouses and living quarters loosely clustered around a courtyard Project description by MecanooThe Villa in the Dutch countryside near Vught gives a contemporary twist to the local farmstead typology This spatial arrangement guided the design of the Villa The Villa’s functions are distributed within three distinct volumes shaped to resemble the vernacular of a small village.The two lower volumes are shaped like typical gabled barns directly connected to the surrounding gardens The higher volume captures the view of the wide landscape and forms a striking contrast with the lower buildings contains the master bedroom on the ground floor children’s rooms on the upper floors and a roof terrace at the top kitchen with dining area and a large veranda on the south-west side with a workspace and playroom on the first floor.The other barn features a cooking studio where up to twenty people can participate in culinary classes workshops and team-building activities led by the client storage area and a guest suite on the first floor Large sliding doors in the centre can be opened to reveal an entrance gate to the courtyard.The design ambition endeavoured to connect the residential functions while maintaining the detached traditional farmstead typology links the taller landmark volume with the barn’s living room The barn containing the cooking studio and guesthouse maintaining sightlines from the courtyard to the surrounding landscape.The Villa’s construction and detailing also emulate the Dutch ‘hoeve’ or farmstead The exterior dark bronze anodised aluminium cladding chosen to seamlessly extend beyond the façade to the roof top is profiled to resemble the corrugated iron roofs of nearby farm buildings which traditionally have a brighter colour have a lighter bronze aluminium finish.Wood is used for both the structure and interior finish Ossip Architectuurfotografie Francine Houben (Holland 1955) began formulating the three fundamentals of her lifelong architectural vision while studying at the Delft University of Technology It was in this crucible of higher learning that she began an architectural practice with two fellow students with the design of a groundbreaking social housing development she graduated as architect with cum laude honours in 1984 and officially founded Mecanoo architecten with these same partners.Francine has remained true to her architectural vision Always looking for inspiration and the secret of a specific location Francine bases her work on both analyses and intuition playful and humane aspects together in order to form a unique solution to each situation Francine Houben combines the disciplines of architecture urban planning and landscape architecture in an untraditional way; with sensitivity for light and beauty.Her use of material is expressive She is known as one of the most prolific architects in Europe today Her wide-ranging portfolio comprises an intimate chapel built on the foundations of a former 19th century chapel in Rotterdam (2001) to Europe’s largest library in Birmingham (2013) Francine Houben’s work reveals a sensory aspect determined by form and space a lavish use or subtle combinations of the most diverse materials Francine’s contribution to the profession of architecture is widely recognized She was granted lifelong membership to the Akademie der Künste she received the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year Award Honorary fellowships to the American Institute of Architects and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and an international fellowship to the Royal Institute of British Architects were granted to her in previous years The past three decades have seen her cumulative effect on the profession of architecture Francine lectures all over the world and takes part as a jury member in prestigious competitions.Her commitment to research and education is evidenced in her instatement as professor in Architecture Chair of Aesthetics of Mobility at the Delft University of Technology (2000) her professorship at the Universitá della Svizzera Italiania Switzerland (2000) and her appointment as visiting professor at Harvard (2007) Dedication to her alma mater is reflected in generous sponsorship of the UfD-Mecanoo Award for the best graduating student of the Delft University of Technology a modern city where the skyline is dotted with buildings designed by world renowned architects; including her award winning Montevideo Skyscraper (2005) It was in this dynamic city that she directed and curated the First International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (2003) She has realised numerous signature projects throughout the Netherlands and Europe including Philips Business Innovation Centre La Llotja Theatre and Conference Centre in Lleida Spain (2009) and the Delft University of Technology Library (1999) she is expanding her architectural vision to other continents with the design of Taiwan’s largest theatre complex The Wei-Wu-Ying Center for the Arts in Kaohsiung (2014) Dudley Municipal Center in Boston (USA) and Shenzhen Cultural Center (China) In 2011 the book Dutch Mountains was released a chronicle of Francine Houben and eight special projects in five different countries.Francine maintains an active presence in academia and culture regularly publishing and giving lectures worldwide She has performed in many academic and professional capacities throughout her career including Chair of Architecture and Aesthetics of Mobility at Delft University of Technology visiting professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design and as director of the First International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam.Francine has received honorary fellowships from the Royal Institute of British Architects the American Institute of Architects and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada In 2014 Francine was named Woman Architect of the Year by the Architects’ Journal and in November 2015 Queen Máxima of The Netherlands presented Francine with the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Prize for her wide-ranging career Francine was awarded Honorary Doctorates from the Université de Mons Belgium (2017) and the Utrecht University (2016) “Architecture must appeal to all the senses Architecture is never a purely intellectual Architecture is about combining all the individual elements into a single concept What counts in the end is the arrangement of form and emotion.” architect/creative director Mecanoo Architecten Archive HOUSING the National Monument Camp Vught memorial commemorates the hasty evacuation of the concentration camp in September 1944 The evacuation of the SS camp in Noord-Brabant occurred after rumors that the Allies could liberate the Netherlands at any moment On this so-called Dolle Dinsdag (Mad Tuesday) the Netherlands went into a liberation frenzy and the Nazis were forced to hastily deport the more than 3,500 prisoners from the Vught camp to camps in Germany The commemoration at the memorial will begin on Sunday afternoon with a silent march to the former execution site of the concentration camp where there is a memorial with the names of 329 resistance fighters who were shot there from June to September 1944 In his recently published book Wraak op het verzet (Revenge on the Resistance) historian Ad van Liempt concludes that even more people were executed in the camp during these last hectic months than previously thought director of the National Memorial Camp Vught whose mother was imprisoned in the concentration camp from July 1943 to September 1944 because she refused to betray those in hiding a concentration camp for women about 80 kilometers north of Berlin there will also be music and poetry recitals on Sunday officially called “Konzentrationslager Herzogenbusch” during World War II has been commemorated every five years in the memorial center since 2004 the only SS concentration camp outside Nazi Germany More than 12,000 Jews were transported from Camp Vught to Camp Westerbork and from there to the extermination camps in Poland when the first liberators arrived in this region of the Netherlands at the end of October 1944 Suspects in the highest security prison in the Netherlands must attend their hearings via a video connection The Cabinet supports this plan by VVD parliamentarian Ulysse Ellian said State Secretary Teun Struycken (Legal Protection) The suspect will only go to court physically if the judge decides so Ellian proposed an amendment to the new Code of Criminal Procedure so that suspects from both the most severe Extra Secure Institution (EBI) in Vught and the relatively severe Intensive Supervision Departments (AITs) appear before the judge digitally Transporting suspects to and from court involves too high costs and risks Because of the heavily secured transport with a separate courtroom is already being built in the prison in Vught But to also conduct the cases of dozens of prisoners in the AITs digitally is going too far for him at the moment There are no facilities there to conduct so many video trials it might restrict AIT prisoners’ right to be present at a hearing too much State Secretary Struycken proposed to have his civil servants think along with Ellian about an amendment that the Cabinet fully supports That amendment still has to be adopted by parliament and the entire law must then go through the Senate The intention is for the new Code of Criminal Procedure to come into effect on 1 April 2029 Ridouan Taghi was transferred to another, less secure section within the high-security prison in Vught at the end of July. He is now imprisoned in the same section that also houses his accomplice and right-hand man Saïd R. and notorious criminal kingpin Willem Holleeder, NOS reports In February, Taghi, Saïd R., and Mario R. were sentenced to life in prison in the Marengo trial involving six assassinations The other 14 suspects in the case got sentences ranging from 21 months to 27 years in prison Taghi’s detention lawyer confirmed the transfer to NOS. He said he was surprised by it because the Public Prosecution Service (OM) typically advises keeping co-suspects separate and not placing them in the same complex while the trial is ongoing. Both Taghi and Saïd R. have appealed the life sentences against them The Vught prison had built an extra wing, the E1, especially for Taghi to serve his sentence completely isolated from the other prisoners. According to the broadcaster, his transfer may have to do with the arrival of his son, 23-year-old Faissal Taghi. He was extradited to the Netherlands at the end of July after being arrested in Dubai The OM suspects Faissal of continuing his father’s criminal network multiple drones were observed flying over the prison as a single drone may have been spotted multiple times the ministry has not disclosed whether the drones specifically flew over the Extra Secure Institution (EBI) the most heavily guarded section of PI Vught The EBI houses some of the most notorious criminals in the Netherlands, including Ridouan Taghi and Willem Holleeder authorities found no evidence of contraband being smuggled into the prison Although the airspace above PI Vught has been restricted to drones and civilian aircraft since July 2022 unauthorized drones can still enter the area which oversees the management and security of prisons currently employs drone detection systems and collaborates with security services to monitor airspace violations The Dutch government has allocated an additional 16 million euros annually to combat criminal activities within detention centers "Given the technological advancements in drones a significant portion of these funds will be directed toward countering drone threats," Coenradie stated State Secretary Ingrid Coenradie (Justice and Security) wrote in a letter to Parliament that several detainees in the Extra Secure Institution (EBI) in Vught had contact with each other for approximately twenty seconds due to an error "This is highly undesirable from a safety perspective and I have therefore asked DJI to thoroughly evaluate this and take additional measures where possible," the minister said She does not mention which detainees had contact with each other "for security reasons." According to several sources Both were sentenced to life imprisonment by the court earlier this year for On Thursday, it was announced that Taghi had been moved within the EBI at the end of July and is now in a department that is only separated by glass from Saïd R who is also sentenced to life imprisonment had already stated that there had been contact between them without elaborating further Various political parties subsequently asked the State Secretary for clarification In February, Taghi, Saïd R., and Mario R. were sentenced to life in prison in the Marengo trial involving six assassinations, four attempted killings, and plans to murder several others. The other 14 suspects in the case got sentences ranging from 21 months to 27 years in prison. According to Coenradie, it is possible "in incidental situations" that there is "brief visual contact between prisoners who are not placed together, under the direct supervision of staff." This can happen, for example, when a prisoner is taken from his cell for an appointment with his lawyer while other prisoners are busy with the program outside their cell at that moment. His son Faissal is now held in the department where Taghi was previously held. He was recently extradited from Dubai to the Netherlands. Faissal's lawyers strongly object to the extremely strict regime under which the 23-year-old Faissal is being held, as he is in total isolation. They call it "inhuman" and "disproportionate." Faissal is suspected of participating in a criminal organization that deals with international drug trafficking, money laundering, and preparing violent crimes. He is said to have continued his father's criminal organization from his home in Dubai. Volume 8 - 2023 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2023.1155840 This article is part of the Research TopicThe Dark and the Light Side of GamingView all 15 articles A correction has been applied to this article in: Corrigendum: Literacy at play: an analysis of media literacy games used to foster media literacy competencies Media literacy is considered one of the key competencies to acquire in the 21st century With games being recognized as having a large potential to train and educate a wide range of games focusing on media literacy related topics such as fake news games and practical media skills have sprung up over the years All claim to foster media literacy skills and competencies This begs the question how these games generally frame and understand media literacy what competencies and skills they actually focus on This paper thus asks: how media literacy games are designed to foster media literacy Taking the Dutch Media Literacy Competencies Model as a departure point we answer this question using a thematic analysis of 100 media literacy games and formal analysis of a smaller heterogeneous sample consisting of 12 games We present a series of key findings involving the prominent presence of certain topics and competencies in the dataset allowing for a discussion of the current landscape of literacy games and underlying competencies and future potential for development Given the popularity of digital games amongst adolescents (Lee et al., 2018) and games on personal media habits have sprung up over the years all of which claim to foster media literacy this broad and diversified list of games also begs the question how these games generally frame and understand the matter of media literacy what literacy competencies and skills they focus on and through which game design choices literacy is fostered These are important questions to answer since a potential selective focus on or framing of media literacy education in games could at best impact the way that educators and parents think about the scope and depth of literacy competencies which can be trained through games and thereby their usefulness and at worst undermine broader media literacy development amongst adolescents The purpose of this paper is to fill this research gap by conducting a qualitative analysis of a broad selection of (self-described or clearly identifiable) media literacy games (rather than games focused on a more narrow topic or popular entertainment games) while adopting a broad and multi-faceted understanding of media literacy This will help to (1) provide an overview of which media competencies have been covered by these existing media literacy games and (2) generate insights into the strategies used to foster these competencies through game design Given that this research is part of a larger research project focusing on the potential of media literacy games funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), our understanding of media literacy departs from the purposefully broad and multi-faceted Dutch Media Literacy Competency Model 2021 (Netwerk Mediawijsheid, 2020) identifies a total of eight media literacy competencies and ten areas affected by a person's media use we report on how media literacy is fostered in a sample of games from an extensive database of 100 games which was created specifically for this project and thematic analysis of the game's topics and the inherent competencies they aim to train will be discussed in the method section below media literacy has become a key concern in our contemporary society as it promises to educate our children to become and remain active and critical members of our increasingly mediatized society thereby fostering civic engagement and overall socio-cultural well-being underneath this broadly agreed-upon potential benefit of increasing media literacy lies a more disparate understanding of the term with different interpretations emphasizing different skills and competencies Traditionally media literacy has been understood as the ability to read, watch, listen and understand the media (principally press, radio and television). The evolution of the media landscape linked to the introduction of digital technologies have implied a change of paradigm. Nowadays, media literacy is considered the critical understanding and active participation in the media (Buckingham, 2006) Roughly speaking, we can identify a spectrum of media literacy understandings with one end focusing on skills related to mastery and the other end focusing (more) on critical, reflective competencies. On the skills end of the spectrum, as Martin (2006) points out, ICT-related literacy was for a long time considered to be about technical and other applied skills like operating devices and digital tools. This emphasis is also found by Voogt et al. (2019 in their literature review on definitions of digital literacies while students obviously need to begin with a basic understanding of how to use contemporary media “to stop there is to confine digital literacy to a form of instrumental or functional literacy” (2006 [Students] also need to be able to evaluate and use information critically if they are to transform it into knowledge. This means asking questions about the sources of that information, the interests of its producers, and the ways in which it represents the world; and understanding how these technological developments are related to broader social, political and economic forces (Buckingham, 2006 Over the years, several attempts have been made to tease out and bring together these different dimensions of media literacy in models that are able to further inform policy and education, such as the Digital Citizenship Education Handbook by the Council of Europe (Richardson and Milovidov, 2019) or The Digital Citizenship Handbook for School Leaders in the United States (Ribble and Park, 2022) we similarly opt for a broad and multi-dimensional approach to media literacy which combines a more practical skills-based understanding of media literacy (e.g. operating or creating with media) with a more critical evaluative understanding (e.g. Such a broad understanding does not only do justice to the complexity of dealing with media in our current times it also allows us to explore its different dimensions in the media literacy games under investigation we draw our understanding of media literacy specifically from the Dutch Media Literacy Competency Model (2020) Media literacy here is meant to combine both the “functional” (i.e. “skills”) and the “critical” (i.e. This is why the current research project has adopted this model as a point of departure The Dutch media literacy competency model 2021 (English version The new version also includes an outer ring consisting of ten areas of media use, informed by Helsper et al. (2015) research on tangible outcomes of digital skills. The stated goal of the two rings is to present a dynamic model to help connect users (i.e., media literacy professionals) to connect media literacy competencies to achieving concrete goals in the economic, cultural, social or personal field (Netwerk Mediawijsheid, 2020) Given our focus on the games themselves and the way in which they foster media literacy rather than the lived experience or potential impact of media literacy education through these games we primarily focus on the competencies within the inner ring We discuss these competencies in more detail below as part of the methodology section we will connect media literacy to the potential of games to train literacy competencies interdisciplinary engagement with a certain topic Gaming literacy is certainly not the only way to understand the emerging literacy needs [...]. But games and game design are one promising approach, making use of a cultural form that is wildly popular and wildly varied, both incredibly ancient and strikingly contemporary (Zimmerman, 2009 The benefits of game design within an educational collaborative setting have been discussed elsewhere as well in relation to literacy-related skills (e.g., Kafai and Burke, 2015; Glas et al., 2021; Werning and van Vught, 2021) All the works mentioned above show the plurality of potential when using games and play to engage with media literacy within an educational setting to what degree this plurality is visible within the sample of media literacy games already published over the years we will discuss the methodology used to investigate these games in relation to the Dutch Media Literacy Competencies Model In order to analyze the use of digital games to foster media literacy, this study adopts a qualitative methodology. In concrete we have selected a deductive approach, choosing thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) and formal analysis (Lankoski and Björk, 2015) as data analysis methods The final database consisted of 100 media literacy games with a selection of 12 titles receiving a more detailed analysis The above criteria led to the deliberate exclusion of games which focused on purely technical rather than reflective skills (like educational games about learning how to code) but also examples like quizzes tests and other titles which could be considered gamified media rather than games It also left out non-digital board and card games The sampling strategy employed for this study was comprehensive sampling (Gray, 2004) we examined each and every case we could find that matched the sampling criteria With a lack of readily available databases to search through for these types of games our database was created through a systematic online search for the use of media literacy associated terminology used by the game developers and/or publishers in the description of their games on the website where they are playable or the platforms where they are to be downloaded (in the case of smartphone apps for instance) general search terms were used: “literacy games”; “digital literacy games”; “media literacy games”; “games on media” as well as Dutch language varieties of these search terms This mostly returned titles related to misinformation (more on which below in the findings) This meant that we adjusted and finetuned search terms in a dialectic between results and theory on media literacy (i.e. and terminology from the media competency model) Additionally we found a sizable amount of titles using a snowball approach The use of often referenced literacy games as search terms would for instance lead to educational websites where such titles would be mentioned among other titles not in our database yet welooked at the websites of developers or publishers already part of our database to see if they had produced other titles which would fit the criteria We stopped our search as soon as these search approaches did not yield new titles anymore lack of appropriate specialist hardware) and a desire to focus on games which would have the potential to reach a large and broad audience this fourth step involved a decision to only focus on those games in our database which were freely and readily available either on the games' own websites or through app stores This meant we played 53 out of 100 titles in the database we assessed which of the competencies were fostered to create an overview of the most dominant media literacy competencies currently fostered through media literacy game design This means first grouped games with similarities in the topic covered and the competencies fostered to later select the game that better represented each category in terms of quality and scope of fostered competencies A table with a full overview of all 53 game titles, the media literacy topic or topics as well as the associated media literacy competencies can be found in Figure 2 To provide an easier overview of topics and associated competencies the table is ordered alphabetically by game topic rather than game title The 12 case study games are highlighted in green See Appendix 1 for a ludography and short description of topic(s) each with their associated media literacy competencies In this part of the article we want to explore key thematic findings of our analysis of the dataset as a whole as well as the analysis of the sample games We start with findings which sketch a broad sense of what media literacy games are about when looking at the results of the thematic analysis to then move to observations which relate to the more specific gameplay mechanics we encountered in relation to media literacy competencies we grouped our findings into common topics and prevalent competencies and finally discuss prominent related game design choices The term “misinformation” describes a wide variety of related topics ranging from fake news to the identification of reliable sources and from dealing with arguments with strangers online to conspiracy theorists In some games the player takes the role of the person responsible for the news (such as in Data Defenders or Factitious) the player fights against fake news (such as in Cranky Uncle or The Fake News Game) and in some of them the player is the one spreading the fake news (like Bad News This abundance of misinformation games is perhaps not surprising. It appears that game developers are aware of current social and political upheaval about the influence of fake news and social media and incorporate these issues into their games as a way to appeal to players and attract attention (Quevedo-Redondo et al., 2022; Morejón Llamas, 2023) it became clear that many game developers use terms such as “disinformation,” “literacy” or “fake news” loosely as a strategy to reach the desired audience The large presence of these games in the dataset can be argued to say something about the societal need for such content and the apparent reaction of developers and publishers to meet these needs It should be noted here, that the topicof these games does not necessarily say anything about the actual literacy competencies the games foster. Still, what we found is that the main gameplay mechanics of the games we labeled as misinformation games predominantly related to the competencies understand media and reflect on media usage. As can be seen in Figure 2 only four titles actually actively tried to engage players with the find information competency (such as Newsfeed Defenders and Cranky Uncle) One would expect games about misinformation to more proactively focus on information gathering Beyond the games we could label as misinformation games the most prominent other topics we found in the dataset were games we put under the umbrella topics of privacyand digital well-being we saw such terms also being used in a broad sense to capture potential audiences of players Privacy-related games for instance would aim to educate players about how to create better passwords (e.g. Cyber x scape); how to behave when talking to people online (e.g. Interland); what to do with sensitive information (e.g. Data Defenders); how to hack files or how to protect from file hacking (e.g. Hackshield); what cookies are and other autosave information is (e.g. No title would aim to cover all the aspects of digital privacy but rather focus on one such issue and also focus on only one or two associated competencies The same goes for the umbrella topic of digital well-being under which we filed games focused on how to deal with cyberbullying (ACBC) how to respond to online sexism (Gamer Girl) and how to navigate the digital social world in high school (Digital Compass) games focusing on teaching players to use certain applications are worth mentioning here as they share a common goal but often have very different topics As operating or using applications or devices are already specific competencies (see competencies model) we did not group these under one overarching topic This would create too much overlap between game topic and competency Some of these games for instance focus on understanding how to work with certain soft- or hardware applications (as such strongly linked to the “explore applications” competency) by for instance helping players to use a search engine (A Google a Day Google Feud) or a certain VR application (ARe you ready?) we explore our thematic findings related to the media literacy competencies the games aim to engage with or train The prevalence with which certain competencies are incorporated in the media literacy games exemplifies which competencies the field of serious game development considers the most relevant it can expose gaps in media literacy knowledge articulated in these games In our analysis of our data subset of 53 games, we mapped all competencies which the games explicitly or implicitly seemed to address, to all the titles. When organizing and visualizing those relationships in Figure 2 it becomes immediately clear that certain competencies (as described by the Dutch Media Literacy Competencies model) are covered by a significant amount of games games can aim to cover several competencies The biggest thematic finding here was related to the competencies understand media (i.e., understanding mediatization of society, the specific language of media, and underlying business models), and reflect on media usage (i.e., attitude toward one's own and others' media use) (Netwerk Mediawijsheid, 2020, p. 3–5). In fact, as can be seen in Figure 2 in our sample of 53 games only 10 games did not incorporate the understand media competency and only 14 did not incorporate reflect on media usage only 10 games incorporated the explore applications competency and only 8 games incorporated the finding information competency The other remaining competencies were represented even less within the sample games with operate devices and software being incorporated in 4 games create with media and connect through media both in merely 2 games and the competency to discuss media in only 1 title the majority of games thus focus on a reflective attitude This attitude relates to how digital media work (understand media) and how one can or should see one's own role and actions within a media environment (reflect on media usage) The first can be considered a more passive attitude the second adds a more strategic attitude focusing on media use and Some games in the sample add a more (inter)active dimension to these reflective attitudes by asking players to explore specific applications or by including active forms of information gathering (e.g. As we will show in the game analysis below many games however have a very specific argument they aim to make and make this in a very specific way through the use of game design leaving little room for additional player agency or creativity these games were grouped under the topic of digital vocabularies is basically a simple word search puzzle using media terms It is presented on its host website as a media literacy game but provides no additional information about the meaning of the terms themselves Especially these latter games can be considered good examples of titles only using media literacy as a selling point rather than engaging with literacy in a critical Another key observation can be made about the lack of games incorporating competencies related to the more participatorysocial literacy competencies connect through media and discuss media is that almost all of the games within the subset are single-player rather than multiplayer games It should be noted that many of the games in the sample were created to be used in an educational environment, where discussing and connecting through media can be achieved through social in-class interaction. Some games, like Bad News or Digital Compass, even include teacher guides for this very reason. As mentioned in the theoretical framework, the context of play matters for the effectiveness of educational games (Squire and Jenkins, 2011) these competencies can be fostered by the game in an indirect fashion through the educational setting in which a game is played If it was not an explicit part of the game itself we did not take it into account in the analysis is that games without the explicit inclusion of these competencies within their design will in all likelihood also not provide players with such competencies when they are not added in an educational social setting with teacher guidance overarching observation about the competencies in the games is that the large majority of games focus on a single issue or topic and connect this to a very particular competency or the aforementioned prevalent set of related competencies of understand media and reflect on media usage the large majority of games aims for specific purposes within the larger media literacy sphere The perceived benefit is a clear and focused design and topic but a drawback we envision is that most of the media literacy games we looked at fail to address the potential interdependence of media literacy competencies While the thematic analysis allowed us to make general observations about the competencies the games covered it was not possible to consider how these competencies were actually fostered through gameplay as part of the final step of playing through the 53 games in the database we also paid attention to the ways in which literacy topics were connected to gameplay as well as aesthetic design choices As we explained in the methodology section the games analyzed here are a heterogeneous (purposeful) sample of the larger set of games The discussion of findings is exploratory rather than all-encompassing but nonetheless aimed at examining exemplary strategies we also witnessed in the larger set of media literacy games in the sample The goal is to provide more detailed insights into what existing games are in terms of game design which also allows for further reflection of what these types of games could be in terms of future development (which we will return to in the discussion) The game Interland, for instance, sells itself as a game about online safety and citizenship. The game presents itself as an adventure-like game with a fantasy world where players need to shield a castle from killer robots by building the castle walls higher and stronger. In order to do so, players need to select the strongest password out of a list, upgrading the castle walls every time the player selects the right choice (see Figure 4) building strong castles in the fictional game world stands for creating good online safety measures for online spaces in the real world require an extra step of understanding the link between gameplay actions (choosing passwords to build walls) and real-life application of such actions (creating good passwords to protect oneself online) The game world's aesthetics and gameplay are geared toward creating and maintaining an engaging experience with the real-life competencies fostered being addressed indirectly the idea that the process of building stronger walls is akin to creating stronger passwords is nonetheless sufficiently clear learning about copyright occurs almost entirely outside of the context of the actual gameplay After starting the game it is explained that the balls are Intellectual Property created by individuals and the machine stands for the corporations which take credit for this IP the educational goals would remain unclear during actual gameplay recognizing IP and its various corporate appropriations would still be incredibly difficult after playing the game we also focused on other design strategies involving different rhetorical strategies such as specific forms of interactive storytelling This design allows for a focused educational experience but sacrifices the open-ended and non-linear characteristics associated with more experiential Game or goal structure on factitious (left) With such a linear path to take, and recognizing that the large majority of games focus on a single-player experience, we started looking at how learning is linked to playing (and thus experimenting) with a certain identity which the game's fiction asks players to fulfill. The link between identity play and learning has long been described as a key intrinsic quality of games (cf. Gee, 2003) further underscoring the relevance of this analytical focus Three recurrent player roles appear in the 12 games we analyzed: Fake content creator (e.g. fact-checkers or media professionals (e.g. and citizens exposed to (or trying to resist) disinformation (e.g. Each role highlights different competencies from the Dutch Media Literacy Competencies Model establishing different viewpoints and connecting up to different game mechanics Games where players assume the role of a creator of fake content portray the motivations of this activity that range from pure malice (“From fake news to chaos How bad are you?,” from Bad News) to more pragmatic motives (“You will be making money by creating news sites and profit from people viewing and clicking on ads on your site [...] We won't worry too much about sticking to the truth and it often spreads better than real news,” from Fake it to Make it) credibility is a performance meter for the player generally tied with followers (or another kind of popularity) or expenses (or another way to present economic benefit) the game's scoring mechanics complement the narrative of these games tying player success to the creation of more effective misinformation players do not only get to explore the consequences of spreading misinformation and how it can impact society and individuals technical and economic mechanisms that help to afford the spread of this misinformation One relevant game in this sense is Harmony Square where tactics and manipulation techniques to mislead people are exposed in the player's role of “Chief Disinformation Officer” and play four chapters Each one is dedicated to one polarization strategy: “trolling,” “emotion,” “amplification,” and “escalation.” other games use this content strategy as well divides the game into techniques to deny science like fake experts promoting digital literacy and critical thinking is thus done by reverse engineering disinformation processes The use of these games raises ethical and deontological issues about the role of digital games as a form of discourse puts it when acknowledging the ethics around her game: “the process of creating fake news is already well documented online. If someone wants to make a fake news site, they already have access to the information they need. However, I acknowledge that there is a difference between information and inspiration. It's possible that this game could inspire someone to make fake news, but I'm willing to take the risk, because I think the potential for positive change in players is worth it” (Warner, 2017) Newsfeed defender congratulates player for reaching 100% integrity A different view is developed in games where the players are just citizens trying to distinguish correct from incorrect information The most relevant game in this group is Factitious (in its different editions) in which the player must identify real articles and fake articles In trying to achieve this goal, players acquire skills that will help them identify fake news in the real world. While the game does not explain how scoring is going to be determined until the end (see Figure 8) the game's procedural rhetoric implicitly enforces a specific type of player behavior because not only are the correct answers rewarded but finding the signals that identify fake news and the speed with which this is done are also encouraged it can be seen that the design of the game or the way in which the player is rewarded or punished shapes the literacy proposition in which players participate by accepting the rules in games which engage the player in more long-term strategic planning (as opposed to more short-term tactical decisions) we see that the potential for procedural rhetoric takes a backseat to more traditional forms of visual and verbal rhetoric the positive and negative feedback loops are delayed which leaves the game to rely on other strategies to inform the player of appropriate play behavior While this is not necessarily a problem in itself (visual and verbal rhetoric can be highly effective in games) we found that in some of our analyzed cases the lack of/limited procedural rhetoric was tied to a more obscure or even convoluted learning objective Fake it to Make it requires a greater combination and interpretation of elements to realize the consequences of the player's choices (strategic rather than tactical) The difficulty in determining the scope of the actions therefore affects the feedback the game offers in the long term and distinguishes it from the other games that propose it in a more immediate way because the effectiveness of serious games is based on the certainty that the player recognizes the game's intentions the feature that distinguishes and enhances these messages—their playful and interactive nature—sometimes becomes their main obstacle by obscuring the literacy purpose behind them Our research tries to offer an answer to the question how media literacy games are designed to foster media literacy The results of our thematic and formal analysis show that media literacy games include a range of mechanics and narratives to foster different digital information literacy competencies as outlined by the Dutch Media Competency Model the eight competencies of the model appear with different intensities The prominent presence of specific topics and competencies in the dataset and the use of (seemingly more and less effective) prevalent design choices allow for a discussion about the current landscape of literacy games when categorizing our dataset according to the topics or labels that the makers themselves have attributed to their games we found a clear overrepresentation of so-called misinformation games This suggests that socio-cultural concerns about fake news can be seen as a strong influence on media literacy development and publishing strategies We can hypothesize here that specific societal concerns might be considered a key reason for developing games with specific literacy topics and directly related competencies rather than developing literacy games about the more general need for increasing media literacy aiming to foster a broad set of competencies (development costs naturally play a role here too) this strong focus on misinformation does not translate to a focus on the media literacy competency of information gathering Here we identify a few clear gaps in the current landscape of media literacy games The selective focus on misinformation has so far resulted in an underrepresentation of various other topics that also fall under the umbrella term of media literacy (e.g. thereby narrowing the understanding of media literacy and ignoring players the ability to acquire a broader set of media literacy skills and competencies the mismatch between misinformation games and the competency of information gathering seems problematic since it leaves players without an essential skill to deal with misinformation online our findings suggest that the most dominant competencies in media literacy game design are those related to understand media These highly reflective competencies were also most visible within the dominant topicof misinformation While we have seen media literacy games focusing on practical skills (operating devices and software) and some even on having an open investigative attitude toward software and hardware (exploring applications) we rarely identified a combination of the more practical and reflective competencies This separation of the development of more practical skills and the development of a reflective attitude clashes with the more holistic multi-dimensional understanding of media literacy that has now become widely accepted while discussing the difference between an earlier version of the Dutch Media Competency Model and the current version acquiring media literacy is not a linear process that runs from the more practical skills of operation to the more reflective understanding of the role of media in our society all competencies in the model are created equal and work together in the development of media literacy games that only focus on a single (or a few) competencies fail to address how these competencies are more interdependent potentially installing a highly selective type of media literacy in the player As highlighted in our analysis of competencies what we also found missing were media literacy games focusing on the more participatory creative or socially oriented competencies We have related this to the fact that many games are single-player game experiences and offer highly linear forms of progression leaving little agency to the player to deviate or experiment this means the games require an instructor to transcend the sometimes singular message or logic of the game and discuss the outcome as well as potential different interpretations among students This could also help students understand and discuss the ethical dimensions behind reverse engineered forms of misinformation production as discussed above our formal analysis yielded insights into best practices in the landscape of media literacy games We found how the more compelling and informative games managed to translate the pursued media literacy competency and/or skill into a clearly connected game setting (while the less successful games leave a gap between the simulated competency and the real world competency) We also found how the more informative games made efficient use of procedural rhetorical strategies (next to other rhetorical strategies) to push the player toward appropriate in-game behavior which suggests that especially games with a more immediate positive and negative feedback loop are suitable for the education of media literacy skills (as opposed to games that have the player make long term strategic decisions which rely more on other rhetorical strategies to educate the player) we found how designers used interesting narrative strategies to offer players different identities with different connections to the media literacy topic at hand Here it seems that especially the medium of games allows players to step into the shoes of someone spreading misinformation online providing interesting insights into the social technical and economic motivations accompanying the initiation and spread of fake news this research reveals that media literacy games tend to focus on a limited set of media literacy topics and competencies (while being more varied in the design strategies employed to foster these competencies While this focus on singular topics and specific competencies might make sense from a developer's perspective as it is directly related to socio-cultural concerns like misinformation or cybersecurity it still fails to address the interdependence of media literacy competencies when looking at the Dutch Media Competency Model we see significant gaps in the overall media literacy topicsand competencies addressed through these games This is important to recognize since the focus of media literacy games eventually impacts what and how players learn from them we argue that an inventory of media literacy games like the one we offer here should always precede any studies into the experience and effects of these games since their characteristics strongly determine the possible efficacy of the games and thereby the outcome of these player studies our findings also offer suggestions for game designers who may now wish to address media literacy more generally instead of focusing on one of many individual phenomena usually associated with it The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author TF and SG-G performed the initial analysis of games and contributed with first versions of the analytical sections of the manuscript which were further edited by RG The sections of the manuscript related to theory and method were written by RG All authors contributed to the conception and design of the study contributed to the submitted and revised manuscript This research is part of a larger project titled DIGITAL LITERACY GAMES: Digital games designed to support digital literacy skills acquisition funded through a KIEM GO-CI grant by the Dutch Nationaal Regieorgaan Praktijkgericht Onderzoek SIA The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 1. ^As we'll discuss below, “operating media” is only one out of eight competencies of our much broader understanding of media literacy which we derive from the Dutch Media Literacy Competency Model 2021 (Netwerk Mediawijsheid, 2020) 2. ^See below 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Teresa De La Hera, ZGVsYWhlcmFAZXNoY2MuZXVyLm5s Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish an order issued by Hanns Albin Rauter was published in the newspapers: 'As of 10 April 1943 Jews are forbidden to stay in the provinces of Friesland Jews who are currently in the aforementioned provinces must go to camp Vught.' Rauter was the highest commander of the German SS and German police in the Netherlands Arrival of Jews from Amsterdam or The Hague at Vught station Buses are waiting to take them to the Vught concentration camp Jews from different parts of the Netherlands are gathered Polizeiführer and General der Waffen-SS (centre) wearing glasses) and Dutch SS officer Feldmeijer (right) Anne Frank wrote of the news in her diary: ‘Rauter "All Jews must be out of the German-occupied territories before July 1st The province of Utrecht will be cleansed of Jews (as if they were cockroaches) between April 1st and May 1st and the provinces of North and South Holland between May 1st and June 1st." These poor people are being shipped off to filthy slaughterhouses like a herd of sick and neglected cattle Rauter’s enthusiastic antisemitism was expressed clearly in his speech to Dutch SS members: 'In this way we want to expel the Jews who are the source of all unrest and terror here as quickly as possible from the general populace It is no mean feat to have pulled 130,000 Jews who would probably have grown to a million in one hundred years’ time We want to continue these measures relentlessly because in doing so we are doing the Germanic people a service That is why we will show no weakness in this matter.' Anne Frank HouseWestermarkt 201016 DK Amsterdam Departments NWO has awarded a Veni grant worth up to 250,000 euros to 161 highly promising young scientists The grant provides the laureates with the opportunity to further elaborate their own ideas during a period of three years Felipe Vieira Braga received a Veni award for his research project 'Good cop bad cop: the role of regulatory T-cells in colorectal cancer development and treatment' Cancer cells reside in busy neighbourhoods The moment cancer cells move into the neighbourhood Neighbours usually contact the police (immune cells) to get rid of the cancer cells I will study how immune cells evict cancer cells from their neighbourhood Lonneke van Vught received a Veni award for her research project: 'Clinical phenotypes in sepsis: course and association with the immune response' .Sepsis is a life-threatening condition in which the runaway inflammatory response harms the patient Great diversity in sepsis patients is seen as a cause for the lack of treatments large datasets are analyzed to identify comparable patient groups and to analyze the course during ICU admission Location AMCMeibergdreef 91105 AZ AmsterdamPhone number:(020) 566 9111 Route & Parking De Boelelaan 11171081 HV AmsterdamPhone number:(020) 566 9111 Route & Parking Contact us Regina Coeli: Learn Dutch with the Nuns of VughtBookmarkBookmarkAdvertisementApr 8, 2024AdvertisementYou have probably heard that you should go to "The Nuns of Vught" if you want to learn Dutch properly you can learn the language much faster than when you only take lessons once a week this is down to the number of instruction hours but also undoubtedly because of the flow you get into during the programme Learn Dutch with the Nuns of Vught Most Regina Coeli attendees follow a one-week training course You work according to a well-defined rhythm of private lessons independent study hours and group activities which together form your unique training programme The trainers are all highly-qualified and frequently have a great deal of experience in the business world in fields such as marketing you work on learning Dutch based on your current level what you need it for and your learning style The intensive training courses from Regina Coeli are highly-rated by their participants students who took one of their Dutch courses rated their training as follows: those who decided to learn Dutch with The Nuns of Vught reported a high level of satisfaction with their training However quickly you may learn the language over the course of a week five days of lessons is obviously not enough to transform a beginner into an accomplished Dutch speaker you can attend training for different objectives at various points in your learning journey there is an intensive course that is suited for your needs During your training, you mainly speak Dutch, of course, but there are also times when we do fall back on your mother tongue or another language you speak well. Regina Coeli uses that knowledge to help you learn Dutch faster Your trainer compares Dutch grammar to that of your mother tongue or supporting language your trainer will show you how the sentence structures correspond the main differences might be up for comparison You already know more Dutch than you think Many words are exactly the same as words in other European languages or you can derive the meaning from a similar word There are also words - called false friends or false cognates - that can lead you astray These are words that bear strong similarities to those in your mother tongue yet mean something completely different Your trainer will point these words out to you during your lessons so you can avoid those pitfalls If the language is fairly new to you, you will not manage to speak only Dutch all week long. That is why the team from Regina Coeli advises you to occasionally chat with others in a language you speak well during your breaks There is always someone in-house who speaks the same language you do there is bound to be another student who is learning your mother tongue you might even stay in touch after your course so you can keep practising together Dutch gangland boss Willem Holleeder appears in court charged with planning revenge attack on siblings and journalist A convicted Dutch gangland boss who gained notoriety for the 1983 kidnapping of a Heineken beer tycoon has appeared in court accused of orchestrating a hit on his two sisters and a prominent journalist from his prison cell Willem Holleeder was accused of “plans to assassinate his sisters Astrid and Sonja Holleeder as well as crime reporter Peter de Vries” Investigators confronted Holleeder last month in the maximum security prison at Vught, in the southern Netherlands after a fellow prisoner informed authorities of the plans remains in custody while on trial for various cases involving the Amsterdam underworld He faces murder and attempted murder charges as well as that of belonging to a criminal organisation He was apprehended in his cell on 11 April on suspicion of soliciting for the killings “Holleeder allegedly already paid money and promised more should his plans indeed be carried out.” His sisters testified against him last year in a murder case involving the Amsterdam criminal underworld “He doesn’t tolerate being crossed,” Astrid told the paper View image in fullscreenFreddy Heineken who wrote a best-selling book about the Heineken kidnapping has filed a death threat complaint against Holleeder who became a household name for his role in the abduction of Freddy Heineken and his driver three decades ago They were released after a ransom of 35m Dutch guilders (£12.5m today) was paid Holleeder was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 1987 for the kidnapping The kidnapping is one of the country’s best-known crimes and was made into a movie, with a new version starring Sir Anthony Hopkins released last year. Holleeder became a minor celebrity until his arrest in December 2014, even appearing on television and posing for pictures with fans on Amsterdam’s beer terraces, earning him the dubious title of a knuffelcrimineel, or huggable criminal. The minister has been working for some time on plans to contain the sometimes extreme risks associated with suspected detained for serious crime, including terrorism. For example, a video facility will soon be installed in Vught to digitally complete aspects of prisoner processing within the penal institution. There is not yet a completion date for the intended courtroom, where there will be a limited amount of space for the public and the press. A judge can decide for each criminal case whether status hearings, witness questioning or possibly substantive trial hearings will take place in the EBI. Weerwind is looking into whether there is sufficient interest in using the internal courtroom facility. A combined detention facility and courthouse is already present at Schiphol Airport. In addition, there will be extra secure hearing locations in Lelystad and Vlissingen. The new measures are in addition to these, said Weerwind. 2023 Vught high-security jail in Noord-Brabant Photo: Mystro82/WikipediaVught high-security jail in Noord-Brabant Photo: Mystro82/WikipediaA courtroom is being built in the Netherlands’ highest security jail in Vught to allow suspects to be tried without leaving the compound legal protection minister Franc Weerwind has announced The €15 million facility will reduce the need to transport prisoners to the ‘Bunker’ the reinforced courthouse on an industrial estate in Amsterdam as well as the risk of escape attempts or attacks by underworld rivals ‘Delivering justice within the walls of the penal institution in Vught allows us to improve the safety of our society,’ Weerwind wrote in a letter to parliament No date has been set for when the courtroom will be finished Vught already has the facilities for examining magistrates to hold preliminary hearings on site but the new arrangement will enable judges to preside over full trials The courtroom will also have space for members of the public and journalists to attend cases but Weerwind said this would be limited because of the restricted space A suitable location within the jail still needs to be identified The plan is also a response to concerns by the mayor of the Noord-Brabant town about the impact on local traffic caused by convoys of high-speed vehicles taking prisoners to and from court cases ‘This is extremely important for the security of everyone involved in prisoner transport. Not just in Vught, but in the municipalities that the suspects are being taken to,’ the mayor said Weerwind and justice minister Dilan Yesilgöz also want to restrict contact between prisoners and the outside world by reducing the number of visitors allowed per week from three to one and only permitting one 10-minute phone call a week We could not provide the Dutch News service without the generous support of our readers Your donations allow us to report on issues you tell us matter and provide you with a summary of the most important Dutch news each day Many thanks to everyone who has donated to DutchNews.nl in recent days We could not provide this service without you Please help us making DutchNews.nl a better read by taking part in a short survey This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Residents of the municipalities of Den Bosch and Vught will not be able to put their garbage cans on the street for the next two weeks The municipality has temporarily suspended the collection of residual waste VGF and paper and plastic following intervention by the Labor Inspectorate paper and plastic in Oisterwijk and Heusden in Brabant the collection will also be suspended there for two weeks an unsafe situation was found in a transfer hall where the collected waste is sorted because vehicles and people work there alternately the municipality must change the working methods in the hall and until this is done "We cannot carry out this work at another location and that is why we are suspending collections from February 5," a spokesperson said The municipality of Den Bosch had previously been warned by the labor inspectorate that there was too little space at the transshipment point which compromised the safety of the workers The municipality responded and had the internal environmental road closed this did not solve the problem of the lack of space in the transfer hall the Labor Inspectorate has tightened the regulations in response to accidents that have occurred at similar locations across the country including a fatal accident at a transshipment hall in Landgraaf (Limburg) Den Bosch expects that the working conditions in the hall will be adjusted within two weeks so that the space can be used again and waste collection can resume "We understand that this measure is very annoying Not only for our residents and businesses but also for our employees we ask for everyone's understanding and cooperation We are working hard to make the transshipment hall as safe as possible,“ Den Bosch councilor Ralph Geers said The judiciary enlisted the Dutch army's help to prevent a possible violent prison break allegedly planned by suspects in the Marengo assassinations trial from the Extra Secure Institution (EBI) in Vught the army erected barricades to prevent any helicopters from landing the prison staff in Vught have been assisted by a special team from the Ministry of Defense since last week Sources at the judiciary say that suspects in the Marengo process are still planning a violent prison break In addition to barricades against the landing the Defense team also took visible and invisible measures to prevent this Mayor Roderic van de Mortel of Vught would "neither confirm nor deny" the extra security measures at the penitentiary I can say this: It is significant that the police and Defense are working closely together in this situation It confirms the enormous danger from a group of serious criminals We really need to finally let go of the naivety about this This category of criminals requires a different approach and treatment." Vught mayor Roderick van de Mortel is very concerned about criminal leaders being transported to and from the high-security prison in his municipality The convoys of armored cars with blazing sirens make residents feel unsafe and pose actual risks He again called for the construction of a court at the prison so that fewer transports are necessary "We have about 300 trips a year through our town which go through residential areas and over the track that is regularly closed so that security guards with machine guns can get out," Van de Mortel said to NOS "These types of transports drive at high speeds past primary schools the convicts in the high-security prison also often have a lot of money and are willing to do anything to avoid a lengthy prison sentence "The most vulnerable moment is the transport between the high-security prison on the one point and the extra-secure court on the other," Van de Mortel said "You only have to open the newspaper to know that these criminals are not afraid of anything." He referred to a report earlier this month that Ridouan Taghi the main suspect in the Marengo assassinations trial Van de Mortel believes that the solution is an extra-secure court on the grounds of the prison "That's what I've been saying for almost two years now so that an enormous amount of costs can also be saved Millions a year to organize these transports." Four employees of the high-security prison in Vught went into hiding last month after it became known that Ridouan Taghi was preparing an escape attempt and Taghi was looking for their address details NRC reports based on new information it gained access to that four prison workers had to go into hiding caused unrest among the staff at the high-security prison Employees have been worried about their safety for some time prison workers asked if they could wear masks to hide their identities in the vicinity of Taghi and other detainees suspected of belonging to his alleged drug-centered gang That request was initially denied but granted after the four employees went into hiding The Public Prosecution Service (OM) announced Taghi's escape plans on October 8 was Taghi's link to the outside world and would play a crucial role in the planned escape attempt the prison tightened its security regulations Contact between suspects and lawyers is limited and lawyers are no longer allowed to bring a laptop into the prison Learn a new language at the historic Regina Coeli InstituteBookmarkBookmarkAdvertisementAug 15 2023AdvertisementHave you ever been told to “go to the Nuns” by a Dutch person If you’ve never heard of this phrase before it is commonly used in the Netherlands because it is believed that the best place to learn a language is at a convent In 1963, the "Nuns of Vught", who ran a girls’ boarding school in North Brabant, were inspired to open their doors and develop their state-of-the-art language lab for adults, which is known today as The Language Institute Regina Coeli Learn a new language with Regina Coeli Christian missionaries were the very first students to be taught by the Nuns of Vught These missionaries achieved such remarkable results with their language lessons that it was not long before ambassadors and diplomats followed their example and found their way to the nuns as well The language institute, now known by their more recent moniker Regina Coeli is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year in 2023 It has been 120 years since the congregation settled in Vught but the history of the nuns stretches back even further than that - to the 16th century to be exact together with canon regular Pierre Fourier founded an educational congregation in what is now the French region of Lorraine Alix was from the wealthy bourgeoisie and wanted to give meaning to her life by educating girls in the region until the French government decided in 1903 to strictly separate religion and education The nuns from Lorraine, having lost their raison d’être (purpose), fled France. A number of them were welcomed by the community of Vught in North Brabant, where they soon built a convent and established a girls’ school One of their strengths - because of the international character of the congregation - was that those nuns were native speakers of a variety of languages and could teach students their native tongues The sisters at Regina Coeli approached adult education in pretty much the same way they had approached educating the girls of their boarding school a precise schedule and lessons given in a tranquil environment because - as the sisters had agreed - the language institute had to be a worldly institute they carried on in the spirit of Alix le Clerc Regina Coeli has developed over the years into the renowned institute it is today; the perfect place to learn to speak a foreign language well in a relatively short period of time While you are no longer taught by the lovely nuns you are still taught by native speakers from all corners of the globe You receive intensive one-on-one lessons from a dedicated team of trainers whose sole aim is to help you fulfil your personal learning goals you work on assignments that are personally selected for you by your trainers There is also time for independent study and socialising with other like-minded students a professional catering team prepares healthy meals - using fresh locally sourced products - for you from Regina Coeli’s own kitchen Good food provides the energy you need for such an intensive learning process In addition, students have the opportunity to stay in private rooms at the institute and are able to enjoy the peaceful environment that is highly conducive to learning Finally, because of the many different nationalities at the institute in Vught it has a uniquely international flavour that enables students to learn easily from and with one another If you would like to improve your skills in a foreign language, the teachers at Regina Coeli would be happy to welcome you to their institute Ridouan Taghi worked on three different scenarios to escape from the High-Security Penitentiary (EBI) in Vught where he is detained as the main suspect in the Marengo assassinations trial had to pass on messages and orders for Taghi to arrange the prison break NRC reports based on the criminal file in the investigation into T T. worked as Taghi's lawyer until he was arrested for helping Taghi prepare an escape. According to the Public Prosecution Service (OM) provided Taghi with "unobstructed" contact with the outside world took photos of Taghi's notes with his iPad and then passed them along through messaging app Signal The authorities found 69 photos of notes on the iPad These notes show that they were making arrangements to break Taghi out of prison Two of them had to be performed by trained professionals "It has to be the navy seals way," Taghi wrote in one note The police suspect that these outbreak attempts would have happened at the EBI in Vught or at the high-security courtroom in Amsterdam-Osdorp The third option involved taking EBI staff hostage and demanding Taghi's release. T. had to pass on orders to gather information on four EBI employees at the Tax Authority for this plan, according to NRC. In November, the newspaper wrote that four EBI employees went into hiding due to Taghi's planned escape told the authorities that the employees' names were never passed along and they were not "endangered by his actions." Benaouf A. was transferred to the high security prison in Vught after a group of Amsterdam criminals tried to hijack a helicopter to break him out of the prison in Roermond on Wednesday Vught is the highest security prison in the Netherlands The police managed to stop the helicopter plan after the Amsterdam police got wind of the plans during an ongoing investigation one was shot and killed and several others got away hijacking a hired helicopter was at the center of the group of Amsterdam criminals' plan The Amsterdam police immediately contacted a number of helicopter companies asking them to report any suspicious activities the police were able to be ready at a small airport in Budel Noord-Brabant when the criminal gang wanted to put their plans into action on Wednesday A police officer took station at the reception desk another accompanied a suspect to the helicopter The trunk contained a tire with a rope attached to it Other items were also found that the police believe were to be used in the prison break the police also chased down a number of other suspects a black Audi came to a stop in the small village of Roosteren The people in the car tried to flee on foot is one of the leaders of an Amsterdam criminal gang He is currently serving a 12 year prison sentence for involvement in the assassination of another Amsterdam criminal was targeted in an assassination attempt in Amsterdam's Staatsliedenbuurt The murder of Bouhbouh and the Staatsliedenbuurt assassinations are considered the start of the Amsterdam gang war which in the years since resulted in the deaths of dozens of Amsterdam criminals and a handful of innocent bystanders Squarespace issues with publishing new articles \u2014 Their team is currently working on the issue The Boys universe is expanding with a new prequel spinoff series titled Vught Rising The series was announced at Comic-Con by Jensen Ackles who will star in the series reprising his role as Soldier Boy This has been the biggest TV announcement at Comic-Con so far and the fans in Hall H were super excited when it was revealed The Boys series executive producer Paul Grellong will serve as executive producer and showrunner on Vought Rising which was created by the main creative team behind The Boys franchise Kripke and Grellong offered details on the series saying: “We are excited to bring you the next deranged series from the world of The Boys before lifting the veil on the time period and premise of the prequel “It’s a twisted murder mystery about the origins of Vought in the 1950s and the diabolical maneuvers of a Supe known to fans as Stormfront who was then going by the name Clara Vought “We cannot wait to blow your minds and trouble your souls with this salacious grisly saga drenched in blood and Compound V.” Ackles’ Soldier Boy is the first American non-aging Supe created by Frederick Vought during World War II Stormfront was Frederick Vought’s first successful test subject for Compound V and she married him before they moved to the U.S Grellong and Kripke are joined by producers Seth Rogen The series is produced by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios