It’s another noisy day in round two of the budget debate. And while politicians scream at one another, the Dam Screamer enjoys 15 minutes of fame. But De Telegraaf remains silent, after one of its journalists is suspended. And never mind breaking the sound barrier, Italian scientists appear to have exceeded the speed of light.

Budget debate - round two
The papers have had time to mull over the harsh tone in the two-day budget debate in parliament. De Volkskrant headlines with “Wilders undermines Rutte’s authority”.

There was much more getting down to business in the second day of the debate. And although Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders moderated his tone somewhat, he still managed to ruffle the prime minister’s feathers.

Trouw’s headline reads: “And everybody falls into Wilders trap”. Earlier in the debate Prime Minister Mark Rutte simply passed Mr Wilders’s rudeness off as his “style”, “The question is whether you fall for it every time.”

He even blames the press for allowing their reporting to be dominated by Wilders’ behaviour. But not much later the prime minister, himself, falls into the same trap, when Mr Wilders said: “Act normal mate, “ the PM retorted: “You should act normal”.

De Telegraaf calls the exchange “a new depth in political debate”. Both AD and De Telegraaf run through the history of the political insult. AD even calls it an “art that few have mastered”.

Trouw comments that Mr Wilders has skilfully managed to deflect attention from his support for the cuts which will hit his own supporters hard. When challenged on this point, Mr Wilders has nothing to say. The old trick works, the paper says, calling the controversial MP a “political hooligan”.

Meanwhile outside parliament a demonstration of poodles is held in protest against the breed being used as an insult in parliament on Wednesday. They are the most intelligent breed of dogs, one owner says. De Telegraaf sneers “so the comparison is a compliment for [Labour leader] Job Cohen.”

Read the RNW coverage of the story

Dam Screamer enjoys 15 minutes of fame
The Queen’s tour through The Hague passed without incident on Tuesday, but there have been a number of disturbances involving the queen in recent years. On Thursday, the case of the so-called Dam Screamer, who disrupted last year’s Remembrance Day ceremony, was heard in court, AD reports.

When Gennaro P. began screaming during the two-minute silence on 4 May 2010, hundreds of people panicked. Dozens were hurt in the stampede that followed, eight of them still suffer from the injuries they received that day. De Volkskrant even goes into detail, the scream which lasted two full seconds began after 1 minute and 53 seconds of silence.

The Dam Screamer’s defence lawyer says the act was not premeditated, but films of the same man screaming on Dam Square before the incident were found on his phone. He also told strangers in a supermarket that it was a pity that the queen was not “killed in the Queen’s Day attack” in 2009.

The prosecution says he deliberately joined the crowd to cause commotion. Although he was a little tipsy, he was not drunk and was not mentally instable. His defence lawyer describes him as an anarchist.

Mr P. is currently homeless, nevertheless he walks around dressed in a smart suit. He says it was not the scream that caused the commotion, but the police officers who jumped on him ten seconds later. Although the defendant did not turn up in court, he appears to be enjoying his 15 minutes of fame talking to the press.

Read the RNW coverage of the story

Telegraaf journalist suspended for false story
De Telegraaf has suspended one of its journalists for making up a story and then lying about it. Flamboyant reporter Martijn Koolhoven has worked for the paper for 25 years.

Last week a television documentary programme revealed that Mr Koolhoven had made up an article about the residents of a Muslim neighbourhood being up in arms about fetish sex taking place in a photographer’s studio. However, the journalist was allegedly paid by the owner of lingerie brand Rob Heilbron to blacken the name of the photographer with whom he had a business conflict, De Volkskrant reports.

The false reports led to the photographer being vilified on Muslim internet forums and being forced to move out of the neighbourhood. As a result, the paper created a reality that did not previously exist.

This is not the first time Mr Koolhoven has come under discussion. In all, the Dutch Press Council has received 16 complaints about him. Eleven were found to be legitimate and three partially legitimate. By the way, De Telegraaf does not recognise the authority of the council, de Volkskrant says.

The mass circulation paper has refused to comment on the matter. Television journalists who tried to film reactions in the newspaper’s editorial office were shown the door. And there is nothing in today’s edition of De Telegraaf on the matter.

Should goal keepers wear helmets?
A number of goalies have been injured recently. So nrc.next asks: should goal keepers be made to wear a helmet? Last weekend Eindhoven PSV’s Przemyslaw Tyton was carried off the pitch unconscious and Dutch international Maarten Stekelenburg was also knocked out by a kick to the head when he played for AS Roma.

As a result, the FIFA is considering measures to protect players. The issue has been raised before. In 2006, Czech goal keeper Petr Cech suffered a fracture to the skull. Since then he has worn a helmet.

The Dutch Health Council says for every 10,000 games, six players suffer concussion. This doesn’t sound much, but in a whole football career, players have a 50-percent chance of receiving a head injury.

Meanwhile helmets have become compulsory in a number of sports after fatal accidents. Racing cyclists have been obliged to wear helmet since Kazakh cyclist Andrei Kivilev was killed in 2003. In ice hockey, it’s not just the players who have to put on a hard hat. Referees, coaches, assistants and volunteers are made to wear head protection too.

In boxing, however, only amateurs are required to wear helmets. But the boxing association is trying to scrap the measure to make the sport, in which the ultimate aim is to knock out your opponent, more attractive.

Could Einstein have been wrong?
Scientists in Italy claim to have proved that certain particles can travel faster than light. If they are right, they have disproved Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, de Volkskrant reports.

In Einstein’s theory, the speed of light is the fastest particles can possibly go. But according to the Italian research, so-called neutrinos are fractionally faster. The ’Opera’ experiment was carried out 16,000 times, just to be sure.

In the experiment the neutrinos systematically arrived earlier than expected, after travelling 730 kilometres from the CERN’s huge particle accelerator in Switzerland to the Gran Sasso laboratory in the Italian Apennines. The results of the experiment have not yet been published. De Volkskrant adds that at least one theoretical physicist has questioned its accuracy.

If correct, the implications are huge. It virtually means we can go back in time. Theoretically, we would be able to see the goal before the ball is kicked, as one Dutch expert put it on Dutch public radio. Perhaps it could save those goal keepers from head injuries.