Smiling faces all round: the papers all have photos of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende visiting US President Barack Obama in the Oval Office in Washington yesterday. The meeting has, however, got a rather mixed reception. Nrc.next says it was "an exercise in absolute submissiveness", describing Mr Balkenende as "hot under the collar and sweating slightly" while Mr Obama was "composed and stately".

The AD also stresses the negative, saying that the prime minister promised to consider taking Guantánamo prisoners after all. "MPs furious: This is an expensive cup of tea for the Netherlands", reads its headline. "The Netherlands has consistently called for Guantánamo Bay to be closed. A solution must be found, no matter how difficult," the PM is quoted as saying.

"We're staying in Afghanistan", screams the mass-circulation De Telegraaf, covering what is likely to be a deeply unpopular decision by the PM. Despite repeating that the leading role of Dutch troops in Uruzgan will end next summer, Mr Balkenende apparently told Mr Obama: "The Netherlands will not turn its back on Afghanistan". The paper brushes aside Mr Obama's praise of the Dutch Afghan mission.

The PM, with his youthful looks (and glasses), is often caricatured as resembling the fictional character Harry Potter and, under the photo of the Washington meeting, De Telegraaf runs a fake film advert which reads: "Harry Potter, Dark secrets revealed". The PM's desire for Dutch troops to stay on in Afghanistan may be considered dark, but it was hardly a secret.

Meanwhile, Trouw covers a victory gained by Mr Balkenende. At the meeting, Mr Obama invited the Netherlands to take part in the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh in September. The paper says this means the Netherlands is now firmly established as a semi-permanent member of the influential group of major economic powers.

Should Queen's speech be changed?
Deputy Prime Minister Wouter Bos' idea about changing the speech from the throne has come in for some stick, reports de Volkskrant. Mr Bos says the monarch's speech delivered at the opening of the parliamentary year should become a "visionary tale about what's going on in society". At the moment, it simply goes through the government's programme for the coming year.

Former prime minister Dries van Agt believes the idea is "dangerous and risky" and that the sovereign "will run into serious problems". A former director of the Government Information Service puts it more straightforwardly. "Imagine if the [right-wing] Freedom Party becomes a major coalition partner. Would the Queen then have to say: 'Next year, all Muslims will have to leave the country'?" he asks. The paper, meanwhile, says Queen Beatrix is believed to favour Mr Bos' idea.

Legal insurance used to fight dismissal
The AD says that more people are making use of their legal insurance policies to fight redundancy. A leading insurance firm says there has been a 40-percent rise in cases for its legal department already this year. This involves "many thousands of people" explains a company director. He goes on to say that by far and away the most cases are to do with problems around labour law.

The cost of some insurance policies is likely to be raised next year because of the increased demand for employment-related legal services. However, it's not all bad news. With the increased demand, some insurance firms are having to employ more staff.

Stop bee deaths
"No pollination without bees" warns a headline in Trouw. The paper says beekeepers are increasingly often seeing the collapse of whole colonies of honeybees. Of the 200 types of wild bees in the Netherlands, 100 are on the list of endangered species.

"Stop bee deaths" is the most popular of the 146 Dutch petitions on the internet. Within a month, it has garnered 10,000 signatures. Its most important message is that certain insecticides should be banned. An expert tells the paper that these damage the bees' nervous system and "makes them more susceptible to disease".

Eels off the hook (and menu?)
Both De Telegraaf and Trouw report that eels are off the hook - at least for three months of the year. The European Union has apparently rejected a Dutch rescue plan for the fish, which involved transporting 157 tonnes of silver eel to the sea so that they could spawn in the Atlantic.

Experts say eel populations are more threatened than at first thought and the EU is insisting on a ban on eel fishing from 1 September to 1 December. Fisheries minister Gerda Verburg is making 700,000 euros available for tackling possible redundancies in the inland fishing sector. Neither paper deals with the possible fallout for Dutch consumers: eel is a traditionally popular dish in the Netherlands.