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The Netherlands Returns Major Fossil Collection, Including 'Java Man', to Indonesia

People gather as The Netherlands holds its annual World War II remembrance ceremony in Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 4 2024. REMKO DE WAAL/Pool via REUTERS/File photo
People gather as The Netherlands holds its annual World War II remembrance ceremony in Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 4 2024. REMKO DE WAAL/Pool via REUTERS/File photo
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The Netherlands Returns Major Fossil Collection, Including 'Java Man', to Indonesia

People gather as The Netherlands holds its annual World War II remembrance ceremony in Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 4 2024. REMKO DE WAAL/Pool via REUTERS/File photo
People gather as The Netherlands holds its annual World War II remembrance ceremony in Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 4 2024. REMKO DE WAAL/Pool via REUTERS/File photo

The Netherlands said it would give back a major fossil collection to Indonesia, granting its former colony's request to recover historical artefacts, including bones of the "Java Man", the first known fossils of the Homo erectus species from which humans are believed to have evolved.

"At Indonesia's request, the Netherlands is transferring more than 28,000 fossils from the Dubois collection ... This collection is an important resource in research into human evolution," the Dutch government said in a statement on Friday, Reuters reported.

It added it had taken that decision following the advice of the independent Colonial Collections Committee and that the Dutch Culture Minister Gouke Moes had handed his Indonesian counterpart Fadli Zon a letter announcing the move.

Eugène Dubois was a Dutch paleoanthropologist and geologist. He earned worldwide fame for his discovery in 1891, on the Indonesian island of Java, remains of what he then called Pithecanthropus erectus - later redesignated as Homo erectus - and also known as "Java Man".

In its statement, the Dutch government said the Colonial Collections Committee had come to the conclusion that the Dubois collection - currently in the university city of Leiden - never became the property of the Netherlands.

"In addition, the Committee considers that the circumstances under which the fossils were obtained make it plausible that they were taken against the will of the population and that the population was wronged by this," it added.

It is the sixth time the Netherlands returns artefacts based on the recommendations of that Committee.

Western museums have traditionally resisted appeals to return objects to their countries of origin, which they often argue lack the necessary resources to care for the works.

But in recent years, many have started to return artefacts looted or removed during the colonial era to the countries of origin. In 2022 Germany and the Horniman Museum, based in London, handed back sculptures known as Benin Bronzes to Nigeria.

Two years ago, the Netherlands repatriated more than 200 artefacts to Indonesia.

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Varieties

Kyiv Botanical Garden's Plants Wither Due to Frost, Power Cuts

Doctor of Biological Sciences Roman Ivannikov, Head of the Department of Tropical and Subtropical Plants of the Gryshko National Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, speaks during an AFP interview in the garden's main greenhouse in Kyiv on February 11, 2026. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)
Doctor of Biological Sciences Roman Ivannikov, Head of the Department of Tropical and Subtropical Plants of the Gryshko National Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, speaks during an AFP interview in the garden's main greenhouse in Kyiv on February 11, 2026. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)
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Kyiv Botanical Garden's Plants Wither Due to Frost, Power Cuts

Doctor of Biological Sciences Roman Ivannikov, Head of the Department of Tropical and Subtropical Plants of the Gryshko National Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, speaks during an AFP interview in the garden's main greenhouse in Kyiv on February 11, 2026. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)
Doctor of Biological Sciences Roman Ivannikov, Head of the Department of Tropical and Subtropical Plants of the Gryshko National Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, speaks during an AFP interview in the garden's main greenhouse in Kyiv on February 11, 2026. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)

Roman Ivannikov has spent around 30 years pampering orchids, azaleas and figs at Ukraine's National Botanical Garden, but power cuts triggered by Russian strikes are threatening to freeze his cherished collection of tropical plants.

Moscow has been pummeling Ukrainian energy sites with drones and missiles, plunging thousands of households into darkness during the harshest winter since it started its invasion four years ago.

The almost-daily barrages, paired with the cold snap, have put lives at risk and created an unprecedented threat for Ivannikov's pride and joy: a collection of almost 4,000 species.

"Our children grew up on the paths of this garden. We have poured our lives into this," Ivannikov, 51, told AFP, struggling to fight back tears.

The temperature in the garden's main greenhouse was 12C.

"It's not even the lower bound of normal," Ivannikov said.

The temperature dipped even lower on four nights over recent weeks, when the heating cut off entirely.

Wearing a thick navy jacket over a wool sweater, Ivannikov, the head of the department of tropical and subtropical plants, picked up a leaf that had just come rustling down.

"You can see how many fallen leaves there are... Perfectly healthy leaves that could have kept feeding the plant and functioning for months are falling down," he said.

The plant, he explained, was optimizing energy needs and shedding part of its leaves in the lower tiers so it can keep the leaves at the top and "survive in these conditions".

He, fellow staff and scores of volunteers were shuffling between tasks like firing up stoves and spreading protective covers on a collection of smaller plants, like orchids.

Volodymyr Vynogradov, 66, has signed up to help cut firewood used to heat the greenhouses.

"There needs to be heating for the azaleas," he told AFP, his cheeks rosy from cold and a pile of split logs scattered around.

"Physically, it's a little bit of a warm-up... That's why I decided to help somehow. For myself and for the sake of flowers."

The garden's collection has been laboriously reassembled after it had perished during World War II -- through decades of purchases, exchanges and numerous scientific missions that took Ivannikov's senior colleagues across several continents.

They "used to go to places and bring back plants from areas where those forests are no longer there", making those replanted at the Kyiv garden susceptible to "irrecoverable losses".

"Those plants have been preserved with us, and that underscores their uniqueness: if we lose them, we won't be able to restore them," Ivannikov said.

Individual specimens have already wilted, but the scale of damage is impossible to assess -- the destructive impact of the cold could only start to show in weeks or even months to come.

"Flowering intervals will change, plants will bloom but won't be able to set seed for a year or two. Or, for example, they'll set seed, but it won't be viable -- it will be dead," Ivannikov, who is trying to stay hopeful, said.

"We just have to hold on until summer, until spring -- make it through however many days are needed."

His dream, he said, is to create a "large national bonsai collection", something he had already begun laying the groundwork for.

The institution meanwhile offers organized tours and works with military servicemen and displaced Ukrainians who find solace in gardening work.

"They feel alive and want to see what comes next. They see a future, they want to keep living -- and that's our mission."

Varieties

Sunbed Ads Spreading Harmful Misinformation

Cancer charities and doctors say sunbeds are linked to higher rates of melanoma and other skin cancers (Getty images) 
Cancer charities and doctors say sunbeds are linked to higher rates of melanoma and other skin cancers (Getty images) 
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Sunbed Ads Spreading Harmful Misinformation

Cancer charities and doctors say sunbeds are linked to higher rates of melanoma and other skin cancers (Getty images) 
Cancer charities and doctors say sunbeds are linked to higher rates of melanoma and other skin cancers (Getty images) 

Harmful misinformation claiming sunbeds offer health benefits in winter is being spread by tanning companies on social media, the BBC has found.

BBC identified hundreds of adverts on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook saying sunbeds can boost energy and treat skin conditions or mental health problems.

One suggested that going on a sunbed for “eight minutes” could prevent colds and flu, while another claimed that UV rays could “stimulate the thyroid gland” to help someone lose weight.

Claims like these are “irresponsible” and “potentially dangerous,” the government told BBC - while an NHS dermatologist described the amount of sunbed misinformation on social media as “genuinely terrifying.”

The findings come after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned six tanning adverts for making irresponsible health claims or suggesting sunbeds were safe.

Cancer charities and doctors are clear about the risks of using sunbeds - and say the machines are linked to higher rates of melanoma and other skin cancers.

Using a bed before the age of 35 increases the risk of melanoma by 59% later in life, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Sunbed Association, which represents half the UK's tanning shops, says the ASA and WHO are using “outdated data,” but encourages its members not to use medical claims in advertising.

Young people are by far the biggest sunbed users in the UK - about one in seven 18-to-24-year-olds say they used one in the past year, double the average for all age groups, according to a 2025 YouGov survey.

Other data suggests nearly a quarter of under-25s wrongly believe sunbeds actually reduce the risk of getting skin cancer.

Varieties

Rain Further Batters Storm-Hit Portugal, Thousands Evacuated

A flooded area in Ceira, Coimbra, Portugal, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)
A flooded area in Ceira, Coimbra, Portugal, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)
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Rain Further Batters Storm-Hit Portugal, Thousands Evacuated

A flooded area in Ceira, Coimbra, Portugal, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)
A flooded area in Ceira, Coimbra, Portugal, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)

More ‌heavy rain flooded several rural areas in the north of storm-battered Portugal on Wednesday, leaving levees at risk of bursting around the medieval city of Coimbra and forcing authorities to evacuate about 3,000 residents as a precaution.

A succession of deadly storms has hammered mostly central and southern parts of the country since late January, blowing roofs off houses, flooding several towns and leaving hundreds of thousands without electricity for days. At least 15 people have died as a consequence of the storms, including indirect ‌victims.

As the ‌storms let up this week, a weather ‌phenomenon ⁠known as an "atmospheric river" - ⁠a wide corridor of concentrated water vapor carrying massive amounts of moisture from the tropics - brought new downpours, affecting the north to a greater extent.

RISK OF DAM OVERFLOWING

Municipal authorities in Coimbra ordered the precautionary evacuation late on Tuesday of around 3,000 people most at risk from the River Mondego bursting its banks, ⁠and the operation was still under way on ‌Wednesday, with police making door-to-door checks ‌and bussing residents to shelters.

Regional Civil Protection official Carlos Tavares ‌said on Wednesday the situation could worsen between late Wednesday ‌and midday Thursday, as the rain could cause the Aguieira dam, 35 km northeast of Coimbra, "to overflow, sweep away levees and trigger further flooding".

Part of Coimbra's ancient city wall, on a hillside in one ‌of Europe's oldest university towns and a UNESCO World Heritage site, collapsed, shutting the road below ⁠and forcing ⁠the closure of the municipal market, the city hall said.

Prime Minister Luis Montenegro was due in Coimbra to oversee the emergency response after Interior Minister Maria Lucia Amaral resigned following criticism from opposition parties and local communities over what they described as the authorities' slow and failed response to devastating Storm Kristin two weeks ago.

In central Portugal, just across the River Tagus from Lisbon, authorities evacuated the village of Porto Brandao due to the risk of landslides, and around 30 people were removed from their homes after a landslide in the neighboring beachside area of Caparica.