Category Archives: Belgium

Right-wing Hungarian MEP resigns for attending ‘sex party’ that broke Belgian lockdown

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Politician in Viktor Orbán’s party apologises as Belgian police arrest 25 men over gathering

A Hungarian MEP in Viktor Orbán’s rightwing party, spotted fleeing along a gutter to escape police raiding a “sex party” above a Brussels bar, has apologised for breaching Belgium’s lockdown rules.

József Szájer, a senior member of the Fidesz party who helped write Hungary’s constitution in 2011, was one of about 20 people, mainly men and including at least two EU diplomats, who attended a party held near the Grand Place in the Belgian capital’s historical centre on Friday evening.

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Belgian racing pigeon sets fanciers’ hearts aflutter in €1.6m sale

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Record auction price for New Kim beats last year’s €1.25m for Armando, another Belgian

A two-year-old Belgian racing pigeon called New Kim has been sold for a world-record €1.6m (£1.4m) in an auction that ended on Sunday.

Offers for the pigeon had already hit €1.32m in the past week, surpassing the previous record of €1,252,000 set in March 2019 for another Belgian pigeon, Armando. They then went higher in a frantic last 30 minutes of bidding on Sunday.

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Global report: new Covid lockdown in Hungary as Belgium passes second peak

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Portugal imposes state of emergency; global cases pass 50m; infections in Germany ‘levelling off’

Hungary and Portugal have become the latest countries in Europe to impose tough new restrictions to stem the second wave of the coronavirus, as the first signs of light at the end of the tunnel emerged in France, Germany and Belgium.

As the US pharmaceuticals company Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, said their experimental Covid-19 vaccine appeared safe and more than 90% effective, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, announced a partial lockdown.

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Two teenagers arrested in Belgium on suspicion of terrorist plot

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Suspects appearing to pledge allegiance to Isis arrested in cities of Eupen and La Calamine

The office of Belgium’s federal prosecutor says two underage people suspected of plotting what has been labelled a terror attack have been arrested.

Aged 16 and 17, the suspects were arrested on 31 October after raids in the cities of Eupen and La Calamine, located in the province of Liège. The prosecutor’s office said they were suspected of “attempted terrorist assassination and participation in a terrorist organisation.”

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EU leaders urged to aid transfer of Covid patients between member states

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Ursula von der Leyen asks leaders to map ICU capacity as Belgium gets close to running out of beds

The European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has asked EU leaders to help Brussels map intensive care bed capacity to allow the transfer of coronavirus patients from overrun hospitals across Europe amid a rise in infection in every member state.

Belgium is expected to run out of intensive care beds within two weeks given the spiralling rate of infection, while the Netherlands has already started airlifting patients from pandemic hotspots to Germany. Almost half of France’s intensive care unit capacity has been taken up by new coronavirus cases.

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Global report: Merkel says Germany faces ‘difficult months ahead’ in Covid fight

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Chancellor says country is on verge of losing control as Europe death toll passes 250k

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has said her country is on the verge of losing control of its fight against the coronavirus pandemic, telling colleagues from her Christian Democratic Union party “the situation is threatening” and “every day counts”.

In leaked comments to an internal party meeting, she told those attending of “very, very difficult months ahead” and added that “every day [would] count” in tackling the virus’s spread.

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Who in Europe is getting it right on Covid?

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Different approaches are having notably different outcomes

A second coronavirus wave is sweeping continental Europe, with new infection records broken daily in many countries. There are wide variations, but almost no country has been left untouched – even those that fared well in the first wave.

Across the 31 countries from which the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control collects national data, the average 14-day case incidence rate per 100,000 inhabitants has multiplied from just 13 in mid-July to almost 250 last week.

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Coronavirus live news: WHO warns about quarantine failures, Argentina records 1m cases

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Ireland orders six-week lockdown; Trump says Americans ‘tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots’ discuss Covid; Canada passes 200,000 cases. Follow latest updates

Still in New Zealand and Suff reports that 440 fishermen from Russia and the Ukraine arrived on Friday and are isolating at the Sudima Hotel, near Christchurch Airport. The outlet says:

Stuff previously reported about 440 fishermen from Russia and Ukraine were due to arrive (in NZ) on two flights chartered by fishing companies – the first of which is thought to have touched down from Moscow via Singapore on Friday.

Many of the 237 people onboard have been isolating at the Sudima Hotel, near Christchurch Airport, since their arrival.

The New Zealand Herald is reporting that 11 international sailors in a Christchurch hotel have tested positive for Covid – 14 more cases are “under further investigation”, according to the ministry of health.

“All are imported cases detected at routine day 3 testing. None involve cases in the community,” the ministry said, according to the Herald.

#BREAKING Health officials have confirmed 11 international seamen in a Christchurch hotel have tested positive for Covid — 14 more cases are 'under further investigation". https://t.co/huU1IMW9fj pic.twitter.com/UiXWm7nevj

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Coronavirus live news: Belgium to postpone elective hospital procedures; Bulgaria makes masks mandatory

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Senior virologist warns Belgium might need to return to full lockdown if surge not checked; Bulgaria move follows record daily cases

The UK prime minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday he would impose tougher lockdown restrictions on the Greater Manchester region in the north of England despite failing to reach a deal on funding support with local leaders.

Related: PM confirms Covid tier 3 restrictions for Greater Manchester as talks fail

At no point today, were we offered enough to protect the poorest people in our communities through the punishing reality of the winter to come.

Related: Greater Manchester: Burnham condemns ministers as tier 3 talks collapse

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Belgium facing ‘tsunami’ of Covid infections, health minister says

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Frank Vandenbroucke says situation in parts of country is ‘most dangerous in all of Europe’

Belgium is losing control of the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic and is very close to being overwhelmed by a “tsunami” of infection, the country’s health minister has said.

Frank Vandenbroucke, Belgium’s federal minister, told the broadcaster RTL that Belgians needed to radically alter their behaviour.

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Covid in Europe: protests in Czech Republic, Ireland to toughen rules

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Switzerland makes masks mandatory as continent struggles to contain infections

Police fought anti-mask protesters in the Czech Republic, Ireland prepared to announce tough new restrictions and Switzerland made masks mandatory indoors as European governments struggled to contain continuing record Covid case numbers.

As Italy on Sunday reported 11,705 new infections over the past 24 hours, its largest ever figure, and France on Saturday set a new high of 32,427 cases, police in Prague’s historic tourist district fired teargas and water cannon after demonstrations against strict anti-coronavirus restrictions turned violent.

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Belgian ambassador throws King Charles II treaty into EU fishing debate

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British king granted 50 Flemish fishermen ‘eternal rights’ to English fishing waters in 1666

All is fair in love and cod war. And with the EU’s coastal states under pressure to give way on Britain’s demands for greater fishing catches in its waters post-Brexit, any old argument is worth a try.

When the issue of the future access of European fishing fleets was being discussed by EU ambassadors in Brussels on Wednesday the Belgian government’s representative, Willem van de Voorde, made a notable intervention.

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Berlin nightlife given first curfew in 70 years as Covid cases surge

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German capital tells bars to shut at 11pm, while fellow role model Belgium also tightens rules

Berlin’s nightlife is facing a closing time for the first time in 70 years as the party-loving German capital seeks to contain spiralling coronavirus infection rates.

From Saturday, bars, restaurants and off-licences will have to close their doors between 11pm and 6am as a large second wave of Covid-19 cases in the city threatens to taint Germany’s image as a pandemic role model.

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Coronavirus: Europe struggles to contain surge of cases

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Rise in infection rate in Paris as Spanish authorities clash over Madrid lockdown

Bars in Paris have been ordered to close for two weeks, Madrid residents may no longer leave their city and Ireland is set to introduce tighter national restrictions as governments struggle to contain a Europe-wide surge in Covid-19 cases.

As infections in the Paris area rose to 270 for every 100,000 people – and as high as 500 for every 100,000 among 20- to 30-year-olds – with 36% of intensive care beds occupied by Covid-19 patients, the city’s police chief said bars must close from Tuesday.

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Delphine Boël: Belgian king’s daughter wins right to call herself princess

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Artist whose mother had affair with former king Albert II wins the right to use royal title and father’s surname

An artist who successfully fought a seven-year legal battle to prove she was the daughter of the former king of Belgium, Albert II, has won the right to be recognised as a princess.

The Brussels Court of Appeal has ruled that Delphine Boël, 52, had the right to her Royal father’s surname after a bitter battle for acknowledgement.

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Belgium agrees on government nearly two years after previous one fell

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Flemish Liberal Alexander De Croo sworn in as PM as country passes milestone of 10,000 Covid deaths

Belgium’s warring political parties have agreed to form a government nearly two years after the previous one collapsed, as the country passed the grim milestone of 10,000 deaths from coronavirus.

The deal, only finalised in the early hours of Wednesday , ends 652 days of caretaker and minority governments, since the fall of the previous administration in December 2018.

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As Covid cases rise again, how are countries in Europe reacting?

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Tighter measures are being imposed, but they vary across the continent

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Belgian king’s daughter fights for right to call herself a princess

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Delphine Boël, whose mother had affair with ex-king Albert II, also wants to take her father’s surname

A woman who successfully fought a seven-year legal battle to prove she was the daughter of the former king of Belgium, Albert II, will learn next month whether, against the wishes of her father, she will be able to use the titles Her Royal Highness and the Princess of Belgium.

Delphine Boël, 52, an artist and sculptor, whose mother had an extra-marital affair with Albert in the 1960s and 70s, argued in the Brussels court of appeal that she should also be able to use her biological father’s surname of Saxe-Coburg. The court will give its judgment on 29 October.

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Belgium must return tooth of murdered Congolese leader, judge rules

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Belgian policeman had admitted taking tooth from Patrice Lumumba’s body in 1961

A Belgian judge has said that a tooth taken from the remains of the Congo’s first elected leader, Patrice Lumumba, should be returned to his family almost 60 years after his assassination by rebels overseen by Belgian officers.

The tooth had been seized from a Belgian policeman who admitted taking it while helping to dispose of Lumumba’s body after the politician was murdered in 1961. The Belgian government of the time, the CIA and MI6 have also been implicated.

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UK looks to Belgium for Covid inspiration despite infections rise

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Matt Hancock hails Belgian model amid rollout of new curbs in England – but data shows jump in new cases

Belgium has been cited by the UK health secretary, Matt Hancock, as a model for getting coronavirus under control – just as its public health body recorded a 15% rise in the number of daily infections compared with the previous week.

Despite a dip in the number of new infections in August, after a tightening of rules by the Belgian prime minister, Sophie Wilmès, the most recent data suggests the country’s success may be short-lived as people return to work and school.

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