The World from PRX

Belgium

Swinging across the Dutch-Belgian border
0:24
Aid groups try to save USAID contraceptives stuck in Belgium
5:12
UK’s National Gallery displays $20 million anonymous artwork
1:27
Things in the news you may have missed
1:35
US State Department delegation visits Damascus
Full Episode
48:54
Belgian conductor falls afoul of language laws after greeting passengers bilingually
4:20
1st law of its kind for sex workers in Belgium
4:27
Belgium must pay restitution for forced adoptions in its former African colonies
5:25
Silent movies still draw crowds in Brussels
3:58
Seagull impersonator screeches to success
1:12
Seagull impersonator screeches to success
1:37
Two members of DOVO, the Belgian military’s bomb disposal unit, remove a six-pound high explosive artillery shell produced in about 1917 from a farm field near Ieper, Belgium on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023.
Conflict & Justice
‘Iron harvest:’ A Belgian team unearths unexploded ammunition from WWI
Belgian artists Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul.
Movement
‘It’s not about you, it’s about the conversation’: This Belgian music duo gets you dancing — and talking
silent movie still
A silent movie cinema thrives in Brussels
Father Damion, abbot at St. Joseph's Trappist Abbey, left, and Spencer Brewery director Father Isaac walk through their new, state-of-the-art facility.
Lifestyle & Belief
Trappist monks keep beer tradition alive despite decline in interest for monastic life
A member of auction house staff poses for a picture with a 19-carat pink diamond at Christie's auction house, in London, Oct. 18, 2017.
Ukraine
Belgium faces pressure to support sanctions on Russian diamonds
Ryanair strikers protest unfair working conditions, Barcelona, Spain.
Jobs
As summer travel kicks off in Europe, airline strikes could thwart holiday plans
Juliana Lumumba, the daughter of Patrice Lumumba, speaks during a ceremony to return the remains of her father to the family at the Egmont Palace in Brussels
Justice
Return of Patrice Lumumba’s remains to DR Congo gives ‘peace of mind,’ UN envoy says
King Philippe of Belgium, right, greets 100-year-old corporal Albert Kunyuku, the last surviving Congolese veteran of World War II during a ceremony at the Veterans Memorial in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Wednesday June 8, 2022. 
Global Politics
Belgian King Philippe’s visit to DR Congo stirs hope for a ‘win-win partnership,’ historian says
Passengers wait at a ticket counter at Johannesburg's OR Tambo's airport, Monday, Nov. 29, 2021. 
COVID-19
COVID-related travel bans spark outrage from targeted countries
Protestors clash with riot police during a demonstration against the reinforced measures of the Belgium government to counter the latest spike of the coronavirus in Brussels, Belgium
Top of The World
Europe sees widespread protests against COVID-19 restrictions
Two women are shown hugging each other with the entrance and red-lettered sign of the Bataclan concert hall in the background.
Justice
Emotions raw before Paris trial for ISIS carnage
Several damaged houses are shown heavily damaged with entire walls missing.
Top of The World
Severe floods devastate parts of Germany and Belgium
A man wearing a reflective orange vest is shown kneeling next to another man laying down on his back.
Migration
Migrant hunger strike puts pressure on Belgian government
People stand in front of a church door with protest signs on it.
Migration
‘We cannot continue to live like this’: Migrants desperate to work occupy Brussels church
Roma musician Tcha Limberger, of Belgium, says “I Silenti,” which translates from Italian to “the silent ones,” is about giving a voice to the Roma people who died in the Holocaust. 
Music
‘I Silenti’ gives a voice to those who died in the Romani genocide
Dozens of rows of headstones are shown in rows at the Tyne Cot cemetery.
Military
Virus makes for quiet WWI remembrances
A nurse takes a swab sample at a drive-through coronavirus test site at the University of Texas El Paso in El Paso, Texas, Oct. 27, 2020.
Top of The World
El Paso and Ciudad Juárez face COVID-19 surge; Tanzania imposes internet restrictions; Iran building new centrifuges
A crowd of people are shown walking across the London Bridge, many wearing face masks.
Top of The World
Europe on edge over new surges; North Korea’s new missile; Nagorno-Karabakh cease-fire in question
The area where the statue of Edward Colston stood is seen
Top of The World
Symbols of ‘racist past’ topple amid global BLM protests; New Zealand reports no active COVID-19 cases
A child at a desk
What effect is the novel coronavirus having on children?; Palestinians mark Nakba, as Netanyahu looks to annex West Bank; Pachinko parlors defy Japan’s shutdown
a man sits on the floor, reading a book in front of glass door refrigerators that contain jars.
Hey, quarantine bakers: Behold, the world’s only sourdough library
Several young people are shown laying down on the ground with placards protesting for climate change action.
Climate Change
Millions of young people strike for climate action
parade
Activists say it’s time to do away with Le Sauvage, a Belgian festival’s traditional blackface character
french soccer players at the world cup
Sports
French national soccer players of immigrant ancestry face harsher critics at the World Cup
members of a battalion lining up in front of a palace
Global Politics
There are 28 other monarchies in the world
A court artist drawing shows Salah Abdeslam, one of the suspects in the 2015 ISIS attacks in Paris, in court during his trial in Brussels, Belgium.
Conflict
‘Judge me’: Paris suspect refuses to answer Belgian court
Demonstrators gather outside the Catalan regional parliament in Barcelona, Oct. 27, 2017.
Global Politics
Catalonia’s lawmakers vote for independence from Spain
Election campaign posters for the leader billionaire politician Andrej Babis in Prague, Czech Republic, reading: "Stand up against corruption and stop babbling."
Global Politics
The populist tide has spread to one of Central Europe’s last liberal democracies
Members of the worldwide fraternity of the omelette prepare a traditional giant omelette
Food
Amidst controversy, a crowd turns out for a Belgian festival celebrating a giant omelette made of 6,500 eggs
Brussels train station
Conflict
Brussels train station rocked by explosion, one suspect shot
Carine Willaert prepares fries in the Maison Antoine frites stand
Global Politics
EU insists its new policies will never endanger Belgium’s famous frites
PEC cell
Science
A new device can clean polluted air and turn it into hydrogen energy
Laura Passoni took her four-year-old son to Syria in 2014 to join ISIS and realized quickly she'd made a terrible mistake. "From that moment I did everything to try to leave so that my son wouldn’t become a terrorist,” she says.
Books
A Belgian woman explains why she joined ISIS, and why she came back
Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders, left, and Dutch counterpart Bert Koenders sign a border correction treaty in Amsterdam during an official state visit to the Netherlands, on Nov. 28, 2016.
Conflict
These countries changed their borders without firing bullets
Terror in Europe
Conflict
There’s ‘remarkable’ dysfunction in Europe’s counterterror systems
A Belgian soldier
Conflict
After terror attacks, push for better, more centralized intelligence agencies in Europe
The leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party, Nigel Farage, in Brussels
Global Politics
Brexiteer to Brussels: ‘You’re not laughing now, are you?’
Marvin Gaye at piano
Music
The story of one of the world’s ‘sexiest songs’
"When you are pregnant you have pain and afterwards you have a baby that's there but when your baby died you have pain but are left with nothing." Saliha Ben Ali, 49, mother of 19-year-old Sabri Ben Ali, who died in Syria in December 2013. She's the lead
Conflict
These mothers lost their sons to ISIS. What have been their next steps?
A placard reading Molenbeek with a "peace and love sign" is seen in a shopping street in the suburb of Molenbeek, after security was tightened in Belgium following the attacks in Paris in November.
Culture
It’s not a den of terrorists. Here’s a different picture of Molenbeek
Right-wing demonstrators protest against terrorism in front of the old stock exchange in Brussels, Belgium, March 27. 2016.
Conflict
Anti-Muslim searches spike again after Brussels attacks
People gather at the Place de la Bourse to pay tribute to the victims of bomb attacks in Brussels.
Conflict
A Belgian father from Morocco talks to his sons about the Brussels attacks
Abaaoud ordered fighters to shoot into crowds of civilians
Conflict
The hunt for ISIS’s European mastermind
Geraldine Henneghien
Conflict
‘It’s the whole family that is destroyed’
Crowds gather on the steps of the old Brussels stock exchange, Place de la Bourse.
Conflict
Scenes from Belgium’s new normal
Ismaël Saidi
Conflict
‘We were just waiting for the storm to come’
Belgian flags seen at a street memorial service near the old stock exchange in Brussels following Tuesday's bomb attacks
Conflict
How terrorists exploit family ties to recruit and retain members
The Eiffel Tower is seen with the black, yellow and red colours of the Belgian flag in tribute to the victims of today's Brussels bomb attacks, in Paris, France, March 22, 2016.
Conflict
Belgium’s allies respond to attacks with calls for unity
A soldier stands near broken windows after explosions at Zaventem airport near Brussels
Conflict
Why Europe in general and Belgium in particular is having such a problem with terrorism