Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting

europeancorrespondent.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 377 posts

Re: The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting

#121

Post by greenavocado »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #94
bambax wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US ambassador to France is a convicted felon, father of Jared Kushner. From Wikipedia: «In February 2026, French authorities restricted Kushner’s direct access to government ministers after he failed to attend a summons from Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, sending a senior embassy official in his place. The French foreign ministry cited an "apparent failure to grasp the basic requirements of the ambassadorial…

If true, there must be something seriously, profoundly, wrong in the Beltway. It somehow seems like a huge number of people are working to throw America down the drain faster.

[flagged]

Re: The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting

#122

Post by jszymborski »

dylan604 wrote: post #118
bambax wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US ambassador to France is a convicted felon, father of Jared Kushner. From Wikipedia: «In February 2026, French authorities restricted Kushner’s direct access to government ministers after he failed to attend a summons from Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, sending a senior embassy official in his place. The French foreign ministry cited an "apparent failure to grasp the basic requirements of the ambassadorial…

The US ambassador to France is a convicted felon, father of Jared Kushner.

A distinction without a difference, he was pardoned by Jared's father in law.

Re: The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting

#123

Post by JSR_FDED »

Waterluvian wrote: post #25
elil17 wrote: post #6

For additional context, tensions are already high surrounding the US ambassador after he directly insulted multiple Belgian politicians and also attempted to interfere with local criminal judicial proceedings.

[flagged]

The former Trump US ambassador to the Netherlands, Pete Hoekstra, claimed there were “no go zones” in the Netherlands where politicians and cars were being set on fire. He called it “fake news” of course, then denied having ever called it fake news, and then eventually claimed it was a mix-up of countries.

Only the best people!

Re: The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting

#124

Post by danw1979 »

flohofwoe wrote: post #80
danw1979 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if you’re not following along. The link is police abusing their allowed powers to silence free speech and protest.

> The link is police abusing their allowed powers to silence free speech and protest. If you'd actually read the post you'd know that its about the the US ambassador being an asshole and the Belgian police doing their job (quickly removing a supposed 'active threat' from an event - because that's the only information they had - they later realized their mistake and that the 'active threat' was just a journalist askin…

> they later realised their mistake

Here’s the very problem. The police acting immediately to suppress a supposed threat (even “active” ones, whatever that means) which allows them to silence protest or even inconvenient questions to a public servant…

… and we’re splitting hairs here, but it also allows the police to be manipulated by said public servants to get the protest silenced on their behalf.

The police in this case should have quickly realised the individuals were journalists, posed no real threat (no weapons, explosives, chemicals on their persons) and let them go about their business.

Re: The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting

#125

Post by itake »

xutopia wrote: post #91
itake wrote: post #14

reminds me of Dan Brown's latest book: The Secret of Secrets.

Why?

*book spoilers*

In the book, the Czech police characters frequently complained about the various ways the US ambassador in Prague had too much influence over their investigations, especially of American citizens.

This influence was served as multiple plot devices.

Re: The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting

#126

Post by redsocksfan45 »

elric wrote: post #87
elil17 wrote: post #6

For additional context, tensions are already high surrounding the US ambassador after he directly insulted multiple Belgian politicians and also attempted to interfere with local criminal judicial proceedings.

For context: he's accused Belgium of being anti-semitic because a couple of Orthodox Jewish mohels are being prosecuted for practicing illicit medicine (i.e. performing ritual circumcision without a medical license). The investigation started after a complaint was filed by a rabbi, so it's hard to chalk this up to anti-semitisim, but that's modern day US diplomacy for you.

[dead]

Re: The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting

#128

Post by dylan604 »

burgreblast wrote: post #22
aetch wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like they had a legitimate question for the ambassador who reacted badly - which is no surprise for someone in this administration.

So a long article about them being kicked out and all they detail about their own actions is that "we asked him about it"? I'm not sure what "tacitly threatened" means, either. If they want sympathy, they probably should lay out the details of their actions more clearly. This just reads as some juveniles went to an event, tried to rile up an official (while filming the response in hopes of getting a juicy clip), then…

That does seem to be a trend in the stories becoming more about the journalists when the expected no comment response is given as if that was the true intent because of course they are not going to comment to hostile questions. In 2026, this is not news. We know what the administration is doing, so becoming the story is not the story they want it to be. They kept repeating "we were invited" as if that means something. While you can be invited, that invitation can be rescinded. At that point, you can't keep saying "we were invited" as a meaningful response to you being asked to leave regardless of why.

To me, it does feel a bit like some journos looking for clout. Kaitlan Collins is the poster child for this type abuse from Trump even if she's not being manhandled by police.

Re: The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting

#129

Post by viciousvoxel »

greenavocado wrote: post #121
MichaelZuo wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If true, there must be something seriously, profoundly, wrong in the Beltway. It somehow seems like a huge number of people are working to throw America down the drain faster.

[flagged]

Nowhere was Israel mentioned. Please stop with these antisemitic dogwhistle posts in this thread.

Re: The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting

#130

Post by TacticalCoder »

gsibble wrote: post #76

[flagged]

Agreed. I'd add to that, as a Belgian: let the US and americans celebrate their 250 years of independence.

That US ambassador is a known asshole. These "journalists" looks like politically slanted assholes too.

And this isn't tech news and shouldn't be here.

Post reply on HN