Live data from Hacker News

The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting

europeancorrespondent.com

151–160 of 377 posts

Re: The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting

#151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[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!

BUT HE SAW IT ON FOX NEWS

Re: The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting

#153

> They were “just doing their job,” It's always this one exact excuse. They were simply "following orders". The police don't have their own brains capable of thinking.

You are meaningfully misquoting here ("doing their job" not "following orders", which has a different ring to it, at least for me).

Also, apparently they do have brains capable of thinking because: "Eventually, they accepted that we were journalists and that they disagreed with detaining us."

Re: The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

[flagged]

He was convicted in 2005 during George Bush's presidency. So the previous previous previous group in power?

Re: The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting

#156
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The American ambassador to Canada is also a complete clown Since we are talking about American ambassadors, Mike Huckabee, American ambassador to Israel, doesn't seem like to work for America, it feels like he is an ambassador for Israel

I can understand most of what our conservative party does but I do not understand their obsession with Israel. I feel the nation should be supported and deserves to exist, but that they're doing a lot of inhumane things right now and saying that in the USA right now gets you called an antisemite incredibly fast.

[flagged]

Re: The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting

#159

What is weird in all of this is why is the US obsessed with israel so much exactly! Was it a random choice; did they had a random number generator pick it? Why are they not going to such lengths for other random countries in the opposite side of the world for example? And if an official's number one priority is not the people that pay him and have granted him his power, should he be in that position? The US is turnin…

* AIPAC is one of the biggest donors to US political campaigns.

* Entanglement of tech industries

* Israel serves as an outpost of US imperialism in the Middle East.

* Shared understanding with fellow Settler-Colonialist state

* On a related note, it's a country with a big white-reading population in a mostly brown neighborhood.

* Evangelicals believe Israel is where the battle that rings in the Second Coming will happen.

Re: The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You rescind an invitation by (preferably kindly) asking the people in question to leave. Not by informing the police that they are an "active threat".
Post reply on HN