Belgium

10 November 2023; MEMO: European Council President Charles Michel yesterday warned Israel that it risks becoming isolated from the international community if it does not stop violating international law in the Gaza Strip.

BRUSSELS, Nov 8 (Reuters) - This year is "virtually certain" to be the warmest in 125,000 years, European Union scientists said on Wednesday, after data showed last month was the world's hottest October in that period.

Last month smashed through the previous October temperature record, from 2019, by a massive margin, the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said.

"The record was broken by 0.4 degrees Celsius, which is a huge margin," said C3S Deputy Director Samantha Burgess, who described the October temperature anomaly as "very extreme".

BRUSSELS, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Belgium's deputy prime minister called on the Belgian government on Wednesday to adopt sanctions against Israel and investigate the bombings of hospitals and refugee camps in Gaza.

“It is time for sanctions against Israel. The rain of bombs is inhumane," deputy prime minister Petra De Sutter told Nieuwsblad newspaper. “It is clear that Israel does not care about the international demands for a ceasefire,” she said.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia received positive news on Wednesday about their quests to join the European Union, but countries in the volatile Balkans region that have waited years longer to become members of the world’s biggest trading bloc appeared to slip back in the queue.

In a series of reports on countries wanting to join the bloc’s ranks, the EU’s executive branch recommended that war-ravaged Ukraine should be permitted to open membership talks, once it’s addressed some shortfalls.

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO member countries that signed a key Cold War-era security treaty froze their participation in the pact on Tuesday just hours after Russia pulled out, raising fresh questions about the future of arms control agreements in Europe.

Many of NATO’s 31 allies are parties to the Treaty of Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, which was aimed at preventing Cold War rivals from massing forces at or near their mutual borders. The CFE was signed in November 1990 as the Soviet bloc was crumbling but was not fully ratified until two years later.

31 October 2023; MEMO: Belgian transport workers’ unions, on Tuesday, called on their members to refuse to handle military equipment being sent to Israel to battle Hamas gunmen, Reuters reports.

The ACV Puls, BTB, BBTK and ACV-Transcom unions said in a joint statement that airport workers have seen arms shipments.

30 October 2023; MEMO: Former NATO chief, Javier Solana, said on Monday that he believes Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is the “worst politician” in Israeli history, Anadolu Agency reports.

“I don’t think anything good will come of this,” he told Spanish broadcaster, Cadena Ser, referring to this month’s events in Israel and Palestine. “But it could make Netanyahu disappear from Israeli politics.”

Tehran, IRNA - Member of the European Parliament Manu Pineda has described the Israeli regime as a war criminal, warning about a ‘Holocaust’ happening against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

Speaking in front of the Al-Khiam prison in southern Lebanon, Pineda, who is also President of the European Parliament's Delegation for relations with Palestine, said that Israel kills children, women, and journalists, and whatever it does today in Gaza amounts to a war crime; thus, the world must force Israel to pay a price for it.

BRUSSELS, October 17. /TASS/: The only thing Brussels has managed to achieve through its anti-Russian sanctions is to make more enemies for the EU worldwide, a trend that is likely to continue, Thierry Mariani, a French member of the European Parliament, said on Tuesday.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Police in Belgium on Tuesday shot dead a suspected Tunisian extremist accused of killing two Swedish soccer fans in a brazen shooting on a Brussels street before disappearing into the night.

Hours after a manhunt began in the Belgian capital, Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden posted on X, formerly Twitter, that “the perpetrator of the terrorist attack in Brussels has been identified and has died.”