The US ambassador had Belgian police stop our reporting

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 were surprised when they were kicked out.

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.

(Or are you just trying to derail?)

They are legit but have a tiny audience, this accident made them instantaneously recognizable.

Good for them, we are all fed up with Politico (Axel Springer) + Euractiv (Mediahuis) duopoly.

P.S. This is just IMO, but De Wever should not have gone to the event, he lost a lot of political capital there. He should have given the ground to Theo Francken and Vansina to do their clown thing and instead he should have traveled 100km to the Florennes airbase to assist at BAFS-2026 that happened at the same time.

A credible reporter for a credible outlet writing a credible article won't, whether that's the Washignton Post, the Daily Telegraph, or Le Monde, or if it's BBC, RTL, Al Jazzera.

So it's always worth asking "is this a credible source". It used to be fairly easy, to be a journalist you had to have significant backing from a significant institution.

So if Bill White, the US ambassador, pays to rent out the park for, I think it was 2 weeks, they can have whoever they want removed from this public park. Including any reporters.

That would be by private security not police though. You aren't generally arrested for annoying an event organiser.

In this case the Belgian police might have been justified in escorting the journalists off the premises. But I'm not sure what grounds they had to detain and question them.

Aside: why do Americans always talk about trespassing as something that is done to the trespasser? Isn't trespassing the act itself? If I plant myself in your livingroom uninvited, then surely I am trespassing. Why do so many people instead say that I "get trespassed"?

Lying to the police that the reporters are an "active threat" is criminal.

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people.

* https://noscommunes.ca/petitions/fr/Petition/Details?Petitio...

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 mission".»

It somehow seems like a huge number of people are working to throw America down the drain faster.

One almost wonders if the US admin is actively trying to get one of its ambassadors declared persona non grata.

This is incorrect. A pardon is not an expungement. The conviction remains a usable historical fact and could still be referenced in later legal procedings.

Exact ramifications vary between innocence-based pardons, rehabilitiation-based pardons, and pure discretionary clemency.

It reads like a low-level mafia guy from New Jersey. The only thing missing from the story was faking his death.

Example:

    > [Charles] Kushner hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, arranging to record a sexual encounter between the two and send the tape to his sister.

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 wish that was a joke, but its not, and it's terrifying.

Probably Epstein files on Trump, some sort of equivalent awfulness for the rest.

The opposing side hates them, so naturally, because we are all semi-developed monkeys, you need to support them. No matter what.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_warrior_diplomacy

This kind of antagonism comes from the top. China mostly toned it down recently because it is ideology-driven counter-productive, we will see how long it takes the US to do the same.

Only the best people!

Top. Men.

https://youtu.be/thIRJLsnIxY

"In three medical papers done in Israel, Canada, and the US, oral suction following circumcision was suggested as a cause in 11 cases of neonatal herpes " lovely.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Defamation_League#Circumc...

When Iceland tried to ban it, the ADL had some very choice words about the potential consequences.

> Greenblatt sent Iceland's Parliament a letter regarding a proposed infant circumcision ban in that country, arguing that the ban should be rejected due to circumcision's religious significance and health benefits. Greenblatt also said that if the ban passed, the ADL would report on any celebration by antisemites and other extremists, asserting that this would deter tourism and harm Iceland's economy

It's scary stuff.

I did some search on freedom250.org and found this interesting piece of TOS: YOU WAIVE AND HOLD HARMLESS THE COMPANY AND ITS AFFILIATES, LICENSEES, AND SERVICE PROVIDERS FROM ANY CLAIMS RESULTING FROM ANY ACTION TAKEN BY THE COMPANY/ANY OF THE FOREGOING PARTIES DURING, OR TAKEN AS A CONSEQUENCE OF, INVESTIGATIONS BY EITHER THE COMPANY/SUCH PARTIES OR LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES.

also it seems to be an wholly owned subsidiary of a Non profit (national park foundation): https://www.nationalparks.org/freedom-250-faqs#:~:text=NPS%2...

I am not a lawyer but I am unsure if this terms of service applies to the website or anything in general and if the European correspondent can sue freedom250.org or not

The congressionally created organization that was supposed to run the 250th events was America 250 - it was created in 2016 (IIRC). When Trump was re-elected, he spun up Freedom250, redirected funds to it, and started accepting bribes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_warrior_diplomacy#Bondaz_...

The reason why people like this don't care about the Streisand effect is that they are not afraid about a one-time scandal. The value they get out of harassing their victim and potentially having them stop reporting is worth a bad buzz that people will eventually forget.

You can give finger to Trump from distance but you can't attend to his press conference to actually ask him stuff if he doesn't like you. That's just slightly different from Turkey where you will be arrested for giving the finger to Erdogan's motorcade(happened a few times, then Turks learned their lessons and in the stats Turkey doesn't arrest as much as Britain).

In contrast, in most of Europe you usually can approach and ask politicians whatever you like.

That's a pretty trite way of looking at it. You could see for example how important free speech was to the US' civil rights movement in making sure that people were able to organize to challenge the status quo.

>.. if it was in US they could have been removed and have their free speech in a designated area simply because they don't want them there.

US' citizens generally have a better time in courts challenging such things than Europeans do, however.

>In contrast, in most of Europe you usually can approach and ask politicians whatever you like.

But can you tell them whatever you like without facing repercussion if they don't like what they're hearing? No.

In the US, you can still exercise your right to free speech to inform your fellow citizens about the genocide of Gaza - in Europe, most definitely not so easy. (Some European states, its easier than others ...)