Leo Cendrowicz

🍽️ Waffles, crêpes, dairy-free cheese – plus art and events. And Geoff Meade reminiscing about life in Erps-Kwerps.
Belgium has never lacked brains – only sometimes the confidence to trust them.
This issue is about the people who think, build, question and remember – and why that still matters.

👌 Butlers and etiquette experts: @dennisabbott.bsky.social meets the manners masters.
We take a weekend break to Arlon, explore the Auderghem cemetery, and visit the family distilleries and breweries reinventing themselves.

🕰️ Landscapes marked by memory.
Extraordinary aerial photographs reveal the scarred geometry of World War One, while pics from Ghent show life under occupation.
Plus: @tomisitt.bsky.social on the 1919 battlefield bike race, today’s wartime cycle tours, and the search for Lt. William Bastard.

🚧 A city rethinking itself.
Are Brussels’ ageing tunnels relics of another era? Could closing some of them help the capital breathe again? Pascal Smet thinks so.

Plus, the Résidence Palace turns 100: @goodclimate.bsky.social celebrates the extraordinary city-in-a-block

🔭 Belgium looks to the skies – and within.
From stargazers scanning for life beyond Earth to boffins decoding immune responses, this issue follows the quiet work of discovery.
Plus:
• Internet icon Robert Cailliau on keeping the web free
• Philippe Van Parijs on Belgium’s evolving democracy

🧠 What happens when expertise falls out of fashion?
Tim King explores Belgium’s Royal Academies – two centuries of scholarship navigating politics, language and change – and ask whether institutions built on careful thinking can still thrive in an age of noise.

✨ The new issue of The Brussels Times Magazine is out!
From royal academies to road tunnels, wartime landscapes to distant galaxies, quiet tech pioneers to stubborn institutions – this issue explores how Belgians make sense of a complicated world.

Robert Duvall as Boo Radley, in To Kill A Mockingbird

All for bells (are you really going to grunt, “Bike”?). But surprisingly hard to find ones that fit road bike handlebars

In these troubled times, it is hard to find fun. So I invite everyone to check out the trailer for Melania.
It is, of course, as ludicrous as we might imagine, but the real joy begins in the comments, inexplicably left open: m.youtube.com/watch?v=dxXJ...

YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

You want proof that Brexit was a disaster? Go to an airport The most visible consequences of Brexit are also the most banal

This year marks ten years since Brexit, a calamity without parallel. There are no benefits to speak of whatsoever. Alas, reversing this disaster will not be easy: inews.co.uk/opinion/you-...

The 'unflinching' plan to hit back at Trump from inside the US The UK and Europe have so far failed to manage the US President – but this is how the EU is plotting to hit him where it hurts

Since Trump returned to the White House, Europe has tried to manage him with patience, flattery and quiet diplomacy.
His Greenland threats could be the tipping point.
It's not just a crisis for the continent but a seismic shift.
Me on the challenges ahead: inews.co.uk/news/world/u...

Make Europe great again: How the populist right is using Trump's playbook Trump’s return to the centre of US politics has provided both inspiration and validation for Europe’s populists

Europe's far-right keeps rising, using Trump's populist playbook: inews.co.uk/news/world/m...

The new, massive Kanal venue is set to open in November in Brussels after many long years of works - but they already seem to have locked in their artists and shows

Dunno about you, but I'm starting to have doubts about the FIFA Peace Prize

This is Saint Jerome with a lion, from whose paw he removed a thorn.
It is also me when I work from home with the cat.

The seven reasons why reversing Brexit won't happen Wes Streeting has revealed the level of debate about rejoining the customs union within Labour

Momentum is building within the Labour Party for the UK to rejoin the EU’s customs union. However, it is likely to be much harder than they think: inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Was struck by how Bart De Wever, in his Friday morning presser, was getting so deeply in the weeds of EU financing - he may be a Flemish nationalist, but as a Belgian, he'll do his homework

'Money today or blood tomorrow': The stark choice Europe faces over Russian assets EU leaders are meeting to decide whether to tap frozen assets to aid Ukraine. The outcome could shape the course of the war - and their own futures

What's at stake today as EU leaders meet to figure out how to keep Ukraine going in its grinding war - and whether they can use Russia's frozen assets: inews.co.uk/news/world/m...

EU leaders are meeting today in Brussels for one of the most important summits in years as they try to find billions to fund Ukraine….

…but angry farmers are laying siege to the summit neighbourhood, literally setting up fires and bellyaching about trade deals

Brexit reset Erasmus deal to allow Britons to study in EU is imminent Student exchange scheme deal could be signed as soon as Wednesday

UK set to announce return to Erasmus for 2027: inews.co.uk/news/politic...

Revealed: Belgium's controversial Congo statue spotted on Epstein's island “In a way, it’s fitting to see the statue on his property. Epstein was, after all, someone who saw people as objects.”

Revealed: Belgium's controversial Congo sculpture is hiding in plain sight on Jeffrey Epstein’s island – and no one noticed until now. www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/1869...

Lando Norris wins F1 drivers' title in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix won by Max Verstappen McLaren's Lando Norris wins his first Formula 1 drivers' championship by finishing third in the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

There are only a few of us with both 🇬🇧 and 🇧🇪 citizenship….but one, Lando Norris, just won the Formula 1 title today: www.bbc.com/sport/formul...

‘Expats liggen meer wakker van het opengebroken Schumanplein dan van de onveiligheid’ Hoe kijken de expats naar de eindeloze Brusselse formatie? BRUZZ vroeg het aan Leo Cendrowicz, hoofdredacteur van The Brussels Times Magazine.

How long can a city function without a government? The Brussels Capital Region has been unable to form an administration since elections in June 2024, a record-breaking 542 days.
Bruzz interviewed me on how expats see the impasse: www.bruzz.be/actua/samenl...

The Brussels Times writer Breandán Kearney wins top prizes The Brussels Times Magazine has scored a double triumph on the international beer-writing circuit.

Huge congrats to our brilliant beer writer, Breandán Kearney, who has won yet more prizes for his epic features: www.brusselstimes.com/brussels/186...

This is why I don't use title case for headlines

The Congo painting that Belgium can never show again “It looks amazing, but the message is horrific."

The gargantuan Congo Panorama, unveiled at the 1913 Ghent World Exhibition, might be the biggest painting ever made. But it was a lie, meant to show visitors that the Belgian colonisers were friendly and peaceful - as a new AfricaMuseum exhibition reveals:
www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/1855...

And if you’re already decking the halls, Geoff Meade has a timely warning about premature tinsel.
Saint Nicholas first. Sparkles later.

🍷🍺🥂 @maajtee.bsky.social and Hughes Belin write about Belgian wine while Angela Dansby takes a restorative beer-and-baroque weekend in Leuven.

Plus events worth checking out, and the winning story from the Writers Festival of Belgium 2025.