Belgium is a small European country hosting NATO headquarters. Its prime minister is Bart De Wever. It has a net-debt-to-GDP ratio of 93%, making it the quintessential example of how fragmented political systems and interminable coalition negotiations can lead to high public debt.
Since the 1980s Belgium's Francophone half has enacted a policy known as the cordon sanitaire, a political firewall shutting out any politicians with views beyond the centrist consensus. Under this policy, broadcasters refuse to interview politicians who spout populist or far-right views, and anyone with unpalatable leanings who is nonetheless elected can expect to be excluded from parliamentary coalitions. In 2025 the American vice-president J.D. Vance delivered a rabble-rousing speech at the Munich Security Conference denouncing such firewalls, and a Belgian media outlet was reprimanded merely for transcribing his words. The policy was once common across Europe but has frayed as populist parties have gained strength in France, Germany, Italy and elsewhere.
Belgium reportedly loses 44% of its military recruits within a year of joining. NATO figures show Belgium spends nearly 20% of its military budget on retirement cheques.
In Flanders around 4,000 students are using AI-powered reading tools made by Microsoft, including Reading Progress (which records children reading aloud and alerts them to mistakes) and Immersive Reader (which lets students in the multilingual region read texts in their first language and then in Dutch, with real-time translation of teacher instructions).
Belgium has adopted a legal framework similar to France's for targeting cults. A study of Belgium's "sect" cases found that 93% of investigations were closed with no legal action due to the absence of any crime.
Some $163bn of Russian state assets are frozen in European accounts, mostly in Belgium. A proposed EU "reparations loan" would use these assets as collateral to fund Ukraine.
It's hard to think of you as the end result of millions of years of evolution.