Good afternoon.
Our main article today is an exclusive interview with the new US Ambassador to Belgium, Bill White.
He is a very interesting addition to the Brussels diplomatic bubble, to say the least. In many ways, he is your archetypal candidate for Trump's inner circle; a self-made multi-millionaire from a working-class New York background with a deep love of the armed services and veterans.
But in other aspects of his life, he is not what you would call "typical" Trump material. He has been married to his husband, Bryan Eure, for 14 years, and they previously moved in the upper echelons of New York's liberal Democratic party establishment.
White and Eure now consider Donald and Melania Trump personal friends, and are immensely proud that the President has publicly endorsed their same-sex marriage.
There is always an editorial debate before and after doing sit-downs like this – or any interview, to be honest – about how to approach the interview itself and then how to present it afterwards. It is always a judgment call, of course.
The merits of an article are that you can bring in some other aspects to the piece, potentially contextualise some more and add colour. The drawbacks are that you have less space for quotations and answers, and are less able to convey the real sense of the person and the way they speak – you are potentially filtering their responses and language.
On this occasion, I decided that the more formal Q&A style was the approach we would take. My thinking was that it would allow readers to get a sense of who Bill White is and how he speaks, his mannerisms and his thought processes. This is primarily a written interview, so it allows the reader to feel like they are more part of the conversation – you get more of a sense of the interviewee's personality, rather than being more detached from it.
Editorially, the purpose of the interview was always going to be an introductory one. The Brussels Times is the first publication that Ambassador White has sat down with since arriving, so in that sense, it was partly about asking him what he is being sent here to do, what his priorities are, and to get a feeling for where he thinks his role is going to take him in Belgium, with the Belgian government and authorities.
The challenge, of course, was to try to cover a range of topics, both professional and more personal, in a limited amount of time.
My feeling was there will be plenty of time over the coming months and years to address specific topics touched on in the interview with the Ambassador, and to potentially probe those more forensically, but that on this occasion it was more about allowing us to get a sense of who White is and where he is coming from, whilst still addressing some of the issues of the moment.
You may or may not agree with this approach, and I guess it is for you to decide if you think it was ultimately successful or not.
One thing I hope you will agree on is that the format and interview have allowed us a little insight into someone who will be, I'm convinced, unlike any other US Ambassador to Belgium that has gone before.
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1. US Ambassador to Belgium: ‘Most of the stories in Europe about President Trump are negative – and I don’t like it’
In an exclusive interview with The Brussels Times, US Ambassador to Belgium Bill White shared his thoughts on Belgian culture, tackling crime and what makes his friend Donald Trump tick. Read more.
2. New record broken: Never as many shootings in Brussels as this year
The police have counted 96 shootings in Brussels so far this year. With two weeks to go, that is four more than a year ago. Read more.
3. UK to officially rejoin Erasmus programme in latest Brexit reset
The United Kingdom will rejoin the EU's Erasmus exchange student programme from January 2027, the European Commission confirmed on Wednesday. Read more.
4. ‘Don’t call it super flu’: New variant spreading in UK – should you be worried?
The number of flu cases in the UK reached a record high for this time of year. In one week, they rose by 55%. And in Belgium, they are rising as well. Read more.
5. Last chance saloon: Can the new ‘Guinness coalition’ save Brussels?
Notably, the coalition leaves out MR. "Trying the same thing over and over again in the hope of a different result is pure madness." Read more.
6. IMF releases its annual assessment of Belgium’s economy and issues call for ‘decisive action’
The IMF predicts that public debt will continue to rise until 2030 despite reforms. Read more.
7. Taylor Swift spotted with designer outfit made from Belgian fungus
The American singer was photographed in New York with an outfit made out of snakeskin alternative material that originated in Belgium. Read more.
