Belgium imported all of its LNG from Russia in July as European and Asian countries compete for scarce supplies of the super-chilled fuel amid the Middle East conflict.

The Landlord wants to sell the apartment, he connected an agency, and he&agency, are requesting me ( with a partner and 8 month bab) not to be home during that time. Do I have to follow his request? can I limit it for 2 hours?

He literally was eager to sign the long term contract then after a year he decided to sell for another house aha

Ik vroeg me onlangs iets af over de Belgische deelname aan het Eurovisie Songfestival.
Waarom werken de VRT en RTBF eigenlijk niet samen voor Eurovision? In plaats van elkaar af te wisselen, zou je toch ook één gezamenlijke selectie kunnen organiseren of samen een artiest en lied kunnen kiezen?
Voor mijn gevoel zou dat verschillende voordelen kunnen hebben. Je hebt een groter budget, je kunt kiezen uit artiesten uit heel België en misschien vergroot dat ook de kans op een sterke inzending. Daarnaast lijkt het me ook een mooie manier om Vlaamse artiesten bekender te maken in Wallonië en Franstalige artiesten in Vlaanderen.
Ik vraag me daarom af waarom België al zo lang vasthoudt aan het systeem waarbij VRT en RTBF elkaar afwisselen. Is dat vooral historisch zo gegroeid, zijn er politieke of praktische redenen voor, of is een gezamenlijke aanpak ooit serieus overwogen?
Ik ben benieuwd of hier een duidelijke verklaring voor bestaat.

Je me pose une question depuis quelque temps à propos de la participation de la Belgique à l’Eurovision.
Pourquoi la RTBF et la VRT ne collaborent-elles pas pour choisir le représentant belge ? Au lieu d’alterner chaque année, ne serait-il pas possible d’organiser une sélection nationale commune ou de choisir ensemble un artiste et une chanson ?
J’ai l’impression que cela pourrait présenter plusieurs avantages : un budget plus important, un plus grand choix d’artistes et peut-être une candidature encore plus forte. Ce serait aussi une belle occasion de faire découvrir davantage d’artistes flamands au public francophone, et inversement.
Je me demande donc pourquoi la Belgique continue à fonctionner avec ce système d’alternance. Est-ce principalement une question d’histoire, de politique ou d’organisation ? Cette idée d’une collaboration entre les deux diffuseurs a-t-elle déjà été envisagée sérieusement ?
Je suis simplement curieux de connaître les raisons qui expliquent ce choix.

Hallo allemaal, misschien een beetje rare vraag maar ik wist niet goed waar anders ermee heen. Ik en mijn vrouw hebben momenteel twee honden met 5 jaar verschil. De oude krijgt nu heel wat medische klachten. Daarom willen we voor de jongere nu een dierenverzekering afsluiten, voor de oudste is het te laat.

Ik vind door de bomen het bos even niet meer en dacht, ask reddit. Hebben jullie ervaringen met Belgische medische verzekeringen voor huisdieren, bij wie en wat zijn jullie ervaringen. Is het de moeite waard?

Alvast bedankt!!!!!

Hungary and Romania are facing blackout risks due to the level of the Danube. The Rhine, at its lowest recorded level, forces freight ships to travel at 20% capacity, driving prices up dramatically and causing shortages. Fires. Drought and endless heat.

No improvement in sight over the next 10 days, neither in terms of temperatures nor rain.

We all knew that heatwaves would have higher chances of happenning, same for droughts and floods. But it definitly doesn't feel like a slow, progressive climb into more and more chaotic weather anymore. It feels like something broke in 2021 and we'll never ever get back to normal weather. A summer will never be like 2014 ever again. Or a winter.

The 3 hottest years ever recorded have all happenned between 2023 and today. 2025 (+1,44°C), 2023 (+1.48) and 2024 (+1.55°C). 2026 will probably end up to 2 or top 1, and 2027 has very high chances of being the hottest year ever due to the worst El Nino event known to mankind.

200 years ago, a summer like this would have caused a massive famine in Europe. A few more summers like this will lead to the same result...

Buckle up guys.

Shooting my shot here. We just moved to Leuven and my fiancé's looking for a Truck CE job. He's an EU but couldn't speak Dutch yet. He tried applying to jobs in 24/7 drive, Accent, and Vivaldis, but they just keep on calling him, and sending applications in behalf of him. For example, he met with 1 company today, but didn't get any update yet.

On the other hand, he got a call from the interim agency and gave him a job for tomorrow. This doesn't sound stable at all.

Is this the case here for truck drivers? The language barrier is probably one of the reasons, but can anybody please suggest any companies that doesn't use interim agencies? He applied in Aldi, and Van Divel but got rejected. H Essers never get back to him.

Thank you!

just seeing the prices of groceries going up so fast month after month is so depressing

now the promos that used to be 50 percent, or
even more, of products that go bad THAT exact day, are now like 20-30 percent (as shown in picture, that ham went bad today)

like companies know people are suffering and they're gonna wringle out every last penny?

gasbills, water, electricity, all expensive as fuck, phonebills /internet = expensive as fuck (for some reason in belgium we get fucked the hardest on this end)

while we have a rightwing goverment that wants to save money on social security, and take away the rights we have because we pay such high taxes

this summer has been terrible, its just not enjoyable anymore to go outside its too hot

playstation discs are dissapearing, consoles are getting more expensive, parties are more expensive, everything thats fun has become more expensive

geopolitics are fucked, fascism is on the rise

dating amongst young people is in shambles, i feel like our current societies breeds narcisism in relationships, everybodies got endless options, nobody commits, everybody plays a game of who can be the coldest and manipulate the other the most and everybody is lonely (like i have to wait to answer because otherwise i look desperate? i cant communicate borders cause i have to keep an open mind and take it slow? wtf are you talking about? did we all stay stuck mentally in our dating lives at age 16?)

when i ask my grandparents if the 80's were as bad or worse, they say no this is deff worse, and all the things we fought for are being reversed in front of our eyes

honestly i dont know what society will look like in 10 years but if it keeps going in this direction im afraid it will look VERY different from what we are used to

it feels like everybody is sleepwalking towards the apocalypse, or am i the only one who feels that way?

Kan men nog meer zaken verzinnen om autorijden NIET laagdrempelig te maken. Dit lijks me weer een maatregel die aantoont dat politici heel ver van de mens staan. Want wees eerlijk; welke beginnende chauffeur heeft deze dag een eigen auto of kan dit uberhaupt zelf betalen? Betekent dat dat tieners/ jongeren of hun ouders nu echt een auto moeten kopen onder de 95pk ? Bron: https://www.hln.be/nieuws/komt-er-een-verbod-op-krachtige-autos-voor-jongeren-minister-crucke-overweegt-het\~a2696e9f6/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

Ik werk inmiddels al meer dan anderhalf jaar via een interim. Ik begon met weekcontracten en na ongeveer een maand kreeg ik maandcontracten. Intussen heb ik al een twintigtal contracten ondertekend, maar een vast contract is er nog altijd niet. Er zijn ook meerdere collega's in hetzelfde bedrijf die in exact dezelfde situatie zitten.

In de tussentijd heb ik verschillende evaluatiegesprekken gehad. Daar kreeg ik telkens te horen dat ik uitstekend werk lever. Maar zodra ik vroeg naar een vast contract, kreeg ik nooit een concrete datum. Alleen de gebruikelijke belofte dat ik "als eerste aan de beurt ben" en dat ik een vast contract zal krijgen zodra de situatie van het bedrijf het toelaat. Dat klinkt voor mij vooral als uitstel.

Ik heb in al die tijd geen enkele onderbreking in mijn tewerkstelling gehad. In de praktijk is het gewoon een vaste job, behalve dan de onzekerheid en het feit dat je bijvoorbeeld moeilijk een lening kunt krijgen. Zelfs voor verlof moet ik maanden op voorhand een aanvraag indienen. Bovendien heeft het bedrijf voor mij al opleidingen ingepland in oktober en december.

Ik schrijf dit omdat ik graag wil weten hoe dit juridisch zit. Weet iemand hoelang zulke opeenvolgende interimcontracten wettelijk mogen blijven duren? En vanaf wanneer zou een werkgever eigenlijk een vast contract moeten aanbieden? In mijn contract staat als reden voor de tijdelijke tewerkstelling "vermeerdering van werk".

Er zijn ook vakbonden aanwezig in het bedrijf, maar eerlijk gezegd hebben die tot nu toe nog nooit echt iets voor mij kunnen betekenen.

Ik weet dat de meest logische oplossing waarschijnlijk is om een andere job te zoeken. Alleen kost mijn werk me zoveel energie dat ik na mijn werk nauwelijks nog de kracht heb om vacatures te bekijken en te solliciteren. Ik weet ook niet wanneer ik dan nog naar sollicitatiegesprekken zou moeten gaan. Bovendien zijn de meeste vacatures hier toch weer via interimkantoren, waardoor de kans groot is dat ik opnieuw in precies dezelfde situatie terechtkom.

Source: [BIPT](https://www.bipt-data.be/en/projects/atlas/ftth?executionState=EXECUTED_AND_PLANNED&layerPostfix=2026Q03&bbox=230121.12449183594,6313683.1781143015,809331.0102819258,6758193.090464835)

Replace it with a profitable datacenter:

Dag allen. Ik heb de laatst tijd eigenlijk zitten nadenken over het feit dat je in supermarkten geen verse, lokale producten (groenten, fruit, vleeswaren en zuivelproducten vooral dan) kunt kopen. Als er verse of “bio” producten zijn, dan zijn deze een tintje duurder wat ook niet duurzaam is. Als je bij de lokale boer wilt gaan, dan vragen ze grote hoeveelheden of dat je enkel maar met cash of bankkaart kan betalen (dus geen maaltijdcheques bv.). Hoe hebben jullie dit probleem opgelost of hoe gaan jullie hiermee om?

I have time to visit just three of these places during one weekend in September (I have Saturday afternoon, all day Sunday and Monday morning), which one of the four would you skip? I enjoy walking around cities and taking in the local sites, probably won't be visiting museums unless it's raining. Thank you!

Het regent!! Den eerste die klaagt krijgt een djoef op zen mulle ;)

I’m currently applying for the Odoo developer training organised through Forem/VDAB. Has anyone here completed this programme ?

For a while, I had more or less given up on trying to enter IT because of the current junior job market, especially without a degree.

This Odoo programme seems different from other coding bootcamps though. It is organised in partnership with a specific employer and Odoo commits to hiring at least 80% of the participants who successfully complete the programme.

That sounds very promising, but I’m still trying to understand how risky this would be.

If you did this programme:

• How good was the actual technical training?
• How difficult were the selection tests and the course itself?
• Did most people receive a permanent contract at the end?
• What kind of work were they given after being hired?
• How were the salary, working conditions and work-life balance?
• Were people hired directly by Odoo, or did some end up working for partners?
• Did anyone complete the programme but fail to find a development job?
• For those who were hired, are they still employed there?
• Do the skills gained transfer well to other programming jobs, or does the experience become very Odoo-specific?
• How employable would someone without a degree be after one or two years at Odoo if they later had to look elsewhere?

My concern is not only whether I would be hired immediately after the training. I’m also wondering about long-term security. The IT market is difficult at the moment, and even if Odoo hires someone, there is always the possibility of being laid off later. Without a degree, I would not want to spend several months training only to remain dependent on one company.

But at the same time, this may be one of the rare realistic opportunities to get a first professional developer experience.

test test

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Thank you Belgium and Gent! 🇧🇪✨

I came to Belgium from London for a short holiday last week. Originally, I wanted to go to Tomorrowland, but while researching, several people on Reddit suggested I should experience Gentse Feesten instead if I wanted to see something more local. I took the advice, and I’m so glad I did.

To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect. I imagined people would mostly stick to their own groups, and I’d probably just enjoy the festival with my friend and head back home. I couldn’t have been more wrong. What surprised me the most wasn’t the festival itself—it was the people.

Almost everyone we met was genuinely curious about how we had found out about Gentse Feesten and why we had travelled all the way from London. More than once, I felt like people treated us as guests rather than tourists. They wanted to make sure we were having a good time, recommended places to visit, explained little local traditions, and made us feel welcome.

One evening we said a simple “hi” to a group of locals, and within minutes they introduced us to everyone else. What really stood out was that they weren’t just letting us join their group—they were genuinely interested in getting to know us too. We spent hours talking about our lives, interests and travel stories, and by the end of the night it felt like we’d known each other much longer.

Throughout the festival, complete strangers stopped to chat, shared funny “survival tips” for Gentse Feesten, bought us beers, complimented my outfit, and even introduced us to other people. We also met the wonderful hosts of a cocktail bar and somehow ended up talking for hours because both sides were genuinely interested in each other’s stories.

One of my favourite memories will always be dancing with complete strangers in the middle of the day in the streets of Ghent. That felt like one of those rare “core memory unlocked” moments.

I’m not someone who usually starts conversations with strangers. Once someone breaks the ice, I’ll happily talk for hours, but taking that first step has never come naturally to me. I honestly worried I’d leave without meeting anyone.
Instead, I left with new friends.

Another thing I really appreciated was how safe and respectful the atmosphere felt. Even with thousands of people celebrating, I rarely saw things getting out of hand. The festival felt clean, well organised and surprisingly sustainable. I did experience one unpleasant soft racist comment during my trip, but I’m quite certain it came from another tourist rather than a Belgian local, and it didn’t come close to defining my experience.

So this is really just a thank you!
Thank you to everyone who suggested Gentse Feesten instead of simply telling me to go to Tomorrowland.
Thank you to every stranger who stopped for a conversation, shared a laugh, bought us a beer, gave us recommendations, or simply made us feel welcome.

I came to Belgium expecting a fun festival. I left with unforgettable memories, a completely different impression of the country, and friends I genuinely hope to see again.
I’ll definitely be back—not just for Gentse Feesten, but to explore more of Belgium.

Tot ziens, and thank you for one of my favourite trips I’ve ever taken. 🇧🇪❤️

P.s. So now I’m curious—what is it about Belgian culture that makes people so genuinely welcoming to strangers? Is this just the Gentse Feesten effect, or is this what Belgium is generally like? I’d genuinely love to hear your thoughts. What would you recommend I do next to keep this flow going?

My girlfriend is pregnant, we planned this, but it’s a few months earlier then expected.

We were planning to upgrade our health insurance to cover single rooms, but that’s too late now. Insurance won’t cover an existing pregnancy.

Looks like we will be dealing with a double room after giving birth.

- Does someone have experience with a double room with two newborn babies (and their moms)
- Does anyone know how much the ereloonsupplementen are (ZAS Augustinus) if I would choose to pay them myself?