The week in brief: 20 February

After being informed about the support actions taking place around the world, Ahmadreza Djalali has ended his hunger strike in an Iranian jail. The researcher from the Free University of Brussels (VUB) is being held under threats of a death sentence for scientific collaboration with “foreign enemies”. Djalali had refused to eat for 59 days and had lost 20 kilograms.

Flemish minister-president Geert Bourgeois met with Bolivia’s foreign affairs minister Fernando Huanacuni last week in Brussels to discuss expanding the co-operation between Flanders and the South American country. In 2015, the two signed a Memorandum of Understanding regarding Bolivia’s management of water quality and reserves. Huanacuni stopped in Brussels following an appearance at the International Court of Justice in The Hague regarding his country’s dispute with Chile about access to the Pacific Ocean.

The city of Antwerp is making 20 vehicles from its fleet available to the public in a car-sharing scheme. After a year, there will be an evaluation, which, if positive, could see the arrangement extended for a further three years. The candidates to share the cars will be selected in May, and the project will start in July.

Sven Gatz, the minister responsible for Flemish policies in Brussels, and his French-speaking counterpart Rachid Madrane have launched a citizens’ cabinet at a pop-up cafe in the middle of Brussels Central Station. Like Gatz’s previous citizens’ cabinets for youth and culture, the project aims to gather ideas and opinions from residents, this time about the present and future of the capital. Both ministers were present at the opening last week to talk directly with commuters. The debate now moves online, after which 150 contributors will be invited to discuss the ideas in more depth.

TV reporter Martin Heylen has begun a project to get nursing home residents to write their memoirs. The project was launched at the Antwerp Book Fair last autumn, and last week seniors attended their first course in writing their life stories. As well as passing on information and wisdom to succeeding generations, the act of writing down memoirs stimulates memories and is considered generally therapeutic for older people.

Hakim Elouassaki, 24, has been convicted by a court in Antwerp to 28 years in prison for the shooting death of a hostage in Syria. Elouassaki was recruited to go to Syria to fight and was arrested upon his return to Belgium four years ago. He was part of the Majilis Shura Al Mujanhideen while in Syria, which took hostages for ransom.

Brussels Airport is at number 25 in a ranking of European airports compiled by Airports Council International Europe, a fall of five places since 2015. Following the bombing in March, Brussels Airport closed the year with a total number of passengers down 7% to 21.8 million, at the same time as European airports in general saw passenger numbers rise by an average of 7%. Heathrow remained in first place, followed by Paris Charles de Gaulle and Schiphol.

According to figures from the first two weeks of Antwerp’s low emissions zone (Lez), 95% of Belgian vehicles entering the city were in accordance with the new regulations. The city also revealed that French and Dutch vehicles entering the zone could not be fined, even if they are in breach of the emissions rules. Access to their vehicles database is not permitted, as the treaty allowing access was signed by the federal government, and Lez is a Flemish matter. In order to be able to identify offending vehicles, the Flemish government will have to sign a separate treaty with France and the Netherlands.

Queen Paola, the mother of King Filip, has undergone surgery at the Saint-Luc University Hospital in Brussels after breaking her hip, the royal palace has announced. She fell at her home in the Belvedere castle, part of the grounds of the royal residence in Laken. The 79-year-old queen mother also suffered a fall in December last year, when she fractured a vertebra.  

The Constitutional Court has approved a measure that makes language requirements more demanding for parents of students in Brussels’ Dutch-speaking secondary schools. The system reserves 55% of available places for parents with the required language knowledge, with requirements now more demanding than in the past. The new standard comes into force for the school year 2018-2019.

The city of Brussels is looking for three artists to decorate bottle-banks in the Bockstael area of Laken. The competition is part of the city’s neighbourhood contract with the Bockstael area, one of the busiest of the municipality and a major transport hub. Artists can submit their ideas until 10 March.

Photo: Kevin Van den Panhuyzen/Facebook