{"id":34834,"date":"2026-08-28T14:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T14:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/34834\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T14:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T14:23:08","slug":"belgium-summons-u-s-ambassador-over-post-insulting-health-minister-the-new-voice-of-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/34834\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium summons U.S. ambassador over post insulting health minister \/ The New Voice of Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/27f1deefb58369aa70913ae5bf327d47.png\" width=\"900\" height=\"450\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" alt=\"US Ambassador to Belgium Bill White (Photo: U.S. Ambassador to\u00a0Belgium Bill White \/ X)\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content__head_img-info\">\n                US Ambassador to Belgium Bill White (Photo: U.S. Ambassador to\u00a0Belgium Bill White \/ X)\n        <\/p>\n<p>Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Pr\u00e9vot has summoned U.S. Ambassador Bill White over derogatory remarks directed at Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.belganewsagency.eu\/press-releases\/35822\/us-ambassador-in-belgium-once-more-called-to-order\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" pubtag=\"0\">Belga News Agency reported on Aug. 28.<\/a><\/p>\n<p> White made the comments on Instagram amid a dispute in Belgium over a new law requiring stronger health warnings about alcohol in advertising.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. ambassador posted an AI-generated image of Vandenbroucke.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDestroys all joy in life,\u201d White wrote on the image, adding above it: \u201cWho is the biggest loser in Belgium?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The post sparked outrage within the Belgian government, which described the ambassador\u2019s conduct as unacceptable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is unacceptable for an ambassador accredited to Belgium to speak out in this way against a member of our government,\u201d Pr\u00e9vot said. \u201cAs foreign minister, I will summon the U.S. ambassador in the coming days.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Belgium debates tougher alcohol warnings<\/p>\n<p>Belgium has recently seen a dispute over stricter health warnings required in alcohol advertising.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of the previous wording, \u201cAlcohol abuse is harmful to your health,\u201d producers are now required to state: \u201cAlcohol is harmful to your health.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Belgian brewers have launched a campaign opposing the new requirement.<\/p>\n<p>White has previously drawn controversy over public statements appealing to right-wing populist sentiment. Belgium\u2019s foreign minister has summoned him before.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: bold\">Follow us on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NewVoiceUkraine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Twitter<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheNewVoiceUkraine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Facebook<\/a> and<br \/>\n                    <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLeesQswxLnIAw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Google News<\/a><\/p>\n<p>        <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US Ambassador to Belgium Bill White (Photo: U.S. Ambassador to\u00a0Belgium Bill White \/ X) Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,1899],"class_list":["post-34834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-us-ambassador"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/117173590707721844","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}