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Euronews
2 days ago
- Health
- Euronews
Belgian donor scandal sees man with cancer gene conceive 52 children
Belgium has found itself in the midst of a scandal after it was revealed that a Danish sperm donor with a pathogenic gene mutation conceived 52 children with 37 different Belgian women between 2007 and 2018. The gene mutation, known as TP53, confers a significantly increased risk of cancer. Belgium has the so-called 'six-women rule', setting the legal limit of six families per donor. However, this was rarely implemented in practice because donations are made anonymously. As a result, fertility centres were unaware if they had each used the same donor multiple times. The Belgian government has decided to change the existing law and get rid of the provision of anonymity — including the intention of doing so in its coalition agreement. "It is all hands on deck now to work on the texts for this purpose, and with this latest news, it has become all the more important to realise this ," Billy Buyse, a spokesperson for Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke, told Euronews. "So this will definitely be pushed through under this government," Buyse emphasised. MP for the right-wing N-VA party Frieda Gijbels tabled a bill on removing anonymity a few months ago. However, local media reported that there is opposition from the industry. This has a lot to do with the six-women rule and how well this has been implemented. In the last three years alone, 22 violations of the rule have been identified. N-VA president Valerie Van Peel, who led the dossier in the previous two legislatures, cited pressure from some fertility doctors not to take steps. "There are of course doctors who have committed violations themselves," Gijbels said. "They don't like the lids going off the jars." The proposal to lift anonymity has also sparked concerns that donors may be deterred. However, Gijbels said examples from abroad prove otherwise. She pointed to France, which in 2022 decided that donors of sperm, eggs and embryos will have their identities put on the record. "In France, they have lifted anonymity and the number of donors has even increased,' Gijbels said. Vandenbroucke's cabinet was only informed about the extent of the scandal involving the Danish donor at the end of May. However, the Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAGG), responsible for quality controls and donation irregularities, was made aware much earlier. In November 2023, the agency received a European rapid alert about the Danish sperm donor and the fact he had a pathogenic gene mutation linked to an increased risk of cancer. Some affected mothers were notified by the fertility centres in the months that followed. This was then confirmed to the FAGG. "We were baffled that the FAGG did not notify us immediately. First, they did not let us know that a medical risk had arisen, but we were also unaware of the large number of victims," Vandenbroucke told domestic media. Earlier this week, it came to light that 67 children across Europe were allegedly conceived with this sperm, in 46 families, and that 52 children in Belgium were affected. So far, at least 10 children have been diagnosed with cancer. Meanwhile, 23 were diagnosed with the gene mutation, making them more vulnerable to developing a wide range of cancers. An audit of the FAGG will be carried out with a specific focus on internal quality processes, enforcement and inspection, as well as communication with externals. The first results are expected after the summer. Vandenbroucke also asked the FAGG to check with the families concerned whether their child had undergone genetic screening in the meantime, as it had not followed up with families since first informing them of the issue with the donor. Finally, Vandenbroucke has also called for an improved system at the European level, "because different quotas apply in all countries and nobody knows how often foreign donor sperm is really used." Three Serbian nationals have been arrested in France in connection with the vandalism of Jewish sites in Paris over the weekend, according to local media, with the incident drawing parallels with previous similar cases where Russian involvement was suspected. Three synagogues, a Jewish restaurant and a Holocaust memorial were sprayed with green paint on Saturday in the city's historic Marais district and 20th arrondissement. Authorities in Paris immediately launched an investigation into "damage committed on religious grounds". On Monday, the Serbian nationals were reportedly arrested in the southeastern region of Alpes-Maritimes as they were preparing to leave France. The vandalism bears similarities to two other apparent antisemitic attacks on Jewish sites in Paris in recent years, with authorities stating that there was reason to believe Russian intelligence services were involved in a bid to stir tensions in the French society. A source close to the investigation told AFP that French authorities believed the latest incident was a destabilisation operation from a foreign actor, "given the similarities with the modus operandi used for the 'red hands' graffiti". In May 2024, red hands were painted at the Parisian memorial for those who saved people from the city's Jewish community from Nazi persecution during the 1940-1944 occupation of France. Three Bulgarian nationals were identified by French authorities as being behind the tags. In October 2023, dozens of Stars of David were graffitied on walls in Paris and its outskirts. In that case, two Moldovan nationals were apprehended, according to domestic press. French security services said a Moldovan-Russian businessman was identified as their potential handler. In the 2023 case, media including AFP and Le Monde cited French intelligence sources saying that that the vandalism had been "commissioned by Russian security services". Moscow denied any involvement and described the reports as "stupid" and "outrageous". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticised his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron over the latest vandalism, saying he must do more to clamp down on antisemitism in France. The country has a large Jewish population, which has made it a frequent flashpoint for rising antisemitism. In recent years, reports of antisemitic incidents have surged in France, with a sharp rise reported in 2023 after the 7 October Hamas attacks in Israel.
Time of India
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
From Burkina to Belgium, fighting women's corner from benches of hard-right
BRUSSELS: When Assita Kanko was 10 years old, she pictured herself as president of her native Burkina Faso -- with a mission to stamp out female genital mutilation, and further women's rights. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now As it turned out, she sits as a Belgian lawmaker in the ranks of the hard-right in the European Parliament, and says that suits her just fine. The 44-year-old says she feels at home among the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) -- one of three groups in the assembly's far-right bloc, whose influence has grown steadily since elections last year. As one of three EU lawmakers from the Flemish nationalist N-VA party, she rubs shoulders in the ECR with around 20 other outfits including Giorgia Meloni's post-fascist Brothers of Italy, and Poland's PiS. She also crossed paths with Meloni at the inauguration of Donald Trump -- where they were both handpicked, as likeminded European politicians, to welcome the US leader back to office. Despite divergences with some ECR members on "ethical" issues, Kanko pushes back at criticism of her decision to join the N-VA, a staunchly conservative party with a tough line on immigration. "The idea that a black woman cannot also be right-wing is outrageous," she told AFP. "I want the right to think and I take that right to think, I don't ask permission." Fighting for women's emancipation has been a cornerstone of her life in politics, she says. Born in Godyr, Burkina Faso, in 1980, Kanko was subjected to female genital mutilation at the age of five -- like three quarters of women in the country. She shared her trauma from the experience in a 2013 book, the first of four she has written about gender equality. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "If my mother had had means of her own, I am convinced I would not have been circumcised," she said. "Today I am a very independent woman -- and no one would dare mutilate my daughter. That has to be the goal." - EU being 'trampled' - A "top of the class" high-school student in Burkina Faso -- in her own words -- Kanko left to study in the Netherlands in 2001. From there she would move to Belgium -- where speaking both Dutch and French proved a boon to her career, in the private sector then as a municipal official in a district of Brussels. Fast-forward to 2018, and Kanko decided to jump ship, leaving the centre-right MR party for the N-VA -- the political home of Belgium's current prime minister, Bart De Wever. "I feel unstoppable, free and proud to be a new Flemish woman," she explained on the party's website at the time. Kanko describes herself as pro-business, as a sovereigntist -- attached to the role of national governments within the EU -- and as a fervent Atlanticist. That's how she explains her decision to attend the swearing-in of a US president who has made clear his disdain for the -- which he says was founded to "screw" the United States. "The United States is a partner we cannot do without," she said. "We have to form a bloc to defend Western values in the world." But Kanko also warns that "unless we believe in our own power, our own priority and strategies, Donald Trump will walk all over us." As it stands -- with a transatlantic trade war brewing and US security support in question -- she considers "the European Union today is being trampled underfoot -- and not just by the United States." "It's trampled on by countries in the Middle East too, trampled on by China, trampled on by Russia, trampled on by radicals living on our own territories," argued Kanko -- who was raised in a Muslim culture but did not adopt the faith, and sees Islamic extremism as a threat. In the EU parliament, Kanko has focused on security and border control -- and has sought to spotlight a report sounding the alarm about the Muslim Brotherhood as a threat to secularism and women's rights in France and beyond. Kanko wants to see the organisation investigated at European level. "We need to wake up," she told fellow lawmakers in parliament recently, accusing the brotherhood of "indoctrinating children" and "treating women as inferior."
LeMonde
21-05-2025
- Politics
- LeMonde
Brussels has been without a government for nearly a year
Letter from the Benelux The Belgian political system, complex and almost incomprehensible to the average person, survives, but at what cost? In 2010-2011, it produced the longest political crisis in contemporary history, with 541 days without a fully functioning federal government. In February, it saw Bart De Wever, until then the leader of a pro-independence party (N-VA), become the prime minister of a country whose breakup he had previously advocated. This time, it is the Brussels-Capital Region and its 19 individual municipalities that have been experiencing a strange situation – "the worst of politics," as a political scientist tells us. Since the regional elections on June 9, 2024, the heart of the kingdom has been without a government and seems destined for a lasting deadlock, forcing the former ministerial team to manage day-to-day affairs. The delay all boils down to the presence of the N-VA in the next government... despite it holding only two out of the 89 seats in the capital's regional assembly. This issue has divided negotiators and completely paralyzed the region, exacerbating its budgetary difficulties, preventing any decision-making, and depriving various social and cultural organizations of their subsidies, prompting them to call for help.
New European
26-02-2025
- Politics
- New European
Bart De Wever, the prime minister against his own country
Belgium recently experienced an uncharacteristic burst of optimism. Not because the country finally has a new government, eight months after the elections. Rather, with the selection of the singer Red Sebastian, Belgians are confident they're on to a winner for the Eurovision Song Contest. Red, after all, is the colour of the country's one unifying feature, the Red Devils national football team. The mould-breaking new government is a lot less unifying – it is led and dominated for the first time by Flemish nationalists. The hard-right, nationalist mayor of Antwerp, Bart De Wever, is the new federal prime minister, and his Flemish nationalist N-VA is the largest party in what is called the 'Arizona' coalition, after the colours in the American state's flag. The N-VA is seen by most other Belgian parties as the least-worst alternative to the even more extreme, Flemish ultra-nationalist Vlaams Belang (VB) party that was held to second place in the elections in June last year. The cordon sanitaire , the political firewall excluding VB, has held at the federal level but the new prime minister, De Wever, has adopted some of his rivals' hardline rhetoric. Migration is, unsurprisingly, a focus for the new government. De Wever has promised 'the strictest migration policy ever' and also 'the strictest you can have in Europe'. In his sights are war refugees, who will be restricted to a much less settled status, with a longer route to family unification and reduced access to benefits. Harsh migration policy pledges are familiar, not only from Donald Trump but from like-minded Europeans such as Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and Herbert Kickl in Austria. De Wever, though, has always made a point of distancing himself from such extremes, even showing distaste for their brand of politics. The new government is seen as the most right wing ever, but that is by Belgian standards. In contrast to the Netherlands, De Wever had to include a left wing party in his coalition, the Flemish social democratic Vooruit. In true Low Countries tradition, he needed another three partners for a majority: Walloon liberals and Christian democrats and also Flemish Christian democrats. The number of ministers has shrunk from 20 to 15, fulfilling De Wever's campaign pledge to have a smaller government. In fact, if De Wever had his way, there wouldn't be a Belgian federal government at all. It's somewhat counterintuitive to have as federal prime minister a politician who poses such a danger to the continued unity of the country. De Wever wants to take as many responsibilities as possible away from central government and transfer them to the already powerful regions. But above all, he wants to reduce the flow of Flemish money to the economically less dynamic Walloon region. Reform of unemployment benefits and pensions is crucial to the success of the new government, which is confronted with a ballooning budget deficit for which the country has received a warning from Brussels. EU Brussels that is, not Belgian Brussels. EU Brussels, while applauding his conservative fiscal impulses, has also gained another headache. N-VA belongs to the same hard right bloc in the European Parliament as Italy's Giorgia Meloni. This means that yet another head of government in the EU will not belong to the mainstream coalition of European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. But the commission doesn't seem to be overly concerned by De Wever. He is still seen as the hero who kept the far right dragon at bay. But that might be a mistake. De Wever would like to see an independent Flanders, firmly anchored in a 'democratic Europe'. But he accepts he has no majority for this, and so for now he wants a stripped-down, confederate system. Likewise, he has called on the EU to stick to its core functions. Some might call it conservative, others might say it's selfish and shortsighted. But then, De Wever argues, how is Flanders different from other relatively wealthy regions such as Catalonia in Spain or Italy's north in not wanting to be burdened by what it sees as underperforming regions? If that's De Wever's take on things, it probably wouldn't be long before an independent Flanders would also object to contributing payments to the EU. And you in the UK know all too well where that can lead. Ferry Biedermann is a journalist living in Amsterdam writing on Europe, the Netherlands and Brexit. He is also a former Middle East correspondent
The Independent
13-02-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Close to 100,000 protest Belgian plans to cut social services in strategy to reduce debt
Close to 100,000 protesters thronged the center of Brussels on Thursday while airports and public transport were largely paralyzed as trade unions took their ire to the streets over drastic plans of the new center-right government to revamp some of the foundations on which the nation's welfare state was built. Reductions in pensions and cuts for public service personnel were central themes as the country's three main unions joined hands to confront the new government of Prime Minister Bart De Wever, whose program to take on massive government debt includes measures that weigh heavy on the lower-income working classes. 'The strongest shoulders have to carry the heaviest load,' said Bert Engelaar, secretary general of the Socialist trade union. 'The wealthiest will have to contribute more and that is not at all the case today." Beyond the protests, Brussels international airport was closed down for departures and buses and trams were largely left idle. The themes reverberate all around Europe where a sluggish economy is driving governments to cut into social privileges that were long held sacrosanct. It holds especially true for Belgium, a nation that has debt totaling just over 100% of GDP, putting it among the worst in the 27-nation EU. Acerbating the budgetary crisis, is increasing pressure from Belgium's NATO partners and especially the United States to increase the defense budget in line with the threshold of 2% of gross domestic product. Belgium, home to NATO headquarters, currently spends just 1.3%, leaving it one of of the four worst among NATO's 32 members and the very last when it comes to equipment expenditure. Defense minister Theo Francken insisted Thursday things would be turned around. 'We'll have the extra money. Belgium is a rich country. We will find the money," Francken said at a meeting of NATO defense ministers across town. "We will do what's needed.' The announcement of money to be spent on defense and not on pensions gave an extra incentive for the demonstration, Engelaar said. "The choice was made for massive investments in defense, scaring people as if Mr. Putin could be in Brussels as of tomorrow,' he said in reference to the Russian leader. The boisterous crowds — estimated at 60,000 by police and at over 100,000 by the unions — marching through Brussels specifically targeted the government for plans to cut social services, and especially pensions. De Wever, like Francken from the Flemish nationalist N-VA party, brought an eclectic mix of five parties together to break a 7-month deadlock in coalition talks, with the Flemish socialists as the only ones to lean somewhat to the left. At parliament on Thursday, he insisted that 'the reforms will be gradual and will have social justice as a guiding light.' In Flanders, the Vooruit socialist party has said it will do as much as possible to safeguard the cornerstones of Belgium's welfare society, even though cuts are inevitable. "The house is on fire so we need to take measures today,' Socialist Minister Rob Beenders told VRT network. The unions are set to hold a general strike on March 31 to keep pressure on the government.
