Belgium is granting sex workers full labor rights, including health insurance, paid leave and pensions, starting Sunday.

Reigning WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart has re-signed with the New York Liberty.

The European Union’s executive arm is blocking leading U.S. online travel agency Booking from acquiring Sweden’s flight booking provider Etraveli Group.

Armistice Day remembrances have been observed around the world after the coronavirus pandemic wiped out ceremonies last year to mark the end 1918 end of World War I.

Days after the alarming warning of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres that there was a “code red for humanity,” with global warming threatening to choke the planet, individuals are seeking to play their part.

The devastating floods that killed 38 people in Belgium this month have left hundreds of survivors struggling with mental trauma.

On another Anzac Day turned lonesome by the global pandemic, solitary actions show all the more how the sacrifices of Australia and New Zealand during World War I are far from forgotten.

There is no stopping flowers when they bloom, blossoms when they burst.

A man views the panels of the Ghent Altarpiece, by Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck, at Saint Bavo Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium on Monday, March 22, 2021. The Saint Bavo Cathedral will open a new visitors center where the restored Ghent Altarpiece will be the focal point. Restorers didn't want to give the copy the same makeover as other panels that have been cleaned up so far. The extortionist even gave back a minor rear panel that had also disappeared that night, to prove his credentials. In any case, authorities now want to ensure that all the remaining panels are perfectly protected from theft and humidity.

(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, Pool)The United States on Thursday imposed what it calls its most significant sanctions to date over the military coup in Myanmar, restricting American dealings with two giant Myanmar military holding companies that dominate much of that country's economy. Thursday's sanctions “target those who led the coup, the economic interests of the military, and the funding streams supporting the Burmese military’s brutal repression,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. The new measures generally bar any American dealings with the two military holding companies, which have sweeping business involvement in trades ranging from the sale of alcohol and cigarettes to agriculture, banking and mining. AdThe United Kingdom would be taking similar action against one of the holding companies, Blinken said. The Biden administration says it is targeting the military in sanctions and seeking to avoid worsening conditions for the country's civilians.

A customer, right, waits to pick up an order at Sergio Herman's Le Pristine restaurant in Antwerp, Belgium, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020. If that were the case for the high-end restaurant industry, the coronavirus pandemic should have offered ample opportunities for creativity and renewal. But this pandemic so far mainly has chefs just thinking of how to get through each day. A box from Le Pristine, without drinks but with a few supplements, can easily push past 100 euros (around $115) a head. Le Pristine is his latest project.

It is the largest cemetery for Commonwealth forces in the world, for any war. On Wednesday, only half a dozen were allowed at the monument carved with the names of more than 54,000 fallen British and Commonwealth soldiers who have no known grave. The nearby Flanders Field American Cemetery and the Commonwealth Tyne Cot were all closed due to pandemic precautions. Several military figures wore blue masks decorated with blue cornflowers, France’s symbol of World War I. Macron wore a cornflower pin on his lapel and a black mask. Also, to mark 100 years since an unidentified soldier killed at Verdun was buried beneath the Arc de Triomphe, French soldiers organized a memorial run from Verdun to Paris to pay homage to all French soldiers killed in conflict.

A miniature scene is set into a boot scraper outside a front door in Antwerp, Belgium, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020. Belgian artist Elke Lemmens is transforming disused boot scrapers in the port city of Antwerp into miniature scenes depicting what is important in the lives of the owners of the house. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)ANTWERP – Life can feel smaller, even tiny during the coronavirus pandemic as public health restrictions limit social contacts to a bare minimum. But Belgian artist Elke Lemmens has found a way to build connections during the ongoing crisis. “Soon, there will be a walking map so people can find these boot scraper scenes,” Lemmens said.

In times when a pandemic unleashes death and poverty, the concept of what is essential to keep society functioning in a lockdown is gripping Europe. That's why Germany is keeping car dealerships open this time, after their closure in the first, spring lockdown hurt the country's huge automobile industry. In the country that coined the term “bella figura” — the art of cutting a fine figure — hairdressers are deemed essential. “Across the border in Belgium, books were deemed essential. “So why order books at an international online giant when the corner bookstore can deliver same-day by bike?"

Police patrol the beach on horseback at the Belgian seaside resort of Blankenberge, Belgium, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020. A skirmish took place on the beach on Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020 which resulted in two coastal communities banning day trippers from the city. By Sunday, a "gang of outsiders was being blamed, and two coastal communities had banned day trippers from the city. We are here in a country called Belgium, where the law is the law, Lippens said. ___Mayo reported from Knokke-Heist, Belgium.

In sharp contrast to the 75th anniversary of D-Day, this year's 76th will be one of the loneliest remembrances ever, as the coronavirus pandemic is keeping nearly everyone from traveling. It poses a particular threat to the elderly like the surviving D-Day veterans who are in their late nineties or older. All across the beaches of Normandy tens of thousands came from across the globe to pay their respects to the dead and laud the surviving soldiers. The acrid smell of wartime-era jeep exhaust fumes and the rumble of old tanks filled the air as parades of vintages vehicles went from village to village. Someday the COVID-19 pandemic, too, will pass, and people will turn out to remember both events that shook the world.