Belgium Wants UNESCO to Add its Local Fries to Heritage List

Yucel Bas prepares fries at Bas Frietjes frites stands in Sint Pieters Leeuw, Belgium, Dec. 4, 2014. (Reuters)
Yucel Bas prepares fries at Bas Frietjes frites stands in Sint Pieters Leeuw, Belgium, Dec. 4, 2014. (Reuters)
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Belgium Wants UNESCO to Add its Local Fries to Heritage List

Yucel Bas prepares fries at Bas Frietjes frites stands in Sint Pieters Leeuw, Belgium, Dec. 4, 2014. (Reuters)
Yucel Bas prepares fries at Bas Frietjes frites stands in Sint Pieters Leeuw, Belgium, Dec. 4, 2014. (Reuters)

Only people who tasted Belgian fries can understand their great appeal. Belgian fries shops want the future generations to enjoy this experience, so they have tabled a request with Flemish authorities to apply for UNESCO world heritage.

Belgian beer culture received UNESCO nomination in 2016, and fries should follow suit, said the president of a union that represents the owners of fries stands.

People take Belgian fries shops as a given, something that will never disappear. But as Bernard Lefevre, president of the union points out, more and more of the mom-and-pop stores, usually run by couples, are disappearing.

“The culture of fries is rooted in all of us. We're used to it, like a fixed value in our lives, therefore, we have to continue to protect it”, he said.

Belgium can propose a UNESCO candidate every two years, and its regions are taking turns in suggestions, according to media reports.

Flanders included fries in its list of intangible and cultural heritage in 2014, and the Flemish region will follow next year.



Trump Replaces Obama Portrait with Painting of... Himself

Former US president Barack Obama's portrait was unveiled at the White House by then-president Joe Biden in September 2022. Mandel NGAN / AFP/File
Former US president Barack Obama's portrait was unveiled at the White House by then-president Joe Biden in September 2022. Mandel NGAN / AFP/File
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Trump Replaces Obama Portrait with Painting of... Himself

Former US president Barack Obama's portrait was unveiled at the White House by then-president Joe Biden in September 2022. Mandel NGAN / AFP/File
Former US president Barack Obama's portrait was unveiled at the White House by then-president Joe Biden in September 2022. Mandel NGAN / AFP/File

Donald Trump took his rivalry with Barack Obama to the walls of the White House Friday, replacing a portrait of the former US president with one of himself surviving an assassination attempt.

The 78-year-old Republican moved the picture of the Democrat, the only Black US president, to the opposite side of the famed residence's grand entrance hallway, AFP said.

The move is a highly unusual one for a sitting president, as most must wait to leave office before getting their portrait hung in the historic 200-year-old building.

"Some new artwork at the White House," the White House said on X, along with a video of people walking past Trump's new picture in the spot by the main stairwell where Obama's formerly hung.

The new painting shows the iconic moment when a bloodied Trump pumped his fist and shouted "fight" after a gunman shot him in the ear in Butler, Pennsylvania in July 2024.

A White House official said they didn't immediately have information about the artist who painted it. It closely resembles a photograph of the same moment taken by the Associated Press (AP) news agency.

Several White House officials later posted pictures of Trump's new picture, while showing Obama's portrait nearby.

"The Obama portrait was just moved a few feet away," White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said on X -- while telling a critic of the move to "Pipe down, moron."

Traditionally US presidents often shift portraits of their predecessors, while keeping pictures of the most recent officeholders in the main entrance hall.

Obama's was unveiled in 2022 by then-president Joe Biden and shows the 44th president in a black suit and grey tie against a white background.

But the White House's fanfare around the switch-up reflects Trump's long and bitter rivalry with Obama, who was president from 2009 to 2017.

The billionaire launched his political career by pushing the racist and false "birther" conspiracy theory that his Democratic predecessor was lying about being a natural-born American.

Obama responded by repeatedly mocking Trump, most notoriously in a roast at a White House Correspondents Association dinner in 2011.

It also reflects how former reality TV star Trump has never been shy about putting tributes to himself in his various residences.

He recently hung outside the Oval Office a gold-framed version of his mugshot from a case over alleged efforts to interfere with the 2020 election.

And he has a large bronze sculpture of his defiant reaction to the Butler assassination attempt at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.