'We will overcome our difficulties together': King Philippe reflects on Covid and climate crisis in festive message

Teachers, healthcare workers, scientists and those who have suffered from Covid were among those honoured by Belgium's King Philippe in his traditional televised end-of-year message.Addressing the nation on Christmas Eve, the monarch reflected on a second year of the coronavirus pandemic, the climate crisis and this summer's deadly floods in southern Belgium."We all hoped that at the end of the year, we would have brought the pandemic that is hitting us so hard under control," the king said. "Unfortunately, this is not yet the case."Faced with this never-ending crisis, we can experience impatience, discouragement, sometimes even exasperation…