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U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Bill White insisted Brussels’ Parc du Cinquantenaire was left spotless after his lavish celebration marking 250 years of American independence, as Belgian authorities probe whether fireworks damaged one of the capital’s historic buildings.

“We are in immediate contact with the Belgian company that was hired to coordinate all event logistics, including the fireworks company,” White wrote on X on Friday. He said the contractor would “remediate where it is required” and insisted that “Cinquantenaire has never looked any cleaner than it was the day after we cleaned up after our event,” posting photographs of the park looking immaculate.

More than 8,800 invited guests attended the June 28 celebration — one of the biggest diplomatic receptions ever staged in Brussels — organized by White, featuring a large fireworks display beneath the triumphal arch and a gala held in Cinquantenaire’s Royal Museum of Art and History building.

The ambassador’s response came after Flemish newspapers De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad reported that Belgium’s Buildings Agency had opened an investigation into possible damage to the museum.

According to the newspapers, inspectors found firework debris on the roof, scorch marks on parts of the building and minor damage to a statue. A spokesperson for the Buildings Agency declined to comment to the Belgian outlets on the scope of any repair work: “That will depend on the results of all analyses.”

Belgian Buildings Minister Vanessa Matz has urged caution, saying investigators must first determine whether any damage was caused by the fireworks display or by the severe thunderstorm that swept across Brussels the previous night.

The celebration reportedly cost around €5 million , with White raising the money from roughly 220 Belgian and American companies .

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Want to see Uranus for yourself? Independence Day morning offers one of the best opportunities in decades, as the distant ice giant passes extraordinarily close to Mars in the predawn sky.

Although we often hear that only five planets are visible to the unaided eye, Uranus can also be seen from Earth under the right conditions. As the seventh planet from the sun , it is very faint — near the threshold of naked-eye visibility at roughly sixth magnitude — so viewing it requires a very dark sky with little to no significant light pollution.

The second challenge is knowing exactly where to look. Uranus is faint enough to blend into a background of similarly dim stars, but early on Saturday, July 4, at around 4 a.m. local daylight time, Mars provides a useful guide. On that Independence Day morning, Mars and Uranus will appear unusually close together in the sky.

Finding Mars first

Mars currently rises about half an hour before the first light of dawn. It is still relatively faint at about magnitude +1.3, and through a telescope it appears tiny, measuring less than 4.5 arc seconds across. Look for it low in the east-northeast, about 5.5 degrees directly below the Pleiades star cluster .

Find Mars low in the east-northeast before dawn.

Point binoculars or a small telescope at Mars.

Look almost directly above Mars for a much fainter, star-like point of light. That will be Uranus.

What Uranus will look like

Uranus should resemble a tiny greenish star and will appear only about 1/63 as bright as Mars. Although Uranus is nearly 7.5 times larger than Mars, it is more than 9.5 times farther away as seen from Earth. At about 1.88 billion miles (3.02 billion km), it appears only slightly smaller than Mars in apparent size, measuring about 3.5 arc seconds across.

Approximate location of Mars and Uranus in the predawn hours on July 4. (Image credit: Created in Canva Pro) How close will they be?

According to Belgian celestial calculator Jean Meeus , Mars and Uranus will be closest at 5 a.m. Universal Time (UTC) on July 4, when only 6 arc minutes will separate them. For comparison, Mizar — the middle star in the Big Dipper 's handle — and its fainter companion Alcor are separated by about 12 arc minutes. In other words, Mars and Uranus will appear only half as far apart as Mizar and Alcor .

Observers with exceptionally sharp vision and very dark skies may want to try spotting Uranus near Mars without optical aid, though binoculars or a small telescope will make the view much easier.

Mars and Uranus are in conjunction on average once every 2.38 years. But meetings as close as this one are quite rare, occurring on average once about every 40 years. The next similarly close approach between these two worlds that is readily visible in a dark sky is not due until Dec. 8, 2147!

A Bonus Target: HIP 19146

Eagle-eyed observers with a small telescope may also be able to spot HIP19146 on July 4. (Image credit: Joe Rao using Starry Night Pro 8.0/Simulation Curriculum. Background added in Canva Pro.) If you are using a small telescope, look for an even fainter object about 2 arc minutes below Uranus. This is not a Uranian satellite, but a background star cataloged as HIP 19146. The "HIP" designation comes from Hipparcos ; a European Space Agency satellite launched in 1989 and operated until 1993. Hipparcos was the first space mission devoted to precision astrometry, the accurate measurement of celestial positions and distances.

On the morning of the upcoming Mars-Uranus conjunction, try to spot this eighth-magnitude star as well. It is about 11 times dimmer than Uranus and lies roughly 882 light-years from Earth.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium . He writes about astronomy for Natural History magazine , Sky and Telescope , The Old Farmer's Almanac and other publications.

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Protest music has been a constant in the industry since its beginning. Just like any art, music is a form of expression, and the thoughts and feelings expressed often stem from the situations in the world around us. Like any piece of art, music is up for interpretation, and this is part of its beauty. However, this means that some people will interpret music without fully understanding it. Ascribing a meaning to a song without fully dissecting the lyrics. This is the case for many political anthems throughout rock music. “Born in the USA" by Bruce Springsteen often gets discussed around the Fourth of July, as it stands out as a prime example of a critique of America that gets propped up as patriotic. Another great example of this, however, comes from earlier in rock’s history. A song often associated with American forces descending into the Vietnam War , that’s really advocating for anything but, “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) .