EU: Aimed at disrupting Europe’s food supply chain
Cyberattacks targeting freezers in several European countries represent a “deliberate attempt to disrupt” the EU’s food supply chain and damage consumer confidence, according to EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen, as reported by Reuters.
“Food safety is not compromised [...] but food waste and the impact on business operations are very real,” he stated.
Grocery stores in Sweden, Belgium, Estonia, Finland, and Luxembourg were affected by the suspected attack overnight into Monday. Six of the 800 stores operated by the Swedish chain Coop were impacted.
“We can confirm that this is a cyber incident. The issue has now been resolved, and the refrigerators and freezers are functioning as normal,” spokesperson Carlos Cancino told AFP.
The six affected stores were using the 4G network rather than 5G, which made them particularly vulnerable, according to Cancino.
Freezers in Belgium, Ireland, Finland, and Estonia affected
Freezers in several European countries have been targeted in suspected cyberattacks, Bloomberg reports.
In addition to Sweden, reports have also emerged from Belgium, Ireland, Finland, and Estonia.
In Belgium, freezers in 40 grocery stores have been affected, according to *Le Soir*.
According to Werner Muylle, Chief Operating Officer at the affected grocery chain Delhaize, someone gained access to the freezer systems and switched them to defrost mode, causing temperatures to rise significantly. Le Soir reports that the incident may be linked to the cybersecurity incidents that knocked out the freezers in 150 French grocery stores earlier in October.
Freezers at at least one IKEA store have been affected.
IKEA has also been affected by the suspected cyberattack targeting freezers, the furniture giant stated, according to Reuters.
At present, it is only known that the store in Mons, Belgium, has been affected, but IKEA does not rule out the possibility that more locations could be involved. Food products had to be removed from the freezers and went to waste, they added.
Grocery stores in Sweden, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, Finland, and Estonia were affected by Monday’s attacks. On October 12, hundreds of stores in France were hit by a similar attack.
måndag 2 november 2026
Praised and criticized – this is Lula da Silva
New scandal
Furthermore, during the election campaign, a new scandal erupted: Alexandre de Moraes—one of the judges in the case that led to the conviction of former President Jair Bolsonaro—allegedly had contact with a banker accused of corruption. According to Rivarola, many voters would have cast a blank ballot if the issue had been solely about corruption; however, Lula gained votes on the question of democracy.
“Many votes were cast against Bolsonaro rather than for Lula,” says Andrés Rivarola.
Another major challenge for Lula lies within the Brazilian parliament, where he must succeed in assembling a coalition of several other parties—some of which are former opponents of Lula’s Workers’ Party.
“The primary challenge he will face concerns his relationship with Congress. Congress will make reaching agreements even more difficult,” writes Glauco Peres da Silva, a professor of political science at the University of São Paulo, in an email response to TT.
It is a motley collection of different parties and political agendas that must be brought into alignment, but Lula is a “master” at handling precisely such situations, according to Andrés Rivarola.
“If there is anyone capable of maneuvering through a complex political landscape, it is Lula.”
Praised and criticized
Another area where Lula is both praised and criticized is environmental and climate policy. Since taking over from Jair Bolsonaro in 2023, deforestation in the Amazon rainforest has decreased, and the country’s environmental institutions have been strengthened. At the same time, however, Lula da Silva supports oil drilling in the country, arguing that it is necessary for national prosperity. For instance, he pushed for the state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to be granted permission to explore for oil in a deep-sea area—home to sensitive coral reefs and marine ecosystems—near the mouth of the Amazon River in the state of Amapá.
“This is our country’s passport to the future,” Lula da Silva remarked during a visit to the site.
Yet, allowing oil drilling was not part of his election platform, notes Andrés Rivarola.
“In this respect, Brazil actually resembles our neighbor Norway—a country that speaks passionately about climate policy and electric vehicles, but which, as we all know, relies on its oil.”
Facts
About Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
The President of Brazil was born on October 27, 1945, as Luiz Inácio da Silva, to poor farm laborers in Caetés, in the state of Pernambuco in northeastern Brazil. He was given the nickname “Lula” early on—a common abbreviation for the name Luiz in Brazil, which also happens to mean “squid.”
He worked his way up, and as a metalworker, he became involved in the trade union movement. In the 1970s, while Brazil was still under a military dictatorship, Lula organized strikes—actions for which he was imprisoned.
During his time working in the industrial sector, he was involved in an accident that resulted in the loss of his left little finger. He became president for the first time in 2003 and has held the office on several occasions. In 2026, he secured his fourth term.
Russia abandons anti-torture convention
Russia has formally withdrawn from the European convention against torture, reports The Kyiv Independent.
The decision to abandon the convention was made on October 30 of last year and formally took effect one year later—on Sunday, November 1 of this year. According to the Council of Europe, it has not been possible to carry out inspections of detention facilities within Russia since the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Council has received reports of “a large number of accounts of alleged torture and ill-treatment in places of deprivation of liberty, carried out by Russian officials” in occupied territories of Ukraine and within Russia, the Council states in a press release.
Russia ratified the anti-torture convention in 1998 and has been bound by its provisions, which allow for independent prison inspections and prohibit torture, as well as inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
EU and UK seek to strengthen defense cooperation
The EU and the UK are working to strengthen their defense cooperation ahead of a summit in November, says the Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas.
According to Kallas, it is important that the UK becomes more integrated into European defense cooperation.
"I would like to see us strengthen the UK’s opportunities to participate in our civilian and military missions. However, negotiations are ongoing, and there are still two weeks left until the summit," she said at a press briefing in Brussels alongside UK Defence Secretary Wes Streeting.
For the UK, it is crucial that NATO remains the primary defense organization, according to Streeting.
The upcoming summit in Brussels follows remarks by UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who suggested that a new referendum on the EU could become a possibility in the future—though not during the current parliamentary term.
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