Dozens of supermarkets in Sweden and Belgium have been targeted in cyberattacks that sent freezer and refrigerator temperatures soaring overnight, putting large quantities of food at risk.

The incidents follow a major attack in France last month, when hackers reportedly gained access to cooling systems at hundreds of supermarkets, leading to food waste and several fires.

One Swedish supermarket said on social media Monday that its refrigerators and freezers had been reset to 50 degrees Celsius—a temperature setting similar to that reported during the French attack.

“We are aware that a limited number of stores were affected by an incident overnight, which impacted their refrigeration and freezer systems,” a spokesperson for privately owned retailer ICA said in an email.

Grocery chain Coop told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that six of its stores had experienced similar problems.

Coop did not immediately reply to a request for further comment.

Sweden’s national cyber-security centre said it was investigating several incidents involving refrigeration equipment at grocery stores around the country.

Local media reported that dozens of refrigerators and freezers at Delhaize supermarkets in Belgium and Luxembourg were also affected by the cyberattack.

Delhaize and butcher chain De Laet & Van Haver both said their cooling systems had suddenly registered sharply elevated temperatures.

Carrefour Belgium added Monday morning that 15 of its stores had been affected so far.

France’s National Cybersecurity Agency is continuing to investigate the earlier attack on supermarkets across the country.

French authorities have been sharing information with European counterparts amid concerns that the same campaign may have reached other countries.

In France, Carrefour said 80 of its supermarkets had been affected, while Monoprix—which operates roughly 490 ​stores—reported that 5 per cent of its outlets were hit.

Les Mousquetaires, the group behind Intermarché, said refrigeration units at approximately 150 of its ⁠stores had been raised to 50 C for six hours during the night.

The company said all potentially affected products were destroyed as a precaution to protect customers from food-safety risks.

Images from the scene showed supermarket workers emptying carts packed with thawed frozen goods into a large waste container. Melted ice cream spilled from damaged tubs onto the pavement.

While no overall estimate of the damage was available, Intermarché chief executive Thierry Cotillard told BFM TV that the “unprecedented” attack could cost the industry “tens ​of millions of euros nationwide in a single day.”

Cold-storage systems in supermarkets are commonly operated through control panels that regulate an entire store’s refrigerators and freezers. Because those systems can be connected to the internet, maintenance providers are often able to access and adjust them remotely.

The source ‌close to the investigation said ANSSI had identified a vulnerability in software supplied by Danish company Danfoss.

Danfoss said it was ‘aware of incidents in France affecting a limited number of refrigeration management systems’.

The affected units ‘were running outdated firmware’, Danfoss said, adding that it had ‘long advised customers to keep supported systems updated with the latest firmware and to migrate legacy systems to current-generation solutions’.

The ​attacks resemble disruptions reported at about a ⁠dozen US military commissaries in late August that led to food losses after fridges were affected.

In a statement, French retail association Fédération du Commerce et de la Distribution called for ‘full transparency’ from Danfoss about the incident. 

It said supermarkets aimed to protect consumers and return to ​normal operations as soon as possible. The FCD said some impacted stores were already back up and running.

President Donald Trump urged Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) to join the Republican Party after she endorsed former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat instead of fellow Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.

Speaking at a rally in Dubuque, Iowa, on Sunday, Trump praised Stevens for showing what he described as unusual courage. He also labeled El-Sayed a “jihadist.”

“I’m happy with what she did. She was very brave in doing it. So, I don’t know Haley — I’ve never met Haley — but Haley said what few people are willing to say,” Trump told supporters. “I’d love her to join the Republican Party, actually. I think that could happen.”

Trump went on to say that Stevens had demonstrated “great and almost unprecedented loyalty to the great people of Michigan,” while suggesting that El-Sayed posed a security threat.

“That’s another important election for us. We don’t want to have a jihadist […] Can you imagine, we’ll have to put him through metal detectors […] We’ll have 100 senators, and most of them they can go direct — we’re going to have to get a special metal detector for Abdul,” Trump said. “A party that hates America cannot be allowed to lead the people who built America,” he added.

Trump’s comments came after he posted about Stevens on Truth Social earlier Sunday. He described her as a “Highly Respected Democrat” with support throughout Michigan, “especially our African American and Jewish populations.”

“It’s a thing called bravery, and few people have it like just displayed by Congresswoman Haley Stevens!” Trump wrote. 

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Stevens surprised Democrats and Republicans when she withdrew her August endorsement of El-Sayed on Sunday morning. In a message to Michigan voters, she said she no longer belonged on his campaign and announced her support for Rogers:

Hey Michigan, as you may have seen, our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, Abdul, said that I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away, and he’s right. That’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United State Senate today. I don’t belong in Abdul’s campaign. I do not stand with Hasan Piker, who gets trafficked on our college campuses. A dear friend of mine earlier today was saying that education is on the ballot and she is absolutely right. What our students see, what our children see, and who we are as Michiganders is not hate. And is not what we are getting out from our Democratic nominee right now.

Relations between Stevens and El-Sayed had deteriorated following their closely contested primary. El-Sayed’s campaign reportedly asked Stevens to stay away from his remaining events after she urged him to “denounce antisemitic hate” over an ad criticizing U.S. tax dollars being sent to Israel. 

Stevens’ fiancé, who is Jewish, also recently said he plans to vote for Rogers.

Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for – News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram. 

Residents living alongside a woman they describe as a “volcanic neighbour from hell” say they are furious after she avoided immediate imprisonment despite assaulting a woman and four police officers.

Anne Egglestone’s decade-long pattern of abuse has resulted in several prison sentences. She now has 19 previous convictions covering 74 offences.

Her record includes violent incidents involving neighbours and police, directing CCTV cameras towards people’s homes and making a stream of abusive calls to officers.

Frightened residents say they feel trapped in their own houses and are desperate to leave. However, they fear they would struggle to sell their properties, with some avoiding hanging out washing or putting their bins outside.

One resident, who asked not to be identified because of fears of reprisals, said: “We want to see her locked up. We’re living in fear.

“What the police and the courts have done is ineffective and we are suffering. If we reported every incident, we’d be calling the police twice a week.”

Egglestone’s latest arrest unfolded dramatically, with an officer warning that he was aiming a Taser at her before repeatedly ordering: “Step out of the house, now.”

As the 63-year-old approached the front door of her bungalow, the officer seized her wrist and pulled her outside before taking her to the ground. Two other officers then moved in to restrain her.

Egglestone can be heard crying out “Oh” as the officer first grabbed her, before appearing to scream.

The confrontation took place on August 16 on a leafy suburban street in Thorpe St Andrew, near Norwich. Four officers were assaulted during the incident, amid allegations that they were bitten and kicked.

Police intervened after a woman was assaulted and her mobile phone damaged during what residents had described as a quiet garden party held for an elderly person.

The woman, who also chose not to reveal her identity, told the Daily Mail: “She was making noises like a banshee. The police were called and then she went into her property.”

Egglestone was not held in custody and returned home within hours. Neighbours, many of whom have fitted CCTV cameras after fearing attacks, were therefore given little relief.

At Norwich Crown Court last week, Egglestone admitted four charges of assaulting a constable, two breaches of a Community Protection Notice, obstructing a constable, common assault and criminal damage.

The judge handed down an 18-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, alongside a three-year Criminal Behaviour Order. The order prohibits Egglestone from engaging in conduct that causes a nuisance, disturbance or annoyance.

She was also ordered to pay compensation and additional costs totalling almost £700.

Residents said they fear her “dangerous” conduct will worsen. One described her as “a neighbour from hell” and added: “She’s a volcano.”

Another resident said: “She’s the reason we’ve put cameras up. The verbal and physical abuse is a massive problem and we’re fearful of doing anything in our own gardens.”

Egglestone’s known list of offences dates back a decade. In March 2017, she was fined and handed a 26-week prison sentence at Norwich Magistrates’ Court for four public order offences after she was abusive towards a neighbour and their builder.

She had also contacted the police control room making unnecessary, rude and obstructive calls to staff – breaching a CBO imposed in April 2016 for similar offences.

At the time, beat manager PC Sean Phillips said: ‘This result goes to show that the courts and the police treat this type of anti-social behaviour with the utmost seriousness.’

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Egglestone appears to have been jailed again in October that year, receiving another 26-week custodial sentence and a two-year restraining order after she admitted criminal damage, public order offences and breaching her CBO.

Magistrates heard she had damaged a neighbour’s wooden fence with a hammer, was verbally aggressive towards the victim and attending officers and made unnecessary and rude calls to police.

The combative neighbour is next known to have been in trouble in April 2019, when she was charged with harassment after moving palm trees and disturbing neighbours by being loud and abusive.

She was also said to have made an offensive call to a domestic violence charity, Leeway, and breached her CBO by contacting police again.

In November 2019 she was jailed for two years at Norwich Crown Court after sending an offensive message to the same charity, breaching the CBO again by contacting police, and sending abusive messages. She also breached a suspended sentence order.

Prosecutor Eleanor Sheerin told the court neighbours had been left feeling anxious and ‘like prisoners in their own home’ after the defendant pointed a security camera into their home.

Judge Stephen Holt told Egglestone: ‘You have a long record of being extremely unpleasant to other people and a number of breaches of court orders. You are not a very nice piece of work.’

A 63-year-old female neighbour said after the hearing: ‘She’s created such a lot of tension and anxiety.

‘She was always verbally abusive – so much so that I didn’t like being out in the garden because she would look over the fence and stand watching.’

Another brush with the law came in 2023 when Egglestone admitted making ten abusive calls to police over ‘irrational’ fears that neighbours were trying to poison her dog by throwing grapes into her garden.

She was given an eight-month suspended prison sentence in March the following year.

Egglestone moved into the road in about 2015 and neighbours said problems appeared to have first flared up when a family over the road had building work done and she ‘took exception to their lorries and the noise, which was not excessive by any means’.

During a court appearance in 2023, her lawyer explained she ‘lives alone, having divorced ten years ago, and has two children – one in New Zealand and another she has no contact with’.

Sergeant Sam Barwick, from Norfolk Constabulary’s Operational Partnership Team, said after the latest court appearance: ‘We hope this CBO will act as a deterrent to Egglestone’s persistent anti-social behaviour.

‘This type of behaviour has a detrimental effect on those living around her and significantly impacts emergency service workers carrying out their duty.’

But a neighbour insisted: ‘We want her out of Spinney Close and out of our lives. She needs to be locked up.’

Another said: ‘She’s been screaming at elderly people, making children cry and shouting the most foul-mouthed abuse at people. It will continue until she is stopped.’

Egglestone became hostile when approached for a comment.