OchtendKrant: news for Wednesday 4 November 2026
An angry Mahdi points at MR and Vooruit as Bouchez and Rousseau head to the palace today
Les Engagés and CD&V opened the round of talks with King Philippe on Tuesday; on Wednesday it is the turn of the two parties seen as the main obstacle.
Democrats take over Senate and House after a night of surprises, Trump reaches for his veto pen
4 sources · VRT NWS, NOS, Al Jazeera +OECD asks Belgium to find another 3.5 percent of GDP on top of the planned effort
3 sources · Business AM, Briefs FinanceEuropean iPhones miss out as Apple lets outside apps tap into Siri AI
3 sources · MacRumors, PPC Land, iPhone in CanadaClub Brugge seek confirmation in Eindhoven, De Bruyne recovers in time and Kompany's Bayern win in Madrid
6 sources · Sporza, Voetbalkrant, ESPN +Belgium
All of BelgiumAfter the failed i-Police project, Quintin wants a tenth fewer hired IT staff at the federal police from 2027
The interior minister wants the police to build up more in-house IT expertise; today his predecessor Annelies Verlinden has to answer questions in parliament.
2 sources · VRT NWS, RTBFGovernor Berx rules that the higher pay for Somers' secretary at the Mechelen police cannot stand
The provincial governor has asked the Rivierenland police zone to correct the situation; the mayor says he will follow her advice.
2 sources · VRT NWS, RTVNivelles assize court turns to Nicolas Ullens' sentence after a month-long pause
The former State Security agent was found guilty in October of murdering his stepmother; a sentence could come as early as today.
3 sources · La Libre, RTBF, VRT NWSFirefighters from more than fifteen countries march through Brussels for more colleagues and better equipment
European unions point to a shrinking workforce after a summer of wildfires; Brussels alone is short of some 200 firefighters.
3 sources · Bruzz, BX1World
All of WorldQatari mediators carry a draft deal to Tehran, but Iran sees no narrowing of the distance with Washington
According to a Qatari newspaper the United States approved an interim agreement, while Iran wants its own conditions met first.
3 sources · Reuters, Pakistan Today, Al JazeeraMoscow confirms the Abu Dhabi meeting, but first the US negotiators are in Brussels this week
Russia, Ukraine and the United States will talk again on 10 and 11 November, for the first time since February, as Russian attacks continue.
4 sources · The Moscow Times, RFE/RL, Il Sole 24 Ore +Trump says Israel will receive no more US military aid money after this year, catching Israeli ministries off guard
The president spoke of an arrangement with Netanyahu, but the current aid agreement runs until 2028 and it is unclear exactly who agreed to what.
3 sources · The Times of Israel, ABC News, ReutersEconomy
All of EconomyShift of power in Congress weighs on Asian markets, tech shares suffer from fear of stricter AI rules
Tokyo loses almost 3 percent and European futures point to a lower open, as investors worry about the construction of data centres.
3 sources · Euronews, RTTNews, The Irish TimesEurope heats this year from a tight gas stock, and according to the IEA it could fall below 10 percent by the end of March
Storage is less full than in any year since 2013, and disrupted LNG supplies via Hormuz could keep the market under pressure next year too.
3 sources · Trend, TRT World, Business AMChina's JD.com may absorb MediaMarkt and Saturn, but must open its logistics to competitors
The European Commission approves the takeover of Ceconomy under the foreign subsidies rules, with obligations designed to prevent unfair pricing.
3 sources · Business AM, Euronext, Europese CommissieTech
All of TechAI & LLMs
Revolut moves its developers to open AI models on its own servers and now pays a tenth
The British fintech has largely dropped paid services such as Claude Code for its coding assistant and now runs Chinese open models on its own Nvidia chips.
2 sources · The Register, StartupHub.aiAnthropic tests cryptographic proof that an answer really comes from the stated AI model
With the open research prototype FlashProve, users should be able to check that a provider is not quietly using a different model, without the model weights being made public.
2 sources · TechCrunch, Interesting EngineeringReuters: OpenAI staff were raising the alarm over internal security even before ChatGPT
The company disputes that it neglected security and announces a new internal security push together with the startup Cathedral.
2 sources · Reuters, Unite.AIProgramming languages
Twelve JavaScript frameworks, one task for an AI agent: Angular proves the most expensive, htmx and Astro the leanest
Developer Nolan Lawson had Claude Code build the same Pokémon web app each time and measured the cost in tokens, time and performance.
2 sources · The Register, Nolan LawsonAttacker could view secret settings of some customers of developer platform Trigger.dev
The TypeScript platform for AI agents and background jobs says the hole has been closed but is silent on the cause and the number of customers affected.
3 sources · Trigger.dev, The Register, RuntimeWireOther tech
New data thief has a language model estimate how much each victim is worth
Cisco Talos dissected VOLTA, Windows malware that sends stolen data to an AI model and switches to another model if it refuses.
2 sources · Unite.AI, AI Chat DailyPassword vault mSecure reports suspicious activity and leaves customers in the dark about what happened
After 'suspicious activity', users must renew passwords, two-factor authentication and passkeys, while it remains unclear whether their vault was accessed.
2 sources · The Register, Cyber Security NewsEighty serious incidents in a year, and London fears AI-assisted ransomware against vital services within two years
The NCSC counted 80 nationally significant incidents over the past year and is earmarking extra money for defence using AI agents.
2 sources · The Register, Cyber Security NewsScience
All of ScienceIron-bearing traces in a Brazilian dinosaur leg may point to 115-million-year-old blood cells
An Australian team found round structures containing heme residues in the vascular canals of a small predatory dinosaur, but other researchers remain sceptical.
3 sources · VRT NWS, Sci.News, PNASFive days before COP31, Brazil tables two voluntary plans: moving off fossil energy and ending deforestation
Brazil's COP30 presidency has drafted the roadmaps that failed to win consensus in Belém last year; green groups are positive but miss firm end dates.
4 sources · Climate Home News, Al-Monitor, Greenpeace +Europe's Hera probe sees Didymos and Dimorphos as two separate asteroids for the first time
The ESA probe is closing in on the pair that NASA struck with its DART mission in 2022; the first detailed images of Dimorphos are due at the end of November.
2 sources · ESA, ScienceDailySport
All of SportWesterlo and Charleroi mourn Toni Brogno, joint top scorer with 30 goals in 2000
The former striker, capped seven times by the Red Devils, has died aged 53 after a fight against liver cancer.
5 sources · Sporza, RTV, Leuven Actueel +Giro 2027 starts in Trieste with the Mortirolo twice and the Zoncolan, but the Tour looks more tempting for Evenepoel
Organisers in Rome presented a race with seven summit finishes and almost 57 kilometres of time trialling, which Sporza thinks suits the Belgian rider less well than the Tour.
2 sources · Cyclingnews, Sporza