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Rat poison was found inside a jar of HiPP baby food, Austrian police said late on Saturday after the product was recalled from 1,500 SPAR supermarkets in the country over safety fears. A statement from police in Burgenland said that a sample from one of the 190-gram jars of carrot with potato baby food reported by a customer in the Eisenstadt-Umgebung district had tested positive for rat poison. HiPP had said on Saturday that it could not be ruled out that a dangerous substance was introduced into the product and that its HiPP Vegetable Carrot with Potato jars may have been tampered with.Consuming the contents could be life-threatening, HiPP said. The police statement said the affected jars had a sticker with a red circle on the bottom of the jar and a lid that had already been opened or damaged or missing a safety seal, or had an unusual smell.They said initial lab tests on similar jars seized by police in the Czech Republic and Slovakia showed the presence of a toxic substance. The statement gave no further details. HiPP confirmed to Reuters on Sunday that the jars did contain rat poison and that affected retail partners in both countries immediately removed all HiPP baby food jars from sale as a precautionary measure.The police also said that authorities in Austria were warned about the risk after investigations in Germany. They provided no further details. “Products and distribution channels in Germany or other European countries that are not part of the investigations are not affected,” HiPP said.HiPP said on Saturday: “According to our current knowledge, this critical situation involves an external criminal interference that affects the SPAR Austria distribution channel.” SPAR Austria said on Sunday that it had removed the HiPP products in all countries where it runs businesses, including Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia and Northern Italy. SPAR stores in other countries are not part of SPAR Austria, it added. SPAR and HiPP advised customers not to consume the contents of the jars bought from SPAR Austria. They said customers would receive a full refund on returned products. Police advised customers to wash hands thoroughly if they came into contact with a jar. The Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety said that medical help must be sought immediately if babies consumed the contaminated baby food. Source link
US President Donald Trump said yesterday that a US destroyer ship fired on and seized an Iranian-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman that tried to evade a US naval blockade. Trump posted on Truth Social that after the Iranian vessel, Touska, ignored warnings to stop, the guided missile destroyer USS Spruance “stopped them right in their tracks by blowing a hole in the engine room.”“Right now, US Marines have custody of the vessel,” the US president added, “and are seeing what’s on board!” The incident comes with tensions high in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital conduit for the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, which has been virtually closed since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran seven weeks ago. Iran briefly reopened the strait on Friday in recognition of an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire in Lebanon, but closed it again the following day in response to the US maintaining its blockade on ships travelling to and from Iranian ports. Trump said the Touska is under US Treasury sanctions “because of prior history of illegal activity.” The Touska is listed on the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control website as an Iranian-flagged container under US sanctions. According to the latest data available from the Marine Traffic website, about six hours before Trump’s announcement the Touska was about 45 kilometres (28 miles) off the southern coast of Iran, near the city of Chabahar. Another ship monitoring site, Tanker Tracker, said the Touska had sailed from Malaysia. Source link
Hoardings are mounted on lamp posts as Pakistan prepared Monday to host the US and Iran for a possible second phase of peace talks in Islamabad.…
US space company Blue Origin announced that its heavy rocket ‘New Glenn’ launched a satellite and placed it in an unplanned orbit during its third launch, indicating that the circumstances are still under investigation.The company said that it is currently evaluating the situation and will provide more information when additional details become available, stressing that work is continuing to analyze flight data.The rocket launched as planned from Cape Canaveral Station in Florida, marking the first time that a former flight booster has been reused, as the booster was able to successfully land on a platform in the Atlantic Ocean after separation, but the BlueBird 7 satellite was placed in orbit lower than Target orbit.The ‘New Glenn’ arrived in space on its first flight in Jan. 2025, and while on its second mission about 10 months later, it carried two vehicles belonging to the US Space and Aviation Agency (NASA). Source link
US Vice President JD Vance will lead the US delegation for talks with Iran in Pakistan, a White House official said Sunday — shortly after President Donald Trump said he would not make the trip.Early in the day, Trump announced he was sending negotiators to Islamabad for meetings with Tehran about ending the conflict that has raged in the Middle East, with a ceasefire soon set to expire.The president however said Vance — who led the last round of talks with Tehran in Islamabad, but came away with no deal — would not make the trip, citing security concerns.”It’s only because of security,” Trump told ABC News. “JD’s great.”But the White House quickly flipped the script, when asked about those comments.Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will attend the talks, a White House official told AFP on condition of anonymity.The trio were on hand last time around on April 11-12. Related Story Source link
Results from the first round of Peru’s presidential election won’t be released until mid-May, an official said Saturday, after a chaotic vote leading to what appeared to be a tight race. “We expect to have the presidential results, which is what we need to determine the runoff candidates, by around mid-May,” said Yessica Clavijo, secretary-general of the National Jury of Elections (JNE) — Peru’s highest electoral justice authority — on radio broadcaster RPP. With 93.4% of ballots counted from last Sunday’s election, right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori was leading with 17%. The top two candidates go to a runoff election, and a close race has emerged for a spot in the next round between leftist Roberto Sanchez, who received 12% of the vote, and ultra-conservative Rafael Lopez Aliaga, with 11.9%. The gap between the two increased slightly Saturday to 13,600 votes. Clavijo attributed the slow vote count to the review of more than 15,000 challenged ballots, about 30% of which involve the presidential vote and the remainder related to legislative elections. Lopez Aliaga, the former mayor of capital Lima, has emerged as the harshest critic of the vote’s delays. He has alleged fraud, without providing evidence, and called for the vote to be annulled. He called on supporters of his Popular Renewal Party to march on Sunday in protest. Sanchez, for his part, also criticised the vote, telling a press conference Saturday: “These serious organisational issues must be investigated and there must be appropriate sanctions.” A record 35 candidates ran for president in the chronically unstable Andean nation, where four of the last eight presidents were impeached by Congress. The election was marked by delays in the delivery of election materials that forced authorities to extend voting into Monday in parts of the capital Lima. The European Union’s election observer mission nonetheless gave the election a clean bill of health. On Friday, prosecutors raided a warehouse of the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE), which organises the vote, and four officials have been reported to JNE for alleged crimes against the right to vote. Source link
Robert Downey Jr attends the 12th Breakthrough Prize ceremony gala in Santa Monica, California. (Reuters) Big names from the worlds of film, technology, music and sports gathered on Saturday in Santa Monica, California for the Breakthrough Prizes, popularly known as the “Oscars of Science.” The awards, co-founded by philanthropists and tech entrepreneurs, recognise the research achievements of leading scientists around the world in three broad categories: Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics and Mathematics. “These are some of the most heroic and inspiring people we get in the world,” actor Edward Norton told AFP. According to the American History X star, it was important to turn out and “to highlight what this kind of work contributes to all of us.” “The US has the most anti-science administration in US history,” the actor said. “It’s always important, but if it was ever especially important, the moment is now.” In the last year, the Trump administration has slashed funding for science, halting projects and devastating workforces. Rock climber Alex Honnold agreed with Norton, adding that he hoped the fluctuations “of the political climate… are short-term compared to the long-term effort required to make these kind of gains in human knowledge.” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the collaboration between his company’s artificial intelligence technology and some of the award-winning scientists “is moving things faster and faster, and letting them discover new things and bring them to the world faster than they could before.” “Change this fast is really disorienting. So there will be a lot of big questions that we’ll have to sort through as a society,” Altman told AFP. The Breakthrough Foundation was started by Google co-founder Sergey Brin; Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan; science patrons Julia and Yuri Milner; and Anne Wojcicki, CEO of 23andMe. Six prizes worth $3mn each were presented at the 12th edition of the awards. French mathematician Frank Merle was honoured for his work on nonlinear equations describing the behaviour of waves, fluids and other systems. Merle told AFP the funding is “essential” for science. “Science is one of the foundations of our civilisation,” he said. Hollywood A-listers Ben Affleck, Lily Collins, Robert Downey Jr., Gigi Hadid, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Naomi Watts and her husband, Billy Crudup, also attended the event, alongside public figures like Bill Gates and Paris Hilton. Source link
Prime Minister Mark Carney waiting for Finland’s President Alexander Stubb in Ottawa, Ontario. (Reuters/File Photo) Canada’s close ties to the US were once a strength but have become a weakness, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday, in a video message to his country in which he also praised the heroism of military leaders who fought against US invasion more than two centuries ago. Holding up a small toy soldier depiction of General Isaac Brock, the British military leader who died defending what is now Canada from a US invasion in the War of 1812, Carney said Canada can’t control the disruption coming from its US neighbours, and can’t bet its future on the hope that it will suddenly stop. “The situation today feels unique, but we’ve faced down threats like this before,” Carney said, referencing Brock and several other Canadian historical figures, including Chief Tecumseh who united Indigenous Nations across the Great Lakes to resist US expansion in 1812. Carney, who secured a parliamentary majority for his Liberal government last week, has said his electoral win will help him deal more effectively in the trade war started by US President Donald Trump. US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick slammed Canada as a difficult trading partner last week. Canada, which sends almost 70% of its exports to the US, is this year due to review the trilateral US-Mexico-Canada free trade treaty. US officials have suggested they want major changes to the pact. As well as imposing tariffs on Canadian exports such as steel, aluminium and autos, Trump has repeatedly mused about annexing Canada and turning it into the 51st US state. Carney’s office did not immediately respond to questions about why he had released the video now and why he had praised figures who resisted US expansionism. Carney said he plans to give regular addresses to Canadians in the weeks and months ahead to update them on what his government is doing to grow Canada’s economy and defend its sovereignty. “It’s our country, it’s our future, we are taking back control,” he said. Related Story Source link
From reforming the UN Security Council to taxing billionaires, thousands of leftists gathered in Barcelona over the weekend to brainstorm ways to halt the rise of authoritarianism and win back voters who have drifted rightwards.The gathering, which drew more than 6,000 people from over 40 countries, comes as far-right and nationalist forces have gained ground globally, eclipsing the left with messaging that pins cost-of-living concerns on immigration, outdated institutions and out-of-touch political elites.Spearheaded by Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, whose outspoken opposition to US President Trump’s foreign policy has boosted his image, the summit was buoyed by hopes that the far-right surge may have peaked, with Trump’s polling numbers falling, Hungary’s Victor Orban ousted after 16 years in government and the French far-right underperforming in last month’s municipal elections.Leaders including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rallied the crowd with calls to reform international organisations and cement new left-leaning alliances, as the shadow of Trump’s attacks on multilateral institutions loomed large.”To be progressive is to defend a reformed multilateralism, where the rules work for everyone,” said Lula da Silva, addressing a packed closing plenary of supporters waving red flags, sporting ‘Make Science Great Again’ caps and periodically chanting Spanish anti-fascist anthems.Left-wing parties hoping for a resurgence need to address kitchen table issues such as the cost of living, said Marcus Roberts, CEO of political strategy consultancy Mandate Research.A 30-country Ipsos survey published last month showed voters were far more worried about unemployment, inflation, poverty and inequality than the rise of extremism or moral decline.Indeed, anger at rising fuel prices due to the war in the Middle East has seen Trump’s approval ratings tank, polls show, in what Democrat strategists have described as a window of opportunity to make convincing arguments on the economy ahead of midterm elections in November.Economist Gabriel Zucman took the stage to advocate for higher wealth taxes on millionaires and billionaires, a policy which is hugely popular in polls across Europe and the US but was rejected by lawmakers in his native France.”It’s hard for people who can’t afford eggs to be concerned about democracy,” said Neera Tanden, former advisor in Joe Biden, Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama’s administrations and director of the Center for American Progress think tank.Isabel Allende, former Senate president of Chile and daughter of Salvador Allende, Latin America’s first Marxist leader who was ousted in 1973 by a US-led military coup, warned that the left had become disconnected from citizens’ concerns.”It’s unimaginable to fight against the right if we can’t get closer to ordinary people,” she said.Attendees returning from the Spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank said discussions in Barcelona reflected a similar urgency for reforming the balance of power in global institutions, though specifics on what would come next remained unclear.”The institutions are still standing but the logic inside them is shifting,” said Mariana Mazzucato, a professor of economics advising governments and policymakers on how states can use public investment to foster growth.”Trump is accelerating the crisis of the old order… but if progressives do not offer a credible alternative framework, someone else will fill that vacuum,” she said.Studies like Freedom House’s “Freedom in the World” index show the number of authoritarian governments swelling in the past two decades, as a rise in conflicts, coups, and crackdowns on freedoms has coincided with a pivot away from foreign aid programs by wealthy democracies, whose populaces have grown weary of sending funding abroad while facing cost-of-living challenges at home.While organisers were adamant the event, hosted by several left-wing political networks and Spain’s Socialist Party, was not a mobilisation against Trump, they also said the left could not afford to sit tight and wait for a new US administration, with many echoing Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s call for “middle powers” to coalesce.”Trump has become a symbol for the extreme right. But this is about social democrats coming together. The fact that US Democrats are so well represented is a first and shows that this movement is growing,” Lars Klingbeil, vice-chancellor of Germany and head of the German Social Democrats, told reporters on the sidelines.The American left and centre-left featured heavily in the closing plenary of the two-day gathering, with former vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz urging crowds not to give up on Democrats and voices from Bernie Sanders to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Hilary Clinton sending video messages in support.”The reality is that the tools that the right wing are using to try to destroy our democracy are similar from country to country,” US Democratic Senator and Foreign Relations Committee member Chris Murphy said in an interview with Reuters.”We need to share experiences to understand how we can fight back,” he said. Related Story Source link
Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles (left) and Japan’s Minister of Defense Koizumi Shinjiro shake hands during a Defence Ministers’ Meeting at…