Lait infantile: Danone élargit son rappel, situation sous contrôle en France, selon le gouvernement

Le géant agroalimentaire Danone a annoncé vendredi élargir son rappel de laits infantiles à d’autres marchés après Singapour, alors qu’en France, les autorités ont assuré que tous les lots concernés par une possible contamination d’origine bactérienne avaient été retirés du marché.”Afin de se conformer aux dernières recommandations” de certains pays, “Danone procédera au retrait, sur certains marchés ciblés, d’un nombre très limité de lots spécifiques de laits infantiles”, a indiqué vendredi soir le groupe dans un communiqué.Une source proche du dossier a évoqué “l’évolution de recommandations de certaines autorités, en l’occurrence notamment l’Irlande”. Plusieurs lots de lait infantile commercialisés en France comme à l’international, notamment par Nestlé et Lactalis, ont récemment fait l’objet de rappels en raison de la présence potentielle de céréulide, une toxine produite par certaines bactéries.Danone applique “un principe de précaution maximal, motivé par ces nouvelles recommandations réglementaires”, a ajouté la source proche du dossier.Le groupe assure que “les contrôles de routine et les analyses ciblées supplémentaires” “confirment” que ses produits “sont sûrs et pleinement conformes à l’ensemble des réglementations applicables en matière de sécurité alimentaire”.Mercredi, le titre de Danone a dévissé à la Bourse de Paris, après l’annonce du blocage par l’agence alimentaire de Singapour de quelques palettes de lots de lait Dumex 1er âge.En France, tous les lots de laits infantiles concernés par une possible contamination d’origine bactérienne ont “été retirés” du marché, a assuré vendredi la ministre de la Santé, Stéphanie Rist.Deux enquêtes pénales ont été ouvertes à Bordeaux et Angers après les morts récentes de deux nourrissons ayant consommé un lait infantile rappelé par Nestlé pour cause de “possible contamination” par une substance toxique liée à la bactérie Bacillus Cereus (céréulide), sans “lien de causalité” établi pour l’heure, selon les autorités.S’adressant aux parents qui donnent du lait en poudre à leurs bébés, la ministre a conseillé vendredi de “vérifier” si leurs boîtes de lait avaient été rappelées sur le site “rappel conso”. “Si jamais c’est le cas, il faut la mettre de côté et acheter une autre boîte de lait”, a-t-elle déclaré sur BFMTV.- Condoléances de Nestlé -Nestlé avait engagé le 5 janvier un vaste rappel de laits infantiles des marques Guigoz et Nidal en raison de la présence potentielle de “céréulide” dans ces produits pourtant très contrôlés. Ce composant toxique, produit dans certaines conditions par une famille de bactéries, les Bacillus cereus, peut causer d’importants vomissements dans les heures suivant sa consommation.Si le lien de causalité avec le décès des deux nourrissons n’est pas établi, le géant suisse de l’agroalimentaire a exprimé vendredi ses “plus sincères condoléances aux familles qui sont en deuil”, disant rester “à la disposition des autorités” pour collaborer à l’enquête.Le fabricant de l’huile riche en acide arachidonique (ARA) à l’origine de la présence potentielle de céréulide est le producteur chinois Cabio Biotech, a-t-on appris de sources proches du dossier.Cette entreprise, fondée en 2004 et dont le siège se trouve à Wuhan, est le principal producteur chinois de ce type d’huiles et fournit de nombreux producteurs de lait infantile locaux ou internationaux (Nestlé, Danone, notamment).Après Nestlé, le français Lactalis a aussi annoncé mercredi le lancement d’un vaste rappel de lait infantile dans plusieurs pays dont la France.D’une manière générale, les contrôles de sécurité alimentaire sont particulièrement stricts pour les produits très sensibles comme le lait infantile, selon un point réalisé par l’AFP avec le géant mondial des laboratoires d’analyses, le Français Eurofins.La recherche des bactéries de la famille des Bacillus cereus, est systématiquement proposée mais la céréulide, une toxine produite par certaines souches de Bacillus cereus dans certaines conditions, ne fait pas partie des contrôles classiques.Néanmoins, selon Eurofins, dans le contexte actuel, ce test est en ce moment demandé car l’ensemble des acteurs des produits laitiers en général et des poudres infantiles en particulier se préoccupent de la situation.bur-pan-ito-ned-ngu/jbo/bfi

Europeans among 150 IS detainees transferred from Syria to Iraq

Europeans were among 150 senior Islamic State group detainees transferred this week by the US military from Kurdish custody in Syria to neighbouring Iraq, whose premier urged EU countries to repatriate their nationals.They were among an estimated 7,000 jihadists due to be moved to Iraq as the Kurdish-led force that has held them for years relinquishes swathes of territory to the advancing Syrian army.In 2014, IS swept across Syria and Iraq, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery, but backed by a US-led coalition, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ultimately defeated the jihadists in Syria five years later.This month, the United States said the purpose of its alliance with the Kurds had largely expired, as Syria’s new authorities pressed an offensive to take back territory long held by the SDF, which agreed to withdraw from areas in the north and east.An Iraqi security official said the 150 detainees, who the US military transferred to Iraq on Wednesday, were “all leaders of the Islamic State group, and some of the most notorious criminals”, and included “Europeans, Asians, Arabs and Iraqis”.Another Iraqi security source said the group included “85 Iraqis and 65 others of various nationalities, including Europeans, Sudanese, Somalis and people from the Caucasus region”.They “all participated in IS operations in Iraq”, including the major 2014 offensive that saw the jihadists seize large pieces of territory, he said, adding “are all at the level of emirs” within the group’s hierarchy.They are now held at a prison in Baghdad.- ‘Take responsibility’ -Amnesty International said in a statement Friday that the group of 7,000 slated for transfer “likely includes Syrians, Iraqis & other foreign nationals, and approximately 1,000 boys and young men”.The rights group urged the US to “urgently put in place safeguards before making any further transfers”, and called on Iraq to hold “fair trials, without recourse to the death penalty”.Iraq, where courts have handed down hundreds of sentences of death and life imprisonment to people convicted of terrorism, said it would launch legal proceedings against the transferred detainees. In a telephone call Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani stressed the importance of European countries “assuming their responsibilities” by taking back and prosecuting their nationals.The SDF jailed thousands of suspected jihadists and detained tens of thousands of their relatives in camps as it pushed out IS.In a previous report, Amnesty estimated that around 10,000 IS suspects were held in Kurdish-run prisons as of August 2023.Despite repeated Kurdish and US appeals, foreign governments have generally avoided repatriating their nationals, fearing security threats and political backlash.IS’s onslaught came during the peak of Syria’s civil war, which was sparked by longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on pro-democracy protests.After toppling Assad just over a year ago, President Ahmed al-Sharaa is now seeking to consolidate government control over all of Syria, with tensions between his authorities and the de facto autonomous Kurdish administration recently boiling over into clashes.The army has accused the SDF of releasing IS detainees from the Shadadi prison, while the Kurds said they lost control of the facility after an attack by Damascus.Syrian authorities later said they had arrested “81 of the fugitives”.The EU said Friday that alleged jailbreaks were of “paramount concern”, adding it was monitoring the transfer of prisoners to Iraq, “including foreign terrorist fighters”.In north Syria’s Raqa province, an AFP correspondent saw Kurdish forces who formerly controlled the Al-Aqtan prison for IS detainees being bussed out Friday under a deal with the government.- Al-Hol camp -UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesperson Celine Schmitt said Friday that the agency, accompanied by Syrian government officials, had entered Al-Hol camp — the biggest facility housing relatives of suspected IS members — after “a three-day interruption caused by the volatile security situation”.Kurdish forces withdrew from Al-Hol on Tuesday and the following day Syria’s army entered the camp, where thousands of men, women and children have lived in squalid conditions for years.”The delivery of essential supplies has resumed,” Schmitt said, adding that “trucks carrying bread entered the camp today”.The camp houses some 23,000 people — mostly Syrians but also around 2,200 Iraqis and 6,200 other foreign women and children, according to its former administration.Two former employees of organisations working at the site said an unspecified number of residents fled during an hours-long security vacuum between the SDF withdrawal and the army takeover.After recent clashes, Sharaa announced a deal Sunday with SDF chief Mazloum Abdi on the integration of the Kurds’ administration into the state, which will take responsibility for IS prisoners.A four-day ceasefire agreed on Tuesday after tensions reignited is set to expire on Saturday evening.burs-lg-rh/smw

TikTok in the US goes American, but questions remain

After a long legal saga, TikTok has established a majority American-owned joint venture to operate its US business, deflecting the threat of a ban over its Chinese ownership.Here is a look at the potential consequences of the deal — if any — for users and beyond:- What it means for users -Whether the 200 million users in the United States will notice any difference in their online experience remains unclear. After the deal, users don’t need to download a new app, though they were prompted to accept new terms of service covering “new types of location information” and data usage.At the heart of the ownership drama is TikTok’s powerful algorithm, which US lawmakers feared could be weaponized for data or propaganda by the Chinese government. The new ownership has promised to “retrain” the app’s magic sauce, but how that will affect the user experience is still unknown.TikTok insists that US users will maintain a “global TikTok experience,” meaning US creators can still be discovered internationally and businesses can “operate on a global scale.”However, the US-only algorithm raises questions. “There are still questions of how this new entity will interact with other versions of TikTok globally,” said Jennifer Huddleston of the CATO Institute in Washington. She also wondered about “what influence the US government may have over the algorithm and the free speech concerns that could arise from this new arrangement.”A major investor in the new entity is Larry Ellison, who is also financing his son David’s recent takeover of Paramount and bidding war to take over Warner Bros — potentially giving the family unprecedented power over US media.Creators are watching especially closely, since their popularity and income depend on the algorithm’s mysterious workings. Some have already migrated to other platforms, frustrated or anxious about the political turmoil surrounding the app.- What it means for TikTok -Before President Donald Trump took office, TikTok’s fate in the United States looked bleak. The app was even briefly switched off in its biggest market after exhausting all legal options. The political chaos has likely taken a toll on TikTok, despite Trump ultimately coming to its rescue.”TikTok remains incredibly popular in the US, but it’s facing more competition than ever, particularly from Instagram Reels,” said Emarketer analyst Minda Smiley.The algorithm that took the world by storm five years ago is no longer unique. Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts now offer similar experiences, retaining engagement and attracting advertisers at comparable scale.According to Emarketer, while US TikTok users still spend more time on the app than on other social networks, that time is declining each year, “signaling that the app is struggling to keep users hooked in the way it once did.”- What it means for national security -The divestment may have satisfied the Trump administration, but whether it will satisfy the lawmakers who passed the divest-or-ban law remains to be seen, warned University of Florida media professor Andrew Selepak.”The TikTok deal has improved the privacy of exactly no one and has done nothing to improve national security,” said Kate Ruane of the Washington-based Center for Democracy & Technology.ByteDance now owns just under 20 percent of the company, with the rest spread across several mainly US companies. However, John Moolenaar, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has vowed to conduct full oversight of the agreement, signaling potential trouble ahead.TikTok says key functions like e-commerce and marketing will remain tied to the global entity and that could be problematic.”I don’t know how you could accomplish e-commerce and not take data from me as an American user,” Selepak said.For Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond School of Law, “It seems like Trump has just eclipsed whatever Congress might have intended in terms of national security.”

TikTok in the US goes American, but questions remain

After a long legal saga, TikTok has established a majority American-owned joint venture to operate its US business, deflecting the threat of a ban over its Chinese ownership.Here is a look at the potential consequences of the deal — if any — for users and beyond:- What it means for users -Whether the 200 million users in the United States will notice any difference in their online experience remains unclear. After the deal, users don’t need to download a new app, though they were prompted to accept new terms of service covering “new types of location information” and data usage.At the heart of the ownership drama is TikTok’s powerful algorithm, which US lawmakers feared could be weaponized for data or propaganda by the Chinese government. The new ownership has promised to “retrain” the app’s magic sauce, but how that will affect the user experience is still unknown.TikTok insists that US users will maintain a “global TikTok experience,” meaning US creators can still be discovered internationally and businesses can “operate on a global scale.”However, the US-only algorithm raises questions. “There are still questions of how this new entity will interact with other versions of TikTok globally,” said Jennifer Huddleston of the CATO Institute in Washington. She also wondered about “what influence the US government may have over the algorithm and the free speech concerns that could arise from this new arrangement.”A major investor in the new entity is Larry Ellison, who is also financing his son David’s recent takeover of Paramount and bidding war to take over Warner Bros — potentially giving the family unprecedented power over US media.Creators are watching especially closely, since their popularity and income depend on the algorithm’s mysterious workings. Some have already migrated to other platforms, frustrated or anxious about the political turmoil surrounding the app.- What it means for TikTok -Before President Donald Trump took office, TikTok’s fate in the United States looked bleak. The app was even briefly switched off in its biggest market after exhausting all legal options. The political chaos has likely taken a toll on TikTok, despite Trump ultimately coming to its rescue.”TikTok remains incredibly popular in the US, but it’s facing more competition than ever, particularly from Instagram Reels,” said Emarketer analyst Minda Smiley.The algorithm that took the world by storm five years ago is no longer unique. Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts now offer similar experiences, retaining engagement and attracting advertisers at comparable scale.According to Emarketer, while US TikTok users still spend more time on the app than on other social networks, that time is declining each year, “signaling that the app is struggling to keep users hooked in the way it once did.”- What it means for national security -The divestment may have satisfied the Trump administration, but whether it will satisfy the lawmakers who passed the divest-or-ban law remains to be seen, warned University of Florida media professor Andrew Selepak.”The TikTok deal has improved the privacy of exactly no one and has done nothing to improve national security,” said Kate Ruane of the Washington-based Center for Democracy & Technology.ByteDance now owns just under 20 percent of the company, with the rest spread across several mainly US companies. However, John Moolenaar, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has vowed to conduct full oversight of the agreement, signaling potential trouble ahead.TikTok says key functions like e-commerce and marketing will remain tied to the global entity and that could be problematic.”I don’t know how you could accomplish e-commerce and not take data from me as an American user,” Selepak said.For Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond School of Law, “It seems like Trump has just eclipsed whatever Congress might have intended in terms of national security.”

Fury grows over five-year-old’s detention in US immigration crackdown

US federal officials struggled Friday to quell growing outrage over the detention of a five-year-old boy in a massive immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, as businesses in the city shut down in protest at the ongoing raids.The superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, where Liam Conejo Ramos was a preschool student, said the child and his Ecuadoran father, Adrian Conejo Arias — both asylum seekers — were taken from their driveway as they arrived home. Ramos was then used as “bait” by immigration officers to knock on the door of his home to draw out those inside, Zena Stenvik added.Thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been deployed to the Democratic-led city, as President Donald Trump presses his campaign to deport illegal immigrants across the country.In defiant comments Thursday, Vice President JD Vance confirmed Ramos was among those detained, but argued that agents were protecting him after his father “ran” from officers.”What are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a five-year-old child freeze to death?” he said.The UN rights chief Volker Turk called on US authorities to end the “dehumanizing portrayal and harmful treatment of migrants and refugees.”Democratic congressman Joaquin Castro, whose constituency includes a San Antonio ICE detention center to which it was thought Ramos was taken, rejected Vance’s explanation.”My staff and I have been trying to figure out his whereabouts, make sure he’s safe, and also to demand his release by ICE,” he wrote on X.Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino defended his officers’ treatment of Ramos, telling reporters Friday: “I will say unequivocally that we are experts in dealing with children.”ICE commander Marcos Charles said Friday “my officers did everything they could to reunite him with his family” and alleged that Ramos’s family refused to open the door to him after his father left him and ran from officers.Ramos and his father were at a “family residential center pending their immigration proceedings,” he added after alleging they entered the United States illegally and were “deportable.”Charles claimed that “agitators” with shields had gathered outside the federal facility where he was speaking, a flashpoint for anti-ICE protests.The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office said dispersal orders were issued for an “unlawful protest.”Ramos’s teacher, whose name was given as Ella, called him “a bright young student.” “All I want is for him to be back here and safe,” she said in a statement Wednesday. Calls for a day of action against ICE and a general strike have been gaining traction on social media, with a demonstration expected in downtown Minneapolis on Friday.Anti-Trump group Indivisible Twin Cities called for a day of “No work. No school. No shopping” as part of a broader anti-ICE protest across the state that will include a march through downtown Minneapolis ending at the Target Center arena.Hundreds of shops, eateries and attractions closed their doors, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.Separately, protesters picketed outside Minneapolis St. Paul airport over the facility’s use for deporting those swept up in immigration raids, with organizers reporting 100 arrests.- ‘Just a baby’ -Former US vice president Kamala Harris said she was “outraged” by Ramos’s detention and called him “just a baby.”Ramos is one of at least four children detained in the same Minneapolis school district this month, local administrators said.Minneapolis has been rocked by increasingly tense protests since federal agents shot and killed US citizen Renee Good on January 7.An autopsy concluded that killing was a homicide, a classification that does not automatically mean a crime was committed. Three activists were charged with disrupting a Sunday church service with a protest accusing a pastor of working for ICE.The officer who fired the shots that killed Good, Jonathan Ross, has neither been suspended nor charged. Marc Prokosch, the lawyer for Ramos and his father, said they followed the law in applying for asylum in Minneapolis, which is a sanctuary city where police do not cooperate with federal immigration.Children have long been caught up in federal immigration enforcement, under both Republican and Democratic administrations.Minnesota has sought a temporary restraining order for the ICE operation in the state which, if granted by a federal judge, would pause the sweeps. There will be a hearing on the application Monday.

Snow and ice storm set to sweep US

A massive winter storm was set to drop a mix of freezing rain and heavy snow on some 160 million Americans starting Friday, threatening to bring dangerously icy conditions.Multiple US states declared states of emergency as meteorologists said the storm would soon begin marching across much of the continental US, covering a wide swath of the country’s middle including the Rockies and Plains.It could bring “catastrophic ice accumulation,” the National Weather Service said, and could result in “long-duration power outages, extensive tree damage, and extremely dangerous or impassable travel conditions,” including in many states less accustomed to intense winter weather.The storm was expected to linger for days, shifting into the heavily populated mid-Atlantic and northeastern states while crippling daily life and ushering in a frigid air mass across the country.More than 1,800 weekend flights have already been cancelled, according to the tracker Flightaware, including many in Texas. State officials there vowed the grid that failed during a deadly winter storm five years ago and left millions without power was now better prepared.The southern state’s Republican Governor Greg Abbott told journalists Thursday the grid “has never been stronger, never been more prepared and is fully capable of handling this winter storm.”Civil and environmental engineering professor Daniel Cohan of Rice University told AFP the system was indeed better winterized than it was in 2021, and that the state also has added solar production and storage since then.The electricity authority “should have plenty of power to go around this time,” Cohan said.Warming centers were set to open in the Houston area Saturday afternoon.- Extreme cold -In New York state, Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul warned of extreme cold that could make even short trips outdoors dangerous.She emphasized risks ranging from hypothermia to heart attacks while shoveling, stressing precautions like protecting pipes, using heaters safely, and checking on vulnerable neighbors. “Five or six minutes outside could literally be dangerous for your health,” she said, adding that emergency crews were fully mobilized.New York’s Zohran Mamdani was meanwhile set to face his first major test as mayor — the city famously makes early judgments of newly elected leaders based on ability to keep congested streets clear.Speaking to local television Friday, Democrat Mamdani said he was not planning to close schools Monday and that remote learning was an option — even as one student emailed the mayor’s wife and spelled out a case for a snow day.”She thought it was a good argument,” an unconvinced Mamdani chuckled.The storm is set to usher in frigid temperatures and dangerous winds that could last a week in some areas. Parts of the Upper Midwest were already experiencing wind chills forecast to hit in the range of -55F (-48C), bitter temperatures that can cause frostbite within minutes.- Polar vortex -The brutal storm system is the result of a stretched polar vortex, an Arctic region of cold, low-pressure air that normally forms a relatively compact, circular system but sometimes morphs into a more oval shape, sending cold air spilling across North America.Scientists say the increasing frequency of such disruptions of the polar vortex may be linked to climate change, though the debate is not yet settled and natural variability also plays a role.But President Donald Trump — who scoffs at climate change science and has rolled back green energy policies — wasted no time in questioning how the cold front fit into broader climate shifts.”Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain — WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING???,” the Republican leader posted on his platform Truth Social.State officials were more focused on the immediate threats the powerful storm posed to residents, with at least 14 states from the south to the northeast as well as Washington DC declaring states of emergency.Political leaders across the country were encouraging people to stock up on food and dry goods, prepare first aid and supply kits and keep their vehicle gas tanks full to prevent fuel lines from freezing.In Magnolia, a municipality north of Houston, one supermarket was close to running out of bottled water as Texans bought them out.Anne Schultz said she wasn’t particularly fearful, but that preparation was still important.”If the power stays on, we should all be fine,” the 68-year-old told AFP.

Enquête ouverte pour suspicion de nouvelles violences policières à Paris

L’Inspection générale de la police nationale (IGPN), la “police des polices”, a été saisie d’une enquête visant des membres des forces de l’ordre filmés en train de molester un homme à Paris, dans une vidéo devenue virale, a indiqué vendredi le parquet de Paris.Cette procédure intervient quelques jours seulement après une autre affaire de mort suspecte survenue dans un commissariat parisien.Le ministre de l’Intérieur, Laurent Nuñez, a en outre demandé à la préfecture de police (PP) de Paris d’ouvrir une enquête administrative, a expliqué son entourage à l’AFP.Le parquet, confirmant des informations du Parisien, fait état de la diffusion sur les réseaux sociaux “d’une vidéo montrant une interpellation, possiblement survenue le 19 janvier rue Bichat (10e arrondissement de Paris, NDLR), au cours de laquelle des policiers sont vus porter des coups de matraque”.Sur ces images, un homme apparaît encerclé par trois policiers, recevant des coups de matraque de la tête aux jambes, avant d’être plaqué contre le capot d’un véhicule marqué “Police”. Les coups, portés par le même fonctionnaire, se poursuivent alors qu’un autre policier lui assène un coup de poing au visage.L’homme interpellé est ensuite tiré par les cheveux par l’un des policiers, qui lui intime de partir. On entend distinctement les mots “Dégage!” et “kebab sur pattes!”, semblant provenir des policiers, tandis que l’homme s’enfuit en courant. La section de protection des libertés fondamentales du parquet de Paris a saisi l’IGPN afin qu’elle mène les investigations, précise le parquet.”Les images de cette vidéo ne sont pas acceptables”, a déclaré la préfecture de police de Paris à l’AFP, avant de rappeler que “ces faits ont eu lieu dans un contexte d’émeutes”.Selon la PP, cette interpellation a eu lieu après un rassemblement “non déclaré” et “initialement calme” qui a réuni lundi 400 personnes place de la République en soutien à la communauté kurde du Rojava en Syrie. Les forces de l’ordre ont dû intervenir après des débordements et des jets de projectiles, a ajouté la PP. Au total, il y a eu cinq interpellations et six policiers légèrement blessés.Cette affaire survient dans un contexte déjà tendu. Lundi, le parquet de Paris a annoncé l’ouverture d’une information judiciaire pour violences volontaires par personne dépositaire de l’autorité publique ayant entraîné la mort, après le décès en garde à vue d’un Mauritanien de 35 ans dans un commissariat de la capitale, survenu un peu plus d’une semaine auparavant.Un juge d’instruction est désormais chargé d’enquêter sur les circonstances du décès d’El Hacen Diarra, mort dans la nuit du 14 au 15 janvier au commissariat du 20e arrondissement. Sa famille dénonce des violences policières.Une vidéo filmée par des voisins lors de son interpellation, devant le foyer de travailleurs migrants où il résidait, a circulé sur les réseaux sociaux. On y voit deux policiers, dont l’un, agenouillé, porter deux coups de poing à un homme maintenu au sol. Selon une analyse sonore réalisée par la famille du défunt, on entend également El Hacen Diarra crier: “Vous m’étranglez!”.