Sainsbury’s recalls two own-brand hummus varieties over E coli fears

Sainsbury’s has recalled two varieties of its own-brand hummus over fears they may contain a deadly strain of E coli, advising customers who have bought the products not to eat them.The affected items are 315g containers of JS Classic Houmous, with a use-by date of 13 September, and 200g tubs of JS Lemon & Coriander Houmous with a use-by date of 14 September.The Food Standards Agency said the affected batches could contain shiga toxin-producing E coli (Stec), and that the items had been recalled as a precaution.Point of sale notices will be displayed in all stores selling the products until 3 October, explaining to customers why they have been recalled and what to do if they have already bought them.Sainsbury’s apologised to customers for any inconvenience and advised them not to eat the affected products

AstraZeneca pauses £200m investment in Cambridge research site

The drugmaker AstraZeneca has paused a planned £200m expansion of its Cambridge research site, completing a depressing week for the UK pharmaceutical industry.The decision by the UK’s largest company means none of its much-trumpeted £650m investment package in the UK – which was originally announced in March 2024 – is proceeding.The now stalled £200m Cambridge project had been expected to create 1,000 jobs. In January, AstraZeneca scrapped plans to invest £450m in its vaccine manufacturing facility in Speke, Merseyside, citing a cut in government support, after months of negotiations.An AstraZeneca spokesperson said on Friday: “We constantly reassess the investment needs of our company and can confirm our expansion in Cambridge is paused

AI content needs to be labelled to protect us | Letters

Marcus Beard’s article on artificial intelligence slopaganda (No, that wasn’t Angela Rayner dancing and rapping: you’ll need to understand AI slopaganda, 9 September) highlights a growing problem – what happens when we no longer know what is true? What will the erosion of trust do to our society?The rise of deepfakes is increasing at an ever faster rate due to the ease at which anyone can create realistic images, audio and even video. Generative AI models have now become so sophisticated that a recent survey showed that less than 1% of respondents could correctly identify the best deepfake images and videos.This content is being used to manipulate, defraud, abuse and mislead people. Fraud using AI cost the US $12.3bn in 2023 and Deloitte predicts that could reach $40bn by 2027

ChatGPT may start alerting authorities about youngsters considering suicide, says CEO

The company behind ChatGPT could start calling the authorities when young users talk seriously about suicide, its co-founder has said.Sam Altman raised fears that as many as 1,500 people a week could be discussing taking their own lives with the chatbot before doing so.The chief executive of San Francisco-based OpenAI, which operates the chatbot with an estimated 700 million global users, said the decision to train the system so the authorities were alerted in such emergencies was not yet final. But he said it was “very reasonable for us to say in cases of, young people talking about suicide, seriously, where we cannot get in touch with the parents, we do call authorities”.Altman highlighted the possible change in an interview with the podcaster Tucker Carlson on Wednesday, which came after OpenAI and Altman were sued by the family of Adam Raine, a 16-year-old from California who killed himself after what his family’s lawyer called “months of encouragement from ChatGPT”

Ruthless New Zealand machine an ominous obstacle on England’s horizon | Andy Bull

The Black Ferns were slow leaving the pitch at half-time, but very quick coming back on to it once the break was over. With 40 minutes to play, the scores tied 10-10, and a spot in the semi-finals on the line, the New Zealand captain Ruahei Demant pulled her team into a huddle, while the Springboks trotted past them and in to the changing rooms at Sandy Park.The team talk, according to player-of-the-match Kaipo Olsen-Baker, was only three letters long: “AFD” which, Olsen-Baker just stopped herself from blurting out during a live TV interview afterwards, means “all fucking day”. They scored three tries in the next seven minutes play.The Red Roses may be the most successful team in any sport, but the question hanging over this past fortnight of the World Cup is whether they are the best in their own sport

Sophie de Goede shines in Canada’s formidable win over Australia

Expansive attacking rugby? Tick. Pick and go tries? Tick. Impressive defence and holding up tries? Tick. Canada’s performance underlined why they are among the tournament favourites and had everything to set up a tasty semi-final against New Zealand, the defending champions, on Friday.The wing Alysha Corrigan was a bright spark, scoring twice, as was Karen Paquin, while the ever-dependable Sophie de Goede, who was playing in her seventh game back after recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament injury, had one of her best matches for the side she used to captain