Daily News Roundup

Wednesday, March 14

Russia has issued a chilling warning after Britain gave it a deadline to answer accusations of involvement in a poisoning attack in Salisbury, but US and EU allies have expressed support for Britain condemning the attack.

Prime Minister Theresa May gave Russia until midnight on Tuesday to explain how a Soviet-era nerve agent was used against a former Russian double agent.

Speaking in an interview on state television, foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned: “One should not threaten a nuclear power.”

Ms May, who said on Monday it was “highly likely” Russia was behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, won support from some of Britain’s main European allies and the European Union which denounced the attack as “shocking” and offered help to track down those responsible.

Ms Zakharova also warned against any possible suspension of Russian broadcaster Russia Today (RT).

“Not a single British media outlet will work in our country if they shut down Russia Today,” she said in the broadcast.

US President Donald Trump said he would condemn Russia if British evidence incriminated Moscow in Mr Skripal’s death.

In a telephone call with Ms May on Tuesday, he said he was with Britain “all the way”, according to a statement from Ms May’s office.

France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s new coalition also expressed solidarity as the UK headed into a showdown with Mr Putin.

Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of the US-led NATO alliance, said the attack was “horrendous”.

Russia, however, signalled little likelihood it would respond adequately to London’s call for a credible explanation by the deadline.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Mr Trump acknowledged the British charges of involvement against Russia, but said he needed to talk to Ms May before rendering a judgment.

“As soon as we get the facts straight, if we agree with them, we will condemn Russia or whoever it may be,” said Mr Trump, who earlier fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson after a series of policy rifts, said.

###

The humble sausage in bread with tomato sauce could be putting Aussies’ health at risk as it contains almost half an adult’s daily recommended salt intake in one hit, new research reveals, AAP reports.

More than 100 processed meats from sausages, ham to bacon from Australia’s major supermarkets were compared for their salt content in the research by The George Institute for Global Health, VicHealth and the Heart Foundation.

Australians eat about 1.1 billion sausages each year containing 1500 tonnes of salt.

Report lead author and nutritionist Clare Farrand said some sausages contained 2g of salt per serving which was almost 80 percent of a person’s total daily salt intake.

Heart Foundation Victoria dietitian Sian Armstrong said there had been a drop in the salt in bacon and sliced meat products – but not sausages.

“It’s a massive concern that in almost a decade there’s been no change to the salt levels in sausages. The average Aussie eats 44 sausages a year totalling 16 teaspoons of salt,” she said.

“Excess salt is directly linked to high blood pressure, which increases the risk of heart attack, kidney disease and stroke.”

VicHealth chief executive Jerril Rechter said it was time to rethink what we eat, and called on manufacturers to reduce the amount of salt in their products.

“Ultimately it shouldn’t be left totally up to the consumer to make healthy choices. We want to see manufacturers committing to reformulating their processed meats to have less salt – it can be done,” she said.

####

South-east Queensland residents are bracing for gale-force winds, abnormally high tides and dangerous surf conditions as a category one cyclone moves closer to the coast today.

Tropical Cyclone Linda developed from a tropical low in the Coral Sea about 3:00pm AEST on Tuesday, despite the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) earlier saying a cyclone system was unlikely.

Senior Forecaster Rick Threlfall says Cyclone Linda has been weakening overnight and is expected to be downgraded later this morning — but it’ll still pack a punch.

“So I don’t think it’s going to stay as a cyclone for too much longer, probably only a few more hours, before it transitions into what we call a subtropical low,” he said.

“So it’s still a low pressure system later on today and it’s certainly still going to have quite significant impacts so we still have the severe weather warnings out.

“We’re looking at dangerous surf, quite a big east to south-easterly swell building up through today with a lot of wave action on top of that so we could see wave heights getting up to 3 or 4 metres.”