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LE JOURNAL DU DIMANCHE
Le Journal du Dimanche is a weekly newspaper that comes out Sunday, a day in which no major French dailies are published. Also known as JDD, the paper was founded in 1948 and is currently owned by Lagardere Group. An earlier version of a paper with the same name existed for several decades beginning in 1855.
Thousands of people demonstrate against abortion in Spain
Society
Lisa Berdet, Lila Paulou and Shaun Lavelle

End Of Roe v. Wade: Will It Spark Anti-Abortion Momentum Around The World?

Anti-abortion activists celebrated the end of the U.S. right to abortion, hoping it will trigger a new debate on a topic that in some places had largely been settled: in favor a woman’s right to choose. But it could also boomerang.

The Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling establishing a constitutional right to abortion put the United States at the forefront of abortion rights in the world.

Other countries would follow suit in the succeeding years, with France legalizing abortion in 1975, Italy in 1978, and Ireland finally joining most of the rest of Europe with a landslide 2018 referendum victory for women’s right to choose. Elsewhere, parts of Asia and Africa have made incremental steps toward legalizing abortion, while a growing number of Latin American countries have joined what has now been a decades-long worldwide shift toward more access to abortion rights.

But now, 49 years later, with last Friday’s landmark overturning of Roe v. Wade, will the U.S. once again prove to be ahead of the curve? Will American cultural and political influence carry across borders on the abortion issue, reversing the momentum of recent years?

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Meat and seafood stalls at the North Point Wet Market in Hong Kong.
Geopolitics

COVID-19, The Weight Of The Animal Factor

Preventing an epidemic like the coronavirus doesn't just require a robust human healthcare system, it also demands a full rethinking of our relationship with the animal kingdom. Just a few examples of what we need: a crackdown on the illicit "wet markets"" trade of exotic animals, where the virus may have originated; veterinary medicine needs to be taken more seriously; and the entire meat industry needs an overhaul to prevent the spread of diseases even more dangerous than COVID-19, which could happen sooner than we think.


Almost all infectious diseases are "zoonotic," meaning they were transmitted to humans from animals. The vectors of these viruses aren't necessarily victims of illegal commerce: While SARS was born in a wet market, mad cow disease came from infected livestock in perfectly legal UK farms. Today, the widespread use of antibiotics in the animal agriculture industry to fatten up livestock and prevent the spread of diseases in factory farms has created a serious risk of bacteria evolving to resist antibiotics.


Three researchers and activists recently lamented this scary state of affairs in The Guardian: "Oddly, many people who would never challenge the reality of climate change refuse to acknowledge the role meat-eating plays in endangering public health. Eating meat, it seems, is a socially acceptable form of science denial."


In the meantime, what can be done for this outbreak? A good starting point would be recognizing the importance of animal health. The momentum is already starting, as more than 100 animal rights groups, politicians, scientists and celebrities recently came together to publish a call in the French daily Journal Du Dimanche for animal protection laws to be included in France's economic recovery plan.


Another smart move would be to elevate the work of veterinarians, who were already very familiar with strains of coronavirus, according to a report by Le Figaro. As one veterinarian argued in the French edition of The Conversation, "Let's highlight that major medical advances come from the veterinary world," citing major discoveries by veterinarian researchers in embryo transfer and immunology that changed the human medical world.


One of the latest breakthroughs is research released last week in veterinary medicine at the University of Mississippi that provides four potential treatments for COVID-19 Paying attention to these animal whisperers will lead to a more holistic, humane and healthier future for the entire animal kingdom — homo sapiens included.

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French First Lady Brigitte Macron on Elle cover
LES ECHOS
Lucie Jung

'She' Is The One: French First Lady Breaks Elle Magazine Record

Elle, Aug. 28, 2017

President Emmanuel Macron's popularity may be plunging right now but his wife, Brigitte, is in hot demand, in part over a controversy surrounding her status as France's First Lady.

The latest issue of women's magazine Elle features Brigitte Macron's first public interview since her husband's election in May. The weekly sold 530,000 copies of the issue, breaking a 10-year sales record, according to a report in the Journal du Dimanche.

The interview includes details about her relationship with the president — Brigitte is 25 years older than the 39-year-old Emmanuel — and about the controversy relating to the title of First Lady: While Macron had sought an official role for his wife that would have included a taxpayer-funded budget, a public outcry led the government to abandon that bid.

DSK Sins Again: Strauss-Kahn Turns Lobbyist For Big Tobacco
blog

DSK Sins Again: Strauss-Kahn Turns Lobbyist For Big Tobacco

PARIS — Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the disgraced former head of the International Monetary Fund whose sexual exploits cost him a shot at the French presidency, has been working as a lobbyist in France for cigarette maker Philip Morris,Le Journal du Dimanche reports.

The French weekly cites anonymous sources linked to the U.S. tobacco giant who say Strauss-Kahn (DSK) has helped the company try to convince French lawmakers to reject a proposed law that would introduce generic cigarette packaging. DSK organized a meeting between the head of Philip Morris France and a figure close to the center-left government two months ago.

DSK has spent the past four years successfully fighting criminal charges both in the U.S. and France linked to his outsized sexual appetite. Though he hit Twitter for the first time last June and raised eyebrows when it emerged that he was consulting for Russian banks and Serbian hardliners, the former French Finance Minister has kept a mostly low professional profile.

Le Journal du Dimanche quoted a DSK friend as saying that the former politician doesn't sign contracts with the French "to avoid any polemics," though the work for Philip Morris France could have been arranged in other ways.

DSK is himself not a regular cigarette smoker, though he has been known to occasionally enjoy a pipe.