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November 5, 2025

Chikungunya, dengue, Nil occidental : en 2025, la France confrontée à une circulation virale sans précédent

Source: The Conversation – France in French (3) – By Yannick Simonin, Virologiste spécialiste en surveillance et étude des maladies virales émergentes. Professeur des Universités, Université de Montpellier

Autrefois dénombrés chaque année sur les doigts d’une main, puis par dizaines, c’est aujourd’hui par centaines que l’on compte, en France hexagonale, les cas autochtones – c’est-à-dire contractés sur le territoire – d’infections par des virus transmis par les moustiques. Plus de 800 cas ont ainsi été recensés cette année, un chiffre sans précédent !

L’explosion du nombre de cas d’infections par des virus transmis par les moustiques dans l’Hexagone fait de 2025 une année totalement exceptionnelle. Ce triste record est principalement dû à la circulation très active du virus chikungunya, mais notre pays est également confronté à une circulation, certes plus limitée, mais néanmoins importante, des virus de la dengue et du Nil occidental.

Nous sommes donc confrontés, pour la première fois, à une triple circulation de ces virus appelés arbovirus (de l’anglais arthropod-borne virus, « virus transmis par les arthropodes », en l’occurrence les moustiques). Cette double problématique – une augmentation importante du nombre de cas d’infections et une diversité des virus circulant – engendre une situation particulièrement complexe.

Comment qualifier la saison 2025 ? Exceptionnelle ? Inédite ? Inattendue ? Si les deux premiers qualificatifs s’imposent sans hésitation, le dernier s’avère inexact, tant les spécialistes du domaine alertent depuis plusieurs années sur le risque prévisible, voire inéluctable, de l’implantation durable de ces virus, autrefois confinés aux régions tropicales, sous nos latitudes.

La France n’est pas la seule concernée : l’Italie, l’Espagne et d’autres pays européens enregistrent également une recrudescence de cas témoignant d’une dynamique globale, même si notre pays reste l’un des plus touchés en Europe.

Le virus chikungunya se taille la part du lion

Dans l’Hexagone, le virus chikungunya est impliqué à lui seul dans près de 800 cas répartis dans 80 foyers différents, c’est-à-dire des groupes de cas liés à un même lieu ou événement.

Le virus chikungunya est transmis par le désormais célèbre moustique tigre (Aedes albopictus). Introduit en France en 2004, cet insecte est aujourd’hui le principal vecteur de maladies virales en Europe. Si le sud de la France, notamment la région PACA, reste la zone la plus touchée, des cas d’infection ont également été identifiés plus au nord, notamment en Alsace et en Île-de-France, où le moustique tigre est désormais bien implanté.

L’explication majeure de la hausse des cas de chikungunya observés dans l’Hexagone réside dans la forte circulation du virus cette année à La Réunion ainsi qu’à Mayotte, confrontées à la plus importante épidémie de chikungunya depuis plus de vingt ans. Les échanges aériens réguliers entre ces territoires ultramarins et la France hexagonale, mais aussi, plus largement, avec d’autres zones de forte circulation virale, ont favorisé l’introduction du virus sur le continent.

Preuve en est : cette année, près de 80 % des cas importés (où la maladie a été rapportée de voyage) observés en France hexagonale proviennent de La Réunion.

Ce sont ces cas importés qui sont à l’origine des cas autochtones, le moustique tigre pouvant piquer ces individus infectés et transmettre la maladie à d’autres personnes n’ayant pas voyagé. De nombreux cas importés, une répartition du moustique tigre de plus en plus vaste dans l’Hexagone : les explications de la hausse de cette année sont toutes trouvées…

Avec quelles conséquences ? Les symptômes du chikungunya sont souvent proches de ceux d’une grippe, avec de la fièvre, des maux de tête et des douleurs musculaires. Si la plupart des malades se rétablissent complètement en quelques jours. Cependant, chez certaines personnes, une forme chronique de la maladie peut s’installer avec des douleurs articulaires très invalidantes, pouvant perdurer jusqu’à plusieurs années après l’infection !

Bien que très largement majoritaire, le chikungunya n’est cependant pas le seul virus à circuler en France continentale cette année.

De nombreux cas d’infections par les virus de la dengue et du Nil occidental

Deux autres virus ont fait parler d’eux cette année. Le premier est celui de la dengue (habituellement l’arbovirus circulant le plus dans le monde), transmis lui aussi par le moustique tigre. Une trentaine de cas autochtones de dengue ont été identifiés dans l’Hexagone. Il y a encore quelques années, ce chiffre aurait été considéré comme exceptionnel !

À ceci s’ajoutent près de 1 000 cas importés, provenant majoritairement de Guadeloupe, de Polynésie française et de Martinique, mais aussi de nombreuses autres régions du globe. Le nombre réel de cas est probablement largement sous-estimé, car la dengue est principalement asymptomatique et, chez les personnes qui développent des symptômes, ceux-ci peuvent être facilement confondus avec ceux d’autres maladies, puisqu’ils se traduisent par de la fièvre, des maux de tête, et des douleurs musculaires.

Heureusement, dans la grande majorité des cas, la dengue provoque une infection sans gravité. Cependant, chez environ 1 % des personnes infectées, la maladie peut prendre une forme beaucoup plus grave, hémorragique, pouvant s’avérer mortelle.

Le dernier membre de ce trio inédit qui a fait s’emballer les compteurs cette année est le virus du Nil occidental avec près de 60 cas répertoriés, principalement dans le sud de la France. À la différence des deux virus précédents, celui-ci est propagé par le moustique commun (Culex pipiens), une espèce de moustique indigène, présente en Europe depuis des millénaires et largement répartie sur l’ensemble de notre territoire.

Par ailleurs, on ne parle pas de cas importés ou autochtones ici, tous les cas identifiés étant des infections locales. Pourquoi ? Parce que l’être humain ne peut pas transmettre le virus à un autre humain par l’intermédiaire du moustique.

Ce sont les oiseaux infectés, venus bien souvent de pays lointains au cours de leur migration, qui vont transmettre le virus du Nil occidental à d’autres oiseaux « locaux », par l’intermédiaire des moustiques communs. Ce sont également ces derniers qui peuvent transmettre ensuite nous le transmettre. Il s’agit donc ici d’un cas typique de zoonose : la transmission d’une maladie de l’animal à l’être humain.

Cette situation, plus difficile à anticiper, est encore rendue plus complexe par le fait que le virus du Nil occidental peut également se transmettre par don de sang ou transplantation d’organes. Cette année, en France, deux personnes ont ainsi été contaminées après une transplantation de rein, en raison de l’infection par le virus du greffon du donneur. Ces transmissions alternatives nécessitent de revoir nos stratégies de don de sang et d’organes en période de circulation de ce virus…

Fait marquant : le virus du Nil occidental, principalement cantonné au sud de l’Europe, s’étend désormais plus au nord. L’Île-de-France a ainsi été touchée pour la toute première fois avec une vingtaine de cas identifiés, illustrant l’extension de la menace.

Ce virus, anodin pour la majorité des personnes infectées, peut néanmoins, chez certaines personnes, notamment les plus âgées, cibler notre cerveau et à provoquer des encéphalites ou des méningites (inflammation du cerveau ou des méninges) pouvant s’avérer fatales. C’est de ce fait l’arbovirus qui provoque le plus de décès en Europe, avec plus de 60 morts identifiés en Europe en 2025, dont malheureusement les deux premiers en France cette année…

Le changement climatique en toile de fond

L’augmentation actuelle des cas est probablement le prélude à ce qui nous attend dans les prochaines années… Cette hausse, amorcée timidement au début des années 2020, est pour de nombreux spécialistes inéluctable.

Les explications sont multiples, comme l’augmentation du transport aérien favorisant l’importation de cas, dans un monde de plus en plus interconnecté. Mais un des facteurs les plus importants est sans doute le réchauffement climatique. En effet, les insectes comme les moustiques, ne pouvant pas réguler leur température, sont extrêmement sensibles aux variations climatiques.

Dans certaines régions, le changement climatique en cours accroît leur période d’activité. On observe ainsi des moustiques de plus en plus tôt dans l’année et leur disparition survient de plus en plus tardivement. Par ailleurs, jusqu’à une certaine température, la durée de vie des moustiques augmente avec la chaleur et leur métabolisme, accéléré, favorise la multiplication des virus dans leur organisme. Un cocktail détonnant…

Pour faire face à cette nouvelle situation, il est impératif de renforcer les réseaux de surveillance de ces virus émergents. En outre, l’élimination de l’eau stagnante (qui favorise la reproduction des moustiques) reste, avec les moyens de protection individuels contre les piqûres (moustiquaires, produits répulsifs), la meilleure stratégie actuelle pour lutter contre ces nouvelles menaces. Des menaces difficiles à anticiper, mais dont nous savons qu’elles deviendront quotidiennes dans les années à venir…

Yannick Simonin a reçu des financements de l’Université de Montpellier, la région Occitanie, l’ANRS-MIE, l’ANR et la Communauté Européenne (Horizon)

– ref. Chikungunya, dengue, Nil occidental : en 2025, la France confrontée à une circulation virale sans précédent – https://theconversation.com/chikungunya-dengue-nil-occidental-en-2025-la-france-confrontee-a-une-circulation-virale-sans-precedent-265901

November 5, 2025

De Mai 68 à la génération Z : ce que les révoltes apportent à la démocratie

Source: The Conversation – France in French (3) – By Michel Wieviorka, Sociologue, membre Centre d’analyse et d’intervention sociologiques (CADIS, EHSS-CNRS), Auteurs historiques The Conversation France

Dans un contexte de droitisation qui étouffe l’horizon collectif, la mémoire de Mai 68 est parfois évoquée comme « origine du déclin ». Pourtant, son héritage rappelle qu’un changement social profond peut naître « d’en bas ». À l’échelle mondiale, la génération Z, ou Gen Z, relance aujourd’hui des formes de mobilisation qui contestent les élites, réinventent les symboles et réclament plus de démocratie. Une nouvelle promesse de transformation politique ?

Les tendances à la droitisation de la vie politique et intellectuelle française s’inscrivent dans un contexte de perte de repères. Qui ose parler de « jours heureux » à venir, comme le faisait le Conseil national de la résistance ? De « lendemains qui chantent » comme le Parti communiste français au temps de sa splendeur ?

À gauche, le discours ne prête guère à l’optimisme, il est surtout question de crises, sans horizon plus lointain que l’élection présidentielle de 2027. L’absence de perspectives est accablante, et la guerre en Ukraine, les horreurs du Proche-Orient ou la géopolitique erratique de Donald Trump alimentent des raisonnements dans lesquels les acteurs et les enjeux de la vie internationale occupent presque toute la place et semblent déconnectés des dynamiques sociales ou politiques internes aux sociétés concernées, en dehors du nationalisme.

La droitisation mine le débat démocratique en rejetant les demandes sociales au nom de leur supposé impact sur l’économie, et en disqualifiant les revendications culturelles en celui de l’intégrité de la nation et de l’universalisme abstrait que porte l’idée républicaine. La droite et l’extrême droite désignent notamment, parmi les coupables, Mai 68 et ses acteurs, qui en ayant sapé l’autorité auraient ouvert la voie au « wokisme » et autres « gangrènes ».

Le changement par le bas

Mai 68 a exercé un impact durable sur la vie collective, accélérant et même déclenchant l’entrée de la société dans l’ère postindustrielle, d’en bas, à partir de contestations, et non pas via des jeux politiciens et politiques publiques plus ou moins technocratiques. Il faut tirer une leçon de ce constat : Mai 68, dans ce qu’il a pu comporter de meilleur, nous invite à considérer avec confiance et bienveillance au moins certaines des mobilisations récentes ou contemporaines, et à y voir la marque non pas de crises (ou pas seulement) mais de nouveaux conflits propres à l’ère nouvelle, ou lui permettant d’advenir.

Hier, des actions collectives spectaculaires se sont opposées à des pouvoirs autoritaires : mouvement pro-démocratie « des parapluies » à HongKong, en 2014 ; « printemps arabe », inauguré en Tunisie en décembre 2010 ; soulèvement postélectoral de 2009 en Iran, avec le « mouvement vert », puis en 2022-2023 le mouvement « Femme-Vie-Liberté », sous la bannière de Mahsa Amini, jeune Kurde d’Iran tuée par la police des mœurs, etc.

Aujourd’hui se mobilise la génération Z, ou Gen Z, née grosso modo entre 1995 et 2010. Au Maroc, à Madagascar, en Indonésie, au Népal, au Pérou, au Kenya, etc., le mouvement Gen Z met en cause les classes dirigeantes, leurs dépenses fastueuses ou tout au moins superflues – des stades par exemple, moins urgents que l’accès à l’eau, à l’électricité, à un logement décent pour les plus démunis.

Avec des différences d’un pays à l’autre, certes, Gen Z dénonce la corruption, le népotisme, les carences des services publics, l’injustice sociale, la précarité. Elle a soif d’écoute. Elle demande des droits. Elle se heurte à une répression violente, à des emprisonnements abusifs. Elle lutte à la fois pour diverses revendications, et pour les conditions de leur traitement politique, c’est-à-dire pour la démocratie ou pour son élargissement.

Gen Z est de son temps. À l’aise dans la culture du numérique, le mouvement use de l’IA non sans humour et s’organise grâce aux réseaux sociaux, tel Discord. Sa modernité culturelle globale s’observe aussi dans sa référence au manga One Piece et dans l’adoption comme emblème du drapeau de l’équipage du personnage principal, le pirate Luffy, qui libère les peuples et se bat contre un gouvernement corrompu.

Le mouvement est générationnel, mais ce n’est pas la guerre d’une génération contre d’autres.

Rien ne dit que Gen Z durera ou exercera un impact durable. La répression est toujours susceptible de l’emporter. Gen Z peut s’abolir, s’institutionnaliser pour donner naissance à un parti politique. Ou dégénérer, laisser la place à la spirale de la violence, au terrorisme, à la guerre civile. On observe déjà qu’il est lourd souvent de colère, de rage, et que, faute pour lui, de débouché politique, les débordements ne manquent pas : émeutes, pillages notamment. Mais comme Mai 68, il mérite d’être perçu dans ce qu’il présente de meilleur, son haut niveau de projet, sa capacité à innover culturellement et à se mobiliser pour des droits fondamentaux.

Et en France ?

On peut aisément repérer pour la France des points communs avec le mouvement Gen Z en considérant par exemple, pour les seules années récentes, les luttes écologistes, féministes, antiracistes, les gilets jaunes, Nuit debout, ou bien encore les manifestations contre la réforme des retraites.

Sociales, en effet, les demandes, ici, mettent aussi en jeu le revenu, la justice, l’égalité, l’accès à l’éducation, à la santé, au logement ou à l’emploi, le refus de la corruption – des thèmes chers à Gen Z.

Culturelles, elles peuvent porter sur l’environnement, ou concerner les identités minoritaires. En matière éthique, elles plaident pour d’autres relations entre les femmes et les hommes, contre le racisme, l’antisémitisme, pour des réponses appropriées aux questions liées à la vie et à la mort – des thèmes qui ne sont pas nécessairement ceux du mouvement Gen Z à l’étranger, mais qui ne s’opposent pas à eux.

Les mouvements contemporains, tout comme Gen Z, recourent aux réseaux sociaux, et tendent à privilégier une logique d’autogestion horizontale associée au refus de tout leader. Ils sont susceptibles d’adopter un objet emblématique, une couleur : un bonnet rouge (en Bretagne, en 2013), un gilet jaune (en 2018-2019).

Avec ici une différence considérable : s’il est possible de constater des caractéristiques générationnelles dans un pays comme la France, on n’a pas vu à ce jour s’affirmer une action collective puissante de jeunes de type Gen Z.

En démocratie, quand les demandes émanant de la société ne trouvent pas leur traitement politique faute de partis, d’instances, d’institutions où elles peuvent être entendues et débattues, elles débouchent chez les uns sur la violence, les rêveries révolutionnaires ou insurrectionnelles, chez d’autres sur l’apathie ou le découragement, chez d’autres encore sur un tropisme accru pour les réponses autoritaristes.

Dès lors, les forces extrêmes du spectre politique peuvent récupérer certaines de ces demandes en les intégrant et en les pervertissant. Les gilets jaunes ont ainsi été critiqués par exemple pour la place qu’a pu occuper le national-populisme dans le discours des acteurs, ou pour leur côté « mâle blanc hétéro ». Mais il n’y a aucune raison pour jeter le bébé avec l’eau du bain, les dérives avec l’essentiel, qui se lit dans les significations les plus élevées de l’action, et non dans ses dérapages.

Changer de société

Des points communs existent donc entre bien des mobilisations en France, et Gen Z. Mais une distinction les sépare, selon qu’elles jouent ou non un rôle dans le changement de type de société, et selon alors les acteurs qui les portent.

Ce n’est pas faire preuve de mépris, pour reprendre une notion récemment mise à l’honneur par le sociologue François Dubet, que de dire des luttes comme celle des gilets jaunes ou sur les retraites, qu’elles ne font guère partie des mobilisations caractéristiques d’une société post-industrielle (c’est-à-dire qui en appellent à une autre relation à la nature et à l’environnement, à d’autres conceptions de la production et de la consommation). Leurs enjeux, sociaux, sont hautement respectables ; mais bien peu dessinent un contre-projet de société. Leur niveau de projet ne vise pas à faire basculer la société dans une nouvelle ère – même si ces luttes sont plus ou moins pénétrées de thèmes post-industriels, par exemple lorsqu’elles cherchent à articuler le social et l’environnement (comme dans le Pacte du pouvoir de vivre porté par la CFDT et une soixantaine d’associations).

On l’a évoqué, l’appel à un contre-projet n’est pas aussi fortement associé à l’émergence d’une jeunesse. Et le désir d’entrer dans un nouveau monde se mêle confusément à la défense de ce qui faisait les charmes de l’ancien, ou se télescope avec lui. Les gilets jaunes, par exemple, reprochaient aux élites de parler de fin du monde quand eux parlaient de fin du mois.

Nous ne manquons pas d’analyses, de mises en garde et de propositions pour sortir d’une crise – de la démocratie, de la représentation politique, des partis, des institutions, du modèle républicain… Mais à trop parler de crise, on ne s’écarte pas de jeux politiciens tournés vers l’accès au pouvoir et obsédés par la perspective de la prochaine élection présidentielle.

On en délaisse vite une toute autre perspective : celle d’une société animée par ses mouvements, par ses acteurs contestataires, et où des dynamiques conflictuelles dessinent des contre-projets, comme dans la sociologie d’Alain Touraine ou dans la philosophie politique de Claude Lefort ou de Paul Ricœur – de belles figures intellectuelles de la deuxième moitié du siècle dernier et du début de celui-ci. La leçon nous vient de pas si loin dans le temps – de ces penseurs, de Mai 68 – ou dans l’espace – de Gen Z.

Ne pas la méditer, sous-estimer aussi faibles soient-elles les mobilisations susceptibles de nous faire entrer plus vite et mieux dans l’ère post-industrielle, ou, pire encore, les disqualifier, c’est contribuer à la droitisation contemporaine de la vie collective, et faire le lit de l’extrémisme et de l’autoritarisme qui menacent.

Michel Wieviorka ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

– ref. De Mai 68 à la génération Z : ce que les révoltes apportent à la démocratie – https://theconversation.com/de-mai-68-a-la-generation-z-ce-que-les-revoltes-apportent-a-la-democratie-267886

November 5, 2025

Zohran Mamdani’s transformative child care plan builds on a history of NYC social innovations

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Simon Black, Associate Professor of Labour Studies, Brock University

Assembly member Zohran Mamdani attends a news conference on universal child care at Columbus Park Playground on Nov. 19, 2024, in New York City. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old New York State Assembly member and democratic socialist, was elected New York City’s mayor on Nov. 4, 2025, after pledging to make the city more affordable through policies that include freezing rents, providing free public buses and a network of city-owned grocery stores.

During his campaign, Mamdani’s promises clearly resonated with New Yorkers struggling with the high cost of living.

Of all of Mamdani’s campaign commitments, free high-quality child care for every New Yorker from 6 weeks to 5 years old – while boosting child care workers’ wages to match that of the city’s public school teachers – could be the most transformative.

The cost of child care in New York City is expensive. More than 80% of families with young children cannot afford the average annual cost of US$26,000 for center-based care. A recent study found that families with young children are twice as likely to leave the city as those without children. The study identified housing and child care costs as key drivers of migration out of the city.

New York’s child care problem mirrors a nationwide system that is seen by many experts as broken. U.S. families spend between 8.9% and 16% of their median income on full-day care for one child. And prices have been rising: Between 1990 and 2024, the cost of day care and preschool rose 263%, much faster than overall inflation.

Despite high prices, child care workers are poorly paid: In 2024, the median pay for child care workers, who are mostly women and often women of color, was $15.41 an hour, or $32,050 a year. That’s nearly at the bottom of all occupations when ranked by annual pay. Additionally, child care programs face high turnover, and it’s difficult for them to recruit and retain qualified staff. Program quality suffers as a result.

As a feminist scholar who has written extensively about child care, I believe Mamdani’s promise of free universal child care, with decent pay for child care staff, could transform the politics and the reality of child care in New York and beyond.

An example to the nation

During the Great Depression, the Works Projects Administration, a New Deal agency created to combat unemployment, established 14 emergency nursery schools in New York. Opened between 1933 and 1934, these schools were primarily intended to offer employment opportunities to unemployed teachers, but they also became a form of de facto child care for parents employed on various work-relief projects.

With the onset of World War II, rising numbers of women took up jobs in the city’s war industries.

In 1941, the lack of adequate child care prompted the administration of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia to fund a handful of already existing nursery schools, including the New Deal nurseries whose federal funding had dried up. New York became the only U.S. city to provide publicly subsidized child care services.

New York provided an example to the nation, and between 1943 and 1945, wartime child care centers were established in hundreds of cities under the federal government’s Lanham Act of 1941. It’s the closest the U.S. has come to establishing a universal child care system.

While most wartime child care centers were shuttered at war’s end, in New York a citywide grassroots mobilization of parents forced the city to keep its centers operating. It marked the first peacetime allocation of municipal tax dollars for child care programs.

People hold signs at a news conference. — People hold signs as they attend a news conference at Columbus Park Playground, Nov. 19, 2024, in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

Building blocks

In the 1960s, under the liberal administration of Mayor John Lindsay, public child care in New York City was expanded, and in 1967 child care workers organized a union, AFSCME Local 205 Day Care Employees.

After a bitter three-week strike in 1969 to protest low wages and poor working conditions, child care workers won a contract that included a wage scale comparable to that of elementary school teachers in the city’s public school system. The contract also included a training program that allowed them to upgrade their skills and get credit for it.

When President Richard Nixon vetoed federal child care legislation in 1971 that would have provided federal funding for child care programs across the nation, New York’s child care movement took to the streets to demand universal child care, even if the federal government refused to fund it. Groups like the Day Care Forum and the Committee for Community Controlled Child Care staged demonstrations on the city’s Triborough Bridge – since renamed the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge – and set up a one-day “model day care center” on the lawn of City Hall.

Public child care services survived the city’s fiscal crisis of 1975, largely due to the activism of working-class communities who fought against day care closures.

Though far from universal, the child care system in New York today boasts the largest publicly supported system in the country, and can serve as the building blocks for Mamdani’s plan.

Transformative beyond New York

Mamdani’s campaign estimated that his universal child care plan would cost $6 billion annually. To fund his policies, Mamdani has proposed an increase of the state’s corporate tax rate and raising the city’s income tax by 2 percentage points on New Yorkers earning more than $1 million a year. While Mamdani will need the assistance of Gov. Kathy Hochul to raise taxes, Hochul supports universal child care, even if she disagrees on how to pay for it.

Universal child care has positive economic impacts, including more women in the workforce and more money in the pockets of parents to spend in the economy. Research from the liberal Center for American Progress concluded that the availability of affordable high-quality child care would lead 51% of stay-at-home parents to find work, and about a third of employed parents to work more hours.

In New York, the disposable income of families could increase by up to $1.9 billion due to the avoidance of child care costs.

One year from the U.S. midterms, Americans remain worried about the cost of basic needs. And majorities of both Democrat and Republican voters say the cost of child care is a major problem, and they want government to prioritize helping families pay for it.

If he can find the money to pay for it, with universal child care, Mamdani could blaze a trail that other policymakers follow.

Simon Black does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Zohran Mamdani’s transformative child care plan builds on a history of NYC social innovations – https://theconversation.com/zohran-mamdanis-transformative-child-care-plan-builds-on-a-history-of-nyc-social-innovations-268462

November 5, 2025

La dynastie familiale des Lur Saluces aux origines du château d’Yquem

Source: The Conversation – France (in French) – By Gérard Hirigoyen, Professeur émérite Sciences de Gestion, Université de Bordeaux

Romain-Bertrand de Lur Saluces fait entrer le vin de Château d’Yquem à Sauternes (Gironde) dans le classement de 1855, en tant que seul Premier cru supérieur. FreeProd33/Shutterstock

Famille d’ancienne noblesse originaire de Guyenne, dans le sud-ouest de la France, les Lur Saluces sont indissociables d’un grand vin bordelais : le sauternes. Une famille autant attachée au maintien de ses traditions qu’à son intégration dans l’économie capitaliste avec les forges d’Uza, dans les Landes.

La famille de Lur s’établit au X^e siècle en Limousin. Au XV^e siècle, Bertrand de Lur a deux fils. L’aîné Bertrand II, seigneur de Longa, conserve ses terres en Périgord et sa branche s’éteint au siècle suivant. Le cadet Pierre s’établit en Guyenne par son mariage à Riperas, avec Isabeau de Montferrand, vicomtesse d’Uza et baronne de Fargues. Le château de Fargues, édifié en 1306 par le cardinal Raymond Guilhem de Fargues, neveu du pape Clément V et la vicomté d’Uza entrent ainsi dans la famille.

En 1785, Louis-Amédée de Lur Saluces épouse Françoise-Joséphine de Sauvage, descendante de parlementaires bordelais, âgée de seize ans et demi, orpheline et dame d’Yquem. Elle devient comtesse de Lur Saluces et apporte en dot le fameux domaine qui allait devenir un des plus sûrs fondements de leur fortune au XIX^e siècle.

Françoise-Joséphine, femme entrepreneure du XIXᵉ siècle

Joséphine d’Yquem, ou Françoise-Joséphine de Lur Saluces, née le 11 février 1768 à Bordeaux, est décédée le 6 novembre 1851 au château d’Yquem à Sauternes (Gironde).
Wikimedia

Si les qualités du vin d’Yquem sont reconnues depuis le milieu du XVII^e siècle, les Lur Saluces contribuent, grâce à leurs relations, à sa commercialisation après 1785. Très vite, le couple Louis-Amédée et Françoise-Joséphine s’emploie à donner à Yquem une reconnaissance à la hauteur de son potentiel.

Veuve à vingt ans, Françoise-Joséphine reprend seule la direction du domaine à la veille de la Révolution. Avec détermination, elle impose une gestion rigoureuse et visionnaire : sélection draconienne des raisins, avènement de la vendange par tries successives, perfectionnement des méthodes de vinification, innovation dans l’élevage.

En 1826, elle fait construire un chai à Yquem, ainsi qu’une tonnellerie, et réussit le lancement des premières bouteilles étiquetées avec liseré vieil or et, désormais iconique, couronne à sept pics. Cette gestion avisée permit de quadrupler les vignobles, non en superficie mais en valeur. Françoise-Joséphine se révèle, comme l’écrit Christel de Lassus, « une véritable femme entrepreneure du XIX^e siècle ».

Vers 1850, les Lur Saluces dominent un véritable empire viticole en Gironde
– plus de 700 hectares en Sauternais avec les châteaux d’Yquem, Fihlot, Coutet et Malle et environ 200 hectares en Saint-Emilionnais.

Forges d’acier d’Uza

L’activité économique des Lur Saluces ne se limite pas au seul domaine viticole. Dans leur domaine d’Uza, ils installent les premières forges dès 1759, et contribuent au désenclavement économique du Marensin et du pays de Born. En 1760, le jeune comte Claude Henri Hercule Joseph de Lur Saluces et sa sœur Marie Anne Henriette, épouse du comte de Rostaing, établissent au pied du château d’Uza une entreprise de forges industrielles, succédant à une ancienne activité de forge artisanale.

La forge d’Uza (Landes) est ondée en 1759 et cesse définitivement de fonctionner en 1981.
Wikimediacommons

Les forges sont longtemps prospères, grâce notamment aux contrats passés avec les fournisseurs de l’Armée royale pour la fourniture de boulets, et avec la Compagnie du Midi pour la réalisation de pièces pour le chemin de fer. Elles périclitent progressivement suite à l’ouverture en 1881 des Forges de l’Adour sises à Tarnos qui exercent une concurrence préjudiciable. Leur fermeture définitive a lieu en 1981.

Nouvelle identité nobiliaire

Au début du XVIII^e siècle, les Lur Saluces sont une très grande famille, liée aux Penthièvre, un des lignages les plus prestigieux de France et une des trois plus grandes fortunes du royaume. Ils symbolisent une noblesse typiquement bordelaise, du fait de leur enracinement séculaire, en terre bordelaise certes, mais aussi dans le sud de la Grande Lande. À la fin de l’Ancien Régime, leur appartenance à l’épée et leur ancienneté, en font toutefois un cas un peu à part, dans la noblesse bordelaise, majoritairement de robe et récente.

Après cette date, ils se replient dans leurs domaines, où ils consacrent l’essentiel de leur activité. Les repères de l’Ancien Régime ayant été perdus, il leur faut en trouver de nouveaux. La famille est attirée à la fois par la nouveauté de la ville et par la tranquillité de l’enracinement rural. Elle remet ses châteaux au goût du jour, au XVIII^e puis au XIX^e siècle, pour exprimer son attachement à la monarchie légitimiste. À partir de la Restauration, les signes de distinction passent d’un luxe d’ostentation, dont la symbolique a perdu de sa consistance, vers un certain confort qui est désormais une marque de reconnaissance d’une élite.

Premier cru supérieur de Bordeaux

Les Lur Saluces d’Yquem de la fin du XVIIIᵉ siècle au milieu du XIXᵉ siècle, de Marguerite Figeac-Monthus.

Au XIX^e siècle, les rendements viticoles passent progressivement de 40 à 10 quintaux à l’hectare, d’où un accroissement exceptionnel de la qualité. Cette évolution aboutit à la naissance des vins de Sauternes. Romain-Bertrand de Lur Saluces fait entrer Yquem dans l’histoire du classement de 1855, en tant que seul Premier cru supérieur. Au XX^e siècle, le comte Alexandre de Lur Saluces en est l’ultime héritier, dirigeant du domaine de 1968 à 2004 avec la même rigueur. Il met en œuvre sa vision stratégique originale depuis 1970 dans des conditions difficiles de mauvaises récoltes successives.

Il privilégie la qualité de la vendange et du vin en s’affranchissant des contraintes climatiques (entraînant de faibles récoltes, voire le refus de toute vendange comme en 1972,1974 et 1992) et des conséquences financières de trésorerie. En ne conservant que des vins de qualité exceptionnelle, vendus en bouteille près de quatre ans après la récolte des grains de raisin, il construit une image fiable du Château d’Yquem et gagne durablement la confiance d’une élite de connaisseurs et d’amateurs.

Vente des parts à LVMH

Alexandre de Lur Saluces (1934-2023), gestionnaire du château d’Yquem et du château de Fargues tout au long de sa vie.
Wikimedia

Une dissension familiale apparaît au grand jour en novembre 1996 lorsque certains membres de la famille annoncent avoir vendu leurs parts du château d’Yquem à Bernard Arnault, le président-directeur général du groupe LVMH. Après deux ans de bataille juridique, Alexandre de Lur Saluces cède. Il accepte non seulement la cession de parts faites par 45 membres de sa famille, dont son frère aîné Eugène, mais il vend au groupe LVMH, les 10 % qu’il détient avec son fils Bertrand. Au fond, la multiplication des actionnaires familiaux bouscule l’unité séculaire et provoque l’arrivée de LVMH.

Pour Bertrand Hainguerlot, un des actionnaires vendeurs des parts sociales, la cession s’explique essentiellement pour des raisons fiscales liées aux droits de succession. Depuis 1957, une société civile immobilière possède le vignoble et le stock de vins en barriques. En 1992, afin de préparer la succession familiale, est créée une société en commandite par actions, qui gère l’exploitation, c’est-à-dire, le vignoble et la vinification. Les commanditaires sont les actionnaires familiaux et l’unique commandité Alexandre de Lur Saluces. Ce dernier reste dirigeant du château d’Yquem.

« Le nom de Lur Saluces figure sur l’étiquette, laisser un Lur Saluces à la tête du domaine, c’est assurer la pérennité », rappelle Alain Raynaud, président de l’Union des grands crus de Bordeaux.

Valeurs émotionnelles

Pour Alexandre de Lur Saluces, la valeur financière de cession très élevée, n’a pas compensé pour autant la perte de sa valeur émotionnelle : conservation des valeurs familiales, perpétuation de la dynastie, etc. Pour les autres actionnaires familiaux ayant obtenu 600 millions de francs (soit plus de 71 millions d’euros) sur le prix d’acquisition, il n’y a ni regret financier ni regret émotionnel.

À défaut de la terre, Alexandre de Lur Saluces transmettra la « morale d’Yquem », racontée pour la postérité dans un ouvrage. Le seigneur d’Yquem, devenu prince de Fargues, se consacre alors à recréer au château de Fargues, fief de la famille, un très grand sauternes. Il s’éteint le 24 juillet 2023.

Ce n’est pas la fin de l’histoire… mais l’histoire en marche. Après avoir passé plusieurs années à l’étranger, Philippe de Lur Saluces, représentant de la 16^e génération, est revenu en 2014, aux côtés de son père. Il prend sa suite avec la volonté d’ouvrir de nouvelles perspectives pour Fargues.

Gérard Hirigoyen ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

– ref. La dynastie familiale des Lur Saluces aux origines du château d’Yquem – https://theconversation.com/la-dynastie-familiale-des-lur-saluces-aux-origines-du-chateau-dyquem-267121

November 5, 2025

The beauty backfire effect: Being too attractive can hurt fitness influencers, new research shows

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Andrew Edelblum, Assistant Professor of Marketing, University of Dayton

“Sex sells” has been a mantra in marketing for decades. As researchers who study consumer behavior, we’ve seen plenty of evidence to support it: Attractive models and spokespeople have been shown to reliably grab attention, boost clicks and make products seem more desirable.

But our new research suggests that in a digital world full of influencers – trusted tastemakers with large online followings – being too attractive can actually backfire, particularly in the fitness space.

We call this the “beauty backfire effect,” and we put it to the test in a series of laboratory experiments.

We showed hundreds of study participants mock Instagram posts from fictitious fitness influencer accounts. The posts were identical in every way, except for one key difference: how attractive the influencer was. We judged this by asking independent raters to evaluate photos of real influencers ahead of time.

The results were striking: We found that extremely attractive fitness influencers – or “fitfluencers” – got fewer likes and follows than their moderately attractive peers.

Why? Because people viewed them as less relatable.

In fact, in one of our studies, people who saw an extremely attractive fitfluencer reported having lower self-esteem afterward. In contrast, seeing a moderately attractive fitfluencer gave some participants a small confidence boost, likely because the image felt more attainable.

Interestingly, the beauty backfire effect wasn’t as strong in other domains. When we ran the same experiment with finance influencers in the mix, appearance didn’t matter as much. That’s not entirely surprising, of course. For a financial coach, looks aren’t tied to credibility. Meanwhile, for a fitness coach, they’re central.

But the beauty backfire effect isn’t inevitable. In a final analysis, we explored whether self-presentation style could close the relatability gap.

When highly attractive influencers adopted a humble tone, sharing their struggles, training challenges or fitness plateaus, the engagement gap disappeared, we found. But when they adopted a prideful tone, boasting about their natural talent or exceptional dedication, the gap grew even larger.

This suggests that humility can be a powerful communication tool for influencers who might otherwise seem “out of reach.”

Why it matters

Fitfluencers depend on their appearance as a kind of credential. A sculpted physique signals expertise in health and wellness. But engagement isn’t just about how good someone looks on camera. It’s about whether followers feel they can connect with them.

This is where relatability comes in. Audiences connect with fitfluencers who feel like real, reachable versions of themselves. But extreme attractiveness does the opposite: It turns an attainable goal into an impossible ideal, and what should inspire instead alienates.

This effect aligns with classic social comparison theory. People judge themselves in relation to others. If the gap between self and fitfluencer seems too wide, comparisons become discouraging, not motivating. In other words, the more “perfect” the fitfluencer looks, the less followers believe they can realistically be like them – and the less likely they are to engage.

Social media platforms have been taking note. These days, TikTok, Snapchat and other outlets build their appeal on candid, authentic content over polished, airbrushed imagery. In this new landscape, perfection can be a liability.

Our research shows that extreme attractiveness might grab attention but can undermine connection, the true currency of the influencer economy. For brands and creators, the takeaway is clear: Success may depend less on looking flawless and more on sounding real.

What’s next

Our findings raise new questions about how beauty shapes influence online.

For instance, gender appears to matter. In a follow-up study, highly attractive female fitness influencers faced stronger backlash than equally attractive men, perhaps reflecting a broader social tendency to judge women’s looks more harshly. Future research could explore whether similar biases apply to other visible traits, such as race or disability.

The effect may also extend beyond fitness. Industries built around appearance – fashion, beauty or lifestyle content – could show the same pattern.

Finally, not all audiences respond alike. People new to fitness or younger users still forming their identities may be especially prone to negative comparisons with highly attractive fitfluencers. Understanding these differences could help creators and platforms foster healthier engagement online.

Justin Palmer contributed research for this article as an undergraduate.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. The beauty backfire effect: Being too attractive can hurt fitness influencers, new research shows – https://theconversation.com/the-beauty-backfire-effect-being-too-attractive-can-hurt-fitness-influencers-new-research-shows-266722

November 5, 2025

Customers can become more loyal if their banks solve fraud cases, researchers find

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Vamsi Kanuri, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of Notre Dame

More than one-third of U.S. consumers were targeted by attempted financial fraud in 2024. Vladimir Vladimirov/E+ via Getty Images

When banks issue their defrauded customers refunds and successfully identify the perpetrators, fraud victims are 60% more likely to stick with their bank than customers that didn’t experience any fraud.

But if customers get their stolen money back but never learn who the perpetrators are, they are 40% more likely to take their accounts elsewhere than customers who weren’t defrauded.

That’s what my co-authors and I found by researching how customers respond when banks investigate fraud. I partnered for this study with Sriram Somanchi and Rahul Telang; I study marketing, and they’re information technology scholars.

We believe this pattern emerged because identifying fraudsters can signal competence and rebuild trust. But when no one is caught, even with a refund, customers are more likely to see the fraud incident as a lapse in capability and blame the bank itself.

We partnered with a major U.S. bank that shared five years of data covering 422,953 customers, including 22,953 who experienced a single instance of fraud.

These customers were victims of account-based fraud, meaning that perpetrators had surreptitiously siphoned away money from their accounts, often through various scams.

Every defrauded customer got a refund, but the perpetrators were identified only about 13% of the time. Our findings support what’s known as the “service recovery paradox”: When a business handles a problem well, its customers can become more loyal than if no problem had occurred.

Customers who had recently opened their bank accounts and those with few prior interactions with the banks were the most likely to leave if the perpetrators were never identified.

Customers in cases where perpetrators weren’t identified within the next three months – and who had opened their accounts years earlier and were more engaged with their banks – were more likely to stay put because they are more familiar with the bank’s technological capabilities and, therefore, are more likely to forgive the bank.

Our results suggest that when perpetrators are identified, customers can regain confidence in their bank’s ability to safeguard their accounts. When the fraudsters aren’t caught, they lose more trust instead.

Financial fraud of many kinds is growing increasingly common.

Why it matters

Financial fraud is both costly and pervasive. More than one-third of U.S. consumers were targeted by attempted financial fraud in 2024, and nearly 40% of those attempts led to a financial loss. Total losses from defrauded consumers totaled more than US$12.5 billion in 2024.

Fraud can undermine confidence in banks and other financial service providers.

U.S. regulations generally require banks to issue customers full refunds whether or not the perpetrator of a fraud is caught. But when customers get refunds after being defrauded, it doesn’t automatically restore their trust in a bank or app.

What still isn’t known

We focused on fraud cases that the customers themselves reported. It’s unclear whether they would have responded the same way had their banks detected the fraud instead. Another open question is whether similar patterns hold for other debacles, such as data breaches that make customers’ personal information vulnerable to exploitation.

Vamsi Kanuri does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Customers can become more loyal if their banks solve fraud cases, researchers find – https://theconversation.com/customers-can-become-more-loyal-if-their-banks-solve-fraud-cases-researchers-find-266185

November 5, 2025

The White Stripes join the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame − their primal sound reflects Detroit’s industrial roots

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Nathan Fleshner, Associate Professor of Music Theory, University of Tennessee

In the opening scene of “It Might Get Loud,” a 2008 music documentary, musician Jack White appears surrounded by scrap wood and garbage. He hammers nails into a board, wraps wire around a glass Coca-Cola bottle as a makeshift guitar bridge, attaches a pickup, and plugs the contraption into a vintage Sears Silvertone amplifier – anything more modern or of better quality would never do.

White then uses his signature slide bar to play a distorted, electric riff on the rudimentary instrument. He declares, matter-of-factly, “Who says you need to buy a guitar?” and casually puffs a cigarette.

This scene of manufacturing innovation, crafting what is needed out of what is available, is a signature of The White Stripes, the influential rock band White co-founded in the late 1990s.

Drummer Meg White and guitarist/vocalist Jack White, originally Jack Gillis before taking Meg White’s name during their four-year marriage, make up The White Stripes. Hailing from Detroit, the band helped lead the garage rock revival, releasing six studio albums between 1999 and 2007.

Their recordings “Elephant,” “Get Behind Me Satan” and “Icky Thump” each won Grammys for Best Alternative Music Album. The White Stripes’ last televised performance together was “We’re Going to Be Friends” in 2009 on the final episode of “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.”

The band’s legacy of innovation has earned them a place in the Rock & Roll Hall Fame. They will be inducted in Los Angeles on Nov. 8, 2025, along with Outkast, Cyndi Lauper and Soundgarden.

As a professor who studies popular music as an expression of the human experience, I have written about a broad range of artists, from Townes Van Zandt and Maren Morris to Prince Paul and boygenius.

I find The White Stripes’ experiment in sonic complexity particularly impressive because it was created by just two performers. Their soundscape relied on instrumental and vocal manipulations of tone and timbre and on stylistic fusions of blues, folk music, garage rock and movements such as British punk and Dutch De Stijl art.

The White Stripes often expressed themes related to Detroit’s industrial struggle and innovation in their gritty, genre-bending sound and lyrical storytelling.

Battle between man and machine

Several songs directly reference Detroit icons. The jaunty 2001 single “Hotel Yorba,” which blends blues and folk while heavily featuring acoustic guitar, honors a Detroit hotel built in 1926. The music video was partially filmed outside the aging building, with indoor scenes filmed elsewhere.

Jack White said the band wanted to know more about the Hotel Yorba’s history but were chased out by an armed manager. In September 2025, the hotel was closed due to unsafe living conditions.

In contrast, the song “The Big Three Killed My Baby,” released in 1999, refers to Detroit’s major automakers at the time: Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. Infused with a punk style, the song discusses the conflict between gas and electric engines. With a tone of anguish, it serves as a biting critique of these companies’ lack of creativity and, as the song states, the use of “planned obsolescence,” which intentionally limits a product’s useful life cycle. The close of the song reveals that what has truly been killed is the consumer’s common sense.

The White Stripes relied heavily on timeless, vintage equipment, disavowing technological advancements and heavy-handed production techniques. But even their primitive instruments are seen as a foe in the struggle between man and machine.

“I always look at playing the guitar as an attack. … It can’t be this wimpy thing where you’re pushed around by the idea, the characters, or the song itself,” Jack White said in a 2010 interview. “It’s every player’s job to fight against all of that.”

Likewise, spontaneity, lack of set lists and real-time creativity were hallmarks of their performances.

A 2002 live performance of “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” begins with brief, chaotic, distorted guitar-wailing and a single, powerful strike of bass drum and cymbal. The performance features a blues-infused rock riff and sweet vocal melodies with high-pitched repetitions and steady cymbal beats punctuated by bass drum and tom hits. That’s the raw, unfiltered, unmitigated, underproduced, auto-tune-avoidant intensity and artistic sound for which The White Stripes strove.

The White Stripes perform “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” on “Saturday Night Live” in 2002.

A sound forged by punk and blues

The White Stripes had many influences, including the Flat Duo Jets, who shared their instrumentation of drum, guitar and vocals, and similarly fused styles such as ’50s rockabilly and blues-inspired punk. They were also heavily ensconced in the Detroit garage rock and punk scenes, which included bands such as The Detroit Cobras, The Dirtbombs, The Paybacks and Rocket 455. Each act was unique in how it deployed its creative foundations, mainly a primal, raw, electric sound with consistent, pounding rhythms and edgy vocal timbres.

This sonic layering and stylistic fusion is carried on by many of the artists of Jack White’s Third Man Records in Detroit. The label’s satellite locations in Tennessee and England also connect The White Stripes to the blues traditions of the Mississippi region and the punk scenes of London.

Acknowledged delta blues influences included Blind Willie McTell and Son House, whose “Grinnin’ in Your Face” – Jack White’s favorite song – maintains a powerful simplicity echoed throughout many White Stripes songs.

A folklike acoustic sound is mirrored in The White Stripes’ tracks “You’ve Got Her in Your Pocket” and “It’s True That We Love One Another.” Similar acoustic simplicity is heard in “Your Southern Can Is Mine,” “Apple Blossom” and “This Protector,” which use imperfections of intonation, melodic repetition, prescribed harmonic structures and soulful sounds.

The harder edges of punk and garage rock are equally present in the opening riffs of the songs “Icky Thump,” “Blue Orchid,” “Fell in Love With a Girl” and midway through “Seven Nation Army.”

Meg White’s tom and bass drum pulsations – as recognizable and definitive of The White Stripes’ sound as Jack White’s electrified blues riffs – are heard in the openings of the songs “Jimmy the Exploder,” “Little Cream Soda,” “The Hardest Button to Button,” “Astro” and even “Seven Nation Army,” which became a popular sports arena staple.

More than a mere look backward, The White Stripes served as a catalyst of progress, raising the stature of the underground Detroit sound to the world’s stage.

Read more of our stories about Detroit and Michigan.

Nathan Fleshner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. The White Stripes join the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame − their primal sound reflects Detroit’s industrial roots – https://theconversation.com/the-white-stripes-join-the-rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-their-primal-sound-reflects-detroits-industrial-roots-265469

November 5, 2025

HIV knows no borders, and the Trump administration’s new strategy leave Americans vulnerable – an HIV-prevention expert explains

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Robin Lin Miller, Professor of Psychology, Michigan State University

Providing supplies of HIV medications does not ensure they will get into the hands of those who need them most. Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images

Protecting public health abroad benefits Americans.

In a globalized world, diseases and their social and economic impacts do not stay within national boundaries. Increased rates of untreated HIV in any part of the world increase the risk of transmission for U.S. citizens.

Changes made in the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term to address the global HIV epidemic, however, may not keep Americans safe.

In September 2025, the U.S. Department of State announced its America First Global Health Strategy, a plan that aims to make “America safer, stronger, and more prosperous” by encouraging other governments to take responsibility for their citizens’ health and to promote U.S. commercial and faith-based interests. It includes the commitment to purchase and distribute the breakthrough HIV preventive drug lenacapavir for up to 2 million people – principally pregnant and breastfeeding women – in 10 countries heavily affected by HIV.

However, the plan does not ensure the most vulnerable will be able to access HIV care. It comes on top of eliminating billions of dollars of U.S. financial support to global health programs. And it undermines one of the most effective foreign assistance programs in U.S. history, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.

I have spent four decades evaluating HIV programs and have studied barriers to HIV prevention and care in the U.S. and in other countries. The Trump administration’s strategy not only reverses decades of progress toward international targets to end AIDS by 2030, I believe it also puts Americans at risk.

Disrupting PEPFAR caused global harm

In 2024, the U.S. supplied over 70% of donor government funding to end the HIV epidemic globally. Much of this aid was through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a suite of programs designed to expand access to prevention, testing and treatment.

Since President George Bush initiated the program in 2003, PEPFAR has saved an estimated 26 million lives. HIV deaths have declined by 70% since 2004, and new infections fell after the program’s inception. PEPFAR helped put the world on track to ending the HIV pandemic by promoting access to highly effective drugs, supporting community-led outreach and programs, and building health care infrastructure.

Person sitting in an empty waiting room with a magazine covering their face — HIV clinics dependent on PEPFAR funding have shuttered with the Trump administration’s significant cuts to the program.
AFP/Getty Images

On Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that paused funding for all foreign aid programs, including PEPFAR. It shuttered PEPFAR-supported clinics and outreach programs, halted medical and supply shipments, and prompted mass layoffs of the global HIV workforce. It also dissolved USAID, which provided essential infrastructure for PEPFAR to do its work.

The Trump administration’s foreign aid pause disrupted access to HIV treatment for more than 20 million people worldwide and access to prevention for millions more. These actions are projected to cause 4.1 million additional deaths and 7.5 million new HIV infections by 2030.

The full extent of the damage will become increasingly clear with time.

Destabilizing HIV prevention and care

Legal pushback in the months following the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID allowed limited parts of PEPFAR to restart. However, access to HIV medication was explicitly limited to only pregnant and breastfeeding women. This strategy excludes prevention and care to the majority of people who are vulnerable to HIV infection.

The Trump administration’s new global HIV prevention strategy prioritizes preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission. About 120,000 children under the age of 5 were newly infected with HIV in 2024, or around 9% of the 1.3 million new infections that year.

However, 55% of new infections worldwide occur among “key populations,” a catchall term coined by UNAIDS and WHO. These include sex workers, people who use injectable drugs, men who have sex with men, transgender people, prisoners, and the sex partners of these individuals. These groups are considered “key” because of their heightened vulnerability to HIV infection and because ending the HIV pandemic cannot be achieved without their access to prevention, testing and treatment.

Stigma and discrimination, human rights abuses, criminalization and underfinancing of programs specific to these people’s needs are significant barriers to their care.

Loss of peer-to-peer support

In countries with legal and social environments that discourage vulnerable people from seeking HIV services, trusted and knowledgeable peers can be a lifeline.

PEPFAR used to fund services designed and implemented by the peers of vulnerable people. People from vulnerable communities were directly involved in ensuring their peers had access to appropriate HIV services and remained in care. They also directly shaped their countries’ national HIV plans.

Arm of doctor handing condom and lubricant to a patient, with another person looking over — Meeting vulnerable communities where they are is critical to effective HIV care.
STR/AFP via Getty Images

The Trump administration’s new strategy favors pregnant and breastfeeding women and cuts out other vulnerable communities. It proposes funding government health care workers in lieu of peers without ensuring these workers will be adequately equipped to provide unprejudiced care. The plan withdraws support for community-led, nongovernmental organizations that bridge gaps in care and offer sensitivity training to providers.

Many people who are vulnerable to or living with HIV view government-run medical care with profound distrust and apprehension. Some participants in my own research have told me they would rather die than seek care in a government-run facility. They recount dehumanizing experiences in these facilities, including undergoing invasive procedures without consent and being openly humiliated. Health care workers have also violated patient confidentiality by disclosing patients’ sexuality and HIV status to family members, friends, neighbors, landlords or employers.

Fear of repercussions – arrest, violence, loss of housing and employment, and blackmail – further heighten fear of health care settings. Research has shown that many people living with HIV from vulnerable populations report encountering these forms of discrimination and stigma when seeking health care. Even more report being hesitant to seek care.

Faith-based organizations

The strategy shifts funds to faith-based institutions, citing potential financial support from tithes and donations as well as greater reach through faith leaders. However, research has shown that faith-based and government health care institutions evoke fear of stigmatization, mistreatment, arrest and denial of services among many who are most at-risk for HIV.

Conservative evangelical groups such as Family Watch International – a designated hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center – have authored some of the world’s most punitive anti-homosexuality laws in countries such as Uganda, where HIV remains inadequately controlled. They also advocate for the scientifically debunked practice of conversion therapy and are leading actors in global movements against LGBTQ+ human rights, comprehensive sexuality education and reproductive health services.

HIV requires a unique response

Effectively addressing HIV requires more than providing supplies or medical treatment. Although treatments to manage and prevent HIV infection are highly effective under ideal conditions, these are not the circumstances of many people living with and vulnerable to HIV. Treatment is lifelong and needs to be taken regularly. Additionally, the epidemic is often concentrated in networks of people who face societal discrimination, making care retention and engagement difficult.

The Trump administration’s new global health strategy requires community health care workers to consolidate their work across four distinct diseases: malaria, polio, tuberculosis and HIV. However, very different populations are vulnerable to these diseases, and each has unique social, psychological and medical concerns and needs.

Protestors holding up signs and wearing white shirts reading 'AIDS FUNDING CUTS KILL PEPFAR SAVES LIVES' over a red handprint — Cuts to PEPFAR have led to thousands of deaths.
AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

For example, malaria and polio primarily affect children under 5, but the former requires strategies to reduce the mosquito bites that transmit disease, while the latter requires childhood immunization. Meanwhile, HIV primarily affects adolescents and adults and requires interventions addressing sexual health and harm reduction.

Research and lessons learned over decades of global health work suggest that carefully tailoring prevention and care strategies to each vulnerable population and addressing their unique social, behavioral, structural and medical needs improves their effectiveness.

A healthy world makes a safe and prosperous US

The 55 countries that most recently benefited from PEPFAR may seem far from U.S. soil. But in an interconnected world, their epidemic is an American epidemic.

The Trump administration’s reversal of decades of progress on ending the HIV pandemic – and weakening U.S. leadership and humanitarian effort in the fight against HIV – has already led to thousands of deaths. Every new HIV infection will incur global economic and societal costs by draining labor capacity in high-burden countries while increasing health care and caregiving costs. This global insecurity and economic instability has precedents in the initial HIV crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ensuring people living with HIV worldwide receive appropriate treatment and care advances U.S. national security, diplomatic and economic interests. Ensuring that citizens in other countries enjoy good health permits their economies to thrive and America’s in turn. I believe a healthy world is a more prosperous, peaceful and stable world, to everyone’s benefit.

Robin Lin Miller has previously received research and evaluation funding from the U.S. Department of State, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Drug Abuse, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development, American Foundation for AIDS Research, Michigan Department of Community Health, Michigan AIDS Fund, AIDS Foundation of Chicago, and the Health Services Improvement Fund.

– ref. HIV knows no borders, and the Trump administration’s new strategy leave Americans vulnerable – an HIV-prevention expert explains – https://theconversation.com/hiv-knows-no-borders-and-the-trump-administrations-new-strategy-leave-americans-vulnerable-an-hiv-prevention-expert-explains-264871

November 5, 2025

Ukraine’s massive nature project is helping veterans and land recover

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Natasha Lindstaedt, Professor in the Department of Government, University of Essex

A pelican in the Dalamtian delta, where a massive rewilding project is taking place. Neil Aldridge/Rewilding Ukraine.

Ukrainians have always felt closely tied to their land, often expressing this through literature and folktales. But these connections have grown even stronger since the country was invaded by Russia in 2022.

Forests, rivers and meadows in Ukraine are considered sacred spaces and important to resilience. As Ukrainians have dealt with the constant stress of war, nature has been a place to reconnect.

Ukraine has also been at the forefront of large-scale nature restoration in Europe in recent years. The country is planning two new national parks: Budzhak Steppes National Natural Park (in the Odessa region in the south) and the Great Carpathians National Park (in the south-west). And a project called Rewilding Ukraine has begun restoring some 13,500 hectares of wetlands and steppe (unforested grasslands) – that’s almost twice as big an area as Manhattan in the US.

This is serious rewilding. Compare this scale to that to one of the best known examples of rewilding in England, for instance – the Knepp Castle estate in west Sussex which involves some 3,500 acres (1416 hectares).

Rewilding these areas of Ukraine has involved the release of over 240 animals of different species, including kulan (wild donkeys), steppe marmots, eagle owls, fallow deer and even hamsters which are native to the region and the building of two breeding platforms for Dalmatian pelicans.

Interventions such as the removal of 200 meters of man-made dams surrounding Ermakiv Island are allowing beavers to thrive and the natural ecosystem to rebalance. There are benefits for the local human populations too, as flooding in villages and towns is reduced.

Help for veterans

The impact of this massive rewilding project is not only being felt in the landscapes of the Danube delta and adjacent Tarutino steppe in south-west Ukraine where vital efforts are being made to preserve this endangered habitat.

An initiative known as Nature for Veterans was launched in 2025 with the aim of helping soldiers and their families find emotional restoration from the horrors of war by immersing them in these newly revitalised areas of south-west Ukraine, far from the frontline.

A boat filled with people in a wild part of Ukraine. — Veterans visiting Ermakov Island.
Emmanuel Rondeau/Rewilding Ukraine

Many who avoided death in the conflict find themselves severely affected with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and their loved ones have suffered in their own ways. The value of nature-based therapy for war veterans, particularly those with PTSD, has been understood for many years, since first world war survivors with “shell shock” were commonly prescribed time outdoors.

This has particular relevance to Ukraine today as figures from its ministry of health, suggest that some 1.8 million soldiers and veterans may need psychological support.

Wars and climate change are inextricably linked. Climate change can increase the likelihood of violent conflict by intensifying resource scarcity and displacement, while conflict itself accelerates environmental damage. This article is part of a series, War on Climate, which explores the relationship between climate issues and global conflicts.

Environmental damage

Of course, the war in Ukraine has not only generated a large number of casualties (totalling 400,000), but has also caused enormous destruction to its ecological landscape. Thousands of hectares have been burned, rivers have been polluted by shelling and biodiversity has been interrupted by artillery noise and displacement.

What’s more, as much as 30% of Ukraine has been contaminated by landmines. In total, environmental damage has exceeded US$127 billion (£96 billion).

To some extent, due to the contamination of land, the war has also made it more difficult for Ukrainians to connect with nature. And evidence suggests this disruption has affected their mental health, something that is backed up by research showing people’s relationship with their local environment affects their wellbeing.

For societies facing the constant stress of war and threats to the country’s territorial integrity, landscape and environment, the chance to connect with nature offers important benefits.

In the face of this type of stress, Ukrainians have found ways to restore their lost connections with nature either by rebuilding gardens, adapting to new landscapes and/or finding different ways of sustaining their traditions.

Rewilding is offering renewal and recovery for both Ukraine’s people and its environment.

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The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Ukraine’s massive nature project is helping veterans and land recover – https://theconversation.com/ukraines-massive-nature-project-is-helping-veterans-and-land-recover-268343

November 5, 2025

How grey hair and cancer may be linked

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Justin Stebbing, Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University

Each grey hair may be a sign that a cell has chosen to stop replicating rather than risk turning malignant. Pixel-Shot/ Shutterstock

Grey hair is an inevitable hallmark of ageing. It’s a visual reminder of the passing years and all the bodily changes that accompany it.

But emerging scientific research is challenging this simple narrative – revealing that those silver strands on our heads could be an outward sign of our body’s own intricate defences against cancer.

A new study in mice has uncovered the remarkable ways in which our bodies manage cellular damage – a process key in both ageing and cancer. In ageing, cellular damage gradually weakens and disrupts cell function. In cancer, unrepaired or faulty cells can trigger abnormal growth and tumour formation.

The work here has highlighted a surprising connection between the loss of pigment in our hair and the mechanisms that can keep deadly cancers at bay.

Melanocyte stem cells are at the heart of this discovery. These cells reside deep within the hair follicles and serve as a reservoir for melanocytes – the pigment-producing cells responsible for hair and skin colour.

Under normal circumstances, our melanocyte stem cells replenish these pigment-producing cells through cyclical regeneration, a process characterised by repeated phases of activity, resting and renewal in sync with the natural cycles of hair growth and loss. This grants a steady supply of pigment and thus vibrant hair colour throughout most of our lives.

But every day, our cells endure assaults on its own DNA (the genetic material inside our cells) from sources such as ultraviolet radiation, chemical exposure and even our own cellular metabolism process. This cellular damage contributes to both ageing and to the risk of cancers – such as melanoma, a type of skin cancer.

This new study sheds light on what happens when melanocyte stem cells deep within the supportive niche of the hair follicle sustain DNA damage – particularly a type of damage called double-strand breaks.

When this happens, the melanocyte stem cells can undergo a process called “seno-differentiation”. In essence, this means that the stem cells irreversibly mature into pigment cells – then disappear from the stem cell pool, leading to the gradual appearance of grey in our hair.

A man pushes a comb through his dark hair, which has some strands of grey throughout. — DNA damage can cause some of these stem cells to irreversibly mature and turn grey.
Beti Argi/ Shutterstock

This protective process is tightly regulated by internal signalling pathways which allow the cells to communicate with each other. By removing these mature cells from the stem cell population, this prevents the accumulation and possible future spread of genetic mutations or DNA changes that could promote cancer.

In a sense, each grey hair is a small victory of bodily self-sacrifice: a cell choosing to bow out rather than risk turning malignant.

Cancer link

The story doesn’t end there, however. Not all DNA damage triggers this protective process. In their experiments, the researchers exposed melanocyte stem cells in mice to potent cancer-causing chemicals as well as UV radiation. Remarkably, under these stressors, melanocyte stem cells were found to bypass seno-differentiation altogether.

Instead, signals from the surrounding tissues actually encouraged the damaged cells to self-renew and continue dividing – despite carrying genetic damage. This created a cellular environment ripe for the emergence of melanoma.

This research suggests that the fate of melanocyte stem cells appears to hinge on both the specific kind of damage they receive and on the molecular cues present in their micro-environment. Stressors such as chemicals or UV light, which cause the cells’ DNA strands to break, also cause the melanocyte stem cells to self-destruct by default. This same process causes grey hair.

But when under the influence of cancer cells, these damaged melanocyte stem cells persist – creating seeds from which melanoma can grow. Scientists describe this dynamic as “antagonistic fates” – where the same stem cell population can take two dramatically different paths depending on the circumstances.

Importantly, these findings reframe grey hair and melanoma not as unrelated outcomes, but as twin fates of the body’s ancient struggle to balance tissue renewal and avoid cancer. Greying is not itself a shield against cancer, but instead a byproduct of a protective process that eliminates risky cells.

Conversely, when the control mechanisms falter or are subverted by carcinogens, the door is left open for malignancy. This new understanding may also help begin to explain why we’re more likely to develop cancer as we get older.

Of course, it’s crucial to note the limits of these findings. Much of the pivotal evidence comes from experiments in mice. This means research still needs to be conducted in humans to understand if our melanocyte stem cells also function in a similar way. Biological differences between species, as well as complexities of human lifestyles and genetics, mean the picture for our own hair and cancer risk is nuanced.

Still, these discoveries open exciting avenues for both cancer research and ageing science. Understanding the signals that nudge stem cells toward differentiation or risky expansion could someday enable therapies to reinforce the body’s natural safeguards, potentially lowering cancer risk as we age.

There are broader implications as well. This information could help explain why some people develop melanoma even without having been exposed to clear risk factors – and why cancers and tissue degeneration so often go hand-in-hand in later life.

The story of grey hair is not just about vanity or the inevitable march of time. It’s about evolution, adaptation and the ceaseless vigilance of our bodies’ internal guardians. Those silver strands may be telling us something profound: that amid the competition between ageing and cancer, sometimes it’s worth sacrificing a pigment cell for the sake of the whole organism.

Justin Stebbing does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. How grey hair and cancer may be linked – https://theconversation.com/how-grey-hair-and-cancer-may-be-linked-268405