On our blog

  • Monkeypox: ‘This is an entirely new spread of the disease’
    June 8, 2022
    One thousand confirmed cases of monkeypox, a disease originating in Africa, have been recorded since early May across at least 30 non-endemic countries such as the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, France, the United States, Australia, United Arab Emirates and Israel. But what is this virus? Who is affected? And should we be worried about the recent surge in cases? In a bid to answer such questions, we caught up with Camille Besombes, a medical doctor specialist in infectious diseases, who has been involved for the past three years in Afripox, a project that aims to gain a better understanding of the virus in its endemic region. She is currently conducting PhD research within the unit headed by the project’s coordinator, Arnaud Fontanet, a leading medical epidemiologist and emerging infectious disease specialist at the Pasteur Institute.
  • Unpacking governance within the EU’s Sahel strategy
    December 21, 2020
    The revision of the European Union’s 2011 Sahel strategy takes place against a bleak backdrop: humanitarian emergencies are piling up and 2020 marks the deadliest year in the region since 2012 with violence characterized by abuses against civilians not just by extremist groups and militias, but also by state security forces in counter-terrorism operations.
  • Fact check US: Would a $15 minimum wage really help workers?
    December 17, 2020
    Since 2009, the United States federal minimum wage has remained at $7.25 per hour. President-elect Joe Biden plans to not only increase it to $15, but also to extend it to workers who are not covered by the current legislation, such as farm and domestic workers, and index it to the median wage. While this would be done incrementally over the next five years, the proposed change is bold and has caused a stir.
  • Fact check US: Would Joe Biden's energy plan cause the loss of 10.3 million jobs in the oil and gas industry?
    October 28, 2020
    On August 31, the Trump campaign blog claimed that Joe Biden’s clean-energy plan would cause the loss of 10.3 million jobs related to the oil and gas industry – that is, 6.5% of all US jobs in 2019. While fracking helped the United States become the world’s leading crude-oil producer last year, that figure is still exceedingly high.
  • Plotting the SARS-Cov-2 (COVID19) Pandemic
    April 3, 2020
    How many people have been infected or have died as a result of the COVID19 pandemic? How many people have recovered from the disease. Josselin Noirel, researcher belonging to GBCM-Cnam laboratory, has built an application which relies on the CSSE (Johns Hopkins University) daily figures.
  • Researchers, set an example: fly less
    February 14, 2019
    The world is warming and ecosystems are dying. To avoid disastrous climatic change, massive reductions in CO2 emissions are required in all sectors, reaching net-zero globally no later than 2050. This requires an unprecedented and rapid change in our ways of life.