For many Europeans, the Christmas and New Year holidays are a time of movement. Winter towns come alive. Switzerland, in particular, draws thousands of young people from France and Italy each year who cross the border to ski, celebrate, and welcome the new year in places associated with beauty, leisure, and safety. I might have been one of them, had I not been in Italy for the holidays. That is what makes this tragedy especially disheartening and so personal. You arrive somewhere to celebrate the future. You count down the final seconds of the year. You step into 2026 surrounded by friends, music, and light. And then, forty minutes later, that is all the new year you will ever know. Forty minutes of 2026, and then nothing more.

On December 5, 2025, RFK Jr.’s newly appointed CDC vaccine panel voted to end the universal recommendation for hepatitis B vaccine at birth. The change was driven by vaccine-skeptical members RFK Jr. appointed to the panel. However, the vaccine has decades of safety data and is proven safe and effective.

Ce matin, un article du Journal du Dimanche est apparu dans mon fil d’actualité, indiquant que l’intégration professionnelle des personnes vivant avec un handicap en France demeure très lente. Et même si l’intention de l’article est louable, il utilise encore le terme « handicapé », un mot profondément stigmatisant qui est tombé en désuétude aux États-Unis ainsi que dans plusieurs autres pays de l’Union européenne. Ce terme réduit une personne à une seule caractéristique au lieu de reconnaître l’ensemble de son identité.

This morning, an article from Le Journal du Dimanche appeared in my newsfeed, noting that the professional integration of people living with disabilities in France remains very slow. And while the intention behind the article is commendable, it still relies on the word handicapé, a term that is deeply stigmatizing and that has fallen out of favor in the United States as well as in several other EU countries. It reduces a person to a single characteristic instead of recognizing their whole identity.

After my earlier article on hormone therapy, I received numerous emails with follow-up questions, which prompted me to write a second piece to address these concerns in more detail. First, I want to clarify my background. I am not an oncologist or gynecologist. I am a public health researcher specializing in maternal and child health, with a focus on pregnant women, those who have recently given birth, and their newborn babies. This topic is not within my research scope, nor will it be part of my PhD studies. However, the recent FDA decision has been portrayed on social media with an excitement that oversimplifies the complexity of the situation.

Pendant plus de vingt ans, l’hormonothérapie destinée à traiter les symptômes de la ménopause, y compris les formulations à base d’œstrogènes telles que les comprimés, les patchs et les crèmes, a été assortie d’un « avertissement encadré », la mise en garde la plus stricte que la Food and Drug Administration (FDA) américaine puisse imposer sur l’étiquetage d’un médicament. Cet avertissement signalait clairement aux patientes et aux cliniciens les risques potentiels liés à son utilisation, notamment les maladies cardiaques, les accidents vasculaires cérébraux, le cancer du sein et la démence.

For more than twenty years, hormone therapy for menopausal symptoms, including estrogen-based formulations such as pills, patches, and creams, carried a “black box warning,” the strongest caution that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) can impose on a drug label. This warning prominently alerted patients and clinicians to potential risks such as heart disease, stroke, breast cancer, and dementia.

According to 20 Minutes News Network, the French National Assembly has just adopted a resolution introducing a minimum health insurance contribution for non-EU citizens. Currently, foreigners residing in France for more than three months can access universal health coverage (PUMA) without paying into the system. The new measure would require non-EU citizens holding a long-stay “visitor” visa to pay a mandatory contribution in order to open or maintain their PUMA rights. This resolution has only been adopted by the lower house and must still be discussed by the Senate before it becomes law. But if it passes, Americans living in France will be directly affected.

The new French budget proposal has sparked debate about healthcare access for Americans who have chosen to settle in France. Over the past few years, the number of Americans moving to France has steadily increased. They are young professionals, artists, and above all, retirees seeking a slower pace of life and a healthcare system that values people over profit.

Whether you agree with his politics or not, Zohran Mamdani just showed America what it means to run a campaign for the people. In the Democratic primary, he won with about 56 percent of the vote, and in the general election, he captured around 50 percent, defeating Andrew Cuomo, who received circa 42 percent. Mamdani’s victory made him the first Muslim and South Asian mayor of New York City and one of the youngest in over a century. His success was not just the result of numbers but of presence and persistence.

Today, former US Vice President Dick Cheney died. Over the years, he became an unlikely health symbol, a man whose powerful career ran parallel to a lifelong battle with heart disease. Cheney survived five heart attacks, underwent multiple procedures, and ultimately received a heart transplant in 2012. His resilience and quiet candor about his medical journey often contrasted sharply with his political intensity and secrecy.

Aujourd’hui, l’ancien vice-président des États-Unis Dick Cheney est décédé. Au fil des années, il est devenu un symbole de santé inattendu, un homme dont la puissante carrière a toujours été parallèle à une lutte de toute une vie contre les maladies cardiaques. Cheney a survécu à cinq crises cardiaques, subi de multiples interventions et a finalement reçu une greffe du cœur en 2012. Sa résilience et sa franchise discrète à propos de son parcours médical ont souvent contrasté avec son intensité politique et son goût du secret.