Contents: “Anti-colds: the impossible ban?”, “These campaigns where we are hungry”, “A Nobel Prize behind bars”, “Jean-Martin Fortier, a revolutionary gardener”.
Anti-colds: the impossible ban?
Faced with the lack of doctors when winter arrives, more and more French people are turning to pharmacy shelves. Runny nose, fever, fatigue: dozens of remedies are available without a prescription for these daily ailments. In 2023, 4 million boxes of Actifed Rhume, Dolirhume, Nurofem Rhume, Humex Rhume or other Rhinadvil have been sold, for a total of 25 million euros.
But this reflex can be dangerous. In October 2023, the National Medicines Safety Agency alerted consumers, asking them to no longer use these anti-cold medications based on pseudoephedrine with a shocking message: “You do not risk a stroke with a blocked nose”. This is not the first time that the alert has been given. For years, doctors, consumer associations, scientific journals and pharmacists have been warning about these pills, but nothing has changed. Why are these drugs, considered more dangerous than useful, still on sale? Who is responsible for putting them on the market? Which safe remedy to turn to?
A report by Laura Orosemane, Justine Weyl, Claire Combaluzier, Renaud Perret and Sandrine Philibert.
These campaigns where we are hungry
They live in France, far from big cities and do not have enough to eat. In Allier, a rural department in central France, one in five inhabitants lives on less than 800 euros per month, and many do not have enough money in their wallets to fill their plate. In question ? Record inflation on food products and heating, in particular.
In this context, solidarity grocery stores and shared gardens allow the most deprived to continue to feed themselves. The Solidaribus, itinerant branches of Secours populaire, deliver food every week to the most remote areas, where Restos du coeur do not exist. Cooking and budget management classes allow you to eat better for less. Those who suffer from extreme poverty are organizing themselves and trying to take control of their destiny.
A report by Marianne Getti, Emilie Iob, Marion Cantor.
A Nobel Prize behind bars
This is a woman that the Iranian regime is trying to silence by all means: Narges Mohammadi, 51, 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner. It is from her cell in Evin prison, in Tehran, that she learned of her award for “her fight against the oppression of women in Iran and her struggle to promote human rights and freedom for all.”
“Special Envoy” followed her husband, Taghi Rahmani, writer and political activist, and her two children, Ali and Kiana, 17, who live in exile in Paris. Last December, they went to Oslo to collect the Nobel Peace Prize in their mother’s name. Since 2015, they have not seen her again, and it has been almost two years since even telephone conversations with her were forbidden.
Behind bars, Narges Mohammadi continues her fights: in a book and a documentary, she denounces “white torture”, a sentence of total isolation used by the Iranian regime to break detainees. Through letters that she smuggles out of prison, she reveals sexual and physical assaults suffered by inmates during their incarceration. Arrested and incarcerated multiple times, she has already spent more than seven years in prison. He has more than ten years in prison to serve while several new cases have been opened by the Iranian justice system and are still ongoing.
Narges Mohammadi has become one of the faces of the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement, a revolt sparked by the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, after her arrest in Tehran for non-compliance with the strict Islamic dress code. With her fellow prisoners, feminist activists, environmentalists, Narges Mohammadi made Evin prison a bastion of resistance: hunger strikes, sit-ins… Her family, women who campaigned with her, former fellow prisoners recount the courage of Narges Mohammadi and his struggles.
A report by Laura Aguirre de Carcer, Guillaume Marque and Benoît Sauvage.
Jean-Martin Fortier, a revolutionary gardener
He is the official godfather of the vegetable garden at the Château de Chambord, and in Quebec, he is a TV star and even the hero of a series: on his organic farm in Canada, Jean-Martin Fortier practices permaculture and revolutionizes market gardening to make it a very lucrative economic activity. Her book The Gardener-Maraîcher: manual of organic farming on small areas sold over 200,000 copies. Immersion in the world of the man who perhaps prefigures the agriculture of tomorrow.
A report by Anouk Burel, Lisa Monin, Christophe Barreyre, Thomas Denis and Damien Pasinetti for Babel Doc.
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