Former French minister Lang resigns from Arab World Institute over Epstein ties

Links between Epstein and Jack Lang’s daughter, a media executive, also surfaced.

PARIS, Feb 7 (Reuters) – Jack Lang, a former French culture minister, has resigned as president of the Arab World Institute, the French Foreign Affairs Ministry said on Saturday, after revelations of his past contacts with Jeffrey Epstein and the launch of a financial investigation.
Earlier this Saturday, the French Financial Prosecutor’s Office had opened an investigation into Jack Lang and his daughter Caroline on suspicion of ‘aggravated tax fraud laundering’.
Calls for Lang to step down intensified since files released on January 30 by the U.S. Department of Justice showed Epstein and Lang corresponding intermittently between 2012 and 2019, when the financier died by suicide in jail.
French media including Le Monde, Le Figaro and Mediapart said the preliminary investigation had been opened after the U.S. documents revealed years of correspondence and financial links between Lang and Epstein.
The office confirmed the investigation but did not provide further details.
Jack Lang had been summoned to report on Sunday to the Foreign Ministry, which supervises the Arab World Institute, a cultural and research institution that promotes understanding of the Arab world. [ . . . ]

Continue at source: Former French minister Lang resigns from Arab World Institute over Epstein ties | Reuters

The French Connection celebrates “Barbara”

By Michael Stevenson

Our featured performer tonight on WRIU.org’s THE FRENCH CONNECTION is “Barbara” — one of the most important voices in French chanson.
Born Monique Andrée Serf, she performed under a single name – perhaps one name was all she needed.

Barbara

Barbara sang quietly, often from behind a piano, trusting words, silences, and emotion more than volume. Elle chante vrai.

Many of Barbara’s songs are tied directly to her life — sometimes painfully so.
She was Jewish, spent years in hiding during World War II, and was abused and later abandoned by her father. Those experiences don’t always appear explicitly in her lyrics, but they echo in her songs. La mémoire est partout — memory is everywhere.

  • PLAYLIST
    “La Femme d’Hector” (Brassens) 1956
    “Il Nous Faut Regarder” (Brel) 1956
    “Les Amis de Monsieur”, 1956
    “Dis, Quand Reviendras-tu”, 1964
    “Ma plus belle histoire d’amour”, 1967
    “Nantes”, 1964
    “La Solitude”, 1965
    “Göttingen”, 1965
    “Une Petite Cantate”, 1965
    “Mon Enface”, 1968
    – Martha Wainwright “Quand Reviendras-tu” (Barbara)
    – Francis Cabrel “Quand j’ame un fois j’aime pour toujours” (Desjardins)