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France mandates COVID health passes for dining and travel

26 July 2021
 Dan Ackermann

France's legislature approved a law mandating universal vaccinations for health workers and pandemic passes for all restaurants and domestic travel early Monday local time.

Why it matters: The health protection plans led to tens of thousands of protesters taking to the streets across France over the weekend, as COVID-19 cases surge in the country to about 20,000 a day from a few thousand early in July, per France 24.

The big picture: The "health pass" requires people show online or paper proof of vaccination, or evidence that they have recently recovered from the coronavirus or display a recent negative test.

  • It initially applies to all adults who wish to "enter restaurants, trains, planes and some other public venues," AP notes. It will expand to anyone over age 12 from Sept. 30.
  • "The rules can be applied through Nov. 15, depending on the virus situation," AP reports.
  • Legislators set a Sept. 15 vaccination deadline for all health workers, who face suspension if they fail to comply with the requirement.

What they're saying: President Emmanuel Macron called for unity after visiting a hospital in French Polynesia and noted some people were "in the business of irrational, sometimes cynical, manipulative mobilization," over measures designed to protect people, per AP.

  • "What is your freedom worth if you say to me 'I don’t want to be vaccinated,' but tomorrow you infect your father, your mother or myself?'" he said.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.