French Prime Minister Jean Castex on Monday submitted a bill in the National Assembly on establishing a long-term health emergency management system to respond to exceptional situations such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bill is being dubbed as a "vaccine passport" owing to the language of the text and the sections conditioning access to certain activities and places based on a vaccine.

It allows the prime minister "to make the movement of persons, their access to means of transport or to certain places, as well as the exercise of certain activities at the presentation of the results of a screening test establishing that the person is not affected or contaminated, following a preventive treatment, including the administration of a vaccine, or a curative treatment.’’

Discussion on the topic had begun last week when members of the centrist and liberal UDI party proposed a "green passport" for vaccinated people on the lines of a similar proposal in Israel, allowing vaccinated people to go to restaurants or cultural places. UDI chief Jean-Christophe Lagarde defended the idea saying those "who are vaccinated, have the right to live normally".

The timing of the bill, a week before France is set to administer Pfizer’s anti-COVID-19 vaccine beginning Dec. 27, has divided French politicians.

On Twitter, right-wing politician Marine Le Pen said: "We will never allow the government to impose by coercion what it has not been able to get accepted by confidence. There can be no second-class citizenship for unvaccinated individuals. It is deeply deleterious and liberticidal."

Member of Parliament Frederique Dumas also tweeted: "We are in the middle of a nightmare ... Emmanuel Macron and Jean Castex. We will not let you do it."

Multiple polls have shown France has a high level of skepticism toward vaccines due to distrust in the government. A survey in Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper in December showed only 41% of the French planned to get immunized against COVID-19.

Health Minister Olivier Veran in an interview with BFMTV said the objective of the bill was to ensure "to not enter in the state of emergency again".

France has ordered 200 million doses and approximately 1.16 million doses will be delivered by the end of the year for mainly the elderly and frontline workers./aa

Turkey on Tuesday announced a new initiative for immigrants in the northwestern province of Bursa to help them adjust to the country.

“We began social life and adaptation training in Istanbul in 2019. We will start in Bursa from January,” said Aydin Kadioglu, head of the Compliance and Communication Department at the General Directorate of Migration Management.

“We are giving basic social life and harmony education certificates to foreigners... from Turkish etiquette, language to our legal system and other mechanisms."

He was speaking at a virtual meetup organized by the Directorate General of Migration Administration.

Emphasizing that Turkey embraces foreigners, Kadioglu said: "Turkey has over 3.6 million Syrian brothers and sisters under temporary protection, 56,417 of whom are under international protection."

In total, he said, Turkey is hosting nearly 5 million refugees. "Not only Syrians but also 190 other nationalities... we are trying to provide them the best possible resources to make their lives easier."

Turkey has reached out to over 40,000 immigrants through 109 events since 2019, he added.

4.8 million foreigners in Turkey

Ramazan Seckin, deputy director-general of the migration administration, said the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide, which was 41 million in 2010, rose to 79.5 million in 2019.

The top three countries whose citizens are seeking asylum are Syria, Venezuela, and Afghanistan, he said. “Today, Turkey is a country of destination. Our geopolitical position has made it a priority country for asylum seekers."

He explained that "the number of resident foreigners, which was 313,000 in 2013, exceeded 1 million in 2019, and currently, there are about 874,000 foreign residents in our country.”

Deportation of selected illegal immigrants is carried out through repatriation centers, he said.

Recalling that these centers currently have a capacity of more than 20,000 people, the official added: “We aim to reach a total capacity of 24,700 people with a new repatriation center."/aa

Mexico has been named as the most dangerous country for journalists worldwide, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The number of deaths of journalists in Mexico makes up almost a third of all those killed this year.

In the past year nine journalists were killed in the country, including several of their bodyguards, with three of the killings happening in November alone. There have been at least 120 killed in Mexico since 2000 and many of the deaths remain unsolved.

These new figures make Mexico more dangerous for journalists than war zones.

The representative for the CPJ in Mexico, Jan-Albert Hootsen, said that Mexico was facing a “multi-faceted crisis” for press freedom. Mr Hootsen added that the situation “has been getting steadily worse over the past few years,” saying that the crisis has stemmed from “impunity.”

Those most frequently attacked seem to be journalists who are investigating links between corrupt officials and organised crime. Indeed Mexico, Afghanistan and the Philippines had the highest number of retaliatory killings.

The election of president Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2018 brought with it the hope that the situation might improve, especially when the president made a pledge saying that he would tackle violence against journalists.

In spite of this promise, the president has since publicly expressed hostility towards the media both in Mexico and abroad, further perpetuating the problem.

This includes publicly criticising The New York Times in October when Mr López Obrador denounced the paper saying: “it doesn’t have professionalism and they lack ethics above all.”

Government protection for journalists in Mexico has also been reduced and funds intended for investigations have been cut.

Afghanistan too is one of the more dangerous countries for reporters with armed conflict and gang violence a threat to press freedom. On Monday an Afghan journalist was shot and killed in the eastern city of Ghazni, the fifth to be killed this year.

Worldwide at least 30 journalists have been killed in 2020 according to the CPJ. This is 20 more reporters than in 2019. Of these, 21 were targeted in retaliation for their reporting, although the number could be much higher since 15 deaths remain under investigation.

The executive director of the CPJ, Joel Simon, released a statement saying he was appalled that the numbers have “more than doubled in the last year.” Mr Simon added: “this escalation represents a failure of the international community to confront the scourge of impunity.”

In Mexico Mr Hootsen suggested that criminal groups often collaborate with local authorities. This means that journalists are “not finding any help from the authorities that are supposed to protect them.” This in turn “fuels” and “incentivises” more attacks on journalists, with those responsible getting away unpunished, said the country’s CPJ representative.

Overall 2020 saw a rise in murders, yet the number of deaths related to direct combat dropped. Only three journalists died this way in northern Syria, the lowest number since 2000, however this may be due to the pandemic making travel more challenging.

INDEPENDENT

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A 71-year-old Black man in South Carolina was embarrassed and feared for his life when a police officer looking for teens who might have been breaking into cars held him outside naked and at gunpoint after he peeked out his door to check on the disturbance, the man said in a lawsuit.

Body camera video of the June 2019 encounter in Rock Hill shows Officer Vincent Mentesana cursing at Jethro DeVane and telling him not to close the door.

Mentesana orders DeVane to stand outside his home naked at 4 a.m., facing the wall, according to the video, which DeVane and his lawyer obtained through a public records request and released Tuesday. When DeVane asks what's going on, Mentesana responds, "I don’t want to talk to you."

The officer held the gun to DeVane's head for 90 seconds as other officers looked through his home, according to the lawsuit.

“I did what the man said. He had the weapon. He could have took my life in a minute,” DeVane said at a news conference Tuesday with his lawyer.

Once Mentesana got the all-clear, he asked DeVane his name and told him why police were in the neighborhood.

Police did not have a search warrant for DeVane's house, according to the lawsuit filed Monday, which claims gross negligence, emotional distress and false imprisonment. The suit does not ask for a specific dollar amount.

At the news conference, DeVane said he was embarrassed because there was at least one woman among the officers. He also said he feared for his life; that if he tried to close the door, grab some clothes or argued, the officer with the gun to his head would fire.

“I won’t get over it the rest of my life,” DeVane said.

DeVane's attorney, Justin Bamberg, said the way police treated his client reminded him of a police video out of Chicago that surfaced earlier this month. In that video, police are seen breaking down the door of a Black woman's apartment as she is changing clothes, and handcuffing her while she is naked.

What took place at DeVane's house would never happen in a rich white neighborhood, Bamberg claimed Tuesday.

“Why do we have to be here advocating for human decency and human dignity? It is utterly ridiculous and it is unacceptable," he said. “And it needs to stop before there is a death. God forbid, if Mr. DeVane had panicked like a lot of people would and tried to close that door."

DeVane's lawsuit says the Rock Hill police chief found that Mentesana was discourteous, but acted properly, along with the officers who went inside his home and searched it without a warrant.

Rock Hill Police spokesman Lt. Michael Chavis said the department does not comment on pending lawsuits. Mentesana requested a transfer from the police department to Rock Hill's utility department in February, the city's law firm said.

In a news release shortly after the encounter, police said officers who saw the teens running noticed DeVane's house with tall grass, no lights, an open door and a dirty swimming pool. They thought it might be abandoned and the teens could be inside.

DeVane was detained by officers and police searched his home in the interest of public safety, the news release said.

DeVane said the police chief went to his home later that month to discuss what happened and said he probably shouldn't sleep naked.

“I didn’t have my clothes on that night. Why? I’m in my house,” DeVane said Tuesday, adding, “Like I told him, if you had let me know you were coming, I would have put my clothes on.”

( AFP) Dozens of journalists at Qatar's Al-Jazeera broadcaster had their mobile communications intercepted by sophisticated electronic surveillance, a cybersecurity watchdog said, following a months-long investigation.

Interceptions of 36 journalists' phones were revealed in a report by the Citizen Lab research centre at the University of Toronto on Sunday, after they monitored journalists' devices for suspicious activity.

"The impact is very clear and dangerous," Al-Jazeera Arabic investigative reporter Tamer al-Misshal, who was targeted, told AFP Monday.

The news outlet said it approached the cybersecurity watchdog in January after receiving suspicious messages on a device used to contact people for comment.

The experts agreed to monitor the device's internet traffic, subsequently discovering data, which could have included sensitive material, was being sent clandestinely to a hostile server.

"We obtained logs from an iPhone 11 device inside Al-Jazeera networks while it was infected. Our analysis indicates that the (spyware) has a number of capabilities," Citizen Lab said in its report.

These included the interception of audio from the microphone -- both calls and ambient noise -- as well as images from the camera, the report said.

"In addition, we believe the implant can track device location, and access passwords and stored credentials," it added.

The attack targeted "36 personal phones belonging to journalists, producers, anchors, and executives at Al-Jazeera", Citizen Lab added.

Their report said the hack used Pegasus spyware developed by Israel's NSO Group.

Bill Marczak, research fellow at Citizen Lab who co-authored the report, said the attack was concerning as it was carried out in a "zero-click" mode -- requiring no interaction from the victim.

"These surveillance abuses are not only predictable, but they are inevitable," he told AFP by phone from Canada.

Marczak added that the spyware industry, contrary to what it might claim, does not respect human rights.

"If your clients are some of the most repressive governments in the world, who do you think they're going to target?

"They will likely be journalists and activists."

NSO Group said Citizen Lab's report was "speculation and lacks any evidence supporting a connection to NSO".

"Instead it relies on assumptions made solely to fit Citizen Lab's agenda," a company spokesman said in a statement.

NSO only provides products to law enforcement and does not directly conduct surveillance, it added.

But Misshal -- one of the targeted reporters -- said without Citizen Lab's intervention, the breach would never have come to light.

"It's hard, you are a professional and this tool is a right to make your life easier and not to have a spy in your pocket," he said.

"Some of our sources don't want their names revealed. This is a violation and this is a crime."

WASHINGTON – More than 70 cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point were accused of cheating on a math exam, the worst academic scandal since the 1970s at the Army's premier training ground for officers.

Fifty-eight cadets admitted cheating on the exam, which was administered remotely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of them have been enrolled in a rehabilitation program and will be on probation for the remainder of their time at the academy. Others resigned, and some face hearings that could result in their expulsion.

The scandal strikes at the heart of the academy's reputation for rectitude, espoused by its own moral code, which is literally etched in stone:

“A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.”

Tim Bakken, a law professor at West Point, called the scandal a national security issue. West Point cadets become senior leaders the nation depends on.

"There’s no excuse for cheating when the fundamental code for cadets is that they should not lie, cheat or steal," Bakken said. "Therefore when the military tries to downplay effects of cheating at the academy, we're really downplaying the effects on the military as a whole. We rely on the military to tell us honestly when we should fight wars, and when we can win them."

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said West Point's disciplinary system is effective.

“The Honor process is working as expected and cadets will be held accountable for breaking the code," McCarthy said in a statement.

“The honor system at West Point is strong and working as designed," Lt. Gen. Darryl Williams, the academy's superintendent, said in a statement. "We made a deliberate decision to uphold our academic standards during the pandemic. We are holding cadets to those standards.”

Army Col. Mark Weathers, West Point's chief of staff, said in an interview Monday that he was "disappointed" in the cadets for cheating, but he did not consider the incident a serious breach of the code. It would not have occurred if the cadets had taken the exam on campus, he said.

Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., who leads the personnel panel of the House Armed Services Committee, said she found the scandal deeply troubling and West Point must provide more transparency to determine the scope of cheating.

"Our West Point cadets are the cream of the crop and are expected to demonstrate unimpeachable character and integrity," Speier said. "They must be held to the same high standard during remote learning as in-person."

Instructors initially determined that 72 plebes, or first-year cadets, and one yearling, or second-year cadet, had cheated on a calculus final exam in May. Those cadets all made the same error on a portion of the exam.

Recently concluded investigations and preliminary hearings for the cadets resulted in two cases being dismissed for lack of evidence and four dropped because the cadets resigned. Of the remaining 67 cases, 55 cadets were found in violation of the honor code and enrolled in a program for rehabilitation Dec. 9. Three more cadets admitted cheating but were not eligible to enroll in what is called the Willful Admission Program.

Cadets in the program are matched with a mentor and write journals and essays on their experience. The process can take up to six months. Cadets in the program are essentially on academic probation.

The remaining cadets accused of cheating face administrative hearings in which a board of cadets will hear the case and decide whether a violation of the code occurred. Another board will recommend penalties, which could include expulsion. West Point's superintendent has the final say on punishment.

How it's different from the 1976 scandal

One of the biggest cheating scandals among the nation's taxpayer-funded military colleges occurred in 1976 when 153 cadets at West Point resigned or were expelled for cheating on an electrical engineering exam.

The current cheating incident is considerably less serious, said Jeffery Peterson, senior advisor, Character Integration Advisory Group which reports to the superintendent and a retired colonel.

"They're early in their developmental process," Peterson said. "And so on occasion, these incidents happen, but we have a system in place to deal with them when they do."

Less than half as many cadets were involved in the current cheating case, and all but one was a first-year student, Peterson said. The first-year students are relatively new to the expectations and programs designed to develop ethics and leadership at the academy. In 1976, the scandal involved third-year cadets. Of those caught cheating, 98 returned to West Point and graduated with the class of 1978, Peterson said.

Other military academies have been tainted by academic scandals: In 1992, 125 midshipmen at the Naval Academy were caught in a cheating scandal, and 19 cadets at the Air Force Academy were suspended for cheating on a test.

In 2020, the pandemic has overturned college life as distance learning and exams supplanted in-person learning. West Point isn't alone in discovering misconduct among students. The University of Missouri caught 150 students cheating in the spring and fall semesters, the Kansas City Star reported.

West Point switched to remote learning after spring break last year as the pandemic spread.

The honor code remains strong at West Point despite the pandemic, Weathers said.

"Cadets are being held accountable for breaking the code," he said. "While disappointing, the Honor System is working, and these 67 remaining cases will be held accountable for their actions."

USA TODAY

Body camera footage has been released in the fatal police shooting of Joshua Feast, a 22-year-old Black man who died earlier this month in Texas.

Feast, 22, was fatally shot on Dec. 9 when a police officer in La Marque — a city about 40 miles southeast of Houston — was attempting to arrest him on outstanding warrants, the La Marque Police Department said.

Following multiple public information requests following the shooting, body camera video of the incident was released on Monday by the Galveston County Sheriff's Office, which is the agency investigating the incident.

Officer Jose Santos was looking for Feast as part of an investigation into two recent drive-by shootings, according to police. Santos found Feast while patrolling at about 11:10 p.m. that night and saw Feast was holding a gun, police said.

Body camera video released by police shows Santos driving and exiting his car as someone leaves the passenger door of another vehicle. Santos appears to open his driver’s side door and fire a shot at Feast as he runs away.

It’s unclear whether Santos or Feast speak to each other, as the video does not have audio for the first 30 seconds and picks up after Feast is shot.

The La Marque Police Department said Monday that the lack of audio is due to a manufacturer feature where the body cameras only record video for the first half minute as a buffer. Axon, the camera’s manufacturer, did not immediately respond to a request to confirm the department’s statement from NBC News.

Feast appears to stumble after he runs away and an unidentified object is dropped to the ground, based on the video footage. Police said Monday that the object was a handgun later recovered by officers and turned over to the Galveston County Sheriff's Office.

Santos chases Feast to the driveway of a nearby residence, where Feast collapses to the ground. The officer requests medics to the scene as well as backup, asking that someone recover the firearm that was dropped in the chase, according to the video.

“Show me your hands,” the officer said.

“Help me, help me, help me,” Feast responded from the ground.

Santos appears to hold Feast at gunpoint while he is on the ground, asking nearby residents who approached the scene to keep back, according to the video.

Feast died at a hospital following the shooting after being transferred from the scene by an ambulance. A second handgun was found in Feast’s clothing as he was being treated in the ambulance, police said.

An autopsy of Feast’s body showed he died of a single gunshot wound to the back.

Greg Cagle, the attorney representing Santos, said Monday that though there was no audio in that portion of the video, the officer called Feast by name and told him to drop his weapon after seeing Feast with a gun. Santos fired after Feast pulled the weapon into his hand, his attorney said.

“When you look at the video, frame by frame, that’s not how the real world works,” Cagle said. “When Officer Santos sees Mr. Feast go for the firearm in his waistband, that’s when he has to make a firing decision.”

Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochesset told CBS News last week that while he had not seen the video, he had been told by investigators that it shows Feast pointed a gun at the officer.

Ben Crump, a civil rights attorney representing Feast’s family, called the death “senseless” and alleged that the body camera video released on Monday disputed the sheriff’s claims that Feast pointed a gun. Crump alleged that members of the sheriff’s office lied to protect Santos.

“Because it is clear that the Sheriff’s department cannot be trusted to evaluate and relay the evidence truthfully and impartially, we demand oversight from the Texas Attorney General and an independent investigation from the Department of Justice,” Crump said.

Trochesset declined to comment on Crump's accusation Monday and told NBC News that investigators are "gathering every piece of evidence we have to turn over to the district attorney’s office."

Crump also alleged that Santos had a "propensity to use excessive force against Black people," citing a 2013 case where Santos was named as a defendant.

Santos was named in a 2013 lawsuit while he was employed at the Galveston Police Department, which alleged that he and a fellow officer used excessive force on Reginald Deon Davis in March of that year.

Davis allegedly pulled over to sleep in his car following a friend’s birthday because he wanted to rest before driving home. The officers allegedly hit Davis, purposefully submerged his face under water and struck him with a stun gun, according to the 2013 complaint. It is unclear if Santos disputed or confirmed the allegations in the complaint.

Davis voluntarily dismissed the case in August 2014, about a year after filing, court records showed. Santos resigned from the Galveston Police Department in December 2013, the city confirmed to NBC News on Monday, although it did not state the reason for his resignation.

Santos was placed on administrative leave from the Le Marque Police Department, per the department’s policy, while an investigation into the Feast shooting occurs, Police Chief Kirk Jackson said during a December 10 press conference.

"We are releasing information as soon as we are able while maintaining the integrity of the investigation and complying with our legal obligations," the chief said Monday. "We ask for continued patience as the investigation unfolds. Our condolences, thoughts and prayers remain with the family and friends of Joshua Feast.”

Though there have been protests demanding Santos’ termination, any “employment action” before the investigation concludes could “jeopardize the criminal investigation,” La Marque City Manager Tink Jackson said in Monday’s released statement.

“There is a manner and process in which any personnel actions must be taken, so they comply with the law,” the city manager said. “That takes time. We ask for your continued patience."