- Belarusian President Lukashenko Cuts off Exiled Enemies with Passport Ban Bloomberg
- Belarus bans citizens from renewing passports abroad, spreading fear among those who fled repression The Associated Press
- Belarusian diplomatic missions to stop issuing passports to citizens living abroad Meduza
- Lukashenka Orders Belarusian Embassies To Stop Issuing Passports Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
- Belarus Is One of the Countries With the Most Expenses for Visa Applications, Historically – SchengenVisaInfo.com SchengenVisaInfo.com
- View Full Coverage on Google News
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Ksenia Sobchak, Russian TV star linked to Putin, fled using Israeli passport
Anatoly Sobchak, who died in 2000, was Putin’s boss and political mentor. In 1990, Sobchak hired then-KGB agent Putin as a deputy mayor, and the two families remained close throughout the decade.
Ksenia Sobchak now runs the “Ostorozhno Novosti” project, which includes a network of Telegram news channels, a podcast studio, a YouTube channel and Sobchak’s own social media page. She has long straddled a fence between Russia’s political elite and its liberal political opposition, creating some distrust of her from both camps. In 2018, she ran for president against Putin, winning about 2 percent of votes.
Sobchak’s current legal troubles seemed to reflect tension within the well-connected elite as well as the climate of heightened anxiety amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. It also highlighted the urgency many well-to-do Russians feel about obtaining dual citizenship and a second passport.
Sobchak fled to Belarus and then Lithuania, which is a member of the European Union and along with the other Baltic states of Latvia and Estonia, is effectively closed to Russian travelers — even those with previously issued visas permitting them to enter the European Union’s Schengen travel zone. Only dual citizens or Russian nationals with humanitarian visas and residency permits can enter.
But Sobchak, who is partly of Jewish heritage, used her Israeli passport to cross the border, Lithuania’s Interior Ministry confirmed Thursday. A video from a surveillance camera emerged on Telegram channels showing Sobchak entering Lithuania on foot and talking to border officials.
Earlier this week, police raided Sobchak’s residency outside Moscow and arrested her commercial director, Kirill Sukhanov, who was ordered to be held in pretrial detention until late December.
According to Russian state media, investigators have accused Sukhanov and the former editor of the Russian edition of Tatler magazine, Arian Romanovsky, of extortion after a complaint by Sergey Chemezov, a Putin ally who heads a state-owned military and defense contractor, Rostec.
The state-run news agency Tass, citing case records, reported that investigators accused Sukhanov and Romanovsky of publishing a post on one of the Telegram channels, “containing information that could cause significant harm to rights and legitimate interests” of Chemezov and of then demanding 11 million rubles (about $180,000) to delete the post.
Investigators also implicated Sobchak in the extortion scheme, Tass reported, and issued a warrant for her arrest, but she eluded them. “She left Moscow late Tuesday night, at first buying tickets online to Dubai and Turkey to confuse the operatives,” the report said, citing unnamed law-enforcement sources.
The Washington Post could not independently verify the claims.
In a statement, Sobchak rejected the accusations. “What extortion, from who? What does any of this have to do with Rostec,” Sobchak wrote on her Telegram blog. “It is obvious that this is a raid on my editorial office, the last free editorial office in Russia, which had to be shut down.”
“Hopefully, it’s not the case, and this is all a misunderstanding,” she added, hewing to a diplomatic line that would seem to allow for the investigators pursuing her to be overruled by higher authorities.
It is not the first time that Sobchak’s home has been raided by law enforcement, nor is it the first time she has alleged an effort to silence her as a commentator and opposition figure.
In 2012, her Moscow apartment was raided as part of a sweep against Russian opposition activists including Alexei Navalny, who is now serving a long sentence in a prison colony after surviving a poisoning attack allegedly carried out by Russian security agents in August 2020.
Sobchak famously answered the door for the police wearing a negligee, and the agents confiscated roughly $1.5 million in cash, in dollars and euros, from her safe. She later told journalists, “They’re out to silence me.”
Sobchak grew up in St. Petersburg among the elites, having known dozens of now-politicians and ministers since she was a young child.
Until the raid in 2012, she was largely considered untouchable given her fame and family links to Putin. In recent years she seemed to continue to enjoy immunity from prosecution, unlike many others critical of the Kremlin who tried to build broad audiences outside of state-controlled media.
Sobchak is a polarizing figure in Russian independent media and opposition circles. She first gained prominence as a reality TV host in the early 2000s, establishing scandalous image compared to Russia’s Hilton — a comparison she came to disdain.
She rebranded herself as an opposition figure after participating in the “white ribbon” anti-Kremlin protests that erupted in late 2011 and continued in 2012 over election fraud and Putin’s subsequent return to the presidency after four years in which he had relegated the top job to Dmitry Medvedev, while serving instead as prime minister.
Tens of thousands of people protested in Bolotnaya Square and other Moscow locations at the time, marking the biggest demonstrations since the collapse of the Soviet Union. But Putin ultimately squashed the opposition, with increasingly repressive measures including arrests and prosecutions.
Sobchak has often carefully criticized Putin and his policies, but many opposition figures have accused her of trying to simultaneously appease liberals and the Kremlin.
Putin over the years has often faced “loyal” opponents in his presidential contests, and the Russian opposition cast Sobchak’s decision to run in 2018 as a ploy by the Kremlin to siphon away liberal votes and create a facade of democracy after officials barred Navalny, Putin’s chief nemesis, from running.
Investigative news outlet Proekt reported in 2020 that the campaign was closely coordinated with the presidential administration, while Sobchak herself has denied that she ever asked Putin or his aides for permission to run.
More recently, Sobchak reinvented herself as a serious TV journalist and an anchor of a YouTube channel with more than 3 million subscribers.
The news of her swift departure from the country yielded predictably contradictory reactions.
“From the makers of ‘Sobchak on Bolotnaya’ and ‘Sobchak the President’, watch out for the comedy show ‘Sobchak In Opposition 3.0,’ ” tweeted Ivan Zhdanov, a Navalny ally and director of his Anti-Corruption Foundation. “Those who will buy into this once again are either not very smart or have bad intent,” wrote Zhdanov, who is living in exile in Vilnius, Lithuania, to avoid arrest. “Don’t get fooled.”
But Alexander Rodnyansky, a Ukrainian film and television producer who worked in Russia for decades before the war, offered a more sympathetic assessment on his Instagram blog.
“Sobchak had a huge audience and she without a doubt offered it liberal and Western ideas,” Rodnyansky wrote. “In the conditions of the war and a systematic destruction of the civil society, anyone who must flee persecution deserves to be supported, in my opinion.”
Giants punter Jamie Gillan stuck in London over passport issue
Punter Jamie Gillan did not fly home with the Giants and remains in London because of a passport technicality, as first reported by NFL Network. United States diplomats got involved to change Gillan’s passport from a NATO visa to a work visa, per the report.
The Scotland native is expected to fly home Thursday, but the Giants will work out other punters in the meantime so as not to be caught flat-footed Sunday against the Ravens.
Gillian punted just twice in the Giants’ win over the Packers on Sunday, averaging 50 yards per kick and a long of 58. He is tied for fourth in the NFL in average length of his punts at 51.0 yards. His long of 69 is tied for the seventh longest this season.
Rookie DT D.J. Davidson has a season-ending knee injury, the Giants announced. He is the third member of the 2022 draft class to be ruled out for the season, joining LB Darrian Beavers and G Marcus McKethan, both of whom were hurt during training camp. Davidson, a fifth-round pick, played 43 snaps on defense and 43 more on special teams over the first five games.
New Israeli rules would require foreign passport holders to declare romantic relationships with Palestinians
The 97-page Israeli ordinance detailing the new restrictions requires foreign passport holders, including, in some cases, American Palestinian dual citizens, in a romantic relationship with a Palestinian resident of the West Bank to “inform” Israeli security authorities “in writing (at a special e-mail address) within 30 days of the relationship’s start.”
“The ‘starting date of the relationship’ shall be considered the day of the engagement ceremony, of the wedding, or of the start of cohabitation — whichever occurs first,” it said.
The new restrictions — which also ask applicants to declare if they have land or are inheriting land in the West Bank — would not apply to the Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The territory’s two-tiered legal structure treats Jewish Israelis as citizens living under civilian rule while Palestinians are treated as combatants under military rule, subject to nighttime military raids, detention and bans on visiting their ancestral lands or accessing certain roads.
Palestinian rights advocates condemned the updated, more stringent procedures on social media as another example of Israel stripping rights from Palestinians living under its 55-year occupation.
“One side of this is about control & isolation,” Salem Barahmeh, executive director of Rabet, the digital platform of the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, wrote on Twitter Saturday. “The other is: if you can’t be together in Palestine then you will have [to] leave & to do so elsewhere. It’s about driving as many people as they can outside of Palestine to maintain supremacy.”
Fadi Quran, campaign director for activist group Avaaz, tweeted that the new rules signal that in the occupied West Bank, “love is dangerous.”
Foreigners visiting the West Bank already face intensive screening. One Palestinian woman, who lives in Germany and is married to a German man, said she worries that the rules will make it even more difficult for her and her husband — and their future children — to visit her relatives in the West Bank. The woman spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid calling the attention of Israeli authorities to her case.
After learning of the new rules, the woman decided to bring her new husband to the West Bank to meet her family in May, before they took effect.
Even then, she said, Jordanian authorities at the border crossing advised the couple not to cross together and to scrub any evidence of their relationship from their phones, since Israeli officials had been turning back foreign spouses of Palestinians.
The couple took off their wedding rings, unlinked their Airbnb booking and deleted their WhatsApp conversations and photos together. Her husband told border guards he was visiting the West Bank for tourism. Still, he faced intense questioning from the Israeli police.
A spokeswoman from COGAT, Israel’s military agency responsible for coordinating with the Palestinians on civilian matters, declined to comment on the new restrictions, but said that a new version of the regulations would likely be published on Sunday.
The ordinance describes the “purpose of the procedure” as a way to codify norms that have already been in place for years for foreign passport holders entering the occupied territory. The goal is to “define the levels of authority and the manner of processing for applications from foreigners who wish to enter the Judea and Samaria area through the international crossings, in accordance with policy and in coordination with the appropriate offices,” said the document, referring to the biblical name Israel uses for the West Bank.
Since first announced in February, implementation of the new restrictions has been delayed repeatedly by Israel’s High Court.
In June, HaMoked, an Israeli human rights organization, along with 19 individuals, petitioned the High Court to halt the new rules, arguing that they set “extreme limitations on the duration of visas and visa extensions” that would impede foreigners’ ability to work or volunteer for Palestinian institutions for more than a few months, bar them from leaving the West Bank and returning during the visa period, and in some cases require people to remain abroad for a year after their visa expires before they can apply for another.
The rules would also “deny thousands of Palestinian families the ability to live together without interruption and lead a normal family life,” HaMoked said in a statement in June, as well as make it more difficult for foreign academics to work at Palestinian universities.
The new rules allow 100 professors and 150 students with foreign passports to stay in the West Bank — a substantial blow to Palestinian higher education institutions. They rely on academic collaborations and recruit hundreds of foreign passport-holding students every year. More than 350 European university students and staff studied or worked at Palestinian universities under the Erasmus program, an E.U. student exchange program, in 2020, up from just 51 five years earlier.
Mariya Gabriel, E.U. commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, suggested in July that the development could also harm Israel-Europe academic ties.
“With Israel itself benefitting greatly from Erasmus+, the Commission considers that it should facilitate and not hinder access of students to Palestinian universities,” Gabriel said. She added that E.U. officials have expressed their concerns to Israeli authorities “including at the highest levels.”
Sam Bahour, an American-Palestinian economist, cited Israel’s High Court rulings to delay the new rules’ implementation as proof of their illegitimacy.
He said he has been fielding daily phone calls from Palestinian emigres throughout the world worried that the new procedures could make future visits difficult or impossible. He said the new protocols would be so “absurd” that they would be “impossible to implement.”
But, he said, they have delivered a decades-old message from Israel to the Palestinians: “Stay away.”
Suspect in killing of elite cyclist used someone else’s passport in escape to Costa Rica, officials say. Here’s how authorities say she was caught
Authorities say they found Kaitlin Marie Armstrong at a hostel in Costa Rica on Wednesday. She’s facing extradition to the United States to face murder charges in the death of Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson, who was shot May 11.
Wilson briefly dated Armstrong’s boyfriend, a professional cyclist, and investigators say romantic jealousy might have been a motivating factor.
Here’s a timeline of the case, from Wilson’s death to the capture of Armstrong, a 34-year-old real estate agent and yoga teacher from Austin, Texas.
May 11: Wilson is found dead with multiple gunshot wounds at the home of a friend. She had told her friend she was going for an afternoon swim with Colin Strickland, 35, a professional cyclist and Armstrong’s boyfriend. He tells police he and Wilson swam and ate dinner, and he dropped her off at the friend’s home, according to an arrest affidavit in Travis County District Court.
May 12: Austin police apprehend Armstrong on an unrelated warrant. They release her after learning the warrant is invalid.
May 13: Armstrong sells her black Jeep Grand Cherokee for $12,200.
May 14: Armstrong flies from Austin to Houston to New York City.
May 17: Police issue a homicide warrant for Armstrong. It says a vehicle similar to hers was shown on video surveillance near the home shortly before Wilson’s body was found.
May 18: Armstrong is seen at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, according to the US Marshals Service. No reservation is found in her name.
May 19: An arrest warrant says Strickiland told police he tried to hide his communications with Wilson from Armstrong. It says Armstrong told Wilson to “stay away” from Strickland, one of Wilson’s friends told police.
May 25: Authorities issue a separate, federal warrant for Armstrong for “unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.” Strickland tells the Austin American-Statesman that he had a “brief romantic relationship” with Wilson last year while separated from Armstrong. He tells the newspaper that he and Armstrong reconciled and that he considered Wilson a “platonic” and “close friend.”
Found 6 weeks later in another country, with another look
June 29: Authorities arrest Armstrong at a hostel in Santa Teresa Beach in Provincia de Puntarenas, according to the US Marshals Office.
June 30: Austin-based Deputy Marshal Brandon Filla tells CNN that Armstrong “changed her appearance drastically.” Her long blonde hair is now “shoulder length and dark brown,” he says.
He also reveals further details about the weeks-long search:
• Armstrong previously “resembled” the person whose passport she used to flee the country. Filla does not say how Armstrong got the passport or if its rightful owner gave it to her.
• After authorities learned of the name Armstrong might have been using to travel, US Marshals “worked with Homeland Security and looked at flight passenger lists.” They found the name matching that passport on a May 18 flight from Newark to San José, Costa Rica.
• They then scoured the surveillance cameras for the specific airport gate the flight left from and “ID’d Kaitlin Armstrong” boarding.
• US Marshals contacted Costa Rican authorities, who located Armstrong at the hostel and detained her on an immigration violation for using a fraudulent passport to enter the country.
What’s next: Filla says Armstrong will face a murder charge upon her return to Austin. She is also facing an added federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
Armstrong has been returned to Texas and was being held at the Harris County Jail awaiting extradition to Austin, US Marshals said Saturday.
When she arrives in Austin, she’ll be held with bond set at $3.5 million, court records in Texas’ Travis County show.
It’s unclear if anyone else aided Armstrong in her efforts to evade the US Marshals, but Filla says “they are not ruling out others being charged” depending on where their investigation takes them.
CNN’s Emma Tucker, Rebekah Riess, Holly Yan and Jennifer Henderson contributed to this report.
Suspect in killing of elite cyclist used someone else’s passport in escape to Costa Rica, officials say. Here’s how authorities say she was caught
Authorities say they found Kaitlin Marie Armstrong at a hostel in Costa Rica on Wednesday. She’s facing extradition to the United States to face murder charges in the death of Anna Moriah “Mo” Wilson, who was shot May 11.
Wilson briefly dated Armstrong’s boyfriend, a professional cyclist, and investigators say romantic jealousy might have been a motivating factor.
Here’s a timeline of the case, from Wilson’s death to the capture of Armstrong, a 34-year-old real estate agent and yoga teacher from Austin, Texas.
May 11: Wilson is found dead with multiple gunshot wounds at the home of a friend. She had told her friend she was going for an afternoon swim with Colin Strickland, 35, a professional cyclist and Armstrong’s boyfriend. He tells police he and Wilson swam and ate dinner, and he dropped her off at the friend’s home, according to an arrest affidavit in Travis County District Court.
May 12: Austin police apprehend Armstrong on an unrelated warrant. They release her after learning the warrant is invalid.
May 13: Armstrong sells her black Jeep Grand Cherokee for $12,200.
May 14: Armstrong flies from Austin to Houston to New York City.
May 17: Police issue a homicide warrant for Armstrong. It says a vehicle similar to hers was shown on video surveillance near the home shortly before Wilson’s body was found.
May 18: Armstrong is seen at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, according to the US Marshals Service. No reservation is found in her name.
May 19: An arrest warrant says Strickiland told police he tried to hide his communications with Wilson from Armstrong. It says Armstrong told Wilson to “stay away” from Strickland, one of Wilson’s friends told police.
May 25: Authorities issue a separate, federal warrant for Armstrong for “unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.” Strickland tells the Austin American-Statesman that he had a “brief romantic relationship” with Wilson last year while separated from Armstrong. He tells the newspaper that he and Armstrong reconciled and that he considered Wilson a “platonic” and “close friend.”
Found 6 weeks later in another country, with another look
June 29: Authorities arrest Armstrong at a hostel in Santa Teresa Beach in Provincia de Puntarenas, according to the US Marshals Office.
June 30: Austin-based Deputy Marshal Brandon Filla tells CNN that Armstrong “changed her appearance drastically.” Her long blonde hair is now “shoulder length and dark brown,” he says.
He also reveals further details about the weeks-long search:
• Armstrong previously “resembled” the person whose passport she used to flee the country. Filla does not say how Armstrong got the passport or if its rightful owner gave it to her.
• After authorities learned of the name Armstrong might have been using to travel, US Marshals “worked with Homeland Security and looked at flight passenger lists.” They found the name matching that passport on a May 18 flight from Newark to San José, Costa Rica.
• They then scoured the surveillance cameras for the specific airport gate the flight left from and “ID’d Kaitlin Armstrong” boarding.
• US Marshals contacted Costa Rican authorities, who located Armstrong at the hostel and detained her on an immigration violation for using a fraudulent passport to enter the country.
What’s next: Filla says Armstrong will face a murder charge upon her return to Austin. She is also facing an added federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
When she returns, she’ll be held with bond set at $3.5 million, court records in Texas’ Travis County show.
It’s unclear if anyone else aided Armstrong in her efforts to evade the US Marshals, but Filla says “they are not ruling out others being charged” depending on where their investigation takes them.
CNN’s Emma Tucker, Rebekah Riess, Holly Yan and Jennifer Henderson contributed to this report.
Massachusetts’ digital vaccine passport leaves some residents frustrated: ‘Couldn’t find anything for me’
Massachusetts this week unveiled a new digital COVID vaccine passport intended to make it easier for residents to prove their immunization status — particularly as indoor vaccine mandates take hold across the commonwealth, including in Boston and Brookline this weekend.
But scores of Massachusetts residents hoping for an easy process to obtain their electronic vaccine records encountered glitches as they entered their information on a state government website. The most common issued seemed to be missing COVID booster shot information.
The administration had warned of another problem that people could expect: Individuals vaccinated outside of Massachusetts could not immediately rely on the passport, which pulls health data from the Massachusetts Immunization Information System. To fix the problem, residents should ask their health care provider to update their vaccination records.
The “My Vax Records” tool comes with a QR code from the SMART Health Card platform, which is being used in roughly a dozen other states. It cost Massachusetts about $400,000 to develop and test the tool, MassLive previously reported.
About 370,000 vaccine cards have been downloaded as of Wednesday afternoon, a Baker administration official told MassLive.
Gov. Charlie Baker on Tuesday urged people to be precise on the state’s website when entering their name, cell phone number and other basic contact information — aligning it with the details individuals shared when receiving their vaccine doses. Any discrepancies, Baker said, could cause a hiccup in the “My Vax Records” tool.
For some residents, the vaccine passport seemed to be an easy download on their smartphones or other devices.
“Worked great!” Karen A. Hayes told MassLive on Facebook.
“I had no problem at all,” Debbie Beane said. “It was easy and all the information was accurate. I’m all set!!”
“All three showed up correctly,” Mary Dunn said.
“No problem,” Kim Element said, adding a smiley face emoji.
Still, frustrated Massachusetts residents outlined a litany of other issues to MassLive as they tried to take advantage of the digital passport option.
Phil Rutledge, of Webster, told MassLive he received his first two vaccine shots at Harrington Hospital last April, followed by a booster in December at a local Walgreens. But when he entered his cell phone number and tried both of his email addresses in the state system on Tuesday morning, he received an error message: “does not match our records.”
By Wednesday afternoon, Rutledge told MassLive he had made some headway updating his vaccine record. On a separate webpage, Rutledge submitted a picture of his driver’s license and also entered the date and location of his COVID booster shot.
“It was acknowledged by auto email,” Rutledge told MassLive, sharing the confirmation of his request from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Immunization Division. “We’ll see what happens.”
Gina Fields couldn’t access her digital passport either, she told MassLive on Tuesday afternoon.
“I’m hoping all is resolved by Monday, but I’m sure it won’t be,” Fields said in an email.
Scott Fitzgerald had partial success obtaining his digital passport. His electronic record, for now, only reflects his first two vaccine shots, not his booster. Still, Fitzgerald received all of his vaccine doses at the same pharmacy chain, he told MassLive on Facebook.
Laurie Goldman Lewis reported no luck with the state’s system.
“Said it couldn’t find anything for me,” Lewis told MassLive on Facebook. “I’m fully vaxxed and boosted. All shots in MA.”
Jessica Kish Kennedy, who got vaccinated at Gillette Stadium, struck out using the state’s website, too.
“I filled in everything exactly as I submitted it originally,” Kennedy said. “I tried it using both my email and my cell, and it just said ‘no information.’”
Massachusetts’ new digital vaccine passport is only one option for individuals to prove they are fully inoculated, however. For simplicity’s sake, people can opt to carry around their CDC card with them — or rely on a picture of it saved to their phones.
People can also use other vaccine credential platforms, such as New York’s Excelsior Pass. That’s what Michelle Margulies intends to download, since the state website isn’t finding her records.
“Guess I’ll stick to using the NY app where you can upload a picture of your card,” Margulies told MassLive on Facebook.
To store the state’s vaccine passport, residents are encouraged to add the digital card to their Apple Health Wallet or take a screenshot. Betsy Robinson Bertuzzi struggled with that step, even as Facebook users rushed to offer her advice.
“Easy to access, but impossible to download or move to my wallet and/or health app,” Bertuzzi told MassLive on Facebook. “I have an iPhone 10. But nowhere in the instructions does it say that it’s only for certain models of phones. I followed the instructions to ‘hold down until the health app button pops up,’ but it never does.”
Susan Hugus lamented the digital tool could have worked better for Android users.
“Would like to have in Google pay or a separate app instead of putting it in the Google photos,” told MassLive on Facebook.
If you’re unable to download the app, try updating your vaccine record information here.
Still having issues with the state’s new vaccine passport? Email akuznitz@masslive.com.
Related Content:
Michael Jackson Passport Application Up for Sale for $75,000
A rare piece of Michael Jackson history that highlights his globetrotting status as the King of Pop is hitting the open market, and could be an incredible conversation piece in your home … if ya got deep pockets.
Here’s the deal … MJ lost his passport in the early 1990s and had to fill out an application for a replacement — and now that document is going up for sale at Moments In Time.
As you can see, Michael included 4 passport photos in his application, which is filled out with all of his information … and it’s even got his John Hancock.
The pics are pretty cool … they’re Polaroids — that alone is a blast from the past — and even though Michael’s not cracking a smile, his hair is looking great.
Also note how he put his occupation as “entertainer” and check out his huge, sweeping signature.
The documents and pictures look to be in excellent condition … which is part of the reason why this Michael artifact has a $75,000 price tag.
Thousands of protesters pack Paris streets in defiance of COVID-19 vaccine passport: ‘Our freedoms are dying’
Thousands of people marched in Paris and other French cities Saturday for a fourth consecutive week of protests against the COVID-19 health passes that everyone in the country will need shortly to enter cafes, trains and other venues.
The demonstrations came two days after France’s Constitutional Council upheld most provisions of a new law that expands the locations where health passes are needed to enter.
Starting Monday, the pass will be required in France to access cafes, restaurants, long-distance travel and, in some cases, hospitals. It was already in place for cultural and recreational venues, including cinemas, concert halls, sports arenas and theme parks with a capacity for more than 50 people.
Anti-vax protesters face police during a protest against the vaccine and vaccine passports, in Paris, France, Saturday Aug. 7, 2021.
(AP Photo / Adrienne Surprenant)
FRENCH POLICE CLASH WITH ANTI-VIRUS PASS PROTESTERS IN PARIS
With French riot police on guard, a largely peaceful crowd walked across Paris carrying banners that read: “Our freedoms are dying” and “Vaccine: Don’t touch our kids.” Some were also upset that the government has made COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for health care workers by Sept. 15.
Dozens of street protests took place in other French cities as well, including Marseille, Nice and Lille. The French Interior ministry said there were 237,000 protesters nationwide, including 17,000 in Paris.
Anti-vax protesters face police during a protest against the vaccine and vaccine passports, in Paris, France, Saturday Aug. 7, 2021.
(AP Photo / Adrienne Surprenant)
Opponents say the virus pass limits their mobility and implicitly renders vaccines obligatory.
Polls, however, show that most people in France support the health passes, which prove that people are vaccinated, have had a negative recent test or have recovered from COVID-19.
Anti-vax protester holds a flare during a protest against the vaccine and vaccine passports, in Paris, France, Saturday Aug. 7, 2021.
(AP Photo / Adrienne Surprenant)
FRENCH PROTESTERS REJECT BILL REQUIRING VACCINE PASSES
Muriel, 55, a Parisian who declined to give her last name, told The Associated Press that she especially protests “the disguised mandatory vaccination … it’s an incredible blow to our fundamental freedoms.”
A separate protest organized by far-right politician Florian Philippot gathered thousands near the Health Ministry in central Paris. Many held French flags and called for French President Emmanuel Macron to resign.
Anti-vax protesters gather to protest against the vaccine and vaccine passports, during a demonstration in Paris, France, Saturday Aug. 7, 2021.
(AP Photo / Adrienne Surprenant)
“Here, you don’t have COVID, but you have rage!” Philippot told the crowd, calling for a boycott of places requiring the pass.
In Reunion Island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean that is under a partial lockdown amid a surge in infections, thousands turned out to protest the virus pass.
Protesters sing chants during a demonstration in Marseille, southern France, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021.
(AP Photo/Daniel Cole)
EIFFEL TOWER REOPENS; COVID PASSES REQUIRED AS OF NEXT WEEK
France is registering over 21,000 new confirmed virus cases daily, a steep climb from a month ago. More than 112,000 people with the virus in France have died since the pandemic began.
Over 36 million people in France — about 54% of the population — are fully vaccinated. At least 7 million have gotten their first vaccine shot since Macron announced the health pass requirement on July 12.
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A growing number of European countries have implemented virus passes, each with different rules.
Italy’s “Green Pass” took effect on Friday. Denmark pioneered vaccine passes with little resistance. In Austria, the pass is needed to enter into restaurants, theaters, hotels, sports facilities and hairdressers. In Germany, anti-virus pass protests in Berlin last weekend led to some violent clashes with police.
Fox has quietly implemented its own version of a vaccine passport while its top personalities attack them
New York
CNN Business
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Tucker Carlson has called the idea of vaccine passports the medical equivalent of “Jim Crow” laws. And other Fox News personalities have spent months both trafficking in anti-vaccine rhetoric and assailing the concept of showing proof of vaccination status.
But Fox Corporation, the right-wing talk channel’s parent company, has quietly implemented the concept of a vaccine passport as workers slowly return back to the company’s offices.
Fox employees, including those who work at Fox News, received an email, obtained by CNN Business, from the company’s Human Resources department in early June that said Fox had “developed a secure, voluntary way for employees to self-attest their vaccination status.”
The system allows for employees to self-report to Fox the dates their shots were administered and which vaccines were used.
The company has encouraged employees to report their status, telling them that “providing this information to FOX will assist the company with space planning and contact tracing.”
Employees who report their status are allowed to bypass the otherwise required daily health screening, according to a follow-up email those who reported their vaccination status received.
“Thank you for providing FOX with your vaccination information,” the email said. “You no longer are required to complete your daily health screening through WorkCare/WorkMatters.”
The concept, which was first reported Monday by Ryan Grim on The Hill’s morning streaming show, is known internally as “FOX Clear Pass.”
While the “Fox Clear Pass” is voluntary for employees, and other companies have similar tools, it is still remarkable, given how vocal Fox’s top talent has been in criticizing the concept of vaccine passports.
Fox News has spent months portraying the notion that people might be asked to show vaccination status as dangerous to personal freedom and anti-American.
Fox has also hyped the rejection of vaccine passports by Republican elected officials like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Spokespeople for Fox Corporation and Fox News did not comment in response to questions Monday about why the right-wing talk channel has been so forcefully against vaccine passports while the company has itself implemented a version of one.
It’s not the first time that Fox has been so brazenly hypocritical about coronavirus precautions.
While its television hosts railed against face masks, the company issued guidance recommending employees wear them. It also said it would require people attending tapings of host Greg Gutfeld’s show to wear masks.
It’s unclear whether Fox will require vaccinations when employees fully return to the office. Hundreds of Fox staffers are already back at work in some capacity. When CNN began to reopen its facilities in June, vaccinations were required in order to come in.
Fox has said that it hopes to fully reopen its offices after Labor Day.