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The French Parliament adopts the law implementing the "health pass".

The day after another day of mobilisation by its opponents, the anti-Covid health pass was definitively adopted in France on Sunday evening. MPs and senators reached an agreement in principle on this controversial text.

The National Assembly ended the parliamentary marathon that began on Tuesday with a wide-ranging vote, with 156 votes in favour, from the majority and the right, 60 against, from the left and the Rassemblement National, and 14 abstentions.

The leader of the La France insoumise MPs, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, unsuccessfully put forward a final motion to reject the bill, denouncing the anti-Covid pass as "parole" and calling for "disobedience". Olivier Véran, the French Minister for Health, was a little provocative, welcoming the "new-found national unity" after a total of 60 hours of debate in both chambers.

Time limits

Shortly before, it was the right-wing-dominated Senate that had approved by 195 votes to 129, with 17 abstentions, the same text providing for an extended pass and compulsory vaccination for healthcare workers. In the joint committee, 14 deputies and senators reached an agreement (see also box) in the early evening, after almost four hours of meetings.

Therefore, after 15 November, the pass system can only be continued with a new vote by Parliament. Initially, checks will be carried out by the administrative police rather than the criminal justice system.

No redundancies for care workers

In addition, as the senators wished, it is the health insurance scheme that will first monitor the compulsory isolation of people infected with Covid-19, before the police intervene if necessary. "We couldn't treat French people like criminals", said Senator Hervé Marseille (Union Centrist).

Finally, there will be no dismissal for people who fail to comply with the vaccination obligation because of their profession, but their salary will be suspended. This point had been hotly debated.

Pass extended at the beginning of August

In a rare move, a last-minute government amendment authorising prefects to impose the pass in large shopping centres in a highly restricted manner was adopted at the last minute. However, the requirement to present the pass had been deleted by the Senate, a deletion subsequently approved by the Joint Committee.

The extended pass is due to come into effect at the beginning of August. Time is running out in the face of an unprecedented surge in infections in France linked to the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19. The bill still has to pass through the Constitutional Council, to which Prime Minister Jean Castex and the left-wing party have referred the matter.

Text by Le monde agences/jop/vajo/vic

He flew 20 years before Jeff Bezos. Who is Dennis Tito, the first space tourist?

Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man and founder of online retail giant Amazon, went into space on Tuesday 20 July 2021. He made this journey twenty years after American millionaire Dennis Tito, the first space tourist. Here is the story of the man who paved the way for this very special kind of journey.

American millionaire Dennis Tito will never forget 28 April 2001. On that day, aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, he flew into space.

"I've achieved the goal of a lifetime".he added, speaking to the American television channel CNN. Aged 60 at the time, Dennis Tito is considered to be the first space tourist: he is not an astronaut by profession and paid to make this trip.

He flew twenty years before British billionaire Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos, the founder of online retail giant Amazon and the richest man in the world, who travelled in space for eleven minutes on Tuesday 20 July 2021.

Seduced by Yuri Gagarin

To understand how Dennis Tito became the first space tourist, you have to go back to 12 April 1961. On that day, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to fly in space.

In New York, where he was born some twenty years earlier, the young Dennis Tito was captivated. The son of a seamstress and a printer from Queens, he decided to follow in the Russian's footsteps.

This dream seemed to shape his studies, and his career: with a degree in astronautics, aeronautics and engineering, he began working at NASA, the American space agency, as recounted in the encyclopaedia Britannica . In particular, the engineer is involved in developing missions to send probes to Mars.

In 1972, he changed fields. Dennis Tito switched from space science to finance. He founded an investment company and applied his mathematical skills to the world of markets.

During these financial years, Dennis Tito made money. A lot of money. He became a millionaire, and even though he no longer worked for the US space agency, his dream of one day going into space never left him.

Dennis Tito's story picks up again in 1991. The Soviet Union began to collapse and the millionaire made contact with government officials.

The topic of discussion? Taking part in a space mission, in return for money. The discussions were unsuccessful, but resumed at the end of the 1990s, as CNN points out.

"The Russians were finding it very difficult to finance their space programme, says the millionaire. I thought maybe I could get involved with them".. Translation: pay to go into space.

The timing was right. At the time, MirCorp, a company that intends to "exploit the Russian space station, Mir, from "private wayAs specialist journalist Olivier Sanguy explained to us in 2019.

Six days on the International Space Station

In June 2000, the American daily The New York Times reports that the millionaire wrote a cheque for $20 million (about $30 million today) to MirCorp to fly into space and join the in-orbit facilities.

The trip never materialised, but Dennis Tito did not give up. In 2000, he arrived in Russia and began intensive training at Star City, the complex built near Moscow where Russian cosmonauts prepare to leave Earth.

"It wasn't easy, he tells the specialist website Space.com . I had to spend eight months in Russia without really knowing whether I could fly or not.

Finally, in April 2001, Dennis Tito arrived at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. He joins cosmonauts Talgat Musabayev and Yuri Baturin, whom he will accompany into space.

On Saturday 28 April, the rocket carrying the crew's Soyuz spacecraft lifts off. The craft will then dock with the International Space Station, where the three men will spend six days. On 6 May, the capsule carrying the crew landed back on Earth, on the steppes of Kazakhstan. Dennis Tito has completed his journey into space.

A story of tenacity, for the man whom the newspaper Le Monde described as "an ordinary American millionaire. After the millionaire, seven other space tourists have travelled in space up to 2009, according to CNN's count. A list to which we must now add Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos.

GOLDEN BALL: WHO'S THE FAVOURITE AFTER EURO 2021 AND THE COPA AMERICA?

The 2020-2021 football season came to a close this weekend with Argentina's victory in the Copa America and Italy's victory in Euro 2021. Will this influence the votes for the next Ballon d'Or? It probably will.

After a year's hiatus due to Covid, the Ballon d'Or will be making a comeback in 2021. Although, in theory, the most prestigious of individual trophies rewards the world's best player over a calendar year in December, it is often the previous season that is judged.

In 2019, for example, the list of nominees was published in October, and voting took place in the following weeks. In other words, the 2020-2021 financial year, and the major international competitions that have just ended, will serve as a benchmark. And some players - especially one - are already well ahead of the game...

Messi: the Copa America that could (should?) make the difference

The Rosario genius has already won the Ballon d'Or six times, without having won a single major competition with Argentina. And now that his Albiceleste tally is unblocked, the seventh trophy looks more than within his grasp...

Best player of the Copa America, joint top scorer and best passer of the ball, Messi finally got everyone to agree, wearing the national team jersey on his shoulders, and was also congratulated by Neymar, the unfortunate finalist.

That's enough to strike a chord with the voters, especially as La Pulga is coming off a fine season with Barça. Despite a false start in the summer of 2020 and a slow start to the autumn, the Argentinian finished the 2020-2021 campaign with 38 goals (including 30 in La Liga) and 14 assists. So yes, he only lifted the Copa del Rey, not La Liga or the Champions League. But it's still a solid record. Enough, at least, to make him the number 1 favourite.

Jorginho: two top competitions in the bag, but one thing missing

With Chelsea's Champions League triumph and Italy's Euro triumph, there are only two players this season to have won the two biggest competitions on the Old Continent: Emerson and Jorginho.

Given the former's playing time at club level (88 minutes in the Premier League), his case is quickly settled. As for Jorginho, the debate is wide open. Paired up with N'Golo Kanté for the Blues, and with Marco Verratti and Nicolo Barella in recent matches for the Nazionale, the midfielder has proved that he is a well-rounded, hard-working player who doesn't mind working in the background.

But this last point is also his "weakness" in the race for the Ballon d'Or. Jorginho is never one of his team's star players, nor is he a stats player (8 goals, 2 assists this season with Chelsea). The more fussy will also criticise him for missing his penalty against England.

Asked after the game about the Ballon d'Or, the Brazilian by birth did not seem to believe in it himself. "I don't want to talk about it, I don't want to think about it. I don't want to talk about it, I don't want to think about it, I just want to enjoy this moment with the others."

Kanté, Mbappé, Benzema: France's Euro campaign takes its toll

And what about Les Bleus? With their elimination at the hands of Switzerland in the last 16 of the Euros, they seem to be a little out of the game... Before the competition, there were three credible contenders: N'Golo Kanté, Kylian Mbappé and Karim Benzema.

Kanté has been sparkling for Chelsea this season, and was on a roll just after the Champions League final. But he looked exhausted during Euro 2021, and was unable to regain that level with the French national team. Perhaps it's also because he didn't have the same players alongside him, as Paul Pogba doesn't have the profile of Jorginho.

Mbappé was a self-proclaimed candidate for the Ballon d'Or after a successful 2020-2021 campaign (42 goals for PSG), but he failed to score a single goal during the Euros, and ended the competition with an image clouded by clumsy statements.

As for Benzema, he has nothing to reproach himself for with Real (30 goals), and nothing to reproach himself for with Les Bleus this summer either (4 goals). But here he is, finishing the season without having won a single competition.

De Bruyne, Kane, Donnarumma, Lewandowski, Ronaldo: other candidates in ambush

If Belgium had won the UEFA European Championship, Kevin De Bruyne would undoubtedly have been Lionel Messi's number 1 rival on Monday, if not the favourite, given that he was coming off a fine season with Manchester City, despite a number of fitness problems. After appearing in the middle of the group phase at the UEFA EURO 2008, the Devils' playmaker was immediately decisive, but was unable to prevent defeat by Italy in the quarter-finals. Romelu Lukaku, who won Serie A with Inter before the UEFA EURO, has shown that he is one of the most complete centre-forwards on the planet.

On the English side, Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling were in the limelight with the Three Lions. But they lost the final. What's more, the former only finished 7th in the Premier League with Tottenham, while the latter endured some rather complicated months at City under Pep Guardiola.

Like Jorginho, Gianluigi Donnarumma can boast of having triumphed at Wembley. He even finished the Euro with the best player award in his hands, after a fine season in Serie A with AC Milan (2nd behind Inter). But the future Parisian is a goalkeeper, which never helps when it comes to the Ballon d'Or, and has yet to play a single Champions League match.

Robert Lewandowski, who would probably have been the winner in 2020 before it was cancelled, had another top-class 2020-2021 season, scoring 48 goals for Bayern, winning the Bundesliga, the Club World Cup and a fine run in the Champions League before being eliminated in the quarter-finals, where he was injured. He also scored three goals in the group phase of the Euro, with modest Poland, but he could not avoid going out in the first round. It's not his fault, but it's what should lose him votes.

Then there's Cristiano Ronaldo. The five-time Ballon d'Or winner has only lifted the Italian Cup and Supercup this season, and his appetite for goals doesn't always do his team any favours, but he scores, again and again... 36 times with the Old Lady, 5 more times at Euro 2021 with Portugal, to finish joint top scorer. All of which is sure to score big points in the votes of observers.

C.C

Tokyo 2021 Olympics: A woman tries to extinguish the Olympic flame with a water pistol

Opposed to the Olympic Games being held during the Covid epidemic, the 50-year-old was arrested.

OLYMPIC GAMES - The gesture is more symbolic than dangerous, but it is causing quite a stir in Japan. On Sunday 4 July, as the Olympic flame passed through the prefecture of Ibaraki, in the centre of the island of Honshū, a woman tried to extinguish it with a water pistol, as shown in our video at the top of the article.

She immediately justified this move by saying that she was opposed to the holding of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (postponed by one year, from 23 July to 7 August), while Japan is one of the richest countries lagging furthest behind when it comes to vaccination against covid-19.

Kayoko Takahashi, 53, an unemployed woman, was stopped after her gesture when she shouted: "I'm against the Olympic Games. Stop the Olympics". As the daily newspaper of record points out Asahi ShinbunThe authorities fear that the 50-year-old may have thrown a liquid other than water in the direction of the flame.

Like her, many Japanese people deplore the fact that the event is being held against the backdrop of a health crisis that is far from under control. At present, while part of Japan is living under extremely strict health restrictions, particularly Tokyo, which is in a virtual state of emergency, the contagiousness of the Delta variant and the resurgence in the number of cases are indeed worrying the population.

The Olympic Torch Relay in the streets of Tokyo, for example, will have to take place partly behind closed doors and has even been banned elsewhere in the country, but the sporting events should go ahead as normal, although the question of the public has not yet been settled. Although a maximum capacity of 10,000 people at each Olympic venue (within the limit of 50% of the venue's maximum capacity) has been decreed for the time being, the health situation could lead to this being revised downwards, or even to the Games being held without an audience.

Although Japan has been relatively spared by covid-19, with fewer than 15,000 deaths officially recorded since the beginning of 2020, its medical system has been severely tested. Above all, the vaccination campaign is taking a long time to get under way, with doses arriving in dribs and drabs, and only 10% of the population has already been fully vaccinated.

On Sunday, the Olympic torch relay in Ibaraki prefecture got off to a good start when it was led by Zico, a former Brazilian football star who became an icon in Japan by finishing his career there before coaching some of the biggest clubs and the national team.

COMMENTARY. Euro 2021: France, Portugal, Germany... the group of death has killed off the big guns

France, Germany and Portugal, all drawn in the Euro 2021 "group of death", were eliminated in the Round of 16 by Switzerland, England and Portugal respectively.

In November 2019, in Bucharest, Romania, the draw for Euro 2020 (finally played in 2021) did not spare France, Germany and Portugal. The last three winners of major international competitions (the 2014 World Cup for Germany, Euro 2016 for Portugal and the 2018 World Cup for France) were placed in the same group, which had never happened before.

Group F, known as the "group of death", promised viewers some great matches from the start of the competition, but was a headache for the coaches. You had to be ready from the start, perhaps too early to go all the way. After all, the top players are programmed to build up their strength over the course of the competition, so that they are in top form from the quarter-finals onwards.

Proven organisations

While it didn't kill anyone, with all three teams qualifying for the 8^es of the final, the nervous and physical strain required from the start of the competition proved fatal in the knockout phase. As if the group wasn't already tough enough, the second and third-placed teams came up against England, at home at Wembley, and Belgium, number 1 in the Fifa rankings. Other round-of-16 games featured less "glamorous" opponents, such as Denmark and Wales, and Sweden and Ukraine.

In theory, only France seemed to be spared, even though they probably inherited the worst possible third place when they came up against Switzerland, a team that is always very difficult to play against, and 13^e in the international rankings.

Paradoxically, it was Portugal, third in the group, who came closest to qualifying in the end. Cristiano Ronaldo's team-mates had plenty of chances and possession, but sometimes lacked a clear finish, luck and physical fitness. No wonder. Their bodies were put to the test. The Portuguese, like the French, played two of their three matches in Budapest, the only stadium at the Euros with no spectator restrictions, in stifling heat. It's not the same to play in 35 degrees in Hungary as in 15 degrees in London or Amsterdam.

As well as playing each other, they also played their away games, in Munich against Germany and in Budapest against Hungary. And if all that wasn't enough, all three teams had two or three days less to recover.

Equity problem

With that in mind, it was hard to imagine any of the three teams going far in the competition, even if the French seemed to have done the hard part against Switzerland, taking a 3-1 lead with ten minutes remaining. Portugal's lack of physical fitness was obvious on Sunday, France's on Monday and Germany's on Tuesday. Of course, this in no way detracts from the performance of the Belgians, Swiss and English. But they didn't have to play finals in the group phase. The eleven-country Euro has its good points, but it also has its bad ones, particularly in terms of fairness.

Should Didier Deschamps stay on as Les Bleus coach?

The story began for Les Bleus in Bucharest one evening in November 2019 with a twist of fate. It ended one evening in June 2021 in Bucharest with a penalty shoot-out lottery. The story has come full circle.

Text by Ouest-France Pierre GUYON.