Dear friends who have been following French news about the new Global Security Bill (Loi Sécurité Globale), here's a little update. (TL;DR: in the wake of massive protests, the Bill has not been "dropped", as claimed by several media outlets. French govt is only playing a one-step-back-two-steps-forward game). --Background info-- Pushed by unpopular Macron's minister of the interior, the bill was approved last week by a crushing majority at the National Assembly and has now passed on to the Senate for approval. In the meantime, large rallies and protests, following a steady flow of media stories about police brutality (eg. https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2020/nov/27/french-police-caught-on-...), have put the government in an embarrassing situation. Notably, the bill contains an article (art. 24) prohibiting recording and sharing images of police officers. This represents a major threat to the freedom of the press. The bill contains several other problematic provisions, too (more on this later). --The news about the bill being "dropped"-- On Nov. 30, 2020, Macron's majority whip at the National Assembly announced that art. 24 (and only that one) was going to be "suspended". This was enough for some media to claim that the entire bill was dropped (cf. https://youtu.be/qwIXmvbr54Y). --Why this is not true-- Alas, that's inaccurate to say the least. Even right-wing newspaper Le Figaro was adamant about the fact that the controversial art. 24 was "neither suspended nor withdrawn, but merely rephrased" ("Ni suspension, ni suppression, mais réécriture." https://www.lefigaro.fr/politique/securite-globale-violences-policieres-macr...). Moreover, there is no mention of other controversial provisions, such as art. 21 (allowing police officers to share the content of their body cameras without limitations, including, according to some civil rights groups, for face recognition purposes: https://www.ldh-france.org/contre-la-loi-securite-globale-defendons-la-liber...) and art. 22 (generalizing drone surveillance, which was recently rejected by French State Council: https://www.conseil-etat.fr/actualites/actualites/le-conseil-d-etat-ordonne-...). --Alas, article 24 is here to stay-- The article cannot be "rephrased" by the National assembly majority, as the bill has already been approved and forwarded to the Senate. Unfortunately, art. 24 is still in the version of the bill received by the parliament's upper chamber—which, according to the French constitution, is now the only one allowed to amend/rewrite it (https://twitter.com/BrunoRetailleau/status/1333438811020402690). Government's announcement is nothing but a smokescreen to defuse the political situation. Furthermore, art. 24 has been renamed art. 25 and exported into another controversial law, the Bill against "Separatism". It will be examined by the Parliament on Dec. 9, 2020: https://www.dalloz-actualite.fr/flash/projet-de-loi-separatisme-texte-de-l-a.... Hope this was useful. Cheers, ---a