World News of Monday, 23 July 2018

Source: RFI

Macron's ex-security aide defends 'lending a hand' to police: Lawyers

Alexandre Benalla, the disgraced former security aide to President Emmanuel Macron, has defended taking part in a police operation during a May Day protest, saying he was "lending a hand", his lawyers said Monday.

Benalla, who has been charged with assault after videos emerged showing him striking a man during the protest, also claimed his acts were being exploited for "media and political ends".

"This personal initiative... is obviously being used to tarnish the president in circumstances that defy comprehension," his lawyers said in a statement.

His comments came as French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb and the Paris police chief defended their responses to the growing scandal.

Speaking before a parliamentary commission, both officials said they had learned of the video circulating on social media on May 2, the day after the violent protest in Paris.

Collomb said he had considered it was up to Benalla's superiors in Macron's office either to inform prosecutors or impose any punishment

World News of Monday, 23 July 2018

Source: France24

New Cuban constitution recognises 'market economics'

Cuba's National Assembly on Sunday adopted a new constitution that would recognize market economics yet keep the Communist Party firmly in control of the economy and the ship of state.
It will be voted on in a national referendum later this year.

"After it's put to discussion and voted on, Cubans will be more united in their defense of the revolution," said President Miguel Diaz-Canel, wrapping up the two-day session.

The president underscored that "every Cuban can freely express his or her opinions ... on a constitutional text reflecting the present and future of the nation."

Yet those opinions can't be voiced in a multiparty system. Article 224 reaffirms the socialist character of the Cuban political system, and the "guiding role of the one and only Communist Party."

On the economic front, Cubans are reassured that "property is socialist and belongs to all people, while the economy is state-led."

Ideologically, the constitution does drop a text saying that its goal was achieving a Communist society.

Cash-strapped Cuba has been under a US embargo for over four decades. Its main economic partner is now crisis-plagued Venezuela.

So Havana -- short on food, fuel and locally made goods -- is keen to get new partners to take a chance on investing in the Caribbean nation of 11 million, even though it staunchly opposes too much concentration of wealth in too few hands domestically.

The constitution recognizes private property and the market economy, as well as encourages foreign investments. But capitalism as known around the world remains a dirty word.