Al Jazeera: How do Palestinians see the Syrian war?

Throughout their long struggle against Zionism, Palestinian political factions have found support in Syria, often maintaining headquarters on its territory. Traditionally it was leftist, nationalist and Baathist movements in Palestine that were closest to Damascus, but as Hamas and Islamic Jihad came to prominence in the early 1990s and developed close relations with Iran, they also started receiving Syrian support. Syria would give Palestinian groups logistical assistance, training, and political backing to the level that no other Arab country would.[...]

This led to a crisis in relations between the Palestinian authorities and the Syrian regime which ultimately ended with the death of Arafat and the rise to power of Mahmoud Abbas. Since then, Syria has pressed for rapprochement, fearing that the Palestinian Authority could move closer to Jordan and Egypt, curbing its influence over the Palestinian issue. [...]

Hamas took a very different position. After much internal deliberation, it chose to leave Syria as a way to demonstrate its rejection of the Syrian regime's brutal crackdown on popular protests. It joined the axis of the Syrian opposition supported by Gulf states, cutting its relations with the regime and angering Iran.

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El País: How the Spanish Catholic Church has been hiding abuse cases for decades

According to judicial records, judges have issued 33 rulings against priests over the last 30 years, for the abuse of 80 minors. The sentences have ranged from economic fines to up to 21 years in jail. Some of the sentences included compensation payments to the victims of between €1,200 and €70,000.

Spain has 23,000 parishes and 18,000 clergymen. The judicial sentences for pedophilia affect under 0.2% of the clergy. In half a dozen of the known rulings, the proven facts explain how the victims first reported the abuse to the Church, and, given the lack of a response, decided to turn to the courts.[...]

Neither the Episcopal Conference nor the immense majority of the 70 Spanish dioceses consulted by EL PAÍS have supplied information about the reports of pedophilia that have come to light or been prosecuted in recent decades. Five of the 18 dioceses that did respond to this newspaper claimed that they had no evidence of any cases: Burgos, Santiago, Teruel, Barbastro and Segovia. [...]

Every year, between 400 and 500 cases of child abuse are received, although the information supplied by the Congregation does not specify which countries they come from. EL PAÍS asked the Vatican for the number of cases that come from Spain, but did not receive a response. Despite the impenetrability of the Church, Pope Francisco appears determined to convey to the bishops the need to be implacable with regard to the known cases of sex crimes.

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Politico: Russia dodges bullet of EU sanctions on cyber — for now

While the United Kingdom and the Netherlands pushed for swift action following an attack on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague that was widely attributed to Russia, other countries balked. Italy and France were among the countries wary about calling Russia out on its alleged hacking attempts, diplomats said.[...]

The failure to come up with tougher language comes months before European politicians head into the European Parliament election — which is widely expected to come under pressure from Russian disinformation and cyber intrusion campaigns aimed at derailing the vote.[...]

Thursday’s discussions on cybersecurity were overshadowed by EU leaders’ squabbles over Brexit, and hot-button issues like migration. The text on sanctioning cyberattackers passed without much discussion on the substance, several people briefed on the talks said. [...]

Other diplomats pointed to another problem: Some European countries, especially bordering Russia, could have political interests in attributing cyberattacks to Moscow without having the technical capabilities of proving the crime.

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99 Percent Invisible: The Finnish Experiment

Around the world, there is a lot of buzz around the idea of universal basic income (also known as “unconditional basic income” or UBI). It can take different forms or vary in the details, but in essence: UBI is the idea a government would pay all citizens, employed or not, a flat monthly sum to cover basic needs. This funding would come with no strings attached or special conditions, which would remove any potential stigma associated with receiving it. In short: it would be free money.

UBI advocates argue that many jobs don’t pay enough to even make rent and buy groceries: people can work full-time and still be below the poverty line. It’s easy to understand why people on the left would advocate for a guaranteed income, but a version of this concept is also popular among libertarians, who see UBI as a way to shrink the welfare state. For example, you could take away food stamps, medicare, and housing subsidies, and replace all of it with this one flat sum. [...]

The idea of a universal basic income has been around for a long time — Thomas Paine, a founding father of the United States, talked about it centuries ago. As recently as the 1960s and 70s, limited UBI studies were run in parts of the US. President Nixon even brought up the idea of an income floor for families in a State of the Union address.

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99 Percent Invisible: El Gordo

In Spain, they do the lottery differently. First of all, it’s a country-wide obsession — about 75% of Spaniards buy a ticket. There’s more than one lottery in Spain, but the one that Spaniards are the most passionate about is “La Lotería de Navidad” (“The Christmas Lottery”). This lottery has taken place every year since 1812.

For better or worse, lotteries have long been considered by governments as useful ways to raise funds for public programs. But lotteries were, and still are, thought to be regressive taxes on the poor. Karl Marx called them a sinister instrument of the state, designed to dupe the poor into believing there was an easy way out of poverty. The church found lottery play to be blasphemous and superstitious. In 1826 the British outright banned the lottery for nearly a hundred years.

And in 1862, Spain responded to the criticisms as well: by re-designing their national lottery so that it wouldn’t take as much money from the poor. The government thought if the they set the price of tickets high, only rich people would buy them. But that’s not what happened. People began “syndicate” playing, or playing in groups. The lottery became more popular than ever.

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