Haaretz: Why Israelis live in constant fear, and how their leaders capitalize on it

Insecurity is a psychological phenomenon that differs from the emotion of fear, notwithstanding the strong link between the two. Insecurity is essentially a cognitive (or mental) response, whereas fear is a negative emotion arising from threatening and/or dangerous circumstances. Oftentimes, fear is triggered automatically, by something that is out of our control. Threats or dangers that trigger fear in us may reflect experiences occurring in the present: for example, if we see the remains of a bus that was blown up in a terror attack. At times, fear surfaces because of experiences that occurred in the past – as in the case of air-raid sirens, whose sound may continue to haunt us because we associate them with the warning indicating an incoming missile attack. Fear can also be learned from a variety of sources, such as parents, teachers and leaders. [...]

In Israeli Jewish society, beliefs about insecurity contribute to a unique sense of identity among its members, and to a sense of being distinguished from other nations. Along with other beliefs regarding the ethos of the conflict (such as the justness of the cause, the Palestinians’ lack of legitimacy, or glorification of the Jews), beliefs of insecurity constitute the lens through which members of Israeli society view the world and gather new information. [...]

Insecurity breeds conformity, and an upsurge in popularity of leaders of the “Mister Security” model. However, as opposed to the line that politicians sometimes try to feed us, we are not talking about objective concepts here: Feelings of insecurity (or of security) are not connected to the number of nuclear bombs said to be in Israel’s arsenal, or to the number of F-35 stealth bombers it possesses. In reality, these beliefs depend on the subjective outlook of each individual: Each of us develops a sense of security or insecurity on the basis of our own personality and the information we possess. [...]

Over the years, the concept of security has repeatedly been cited to justify and explain numerous government decisions, even in cases where they did not have direct or immediate implications for national security; moreover, the concept has become a rationale for proactive or reactive moves in the military, political and societal arenas, and even in the educational and cultural realms. It has served as the basis for undemocratic, unethical and even illegal practices, and has been exploited for the mobilization of extensive human and material resources, well beyond the accepted norm in societies that do not have chronic security problems.

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The Atlantic: How Being a Woman Helped Marine Le Pen

Still, Le Pen’s ascent coincides with a historic far-right resurgence taking place across the Western world—one that, if successful, could have major implications for Europe’s institutions, its establishment parties, and its future. Le Pen’s candidacy is also historic in a country like France, whose political history, much like that of other western democracies,  doesn’t boast much female representation. French women were only afforded the right to vote and serve in public office in 1944, decades after women in Britain (1918), Germany (1918), and the United States (1920). Édith Cresson became the country’s first and only female prime minister in 1991 under President François Mitterrand, but lost the post less than a year later due to low approval ratings that some attribute to the misogynist attitudes of Socialist-party elites. Ségolène Royal, a Socialist politician who in 2007 became the first woman to be nominated for the presidency by a major party, faced similar discrimination. [...]

Le Pen has done this by attempting to soften the FN’s extremist edges and embrace her role as a woman, while keeping the party focused squarely on immigration and security. Her illiberal rhetoric about Islam and the Holocaust are still likely to curb the support of some voters who aren’t entirely convinced the FN has shed the racist and xenophobic image that has defined it for years. Still, while Le Pen may have no viable path to victory this year, her overhaul of the FN guarantees it has a chance of competing going forward for perhaps the first time in its 50-year history. [...]

Another way Le Pen has drawn more women to FN: by promoting herself as a modern woman of the people. In a recent campaign ad, she discussed being a woman, a mother, and a lawyer—aspects of her identity that she says makes her “proudly, loyally, and resolutely French.” It’s a populist, anti-elitist characterization that has helped her attract new voters to the party, including former Socialist voters who are disillusioned by the deeply unpopular presidency of François Hollande. “She’s twice divorced, she is effectively a single mother, she has a partner of several years who she isn't married to,” Murray said. “She can put herself forward as someone who understands the dilemmas faced by other women in that situation.”

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Vintage Everyday: 69 Fantastic Color Snapshots Document Everyday Life of Seoul in the 1960s

Seoul is the capital and largest metropolis of the Republic of Korea (commonly known as South Korea), forming the heart of the Seoul Capital Area, which includes the surrounding Incheon metropolis and Gyeonggi province, the world's 16th largest city.

Situated on the Han River, Seoul's history stretches back more than two thousand years when it was founded in 18 BCE by Baekje, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. It continued as the capital of Korea under the Joseon Dynasty. Seoul is surrounded by mountains, the tallest being Mt. Bukhan.

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The Washington Post: A backlash against same-sex marriage tests Taiwan’s reputation for gay rights

Over the last year, mostly Christian community groups have mobilized against the marriage-equality movement, warning, contrary to evidence, that same-sex partnerships are a threat to children, that giving LGBT families legal protection will hurt Taiwan.

They have also claimed—again, contrary to evidence—that protecting the rights of gender and sexual minorities is a Western idea, that being gay is somehow not “Chinese.” [...]

Yu Mei-nu, the legislator behind Taiwan’s most recent marriage-equality bill, was one of the human rights lawyers who struggled against one-party rule. She helped revise laws to guarantee the rights of women and, in 1986, represented a gay man suing for the right to marry. [...]

In recent months, concerned groups have reprised homophobic tropes about homosexuality, casting same-sex marriage as a gateway to incest, bestiality and AIDS. One group warned, without irony, that new marriage laws would lead to a future where “it’s possible to marry a ferris wheel.” [...]

At a hearing on marriage equality last month, Justice Minister Chiu Tai-san argued, in a court of law, that same-sex relationships are a “newly invented phenomenon” unlike “social norms and mechanisms formed by the people of our nation over the past thousand years” —leaving many people wondering what nation and norms he was referring to. 

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The Guardian: Out in the country – rural hotspots found as gay population mapped

Some of the findings are unsurprising: six of the 10 local authorities with the highest relative lesbian, gay and bisexual populations are in inner London, including Hackney, Lambeth and Southwark, while Brighton and Manchester also make the list.

But the county-by-county data puts rural Devon slightly ahead of East Sussex, the county that contains Brighton and Hove. An estimated 1.3% of Devon’s population told researchers they were gay, lesbian or bisexual, slightly ahead of the 1.1% estimated for East Sussex. [...]

By a slender margin, Northern Ireland was the country of the UK found to have the highest proportion of gay men – an estimated 1.6%, compared with 1.5% for England, 1.3% for Wales and 1.1% for Scotland. But it was also the country where women were least likely to say they were lesbian - just 0.3%.

However, some questioned the impact of how the data was collected. “I’m encouraged to see there’s been an increase in people in Northern Ireland identifying as LGB, but this disparity I find really challenging,” said Gavin Boyd, policy manager at the Rainbow Project, a Belfast-based support organisation.

One factor could be a reluctance by women to identify themselves as lesbian, he said. “You’ll find in a lot of places that have experienced armed conflict, the role of women tends to be minimised: post-conflict places tend to be quite macho societies.”

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CityLab: Heartbreaking Photos of Lonely Rowhouses

Baltimore photographer Ben Marcin, who lives in a well-kept rowhouse himself, has been documenting structures that haven't fared nearly as well. In "Last House Standing," started in 2010, Marcin shoots heartbreaking photographs that show neighbor-less rowhouses, its density-friendly architecture surrounded awkwardly by vacant lots.

Over the next two and a half years, Baltimore plans to spend nearly $22 million to tear down 1,500 abandoned houses, according to the Baltimore Sun. Previously, it spent about $2.5 million a year to demolish these symbols of urban neglect. What will replace these buildings is not always certain. One resident tells the Sun, 'We just don't want a lot of tracts of vacant land like Detroit." [...]

It is always with a touch of sadness when I find and stop to photograph one of the old, solo rowhouses struggling to hang on in some of the more distressed neighborhoods in Baltimore. I would guess that my original intention for photographing these rowhouses was to document the connection between our own house - still very vibrant and well cared for - with those on the other end of the spectrum. In a way, it makes me think what will become of our rowhouse after we are long gone.

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FiveThirtyEight: 35 Years Of American Death

Researchers have long argued that where we live can help predict how we die. But how much our location affects our health is harder to say, because death certificates, the primary source for mortality data, are not always complete. They frequently contain what public health experts call “garbage codes”: vague or generic causes of death that are listed when the specific cause is unknown. Garbage codes make it difficult to track the toll of a disease over time or to look for geographical patterns in how people die. The data shown in the map above represents one research group’s effort to fill in these gaps.

That group — the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation — designed a statistical model that uses demographic and epidemiological data to assign more specific causes of death to the records containing garbage codes in the National Vital Statistics System, which gathers death records (and other information such as births) from state and local jurisdictions into a national database. The institute also age-standardized the data so that places with larger populations of older people, who die at higher rates, do not have inflated numbers. The result is a set of more complete estimates of mortality across the country, one revealing regional and local variations in causes of death. [...]

Still, some outliers are simply anomalies. The county with the highest overall estimated mortality rate in 2014 was Union County, Florida. Union stands out from its neighbors in North Florida for a particular reason: It’s home to the Union Correctional Institution and the Florida Department of Corrections Reception and Medical Center, which provides inpatient medical care for state prisoners across Florida. These prisoners artificially raise Union County’s mortality rate.1

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Foreign Policy: How Leftists Learned to Love Le Pen

Like Trump, Le Pen has a voter base beyond angry whites in the economically depressed regions that account for most of the 900,000 industrial jobs France has lost over the past 15 years. The FN counts the sun-soaked south as its historic stronghold, where social conservatives and staunch nationalists returning from colonial-era Algeria have long backed the movement. But if Le Pen manages to ride the global populist tide to a shocking win after Brexit and Trump, decaying northern industrial towns like Hayange will have helped her get there. [...]

Outside Engelmann’s Town Hall, a few Trotskyist activists could be seen handing out leaflets. Hayange’s first postwar mayor was a Communist, but the town’s far-left influence has waned in keeping with the decline of a party that up until the 1980s was a major national player, with its members even serving as ministers. François Mitterand’s election in 1981 as France’s first Socialist president, and the country’s longest postwar leader, made the mainstream left an electable force — but it sapped much support from the once-popular Communists in the process. [...]

The difference, it seems, is Le Pen’s timely messaging on immigration and Islam. Like elsewhere in the West, a fading economy has been accompanied by a backlash against newcomers. Many locals are of immigrant stock — descended from generations of Italians and others who came to work in the valley’s mines and steelworks since the end of the 19th century. But there’s a growing sentiment that more recent arrivals are different.

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