The Intercept: Jeremy Corbyn Accused of Being Russian “Collaborator” for Questioning NATO Troop Build-Up on Border

THE LEADER OF the UK’s Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, called for a “de-escalation” of tensions between NATO and Russia, adding in a BBC interview on Thursday: “I want to see a de-militarisation of the border between them.” Along with the U.S., the UK has been rapidly building up its military presence in the Baltic region, including states which border Russia, and is now about to send another 800 troops to Estonia, 500 of which will be permanently based. [...]

It was in this context that Corbyn said it is “unfortunate that troops have gone up to the border on both sides,” adding that “he wanted to see better relations between Russia, NATO and the EU.” The Labour leader explained that while Russia has engaged in serious human rights abuses both domestically and in Syria, there must be a “better relationships between both sides . . .  there cannot be a return to a Cold War mentality.” [...]

But this template has recently become super-charged, more widely invoked than ever, as a result of the starring role Russia now plays in U.S. domestic politics, where many Democrats blame them for Hillary Clinton’s defeat. Putin now occupies the role of Prime Villain in western discourse, and this Cold War rhetorical template – anyone opposing confrontation is a Kremlin operative or stooge – has thus been resurrected with extraordinary speed and ease.

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The Conversation: A same-sex marriage ceremony in… Renaissance Rome?

In the late 16th century, the famous French essayist Michel de Montaigne wrote about two marriages between people of the same sex. The first involved women in eastern France, the second a group of men in Rome. At the time, same-sex marriages were not recognized by religious or civil law, and sodomy – a term that included a wide range of sexual acts – was a crime. As a result, when those involved were discovered they were usually brought to trial and punished, sometimes by death. [...]

The 16th century was a watershed period that saw sweeping changes and the introduction of stringent new requirements designed to prevent clandestine (or secret) unions that heads of families opposed. In countries converted to one of the new Reformed or Protestant faiths, marriage ceased to be a sacrament, and laws were passed strengthening parents’ control over their dependent children. [...]

Finally, the purpose of the feast following the planned wedding was not personal or religious but communal. Despite the fact that it greatly increased the chances that the men would be caught, it was clearly important to them as a way to express and build a sense of community. The socially marginalized friends at the Latin Gate had, in fact, developed several of the characteristics of a sexual subculture, like those that would later be found in large European cities in the 18th century. In a number of ways, they anticipated the networks of “mollies” in London and Paris’ “gens de la manchette” (“men of the cuff”), with their regular meeting places, social activities and a shared slang.

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Motherboard: Chinese Developer Sees Untapped Market in Gay Gamers

Zhu was giving me a demo of a forthcoming smartphone game with the working title Rainbow Town. As both its title and heavy use of near-naked men suggested, it looks set to be the gayest game ever released in China.

This is wholly intentional: Rainbow Town is the result of Zhu’s gaming company Star-G Technologies spotting a gap in the enormous Chinese mobile gaming market. Right now China is having its own ‘pink dollar’ moment, with an increasing amount of companies realising there’s money to be made marketing to LGBT customers. Small tech firms such as Star-G are leading the way. [...]

There are no actions more lewd than gentle stroking for red heart ‘likes’ in Rainbow Town; Zhu has been careful not to incite the censor scissors. “We understand that gays like muscular guys, so we made the characters as nakedly appreciable as possible without them being completely naked. The government does have control over gay issues but the regulations for TV, films and the internet are more strict.”

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CityLab: Photographing China, Without the Crowds

Type “street in Hong Kong” into an image search, and you’ll encounter saturated scenes: brightly colored avenues illuminated with glowing signs and filled to the brim with people.

The photographer Bence Bakonyi sees things a little differently. His series, Segue, resulted from a six-month solo journey through China in 2014. He covered around 5,000 miles, starting in Shanghai. From there, he traveled to Mount Huangshan, then on to Lanzhou and the Taklamakan Desert-bordering Dunhuang, and finally to Hong Kong. He encountered the rural and the urban, the populated and the abandoned, gradually proceeding toward more man-made landscapes.

But one thing remains constant through the changing scenes: the absence of people. Bakonyi’s journey began with an invitation to an artist’s residency in the Xuhui district of Shanghai. He arrived in the country unable to speak the language. Completely on his own, he found it hard to navigate, and even harder to communicate with the people around him. His work, he says, reflects the process of trying to find his place in an unfamiliar world; he staged his photos without human subjects in order to allude to the isolating experience.

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CityLab: Photographing the Streets Named for Martin Luther King Jr.

Across the United States, more than 900 streets bear the name Martin Luther King Jr. The photographer Susan Berger didn’t visit them all, but her series, “Martin Luther King Dr.,” captures an essential truth about these streets—their diversity.

Beginning in October of 2009, Berger began a pattern she’d repeat over the next year and a half. She’d pick an airport, then search on Google Earth for the Martin Luther King-named streets in the surrounding towns that she could reach in the time she allotted herself, usually about three weeks per region.

On her first trip, she boarded a flight from her current home of Tucson, Arizona, to Los Angeles, where she rented a car and drove out to Martin Luther King Boulevard, expecting, she says, to photograph people. [...]

Arizona, in 1992, was the last state to ratify Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a national holiday. It wasn’t until that day in 2016 that Tucson renamed its first street for the activist, in an “area that is totally undeveloped, has never been developed—it’s like this barren desert,” Berger says. She completed her series five years ago, but toyed with the idea of traveling out to photograph the street in Tucscon as an addendum. She hasn’t yet done so.

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