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Mozambique Town Deserted As Islamic State Group Claims Control

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A child plays in one of the alleys of the port of Paquitequete near Pemba on March 29, 2021.
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Pemba, Mozambique:
The key northern Mozambique town of Palma was all but deserted Monday, its residents fleeing by road, boat or on foot as the ISIS claimed control after a prolonged onslaught.
ISIS-linked militants attacked the town on Wednesday, escalating an insurgency that has spread bloodily across northern Mozambique since 2017.
Dozens of people, according to the ISIS and the authorities, were killed in what witnesses describe as a coordinated attack, and an unknown number were still missing.
It is the closest raid yet to a multi-billion-dollar gas project being built on a peninsula just 10 kilometres (six miles) away, by France's Total and other energy giants.
"The caliphate's soldiers seized the strategic town of Palma," ISIS said in a statement posted on its Telegram channels.
It claimed its offensive aimed at military and government targets, killing dozens of troops and "members of Crusader states," its term for Western nationals.
The town of 75,000 people in Cabo Delgado province was all but emptied of its population, said civil society activist Adriano Nuvunga.
"The violence has ceased, but it is believed some of the insurgents have pulled back and some are still around in hiding," he told AFP.
Witnesses said scores of fighters had sneaked into the town ahead of the attack.
"The attackers arrived a few days earlier and hid in the homes of locals whom they paid," said one Palma resident, speaking from Mueda, where he had taken refuge.
"The attacks started along the main roads to Palma," he said.
As police rushed out to try repel the invaders, the fighters inside the town mounted their own attack, according to witnesses.
The United Nations condemned the assault on Palma and said it was coordinating closely with local authorities to provide assistance to those affected by the violence.
"We are deeply concerned by the still evolving situation in Palma where armed attacks began on March 24, reportedly killing dozens of people," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
Struggle to survive
Many survivors said they had walked for days through forest to seek refuge in Mueda, 180 kilometres (112 miles) to the south, where they arrived limping on swollen feet.
"Many people fell from fatigue and were unable to continue walking, especially the elderly and children," said one escapee in Mueda who did not wish to be named.
Some survivors fled to the gas project site, from where they are being sent to the regional capital Pemba via boat.
The government said dozens were killed in the militants' attack, including seven people caught in an ambush during an operation to evacuate them from a hotel where they had sought refuge.
A South African is among those killed, his family said.
"Attacks started shortly after a large ship with food had just arrived," one escapee told AFP via an online message, referring to food aid deliveries to the farthest northern coastal town.
"They attacked the city and brought trucks to carry the food."
Witnesses told AFP they first targeted banks and the police station before spreading across town.
Boatloads
Thousands of escapees were arriving on boats on Monday in Pemba, the provincial capital around 250 kms to the south, according to sources there.
International aid agency sources said between 6,000 and 10,000 people were waiting to be evacuated.
The attack forced expatriate workers and locals to seek refuge temporarily at a heavily guarded gas plant located on the nearby Afungi peninsula.
"A significant number of civilians rescued from Palma are also being transported to Afungi site, where they receive humanitarian and logistical support," side Total in a statement.
Sea Star, a large passenger vessel, arrived in Pemba on Sunday with around 1,400 people, mostly workers including Total employees.
Pemba is already packed with hundreds of thousands of other people displaced by the Islamist insurgency, which has uprooted nearly 700,000 from their homes across the vast province.
The latest attack "will unleash a new onslaught of displaced people," said Chance Briggs of the British-based charity Save the Children.
The defence ministry said late Sunday the security forces had "reinforced their operational strategy" to contain the attacks and restore normality in Palma.
In Portugal, Prime Minister Antonio Costa said his government was monitoring the situation with "great concern," adding that he had been in touch with President Filipe Nyusi.
Ruthless campaign
The violent, calculated raid broke a three-month hiatus in Islamist attacks widely attributed to counter-insurgency tactics and the January-March rainy season.
Although the extremists launched their campaign in 2017, experts say they began mobilising a decade earlier as disgruntled youths started to practise a stricter form of Islam, upset over locals drinking alcohol and entering mosques dressed in shorts and shoes.
Their bloody campaign has claimed at least 2,600 lives, half of them civilians.
The insurgents are known locally as al-Shabaaab, although they are not believed to have links with the Somali jihadist organisation by that name.
The US State Department this month said the group reportedly pledged allegiance to IS in April 2018. It named its leader as Abu Yasir Hassan, and declared him a global terrorist.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/mozambique-town-deserted-as-islamic-state-group-claims-control-2401900">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/mozambique-town-deserted-as-islamic-state-group-claims-control-2401900</a>

news world Mozambique Town Deserted As Islamic State Group Claims Control

A child plays in one of the alleys of the port of Paquitequete near Pemba on March 29, 2021. Pemba, Mozambique: The key northern Mozamb...

The Wuhan Lab At The Heart Of The "Extremely Unlikely" Leak Theory

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A team commissioned by the World Health Organization to investigate the source of the coronavirus in Wuhan in January concluded that it was "extremely unlikely" that the pathogen originated in a top-security lab in the ground-zero Chinese city.
And a WHO report -- seen on Monday by AFP before its official release -- found that Covid-19 was most probably first passed to humans from a bat through an intermediary animal, with investigators all but ruling out the laboratory leak theory.
However, that may not completely lay to rest a notion that was brought into the mainstream by former US president Donald Trump and others, and which gained oxygen as Chinese secrecy and the inability to pinpoint a natural source raised suspicion.
Here are some key facts about the Wuhan Institute of Virology's lab:
High security
The institute houses a lab with a biosafety rating of "P4" -- the highest possible -- which is determined by the level of danger and resulting security measures posed by the pathogens studied there. P4-level pathogens include those which cause diseases such as Ebola.
The P4 lab is Asia's first and was built at cost of 300 million yuan ($42 million), opening in 2018. It houses the largest virus bank in Asia, with more than 1,500 strains.
A P3 lab -- the biosafety level that includes coronaviruses -- has been in operation at the site since 2012.
Critical research
The institute studies some of the world's most dangerous diseases and previously conducted extensive investigations into the links between bats and disease outbreaks in China.
Its scientists helped shed light on the Covid-19 pathogen in the early days of the outbreak in Wuhan. 
In February of 2020, researchers there published work concluding that the genetic makeup of the new virus was about 80 percent similar to the SARS coronavirus, and 96 percent identical to a coronavirus found in bats.
Many scientists think the virus that causes Covid-19 originated in bats and may have jumped to people via another still-undetermined mammal, and gained traction among humans in late 2019 at a wet market in Wuhan where wildlife species were sold as food.
Liang Wannian, head of the Chinese contingent of the WHO mission, said at the mission's conclusion that animal transmission remained the likely route, but "the reservoir hosts remain to be identified". 
The 'lab leak'
Previous US diplomatic cables reported by the Washington Post had revealed concern in Washington about safety standards in the Wuhan facility.
Shi Zhengli, one of China's leading experts on bat coronaviruses and deputy director of the P4 lab, further raised eyebrows in a June 2020 interview with Scientific American magazine in which she said she was initially anxious over whether the virus had leaked from her lab.
Subsequent checks revealed that its gene sequence differed from viruses held at the lab, and Shi said she would "bet her life" that there was no leak, according to Chinese state media.
But the theory was kept alive by the likes of Trump and his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Pompeo insisted last year that there was "significant evidence" that the virus came from the lab, while offering no such proof.
Prominent global publications including Le Monde and the Wall Street Journal, as well as scientists at Harvard and Stanford, also kept the theory alive by publishing articles or reports saying it was a possibility.
WHO conclusions
The WHO team's mission to Wuhan included a stop at the virology institute, where they met with Chinese scientists including Shi.
The team's leader Peter Ben Embarek said at the end of the mission that the lab-leak theory was "extremely unlikely" and "not in the hypotheses that we will suggest for future studies." 
The mission found nothing to overturn the general consensus within the scientific community that the pathogen appeared to be of natural origin. 
Doubts persist
But questions about the lab persist, with critics noting that the WHO team's investigative hands may have been tied by strict parameters set by its Chinese hosts.
Team members spent only four hours at the virology institute, just an hour at the wet market, and several days inside their hotel without venturing out into the city.
In a subsequent interview with AFP, Embarek voiced "frustration" at lack of access to raw data while in China.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan voiced "deep concerns" over how the mission was carried out and urged China to "make available its data from the earliest days of the outbreak".
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/the-wuhan-lab-at-the-heart-of-the-extremely-unlikely-leak-theory-2401899">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/the-wuhan-lab-at-the-heart-of-the-extremely-unlikely-leak-theory-2401899</a>

news world The Wuhan Lab At The Heart Of The "Extremely Unlikely" Leak Theory

A team commissioned by the World Health Organization to investigate the source of the coronavirus in Wuhan in January concluded that it w...

Search On For 11 Trapped In Illegal Goldmine In Colombia

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So far this year, 33 illegal miners have died, according to the ANM, and 171 last year.
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Bogota, Colombia:
Rescuers were working against the clock to rescue 11 people trapped in a flooded illegal goldmine since last week, Colombian authorities said Monday.
The group has been trapped since last Friday in a 17-meter (55-foot) deep shaft flooded in a heavy downpour.
According to the National Mining Agency (ANM), rescuers were using electric pumps to remove water from the mine.
"Eleven people are still missing," Luis Velasquez, governor of the northwestern Caldas department, told reporters. "We hope that in less than 48 hours" they will have been rescued.
Diego Mesa, minister of mines and energy, said the missing miners had been involved in "unauthorized" activity.
Accidents of this type are common in Colombia, where income from illegal gold mining exceeds that from drug trafficking -- two practices that funded armed groups fighting a near six-decade conflict Colombia is still recovering from.
So far this year, 33 illegal miners have died, according to the ANM, and 171 last year.
Legal mining and oil are the main exports of Latin America's fourth-largest economy.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/search-on-for-11-trapped-in-illegal-goldmine-in-colombia-2401891">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/search-on-for-11-trapped-in-illegal-goldmine-in-colombia-2401891</a>

news world Search On For 11 Trapped In Illegal Goldmine In Colombia

So far this year, 33 illegal miners have died, according to the ANM, and 171 last year. Bogota, Colombia: Rescuers were working against...

Trump Smacks Down Fauci, Birx: “Two Self-Promoters Trying to Reinvent History “

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President Donald Trump on Monday criticized two former members of his Covid task force, Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, claiming they’re “trying to reinvent history to cover for their bad instincts and faulty recommendations” amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a lengthy statement released early Monday evening from The Office of Donald J. Trump, the former president accused the two doctors, who recently appeared in media interviews, of being liars who have caused more problems than they’ve helped solve.
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Based on their interviews, I felt it was time to speak up about Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx, two self-promoters trying to reinvent history to cover for their bad instincts and faulty recommendations, which I fortunately almost always overturned. They had bad policy decisions that would have left our country open to China and others, closed to reopening our economy, and years away from an approved vaccine — putting millions of lives at risk.
We developed American vaccines by an American President in record time, nine months, which is saving the entire world. We bought billions of dollars of these vaccines on a calculated bet that they would work, perhaps the most important bet in the history of the world. Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx moved far too slowly, and if it were up to them we’d currently be locked in our basements as our country suffered through a financial depression. Families, and children in particular, would be suffering the mental strains of this disaster like never before.
In a fake interview last night on CNN, Dr. Fauci, who said he was an athlete in college but couldn’t throw a baseball even close to home plate, it was a “roller,” tried to take credit for the vaccine, when in fact he said it would take three to five years, and probably longer, to have it approved. Dr. Fauci was incapable of pressing the FDA to move it through faster. I was the one to get it done, and even the fake news media knows and reports this.
Dr. Fauci is also the king of “flip-flops” and moving the goal posts to make himself look as good as possible. He fought me so hard because he wanted to keep our country open to countries like China. I closed it against his strong recommendation, which saved many lives. Dr. Fauci also said we didn’t need to wear masks, then a few months later he said we needed to wear masks, and now, two or three of them. Fauci spent U.S. money on the Wuhan lab in China — and we now know how that worked out.
Dr. Birx is a proven liar with very little credibility left. Many of her recommendations were viewed as “pseudo-science,” and Dr. Fauci would always talk negatively about her and, in fact, would ask not to be in the same room with her. The States who followed her lead, like California, had worse outcomes on Covid, and ruined the lives of countless children because they couldn’t go to school, ruined many businesses, and an untold number of Americans who were killed by the lockdowns themselves. Dr. Birx was a terrible medical advisor, which is why I seldom followed her advice. Her motto should be “Do as I say, not as I do.” Who can forget when Dr. Birx gave a huge mandate to the people of our Nation to not travel, and then traveled a great distance to see her family for Thanksgiving — only to have them call the police and turn her in? She then, embarrassingly for her, resigned.
Finally, Dr. Birx says she can’t hear very well, but I can. There was no “very difficult” phone call, other than Dr. Birx’s policies that would have led us directly into a COVID caused depression. She was a very negative voice who didn’t have the right answers. Time has proven me correct. I only kept Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx on because they worked for the U.S. government for so long — they are like a bad habit!
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source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/trump-smacks-down-fauci-birx-two-self-promoters-trying-to-reinvent-history">https://www.infowars.com/posts/trump-smacks-down-fauci-birx-two-self-promoters-trying-to-reinvent-history</a>

news Trump Smacks Down Fauci, Birx: “Two Self-Promoters Trying to Reinvent History “

President Donald Trump on Monday criticized two former members of his Covid task force, Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, claiming they’...

Nike Sues Company That Made Lil Nas X Satan Shoes Over Copyright Infringement

Athletic apparel giant Nike is suing the company that released a set of controversial “Satan” shoes in collaboration with hip-hop artist Lil Nas X.
After streetwear company MSCHF sold out of all 666 pairs of the pro-Devil kicks on Monday morning, Nike responded by filing a lawsuit.
The $1,000 sneakers each contain a drop of human blood and are equipped with a pentagram symbol, a Bible verse that references Satan and a “666” embroidery.
Nike is upset that many people thought they participated in the creation of the shoes, saying MSCHF tricked consumers.
<a href="https://www.tmz.com/2021/03/29/nike-sues-company-making-lil-nas-x-satan-shoes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">According to TMZ</a>, “Nike’s suing for trademark infringement because the famous Swoosh logo is still prominently featured on X’s shoes. It wants damages, and perhaps more importantly for Nas X … Nike wants the judge to block all sales of the Satan Shoe.”
“In fact, there is already evidence of significant confusion and dilution occurring in the marketplace, including calls to boycott Nike in response to the launch of MSCHF’s Satan Shoes based on the mistaken belief that Nike has authorized or approved this product,” the lawsuit stated.
Religious Americans of every race, gender and political affiliation voiced outrage over the openly Satanic promotion by the young rapper.
Soon-to-be first pick in next month’s NFL Draft Trevor Lawrence said, “Line has to be drawn somewhere. Smh.”
<div class="GwQHVjen"><a href="https://www.infowarsstore.com/specials-clearance/mega-blowout-sale?ims=kdako&utm_campaign=Infowars+Mega+Blowout+3-18-2021&utm_source=Infowars+Hero&utm_medium=Banner&utm_content=HeroMegaBlowout" target="_blank"><img src="https://api.directus.libertycdn.com/uploads/_/originals/MegaBlowOutsale-3Days-hero-385.jpg" /></a></div>
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A popular Facebook account with nearly half-a-million followers wrote, “Lil Nas is a whole new level of demonic. Some of y’all better check your kid’s playlist. Stay in the KNOW!”
Conservative commentator Candace Owens wrote, “We’ve turned George Floyd, a criminal drug addict, into an icon. We are promoting Satan shoes to wear on our feet. We’ve got Cardi B named as woman of the year. But we’re convinced it’s white supremacy that’s keeping black America behind. How stupid can we be?”
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We’ve turned George Floyd, a criminal drug addict, into an icon.
We are promoting Satan shoes to wear on our feet.
We’ve got Cardi B named as woman of the year.
But we’re convinced it’s white supremacy that’s keeping black America behind.
How stupid can we be?
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealCandaceO/status/1376253935737057291?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2021</a></blockquote>
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<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://twitter.com/brendandunne?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1376637346343497729%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2021%2F03%2Fnike-sues-mschf-satanic-shoe-release-rapper-lil-nas%2F" target="_blank">According to shoe expert Brendan Dunne</a>, MSCHF said last week, “It is totally legal in the sense that, because we’re not doing knockoffs, because we are buying their shoes and doing our own art and selling it for more, it’s like 1000 present legal.”
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Nino Rodriguez of Midland, TX (Nino America on YouTube) attends a hearing at the Midland Independent School District on 3/22/2021 and speaks truth to power about the masks and vaccines shouting “when’s enough, enough?”
 
 
source <a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/nike-sues-company-that-made-lil-nas-x-satan-shoes-over-copyright-infringement">https://www.infowars.com/posts/nike-sues-company-that-made-lil-nas-x-satan-shoes-over-copyright-infringement</a>

news Nike Sues Company That Made Lil Nas X Satan Shoes Over Copyright Infringement

Athletic apparel giant Nike is suing the company that released a set of controversial “Satan” shoes in collaboration with hip-hop artist Lil...

Lil Nas X’s evil gay Satanic agenda, explained

Not content to merely spur controversy and debate within <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/8/30/20838444/lil-nas-x-country-music-association-awards-nominations-billy-ray-cyrus">the country music industry</a>, Lil Nas X has jump-started the 21st century’s first foray into <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/10/30/13413864/satanic-panic-ritual-abuse-history-explained">Satanic Panic</a> by selling blood-infused Nikes.
Welcome!
It all started with the March 26 release of his latest music video, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6swmTBVI83k">Montero (Call Me By Your Name)</a>,” in which he cavorts erotically with various iterations of Satan, is stoned by a crowd throwing buttplugs, transforms a spear that’s been homoerotically aimed at him (a la <a href="https://artuk.org/discover/stories/saint-sebastian-as-a-gay-icon">St. Sebastian</a>) into a stripper pole, and then slides all the way down the pole into Hell before giving Satan a lap dance as an excuse to seduce him, murder him, and steal the crown of Hell for himself in a win for bottoms everywhere.
Oh, and he does all of this while <a href="https://twitter.com/LilNasX/status/1375297562396139520">singing</a> with a mix of joy and wryness about gay sex, the frustration of living a closeted life, the pain of loving someone who’s still in the closet — <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/9/4/20849357/lil-nas-x-kevin-hart-the-shop-uninterrupted">Lil Nas himself is openly gay</a> — and the jealousy he feels toward straight people who get to live their lives without facing bigotry and oppression due to their sexuality. “You live in the dark, boy, I cannot pretend,” he sings. “I’m not fazed, only here to sin.” The song’s subtitle, “Call Me By Your Name,” also doubles as a refrain, in which he sings, “Call me by your name / tell me you love me in private” — another reference to the closet, as well as a reference to the <a href="https://www.vox.com/2017/11/21/16552862/call-me-by-your-name-review-timothee-chalamet-armie-hammer">acclaimed 2017 film</a> about an illicit gay affair.
So you can see how the music video might be a little bit shocking — especially from the portion of the public that loves a good moral panic and believes queerness is a sin.
But Lil Nas X apparently wanted to ratchet up the potential for outrage just a bit further. So he partnered with a creative agency named MSCHF, a Brooklyn-based promoter with <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/4/24/14912316/zardulu-viral-videos-mythmaking-surrealism-pedro-lasch">serious Zardulu energy</a> that’s become known for a string of viral stunt promotions. In 2019, MSCHF released a viral pair of sneakers called “Jesus Shoes,” which claimed to contain a drop of holy water in every pair.
Together, Lil Nas X and MSCHF designed “Satan Shoes”: a limited edition of 666 pairs of custom Nike Airs in which the air bubble in the sole has been filled with a mixture of red ink and “one drop of human blood.” The shoes, which cost $1,018 per pair and went on sale at 11 am Monday, <a href="https://twitter.com/saint/status/1376572351299657731">reportedly</a> sold out in under a minute (or should we say ... soul’d out?) — although Nike has <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2021/03/29/nike-sues-company-making-lil-nas-x-satan-shoes/">reportedly moved to sue MSCHF</a> and block sales of the shoes, citing infringement.
Outside of sneaker culture, you wouldn’t typically expect a limited number of shoes being sold at a very high price to set the world on fire. After all, how much trouble could a few hundred pairs of shoes possibly cause? Yet in the three days since they were announced, all Hell has broken loose. According to many outraged conservatives, in fact, these boots were made for Pied Pipering children directly into the fiery pit of eternal damnation.
The “Montero” music video, with its decadent queer eroticism, spurred an <a href="https://people.com/music/lil-nas-x-responds-to-backlash-over-montero-music-video/">initial homophobic backlash</a> as conservative viewers chided Lil Nas X for corrupting children. But if the video drew a wave of backlash, the video together with the Satan shoes drew a veritable tsunami.
The resultant controversy has spawned a series of endlessly entertaining moments — cascading dominos of devilish diversion, starting with the enjoyably campy video that began all of this hysteria:
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And beyond the initial hilarity, the shoes have also prompted a broader discussion about bigotry, homophobia, the historical roots of Satanic Panic in the US, and whether all that much has really changed since Satanic Panic began in the 1980s.
The world found out about the Satan shoes from this tweet on March 26, which immediately went viral:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
MSCHF x Lil Nas X "Satan Shoes"
Nike Air Max '97 
Contains 60cc ink and 1 drop of human blood 
️666 Pairs, individually numbered 
$1,018 
️March 29th, 2021 <a href="https://t.co/XUMA9TKGSX">pic.twitter.com/XUMA9TKGSX</a>
— SAINT (@saint) <a href="https://twitter.com/saint/status/1375532655551389696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 26, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>
The <a href="https://satan.shoes/">satan.shoes website</a> that promoter MSCHF built features a photo of one of the blood-infused shoes rotating against a backdrop of orgiastic demons styled as ’90s collage-style website wallpaper, along with quotes from Paradise Lost and the Bible:
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<figcaption>Get thee behind me.</figcaption>
<cite>MSCHF</cite></figure>
The launch of the website led to this official description of the process by which the shoes — purchased by MSCHF and altered after the fact — were injected with the ink-and-blood mix, which MSCHF co-founder Daniel Greenberg provided to the New York Times, and which the New York Times, paper of record, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/28/style/nike-satan-shoes-lil-Nas-x.html?">subsequently quoted</a>: “Uhhhhhh yeah hahah not medical professionals we did it ourselves lol.”
Nike, for its part, was quick to issue a statement to the Times emphasizing that the shoes were not sanctioned by Nike:
<blockquote>
“We do not have a relationship with Little Nas X or MSCHF. Nike did not design or release these shoes, and we do not endorse them.”
</blockquote>
In context, the terse dismissal carries the terrified tone of a jock shouting, “no homo” — an impression bolstered by Nike’s subsequent <a href="https://www.tmz.com/2021/03/29/nike-sues-company-making-lil-nas-x-satan-shoes/">reported lawsuit</a> against MSCHF.
For what it’s worth, the Church of Satan also <a href="https://twitter.com/ChurchofSatan/status/1376295439398408195">distanced itself from the stunt</a> — but not before the shoes prompted intense alarm among prominent Christians. Most visible was this tweet from South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who took time out from presiding over <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/south-dakota-kristi-noem-covid-1142068/">the worst Covid-19 response in the US</a> to cry that Christians are in “a fight for the soul of the nation,” implying literally that Lil Nas X’s shoes are a Satanic influence.
“Our kids are being told that this kind of product is, not only okay, it’s ‘exclusive.’” Noem wrote. “But do you know what’s more exclusive? Their God-given eternal soul.”
<div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Our kids are being told that this kind of product is, not only okay, it's "exclusive." But do you know what's more exclusive? Their God-given eternal soul.
We are in a fight for the soul of our nation. We need to fight hard. And we need to fight smart. We have to win. <a href="https://t.co/m1k1YWFpuo">https://t.co/m1k1YWFpuo</a>
— Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) <a href="https://twitter.com/govkristinoem/status/1376239196709478400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>
Noem’s response garnered a wide range of reactions, most notably from Lil Nas himself, who <a href="https://twitter.com/LilNasX/status/1376245938226798594">subsequently boggled</a> that she was “a whole governor” who was “tweeting about some damn shoes” instead of doing her job.
But other conservatives also spoke out against the shoes, including popular Tennessee pastor Greg Locke, who called Lil Nas a “thug” and <a href="https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1376233608868986882">railed against</a> the shoes as “a bunch of demonism, devilism, and psychotic wickedness.” Black right-wing activist <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/10/10/21510839/trump-speech-after-coronavirus-hospitalization-blexit">Candace Owens</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/RealCandaceO/status/1376253935737057291">called out</a> Lil Nas and his Black fans for “promoting Satan shoes to wear on our feet.” Rapper <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2017/12/joyner-lucas-viral-hit-im-not-racist-is-exhausting.html">Joyner Lucas</a> complained that Lil Nas was corrupting his legions of young fans — to which Lil Nas quickly clapped back, as he did for most of the louder grievances:
(My personal favorite response born of all this social media chaos is <a href="https://twitter.com/TimRunsHisMouth/status/1376290996611379212">this incredible “hole for Satan” tweet</a>, made by a Christian comedian who seemed to think “hole for Satan” was a legitimately funny burn, which consequently makes it the funniest thing anyone has ever said.)
But concern over the shoes has predominantly been met with ridicule on social media, and trends like <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=satanic%20panic">Satanic Panic</a> and #<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23satanshoes">SatanShoes</a> have made the rounds as a result. Lil Nas X seems to be exulting in the controversy. He was quick to double down by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESf8Un3g9zM">posting a faux apology on YouTube</a> that essentially functioned as a Rickroll for the music video’s aforementioned bump-and-grind moment with Satan:
He also continued courting attention and scorn in equal measure by promising to release a Christian-friendly version of the shoe, with a nod to the famously homophobic, if <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/5/29/18644354/chick-fil-a-anti-gay-donations-homophobia-dan-cathy">kinda reformed</a>, Christian-founded fast-food chain Chick-fil-A:
The artist also made it clear how fully he anticipated all of the outrage — and how happy he is to ride the waves of it to even greater success:
<div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
i had 9 months to plan this rollout. y’all are not gonna win bro.
— nope (@LilNasX) <a href="https://twitter.com/LilNasX/status/1376568409295491081?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 29, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>
But while he’s clearly been having fun with the responses, he’s also been consistent about bluntly explaining the importance of the song and how it fits into his role as one of the few out gay entertainers in the music industry.
In fact, the whole topic has spawned ongoing conversations about everything from queer subtext in art to religious moral hypocrisy to (my personal favorite) the storied folkloric tradition of associating queerness with demon-fucking.
Lil Nas X, as much a performance artist as any other Hollywood star, has made it clear that he intended for “Montero” to spawn exactly this level of outrage in precisely the way that said outrage has unfolded. In essence, it’s the entire package of “Montero” — the video, the shoes, and the social media backlash — that he’s presenting as art. All of it taken together creates a commentary about modern-day witch hunts, modern-day Christianity in general, and modern-day queer identity.
The video for “Montero” uses mostly classical imagery from a traditional version of Christianity to showcase how intertwined the languages of religiosity and homoeroticism have always been. In case it’s not clear from the sequence where Lil Nas X throws buttplugs at himself in the shape of stones, all of the titillating erotic elements in the video are intended as metaphors. He also plays all the characters in the video, and so essentially winds up self-flagellating — another bit of erotic play, this time on the theme of <a href="http://primal-page.com/farber1.htm">eroticized guilt and self-hate</a> that also runs through Christian iconography.
The classical religious imagery in the video functions precisely the way religious imagery always has for many queer people — as a way of inserting queer subtext and overlaying figurative storytelling onto more socially acceptable Biblical narratives. Remember, queer people have historically been denied access to salvation through legitimized readings of the Bible and stories like the fall of Adam and Eve — not to mention the constant reminders from most Christian churches that being gay is a sin. In response, they’ve inserted subtextual interpretations into Biblical stories and readings of characters, and passed those subtextual readings down through the centuries.
The “Montero” video is in keeping with this tradition: It teems with traditionally homoerotic religious imagery, like the phallic spearing of <a href="https://artuk.org/discover/stories/saint-sebastian-as-a-gay-icon">St. Sebastian</a>, the <a href="https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/stupid-sexy-satan-the-allure-of-the-ultimate-evil">erotically charged Miltonian depiction of Satan</a> as a ripped hot guy, and of course the bondage <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tentacle_erotica">implications</a> of tangling with a giant snake in the Garden of Eden. Lil Nas X showcases, calls out, and celebrates all of this long-established subtext, making it overtly sexual. In doing this, he not only creates an explicitly queer religious commentary, but he challenges Christianity to reckon with the hidden queer identities in its midst. And he does it all while he’s singing about loving a man who’s still trapped in the closet — a societal closet that Christianity helped create and still reinforces.
Lil Nas X is deeply aware, as most queer people are, that the queer experience has always been defined by deviance, primarily because mainstream society has historically refused to legitimize any other kind of queer experience. Queerness has always been associated with the <a href="https://www.atmostfear-entertainment.com/culture/traditions/gothic-tradition-queer-monstrosity/">monstrous and diabolical</a>, with queer influences being framed as <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/6/11/18652876/queer-true-crime-lgbt-lgbtq-stonewall-polchin">corrupt and perverse</a> and queer people experiencing <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/5/8/5691650/lgbt-people-are-more-likely-than-straight-people-to-go-to-jail">higher rates of imprisonment</a> than straight people, all while being disallowed to marry, start families, and enjoy “normal” lives. Thus, queer people have learned to embrace and own their own social ostracism, turning deviance into <a href="https://www.vox.com/2014/6/8/5786368/lgbt-gay-pride-month-2019">something to celebrate</a>.
<div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
They made us to be monsters 
Then gasped 
As we grew fangs and wings.
— Thembo of Light #BLM✊ ✊ ✊ (@DJxMatchax) <a href="https://twitter.com/DJxMatchax/status/1376317372756152320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>
The essence of being queer, in other words, is to “<a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/12/11/20991671/memes-decade-doge-baby-yoda">be gay, do crimes</a>,” and to <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/21417212/what-are-the-gayest-disney-films-mulan-queer-subtext">celebrate monstrosity</a>.
These themes aren’t particularly deep — they’re a well-established part of queer theory, religious history, and media criticism. Most people probably wouldn’t even need to know much about them to understand the metaphors in “Montero.”
But there’s just one problem: Modern Christianity <a href="https://twitter.com/The_Law_Boy/status/1376333865099345920">isn’t exactly keen on figurative interpretations</a>, especially when it comes to demons and gay people.
Modern evangelical Christianity is largely influenced by the kind of epic Christian fantasy that emerged during the 1980s when <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/21525488/witches-of-america-alex-mar">writers like Frank Peretti</a> turned the concept of “spiritual warfare” into, ironically, a kind of Dungeons-and-Dragons-like role play that saw good Christians quite literally fighting and defeating actual demons through prayer and spiritual badassery. Fueled by Satanic Panic, that version of Christianity <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22288379/rush-limbaugh-radio-show-impact">spread like wildfire</a> across the country during the rapid growth of evangelicalism throughout the 1980s and ’90s. And it never really went away — as Lil Nas X’s strategic baiting has made clear.
<div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Lil Nas X is really exposing how many Christians think of Satan not in spiritual terms as a force of temptation and punishment for earthly wrongdoing, but in Diablo II terms as a second god who has magic powers and will take over as main God if he gathers enough Worship Points
— Cliff Jerrison (@pervocracy) <a href="https://twitter.com/pervocracy/status/1376502538229415942?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 29, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>
Simultaneously, Christians’ justification of the persecution of queer people has historically been based upon very literal interpretations (and frequent <a href="http://religiousinstitute.org/denom_statements/homosexuality-not-a-sin-not-a-sickness-part-ii-what-the-bible-does-and-does-not-say/">misinterpretations</a>) of Biblical passages. These include verses in which sodomy is discussed and other same-sex subjects are hinted at broadly; this is also the approach that’s been used over the centuries to <a href="https://time.com/5171819/christianity-slavery-book-excerpt/">justify slavery</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/07/witchcraft-economics-reformation-catholic-protestant-market-share">burning women alive for alleged witchcraft</a>.
So a queer Black entertainer, singing about gay sex and flirting with the occult all in one fell swoop? That’s basically a bingo card of challenges to Christian literalism — and many Christians, at least on social media, seem to be failing the test.
<div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
satanic panic stuff is wild because you have one side being like "don't you understand symbolism and art, even a little bit, even conceptually?" and the other side responding "no, absolutely not even a little"
— Law Boy, Esq. (@The_Law_Boy) <a href="https://twitter.com/The_Law_Boy/status/1376333865099345920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 29, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>
You might be asking: What’s the point of all this? Why would Lil Nas X bother to get people riled up and angry for no real reason?
But there’s actually an excellent reason. It’s virtually unheard of to see an openly gay entertainer sing about being in love and having positive gay sexual experiences, let alone one as famous as Lil Nas X — who didn’t come out until after he was already famous. He is clearly determined to make his own outing into a positive, inspiring act, and making music about his queer identity is part of that.
But the flip side of that positivity is the joyous subversion that’s such a huge part of queer creation: acknowledging and celebrating your deviance. Lil Nas X has cut straight to the core of the queer experience with “Montero” and its accompanying diabolical shoes, framing queer people as fabulously demonic. In presenting that side of queer identity, he’s owning his queer Black heritage and anticipating the response to his daring performativity.
He’s also arguably inviting Christians to kick back and not start a new moral crisis over something so relatively trivial. But the nature of the stunt is that he’s already anticipated this predictable moral panic and framed it in advance as the kind of response that proves his point about the need for queer people to reject hate and choose to love themselves.
“i spent my entire teenage years hating myself because of the shit y’all preached would happen to me because i was gay,” Lil Nas X <a href="https://twitter.com/LilNasX/status/1375857638869585922">tweeted</a>. “so i hope u are mad, stay mad, feel the same anger you teach us to have towards ourselves.”
It’s possible there will be more controversies yet to come around “Montero,” Christianity-adjacent or otherwise; many people have <a href="https://twitter.com/ArthurityTam/status/1375661317693059072">pointed out</a> the video’s alleged plagiarism of the FKA Twigs video “Cellophane” (which also features a stripper pole to Hell), <a href="https://www.nme.com/en_asia/news/music/director-of-fka-twigs-cellophane-video-responds-to-similarities-in-lil-nas-xs-montero-video-2909988">including the director</a> of the latter. But the backlash to the music video — and to those 666 pairs of shoes with their 666 drops of human blood — reveals how skilled Lil Nas X is at owning a conversation and asserting his identity in an innovative way, all while making music that justifies the hype.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/22356438/lil-nas-x-satan-shoes-nike-montero-video-gay-agenda-christian-controversy">https://www.vox.com/22356438/lil-nas-x-satan-shoes-nike-montero-video-gay-agenda-christian-controversy</a>

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