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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>
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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.”
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<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>
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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:
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<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>
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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>.
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<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>
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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.
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<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>
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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.
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<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>
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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>

vox Lil Nas X’s evil gay Satanic agenda, explained

Not content to merely spur controversy and debate within the country music industry , Lil Nas X has jump-started the 21st century’s first fo...

Czech Billionaire Petr Kellner Dies In Alaska Helicopter Crash

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Czech Billionaire Petr Kellner Dies In Alaska Helicopter Crash" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-03/ui0lujmg_petr-kellner_625x300_29_March_21.jpg" title="Czech Billionaire Petr Kellner Dies In Alaska Helicopter Crash" /></div>
Czech media said Petr Kellner was on a heli-skiing trip.
</div>
Prague:
Petr Kellner, the Czech Republic's wealthiest person with a fortune topping $13 billion, died aged 56 in a helicopter crash in Alaska, his spokeswoman said on Monday.
Kellner, who meticulously guarded his privacy, owned the financial, telecommunications, engineering and insurance PPF Group, which employs 94,000 people worldwide.
"With deep regret we announce that PPF Group founder and majority shareholder Mr Petr Kellner died tragically in a helicopter crash in the Alaska Range on Saturday," PPF Group spokeswoman Jitka Tkadlecova told AFP.
"The causes of the accident, in which five people died in total, are being investigated," she added.
Czech media said Kellner was on a heli-skiing trip.
The Forbes magazine put Kellner's wealth in 2020 at 293 billion Czech crowns (11.2 billion euros, $13.2 billion).
Kellner, who started his business selling copy machines, founded the PPF Group in 1991, two years after the fall of Communism in the former Czechoslovakia.
The group with global assets worth 44 billion euros comprises Home Credit International, the world's largest non-banking consumer lender with extensive activities on the Chinese market.
PPF recently bought the CME media group running TV companies in central and eastern Europe, as well as Telenor's telecommunications assets in the Balkans.
Kellner's daughter Anna Kellnerova is a two-time Czech junior show jumping champion with an ambition to appear at the Tokyo Olympics this summer.
Kellner's funeral will take place "in a narrow family circle", Tkadlecova said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/czech-billionaire-petr-kellner-dies-in-alaska-helicopter-crash-2401516">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/czech-billionaire-petr-kellner-dies-in-alaska-helicopter-crash-2401516</a>

news world Czech Billionaire Petr Kellner Dies In Alaska Helicopter Crash

Czech media said Petr Kellner was on a heli-skiing trip. Prague: Petr Kellner, the Czech Republic's wealthiest person with a fortun...

New Trade Representative Says US Not Ready To Lift China Tariffs: Report

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="New Trade Representative Says US Not Ready To Lift China Tariffs: Report" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2019-12/d9saa0ag_us-china-flag-reuters_625x300_30_December_19.jpg" title="New Trade Representative Says US Not Ready To Lift China Tariffs: Report" /></div>
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai also cited tactical reasons for holding firm.
</div>
Washington:
President Joe Biden's new trade negotiator has said the United States is not yet ready to lift tariffs on Chinese imports, but could be open to talks with Beijing.
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, whose appointment was confirmed earlier this month, told The Wall Street Journal she understood the levies were hitting some American companies and consumers, but they can also protect businesses.
In January 2020, then-president Donald Trump signed an accord between Beijing and Washington after a bruising trade battle that saw tariffs imposed by both sides.
"I have heard people say, 'Please just take these tariffs off,'" the 47-year-old Tai told the WSJ in an interview published Sunday.
But the former trade lawyer -- whose parents were born in China -- warned that suddenly axing the levies could harm the US economy unless a policy reversal is "communicated in a way so that the actors in the economy can make adjustments."
She said it was essential for "companies, traders, manufacturers or their workers" to be able to plan for the future.
Tai told the Journal that while she recognized the tariffs were taking a toll on some US businesses, they had been imposed "to remedy an unbalanced and unfair trade situation."
She also cited tactical reasons for holding firm.
"No negotiator walks away from leverage, right?" she said.
"Every good negotiator is going to keep all of their options open."
Tai has already discussed Beijing's trade practices in calls with Japanese ministers, and in her confirmation hearings said she supported a "holistic review on China."
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/new-trade-representative-says-us-not-ready-to-lift-china-tariffs-report-2401508">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/new-trade-representative-says-us-not-ready-to-lift-china-tariffs-report-2401508</a>

news world New Trade Representative Says US Not Ready To Lift China Tariffs: Report

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai also cited tactical reasons for holding firm. Washington: President Joe Biden's new trade neg...

From Today, A Move To Revolutionise How Middle East Oil Is Sold

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="From Today, A Move To Revolutionise How Middle East Oil Is Sold" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-03/c00851fo_abu-dhabi-650_625x300_29_March_21.jpeg" title="From Today, A Move To Revolutionise How Middle East Oil Is Sold" /></div>
Abu Dhabi's removing curbs with aim of opening up its oil to financial as well as physical traders.
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Tucked between the Gulf of Oman and a craggy mountain range, the dusty port Fujairah isn't an obvious base from which to try and revolutionize the Middle East's oil markets.
But on Monday, when Abu Dhabi begins selling futures contracts for its oil and then shipping the barrels from Fujairah, it will mark an aggressive shift by the emirate. It hopes to change the way nearly one-fifth of the world's crude is priced.
Persian Gulf states pump nearly 20 million barrels of oil a day and Abu Dhabi wants the futures for its flagship Murban grade to become the region's main benchmark.
The Gulf's biggest producers -- including Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, of which Abu Dhabi is the capital -- have traditionally priced their barrels based on benchmarks from other regions. They've mostly sold their crude directly to refiners or international companies with stakes in their fields. Crucially, they've prevented those customers from re-selling the oil and benefiting from arbitrage opportunities that exist in energy markets.
Now, Abu Dhabi's removing those curbs with the aim of opening up its oil to financial as well as physical traders. Investors globally are clamoring for commodities because of their high yields relative to other assets and to protect themselves against any rise in inflation.
Once sold on an exchange, Murban will be sent by pipeline to Fujairah, where Abu Dhabi's desert fields physically connect with global markets.
"If successful -- and I think the chances are good -- Murban futures could be a pivotal moment for Middle East crude pricing," said Vandana Hari, founder of Singapore-based Vanda Insights, which provides oil analysis. If "a sizable chunk of Middle Eastern crude trades freely in the spot market," that could push other regional producers to follow Abu Dhabi's lead, she said.
Storage Caverns
To help its cause, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., the state energy firm, is spending around $900 million to build 40 million barrels of storage space in caverns beneath Fujairah's mountains. That, and tanks Adnoc already has at the port, will ensure there's plenty of Murban on hand to manage any future supply disruptions, Khaled Salmeen, the company's head of marketing and trading, told reporters this month.
Adnoc can pump about 2 million barrels a day of Murban and has pledged to provide the exchange with half that amount over the next year -- in line with or greater than the supply of today's major oil benchmarks such as Brent and West Texas Intermediate.
Liquidity's "critical to the whole equation," said Chris Bake, a director at Vitol Group, the largest independent oil trader, which is backing the exchange.
Creating a new benchmark will hardly be easy. Oil traders dislike change, especially when they believe markets already do a good job matching supply and demand. S&P Global Platts caused uproar this year after announcing it would overhaul Dated Brent, the world's main crude price. It was forced to shelve the plan indefinitely.
Murban will also face competition regionally. Platts publishes price assessments for Dubai oil and the Dubai Mercantile Exchange trades futures for Omani crude. Both act as benchmarks for Middle Eastern shipments to Asia.
Enter Goldman
The benefits from trading Murban, a crude first exported in 1963, are worth the effort, according to Sultan Al Jaber, Adnoc's chief executive officer. "Price transparency will allow our customers to better hedge and manage their market risks," he wrote Sunday in The National, a local newspaper.
Abu Dhabi says the combination of high supply, easy access to oil-consuming markets from Fujairah and the absence of trading restrictions will attract plenty of buyers to its exchange. Philippe Khoury, a former HSBC Holdings Plc energy banker who Adnoc hired in 2018 to build its trading operations, said Murban may even compete with Brent and WTI.
The futures platform will be run by Atlanta-based Intercontinental Exchange Inc. and called ICE Futures Abu Dhabi. Last week, ICE approved Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Citigroup Inc. and 22 other banks and brokers as exchange members.
Wider Ambition
Adnoc's plan underscores the UAE's wider ambition to monetize its hydrocarbon resources faster in case oil demand starts shrinking with the global shift to greener energy. The country aims to increase output capacity from about 4 million barrels a day now to 5 million by 2030, which would make it OPEC's biggest producer after Saudi Arabia.
The Murban exchange and the capacity boost could raise tension within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, according to Hari of Vanda Insights. The Gulf states dominate the cartel and tend to prize unity. They also began unprecedented production cuts last year to bolster prices as the coronavirus pandemic spread.
Still, the UAE says Murban futures won't affect OPEC or its ability to stabilize oil prices.
"We definitely hope" other regional producers adopt Murban as a benchmark for their own crude, Adnoc's Khoury said this month at the Fujairah Bunkering & Fuel Oil Forum.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/from-today-a-move-to-revolutionize-how-middle-east-oil-is-sold-2401493">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/from-today-a-move-to-revolutionize-how-middle-east-oil-is-sold-2401493</a>

news world From Today, A Move To Revolutionise How Middle East Oil Is Sold

Abu Dhabi's removing curbs with aim of opening up its oil to financial as well as physical traders. Tucked between the Gulf of Oman ...

Coronavirus Lab Leak "Extremely Unlikely", Bats May Be Culprit: WHO

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Coronavirus Lab Leak 'Extremely Unlikely', Bats May Be Culprit: WHO" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-02/36mrqqa8_who-probe-team-at-wuhan-virus-lab_625x300_03_February_21.jpg" title="Coronavirus Lab Leak 'Extremely Unlikely', Bats May Be Culprit: WHO" /></div>
Scientists had said there was no evidence to support theories that Covid leaked from labs. (File)
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<div class="highlghts_Wdgt lft-highlghts">
<h3>Highlights</h3>
<ul>
<li>No evidence to support theories that Covid leaked from labs: Scientists</li>
<li>Study conducted by scientists from WHO and China</li>
<li>The findings were largely as expected and left many questions unanswered</li>
</ul>
</div>
A joint WHO-China study on the origins of COVID-19 says that transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario and that a lab leak is "extremely unlikely", the Associated Press reported on Monday.
The findings were largely as expected and left many questions unanswered, and the team proposed further research in every area except the lab leak hypothesis, the report added, citing a draft copy obtained by the Associated Press.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/who-says-covid-likely-passed-from-bats-through-another-animal-report-2401458">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/who-says-covid-likely-passed-from-bats-through-another-animal-report-2401458</a>

news world Coronavirus Lab Leak "Extremely Unlikely", Bats May Be Culprit: WHO

Scientists had said there was no evidence to support theories that Covid leaked from labs. (File) Highlights No evidence to support t...

Giant Container Ship In Suez Canal Moved "80% In Right Direction"

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Giant Container Ship In Suez Canal Moved '80% In Right Direction'" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-03/if3mlfvc_suez-canal_625x300_27_March_21.jpg" title="Giant Container Ship In Suez Canal Moved '80% In Right Direction'" /></div>
"A total of 11 tug boats have been pulling Ever Given since this morning," the official said.
</div>
<div class="highlghts_Wdgt lft-highlghts">
<h3>Highlights</h3>
<ul>
<li>The massive container ship that blocked the Suez Canal for almost a week</li>
<li>"11 tug boats have been pulling the ship since this morning": Official</li>
<li>Spokesman said there has been damage sustained by the ship on its bow</li>
</ul>
</div>
Cairo, Egypt:
The massive container ship blocking the Suez Canal for almost a week has been turned 80 percent in the right direction, officials said Monday, raising hopes the vital trade route could soon be clear.
But its owner said that while the giant ship "has turned", it was still not yet afloat.
The MV Ever Given, longer than four football fields, has been wedged diagonally across the canal since Tuesday, strangling world supply chains and costing the global economy billions.
Suez Canal Authority (SCA) chief Osama Rabie said Monday that rescue efforts with tugs had succeeded in shifting the front and back of the ship.
"The position of the ship has been reorientated 80 percent in the right direction," Rabie in a statement.
"The stern... moved to 102 metres (335 feet) from the shore," compared to its position four metres from the shore previously.
Efforts to refloat it will resume on the next high tide.
The SCA statement said that the refloating process "will resume when water flow increases again from 11:30 local time... in order to completely refloat the vessel, so as to reposition it in the middle of the waterway."
According to the Vesselfinder and myshiptracking sites, the stern could be seen to have shifted from the canal's western bank.
"Not afloat"
An official from the 200,000-tonne ship's owners, Shoei Kisen, said while the Ever Given "has turned", it "is not afloat."
The ship had been "stuck at an angle of 30 degrees towards the canal, but that has eased," said the official.
"A total of 11 tug boats have been pulling Ever Given since this morning," they added, saying that while there was damage sustained by the ship on its bow when it got stuck, "but no new damage has been reported."
It is not yet clear when traffic along the canal will resume.
A canal official, who requested anonymity, said that the team on the ground had started technical checks, and were reassured that the ship's motor was working.
Salvage crews have been working around the clock.
They had focussed on efforts to remove sand around the ship, with 27,000 cubic metres (over 950,000 cubic feet) cleared at a depth of 18 metres (59 feet), SCA spokesman George Safwat said Sunday.
On Sunday evening a shipping company, Leth agencies, had said Egyptian authorities had decided more tugboats were needed to shift the vessel and had postponed the refloating attempt around Sunday's high tide.
The Dutch-flagged Alp Guard arrived to join the mission on Sunday evening.
The crisis has forced companies to choose between waiting or rerouting vessels around Africa, which adds a huge fuel bill, 9,000 kilometres (5,500 miles) and over a week of travel to the trip between Asia and Europe.
Each day of the blockade could be costing global trade some $6-10 billion, according to a study published Friday by German insurer Allianz.
That translates to some 0.2 to 0.4 percentage points of annual trade each week.
Authorities said 369 ships are currently stalled as they wait for the canal to reopen.
Russia offered assistance Sunday, following other countries including the United States that have made similar offers.
In a sign of the knock-on effects, authorities in war-wracked Syria said the crisis had hit its fuel imports from Iran and forced it to ration already scarce supplies.
Romania's animal health agency said 11 ships carrying livestock out of the country were also impacted, while the charity Animals International warned of a potential "tragedy" affecting some 130,000 animals.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/giant-container-ship-in-suez-canal-has-turned-but-not-afloat-owner-2401451">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/giant-container-ship-in-suez-canal-has-turned-but-not-afloat-owner-2401451</a>

news world Giant Container Ship In Suez Canal Moved "80% In Right Direction"

"A total of 11 tug boats have been pulling Ever Given since this morning," the official said. Highlights The massive contai...