Libya has an important geopolitical position. It's in the middle of North Africa's Mediterranean coast. It's bordered by Tunisia and Algeria to the west and Egypt to the east. And this is very important, as you will see in a second. But more importantly, it's southern, you know, the southern edges, border, Niger, Chad and Sudan. I'm mentioning this because the Sahel is very important. And when we go back to the beginning of this turmoil in Libya, which was back 2011 with the Arab uprising, you know, it had a fallout. Of course, in the Q&A, those who are interested in the fallout in the Sahel specifically in terms of what happened in Mali and to a lesser extent in Niger, it's all there. And now you see also, you know, troops being recruited in Sudan and so on and so forth. So it's very complicated. Another part is that it is the fourth largest country in Africa by land mass. It ranks 36 by population. In this respect, it looks similar to the Gulf states. In other words, small, small population and extremely rich. It's a very rich country, a huge country, has a nearly 6.2 million. But with the people who have left, it's probably less today because many people have fled to Tunisia, Malta and some other places. And Libya has the ninth largest proven oil reserves in Africa as well. So I start with talking about a failed revolution. You know that from 1969 to 2011, Libya was ruled by an autocrat dictator named and something important to mention. He did not build a state to speak of. You know, it was a totally different conception of the state from what we understand. The uprising started in Tunisia. Of course, Tunisia was the first to have experienced an uprising, a protest movement against yet another dictator in the region, which was Zinedine Ben Ali. And that spillover had a spillover effect on Libya, what it's like to make a story short. Then there was the NATO intervention. And I'd like to emphasize here that the interests, in other words, the reasons that pushed this intervention were not innocent. There were already interests involved in that. And when I cover the various players, you will see why they intervened. And why the US up to today is reluctant to continue or to be present or to get fully involved in Libya. So one of the important points I'd like to make is that the overthrow of Gaddafi had nothing to do with the human rights or the right to protect. But from the onset, the objective, at least for some of those who intervened, was particularly France and the UK to overthrow, to have a regime change in Libya. That's one. Because if you analyze the period, you will see that there was resistance to a political solution mainly from the African Union, which tried to broker some sort of exit for Gaddafi. I interviewed the then head of the African Union, Jean Ping. And he had all the evidence that they would not allow the African Union to try to bring about a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The consequences that, again, we can talk in the Q&A, were the destabilization of the Sahel, the emergence of new terrorist groups, and then eventually the implantation of terrorist groups within Libya itself and in the Sahel. And they both, it's still ongoing nine years after what had happened. The other point that I'd like to make before I go into the outside players is the different parties in Libya. They failed to find common grounds for the reconstruction of Libya. The country found itself with two governments, I'm sorry I cannot delve into the domestic aspects, it's too long, but you have two, basically you have two governments right now, one in the western part of the country in Tripoli and the other one in Tobruk in Syrinaikov in the east. And to make matters worse, as of 2014, a rogue, you know, marshal, self-proclaimed marshal who had returned from the United States where he had been living after he had self-imposed exile. He was part of the government of Gaddafi and he had fought in child, was humiliated in child, in fact lost the war like he just did recently. But he launched what he called the Operation Libya Dignity, claiming to be fighting terrorism, that's the claim. You're going to see that all the players in the Libyan crisis, they would say one thing and be doing something else, the other reasons would be there.  And of course, you know, there was another one, you know, an Operation Libya Dawn, which was a coalition of militia from eastern and central Libya, from Tripolitana spearheaded by forces from Misrata. So this is just to complicate the situation for the audience, very complicated. Basically, if you look at the domestic situation today in Libya, the best way to describe it, I think, in my view, would be to use the concept of collapse state. Although, as I said, one might argue that Gaddafi never built a state in the modern sense of the term. He had his own idiosyncratic conception of the state of which, you know, he was the big master basically. So we have today two forces really that are in opposition, which is the Libyan National Army, led by Marshal Khalifa Haftar. Which has been targeting the GNA. So please remember GNA, which is the government of national accord. This is the government that is recognized by the international community. It's recognized by the UN. But what is happening on the ground, abuse of human rights, which is common terrorism, hundreds of thousands of Libyans internally displaced due to the ongoing, you know, military conflict, tens of thousands of refugees, you know, from Africa and so on. So some sub-Saharan Africa and of course asylum seekers. Since the war, as I said, most parties speak about a political solution. Everyone is in agreement that there would be no military solution to the conflict. But each time one of the parties has the upper hand, you know, it's of course does not want to negotiate. And the other party would like to negotiate. And I'll try to explain this in a second. However, the reality on the ground, as I said, is totally different. The UN has been involved.  They all failed. And there were some other initiatives launched by either Russia or by Germany, by Merkel, you know, the last happened in January of this year, the Berlin Conference, it's also ended in failure. Even to bring a ceasefire has been, you know, very difficult and also resulted in failure. My argument before I move on to the outside powers is that because of the varied interests, this is really my position, which, you know, you have various powers which would back one or the other side in the conflict. And that has continued. And I will give you which side is with who and so on. And so what I will discuss now is the foreign party's interests. And this will reveal basically this contradiction, this discrepancy between the discourse and reality. And so you have two governments, one in the east, one in the west. And so they get military support and other support from the players I would be talking about. But of course, the complication in Libya is not simply that there are these two governments, but there are somewhat what we call a sub-states that are controlled by either or by loosely aligned tribal militia and jihadist groups. So the alliances are made and undone, you know, done, undone, you know, at will. So your ally of today will be your enemy of tomorrow and so on and so forth. Internally, really the struggle, what is happening also is essentially a struggle for power and resources between locally armed factions. Because when Qaddafi collapsed, when the regime collapsed, many people had access to weaponry and some of which very modern weaponry. And some of it went to the Sahel region and some of it fell into the hands of militias and other search groups, including, you know, terrorist groups. So what will be evident and what I will be discussing is virtually none of the outside forces has any genuine interest in the Libyan people that I will emphasize. The Libyan political elites have also failed to reach consensus, which would have allowed either a ceasefire or reconstruction of the country, you know, post-conflict reconstruction. In this sense, I would say that the local elites are as guilty as the foreign powers in prolonging the civil war. And lastly, the continued civil war will exacerbate instability in North Africa and the Sahel. And I should add one of these points. This, if it continues for too long, may result in the fragmentation of Libya into at least two states, that is the Eastern and the Western state. So this interference, just to make it simple for my audience here, is that there are foreign powers that are supporting Haftar, Khalifa Haftar, the head of the Libyan National Army, supported by the House of Representatives, you know, that's the sort of parliament, the government in the East. And right now, he's currently in Egypt. My understanding is that he's in sort of exile in Egypt after the defeat, the recent defeat this year when he tried to take over Tripoli. So you have Egypt that supports Haftar, the United Arab Emirates, with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia financing and supporting the UAE, the United Emirates, Russia and France. These are the players that support Khalifa Haftar. Turkey, Qatar, Italy support the government of National Accord, which is the GNA based in Tripoli. So I would go over now the various countries and what their interests are. And please, Karima, I have a tendency of being carried away when I'm talking too much. Please give me about 10 minutes before my time is up, you should tell me so that I can jump into some other topics that I would like to share with your participants. So Egypt has some strategic reasons to be involved in Libya. First, it shares 700 miles, a border of 700 miles with Libya. In many ways, Libya has always been linked to Egypt. I just mentioned that Qaddafi was very, wanted to be the second image of Nasser who had ruled Egypt until his death in 71. And after the passing of Nasser, there were tensions with the new regime in Egypt and so on and so forth. And so for Egypt, since the fall of Qaddafi and the experience with the Muslim Brotherhood, please do remember this Muslim Brotherhood because it's part of this whole, it's sort of the ideological tip of the iceberg, but it's not really the main reason. As I would try to show, the other reasons are economic, military, strategic and so on and so forth. So the Muslim Brotherhood was accused of being a terrorist movement in 2013. And so there was a coup basically against the legitimately democratically elected Morsi. And so for Egypt to see this Muslim Brotherhood expanding in Libya is used as an argument to support Haftar. Haftar claims to be fighting terrorism. And of course, this appealed to the Egyptians. And so the Egyptians, of course, Egypt is ruled by a dictator, by Abdul Fattah Sisi, and they see Haftar as a strong man capable of controlling Syrian Nica, where most of the oil is located. So for the Egyptians, the controlled Syrian Nica can serve as a buffer zone against allegedly jihadist groups that could destabilize Egypt. So what also worries the Egyptians is this close, the close bonds between the Libyan branch of the Muslim Brotherhood with the GNA. That a major impetus for Egypt's support to Haftar and his LNA. And so if you look at Egypt, I mean, I can say a lot about Egypt. It has some legitimate concerns and others that are not so legitimate. And so Egypt has security and economic concerns in Libya. As I mentioned already, the Muslim Brotherhood. So but they are afraid that some members of the Brotherhood who radicalized could exploit the proximity with Egypt, because many of them are present in Libya, that they would somehow organize attacks against Egypt. The economic reasons are more are quite interesting because Egypt needs oil. It's not an oil producing country. It produces a little bit. But they have benefited from cheap oil since the Libyan National Army controls the eastern part where the oil is. So in exchange for the support that it provides the LNA, Egypt receives oil at a discounted rate. That's what it is. And so there is this, the fear that if the LNA loses the civil war, the oil supplies to Egypt would unavoidably be interrupted and it would result in steep rises of prices in the Egyptian market. Remember, the Egyptian economy is very dependent on the Gulf, on cheap oil. I mean, it's a real mess. So and before the revolution, there were two million Egyptian workers in Libya. And they were sent back, I mean, they used to send, by the way, remittances to Egypt and that helped the Egyptian economy and so on and so forth. So Egypt has developed a sort of dependency on subsidized Libyan oil. This needs to be, you know, to show you the economic importance of Libya to Egypt because Egypt has an ailing economy and so a stable Libya providing cheap oil and so on and maybe getting some workers, you know, as an outlet for the huge manpower. Egypt has about 100 million people compared to Libya, which has 6.2 million. You know, you can see where, what that means. So and again, I just say briefly about the presence of Turkey recently and that has really created a serious headache, as we will see, not only for Egypt, but also for France. That is a big issue, this presence of Turkey and I will explain why Turkey is there. So we are again in what we call a proxy war. Egypt, you know, supports the LNA and then the LNA had some, you know, at least Haftar thought that he would be able to take all over Libya, be the strong man, you know, a new dictator if you wish and so on and supported by the UAE and Egypt. But then, you know, the GNA called on Turkey, which intervened and not only stopped the advance of Haftar, but it also pushed back, defeated in the process, the group that's another backer of the LNA, which is Russia, pushed it back and now there is a sort of stalemate and that is another issue. So you have again now tensions between Turkey and Egypt plus, you know, the Turkey is also ruled by a Muslim Brotherhood, by the Muslim Party, which is based on Muslim Brotherhood ideology and so on and so forth. So Egypt again has continued to support this LNA, you know, providing training its forces in Western Egypt, launching operations from there and so on and so forth. So and all the equipment and what have you. So this move by Turkey has led Egypt to consider intervening in Libya, in eastern Libya. I don't believe that they would, but it's at least it shows how worried Egypt is about that presence. So I'm afraid I will have, I may have to skip to, because I have too much on Egypt, I will skip a little bit and take you straight to Turkey. Turkey, of course, you know, there is the history, today the Arabs are very worried, Turkey, the former Ottoman Empire and so on and so forth and Erdogan is the new Sultan who wants to revive this old domination over North Africa, like it did under Ottoman rule, that is, you know, Libya, Algeria and Tunisia, which were under Ottoman rule. So basically when Haftar failed, or at least when Asarraj, you know, the leader of the GNA called on Turkey to help and Turkey came to the rescue, this again created some problems. But before it happened, and here you will see the interest, how there was a signing of a memorandum of understanding between the GNA and Turkey on on demarcating the new maritime jurisdiction between them. And that basically the consequence of that had gone all the way to Cyprus, Greece created tensions between, and they are currently, as we speak right now, their real tensions between Greece and Turkey over the issue and the Greeks would like, you know, the European Union to intervene and so on and so forth. So because this deal may divide the, you know, the Eastern and the Western Mediterranean. So basically Turkey has started already exploiting, exploring oil in the Eastern Mediterranean and apparently there are the US government, the geological survey in the Eastern Mediterranean, you know, we mentioned that there would be about 700 billion dollar worth of natural gas in the part that Turkey now will start exploring or has already started exploring. So it's a huge reserve, you know, so Europe protested but that has not changed the objective of the Turks. So and of course what happened in Libya, this deal was, you know, to lead Greece, Cyprus and Israel and Egypt, you know, to start working on their own pipeline which will cost seven to nine billion. But of course the problem is that the deal with between Turkey and Tripoli would obstruct the plan since the pipeline would have to cross the Turkey-Libyan jurisdiction. So we will have some very considerable problems in the near future, not in the long term but near future. So what else is there for Turkey? Turkey has very important economic interests in addition to the oil, the gas, the Mediterranean and so on but the Libyan market in Libya. For decades Turkish businesses had been involved in Libya, especially in the construction sector. Before Qaddafi was overthrown there were about 100 Turkish construction companies that had signed contracts with the Libyan government. But because of the Arab Spring, Turkey lost about 19 billion dollars. Of course Turkey was not the only one that lost, China had also lost and Russia, which had invested heavily, we'll come to that later. So my prognosis is that- Yeah, you have ten minutes now. I'm going to give you the warning. Thanks. All right, thank you. So I will skip more on Turkey. I will take you to France. Recently France has had a very interesting position. That is, it says one thing and it does something completely different and we have discovered that mostly in 2016 when some troops were killed in Libya and a military helicopter had crashed in Libya. But now what you will hear is how a nerve France is about Turkey's presence in the territory. So some Libyans tend to remind us and correctly so that French interventionism in Libyan affairs dates through the 1940s when France tried to occupy and keep control of the southern Libyan province of Faisan. You know Libya is divided into three provinces, Tripoli, Tana, Serenica and Faisan. And France wanted to occupy that part for its economic and military interests. So basically France was one of the leading forces against the Qaddafi regime for the regime change. And Sarkozy, the former president who was behind that, supported the revolution against Qaddafi to restore basically France's domination or dominant role as a European military power. In 2014 France allied with the United Arab Emirates and supported the Egyptian and UAE sponsored Haftar. Although in rhetoric it is a negotiated solution etc etc. France is very interesting because it does exactly the same thing as Turkey has done but then criticizes Turkey, insults Turkey, gets in trouble with Turkey which is a fellow member of NATO. But you know it's just the game that nations play. But for most analysts without Turkish intervention the Russian and Sudanese mercenaries which are part of the LNA you know would have overland Tripoli and so on. So basically what France is doing in Libya is also pursuing its economic and security what it perceives as its security interest. So you know the alignment with now it's undisputable the alignment with Haftar is there providing military equipment training and so on. But unlike the UAE and Egypt France you know engages with the GNA you know with you know however as I said behind the scenes it does something else which has led to problems between not only with the NATO but within the EU itself and that is the problem that is happening currently with France's position because you had the conference to try to bring about peace and so on and so forth but it you know it created more problems because of this alignment with the rogue marshal. I'm gonna skip I'm sorry because I need to talk about other players Russia and Russia here is very interesting as well for students who are interested. You're gonna see also a double game that Russia plays you know it supports Haftar tooth and claw basically militarily and so on and so forth but not for for him to take over and that would be it no they want to give him enough power to have a big say at the negotiation table. Unlike other countries which recognize only the GNA Russia believes that Haftar should have a place in the Libyan landscape political landscape of course things might change because of the defeat that the recent defeat of Haftar in Tripoli. So what is happening here in the last two years you'll see Russia organize meetings negotiations between Tripoli and Haftar and but of course each time it's disappointed because Haftar has no interest in having at least until recently had no interest in having he wanted the whole country rather than than you know like power sharing or what have you they wanted to be the new cc of of Libya. So Russia continues like others to violate you know to violate the United Nations Security Council resolution of 1970 which banned the the armed sales to Libya and and so on. So but Russia is not basically I mean implicated with its own troops and so on and so forth there are what there is a group called the Wagner group which is a proxy of the state of the Russian state and so so Russia supplies it with because when you say the Russians you are implicated they say no so these guys are recruited you know to fight in in Libya but of course you and I do not believe that but for Moscow, Moscow has a very interesting strategy which I cannot go in depth and but it is multifaceted and it has different aspects and but Russia's presence let's put it this way simply you know worries the United States and we come to the United States later so but as long as the United States is absent which it is currently you know Russia will continue you know with this with this with this conflict and you know active. The other actor is the UAE very big actor the UAE has intervened in Libya it's a small state it's anti-democratic wants to undo wants to stop anything that could have succeeded through the Arab uprising in terms of democracy and so on and so forth whatever you know whichever way you define it but they are also worried that this kind of success with the Arab uprisings you know and establishing the rule of law democratic mood so on would have a spillover effect on the Gulf countries and that's why they resist that so so basically the UAE has been one of the biggest sponsors of the Haftar military the Libyan national army and so and they espouse his rhetoric of being prostability you know and so that's how it justifies its presence although it talks about you know humanitarian presence but it has bombed positions they have committed atrocities and so on and so forth so so much for the UAE I have much more but since my time is limited my prediction is that the UAE will especially since it's supported by France as well will continue supporting Haftar to prolong Libya's divisions and showing up you know the LNA you know the LNA's control over Libya's east and its oil fields so let me go to the United States the United States you have to look at it in terms of the United States if you're a student of US-Libyan relations although Libya was a headache for the United States but it was never important for the United States because first of all the United States did not import much oil from Libya so it has never been at the top of its foreign policy agenda even in the Middle East so Libya was something different it's annoying but it was not really important it was always the the American foreign policy makers Libya was was the problem for the Europeans and others and the region not not not of the United States not very important so it was always looked through the lens of other competing interests in the in the region but terrorism military requirements for other conflicts and so on and so forth and you all know about the reluctance of Obama president Obama to intervene in Libya it was pushed by Hillary Clinton Samantha Powell and Susan Ross you know the three ladies have pushed for intervention but he was very reluctant to do so and even proclaimed later he regretted that to make a story short the United States was involved there are different stages it was very much involved after you know to go after the terrorists who had killed Christopher Stevens who was the US ambassador to Libya in 2012 in September 2012 and then when when the Islamic so-called Islamic state settled in in Libya the United States organized about 500 airstrikes you know to diminish the potency of of ISIS so the US has been pushing for the UN the European allies and some regional partners to assume to assume leadership in in in this in the Libya's stabilization and reconstruction so so basically if you look at the recent statements coming from the United States is basically to encourage others or to have a settlement but expressing real concern about the presence of Russia the fear that Russia would establish military bases and have a a continued presence in in Libya so that's that's for for the United States now I think that I need to talk a little bit more before in the last few minutes that I have is to talk about the immediate neighborhood that is Algeria and Tunisia maybe I will submit to you here maybe we do that in the Q&A because we okay yeah all right okay so I have covered the I have covered the the foreign powers and of course if you need more I will be happy to thank you thank you very much and I'm sorry it was a real real tour de force as they say in French so it's excellent and a lot of food for thought I have a few questions here I'll start with them the first one from John and he says can you please talk a bit about why friends aligned with Haftar were there was there a deterioration in relations between France and the GNA there's no deterioration of relations between the the GNA really it is a way or some people are even arguing that the French policy is led by UAE policy and and France is very much how should I put it impressed by the UAE first for financial reasons but also because there is this sense of the UAE just like France being opposed to Islamism however defined it is but also because the UAE helps France in sub-Saharan Africa in many countries through funding it did that with the G5 in the Sahel where the UAE promised I don't know how much of it they they they gave but they talked about at the time at the time when France was trying to get funding for the G5 if we're not familiar with the G5 this is what France came up with this sort of organization between five Sahelian states under the leadership of of France and France was looking for financing from different sources the European Union gave some others didn't want to they was gave some money but didn't want it to go through the UN and so on and so forth so it's not a fallout France is playing on two two sides on the one hand it proclaims that it deals with you know it recognizes the legal government the legitimate one which is the GNA but on the other hand it has opposed any sanctions against Haftar for instance so so it it believes that Haftar would give total the oil company you know access to to the oil and and so on and so forth that if Haftar wins France will have a privileged position in Libya and since when France supports democratic regimes in North Africa anyway it's always dodgy runs in between us my gribees we know that very well but I have another question from Dana she's asking about China's geopolitical interest in Libya can you shed more light on that I mean particularly in relation to the current conflict we haven't heard about China's role or China's interference very good I was expecting that question China was very much involved in Libya economically and it was very important it had more than 38,000 workers in Libya until you know the overthrow of Qaddafi and of course it was one of the best examples at least for China it it repatriated exfiltrated it's 38,000 without any loss of life in 2011 with the help of course of Tunisia to put you know some of them there but it lost billions because it had invested billions of dollars it's estimated at 20 or 30 billion dollars that it lost and when there was a transition government in Libya you know China has these principles of non-interference so they did not recognize the transitional what was it called NTC transitional national transition committee until late so there were these suspicions between China and the transition committee but eventually China is basically positioning itself for reconstruction it can come up with you know the money that is necessary to rebuild Libya it keeps its distance I think it recognizes the GNA has no involvement with the rogue martial so so China is in a sense neutral you know China is not known at least in the Middle East and North Africa of having really played a mediation role it will call on all the parties to find a political solution but it has not been an active player in in Libya so I have a question by Stephen and Mehmet which are both similar and they are both both asking about whether you think there is a way forward in terms of finding peace for the Libyan people do you think that the different militias within Libya as well as the foreign states that are interfering in the conflict can find a way forward can sit down and negotiate and find a solution this is the one billion dollar question it's a great question but as I have been hinting at you know the foreign powers don't want to the US has not gone to the UAE and said stop supplying weapons the EU has not been able to tell France stop in fact there was a problem between Italy and France so they are not interested I think there would be and and there was you know there was a the region like there was an Algerian Tunisian sort of a proposal to you know to speak to all the parties to bring them together but everyone every outsider and every insider that is the ones who are inside as long as they they get this foreign support they feel that they can continue having the upper hand right now it's the GNA when the GNA was able to defeat the LNA you know in Tripoli and push it back you know and Turkey advancing you know the the LNA said in each negotiation but of course the GNA was not going to accept because figured the moment you start negotiating the other side will be bombing anyway or will continue or would be pushed by Egypt to do something different so so to me as long as the United Nations Security Council does not put enough pressure but then again you have Russia which is both involved in the field and is has a veto power at the United Nations Security Council I think that only the Libyan people if they're you know and but the political the political elites in Libya I think are are also you know corrupt you know they are in the pockets of outside powers and they have not shown any interest in moving forward to national reconciliation and national reconstruction it has been on the table you know the the elites have come to Algeria for instance and they have met you know separately Algeria has proposed to them to sit around the same table and find a way out to to stop this bloodshed and so on but they haven't done it and this has been my argument since the overthrow of Qaddafi is to say hey now you have to rebuild reconstruction reconciliation you know don't keep you know hold grudges against the ones who served in the old regime and so on but you have to to have this kind of reconstruction but it has not happened and now you have the militias how do you design the militias and sometimes the militias are playing a positive role because they guarantee the security of neighborhoods and so on and so forth but they are also manipulated from the outside serving some interests that are not those of the Libyan people so Yahya what would you think in the I've got many more questions but on that the recent US approach to the conflict with the meeting that a high official in the American government had with Sarraj on the possibility of building a military base in Libya do you think because that's that's kind of again another strategic game because they need to control the Sahel going back to the Sahel and of course none of the migraby state wanted to have the base so it's only I mean now Libya seems like a good place and and if that happens would that allow kind of the American coming behind the Sarraj UN back the government and will kind of tip the powers or you know get get them as you said with the Khalifa Haftar is not really in good terms now with the Egyptian UAE the Russians and the others because he lost so he may be changed another figure may come up who could be more conciliatory do you see any glimpses of hope that just very briefly like the recent yeah yeah yeah the Russians toyed with the idea of bringing in Sahel Islam you know Gaddafi Islam so right now to be quite honest with you the US if you take into account the context of US policy right now no interest in getting involved in Libya the only consensus in the administration in the Trump administration is that we should watch out about Russia's involvement but they're too busy with COVID with the election so I don't know of a base being built in fact you have one in Niger very close you know drones base there was talk about a base in Tunisia you know the Tunisians swear that it doesn't exist but some people think it does I don't think a base is going to add anything the US is just watching but the game is now and that's the I think what is happening the two big players remain Russia and Turkey and Russia and Turkey it's not solely about Libya is also about Syria you know each one watches the move of the other and how it will affect their policy in it absolutely they had a pact in in Syria in Idlib province which is very ironical they seem to have packed somewheres and then they engage in active force somewhere else I have another important question because we have a lot here yeah here excuse me so this one is from Leo he's asking about you mentioned something about the division of Libya along with west east lines you know the western Libya with the capitalist Tripoli the eastern one with Benghazi and he is wondering that kind of bring colonial memories of European drone national borders in Africa and how that had serious repercussions and do you think if that happened the Libyans will think about your unification ah that sounds a bit horrific as well but he also wants to ask an excellent question about the civil society and whether there is any Libyan civil society that could bring a resolution to the conflict and was the other different militias to sit down and negotiate tough question but you know Libya until 51 was three provinces and they brought them together to constitute the state um what is happening today is again the talk uh if we continue like this then there might be a division one being under the influence of Turkey Qatar Italy in the west and then the rest which is the east you know with with Russia the UAE Egypt you know I don't know whether it will happen again I hope for the Libyan people that this would not happen the other good question is about civil society what happened uh on the ground is how the there was a burgeoning civil society on the moral of the overthrow of Qaddafi and then for some weird reason uh dozens and dozens of civil society activists were assassinated including the woman you know Boracis who was a leading force in human rights and so on and so forth so right now it's uh even the diaspora is is divided nobody really know I mean there is this sort of um stubbornness on the part of the elites no one seems to want to give an inch to allow the reconstruction of this beautiful country it it has the potential of becoming a japan in the Mediterranean 6.2 million people extremely rich we talked about oil we didn't talk about the water you know that under Qaddafi they they build the grid grand dam I forgot the name of of it you know with a lot of water that is underneath Libya could become a real major power now for the Europeans the interest is you know the fear of refugees and migration that that's really what it is and and Turkey now if it's too provoked by France can unleash you know refugees from somewhere else either from Syria or so it it's again I have said it all along it's not a Libyan-Libyan war absolutely I guess Yahya would you say because this fragmentation which was inherited from the Qaddafi regime who in way he did not left a state a structure of a state but a fragmented state and that has and the way for example he in a sense pushed the eastern province into marginality in terms of power sharing and and how that came out immediately after 2011 in terms of seeking revenge of the way they've been marginalized despite the fact that they have all the oil reserves in the eastern province but I was also thinking in terms of the absence of a nationalist discourse that you usually associate with states which could be part of the fact that there is no unitary aspect on on on the conflict itself but I have another very good question as well about the from I don't see the name but they want to ask you about the Syrian mercenaries that Turkey sent to fight with the western bloc with the Tripoli bloc with the UN backed national government how do you see their role I mean I skipped it it was in my slides but see Turkey brought in it didn't you know Erdogan got the okay from the Turkish parliament to send troops but he did not send troops he sent advisors military advisors trainers and so on but brought some Turkmen ethnic Turks from the the Syria zone brought about a thousand or four hundred or so but by the way it's not just Turkey once again the the UAE recruited Sudanese yeah you know they told them you're coming to to the UAE to Abu Dhabi or Dubai to work in security sectors and so on and then they send them to die in Libya so so that's why by the way I forgot to say one thing that is extremely important you talked about civil society but there is an issue that if prey that it does not happen there has been talk about arming the tribes and that would be disastrous for live for Libya and again I will carry my few alarming and I know at the risk of sounding even pro-Qadhafi which I have never been everybody can read my writings on Qadhafi but at least there was it was not totally favoring one region against another that Qadhafi the Qadhafi tribe was a sort of pondulum created a sort of balance between all the tribes that was if there was one success that Qadhafi had it was how it he was able to balance out the various tribes one time it's this bringing you know someone from this tribe another from that tribe to be in the government and so on so what he did not do was to create institutions there were no institutions he did not create institutions his revolutionary committees and all that that stuff that he created you know probably he read somebody suggested he reads Rousseau's Jean-Jacques Rousseau's you know the social contract and just he imagined his his green book you know to create this semblance of democracy you know popular democracy and so on so he had no this is why the the state collapsed so easily without much resistance it was a very weak state and no institutions absolutely absolutely right I have another question from Hiba who is asking about the role of Algeria and Tunisia I know that Morocco hold a meeting in 2015 in Scherat which was quite crucial in forming of the national government but going back to Hiba's questions about Algeria and Tunisia do you see any active role of these two countries despite their internal tribulation as Hiba put it in terms of the economic and protest movement look by the way what you said about Morocco was that was not Morocco as such it was the UN it was the Scherat the meeting in Scherat right this is the Scherat agreement which came from the Libyan political what was it called a court and then it gave the the GNA that led to the GNA and to the recognition of that party there were many attempts like that the role of Algeria Algeria shares 1000 kilometers with Libya one advantage that Algeria has well because Algeria right now is spending so much money to protect its border and that of Tunisia because Tunisia and Algeria in a sense are allied on this question very much so they see eye to eye what's going on now what no one understands up to today the UN secretary general appointed an Algerian a former foreign minister to be the special envoy the mediator you know to replace Rassan Salami for some weird reason even the US ambassador could not say why it was vetoed by the United States and now there's no one now Algeria has offered an in fact even Aguila was was was in Algeria not long ago Sarraj went to Algeria after Algeria is probably the best potential broker because it knows all the sites it knows the Gaddafi that the tribes it has even some of the militias and it has that experience of brokering reconciliation approaches like it did in its own domestic when it had its own civil war so it learned from that experience and tried to you know share it with the Libyans and it doesn't have a preference for either you know whether it's Sarraj or what have you and it has a history of mediation it has mediate mediated several conflicts including Eritrea Ethiopia US Iran and so on and so forth so it and and and ice in Tunis now is also in agreement with that and they are against the presence of foreign forces and France says oh I share your position there's Algeria I share your position but then it goes it goes in sides with Haftar so again the entrenched interests of each of the foreign parties that I talked about is preventing a resolution of the conflict in Libya and Algeria I'm I'm afraid does not have the necessary weight in this big game to be allowed it's not being allowed in in other words even if it comes up with the best possible solution it contradicts the interests you know of the other players so as Egypt is in competition with Algeria which wants to have its own influence over Libya and so on and so forth Algeria doesn't really like Turkish presence I had interviewed officials I am the one who tried to convince them that if it hadn't been for Turkey you wouldn't have had a balance of power then you know Sarraj would have been defeated and so later it seemed that what happened you know some parts of the government agreed but they were not too happy with Turkish presence if it were up to the Algerians it should be left to the Libyan to the Libyans themselves you made an important point there about a glimpse of hope that the resolution could come from neighbors who knows the you know the geopolitics of tribes and affiliations and the east and the west division and all that so possibly the Algerians will take an interest because so far they were quite not interested but mainly because their house was also has always also been in a bit of a mess going back to another question about Turkey so Xiaoli is saying that Turkey has established two military bases in Libya and of course they may be kind of geopolitical outcomes would the region face I mean you touched on that a bit so a brief answer please yeah yeah yeah two bases there again Turkey has made those secrets of its of its presence and support for the Sarraj government and there's almost a modus vivendi between Turkey and Russia that you know what happens in the west is George what even happens in the east is mine and so on but I I am not sure whether a reconciled Libya and reconciled with its neighbors as well would allow the existence of permanent bases in Libya at least this is my my understanding right now yes Sarraj needs Turkey without Turkey he would not be able and Turkey needs to also have a government that mirrors its own a conservative government based on Muslim Brotherhood principles and so on and so forth so I don't think even Russia would would build a permanent base because it already has base in bases in Syria I am not so sure that it would but it would to basically provoke or force the Europeans to recon with with with with with Russia in terms of migration refugees and so on and so forth so I think that Russia has for now you know to supply because the US has uncovered with the imaging and all that there are Suhois migs that are present in Libya that you know that were used by the Wagner group and so on so forth so it's there whether I think that a a resolution among the reconciliation between the Libyans would end that that presence eventually okay great thank you I'm thinking there of as well talking about the European Union about the role of Italy because Italy of course is the one that is very much worried about the influx of the migrants from the Sahel and from Africa because Libya always had that border I think and of course it has sided largely with Haftar because they think that he is going to keep those well he's been persecuting this immigrant I mean there are few atrocities committed against them so he makes you think I think there was an early question about France loses its reputation I think John had the follow-up about siding with a clearly a dictator who was who could be as worse as as Gaddafi and putting you know that supporting or backing from some countries in the European Union which is extremely problematic I have another question about from Abdus Salam about the division between you know the Greenleica Borca and the Tarablos you know the that traditional division that existed in in Libyan history throughout the Ottoman Empire and when the San Nusi dynasties brought the two regions together but it seems to come back and haunt Libya that eastern western divide along tribal lines and he's asking do you see this as a colonial legacy or do you see it as something that is part of the making of Libya itself that which I guess is is part of the making of most nations I mean going back to that idea of a nationalist unifying discourse that Gaddafi failed to come up with in a way I think it's both there's the colonial legacy and there's I think that was my argument from the beginning today to say there's one part which is the their own doing the Libyans own doing and one part is you know the the outsiders exploiting those divisions by the way I need to correct something you said that somebody said that Italy supported Haftar Italy is nominally on the side of the DNA of Sarraj but it did once receive Haftar as if he was ahead of state but in reality Italy is more has more interest with the gna especially for its old company and I and so on and so and it feels it feels this is what neocolonialism is it feels that because it was the former colonial powers power it should have more of a say in Libyan affairs but again its attitude is ambiguous as France I mean it's not very clear who they played a double game which is not helping with the resolution resolution of the conflict thanks yeah yeah I'm regarding France and that's something I did not finish Turkey has basically destroyed France's plans in Libya completely and France had not played its card more honestly either supporting the gna correctly and seeking a resolution when it alienated its fellows at the European Union and in NATO and Turkey now you know you know it has nothing what is the card that France has right now in in Libya I mean back to what you said about the emergence of the new Ottoman Khalifat with Erdogan and the idea of controlling part of the Arab world because Turkey now is really a major player in the new Arab Cold War you know in the way it sided with Qatar against the UAE and the Saudis and so it's quite another dimension that is that's going to have a big role in the coming months and years I'm going to ask the audience does anybody wants to raise their hand and ask a question directly to Yahya is there anybody who wants to to unmute themselves and ask a question hi Karima hello Mahjoum it's so nice to see you here hi thank you Yahya for your great presentation I'm sorry I was in a meeting so I joined a little bit late those who don't know me my name is Mahjoum I'm the director of Gulf Study Center at Qatar University I just want to add I think you correctly defined the crisis it's about the role of players from outside and you know insiders seem to be basically following rather than initiating and this applies in Syria applies in other cases and I just I want to elaborate on on on the the role of the Gulf in the whole thing it's obvious that the division in the Gulf the echo the reflection of that we saw it in Libyan crisis because the Gulf was divided between a pro-Arab Spring and you know counter-revolutionary so that division reflected there and the example we saw in in Libya it's obvious that Saudis and Emiratis with the support of Egypt they invested a lot because they wanted to maintain the status quo and you know make sure that the whole concept and the outcome of Arab Spring failed and that's the way they can basically survive and it's obvious that with the with the role of Turkey the whole thing that upside down now I think it's obvious that Saudis and Emiratis now they are struggling to maintain the status quo they have and the obvious that Qatar is not actually doing them a favor and the problem they are facing they don't have either option they don't have plan B they don't have even save a deal Qaddafi is not the right person according to them according to their own calculation so even if he suggested I think from what I see and following up is not the right person and I think the main dilemma they are facing now is actually who is the person if they said if they shown their red car to Haftar who will be the person replacing him I think that is the main dilemma and that is the momentum was given indirectly to Turkey and the government to survive and to your main you know able to gain this kind of international support and it's obvious that you know as long as you know the Gulf will have its impact I think with the uncertainty now with international politics American elections you know the crisis the epidemic and even the crisis in Lebanon it's obvious that we will have this uncertainty until the start of 2021 and I think we is expected to see this very clear on Libyan front because of this all of these elements again thank you Yahya and thank you Karima for inviting me we appreciate thanks Mahjub thank you Mahjub I want to add a little line you know all of a sudden everybody is talking about trying to prop up some Arab nationalism coming even from the Gulf against the Turks they did it against Iran for Shi'a you know that you know that that's the main enemy which you know suggest that we should align with Israel and so on and so forth against you know Iran and now it's Ottoman of course Erdogan is playing down that too for for the domestic you know by the way I was going to cite to you I have the the latest survey in Turkey he got a lot of support on what he's doing in Libya he got more than 60% because he's playing you know and we are back he had given some signs you know he was rebuilding the Kachawa Mosque in Algeria you know vestige of Turkey and so on and so forth but I you know I am not naive I know neo realism what is happening is Turkey's national interests that's simple Ottomanism you can use it as a symbolic but the reality is Turkey is playing game a solid game and has the willow to do what it needs to do it did it when Saraj said I need you okay I come they didn't go by themselves and by the way among all those who have intervened in Libya and I'm going to be hated by the Arabs here you know the only country that has a legitimate right to be in in Libya is Turkey why because Turkey was called in by the recognized government and it says just like France went to Mali it went legally because you know the the government of Mali asked the the French to come to the rescue and that's recognizing international law yeah I mean it's fascinating also that Erdogan is very popular in the Arab world he is extremely popular so he has got the back he speaks to the Arab publics and that I mean he's hated by some government but he does speak to the Arab publics and what he's doing is highly approved among the people anybody else thanks thanks very much anybody wants to raise their hands and ask a question otherwise I think we've exhausted Yahya so I think it's been fun it's it's been a huge pleasure to have you thank you so much for waking up so early to talk to us from Marseille and thanks everybody for coming and we have another public lecture coming up soon so we'll send you the details about that thanks very much Yahya thanks everyone thank you very much for having a good evening bye bye everyone bye bye


with so many brushes to choose from for beginners that can feel really overwhelming, particularly with eye makeup brushes. So I'm just gonna share with you my top two favorites, which will create pretty much any eye makeup look. So first off, we have a flat brush. So this is the E08 by Blank Canvas Cosmetics. What a flat brush does is it applies eyeshadows to the lid, it can be used for underneath the brows and even underneath the eyes. It kind of replaces the use of using your fingertips or like old school sponge tips.  Really packing it on and getting that pigment on there. And then you have a fluffy brush. This is the E13 by Blank Canvas Cosmetics. And what a fluffy brush does is it basically blends out and softens any harsh lines. So you can apply with your flat brush and then blend out any harsh lines using your blending brush. It is the most important eyeshadow brush that you will own. Whereas a flat brush can kind of be replaced with a sponge tip applicator or even a Q-tip or your fingertips, you can't replace a good blend from a fluffy brush. I would highly recommend investing in a couple of different ones to find out what's gonna work for you. If you have any questions about blending brushes and finding the right ones for you, definitely let me know in the comment section, but those are my top two picks for beginners. And I'll see you in the next one.


Hello everyone. In this video, we'll be discussing about the loops in shell scripting. Here is the learning outcome. By the end of the session, students will be able to implement loops by using shell scripting. So this is the outline where I'll be first of all introducing you by taking a couple of examples of the general programming language conditional statements and then I'll be demonstrating you with the help of example. So before proceeding ahead, it's a good moment to discuss about what is meant by conditional statement in a computer program. You can pause the video for a while and think on this and then you can resume the video to find the answer. So this is what we have in the form of a flow chart that is available on the screen where a conditional statement generally has a sort of condition and generally as we are aware that a condition would be either true or false. If it's true then we can put a certain piece of code that would loop continuously until the condition is met. So that's how it is represented with the help of this simple flow chart. So in a computer program, the code begins then we write a condition like whether a specific content is equal to x, y, z and if it is equal then a piece of code is executed and if it is false then either we can end the code execution or we can write another piece of code which would indicate the user that the condition is false. So it is always a choice of the developer like whether to allow the code to be looping until the condition is completely true or a specific condition is met. So you can either go with the active high kind of a condition looping or you can even go for active false of a condition looping. Further you can even write a piece of code under the false condition which will allow the user to execute these set of statements when the condition is completely false and then ultimately we end up with the code execution. Now to be more specific about the shell scripting as you can see we have the following types of loops available in shell scripting. The first one is if else which is just a simple single condition based looping statement or a single conditional statement where you can only mention a single condition. Another is whenever you want to write multiple if else, if else, if else like what we generally do in C language and other programming languages then here the structure is if and lf and then it can be continued further until you completely end up the loop by writing its end determination keyword called fi and next we have loops the for loop, the while loop and until loop. I'll show you a couple of these by showing a set of demonstration. So let's have a look at the demonstration now. Okay as you can see I have logged in into the U1 to terminal. Now as usual let's make a small directory like I'll be calling it v5. Let me first of all make a folder called v5 then I'll enter into that and let me show you that I don't have anything currently present inside this. So let us go for creation of a file called iftest.sh. So I'm trying to open a new file called iftest. Now let's follow the general process of mentioning the shebang. This is the shebang then we have let's begin with writing the shell code for demonstrating the if loop. I'll write a simple program. Okay let me first let me write something which would prompt the user to enter a number. So this statement is very simple where it will prompt the user to enter his age then I'll try to read this in a variable called age. Now I'll put an if condition now you can have a look at the syntax. Now let's have a look at the basic if loop syntax that is you need to simply write an if everything in lowercase then put a square braces then inside this make sure that you put double spaces. I mean to say that whatever you type inside this it should not touch these braces so that's the syntax if your internal content of the bracket of your if condition is touching these braces then it is going to invoke some sort of errors. So you need to be very disciplined as far as these conditions of writing if loop is concerned. So I'll read the age that the person is trying to enter and I'm going to try. So unlike the symbols that we generally use in C language like this we need to write something like a greater than or equal to for example I want to simply assess whether the user entered age is going to be greater than or equals to 18 and then I'm going to output a statement or print a statement to the console stating that whether he is capable to vote or not. So that's what I'm currently trying to program. So I'm putting this GE to indicate that with the age content is greater than or equals to 18 and then I simply put a semicolon and then I can write then so if this is true then I'm going to print to the console like you are eligible to vote under else I'm going to put you can't vote. So if the user is trying to enter any age value less than 18 or any value other than 18 especially on the lower side on the lower limits of 18 then it should probably print you can't vote. So let's quickly check I'm going to save this. Now as usual we need to first of all change the mode of this file. Now make sure it's displayed in green which is a meaning that it is going to be an executable. Now I can simply put a dollar slash and sorry dot slash and if test dot s h. It's giving me an error stating that bin slash bash. So let me quickly change this. I forgot to mention the slash. So it's asking me to enter the age for example if I'm writing some value like 25. It says unexpected let me check what is the error. An expected end of line. So it is very important to understand what the error exactly says. So it is saying that the file called if test dot s h is not properly terminated. So let's go back quickly and let me indicate what error we have done. So the error is we have written that if we have written the else condition but we forgot to end the file. So remember if must be ended with the reverse of if that is fi. So whenever it finds the fi keyword it is going to identify that it's the end of your reflux. So let me quickly save it again clear the terminal and sorry if it's asking me the age let me enter 25 for example. It says yes since the condition is met that like 18 is less than 25 or 25 is greater than 18 it states that you are eligible to vote. Similarly if I execute it again and if I'm writing 8 it should display you can't vote. Yes so that's how we we have successfully verified the working of if else. Now let me demonstrate you something else. I'm going to write or modify the same program into something else. So let me say I'm having three colors red, green and blue. I'm having three colors red, green and blue. I'm going to prompt the user to select red or green or blue. So I'm going to name this variable as color. I'm going to read this color and I'm going to compare this time I'm going to compare strings. So I have possibly selected this example so that you can understand how to write these things for strings as well as integers. Make sure you maintain the space between the bracket and the equal to sign. So whenever I'm comparing strings I will be using a double equal to sign and I'll be comparing and I'll be comparing red if the color is red. I'll say you selected red. Now I want to have another if condition means I want something where I can mention a condition which was not possible to be mentioned under the else condition. So that's the reason why we prefer writing if L if. So the only change in else is going to be this. I'm going to keep it as it is and I'll be going for ELIF which stands for else if means it's a recursive if else kind of a process where you can mention another condition. Again follow the same condition like I'm going to read color and I'm going to compare it with whether I have selected green or not. Make sure you're maintaining proper spaces between this parenthesis and then I put a semicolon then write then and you can echo whatever you want here. I'll be writing your your selected color is red. Similarly here I mean right if it's true with the green condition it will be displaying me your selected color is green. Otherwise means for the third condition which where I'm not mentioning any sort of condition that is anything other than red and green is going to be the blue color. So let's quickly save this and check since I have the same name given to this one. Yes so it is showing me that I have selected the green condition. If you see the code you will understand that I have typed green here which is a meaning that my L if condition has become true. Now let me try to execute it again by this term I will write something else. Let me call ABC. I have selected ABC then I want the else condition to be said true. Yes so as you can see I have typed anything other than red and green. It's a meaning that that ABC is coming under the else condition. Here are the references used for this video. Thank you.


So today, I'm taking my friend out to Papa Dolls in Chicago. It was just like a disagreement, but that's my page. I love her so much. She was really my rock when I needed her to be. I'm gonna treat her like, ever. Okay, because I feel like, if you have loyal friends around you, I feel like if you have a lot, you should show them that you care about them and you really appreciate them because you know, I don't have a lot of friends because people are fake, they're phony, whatever. And yeah, so we've got to cherish the people around you and you gotta make sure they know they're appreciated.   So that's what I'm about to do now and I hope y'all have a blessed Sunday. I hope y'all have a blessed week and I hope everything that you are manifesting right now just comes to you because you deserve it. Okay, don't forget to like, comment, subscribe. And white toes. So I'm about to go get Kishinaw.  So, but you know, Chicago is kind of far, so we gotta go and Papados is always looking packed.  It's a vibe for real. So, yeah, and I gotta take a bathroom break when I get to her house though.  We're twins today.  Don't it look like we got on the same shirt? It does. That's crazy. Yeah, Kish is here. I told them in the morning, don't be a man at each other. Did you? Yeah.  I'm trying to do this. Oh my God. This is cute. Don't get ready with me. Wait, which one? Yo, get ready with me. The one I just posted. Here, I'm gonna put you on. Okay, girl. Yay. Put you on my Insta-snack. You look good, Yoni. I'm not even there when you say you got me. Do you watch YouTube too? Or just you? Yeah. Mom, I watch. Oh my God, y'all. So I'm in a Papados bathroom and she watches my YouTube videos. Say hey to me. No, I can see. I can just watch you. Thank you, Yoni. Oh, just say hi, Yoni. She was in it. Yeah. I didn't hear that. No, Wisconsin. We just drove here. Yeah, we drove here. Wait, where are you from? Milwaukee? Yeah. Oh, that's crazy. I see you was mad if I'm going to the movies and you had to go tell Mom or something. Oh, okay. She canceled on me. No.  I love it. That's crazy. Do you want to go? I can't move where it's wind. It's shaking. You can't win.  This shit, I thought it was wind. Because we got to wait. So we looking at drinks, right? Why they got a drink called Keep it a Honey with the emoji. This is cute boy. I want him to sit in my view. But yeah, we need one. I'm going to get the hurricane. Wait, what are you getting? What's that other one? The cat dirty hurricane. Yeah, they have it. I'm going to get this. We're going to bust that. Yeah. You're not breading.  I didn't get big. I was going to do feet of it. I'm just going to have third dirty. Too much work. I was going to do bread and butter. Oh, yeah. But it ain't going to do it. Delicious bread and butter. And yeah. Her class coming up. Okay, if y'all want to. She does exactly how I want them. Okay, y'all.  I'm going to let her see it. But y'all have to see it.  Why would you put that in? Because it's spoiled so I guess. I could never be a waiter. Or a waiter. They didn't hear it but somebody put it in. Yeah. I wish I would have paid for that. I got a food baby. I need another picture too. I don't like it in my face. I'm going to take it in my Louis Vuitton. Okay. I'm going to see y'all when we get to our next destination. Say bye. Bye. Which one should she get? She's having a difficult time choosing. So you should get a different color. It's a pop of color and it's different. And nobody in Milwaukee has it. So. Because everybody has the big never full. So it's cute. So this is the person. He's just getting on. It's so cute. It's bomb. Okay girl. I don't know why I'm going to my room so bad. It's a storm cloud. Oh please out. Y'all.  And I finally got my seatbelt on with y'all crying baby asses. You do not care about safety obviously. No.  Let me change my settings hold up.


Radio 59 WROW, first on the dial. And now, another tale well calculated to keep you in... Suspense. Elemental, adapted for suspense from a story by Stephen Vincent Benet. Thirsty people everywhere prefer ice-cold Pepsi-Cola. And because it's light, it refreshes without filling. Charlie, be sociable. I am, Kay. Pepsi is a favorite of thirsty people from Maine to Hawaii, from Alaska to Florida. Charlie. It's perfect for parties or picnics, so serve Pepsi to your guests. It's helpful, but... This is the sociable part. Keep plenty of Pepsi ice-cold and ready. Remember, it goes fast because everybody likes Pepsi. Singing still sounds more inviting. May I? Be sociable. Look more. Keep up to date with Pepsi. Drink light, refreshing Pepsi. Stay young and fair, and never dare be sociable. Have a Pepsi. But singing doesn't say, pick up an extra carton of Pepsi today. Better yet, get a case. You do that. A young man, an assistant in history at Harvard University, sits across from his host at Little Dinner for Two, in a big, ugly residence on Madison Avenue. And now the after-dinner talk is somehow drifted to elementals. I was speaking, Mr. Latimer, of the elementals of life itself. What rules this curious thing called human existence? What forces way at most holy and make it a pageant or tragedy, or only a gray succession of lackluster days? I'm afraid I haven't thought about that too much, Mr. Slake. A historian? Well, I don't suppose it can be helped these days. Would you care for more abacchio, or perhaps the cocreate? No, no thanks. Nothing more. It was delicious. How nice of you to be so pleased. I must confess, I found the bavette prepared, shall we say, a little beyond al dente. Still, your pleasure allows me to excuse the oversight. Your gratification is my own. I thought it was perfect. Good. The abacchio, the little spring lamb, was actually less than six pounds on the hoof, barely able to walk, I should say. Six pounds? A little less, and all the way from Rome. I suppose it's a shame in a way, but then, refinement of appetite is bound to lead to what I imagine you think of as cruelty. I do think it's cruel. I don't see why refinement of appetite, as you call it, should necessarily lead to cruelty. Don't you? What do you say to a bit of pasticeria, and an excellent masala, I stumbled on in Sicily? Impossible. Ah, that's too bad. Tonight, I have wanted to especially honor you for your flawless translation of Wiu Chardini. Thank you. And forgive me, it's just too much. Lately. Perhaps a little later, the beautiful country cheese bell, pice, and pears. But for now, my question, Mr. Latimer, was about essentials. What would you say was the essential invisible power that rules all human affairs? I really couldn't say. Unless you mean God. I was thinking of something quite different. And it was you who clarified it for me in your remarkably terse version of the chapter on the merry diversions of His Highness, Prince Alessandro. Prince Alessandro. Yes, I remembered His Highness very well. And I remember the agony of the translation, the endless searching for the exact word in each sentence of the chapter, describing the 15th century Prince in his refined and exquisite delights. And then I heard Slake's voice again, soft and purring like a gigantic cat. I understand you're engaged to be married, Mr. Latimer. Yes, sir, I am. So you will forgive me if I presume that you're in luck. You embarrass me. But I think you can presume that we both are. That is to say I love Catherine and Catherine loves me. Awesome. Catherine Vane, I believe? Yes, Catherine Vane. Would you say then that love was one of the powers that guide the destiny of men? Yes, I would. Wouldn't you? On the contrary. I venture to say that love is the most fragile of things, always evanescent, disappearing. Much too delicate to last. And yet love has been known to build empires. Such romantic nonsense. Hate and fear and hunger have created empires. They always will. There are only three prime movers in this vagrant piece of oddity we pleased to call the human soul. I don't believe you. I see. Do you think love can hold out against fear? Yes. And love can stand against hate? Yes. And do you think love can survive hunger? Yes, I most certainly do. Very well then. Let's get back to Alessandro and the two lovers whose devotion was a proverb in his court. Are you willing to undergo anything in life or death for each other? Alessandro was a mad man. Perhaps. In any case, he suggested, as you remember, a test of this immortal emotion. A very simple test. Hardly simple. His highness was well known for his cruel and sensitive torture. But only with reason. And in this case, a reward was offered if they withstood the ordeal. And it was liberal enough. A duke them for the man, a permanent revenue for them both, and titles of honor for each. Why death, of course. Why not? Carried out by one of Alessandro's curious methods of making people die. True. But even so, Guiuchardini says the lovers were genuinely delighted to accept the test. They embraced it, he said, as if they were to dance together at feast day with great nobleness and joy of heart. But as you know, the test, unfortunately, was an elemental one. Hunger. Hunger for ten days. That's all, Mr. Lennemann. Yes, but in separate cubicles with no knowledge of time. An inconvenience, perhaps, but not in any... Having to stare at each other through a glass partition but unable to speak. Yes. Wasn't that a pretty idea? And on the tenth day, the partition removed and one small piece of bread thrown into them. It wasn't a fair test. By no means a fair test. Giving them food and then making them wait a half hour before touching it. And yet if this elemental love of theirs had been greater than elemental hunger for one half hour, they both would have had their hearts desire forever. But it was the means, the dragging out of starvation. It was hunger. The elemental. We, Uchardini, says, it was difficult at first for the men to take them to execution to separate them.  They acted as any two people would have acted. Any two would have been the same. Any two would not. They failed because their love wasn't big enough, certainly. But some people would have been big enough. Some loves would. Some people would have been big enough, you say. I wonder. I very much wonder, Mr. Latimer, just what people you mean. Oh, dozens. Most people are half of them at any rate even now. Mr. Latimer, would you? Would I be willing to undergo Alessandro's test? To prove what? That love was durable? That man was not ridden and spurred by fear and hate and hunger alone? Surely, Slake and his comfortable boredom was playing hypothetical games. And you dragged me back four centuries to play with him. Well, Mr. Latimer, does it frighten you? Or would you be willing to wager your future professorship, say, on your and one woman's ability to withstand Alessandro's test? Are you absolutely sure of yourself and the lady in question? This strikes me as an elaborate joke, Mr. Slake. But, of course, I'm sure. Very well, then. Suppose we try it. What? Mr. Slake, the premise is preposterous. As to the stakes, I could hardly ask you to put up your lives in forfeit. Things being what they are. But a written promise from you that you would give up your present career forever and enter any business I wished you to at a salary entirely at my discretion. That would be quite sufficient in case either one of you failed. You can't be serious, Mr. Slake. The idea would be fantastic if it weren't so insolent. Should the test be withstood successfully, and I should not require more than 20 minutes duration for the final bread to stay in your common cubicle, a check for $20,000 to be delivered to you the same day. $20,000. It meant that Catherine and I could marry at once instead of waiting another year. It meant leisure for research. It meant a home and children. It meant security. Everything that Catherine and I wanted most in life. But the conditions were so unreal, so lost and antiquated I could only feel as though I were caught in a silken net and unable to get out. Well, Mr. Latimer, I offer. And I refuse. It's idiotic. Idiotic? Will you remember it that way when you're poor and at your wit's end? Will you remember that you might have had $20,000 for the asking in exchange for a little courage? I don't know. But I'll be frank with you, Mr. Slake. If you'd made your incredible offer to me alone, I'd have jumped at it. But as it is... Of course, young lady. Miss Vane would be unable to bear it. What are you doing? Nothing, Mr. Latimer, nothing. Million notation. You see, I have a whim since you are so obdurate. I should like very much to find out what Miss Catherine Vane will say to this trifling experiment of mine. In just a moment, we will return for the second act of... Suspense. You know, folks, your good, fake, barbecued steak on your table is the finest compliment you can pay your guests. That's why when you've got the best meat there is, it's important to get the best flavor out of it. May I recommend using French's Worcestershire and your barbecue sauce? You see, French's Worcestershire has 15 different spices and other ingredients blended into it. Not two or three measly old things, but 15. This French's Worcestershire recipe of spices and other ingredients grown hot or sweet barbecue sauce brings out every last bit of the wonderful, juicy flavor in food where you can barely keep your mouth from watering. See the difference French's Worcestershire makes in your barbecue sauce. Send for this special offer. Get 12 delicious new barbecue sauce recipes. Just write Barbecue Book, Box 5-6. That's Box 5-6, Rochester, New York. Good evening, Mr. Latimer. Good evening, Mr. Slake. Everything perfectly all right, Mr. Latimer? Everything entirely satisfactory. Oh, charming. You're admirable guests, Mr. Latimer, you and Miss Vane.  The beef scatter traveled too much whipped cream in it, but the fish was perfection. Prodetto, you know. An ancient Spartan federation. Oh, dear, dear, I forgot. My apologies. And by the way, I trust you understand the inconvenience of no soap or toothpaste. Cleansing to be sure, but also edible. I am sorry. I have no complaints. No complaints? Very well then. Good night.  And I turned away to look at the little white dents my teeth had made in the flesh of my wrist. I forced my eyes up and away from those pale hunger markings. Away and around the walls of the neat, luxuriously decorated box of a room I had come to know completely by heart. How long had it been? Slake visited us twice a day. And how many times did he come already? Eight, I think. Yes, I can still remember that much. Eight. That would be four days of short time. And how long ago it seemed that the contracts were drawn. As you see, my dears, a miniature apartment on the third floor. Seven rooms and all, and all sound approved. I use it whenever a problem chances to come up that I wish to think over entirely undisturbed. We could carry out our little experiment here in perfect peace.  It's insane, and I refuse $20,000 for one week's lack of occupation. Yes, Mr. Slake, if we win. And, of course, you will. In consideration of the fact that neither of you in all probability possesses a renaissance physique, I would be willing to shorten the time to seven days. But what in the world is there in it for you? Amusement. In the old days, they had gladiatorial games, and that was as it should be. You see, I agree with you and Aldo Roman, who said that the only needs in life are bread and circuses. And this is my circus. You may have the bread if you can wait for it. The answer is no. Oh, Sherry, darling, just think now. It's everything we want, Sherry. Everything, no. And it's ours if we only have the courage to take it. Of course, Mr. Latimer, if you have doubts, I'd be willing if necessary to carry out the experiment with Ms. Vane alone. The conditions might have to be altered somewhat, but the terms would be the same. Oh, yes, Sherry, yes. I'd rather have it that way, really, I would. Then there would only be one of us, but it would be for both. The first day wasn't bad at all. After all, two ordinary human beings physically fit enough, not weakling. The Slake had given us Bibles and other religious works. It seemed ridiculous to think we couldn't hold out seven days without food. But the second day was worse, in a way, than the fourth. The pain had been sharper than. And toward the end of the day, the giddiness was bad. It made your body feel light all over, like a cork. And with it, the fierce and intermittent spurts of pain as if it were filled with burning air. And then as time went by, my sense of time went with it. There was only pain now. Terrible, terrible pain. Pain that was as much a part of me as my ticking heart. And then Slake came again. How many times he had visited I no longer knew. Still no complaints, Mr. Ledema? Still no complaint. I'm sorry to have taken away your books, but the teeth marks and the leather binding of the Hindu book gave me no other choice. I'm sure you understand. I understand. And after all, it's for me a question of hours, shall we say? Hours. Hours? Or shall we say days? Days, is it days? I'm afraid you'll have to puzzle that out for yourself, Mr. Ledema. In just a moment, we will return for the concluding act of...  Corn chips is not polite to smack your lips. But you can't help it with burritos, corn chips.  Corn chips. That's right, burritos, corn chips. So crisp and light there's contentment in every munch. Serve them at outdoor parties, as snacks or with dips. Burritos, corn chips are so good with cold drinks, everyone will want a munch of munch. Burritos have a flavor no other kind of chip can match.  Corn chips. Burritos are golden chips of corn just made to munch. Keep burritos, corn chips on hand for the perfect warm weather between meal treat. Serve them with sandwiches, salads.  F-R-I-T-O-S. Burritos, corn chips.  Corn chips. Right here, Mr. Ledema. I'm afraid I shall have to withdraw from the counter. Really? When only a few more hours would have brought us to the interesting part? Yeah. According to the agreement, Mr. Ledema. I don't care about the agreement. Neither of you may be released without the full written consent of the other. I'll find it so she just look at her. A little less plump perhaps. A forfeiture clause would be invoked, of course. I don't care. And I could use your brains for, let us say, 10 years. Anything. She can't walk anymore, she can't move, don't you see? You know, Mr. Ledema, the favorite Roman breakfast was bread dipped in wine. Get her to sign. Don't touch me, Mr. Ledema. Don't touch me. Please, please. What an exhibition of temper. What a pitiful exhibition. I'll see what the young lady has to say. I remember that Slate came back and said that Catherine had refused to sign. But I don't remember being carried down the corridor and placed in the other cubicle. I remember only colors that streak before my eyes like blots of livid light. Piercing colors of sunset orange and scarlet and bright green. Reeling dreams like the patterns a madman draws in the air. And at the end of it, a collapse and a broken piece. A piece so complete that I thought I had died. But turning on my couch, I saw another figure in the room. And between our two couches, there was something on the floor. Something solid and white. A piece of bread. And now the figure on the other couch stirred. Its great eyes stared at the bread. The thing on the other couch had seen the food, too. And wanted it as bitterly as I wanted it. But I was careful.  And carefully slid to the floor. I waited on all fours for a moment. Waiting to see what that woman would do. But she didn't get down from the couch to fight me for the food. She wasn't able. She could only lie there and stare at it with hopeless eyes. Who was that strange gaunt woman who didn't move to take the bread from me? I reached out slowly. Very slowly. And I touched the bread. Its surface was rough and pleasant. Good, good bread. And it was mine. In a minute I'd feel that first sweet taste of it on my tongue. But there was something wrong. And I couldn't think of what it was. So I brought the bread carefully to my mouth. And a crumb would be lost. Sherwood. Sherry. Oh, Sherry, dear, Sherry, dear. I'm so hungry. Catherine, Catherine, Catherine, Catherine, that was it. That's what I forgot. It was Catherine who was hungry. And she'd have to eat right now. That was Catherine. That lean image of fever on the couch was Catherine. And she was hungry. I began the immense journey across the floor to the other couch. Catherine was hungry, so she must be fed. Dear Sherry. Catherine. You're doling. Bread. Eat it. No, you're first, dear. You're hungrier. No, dear. No. Got the bread. Yes. We've got to wait. If you can. I'll try. Time. All over. Well, pick it up, you babies. Pick it up. It's yours. Do you think I'm going to feed you? You've been listening to Elemental. Adapted for Suspense from a story by Stephen Vincent Benet. In a moment the names of our players and a word about next week's story of Suspense. Hi, this is Dennis James. Say, remember way back when this melody was popular? There's something very special about a long time favorite, isn't there? Well, folks feel the same way about one of Kellogg's favorites. Kellogg's All Brand. Going on 41 years now, it's been America's most popular good food way to fight irregularity from lack of bulk. Because it's whole brand, Kellogg's All Brand gentles away irregularity safely and reliably. And because it's deep toasted for extra crispness, it never gets mushy in milk. There's only one All Brand, Kellogg's All Brand. That's A-L-B-R-A-N. Kellogg's All Brand. Heard in tonight's story were Phil Meeder as Latimer, Santos Ortega as Slake, and Ellen McCrae as Catherine. Listen again next week when we return with 60 Grand Missing by Robert Arthur. Another tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.


You all know me by now. My name is Tim, and I'm telling you about the adventure I had with Jump Jump up at the North Pole. This palace will rescue Santa's reindeer. There was Jump Jump, the little elf who was no feet three inches tall, Merry Holiday, and the other folks from Holiday House. And myself, Tim, I'm just an ordinary boy, but I sure was excited about all the wonderful things we were seeing, but I never knew what was going to pop up next. Take the Christmas tree forest, for example. I'll tell you about that in just a minute. And the sled that the Eskimos had given us. Jump Jump was whizzing along above us in his toy helicopter. He'd have to be up in the air looking down on us. Sleepy slimmed the lion, trotted along behind the sled, yawning at every step. Watch you proudly, the clown and the poet were walking up ahead to keep a watch out. What a jolly sound, the tickling of the bells and the dog's harnesses. The Huskies trotted along, waving their tails in the air and barking every now and then. It was swell. Merry Holiday called out to me. Oh, is it this fun, Tim? Sure is. I've never had so much fun in all my life. I would have a nap for two hours. Think of that. It's the longest time I've gone without my beauty sleep in years. You look all right to me, sleepy slimmed.  Well, what I want to know is, even if we do get to the Ice Queen's palace, how are we going to get inside of it? I've been wondering about that too, Merry Holiday. Santa said anyone that ever touches the blue fire surrounding the palace has turned into a statue of ice. What do you think, Merry Holiday? I don't think this is the time to worry about how we'll get into the palace, Tim. The Christmas fairies said we'd find a way, and I trust her. So do I. Oh, I'd sure like to see her again. Me too. She was real pretty. Tim, is an Archie Pogli waving to us from the top of that hill over there? Maybe he's seen something. Oh, jump, jump. Why don't you fly ahead and see what Archie Pogli's pointing to? In a few minutes, Merry Holiday, sleepy slim and I had reached the top of the hill too and stopped to look down at the strangest forest I'd ever seen. It must have been a million Christmas trees. Well, it looked like a million to me anyway. Every one of them was decorated all over with Christmas ornaments and tinsel. The air rang with the tinkle of the ornaments on the branches and the tinsel glowed where all the stars and the tips of the trees glistened. If I'd stayed there all the rest of my life, I couldn't have counted the number of colored lights that went from every tree. I knew at once that this must be the Christmas tree forest. Yes, jump, jump. It's very pretty, isn't it? I wish you were right here. Oh, yes, it's too bad we didn't bring your sister doll with us. I'll go back and get her now. Oh, no, no, no. Don't leave us, jump, jump. You stay right here. In fact, I think you'd better land your helicopter and let Tim put it in his pocket for a while. You've done enough flying for today. Say, jump, jump. That was a swell landing you made. Right down onto this sled. That's fine. We followed the silver trail. We were on right down into the Christmas tree forest. Merry holiday. Thought it would be a lovely place to stop and have our lunch. We were resting beneath one of the glittering trees, I said. Just why are all these decorated Christmas trees here, Merry holiday? But Tim, this is a place where all the Christmas trees that have ever lived go. Well said again, Merry holiday. Oh, haven't you ever felt sad when the time comes to take down your Christmas tree after Christmas has passed? I'll say so. I wish I could keep it up all the year. Well, this is the forest of past Christmas trees. See? No, how many fogs there are fogs. You mean that when the trees are burned they come to live here? That's right, Tim. What we're looking at now are the spirits of past Christmas trees. Oh, I get it. They're ghosts. No, sleepy slam. Not any more than a happy memory as a ghost. Then they're the memory of the past Christmas trees. Yes, that's a good way to put it, Tim. Now, if you had time to look around, you could probably find the tree that you had last year at the orphanage where you live. How would Tim know it was the same tree? Well, he'd know it was the same tree just because it would have a name and date on it. This tree has a name on it around. Does it? Yes, there is a name on the trunk, Merry holiday, right down here. What does it say, Tim? It says Betty and John, 1942. This one reads, Holiday House, 1946. Holiday House? Then it was our tree once. I thought that tree looked familiar to me. Oh, hell, tree. It's nice to see you again. Jump, now you come down out of that tree. You don't have to climb all over it, you know. Oh, I wonder why Jump-Jump's burrowing into the branches like that. Jump-Jump? I think he's looking for something. Yes, I think you're right, Tim. Take care. As I see his head poking out from behind the ornaments. What are you looking for, Jump-Jump? He's disappeared again. Jump-Jump! Oh, come down.  What's that on his head? I can't tell, Merry holiday. It's a... Whoa, she's frightened! Her head, Jump-Jump, may I see, please? It's silver thimble, but I lost it years ago. Yeah. But how did it get here, in the tree? I found it for you. Once I was sowing with my silver thimble on New Year's Eve. And I've been looking for it ever since. How did you know it was here, Jump-Jump? How did Jump-Jump know it was in here, huh? Well, well... Yes, Jump-Jump, tell us how you knew to look here for my silver thimble. I put it there, Merry holiday. You put it in the branches of the tree? Yes, in the branches of the tree. But how did it get up here in the forest? Well, you see... Jump-Jump was playing football while I sown. She was sowing with a wall on that? No, I was playing football with a wall. And you took my thimble to use for a football helmet, Jump-Jump? Yes, I did, Merry holiday. And when you finished, you put my thimble on the tree? Yes. And then we went to visit Slippy Slam and the zoo. And we missed it. I see that only had came up there for this mystery. That's right. When we came home, Archie Pockley had burned our Christmas tree. I forgot I had hidden your thimble, Merry holiday. Your memory isn't much bigger than you are, Jump-Jump. Here is your thimble. Will you forgive me? Well... Oh, do forgive him. He looks so cute. I'm very sorry. Will you forgive him, Merry holiday? Forgive him? No, very well. As long as it's been found. But you must never hide anything in the Christmas tree again. Slippy Slam, what are you poking your hand into the branches for? I'm looking to see if there's any sign of all the sleep that I've lost. Oh, sleepy Slippy Slam. I wonder where Archie Pockley and the poet have wandered to. I can't see them anywhere. They can't be far. It's so hard to see with all the Christmas trees. Do you want me to go and find them for you, Merry holiday? Yes, would you please, Tim? We've got to be moving along. But just as I started to look for the others, we heard that fairy music again, and we knew the spirit of Christmas must be near. My ears are ringing, Merry holiday. Maybe they're frozen. Okay, be kind. Be quiet. That's the Christmas fairy you hear. Listen. She was hovering above us like a lovely dim angel in the sky. Her silver wings reflected all the colored lights from the trees. And she was smiling down upon us as she had before. I wish I could understand what she was saying to Merry holiday. Her voice sounded like little dainy bells to me. Even Joke-Chump couldn't understand her. I guess the reason most of the Christmas fairy is the spirit of Christmas itself. And that is something only grown-ups can really understand. At last, she faded away. Did she say Merry holiday? Yes. Well, the news is rather serious, Joke-Chump and Tim. The Christmas fairy came to warn us to be very careful from now on. Why, Merry holiday? Because, Tim, because the Ice Queen knows that we're coming to rescue Santa's reindeer, and the Ice Queen has threatened to stop us. The shiver has opened down my back because if you'd ever seen the Ice Queen, you'd have done the same thing. She gave me the shivers. We packed up in a hurry and found Archie Pogli in the poet and started off down the silver trail toward the frozen country. As we went over the hill, I had to stop and look back at the Christmas tree forest just once more. It was so beautiful. I'll always remember it. Aren't you happy to know where your old Christmas trees go? Be sure and meet me here tomorrow. Goodbye!


The abducted lecturer of the University of Joss, Professor Grace Iebinpei, and her husband Isaac have been rescued after spending 24 hours in captivity with their abductors. Commissioner of police in Plata State Edward Ibuqa said police men, hunters and members of the vigilante group had collaborated to rescue the couple after kidnappers on Monday invaded their residence in Joss North local government area of the state. In another development Ibuqa said unknown persons attacked herders in Plata slotted 15 cows and stole 37 cows and 12 sheeps. Hello hope you enjoyed the news please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.