Latest news with #artifacts
Arab News
3 days ago
- General
- Arab News
How heritage defenders are rescuing Gaza's artifacts, preserving cultural identity
LONDON: It is one of the more extraordinary and unexpected images to have emerged from the chaos and destruction in Gaza. Two men, wearing high-visibility vests and stepping carefully through the rubble-strewn streets of Khan Younis, are carrying a priceless Roman-era pottery jar, supported between them on a folded carpet serving as a makeshift sling. The incongruous photograph tells a story of hope and determination — hope that Palestine has a future, and determination that, whatever tomorrow might bring, the heritage of an entire people will not be destroyed. The photograph was taken during the summer last year, when the men, members of the Heritage Guardians Team from the Khan Younis-based Mayasem Association for Culture and Arts, were taking part in the evacuation of thousands of artifacts from Al-Qarara Museum, which had been severely damaged in the fighting. Today, thanks to emergency funding supplied by ALIPH, the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage, those artefacts are stored in a relatively safe and secret place, in the hope that one day they can be returned to a restored museum. The rescue of Palestine's past is just one of 550 projects in 54 countries that have been funded by ALIPH since 2017. The alliance was founded by France and the UAE at an international conference on heritage in danger, held in Abu Dhabi in December 2016 in the wake of widespread destruction of monuments, museums and heritage sites in conflict areas. Saudi Arabia was one of ALIPH's founding members and remains one of its biggest contributors. This month ALIPH announced additional funding of $16 million for 28 new projects supporting heritage in Gaza, Africa, Syria and Ukraine, bringing the total amount committed worldwide by the organization since 2017 to $116 million. Much of that money has been spent on major projects, such as ALIPH's response to the explosion in the port of Beirut in 2020. Since expanded to cover 37 individual projects — 26 of which have been completed — the commitment to Lebanon has reached $5.4 million. ALIPH's funding for Iraq, much of it in response to the destruction of multiple heritage sites by Daesh, has seen more than $31 million invested in 49 initiatives. It began in 2018 with the massive project to rehabilitate the Mosul Museum, in which ALIPH invested $15.8 million in collaboration with the Louvre, the Smithsonian Institution, and the World Monuments Fund, working with local partners and Iraq's State Board of Antiquities and Heritage. ALIPH has also spent $3 million on 18 projects in Syria since 2019, working with 11 local operators to protect and restore archaeological sites, monuments, historic neighborhoods, museums and religious buildings. The new program that ALIPH wants to implement in the coming months includes the rehabilitation of the Palmyra museum and its artifacts, and the stabilization of damaged monuments at the ancient site, where the destruction inflicted there by Daesh in 2015 was one of the key events that led to the alliance's foundation. But it is the much smaller sums invested in timely, emergency interventions, such as several funded by ALIPH in Gaza, that often have a disproportionately significant impact. 'We have quite a large number of small projects,' said Elke Selter, ALIPH's director of programs. 'And a lot of these are acute emergencies, when you actually can't spend large amounts of money and just need to pay for an evacuation, for boxes to move objects, for tarpaulins to cover a hole in a roof, or for wooden panels to put in front of broken windows.' The cost of such interventions, which can make all the difference to the future of a heritage site, can be just a few thousand dollars. Larger, general applications for funding can be made through the regular calls for projects that are advertised on ALIPH's website — the current call, in partnership with the EU, is for projects in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, and closes on July 31. But ALIPH is also open year-round to requests for emergency assistance grants, worth up to $75,000 each, for which applicants must submit a brief, precise proposal for interventions designed 'to halt or prevent irremediable heritage degradation that cannot wait until the next call for projects.' 'I believe that our emergency response is one of ALIPH's main strategic advantages,' said Selter. 'We do very important projects also, before and after emergencies, but there are many others doing that too. In terms of being actively present, and being able to provide funding within 48 hours, if needed, we're alone.' Part of the consideration of each emergency application is the risk posed to those on the ground. With only a couple of dozen staff at headquarters in Geneva, ALIPH is 'primarily a financial instrument, and so it's not ALIPH that puts on its boots and its helmets and goes on site,' said Selter. 'But we work with local operators and provide funding to people on the ground who ask for it, and who are, at that moment, doing whatever they can to save heritage that is clearly important to them. 'These people are going to do it either way, so we can either help them, or not. And if you know that you're one of the only ones that can help, I think there's a duty to do so.' ALIPH takes steps to ensure projects are as safe as possible. 'We try to do whatever we can in our power to make sure that the teams are as safe as they can possibly be, given the situations in which they work,' Selter added. 'In Gaza, for instance, we've put them in touch with UNMAS, the UN demining service, so that sites could first be checked. 'We stay in touch throughout a project, and in the particular case of Gaza we also make sure they understand that, for us, things like reporting deadlines are not essential. 'Of course, it's important that the administration at some point is in order, but we don't need them to risk their lives in order to send us a report within a deadline.' In Gaza last year, ALIPH partnered with the Khan Younis-based Mayasem Association for Culture and Arts and teams from Al-Qarara Museum and The Palestinian Museum in Birzeit in the West Bank to inventory and evacuate Al-Qarara's collection of more than 3,000 artefacts. • 550 Projects that have been funded by ALIPH since 2017. • $16m Additional funding for new projects unveiled by ALIPH this month. • 28 New projects to support heritage in Gaza, Africa, Syria and Ukraine. In April 2024, ALIPH also supported the urgent rescue from the rubble of surviving artifacts from the Rafah Museum, which, before it was almost completely destroyed by Israeli bombing, housed hundreds of objects related to Palestinian heritage, including a unique collection of traditional thobes. ALIPH is currently supporting emergency protection and stabilization measures for the historic Qasr Al-Basha in Gaza, being undertaken by the Palestinian Center for Cultural Heritage Preservation. Once the seat of Mamluk and Ottoman power, the palace became a museum in 2010, housing collections of the Palestinian Antiquities Department, before it was almost completely destroyed in 2023. Equally devastated was Al-Omari Mosque in the heart of Gaza's old city, which was built in 1149 and has been repeatedly damaged, most recently in December 2023. Almost all that remains intact is the building's minaret. ALIPH is supporting the Ramallah-based Palestinian NGO Riwaq, the Center for Architectural Conservation, which is carrying out emergency stabilization and documenting the destruction to support any future work. In February this year, ALIPH funded a damage assessment and stabilizing built heritage workshop in Cairo. Run by the Egyptian Foundation for Heritage Rescue and the Center for Cultural Heritage Preservation of Bethlehem, it has prepared 20 Palestinian heritage professionals to form teams and intervene in Gaza as soon as the situation allows. More than 60 heritage professionals from Gaza, the West Bank and Cairo also attended an ALIPH-funded online course on risk management and undertaking emergency cultural heritage protection measures. 'We were really surprised that we had more than 60 participants,' said project manager Gala-Alexa Amagat. 'Something we see in every conflict we work in is that people attach such importance to preserving the heritage that they have. 'A lot of the people in Gaza who attended actually walked very far every morning to get to a place where they could get a connection and connect to that training, which was completely beyond what we expected.' ALIPH relies on the generosity of donors, including nine member countries, public donors such as the EU, and private individuals and philanthropic foundations. Its next donor conference will be held in Abu Dhabi at the end of next year. 'Of course, the funding landscape is under serious pressure,' said Selter. 'But on the other hand, after eight years, ALIPH is becoming better known, which makes funding a bit easier. People know us now, and those who were hesitant at the beginning can see that we have delivered. 'We hope that our donors will remain committed and that they're happy with the results that we've delivered.' Ultimately, those results stand as a testament to the dedication of thousands of individuals around the world, from South America in the west to Indonesia in the east, many of whom are working in dangerous circumstances. 'The past belongs to all of us, and it is vital to protect our heritage to build a shared future,' said Valery Freland, ALIPH's executive director. 'We are much more than just a funder. But the real heroes are our partners on the ground, who often face great challenges, but are committed to protecting the world's heritage.'
CBC
13-07-2025
- General
- CBC
Halifax Explosion artifacts were pulled from the harbour last year. So, now what?
On a warm July night a year ago, crews dredging as part of an expansion at Irving's shipyard started pulling out a treasure trove of artifacts believed to be connected to the Halifax Explosion. In the weeks and months that followed, more than 100 pieces from the explosion were among the 100,000 tonnes of material pulled out of Halifax harbour. In some cases, the artifacts were car-size chunks of metal. The pieces came from the present-day location of what would have been home to Pier 6 on Dec. 6, 1917. This is the area where the collision happened between the Mont-Blanc, a French munitions ship, and Imo, a Norwegian steamship carrying Belgian relief supplies. The Halifax Explosion is the worst disaster in Canadian history — and arguably the most important event in the city's history. Two-thousand people were killed and 9,000 injured, while two square kilometres of the city were levelled. For the municipal and provincial governments, the artifacts were, literally, too big of a problem. Despite their historical significance, both governments have done little with them, records obtained through a freedom of information request show. Joel Zemel, who has written several books on the Halifax Explosion, said there's little appetite for preserving the city's history, so he's not surprised the artifacts were not greeted with much enthusiasm. "If they wanted the space, they needed the space, they'd make the space. Period," said Zemel. The records obtained by CBC News include a letter by Amber Laurie, the curator of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. In it, Laurie listed the reasons why some of the artifacts are believed to come from the Mont-Blanc. This included their thickness being similar to existing pieces in the museum's collection, as well as the irregular shapes of some of the pieces. "A high force event combined with heat would create such twists in riveted metal," she wrote in the July 25, 2024, document. Given where the pieces were found, Zemel said they are likely from the Mont-Blanc. But he questions the methodology that was used by museum officials to reach that conclusion. "You need experts to come in, outside experts, who are not involved with the [Maritime] museum [of the Atlantic], who don't have any predisposed ideas," said Zemel. Laurie's letter also highlighted why the artifacts are noteworthy. "The fragments recently recovered are far larger than most known ones and would be considered historically significant at the municipal, provincial, and potentially, the national level," Laurie wrote. Despite this enthusiasm, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic only took two artifacts: a fragment and a rivet. A bow the museum collected was later determined not to be from the Mont-Blanc because it had welding, which meant it was too new to belong to the vessel. As well, its condition was too pristine. It's unclear if the bow is classified as one of the museum's two latest acquisitions. A Sept. 25, 2024, email from John Cormier, the co-ordinator of special places with the Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage, reveals some of the challenges the province would face in storing the artifacts. "The pieces in this collection range in size from as small as 30 cm to more than 30 feet in length," he wrote. "This, combined with the number of artifacts collected makes curation of this collection impossible for the [Nova Scotia Museum] or [Davis, MacIntyre & Associates], as neither group has the capacity to hold it, and conservation of such an extensive collection would be expensive." (Davis, MacIntyre & Associates was the archaeology consulting firm working on the dredging project.) At the municipal level, the response was similar. "HRM does not have plans to create more Explosion commemorative displays in the near future so are reluctant to take on any large pieces, but we can accept two small fragments (<15cm), along with any accompanying report/description to provide the context of their recovery/provenance etc.," Susan McClure, the city's archivist, wrote in a Nov. 27, 2024, email to some provincial and municipal officials. In a statement, the Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage said the dredging turned up 127 items that are believed to be from the Mont-Blanc. Besides the pieces given to the city and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, the remainder are at an Irving-owned facility in Dartmouth, the department said. To determine with certainty that some of the recovered artifacts were, in fact, from the Mont-Blanc, Laurie recommended that metallurgical testing be conducted. The archaeologist working on the project, Travis Crowell, asked Irving if they would pick up the tab. Irving, under no obligation to pay for this given the terms of their permit application, declined. No metallurgical testing was ever done. In a statement, the province said that given where the items were found and because of research done by department staff and the project's consulting archaeologist, they did not go ahead with the testing. "[W]e are confident that some of the materials are related to the Halifax Explosion and/or are pieces of the Mont-Blanc," it said.
BBC News
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Civilisations returns with unprecedented access to the British Museum's collection
At a moment when we all fear the civilisation-threatening power of pandemics, autocracy and technological transformation, Civilisations: Rise and Fall, produced by BBC Studios, examines why four famous and mighty civilisations in the past found themselves on the brink of disaster, and how the art and artefacts they left behind hold clues to explaining their fate. Each programme looks at the rise of a different great civilisation and explores the factors that led to its decline. From Ancient Rome to Cleopatra's Egypt, via the samurai of Japan and the lost world of the Aztecs, audiences will discover rare and beautiful art and artefacts from each culture. All objects that feature in the series are in the British Museum thanks to behind-the-scenes access to spaces most visitors never see. These artefacts take us to very particular moments of civilisational transition, as societies confronted upheaval and endured radical change in a bid to safeguard their own futures. Across four episodes, interviews with experts, key academics and curators are combined with bold drama-reconstructions to follow the clues in these treasures that explain why each culture fell from power, and whether these relics can help us understand the risks we face today. Contributors include Dominic Sandbrook from The Rest is History podcast, artists Antony Gormley and Edmund De Waal, co-host of The Rest is Politics podcast Alistair Campbell, Radio 4's Making History presenter Iszi Lawrence and academics and authors including Camilla Townsend, Mark Ravina, Shushma Malik and Salima Ikram. Featured artefacts from The British Museum's world-famous collection include the double-headed serpent of the Aztecs, the Meroe Head of Augustus, a mummified crocodile from Ancient Egypt and a newly acquired set of samurai armour from Japan. Suzy Klein, Head of BBC Arts and Classical Music TV, said: 'A new series of Civilisations is always a significant moment for BBC Arts and this incarnation feels particularly timely in our own uncertain age. With unprecedented access to the British Museum's collection, Civilisations: Rise and Fall makes the case that museums are more relevant than ever: they are repositories of human memory, time-capsules – a crucial way for us to understand the past and how we might ensure the future of our own civilisation.' Dr Nicholas Cullinan, Director of the British Museum said: 'We were delighted to collaborate with the BBC for the landmark Civilisations series, and bring some of the most incredible objects in the British Museum's collection to the forefront in telling these global stories. I hope the series captures the imagination of young and old alike, and that we engage whole new audiences with our collection – a collection which shows how history connects us all, something which is now more relevant than ever.' Alexander Leith, Executive Producer, BBC Studios Specialist Factual, said: 'It's a great privilege to be making the next iteration of the Civilisations brand – especially in such close collaboration with the British Museum. The remarkable artefacts they hold offer astonishing points of connection with these past civilisations, and the factors and fault lines on which their fortunes turned – many of which feel disarmingly relevant to our own world. The Civilisations The Fall of Rome When new Roman emperor Honorius ascends to the throne in 395 AD he inherits a system of government that's built one of the most remarkable civilizations in history. For over 400 years the Roman Empire has ruled a vast territory that crosses three continents and encompasses a multitude of peoples and languages. Keeping this disparate whole together is a massive challenge, but decisions taken by Honorius' predecessors have opened up alarming fault lines within the system. Now a series of shocks and threats are colliding in a perfect storm that will see the weakened city of Rome fall to foreign invaders for the first time in 800 years. The Last Days of the Ptolemies in Egypt In 51 BC Cleopatra becomes Queen of Egypt – and Pharaoh – amid a crumbling dynasty plagued by infighting, betrayal, and political chaos. She navigates a treacherous web of family rivalries and Roman interference. Determined to preserve Egypt's independence, she forges bold alliances with Julius Caesar and later Mark Antony, two of Rome's most powerful men. Her reign marks both a last stand for the Ptolemaic dynasty and the dramatic end of three millennia of Pharaonic rule in Egypt. The End of the Samurai in Japan 1853 CE. For centuries, Japan has been cut off from outside influence. In that time the West, and much of the rest of the world, has made extraordinary leaps forward in science, industry and military technology, while Japan remains a feudal medieval society. At the heart of this feudal system are the samurai – warrior knights funded by the state. But when giant American steamships arrive on Japan's shores, the days of the samurai are numbered. The Collapse of the Aztec Empire 1519. Under the strong leadership of Emperor Moctezuma the great Aztec civilization reaches its zenith. The jewel in the crown is the beautiful island city of Tenochtitlan built in the middle of the lake Texcoco, a melting pot of extraordinary arts and culture - home to some 100,000 people. But Moctezuma's empire is fragile. He relies on ritual wars, gathering tribute and maintaining social and religious order through slavery and sacrifice. In doing so he has tightened his grip on the largest South American empire the world had ever seen - but he has made many enemies. The arrival of the Spanish in 1519, under Hernan Cortes, will prove disastrous for the Aztecs. Civilisations: Rise and Fall is a BBC Studios Specialist Factual Unit production for BBC Arts, with BBC Studios handling global distribution. The Executive Producer is Alexander Leith, the Series Producer is Tony Mitchell, and the Production Manager is Emma Hyland. It was commissioned for the BBC by Suzy Klein, BBC Head of Arts and Classical Music. The Commissioning Editor for the BBC is Alistair Pegg. Founded in 1753, the British Museum was the first national public museum in the world. The collection tells the stories of cultures across the world, from the dawn of human history, over two million years ago, to the present. Objects range from the earliest tools made by humans and remarkable finds from the ancient world to more recent acquisitions from Africa, Oceania and the Americas, the Middle East, Asia and Europe, as well as the national collections of prints and drawings, and coins and medals. BBC Studios Specialist Factual Productions is a bespoke unit making premium output in the history, art, music and culture space. The work is underpinned by journalistic rigour and specialist knowledge, bringing together diverse voices to ignite conversation and challenge preconceptions. Recent titles include the Grierson Award winning Inside Our Autistic Minds, the RTS winning Fight The Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World with Public Enemy's Chuck D, the true crime / natural history hybrid The Great Rhino Robbery and cold war thriller Secrets and Spies: A Nuclear Game. AM2 Follow for more
Geek Girl Authority
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
THE LIBRARIANS: THE NEXT CHAPTER Recap: (S01E08) And the Hangover From Hell
Even the best teams run into challenges when the outside world pushes in with 'real life' demands and relationships. For The Librarians: The Next Chapter , they've been living on borrowed time. Since Vikram (Callum McGowan) burst onto the scene from his time bubble and unleashed the magic well on the world, they've been scrambling to retrieve and contain artifacts and deities. For Lysa (Olivia Morris) and Connor (Bluey Robinson), this means they've put their lives on hold. RELATED: Catch up with our recap of the previous episode of The Librarians: The Next Chapter , 'And the Con-Con' In the previous episode of The Librarians: The Next Chapter , we learned about the life and community Connor left behind to join the Library. Lysa's life before the Annex included launching an IPO for her company. Her goal to develop multi-dimensional predictive algorithms with quantum computing has been treading water while she's been cavorting with Cupid and getting her clothes eaten by a demon moth. Image Credit: Aleksandar Letic In 'And the Hangover From Hell,' we meet her best friend, Suki (Daniela Norman), when she flies in for an impromptu bachelorette party. Things go awry, and they wake up the next morning, sporting various injuries and with no idea what happened. Each of them recounts what they can remember. What elevates this simple perspective exercise from solid to sublime is the narrative use of various genres to actualize the memories. So. Much. Fun. At the same time, a sneaky long-arc plot thread weaves its way through the background. Wow, do I ever love this episode. The Librarians: The Next Chapter, 'And the Hangover From Hell' A woman's laugh rings out and echoes through a house's large empty foyer. Vikram stumbles out of an upstairs doorway. He shakes his head to clear it and slowly makes his way down the corridor. The woman's voice states, 'There's nothing you can do!' and laughs again, just as Charlie (Jessica Green), Connor, and Lysa appear out of nowhere and tumble down the stairs. Vikram rushes to the railing. He turns and his eyes widen as the woman tells him, 'You're too late, Librarian,' and a burst of magical force shoves him through the railing and to the foyer floor below. RELATED: TV Review: The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 1 Vikram revives first. Holding his head in pain, he crawls to Charlie's body. She wakes up and realizes her shoulder is dislocated. A distance away, Connor and Lysa sit up. Connor can't remember anything and says he feels like a truck ran him over. Charlie points out that he has an icicle sticking out of his leg. Vikram ties a makeshift tourniquet around Connor's thigh. Everyone finds a seat on the couches. Lysa reminds them that they were at her best friend Suki's bachelorette party. No one remembers this. The Night Before Wavy wipe to a flashback. The team prepares a chateau that Lysa rented for her friend's bachelorette party. Because all of Suki's friends' flights got canceled, they will also be Suki's backup guests. Lysa is practically giddy with excitement. When Suki arrives, she and Lysa greet each other with squeals and a secret handshake. Suki wonders why they aren't staying at Lysa's castle. Lysa tells her they have the whole chateau to themselves, and her friends will stand in for Suki's missing guests. Suki comments that since Lysa has told her nothing about them, she'll have the whole evening to get to know them. The Librarians: The Next Chapter – Image Credit: Aleksandar Letic Back in the foyer, Lysa insists the party went well until the ice sculpture shattered. Lysa says her memory's a blank after that until she fell down the stairs. RELATED: Olivia Morris Shares How The Librarians: The Next Chapter Hooked Her From Page One Vikram interjects, stating that despite his memory being far superior to theirs, he cannot remember what happened either. Charlie remembers him drinking too many cocktails at the party. He insists he does not black out from drinking. It must have been a spell. Lysa suddenly realizes Suki's not there. She runs up the stairs to the double doors to rescue her friend. Vikram follows and points out that they need to know what they're facing before rushing into the room with whatever tried to kill them. Charlie's Version Regrouping, Vikram invites them to tell him what they can remember. Charlie starts. Flashback: Everyone's in the photo booth, and everything's in black and white. The music is classic film noir jazz. When she takes Suki's luggage up to her room, Charlie overhears Suki on the phone saying she'll need to convince Lysa to sell the castle. She goes to find Lysa and discovers the band setting up for the night. It's Gregor's Hammer (last seen on the season premiere, 'And the Deadly Drekavac'). The Librarians: The Next Chapter – Image Credit: Courtesy of TNT Suki arrives and berates the party planner, Viola (Emma Gojkovic), for not hiring a DJ like she asked. In the next room, Connor and one of the band members teach Vikram about cocktails like Fuzzy Navels. Charlie comes in and tells Vikram and Connor what she overheard. She's intent on catching Suki in a lie. RELATED: On Location: The Belgrade Fortress on The Librarians: The Next Chapter Lysa tries to convince Suki to give her friends a chance. With Charlie listening in, Suki badmouths them all. Back in the party room, the band with Vikram on vocals is definitely not to Suki's taste. When the bartender slips and triggers the confetti shower that wasn't supposed to happen until midnight, Suki flips her lid. Connor and Charlie try to reason with her. Suki calls them all losers and walks away. Suki's Lie Charlie checks the flight information for Belgrade. All flights arrived on time. To get close enough to figure out Suki's motive, Charlie brings a round of shots over as a peace offering. She takes a photo of Lysa and Suki, then sneaks off with Suki's phone, making the excuse she's going to get cocktails. The Librarians: The Next Chapter – Image Credit: Courtesy of TNT Charlie goes through Suki's phone and discovers that Suki didn't invite anyone except Lysa to her bachelorette party. Finding a listing for the castle, she concludes that Suki's trying to make Lysa sell the castle to her. Charlie pulls Suki away from yelling at the band to talk in the photo booth. After booting Viola out, Charlie confronts Suki about her lies. Suki accuses Charlie of changing Lysa and taking her away from her home, job, and friend (singular). Leaving the booth, Charlie turns as she's walking away, declaring Suki to be a liar. She slips, and the ice sculpture crashes to the ground. Connor's Version In the foyer, Connor states that he knocked over the ice sculpture, not Charlie. He says he knocked it over because he was rushing to tell Lysa that Suki was using a magical artifact. When Vikram asks where the artifact is now, Connor realizes it fell when he knocked over the sculpture. He wants to tell his story. RELATED: Dean Devlin Dishes on The Librarians: The Next Chapter 's Magical Homecoming Flashback: He's dressed in a tuxedo in the photo booth, and James Bond-esque music plays in the background. Suki flirts with him. Connor notices her engagement ring. Everyone else crowds into the photo booth. Suki tells Lysa she needs to put the ring somewhere safe. In the foyer, Vikram welcomes Gregor's Hammer and comments that Winslow (Aleksa Samardžić) looks different. Winslow, wearing a pair of round spectacles, has nothing to say. The Librarians: The Next Chapter – Image Credit: Aleksandar Letic At the bar, Vikram's sucking back a mega-sized Long Island Iced Tea, while Charlie asks why Suki thinks she can buy the castle. Connor watches Suki order Lysa to do a choreographed dance and concludes that Lysa is under the control of mind magic. After the confetti incident, he brainstorms with Vikram and realizes Suki's ring must be the magical artifact. He steals the ring from the safe and runs to the party room to tell Lysa. Tripping on the rug, he knocks over the ice sculpture and drops the ring. RELATED: 5 Great Books About Libraries and Librarians Lysa's Version In the foyer, Lysa refutes Connor's story as she was the one who knocked over the ice sculpture. It happened just as she was going to tell them she had decided to leave the Library. Connor and Charlie immediately accuse Suki of manipulating Lysa into this decision. Vikram stands up and calls for quiet. He invites Lysa to tell her story. The Librarians: The Next Chapter – Image Credit: Courtesy of TNT Flashback to the group picture in the photo booth. Lysa says Vikram was the only one trying to have a good time. When she and Suki run through their dance together, Suki sees the others hanging out together by the bar. Lysa tells Viola to have the others start participating. Alone with Suki, she reassures her friend that the team just needs time to warm up. RELATED: TV Review: Leverage: Redemption Season 3 When the confetti incident occurs, Suki tries to blow it off as not a big deal, but Lysa can see that she's upset. Suki tells her that things have been hard at home without Lysa there. When Charlie takes Suki's phone to go get cocktails, Suki takes Lysa to her room, where she shows her the 'Best Friends Forever' dual necklace they wore when they were younger. She asks Lysa if she'll be coming home soon, pointing out she spent her whole life trying to get the company up and running, only to leave it (and Suki) behind for this new job. Lysa agrees that it's time she came home. The Truth About Suki In the foyer, Lysa tells them that she's Suki's only friend, which is why she was the only person on the guest list. Suki's ring isn't anything special, just a cheap, cracked ring. And Suki can't afford to buy the castle. She wants to sell it on Lysa's behalf because her real estate business is failing. The Librarians: The Next Chapter – Image Credit: Courtesy of TNT She says when she went back to the party room to tell the team about her decision, she slipped on the confetti on the ground and broke the ice sculpture. Vikram points out that they couldn't have all knocked the sculpture over. He pulls another in a long series of cocktail umbrellas out of his clothes and tosses it to Lysa. She smells valerian root on it. It's a sleeping drug that Suki takes. When Connor accuses Suki of drugging Vikram, Vikram recalls that it was Viola, not Suki, who gave him his last cocktail. This solves the puzzle. Vikram realizes they are dealing with an Ice Vila, an entity that feeds on hatred. They corrupt their target and consume their soul through self-loathing. As Viola, she caused the incidents that ruined the evening and fed the team's dislike of Suki until it became hatred. RELATED: Read our Leverage: Redemption recaps Flashback: After Vikram falls asleep from the drugged drink, Viola walks out to the party room where Charlie and Connor meet up with Lysa, accusing Suki of lying and using magic. Lysa refuses to believe them. Suki's been her BFF since they were fifteen. Lysa's arguing with Connor and Charlie. She says if she has to choose between Suki and the Library, she'll always choose Suki. When no one at school showed up for her birthday party, Suki came. The Librarians: The Next Chapter – Image Credit: Courtesy of TNT The Truth Just as Lysa's about to storm out, Viola plays a projection of a video of Charlie confronting Suki in the photo booth. It continues past Charlie's retelling and reveals that Suki sabotaged Lysa's friendships in school. Lysa turns against Suki, and Suki admits she's been a terrible friend and is a bad person. This completes Viola's spell. The ice sculpture glows, and Viola transforms into her Vila persona. She shatters the ice sculpture, claiming Suki's soul for herself. The ring disintegrates into a white gas and freezes Suki's feet to the ground. Vikram stumbles out of the bar into the corridor. This brings us to the opening scenes of the episode. Family By Choice The team confronts Viola. Suki's nearly completely frozen by the spell. Lysa offers herself in Suki's place. Despite the lies, Suki was her only family when her parents died. Viola agrees to the exchange. Vikram then offers himself as well, pointing out that Lysa is his family by choice, just as Suki is hers. Charlie and Conner both step up, and Suki offers herself for Connor, completing the circle and protecting everyone. RELATED: Read our recaps of The Librarians: The Next Chapter With no one's soul to take, Viola's spell turns on her. She freezes, then shatters, trapped back in the ring. Suki and Lysa reconcile, with Suki agreeing that her team members are good people. Suki leaves, and the others start cleaning up from the party. The doorbell chimes. Vikram goes to answer it. Connor and Charlie apologize to Lysa for targeting Suki. They agree that they'll need a plan for the future since the six months Jacob Stone (Christian Kane) gave them are nearly up. Vikram returns with Winslow from the band, who left his glasses behind. He grabs them. Vikram realizes that's what looked different about him. They bid farewell. At home, Winslow pops a lens from the glasses out and sets it back in the scrying glass handle. Holding it up to the picture of General Gregor (Adnan Haskovic), it brings Gregor to life so Winslow can converse with him. By watching everything through the scrying glass lens, Gregor learned everything he needs to strike back at Vikram. Gregor asks Winslow if he's ready to help him crossover from the time prison to the real world. Winslow considers it 'metal.' New episodes of The Librarians: The Next Chapter air on TNT on Mondays at 9 pm ET. FAN EXPO DENVER 2025: Day One of Fun Diana lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where she invests her time and energy in teaching, writing, parenting, and indulging her love of all Trek and a myriad of other fandoms. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond 'til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. You can also find her writing at The Televixen, Women at Warp, TV Fanatic, and TV Goodness.
France 24
07-07-2025
- Politics
- France 24
France moves to return colonial-era 'talking drum' to Ivory Coast
France 's parliament Monday approved returning to Ivory Coast a "talking drum" that colonial troops took from the Ebrie tribe in 1916, in the latest greenlight to the repatriation of colonial spoils. The Djidji Ayokwe drum is a communication tool more than three metres (10 feet) long and weighing 430 kilos (almost 950 pounds) that was once used to transmit messages between different areas, for example to warn others of a forced recruitment drive. The lower house of the French parliament approved separating out the artefact from national museum collections to enable its return, after the upper-house Senate backed the move in April. In 2018, Ivory Coast officially asked Paris to return 148 works of art taken during the colonial period, including the Djidji Ayokwe. President Emmanuel Macron promised to send the drum and other artefacts back home to the west African country in 2021. Clavaire Aguego Mobio, leader of the Ebrie, at the time called Macron's pledge "a highly historic move". He told AFP that his people had long given up on the return of the drum, "which was our loudspeaker, our Facebook". Since his election in 2017, Macron has gone further than his predecessors in admitting to past French abuses in Africa. The restitution of looted artworks to Africa is one of the highlights of the "new relationship" he wanted to establish with the continent.
