Good morning and welcome to the Geopolitical Outlook session here at the 2022 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting here in Davos, Switzerland. I'm Reklusek. I'm with the World Economic Forum. For years now, analysts and leaders have been concerned about increased competition and fractures in the tissue of international relations, as we've known them particularly since the 1990s. They have been concerned about the growing divergence, the strategic divergence among the great powers. They have been concerned about the resulting multipolarity and then the attendant lack of progress in some of the key global issues that we have, climate change, trade, technology, governance, health. And many have also been warning about the risk this increasingly fragile system poses not only on the geopolitical front, but also across economies and societies. If anyone needed any persuading, Russia's invasion of Ukraine three months ago on this day is a testament that we've entered a more geopolitical world. It is also a vivid testament that we're facing a very systemic challenge because we're facing a geopolitical crisis which is having these cascading effects across energy systems, food systems, and also within the global economy. We've been talking about it here now at the annual meeting and I think it's best summed up by the head of the IMF who said it here yesterday that the war in Ukraine has darkened the outlook for the global economy and could result in recession for more vulnerable countries. So to help us understand this fast-evolving geopolitical landscape, but also hopefully get us a sense of where we are headed and also how can we get things done in this more competitive landscape. I'm joined here by truly a gas panel of leaders so let me introduce them in the way they're seated here. Andrzej Duda, President of Poland, warm welcome, Pekka Havisto, Foreign Minister of Finland, a warm welcome, His Highness Prince Faisal bin Farhanas, Saud, Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, Hina Rabani Khar, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, welcome, Gregory Meeks, Congressman from New York and Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, welcome, and Jose Manuel Albares, Foreign Minister of Spain, last but not least. If I could turn to you, Mr. President first, you were in Ukraine in Kiev on Sunday. You delivered an in-person address to Ukraine's parliament. It was the first time a foreign head of state has done so since Russia's invasion, and you forcefully pushed back against the idea of Ukraine making any concessions to Russia. And Europe and the West has so far been very united. Are you optimistic? Are you persuaded we can remain united on that front going forward? And long-term security picture in Europe, are we headed to a new Cold War? Over to you. Thank you very much, distinguished participants, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. I'm very optimistic because I'm here again after two years of pandemics, so I'm in general optimistic. Thank you very much for this kind invitation and this possibility to be here and to participate in this panel, to have this opportunity to share with you my point of view, my opinions concerning situation in Ukraine now, in our part of the world, in our part of Europe, and my opinion how it could influence the situation for the future. So now please take your earphones and electronic devices because it will be much easier for me to tell it in my mother tongue in Polish. I have excellent interpreter, Madame Annetta Wiesniewska-Sowdykiewicz in the cabin, so she will translate it perfectly. So thank you for coming and thank you for this possibility to be here, to say this few words. Ladies and gentlemen, yes indeed, I came back to Kiev exactly in these small hours yesterday morning, and I had that great opportunity and great pleasure that I met Mr. President Volodymyr Zewinski. I can say that we are friends and neighbors. So I had this great pleasure to be invited there together with the President of the Supreme Council of Ukraine, Verhovna Rada, to speak in front of the Supreme Council. I consider it a great honor on behalf of the Republic of Poland in this very complex situation for Ukraine in which Ukraine was thrust three months ago as a result of Russia's aggression, aggression which two years ago was unthinkable, which was expected in the last months, but still, ladies and gentlemen, I have to share with you that despite different information from, as all of us know, intelligence services, which we had received and which I had an opportunity to get acquainted with, as President of the Republic of Poland still, given all that information, I had not expected that aggression would happen on such a big scale. Because I expected, I knew that Russia's aggression would happen, that was clear. President Putin had no longer any alternative because he had amassed big numbers of troops at the border with Ukraine. And because of that, he was forced to solve that situation somehow. Also due to prestigious reason for himself, it was clear it was a propaganda and that is why that aggression had to happen. But speaking honestly, I expected that the scale of that aggression would be much smaller. And of the top of my mind, I thought that the attack would be launched only on Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Then I thought that perhaps Putin would like to establish a land corridor to Crimea. And then in the third scenario, I thought that perhaps that would be an attack launched on Odessa and Kiev. Odessa and Kiev, although it was hard for me to believe that that would have been possible for Putin to decide to launch such a far-reaching and serious large-scale military operation. And of course, I believed there was such a possibility for two reasons. First of all, Kiev is a historical capital of Ruthenia. Kiev is the cradle of Ruthenia. So this is the beginning of Russia as such, because there is the baptism of Ruthenia happening in Kiev. This is how it is seen by the Russians. For that reason, that seizure of Kiev would have equaled to the capturing of the cradle of Russian civilization and Russian culture. And their respect, that is important, and Odessa symbolizes the greatness of Russia. To Russia, Odessa is a great, magnificent pearl of the terrorist time, Russia. It's a window to the world.  It is a synonym of luxuriousness, of modernity. So whenever we say that imperialist tendensions are revived in the head of Vladimir Putin and his team to rebuild it, imperial Russia, then to a large extent, we can say it is not just dreams. It is not just coming back mentally to the times of the Soviet Union, where those people were born, where they were raised, and where they lived as KGB agents, as KGB operatives. But today, they're also thinking along the lines of the great socialist Russia, which was a superpower in the 19th century and in the early 20th century. But I thought that would be the third scenario. And then the fourth scenario stipulated that a full-scale invasion would happen on the entire territory of Ukraine. But I believe that was not possible. Just one simple reason, Ukraine is twice as big as Poland. Poland is 312,000 square kilometers, and Ukraine more than 620,000 square kilometers. So to capture such a country, you need a lot of big troops to occupy the entire Ukraine. And put in a mass to be an estimated 160,000 to 190,000 soldiers. So for that reason, the occupation of the whole of Ukraine was simply impossible. But still it was one thing, which I believe President Putin did not take into account. Namely, he did not take into account that Ukrainians would put up such a fierce resistance. Volodymyr Zelenskiy repeated that to me on a couple of occasions. We met twice before the very invasion. First, I received him in Poland, where we had an informal meeting in the city of Vysva together with his team. We spoke at length. And then one day before the invasion happened, just before the Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, we had our last conversation before the war broke out. I visited Kiev to get with President Kitanosno said a couple of hours before the invasion. And every time Volodymyr Zelenskiy told me, Andrzej, if you think that they would just come, that they would conquer Ukraine, just like that, that we would give our land to them, they are deeply mistaken. We have been fighting for eight years. We started in 2014. We have got thousands of battle-tested people. They saw blood. They know how to fight. So they will fight till the last breath. Nobody is going to give away an inch of our territory without fight. And that is what happened. And that is what was happening today. So what I'm absolutely convinced about, Ukrainians are using all their strength to resist and to fight. And they're going to do so. We cannot be hopeful about peace to the extent that Western Europe will force Ukrainians to give away their land to Putin. Ukrainians are not going to make such concessions. They are not going to do that for many reasons, first of all, because they have spilled so much blood. They are not going to make any concessions, also, because they have been fighting and their country has taken bad damages. And they really want to take revenge. They want to recapture their lands. There is such a strong will to do that, that I do not believe that they would agree to such conditions that Russians would take away more land, more Ukrainian land. I simply do not believe that they would make such concessions, also due to political reasons. Today, political elite in Ukraine cannot agree to that. Everyone who would agree to that as a politician in Ukraine would be finished, because this defense is a national decision. The whole nation believes they have to fight. Almost nobody believes that they shouldn't put out a fight. So if any politicians in the West think that they could force Ukrainians to make concessions to Putin, as we heard a short while ago from Mr. Berlusconi, then they are deeply mistaken. And speaking openly, as president of the Republic of Poland, I'm going to give my 100% support to Ukraine. Why? For a very simple reason, not to mention all the other aspects. Ladies and gentlemen, I simply cannot accept, also as a neighbor to Russia, that Russia violates the rules of international law with impunity. I cannot accept Russia murdering people in Ukraine, and I cannot accept that the world just turns a blind eye to that without any consequences vis-a-vis murderers. I cannot agree that Russia should not pay war reparations for all the damage it has inflicted on Ukraine, that it is not forced to simply finance the revitalization and the rebuilding of Ukraine. To me, it is obvious that the ones who have waged war in Ukraine by launching this unprovoked and justified attack on Ukraine, without any reason, please believe me, beyond the shade of a doubt, if we listen to the Russian propaganda theory saying there are Nazis in Ukraine. But, well, of course, this is absolutely nonsense.  That was an invasion resulting purely from imperial ambitions of Russia. There was no other reason for launching that invasion. Nobody was waiting for Russia in Ukraine. Nobody was waiting for Russia to come. People wanted to live in a free, independent server in Ukraine. And so today, the world has to present a very resolute stance. And this war should be ended by Russia giving back to Ukraine the grabbed lands. And it has to pay contributions. And the perpetrators have to be brought to justice. This is my vision of how this war should be brought to an end. So I urge everyone to support Ukraine today. I urge everyone to stand with Ukraine, because justice is on the side of Ukraine. Honesty is on the side of Ukraine. I have no doubt whatsoever about that. And today, Ukraine needs to be supported comprehensively, both in terms of supporting Ukraine in the military perspective. It needs support from the political perspective. And also today, we need to collect funds and money so that Ukraine can be rebuilt today and return to normal functioning. Thank you so much, Mr. President. Thank you so much for this important message. I'll move to Foreign Minister of Finland, Pekahavisto. You recently applied together with Sweden to become members of NATO. You have a long border with Russia. So how does the tragic war on Ukraine look from the vintage point of Finland? And also, what do you expect from the NATO membership in terms of increased security for Finland? Thank you for this opportunity of being here and thanking also Poland and President for all the work you have done for Ukraine. And you have been on the front line and been on the front line also on the European Union support to Ukraine. So thank you. Thank you for all that. From our perspective, we really delivered our application together with Sweden one week ago to NATO. Of course, now we test the NATO Open Door policy if it exists. I hope that the result is positive. Majority of the countries, of course, in NATO have responded very positively. But how we see actually the situation, we have really more than 1,300 kilometer common border with Russia. And actually, I would maybe say that we saw five changes in our surrounding and which triggered then our application to NATO. And the first is actually the collapse of the European security architecture. What was agreed in Helsinki in 1975 in the OSCE structures is now disappeared. We couldn't prevent the war in Europe with all those structures that we have been creating. And that's maybe now the first remark. My second remark is the Russian ability to take higher risks. When people ask, why didn't we react 2008 with Georgia? Why didn't we react 2014 with the Crimea occupation? We see a totally different risk-taking ability of Russia, ready to take victims, ready to take losing materials, acting in a very unpredictable way. Russia was also able to gather more than 100,000 soldiers in one spot on the border, saying that this is an exercise. But actually using this military force then ready to attack the capital Kiev, like here was mentioned, actually to trying to do the regime change in a country of 40 million people by military force. Actually, even without using their reserves, yet just the ordinary military. And of course, we also have seen this kind of loose argumentation about the weapons of mass destruction. We are not at least in Finland used to that, that in Europe a country says that tactical nuclear weapons could be used at some stage, even chemical weapons could be used at some stage. This is new and our actually ordinary people from the streets stopped the minister and asked, we have traditionally a very strong military in Finland. What do we do if we are threatened by tactical nuclear weapons? What do we do if we are threatened by chemical weapons? And that's a good question in these circumstances. And finally, what we see actually now in Ukraine is that the rules of warfare are totally lost. Geneva Conventions not respected.  We see a lot of use of violence against the civilians. We have been witnessing the butchering and so forth. So we are in a totally new situation and we have to wake up for that situation. How do we then see the NATO membership? Of course, we think that it's a group of 30 democratic countries, common values and very strong transatlantic cooperation. And this is what we are looking for this moment. We actually felt a little bit excited that when we knew that when we are putting the application in, there will be this kind of great time that we are not yet members, not yet protected by Article 5. And so what will happen? But we are very thankful that many bigger countries in NATO actually delivered us this kind of not security guarantees because you can give those only in the NATO, but security assurances or however you want to call them that if something bad happens, this support will be given to applicant countries, Sweden and Finland. And now we are looking of course forward of our NATO membership and good cooperation also on the transatlantic spirit. Thank you. If I could just have a quick follow-up question. So on the open door policy, how optimistic you are that you can persuade Turkey to work with you in that framework? Well, of course, we have been asked time to time but have we been too blue eyed that on NATO's open door policy? I have to say that I have been this spring twice in Turkey talking very much with my good colleague, Minister Sabu Sokulu, and basically on those discussions, there were no problems raised and so forth. And now when we see the problems coming, of course, we take this diplomatically, we are sending our delegations to visit Ankara, actually both Sweden and Finland. This will happen tomorrow and so forth. So the dialogue is continuing. We understand that Turkey has some of their own security concerns, vis-à-vis terrorism and so forth. And of course, we think that we have good answers for those because we are also part of the fight against the terrorism. So we think that this issue can be settled. There might be also some issues that are not linked directly to Finland and Sweden more to other NATO members and so forth. But I'm sure that in a good spirit, NATO can solve this issue. If I have been reading correctly in the NATO rules, actually this issue of common views is very strong also that you should find consensus also in the NATO structure and we rely on that. Thank you so much. Your Highness, Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia. So we have talked about this increased geostrategic competition, the US, China, Russia. You have a long-standing strong partnership with the United States. You work with Russia within OPEC Plus, for example. Of course, you also have relations with China, G20 country. So what does this more competitive international system mean for a major G20 country like yours to pursue foreign policy objectives? Thank you and thank you for having me in this panel. You know, if we learned anything from COVID is that we need to focus on cooperation and I think we need to continue to look towards avenues to foster that cooperation. Even when there is difference, when there's competition, we need to find mechanisms to talk to each other and the kingdom having a relationship with all of the major players and playing a role in a very important part of the world, we hope that we can facilitate some of the dialogue, especially when we talk in the context of China, the US. You know, China is our most important trading partner. The US is our most important national security partner. In the end, without cooperation, especially on issues, you know, we are facing a significant issue on food security. Part of it is because of the war in Ukraine, but it's not just that. There are other significant factors playing into that very significantly. And here, again, if we don't, as a global community, within the context of the G20, beyond our able to address those challenges, even when we have differences, I think we will be facing significant, significant difficulties, especially in the developing world. And the kingdom is a member of the G20, but we are also a developing country and we feel very strongly that we have a responsibility to help set the agenda, the global agenda, in a way that supports the interests of the developing world. Thank you. I have a follow-up question. You're also a regional actor. And so we're seeing this increased competition just strategically, but if you look at the Middle East, you could say that you are seeing increased diplomatic activity. We've seen visits between Turkey, Saudi Arabia, UAE. We've seen you've had publicized dialogue with your Northern neighbor, Iran. So are you maybe a little more hopeful that in the Middle East, we can see pathways to more dialogue and cooperation? I certainly hope so, and we are working very hard to make that happen. You know, the kingdom has Vision 2030, which is a very broad-ranging vision in renewing our economy, looking towards the future, building prosperity for the people of Saudi Arabia, sustainably in the long term. We can only do that if we have a safe, secure region, a region that is stable, and that can only happen with cooperation with all of our neighbors. So we will continue that path of dialogue, and it reflects what I just said earlier, our strong belief that dialogue as a whole and cooperation globally is necessary, and I think we need to make an example through fostering cooperation in our region as well. Thank you. Moving to Minister Haar, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, similar question. Again, major power Pakistan in a more competitive international system. Again, huge relationship with the United States, very important relationship with China.  Maybe you're thinking about your priorities right now on the foreign policy front. How do you navigate this as Pakistan? Thank you. I think it's actually an interesting, not an interesting, but a very difficult place to be in for all of us. It doesn't matter whether you're from Finland, from Poland, from Saudi Arabia, from Pakistan, from the United States of America, everybody's feeling, the world is in an interesting place where everyone is feeling threatened by someone else, and that someone is also feeling threatened by someone, either the same person or someone else. Now, the thing that I ask myself is that when history is written, and when we are told that how did humanity react, and how did leadership react? When both the humanity in the face of the COVID crisis or the pandemic and the hunger crisis that is on our door, when humanity was facing its biggest challenge and when the planet in terms of climate change was facing perhaps the biggest challenge that it has faced at least in my lifetime, what did the leadership of the world do? How did the world react to that? And if the answer is they went to war, not a very good answer. And if the answer is they chose confrontation over collaboration, not a very good answer. And then I think future generations have every right to judge the people sitting on the stage, the people in the audience, and pretty much all of us, right? So for a country like Pakistan, it's, I don't think we should be at a place. And the fact that we are typically asked this question all the time, who do you choose? Shows how far we have fallen as the global community and as the choices that we made over the last 20 years also. And there are many reasons to explain why we are where we are, and that's not a conversation that we can do in like the next five minutes. But it is perhaps important to understand that if we go towards a world where the two largest economies are in a state of confrontation and countries like Pakistan are asked to, given these very simplistic binary choices, are you with us? Are you against us? If you're with them, then you're against us. Difficult, impossible. And now for a country like Pakistan which has already had fiscal space problems to now be threatened on top of that superimposition of the food security crisis which has resulted in, you know, because of this particular conflict. And then every other problem that we have to deal with both on the climate side, coming in from a difficult region, a region where we've had conflict for 20 years, just recently and maybe 40 years before that, where the intervention in Afghanistan did not really go so well and did not give such great results. So you find yourself in this odd position of wanting to get answers from the world but the world ended up asking you questions, right? And I will just say that in this point in time, I think this is an inflection point for the world. I genuinely am not saying this only diplomatically. I mean this is an inflection point for the world. Either we can allow confrontation to guide leadership decisions for the future or we can do what liberal, why are we such, why do most people in this room at least espouse to liberal values? And what do liberal values really mean? They mean room for other opinion to coexist and then collaborate to develop and to each system being able to support the other and develop together, right? To have room for diversity, if not divergence and to be able to accommodate divergence. Now, unfortunately, 20 years back, the world was a far better place. I do not feel very confident when I look at my almost teenager children and feel that I probably lived in a secure world than the one that we are leaving to them. And right now I say we are in inflection point because I think we still have room to be able to come back and to be able to relook as to how we have. And just one thing that I'm going to sort of leave a thought with you as to, because if you look at, because often we're also asked where are the points of alignment between China and the US and the rest of the world. And if you look, if you speak to everyone as we do, nobody's stated position is different than the other. Everybody wants a rule-based order. Everybody wants everyone to comply with rule-based order. Everybody wants no one to offer exceptionalism. But perhaps in the way that we have conducted this whole business of cherry picking on the rule-based order in some of the interventions and perhaps in the way we are conducting the business of using weaponizing economic tools without knowing what their impact is going to be. So we know the impact of intervention. We don't know the impact of sanctions, the way we're using them on the general ordinary people around the world. I mean, those already have impact on Pakistani people. Did we ever think that would be possible in grain prices? So I think we're living in an exceptionally dangerous, if I can say, world where countries like myself, like ours, feel even more threatened than perhaps some countries which feel they have greater proximity to where the threat is emanating. Thank you. If I could just do a quick follow-up. Some people say the world has forgotten about Afghanistan. So of course there's a huge humanitarian crisis now. You're very close to this. What would be your message to the international community in terms of what can be done in this humanitarian catastrophe, of course, without supporting the Taliban regime? So what is it that you would have as a message to the international community? Okay, the message is again pragmatism. We cannot wish the world to be what we wanted to be and then decide to deal with it. We have to deal with the world as it is. The world as it is on our border is not of our liking. We are a country, I want to put this on the record, we are a country where the constitution gives women right to have a place in society which is equal to that of men. We are a country where parliamentary representation to women is perhaps higher than many developed countries. We are a country which supports women's role everywhere. Now we are also a country which has compulsions of geography to deal with a 2,600 kilometer border and whatever emanates from there. Therefore, instead of the world being a propagator and enabler of a humanitarian crisis and an economic implosion in Afghanistan, we would ask the world to just ensure that the ordinary Afghans are not at the receiving end of your moral compulsions and for your moral compulsions not to translate into hunger and strife for ordinary Afghans who had no role to play in when the intervention or no choice to meet as in when the intervention happened for what goals it happened and how the withdrawal happened. So peace and stability requires sometimes making choices which don't go with your moral landscape perhaps, right? But which require for you to be strategic in your outlook and really make choices and be strategic in long-term as this is the goal you want to be. But in that goal, are you willing to let 38 million Afghans go hungry and not have a chance at a real economy? I would advise against it. Thanks a lot, minister. Moving to Congressman Meeks, you are chairing the House Foreign Affairs Committee. You also were recently in Ukraine and also Poland and other countries. So if you could give us the congressional view of the situation in Ukraine and what your body about overall the US is doing on that front and then I'll have a follow-up question. The United States, in my opinion, has a lot of enormous responsibility and members of Congress understand that responsibility and what the question is as the federal panels have said, the camera of history is rolling upon all of us right now and looking to see what we do at this particular time in history. And the United States knows that it is important for us to play a vital role. And I agree with President Duda of Poland when you look at what has taken place in Ukraine. You know, for me, I've not seen anything like this since when I studied it took place in the 40s and the 30s. And so it's a question of whether or not one can cross the sovereign territory of another nation and try to take away its choices.  I think that what the United States has said that we've got to stand up, but not stand up alone. Bring people together. It can't be the United States saying we're going to do this and not consulting our friends and our allies across the world. And so therefore it's important to have the unity. First with NATO, some people were questioning the strength of NATO and the unity of NATO. In fact, I believe that that's what Putin was doing. He did not believe that NATO would stay together. It did. He could not believe that the EU would stand together. It has. And we've worked together. And I think that we've done it when we looked at even sanctions when it comes to Russia in a collective way. Giving room and making sure that we attempt diplomacy first. There was avenues for him to get out of it. And Putin, he chose not to. So now the United States has responsibility to make sure that we defend and help and give the military equipment to Ukraine so that it can defend itself and work with our NATO allies because we also understand that Putin is not going to stop there. Again, I agree with the president of Poland, President Duda. The Baltics are at stake. Poland's at stake. NATO countries are at stake. We've got an article five responsibility there. And we must stand with that. And that's why I think it's important for us to give to different places. This is why I have as chair of this committee, we visited Poland. I was in Ukraine twice, met about a few weeks before the invasion. And I was part of the delegation that went to meet with President Zelensky recently, about two weeks ago. And we committed and came and we passed a bill in record time for the House. And I know individuals know of some of the domestic disputes that are going on in the United States, but we passed a $40 billion bill for humanitarian causes and military aid to Ukraine. And we've also pledged to back up and have our allies also give to the defense of Ukraine because the threat to democracy is all of us. And the threat to hunger, to what's happening with the blockades at the port of Odessa in the Black Sea. We've got to open that up because it's not then just limited to what's happening in Ukraine. There's threats to the entire world. And we've got to stand up to it. And what's really at stake is our values. To some, that's the question. You know, for me as a member of the House Foreign Affairs as a chair, who are we as humans? And so I think this is what the times are asking for. Can we come together? Can we work together? You're talking about Afghanistan? I've been to Pakistan as a result. I'm going to Finland next week. We're looking, and I'm talking to Saudi Arabia about visiting this. Spain is a great ally. We have allies, but we've got to pull ourselves together. The world today is much smaller than the world was 30 years ago. We're more interdependent than we ever was. If the economy is bad in one part of the world, it's going to affect another part of the world. And nothing was clearer than this pandemic. None of us are safe until all of us are safe. And I hope that's the message that goes across that we must come together as a world. And there's deficiencies that we've had because we know that there's some parts of the world that has not come along with reference to Russia. So we've got to talk to them also so that we get together because that's the only way that I think that we'll be able to survive this place that we call Earth, climate. I mean, there's issues whether you deal with climate energy security, food security, all of us at line, and it affects each in every nation on this planet. Congressman, thank you. If I could just do a follow-up, just to, we have the midterms coming up. You alluded to it that some people are also looking at some domestic issues, but you said also, of course, that that was bipartisan support for the bill. Some say that in terms of the response of the West, this was a unique moment. So are you optimistic that with the midterms, we can see consistency on the foreign policy front from the United States on this front or other fronts? Yeah, I am optimistic. One of the things I do, I've talked about the travel. I try to make sure that when I travel, I travel in a bipartisan delegation. Democrats and Republicans said that we're not divided when it comes to foreign policy and our goals in moving forward. I think that's tremendously important. And I would think that because of all of the issues of which has been articulated by this fantastic panel that once it's done, it's more than just America. It's more than, so it can't be a scenario. And I think that's what this pandemic and this war that Russia has caused shows that it can't be America alone. It's gotta be America talking to the rest of the world and engaging the rest of the world and listening to the rest of the world and working together. That's, in my estimation, leadership.  Leadership is if you can work with others and move forward. And I think that's where we headed. And hopefully that will happen no matter who is in charge after the midterm elections. Thank you. Moving to Minister Albares, Foreign Minister of Spain, you are hosting the upcoming NATO summit in Madrid next month. What are your main priorities? What do you expect from the NATO summit as the host country? There are four things that Spain is aiming in this summit. And of course, I speak on behalf of my country because in NATO, especially facing the Russian aggression to Ukraine, we are always aiming for unity. And what we have to do is to discuss among ourselves. But first, of course, a strong response to Russia because this is a threat that it's to Spain, to the European Union, to the Transatlantic Allies and also to democracy because there are two models that are facing each other in Ukraine. There is a model that is authoritarian that doesn't believe in the rule of law and there is another one that is represented by European Union that believes in diversity and pluralism and democracy. So a strong response from this alliance of democracy that is NATO. The second one, a strategic concept that will head the organization for about a decade. A new strategic concept will be issued. Right now, the main threats come from the East and we acknowledge that. But we want also a strong component from the southern flank because we have also very deep threats from our southern flank. The political and unacceptable use of energy or irregular migration to threaten our sovereignty. There is Russian threats also coming from the south. We have the epicenter of terrorism right now in the Sahel. And the third one, of course, is welcoming to new members, Sweden and Finland, Spain strongly supports their accession to NATO during that summit. And above all that, unity. Unity is our best defense against any threats coming from the east and from the south. Thank you. And if I could just have a follow-up on the Mediterranean realm because you are a Mediterranean stakeholder. And so at the EU level, what would you say to your partners in the Mediterranean that have been working within different frameworks with the EU in terms of reassuring them that the attention will now not completely move to in another direction that we will continue or the EU will continue to work with the Mediterranean partners? Next year, Spain will have the presidency of European Union during the second semester. And we will put also, as during the NATO summit, we will put also a focus on the Mediterranean and beyond in the Sahel because in the Sahel, and therefore spilling over in the Mediterranean, we have a multi-dimensional crisis. We have very poor countries in which governance has been lowering for the last decade. We have military junta more and more in the Sahel with the rising prices of cereal, fertilizers. We are facing a food security crisis in the Sahel that is already a very weakened region in the world. And we have an epicenter of terrorism. We have traditional jihadism in the Sahel, but we have also Daesh that is being weakened in Iraq and Syria, transferring more and more towards the Sahel. So we have to look at it because the future of the Southern Mediterranean and the European Union are united. Great, thank you. We have two minutes left and I'd like to go to the president because you are the only president on the panel here. And it's a very important one because Poland, of course, part of the EU. Now we have Ukraine and some other countries have applied for EU membership, but then also you have countries in the Western Balkans. Some of them have applied for EU membership. So if you could just in two minutes, Mr. President, give us your sense of how you see the EU enlargement, also in the context of some of the new frameworks that have been pronounced by some leaders in Europe in a minute and 45 seconds. Thank you. Two very, very important issues in this matter of the discussion, especially this is what Mr. Minister said a moment ago about Sahel and all the problems of Northern Africa. Ladies and gentlemen, of course, first of all, let me be very clear, Poland is a staunch supporter of Ukraine's membership in the European Union. There is no doubt about that. I initiated a letter signed by nine presidents and sent to the European Commission. The purpose of that letter was giving a very decisive support to Ukraine at granting it a candidate status. Today, this is of fundamental importance for many reasons. First of all, there is a psychological dimension. First and foremost, I firmly believe that the European Union should demonstrate, especially to the people of Ukraine, that it is open today that Ukrainian fight in defense of their homeland, this is also the fight in defense of their firm conviction that they have the right to self-determination, that they have the right to be part of the West. And for every reason, the West should open up to them and say, yes, we do accept you. And this is a very important element. That is why we are going to, obviously, give our very strong support to the aspiration of Ukraine to be granted a candidate status. We're also going to support its future membership of the European Union. In my speech in front of the Ukrainian Parliament, the Hovnaradan, a day before yesterday, I said that I'm going to do my best to make sure that Ukraine is granted a full membership status in the European Union. This is number one and number two. This is a very serious problem, speaking about North Africa, because we're also speaking about food deliveries from Ukraine in this context. If Ukraine is not able to ship out its grain to North Africa, to Egypt and to other countries in North Africa, the crisis will be huge because Ukraine is a huge country. I think it accounts for 80% of Egypt's demand for grain. So Ukraine is the partner of this country and also a partner to a couple of other countries in North Africa. So today, this is of key importance. If there is a starvation crisis in North Africa, if it turns out that there are no shipments, if indeed the scenario that Minister laid out materializes, then indeed Spain and the entire Southern Europe will face a huge migration problem, a gigantic migration problem. It is obvious to us that there will be a gigantic migration pressure, not to mention a huge of a lot of big chaos and unrest in the countries of North Africa and in this part of the world. So today we should focus on making it possible for Ukraine to ship out its grain. President Zawensky, when I visited Kiev together with the Baltic States presidents in mid-April right after Russian troops withdrew from the suburbs of Kiev, said to us that Ukraine sowed its fields, which means that there would be harvest. But the question is, will there be enough hands to collect the harvests? And question number two, how this grain and sunflower seed oil, and Ukraine is the biggest producer of sunflower oil, how this grain, how this sunflower oil seeds can be shipped out to other parts of the world? Today it is clear that ports need to be used for that. The other support today is blocked today. The question is, are we able to unblock it? The question is, can we transport this grain to Polish seaports, to the Lithuania seaport in Klaipeda, to Constanza in Romania? So there are a lot of question marks here today and these are the problems that we have to solve because this is one of the keys to solve the problem of the potential unrest in North Africa. Mr. President, dear ministers, congressmen, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining this important conversation. I think you minister said, we are at an inflection point, a lot of challenges and uncertainties. I hope that when we are here in a year's time, we'll have more solutions and more peace. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.


Hello and welcome to this session. This is Professor Farhad and this session we would look at previously used CPA questions. Those were used by the AI CPA on the actual CPA exam. This means those are the real deal. Those are actual questions. Now in the future they may appear word for word or they may appear differently but I could assure you the concept and the way they test you will appear again on the exam and this is the regulation exam. As always I would like to remind you to connect with me on LinkedIn if you haven't done so. YouTube is where you would need to subscribe. I have 1600 plus accounting, auditing, tax and finance lectures. This is a list of all the courses that I cover including many hundreds of CPA questions. On my website you will find additional information about my lectures such as PowerPoint slides, notes, true, false, multiple choice. If you're studying for the CPA exam 2000 plus CPA questions. So let's take a look at this first question. As I always I would mention what on my lectures on which chapter and course you will find the information and notice this question is an auditing and attestation and you might be saying what does auditing and attestation has to do with the regulation section. Well when it comes to the tax preparer the CPA liability well you would learn about CPA professional liability and auditing as well so that's why this topic is covered in auditing. So let's take a look at the first question. If a CPA recklessly depart from the standard of due care when conducting an audit the CPA will be liable to third party who are unknown to the CPA under what law. Now you have to understand those laws in other words when you walk into the exam you have to know under which law the CPA is liable and I'm going to show you when I when I when I cover this on my on my YouTube so this is only one screenshot from a you know six minute and 28 second session just real quick three level under the law an accountant will be here we're talking about auditors but here we're talking about the CPA misconduct okay first is you could be under ordinary negligence you could have gross negligence or you could have fraud first first of all you need to understand what's the difference between one and two and three which is fraud one and two don't have an intent three you have an intent so that's the first thing for to have to to be liable under ordinary negligence yeah you just simply have to failure to exercise is a reasonable level of care that caused the damage so you did not perform do care you did not do your job as you're supposed to do you were careless but again you have no intent to to deceive if your misconduct is considered gross nugget negligence then failure to exercise even the minimal level of care so it's not only then do the reasonable level of care even the minimum you are reckless you had reckless disregard so really really reckless here okay to be under gross negligence and the keyword is reckless and again there's no intent there's no intent and fraud well guess what fraud you have various factors for fraud first there there should be a material misrepresentation okay it means you misrepresented a serious amount of money that's what material misrepresentation is material misrepresentation two you had the intent intent here is sinister you act with intent act with sinister you have to have this also also the plaintiff has have to justify that they relied on you so there's a justification the plaintiff must prove so they must prove they did they did and they must prove damages which is damages easy to to to show so you must prove four things there was material misrepresentation one damages two if you want to take those take those notes three the the plaintiff must prove and act with sinister is intent you have to show that there was an intent those are the four elements of fraud four elements of fraud so have a look at those big picture we can go back and try to answer the question that's let me clear from the notes here because I have a lot of notes now so if you are giving this question and you see the word reckless recklessly depart from do care I would say if you remember you are reckless it's really it's not good you're really negligent okay so it cannot be negligent because negligent is you know like a minor infraction when it comes to reckless again the word that comes with it is gross negligence gross negligence so once you see the word reckless and remember let me show you when we talked about gross negligence we say you were reckless disregard so reckless and gross negligence they go together and basically you have to memorize those you have to know you have to know those rules because you can answer a lot of easy questions and get some easy points out of the way by remembering those rules okay which of the following defenses is likely to be successful in a suit alleging negligence again here what they're asking you is the CPA is being sued for negligence well let's see what happened you're negligent if you did not exercise level of care you know the minimum level of care basically or some sort of a level of care like but you were careless basically okay so what defense you will have if you are accused of being careless well guess what if I'm accused of being careless my defense is I did my job I perform do care that's what I did I did my job okay intent is not an issue lack of mental capacity is not an issue ignorance of the law well stability is never a defense so you cannot say I was ignorant so that's definitely out so all you can do is if you are if you are being sued for negligence what they're trying to say is you did not perform your job and you'd say no I did I perform my job in a professional do care I did my job that's all you have to do and if you can prove this then you're no longer negligence okay negligent okay number three which of the following pairs of element must client proof to prove account to accountant libel for common law fraud now here we're talking about fraud remember the four the four rules of fraud you have to have the intent which is sinister you have to show the damages intent to deceive and material misrepresentation for that matter let's look at one a i'm sorry a material misrepresentation that's good breach of contract that's not we did not talk about breach of contract with fraud okay you don't it doesn't have to be there so a is out because breach of contract is not an element of fraud freedom from contributory negligence and loss so you did not contribute to the negligence and loss those are not elements of fraud that's out to see sinister which is intent to commit fraud yes and justifiable reliance yes the client has to prove that they justify that they that they relied on whatever you're providing them the financial statements for that matter they relied and they incur the loss okay that's the third element which it's not here but definitely intent which is sinister and justifiable reliance are peers of elements so this looks like a good answer but let's look at the intent well this is good to deceive while that's the same thing as sinister and privity you don't have to prove privity you don't have to be you don't have to have a contract with the with the cpa okay so any third party can sue under fraud so c is the is the answer again those questions if you notice they're kind of they're from auditing and attestation and sometime you would learn them under business law because i don't really teach business law i'm not a lawyer and i haven't tried to teach business law yet but the point is you have to know those rules okay and luckily i do cover it and auditing and attestation so you have to be very familiar and comfortable so you can answer these easy questions easy points okay to which of the following parties will the cpa be liable of the cpa fraudulently we have fraud here issued an unqualified opinion on a corporation's materially misstated financial statements now you're committing a fraud they're telling you there's a fraud the question is who can sue you if you commit a fraud and guess what the short answer is anyone okay so who can sue you corporate shareholders can sue you because they're owners corporate bondholders they can sue you they are also they are also affected so a is the answer both shareholders and bondholders once again whether they have to prove they have to prove that you have the intent to deceive which is the hardest to prove you know yet you you intentionally try to deceive them they have to prove that they justifiably relied on your on your statement well that's not too bad they can easily kind of uh uh show this you know they gave you the loan they justify on the statement they have to show damages that's easy if they lost money and it has to be material material that's they already told us here materially misstated so it's it's easy okay number five which of the following transaction correctly illustrate the doctrine of substantial performance what is substantial performance it means did you do your job fully all the way till the end this is basically what it is and this is more like a business law concept rather than an accounting concept so it's like a business law concept okay so did you do your job all the way till the end the illustrate the doctrine of substantial substantial performance okay hey Blair ordered a dozen of blue chairs from Kyle Kyle deliver a dozen of red chairs dozen red chairs well well this is a substantial performance well you did send me 12 chairs but it's not my 12th chair so you did not really substantially perform because those are those are not the chairs that I ordered so here what we have is a breach basically in a sort of breach of contract you did not really conform to the contract because I want 12 blue chairs so you did not really substantially perform what you're supposed to perform so a is out Leslie painted an entire room but failed to put an electric electrical outlet covers back on well I hope I hope you know what what electrical outlets are basically when you're painting you remove the the electrical outlet so you can paint so no no paint no paint is is no paint is painted on those electric outlet because you're trying to paint in corners so basically you painted but this is basically I would say a small a minor issue in my opinion a material issue I would say B is a good candidate because you could either put those basically you need two screws you could put those back on or you may ask the the painter to come back and put them but look B looks like you substantially perform but let's hold on that okay a contract C a contract required hairstyling to be done to Toby satisfaction but Toby in good faith dissatisfied with the completed result well guess what you're not satisfied they did not really perform and they're saying here you didn't you're not trying to commit any fraud Toby was in good faith so that's not substantial performance a dentist competently completed the extraction of Lee's tooth but mistakenly pulled the wrong one yike that they substantially performed can the dentist said look I'm done I'm supposed to pull a teeth out and I did pull your teeth and that's it we're done although it's the wrong one they can't say that they can't say that okay they're gonna be in trouble big time okay so these out so as we expected B is the right answer I'm not really a handy person I can tell you I can put electrical outlet back on okay so it's not but it's not bad you can do it that's a good one all right so in the next session as always I will work additional CPA questions I'm gonna remind you to visit my website on my website you will find additional resources if you're studying for your CPA exam including hundreds of CPA questions lectures notes PowerPoint slides you're gonna study for your CPA once do it properly subscribe it's an investment in your career move on with your life good luck


Welcome back to our postgame coverage of the green turtle classic Pete Methurst alongside Steve Kadelka from Lynchburg and coach for a program that obviously has championship aspirations. You're at that delicate point right now where you've got to accentuate the positives that are out there and get the things corrected for you all to get to where you're trying to go. First of all thoughts on the game here today were at again moments first quarter you down three to you play a good third quarter as well. How do you find that consistently though for 60 minutes against that caliber competition. I think you know we're our inexperience at times kills us you know and against a team like RIT where you make a couple of false steps one way the other. You know the balls in the back of the net and we saw that tonight and you know and credit to RIT. You know they're they're they're an excellent team well coached and you know we just got to keep on working at you know I mean that's you know we kind of talk about pounding the rock and we're we're not where we need to be right now to do what we want to do. Let's talk about a couple of positives here today.  I thought Aaron Murphy took the bull by the horns and tried to do things individually to at least get you back in the game. Yeah I mean we you know we thought we could win some face offs so that was part of our game plan and we and Bobby and Danny did that. And you know and and shutting off Austin is is you know we're OK with that you know you know because you know we got other guys we got now we're playing five on five with two short six there and we got to be able to do a little bit more there you know and that was the disappointing part where I thought we I thought we had our chances you know especially early we had some good shots with some great looks at the cage. I went it was three to two or even five to you know it was you know I didn't think it needed to get out to seven to but but I think we kept on fighting in eight five it's close so you're right I mean there's there's a ton of positives and we're you know we feel like we can we feel like we can just play to be better you know and that's it's in this we just got to get it out of us. Finally the great thing about this tournament is opportunity knocks again tomorrow against another very good club that's the one thing about this tournament promotes great lacrosse but another opportunity for your team to do some good things and if they do it to give themselves a chance against York what do you have to do now to rebound. Well you know I mean I think you know we got to really like you said turn around pretty quickly and we've been we've been here before we've done this before you know and you know fortunately for us we've won this first game so it's a little bit easier to go to bed at night and wake up the next day and get ready but but this is going to test us a little bit you know this is where this is why we do this we do this we play the schedule we play so we know exactly where we stand weekend week out and you know right now we're we're struggling in certain areas and you know we've you know we're not going to have any time to practice so we got to address it a little bit verbally and maybe on a on a computer and things like that but but at the end of the day you know we're we're we're going to be our guys should be very excited to play York tomorrow very good team to have a great year coached child brain is an awesome job so happy for him and you know but but you know we got to we got to show up tomorrow ready to go and and if I know my guys I think we'll do that you know and that's enough we'll see but we got to get better at all facets of the game right now. All right Steve. Appreciate the visit. Good luck tomorrow. Thank you very much. All right Steve Kadelka joining us here. Lynchburg and York coming up on Saturday here at the Green Turtle Classic.


You need a financial advisor with the freedom to focus on your specific needs. Whatever your goals, Reeve Potter can create a game plan tailored to you. Call Reeve at 432-0777 at Pikeville, Kentucky to learn more. The 36th annual Seed Time on the Cumberland Festival will be held in person for the first time since COVID on Friday, June 3rd and Saturday, June 4th. We have live performances all day. We have film screenings from different departments at Apple Shop. Like AMI will be screening some films. It's really an opportunity in space for all of Apple Shop to really get involved and kind of showcase their work to the community and the entire event is free and open to the public. Previous Seed Time festivals had been held online due to COVID, but with restrictions lifted, Apple Shop is excited to host local artisans and musicians to showcase their talent. There will be vendors. There will be some local artisans here and we'll also have an art gallery put on by Lacey Hill and the artists. Our headliners are Wayne Graham, local band to Widesburg. We have Amethyst Kea, Grammy-nominated artist and also Deli and Bradley who is more like bluegrass and also local originally from the area. The much anticipated two-day festival will be held in Widesburg on the Apple Shop campus come rain or shine. We're really excited for Seed Time. We hope to see a bunch of people there and this sort of feels like a kickoff to the summer. And just a huge thank you to all of our sponsors and community members who have made this event possible. Yeah, this really is a community effort and the past few years with COVID we kind of emphasize that like it's not the same without everyone involved. For more information about Seed Time on the Cumberland you can visit appleshop.org. For Mountain Top News, I'm Kelsey Dean.


This is the Phantom X-19, G.I. Joe's stealth fighter and the pilot ghost rider. This vehicle and figure set were first available in 1988 and were also available in 1989. They were discontinued for 1990. They were only available together. They were never sold separately. There were no other versions of the Phantom and Ghost Rider in the vintage era. There was a modern version of Ghost Rider that was part of the G.I. Joe Collectors Club figure subscription service in 2018. It didn't use the Ghost Rider code name. It used the character's file name. Stealth doesn't mean the jet is literally invisible. It has a very small radar profile, so it is nearly indetectable to electronic surveillance. The Phantom was in a series of large G.I. Joe aircraft that started in 1983 with the Sky Striker. The Phantom is significantly longer than the Sky Striker. Cobra got its own large jet in 1986 with the Night Raven. The Night Raven is very slightly longer than the Phantom. There were a few smaller jets in between, like the Conquest in 1986 and the Cobra Rattler in 1984, but the Phantom is in a larger class with a higher price point. A lot of G.I. Joe jets borrowed from real experimental jets and used the experimental X designation, the Sky Striker XP-14F, the Conquest X-30, and the Phantom X-19. Unlike the other experimental G.I. Joe jets, the Phantom was very different from the real Stealth Fighter. The designers at Hasbro wouldn't have known that, though, because the real Stealth Fighter wasn't made public until November 1988, shortly after the toy was released. We will look at the pilot Ghost Rider, but I'm going to set him aside for now, so we can take a closer look at the Phantom. The Phantom was sort of based on a sort of fictional aircraft, the F-19, which was a popular speculation about what the actual Stealth Fighter, the Lockheed F-117, would look like. The real Stealth Fighter design was secret, so there were a lot of guesses about it in aviation circles. Testor released a model kit called F-19 Stealth Fighter in 1986, which popularized this teardrop shape for the supposed Stealth Fighter. Other media picked up the design and modified it. In the Tom Clancy novel Red Storm Rising, there was a plane called the F-19A Ghost Rider. The G.I. Joe Phantom and the pilot Ghost Rider borrowed liberally from all of those sources. The Phantom was designed for Hasbro by Bill Young, and early concept drawings look even more like the images of the fictional F-19 in popular media. I have the box for the X-19, which is nice because I don't normally get boxes. We can see how this toy was marketed. The box is long, tall, but pretty narrow. It's not very deep. It has this huge G.I. Joe logo that streaks all the way across the top. It is the Phantom X-19 Stealth Fighter. It has some gorgeous artwork showing off the vehicle, and in this corner it has a photo of the Ghost Rider action figure included. Looks like this one was $12.97 at Hills, which is a great bargain. Inflation, man. Inflation. The box has full color printing on the front and the bottom, with some photos of the prototype vehicle showing off some of the features. The top, sides, and back of the box all have two color printing with black and red on a white background. On the back of the box there's a diagram of the toy describing some of the features, including super realistic detail. Wings slide out to reveal pop-up automatic laser machine guns and retractable landing gear. The Phantom was worth five flag points which were redeemable for special mail away offers. Let's take a look at the parts and the features of the Phantom starting in the front, and in the very front we have a rubber nose tip. We have a black plastic canopy frame with a translucent blue canopy. It has Ghost Rider on it. In two words, the action figure's code name is one word. This isn't the only place on the Phantom where it has Ghost Rider as two words, and it makes me think maybe they originally intended this to be the name of the vehicle.  Looks like he's shot down seven Cobras. This canopy does open up to reveal a cockpit but not by flipping up, but by sliding forward, and this is a delicate operation. You have to very carefully slide this canopy forward. It pops off very easily, way too easily in my opinion. The canopy slides forward on these silver plastic rails, and these are a problem. The canopy frame clips onto knobs on the rails, and they do not clip on securely. You're much more likely to pop the thing off than to successfully slide it forward. Inside the cockpit there are some nice details which are difficult to show you. This is a two-seater cockpit. Each of the two seats has a black seat belt. These were common on vehicles of this era. They're really difficult to use though, so I don't use them. You can fit Ghost Rider in the pilot seat in a reclined position. He does not fit in very securely without that seat belt unfortunately. In the co-pilot seat you can fit any other figure, well I guess not any other figure. You can fit any other normal GI Joe figure in the co-pilot seat again in a reclined position. There is a space for this figure's legs so he fits in a little more securely than the pilot. You can close the canopy carefully and both figures will easily fit inside. The main body of the Phantom is in grey plastic. It has a huge crescent shaped intake vent amidst ships. There is some bright yellow green plastic on the inside. I have no idea if this would work on a real jet, but it looks cool. On each side we have the Phantom Library which is a skull wearing a top hat, a bow tie. He has lightning bolts behind him and a pair of dice. That looks really nice. On top of the jet on each side we have two bright yellow green missiles. They are both the same and unlike most GI Joe missiles they don't have a dumbbell shaped peg. You just wedge one of the back fins into one of these slots on the fuselage to hold the missiles on. Moving further back we have these black vents and airbrake. This piece is articulated and will tilt up and under that there is some engine detail. On each side there are curved black fins with the GI Joe logo. Then we have these black extending wing pieces.  They have vents. They have a sticker with X-19 Ghost Rider again in two words and they have that Phantom emblem this time in white. In front of the wings on each side it has this silver plastic laser gun. It looks really cool. These wing pieces are another weak point on this vehicle. They will slide out but you have to be very careful because they will very easily pop off. Slide the wing out and when you slide it out far enough it will pop up this hidden yellow green laser gun. It has the same on both sides and these pieces are really annoying. The wing will just keep sliding out until it comes completely off. This laser gun can also come off very easily. This is a nice little piece of engineering but the plastic needed to be much more sturdy in order for it to work well. At the very back it has three silver squared off angled jet exhaust. This looks really cool. I love this design. These jet exhaust pieces are linked to the landing gear mechanism which we will look at in a moment. If you move the landing gear mechanism forward these jets will slide in. This is not quite as cool as the Skystriker's sweep wing mechanism but it's still not bad. It is time to turn the Phantom X-19 over and look at the underside because there are more features here. The underside of the Phantom is in grey plastic like the top side. It has some molded in technical detail and panel lines. The most important part of the underside is the landing gear. You have one front and two back landing gear. On each they have four wheels and those are rubber wheels. That's very nice. I like that a lot. The front landing gear and the back landing gear have black doors to seal them up when the jet is in flight mode. At the very back of the jet there is a lever that activates the landing gear. This one is hinged at the back and pulls down. There is a variation of this lever that pulls straight back. I did have an example of that variant but in my move I seem to have misplaced it so this is the only one I have to show you right now. When the lever is down the landing gear are deployed and the jets that we saw on the top are extended. To pull them in just press this lever forward. Here is how it works. Lever forward and landing gear up. When the landing gear is down there is very little clearance for that lever. On the underside there are two missiles. These are very unique. They slide into these slots. The missile itself is in black plastic but it has a bright yellow green wing piece that swings to deploy the wings when the missile is launched. So now you have a winged missile. The blueprints call these bullseye to computer aided low altitude terrain hugging missiles. There are two of these missiles and they are the same. Now let's look at Ghost Rider the pilot of the Phantom X-19. I know there's a running gag that nobody can remember Ghost Rider's name but that was just created to avoid a little legal trouble with Marvel. I don't think I need to worry about that. I hope I don't need to worry about that. Marvel please don't sue me. Ghost Rider was designed by Mark Pennington for Hasbro. Ron Rudat is known for designing a lot of the early GI Joe figures but Mark Pennington designed a few memorable characters too. The face for Ghost Rider was modeled after Jeff Jones, a product manager for Hasbro. The alternative prototype names for Ghost Striker included Ghost Wing, Blipless, No Show, Silent Night with a K, Slink and Wraith Wing. The final Ghost Rider name was likely taken from the Tom Clancy book and Ghost Rider is just a better name than those alternatives. I'm glad they went with that one. Let's take a look at Ghost Rider's accessory. He included only one. I'm not going to take it off because it'll be too much of a pain to get back on. It is this red soft goods cloth cape that is tied around his neck. This is often missing. This is a throwback to the early days of combat aviators. It's a nice touch and it adds a bit of color and dimension to the figure. Let's take a look at Ghost Rider's articulation. He had the articulation that was standard for GI Joe figures by 1988. He could turn his head from left to right and look up and down. He could swing his arm up at the shoulder and swivel at the shoulder all the way around. He had a hinge at the elbow that allowed him to bend his arm at the elbow about 90 degrees. He had a swivel at the bicep that allowed him to swivel his arm all the way around. This was an o-ring figure, meaning the figure was held together with a rubber o-ring that looped around the inside that allowed him to move at the torso a bit. He could move his legs apart about so far. He could bend his leg at the hip about 90 degrees and bend at the knee about 90 degrees. Let's take a look at the sculpted design and color of Ghost Rider starting with his head and on his head he has a silver sculpted on helmet. It is not removable. It has really nice details though. He has green goggles on the helmet, not over his eyes. This one has a little scuff on it.  It was a common thing starting in the mid-1980s to use Hasbro employees as models for G.I. Joe figure faces. Early concept art and sculpting sheets suggest the helmet was supposed to be a removable accessory but on the production figure it is just molded on.  That's a nice detail but for a fighter pilot I think an oxygen mask would have been more appropriate. His arms feature long black sleeves and black gloves. There are no paint applications on the arms. The waist piece is in a light gray that's a lighter shade of gray than the shirt on the top half of the figure so I guess this is not supposed to be a pilot's flight jumpsuit. He has a dark brown belt on a diagonal that connects to the pistol holster on his left leg. We'll look at that in a moment. He has a silver belt buckle with an eagle head sculpted on it. The legs are in light gray plastic. On the right leg there is a pocket and on the right leg there is a green map that has the shape of the state of Ohio on it and it is targeting the headquarters of rival toy company Kenner in Cincinnati Ohio. On the left leg he has a brown pistol and a brown holster. It looks like a cowboy's six shooter and the handle is facing forward to be drawn with the right hand. We finish with some tall black boots and each boot has a pocket on the outside leg. This figure has similar details to another 1988 pilot figure Windmill the pilot of the Skystorm but in drastically different colors. Let's take a look at Ghost Rider's file card. His file card was not printed on the vehicle box. It was an insert with the figure. It has his faction as GI Joe. It has a portrait of Ghost Rider. His codename is Ghost Rider all one word not two words like on the stickers on the jet. He is the GI Joe Phantom X-19 stealth fighter pilot. File name Jonas F. Jeffries primary military specialty stealth fighter pilot secondary military specialty aeronautical engineer birthplace is Chicago Illinois grade is 04 presumably Air Force he would be a major. This paragraph says stealth isn't simply a matter of technology. It's a state of mind.  True stealth means having the nerve to fly nap of the earth at high speeds without activating electronic sensors or guidance systems that might tip off enemy radar. It is ridiculous to fly such an aircraft at low altitude because it was designed by engineers whose priorities centered on radar invisibility rather than structural integrity and maneuverability. That doesn't seem to bother Ghost Rider. This paragraph has a quote. It says Ghost Rider was working on not getting noticed since the second grade. He may have been the only person to make it through the Chicago public school system without ever cleaning an eraser or washing a blackboard. Teachers never noticed him not because he was dull or lackluster but because he consciously worked on not being noticed. That's how he is in the cockpit of a stealth fighter. He is willing himself to be invisible. Seems like this guy has some psychological issues. How bad was his home life that he felt the need to go completely unnoticed at school? Looking at how the Phantom and Ghost Rider were used in GI Joe media, the Phantom was animated for commercials and a very brief appearance in the Deke animated series. Ghost Rider was not animated at all. In the GI Joe comic book published by Marvel Comics, both the Phantom and Ghost Rider first appeared in issue number 76 in the Cobra Civil War story arc. Ghost Rider took out the radar system on Cobra Island. This was the beginning of the gag that no one could remember Ghost Rider's name. GI Joe was published by Marvel Comics but Marvel Comics already had a character called Ghost Rider. To avoid confusion, the character's name was not used in the comic book. The Phantom and Ghost Rider were in issue number 80 and the Phantom was on the cover. They were also in issue number 115 in the Benzene War story arc. They also appeared in issues number 119 and 132 and they had a couple appearances in the GI Joe Special Missions series.


probably looking back I mean we'll watch the tape and we'll be able to see but you know maybe some missed tackles and you know misfits or just probably usually missed tackles and you know what to do a better job there but I feel like we were able to get you know some really great stops throughout the day you know I don't want to give up those type of rushing yards but you know I give it you know give those guys a lot of credit defensively for us that you know we did a good job on third down got a huge stop there at the end of half so we'll have to we'll have to fix and assess the run game but also you know recognize that you know we did some some really good things defensively as well well I mean we have to be able to establish a run whether that's with Derek whether that's Taj a whether that's Jonathan Ward and you know so I mean we've we've won a lot of football games you know with that formula and we've seen where it's been you know some some inefficient runs and then you know we break one and turn things around and you know that didn't happen today because it seemed like left you in a lot of second and long third long type situations yeah there you go you you asked and answered a question you know pretty well so that's certainly we have to be balanced and be able to use the run game to create opportunities and play pass which you know we've done before and we'll continue to strive to do and not just force ourselves into you know difficult down and distances again just trying to get off in a drive and you know there were times where we threw the ball on first down had success there were times where we threw it on first down didn't have success and you know it's all you know offensively there wasn't a lot of you know we need to be more positive plays more conversions more complimentary football I think that when they're you know when we don't play well or we don't block or protect I think that that's forces negative plays you know a non-efficient play so you know whether they you know whether we call a run or a pass we're still going to have to block and execute the same thing you said you know so we'll see how he you know comes out I'm sure I have to get looked at and you know see where things go you know again when you talk about pass protection and you talk about sacks or pressure it's you know starts with getting into the route quick and getting open quick and protecting longer you know all those things have to happen we have to do a better job of it we didn't really approach that but I wouldn't be able to tell you no I mean I just think that you know we know how critical it is to get to get these runs started you know give them credit you know being able to you know split us on some of the combinations or you know not not be able to get there on a second level I think every time you just probably go back and look at it it's going to be you know one guy here you know a block there you know a cut and it was just yeah not a very good day for us you get to have an opportunity to talk to Will and he'll tell you exactly what he saw or didn't see what you see same thing you saw that threw a ball to a guy that was that was covered coach with you guys being eliminated from the playoffs officially at this point how do you go about the rest of the season the message to the team I don't think we're ready to discuss that Kayla I think we're just trying to get back get healthy you know and a guy a lot of guys play you know far less than a hundred percent which we know that that's going to happen this this type of eat where we're at in a season a lot of fight a lot of a competent competitiveness rely on our leaders you know and make sure that you know we do everything we can to give them an opportunity to feel confident coming into the game you know play with great effort guys getting hurt is part of it is there any sense of organizational guilt for for what was assembled to be in front of your two quarterbacks that they've both gotten hurt nobody likes to see any any player get hurt and the responsibility to protect the guy with the ball whether that's the quarterback the running back the receiver you know kickers have to do a better job of protecting all of them we have to do everything that we can to continue to protect the guy with football I don't get an opportunity to talk to the back judge they didn't make the call I think you'd rather call wide receivers off sides illegal formations fall starts then late hits out of bounds who's that I would say it as much chance as Schultz did look like a you know better than play thank you I'm alright you know it could have been a lot worse it was definitely scarier in the moment than it was but suit the trainer say but you know feel right yeah I mean we just couldn't couldn't get it done if like we never really got rolling we had a couple drives where we had spurts here and there but the rest of the day I just felt like you know we got up to the ball and we just have that same confidence I felt like so we got to keep doing a better job of everyone focusing on their job and focusing on their keys but you know can't have a day offensively like that yeah I mean I don't know I mean we just got to keep leaning on our guys keep keep trusting and teaching you know what these coaches are preaching every day and you know sometimes it's a miscommunication thing sometimes guys are just getting beat and you know guys just have to you know take a lot of pride in what they're doing and just play hard but we're just trying to do better job as a team overall and obviously today we didn't do that yeah I mean just a couple times where we were on the same page like you said yeah that you know straight down the middle I didn't really know that was happening still got to put some more on it and he's got to make that catch and he knows that and that's a big play that could have changed the course of that game but just a couple other times you know that stuff like that happens we got to move through it we got to learn from it but yeah that was weird you know that doesn't really happen between us replays during the play yeah that's what that's on me I mean one of my keys that I was looking at you know reminding myself on that play was make sure the corner carries you know so I saw his back turned and then I was waiting for D hop during that time with my eyes on him the corner falling off of trail is where it happens so just didn't see him didn't feel him kind of learn from it next time that ball's got to be launched and that's a touchdown we knew that we weren't going to really be you got there so it wasn't even something we discussed yeah for sure I thought it was I thought it was worse just how I got kind of rolled up on and yeah but see how it feels tomorrow you know when all the adrenaline everything wears off but like I said it could have been a lot worse but I think I'll be all right so they necessarily go the way we talked about I mean we have our openers and we talked about like a visualizing like how we see it going like this will get five and then we'll get the first and then get on the ball and do this you know how it went wasn't how we imagined it we got the plays off that we knew we were going to get off you know in that opening series so when you're able to you know work on your openers and execute like that and get points in that first drive usually at least to confidence the rest of the game so we got to figure out how we can just continue that energy and that focus throughout the rest of the game like we had on that first drive I mean there wasn't anything that we didn't discuss nothing that we didn't see you know we just had some guys just get beat on some games and a couple of miscommunications air miscommunication airs but you know for me I gotta make sure I can get the ball out sooner too and a couple times too where I tried to escape where I just felt wasn't feeling the space I feel like as well as I usually do and I got caught up and like on that last drive sacked myself essentially so you know I got to do better in that that area but they knew up front that they got to do better job too but we're gonna work to you know get better this week and get back on track Yeah I mean as a coaching staff like you definitely evaluate what we do well and what we do you know not well if it's something we're not doing well for reasons that can easily be fixed obviously we want to fix them so that we can try to do it at a high level but you know you always want to have an idea of what your bread and butter is and what you're good at but you want to mix it up too so you know I thought that Tim had a good game plan and then he called it well and we just got to do better job executing out there on the field I mean I'm not telling him like I call this play but we have we have an open dialogue about how I feel about certain plays and and usually we're going into the game already having taken out all the plays that I don't feel any comfortable with so we feel good about everything that's on that script on game day and and we're on the same page because of that and how we set up the week and set up the game plan so that when we get to Sunday it's not like I don't I don't like that one actually we're gonna do whatever but no I mean I think we can do a better job like we talked about a couple weeks ago just adjusting in game seeing what they're doing and how we can attack it better and what to expect but like I said I mean I thought Tim called a fine game and we it's on us as players to execute the game plan yes you guys were officially eliminated whole season consideration how does that change the motivation going forward and the it for the last three yeah I know it doesn't doesn't change anything no I'd say props to them I mean for case to step up and do that and you know play more efficient game than me and come in here and win no it's a good team and they straight up beat us good luck to them going forward but it's not gonna change how we play we're still gonna just try to win every game and hopefully play spoil for these last few weeks I can't say anything I can't say anything about that right now yeah I mean you know when you know we feel like we had a chance to know being close to slipping in if we kept kept winning if we went out yeah that's this is tough knowing that it's it's three left and you know you know this definitely is a salad tasting your mouth but ended the day got three games left try to do the best that we can to go to go win those and no fitness season the positive note set again I mean it's football I mean this is fun something that we've been playing since we were kids I mean if you don't get ready for the next game we're not excited to play then I don't know what to tell you that's just what it is and you can't do nothing about it I'll be out the playoffs but we still got three games left to gotta go out there and play and put your best foot forward I ain't laying down I'm sure nobody else is trying to lay down but at the end of the day that's just what it is right now you'll have a game where things are going well and then a couple where they don't it just how frustrating it's been in each week to kind of lack that consistent yeah um you know I put a lot of myself I feel like I could I could be better and do a lot of things better but at the end of the day this is what it is I'm always gonna continue to work I was gonna work to continue to improve never gonna point the finger never gonna blame anybody else if anything I'm gonna criticize myself first by doing anybody else and you know that's just what it is this year I seen a quote from a guy from Detroit pistons when he said that you know we work hard for something you might not get the reward right away but you just got to keep working and believe that eventually happen and that's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna work hard and do the best that I can each and every day I step on the field and when I'm away from it just continue to work and knowing that you know eventually I want what I want to happen what happened sit in there and take your time getting dressed before you come in here you know knowing two more home games you don't know what the future is do you ever stop and just I know you're trying to stay in the moment but you stop and just think like it could be over yeah definitely today you know you had that feeling you know we had hope of kind of slipping in there and then being eliminated knowing the string get three games left you know I've been here my whole career definitely want to go out strong which that is in the case but I'm just trying to give them all these last three games and leave it all on the field. You've never had a game since you've become a starter that you didn't get over ten yards of things you had nine today. Yeah. Here in that reaction. Yeah it's tough. Definitely tough man. Yeah definitely tough and I don't really have no no words just wasn't good enough and yeah tough.