So, ladies and gentlemen, let me welcome you to the United States Institute of Peace. My name is Bill Taylor. I'm the acting president for the next couple of days. We'll have a new president of the Institute of Peace who will join us. A woman, Madam President, you'll be happy to know. We'll take over the Institute on Monday. It's a great pleasure for the United States Institute of Peace to welcome back Minister Walsh from to this forum. She has been here before, has given speeches here before, and we're very pleased to welcome her back in her new capacity as the foreign minister of Sweden. She was appointed to serve as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in October 14, so just this last October. Among other positions, she previously served as the vice president of the European Commission, as a member of the Swedish Parliament, and first ever special representative of the UN Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, so this is a perfect opportunity for us to welcome you here, Madam Foreign Minister. USIP is hosting this, co-hosting with the embassy of Sweden, and we have the ambassador here. Thank you, sir. Others of the embassy are joining us here. We both are committed to this topic of gender and violence and the role of women in foreign policy. This is our sixth year of a gender program under Kathleen Kunas. We're very pleased that she has put this program together, along with the embassy of Sweden. The Swedish government has pledged to increase its focus on women's issues with what it describes as a feminist foreign policy, and we are all looking forward to hearing how that plays out. In her career, she has focused on these issues. She will undoubtedly tell you the kinds of work that she has done to firmly integrate gender lens in all aspects of Swedish foreign policy. We're very eager to hear Minister Walsrum elaborate on her vision for how her nation's foreign policy can be further strengthened with attention to gender perspectives. We will be followed, then ministers remarks will be followed by a remarkable panel, all ambassadors on this panel. We're very amazed to have this level, and very pleased. Our first, before we do that, Minister Walsrum, we're glad to have you to the USIP. Thank you very much for coming. Excellencies, dear friends, my colleagues, when looking at all of you and preparing for this and understanding who would be here to, on the stage with me, actually the thanking part of my speech became a whole one-and-a-half page, and I think maybe that will take too long from my speech, so I'll just say thank you so much to all of you, and I'm particularly pleased to see so many of my friends, and we have even met at, as you said, Ambassador Dusty, on the Dusty Road, in an airport, in a place that nobody knows exactly where it is, and also seeing friends here at the Institute for Peace. I am very honoured to explain to you that the new Swedish government is going to pursue a feminist foreign policy, and to say something about that. And my first statement when I was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs was received with some enthusiasm, but also a fair share of skepticism to put it kindly. Like the suffragettes at the turn of the 20th century fighting for their political rights in the UK and the USA were met with considerable duration, even the term suffragettes was initially intended as a mockery. The notion of a feminist foreign policy has also given rise to irony among some observers, we call it the giggling factor. However, looking back, history proved women right, and our democratic institutions are stronger for it.  So feminist foreign policy essentially seeks to address what former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has so aptly described as the great unfinished business of the 21st century. Many countries, including my own, are still characterized by the systematic subordination of women. In many parts of the world, the fact that women and girls continue to be denied their human rights constitutes a growing threat to peace and security. Striving towards gender equality is therefore not only a goal in itself, but also a precondition for achieving our wider foreign development and security policy objectives. I would like to focus here today on the how and the what of our feminist foreign policy, what are our priority areas and what are the tools at our disposal to advance the feminist foreign policy agenda. There are three indispensable and interdependent concepts that are crucial to the how of moving the feminist foreign policy agenda forward. The three R's of the feminist toolbox, rights, representation and resources. And some would say maybe it starts with a fourth R that is actually a reality check. But first, let me talk about respect for human rights and the rule of law. Constituting essential starting points for every discussion about gender equality. Ensuring women's rights and access to justice must be seen as central to achieving the overall human rights agenda. This is far from today's reality. Women's rights are often seen as a specific and separate issue. We will need to work multilaterally and bilaterally, creating global conditions in order to ensure that gender perspectives are included in strategic discussions, decisions and most importantly, concretised at country level. And of course, today we discussed, for example, and let's do that. Let's discuss, for example, the situation in Ukraine. Second, increasing women's representation. So if rights is the first R, second is R as in representation. We need to increase women's representation. In governance and peace-building efforts. In economies and core institutions. And this is Sina Kuanon in achieving gender equality. Only through women active participation at different levels of decision making can we transform agendas so that the needs and interests of women are truly reflected and addressed. Reality on the ground give considerable scope for improvement. Out of 585 negotiated peace agreements from 1990 to 2010, only 92 contained references to women. From 92 to 2011, fewer than 4% of signatories of peace agreements and less than 10% of peace negotiators were women. We will actively advocate women's inclusion in all peace-building processes but also initiate measures in order to create a network of women mediators that can be called upon. And I do not want anyone to ever say again that there are no competent women around to involve. We will continue to support women's organizations in conflict and post-conflict settings in cooperation with civil society and through the UN. And the third R is as in resources. Resources to receive these ends must be increased and channeled in such a way that to ensure that essential goals have financial backing. As an example, today only 1% of spending in security sector reform is allocated to initiatives which consider gender equality a significant objective. Furthermore, in a sample of six post-conflict countries, less than 8% of spending was specifically budgeted to empower women or promote gender equality. Increasing and redirecting resources towards gender-specific targets will require considerable political commitment and specific budgeting. But more importantly, budgetary methods that direct flows of money to support gender targets. We will develop and bring such methods to bear at home and in foreign policy settings. Achieving gender equality will require new and coherent approaches upstream and downstream, including everything from agenda setting, information and data gathering, analysis and decision-making and intervention design to follow up and accountability. Accountability will be key. We will give priority to the following five interdependent pillars which we see as essential in achieving gender equality targets and improving the lives of women and girls. And I will be short, don't worry. First, rule of law and human rights because these are crucial elements and constitute both the means and the end. Delivering on binding commitments and developing central aspects of international law in a gender-sensitive manner are of paramount importance. Despite the difficulties experienced in many contexts, we must aspire to move beyond merely defending current achievements, not least to counteract the notion that women's rights can be denied by reference to traditional norms and religious beliefs. And I recently visited a country where I was told that 50% of the girls are married before the age of 18.  And that is one of the, you know, the word leads the thought and, of course, you first have to define the challenge and the problem and you have to give it a name to be able to act. Secondly, combating gender-based and sexual violence in peacetime and in conflict remains, of course, a core priority because this is a global epidemic and I could talk forever about that. I've done that before here, so maybe I should not be led into that. But women in particular are vulnerable in conflict and gender discrimination and deep inequalities are at the heart of this issue. And it is only through consistent work to achieve progress at all levels that we can hope to mitigate women's particular vulnerabilities. The fight against impunity for sexual violence and gender-based violence in peacetime as in conflict is crucial. 2015 will mark the 15th anniversary of Resolution 1325, establishing the agenda of women, peace and security, but ensuring results on the ground is still an outstanding challenge in many ways. And we must bring also gender aspects and priorities to the heart of peace-building and peacekeeping. And I think that is also part of the reviews that is going on in the UN. So we have to make sure that we bring knowledge and experience also into that process. The third pillar, which Sweden has consistently championed for a long time concerns sexual and reproductive health and rights. And this is an area of work that represents perhaps the greatest normative challenges. While maternal health and to a certain degree also reproductive health have become accepted benchmarks, sexual and reproductive rights remain highly controversial in many parts of the world, including the EU. Important progress and central elements of the EU key has regretfully been undermined, so we have work to do in our own backyard as well as on the global level. The fourth pillar concerns another crucial building block in a feminist farm policy, the economic empowerment of women for overall development and growth. Because we must combat discrimination in the labour market but also promote women's legal rights with regard to inheritance, land acquisition and possession as well as equal access to various social services. Finally, we will also integrate feminist perspectives in our work to promote sustainable development and tackle climate change and other related threats. So the post-2015 development agenda will offer important opportunities to mobilize the feminist agenda and promote gender sensitive approaches in all of these areas. Of course, when I see Catherine, she reminds me that all of this is not, this must be a human rights agenda. It's not only for women, this is a human rights agenda. And a peace and security agenda priority. And success will ultimately depend on our ability to mobilize, inspire ownership and develop adequate working methods. And this in turn will require investing in capacity building and raising competence levels. And I have therefore initiated an overhaul of my foreign service in order, it sounds still strange to say that, my foreign service. Our foreign service in order to ensure that the necessary competencies are developed and integrated into all sectors of the ministry's work. For most of our staff around the world, this is nothing strange. They every day meet all of these challenges on the ground. The reality check shows that there is still so much of discrimination and violence against women that women are not present at the decision making tables anywhere or given power and a voice. So of course if we want peace and development and security we have to involve half of this world's population. But we also have to work in making sure that women and men in our services are well equipped to deal with it on a daily basis administratively and in every way politically. I've also appointed an ambassador at large for women's issues and gender equality to be responsible for coordinating Sweden's feminist foreign policy. And we have taken steps to involve civil society at an early stage of this process. So my last words will be about women's rights defenders because they are true heroes of our time. Fighting relentlessly for women's rights often in very difficult circumstances and at their own peril they prove that women are at the forefront of the struggle for equality and change. And their struggle very often and in many places come at an unacceptably high price. Many of these women are confronted on a daily basis by an incomprehensible level of hate, threats and violence. And in a recent survey conducted by the Swedish NGO Kvinna til Kvinna more than 60% of women interviewed had experienced public abuse, violence or received online threats. So by calling for increased influence and measures aimed at improving the lives of women women's rights defenders are in fact challenging existing power structures and the distribution of power. And violence is a way of trying to silence these efforts for change and development. Therefore supporting and defending the women who are fighting for women's rights is crucial to the overall struggle for human rights, peace, democracy and the rule of law. And I count on your support for that and thank you very much for listening. Thank you very much Minister Volstrom and thank you for your leadership and our congratulations on your path forward. I'd like to invite our distinguished panelists forward and I will take a moment just to introduce each of them. Ambassador Catherine Russell currently serves as the U.S. Ambassador at Large for Global Women's Issues. Prior to assuming this position in August 2013 she served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden focusing on military families and higher education. In her tenure at the White House she coordinated the development of the administration strategy to prevent and to respond to gender-based violence globally. To her left Ambassador Dawn Steinberg is President and CEO of World Learning an international non-profit organization that provides education, exchange and development programs in more than 60 countries. Many of you probably remember Ambassador Steinberg as he served as Deputy Administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development. In his previous work with the U.S. government Ambassador Steinberg served as the Director of the U.S. Department of State's Joint Policy Council, the White House Deputy Press Secretary, the National Security Advisor, Senior Director for Africa Affairs and the U.S. Ambassador to Angola. And to my immediate left Ambassador Johnny Carson. Ambassador Carson currently serves as USIP Senior Advisor to the President here. He served as Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Africa for four years from 2009 to 2013. And prior to this Ambassador Carson's 37-year Foreign Service career included Ambassadorships to Kenya, Zimbabwe and Uganda. And Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs. Their full bios are behind the agenda and I will now turn the rest of the event over to Ambassador Carson. Thank you for your moderation. We look forward to seeing you all for the reception just following this event. And again, thank you all for coming. Be on this podium with you after such a magnificent speech about the importance of gender equity and fairness and about the new Swedish feminist foreign policy. During the next 45 minutes to an hour, I hope that we will have an opportunity amongst ourselves to talk about not only what Sweden is leading the global community in doing, but what others are also doing. This will be interactive and I will start by asking our panelists a series of questions. And then I will open up the questions to the audience at which time there will be microphones on the sides. And I will ask those who are in the audience who are asking questions to make their questions and commentaries brief. And also to identify themselves as they speak. My first question will be to Ambassador Katharine Russell, who is the State Department's ambassador at large for global women's issues. How is the United States government helping to promote women's political and economic participation and gender equality in its foreign policy? Well, thank you so much Ambassador Carson for that question and thank you for having me here. And really, Foreign Minister Walsham has such an honor to be here with you today. You're such an amazing leader on this issue and on all issues related to women, so I'm grateful for the opportunity to be here with you. We were together earlier at lunch and I was so happy when you said that you're going to have an ambassador for women's issues in your government because it will now make three of us. So any other countries, I would strongly encourage you to consider doing that. But I do think that leadership is critically important and really does make a difference. So the fact that you are doing this and talking about this, once everyone gets past sort of chuckling, I think it really will have a huge impact. And I think added to the work you did as special representative on sexual violence, the first one. That was an amazing task that you took on and really made a huge difference. So thank you and I'm really delighted to be here with you today. I would say this, Ambassador Carson, we have a few challenges that we're facing. One is, I think on the political participation front, there has been a great deal of work done on this area. I would say that the progress would, I would characterize it as slow. You know, we, I think in the, now the sort of roughly the number of women who serve as parliamentarians is about 21.9%. And that was, it's up to 10% in the last 20 years. So at that rate, we have just a tremendous amount of work to do ahead of us. And I think we, as the United States government and we in the international community, have spent a lot of time working on that issue of trying to help more women get elected into office, precisely because leadership is so important. But I don't think we've broken the back of that problem yet. I don't think we know really how best to do it. Even in the United States, we're only at 20%, roughly political participation, sort of leadership in the Congress. You know, there are many people looking at that, trying to understand why that is. But I think it's really a big challenge for us and something that we need to do better. If you look at the percentage of ministers, I think that's 17%. And you are rarity. I was with Julie Bishop two weeks ago. So you're not alone, certainly. But many ministers, when I travel, the ministers who are women or ministers of health, sometimes education, really social issues for the most part. Rarely, not never but rarely in finance in those places where they are driving policy beyond sort of women and children. And I think that's a real challenge for us as well. And I think, again, it's something that we somehow need to try to do better. On the peace negotiations and sort of peace process side, again, women are woefully underrepresented in those discussions in those areas. And that, I see that as a little bit of a different problem because it's not relying on electoral politics.  And so I think that's a place where we definitely, you know, need to continue to bring diplomatic pressure as we've been trying to do in the case of Syria in South Sudan, but to try to make sure that women are represented because I think it's clear, although, again, we need more information, more data to support this, but that women just having a broad range of perspectives represented is useful and having women there who can talk about sort of the immediate consequences of violence in their communities because too often women now are victimized in these combat situations. But also sort of, you know, thinking about education, thinking about social welfare. It's not that men don't think about that, but women in higher numbers tend to do that. And I think it is important, and again, something we really need to focus on. Third, and I'll just be really quick on these points. I think when I look at my job, and somebody else pointed this out at lunch as well, when I talk to people about, you know, thinking about women, how to include them, thinking about girls, it always comes back to a discussion of thinking about how it's in their self-interest to do it because I think most people, most governments, most entities, operate in their own self-interest for the most part and trying to make the argument to them about why it matters to have women in a discussion, why it matters to have women in the economic sphere. I think that's a challenge for all of us, and we have more data on the economic side to show that it helps increase countries' GDP when women are participating, but we need more information on the political side. And then I would say in terms of what the United States is doing, our approach, and I think this is the right approach, is to try to look at these issues comprehensively. And too often we're doing, you know, sanitation here and electoral politics here and economic empowerment here, and I think what we're losing is the notion that you have to address a community and the challenges that the women face in that community in a comprehensive way. It's incredibly difficult to do that just because that's not really the way the United States government is set up and it's not really the way other governments are set up either, but I think if we can try to coordinate with our partners, you know, with Sweden, for example, with the UK, with like-minded governments who are trying to do the same thing, I'm hoping we might find a way to make some progress on issues like girls' education on health and women's economic empowerment and try to address them in a comprehensive way. Ambassador Russell, that was wonderful. I'm going to come back to you a little later and ask what are some of the best practices that the U.S. government has employed in advancing the gender equity agenda on behalf of the U.S. government. But I'm going to now turn to Ambassador Steinberg and ask him a question. Ambassador Steinberg, you've written often and very convincingly about the need for military leaders and senior leaders in the security establishments to take gender considerations into account when national security decisions are being made. How do men factor into this agenda? Good question, Johnny. And I too wanted to say my thank yous to the minister for her great work in the past and ask her if she would let me borrow her public affairs person because I want the branding message of a feminist foreign policy. If we had only had that at USAID, a feminist development policy, I think we would have achieved a lot more than we have. I guess I want to pick up on what Kathy was saying about what the motivation for involving men in this process is, and I'll just tell one quick story. I was on the civil society advisory group to Ban Ki-moon for Women, Peace and Security and I was asked frequently to talk to the police commissioners and the military commanders and the negotiators for UN peace negotiations around the world and try to genderize them and they figured that a 60-year-old white bald guy would be not pleading special interests for himself. And so I would go in and I've done this a number of times and the approach that works is an actual eye-opener. You walk in and you talk about rights. You talk about women have rights under international conventions, local laws, etc. And the police commissioners and military commanders and UN negotiators eyes glaze over. You cannot get through on that point.  So when social order breaks down, it's women and children who are most vulnerable. They deserve it. It's fair. It's right. Eyes glaze over.  You know, look at what happens to women in eastern Congo. Look at girls trying to go back to school in Afghanistan and getting acid thrown in their face. And every now and again, you'll get a glimmer. What only works is when you say, your peace process is going to mark your career and you will always be connected with that peace process is going to fail unless you involve women as planners, as implementers, as beneficiaries, unless you use their wisdom, their ground truth, unless you draw on 100% of the contributions of society, not just 50%. Unless you incorporate issues of girls' education and psychosocial support for women and accountability for abuses that took place during the conflict, you're going to alienate an entire part of the population and you're going to need that part of the population at some point. Your process is going to fall apart. You're going to be permanently identified as having failed in a peace mission and you're sure not going to get another job and then they perk up. So is that the same as it will cost you? It takes advantage of the fact that I actually believe that women are from Venus and men are from Mars and men care about, you know, personal career. Now, after a certain while, when you start watching the process work, then you accept the norms.  They do spend more money on, you know, social issues and human development. They are less corrupt. They're far more effective. You find that they accept the notion that girls' education is the single best investment you can make in restoring society and building up health conditions. After a while, you can get them on the other issues. You can go back to the rights argument. You can go back to the fairness. But it really is a question, as long as we have not cracked this problem that men appoint men to be peace negotiators and military commanders and police commissioners, until we do that, it is essential to do that genderization of the men who are involved. Thank you. Foreign Minister Waldstrom, in your current capacity and in your former capacity, looking at this issue from the UN, are there some cases out there that represent best practices? Are there individuals or countries that are trying to do it right? Are there places that are trying to lead the way? Yes. There are many such people, many individuals, definitely many NGOs, civil society organizations, many fantastic peacekeepers that try to do their best, also to interpret protection of civilians as also meaning women, asking where do women go, what kind of protection do they need? There are so many people out there trying to... And also government representatives, actually. But for example, the fact against impunity for these types of crimes is still a lot more to wish for. And I think that we have been trying to put in place at least structures, people, gender advisors, protection in many different ways on the ground. But there is much more to do. I think there are good examples. Even in the DRC, you can see that there have been great trials where, for the first time, also commanders, FRDC commanders have been put on trial for these types of crimes. And that is, of course, progress. But there is so much of a historic sort of luggage to deal with. So it's going too slow. But I think we have to recognize also some progress. The ICC, all the cases currently also on the ICC contains these elements of prosecuting also sexual violence, crimes for sexual violence. But the problem is also, as somebody said, to what you said in the sad list of things that happened, that in the end also peace negotiations will be done by bad men forgiving other bad men in fancy hotels as somebody wrote on the internet. So I think there is so much of these structures that have to be changed. But I think we should also notice progress and that there are so many fighting for this. And I think maybe less and less controversy actually, the giggling has stopped. And we have here, I mean, many experts that work on these also men. And I think maybe modern men would really don't like to be depicted in that way, that they glaze over for anything else but the arguments about losing power or that it will cost them. So I think we have, we also have to note the progress made. Absolutely. Ambassador Russell, your office at the State Department has now been in existence for approximately five, five and a half years. And you're the second ambassador at large to serve in that office. Are there examples that you and your colleagues have seen that represent progress and where are some of the engagements by the United States government in promoting gender equity? I would point to a couple of concepts that we think are working pretty well. One is Assistant Secretary Ann Richard is here, who I don't know how many of you know her, but she works at the State Department and does all the humanitarian issues. And one of the things that we've learned over time and through really bad example is that women are particularly vulnerable in times of conflict and humanitarian disaster. So Ann came up with a really wonderful program called Safe from the Start where the United States, along with our partners, goes in and tries to, from the beginning, look out for problems that can confront women. So whether it's the way the camp is set up or how they get access to water or how they get access to food or firewood or whatever, we're trying to learn from our experiences and do better. And I think Ann's program is a great example of that. I think the foreign minister mentioned accountability and one of the other ideas that we've seen working pretty well and we're all very focused on some of these really egregious cases, particularly what we saw in the DRC where rape is just a horrible tool of war and we're trying to figure out how to address that because really these crimes are committed with almost complete impunity. People never believe they're going to be prosecuted. One of the things that's turned out to be effective at this point, I mean, again, it's all early, but something called mobile courts where people go in and the courts actually go to the community. So people aren't traveling long distances to try to prosecute their cases and most importantly, people see justice served in their communities, which is critically important because for so many of those women, they just never thought anybody would pay the price for what they're doing. More generally, I think, and Ambassador Steinberg pointed to this too, we know that there are some things that work. We know that empowering women economically makes a difference. Women invest in higher rates back in their families, so they're a good investment. So the United States now is supporting women's economic centers in different parts of the country, different parts of the world, the first to open in Pakistan in the middle of next month. And the concept really is to try to support women as entrepreneurs and give them the ability then to support their families, contribute to their communities. And finally, and Ambassador Steinberg pointed this out as well, but we are absolutely committed to girls' education, trying to keep girls in school for as long as possible. We know if we delay marriage, if we keep them there, we'll delay marriage as the foreign minister pointed out. Child marriage numbers are horrific in some of these countries and not just the numbers, but also the ages at which we're seeing these girls getting married and the consequences to them in terms of their abilities to appropriate successfully and have any control over that. There are greater susceptibility to gender-based violence or greater incidence of HIV-AIDS. Absolutely horrific. And so we know that if we can keep them in school longer, we can help address some of those problems and hopefully move them into the workforce so then they can contribute to their families and communities. So we have an idea of what we think works pretty well. Now it's a question of finding the resources, which is something that non-U.S. have to do. And most importantly, trying to work with other partners because I think in this world of diminished resources, we're all trying to work in a more cooperative way and say, if we're doing this, you guys can do that. And I think where we're really looking at that carefully is in a place like Afghanistan, where we have seen a lot of progress for women, but we're all very concerned about trying to solidify that and make sure that it goes. To be clear, I think this is only the beginning of a long list of things where you have contributed. And without the U.S., we would never have had a resolution in 1960 passed, which adopted, which actually meant that we will now be able to use, to draw on all, including sanctions on all the policy tools that the Security Council has available. And I think this is extremely important in fighting impunity that we will now be able to pursue the perpetrators in a much more effective way. So just to give you credit for everything else also that has been... That's an important point because I'm a huge fan of 1325, but we also have to remember that 1325 occurred in a different era before the Security Council essentially had punitive measures that they would adopt in these spaces before they had sanctions, before there was a special advisor for these areas. It was a resolution adopted in an earlier period for an earlier Security Council. And the progress in terms of setting up your office in 1820 and 1887 and 1888, I think was a real turning point. And I credit, frankly, the Nordic countries to a great extent for pushing that agenda. How do we institutionalize this in various governments around the world and international organizations and in the NGO community? How do we move from where we are at the forefront of this to get organizations to buy into it fully? Not just simply to acknowledge the importance of the role of gender and women in society, but to actually change the minds and the habits and the attitudes inside of organizations so that the issue of gender and women's equity and empowerment is real in everyday life in everybody's thinking, whether it is in a security decision or whether it's with respect to financial decisions of a nation or health or education. It's a great question because I do believe we've made a lot of progress in a number of different areas, especially norms and just basic understanding. I don't think very few people would disagree with much of what the minister said today about the importance of involving women, the need to have every Security Council resolution talk about protection of civilians and protection of women. There are certain norms that have indeed changed. I also think we have laws and policy documents and UN resolutions that are very good. And frankly, they are now emerging throughout our systems. We also have leadership in this space and if it's Ellen Johnson-Cerle, if it's Krause-Michel, LeMaye Guboy, Hillary Clinton, Margo Wallstrom, I think we have the leadership now, but what we don't have yet and what we were desperately trying to do at AID and they are continuing to do it now is to institutionalize these principles and the way that we decided we were going to do that at AID was to focus on four pillars. First, you have to do programs to assist women's empowerment and gender equality directly. So you have to train women to be peace negotiators and we had a $15 million program that did that. You have to involve women's organizations in building in other areas. You have to support civil society institutions for women, et cetera. Those programs directly, we had a rule at USAID that you did not come forward with a project unless it had a gender impact statement. It is a rule and you will be amazed to see some of the first projects that were put forward. There was a bridge that was put forward in a country and the gender impact statement read 50% of the people using that bridge are women. I swear to you, that's true. And we went back and said, try again. So that's important. Secondly, you have to mainstream and integrate it. I am delighted that we have Kathy Russell in her position, but one of the key roles is not only having a focal point but making sure that the assistant secretary for PRM and the assistant secretary for PM and the deputy secretary and everyone else takes gender seriously and incorporates it into their visions. Third, we have to be thought leaders. We have to push the envelope and we have to do the research that the minister was talking about because we have a lot of anecdotal evidence for example that shows that the exclusion of women from peace processes leads to the failure. But it is not necessarily convincing. There is more data that we need to accumulate in that space. And finally, we have to walk the walk in house. It is all great for the United Nations to talk about gender equality and the importance of women in peace processes. But to this day there still hasn't been a peace negotiator who has led a peace process that the UN has been involved with that was a woman. To this day, we are talking about eliminating glass ceilings in all of our institutions. We are talking about looking at our rules of hiring, of firing, of promotion. We have to walk the walk in house and this is one thing I give the State Department great credit for that in the past 10 to 15 years they have indeed walked the walk such that we now have women in very senior positions throughout the department and men who are sensitized to these issues in those positions as well. So it really isn't a question of just changing norms, changing laws or developing leadership. It's also a question of institutionalizing that change. And that's very important. Thank you, Don. Let's open this up a little bit to the audience out there. I am sure that there are lots of questions for the foreign minister and our other panelists. So if you have a question move to the right or left. There are microphones on both sides. I would urge you again to do two things make your question or comment brief and also identify yourself and your affiliation. We'll take three questions at a time. Jill Gay, What Works Association questions from Minister Wallstone. How do you plan for your government to promote sexual health and reproductive rights at the UN within the UN's sustainable development goals? And for my government, for Ambassador Russell, how do you plan to infuse our government foreign policy with a feminist agenda? Okay. Second question. My name is Chantal Liouma-Antoth. I'm with Ys as well as USIP. And first of all, I want to say to Ambassador Steinberg we need more research. I couldn't agree more with you. But I have a question for Foreign Minister Wallstone. In this town and USIP is a little bit of an outlier here but in this town when you talk about gender perspectives and foreign policy they're still laughing at you. And this town currently is very preoccupied with terrorism and violent extremism. Both in the U.S. as well as in Europe this really has gone again to the top of the policy agenda. And I wonder if you could elaborate a little bit for us what a feminist foreign policy would look like when we're dealing with the issue of violent extremism and terrorism. Got a third question up here. Hi, my name is Federica Bindi. I'm at size here. I have two quick questions for Minister Wallstone. The first one is now that you are heading to European Union which is one of the most pro-gender government what do you plan to do if any to push the gender issue within the European Union? Because my feeling is that it was an issue it's going away. I was looking at Rasmus Plus it's not mentioned anymore as one of the key issues for research going back to the research issue and the directive on women on board on the corporate boards they issued the European Union level. And then the second thing going back to the previous comment this is by all means a misogynist city and it would be interesting given your experience as a Swedish if you could talk a little bit about positive discrimination. It will never happen here but it would help the debate. Thank you. Three very good questions. Madam Minister. There. Of course we have to be very active within the European Union in every setting of council setting and I try to make sure that somebody asks the questions also at the Foreign Affairs Council what about women and now they have started to look at me at the end of the debate and I'm not sure that I will comment on that and let me just seriously let me take Ukraine as an example because we are in a very very bad situation right now and dangerous situation increased fighting and increased killing of civilians and a dangerous situation in every way. So how can feminist people be applied and we discussed it during the lunch seminar today. I hear very little of women and the situation of women for example among the IDPs and I just told the story about my visit to Kiev and I went to one of these shelters and met with women and they were from my point of view what I could see they were so traumatised and they tell what they had been through and that could of course have been war crimes you need a person that can help and assist in making the interviews to follow up to report on the situation of women and children and of course also our humanitarian assistance and I will tomorrow announce more of humanitarian assistance to Ukraine that will also have to be designed in such a way that it helps women and has a gender perspective. I think that the OSC can definitely also make sure that there are women police or women in the OSC staff that can maybe look at things in a different way and with gender lens on we have to make sure that the resources that are directed to Ukraine also are used in order to help women and to see that they have a role in this peace process but it is a constant struggle as much of structures you set up you need leadership you need people to ask the right questions you need the expertise there we can maybe second people also to help Ukraine in making sure that they follow up with women in conflicts and in post-conflict invisible there are no women there are men who represent the military men who represent the parties to a conflict men who negotiate peace men who take decisions and so on and look at Greece they announce an inner cabinet of 11 members all men so you want to send a telegram ever heard of women no I shouldn't it's difficult enough in Greece but you know it will not be easier if they exclude women in the government or in the work of restoring most of the economy so I think it has to be consistent and I think the best is to show the examples to work on the concrete cases that we have in front of us so in the EU we have to all the time ask the questions we have to check on the programs this is a factor in and an element in the programs and in the decisions that we take not easy I also hope that the theme of women peace and security will be carried out by Federica Mogherini herself and maybe again she can be helped by an envoy or somebody a focal point within the EU that can also drive these issues and help to do so on counter-terrorism that's another example we have appointed a national coordinator to work on violent extremism and she has engaged with of course many of the religious leaders she is engaging with schools and making sure that our approach to this whole issue is one of dialogue one of making sure that we have that we continue to promote diversity and tolerance but she has also mentioned that so many women mothers in particular worried about if their sons or daughters were going to considering fighting for ISIL and leaving where would they turn so she wants to open a phone line where you can dial to get some advice on what to do and help and this is again with that particular perspective I think and listening to the women and their concerns about this so I think it's in the big and the small issues we just have to have somebody asking the right questions I think you have I often quote you saying that nothing about them without them and that is the sort of basic rule of course that we have to make sure that women are well represented also when discussing counter-terrorism is there a perspective agenda perspective on all of this look at who are the targets of also ISIL's horrendous violent acts women and girls and there is no stopping them and no what it seems borders at all for what they can do to women and girls so I think they are also the victims but as much women are also actors and want to play a part and I take comfort from and I often quote you Laurelis would because you're the one who said that it's not actually a glass ceiling it's a thick layer of men so that helps I don't know how to also really what we do with health and reproductive issues when it comes to the post the new development agenda there are a few issues that will continue to be very very difficult democracy is another aspect where I am not entirely pleased with the outcome of the consultations and the work on the new development agenda I think it is very much to those countries that understand how important this is to continue to advocate for it the strength of the new agenda is of course that it is for every country not only the developing countries not only the poorest countries in this world to do their homework but it is for every country to ensure that these issues are dealt with and I think the EU will have to have a proper debate also on these things not to turn back and take steps backward on these issues but there is no simple solution and I will have to work on that properly also from our side Ambassador Russell did you want to make any comments? she asked me on the feminist foreign policy I would say this I think just a couple quick points one is that leadership obviously is incredibly important and right now we are lucky to have a president and a secretary of state who believe in this and care about it and have empowered me and the rest of the department to make sure that women are more successful than women in the course of our foreign policy having said that it is still not easy to do it and there are times when people need to be reminded but by and large people accept the argument we are not making the argument anymore we are just reminding people that they have got to do this and again to my earlier point it is in their interest to do it they will be more successful their peace negotiations will be more successful their economic efforts will be more successful but one of the things that we are trying to do is really make sure that all of that is institutionalized so that it really doesn't depend on the leadership so that whomever is there as secretary or whoever is president or in my job that this is so ingrained in what the state department does that it is not really an issue anymore you know that it is sort of a herculean task but we go about that every day and try to make it clear to our colleagues why it matters secretary is very proud of the fact that most of his assistant secretaries are women he believes very strongly that we are doing the right thing and he tries to support us in the effort but I can't say that it is an easy thing to do do we have any can I just weigh in you know we all bemoan the fact that this city doesn't focus on these issues in the big policy deliberations but I would point the finger back at ourselves we who are advocates in this area have not done a good enough job at connecting the dots we argue that women are important in these peace processes etc but to me the real arguments are that societies that protect women that involve women in these processes that focus on girls education are more stable they are more democratic they are more prosperous and that means they are more supportive of a national security agenda these are countries that do not traffic in drugs and people in weapons they don't send refugees across borders or across oceans they don't harbor terrorists or pirates they don't transmit pandemic diseases and perhaps most importantly in this town they don't require American military force or troops on the ground and if we can connect the dots for people to say this isn't an agenda that I'm sorry is mostly about rights or fairness or equity it is about American national security interests then I think we can make much more progress the other point that I wanted to make just talk briefly about my organization we are currently involved in Pakistan to help build an education system that is open to girls that is liberal that is providing a quality education and that can compete with the madrasas so that parents decide to send their kids to the public school system instead of getting a madrasa education we are right now with IRC training 90,000 teachers throughout that entire country and again that's the kind of program that can directly attack terrorism and security where it lies and I will tell you that my board of directors was very reluctant to get us involved in Pakistan it was the first time we moved there I went out and bought 25 copies of the book I am Malala and I sent each one a copy and I said if you read this book and tell me you don't think it's consistent with the world learning mission to be helping to create a liberal women oriented education system tell me no one told me I'm not sure anybody read the book but no one told me do we okay good evening my name is Kelsey would you stand up please and speak a little louder so that we can both see you and hear you good evening my name is Kelsey Campbell and I'm a female veteran from the US I served in Iraq and in Pakistan and have dealt with many gender issues there and I've seen all across America that racism is no longer tolerated homophobia is no longer tolerated but sexism is still tolerated right now as we're working to integrate women into all the job opportunities in the military there's a lot of people who are very vocal and allowed to speak saying things that I just don't think women should have that ability to do that job in the military so how do we truly show them that equality is a true American notion thanks we have a question on the right hand good evening my name is Tatiana Hiranko and I am an LLM student at the George Washington Law School Minister Walsham it's nice to have you here and thank you for paying attention to Ukraine issue and I have a question could you specifically emphasize in which way you're going to provide your agenda according to Ukraine specialist against women, rapes and abuses because the territory of East Ukraine is occupied by the Russian terrorists and it's difficult now to have to get any evidence of these crimes against humanity and the second question is are you have any plans for negotiation with the Russian government as well who which particularly is a sponsor of the terrorism in Ukraine about any peaceful resolutions against to stop all the streets for the civilians and the last one in Mariupol 30 people killed and more than 100 injured are women and children thank you third question from the World Bank you mentioned briefly that you would take in consideration climate change in your feminist foreign policy and with a Paris agreement coming later this year I was wondering if you could give a little more detail on how you see the view that thank you we'll stop there Madam Minister we have within the European Union formed a group called friends of Ukraine and we we are trying to organize breakfast meetings and other gatherings to also engage with the Ukraine and with the ministers from the government of Ukraine to see how can we best help how can we assist and I think that this is now really a subject for discussion within that group can we in this very difficult situation help also with this perspective of looking at the needs for protecting women and children in particular and with sort of a feminist approach to this issue it has to be designed you know from out from their situation and from the reality on the ground how can we best help can we second people as I said can we insist in helping them to ratify make sure that the legal framework is there how can we assist in doing that how can we also design the humanitarian assistance in the right way not easy at all but I definitely have seen that there is an interest and that the new government also wants to engage with us so I think we also have opportunity right now to make sure that they get it right and that the reform work that they have started also can include this perspective so I think we just have to work with them to make sure that we can assist in the best possible way and that there is an ownership in Ukraine for whatever we decide to do and then we have to work through the channels that already exist the OSCE the European Union all of these different settings where we engage with Ukraine and suddenly it all went blank what was the last question climate change yes I'm sorry of course climate change also as a security threat is already recognized I think from here actually in pentagon reports demonstrate that this is also a threat to security what we have seen is also that climate change as it is already manifested and demonstrated already today also affects very often women first they are the ones who take care of the harvest they are the ones to see that the season this year is very strange it came you know the rain came much later that things that affect their everyday lives and I think this again has to be taken seriously and I remember being and this was many years ago but being in Liberia and women farmers just said exactly that they told us the stories about how everything has become so strange because the seasons are changing and the harvest and all of that is that they could not put words on it because women have not been informed about very often they lack the education of the information to understand that this is also an effect of climate change so I think it has to do with all these different elements also on the issue of climate change and it's definitely something that we care a lot about and looking at security policy in a much broader way than than previously but we also have to deal with the situation in our neighbourhood so it combines the very traditional way of having to look at defence policies with the fact that we now have pandemies that we have terrorism that we have climate change that we have all of these other security threats as well and there has to be a gender perspective and somebody has to ask those questions whether Ambassador Russell or Ambassador Steinberg want to provide a response to the question about sexism in the military and then that will in fact be our last question but go ahead it's a very valid question but it's if you look at how we addressed racism and how we addressed homophobia in the military it was executive action it was Harry S. Truman who desegregated the U.S. Army it was Barack Obama who said don't ask, don't tell is by definition discriminatory we've got to get rid of it to me you're focusing on attitudes but there are a number of places where laws and regulations and orders have to proceed and there are a number of approaches and attitudes and unfortunately I think this is one of those cases I always remember Martin Luther King once said I can't make that white racist love me but I can sure make him stop lynching me and that's the principle that I think needs to apply in this case and frankly there are lessons from all around the world in this regard it's not too far of a stretch to have 30% women's participation in political life and it may be that that would not be the natural result to have 30% women's participation in parliament but we know it is a social and a political and a national security good and so we do it and it is not reverse discrimination and I just have to keep reminding people that more countries in the world have those quotas or don't 106 countries have them 86 don't so it is not for those who are advocating those quotas to be explaining why they're doing it it's for other societies and you know Kathy was talking about the percentages of women in parliament if you change the word parliament to congress it's even worse and so let's not you know put ourselves up as a paragon of women's equality until we start addressing those issues as well Ambassador Russell well first I'd like to thank you very much for your service and I when I travel around the world it's really interesting because people think that I'm the minister for women in the United States so they're always asking me questions about the United States and what I say is that we in this country have made a lot of progress on women's issues and other issues particularly on women's issues you know we've done some really great work I used to work for the vice president did some great work on the violence against women act we have made real progress here I think the political participation is definitely a challenge that we have not overcome but otherwise women have rights when we get to go to school blah blah women serve in the military and in some places that's not the case but there's no question that we have challenges that remain and sometimes when I talk to other countries they think the United States everything's perfect for women because they kind of get that there is no country where women don't face violence whether it's in the military or just in their communities not a single country even the Nordic countries which are spectacular on so many levels and certainly the United States we have a serious problem with that here we have challenges that we need to overcome and I think what I come back to is there are things that need to get done you need to get the laws in place I've pretty much done that you know there are some challenges with things like exactly what you're describing but also other sort of pervasive ideas that people have and I think pop culture is part of that discussion and we need to we need to address that I don't go through life yelling about women's rights and all the rest of it because I do enough of that at work but I am very mindful of it especially because I have two teenage kids and I know I have one boy and one girl and boys are not born with any preconceived notions about women that is a learned thing and in the United States when you look at the images when you see endless beauty patterns or places where women are really debased whether it's in songs videos or whatever it is I think we need to be mindful of what that message is to our kids and we need to try to counteract it and we need to do it with our boys and with our girls and at some point I believe because otherwise I would have to quit my job that we will we will prevail on this but I think it's a long haul honestly and you know the military has its issues I mean certainly the military also provides opportunities for women I think we have to try to find the best in an institution and try to correct the problems that we face there Madam Minister don't you have a gun? it makes me so it makes me so sad to hear those things because I what I understand you are by now how many of the what's the percentage of women 50 so you already yes 15 and you already now make a fantastic contribution and very often a very courageous and brave work you also put yourself in harm's way together with others you should not have to be a subject to abuse by language or otherwise sexual violence and what have you so this is so sad I think when we work with sexual violence in conflict we used to say that it can be commanded, condoned or condemned and I think the same is here it has to start from the very top you need commanders who say this should never happen under my watch this is totally unacceptable except any language of this kind or behaviour of that sort and then it has to be dealt with through the system of course but this is totally unacceptable and very sad to hear you are not alone unfortunately also on this issue it happens elsewhere but we just have to stop it in every possible way Madam Minister thank you very very much we have gone past our time but I want to just take one minute to say how pleased we are at USIP to have an opportunity to welcome you back again to talk about Sweden's feminist foreign policy as one of the great democracies of the world Sweden has frequently been a leader a thought leader a change leader a visionary when it comes to setting a new direction in respect for human rights civil liberties and good governance this afternoon you have given us all here a perspective of Sweden leading again in an important area on ensuring the empowerment of women and ensuring gender equity the United States and I'm sure Ambassador Russell would echo this is also a strong leader in this area as well and I think it is the work of your country and our government in collaboration and partnership that will help enormously help to empower women and ensure gender equity we also know that doing this also requires changing the mindset and the norms of many men who constitute not that glass ceiling but that thick layer and that is very important that we continue to work and strive to ensure that when we talk about human rights and when we talk about justice and equity it does not represent simply 50% of the global community but 100% of the global community and this afternoon you have led us in a very powerful discussion on a very important issue so we're extraordinarily pleased and happy that you were able to join us this afternoon and we look forward to welcoming you back we also thank Ambassador Russell for being here with us this afternoon and for the enormously good work that she does at the Department of State on behalf of not only the Department and the Secretary but on behalf of the Administration and the US Government ensuring that we continue to keep gender issues at the forefront not only of our thinking but of our foreign policy and our efforts and again Ambassador Steinberg longtime colleague glad to have you here as well pushing the institutionalization of these issues and reminding us that men have to be sensitized to play a more open role in this process it is not just a 50% job it's a 100% job so again would you all join me in thanking Ambassador Steinberg Ambassador Steinberg Ambassador Steinberg Ambassador Steinberg Ambassador Steinberg Thank you


According to a survey of more than 30,000 U.S. residents, a third of American adults self-identify as meat reducers, meaning one in three of us are trying to cut down on our meat consumption. Why? For those earning less than $40,000 a year, the number one reason is cost. For those earning more than $40,000 a year, the number one reason is health. And indeed, if we were to define a healthy diet, compared to how we're eating now, we should be eating more plant-based foods, including fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, meaning beans, split peas, chickpeas, and lentils, seeds, and nuts, and at the same time lower in animal foods, particularly fatty and processed meats. In an editorial entitled Plant-Based Diets for Personal Population and Planetary Health, co-authored by the Chair of Nutrition at Harvard, healthy plant-based diets are not only more sustainable, but have also been associated with lower risk of chronic diseases, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers. What do we mean by plant-based? Basically, any diet that reduces the amount of animal products and increases the amount of plants, again, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Transitioning global diets towards healthy plant-based dietary patterns would require large-scale public health efforts, but could be instrumental in ensuring future human and planetary health. Indeed, the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, describes plant-based diets as a major opportunity for mitigating and adapting to climate change, and includes a policy recommendation to reduce meat consumption. OK, but how do you do it? In a systematic review of experimental studies on strategies to reduce meat consumption, one of the most effective experiments came out of the Midwest. Sadly, research shows that the provision of information on its own can be of limited utility in facilitating behavioral change. However, default interventions have been successfully employed in a variety of pro-social contexts, making the right option or the healthiest option the easiest option, the default option. Take, for example, organ donation. Every year, thousands of people in the United States have died waiting for a suitable donor organ. But wait, 85% of Americans approve of organ donation, yet less than half have made a decision about donating and fewer still have granted permission by signing a donor card. If you look at Europe, there's nearly a tenfold difference in the organ donor rates across different countries. In some countries, consent is only about 10%, while in others, it's up to like 99.9%. Oh, what's the difference between the two colors? Gold is opt-in, blue is opt-out. In opt-out countries, the default is that people are organ donors unless they actively register not to be. In the opt-in countries like the United States, the default is nobody is an organ donor without explicitly registering to be one. So there's all sorts of calls for campaigns to change public attitudes about organ donation, but remember, 85% are already on board. If we want to change behavior and not just attitudes, changing the default condition may be more effective. So does it work for diet? In the default treatment, participants received at their table a menu listing only five meat-free options, but they were informed verbally and in writing on the menu that they could also consult a second menu that was posted on the wall about a dozen feet away, which had your standard array of popular non-vegetarian dining hall dishes. And in the control condition, both lists of options were mixed together on the same menu they were handed. And when you do that, only a minority of people choose the meat-free options, between 5% and 40%, depending on if you describe the meat-free options in an appealing way, like pasta with provolso vegetables or in unappealing terms like vegan calzone. Okay, but what about the default condition where the menu in front of them is all meat-free? They can still get up and order all the meat they want, but the alternate menu is a few steps away. You're not taking away any people's options, but just by making it the default, meat-free choices shot up like to 75% and 90%. Even an unappealingly described meat-free option totally won out. And even just adding more veg options from a quarter of the option to half the options may increase the sales of the veg options between about 40% to 80%.


Hi, it's Bridget. I'm in my psychic minivan. I channel anywhere. I'm on the go all the time, right? It's like the ice cream man, but I'm in the psychic minivan. I am waiting for a game two of a soccer tournament to start for my daughter and I thought I would just take a moment to do a video. I have been so bugged by energy from Michael Jackson recently. A couple of days ago, I woke up with a very strong kind of like a dream, but not. It's an in-between state.  Like it just happens kind of in the in-between state between a sleep and a wake. That's really common, super common. Happens to a lot of people and he popped into my mind. I distinctly, distinctly Michael was saying please talk to my daughter, please talk to my daughter. I'm like, okay. All right, and even before that, he'd been coming in music and songs and shut up in the kitchen a couple times and I was doing some other channeling and so I thought okay, all right, got to talk to his daughter and I think it's a perfect time to do that. To do a video for Paris, Jackson. Part of I think what he, what your dad, I'm gonna say this in the way that as if Paris were listening. Okay, and anybody who's listening, please open your hearts and bring supportive energy, nurturing, loving, supportive energy for her so that she can be come the woman that she is so that she, she already has like this really strong presence and this determined energy about her and so let's just uplift her. Let's give her strong woman vibes. Let's just wrap her in unconditional love for mother nurturing energy because she doesn't really have that. She hasn't had that from what I can feel. And her dad really wants her to feel that, to know that she is an incredible woman and although she hasn't had really any women who are directly, like a direct mother to her that she, even though it feels like she might be missing that piece that she within herself holds that, she totally holds divine feminine and I feel like she's really into astrology. I don't know anything about you Paris. I really don't know much about you my dear. I know that you're a girl, you're a daughter and I'm a mama and I have a daughter too and so that is enough for me to connect and I know your dad and as a very talented spirit in the afterlife and he's really persistent like he's got a lot to say and he really loves you guys. He loves his kids so, so very much and he would never wish any of the pain that has been caused to you guys on you. He would never have wanted that for you and he loved you so much like you were his pride and joy and I think you know that in your heart but I want to share that with you because that's what he just emanates pride to me. Like my kids are like my greatest accomplishment. Look at how beautiful my daughter is.  He's like she is a beautiful person. She's like this. It compares you to a flower but a strong flower like beautiful like kind of like a lotus is what it feels like and he's like she's going through a tough time and I don't know if you are maybe you are I don't know but you're going through a growth time or an opportunity for to change or transition and it's a perfect time to reach out to you and share with you that your dad is like you're like going through this transition time but you will move through this and you will become stronger for it and you'll become better as a person and to who you are and he's saying he doesn't want his shadow to overcast over you like he realizes he's like this big tree energetically and the shade that he casts over you keeps you from the sunlight and the sunlight energy is really pure god source creator and universe energy and that is the energy that you deserve and you desire and you need to become more of your own person and I feel like you're a strong person to me it feels like you're a strong girl man you're like your power go you know I also feel like you're into astrology I feel like you are looking for the big questions like the meaning of life kind of questions I feel like you're super creative I feel like you have art artist energy artist and energy I feel like you would probably feel more comfortable in Europe than you would in the United States I feel like I could see you going on like a quest somewhere like Nepal or climbing a mountain or doing something really you know profound that creates a lot of power momentum for you and I also could see you being really philanthropic like going overseas and teaching out of school or doing something that like really it's almost like how like you know the princess Diana vibes like where she did a lot of work with like kids with aids and stuff and a lot of charity stuff and then her kids kind of do that now that's the kind of vibe I get like you're that type of person that could really start something that could really support other people I could see you getting involved in mental health issues and being an advocate for other people I can see you working with people who have addiction and trying to get people off the streets and make better choices I could see you doing a lot of stuff and I can see you being an incredibly powerful woman really inspiring really motivating and so be who you is not who you ain't that's the advice I would give you I had a mentor myself and when I was really spiritually connected and I feel like you're definitely on a spiritual journey my friend oh my goodness girl you are on a spiritual journey and my one of my mentors he's a Native American medicine man who he's now in heaven and so I connect with him in the spirit spirit plane but he gave me the best advice be who you is not who you ain't so be really true to yourself and do not feel like you have to live in your dad's legacy and I know like your dad he shares a lot about like he's really proud of you but he's throwing me the lotus like that you're in a transition time and that he feels like he's a tree that gave you shade like maybe protected you guys too much and he likes how close you are to Michael or to Prince Michael to your older brother and he just specifically talks about that but he also says you know you get to be your own person you get to make your own choices and you get to make your own mistakes too you know you're free to do that and to live your life the way that you feel not in the legacy of your dad but make your own way make your own path that's kind of what he's saying and he's like be strong you're a strong woman don't fight against the current flow with the current is the energy he's telling me so I can hear him singing to you it's really kind of sweet actually it kind of feels emotional yeah I can hear him singing to you it kind of reminds me of the song okay so there's a song that I that's coming that Michael did that was man in the mirror I'm gonna make a change for once in my life I'm gonna feel real good I'm gonna make a difference I'm gonna make it right and that's the song that's coming forward the man in the mirror so all right Paris maybe in some way you'll get this vibrational video or maybe at the very least you'll get the support of the people who are watching everybody who's watching post a comment in support of her she doesn't need advice young people do not want that they're not going to listen to us anyway she's quite wise and she can make her own choices I am super kid I am super confident that she is confident to make her own choices okay but post a heart or post a rainbow or post a love or a hug or xoxo or some kind of symbol that brings a vibration of confidence into her heart space and activating that soul for her and acknowledging her light and and helping her to shine and and do that for her would you I think that would be great because our vibration really can make a difference in the world and there's a quote that comes forward for me right now that I remember because I I shared it at my dad's funeral when I did his eulogy gosh that was so long ago like 12 years ago now the summer it'll be 12 years oh my goodness it's a long time ago and it's a quote by JFK I believe it was Jack Kennedy that said it it was one of the Kennedys could have been Robert but I think it was Jack Kennedy and it was one person can make a difference but everyone should try everyone should try so this is Bridget it's my pleasure to do this connection video again I'm at a soccer tournament weekend with my daughter and again I I literally got in the car to hit the highway to get here from the hotel to the field the fields behind me the girls are warming up now and Michael Jackson's beat it was on the was on the radio like really I don't like that's a really trendy popular song but it was on the radio and so I thought okay that's enough I need to at least do a little video for the for Paris and to help Michael connect with her all right remember at above life channel if you're watching this on above life channel know that the purpose is to inspire your spirit to fill you up with hope and remember remember this is your life so live it thanks for being here


The study aims to explore how individuals who express loneliness on an online loneliness forum communicate in an online non-loneliness forum, using natural language processing algorithms and cycle linguistic dictionaries. The results show that these users tend to use more words associated with sadness, seeking socialization, valence, dominance, relationships, family and friends, and mental health in their posts on the non-loneliness forum compared to a control group of users who did not belong to any loneliness forum on Reddit. These findings can inform the design and implementation of online interventions around loneliness. This article was authored by Aniety Andy.


So, you have never low-poly modeled before. Not a problem. All you gotta do is break things down into the fundamental shape. Shapes have personality. You might not be an artistic expert, but I guarantee that you get a different feeling from all three of these designs. And low-poly is about capturing that feeling. This 3D technique takes its roots from its 2D cousin called minimalism. Now, you've probably heard the name Picasso. Because Picasso was an artistic genius. If someone ever asks you, what's your favorite artist?  Just say Picasso. And if they ask why? Just say. I just really admire his ability to capture complex ideas with simple shapes. Here's a story for you.   And in that sexy Spanish accent, Picasso responded, Challenge accepted. Then turned around and drew the following picture. This is why Picasso was a legend. The lightning fast ability to simplify things into the raw basic form so that anyone can understand is what separates the geniuses from the casuals. And this technique is what you will strive to achieve as a low-poly modeler. The good training exercise is to look up random cool things on Google and visually break them down shape by shape. And ask yourself, if you were to try create those shapes in 3D, where would you put the points? Do this a couple times and then find something that you'd like to create. For this tutorial, I will be recreating the missile launcher from Armored Corps 2 because it's one of my childhood favorite games and it's a great example. So like all modeling projects, phase one is collecting concepts, gather pictures, find any and all patterns between them and plan your model. Luckily, Armored Corps was a mid-poly game so the models aren't too complicated to begin with. And it looks like the main object here has about seven angles. There's a lower part here, a box here and the latches themselves that cover the missiles. Once you have broken down the shapes, we are in phase two, which means it's time to model. Now I'm going to do the main shape first. I'm seeing a flat bottom, flat top and flat sides. So it's really just a square that's been cut and slanted. So we're going to start with a square. We're going to loop cut down here and since it only has one edge here and not here, instead of the loop tool, we are going to use the knife tool. Go to the back view, left click out here, hold C and make a perfectly flat cut to the other side. Then slanted. Make another square for the bottom and in this picture, you can't see it. But if we look at another picture, you can tell that it's actually got a slant this way and there's one more square over here for the roof. Now the easiest way to get this shape is probably to click here, inset faces, extrude them out and shrink the size until the roof is aligned. All right. So that's phase two. Now that we've blocked out the basic shape, I know it doesn't look like much, but remember awesome texture maps and cool animation are going to make your low poly model look five times as good later. Now phase three is the fun part. You never want to copy something a hundred percent because that's illegal. And that's why in phase three, we improvise and build off the base design and change it to make something unique and different from the original. The easiest way to do this is to go back online and find images of things or concepts that you would like to mix together. At this point, it's important to think about how the model is intended to function. For example, I know this part is going to go on the back of X's shoulders. The same way that you see the weapons in Gundam, Armored Core or Starship Troopers. I've already built the mechanism for it, which looks like this and the area that the weapon mounts onto is a circle. So I'm going to start by making some sort of circular attachment part that goes at the bottom of the connection. So here's the next rule of low poly. Anytime you want to create something round, the best way to do that is with a smooth shaded hexagon. Or if you want to really push the poly count, an octagon. The trick is in the texture map. The shading and the texture are going to be round, which will give the illusion of an actually round cylinder. Now we are going to be bold and use an octagon instead. So shift A, mesh cylinder, type in eight. And just because I think it'll look cool, we are going to put a hexagon inside. So same thing, but make it smaller, longer and place it down here with our new joint. The next thing that I would change is making the joints for the missile latches a little more pronounced. You can't really see the joints in the original, but I want the player to be able to see them. So to keep it simple, I'm going to make these joints out of a square and just so that it's not totally a square, I'm going to take my knife tool, start a line here, press C and make a flat cut here and just make a tiny little angle right there. Add a mirror modifier and place it on the sides over here. And let's put some up here too. Why not? All right. Now something else that I found was this picture right here. I really like this shape and I want to put it on the back of my launcher. It basically looks like an L Tetris piece. So start with a square, stretch it, make a few cuts, make a few extrusions and get the shape kind of like this and just jam it in there so it looks a little less boring. Last, I'm not really digging this empty space back here. So I'm going to fill it up with another square and use our knife trick one more time for a touch of detail. Now in phase three, you can add or change as many things as you want. Really just make sure that you add and subtract new basic shapes until you were happy with what you see. Awesome. Now in phase four and five, you would UV and texture map it, which is not what this tutorial is about. You can check out my UV and texture map in series if you want to know how to do that stuff. So we are just going to skip to phase six, which is export in the model wherever it's supposed to go. You can animate it and export it as an FBX if you want, but I think you have a lot more control over it in the game engine. So we are just going to export it as an OBJ and I will do all the animation in Unity. Now when you export things out of blender, you have to be really careful about the origins of your objects. Blender does not export pivot points correctly, which means that if you export this to Unity right now, you see how each latch has a proper origin point that it rotates from. Yeah, well, that gets lost because if we go to the actual game engine, you can see that every single object's origin point is now whatever the center of the scene was in blender, which is completely useless. Now I have been told by the stack exchange that the supposed way to fix this is to set your origins to the 3D Corsair and then change the global mode in Unity to pivot. But that doesn't work because when you set mode to pivot, it does that for every single object in the game, not just the one that you're trying to control, which you probably don't want to do. But more importantly, when you program the animation and rotations, it always uses the true origin of your object, the best workaround that I've found, which is still dumb and hopefully blender will fix. But until then, it's to manually place each object in your scene so that the origin is where you want the joints to bend from and rotate in your game. At a minimum, your object's rotation point will be in the correct position. So that was the entire process for a low-poly game asset. I hope that shed some light on what the workflow for these kind of projects look like. If you enjoyed the video, please don't forget to ring that bell or follow me on Twitter. Those are the best ways to know when I upload new stuff. And as always, I hope you have a fantastic day and I'll see you around.


What's up navigation traders welcome to this week's video update today's Friday, January 3rd This video is exclusively for pro members to go over all the alerts all the positions and we start off with who got caught being hot for The week this week goes to a member goes by the name of Jorge Castro hails from the great country of Portugal Jumped in helped answer a question about structuring an iron duck to a newer trader So appreciate the feedback always appreciate the comments and engagement in the community Congrats, Jorge. You got caught being hot Let's jump into the alerts Starting with Monday. So remember Mark was closed one day for New Year's and So we are gonna go over the other four days The 30th was Monday. We started off with an opening trade in Shopify So we put on a new iron duck with 18 days to expiration. Let's take a look at our Shopify positions. So Here's the here's the one that we had on already. This is a reverse iron duck You can see prices hanging out right here Right starting to enter that beak that duck head and that expires next Friday So hopefully we can kind of stay in this area and get a little bit higher and collect a duck head But the one we just put on from the alert on Monday is this one here. So Prices run up since then you can see prices up here Still got what do we got here? Let's put our calendar on the expiration date So we still have over 31 percent chance of potentially getting back into the duck head So not looking to take that one off yet But that's where we're at in Shopify Next trade rolling adjusting trade in XLK. So we had a long put vertical in XLK Rolled that out to the February cycle with 53 days to expiration at that point. So let's take a look at XLK You can see prices hanging out right here next to the breakeven So just looking for some downside action to get back into range on XLK Next trade opening trade in Amazon. So we put on a new iron duck in Amazon at this point with 17 days to expiration So let's take a look at Amazon. We we had a another reverse iron duck that expires today Friday We ended up taking that off ended getting filled for just under beak profit the the call spread Excuse me the put spread was five dollars wide So I just put in an order at 499 to see if we get filled for a little more than beak profit and we did I really didn't didn't think we'd get filled. I figured we just let it expire But we did in fact get filled so we're out of that piece and then this is the one from the alert so prices hanging out right here and Similar situation to what I was just showing you where we still have a decent chance of getting into that duck head In fact over 50 percent. Oh, excuse me. No, I need to move my hash. Yeah about 30 percent pretty similar to the other one So you're gonna hold on to this for a little while and again that that expiration is the 18th or The last trading day is is Friday the 17th Next trade closing trade in Tesla. So we had a an iron duck on in Tesla booked beak profit on that trade Price ran all the way up the duck beak with very little chance of getting back So we just went ahead and close that one out the call spread was two dollars and fifty cents wide So we got out at 249. So just just a slightly more than the beak is what we booked on that trade Next trade opening trade in rut. So we did a weekly double calendar in rut The front week eight days to expiration. So let's take a look at that So when I got up this morning, I Saw the S&P was down 44 I can't remember what the Russell was down but when the market open price was hanging out way over here next to the Downside break even and it's come all the way back up So I thought we were gonna get a little bit more fireworks today in the market but things have kind of calmed down after the news of the airstrike against the Iranian leader Military leader, you know, if we look at it's kind of Taking a little bit of a detour here, but if we look at the S&P You know, it was it was down all the way to about 3206 Actually the exact low was 30 at 3206 75 And it's paired back about half of its half of its losses so moving back up so Man this market, I mean it doesn't care what happens It's just shaking off any kind of fear any kind of uncertainty and just and just continuing higher But did give us a chance to a little bit more implied volatility expansion today to create a little bit of opportunity But but I thought this thing might have a little bit of wheels to it But and continue down but nope it just kind of rebounded back up, but we'll see what happens next week. There's Potentially still, you know more news that could come out of this situation. It may not be a an isolated situation But we'll see what happens And then in oil Oil was up over four and a half percent and you can see it's come down off of its highs as well In fact in in our kind of morning update on our current positions and potential trades that we were looking at I was thinking okay oils at four percent, you know, there's there's a lot of uncertainty here I thought for sure the applied volatility would absolutely Spike in oil, but I mean it expanded but I'd be percentile only up to 33 So we didn't we didn't sell any premium in oil today like I anticipated we might But still implied volatility going up So if we can get up a little bit more, we will definitely look to sell some some premium in oil Next trade closing trade in Amazon That's the one I mentioned that reverse iron duck that we closed out for the beak profit got out at $4.99 Opening trade in SPX so we did put on a new SPX iron duck today this one with 14 days to expiration So we've got one with seven and one with 14 now So let's go to SPX Take a look So here's the one that we the one that we just put on here You can see prices hanging out right here So pretty close to where we put it on and then the one that we have with seven days to expiration Is right here you can see price is has run up the beak a bit and just wait until next week if You know obviously if if price runs up higher and we have very little chance of getting back We might get out of this early. If not, we'll give it a chance to potentially come down into the duck head Next trade rolling adjusting trade in ZB, so we had a we have two pieces on in ZB. We had a 161 short straddle so it originally started as a strangle. We adjusted it into a straddle by rolling the untested side We got down now to 21 days to expiration So we went ahead and rolled that out to March with 49 days to expiration And then we're still holding our other short strangle in that same cycle So if we take a look at ZB Here is the 161 short straddle. So prices hanging out right here So just gonna wait for some more theta to the K on that component and then the the other one that we have here is the 159 call and And the 153 put so that's hanging out right here So kind of in the upper end of our range. So just playing the wait and see game in that one Lastly opening adjusting trade in 4 slash GC. So we added an iron condor in GC Gold was up about a percent and a half today implied volatility popped up a little bit more in gold so Made for a good time to to add to this trade. So we've got two different iron condors here This is the one that we just put on prices hanging out right here Now you'll notice that with the skew in here that we've got a lot more room to the upside Then we do to the downside and and that was just due to the skew in those options I went ahead and left it that I didn't adjust it. I didn't skew it one way or another to center that price I did that on purpose just because We have this other piece on That has all this room to the downside because prices hanging out right here in the upper end of the range now if price continues higher We will close out the put vertical side. So here's what the put vertical side So there's very little premium left in there So, you know, we could have done that today But I'm gonna give it over the weekend if gold goes back down into range Then we'll just continue to hold but if it does continue higher or kind of stay right where it is We will close out that untested side on that piece So those are all the alerts. Let's take a look at some of the other positions We do have a position in oil, but it's it's an iron duck prices hanging out right here with that run-up in oil I thought me I thought maybe even we would have a chance to take this off, but it didn't run up enough You know, we've still got 26% chance that it could get back to the duckhead. So we'll hold for now In ES we've got the long-put vertical that we're holding for that short delta exposure You can see prices right here right inside of our range Natty gas we've got two different pieces here. We've got this adjusted short strangle and Prices hanging out right here so we could use a little bit of up movement to get back into center If we take a look, we are 25 days to expiration. So we'll be rolling that out to the next cycle next week we've got a second piece that's already in the next cycle with 53 days to expiration and You can see we've got some profit on this piece But just waiting to get some more before we do anything on that one ZB I mentioned ZW we've got two different iron condors in wheat This one right here price got out a little beyond the break even Give it a little bit more time because it did have still a little bit of premium in the in the put vertical side And then prices come back down into range So just waiting and holding on to that one and then the other piece that we have another iron condor You can see prices fairly centered hanging out right here. So just waiting for some more theta to decay in that Apple down almost a percent today, but way out of our range. We're gonna end up rolling this one next week to get back to a positive theta position Apple just continues to be strong regardless of what happens But we're gonna keep that that on is short Delta And so we'll look to roll that next week see if we can finally potentially get a little bit of downside action in Apple to help us out Amazon I mentioned DE John dear we've got this short call vertical. You can see prices just outside of our range here Looking for some downside action to get back in there Same thing with DIA. We've got two sets of short call verticals One is this one in January hanging out right near the break even point And then our one that's in Feb is same thing hanging out right near the right near the break even Same strikes in Jan as we have in Feb. So those are very similar just spread out the duration on those at this point Google we've got a an iron duck in Google. So this one expires today after the market Don't be fooled by this goofy-looking P&L line Sometimes you get a bad print in there But we were trying to take this one off kind like we did in Amazon because there's a very little chance of it getting back To the duck head in this case 5% these do expire today but So we're trying to take this out off for less than you know to get a little bit more than big profit But didn't get filled so we're just going to let it expire and collect that big profit of 94 bucks in this case So by the time you're viewing this you will have already received that expiration alert IWM we've got a long-put vertical prices hanging out right here inside of the range QQQ we got a couple short call verticals similar to DIA. We've got this one in Jan Price just outside the range and we've got the one in Feb where the price is just outside the range there as well Roku we've got an iron duck in Roku. You can see prices hanging out right here in the duckhead area Hopefully it kind of stays in this range until the end of next week. You know, so we'll book about 575 is our max profit in there Rut I mentioned Shopify mentioned SMH. We've got this short strangle in SMH Pretty well centered just waiting for some more theta to decay in that one. I mentioned SPX SPY We've got this short call vertical prices hanging out Right here just inside of our range looking for some more downside to benefit that and I mentioned XLK So that is it. Those are all the alerts. Those are all the positions Hopefully we get a little bit more two-sided action volatility tomorrow and then you know that would obviously create some more Some more opportunity for us, but we will do what we need to do. Everybody have a great weekend Talk to you next week