Hey guys, it's Nate, AKA the Foot Accountant, and welcome back to the channel. Road to the Knockouts is here today in FIFA 23, and this promo looks absolutely mental, especially because three of the confirmed cards with their confirmed stats that we already know have been juiced like crazy. EA seems to be going all out with this promo, and that means good things for us content-wise, and it also has created a lot of market panic. I wanna take a look at prices dropping on the game. Could that continue through today on Friday, or could we actually see a rise later on tonight because so many people have sold cards already, and there's a lot of Weekend League demand out there for the first weekend of footchamps. Good luck if you're playing. So we're gonna talk about all that today in the video, cover the market, talk about this Road to the Knockout promo, look at some leaks, look at the confirmed players, and more. So if you're excited for this promo today, hit the thumbs up and subscribe if you are new. Let's start from the top with what's going on with this Road to the Knockout promo today. We know three cards, the Champions League Twitter account. We knew this was gonna happen. They tweeted it out Wednesday. They revealed three cards yesterday, and there's one that's really making things go crazy. It's this Abomie Yang, a huge upgrade to Abomie Yang's card. From the gold to this 89 rated Road to the Knockouts card, a plus four upgrade. He goes above 90 pace. He has 88 shooting, 80 passing. This card looks incredible.  That's kind of sick. This Lamar card looks crazy. Suley looks pretty good. Lengthy, of course. Very OP for the meta. So all of these cards look really, really great. You can actually see them on footbin. They're already loaded in here. These are the actual cards with the actual stats. We don't know the in-games yet, but Abomie Yang is number one most popular right now on footbin, I think for good reason, because this card, face stat wise, looks unfreakin' believable. And again, like I said, look at the boost on this card, right? Plus four shooting, four pace, and six passing, and then four everywhere else. Like that's a massive upgrade this early in the game. You're making an Abomie Yang card that, you know, maybe some people use a 35,000 coin card. I think this card today is gonna be worth like 750K plus. And we're gonna talk about value of these Road to the Knockout cards, of course, here in a little bit. But these cards look insane.  So we know these guys for sure, Suley, Lamar, and Abomie Yang. Just to scroll through, again, a lot of the leaks we have had, there's been a ton of players. There might be a pretty big promo team today. We'll just have to see. Leo Messi is one of the headliners in the promo today. Of course, we've got Federico Valverde. We've got Raphinha, he is at it to come in the promo team today. There's the Suley, Thomas Muller, and Guisa was a new one that we haven't seen. He's being in the team today. Bremer, right? That's a pretty big Brazilian center back with Serie A links. That's a dope card. Juan B. Saca, hopefully has a bigger upgrade than that, but that could be a very useful right back in the Premier League, because right now Kyle Walker's gold card's like your only option, especially if you're using Cancelo on the left side. So this could be a very, very nice card to have. And you've got Jara Moreno, Lukash Paqueta, Iconi. These are predicted stats not confirmed. I believe Jara Moreno is one of the cards on the loading screen, alongside of OdaGuard and Foden, right? Foden's a really, really big league. That's huge. He's on the loading screen. And I think his stats on this card are also a little bit better. He's got like 91 dribbling or something like that, instead of 88. So that's pretty massive. We have a Patrick Schick card as well. This guy can't spell, but Patrick Schick is gonna be a part of the promo team today. This is what it's gonna end up being, right? It's gonna be an insane promo team today. With all these cards in packs, everybody's getting excited for it. The card design is not actually loaded into the game yet. So hopefully they get the road to the knockouts design loaded in because this card is the road to the final. As you saw in those concepts, that blue card design, the one that's on the loading screen is the one for today's promo for Champions League. There's Europa League and Conference League. So I'm just really curious to see, number one, how many players are in packs today? And number two, what the pack weight is, because I think there's a few people that have saved packs today, but not like a crazy amount of people. But of course, people are gonna see the promo team that is in packs.  And of course, we know the basics of these, right? These cards are live and they are upgradable. Now, of course, we'll have to get some interesting new info today about how they're gonna do it this year because there's only three matchdays left. So maybe it's gonna be qualified for the knockout stage and two out of three wins instead of three out of four like it was last year, but there should be multiple ways where these cards can upgrade. And that's just the crazy part about this, right? You see an 89 rated Abomying, you're like, oh my goodness, this card could actually become a 91 by the time we get to, what would this be? Like the start of the World Cup? Think about that for a second. This Abomying could be a 91 rated card if Chelsea win their last couple of games in the group stages. And if they of course progress onto the knockout rounds, this card could get a plus two potentially, right? We'll see how the upgrades play out today. But if EA are boosting these cards so much, like it's crazy that they're doing that. That pushes the power curve up so, so, so fast. And that's just ridiculous, right? Already at this early stage in the game, that worries me a little bit, I can't lie. But it looks crazy right now and it's pretty dope. That card's gonna be expensive. The camp's not thinking about that one. And I think nobody else can stop thinking about it either because it's on the top of footpin. But again, that's how road to the knockout works. These are live cards. And again, these guys are gonna be expensive today. Let's talk about their prices and packs and kind of move towards the market. Gentleman's Son was in the team last year. His gold card was like, I think, a hundred and something coins, 170K. His inform was like 300K. This card came out, it was 1.2, 1.1 million coins on the first couple of days that he was in packs last year. The pack weight on these cards, as I take a look at my video last year showing the pack weights, 1.7% for a UCL player. Less than one for both the Europa League and for the conference league players that were in the team. So there's going to be, it's gonna be hard to pack these guys today. These guys are like always hard to pack. They start out with pretty high price ranges. Couple of guys might be extinct if EA mess up some price ranges, of course. But these are the types of promo cards that are not that easy to pack and they stay expensive because they're alive and they have the potential to upgrade. And let's be honest, the way these cards look, and especially with some of the stat boosts that they're gonna be given these cards, I think people are gonna start to prefer these guys over maybe some of the ones to watch is that are going out of packs today. That's just kind of something to think about. But that's how I'm feeling about the cards that are gonna be released on the market today. I think it's gonna shake up the market a lot. But again, as I said, I feel like a lot of the cards could be a bit expensive today.  It's gonna be pricey. You think about that abombing of Valverde. There's gonna be some really pricey cards on the market today and not everybody could be able to afford those yet. So we'll talk about that in a second. What we're really unsure about today is the impact of the SBC content and the objective content. I would expect to see some sort of SBC for a road to the knockout player. We've had some really good ones in the past. Remember, Barato Silva, Fakir, we've named, dropped them a couple of times in the previous videos leading up to this promo. If we have a player of that caliber today, there could be a lot of panic on the SBC section of the market and the SBC section could cause a lot of panic on the market.  So many people did this. A lot of left wings like Yunmin Sun and other primarily left wings, but left wings in general yesterday dropped off a lot as people were doing this SBC. Now, would that make me think that EA could do two days in a row of really insane SBCs? I feel like they might not do that but they absolutely could. And of course, when you get an SBC for a card that has the potential to live upgrade that helps the value in it as well. I would also expect to see another objective today. I think technically the Recharlison expires even though I got it done already. Dest is still gonna be here. I'm gonna have to get that one done in the next few days, of course, go USA. But, you know, it's gonna be interesting to see if we have any surprises and objectives in SBCs because as of right now, we have no leaks. I'd take a watch on a foot share of Twitter account and he might be leaking SBC objective content early into today. We'll just have to see how that impacts the market. But speaking of the market, if the players we're getting impacts today are gonna be very expensive and pretty hard to pack unless EA changed something with that, what's that gonna mean for the rest of the market because a lot of the market already is down really, really bad with the leaks and with those official cards that have been shown and with the content yesterday, with the Sterling SBC, a lot of people went out and sold cards because of, you know, this promo that is upcoming and the content that could drop alongside with it, right? Of course, we're gonna take a look at this Ronaldo card because this is a perfect example of a card that got absolutely dusted. We talked earlier in the week that Wednesday was gonna be a really, really good time to sell these cards. That was a peak time. That was the peak time last year. It seems to be the peak time this year. It was last week during heading into the ones to watch promo as well. Ronaldo was 5.50 on Wednesday. He dropped from 5.50 all the way down to 4.80 yesterday in the panic. From 4.80, he bounced back up to 5.12 in a slight bit of buyback and now people are selling these cards again preparing for today's promo on Friday. He's back down under 500K and you could look just about every single, every which way on the market, almost every single card out there is down bad. Look at Vinny Jr. Vinny is 2.45 after being, I think it was like 2.80. He was 2.80, almost 2.90 on Wednesday. He dropped all the way down to 230K. He's back up just a little bit but not much. You know, here's what I'm feeling about the market right now. Yes, there's been a lot of panic selling. Yes, there has been a lot of cards that have dropped off in price across the board. Ones to watches went down yesterday. I was able to trade and to flip with a few of those. Heroes went down a lot yesterday. Volair from being extinct at 900K is now 826,000 coins. Lucio from a million to like 870. Forlan was like 600K and now he's 530. I've seen so many hero cards drop off. Smolerecker's 390. This guy just keeps going down. It's crazy. He was 500,000 coins on Wednesday. He's down 100K. There's just so many examples of this across the market as people are panic selling the cards that they own because they see the new ones that are dropping and they also did the Sterling SBC yesterday. Again, both of those are what's impacting the market the most right now. 1900 upvotes, very, very popular SBC. I think it's good value just to throw that in there. I think that Sterling SBC is pretty good value, especially if you want that primarily link up. You can play on the left. You can play on the right with this position changes. Has the potential to upgrade. Chelsea already have one win under their belt. So that combined with the hype of today is what has the market down so, so, so much. Now, if you think about it this way too, what this also means is there's a lot of demand that is sitting there and that is waiting because people are looking to buy teams today, especially since a lot of people sold off yesterday. People are looking to buy teams today to go out and play the first week in league of the year. And we've been talking about this in the past couple days as well. I do expect a pretty sizable market bounce back after the content drop today. Again, before the content drop like last week, I think you might see a few player prices dropping down. You might see a little bit of panic selling today. I also just wonder if there might not be that much panic selling today, heading into the content drop time because we already had so much, right? So many people have sold off in the past 12 hours or so that prices have dropped down so much. How much lower can things really go? Unless EA drop an absolute madness today, the cards are super supplied and they end up being super duper cheap and there's an insane SBC. I don't really see a lot of these cards that have dropped a bunch already. I don't see them dropping like loads more. Again, unless there's some sort of anomaly in there that we're not expecting, I do think that a lot of your cards that are down right now have potential to rise back later today, not early. I think later would be the time that you would see these cards rise back up because in the early day stage, yes, there might be people playing some weakening. Yes, there might be people out playing games to get those, you know, footchamps games going and started and everything.  And of course, we're gonna see a lot of fluctuation with those cards today on Friday as well.  It's gonna be nuts. You know, what I would say too is, just like we did with the market yesterday, look at the cards. If you're purely trying to make coins or buy a team at the right time, depending on what cards you are looking for, the rare cards that are the most popular are gonna rise first. Heroes, icons, some out-of-pack informs. You can see here, I bought this Kewl at 360,000 coins yesterday in a lot of the panic selling. He rebounded back to 400. I took my money. Rafael Leal got packed so much yesterday, right? I bought four of these at 165, 163K, sold them around 190,000 coins. Just because when you have that end of the supply and the panic, cards just bounce back, especially if they are rare. I've got ones to watch, Lewandowski right now. Ones to watches are absolutely cards that you wanna watch today because they are, of course, going out of packs. And some of these guys have the potential to be playing tomorrow on Saturday or on Sunday and have the potential to be getting upgrades or a team of the week for a good performance or getting a second win towards their progression towards a three-win upgrade. So a lot of these card prices dropped yesterday. There's potential for these guys to rise up as investments after the content drop today. And of course, as they go out of packs and have no more supply, there's a lot of these that I think look decently investable in. So that's kind of what I would say, but I would say be a little careful with these because we're getting new cards today with these road to the knockouts that just, they look better, they feel better. The upgrades look good. The card design looks good. So, I would just be careful with the ones to watch today. I think a few of them could go up, but it's gonna be on a card by card basis.  It really is. I've got some packs saved. I'm excited for it today. I would rather save my packs. And I think some people maybe have saved their rivals rewards. Maybe some people have saved their champs playoffs rewards. Of course, today as well on Friday, you're going to have the first week in the rewards. People are gonna be packing and finishing their week in leagues even before the content drop today. And that's gonna start supplying all of these team of the week cards. That's why you saw me sell Rafael Liao as fast as I could when he had that nice price rise. He's now back down to 160K. These cards that are in the team of the week are going to get supplied a lot today as people get their nine wins and above rewards even before the content drop. As the week opens in just a few hours, people are gonna be playing and getting those rewards. So be very careful with those team week cards today. They will bounce around. They will be decent to trade with, specifically the higher tier cards like Ben Yetter, like the Rafael Liao. And actually today will be a day where we see a new Erling Holland card grace the market. Erling Holland's team of the week card will be in packs today. That'll be an interesting thing to watch because the ones to watch card actually dropped off a lot yesterday. He's 1.7 mil right now. He was like 1.9. His team of the week is gonna be in packs today as the ones to watch goes out of packs. That's gonna be something to kind of watch that Erling Holland market. And again, if you're like trading, you'd like making coins, watch this Erling gold card because he was like 360 yesterday, went back to 400. This guy has hours of panic selling and then a rebound. Great, great, great card to trade with right here. You know, for some quick flips if you're in a higher budget, that's an absolutely great card to trade with. Also a lot of people have invested in out of packs gold cards.  Since he's coming into packs today with a promo card, his gold card goes out of packs. You know, Ben Yetter who's in the team of the week. We saw this happen last week with the team of the week cards and the ones to watches. There was a lot of panic last week on Friday for guys like Marquinhos and Sala. But their gold cards were out of packs last week because they had informs in packs. What I would tell you today is keep an eye on some of those guys that are either out of packs or going out of packs because there might be really, really good potential to trade with, oh my gosh, this guy's how much? 450 for Sala, goodness gracious.  He was like 520K, at least 450 again, that's nuts. You know, just watch out for those cards that go out of packs today. Those could make really good quick flips or investments for the coming days that you could end up holding. Maybe you buy one or two for your team that you wanna get in and use in the weekend league. So it's gonna be a crazy Friday of course with the first footchamps of the year and we'll see if EA have any surprises for us. Now one thing I will say really fast to end off this video is in the store there is a pack that was released with Ones to Watch called the FIFA 23 Starter Kit Bundle Pack. It expires today, everything in the store expires today. You know, I don't expect them to do lightning rounds today, I'd be a bit shocked if they did. That'd be one of those anomalies that we mentioned, lightning rounds this early. Lightning rounds like don't ever happen to Black Friday but it's EA, you never know. That option is technically still there. They did add a new pack to the code, two of them actually. There's one called the Road to the Knockout Foundation pack and a Road to the Knockout Essentials pack. I could see one or both of these being in the store today or during these next couple of days and they're pretty nice packs. They're all untradable. So it wouldn't bring supply on the market but it'd be kinda like that 100K pack that was in the store trying to get you to open that up. It'll give you a loan, Road to the Knockout player, a loan-based icon and then some gold players with some rating guarantee in there. So that's just kinda something to watch out for today. If you maybe have somebody who left over at pre-order FIFA points or if you have a lot of coins and you just wanna gamble on one of those packs, that's gonna be a place where you could maybe gamble in the store today. So I'm excited for today. Brand new cards, Road to the Knockout promo is always really, really good because it brings live and upgrading cards that people can get excited about and you can have a correlation between the IRL game that's happening and in FIFA. So there's gonna be a lot of market movement.  Link down below in the description leading into the drop of content today on Friday. So if you're excited for it, drop a thumbs up, drop a comment down below if you have any questions about the market. I'll be responding to a few of them down there and of course subscribe if you're new so you don't miss a video whenever they go live. If you enjoyed the video today again, drop a thumbs up, I already said that.  Thanks for watching. It's been Nate the Buddha Count and I'll catch you later. Peace, out.


It doesn't, you know, it doesn't filter yet to the leadership, but it may become a challenge. As it is a challenge to preserve the memory of the Holocaust with no living survivors around which will soon be the case, I think that with the distance of time to the events of the Second World War and the Holocaust, it will also become more challenging for the German leadership to preserve the legitimacy of this special relationship and the special commitment that Germany has held for so many decades to the safety and well-being of the state of Israel. German, how do you see this? Is the German public changing or is this just a natural phenomenon because of time that has passed? Look, I think it's clearly a challenge. Look, I think at the level of the leadership. I remember when Miki Levy, the president of Arknese, went to the Bundestag in January and it was the intensity of the event and the commemoration. The Holocaust survivor spoke the whole of the German leadership. I don't think there's any doubt in the German leadership's mind about the importance of Holocaust commemoration. It's important for the German identity of today, for them to be able to commemorate it and even accept responsibility and differentiate themselves from those that carried out the worst crime in history, as they would say. The younger generation is another matter. That is the challenge. That is why, for example, in recent meetings that we had with President Steinmeier and with the chancellors with Angela Merkel the idea of youth exchange between the countries was given a tremendous amount of emphasis. And I think that the dramatic expansion and exchange of younger generations, I have seen them come together. This is not a conversation of guilt and anger. It's a whole different conversation. And that's where we need to direct our efforts to youth exchange. I want to speak specifically about this survey. It has found that third of Germans believe that Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is essentially the same as the Nazi genocide of Jews during the Holocaust. That is quite terrible. How do you see that? Is the memory of the Holocaust fading or the way that Germans see Israel's treatment of the Palestinians is so severe? That's great. I'd say like this. I was in Germany up till the end of March and I was there for almost five years. I never came across. Obviously in conversations with me, personal conversations, no one would have dared to make such a comparison. But I must say that I didn't come across it in public discussions. We had a lot of different open discussions with the German public. So I don't know about the actual findings of this and what it really means, but is there a perception that the Palestinian issue needs to be dealt with in a more careful way, definitely. And I think this is a question which is a bit beyond today's discussion. But one of the things that we have to do in order to firm up our relations with Europe in general, but also with Germany in particular, is to think of how we're going to move forward with the Palestinians. That is also a vital part of their agenda, and I think it also should be a vital part of our agenda. We need to avoid any sort of comparisons. We had recently Abu Mazen in the Bundestag. And I think that this type of statement is reprehensible, but it does damage. And I think we need to have a very proactive policy in order to counter it. Daniel, you were an ambassador in France. You obviously saw how the public opinion of Israel changes with the coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. How do you see this in general in Europe these days? There is a sense across Europe with certain variations from country to country. But even with the variations, the general feeling is that it's been far too long that the Israeli occupation of the territories has gone on. And especially, you know, as long as there was a credible effort on both sides, the Israelis and Palestinians to try and resolve it while there were still negotiations, you could sort of get away with the fact that we're trying. But for the past years there hasn't been any attempt, and it's not just Israel's responsibility, obviously. By the way, in the same survey, when asked, do you support the Palestinian side or the Israeli side, there is an advantage for the Israeli side, but they're both tiny, minute minorities, and the overwhelming majority say they either don't care or they support their positions equally. So there is a, I think that reflects a sense that, like in other countries in Europe, there is an expectation that there should be an effort to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which unfortunately doesn't seem to be on the cards right now. And what really struck me, is interesting in this survey as well, is that it found that Israelis have a higher regard for Germany than Germans do for Israel. So, is it the Israelis who are forgetting the past? Should they be forgetting the past? Or again, this is natural. Israelis travel and live in Berlin. Germany is a modern, peaceful country these days. Why is it that, do you think, perhaps from your meetings with Israelis in Germany, that Israelis have such a positive notion of Germany these days? Look, they appear, listen, I won't hide it, obviously. We had a lot of Israelis coming to live in Berlin, and I always saw it as one of the major parts of my job was to reach out to them and to keep them as part of our fold. And it was an important challenge for me. But I wouldn't underestimate the fact that Germany looks at Israel also on a number of levels with a great deal of admiration. Believe me now, Germany today was a much different place to when I came in 2017. The Russia invasion of Ukraine really created a very different mindset in Germany in terms of their defence needs and their capabilities in terms of NATO. And believe me, one of the countries that they'll look at and when they need to think about how they engage in defence cooperation and bolster their defensive capabilities, I'm pretty sure that one of the countries they'll look to is Israel because they have a great deal of admiration for Israeli expertise in the field. Let me tell you, in terms of the car industry in Germany, they look very much to Israeli technology and Israeli start-ups. When Mobileye was sold to the company Intel in 2016, I think it was. For the German companies, this was a great loss. And then you see a tremendous amount of German companies coming to Israel to be closer to the tech and to be investing in Israeli companies. So I just want to balance, and it's also in other areas as well, that you see also there's a tremendous amount of respect for what Israel has and what Israel can do that also emanates from the German mind. But there's no doubt it's a very popular destination for Israeli youngsters. I'll try to address your point about the positive image that Germany has among Israelis. I don't agree that this has anything to do with the memory of the Holocaust. I think that it's a certain demonstration of maturity that you don't turn the page in the sense that you forget the past, but you try and look at the future. And if you want, my father was one of the founders of the Israeli diplomatic service. He was a Holocaust survivor. He was in the death camps. And he was part of the Israeli delegation which established diplomatic relations with Germany. Certainly he didn't, it had nothing to do with forgetting or with forgiving. It has nothing to do with it. But what he said is you can't change the past, but you can try and write a more positive content on the empty pages of the future. And I think that the fact that Israelis can see the advantages and the certain beauty of this special relationship between two nations which were really not expected to reconcile easily, I think it's actually a very positive sign in my mind. I don't think that the Israelis, even those who live in Berlin and other places, I don't think that it has anything to do with forgetting the past. I think another very strong element in the relations between Israel and Germany is military cooperation. We've heard about submarines in other fields as well. And it goes back to the survey about the lasting role of the Holocaust in relations. 58 of Israelis agree or strongly agree that Germany has a special responsibility for the Jewish people compared with just 35% of the Germans. Of course we spoke about the fact that the German leadership, the president, the chancellor all are in line with the idea of cooperating and assisting Israel. But as time goes by and as we see the public opinion of the young public changing, are you expecting to see a change there like we see in the States perhaps? In terms of the leadership and their support. I don't see any indications that there will be a change. Even among younger politicians? Look, for the time being, the leadership of the major parties, the leadership of the present coalition, I think from wall to wall, apart from the alternative for Deutschland, which most people consider a very neo-Nazi party, the leadership has basically accepted what Merkel said in 2008 in the Knesset in terms of the special responsibility to Israel and to Israeli security. And I think it's a very strong feature in their beliefs. But the most important thing is that it's not just today a commitment of Germany to Israeli security. There's also developed a commitment of Israeli Israel to German security. And it's not just about submarines coming to Israel or corvettes coming to Israel. We also lease, for example, UAVs to the German army to protect their forces in Mali. So there's a ground under that, also intelligence cooperation and exchanges. There's a lot that goes into it that has made this into a very reciprocal bilateral relationship. And you mentioned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In what degree do you think that impacted Germany's relations with Israel? The need to maintain this strong relationship. I think the need to have that relationship and to nurture that relationship was there before that. I think it would only contribute and strengthen that need to do it. Listen, there have been also reports in the press about Germany considering buying missile defense systems, which Israel has, I don't know to what extent they're accurate, but I would not be surprised if one day we will hear about something in that regard. Israel is seen by Germany to be a very militarily competent state that has effective defensive capabilities and capabilities that Germany has become to understand that she needs in this very new reality in Europe. There has been a very major event in German history, this Russian invasion of Ukraine. It has brought a whole different environment and set of demands to their national security that they hadn't needed to face for many years up till now, at least since the end of the Cold War. Certainly an opportunity for Israel also in terms of natural gas. We know of the problems of moving those natural gas from Russia into Germany into Europe and Israel here together with other countries has a role and it has perhaps an opportunity. I think that might take a bit of time to sort of get underway, but it's definitely a potential that should be explored. In any event, to continue what was said earlier about the defense issues and the Ukraine war I think even if it didn't have a direct impact on German-Israeli relations I think it will have indirectly an impact in the sense that it has triggered a change in the approach of Germany to military might and to extending its military might, exporting some materials and that turns Germany into a more, how should I put this, a more avid customer for Israeli military technology and hardware. Gentlemen, stand by as we continue to cover the 50th anniversary of the Munich massacre. We now bring you a story of an Israeli and a Hungarian runner who embarked together on a special project to commemorate the event. I-24 News correspondent Jonathan Regev has the story. It's the opening bell for an astonishing race. These runners will cover 550 kilometers in 11 days. Yes, that is 50 kilometers every day and the reason behind this project is truly remarkable. Because of the 50 years of the murder of the 11 athletes, we decided to run from Budapest all the way west to Munich as close as possible to the date of the terror attack. Next week will mark the 50th anniversary of one of the darkest episodes in the history of the Olympic movement, the murder of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists during the 1972 Munich Games. We want to dedicate it to those athletes that were murdered in the, you know, in the temple of the sports, the Olympic Games, for no reason or for the reason to be Jewish and Israeli. Israeli veteran runner Asaf Stollerz, along with his Hungarian friend Peter Agiu, came up with the idea of running for 11 days each day dedicated to a different murdered athlete. They embarked on their mission with the blessing of the families and the help of Makhabi World Union and the Israeli Olympic Committee. The race is set to end this coming weekend in Munich with a clear aim. The message is very clear. Run to remember. Don't forget. We're running to remember. The world was shocked back in 1972, but the decision was to proceed with the Games. Those who made that poor decision may have wished the murder of the athletes would become no more than a soon-to-be-forgotten incident. Asaf, Peter and their project are here to make sure we will always remember. Still with me in studio is two former Israeli Ambassador Jeremy Izakarov and Daniel Schaek. Thank you both for being with us. One topic that was mentioned by President Herzog yesterday in his meeting with Steinmeier was Iran. What Israel sees as the greatest threat to its existence and to global stability, Herzog reiterating that Israel will not be able to allow Iran to become nuclear. We're seeing the negotiations that nobody really knows where they've gone. And yet the two countries don't necessarily see eye-to-eye about how strict should Israel or the world be with Iran to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Well, the negotiations we've been hearing have been going on for a number of months. And every morning we hear they are closer to agreement and maybe further. So I've been very skeptical for the time being about the Iranian position. I'm worried that going back to the agreement of 2015, which in original terms I wasn't against because I thought it could, at that time, bias maybe a few more years of delaying the Iranian program. But I think the abandonment of the agreement by Trump was a mistake. I think you can't make a move like that without having some sort of backup plan that would continue, not only the pressure, but continue the enforcement of stopping Iran improving its nuclear technology. But now to go back to that agreement, which is not going to be longer and stronger, it's going to be shorter and weaker, that to me is of great concern. Now Germany has always been part of the agreement. She'll support it and she'll want to stay in coordination with the Americans. So that's the conversation that we're having now and it's a vitally important time to have that conversation. And Danny, of course, that's not a problem just with Germany. Israel is trying to persuade the world, trying to persuade the Americans, sending delegations there, one after the other, Benny Gantz and other defense officials. With Europe it seems it is much more difficult, at least a much more difficult task for Israel. I'm not sure that's true. I think that across the board and across the Atlantic, I think there is a unanimous thought that it is better to return to some kind of framework of an agreement rather than leaving the situation as it is since President Trump, former President Trump, decided to leave the agreement and virtually made it collapse. Now, Jeremy is certainly one of the biggest Israeli experts on the Iranian issue through his career. So I'm being cautious in this assessment. But I think that generally everybody agrees that the end game should be that Iran should not be a nuclear power. And there is no difference between Israel and the other Western nations that are negotiating indirectly with Iran currently. There is a divergent separation of the opinions on that specific point. That at least, how should I put it, officially and then outwardly, there is an Israeli unwillingness to join the group. Ambassador, we can now hear the German President, Frank Walter Steinmeier, let's take a listen to what he has to say. Distinguished guests, this is a day of mourning and memory. I'm grateful that you, the families of the victims are here today. That you, Mr. President Herzog, is here next to me. Without your presence, without the presence of the representatives of the State of Israel, I could not think of a respectable memory. I thank for everyone who contributed and allowed this shared commemoration today. Dear relatives, we cannot, we can only imagine the pain and suffering that you have experienced, the husbands and the fathers. And what does it mean for you today? How does it leave, is it to be a young woman who just gave birth to her first child with a father that will never come back? How do you continue to live with the images of the room where the murder took place? How do you continue to live with the knowledge that the father has suffered for years, for hours? How do you continue to live with the memory that a husband was shot and then bled to death next to his friends? How do you continue living when you receive two postcards from Munich in which the son that was murdered by now says everything is wonderful? And he looks forward to returning home. I know about the suffering and the trauma. All of these continue to exist among the families until this day. Nothing in your lives is the same as it was before 1972. Nothing continues to be the way it was and the way it should have been for five decades. This pain continues, dear guests. The Munich games were supposed to be completely different from the previous games in Germany in 1936. When the Nazis used as a show, using them without a shame, using the Olympic idea for their purposes, 1972 was supposed to be a correction of Berlin. The Republic of Germany wanted to show itself as a liberal nation, as a member of the democratic states. Yes, there was an aspiration to hold cheerful games in the new Germany that has left a past behind it. But there was always also the responsibility of the host to the athletes, including, and particularly, those from Israel. Israel that was threatened from the very first day of its existence, surrounded by hate. The Jewish state has to be strong and be ready. In Germany, the Israeli athletes were our guests. Their security was in our hands. What a show of trust this was to take part in the Olympic Games in the country of the criminals after the crime against humanity during the Holocaust. Among the Israeli athletes were also survivors. One of the sad truths is that we wanted to be good hosts, but we did not stand to the trust that the Israeli athletes and their families gave us. They were not safe. They were not protected.  We were not prepared for an attack of this type. We should have been ready. This is part of the bitter truth. We were not ready for it. The fact that those terrorists from outside of Germany will misuse of the Olympic idea and will use any sort of violence called blooded violence. We were not ready for a terror attack that was executed in front of international TV viewers. The effort to present Germany as a peaceful democracy failed in Munich. The Olympic village turned into an international stage for terrorists.  This should not have happened.  These are the words of Gustav Heinemann, the former president, who fought to keep his tears. But these words are not enough to explain the catastrophe of Munich. Many have said later that this catastrophe was un-describable for those who were present there. This was the most dominant feeling for those who were there. But shouldn't we have known, especially us, as Germans, that the idea of unthinkable is a mistake. That has terrible consequences. The unthinkable can protect us from other questions, but it distracts us from the real question of avoiding what shouldn't have happened. Dear guests, we need to remember this memory is painful. It's particularly painful to you, the families, but the memory must also hurt us in Germany. The events in Germany in 1972 have left deep marks on the families. The trauma of Munich is in the collective memory of people in Israel. But the attack has left marks also for us in Munich and in Germany as a whole. Today's commemoration can only be sincere if we're willing to make painful conclusions to understand that the events are also a result of mistakes, deadly mistakes. This recognition, ladies and gentlemen, should have occurred a long time ago. Yes, the criminals did not come from Germany, but the responsibility was by the Palestinian terrorists and their aides. It is bitter that there was no word of sympathy or regret from the political representatives from those countries, the criminals and their aides.  Those are the ones responsible, but this does not exclude us. We also carry the responsibility, responsibility of the hosts to prevent what you didn't, to defend the hostages being held by terrorists. Today, 50 years later, there are far too many questions that remain unanswered. The games must go on. The games must go on. The politics has done all it can to go back to normal. After years of silence, this should not have happened. How could all of this happen? We must ask ourselves this question. We must find answers. We need to want to find the answers. Why do the criminals who are left alive were never prosecuted? One of them is still proud of his crime today in front of cameras. He's saying that he would have done the same. What were the exact relations of the criminals with the German extreme right? Why did the German security officials were so inexperienced? Did Germany disregard Israel's warning? And why was Israel's request to assist was overturned? Why was there not an investigative committee? We speak about a great tragedy. First, about the preparations for the games and the security. Second, about the events of the 5th and the 6th of September. And the third begins a day after the attack, the silence, the forgetness. I congratulate the fact that the German government announces the establishment of a committee of historians. I wish it can shed more light on this dark episode in history. And I hope it will receive assistance as much as needed. Their work may expose uncomfortable truths. It must do so. We must deal with the history of Munich and also with the question of why didn't we deal with it until today. We must fight in any type of antisemitism in our country and particularly with antisemitic violence. This is our responsibility to history. And as a democratic state we must be able to defend ourselves. Freedom and security are not contracting. They work together. They are attempting to hurt freedom. We must stand guard against the enemies of democracy both inside and outside. Because we live in a time in which democratic liberal democracies are attacked. Munich 1972 teaches us another lesson, even if we know the truth. If we acknowledge the mistakes, then the wound can heal. Our country has suffered. This is the only way in which the wound can heal. But this doesn't only treat us legally. This goes to those who lost their lives. You, the relatives, you have a right to finally know the truth. To get answers to questions that are bothering you for dozens of years. Including the question of why are you alone with your pain, with your suffering for so long. No, less than 45 years have passed until a commemoration in the Olympic Village was established. Back then, with Israeli President Ruben Rivlin and family relatives, we grieved together. We remembered together. But it took five long years until we reached an agreement about a respectable compensation. Dear guests and families, dear President Herzog, we are united in the memory of years of the 12 people who lost their lives in this event. We are united in pain, but we must not forget. Your pain, the pain of the families is your pain, which we did not estimate properly. I know that even the agreement that was reached now is not enough to heal all the open wounds. Therefore, I say these words to you. Your lives are influenced by the grief, by the pain over 50 years. We cannot make up for what has happened, for what you experienced and what you have suffered. This ashamed me. Therefore, in my role as the head of this country, I ask for your forgiveness. And I add today, as the head of the state, in the name of the country of Germany, I ask for your forgiveness for the protection that we didn't provide you. And for not supplying enough information about what has happened. This is my duty and need to acknowledge our responsibility as Germans here today and for the future. I hope this day would lead for you, the families, feel that we share your grief, your pain, that you feel that we seriously mean our responsibility. Ladies and gentlemen, respectable guests, Mr. President, the friendship and appeasement that Israel has given us is no less than a miracle. We hope that this day will bring so that the Germans would prove to be worthy of this friendship, the asset that was so badly damaged in this place 50 years ago, the trust. Thank you very much. That was German President Frank Walter Steinmeier getting the applause at the ceremony marking 15 years to the massacre of the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. The Munich Olympic Games is getting a hug there, I believe, from Yankee Spitzer, the widow of one of the victims from President Herzog, the Romano family. Now we'll hear Israeli President Isaac Herzog. My dear and beloved families of those murdered, the survivors of the Munich massacre. My respectable and friend, German President Frank Walter Steinmeier, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your historic and brave speech that touched the hearts of all of us. The Prime Minister Bavaria, Marcus Noder, leaders from Germany and from Israel, representatives of the Olympic committees, leaders of the Jewish communities in Germany, their believers and families of those murdered. Why was there such a great sacrifice and a great sacrifice from the Lord? That's how the Prophet Yermiao asks, and this is how we ask today. Even after 50 years since the horrifying murder of the 11 Israeli athletes here with uncomprehensible viciousness, the pain is eternal and the event remains as a wound that does not heal. Every one of us that remembers those dark and endless hours of September 1972 carries the same scar, the same moments in which we followed with fear, the conflicting reports that came every few hours from the Olympic village in Munich. It was difficult to believe that athletes, judges and coaches, Jews and Israelis are being held by terrorists on the land of Germany. We hoped for a different ending. Unfortunately our hopes tarnished. Within 24 hours we received the most difficult announcement that none of them has survived. Although I was only a young boy, I will never forget that dreadful morning when I drove with my father to school and we heard in the car together the horrifying news. I will not forget the tears in our eyes, the sense of complete shock, the grief, the sadness that have covered the entire country when what was named the cheerful Olympics has turned into a lowest point of the history of world sports in Olympics. The 11 athletes, the victims of the massacre came 50 years ago to the Olympics on the land of Germany under the spirit of sports, in the spirit of the Olympic spirit, of friendship, of solidarity between nations and between countries. They were cruelly murdered by a Palestinian terror organization only because they were Jewish, only because they were Israelis. This brutal massacre that took their lives and the life of a German policeman was a tremendous human tragedy that erased the honor of a person and it was a moment in which the Olympic torch was light has turned off. For us it was a national disaster. It desecrated this spirit of the Olympics. It stained the Olympic flag with blood. It will never be the same. Dozens of years as was said by President Stranemeyer, Germany and the Olympic Committee have avoided commemorating the 11 victims. To the regret and the pain of the families for losing their loved ones and the scars that they carry throughout the years also were the pains of the indifference. These were days in which it felt like one simple truth was forgotten. This was not a Jewish and Israeli tragedy. This is a world tragedy, a tragedy that we must remind of in every Olympics and teach its lessons from one generation to another. A tragedy that stresses again and again. The no greater opposites than sport and terror. The no greater opposites. The world must not forget what has happened in the Munich Olympics of 1972. The world must not forget. The fight against terror in every place and every time must be common and determined. The future of the human society is determined, is dependent of us fighting the evil, the anti-Semitism, the hate, the terror in that sense and suddenly that the decision of Germany over the past few days for which I thank you Mr. President for your tremendous efforts and together with you the German government and the Bavarian government and Munich municipality the decision to take responsibility for the wrongdoings around the massacre for allowing to investigate them and compensate the families of the victims is part of savoring the good and fighting the bad and it has after half a century an important and right step towards the families and for the history. In the Hebrew language there is a word for those who are killed. It is called the Halal. The same word Halal describes an empty place, a place where there is nothing. Each of the 11 victims was a whole world to his family for his loved ones and for his people. Each and every one of them has left a Halal, a space that will never be filled. There are no words to your bravery and how you stick to life and your following generations. Some of them are with us today committed to memory and to life and meaning all of these are an example to all of us for the memory of those who are killed. May the memory of the victims be saved in our hearts forever. Israeli President Isaac Herzog speaking there at this special ceremony in Munich we are seeing him hugging the German President Frank Walter Steinmeier still with me in studio 2 Israeli Ambassador Daniel Scheck and Jeremy Izakarov. Very powerful speeches particularly that of the German President. Talk us through your main takeaways and the meaning, the historical meaning of this speech. Well we spoke a little before about the role of the President and I think in this sense the President was speaking from his own soul and I think that I've heard a number of his speeches and I'm not surprised that he was incredibly candid about the past. He wasn't trying to sugarcoat anything. His words were very very powerful and I think that they will go a long way to healing a lot of the bad feelings that were with the survivors and their families and I have no doubt that he has been a very great friend of Israel over the last years. I know that he means every word that he says and I think he's been a great friend to the Jewish people and at this point I think he's serving both countries deeper interests and at a very difficult time where we have to. We said before that we can't change the history but sometimes history can change us and I think these two presidents are helping us change ourselves and I think that's important. I think in a sense the ceremony has become a worthy closure for people involved. I can't speak for the families and obviously they are the measuring stick to this but I think that even if you saw the reaction of some of the family members that were present during President Steinmeier's speech, wiping a tear and nodding, you could see that he did the right thing and he spoke the right words and it's 50 years of hardship. And in a sense you know Jeremy's and my colleagues and some points Jeremy himself and myself and some capacities in the foreign ministry have been accompanying this event trying to help find a resolution to this. And finally this is happening and I think that both speeches were very moving, very to the point both of them spoke about the need to fight terrorism and not just memory, there's also a sense of what has to be done in the future. Gentlemen stand by, we go now straight to Munich, our Germany correspondent, Polina Garayev is standing by for us. Polina, a very emotional ceremony, very heartfelt speeches from both President Herzog and particularly that of German President Steinmeier, what are your main takeaways? Well the ceremony is still ongoing and we're still waiting to hear from the relatives of the victims who perhaps have the most to say. But we already heard some very powerful statements, specifically several expressions stood out to me, never again an historic responsibility. Those are words that Germany usually utters or German officials usually utter in the context of the Holocaust and here of course they were said in a very different context but it is being used to signal that Germany is acknowledging that this is another painful chapter in its history that is now taking full responsibility for them. And we heard officials apologize both for the fact that they weren't prepared to protect their guests, especially a guest that were coming from Israel, many of them have been Holocaust survivors themselves. There was a special significance to their visit here and Germany utterly failed to protect them. And also for the last five decades it also failed to acknowledge the shortcomings in handling this tragedy. It took five decades for this apology to come. I remind you that even the memorial that was open at the Olympic Village was only inaugurated about five years ago. So this is definitely a development but also at the beginning of a conversation where you spoke a lot about how this marks the end of the legal dispute between German authorities and the families that this is true. But also as this was heard many times already in the speeches that this is the beginning of a conversation and open conversations where German authorities are willing to talk about what happened and what could have been done better. And this will be done as part of a committee of historians that will look into archive material and classified materials in order to give the families some answers. And also, and this was also expressed the fight against anti-Semitism, not only terrorism, but anti-Semitism. This was linked with what has happened then. And also, of course, this fight is never-ending and is important for Germany nowadays. We've seen, of course, this being linked to the events over the Munich massacre. And of course, this is something, again, another promise that Germany is giving Israel today. There's a very emotional ceremony right there in Munich. Polina Gariyev standing by for us. Thank you so much for that update. Still with me in studio is Daniel Schaik and Jeremy Izakarov. We have two minutes left for this broadcast. Your final comments. Okay, I think it was what everyone expected. Sadly, it took five decades but it's important that it happened. And I hope that this will serve as some kind of closure for the families. That's all we can hope for. Jeremy. I think it will serve to give the families a very strong measure of closure. But as Polina said, this is also opening a process of investigating what actually happened. And I think that's very important for the families as well. So this will be not the end of the whole episode, but rather the beginning of what has been called the process of healing. And I think that's what we're looking at. And I think that we've taken a very major step today to give the families some solace and to be able to move on a path where we can give them as much healing as possible and as much transparency and truth as can be done in this horrific situation. Yes, many questions left still unanswered for the families. We hope they will find the answers. And all of us will be able to hear the truth about everything that led to these events and also in the aftermath of this massacre. Gentlemen, thank you both for being with me. Daniel Schaik, former Israeli Ambassador to France. And Jeremy Izakarov, former Israeli Ambassador to Germany. It's been a pleasure to have you with us on this special I-24 News Edition covering this ceremony in Munich, marking 50 years to the massacre in Munich for us at the I-24 News Desk. That's a wrap for now. More updates coming up at the top of the hour. Thank you for watching.


The score is Earth here in the building, hosting shots to Bam, hosting shots to Brigzy, hosting shots to everybody else. We're gonna be in the building, shots to the team, shots to the battalers.  Alright, we're gonna get you a promo battle, no judges, three rounds, two minutes on the clock for both MCs, so let us know in the comments section who you wanna win. Oh fuck, whatever, 15 seconds and 40 a green, I don't even know. Alright, sorry, we're getting to the cash right about now, Donutflop.shop.com is now reopening as well, make sure you cop the new merch from there, thanks to everybody who's got it in the event. Alright, MC on my right, I'm saying, make some noise for Sol Jitsu, let's go! I'm gonna say it, make some noise for Hawaii, let's go! Alright, Juan's back on Goat Flop, I took hiatus for now, broke that spell, I got Sol Jitsu into prep for this, I nearly had to phone for help because I was struggling for angles, so I researched you on my phone and well, when I found out you're part of a crew called Constantly Getting Money, round one pretty much wrote itself, I feel like you bruv, this shit's depressing me honestly, because I only get money, but you, you're getting it constantly, I win the jackpot every time you enter the lottery, and you get hotels on parkend and Mayfair during every single family session, when I bet for the time it takes for me to turn my back, this guy would already have earned five stacks, but the other members in CGM are called Homicide and Illegal, and boy are they statters, you've got a frequent thought brought them up, you were finding like they were gonna spray hammers, so what's gonna happen if I diss them, guess they're gonna leave my brain splattered, so Homicide and Illegal, you're both really great rappers. In the video of your block of remix, we see the CGM team get blazed, passing round some leafy haze to their as lean as the Tower of Pisa state, because they're constantly getting money, do you want an example of how much pee they make?  On that remix, you actually said they call me for Bobby and Charlie and Mandy and Harry, now that was truly panicking, because I don't know who Bobby, Charlie, Mandy and Harry are, but I could never condone human trafficking. They call me for Bobby and Charlie and Mandy and Harry, and they are never ready to teach that all the drugs that you're sending are lethal in telling you things into skeletons, but rapping like that on the track is bait and supplying the peace with evidence, and if you still flow like that in your songs, then wake up, you're not American. It's like you're after a golden ticket to be promoting your craft and bar schemes, but you have the role of Grandpa Joe, you keep opening bars with Charlie, because when it comes to CGM, my sarcasm has aged, because that money talks so fast, now you're bar shackled in chains, because in Don't Block, you aren't that hard man, you betray on your wit, CGM, it's that hard act that you play.  That's fine. Prepping for this battle? I watch my own battles. Evations. What I realise whenever I'm battling, no matter who I'm battling, I'm always complaining. So now I'm at sunburn too, with Juan. Would that stop the hating? Nah. This ain't even going to sound like a bow, so just through Juan, it's going to sound like two dudes having a normal conversation. We've got similar styles. People get confused, say he's my nemesis, but he ain't leveling, so he will never win. Anyone who said that he will get the win in Juan's own words, please leave the premises. Juan, say leave the premises, he can't, because he's speaking. He needs a therapist, a speaker, especially, so when he spits his bars, I can say, yeah, he said everything. But Juan literally can't say everything. He speaks funny.  He uses dry humour to try and confuse us into thinking that he's sick through his age, but that's just crowds going crazy over basic bars, it's like he's on stage. But he thinks he's sick. Juan, allow me. All the predictions said he was going to win. Juan will clown me.  You think you know who you're rapping with, Juan? Up in that goon rapping that dart before pamphlet was rapping it dark. You could get a couple, maybe even double that indescribable pleasure when it pops, it straps that bubble round. He said that, he meant that. That's the difference between you and I. You find it hard to slew a guy and I kill him all with one punch. That's a mass suicide. And for everyone who says I don't finish my round strong, I've got three rounds for you. You're not wrong. You know accepted to battle me? Man, that was a great day. International vet willing to battle Juan on his A game. You accepted this battle? I was feeling the same way. So I remember that you'd also battled Michael White and HK. Who wants to battle HK? I said that. And he meant that. You saw that and said yes, man. You chose to accept that. Who wants to battle me before checkpoint? Michael White said that. And he meant that. Don't flop saw that, then went to their yes, man. You said yes, man. And you then clashed the end result. 10 minutes of my life that I'm not going to get back. But battle anyone. It's got to the point where urban fam put your name on the flyer before you've even confirmed the crash. When you're planning your wedding, you'll be happy and anxious. She suggests the 28th. You quickly dash your planner, you find the 28, then say hang on you slapper. Why would I marry you over a training days battle with Akers? Who flopped loves you? I mean, start and think your flows are tight.    You're going to get your bars written last minute a couple days before you're clashing a kid.    Now that's how you rap. It's bad bars, you pavity them, but if it's bars and jokes, one's got a natural blend, you've only got jokes. I researched this man on the web and Bing only knew you for the laughs like Janice and Friends. Because that satire won't prove a challenge against someone who satire won the cars of these battle events, since I'm the reason that you're even here to rap this weekend, you're getting sent back to those warm up party battles again. The cringiest flip, might as well get it done. He said I'll battle anyone, anyone.  That's a big battle, isn't it? But anyway, if you don't get any of Juan's bars, all you need to do is watch TV. It's going to be more than TV references for you to beat me.  Your lyric book is basically the TV guide.  In battle rap, that's the meaning. No one wants to hear about Gareth Keenan's plans this evening. You need to start making sense. Stop focusing on David Brenton and start to rap about Jake instead. We all do TV references. But no one will mention mine. What's cool? Jake's still my dog. Adventure time. Let me tell you a story. All about how? My life probably. No longer in trouble like my wife and kids. But I can still get dark and light them up like Season 5's Aunt Viv.  I was the skunk man chasing cats. Pepe left you. I'm doing your style all through this round. I'll kick down the door to your house like that one guy in that one show everyone's talking about. I'll stretch your skin. I'll stretch your skin.  Like one guy in that one show everyone's talking about. I'll stretch your skin.  He's just plain sick like Soul's brother. They put the street rapper against the nerd because battle rap loved that. It's true. What twist in this battle? The street rapper? It's you. Are you joking?  Him and Rob rules and the only guys to make Callie Martin look gangster. They have to stick it on him.  Jesus. He ain't intimidating. Two guys are speech impediment. I will. Later. Ain't intimidating. If that was me, I would have made you slap each other. Who wants to hear my first map? Who wants to hear my first mum joke?  Rumour has it, you can't bring your goons to events. Because if they did turn up, they might just start using a skank. I won't get the skank, man. It's late you bruh. I also can't bring my goons to events. They've got A level course work to do. On your tunes, you say you can and squeeze it. Catching pee from badge you're dealing. Living life like an action scene with Asha D and Adam Deacon. But here, you're a happy being. We cannot see those gags of features and it raises questions about soldier like an office quiz with Garrett Keane. Office quiz. Because you use a seriously rap about how you click and blast tools.  Because those gun lines sudden you'll be disregardful so you went mainstream through tongue and cheek like Dizzy Rascals. If at any point in this bout today you interrupt my rounds with Juan Nill or Fuantanamo Bay.  But your real name is Dwayne Michael. You sound like every single basket will play ahead. Lose Michael? I'm going to lose Michael. To ruin this week. Because if human anatomy is anything to go by, soul should already be used to defeat. Why you trying to take advantage of this. You like to buy a name flicks. You've got name flicks too.  You'll probably diss me for being young.


Beautiful faces, all in red, men and women. We really appreciate you all being here every year for this. It is institutionalized in the city of Columbia that we're gonna celebrate and bring awareness for Go Red, Columbia Day, today, February 2nd, 2024. And with that, I am gonna immediately hand out off to our wonderful mayor, who has set it all for real with this tie. Can we give him some applause for this? So greetings and special presentation, Mayor Daniel Rickerman. Good morning, everybody. And it's his special day as we celebrate Heart Month. And you know, for a lot of us, it's all personal. You know, we talk a lot about statistics and I can sit up here and tell you, you know, this is the number one disease that kills people in America. But it really hits home. My father died when he was 41 from heart disease. And today, with the advancements in research and where we are today, he'd probably still be alive. But it makes you realize more important why we need to take care of ourselves and why we need to get checked. We had a good friend of ours who is a young father. Two young kids felt, didn't feel good. Kept pushing off going to the doctor.  He went to the doctor. They found 90% blockage. 35 years old now. 35 years old works out every day in great shape. So it doesn't matter if you work out every day if you think you gotta go get checked. It's more important than ever for us. And that's why red dress is important, right? It's important that we keep talking about it. And we talk about it a lot in the month of February. But the reality is we need to be talking about it every day. And as we embark as a city to improve quality of life of our citizens, make sure we have more exercising opportunities. We got some great announcements coming out this spring about some outdoor exercise opportunities. But we also gotta make sure that we're reminding people go get checked out.  Make sure that if your family's prone to heart disease that you're getting checked regularly because it is the number one killer of people in our country. And so when I look at the data and you look at the money, $400 billion spent on heart disease annually in the US. That includes healthcare costs, services, medicine, lost productivity, that's a significant amount. But you can't put a dollar amount on somebody's life. Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women in the US. Number one, we talk a lot about breast cancer which we need to continue to talk about but we can't forget heart disease. When you get your mammogram, go get your EKG. Go to the cardiologist and get checked. One in three deaths a year, killing more women than any form of cancer combined. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of maternal death in the US. Heart disease is the number one killer of new moms and women who are also likely more than men to have systematic coronary heart disease and doctors are less likely to refer women for testing which is a statistic that shouldn't be true. So as we continue to bring out the messages, we are working with our healthcare systems to make sure that this is becoming a checklist that everybody does every year. It's not just your mammogram, you gotta go get your heart checked. That's why we're embarking on the blue zones and as we move into our areas and across the city over the next three to couple months or so over the next three weeks, I hope, we're gonna be talking more about the blue zone which is getting an assessment of how we turn our community into a healthy community because I wanna see all of you together, all of you together when we're a hundred years old sitting around laughing about the good old days. We don't need to continue to go backwards, we need to go forwards. So with that, on behalf of my city council members which we do have our newly elected at-large, Tyler Bailey's here and there's several other council members wanna be here, our chiefs are here, both fire and police, I don't know, it's Aubrey somewhere. There's a question in red.  I catch a few things these days, you know? Catching a few things in my time. You never know what I watch and see, you know. And of course all our city assistant city managers here, I see Missy Gentry, Henry Simons, Pam Benjamin, who else is here? Jeff Palin. Oh please recognize Jeff, he said he got just really tore up ledger, he didn't have on a red tie. He's paying for a racelow. Well we can change that, we're just asking for some money and his face turns red, so it's alright. It's alright. Very true. But on behalf of the entire city council, and obviously as a city, I wanted to present this to the Heart Association, which is the National Heart Month because this is the first beat of the month, so let's keep the message going. Mayor Rickham uncovered it all, I mean, all of the points because I think when something's so personal to us, it's easy to demonstrate the passion for it. I think last year I chaired with you all my own journey with heart disease in my family and I consider myself a survivor and as, you know, you know, he couldn't have hit the nail on the head better about with all the medical advances we have now, when I thought I was just having migraines, unfortunately I had to learn that I was an AFib and that first episode has led me down a path of, you know, beta blockers and blood thinners for life probably, but it's okay, I will do that if that means I am here and I am present for my daughter, my family and others, so ladies, particularly talking to the ladies, don't always assume the symptoms you might feel is just something to be dismissed because we're taking care of everybody else. Stop and check it out, for sure. And I'm always be a big advocate for that and the other reason is that the people around you then know I'm learning the more, you know, you're willing to share. So my city team, they are always, you know, this job is, it's never stressful, right? But they are aware and always hydrated, you need some water, what you're doing, you're good because we have to take care of each other and I appreciate our city family, I adore them and love them for that. So we've welcomed everybody, we're here together in support of these efforts to bring awareness to American Heart Associations Go Red for Women movement in this fight against heart disease and stroke amongst women. February is National Heart Month, a time when all people, especially women, are encouraged to focus on their cardiovascular health. This month, the Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention is encouraging women to listen to their hearts and speak up for their health. Women in the United States are experiencing unacceptable and avoidable heart-related illness and death and nearly half of US women do not recognize that heart disease is the leading cause of death for women. Throughout the month of February, in order to help increase awareness, red spotlights will be displayed on the front of City Hall, yay, in recognition of National Heart Month. And in an effort to engage our community and our city employees, our public relations, media and marketing department in partnership with Drew Wellness Center will be hosting the first Jump Start Your Heart Day Party at Drew Wellness Center on February 10th from 11 to 2. We have to shout out Public Relations, Media Marketing and Hearts of Recreation. Thank you, thank y'all, thank you. The Jump Start Your Heart Day Party will feature a variety of free activities including family fun, relay races, Zumba, hit and yoga workouts, massages, music giveaways and more. And there's no cost to participate, but registration will be required. And we'll share a QR code. I think it's in the bag that everyone will receive today. So we really encourage you all to join us next Saturday for that event. We also want to continue the efforts we made as a city team last year raising $9,000. I mean, we're gonna hit at least the $10,000 mark this year. So city department should have received, and all employees, an email from me this morning encouraging them to create captains by department so we can make it a little fun and competitive because we want to participate in the heart walk this year, even bigger and better than last year. And also we'll have a page of my own that we are going to push out to raise funds for this very worthwhile endeavor.  I see Councilman Beren here as well. I mean, we can't do this without the adequate care and the providers out there. Mayor Rickonman's wife is a pediatrician. We have lots of people we know that we lean into on these efforts. But you know, I personally want to give a shout out today to Prisma Health. I see Regina's here with Prisma Health. Let's into medical center. I know all of you have people in your lives that are impacted. So let's always uplift our professionals in the field who can provide us the care that we need. So with that, we will now hear from our executive director of the American Heart Association, Ms. Crystal Kirkland. I will steal one of that. Oh, yes, sorry. Because my mother always told me, fix something when you mess up. I did not recognize our good friend and colleague at Richland County, Gretchen Barrett, who's here, who always supports every effort. We've worked on gun violence and everything else. And I would have felt miserable when I got downstairs if I hadn't fixed what I forgot. So thank you for being here, Gretchen, and thank you for being such a good partner in this community, because you always put your community first. And we appreciate that. It is so lovely to see everyone in red. Of course, the American Heart Association's favorite color. Hello, I am Crystal Kirkland, the executive director for the American Heart Association here in the Midlands. It is my honor to introduce Angelica Davis. Angelica is one of the American Heart Association's women of impact nominees for 2024. In November of 2022, Angelica gave birth to a third son and soon after, her entire life changed. We're so grateful to have her here to tell us her remarkable story. And we appreciate your passion for helping us bring awareness to challenges around maternal health. Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of new moms. And two-thirds of those deaths could be prevented with proper access to care and equitable health.  Please help me welcome Angelica Davis. Hey, y'all, how are y'all? Y'all look beautiful in your red. Excuse me, I'm trying not to talk so fast. I'm nervous, but I'm gonna get through this. So, as she stated, I had a baby. Couple months later, I started to experience symptoms. One symptom I never experienced before. I did experience shortness of breath, but I'm like, oh, it's just in a baby way. I can get rid of that. And then at night, when I would lay down, I couldn't breathe. It was almost like a drowning type feeling. And, you know, I stayed up all night long, me and my son, and I used to say, okay, I'm gonna make appointments to go to urgent care. But about seven o'clock in the morning, it was subside. I'm like, okay, whatever, I can go back to sleep. And this happened every night, and I dreaded night times because, you know, I'm like, God, I can't sleep now. Until one day I was in my apartment and I was going upstairs in my son's grandmother's car. And she says, what are you doing?  I'm like, yeah. She was like, you have fluid in your heart. I'm like, I don't. I'm a healthy person. I've always been healthy. Nobody in my family has any heart disease at all. And she said, you should go see your doctor Monday. I said, no, I'm going to the emergency room tomorrow. And I went, and lo and behold, it was fluid caused by something called postpartum cardiomyopathy. And that's pretty much heart failure after you have a baby, which is very rare.  They was like, oh, girl, you'll be all right because we give medicines, 96% of women that have it, they recover with medication. I wasn't so fortunate. They tried medication after medication, dosage after dosage, and please tell me if I'm talking too fast. But they tried dosage after dosage. Nothing happened. And what it is, it affected the squeezing of the heart where it pumps, you know, blood. Mine started out at 35. The normal is like 50, somewhere along 50%, somewhere along those lines. And then as the days, she went up there and it got all the way down to like 20. So they said, okay, we're gonna put you on the list.  But something in my spirit was when it started, I'm like, where are you gonna have to have a new heart? I'm like, okay, whatever. And so, you know, got on the list November 10th. I went to the doctor for a follow-up on the 16th. I did not wanna stay, so I'm like, abnormal, abnormal.  And I promised y'all, all I'd do was sit back in my chair. And I was like, she's like, no, we're gonna go ahead and mitchell. I'm like, oh, I think it was brief. But luckily, like I said, got on the list. The 10th was admitted to 16th. I was told on the 20th that I had a heart. And on the 21st, they dumped it and I'm here. So, to say the least, and I don't know, when I tell people, it was actually a good journey. Like, I have no complaints. Smooth recovery. I just, it's not just that touch of, I'm steroid induced diabetes and a touch of asthma. But hey, what is that? So, you know, but it went really great. My parents are supportive. But, and you know, today should be a day that I should be celebrating. We all should be celebrating. And I'm happy to be the women of impact nominee. And I did a dinner with the other nominees a couple nights ago and they asked me what my wife was. Today, my wife has completely changed. It was educating women and making sure this does not happen. I found out today, a member of my own community passed almost a year, a go to the exact same thing that I had. And unfortunately for her, the person I spoke to today, she said it was just too late. I'm like, excuse me, how was it too late? Nobody gave them information. So, now it's personal. This is no longer, it's so wide to educate women, it's so wide, so we can stop this. Because it makes no sense for a child to have to grow up without a mom because it was caught too late. If we, we need to be educated, we need to be informed. Hey, a doctor, I'm pregnant. Congratulations, postpartum, you know, depression, all that stuff. But let me tell you about a rare thing called postpartum cardiomyopathy. 4%, it happens to 4% of pregnancies. These are the symptoms. You're gonna have a healthy pregnancy. But I'm just letting, as a doctor, I'm just letting you know, just, you know, you're aware of the symptoms. I wasn't aware of the symptoms. Sadly to say she wasn't either. So, how do we fix this? I'm going to bring awareness. It's not gonna happen again. Our doctors are going to let us know. And if they don't let you know, I'm here. I'm gonna let you know. Because I don't want this to happen. Kids shouldn't have to live without their mom. So, that's my why. Thank you all for listening. And yeah, that's it. Thank you all for coming out. Thank you doctors. We got it. Yes, we hear you and we see you. So, great points and so glad to see you. So healthy and pretty and vibrant. We are at a period for closing remarks. Councilman Bailey, do you have anything you wanna share? Okay, just wanted to ask. Also, Galena Alford, who is our payment center administrator. And I always tell her, she's like my mom always says, a little bit of leather, well put together. She's so tiny, but she is mighty. And she's always a big part of our efforts with American Heart Association at the city. And making sure that some of the things we do contribute towards the heart walk. And so this year we're also doing a t-shirt campaign. Is that right? You wanna come real quick and rally the troops on that? Hello, everybody's so beautiful in their red. Well, this year we did last year a t-shirt contest. And this year we were doing one for the city employees. We're asking all city employees to send in designs for t-shirts and then we're gonna pick one and then, I don't know if I told you or not. Ms. Wilson is gonna walk down Main Street and display the design. A t-shirt contest that we started last week and it goes through the fifth of this month. So once we pick the design, we're gonna get the t-shirts from Ms. Wilson in the winter and she's gonna walk down Main Street from Washington to Durbag Street, I think it is. But we'll let her know. We're gonna pick the design and that design is gonna be on the t-shirts. Well, last year we just had the design for all city employees but this year it's gonna be for the public and city employees. So we're excited about that. I truly get my marks in orders. Yes, I'll be ready. Well, it is time. Miss UC to prepare for our, oh, yes ma'am.  Please. I'll be embossed by the city. Will you come? No. Absolutely. Good afternoon. Again, I'm Gretchen Barron, I'm Richland County Council and we are partnering with the City Recreation Commission to host our luncheon at the end of the month. It's the 28th at the Bugsby, Bugsby, I never say that correct, Bugsby Recreation Facility. And so you have to register. Last year it was standing room only and so we want you all to come and have lunch with us. Everything is free. We have some speakers. Our good friends will be there again. But yeah, come out, register. Like many of you all, I have a personal story. My son reminded me of this and I don't know how I forgot it, but my youngest son, Prez, or Hilton, I went in a cardiac arrest having him. Yeah, and I didn't, I don't know how I could forget something like that, but as I was getting dressed this morning, he reminded me, he said, my mom almost killed you. And I'm still paying for it, but anyway, come to the luncheon. Come to the luncheon, but please register. You can register on Eventbrite. We'd love to have lunch with you at the end of the month. Thank you. Okay, well we have lots of great events coming up, clearly. We are putting the attention where it deserves to be. And with that, we are ready for our community photo session because y'all look fabulous, so let's get it done.