the pandemic of course has affected Vistara's expansion plans for two reasons one is commercially of course we also took a call to delay some of the aircraft just delay but we have not cancelled any order so my if you look at it uh uh has the original plan recorded I should have had six plus aircraft by the end of this year but now we will only have about uh right now I only have 51 aircraft so yes there's a there's a slowdown there's a reduction in the number of aircraft otherwise hand but there is also an issue because of production reasons like Airbus and Boeing also have their own reasons for production delays so putting it all together there has been a slowdown as compared to what it would have been but how we will now that we are seeing a good recovery and we are on the track uh to to grow uh we will make sure that expansion continues that's the reason why we have not grown to a daily flight between Delhi to uh to London for example tomorrow we launch Coimbatore as the 30th destination in our network uh from Delhi and then we will also add from Mumbai and Bangalore so there would be more such expansion that's uh yet to come innovation is something that is very dear to us it's something that we hope and we believe is one of our key culture pillars uh so innovation starts it's not just uh it's not just about IT it's about processes it's about how we do things the very way in which I think we've managed or you know come through this pandemic uh required a lot of agility and you know thinking on the feet which is what innovation is all about so we looked at cargo for example like all other airlines as an important revenue stream we looked at charter flights for example we did cargo charters we also did passenger charters to areas we would not have flown otherwise we also made use of the bubble arrangements that we had and of course on the technology side we also looked at uh regional self-help we looked at new features such as blocking an extra empty seat we looked at offering baggage tags through contactless sms other than a piece of paper so there are many things that we have kind of introduced some force to introduce some of course making use of the opportunities insurance is something that we launched which we know is very topical it's important that people there are more people subscribing to insurance we launched services such as gift card or gift ticket we also launched new revenue streams around cards we had a program card so essentially all ancillary revenue streams except flying alone I think those are very important changes and innovations that I would say demand is back to pre-covid levels I don't think it has risen beyond that but then on a bigger capacity so for us I would say about 15 to 20 percent increase in terms of passenger numbers versus pre-covid and that's primarily because of new routes and new capacity I wouldn't say biggest challenge but the the fact of the matter I would say is that India at least domestic traffic is a majority dominated by low-cost carriers about 80 percent of the carriage is on low-cost carriers so that automatically has its own you know repercussions on the market because people expect a certain price level but at the same time there are challenges for all airlines I would say not just for in terms of operating in India I mean one big challenge is collections are mostly in Indian rupees whereas a lot of payments are in US dollars whether it when it comes to fuel it comes to aircraft maintenance distribution and so on and of course the rupee is a depreciating currency so as much as we would like to there's always a pressure on our bottom line because of that there's also taxation which is quite I'm sure you know about this taxation on fuel for example in India is quite high compared to the rest of the world and there are also challenges within India in terms of right now as far as the operation as a full service airline is concerned of course our cost base is slightly higher compared to low cost carriers because we offer some services which they could be meals on board it could be lounges a quality program these are all things that add to the cost but we believe that it also brings value to the airline and to the customer for most airlines it's about 30 to 35 percent of the expenditure or 100 percent increase is immediately a 30 kind of 30 30 percent in cost obviously that is a concern and we can't recover all of that from but what we do what we do from our side which is also important from a sustainably perspective is we are one of the youngest fleets I would say in the region our average age of the few years so new technology aircraft the new aircraft and the various fuel optimization techniques that we use kind of reduces the fuel burn and you know provide some comfort but of course overall yes there has been an increase in the fuel cost and that's something we are trying to manage


Hey everyone and welcome to another video. So today I'm going to be talking about why copying professional tennis players techniques isn't always the best idea and what you should be doing instead. We'll be looking at some footage of one of the players that I work with who's recently become a WTA World Ranked Player. We'll be looking at her serve and I'll be talking through some of the things that you should be copying and some of the things that you shouldn't. Let's check it out. Welcome back. If you're new to the channel my name is Ashley Neves and I run this YouTube channel The Tennis Mentor along with the Instagram account providing tennis content for tennis players coaches and parents to get more out of the sport. The reason for this week's topic is from week to week I get lots of players coming to me after watching professionals play on television asking if they can add a certain thing into their game. It might be something like they've seen professional tennis players throw the ball much higher than they do on their serve so they want to copy that. Another example is I've had a player question why we're working on a neutral stance backhand because Serena Williams hits with an open stance. I've even had somebody come onto court changing their serving stance because they've seen how big me lost round it serves and they wanted to see if turning their racket face upwards in the setup could help with that. Now don't get me wrong there are lots and lots of things that you could copy from professional tennis players but it's about understanding what is right for you. There are a couple of reasons why copying the pros isn't the best option. The first one being there are so many different styles and what might be right for Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic might not suit your game style and the way that you play but secondary to that is that these players have trained for the whole of their lives day in day out to develop this style so physically their bodies are prepared for it but also technically they're at the level where they're able to cope with that technique. An example of this is that you'll notice that professional tennis players can afford to have a much bigger swing on their ground strokes. This is purely down to the fact that their timing is impeccable. If you're not hitting the center of your strings every single time on every single shot then actually a slightly smaller swing is going to allow you to time that ball slightly better. Another example is you'll see professional tennis players sliding on hard courts which again is something that's definitely not recommended unless you've trained for this physically for a number of years. Sliding on hard courts can be super risky and dangerous for injuries. Pros are able to do this because they spend hours upon hours of strength and conditioning training their bodies for situations like this and they're moving at such speeds that they require it. The point I'm trying to make is what you see on the pro tour isn't always right for you but also what's right for one professional tennis player isn't right for another. Rather than copying professional tennis players styles try to look at the fundamentals. The one thing that all professional tennis players have in common is that they are exceptional at the basics. Things like early preparation, being balanced through their shot, making a really good contact in front of their body, an explosive recovery step, a consistent ball toss on the serve. All of these things are what sets the professionals apart from lower level players. It's not their style, it's the basics. So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to play through some footage of one of the players that I work with, Hannah Smith. She's 18 years old and she's recently got herself a WTA point, ranking her just outside the top 1,000 players in the world. Now one of Hannah's biggest weapons in her game is her serve. It's something that she started developing at the young age of five years old and now she's hitting her serve at around 110 miles per hour. So what we're going to do is look at this footage and I'll break it down into some of the things that you should be copying within your serves, but also talking about some of the things that are Hannah's style and that maybe you shouldn't be copying. So here is Hannah's serve. As I mentioned, her serve is one of her biggest weapons in her game and you can see from this footage that she hits it pretty well. One of the main reasons why her serve is such an asset is that from the young age of five every single session that we had on court we would religiously practice the overarm throw. By the age of nine Hannah was already able to throw a tennis ball from baseline to baseline and by the time she was 11 she was able to clear the back fins. What the overarm throw is amazing for is developing the right mechanics for the serve. It encourages use of the whole body and creates the right technique for using the chopper grip which we'll go on to in a minute. So I'm going to break this down into some of the things that you should be copying and then afterwards we'll talk about some of the things that you shouldn't be copying. There are four key areas that I'm going to go through on Hannah's serve which are the fundamentals for anybody's serve. Number one is the stance, number two is the pre-throw position, number three is the contact point and number four is the finish. Now when we take a look at Hannah's stance you'll notice that her feet hips and shoulders are all sideways on. With her feet they're in a relaxed position around shoulder width apart with her back foot which is her right one slightly behind her left foot. You'll notice that her back foot is pretty much parallel to the baseline and her front foot is pointing slightly more down the court which will allow her to get her leg drive going upwards and forwards. The next thing that you should aim to copy on Hannah's serve is her grip and for pretty much every player on the tour they use the same grip and it's the chopper grip or the continental grip. Now using this grip is vital if you want a decent serve. It allows you to hit every type of spin with the same grip. You can hit big flat serve, slice or a kicker but more importantly it means that you can pronate on your serve allowing your racket head to travel over a bigger distance over a shorter period of time.  Now although I say this is something that you should copy if you're not already on the chopper grip it might be something that you need to move over to gradually as it will feel quite uncomfortable to do straight away. If you do struggle with the chopper grip I did make a video a while ago and I'll pop the link above here for you to check out. So as she throws the ball up you'll notice that she keeps her arms straight she's not bending her elbow or her wrist. Keeping your arm straight can give you a lot more control over your ball toss and releasing the ball at the right point can also help. You'll notice that Hannah releases the ball just as it passes level with her eyes. Releasing the ball at this height is a commonality amongst all professional tennis players so definitely something that you should aim towards. In this pre-throw position you'll notice that Hannah's non-dominant hand is reaching as high as she possibly can. She's fully extended up to the ball. You'll see that having that left arm up creates a really good shoulder tilt. Her left shoulder is a lot higher than her right shoulder which is going to allow her to get a lot more power on her serve. The shoulder tilt is a great thing to copy if you're looking for power but if you're not at that level and you just want consistency then just focus on your ball toss and keeping your non-dominant hand up for slightly longer than you normally do. This will start to help you with your shoulder tilt without it affecting your consistency too much. What you'll also notice is that because she's using a good chopper grip her palm stays facing down. Now this is an area where lots of people go wrong. What I see a lot of is at the back of players swings their palm facing upwards.  In this pre-throw position even though Hannah's hitting arm is lower than her non-hitting arm you'll see that she still has a decent amount of space under her armpit. If your elbow gets too close to your body you're really restricting your range of movement. The next thing to look at copying is Hannah's contact point. I will go back and talk about how she gets there in a second but we'll skip through to the contact and you'll notice that Hannah is fully extended up to the ball as she hits the ball. Now this is something that you should definitely copy even if you're a player that's not yet getting off the ground with a jump you should try to aim to really extend your arm up to the ball. The higher your contact point is the longer your levers become giving you more power but also it allows you to hit the service box more frequently as your ball is at a higher point over the height of the net. By having a consistent contact point it's really going to allow you to hit the sweet spot more often. There will be a slight variance with your ball toss depending on whether you're aiming for a wide or a T serve or a slice or a topspin serve but ideally you want to make that variance as small as possible so that there's an element of disguise to your opponents. With regards to that contact point you'll also notice that as Hannah hits the ball her body is now facing forwards so she's made full use of her legs to drive her right hit squaring it up to the court which has in turn rotated her torso to face the court as well. This not only allows you to hit with power but it allows you to hit to different parts of the service box as well. The final element to Hannah's serve is her landing and if you're somebody that gets off the ground on your serve this is something else that you should copy. You'll notice that Hannah lands on her left leg with her racket on the left side of her body because of this and because of her body weight transfer going forwards you'll see that her right leg kicks back behind her to counterbalance her body weight. This is a really common position for all professional tennis players as it's your body's natural reaction to keep yourself balanced. The higher you get off the ground and the more explosive your serve is the higher that back leg kick will be. I call it the scorpion kick. I always notice Felix Algar Alasim gets a really high scorpion kick on his serve and again that's because he's super dynamic and he gets quite high off the ground. Now this finished position is something that you should aim to get towards however if you're not jumping as high as Hannah and Felix then start small. Practice with a small jump landing on that left leg and finishing with that right leg behind you and if you want to improve your leg drive it is something that you can do at home doing shadow swings. So things to copy number one is distance being sideways on in a neutral position using a chopper grip. Number two is getting into a good pre-throw position that means having your offhand nice and high creating a good shoulder tilt with your hitting arm slightly lower keep a good space under your armpit to allow for big range of movement and ideally aim to have your palm slightly downwards as opposed to having your palm upwards. Number three aim to make contact as high as you possibly can whether you're jumping up to your serve or whether you're still on the ground and number four finish with your body weight forwards landing on that left leg if you are somebody that jumps into your serve. Now let's take a look in a little bit more detail at some of the things that happen in between these key points. Now if you go right back to the start and look at Hannah's stance you'll notice that as she prepares her serve and she throws the ball up she keeps her feet apart. Now this is called a platform stance. Now a platform stance isn't for everybody and if you look at the players on the tour there are some players that like to have more of a pinpoint stance which is where your back foot slides up to meet your front foot. Hannah actually used to have this stance and she's recently changed over to the platform stance to give her a little bit more stability and to make more use of her back leg driving up and into the court. Now there are pros and cons for both but it's really down to preference so this is something that you don't need to copy from Hannah's serve but to figure out what you prefer. If you have a pinpoint stance and you like to bring that back foot up there are multiple ways you can do this as well.  Figure out which feels most comfortable for you and obviously take guidance from your coach if they feel that you'd get more from a different type of stance. Another thing you'll notice from Hannah is she gets a really good knee bend as she throws the ball up. Now this is something that can definitely give you a more dynamic serve and give you more power but if you're newer to serving it's not something that you necessarily need to copy straight away. Work on the fundamentals first and if you're consistently getting that serve in then you can start to incorporate a bit more knee bend. Hannah's got a very advanced serve action and is able to time her knee bend perfectly. If a knee bend is something that you do what you can copy from Hannah's serve is the timing of it. You'll notice that as Hannah throws the ball up her knees sink and as the ball starts to drop on her balltoss that's when she drives up to the ball. You'll notice with the timing of Hannah's leg drive is that as soon as she drives her legs up into the serve that's when her racket drop happens. The force of her body moving upwards creates an opposite force of her racket dropping.  You'll also notice that because she's using a good chopper grip and she's got good throwing mechanics that when her racket does drop it's dropping with the edge of the racket down rather than the strings. This is a common mistake that I see players make and it links to that initial palm down setup with the serve. So if you can and you're using the right chopper grip focus on getting the palm down at the back of your swing allowing your racket head to drop on edge like Hannah does. As the racket head drives up to the ball you'll see again that it's driving up on edge and it's only just before she makes contact with the ball that the strings open up with her pronation. Soon after she makes contact you'll see that her racket strings are now pointing out to the right hand side. This has now shown full pronation. I didn't teach Hannah the mechanics of pronation it just naturally happened over time through her getting better and better at her over arm throw. If you look at this pronation that Hannah does and that all pro tennis players do and you try to think about it too much it will actually upset the timing the rhythm and your contact point on the serve and you'll actually play a lot worse before you get better. So I would say to improve this element of your game yes it's something that you should be doing but try to do it in a more natural way so that you don't have to think about it so much. Practice lots of throwing and just get out there and hit lots of serves and over time it will improve if you're using the right grip. Now the serve does sound massively complex and I've gone through quite a lot of technical detail already in this video so I'm not going to talk for much longer but if there is a certain element in this serve that you are interested in let me know and I can make a more detailed video on a smaller element. Hopefully your brain's been absorbing this information through the video but what I will say is try not to focus on too many things at once focus on just one element of your serve and make it one of those four fundamental parts as they are going to make the biggest difference to your game. The bits in between come down more to style or will happen naturally if you get the other things right. Let me know in the comments below if there's anything that you found useful from this video and if you enjoyed it hit the thumbs up and consider subscribing to the channel if you haven't done so already. Thanks as always for watching I look forward to seeing you in next week's video take care.


Lakeland Currents, your public affairs program for North Central Minnesota, produced by Lakeland PBS with host Bethany Wesley. Production funding for Lakeland Currents is made possible by Bemidji Regional Airport, serving the region with daily flights to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, for information available at BemidjiAirport.org. Closed captioning for Lakeland Currents is sponsored by Niswa Tax Service, tax preparation for businesses and individuals online at NiswaTax.com. Hello, I'm Bethany Wesley, and this is Lakeland Currents. The American Cancer Society reports that there were 15.5 million Americans living with a history of cancer on January 1, 2016. About 1.7 million new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed this year in 2018. It's hard to imagine anyone not knowing someone whose life has been impacted by cancer. Locally here in Bemidji, survivors, caregivers and community members come together to raise funds for cancer research and survivor support services through the Beltrami County Relay for Life. This year, though, there will be some changes for the popular event. Here to tell us about those changes and to talk about the greater mission of the Relay for Life are Stephanie Moll, the event lead here in Beltrami County, and Cindy Swedberg, the marketing and entertainment lead. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Why don't you start by telling us a little bit about how you got involved with Relay for Life, how long you've been involved? I don't even know if I remember what year I started. It's been a long time. I started originally in Foley. I had a friend that was a cancer survivor. I have since lost her to cancer, but my dad also passed away from cancer, and so it was a way to honor them and somehow, some way, fight back. So, Cindy, you're the marketing and entertainment lead. Do stuff like this, right? To help promote the event and awareness. Is that kind of what your role is? Absolutely. That is my marketing part. I promote the event. I promote other events that feed into the main event. We also have someone that does the team marketing. So, for teams that might be having a fundraiser or something, she does more of that end of it. And then my entertainment area is right at Relay, finding whether it's local entertainment or coming up with some type of entertainment for the day. Stephanie, how did you get involved initially? I started in 2007. My husband and I, my parents are both cancer survivors. Thank goodness. I lost my grandpa in 1990 to cancer, so that was my very first part with it. But in 2007, we started and haven't looked back. We just keep going. Is this the first year you've been an event leader? Have you done that previously? No, this is my third year as event lead. And that's just helped coordinate the whole event then? Yes. Is it fair to say that most people who get involved with Relay for Life from the planning aspect has a personal connection of some kind to cancer for the most part? Yes. I would say definitely. We want to talk basic info just about the history of the event. So, how long has there been a relay in Beltrami County? This is our 22nd year. Would you say that it continues to grow? Are you kind of stable? Is it kind of going through a down portion? Where are you kind of at in terms of overall involvement and excitement? I would... Number-wise, we are down. But I would have to say last year, excitement and motivation-wise was one of our best years. So, I think we're kind of in a downturn, but I hope we're going back up with the big changes cycles. Yes, absolutely. We're not any different than anyone else. We have a lot of teams that have been with us for many, many, many years and they continue to come. And we welcome those that are new. They might have just had a close call with cancer or someone they know is diagnosed, someone they love. Maybe they're fighting themselves. So, we are always welcoming new members and new involvements. We're going to get to some of the changes that are coming up this year. It's just soon enough. But before we get there, we want people at home to be able to kind of picture what the event is for those who haven't been there. So, we talk about a relay for life. People picture a walk, right? There's a walk involved. So, tell us a little bit about what else happens though because there's more that's there than just simply walking, correct? Absolutely. We have a lot of fun. It is the best way I can describe it is probably a carnival kind of an atmosphere because there's games, there's entertainment, there's music, there's food, all kinds of food. There's other fundraisers that each team will sponsor at the event. It's free admission as far as getting into the event. There's free parking, but teams will sell items or food or that type of thing as part of their fundraising efforts. But it is just a lot of fun. Something for absolutely every age out there. We have little children that come. We have the elderly. We have, of course, cancer patients. We have families. We have people that have no cancer connection or relay connection. They just come and enjoy all the festivities. We know that there's teams that work toward raising their fundraising goals throughout the year, but if I'm hearing you correctly then you also have a certain percentage of just the public who shows up that day just to take in whatever's there. Correct, correct. Do you think people understand that? That you don't have to necessarily be a team member. You don't have to necessarily be involved with the fundraising. You're just welcome for community support and celebration of those who are battling and surviving? I think we were a little surprised. We had a booth at the home show a couple years ago and people came up to our booth and actually voiced that while we don't have a connection to cancer or we're not on a team and we're like, no, you can definitely come. You are very welcome. And that's one thing we've struggled with is to let people know, hey, it is a community event period. It is there for everybody's enjoyment. And yes, there's funds being raised and awareness being raised for the cancer fight. It's a day-long event, correct? I mean, it's not just a couple hours.  This year it's 10 hours. It has been 12 hours in the past, but we're going 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. this year. But certainly people don't have to stay for the whole thing. They come, they pop in, pop out. Absolutely. We have people come for opening ceremony, which is at 11 o'clock. And then don't come back for normally the survivor ceremonies at 6 p.m. We don't have it set in stone yet what it's going to be this year, but we have people come and go. Okay. And you're more than welcome to come and go. Come check out what it is and have some fun. So the changes that are happening this year is, first of all, the timing, correct? You've typically been earlier in the year than what it's going to be this year. So tell us a little bit, Stephanie, about when it was before and when it will be this year. It has been seven of the last eight years. It has been in July. Okay. And we are moving to September this year. September 22nd is our relay this year. What prompted that or what was the discussions that kind of led to that? The feedback from participants, not only participants on the team, but just people that came to relay or talked to us after relay. Summer's hard. They've got too many other things going on in the summer and not enough weekends of nice weather. So we listened and we moved it. They either asked for spring or fall and fall is what worked out for this year, so we're trying it. Okay. And then it's also changing location. Yep. We have been at the Sanford Center for several years now and we decided that being that it is moving to September, that might be also something that we wanted to look at because another thing that we kind of got from the feedback was that they liked the outdoor event. However, we've always run into weather. Historically, it seems like every year we have some typically type of weather, whether it's rain or storms, electrical storms or whatever. So we had moved into the Sanford Center. With being out at the fairgrounds, we can have probably the best of both worlds, weather cooperating, although we do have the indoor option totally if we need to. Okay. So you're going to be out at the fairgrounds with the intention, hopefully, if Mother Nature cooperates of being outside, but if there isn't cooperative weather, you can relocate indoors? We're going to be in the commercial building and the 4-H building. Okay. And we hope to have between the two, like some of our activities like the Home Depot or the dunk tank or minnow races and the car show and all of that kind of stuff. And we will have part of our track be outside, but obviously if it's pouring down rain, you don't have to walk outside. Okay. So we're doing both weather dependent, but we have the indoor totally if we need it, but we can do best of both worlds, we hope. Is it coincidental that both changes are occurring within the same year, or did you go through a fairly thorough evaluation process last year or what kind of led to them being tied together? I think we've been hearing the desire for a different date and the outside atmosphere for several years. And we were kind of tied up with the Sanford at the time, so I think it just kind of all fell into place this year. If we're going to make a change, we might as well change everything we decided. And make my job, you know, a little harder to do. You got it. I know. So it was a big push this spring, obviously being here. I mean, is it to get the word out that come July? It's not that it's not happening. It's still coming up. Yes. Okay. Yes. Biggest, probably the biggest reason that we came on is that, but we're always wanting to let people know when it is because people love it. And I guarantee if you haven't experienced it before and you do this year, you'll be hooked. You'll be hooked. It's a fun event. That's interesting. Talk about the mood of the event, because you kind of think it's cancer survivors that it would perhaps be kind of solemn and kind of not necessarily sad, but reflective, but you talk about it being kind of fun and you're like laughing and smiling. So it must have a different atmosphere to it. There is parts of it that are very somber and emotional, like the luminary ceremony. Personally, that one gets me every time, but we are celebrating our survivors and we are celebrating the people we have lost. So yes, we try and make it be a very upbeat, fun 10 hours. There is time for sadness, but there's also a lot of laughter. We have a lot of fun. We do very much so. Our theme this year is Disney. So we're really excited to see what our teams come up with as far as costumes and we're excited to see all the little kids dressed up too. We had Elsa and somebody else a couple of years ago and seeing the little kids come in and their princess outfits and what have you, it's a blast. And the target dog is usually there and we have had a lot of mascots come and so the kids really like that. And honestly, I think the DILT is kind of like it too. It's really a lot of fun. Again, it's just, if you haven't been there, it's not just an event, it's an experience and it's a good experience overall. You talked about a theme. Is there a different theme every year to kind of just re-engenerize the teams or does it kind of have every, what's the point of the theme? We ask the team captains if they want to do a theme. Okay. And even though we pick a theme, you're not required to do the theme. Some teams don't decorate their booths with our theme, but a lot do and it's a lot of fun seeing everything all decked out. And a couple of years ago, we had City of Hope. So there was, it looked like walking down Main Street. It's just, it's fun. It's fun to see what people come up with. It helps energize, you know. It gets the team, I suppose, right? Exactly. It's evolved in advance. They're brainstorming, they're excited about it.  So Disney Wish Upon a Cure is our theme this year. Yeah. We're excited. I want to go back. I forgot to ask about how long are you kind of locked into the fairgrounds? If you find that for whatever reason this doesn't fit, can, you know, will you go back, are you open to going back?  No. A year to year contract. Okay. So the relay is obviously the main event each year, right?  But you do things throughout the year in addition, right, to keep people thinking about cancer research and raising funds and support. So tell me about some of the other events that you do throughout the year in addition to the big one. Bark for Life is one. Bark for Life? Bark. Okay. It's our canine friends. Oh. Because they're just as important to you as your significant other or a family member. Some people, that's what gets them through is having a cat or a dog. So we do a walk with the dogs. It's actually on June 10th at Diamond Point Park this year from one to three. That's one of them we do. We do, a lot of the teams do individual things throughout the year. They, there's everything from, of course, the garage sales and bake sales, taco, fry bread taco sales, root beer float sales. We've worked the Sanford concessions where we get a percentage over there. There's a lot of things, very creative things that people come up with. We have one of our committee members actually has kind of, she's kind of the crocheting guru. And she has sold a lot of items over the last couple years. And that's been her main fundraiser. And she is a cancer survivor. And so she, she has really went kind of gung-ho on that. So there's a lot of other things too. I know that the cornhole during the. We're part of Dragon Boat. Yeah, we're part of Dragon Boat. There's a team that, there's two teams that come from Canada that are all survivors. And then we have a team that are survivors or they're caregivers that have one of the most. So we're part of that. The cornhole on Thursday night goes to relay. And then we also sell cupcakes during the race on Saturday and all of that money goes to relay also. So that's a fundraiser for us too. BSU does a relay at BSU. They had it in March. And that's a feeder event for ours. Okay. So you're all kind of together, right? You're all in the same mission, right? So you're kind of like one family. Yep. Yep. And so all these events throughout the year, not only do they bring in money, but do they also help people kind of think year-round then? Yes, absolutely. Even though it's got one giant event each year. Absolutely. You know, the luminaries is, is one thing that's at relay every year and people can purchase them for a suggested donation. And they can decorate them any way they want to and bring them back or give them to one of our members.  That is one that, that's one of the, you know, fundraisers right at relay. But it's sold throughout the year. We have a silent auction at relay, which is, you know, a separate event within the event. And a lot of donated really awesome stuff that they can bid on. So that's kind of fun.  We kind of go off on the hope. It's, it's the celebration of our survivors, the celebration of the ones we've lost. But it's also the celebration of hope because we have made big strides in, in recent years with, with cancer research and treatments. And, you know, then we have Hope Lodge, which there are two in Minnesota. They are lodges where a cancer patient and one caregiver can stay for free. There's one in the cities and one in, down in Rochester. And then we have other programs that, you know, it's not all research and that it's a big part, but there's a lot of other things that relay supports. Okay. Let's talk a little bit about what happens with those funds, because you have, I mean, obviously it's a big event, it's a fun event, but the purpose is to kind of bring in money, right? So you have these teams that work pretty much year-round, some of them, right? You're going to bring in as much money as they can. Do you have a set goal for what you want Beltrami County Relay for Life specifically to bring in every year? Okay, we do. Our goal this year is 101,000. 101,000, okay. Is that based on how you've done in years past that you kind of set that benchmark? Yes. Three years ago, we hit over 107,000 and that was our highest, but I can tell you we were all on a high when we found out the number and it was really easy to go into next year and be, you know, the wheels turned in, but there's a lot that gets figured out to give us a benchmark of where we think we want to be and then we pick a number and say that's what we're shooting for. And then each team kind of set, can set its own goal. Correct. Correct. And then is there a minimum that they have to raise to be considered part of the team or anything like that? No, okay. You can be a team of one. You don't, you can be a virtual team. There's so many ways to get involved. You don't have to put out, I mean there's, Stuffy and I, we kind of live Relay, but there's a lot of people that have a passion, but they, you know, they don't want to be overly involved, but they want to, you know, do something and, and so you can be a team of one and you can be a virtual team, so you don't even have to be at the event per se and you can still raise funds and donate them. Okay. How many teams, roughly, Bell Park do you have each year? We currently have 21 registered right now. Okay. Our goal is 30 for this year, so we're, we're getting there and we still have a little time, so sure, especially now that it's later. Exactly. All the money raised goes to the American Cancer Society? Yes. I want to talk a little bit about what the American Cancer Society does. I know, Cindy, you just touched on some of it a little bit here, but I looked up a few numbers not to throw out too many stats here, but last year there was 406 million in research grants, 1.2 million for support calls or chats, and then 456,000 for lodge nights at Hope Lodge, so I want to kind of pull out a little bit about that, but the cancer research obviously is a big, a big hook for people. Do you watch, I mean, as participants, do you watch to see what happens with all those grants to see what they, I mean, is it exciting to feel like you're part of it? We just got, again, you saying don't want to dwell on numbers, but we just got some info that to me was astronomical since August 1st of 2017, just in Minnesota, they've given 12 grants for over 5,715,000, and that's just in Minnesota in the last, what, 10 months? Yeah, so that was, that's cool to me. And we've had lots and lots of award-winning research 47 ACS-funded research went on to win Nobel Prizes. 47? 47. Yeah, so what we're, what we're doing is working, I mean, that's cancer deaths are down. 26% decreased since 1991. Yeah. Do you feel, when you hear stats, like do you feel a part of it, like does that help knowing that you are actively supporting toward it? Do you feel a connection with that? Yes.  In addition to just the research and hoping that you can help people get better, right? There's also the support services that go on for those who are going through the process. And so they talk about these cancer information specialists and they're available 24-7. What exactly is that and how is that beneficial if you already have the doctors and the nurses and the medical staff? Yes, you can have your doctors and nurses, but they're not 24-7. You can't call your doctor at home, you can call this 800 number, the cancer information line and talk to someone 24-7. Three o'clock in the morning, if you just need to talk to somebody, you have questions going through your head, you call that number and you're going to talk to somebody. And it's not just a volunteer sitting at a phone, they're trained. I mean, if you have questions about your diet and things aren't going good with that, they get you to a dietitian and they're trained people. And if they don't have the answer, they're going to get you the answer and get back to you right away. So you're not just calling and hearing somebody who's looking something up in a book or online, right? Exactly. I mean, they're coming with actual knowledge and training that actually. Absolutely. They also do support groups, they help do equipment and all this, correct? Yeah. Important parts of the journey. Yes. Very important parts. Even at Relay, we help with a little bit of that. We have the Pantene Beautiful Links donation. So grow out your hair ladies and men. They need eight inches. And so, you know, you can get your hair cut right there and donate it right there. The nice thing that we love about Pantene is that they do not charge for their wigs. And so that's been a really big driving force on using them. But we have actually licensed stylists that cut your hair that day and then they donate the hair. So we are supporting that end of it too that day. People hear that and if you haven't maybe talked to somebody personally or maybe don't know, why is it important to look good, feel good programs and all those that help people kind of the wigs and feel better about their appearances as they go through the process? Why is that important? I can say from a personal standpoint, my very good friend got cancer and I went through her whole cancer journey with her because she doesn't have children. She has four-legged children, but she doesn't have kids. So I went through her cancer journey with her and she lost her eyebrows and her eyelet when she lost all her hair. But sitting in this look good feel better and learning how to put on makeup, even though she knew how to put on makeup, but now that you don't have eyebrows and eyelashes and what have you, it was amazing to see her go from, I don't have eyebrows, I don't, you know, to the smile on her face and the fun sitting in there with three other people learning about this, how to style a wig, how to anything. There was an elderly lady in there who, from start to finish, she was, you could tell, not in a very good place when she got there and she left with a new wig on that was styled and her face all done and a kid you know, she said, I'm going to go out and knock my husband's socks off. And to see her from the start of that to the end of that, that it was, it's just amazing. They make you feel beautiful again. Even if it's for that, that two hours, even if that's all it is, but they get to go home with a cosmetic bag full of makeup and all kinds of stuff that ranges from $300 to $700. And it's just, it's amazing. It's just one more aspect of helping someone through this journey. So when you're feeling more yourself, if you're feeling at least attractive or pretty or you know, you're not worried about staying overnight or where you're going to stay or how you're going to get to treatment the next day because they're helping give you a ride, does that allow the patient or the person who's really fighting them to focus on getting better? Yes, absolutely. And it also helps the family because I've done a lot of caregiving both for, you know, for my dad when he had cancer and then for others. And the caregiving journey isn't an easy one either. And so if you don't have to worry about how you're going to get them to treatment or where you're going to stay because financially, it's not just having an available room. Financially you're being hit from every corner of the world. And so to have a free place to stay and the Hope Lodges are beautiful. And they, we're hoping to also do some type of a stuff the truck or trailer where we're kind of in the talks of it, but for the Hope Lodges because they do take donations, they need donations, but everything to the cancer patient and their caregiver is free. And so, and then if there is not a Hope Lodge, you know, we provide rooms or discounts to rooms in other areas where their treatment may be. So you have a few months now till your September event. Still time to get involved? Are you still looking for volunteers and people to get involved to say they want to be a part of us? Always, always, yep. Well, thank you ladies for joining me today. Thank you for having us. If you would like to learn more or if you would like to get involved or to find a place where you can help out with the process, you can visit either the Facebook page or the website which is both listed here at the bottom of the screen. In the meantime, thank you for joining me. Please join me next time.


In our day-to-day lives we take things for granted, we move too fast from one thing to the next, uninterestedly ignoring how things came into existence, and without pause in appreciating the causes and effects around us. Language is one of these elements that we use most often, yet even the deep knowledge and history of our own mother tongues is lacking, let alone understanding those of other nations and peoples. My mother tongue is Arabic, I have used it daily throughout my communicative life via thought, speech, or song, yet there is still an enormous amount I still don't know about its complexity, structure, and beauty. Let's start with the word itself, Arabic, or its root, Arab for that matter. Where did that come from? Historians over the ages believed that the 9th century BCE King of Yemen, the Arab Ibn Ghahtan, was the first of what were considered the Arabian Arabs, and was credited as the first speaker of the Arabic language in its pure form. The Arabs name itself was also the inspiration for the coining of the term Arab that would go on to represent the indigenous people of the peninsula and region for the rest of time. The Arabic language uses a word root system. Roots are three-letter words that can with slight modification by adding letters and accentuations, lead to the formation of other words. These secondary words typically have associated meanings to the original root word. In Arabic, there are over 6,000 root words that generate several hundreds of thousands of secondary words. Let us use the example of the word Qatab. It is a three-letter word that means right. From this single root word we can generate numerous words. By adding two letters, Qatab gives us the word for book. All another letter gives us Meqtab, meaning office. And another leads to Meqtub, representing letter. And finally, one more gives us Meqtaba. We then get library, and so on. As you may know, Arabic is a Semitic language written from right to left. But if you haven't noticed, numbers on the other hand are written left to right. Why is that? To appreciate this logic, you should understand that when Arabs speak numbers, the composition always starts with the smaller numbers first. So in the case of 27, the 7 is identified first, and then followed by the 20, 7 for 7, and 20 for 20, so that's a 7 first, and then a 20. And to write that spoken sequence correctly from right to left will result in the written number 27. When looking at mathematics, and specifically algebra, have you ever wondered why there are letters involved with numbers? I'm sure it was as confusing to you as it was to me the first time I was exposed to Algebra's incomprehensible equations. Well, you can blame the Arabic language for the first and most common of all these letters, X. The letter X's origin in Algebra comes from the Arabic word Shay, meaning a thing. As Algebra sped geographically, it eventually was translated in Spain during the Middle Ages. The closest pronunciation of the Arabic letter composition Sh, in Old Spanish, was the letter X. This consequently led to the transliteration of the word Shay into X-E-I, Shay. The term for the unknown was further abbreviated to the more commonly used symbol X. There is richness all around us in our day-to-day lives, knowledge that entices the mind and makes us understand and think more about how we came to be what we are today. What are some facts about the Arabic language that you find intriguing and shareable? What are the facts and attributes that give you a feeling of connection and belonging to your mother tongue?


Hey, what's going on? Everyone is behavior here again for another trailer reaction. And this one is for Blade Runner 2049 Trailer number two Comic Con is right around the corner. I can't wait for that But in the meanwhile, we got this trailer that I'm about to check out. It's being directed by Dennis Villanueve He did a rival prisoners and Sicario. I loved all those films I have not seen the original Blade Runner with Harrison Ford But I am looking forward to this one with Ryan Gosling and I still haven't decided yet If I want to go back and watch the original or go into this one fresh But maybe you guys can let me know what I should do in the comment section below But anyway, let me stop talking and put on these headphones and stop listening to me talk But watch me watch the trailer Here we go Any idea where I could find you you police Plan on taking me here. I would much prefer that to the alternative Every leap of civilization Was built off the back of slaves Replicants are the future, but I can only make so many. I had the luck and he has the key I think I found him That's not possible If this gets out we've bought ourselves a war You're a cop not at your job once Things were simpler than what do you want? I want to ask you some questions. What happened? I've covered my tracks scramble the records. We were being hunted By who? They know you're here. You do not know what pain is yet You will learn the future of the species is finally October 6th, well International show number three, I don't even want to watch that You know when I did a reaction to the first trailer, I think like two months ago I was saying to myself that it reminded me of Ghost in the Shell that you know star scholars or Hanson that didn't do too well critically or commercially You know around the world for a number of reasons one because of the whitewashing and you know Just also because the movie wasn't that good and I do remember saying that you know this movie resembles that movie I was still excited. I was all I was saying that you know, I'm not going You know fresh, you know try to keep my expectations low because I don't know anything about this But I did like the first trailer a little bit better than this one. This one really didn't do too much for me It just kind of seemed you know a bit underwhelming like I don't know the whole time I just kept thinking about Ghost in the Shell and You know that movie still leaves a bad taste in my mouth There are much better actors in this movie, of course Ryan Gosling Harrison Ford Jack Lido I hope that he's a good villain. He he is appearing to be the villain But I don't know This type of you know science fiction is the type of stuff that I'm usually into But for some reason I get a feeling that this is this movie is gonna look great But have a lot of dull moments. I could be wrong. I hope I'm wrong and I didn't feel like this is that you know I was still excited but had those same comparisons But you know after watching this, you know, I can't sit here and say that oh my god I can't wait for Blade Runner to come up but so many people love this franchise and series So I'm gonna give it a chance now. I think I will go back and watch the original Just so I can have a better understanding of what's going on. But guys, that's just my opinion What did you think about the trailer? I mean, did you like it? Did it turn you on? Did it turn you off? Do you agree with me or do you disagree with me? Let me know in the comment section below Let's get this conversation going and keep it flowing. And if you liked this video, go ahead and give me that thumbs up And if you don't like the video, that's fine. Just leave me a comment below why and still give me the thumbs up Since you're watching this video on YouTube go ahead and subscribe to my YouTube channel See get all the content that I have to provide whether it's a reaction review or my opinion on anything that I think is cool So hit that subscribe button click the bell so you can be notified as well when I do make uploads And I'm gonna be making a lot more uploads pretty soon especially with Comic Con right around the corner You can also go to my website check me out there and bookmark it and also look me up on social media And guys don't forget you remember that Black Panther is coming out February 16th of 2018 next year And now my goodness gracious. I cannot wait for that movie to come out. I mean like seriously I want to go to the red carpet premiere. I mean whether I'm on the red carpet. I'm on the side I just want to go of course. I'd rather be on the red carpet, but it's a long shot But who cares I'm going for it. You know because I love Black Panther. I love Marvel. I love comics I'm black and that movie comes out in black history month epic a dream come true How can you help me get there by sharing this video? 1,000 times but guys I just want to thank you again for tuning in for my opinion slash reaction for the Blade Runner 2049 trailer number two and before you go don't forget that my name is Brennan Keith Avery and That's just my opinion peace


Moses addressed the people of Israel as they were about to enter the promised land. He said they would find there two mountains facing one another. Mount Grzim, the site on which a great blessing would be proclaimed. And Mount Ebal, the site of a great curse. Moses said that the people's fate would be determined by the choice they made between the blessing and the curse. That same choice has echoed down the ages, not just for the people of Israel, but for all humanity. We face such a choice today. It will determine whether we enjoy the blessings of a historic peace, of boundless prosperity and hope, or suffer the curse of a horrific war of terrorism and despair. When I last spoke at this podium five years ago, I warned about the tyrants of Tehran.  But at that time, I also spoke about a great blessing that I could see on the horizon. Here's what I said, quote, The common thread of Iran has brought Israel and many Arab states closer than ever before. In a friendship that I have not seen in my lifetime, I said the day would soon arrive when Israel would be able to expand peace beyond Egypt and Jordan to other Arab neighbors, end quote. Now in countless meetings with world leaders, I made the case that Israel and the Arab states shared many common interests, and that I believe that these many common interests could facilitate a breakthrough for a broader peace in our region. Thank you. Well, you applaud now. But at the time, many dismissed my optimism as wishful thinking. Their pessimism was based on a quarter century of good intentions and failed peacemaking. And why was this, why were these good intentions? Why did they always meet failure? Because they were based on one false idea, that unless we first concluded a peace agreement with the Palestinians, no other Arab state would normalize its relations with Israel. I've long sought to make peace with the Palestinians. But I also believe that we must not give the Palestinians a veto over new peace treaties with Arab states. The Palestinians could greatly benefit from a broader peace. They should be part of that process, but they should not have a veto over the process. And I also believe that making peace with more Arab states would actually increase the prospects of making peace between Israel and the Palestinians. See, the Palestinians are only 2% of the Arab world. As long as they believe that the other 90% will remain in a warlike state with Israel, that larger mass, that larger Arab world could eventually choke, dissolve and destroy the Jewish state. So when the Palestinians see that most of the Arab world has reconciled itself to the Jewish state, they too will be more likely to abandon the fantasy of destroying Israel and finally embrace a path of genuine peace with it. Now for years, my approach to peace was rejected by the so-called experts. Well, they were wrong. Under their approach, we didn't forge a single peace treaty for a quarter century. Yet in 2020, under the approach that I advocated, we tried something different. And in no time, we achieved an amazing breakthrough. We achieved four peace treaties working with the United States. Israel forged four peace treaties in four months with four Arab countries. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. The Abraham Accords were a pivot of history. And today, we all see the blessings of those accords. Trade and investment with our new peace partners are booming. Our nations cooperate in commerce, energy, water, agriculture, medicine, climate and many, many other fields. Close to a million Israelis have visited the United Arab Emirates in the past three years. Every day, Israelis save time and money by doing something they couldn't do for 70 years. They fly over the Arabian Peninsula to destinations in the Gulf, India, the Far East, Australia. The Abraham Accords ushered in another dramatic change. It brought Arabs and Jews closer together. We see it in the frequent Jewish weddings in Dubai, in the dedication of a Torah school in a synagogue in Bahrain, in the visitors flocking to the Museum of Moroccan Judaism in Kazablanca. We see it in lessons that are given to Arab students about the Holocaust in the UAE. There's no question. The Abraham Accords heralded the dawn of a new age of peace. But I believe that we are at the cusp of an even more dramatic breakthrough. An historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Such a peace will go a long way to ending the Arab-Israeli conflict. It will encourage other Arab states to normalize their relations with Israel. It will enhance the prospects of peace with the Palestinians. It will encourage a broader reconciliation between Judaism and Islam, between Jerusalem and Mecca, between the descendants of Isaac and the descendants of Ishmael. All these are tremendous blessings. Two weeks ago, we saw another blessing already in sight. In the G20 conference, President Biden, Prime Minister Modi, and European and Arab leaders announced plans for a visionary corridor that will stretch across the Arabian Peninsula and Israel. It will connect India to Europe with maritime links, rail links, energy pipelines, fiber optic cables. This corridor will bypass maritime checkpoints, or choke points rather, and dramatically lower the costs of goods, communication, and energy for over 2 billion people. What a historic change for my country. You see, the land of Israel is situated in the crossroad between Africa, Asia, and Europe. And for centuries, my country was repeatedly invaded by empires passing through it in their campaigns of plunder and conquest elsewhere. But today, as we tear down the walls of enmity, Israel can become a bridge of peace and prosperity between these continents. Peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia will truly create a new Middle East. To understand the magnitude of the transformation that we seek to advance, let me show you a map of the Middle East in 1948, the year Israel was established. Here is Israel in 1948.  In our first 70 years, we made peace with Egypt and Jordan. And then in 2020, we made the Abraham Accords peace with another four Arab states. Now look at what happens when we make peace between Saudi Arabia and Israel. The whole Middle East changes. We tear down the walls of enmity. We bring the possibility of prosperity and peace to this entire region. But we do something else. You know, a few years ago, I stood here with a red marker to show the curse, a great curse. The curse of a nuclear Iran. But today, today I bring this marker to show a great blessing. The blessing of a new Middle East between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and our other neighbors. We will not only bring down barriers between Israel and our neighbors, we'll build a new corridor of peace and prosperity that connects Asia through the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, to Europe. This is an extraordinary change, a monumental change, another pivot of history. Now as the circle of peace expands, I believe that a real path towards a genuine peace with our Palestinian neighbors can finally be achieved. But there's a caveat. It has to be said here, forcefully. Peace can only be achieved if it is based on truth. It cannot be based on lies. It cannot be based on endless vilification of the Jewish people.   You can't make this up. But he did. He said that. And the Palestinian Authority must stop glorifying terrorists. They must stop its ghoulish paid-as-lay policy of giving money to Palestinian terrorists for the murder of Jews. This is all outrageous. It must stop for peace to prevail. And anti-Semitism must be rejected wherever it appears, whether on the left or on the right, whether in the halls of universities or in the halls of the United Nations. For peace to prevail, the Palestinians must stop spewing Jew hatred, finally reconcile themselves to the Jewish state. By that, I mean not only to the existence of the Jewish state, but to the right of the Jewish people to have a state of their own in their historic homeland, the land of Israel. And let me tell you, the people of Israel yearn for such a peace. I yearn for such a peace. As a young soldier over half a century ago, my comrades and I in Israel's special forces faced mortal dangers on many fronts, on many battlefields, from the warm waters of the Suitz Canal to the frozen slopes of Mount Hermon, from the banks of the Jordan River to the Tarmac of Beirut Airport. These experiences and other experiences taught me the cost of war. A fellow soldier was killed next to me. Another died in my arms. I buried my older brother. Those who have personally suffered the curse of war can best appreciate the blessings of peace. Now there are many hurdles on the path to peace. There are many hurdles on the extraordinary path to peace that I've just described. But I'm committed to doing everything I can to overcome these hurdles, to forge a better future for Israel and all of our peoples, all the peoples in our region. Two days ago, I discussed this vision of peace with President Biden. We share the same optimism for what can be achieved. And I deeply appreciate his commitment to seize this historic opportunity. The United States of America is indispensable in this effort. And just as we achieved the Abraham Accords with the leadership of President Trump, I believe we can achieve peace with Saudi Arabia with the leadership of President Biden. Working together with the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, we can shape the future of great blessings for all our peoples. Now you know, ladies and gentlemen, you know there's a fly in this ointment. Because rest assured, the fanatics ruling Iran will do everything they can to thwart this historic peace. Iran continues to spend billions to arm its terror proxies. It continues to extend its terror tentacles in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, South America, even North America. They even tried to assassinate the Secretary of State of the United States of America. They even tried to assassinate the National Security Advisor of the United States of America. This tells you all you need to know about Iran's murderous intentions and Iran's murderous nature. Iran continues to threaten international shipping lanes, hold foreign nationals for ransom, and engage in nuclear blackmail. Over the past year, its murderous goons have killed hundreds and arrested thousands of Iran's brave citizens. Iran's drones and missile program threaten Israel and our Arab neighbors. And Iran's drones have brought and bring death and destruction to innocent people in the Ukraine. Yet the regime's aggression is largely met by indifference in the international community. Eight years ago, the Western powers promised that if Iran violated the nuclear deal, the sanctions would be snapped back. Well, Iran is violating the deal, but the sanctions have not been snapped back. To stop Iran's nuclear ambitions, this policy must change. Sanctions must be snapped back. And above all, above all, Iran must face a credible nuclear threat. As long as I'm Prime Minister of Israel, I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons. Equally, we should support the brave women and men of Iran who despise the regime, who yearn for freedom, who've gone out bravely on the sidewalks of Tehran and Iran's other cities and face death. It is the people of Iran, not the oppressors who are our real partners for a better future. Ladies and gentlemen, whether our future will prove to be a blessing or a curse will also depend on how we address perhaps the most consequential development of our time, the rise of artificial intelligence. The AI revolution is progressing at lightning speed. It took centuries for humanity to adopt to the agricultural revolution. It took decades to adapt to the industrial revolution. We may have but a few years to adapt to the AI revolution. The perils are great, and they are before us. The disruption of democracy, the manipulation of minds, the decimation of jobs, the proliferation of crime, and the hacking of all the systems that facilitate modern life. Yet even more disturbing is the potential eruption of AI-driven wars that could achieve an unimaginable scale. And behind this, behind this perhaps looms an even greater threat once the stuff of science fiction that self-taught machines could eventually control humans instead of the other way around. The world's leading nations, however competitive, must address these dangers. We must do so quickly, and we must do so together. We must ensure that the promise of an AI utopia does not turn into an AI dystopia. We have so much to gain. Imagine the blessings of finally cracking the genetic code, extending human life by decades, and dramatically reducing the ravages of old age. Imagine healthcare tailored to each individual's genetic composition and predictive medicine that prevents diseases long before they occur. Imagine robots helping to care for the elderly. Imagine the end of traffic jams with self-driving vehicles on the ground, below the ground, and in the air. Imagine personalized education that cultivates each person's full potential throughout their lifetime. Imagine a world with boundless clean energy and natural resources for all nations. Imagine precision agriculture and automated factories that yield food and goods in an abundance that ends hunger and want. I know this sounds like a John Lennon song, but it could all happen. Imagine that we could achieve the end of scarcity, something that eluded humanity for all history. It's all within our reach. And here's something else within our reach. With AI, we can explore the heavens as never before and extend humanity beyond our blue planet. For good or bad, the developments of AI will be spearheaded by a handful of nations, and my country, Israel, is already among them. Just as Israel's technological revolution provided the world with breathtaking innovations, I'm confident that AI developed by Israel will once again help all humanity. I call upon world leaders to come together to shape the great changes before us, but to do so in a responsible and ethical way. Our goal must be to ensure that AI brings more freedom and not less, prevents wars instead of starting them, and ensures that people live longer, healthier, more productive and peaceful lives. It's within our reach. And as we harness the powers of AI, let us always remember the irreplaceable value of human intuition and wisdom. Let us cherish and preserve the human capacity for empathy which no machine can replace. Thousands of years ago, Moses presented the children of Israel with a timeless and universal choice. Behold, I said before you this day a blessing and a curse. May we choose wisely between the curse and the blessing that stand before us this day. Let us harness our resolve and our courage to stop the curse of a nuclear Iran and hold back its fanaticism and aggression. Let us bring forth the blessings of a new Middle East that will transform lands once ridden with conflict and chaos into fields of prosperity and peace. And may we avoid the perils of AI by combining the forces of human and machine intelligence to usher in a brilliant future for our world in our time and for all time. Thank you. On behalf of the Assembly, we're just listening to the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who addressed the United Nations General Assembly. This comes after nearly a week long in the United States. Definitely a long-awaited speech. So for all of the latest on everything that he's had to stay, we want to cross to our United States senior correspondent, Mike Wagenheim, who was inside the General Assembly as Netanyahu addressed the crowd. Mike, what can you tell us about some of the highlights of Netanyahu's speech? It's oftentimes said, Nicole, that you really don't understand the Middle East unless you can see it. It's very difficult with the complexities of the region and how close everybody is together and where the hostilities lie to really understand it. And numerous Israeli officials have said that over the years. Netanyahu and sometimes those visual aids are a little bit cheesy, but I think he got the point across in how much the region has really changed over the years and especially as of late with that diagram that he used showing the Abraham Accord countries and Sudan being added to the mix, although that's obviously taken a backseat to the strike there and how that kind of circle that used to surround Israel, that circle of hostilities has really narrowed so much over the last few years. There was a corridor that was announced at the G20 summit and the route that will run through the heart of Israel and through the heart of the region connecting it to the rest of the world. I think really goes to show Netanyahu saying, hey, I've been talking about this for decades now, how this can really become a reality. I think with just a simple visual aid, he was able to kind of demonstrate his vision and how it's turned out over the years. Something else that jumped out of me, how much time he spent on the Palestinian issue. I really didn't expect for him to go on that long, but something that was said behind the scenes that he's now put out in the open is that Saudi normalization with Israel, Israel's willing to make concessions, but the Palestinians, as has been in the past, cannot be allowed to hold the veto over progress in the region. That's what was held up progress so long with other Arab countries that was finally broken up with the signing of the Abraham Accords. Now Netanyahu wants to assure that the Palestinians do not go back to holding the veto over future progress, and that was made clear behind the scenes over the course of the UN General Assembly this week, speaking to various Israeli officials and Netanyahu now putting it out there for the public to hear. I think that was the main point he tried to make in terms of the Palestinians. One other thing that jumped out of me, I believe it was a mistake in speaking about Iran. He said that Iran must face a credible nuclear threat. I don't think that's what Netanyahu meant to say. The term has been credible military threat. Iran must face a credible military threat for them to get the message that they need to back down from their menacing activities in the region, back down from the advancement of their nuclear program. Critics might make something of that faux pas from Netanyahu, but I believe the term he meant to use was credible military threat. And as I expected, it said at the top of the program, exporting Israeli innovation and technology throughout the world has done much more good than harm, especially in developing countries and something that Israel tries to put a happy face on every day. And I think Netanyahu kind of brought that to the tail end of his speech, saying, hey, we can be a force for good, despite all the bad news that traditionally comes from that part of the world. So all in all, a very Netanyahu-esque speech, he did not touch at all on the internal strife back home, but more focused on regional and global issues. And by the way, tip of the cap to Joe Biden, he gave credit to Donald Trump for peace, and he said Joe Biden can be that type of leader as well. I'm not sure that Trump will want to hear that, but there's certainly something that I think Joe Biden needed to hear publicly, is that he's put on the same line, same par as Trump in trying to advance peace for Israel with the rest of the world. Well, and Mike, as you said, he didn't mention those internal debates that we're seeing here in Israel, yet those internal debates are now taking the streets there in New York. What can you tell us about the protests that Netanyahu's speech might have sparked? Well, they're going on. The protests have been going on. Let's see. This is 42nd Street behind us, so about five blocks that way along 47th Street. There's a large contingent of Israeli expats and American Jews who are protesting in an area out there. They've been protesting all week here at various locations, Times Square, out on the Hudson behind the building here at the hotel where Netanyahu's staying at at the hotel where the meeting between Netanyahu and Biden was held. They had an itinerary throughout the week here. It makes messages, really, from the crowd. It's oftentimes spoken from that protesting crowd. They want to preserve democracy. I asked several throughout the week, hey, what does that really mean? Does it mean the end of the Netanyahu government? Does it mean the end of the judicial reform package? What exactly does that entail? And there really hasn't been a terribly coherent message into what it means to save democracy. Maybe that's just human nature. Democracy means different things to different people. It means different things to different countries, but it's been a very divergent message based on who you speak to throughout the week in terms of the protest. I can say they've been very diligent. They've been at it almost 24-7. They've been very loud. They've been very direct. How much the message really resonates with the crowd. They're trying to get it to resonate with. I think only time will tell in terms of how much of an impact it's really had. Definitely back home, but not sure yet here in New York City. Certainly very diligent. In fact, as you're speaking, we're showing those live images of the protests taking place right now. So as you can see, people still taking over the streets of New York even after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has wrapped up his speech. Mike Wagenheim, thank you so much for bringing that information from the ground. I now want to turn to our guests in studio and want to remind everyone who we have on the panel here. Danny Aylone, former Israeli ambassador to the United States. Our senior diplomatic correspondent Owen Ulterman, as well as Mark Rega, former Israeli ambassador to the UK as well as former senior advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself. Danny, I want to start with you. Let's talk about this speech, everything that we have to unpack. Well, first of all, I want to relate to what Mark started with. How much importance Netanyahu attaches to the spoken word. I mean, this was a masterful performance. Netanyahu at his best. And for Netanyahu, the form is almost as poor.