Good, it's it's good that you should eat you need food Big thanks to Amos for filling in last week. I was great. He was awesome It's good to know We have Butter in a bar Yeah, that's why it's too like it's literally just a peanut a bar of peanut butter is not it's like peanut butter flavored bar And my mouth is getting dry just thinking about it's just peanut butter and they put more peanuts in it So it's like in like a peanut butter bar, and then they put peanuts All right, Jen, don't forget you have to introduce yourself and there's no Sarah Lane to wait on And you know about the the color cues, right? If you look at the rundown Yeah, I've taken too long, which hopefully will not be a problem So orange just means say you should probably start right up There's about roughly 40 to 50 seconds left before we need to move on red is like alright But for the quick hits we're literally just like you're doing headline. I'm doing headline No, no, no, no, no back and forth. Okay, great Yep, well shall we get started then? Actually, can I take a really quick break right now just to go turn one more thing off Yeah, I'm really fast. Oh, yeah, go for it. Go for it. No problem When you said I want to take a quick break I don't know why but my brain and I knew this wasn't what she meant at all but my brain's like, you know to take a nap or have a go go get a drink somewhere and My favorite my favorite taco truck just rolled by so yeah, do you mind? I don't have a favorite taco truck. I Don't either there was a taco truck that used to come to the worksite of the house next door when they were working on it And it was really good But it doesn't come by anymore Which is funny because there's two other worksites now in the same neighborhood, but they never show up for that I think you have to call them like you have to make it part of the con the the building foreman Yeah, like hey, you know And I'll let my guys out to go eat get your tacos I've been wondering I know this this is weird off-topic food But I've been wondering about like some places out in central nice to LA where they have the little stands that pop up Like in the parking lots. Mm-hmm. I've been tempted to go by when I drive by Yeah, you probably should It looks pretty good. They have they have one of those in front of the Japanese grocery store over here Where they have the big cylinder of meat? Ah The cylinder of weight cylinder meat. Yeah, it kind of looks like hero meat, but it's for tacos Yes, probably bought by the Lebanese immigrants. Oh Righty Everything good well, um, so the destiny to expansion launch today in my ps4 was like, I'm going to update like Okay All right here we go Thanks to everyone who supports a Daily Tech news show directly to find out more and get some perks head to DailyTechnewshow.com slash support This is the Daily Tech news for Tuesday, September 4th 2018 in Los Angeles. I'm Tom Merritt. I'm Jen Cutter And from the edges of the LA Empire and now recent actually I'm I was already a dad Get through it. I'm my name is Roger. I'm the producer the show Uh, Jen Sarah Lane is is not here today. She's off, but she will be back tomorrow We're very happy to have Jen with us filling in right. It's great to have Roger back, too And thanks to Amos for filling in last week real quickly Roger. How's the new baby? It's alive Okay, no, that's that's a very positive thing to have happen I know there's they really don't do much at this point She's healthy. She's good. That's good. That's good. All right Let's start with a few tech things you should know IDC's estimates of the wearables market are good news for pretty much everybody with a 5% rise in the total market for wearables in Q2 Decline and fitness trackers is slowing And sales of smartwatches is making up the difference Apple raised its market share 4% to keep the top spot Xiaomi took second followed by Fitbit Huawei and Garmin in that order 46.6% of wearable shipments, however comes from outside the top five So it's still anybody's game Major market growth happened in Asia Pacific Latin America Central Eastern Europe and Middle East in Africa So it's also a worldwide market Samsung's DJ code told CNBC It's time to deliver a foldable smartphone since survey show consumers want one Co said development was complicated But nearly concluded and applied an announcement might happen at the Samsung developer conference in November in San Francisco So yes, those pictures aren't fake Amazon has launched a version of its site in Hindi Indian shoppers can switch between English and Hindi Those are the two official languages of India You go to the top left menu of the mobile site or the Android app There's no word on when or if it's coming to iOS or the desktop Around 44% of people in India speak Hindi and the New York Times sources say Amazon's also planning rollouts in Bengali Tamil Kanada and Telugu Microsoft is rolling out a refreshed outlook as part of the coming soon feature in Outlook for Windows and an opt-in feature for the web version of Outlook the updates include revamped UI That's more consistent with other office apps Intelligent highlights visual changes and will come to the monthly channel and targeted release programs first Yeah, let's talk a little more about a new look that Google has got going on Google launched Chrome 69 Cross-platforms Windows Mac Linux Android iOS They all got it the design has rounded shapes a new color palette simplified prompts and menus and tabs that make icons easier to see That's a huge help for me in preparing for this show the address bar or as Google calls it the omni box Can now give you answers to questions without needing to open a page So if you're asking about an event or what the weather is or translations, you'll just get a little card Pop up with the answer There's also a more accurate auto fill for addresses in the like Chrome's password manager now tries to make you choose unique passwords for each site and sites with HTTPS No longer show secure as a way of trying to make you realize that secure should be the default They are going to start labeling HTTP sites as not secure as this rolls along Have you have you gotten the the new update yet? You can kind of force it to happen or you may kind of roll out over the next day or two I tried to force it this morning. I've still got the old-school look here There was one feature I want that they didn't talk about I want a way to not autoplay gifts everywhere Oh, yeah That's like that's like the one thing I want like all other stuff is great and cool Even though I'm not huge on rounded edges, but I know everyone's doing it I got it this morning on on my laptop that I prepped the show on and I like you was like I don't know if I want a big design change. It's subtle. It's really subtle It basically just takes away the the sort of v shape of the tabs And the tabs are now just right next to each other except for the active tab Which has that nice like chamfered edge looking Thing but but the the icons definitely do pop out better now In this new design. So I do like it for that The rest of it is all stuff I I expected And I I'm sure will come in handy. I did not Try out the omni box asking questions I'm a little skeptical because usually the top thing that comes up on google when I ask questions Is only actually what the answer I was looking for about 50 percent of the time these days Yeah, and then That might also mess with people like me who I have it generally set to like wiki or Merriam-Webster depending on what I'm working on at the time. So yeah, yeah Well, what else is going on? Let's see the european union has reached a preliminary agreement on rules to require streaming services to carry at least 30 European made content in their libraries Individual countries can mandate up to 40 percent and require a minimum of that amount be made in their specific country Surcharges on subscription fees can also be levied to pay international film funds Netflix already does this in germany and a vote is expected to pass and the rules become law in december Companies will have 20 months from then to apply the rules. So I know canada's CRTC is is going through this the same sort of deal where broadcasters have had Requirements for locally originated programming for a long time And this is the european union saying we are absolutely going to apply this to streaming companies What's interesting is netflix is already about at 30 percent as it is It'll be interesting though to see because France croatia, you know all all the countries can make their own requirements if that will cause problems Because if you know, I don't know if croatia decides to make 40 percent requirement in croatia be european and 90 percent of that has to be croatian That's going to change the flavor of the netflix profile quite a bit definitely in canada They kind of sidestep the tech the usual crtc process by saying look just we're going to give you guys 400 million And spend it in different sort of ways and going through like Then going through like this strict kind of way that the other broadcasters around here have to adhere by So even though I think it's going to be especially messy in the european union for a bit I think three years from now It's going to be fascinating to see the academic studies that come out to see How this has affected regional productions around the world because I believe strongly in these Kind of initiatives to having these cultures represented in content so you can see yourself you can see your culture I love when these things get exported and I get to watch these tiny shows from other nations So i'm kind of excited There's an argument that you didn't need this because of the way netflix is going But I I do agree with you that The variety of programming you get because of these sorts of initiatives is great I mean look at what netflix has done already on its own With japanese programs and indian programs and german programs and brazilian programs That we all have access to internationally and wouldn't have otherwise I think that's the coolest thing about this is is not only that it it helps foster creativity within a market But then because of the way netflix does its business it allows us to all to benefit from it worldwide Coming out of the five country ministerial meeting last week governments of the u.s uk canada australia and new zealand issued a statement of principles on access to evidence and encryption A lot of debate about what actually is meant by any of this The statement maintains that privacy laws are needed to prevent arbitrary or unlawful interference, but That privacy is not absolute Okay, the statement acknowledges that encryption may make access to information impossible, but Such instances should be rare The statement further calls that technology companies should voluntarily work to achieve lawful access, but Doesn't explicitly call for backdoors. It's like every time you think it's either a good or a bad thing There's a but that flips it on its head They also say it's not a one-size-fits-all technology solution If impediments to lawful access remain the five ice countries stated They may pursue technological enforcement legislative or other measures to gain access I don't know about you gem But this whole thing struck me as we want to say a thing But we also realize this is a really tough problem. So we're going to say all the things and not have any solutions I think we're only really going to hear about this thing when somebody shows up at def con and says and here All the backdoors that have been there all along What I what I will say about this statement is it does say like we don't mean backdoors We we understand the privacy is important But we want to have our cake and also have eaten it Would somebody please solve that could you make it so that we will have eaten the cake? But it still sits on a plate in front of us That's the problem We're trying to solve technology and we need your help and we'll pass a law to make it that if you don't Help us figure this out Yes, I want to staircase that goes up and down and I wanted to connect at both ends and I I will I will try to be positive and say the fact that they included all of the things that are true about privacy And backdoors in the statement while still saying but we want all of this other stuff is in fact some sort of odd progress Okay, I'll give them that yeah All right, microsoft has added another chapter to the long running redesign of skype A long long running redesign of skype this time removing the snapchat like highlights feature that was implemented last year The redesign will instead focus on what people actually use skype for specifically voice calls video calls and messaging The redesign desktop app will move chats calls contacts and notifications into the main upper left navigation panel Yeah, this is really interesting Because they're quickly backpedaling on something that proved unpopular with a large segment of its audience They are definitely acting as if they were surprised that wasn't popular Which I think is Becoming a more common thing as companies are able to listen more but can't listen to everyone That they did some focus groups that didn't include the folks like us who use skype for certain things and that got left out So hopefully this is going to improve that sort of listening But I like what microsoft's doing saying what was really important about this change honestly was the code base We're doing some some java. We're doing some react It's going to be a shared code across mobile And desktop platforms so that we can implement things like end to end encryption easier Because we can implement them in the shared code base and we don't have to redo it five times That's all the important stuff and the only thing that got attention Was the snapchat like things that nobody liked and so they're like great We'll get rid of those that wasn't the important part of this this new version of skype anyway Yeah, if they could fix the skype for business, they'll have a lot even more happier people But that's kind of like a rebranded link. So that's a whole other one That's the idea is this skype for life as it's called this is supposed to be the replacement for everything Uh, and and that that obviously upset a lot of people who wanted to use the old skype. They're not Saying that you'll still be able to use the old skype forever But they are going to leave the old version of skype operational Until they've made the new version that has the shared code base feature Complete so that there you won't lose any of those features like being able to have multiple windows open when you have one I have multiple chats and calls going on Our report in the new york times shows revenue growing at traditional retailers Yeah revenue growing at brick and mortar retails you heard me right Consumers are spending more money in physical stores Number of stores closing has slowed. Yes. We just had toys or us go belly up But the number of those instances the borders of the world That is finally slowing down We've had fewer store closings to date than we did at the same date last year The number of stores closing slowed Has partially been attributed to stores like target Nordstrom and walmart working to make their in-store shopping easier And integrating it with a good online service target has a decent shopping service walmart has greatly improved its online shopping service So they have features like picking up mobile orders in the parking lot dropping off returns without needing to talk to a clerk You just slap a label on it dump it in a box at Nordstrom's Personal shoppers at walmart that can select your groceries and then just bring them out to you on the curb I I love this story because it's one of the things that I have been thinking was going to happen for a long time I just didn't know when which was we're not going to lose all the stores It's that the stores who figure out how to play in this new online world and leverage the advantage of a physical location Are going to end up being even better As places to shop and that seems to be what's happening Yeah, a lot of the stuff I have not seen locally in canada because a lot of these stores aren't here But I have definitely spent more money in physical stores lately than I have online by An exponential amount now my shopping starts online But because these companies like walmart for example have gotten so much better about their inventory tracking I look for what I want It tells me which stores around here have it and then I just go and get it There's no waiting. There's no shipping cost I'm I'm going to jump in here as someone who frequents both the online and brick-and-mortar Marketplaces I have to say the one thing that really turned things around for a lot of stores at least that I that I patronize is price matching Best buy fries a few a few others Off the top of my head will go and say hey, you can get this particular product whether it's a hard drive or whatever We will price match it if it is from amazon.com in other words if it's being sold directly by amazon and it's like You know 199 instead of the you know normal price of 230 we will match that price And I will go to the store and buy it because I want it now I don't want to wait two days because I need you know If if my laptop's on the fritz or something I need to fix it immediately That's been a big part of best buys turnaround Was was price matching but but the other part is making it pleasant to go to a store again Uh up up until the 2000s the idea with retail was make people spend a lot of time in your store So they accidentally pick up other things they didn't know about but that's an unpleasant situation for you as a consumer Which is why if you can go to amazon and just have it sent to you a lot of people like Yeah, that's a much better than having to navigate that gargantuan big box store over there So target is actually making smaller stores. They're making them easier to find the things you want It's it's ending up You know being one of those rare things these days, which is a positive effect of technology on the real world Is is there any generous? Are there any other uh examples that you can think of? Uh that are canadian specific beside. Yeah, I know you mentioned walmart But are there other chains up there that are doing things like this that are interesting? Uh, I've mostly been using it. Uh, so like the three stores that I've been shopping at mostly Costco Which has their like local and online things separate depending on what you need walmart Gay and tire and home depot are like the ones that have great inventory tracking It's like I need this and then also when you want to go to the store Here is the aisle and like bin number you can find it. Oh, that's a yeah, that's that's thanks so much faster I can go in it's a speedrun. I go in get exactly what I want to see how fast I can get out Are canadian tire bucks a cryptocurrency yet or has that not happened? There's the you can get it all digital now. So you don't have to hoard these stacks of money Step down the road. I guess It's getting there Folks if you want to get all the tech headlines each day in about five minutes Be sure to subscribe to daily tech headlines dot com Let's take a little deeper dive into one of these stories the 2018 asian games Finished up this weekend. They held esports tournaments as a demonstration now if you're not familiar with the asian games They are an olympic style celebration so olympic style Physical sports, but they included esports this time as a demonstration We've mentioned this before on the show The hope is that esports will be a medal event in four years at the next asian games in china And that maybe this will show that they should be considered for inclusion in the olympics Well, the president of the international olympic committee thomas bach was at the asian games and told the associated press We cannot have in the olympic program a game which is promoting violence or discrimination So-called killer games. I've never heard anyone call it killer games. All right. I get what he's talking about They from our point of view are contradictory to the olympic values and cannot therefore be Accepted now. He did not specify which games he classifies as killer games. We'll get to that in a second Don't forget you too that bach is a former gold medal fencer Which is fencing based on sword fighting seems kind of violent But he said and I think this is fair Of course every combat sport has its origins in a real fight amongst people But sport is the civilized expression of this if you have games where it's about killing somebody This cannot be brought into line with our olympic values And some people are mocking him for that, but I think that's fair like fencers don't get to stab each other That's an important part of olympic fencing, right? so the games that he Was watching in the esports turning out asian games that inspired him to say this about killer games Were the following arena valor clash royale hearthstone league of legends pro evolution soccer and starcraft 2 Most of those Don't have killing or it's certainly like not the kind of killing that he seems to be implying of like, you know Shoot him up like call of duty type games. Yeah, like it wasn't call of duty It wasn't counter strike, which is a huge esport Which also right banded about as a potential olympic thing except for the whole terrorist counter terrorist planning bombs thing But yeah, I feel like he's reacting more to the jacksonville tragedy than The actual content of half of the games there That's an interesting point. They did acknowledge that the the the folks who run the asian games Said, you know like hey, we're we're very cognizant of this and and express their sympathies But they said we think this is more of a Violence and gun issue in the real world than it is a video game issue. That that was the official asian games line Yeah, it was a a very smart response to that For some other previous demonstrations for it's a long side They've done forza the racing game Which makes sense I always expect that at some point you'll see a fighting game in there because you have like actual judo and karate competitions and then where they actually kick people in the head versus the Nobody gets kicked in the head except that, you know, you just see it happen on screen Right So I wonder like when they're going to get to that point if or if that counts as part of the violence of the game Even though they get up next round and you can tell nobody doubted. Yeah, so so uh, The president bach was was speaking specifically of killer games. I'm assuming doesn't mean judo I'm assuming he also doesn't mean pro-evolution sucker Yeah, I I have to think that like the sport games are probably going to get a free pass same with racing I I do think it's really interesting what you just brought up There's an argument back to him that says look people get concussions from boxing from judo Uh, it's dangerous. Wouldn't it be better? If the olympic sport of of these these games was a video game where no one could get hurt I'm certain that people will be raising that argument and then You also have situations like the nhl So nhl players were not playing in the last olympics, but nhl is an esports is gaining some traction and also is sponsored by the nhl now Yeah, what happens if that gets popular enough to make it now? Will will that be allowed in or will that be again a rights issue with the names and You don't have the same insurance costs because no players are getting hurt in that sense like you have actual other kind of player injuries, but they're not Concussion based they're not career ending in that same sense Well, and there there is a whole conversation we had some folks in our chat room Are having this conversation right now, but whether esports is in fact An olympic sport right you don't have auto racing in the olympics Because i'm not not trying to step on auto racing fans toes, but it doesn't fit the definition Of of of the physical sport that the olympics has decided to put out there So i can see an argument along those lines to say hey, it's a great competition. It's a great sport It's not an olympic sport. That would be fine, but that's not what bach was saying But we could have that discussion But that's now he was saying the problem was these are killer games and honestly I mean legal legends arena valour baby clash royale But the only one's even close to that And they're not and they're they're fantasy. So Yeah, it's very hard to have a real world Equivalent to that sort of match You could make kind of some ar comparisons and possibly come up with some sort of real world Fantasy playground that would be very expensive to put together Which would be really fun, but also still not an olympic sport because that is very highly technical, but I don't know if I'm a former internationally competitive athlete and I chase the olympics for many many years I also love video games and I've been reporting on them for most of my life I don't know if I want these two worlds together. I think that the e-sports world is growing just fine on its own it doesn't need the ioc and It's it's such a complicated thing like e-sports has reached its own legitimacy and does not need the approval of these other bodies anymore Well, and I think That may be what the olympics risks is pushing e-sports into making a decision that is Good for e-sports and not so good for the olympics, right? Um, you can argue and I think I think you you you sort of hit it on the head Like it's not obvious that these belong in the olympics and e-sports is doing fine on its own A world cup of e-sports makes perfect sense, right? A world championship of e-sports or if not a world cup makes perfect sense In some ways to my mind it makes more sense than including it In even the asian games certainly if not the olympics because again, we don't we don't have poker in the olympics So should we have hearthstone in the olympics? And every e-sports has its own mega event How do you throw something like the international? Alongside something like evo these are different crowds with different time requirements for matches with different qualifications And so like the international like you're filling these stadiums Endlessly there's huge lines. How do you throw multiple events like that together? How do you manage the hotels? How do you get everybody in the same city? The scale of this is so huge for each individual e-sport How can you possibly throw like six of these events together at once?  It says well, we don't have one competition We have track and we have swimming and we have multiple competitions in each of those e-sports isn't a sport It's multiple sports Maybe there needs to be an e-sports olympics It maybe shouldn't be part of the normal olympics But but but that That scale that you're talking about the only thing that's similar to it are the olympics And things like the commonwealth games and the asian games, etc But now you have the other issue of how do you defy the teams because right now each org Is run by like its own little Feathdom kind of and then for overwatch you have things that are based on a franchise system But then for counter strike you have teams that are a little more distributed in some cases But you'd have national you'd have national committees for the e-sports olympics That would pull the blood just like you do for hockey and And swimming and everything like a lot of overhead. It does not currently exist No, it's a lot of stuff that has to would have to be built and that is a question of would it be worth it For e-sports to do I do like the idea of an olympics of e-sports. I think that's where i'm at It's not a world cup. You can have a world cup for cs go. You can have a world cup You have the international Like that that exists But maybe there should be like every four years a gathering of e-athletes in one place to ply their game of Of a favor and it shouldn't be part of the international olympics because it has different Needs than then then the the traditional physical sports Anyway, let us know what you think too folks feedback at daily tech news show dot com Thanks to everybody who participates in creating this show whether you support us on patreon Participate in our sub reddit. You can submit stories and vote on them there at daily tech news show dot reddit dot com Just talking with other people telling people about it at facebook.com slash group slash daily tech news show for instance All of the ways people help create the show are appreciated because we are a better show when you help us Let's check the mail bag seems weird without sarah here, but kevin writes I wanted to comment on friday's discussion of 8k tv's from the perspective of somebody in the post production side of content Thanks mostly to streaming services like netflix We have begun to see more and more work getting finished at 4k and I can tell you that even the leap from hd to 4k has Been a headache for those of us who have to manipulate imagery or render 2d and 3d visual effects at that resolution People think it's only a doubling of resolution, but in fact it's a quadrupling of the pixel count 1080p 4k and 8k would be approximately 2.1 8.3 and 33.2 million pixels respectively The problem is cpu's and gpu's just haven't kept pace with this I have a very capable workstation with a gforce gtx 1080 ti amd threadripper with 16 cores 32 threads 64 gigabytes of ram and a couple of terabyte nvme drives And I still have a lot of weighting involved with rendering shots This is not to mention the source libraries artists use for all of this stuff needs to be upgraded to 4k content or higher The promise of fast gpu rendering and software that takes better advantage of multiple cores will help But it's not fully there just yet with a lot of software and now they're talking about 8k We gave kevin a headache He said producing content at that resolution just isn't something that most people think or talk about But people on the post production side especially feel the pain We are constantly fighting crazy deadlines the time waste of everybody along the content production line gets stacked until the very end And guess who has very little time left before the air date and has these long rendering times Uh, thank you kevin. That does a great analysis of the frustration of switching. I remember going from Uh standard def to hd at cnet and it was a lot of these same frustrations that kevin's talking about here Oh, yeah, no kevin has all of my sympathy and love I can produce 4k content but 8k not even not a chance and not with all the bitcoin miners stealing all the good cards I'm looking forward to Abating but yeah, absolutely. Well jen cutter. Thank you so much for being here If folks want to find out what you're up to where should they go? They should actually check my twitter at jen cutter that is jen with two ends and I have some really cool announcements coming next month Oh, very excited about it. I'm working with some other people and it's kind of coming out soon So check that out. It's jen cutter j e n n c u t t e r on twitter, uh, thanks to everybody who supports this show Uh, we get better because you support us at patreon.com slash dts.  Uh, so a little bit of a different profile of the show I'll be in salt lake city tomorrow with scott johnson. We'll be doing the show from his studio there Thursday, I'll be in chesterfield, missouri Uh, thanks to john who's donating me some bandwidth there. I'll be at greenville university on friday And i'm headed to greenville for a meet-up friday september 7th at 6 p.m From 6 p.m to 8 p.m at the family vine winery 13 49 red ball trail in greenville illinois I know a few people have already said they're headed out there So if you're in the area come on out, we'll have the details in the show notes or in the monthly patreon update That just went out this morning at patreon.com slash dts Our email address is feedback at daily tech news show dot com We're live monday through friday at 4 30 p.m eastern 20 30 utc You can find out more at daily tech news show dot com slash live see you tomorrow from salt lake city with scott johnson This show is part of the frog pants network Get more at frog pants dot com All righty 30 minutes on the dot Yeah, I know I think you just move. How are you doing? Oh, I haven't moved yet. I was in atlanta yesterday And then i'm doing all this traveling this week and then when I get back i'm packing up and moving finally I get it now. I get it. No, it's confusing. It's confusing for me and it's my life It's your life When you chose or the one that chose you or did I yeah, um, there's e olympics Battle olympics battle of the thumbs There's also e olympics and there's um bricks and mortars made some dough as well as A back door by any other name Like one of the the olympic related ones like the battle of the thumbs should we do battle of the thumbs? It reminds me of the game used to play in the back of the car One two three four i declare a thumb war Always lost to my sister. She had very strong thumbs You needed you needed uh more Discipline training regimen It's possible that you might meet my sister and force us to have a thumb war If you come to the greenville We'll see you have to do that kind of stuff on camera now. I know You set yourself up earlier Or redemption depending the whole sports movie arc. Yeah, right Show me training A battle of thumbs battle of thumbs is that what we're calling it? Yeah, e olympics battle of the thumbs Oh, it's both of those or it's e olympics Battle of the thumbs. I didn't realize those were all one. Okay. You e olympics battle of the thumbs Sounds like an nes title It's a sequel to an nes title See there was a time where the cover art or the box art on video games are really amazing Because they had to make up for the fact that you were just playing with square dots I saw Classic you see this l on screen that's your that's you So the box art was always wait like the box art was always what I had in my mind while I was playing the little black box Like that black box is actually me as a dragon whatever Oh adventure that was the worst Like oh, you're just a you're a cursor your square cursor and you move from The one screen to a next I loved adventure though. That was my favorite. I always played that in the in the department store I used to wish that that game would have like I wish you could do this in this game Like you could you cast magic spells and Whatever like well, it's a 2600 kid. You're not getting any better than this I like the old school and television games beautiful artistic cover as well half of them anyway and then boxes Tiny flips and boobs Well, yeah, because they especially atari they'd hire artists uh to to make these like gorgeous It was like comic art But you know these gorgeous representations of what you're going to be playing Like the cover or astro smash I remember for in television I felt like oh, this is like the coolest thing. There's a ship and like the space backgrounds And then it's like you're on this flat plane shooting to perfectly Had blocks you kids had to use your imagination when you played video games back then back in our day And it's um Well, it's interesting because uh ea. I think when it was under was it trample Uh, he made the conscious decision to publish all their computer games in essentially The little miniaturized album format So it's a square and they would hire all these artists that did album covers like you know lp album covers to do the covers for all the video games because His whole idea concept was our our game producers or software The guys who write the games are just as artistic and talented as musicians who get all this Glory's which make everything out of art And they did It was nice One of the coolest things about getting the Atari app for mobile is You can access all that Game art all the call the box art all the the manuals all the miss manuals Yeah, those are cool Some cool stuff, especially in the older games where they would tell you a lot of backstory in the manual So the reason why you're doing this particular exercise with your thumb and fingers is because picture this 20 years ago There was a cataclysmic alien invasion And you're the sole survivor or you think so and then is basically a way to fill in the gaps between like the infocom The infocom manuals were the best. There was all kinds of ephemera and you know, they're called police calm That's that's that's I didn't know that everybody out there understood the term. So I still have my zork mid From when I bought the when I bought the trilogy. I have deadline I have a lot of my Lucas arts ones because they also had the code so that you could pass the copy protection Yeah, those are the those were the most obnoxious I mean they were better than the copy protection they put on the the soft like the actual disc But they for example like one of the the code wheels No, it wasn't the cold wheel. It was the one for uh, um, zack the kraken And it was printed on this unphotocopyable paper But it made it really hard to read unless you had like a big bright light on it I remember some city had had a list of coordinates that it would give you at the beginning of each launch And then you'd have to look it up on this red piece of paper because I was going to make it harder to copy and Yeah, it's just funny to think like those are all Incredibly insecure copy protections now, but they were so annoying back back Well, I mean, you know, you had punks like me that were using copy to pc is like Don't copy that floppy roger Well, I found my half-life two discs Because I had like the box copy from the store and then for a story that I was working out at the time I did the steam download on day one with everybody else that was a disaster And I after I found those discs like was this the box copy or is this like a ripped copy my friends gave me I had to go online to make sure that before I posted a picture of this on the internet that these discs were legit You had the right one Yeah, I remember my next my neighbor down the street was a had a Commodore 64 I think I mentioned this before and he he was a source of many games You could type you had a game pretty much Oh, there it is. I was a big fan of toy bizarre for uh the Commodore 64 was which was essentially mario Uh mario brothers not super mario brothers, but mario brothers I Yeah, I had had a head to head uh as well as a solo play I should remember all those epic games Mission or not mission impossible mission Uh summer games Oh, yes. Oh the epics. Yeah. Yeah We used to actually play those during summer break. Uh in in my uh my bedroom We'd have Olympic competitions me and all my friends. Oh, was it california games was I think like the other big one That was when I remember it was like this is stuff that nobody in toronto does and this is awesome It's funny too because those were like those aren't Olympic games, but they're pretty much all olympic Now it's the excellent they invented the x games. Totally. Well, they also 1987 apparently What was it? No, they also did world games. Remember that epics world games and that was one of them Was it took place in australia and I forgot were you supposed to um Which one of them I know I got beaten by a shark a lot in circle. That's all I remember I remember I was really good at fencing in summer games. I have no idea how I would just always win, but it was button smashing. It was I did not know what I was doing Oh, it was uh the barrel jumping in from germany herald And then they had log rolling weightlifting skiing Oh, okay. Oh the caber toss from scotland where you like basically carry a telephone pole and you throw it Well, that is a sufficiently world game covering a lot of bases there Yeah, and then bull riding for the united states. I think they could have picked a better game But you know what the mechanics are simple Implement well the problem is like with the us, you know, what are you going to pick the nfl like that's really Our baseball like so you got to pick something a little more unusual bull riding is not bad, I guess um What's an unusual american sport? monster trucks Oh, yeah demo derby Oh demolition derby those are great.  They they cross the borders. It's true You have rodeo up in canada, right? Yes Do you have hamburgers? I'm told we do yes You've heard you've heard tell the tales well like I don't follow the the bull riding circuit, but occasionally I'll spy like, you know You know like news from it and I guess some of the top riders are from brazil like brazil. Oh, yeah big big player in that sport I only hear about it when the calvary stampede is on I hear about the stampede and they think about chuck wagons food chili I'm hungry Amos says manuals were the fries of the video game world something to satiate your hunger on the drive home from blockbuster Yeah, they used to really put a lot of effort into those manuals and they would print them So there would always be like three or four pages at the end that were blank because of the printing process But they would always put notes so you could write notes in it for some reason Yeah, like a cheat code, but if you had like a game genie, you didn't By the way game g anyone doesn't know Yeah before like you would literally was it you inserted it into the nes And then you would put the cartridge into it or no Yeah, you put it the game in it first and then you put it in the uh system And then it would basically allow you to hex edit On the game itself and you could get like things like extra lives and stuff pretty sweet if you're really bad at games I thought I had mine there, but it's in the other room Now they just have cheat codes god mode or the console mode Yeah, they just let like the devs had it anyway. They just left it in Like oh, I just hit this key combo and type this ID2D I kind I kind of do that sometimes with uh first person shooters, especially if it's like a Section where I just it's not fun. You just want to get through it Like you just god mode or actually generally I don't god mode What I do is I get all the weapons that you normally don't get till the end and I just shoot everything Take that disembodied demon head So what do y'all think of henry cavill being cast as uh gerald from the witcher Or gerald He could probably do it I I it for me I'm one of those people that has to see how he looks like I can't just I can't picture him now But I want to see what he looks like in costume or character and see Well, and don't forget. I believe I have this right and I apologize if I if I'm mistaken. Uh, I think that Sipkowski the author of the books is involved in this So these shows are going to be based on the books whereas the video games were not The video games licensed the books and the characters, but Sipkowski was like damn. I'm not interested in do whatever you want So there will be there will be differences between the television series and the video games I'm sure there'll be differences with the books too, but it'll be tied more closely to the books I don't know if that makes much different with gerald, but I think people will be there mostly for the world and the attitude Yeah, totally and the attitudes. I think pretty much. Well, I I say that but I really haven't played the games I don't know if it's that close or not. I've only read the books I've I haven't read the books and I've played the game for like a weekend I don't know. I've never been into It's really hard for me to get into fantasy games It's an investment there's a lot to do in those games like if they do a remastered version I'll probably go back Which they might but part of it that bugs me is they're very tropey. I mean, that's one of the things about fantasy Games is that you have a dragon. You got a wizard sorcerer You got some sort of like, you know inhuman Like whether it's an elf Or a gnome or a troll or whatever, you know, and so it just keeps popping up and Like it's always stuck in like the fifth like the level of technology is always stuck in the 15th century It's like it no one's progressed beyond like muskets or you should read jade city by fondly It is a magic story set in A sort of loosely defined asian-like world With cars and televisions and everything but the but the magic power comes from jade Okay There's um, there's a few of those actually one of the best ones I've actually read believe it was a comic book called the red star And the whole premise was that in this alternate reality Hold on. Hold on.  Okay. All right. That's my fault Okay, no, I didn't mention. I just I just assumed we were still talking about games Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes that makes more sense Which is why like, you know, I mean I grew up playing barge stale and ultimate wizardry. It's like Is a book uh, and and it's a series of books now um I'm trying to think of a game that does fantasy pretty well. Oh wait shadow run, but that's more of a RPG. Yeah Well, we'll try to think of some more, uh, but video folks, that's uh it for now. Thanks for watching audio folks stick around There's more to come More


What's up everyone? It's your girl Kenty here from Layton Sports Guards and I'm ripping a couple of personals here for Jonathan P. We've got a 2022 Panini Legacy football hobby as well as a 2022 Leaf autographed Jersey multi-sport edition box. Best of luck Jonathan. I'm gonna start with your legacy here. See what we can get ya. Again just a few more personals going today. Forks will be live starting at 5 p.m. Eastern with some bonus league of soccer, baseball, and then one football break before he gets into the Almanacs tonight. Again those are all sold out but definitely tune in to watch those as those are a lot of fun. Out of $2.99 we've got Mike Singletary and those are super fun. I know I'll be watching. You gotta watch them tonight. I missed the ones last night. Kenneth Walker the third chrome rookie. I have my nieces and nephews. 10s. See if there's a tear. What do you say? Let's see if there's a tear here. All right Erlacher. We've got Orange too. 125 of Terrell Davis and John Elway. Mike no I just went and grabbed the last six. Just went and grabbed the last of them unfortunately. Silver rookie David Bell. I know those were a hit. I know a lot of y'all like the jerseys. Not sure if we'll be getting any more of those in. Yeah just grabbed the last couple. Out of $35 we've got blue rookie Otto of Kobe Bryant. Seahawks. For the ages Flipper Anderson. Mini rookie Bailey Zappi. Erl Campbell. To $2.99 Brandon Cooks. Chrome rookie Trent McDuffie. Your grease. Yeah I hope so too Mike. They're fun to rep. No doubt. I really have got some maybe the football ones coming out now that football season's back. We've got Packers Silver rookie Otto of Christian Watson. Christian Watson. Generations for the Cowboys. I do like the multi-sport though. I really do. But I know they always have football specific ones usually around football season. Yellow to 150 legends of Barry Sanders. Fred Taylor. Under the lights chrome Doc Prescott. Mike Thicka.  Then we'll get into your jersey. Champ Bailey. All right. Jersey time. Good luck. Pretty good Mike. Feeling bigger and bigger every day with this baby. Let me tell you. All right. We've got love these jerseys. How about a Yari Molina on the sky blue jersey. Such a beautiful jersey. Yari Molina. Again you got your JSA sticker right here. The silver number four on the number four and your JSA matching paper here for you. All righty Jonathan. Thanks again for hopping in. We do appreciate your support and we'll be getting these right out to you.


on the European Democracy Action Plan. Dear Vice President, thank you so much for having accepted our invitation to debate the European Democracy Action Plan with the representatives of cities and regions across Europe. Our union can only be a union of shared and respected values. Local and regional authorities, as well as their elected leaders, have an important role to play, not only to safeguard and respect democracy, but to promote it. Human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and human rights. These are not only the values on which our union is founded, but a very clear way, very good instruments of assessing if, in each and every community or country across Europe, deeds follow words. Let me express the importance of involving regional and local leaders in this common endeavor. Being locally elected officials, the champions to strengthen our democracy, the equality and the respect for human rights across the EU. The faster we take action, the more inclusive we are in allowing local actors to take initiatives, the greater the chance we have of preventing issues. Let me stress three aspects in which the European Democracy Action Plan has a very straightforward approach to the challenges we have ahead. Empowering citizens to make informed decisions. And what this relates to fighting disinformation, fighting for press liberty. The second, promoting the democratic participation. Promoting the participation and the interest of citizens in the democratic process. And third, protecting elections integrity. We also appreciate the capital importance of the rule of law culture. The respect of which is fundamental for the recovery to happen and the cohesion policy to display all its potential in our regions. Dear Vice President, together with the COR's delegates to the conference, we will represent this will to team up in order to achieve our common goals. We stand ready to support the European Commission's priority and you push for European democracy. And therefore, in our opinions to be adopted today, you will find a number of concrete proposals. Madam Vice President, the floor is yours. Welcome. Thank you very much, Mr Vice President, Honorable Committee of Region Members. Can you hear me please? Yes, ma'am, we can hear you. We cannot see you yet, but we can hear you. It doesn't matter so much that you don't see me. Thank you for inviting me. It's a great pleasure for me to speak to you today on issues of such importance to the resilience of our democracies. Thank you for giving me a chance to present the European Democracy Action Plan, which we adopted in December after a very clear to say finding that democracy will not defend itself. That we have to work to protect and defend democracy. That it's not automatism, that it's not the end of history, that we simply have to devote more energy to protect the democratic processes. And here I mean also the free and fair elections, which are absolutely important for continuation of European democratic society life. We are now in a very clear moment. Our times call for decisive actions to support democratic processes, and these actions will only be effective if accompanied by clear political will to raise public awareness, strengthen collective resilience and protect our democracies in European values. And we are under the fast-paced digital evolution. We are called to ensure a favorable environment for any inclusive, respectful and pluralistic public debate. It remains, however, acutely clear that it is difficult to uphold fundamental rights and democracy in a largely unregulated online space. Especially when the business models of social media platforms do not always encourage free and open debate. And also the coronavirus pandemic has affected democratic processes. It has dominated the political debate and has accelerated the digital transition, which is revolutionizing how we do democracy. Now, I sometimes say that we are digitalizing democracy and we have to democratize digital. So I think that this transition is very clear and demanding for everybody. Coming back to digital space, allowing polarizing messages and unreliable information to be spread easily can limit our perspective and hamper our ability to make informed political decisions which has a dangerous effect on our democratic societies. With a long-term vision in mind, we elaborated on the European Democracy Action Plan to better protect our democratic systems. The plan addresses the areas in which our systems and citizens are most vulnerable by committing to measure to ensure free and fair elections to guarantee media freedom and media pluralism and to fight disinformation. And I think you have seen the plan. So now let me give you an update of where we stand with the implementation almost seven months after adoption. Time is running incredibly quickly. So first on free and fair elections. To protect the integrity of elections, the commission is working on two legislative proposals that will be adopted before the end of this year. The first one relates to online political advertising. We are convinced that people must know why they are seeing a political advertising, who paid for it, how much what micro targeting criteria were used. To this end, the commission will propose legislation on transparency of sponsored content in a political context. And we will pay close attention to how micro targeting criteria and other techniques for targeting and amplification are used as promoting political ideas is not the same as promoting products. I think we all remember the Cambridge Analytica case and the scandal which was here in 2017. And I said those days this must not happen in Europe anymore. We have to protect the people against the abuse of their private data and against this harmful micro targeting in order to influence their political decision making in the election. So this is what we try to do now by this legislation which we are preparing for the end of the year. The second is the revision of the rules on the financing of European political parties. The action plan also promotes civic engagement and active participation beyond elections. Across the action plan there is a strong emphasis on empowering citizens and civil society, including through increased funding. The commission will continue to support democratic participation and civic engagement under a variety of programs, be it creative Europe or horizon Europe. Some of these will address in particular civic education for youth and children. And I am sure there will be also a space for municipalities and the regions to get engaged and to participate in these programs. Now this information which is an important part of the European democracy action plan to be precise fight against this information. We see this relatively new phenomenon of this information spread online as a substantial and ongoing threat to democracy. Being used to divide the public in debates over policy to manipulate or suppress participation in electoral processes and also to attack the legitimacy of democratic institutions. We are responding to the challenge in the European way. I will explain for me someone who experienced communist propaganda and censorship. The key challenge is how to fight against this information while fully preserve the freedom of speech. Freedom of expression and information and media freedom and pluralism are irreducible core values of the European Union. It is essential to keep a balanced approach fully respecting democratic checks and balances. An effective response to this information also requires the involvement of all relevant partners including industry, especially the advertising industry and the digital industry. Then media, including traditional media, civil society as well as public authorities including of course regional and local authorities. One important element of countering this information is to address the role of online platforms. As announced in the democracy action plan, we recently published guidance setting out how signatories of the code of practice against disinformation should strengthen the functioning of this code. And we published the guidance some weeks ago and in the guidance you will understand from reading that you will understand that we want to make it whole of society matter. That there will not be one ministry of truth or I will not become the commissioner of truth. It's tempting but I told you I have my personal experience with living under the one official doctrine of communism and I can tell you never more, never more in Europe. So this is how we see the proactive work against this information. It has to be also understood in line with what's in the digital services act with the commission adopted in December last year where we propose binding and enforceable legal obligations for very large online platforms. It also sets out a co-regulatory framework to address systemic risks. So here I want to be well understood. Digital services act are it's the legally binding set of a piece of legislation where we want to increase a responsibility of platforms for the content, especially in relation to illegal content such as hate speech, terrorism and child pornography. And we are putting aside this information as harmful yet legal content. We are not covering this information by the digital services act, but we try to do it in a in a let's say different way because as I said, we have to preserve the freedom of speech fully. We also need to make our education fit for digital reality and local authorities and regional authorities can play an important role in media literacy efforts. So here I want to say to you that we count on your support for this endeavor. Local authorities have been involved in many of the commissions media literacy for all projects. So I believe we will we will continue successfully this cooperation media freedom and pluralism very short, short comment. We have found out that the media are under a special distress, not only in COVID time. There are a lot of attacks against journalists. So we are proposing to increase their security and also increase their ability to to defend themselves against the abusive mitigations. So a lot of concrete actions proposed in the European democracy action plan, which seeks to protect elections, protect democratic processes, protect free democratic debate. Which also be should be the case of the conference on the future of Europe, which was just presented by Gifford Hofstadt here. So I am fully available for the debate for your questions. But first of all, if you want to cooperate in protecting and defending your European democracy, I am your person in the commission. Of course, all my colleagues are on board with me, but you will find in me a very, very agile and always enthusiastic co-operator when you come with ideas. By the way, I always say that everything important for politics I learned, I learned at municipal and regional level because these were my beloved works of my past. So thank you very much for your attention. Thank you, Madam Vice President. What I would suggest to you is that now we'll have statements from all the political groups represented here at the Committee of the Regions. Then if you want to react to those statements from political groups, and then we'll have debate with the floor. Or if you prefer, every intervention is from our side, and then you conclude. You let me know what you want to do, please. And now I will give the floor to Alexandra Dulkiewicz from the EPP for four minutes. You have the floor, Madam. Thank you. I was just looking for the speak button. Thank you very much, Mr. President, Madam President. Thank you very much for this statement. We already had a chance to discuss during the preparation of my opinion, which will I present just after this debate. We as a Committee of Regions and as a group of the European People's Party, we are very much looking forward to this action plan. But to the real action plan, and I'm really glad that commission, the front institution, that all of you are working on the real measures, real instruments that will help us to survive, to survive our democracy, to survive the values on which the European Union is founded. I'm also grateful for this, what you have mentioned, never more living under one doctrine. You said it as a person from the Czech Republic, from the Czechoslovakia. I live in Poland, so those are the words which I also can sign with my both hands. Coming back to the European Democracy Action Plan, we really need to support with the real instruments the fight against this information. I'm not really quite sure if this, what you are preparing will be enough, we will see. But I don't know if we have so much time to check it. Thank you very much for seeing the role of the local and regional authorities as those who are the most trusted and those who are the closest to the citizens. This is something what we as EPP group were really looking forward. Union of the values, promoting of the citizens participation, fighting with this information. And first of all, this was already mentioned today during the previous both actually debates, promoting education, promoting critical thinking, promoting media literacy and education, not only at schools, but also education all over to the people who are actually really the one who can not really know what to do and what is through, what is not really true. Thank you very much. And we are really looking forward to real action, real democracy action plan. And we have full our support. Thank you. Thank you. I will not be the floor. This was Alexander from the EPP. Now I will leave the floor to Marie from the PES for four minutes. You have the floor. Thank you, Mr. President. I hope you can hear me. Yes, we cannot see you, but we can hear you. Okay. I will speak. I will speak in Swedish, so I continue on that. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. At the same time, as a pandemic, we have lived with disinformation and conspiracy theories. And these undertakings, of course, are our democracies. They damage our common world and affect our interests. And they can also benefit from our lives. We cannot take democracy for granted. Democracy requires us to stand up for it every minute, every second. And that is why the outside of the law has to be put up in the election and that the vote must be made. And it must be underestimated. And also for people who actually live in a different member state. The efforts for European democracy must be taken into account to increase the participation of the voters on all levels of administration. But also their participation in a common Europe. It is important to keep in touch with the members on the grassroots level. And then they are the local and regional authorities responsible to get there. We want to have a continuous living democracy in Europe. And we must do that together. Thank you. Thank you. Now for a new Europe. I'll give the floor to Francois de Costa for three minutes. Thank you very much, Mr. Prime Minister. Marie-Joneson just reminded us with strength. Democracy deserves us to stand up for it every minute. Because democracy is being built. It takes time to be consolidated. But unfortunately, and Mrs. Prime Minister, you know it better than me, it can disappear in an instant. A few weeks ago, with my colleagues, Mayor Libero, we welcomed Vice President Vera Yorová for an exchange on a number of decisions taken by local and regional authorities of a member state considering that it was important to highlight homosexual people. There have been already many positions and courageous positions taken by the European Commission by its president to explain, first of all, the values that were founded by the European Union and to set up a process in which a first step of dialogue could be followed by sanctions. Well, I regret to note that a few weeks after this exchange that we had, Mrs. Vice President, it was in another member state that, once again, the values of the European Union are low. And I don't want a European Union that is weak. I don't want a European Union that is summed up and ultimately a budget. No, we have built the European Union because we wanted to defend democracy and all the values it bears. And to attack the values of democracy is to attack democracy itself, directly. So the words of the founding fathers of the European project must resonate today more than memories or memories, but as warnings, because to remove the values that were founded by the European Union that have been founded by the European project for decades, it is at risk of reviving the black people of the European past. And our continent must remember that. So, earlier with Margherita Skinas, your colleague of the European Commission, we mentioned the European lifestyle, and it was important that it was also inscribed in education. Well, I think there is a certain number of leaders that need to be educated. Before thinking about educating our fellow citizens and our youngest children, it is that when we sign international treaties, we respect them. And that the European Union is founded on an international treaty and that we must do all that is in this international treaty to sanction and quickly sanction the leaders who lower the values that have been hired in these international treaties. And I know, Madam Vice President, to be able to count on your energy to be able to respect these commitments and thus defend our democracy and its values. Thank you. Thank you. Now, for ECR, I'll give the floor to Matteo Bianchi for two and a half minutes. Thank you, President and dear Commissioner. Our group, the Committee of the Regions, supports the efforts of the European Commission in order to guarantee equal elections and to strengthen the freedom of expression. The proposal of the European Commission is an action plan for European democracy. It contains a series of pertinent requests, even if some of them still need to be clarified. In the first place, as a group of ECR, we agree on the fact that we need to look at the means of the elections that take place in the member states from any kind of interference. This topic interests us directly as representatives of elected regional localities, given that in many countries it is our responsibility to organize the elections and to guarantee security. We think that elections must be protected in a particular way. In the last few months in Brussels it has been discussed a lot about the need to expand the scope of critical infrastructures. Could it be time to expand the scope of what we intend with this concept and therefore consider critical infrastructures also the electoral processes? In second place, as far as the proposal of the European Commission is concerned, we all believe that the public European Union, that those of the member states, including those of the regional localities, will have to develop their ability to identify and perform disinformation. The fight against disinformation has become particularly important in these months and we can certainly say that today the coronavirus pandemic is accompanied by a disinformation pandemic. I conclude, President, Mr. Commissioner, I would like to make a reference to the proposal of the Relative Commission to an action plan for European democracy, which frankly leaves me confused. It is part of the role of the European Commission in developing the principles of journalism. It is not a matter that should be left to the organization of categories of the same journalists and be essentially an object of self-discipline. I leave it with this question. Thank you. Thank you. Now for EA, I'll give the floor to Josef Cobor for two minutes. Dear Commissioner, dear colleagues, we all agree and it has been repeated many times that we need to bring Europe closer to people, which is also the number one political priority of the Committee of the Regions. The Conference of the Future of Europe is a great opportunity to do that. It has to be a truly transparent, democratic, broad, decentralized and inclusive exercise. If not, it can be hit back on all of us. We count on you, dear Commissioner, make sure it doesn't happen. The problem is today that people feel distant from their elected representatives. The success of fake news disinformation is a consequence and a symptom of this. We should develop a positive narrative with our own citizens and reestablish broken connections with them. If there is trust between us and the citizens, no foreign power on internal or internal authoritarian ambition or business ambition will be able to break Europe. And one concrete way to doing that is establishing a permanent dialogue with citizens led by local and regional authorities. The proposal was put forward in the opinion of my colleagues, Dejan Merdanel from the EI, which was adopted anonymously in this House. In short, we need a strong, incredibly narrative, a list of concrete actions and constantly open two-way lines of communications with citizens. Thank you. Thank you. And now for the greens. I give the floor to Satu Apanan for two minutes. I think the photo looks a bit wrong, at least on the camera, but the phone is still on. Commissioner, it is good that the plan of democracy is strengthening the foundation of democracy, the protection of the election, the protection of the science, and the protection of the world. These are still the foundations for the development of the nation's democracy. It still came to mind how democracy and property are strengthened in the area. There is a lot of decision-making activity in Finland at the moment. In the last election, the decision-making activity was very low, so low that it was low in the 40s. Here is a very good commissioner in the work. In the development of democracy, the commission of the areas is yours and the commission's what a great work. The commission of the areas would have a better role in the role of the local regional authorities. For example, in the last election, it was announced in May that the plan would be to organize a meeting with the congress. Commissioner, in addition to the area and local authorities, the basic right to know is very low. For example, the commission of the areas that we move and promote. For example, the next congress meeting. Millions of elected officials, local politicians, representatives of the parties, different themes, democracy discussions. A national political school could be a one-year-old starting point. I also hope that the commission will thoroughly study the role of Robert Dulkiewicz, in which concrete actions are being carried out, as well as the role of Mr. Van Rijs in the basic books. In the end, democracy discussions should be carried out as part of the national agenda, as part of the policy of the areas. In this work, the commission of the areas and millions of elected officials can be supported. Thank you. Thank you. And this concludes the statements from the political groups. I have the information, Madam Vice President, that we would like to react to those statements now and then we'll have the interventions from the floor. Madam Vice President, you have the floor. Thank you very much. And thank you for all your comments and interventions. They were all very, very straight to the point. And I am really also inspired and happy to react on some of them. Madam Dulkiewicz, indeed we met recently. We discussed that the key for distribution of EU money should not be the political key, but the key of the needs and efficiency and value for money. This was, I think, also a very, very important debate we had with the commission is working with the conclusions of this debate. But coming back to your comments, you said that whether it will be enough, what is in ADAP, we believe that we have designed good proposals which indeed have to be implemented in full. So it must not remain to be just a paper whack. And I think that we have both very, very equal or similar instinct having also the background or spending our young years in communist regime that there are a lot of things which have to be done, also lessons learned from that regime where there was just one doctrine. And one important thing that the key thing is education which you mentioned yourself. And we sometimes neglect this line of education because this is long distance run and it is a mistake. So we have to focus more on that. Also we are preparing or already running some funding programs from the EU side. Especially what is worrying me is how easy it is to misinterpret the recent history. And it was also the case of disinformation spread in Poland. The disinformation about the Molotow-Ribbentrop agreement. How easy it was to brainwash the people again about this and to make Poland the perpetrator instead of telling the people the truth that they were the victims. So I was really shocked and we have to push the ministries of education in the EU states to focus on the modern history and on the lessons which we have to take and learn from the 20th century especially. Madam Johansson, profiling is an issue. We are addressing it in the legislation on artificial intelligence. And one general comment, technologies must not turn against the people. That's why everything we do, all the rules we are bringing for this technological world, we have this human centric approach that we must not allow the technologies including artificial intelligence to copy-paste the biases and unfair things from real life into this technological sphere. So we need indeed, as you said, the debate in Europe about all these things. We have to focus on many things which you mentioned. You said that the people go to the elections and they should be active in between elections, which is also my strong conviction. And one interesting thing which I noticed at the municipal and regional level there are, I think, no issues with the rule of law because the people are watching. People have this under control what you are doing. So it is important that the people are active and that they are not only asked to be active when they are coming to elections. I know I speak too long, don't I? I am watching you, Mr. Vice President. I will be short. Mr. Dekosta, yes. We are focusing on the holy trinity of values, the rule of law, fundamental rights and democracy. It was never before when I came to the commission in 2014 we really, in a big naivete, we saw that we will have these values protected automatically. This is not the true anymore. And we really try in the commission to come with the measures and with the plans which will invite the whole society because I must not be the lonely sheriff in that which Politico wrote about me some time ago. No, we need to connect forces because if we want democracy to survive we have all to do our homeworks and you know better than me what it means on regional level. Mr. Bianchi, yes. Elections, it's the member state competence. However, we created the network with the member states. We are discussing the matters of cybersecurity, mainly and data protection. And we believe that we have a problem if in several member states we will see that elections are not free and fair anymore. We will have problem on European Union level. So that's why the cooperation here is key. On generalism, I agree with you that they should regulate themselves. We are not touching that at all. But we believe that we have to create conditions for media to work, being economically fit and being safe. I think these are our obligations to guarantee that. Mr. Cobor, I fully agree. We need positive, maybe positive narrative. We must stop to be lazy in co-indicating what we are doing because if we leave the space and open it will be filled in by disinformation. We saw it in COVID. That's why we were encouraging the health authorities to inform more, to use the priority space created by Facebook and other networks because we were pushing them to do so. And to fill in the space otherwise, of course the disinformation will be over flooding every free space which we leave for them. So we need to out of respect for the citizens to communicate better and to tell them the truth, know the pink, the rosy pictures. And I think that we have to start to count this disinformation as a new phenomenon which cannot be fought by censorship but which has also to be fought by proactive communication respecting the citizens' right to information. Last comment on Madam Hapanen. You are absolutely right. The election participation is low. We have to attract the attention of people. Well, sometimes when people fear about their future it makes them to move and go to the elections. I don't think this is a good plan and good program but I think that we should also think about the method we use for elections and here comes what I said before that we should digitalize democracy. I am true believer in opening the e-voting systems so that the young people are more attracted so that we organize the elections in the way they are used to and to make it closer for them not to push them to use the old fashioned method to take the paper and go to throw it to a box. So one proposal for where we could cooperate further because you said the Committee of Regents was not broad enough on board and there should be more opportunities to have a factual debate. I think the recovery plans contain a lot of very useful projects and programs not to leave the people behind not to increase the gaps in the society. The money should help to take people with us for fresh and healthy recovery and I think that here we can cooperate. I would really like to see your projects and your proposals how to do this to have the people to get out of the recovery and to use also the European support for that. Thank you very much. Thank you Madam Vice President. Now we will have the interventions from the floor. We invite you to stay with us and I'll give the floor to Franz Schausberger for one minute. Yes, Madam Vice President, such an action plan has a meaning beyond the borders of the EU. Especially the Six West Balkans should already be taken into some form in this action plan to further develop the democracy in them and to make them fit for a contribution. Especially in the areas of law enforcement, strengthening democratic institutions, the civil society, the independence of the media, the fight against corruption, are unfortunately only gradual progress so that there are still many reforms that are necessary. For example, regional and local regional bodies play an important role and I mean their capacities must be strengthened. After the progress report in the area of freedom of opinion and independence of the media in the last period unfortunately reached the lowest progress. We are trying to ensure the independence of the public right to the media and to promote the transparency of public and private financing of the media. But we are not only allowed to see what is still missing but should be recognized on the progress that certainly brings to motivation further reforms. Thank you, sir. Now the floor to Dirk Wetter for one minute. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Mr. Vice President, dear colleagues, I would like to limit myself on one aspect, namely on the aspect of a functioning violence for a functioning democracy. And I think it is especially clear that a strong right-wing state independent of the law that is the foundation of a strong democracy. As Secretary of State of the Ministry of Justice I would like to highlight with the strength of the right-wing state we have, for example, the so-called pact for the right-wing state between federal and countries in Northern Westphalia has already been completed. In Northern Westphalia, we welcome therefore the seamless steps of the commission to react to right-wing states and the right-wing state reports are a very important element of the European toolbox. But in our opinion there will still be necessary the democracy, the right-wing state and the respect for basic rights are not available in Europe. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. President. The Europe that we live in today was born as a response to the crisis that the continent experienced in the first half of the century. Even on occasion of the next crisis such as the end of the Cold War Europe has been able to give strong political responses to the important commission both under the political profile of the next generation U and under the profile of the financial instruments. But this response today must also be accompanied by a reinforcement under the democratic profile creating a new relationship with the city of Anza. For this reason we need courage, a new democratic movement that starts from the bottom. In these months of Covid, there has been an important reference point for the citizens even under the profile of the correct information. The local institution is the first state of democracy. That is why we ask that in the action plan for democracy in Europe, as in the COFOE there is a full involvement of the local autonomy. Through this we can give a contribution to bring the citizens closer to Europe. As a commissioner, I'm going to use a metaphor to present my point of view. Democracy is like cycling going by bike. You have to pedal continuously not to fall off the bike. The same is true for democracy. To be effective and successful, democracy must be exercised every day and by everyone. Democracy needs the participation of the citizens and the citizens. So, as a commissioner, I just want to underline the role of local and regional authorities in promoting and protecting European democracy. Why? Because in the end all democracy is local. As a conclusion, the best democracy action plan is the action. And the expectation of our citizens in a very functional Europe. Thank you, dear commissioner. Thank you. Now the floor to Mr. Adam Karaksoni for one minute. Mr. Karaksoni. Mr. Karaksoni. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Now the floor to Patrick Schwartz Kiefer for one minute. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And finally, the floor to Joseph Vereni. You have the floor for one minute. Thank you very much. Madam Vice President, you have my full support in the fight against disinformation, hoaxes and conspiracies. Being Slovakia, there is also a problem with these issues. However, I would like also ask you about the protection of traditional national minorities inside the European Union. As we know, there is no legal binding document which would protect the traditional national minorities. The minority safe pack initiative has been rejected by the commission. So therefore, my question is that do you see any room in the future that there will be adopted legal instrument protecting the traditional national minorities and are you ready to cooperate in this? Thank you. Thank you. I don't have any other requests for the floor. So, Madam Vice President, I will give you the floor with the indicative time of five minutes, please. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. First Vice President. I have to apologize to Mr. Soisberger because I had some technical problem with interpretation here. I know he spoke about the media recently, but my German is not good enough to be able to react. But I will react on maybe following comments maybe not attributing it to concrete speakers. I am dealing with the values and you can imagine it's not taking the boxes. This is done, this is done, this is done as an executive person which also I learned and I so much loved in working for municipality and the region. You can imagine that sometimes the work is maybe not frustrating but really very demanding because when you work on values like rule of law, fundamental rights and democracy, the work is never finished and several of you rightly said that it is the method for everyday work and we have to find new ways how to protect these values because we see new ways of endangering them especially when it comes to the modern technologies and the modern ways how to try to devastate the European democratic system. So I just want to say that the commission and myself are doing everything which is within the legal competencies to protect the rule of law which was mentioned here and the fundamental rights including the rights of the minorities. Not all the problems in the field of rule of law can be solved through infringement procedures. This is the obligation of the commission to launch such procedure when we see that there is a legal basis and there is a breach of EU law. But we try also to run the dialogue with the member states and we try to introduce new instruments such as the rule of law report which is annual report covering all the member states by the way the new one will be published on the 20th of July. And as I said this is the work for all the layers. I'll be happy to cooperate more with the committee of regions because when I am listening to you I think that maybe it was also my fault that we didn't have enough context in the past on such important matters which we are discussing today. So as I said before now the post Covid time will be very demanding we need to use the recovery funding in the proper way. It will be under incredible time pressure because the money has to be invested till 2026 and I am sure that the local and regional authorities will be fully involved in these investments which should go to the benefit of the citizens. So again I am fully available for such cooperation. Miss Yes, Mr Bock said it, you have to pedal all the time to protect democracy. I have on my wall behind me the Czech president and he always said that democracy is so easy for those who take it seriously and so easy for those who want to just neglect it or abuse it. So I think this is clear. Mr Karacione sorry for maybe pronunciation. Yes, I said that I see ill democracy in Hungary because it was in the context of the debate also about the health issues and I said that when in a body something is not functioning well we see that the body is ill and what I see as a problematic issue in Hungary is especially the media and the pressure on the under free media and also recently the shameful law on which is stigmatizing LGBT people and all and several others from the past I don't want to repeat it all signs that there is something which is deviating from the mainstream of the European values and I use the work mainstream now I want to be well understood we have the European values enshrined in the treaty in the article 2 the rule of law principle anti-discrimination and and I think that we have to act when we see that the country is going in a direction which we find wrong and which we find deviating too far from the basic pillars but Mr Karacione and Mr Boreny sorry I don't have glasses but any you will be surprised how often I defend especially the countries from Central and Eastern Europe how often I say that there cannot be expectations that these countries will just imitate the West in everything you would be surprised how often I defend your right to say really about your priorities and your values but forgive me I would not be at the right place if not defending the values like protection of minorities and protection against discrimination and protection of independent judiciary and so on last comment on the minority safe pack I use disappointment of the signatories about the decision of the commission not to react by adopting legislation but we really did a thorough assessment of what legislation we have and what measures we can apply already now and that it's better to implement and do in full and use the rules and the conditions and also funding programs we have now enhanced to also promote the language minorities because this is about languages mainly and also traditions to use the current rules and instruments rather than promising the future legislation which according to my colleagues who are dealing with these subjects is not necessary but you ask whether there is an opportunity to open it again I think that there is now opportunity under the conference on the future of Europe to raise again these issues and that you find it important to strengthen the protection so this is not closed door forever but as I said we did a thorough analysis and assessment and we came to the conclusion that we already have sufficient instruments now enhanced thank you very much thank you thank you madam vice president thank you so much for being here with us and for taking the time to debate with us the European action plan for democracy thank you we appreciate your presence and we appreciate taking the time thank you have a nice day thank you very much have a nice day bye thank you now ladies and gentlemen members we will proceed to point