Good afternoon everybody and welcome to this IAA webinar on the occasion of International Women's Day 2022. This year we're delighted to be joined by two distinguished panellists from the world of the media. Last year for International Women's Day we focused on women in decision making and this year we decided to shift the lens to women reporting on the decisions. So my name is Hannah DC. I'm the communications director of the Institute of International and European Affairs. We're delighted to be joined today by Shona Murray, your correspondent with Euronews and Mary Regan political reporter RTE News. I'll briefly go through the running order of the event before introducing our speakers. So this event will have 20 minutes of general conversation between myself, Shona and Mary and then we'll move to questions from you, our audience. These use the Zoom Q&A function at the bottom of your screen to ask those questions. The event is live streamed on YouTube so welcome to those of you joining us on YouTube as well as those of you joining us on Zoom. We do encourage you to tweet during the event using the handle at IIA. So I'll just run through the biographies of our speakers before we begin. Shona is your correspondent with Euronews. Previously she was political correspondent with the Irish Independent and foreign affairs correspondent with News Talk. Shona has specialized in Brexit and has reported from dozens of countries including Israel and Gaza, Iraq, the Turkey-Syria border, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, Haiti and Guantanamo Bay. She is also an alumnus of the US State Department Edward R. Murrow program for journalists. Mary Regan is an award-winning journalist who has covered politics for both print and broadcast for more than 10 years. She currently works as political reporter for RTE News and contributes reports and analysis to a wide range of programs for the broadcaster, including presenting the European Parliament report. She joins RTE from the Sunday Business Post where she held positions of news editor and public affairs editor. She is a previously political editor for the Irish Examiner in UTB Ireland. In 2012, Mary was invited by the US State Department to take part in the prestigious international leadership program for emerging young leaders. So I note that both Shona and Mary have participated in US State Department visits, so that's interesting in and of itself. As I said, the event is public and on the record and live streamed on YouTube as well. After the conversation, we wanted to frame this, I suppose, on reporting the EU because it's an issue that is of interest to us in the IIA. But then equally of course, Shona and Mary will regularly in their roles, you know, be thinking about how to frame EU issues when they're putting together their reports and within the context of both international audiences and domestic audiences. But given the context of the war ongoing at the moment in Europe, I think it's more appropriate for us to start with a focus and covering that general frame of how do you make what's happening far away relevant to audiences all across the EU and here at home in Ireland. And so with that Shona, I know you were in Romania recently, you might talk to us a little bit about what's been like over the past few weeks covering this international issue that's gripping all of us and and really hitting home for everybody. And how you do that for your news is distinctly for a domestic and broadcaster. Well, I suppose with your news because it were Europe wide and we have a huge viewership in Eastern Europe as well. Hungary, Romania, and these are obviously the countries the front line the Ukrainian crisis so and they have a huge interest in what's happening, particularly because I was covering the refugees emerging from Ukraine. These are also countries that are in NATO. These are countries that fear Russian attacks fear that their troops NATO troops if there was a Russian attack on any of their countries would be brought into a very large wide international armed conflict. So it's very much these are countries that know the threat of Russia have lived with the threat of Russia. Many of them have been under Soviet occupation or they were in the Soviet Union, and they've always had a concern about Vladimir Putin and his reemerging sphere of influence since the invasion of Crimea in 2014. So these are countries when you when you meet people on the ground they know what they're dealing with in relation to Russia they already have fears and then. And then they have a strong relationship with Ukraine you know a lot of the people I met at the border were local Romanian community workers who wanted to welcome their brethren essentially into Romania. And one thing you know it was for international women's day is that the most remarkable aspect of the people coming through we're all women, all women my age, older, younger, carrying babies in buggies you know we think like just completely initially, they're despondent and despairing about what they left behind their houses in the middle of the night queuing in the snow for 60 hours to get through the border with little children who are just really traumatized because they want their beds. And here they are at eight o'clock in the morning and waiting to get into a snowy football stadium where the tent awaits awaits them. Not their fathers, their mothers are obviously fearful for the lives of their husbands because they've had to stay behind to to fight against Russia. It's a desperate situation of course women taking on a lot of the responsibility by bringing to also elderly grandparents who could just about make it through the border, who again are frail so. And yeah, extremely, I have to say extremely upsetting to see it because of, you know, all this is just so unnecessary, and you know should have been prevented. Obviously, we know that Putin had strongly made up his mind about trying to retake Ukraine a long time ago. So, really, really difficult, but we are viewership would be very tuned in anyway to European affairs. And Ireland obviously being much further away to Ukraine not being a NATO member we don't have that, let's say consciousness about that sort of threat and. It is different explaining to an Irish audience, but Irish audiences are really tuned in as well when it comes to politics and, and they certainly have been because this has been a war that has been pending for several months now we we've been reporting of the on the build up the 100,000 troops from Putin for almost a year you know since Biden came into power that was very much a discussion in Brussels through NATO. And obviously the NATO presence in Afghanistan. Yeah, that's very interesting and I think as well you know the seeing these streams and streams of women and children coming it while we're talking about this is very modern war. There's something that feels very ancient as well about you know women and children first escaping while men are conscripted. And Mary from your perspective you know what's it like this is a story that's been very present in Ireland, comparatively perhaps to other international stories. What's it like covering the you know linking it to the Irish political scene and what's going on and trying to create that continuum between the two. Yeah well I guess it was very interesting listening to show me there because she was very much emerged in the reality of what is happening and just those horrific stories of those women and children in particular crossing the border, just seeking safety for their families, like for me from my perspective I've been covering it more from a policy point of view from a policy perspective. You know any coverage I've done off European affairs over the past, I suppose, probably 15 years of my career so far, first of all, it was covering the euro crash the financial crisis, then it was so Brexit dominated for so long. I think this is the first time that Europe is really being covered from for an Irish audience that isn't related to, you know, a financial issue to a sort of technocratic issue to you know isn't represented as a trade block or a, you know, really graphical space that Europe is really being represented now and it's coming across I think as Europe the sort of idea and the ideal of the European Union, and what it stands for, you know, upholding democratic freedoms the rule of law all those sort of things have really come to the fore, you know in the past two weeks and that is very interesting because that's been different to how Europe has been covered for so for so so long. So, as was shown, we were covering the same Euro Council meeting just the week before last so Thursday morning was when the invasion started. I went from doing a doorstep with me on Martin outside government buildings that morning and I remember the questions we were putting to him straight away was, you know, what is Ireland's position here in terms of sanctions and also can European unity hold so many differing positions. I think it was later that night I was in Brussels for the meeting and again, you know, from my point of view what I was covering it is, you know, so Irish people could really understand what Ireland's position was at the negotiating table, what the issue was saying when he sat around the table with other world leaders. It was interesting because there was a lot of focus at that point on the sanctions, you know whether the swift international payment system would be included. And what was coming across there is that Ireland did favor the strongest possible sanctions at that point Ireland was amongst those at the table arguing for you know the swift system to be included and that's sort of what Irish audience really I think wanted to know what Ireland's position was in relation to that and later that morning that he should came and did a doorstep with us in Brussels and we spoke to Simon cove me shown was there as well in Brussels that afternoon. That was a Friday and Simon cove me was was there to meet other other other foreign affairs ministers. And just during the course of that day I think Ursula von der Leyen came out early that day, the whole Martin and the number of EU leaders, you know, first of all their main message they didn't get across is that we are united, there is solidarity here. But I think they, they came out in the morning and said you know these the strongest unprecedented. Never before seen sanctions and I think just almost just in real time as the day progressed, you could really see that maybe those sanctions at that point just weren't enough. And that happened very very quickly over a very short, you know, couple of hours during the day. And he said, you know that there was a quote that I stuck in my mind from that brain morning he said he just needed to look at the earth under him in the sky above and to know that the sanctions at that point were not enough and he had made an appeal to the European leaders of that council meeting. So, it was clear that the pressure had been building I think throughout that day to the extent that they came back with, you know, slightly stronger sanctions thereafter.  And it's just been interesting from the point of view that we had one story dominating for two full years covert nothing else there was no political story, other political story barely in town after an election that had been so dominated by housing. The system was focused on covert and with you know granted you know housing was also an issue on health and all those issues in the background. And then there was a bit of breathing space where we were trying to, you know, sort of figure out where the new post pandemic politics would would fall. And then suddenly we're into another big story very quickly after that is all consuming all all dominant and calling for extraordinary measures so it's the, you know I think that has been really interesting and just to see over time where it will leave the Irish politics there's already the legacy of the crash was already playing out over the longer term. Then there was a legacy of the pandemic that we were trying to figure out and now there is this so it's really going to fundamentally alter politics but as as to how yes we just don't we just don't know the answer to that. I think it's fascinating there was a brief window there where the news was just a little bit less depressing and now it's right back to very difficult to watch. And, but we've been hosting a lot of events in the recent in the past couple of months on you know how the EU is forged through crises and those have very much focused on you know the financial and economic crisis and how that then connects with the different response to the COVID pandemic and how that was informed. And it's almost seems that Europe's very unified response to this crisis has been able to sort of leverage the connectivity created around the pandemic. And shown have you seen any evidence about it at Brussels level you know the greater, you know the rapidity of the response it's almost as if there was a sense that we can't let this drag the way we did the beginning of the pandemic we have to be fast now. Yeah, I mean, the lessons were learned in the in the early days of the pandemic, you know, because, you know, the, there hadn't been enough, let's say, cohesion amongst the member states. But that's changed fairly early on when your third round line and that the Commission knew they dropped the ball completely. And the best thing that happened in Europe was the vaccine program amongst all 27 member states, because that Ireland wouldn't have vaccines, if we if you weren't a part of that and it was slow at the start because of AstraZeneca. Nobody knew that there was going to be a depletion of its vaccines that we could deliver to the EU and there was obviously problems around that but what it was. It did show that once the Commission works together and the EU member states are working together, they can bulk buy, they have this negotiating heft. And that was the whole point of that 27 member states negotiating a good price and getting in on the market. And I think with the sanctions I think it is separate to be honest with you because one of the concerns around the sanctions is very political because there were some countries in particularly hungry, who has close relations relationships with Putin so there was concern whether Orban would vote in favour of all of the sanctions and and then you did have a very difficult, you know, that Thursday night. There were some countries, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, who were calling for things like carbides for the luxury goods sector. They didn't want the swift international messaging system on the set of sanctions. And that's why as Mary said, on Thursday night Friday morning. And I think that's why I'm asking everybody kind of realized these sanctions are really not strong enough and it just goes to show you that Putin was right that the EU and the international community can't come back strong enough to parry him and actually do enough damage to make him resist his attacking Ukraine and I think there was a huge, really feeling of failure and Friday morning I think that nobody felt read no matter what they were saying these are unprecedented sanctions. But they weren't strong enough. And then within hours you saw them that doorstep Simon Kovni said okay swift is going to be on the on the list. Actually that Putin is going to be on the list so is Sergey Lavrov. And then on Sunday you saw them then suspending all the licenses for Sputnik for RT saying that Russian propaganda can no longer be part in the EU. That Russian aircraft were no longer going to be able to fly above you airspace, including the jets of the oligarchs. And it's really about and then there was more sanctions against Belarus and it's really created huge momentum that the US has obviously gone alongside the EU and other countries and then other companies as well you know like you know the various transactional companies, Apple pay all of that kind of stuff and it's created huge momentum and I think that's been really remarkable and I think it did start by everybody just saying actually we can't let this happen because it's not just Ukraine this is an existential issue for the global rules based system. And we really need to act fast and now you see the UK slightly lagging behind. You know when it comes to the oligarchs issue in particular, but I think it has reestablished the importance of having the European Union their countries working together regardless of their differences and they had there has been very significant difference in fact I think you could eat the EU is characterized in some way, unfortunately with past few years, because of the differences between countries, southern countries, northern countries, eastern countries, who are slipping into a authoritarianism and so on but now it seems like the EU has been replenished in an ideal. Yeah, certainly and I suppose coverage even of what's happening in Poland it's the most positive coverage of Poland that we've had in our news for quite some time, and we might come back to that in regards to gender equality in a while, just continuing though on the vein of Ukraine, I mean, Mary obviously in the domestic audience there's now, you know, resurgence of questions around neutrality. Do you think that this is going to change our relationship with the EU in a defence context now going forward the years ahead. Yeah, I mean I think it has to and I think that's already apparent with what's being said over the past couple of days but I think it's something that's always been there I don't think it's a new question I think since we joined the European Union that question has always been there but we never really had to, you know, confront it or a deal with it. So, yeah, there's, you know, and it's clear, you know, various party leaders and politicians sort of setting setting out where they stand or where they feel about Irish neutrality at this point. But I don't think it's going to be something that is changed very quickly or changes something that can happen very quickly, you know, in response to what's happening at the moment, you know, I think it's going to be a very long process. And if this is probably the part that the you know the real start of a discussion around this it's probably something that would require ultimately, you know, probably, you know a constitutional referendum because for any sort of decision big enough of this nature would require the consent, I think at least, you know, probably morally at least of the Irish people there would be requirements to have, you know, that consent there by way of referendum. That would be something that's feeding into the debate here at the moment, and something that wasn't anticipated at all just some weeks back that this is the sort of discussion we've been having now about Irish neutrality I mean it was just a few short weeks back that there was discussions around the funding and the resourcing and the financing of our defence forces and their infrastructure. I think this is something that will feed its way more and more I think into the into into into the debate, certainly in the in the door and in the office in the time ahead. Yeah, certainly the timing in line with the report on the funding it's you know, put the issue of our defence forces front and central. And I'm going to go to a question from the audience actually because it's relevant to this aspect of the conversation. And it's from Peter McLoone former Secretary General of Impact Trade Union and member of the IA Board. He asks, how are the Ukrainian media coping presume it is impossible to sustain printed newspapers have shown in merry contact with any Ukrainian journalists and what can be done to support them. We have our Ukrainian journalists that we use like stringers over there in Ukraine, but also we have our staff over there as well. I believe the media is working very well I mean this. I mean it's not actually I think it's more of the problem I think is around Russian media. That's I think that's where you have the concern the Ukrainian media is thriving, because there's an awful lot to report about plus it's in the state's interest to have this this war covered internationally globally and kept on the agenda first on the agenda in every single country in the world in order to maintain international community and internet and spirit. And so I think Ukrainian journalists are, despite the notwithstanding the very threat to their lives that they're experiencing from Russian aerial bombing and, you know, street on street fighting that they it's thriving and then there is obviously, you know, a whole raft of foreign affairs correspondence in Ukraine as well I think I think that that's not a huge problem to be honest with you. It's Russia, obviously we have almost no I think the last independent TV station was closed down recently you have now jailing for over to 15 years for people who are, you know, inciting treason against Russia for condemning the invasion. That's, that's where we have to be concerned about similarly in Belarus where there are 400 political prisoners, including Roman Protosevich by the way a journalist. I can't get over this actually happened but where we know a few months ago, a man, a journalist on a flight a commercial Ryan air flight flying to Lithuania. Somehow over an year country was able to be taken down by Belarusian military and dragged off a plane and is now incarcerated and God only knows in what condition that happened. I mean, and yes, and yes, we know for some reason we we wondered that whether Vladimir Putin had it in him to invade Ukraine with things like this and obviously we know Lukashenko who is the dictator in Belarus is of course, very close with Putin in fact he owes Putin his life and his, his leadership of Belarus Belarus is a satellite state Russia essentially. Almost as if that instance really I think when the history of this is written you know that will be many warning shots. Mary. Yeah, I mean, I think I'm the answer is I'm not in touch with honey journalists in in Ukraine or any Ukrainian journalists in the same way as Shona might, might know some. But I think it's been very interesting to follow the sort of information war that's going on at the moment and focusing on what's happening in you know Russia the attempt to essentially outlaw, you know, Facebook and Twitter and reduced, you know, activities online. Also the, you know, increasing, you know, laws to to jail journalists for 15 years I think it is for for a fake news. So, I mean, I think what's happening to journalists in Russia is obviously of more interest I think at the moment in terms of how, and the way information is being shared in Russia and seemingly so many people not being aware of, you know, the whole pretext for the war in the first place and so many people believing that, you know, the, you know, the point of this war was something that Ukrainians had had wanted. So I think the information, you know, poverty in Russia is something that really has to be focused on it's quite astonishing to watch actually. And I suppose that the broader point of see around, you know, journalists safety and I'm interested to get your views the view has immediate freedom act plan for summer 2022. It's part of the European democracy action plan and we recently welcomed Commissioner Vera you're over where she spoke about it. Obviously, the situation is very different in different member states, and but they do have a recommendation on the safety of journalists following you know, high profile as well as production that you're talking about. It's not a zone of Roman Persevich but also then the murder of Daphne Karuna-Galicia in Malta. To what extent do you think that you know, and safety of journalists across the EU, specifically not even the broader picture is an increasing issue in recent years. Well, seriously, a concern actually in countries like Hungary and Poland where we know Victor Orban has been using Israeli spyware against journalists. That's endangering their lives because who knows what he's going to use that information for you mentioned there Daphne Karuna-Galicia. But also the ability for journalists to do their job where in Hungary Orban has a stranglehold on the media where his cronies buy up all the media ensure that any independent newspapers don't get any advertising. You know, these are real problems because they ensure that people like Orban get re-elected election soon. The type of propaganda he spouts like the Polish government spouts, whether it's really whether it's anti-Semitic relation to George Soros, whether it's about the EU trying to impose its liberal sort of values on Hungary or Poland, which is not the case. We've seen those countries slide into authoritarianism when it comes to gender equality, not just Hungary, Poland, but Slovenia as well. And under Yanisianca who who has withdrawn or withheld public funding for state media in Slovenia meaning that they can't do their job. But of course, and they're just so having to be some of the companies that are critical of him and some of his policies. So that's what Vera Girova is trying to do. I mean, she's from the former Czechoslovakia, and she talks frequently about how important it was to join the EU and to be a part of an ideal that had solidarity with journalists and the importance of free press. And that is sliding very significantly in those countries because it allows those authoritarian regimes and governments to stay in power because they're told all of these lies and there's no independent press to explain us. And so it's very problematic, but also the fact that like I said, Hungary is surveilling journalists. That's extremely dangerous and we just don't know where that's going to end. Hungary remember is regarded as no longer a democracy. Mary, did you want to come in on that? Yeah, so. Yeah, so, you know, I think obviously shown us, you know, given a good account there of this sort of sliding of press freedoms in certain countries, particularly Poland and Hungary. But I think it's one of the other aspects that doesn't really get talked about a lot is that these journalists in these countries are caught not just between the, you know, their governments and the, and the, you know, the, you know, the European type regimes on the one hand, but also they're competing with big tech giants on the other hand. And, you know, they, they, they don't have the, you know, the finance the resources to fight back and, you know, you know, with information sharing so I think that's definitely something that needs to be looked at but I think across Europe to the pandemic we've seen it's not just journalists in certain countries who are coming under pressure from their own governments it's also journalists in countries including Ireland have come under pressure throughout the pandemic certainly through various protest movements. The abuse of journalists online has just, you know, like it's just gone so bad over the past year or so.  And, you know, I think something that needs to be looked at is whether those platforms want to do anything about you're not here constantly of journalists reporting things, you know, posted about them are posted to them on social media and very little is done about them these people can have their accounts taken down one day and reestablish the following day so I think for most journalists. That is a big issue and I think, you know, as we were talking here today I think it's a particular issue for women journalists seem to experience this sort of online abuse. Speaking to my female colleagues it seems to be more pronounced, you know, these these these attacks on women rather than rather than on their male colleagues for whatever reason. So that is something I would like to see, you know, these tech companies taking a little bit more more seriously and it's one thing taking down really offensive tweets but you know maybe they should just consider not publishing them in the first place. That's really interesting and I was just going to ask whether it was similar to women in politics for four female journalists and you know that there is that increase and the vitriol really experienced just by going about and doing your day to day job. And, Shona, is that something that you've experienced with your colleagues in Brussels as well? Yeah, I mean, I think, yeah, Ireland and Europe, there's a lot of these conspiracy theories that we've seen where the mainstream media quote unquote gets caught up with the sort of, you know, the global conspiracy theory so you know it's part of the movement and I think that this is this large distrust of the job that you do even though it's extremely frustrating because you literally just wanted to do the right thing and tell the truth and that there's nothing else in it other than to do that. I mean, really there isn't. And I find that very frustrating and I find it increasingly coming into my own life, not just online but people I know, let's say, friends of friends, when they find that you're a journalist, it's actually, it's a moment of distrust. Oh, I say, oh, you're one of them.  And you know and you just yard trying to do I'm not saying that every journalist does right they don't because we look at the state of some of the tabloids in the UK, for example, I mean, like they're, they've, you know, caused a huge amount of problems with the likes of Brexit, with the likes of denying climate change, attacking migrants, you know, they've whipped up fear and they're not good so not every but when you are trying to do the right thing I find it quite difficult and sometimes it is a female thing but sometimes it's more just this, this hatred of the of the media and you see it a lot in RT as well, you know, the protest outside and it's extremely vitriolic and violent actually and yeah I find it so it does happen in Belgium as well there are a lot of conspiracy theorists. There was a lot of protests violent protests around the EU as well. And continuing on that sheet the disinformation theme we have a question in from Alex Conway and IIA researcher, and I'm going to read it out quite long with reference to the information war, do the panel agree that the EU was right to take RT rush today and Sputnik off the air. Is this an effective way to combat this or misinformation and the weaponization of the media, or is it heavy handed censorship which has legitimized the Russian banning of foreign media. It's a very difficult question because in the past I would have been all about the marketplace of ideas, you know, which is kind of what Twitter is and what, what the, you know, what the whole point of having all of these different views that the truth prevails, because we're able to target all the lies with truth and then people see the facts, but that's unfortunately not what's happened over the past few years.  And, and also what Putin has been doing for the past, well, over a decade, interfering with the US election, for example, that allowed to enable people to be elected by lying about Hillary, by, you know, by the lies about Brexit, all of this has been a lot of it Kremlin orientated, or Chinese and orientated the level of disinformation that has emerged over the past few years has been really damaging to democracy. And, and so I would never have agreed to doing that but if you look at some of the stuff that RT says and Sputnik says they have given Russian people a completely wrong view of what's happening in Ukraine that it's being run by Nazis. I mean, this, like, and when we have our own MEPs, Karen Daly and McWell is saying things like that Assad wasn't responsible for the chemical weapons attack or that, you know, Zelensky is a western puppet. You know that the white helmets who are people who pull decapitated children out of burning buildings because of Russian barrel bombs, that they that they're actually linked with al-Qaeda and they stage all of these attacks they don't, they don't and I know them, some of them personally. And so, at that point you have normal people go Mahoud and I mean at these white helmets are definitely, and these are actually to re-risk their lives. So propaganda has gotten us to this place where it's actually created so much fragmentation and dissent and within Western democracy and that's why I can understand getting rid of 14 Sputnik because they are only propaganda. What do they bring to the table? They don't even bring a proper debate to the table, they just tell lies and now you have Russian soldiers in Ukraine, for example, believing that they're there to liberate and then they find that they're not wanted. Yeah, I would be similar to shown in the sense that I would, as a journalist always have been against any sort of state or government or in this case the EU as a whole involvement in, in the sense of, you know, banning any particular type of media or, you know, trying to control it or anything like that. It's not a very good precedent to set and it's not something that, you know, the state should really have a role in. However, we do live in a time where disinformation is now such a huge problem. And, you know, causing so much damage to democracy that something really probably needs to be done at a policy level to tackle this sort of scourge of disinformation. But it's something that probably should be done, not in a sort of responsive kind of way, you know, as being done at the moment in terms of a response to what's actually happening at the moment. It's probably something that policymakers, you know, in all parliaments need to examine, you know, what can be done about disinformation, ultimately it requires, you know, an ethical framework for social media organizations I suppose in the sense that we as journalists, you know, we, we, there is a huge sort of ethical and philosophical foundation to what the media does and why we do it, and it's something we all study as a discipline before we come into journalism, most of us do. But the sort of way information is shared on social media doesn't, you know, doesn't have the same sort of ethical framework around it. That's something that needs to be done. But, you know, I think, as sort of policymakers need to look at what can just be done in terms of disinformation and it might be just something that requires more educational that those that those that which has been attempted and it's just something that hasn't really been working so far. We've got to a situation where, you know, the goalposts have shifted so so dramatically now because of you know what was once hoped to be the sort of democratization of access to publishing and publishing information through social media platforms. But it's really, you know, proved to us the importance of what we're gatekeeper roles and editors and fact checkers, you know, what was a great promise is actually turning into a sort of dystopian nightmare really because we have, you know, more and more need to develop new ways of fact checking and and obviously there's great work being done within that and some of it's funded and here in Ireland the journal.ie you're obviously doing huge hands work on fact checking but you know how is it possible to to even put some sort of structure of gatekeeping or fact checking on when everyone is everyone can publish. Well I mean it's possible for news organizations it's been possible for every newspaper that ever existed since beginning of time. It's been possible for every radio station that existed more or less since beginning of time, and many newspapers have had to close as a result of it because they have to pay for editors they have to pay for gatekeepers, they have to pay for fact checkers. And if was, you know, if it was sort of free for all for newspapers, then in the same way as it does appear to be for for social media organizations then you know a lot of newspapers that have since goes down wouldn't have had to. It's interesting as well because obviously this is an area the EU has you know attempted to legislate on and I assume will continue to attempt to legislate on but where the tech companies have had massive lobbying operations. And with a question in from Ben Tonra Professor of international relations at UCD. He says thanks for the terrific session. And now this touches a little bit on and we talked about it before but might drill down a little bit more. Is there any sense from the colleagues about the media landscape in Russia. And what are their reflections on the apparent ineffectiveness of new media and getting any story across that doesn't drive with the regime's propaganda. Yes, a really interesting one to go and we talked about it earlier because that the issue is not the media in Ukraine, where it's, it's vibrant and obviously journalists are probably working 24 seven let's face it notwithstanding the the bombs the Russian bombs but it is really interesting, listening to correspondents in Russia who say that you know the majority of Russians are listening to the propaganda from the regime and I think a lot of it has to do with, you know, in some parts of Russia not having internet access, and also just researching what they're used to, whether it's or tea or some of the other stations, and also then the crackdown therefore on anyone who wants to be an independent journalist or an opposition person. They have to do it from outside Russia because their target is consistently by Putin's regime. I mean and that's and so it's not just Russia but we mentioned earlier that's happening and hungry. Our his cronies at least are buying up independent newspapers and or and or ensuring that the pro-orban newspapers and media outlets are getting all of the advertising independent radio is losing its licensing. So it's happening already in Hungary and Slovenia like I talked about as well. Yeah, Yana Shansa with withholding a vital funding for state media. When those that state media is ever critical of them so journalists are losing their jobs in the interim they end up having to find new jobs, so then you don't have journalists in the industry anymore because their families to feed so it's not just about Russia it's happening and it's creeping in very slowly in the EU which is why we have that media commission and directive for 2022 but it's very hard to see how that will make a difference because these countries, they've gotten away with not implementing rules of law for so long. And also we're in the midst of an armed conflict here where unity is just has to be sacrosanct. So is Brussels going to start interfering with Yansha and Orban and Kaczynski and Poland in the middle of this crisis. I'm not so sure, but what's happening, you know, for some time now we've been talking about Orban using Putin's tactics in relation to the media. And, and that's kind of what's emerging now. Sorry, I can't remember the question exactly so just. It was about the challenges for the media in Russia and new media in Russia and getting any story across the doesn't have time with the regime's propaganda. Yeah, well, I mean for all we're talking here about social media and stuff like that. It's going to be interesting to see because he has cracked down on on Facebook on Twitter on social media. It's going to be interesting to see what degree of success that's going to have and so far it appears that you can't in the current media age we live in you can't ban information it's impossible it's almost I saw some quotes somewhere someone saying it's like almost trying to ban oxygen you know it's so omnipresent it's so ubiquitous amongst us at the moment that it's impossible to ban so it will be interesting to see how social media can be used for information to get across and for information and crucial information to be shared and whether there will be a positive aspect of that in the sense that it appears that Putin is now losing the information war, and the other side of that is how you know Zelensky has played such a good social media game and how he has used social media really to really good effect to get his message across to to really speak to audiences absolutely everywhere in the world, you know people are sharing, you know, his videos sharing, you know, so many aspects of his communications. So commonly now so the information he's been using it to great effect. So, you know, we just have to have to wait and see how things play out in Russia in that sense how people managed to get that information across. But I suppose that the law of 15 years in prison for sharing this information quote unquote is going to obviously ensure that people are to fight and to pass on information or journalists are fighting to to read if I did see some videos in Moscow of police not arrested people protest but randomly checking people's phones to have a look and see what they were sharing. So it's a complete police state and that's really difficult whereas, like as Mary said in contrast Zelensky talking to the world with his 15 second or one minute videos and also the image that the Ukrainian army is portraying or creating or curating I should say of when they when they take a prisoner of war, they're showing videos of them being fed calling their mothers, the conversation with the mother is I'm not in Crimea, I'm not training, I'm in Kiev, or, you know, and, and then the world can see that the Russian soldiers were, you know, lied to by Putin and that they don't want to be in the middle of this armed conflict and that they on the opposite side Ukrainians are far from Nazis but actually engaging the proper way they should be when it comes to Geneva Convention the protection protection of prisoners of war so it's really showing the two contrasting sides the aggressor and then the innocent country that's defending liberty and Europe. And there's some remarkable examples emerging as well I think of innovative ways to get information across you know we've seen them that there's people writing reviews on restaurants in Russia, you know, we that are not reviews they're actually descriptions of what's happening and equally that I've seen recently saw a tick tock of a woman showing how to use an abandoned tank, and you know, in the Ukraine so these are really, you know, there's so many aspects of this conflict that are deeply different but the lens keys curation of his relationship with the media is particularly interesting touches on a broader point I wanted to get your views on around, you know, we often talk about the use communication problem, but every now and again when a really large is significant figurehead comes along it's much easier to draw attention. And to whatever issue it is that they spearhead and Zelensky seems to be doing that extremely in extremely savvy way. And do you think that's made a difference to how people are engaging with this. I'd say so yeah I mean that week, when the EU or to the invasion of Tuesday that Thursday was the big meeting about the sanctions and Zelensky appeared to the 27 appeal to them to have the strongest sanctions ever as I said, I don't know when I'm going to see you again or if I am. And actually, I spoke to several sources after that they sounds just perfect but they had priced in is where it's someone used to me that Zelensky may not make a pass the weekend. That weekend because you know he is number one on the hit list or kill list from the US and decided to stay and fight and refused. And a ride as he called it from the US he said I don't want to ride I want tanks basically an arm arms. And so he deserves less of the value that he's getting because of the way he is leading the fight. And he's leading it for the greater good and he and he says that all the time we're Europeans. We've proven that we're Europeans and it's also about him becoming a fully fetched member of the European Union, and the price we're paying we will pay for membership of the EU is the blood of our people. All of that strikes a chord with everybody because it does hark back to the creation of the European Union itself but also that people can't help with feel. Well, you know he's doing it for the greater good of humanity and for democracy. I have a question from the audience here it's shifting a little bit focus and it's from Karen hearty in the can Fitzgerald. So Karen asked, we've seen very concerning attempts to undermine public service broadcasting in the UK recently with bbc's funding placed in serious jeopardy. Do you states need to take specific steps to protect public service journalism. Yeah, I think so definitely I think it's, it's definitely something that, you know, has to be stood up for I think people need to realize the relevance and the importance of public service broadcasting at this time. And yeah, I mean, I mean, means and ways are being examined as to how, you know, the funding models can work and that's something that's being examined from any countries across Europe. And it's not, you know, it's probably too big of a question to get into right now. But I think definitely, you know, the sort of the public requirement and the importance of public service broadcasting has never been as relevant to the house now. Which is true but if you have a kind of you have a government that doesn't want public service broadcasting the way that it should be them we're in trouble, like I said, hungry Poland Slovenia, those countries they don't want independent journalism because that means that they have they come under a spotlight and their corruption, misuse of funds breaches of rule of law, you know their abuse against migrants against the LGBT community. That's found out for what it is. And so it's very difficult for the EU to intervene in that way because these countries are ones that will say that there's an overreach from Brussels. They use the same sort of them tactics and rhetoric that we see still in the UK Brussels is this you know boogeyman Brussels is only actually what the 27 member states make it to be every country has a deciding vote on the most fundamental issue so there's no such thing as Brussels per se. And the only way you can really intervene mean they have the like we mentioned that the Commission's directive on media freedom but it's, it's very hard to implement that stuff the only way you can maybe look at it is about is around the area of competition within the single market that there has to be enough competition and that countries can't allow monopolies exist or prevail and so this so there could be ways around around that but it's very very difficult. And even with this new regulation that we have in relation to rule of law that only deals with you funding rather than the media so it's, it's very difficult when you're coming up against the likes of those governments but maybe we're learning maybe we'll see at the end of this that we can't actually let that backsliding continue because look what happens when you ignore for so long which is what we did with Putin. I mean just isn't well in this this idea you know that well Brussels is what it is in terms of who's in power and across member states but around this Brussels the boogeyman idea you know national politicians do that whether they're in the authoritarian in liberal democracy or actually in a democracy and Mary how has it been for you you know when you're putting together European Parliament reports as opposed to when you're reporting on an EU council. There's sort of difference in terms of what you're hearing from MEPs in Strasbourg about a piece of EU legislation versus what an Irish politician might be saying about it at home like have you ever encountered a disconnect there. Well I think the, the whole question for MEPs Irish MEPs is just to get their position across and get policies that were there working on or get whatever they're doing across from the Irish media which is something that they tend to find very difficult. You know the European Parliament is supposed to be the sort of democratic counterbalance if you like to the other EU institutions. It's the only one in the sense that directly elected MEPs but I think people find it.  There are reasons for that I mean the, the system of voting there is quite complicated you know they have these sort of voting blocks that people can't see let's say a debate happening on a particular policy and then a vote at the end of it. Sometimes, you know the debate happens and the vote is a little bit further down. Possibly the sort of accountability element isn't very easily accessible for the European Parliament so for example let's say at the start of the vaccine procurement process. I'm just thinking off the top of my head Billy, Billy Keller her MEP was raising a lot of questions about what the Commission was doing. And Billy Keller did stand up in the European Parliament for his one minute to speak, but Urs Le Van der Leyen had sort of gone out the door by the time he was speaking you know so it doesn't have in the sense of what national governments have the ability to stand up and question and you know Q&A session, nor does it have something like let's say for example the PAC you know there's no sort of accessible way that people can see the European Parliament doing its job of holding the other institutions accountable, and maybe pushing them in the direction of certain policy and things like that that is the biggest kind of question I think for MEPs. Because it you know often comes across as maybe a, you know, a very high quality debating chamber, whereas, you know, it obviously is an overlap more than that and it's you know something I try and do when I'm doing European Parliament reports is to sort of, you know, get across, you know, the Parliament's exact role in this bigger policy that's coming to pass, for example, you know, in the vaccine, the vaccine pass, the COVID pass system in the procurement process for the vaccines, it's like the, you know, the decision a few weeks ago just in the European part, you know, to cut the funding for countries in breach of rule of law. So, yeah, that's just something you try and get across the role of the people you directly elect to the European Parliament what they're trying to achieve for you out there. Thank you. And for me, we're coming up to two o'clock actually so am I just giving this was our International Women's Day event and the conversation progressed as it did given you know events in the context which is very valuable and thank you very much for the time we've covered on that might just come to some of our general quality questions and you mentioned there of course, Ursula von der Leyen first female President of the European Commission, the gender equal College of Commissures now for the first time ever to what extent and of course women leading the European Parliament and the ECB at the moment to what extent to the two of you have a sense that, you know, these figurehead politicians being women, you know, there being more and more women in these key decision making and positions across the EU. Does that have a greater impact on gender equality issues being to the for then policy based initiatives like the use gender equality action plan. And does it make a difference does it shift the dial. I think it has to because like even if you look at what's happening in Poland with relation to the abortion legislation. You know that that that the government there is trying is rolling black back and it's actually just been pretty horrific they've been, I think, for situations very, very similar to Savita Halopan ever in the last few months where women and have gone into hospital, hemorrhaging or miscarrying and cause sepsis because they they refuse to remove the pregnancy even though it was it was going to be a miscarriage that was going to be the case. And so the legislation there is completely rolled back when it comes to women's rights. And so, naturally, this is a women's issue and so women obviously if you're in a position of power, you're conscious of it, maybe if you've had a baby or you've had an abortion or whatever it is. So I think it's taken for granted. And then, you know, women who've come through the ranks of politics will have will have inevitably experienced sexism and have and found it difficult at some point and found just something that they probably felt along the way with something they need to change not all women of course, but so naturally it does. It's almost like that it should be taken for granted that it's something they tried to pursue along with everything else because it's equality anyway. And like even Roberta Metzola who's the president of the European Parliament now she has voted against emotion introduced before which would say that abortion was a human right, but she said, you know, her own position is what it is, but she will always she will forge the position of the European Parliament which was to support that motion so she understands the nuances around these things which I think is really great because she said it's been like me on marking when he voted in favour of repeating the 8th amendment. His own personal view is, you know, not pro-choice but understanding legislation was important. So when you have people like that in power it does eventually do that and Ursula von der Leyen being very, she was very sure about ensuring there was power, gender parity. She remembered her own thing. Do you remember about a year ago, sofa gate in Ankara when she was meeting Erdogan, the president of Turkey, and Charles Michel, the president of the European Council and her were both on a visit, and she was basically putting a sofa and then two men sat on big chairs and that was humiliating for her and she talked about it emotionally about humility and how she was left alone and she was. And it was actually quite despicable reflex by Charles Michel because if you look at the video, he he he realizes the situation and he steps forward with haste to ensure he gets a chair so he's not undermined without thinking I'll hold on a minute. This is going to make us a look stupid divide us and also we're going to undermine my, my female counterpart or whatever partner in in the commission. So, so yeah, and so I think on that basis, you know, everybody recognizes when those things happen that they can't happen any longer and we are like, even I always think about like five 10 years ago that in Ireland on the radio or the TV, it would be completely normal to see four men on a panel discussing often women's rights, you know, abortion or the eighth amendment, whatever it was, you would never see that anymore. In fact, it would just be laughable to see that on RTE. You know, they just no producer would do that was before that would no producer question it so I think things have changed now to, and you look back at the way things were and you go how did we allow that that's insane. So, I am kind of optimistic in that regard that those sort of ways are just intolerable. Yeah, and I think just shown a mentions that thinking back to when I was a younger journalist working in newspapers. Anytime I appeared in the panel I was usually just, you know, three men and then you know I was the only woman at the end. As shown is that that just doesn't happen anymore but I think it was really great to see just a couple of weeks ago the European Parliament the last sitting they had in Strasbourg, or Slavonderline, Roberta Mazzola and Christine Lagarde, three of them were there discussing the discussing the euro discussing inflation and they were the three big figureheads in the parliament so if nothing else, if the policies aren't even there that in itself is a really important image and the difference between covering the European Parliament and covering the doll for example is in the European Parliament report it's very normal to have, you know, a news report TV package or whatever it is a discussion that is more women than men, whereas when you're covering something in the doll, it's very, you know, often not the case and just in terms of policies I think we could look at for example, the difference between the doll and the Shannon at the moment there is far greater female representation in the Shannon and it's really coming across in terms of the policies that the Shannon is putting across you know they just have motions recently on reproductive leave on, you know, funding paid IVF treatment, all those sort of things coming out of the Shannon which didn't get you know pursued in the doll, you know and haven't so and then they're feeding into the discussions. So I think for that reason, the, you know, the greater participation of women the better but you know the European Parliament I think has around just 39% female representation is higher than the national, the average for the national parliament, but it's still obviously a long way off total parity. Yeah, unfortunately. We will get there. If Ireland could get to 39% soon enough that would already be a step forward. We'll take a long time. And before we finish up I have a question in here now from Francis Jacob, and which is how can the Irish media build on public interest and concern on the EU response to COVID and the Ukrainian crisis, and to ensure future interest in the debates in Ireland and on the future of Ireland's role in the EU.  Mary, I think once people start paying more attention to decisions being taken at the level and how they impact so directly on their lives. So I think that the COVID path was a very sort of tangible thing that was, you know, decided at an EU level and this is, you know, a policy that you can see very apparent in your everyday life. And I think once people start seeing that, you know, in some ways, you know, it opens doors in some ways to looking at the EU differently. And I think, you know, beyond that it's only our job to report what's important and what's necessary, and it's up to institutions, you know, themselves to make themselves relevant and if something is relevant or important or matters to the public then it will be reported on. And so I might just adapt the question a little bit for you just in regards to, you know, with the European pan-European network, international network. And to what extent is there an appetite in each member state for news from other member states rather than just from Brussels. So, you know, thinking of the women you were talking about in Poland, you know, some of us have heard about that here but might not be on the sixth one, right? The same, you know, tragic murder of Ashley Murphy, you know, to what extent would that be reported on in other member states? You know, is there a solidarity between audiences? Is that developing? Is it growing? You know, how do you seek to get those stories that matter from one country to another country's audience? Well, Roberta Mazzola spoke about Ashley Murphy and her inauguration speech about women who didn't get the opportunity to strive but who were amazing in the life that they had. Her and other journalists who had been murdered, including Daphne Caroni-Galicia. And obviously Brexit features a lot in all other countries. And it's been remarkable how much interest there is in German media, in Spanish media, in French media about the Northern Irish border, the backstop. I mean, the all-island economy. It's incredible because I go to all of these briefings here, the Brexit briefings and the questions are just incredibly well informed. And they're just as any Irish journalist is informed, even a journalist in Belfast is informed. The level of detail they go into, whether it's SPS checks. I mean, so that exists a lot. I think more so actually in European countries than in Ireland, if I'm honest. We don't talk in Ireland about what's happening in Hungary and Poland. And we will do soon probably because we're a net contributor to the EU budget. So if there's misuse of funds in those countries, which it's why the acknowledge is particularly happening in Hungary, then that's Irish taxpayers money as well. And me and Mark has actually been quite strong about this of late before the Irish government really stepped outside this. But he said what Poland is doing is a slap in the face for all EU of the country. So that was a very strong statement to say to another member say on the day of new council meeting when he was going to meet the Prime Minister of Poland, you know, hours later after saying that. So I already just getting a bit more involved in it. And I think the other issue is that the EU has made some incredible unprecedented moves towards further fiscal integration because of the 750 billion Euro EU fund, which was totally unprecedented. That couldn't have happened.  So, and then with that, the EU procurement plan for COVID vaccines was successful. I'll be at a slow start that there's even there was even conversation by doing that for energy that the EU buys, you know, energy because of the other prices and not all member states wanted that. So, and so that so so these things are directly impacting people's lives and the COVID search is a great example as well because there was an EU wide program with then 50 odd countries adopted it because of the EU so it's showing the sort of so called Brussels effect. And that's why I think that more and more because that integration interdependence and the Irish media will have to start picking up as to what's happening in Brussels because it does. It's much more directly affecting it's not just, you know, Brussels bureaucrats coming up with these sort of other proposals they're actually much more tangible. Mary, do you want to come back on that before we wrap up. I think the past number of years has definitely seen, you know, a lot more coverage of you there is decisions being made, even the European Parliament. What's happening there I think is getting increased coverage, particularly through to COVID and through Brexit. And I think that's something that's only going to continue now. I was struck to see the special sitting of the European Parliament. What was what day was it. I went to earth live underline address the Parliament. You know, in response to what's happening in Ukraine and that was streamed live on the on our team is now was also streamed live on sky news and I was watching going wow like the European Parliament is live on on sky that's definitely something that you wouldn't really have seen ever before. It was definitely and to a British audience. So I think it's definitely something that people are what keeping a close closer eye on and I think that might remain for some time. And it's actually interesting that point Mary made there particularly on sky because the UK is obviously left the EU but if only there was that level of coverage and understanding before the Brexit referendum then people would have been more conscious of because I covered the UK in Bolton and Scotland and all and any person that was voting out, you know, to leave it had nothing directly to do with Brussels to do with, you know, local council decisions or you know, you know, really, really things that were just jumbled because of then of course we have this propaganda from Farage and so on. So actually I think it is important to critique the EU in the way in the ways that should be criticized and let's face it there are so many ways to be particularly at the start of the pandemic and so on. And then and then also to understand how it does impact your life and how you can positively shape it by sending the right people to Brussels, and or just having you during that your government is accountable for the decisions it makes at a Brussels level. Thanks very much now I'm going to draw this to a close because we've gone a little bit over but I want to thank you both very much for this discussion and it's been very wide ranging and and equally also then for the role you both play as shown as a just some up there in providing that impartial information and to to the viewers of both in Ireland and and across Europe. So thank you very much for joining us this recording will be available on our YouTube channel. And with that will close today's event and wishing you all a very happy International Women's Day tomorrow. Thanks. Thank you.


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Hello friends, welcome back to another episode here on the channel. I hope you're all doing great and for anyone new to the channel, my name is Lee, also known as Osiris. In today's episode, we're going to be covering all of the news updates regarding a brand new Max rate event happening over this coming weekend. So as it is the Easter weekend, the Pokemon company have introduced a brand new event in conjunction with Easter and created an Easter event. If we hop over to our trusty source at Cereby, we can take a look at some of the details before jumping into the specifics of the den you can see here. We've got the Easter event. It is calling that it will be running from today as of recording this video on the 2nd of April until April of the 4th. So as always, we have a few days to kind of take advantage of this vent and maybe catch a few of the price Pokemon that will be a popping up within it. So as you can see, the early April special Max rate event features a rabbit themed Pokemon as well as a chance of getting a shiny Zoomeril, which is one of my all time favorite shiny Pokemon that we've got access to in the entire Pokemon universe, at least in Sword and Shield. So if we click over to the event details, let me just squig a list to the side so we can actually take a look at the Pokemon. You can see here just to recap before we get into anything it is running from today, the 2nd of April and will run till Sunday, the 4th of April. So you've got, like I say, a few days to take advantage of this event. We're starting off with the one star rates and remember the star rating with these dens. If you want to access the higher rate rated dens, you're going to need more gym badges. So to access the five star rates, you're going to need to have got all the gym badges lower down or less gym badges. You've got the lower star rate you can you can access. So you'll still be able to access the dens in this event, but to get the real juice of the event, you're going to need to complete all your gym badges. But by now, I'm pretty sure most of you have done. We'll start off with the one star rates. You're going to get Maril, Binari and Bonelby. Well, that was a bit of a mouthful. So anyway, all the little bunnies to start off with. No special items here. You've got 20% chance on the Maril, 15% on the other Maril, 20%, 15, 15, 15 across the board. So you can see that's kind of a starting off. So you've got pretty good chances of the one star rates if you can access those. And then we move on to the two star rates. It's going to be Izumaril, Lowpony and Diggersby. Pretty much similar spawn rates throughout. No special items that I'm kind of seeing for this event, which is a little bit of a shame. We could have done something there, like maybe Lucky Egg as well. Chance of getting one of those. Three star rates. We'll move on exactly the same spread of Pokemon. We've got Izumaril, Lowpony and Diggersby. And then we move on to the four star rates. Again, no special items. You're just getting more items for these higher ranked raid dens and you've got Izumaril, Lowpony and Diggersby again, all the bunnies. And then we come on, like I say, to the juice, to the five star rates. This is where all the actions happen. And these are the dens that you're going to want to try and concentrate on and get a hold of this weekend. So you're starting off with a 23% chance to get your regular Izumaril. Lots of items here. Again, nothing like super exclusive. Then we've got 20% chance for the Lowpony. 5% chance for this other Lowpony. Is there any variation here? Doesn't look like there are. That's a little strange. But anyway, and then we've got 25% chance for a Diggersby spawning and then 25% chance of a G-Max Cinderace spawning, which when I initially saw it, I thought, brilliant, you've got two things going on this weekend. This is great, but there is a huge drawback to this G-Max Cinderace. You are not going to be able to catch it. So it is a huge tease and a little bit, well, not a little bit, very disappointing because G-Max Cinderace is a very cool Pokémon. Really good opportunity for people to actually get this. But unfortunately, you're not going to be able to catch this Pokémon through this event this weekend. You can only encounter it and defeat it. And you're not getting really any special items for doing this either.  And by the way, you can't have it. But don't be too sad because we do have something else in this den. Obviously, you can see it on the screen right now. I haven't covered it yet, but we're going to talk about it. And that is the Square Shiny Zoomerill that you're going to have the opportunity to catch this weekend. 2% chance spawn rate as normal with these kind of special events that are popping up every so often. Guaranteed Square Shiny, which is amazing. And it is one of the best shinies that we've got access to, you know? I am so excited for this. It's definitely an event I will be taking full advantage of. Zoomerill is one of my favorite Pokémon anyway. And to have it as a Shiny Square Shiny have the opportunity to get it. It's definitely something I will be taking advantage of. Again, there's no special items with it. Really kind of just the regular stuff that you would get with these event dens and sword and shield are exactly the same. So you're going to get the same Pokémon in each star rating as you would in Pokémon Sword as in Pokémon Shield. So it doesn't matter which variation of the game you do have. So just to recap before we hop over any further, it is running from April the 2nd. Like I say, today of recording this, whenever you're watching it, hopefully you're watching this over this period until Sunday the 4th. So over the Easter weekend is when it will be running. Okay, now covered all the details here. I want to hop back into the game, turn the lights on. What you want to do is get a red beam. You really want to preferably drop a wishing piece because that's that's probably the best way you're going to have to manipulate the den. If you want to do the Datescape glitch, you're going to want to be able to do that. So you can only do it with a wishing piece. You can't do it with just a randomly spawned den that's just appeared in the Wild Area Crown Tundra or the Isle of Armour. So you can do with any den anywhere, but it has to be a red beam and really to do the Datescape glitch, you're going to need to have dropped a wishing piece first. So once you've got your event den, what you want to do is the first thing is to update your Wild Area News.  It will connect to the Internet. It will update all of the dens, like I say, in the Galar Region, Crown Tundra and the Isle of Armour. Get that message and then the dens are done. And then when you come into the den, it should have updated to the event, the event that's running, of course. Now I have got a five-star zoomerall here because this is a second take of today's video because of the audio issues that I had the first time around. I know this isn't a shiny zoomerall. So what I want to do is try and find another five-star zoomerall. So I've saved in front of it, of course, so I can reset, come back to this point in the game. What you want to do is invite others just to show you new people out there that don't know about this. Once it's started searching, hit your Home Menu, come down to System Settings, come down to System, come down to Date and Time. Make sure you synchronize, clock for the Internet is set to Off, and then you want to come down to Date and Time. Knock your date forward one day and hit OK. Home Menu, back into the game, quit out of the den, and that will trick the game into thinking 24 hours have passed. It will change the den, the seed, and the Pokemon in there will change as well. As you can notice, you're going to gain 2,000 watts so the den has reset. And we've got a three-star zoomerall. So that's not the one we want. So you want to just keep continually repeating this process until you hit that five-star zoomerall if you're hunting for the zoomerall, of course.  And then go in and check it. If it's not shiny, reset the game, come back into it and try again by just going through the DataScape glitch until you come across your next five-star zoomerall. Check that. Obviously save in front of it every time before you do check it. So you can just reset and come back and kind of carry on so you're not wasting wishing pieces. So that is the method to kind of shiny hunting it. Don't worry, it's not anything that's going to get you bad. It's not legal. It's not anything that's bad. It's just a way for you to actually hunt these shinies and have an opportunity to get them because kind of coming across them in the wild area and just random dens that are spawning, 2% spawn rate, it's going to take a long time for you to do that. And obviously the dens only update every 24 hours. So it will take a long time. The chances of you getting it aren't very good. The other way to do it is look for people hosting raids online. A lot of people host these raids online and they will have the shiny potentially. So you can maybe hop in, join those raids and grab one of those if you're lucky. Other way to do it is join our Discord group because I'm sure we've got a lot of fine people that will be hosting the shiny den over this weekend. Come and join. The link is down in the description. It's a great community over there. It would be great to have you over there. So as you can see, I've saved in front of the den. I've got my next five-star zoomerall. What we're going to do is just hop in and see if it is the shiny one. I'm praying that it is. I've come across one, but the chances are 2% very slim. Be amazing for the video if it was. Please, come on. No, it's not. It's not. No. I'm sad. I really do love like shiny zoomerall. I think it's like literally one of the best shiny Pokemon ever. I know I've said that a few times through this video, but I can't say it enough. Anyway, that about wraps it up for today's kind of update. Obviously, we will have an update later on. Well, after this weekend, I would imagine probably Monday, we're going to get the April max rate events. We had a magic cop event for April Fools yesterday, where we would normally have the April events kind of kicking off, but they're probably putting this off after this event. So look out for that on Monday and I will do a full video on what we're going to get for April as in the new max rate events that will be going forward. Hopefully you get something spicy. It'd be nice if they mixed things up a little bit from previous events that we've had, but we'll have to see what happens. As always, I will be covering the updates. I was a bit sad that I couldn't cover the magic cop yesterday just with working things like that. I wasn't able to do any content for that, but I am able to do this one for this weekend. So I hope you find it useful. And as always, if you do catch the shiny zoomerall, please let me know down in the comment section below. I will won't be super jealous because it is obviously one of my favorite shiny Pokemon and also be very happy for you because obviously having that added to the collection is always a nice thing to have, but I'm going to continue hunting on for this one. And if you are, good luck, have patience, and you will eventually get it, but I'm going to wrap things up there. Have a great Easter weekend. If you're celebrating Easter, if you're not celebrating Easter, then have a great weekend anyway. Take care of yourselves and I'll catch you all for another episode on the channel very soon. So until then, take care of yourselves and bye bye.


Okay, Bola Buddies, in this video I am going to unbox a box full of jewelry that I picked up from Donatella Bodolino. I paid $40 for this box of jewelry. I'm going to show it to you. After I was finished, I contacted Moonstone Mamas and she is going to tell us about some of the amazing pieces that I found in this box. I'm super excited to share this with you guys and I hope you enjoy the show. I did bring some clips of Moonstone Mamas to bring some educational value to the video and help you guys learn. Help me learn. She's fantastic. Definitely go sub to her and let's get this jewelry unboxed. Hey Bola Buddies, thanks for watching. Alright, let's get started. Okay, I forgot to mention it is a mystery box. So what happened was I bought a Dibble box from her auction that I paid $110 for and I said, hey, just round it up to $150 and send me a mystery box of jewelry for $40. So check out Donatella Bodolino's auctions. They are fantastic. Great way to source for resellers and let's get started. Okay, Bola Buddies, let's open up this box. So this is a jewelry box that I got from Donatella Bodolino. I purchased a Dibble box from her for $110 and I asked her to throw in $40 worth of jewelry to make my total invoice $150 even and I did have free shipping on that and I just did another video showing you what I got in the Dibble box. I believe I'm going to do this as a separate video. Otherwise, it's just going to be like way too long. So here is my box of jewelry. I'm thinking maybe I'll just dump it so I don't have the big box in the way. So this is a $40 mystery box of jewelry. All right, so right off the bat, I see some bangle bracelets. I think I'm going to get my bake light, not my bake light. Yes, my bake light tester. It's called Semicrome and maybe test some of these. This one says Atlantis on the inside. I'm guessing they're probably not, but I feel like if I don't test them, I might regret it. This is just a wood bangle. OK, so I'm trying to stand behind my thing here. Right off the bat, we have this faux pearl choker, which would be really cute for like prom or something. So I'll definitely list that some really nice clean condition ready to go. That'll be easy. This is just I think these beads are plastic. Well, maybe they're glass. I'm not really sure. I'm so bad at that. So I'm going to send some pictures over to Moonstone Mamas. If you guys have not checked out her channel, definitely check it out. She's like my go to person when I'm doing jewelry. I send her pictures and she helps me out this piece. Odd and unusual items sell something like this, which is a huge massive inlay piece is reminiscent of a jewelry maker by the name of Lee Sands. Oftentimes, Lee Sands doesn't sign his items. And when he does, it's far and few between. So if I were to list this item, I would list this as Lee Sands type similar to Lee Sands, something along those lines. Look at that. So I'm going to send some pictures over her way. See what she says about some of this. I don't see any markings on this. It feels very cold. I think this is probably Mother of Pearl, I'm guessing. I don't know, but that is a stunning piece. So I might be able to get my money back just with that piece right there. I don't know what this is.  Those feel cold, so they could be glass. Bracelets are perfect for every person, shape or size. This bracelet happens to be all natural stones.  I don't know. Maybe I'll just send this video to Moonstone Mamas and then I can add to it. I forget what this is called. Is it Colossian or something like that? It is tied in between and it is, I believe, a vintage clasp. It opens like that. I don't feel anything raised. So I'm guessing maybe it's faux. I don't know. Another thing I will send over to Moonstone Mamas. And looking at a quality of an item, things to take note is if there's knots in between for this particular necklace, there is hand-painted floral design beads, knots in between and a beautiful gold-toned clasp, which also indicates vintage. I would list this anywhere between $35 and $42. You guys, definitely check her channel out if you have not already. This is like, I think these are called seed beads. And it's kind of kind of like a choker, I would say. And it's got some nice colors on it. Ready to list. I don't see any damage. I think it's a super cute piece. I'll definitely list that one. This style of necklace is often referred to as a bib style. It is a shorter, collared type necklace. And definitely would consider this one bohemian because of the colors and the pattern on the necklace separately. We've got some neon colors here. This is just like pure costume jewelry, but it's kind of a fun little piece. It's got the little tassel, so I don't know. I might list it. I'll probably list it just because it's fun. This looks like some sort of shell. That is a shell. This all feels very cheap up here, but it does appear to have a vintage clasp. So I'm not sure on that one. These beads just seem really, really cheap and they're smooth, so they're not pearls. Here's a couple more bangles. So I'll get my testing kit after I'm done here and we'll come back to that. Well, this is all tangled up. OK, so this I don't know what that is. It does feel a little cold. I don't know if those are wood. But I don't know if I'll I may bundle some of this. Not really sure. This little piece, I don't know. Can you guys see that? It's kind of like dirty in the inside, but it does have what appears to be a vintage class. These almost look silver in color. These beads up here. So I don't know. Let me see if I can turn. Hold on, I'm going to plug in my light. OK, I'm back. Does that help? So I those beads kind of look silver, don't they? I don't know. I don't know what this is. I don't know what this is made of. Interesting, right? And there's two more beads. Wonder if there's sorry. I thought I was in front of the camera. See them? It's kind of gunky in there. I wonder if I can get my loop and look at those closer. So this could be silver. In necklaces, when beads go from smaller to larger, it's called graduating beads. And if you're not certain if the stone is turquoise, put turquoise colored stone. I don't know. I guess I could try a magnet. Let's try a magnet. I have a magnet right here. All right, let's see. The magnet is not sticking. I mean, that doesn't necessarily mean it's silver, but it could be. I don't know what this is. It's just like another tassel style necklace. So maybe I don't know. It's not marked or anything. It's kind of fun. This feels cold. It's all tangled. It's all tangled up. OK, maybe. Yeah, it does. It feels kind of cold. Like this feels cold. Let me see if I can get it up close for you guys. Here's the clasp. It's not vintage. OK, this is kind of neat. They're like. I don't know. Are those mother of pearl? They're like leaves, but they're like buttons and they're weaved into this rope or whatever it is. The clasp is broken. So I don't know. That's definitely interesting. I think I can still sell it broken. Bohemian jewelry is always a bolo.  It also looks like there's some kind of macrame design behind on the actual jute itself where it'll lay on the neck. Definitely something to take note in when you're titling this item. This is just a costume piece. I don't see any markings on it. This is cold. It's what it sounds like. It's on this twine or rope. Let me see if I can get you a close up. I have no idea what this is. It's kind of shiny. It's I don't know what it is, but it's just like on a rope. This blue stone necklace is definitely fun. Anything that's tied in a different organic way, strung on jute or any other kind of natural material could be described and categorized as Bohemian jewelry. And that is a sought after item. I would list this necklace between 18 to $24 depending on the length. This has a vintage clasp, I think it's a barrel clasp. I don't know if all barrel clasps are vintage or not. Probably not. I probably don't know what I'm talking about. And then it's got the green beads. And then I think those are seed beads. I don't know. This little piece, it feels very lightweight. It seems kind of, I don't know. It is encased. It's not sticking. So I don't know. It's lightweight. Here's the beads again, a barrel clasp. I don't know, I just, it feels hollow. So it doesn't feel expensive to me, but maybe I'm missing something on there. This hand-painted pendant is extraordinary. It's stunning. Chances are it's vintage. It's made from ceramic. And you can tell by the unevenness that it is for sure hand painted. I would list this for probably $42 on my eBay. Yeah. I think I will send this video to Moonstone Mamas and then I will add to the end kind of what I find out from her. I don't know if this is glass, it's not vintage. It's got this little like leaf or something. This feels like plastic, but it's got like weird. I don't know. Can you guys see that? To me, that feels like nothing, but I could be wrong. This is probably just going to go in the trash. I don't know. It's got like some discoloration. I don't know what this is. It's got a hole in the top and then it, huh. I don't know. Do you guys know what that is? It's interesting. I don't know. I'll have to look into that one. This is another tassel style thing. It don't need trimmed up, but no big deal. I don't know what this hand means. I can probably look that up, but it's kind of a fun necklace. I'll probably list it. I just think it's faux whatever it is. Here's like a little tassel style necklace. It's not marked, just might be leather with some little beads on the end because it's interesting. This has a vintage clasp. Anyway, I'll just hold it up for you guys. Can you see that? Let me see what this is marked. I lost my loop. I lost my loop. Where did I put it? Oh, my gosh. Did I bury it? All right, I'm going to pause this and try to find my loop. Found it. It was underneath all that jewelry. OK, let's see what this says. It says silver, but it says silver. Can you guys see that? It's spelled out silver. So I don't think that even looks like silver. It's not sticking to the magnet. I don't know what these are. If it's some sort of nut, you see that? It's interesting for sure. Very interesting. Storyteller jewelry could be kind of difficult, depending on what culture it comes from to identify. You have some easy ones like Russian nesting dolls. They could be storyteller kind of jewelry or decor. In Native American culture, a lot of times it's representative, depending on the tribe, of a older woman with a lot of children on their lap, representing the person who keeps the stories of the tribe or the culture. This necklace right here sort of seems a little bit of Asian, judging by the way the straight and harsh lines on some of the houses that are carved behind the person. What this was a big flag to me that this could be a storyteller necklace is because there's a lot of older representative people on this necklace. There even, if you look more closely, can show what this culture does. There's some fish representative in this necklace. All in all, if you find any kind of ornamental or carved pieces, it's definitely a bolo, definitely big money, price high, because these are wonderful, exquisite pieces. Let's see, what else do we have? Here's a silver bead, just a bead. Let's get this piece. So this is just costume. It feels like plastic. It's not cold, but it's kind of got the iridescent little beads. It's kind of different, you know, and gives that illusion that it's just hanging because this is clear. I might list it, I don't know.  It's, I think it's just plastic, I don't know. OK, this, OK, I don't know. OK, well, it's two necklaces, and here are the barrow clasps. And they're slightly different in color. I think that I may try to sell this as a set just because they're the same, but different, pretty. I don't know what it is, but pretty. What's this little? OK, there's a clasp on one end. It says something. Let me get my loop. It says, don't, don't, don't, I get my loop to focus 14 K. So I don't know if I'm going to be able to get you guys to see this. Now, this is a teeny, tiny clasp, so gold weight, we're not talking much, but it is marked 14 K. Can you guys, I'm trying, trying to make it focus either way, you trust me. Now, it does have these little beads in between it. So I wonder if those are 14 K also again, not much gold weight, but still pretty cool if I found gold, right? I found gold. So I'm going to ask Minstone Mamas about that. And I'm wondering if these are pearls, like freshwater pearls, because they have a 14 karat gold clasp. So to me, I don't know, are pearls shaped like this? Maybe the real ones are. So this is a bracelet, and I guess I'll just sell it broken. If it's freshwater pearls and 14 karat gold, I'm pretty happy with that. So I don't know what it's worth. That'll be another question to ask Minstone Mamas. That necklace is freshwater pearls. And since the clasp is marked 14 karat gold, I would bet that also the little gold tone spacer beads are also gold. Definitely something to check out. You can either list this on Etsy in eBay and marked Needs New Clasp, or you can sell it as is, probably for about $24 to $32, depending off the spacer beads are gold. This bangle is tangled up in this necklace that I don't know. So this is, I believe, glass. And it's just on a little necklace. This just feels very cheap, just a... And just because it's cheap doesn't mean somebody won't want it. But here's another piece of glass. I may just sell, looks like another one here, these three glass pieces. Maybe I'll lot them. I don't know. I'm so... I get confused about how to list some of this stuff. This is just a three-strand necklace, beaded necklace. It is cold. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Trying to see if there's any markings. I don't, I don't see anything. But again, guys, I'm not looking super, super good. This looks, it's got a barrel clasp on it. I don't know if those are just like seed beads. They're kind of like a cream color. This is just a costume necklace. Probably won't mess with that. This is a little choker. It's got a C. I think the C is charming Charlie, maybe. I'm not 100 percent sure. But it's a choker style necklace and it hangs down like that. So that's kind of cute. I might be able to get a little bit of money out of that. This is just a tangled mess. It doesn't feel cold or anything. So I don't know. You guys can get a closer look there. So let me go get my Bakelite tester. This is a clasp. So this is a vintage clasp. I wonder if this came off of that leaf necklace. Because I'm betting it did. I bet it did. So I'll hang on to that. It's definitely a cool clasp, right? OK, let's test those bangles. So if you are interested in checking out Donatella Bottolino's selling events, you can find her on YouTube. And I have a link in the description of the video. She has these jewelry boxes that you can buy by emailing her and telling her how much you want to spend. Sometimes she auctions them off on her channel. Sometimes she'll have a buy it now video where she'll spread out a whole display and tell you how much it is. And then the first person who says they want it gets it. Sometimes she'll offer up bags of jewelry at a certain price and she'll have a limited number. So there's lots of ways you can get these jewelry boxes from Donatella. She also does this with plush and sunglasses and makeup. Her auctions and selling events are fantastic. And you can also find these items on T's channel, which is auctions, the number four U capital U auctions for you. And I'll try to pop it up here and Donatella and T work together and are on each other's channels. So they have fantastic reseller lots. So definitely go and check them out. Again, the links will be down in the description of the video. Be sure to check out the description of the video. Like, comment, share and subscribe. Thanks for watching.