Hello, and thank you for being here today, and for taking the time to understand the importance of prioritizing 5G security now. I want to thank the Linux Foundation and the sponsors of this event for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Brian Newman, and I'm a senior manager in Verizon's global network and technology team. A little about me, I'm based in Cary, North Carolina, and I've been in the telecommunications industry for over three decades. This has been on both the wire line and the wireless sides. I would love your feedback on today's presentation. Feel free to reach out to me through the contact information shown here. In my team at Verizon, through software, we have instantiated and simulated an entire 5G network. This has been from UE to Core, and we placed a user interface on top of it for modeling and analysis, just to understand how 5G may perform in real-world conditions across different frequency bands. To accomplish this, we've leveraged Linux, Kubernetes, and open-source software. All this to say that I have insight into the complexities of deploying 5G networks and the DevSecOps methodologies needed to do so. My session today will focus on prioritizing 5G security now and also as 5G evolves and develops over the next decade and beyond. Before I go further, however, I want to stress just how important securing 5G is. Let me shift your attention to the petroleum industry for just a moment. Despite advances in electric vehicles, 98% of the approximate 1.5 billion cars and trucks in the world today run on some form of petroleum, whether it's gas or diesel. You could say that oil is still the lifeblood of many economies around the world for transportation, manufacturing, logistics, and government services. It's what gives many of us the mobility to commute, to work, and to travel the world when we're not constrained by a pandemic, obviously. What happens, however, when the flow of oil and gas slows down? More specifically, what happens when a major gasoline pipeline is shut down due to ransomware? Well, you get situations as we face in the spring of 2021 across the U.S. East Coast. I live in one area where gasoline was unavailable for over a week. Businesses shut down, schools closed, and there was a lot of disruption. What does that have to do with 5G? Well, I believe, along with many others, that 5G will be the fuel, the gasoline, so to speak, of the next industrial revolution. Consider that 5G will be the connectivity that supports everything from industrial IOT to autonomous vehicles to gaming, virtual reality, and much more, including the burgeoning metaverse. If we don't act to secure 5G from the beginning and build insecurity every day in every release, then we could see breaches impacting multiple industries, stifling businesses, and consumers. We could also see ransomware being used to prevent access to connectivity, not just to the data. Before I go a step further, though, let me underscore the issue just a bit more. The Brookings Institution noted in a report from 2019 that how we secure 5G will have a decades-long impact, with the conversion to a mostly all-software network, cyber vulnerabilities have become the critical focus. Consider, too, that 5G networks are operational across the world. According to the Global Mobile Suppliers Association, there are now 443 network operators in 133 countries or territories investing in 5G mobile or 5G fixed wireless access or home broadband networks. So the challenge before us is how do we secure the most important network of the 21st century and all of the devices and applications that use it? Step one is understanding the model for security standards. Verizon has been building and improving its state-of-the-art 4G LTE network for years. Although we are and will be at the cutting edge of technological advances, our 5G security features are enabled by rigorous technical standards development processes that ensure high levels of data protection across future networks. Technical standards help everyone to be on the same page when it comes to how things will work. Technical systems become more stable, easier, and better for interoperability between different programs or devices, which also leads to greater security because an open and transparent process is involved in developing these technical standards. Verizon is participating in and influencing the 5G standards setting process through the third generation partner project, 3GPP. There are seven organizational partners in 3GPP which work on the standards and also many peripheral organizations that reference or provide input to 3GPP standards. 3GPP Technical Specification, TS33.501 specifies the security architecture for the 5G network. This document includes security features, mechanisms, and procedures for 5G new radio and the 5G core. It leverages security protocols or recommendations from organizations such as the Internet Engineering Task Force, IETF, and the Department of Commerce, NIST. Other organizations providing requirements or recommendations to 3GPP include the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance and the International Telecommunications Union. And additionally, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, Etsy, has provided security specifications for the network function, virtualization, and the multi-access edge compute, the MEC. Verizon was the first provider in 2018 to launch 5G, which we did by embracing security by design principles that included working with vendors on cutting-edge security features. For example, our early deployment used encryption techniques between customer devices and Verizon's Edge network, similar to those later articulated in 3GPP TS33.501, which is the security architecture and procedures for 5G system of release 15. Verizon continuously monitors and participates in the standards development process to identify and prioritize new security features to be implemented in its network. Prioritization of feature implementation is based upon a risk assessment process that evaluates the likelihood and impact of the threats a given security feature could mitigate. Verizon is evaluating security enhancements for 5G ran and core as we continue building today's 5G network and planning for future development. As a member of the working group for the Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council, Verizon advocates not just for security specifications, but for their use and adoption. For instance, 3GPP TS33.501 specifies mandatory support for several signaling protocols, user plain confidentiality, and M-suit encryption. However, these are optional for service providers to use. 5G carriers need to carefully weigh the risk of not choosing to implement optional security methods and for what use cases. Further, if encryption is not used, say for purposes of testing and validation between components or network functions, it's critical to ensure that this vulnerability does not leak into production once software is deployed. When it comes to 5G, it will be more software centric than any previous generation. There will be a heavy dependence on open source software. Verizon is proponent and active member of several open source initiatives for 5G. This includes ONAP, the Open Network Automation Platform Project, which is focused on automation and orchestration to transform the service delivery life cycle for network providers. Verizon is also a leader in Open RAN and is a member of the O-RAN Alliance. Through our experience with O-RAN and real-world experience, we have learned how to advance the virtualization of the Radio Access Network, the RAN. This effort produced technical specifications and referenced architecture, which conforms to and influences technical standards. It also promotes security through network segregation or slices and RAN vendor diversity. Security standards are relevant to both public 5G networks and private 5G networks. Verizon is very active in private 5G, what we call on-site 5G. On-site 5G is the next generation of private network, bringing small-cell wireless technology to large facilities such as manufacturing plants. It provides secure connectivity and tailored services for those facilities by the living reliable, on-site connections that are isolated from public networks. Along with seamless mobility, reliable connectivity, agility and performance, and ease of use, security is top of mind. Security is built in with seamless authorized user access and 24x7 network monitoring. When it comes to 5G, we need to make sure that our focus on security includes looking at 5G networks holistically. Access is connectivity. It could be via 4G LTE as part of NSA and Wi-Fi as part of interoperability. Many devices and many applications with different needs result in complexity. With demands for low latency, high capacity and high bandwidth, this complexity requires flexibility in security modeling and other approaches. RAN virtualization presents new challenges. With RAN virtualized and distributed across multiple physical sites, a focus on cybersecurity best practices is necessary to keep user access operational. Open RAN means keeping software versions current and monitoring for threats. One means to do this is with software composition analysis tools that identify open-source compliance risks. Cloud platforms for the 5G Core and the MEC is the next focus. The MEC or a multi-axis edge compute platform is the secret sauce to 5G. It supports a low latency as well as the network slicing needed for 5G innovation. The core is the heart of the network. Both are cloud-native infrastructures requiring secure perimeters. Cyber security frameworks and policies need to be in place with tightly controlled authorized access. Use cases with M5G also have to be considered when developing a comprehensive security policy. 5G is expected to be used for self-driving cars as well as drones. Already, private 5G on-site networks are operational and supporting demanding industrial applications. This is often in manufacturing where low latency and support for a large, high-quality of devices is needed. Security is paramount in these environments to prevent any disruption. Devices used in the 5G network are the next focus and it's more than smartphones. IoT devices will dominate 5G in the decade ahead with over 25 billion expected by 2027. Thus, IoT security is becoming more critical. The unique aspects of low power and high capacity require specialized security approaches to secure them and keep them from being compromised. The team needs to thoughtfully develop a comprehensive strategy toward managing security across the 5G network for senior security operations staff. This includes five steps. One, understanding the context of 5G network deployment and use cases. Know how your network is currently being used. The second step is assessing the security threats and potential exploitation. This means taking a preventative approach to security if you can and monitoring for anomalies that might suggest an attack or exploit. Third, architect solutions that can be implemented to minimize or make threats unlikely are very expensive to malicious actors. This may mean developing tools that rely heavily on artificial intelligence and machine learning to draw out patterns and to respond to them. Fourth, secure the resources to act on the vulnerability or threat. This may be through budget allocation and investment in new staff, better training or software tools and applications. Finally, act on the strategy. Take the steps necessary to secure the 5G network. Ensure the protection of all network assets and subscriber information on an ongoing proactive basis. Further, threats and vulnerabilities are constantly changing. Malicious actors are always looking for one more open port or insecure subroutine, so be agile to address new security challenges. Also, reassess your strategy on a routine basis. While I have highlighted some of the bigger considerations in securing 5G networks, I would like to take it a bit lower. In my particular area, I have seen the rapid development of virtualization with VNFs and CNFs. Much of this may be familiar to those with telecom knowledge. I think it's important, however, to provide some context. When I discuss VNFs and CNFs, I'm talking about virtual network functions and containerized network functions, respectively. In contrast to VNFs and CNFs, physical network functions or PNFs refer to legacy appliances still present in networks today. This diagram highlights the differences. Here we have monolithic devices such as a router or firewall existing on purpose-built hardware. Virtual network functions, VNFs, is a term used in computer networking to describe the idea of running different virtual appliances on top of existing standard hardware infrastructure rather than using dedicated hardware appliances. An example of a VNF would be a virtual firewall or virtual router. Virtualized network functions are often deployed as virtual machines on Linux KVM or VMware vSphere hypervisors running on commercial off-the-shelf hardware. Containerized network functions, CNFs, can be multiple virtualized instances of a single software package or service. These instances operate independently from any other containerized model, yet they will work together as if they were all one piece of hardware. CNFs provide better portability and agility for network operators that need to move or adjust their network capacity on demand quickly. Typical examples of containerized network functions include traditional packet processing, content delivery, and security tools like firewall, intrusion detection, and prevention systems, as well as web caching. CNFs are typically container images in Docker and managed through Kubernetes. Docker is a container engine or platform, and Kubernetes is a container or orchestrator for these platforms. Kubernetes coordinates and schedules container images. It supports upgrades and scaling without interrupting service and performs health monitoring so that it can seamlessly restart failed processes. Inside a 5G mobile network, you may find a combination of PNFs, VNFs, and CNFs. VNFs and CNFs live in cloud environments. Our preferred of these clouds is Far-Edge, Edge, and Core. The Far-Edge cloud environment is where the RAN functions would reside. The Edge cloud platform would be the MEC or Multi-Access Edge compute, and the Core cloud would have managed to support 5G core functions. In the RAN at the Far-Edge, the Geno-B would have both the DU and CU virtualized and functioning as VNFs. Inside the MEC and Core, CNFs are more likely deployed to support scalability and agility to grow, shrink, or respond to service interruption. The CNFs support vendor applications for a low latency in the MEC, as well as network slicing functionality. The Core houses many of the 5G functions necessary to authenticate, authorize, and control service to end users. These would be CNFs. As CNFs and VNFs are defined, coded, compiled, and deployed as software, cybersecurity best practices must mitigate impacts to VNFs and CNFs operations. These include zero trust, continually authenticating and authorizing interactions between assets before granting access. It includes hardening assets and the use of multi-factor authentication. It also means encrypting and securing communication between all network functions. Integrity, assessment of vendor security practices and security programs, and running security scans internally. Visibility, having complete visibility across the infrastructure to identify all assets and continuously monitoring asset security logs and anomalous behavior or communications patterns that reveal potential risks. Segmentation, software-defined segmentation to create logical groups of assets that restrict communication flows between them. Threat protection, defensive security controls along with continual monitoring. It means having a centralized security operations center with AI and ML tools. Data protection and privacy practices to ensure that the 5G network data remains secure and policies for protecting sensitive information exist. Beyond these, however, VNFs and especially CNFs require additional security. In using VNFs, additional security considerations exist. Let's take this diagram and work from the bottom up for VNFs. First, the hardware needs to be secure. This hardware could be a blade or server. To secure this, the root of trust function, a set of hardware and software security modules, should be enabled on the server. Roots of trust is a set of functions that is always trusted by the computer's operating system. Next, at the hypervisor layer, vulnerabilities present there or in the NFVI can allow an attacker to take advantage of the system and undermine confidentiality, integrity, and availability. One solution is the secure boot system that provides a form of trust for the underlying computing resources. It ensures that they have not been tampered with. In the Mano layer, attackers may try to eavesdrop or modify the traffic that passes between the VNFs and the Mano. One way to safeguard against such attacks is by hardening nodes in both the network functions' virtualization space and also limiting access control within components themselves. Next, the software-defined networks are at risk from two types of attacks. Denial of service and man in the middle. Solutions like dividing physical networks into logical ones could be a countermeasure for denial of service, as SSH-TLS security would help prevent man in the middle attacks. A VNF could be a potential target of an attack. VNFs are often provided by a vendor and not built internally. Security scans should be conducted as well as penetration testing. Extensive software validation is needed too. When it comes to CNF security, we need to mitigate threats within the container and the Kubernetes cluster. In the CNF, the following steps should be taken. Thoroughly verify container functions and content. This means inspection and testing. Know what your CNF is doing and what it should do and run security scans. Again, review what is in your container and understand what it is supposed to do. There are both commercial and open-source container security tools which can help. Control root access and consider removing it. Containers are commonly built with root access by default. This could put the network at risk. Next, review container runtimes and runtime configurations. Runtimes launch and manage containers and may contain security gaps. Access may be broad to host devices and directories. Limit that or remove it if possible. Implement DevSecOps. Follow a DevSecOps methodology where continuous security is the focus and review and approval is needed prior to production deployment. As for the Kubernetes cluster, key actions you should take for security include Control access to the Kubernetes API. Limit who can access the cluster and the actions they can perform. As highlighted previously, the use of transport layer security or TLS should be a real requirement between all APIs in the cluster. Control capabilities of Oracle or a user at runtime. Limit resource usage and control the privileges that containers have. Restrict network access. Network policies allow pod-to-pod communication within a namespace, but the user has to create them. Protect cluster components from compromise. First, you can do this by restricting access to SCD backend. SCD is a consistent and highly available key value store used in Kubernetes for backup of the cluster data. Second, enable logging and rotate infrastructure credentials frequently. Also use encryption at rest within Kubernetes. In this discussion, you have a good understanding now of how seriously Verizon takes 5G security. This is through active participation in standard development and open source initiatives. We also take security seriously by looking holistically at our 5G network and then drilling down to improve cybersecurity when it comes to managing network virtualization. The threats never stop, so we know too that we can never rest. You could classify it as an infinite game, one that could have serious repercussions if the bad guys win. If you'd like to learn more about Verizon's focus on security, especially 5G security, please take a moment to access the resources available in the links shown. Thank you for your time and attention today. Let's all make 5G security a top priority.


Please Hi, I'm Monique and this is Peter and we thought it might be a good idea to join together for the educational meeting And talk a bit about what's going on in the area of education. So I'm gonna talk a bit about what I've been doing I think two years ago. I started B3D 101 A website with tutorials for young students. I'm not allowed to call them kids anymore. H10 plus and Basically it came from the idea that Currently in the Netherlands. There is a lot of intention for teaching kids technology programming and a lot of these initiatives Were asking me hey Monique Do you have something with blender because all the kids are asking for blender and my first thing was why are these kids? asking for blender their 10 11 12 Well, it seems that they are so I Created my first tutorial put it online and more people started asking hey, can I we want them as well? That's why I said, okay. I'm not gonna email it around. I'm gonna put it on a website online and That worked so many people said hey, this is cool. Do you have more? It's like do I have more? And that's basically when I send an email out to the BF education me emailing list that's how I met Peter who said hey, we're doing the same in the UK and I got somebody in Taiwan Responsing like hey, I'm doing the same in Taiwan and sort of a community started with people creating tutorials Peter from Everybody knows Peter from Blende Kurska also joined so we started forming a community creating tutorials for young students age 10 plus and I Don't know time is doing this this this to me. So I was like I have no idea what he's doing. Okay And this is basically how we started so I started doing code events last year and Basically asking the kids. Okay.  Well, what am I saying? You're nine. I got kids from eight years old It's like Blender. It's too difficult for you No Okay, I want to learn I was like, okay. Okay. Fine. So I asked the kids How did you come to Blender? So either they had a father or a mother that was doing Blender and they got motivated and wanted to learn Blender so that they could be better than their parents and That was one reason the other reason and strangely Most of them were coming from the gaming communities It seems that Blender is very popular in gaming communities, especially unity communities and Blender is mentioned a lot So many kids picked up Blender from their gaming communities and wanted to learn Blender and Once they've learned Blender they did some of our tutorials, especially the girls They came back. Oh, this is cool because I used to be nobody in my community and now I'm so cool in my community This is really cool So this kind of has been happening in the Netherlands. So last year I did a lot of tutorials and I said, okay, we need to go more into schools But even in the Netherlands we have a lot of bureaucracy a lot of things happening So how do you get into the Dutch schools? Well, you kind of don't and The only way I found to get into the Dutch schools if I can get the crazy Computer science teachers who are also crazy about Blender and 3d who are really willing to teach this and there are some of them So I met these teachers at a conference and they said, okay, we need to do this So what I've been doing this year basically Working on more tutorials because that's the next thing they ask. I want more tutorials. I want to do VR It's like VR. Come on. Yes. We want to do virtual reality. Yes. We want to do a bit more advanced modeling So they've been asking for those kind of things. We've been working on a few of those tutorials Attended a few of those teachers conferences where we met those teachers and They're really crazy and they're starting to do Blender at their schools Challenged I I really came up there. I ran into Doing this I had a lot of teachers asking me how do I sell this to my school? I Need the hours for this. I need a budget for this. Do you have? something that can tell me how I can get the budget and the hours for my school and This is something. I'm not sure what your experiences are But this is something I really ran into that teacher asking me how they could sell Doing Blender tutorials at their school all day. They want to they do see the necessity of it But it's apparently difficult to sell it to ahead of the school that this is important for kids As long as you can show that There is a lot of opportunity in the market. Yeah, there is a market gap So any school will take it up if there is a market gap So there needs to be analysis and a report which should be supporting that and then one can take it to the school saying okay There's a major market gap. Yeah, and if the skills are provided to the students, they will get the job easily Yeah, and that's that's the way we can sell it. It's true and To be honest, this is an ongoing discussion in the Netherlands Where the kids should have technical skills, etc. And this is currently a Discussion that's going on Well, we also picked up for B3 101 Is translation so last year we started with Dutch and English and this year we also have Latin Spanish and Portuguese Yes, Latin Spanish South America and We also have German And we see quite some requests coming from in the Portuguese countries and from Spanish speakers as well And in Germany also So we worked on making the tutorials available multiple languages so that they become available for kids young students in those In different countries where English is not the mother tongue for instance for Dutch kids One of the biggest complaint I had is they want to know blender they go online everything is in English and They can't understand what's being being told. It's being explained there So having it in their own language at least reduces the language barrier in this sense One thing we also talked about Last year was the road map We had a blender B3 one meeting here and we talked about a road map and I Think the discussion went in all directions And we're still discussing who the good roadmap is. This is something that schools are looking into Like I said, we started with events and now we're trying to move more into schools So you could see schools asking back. Okay. What is the roadmap? I'm currently working with a coda class Sorry, I can finish That's me, yeah, yes That's in the UK use the mic so yes, yes I'm going to talk about that a bit in a second. Yeah, and so the road map that's something that's constantly being asked for And like I said, we're moving more into school curricula in the Netherlands We have a computer science curricula and I'm currently working together with a few skills To see how blender fits in the curricula and basically the conclusion with it fits well We just need to know how to sell it to the government and to the ministry and And that's currently what we're working on We've been also working on a bit of funding. I think Peter can tell a bit more about that so through the animation seems to be quite Well quite popular at the moment with funders. We've been quite successful with securing some funding for school-aged Research school age development of resources and actually we've now been awarded two Google funds in the last couple of years to develop resources to teach children and as you can see there I work at the University of Hampton. I also run an organization called through the army and We've got funding twice now to develop resources with the current focus on a on a learning platform Which we're going to talk a little bit about in a second Though we and also we've had some funding In for teacher training and creating schemes of work and you know talking about the case for teaching this in schools Well unless there's a curriculum for it British schools aren't very interested in it not even the As was the the economic argument because it if it's not attached to results It's not attached to league tables. I'm not going to teach it So just creating resources which will allow school to deliver it as part of their curriculum That seems to be quite useful And we've been doing a bit of teacher training because we can go into as many schools as we want to and we are Doing lots of work like that at the moment But there's only two of us and the more teachers we can train to deliver this the better So we we've got a bit of funding at the moment which we we are going to teach training providers We are going to local groups of teachers the community at school network and we're working with them to train teachers to deliver this in Mainly after-school clubs at the moment. It's not being hugely successful in schools after-school clubs much better and I'm also Currently working on engaging some other universities in terms of getting their students to go into the local community to go and teach this as well Because the students want to do this But we do have a problem here in terms of people skilled to do it if you want to go and teach The basics of Python anybody who's got any kind of vague programming background can do that quite easily But if you want to teach the basics of 3d animation you need to have a bit of knowledge here Which means we do need more work put into training students and teachers to go and deliver it in schools Then we've had a couple of other successes I don't know if any of you are aware there's a new magazine produced by the Raspberry Pi foundation called hello world We featured in that in their first edition So we had tutorials on how to make a little snowman that was in the very first edition of the hello world magazine we worked on that and We're talking at the moment with the Raspberry Pi foundation and co-club Potentially about getting them not just to deliver Python and JavaScript and assembly code and all the sort of things They're doing with co-club Because it's about code but also to be doing some work in terms of 3d animation So trying to get Blender into the delivery of co-club and co-club in the UK They're looking I think at the moment about 500 Different clubs in secondary schools and there's there's more of these things happening around the world got coded dojos With we're trying to get in without the moment That's that's very early stages when negotiations to see if we can make that happen But obviously the more people who do this than the more likely are to come study it at university and to make informed choices about studying at university Sorry for interrupting you. Are you guys aware that currently Google the Raspberry Pi foundation and Facebook are Setting up platforms to teach Young students about technology. You have co.org. I think County Cannaby is also jumping into it Currently the Raspberry Pi foundation as well They acquired the coder dojo, which was an independent organization, but worldwide also in the Netherlands But they the Raspberry Pi foundation acquired them. So there is something going on there and there is a lot of attention and that's why The our P2D1 website with some of our tutorials They're so interested in them because we're moving more to virtual reality augmented reality And you've got these firms selling this stuff. So children get to use it They get to be consumers, but we're trying to make them create it Which of course if you're in education, that's what you're trying to do get people to create things not just to consume it And then very briefly the end. I've been here before talking about another organization that I that I've on which Is this 3d. Ami we we get groups of it was this year 11 to 18 year olds making Two-minute films so two-minute short films through the whole process with their own render farms and several hundred thousand million pounds worth of Hardware to to make this happen And we've been getting a bit more funding behind that as well. That's that's been growing in the UK But we we're struggling as I'm sure many of you are we just securing funding to make these things happen now We've got one more slide on this, but we looking at the time We want to give you a bit of time in this session talk about where you're coming from because we're talking very much at a Pre-university level here in terms of most of our work and there were many people in here From university level and we want to give you the opportunity to meet similar people Doing similar jobs and talk about what works and what doesn't work for you But we're just going to very quickly skip on to this learning platform, which Manik's kind of touched on already And I'll just do a quick introduction if you don't mind. So yeah, this is the the forum That's the Google this the Google sponsoring we received and basically Google said, okay You have a wonderful platform with a lot of teaching material. Please continue go on But you have to create a community as well. Yeah, you need to Show what kids are creating and The thing is that this aligns with a discussion that's currently also going on in the Netherlands Which is kids having a portfolio One of the the problems that schools came up. It said, okay kits to do they create a lot of things at schools, but If they do something like Blender when they leave the school, I can't give it to them Especially schools in the Netherlands. They just Maybe keep the documents for six months Maybe sometimes a year and then it's gone. So they were also asking for a platform where students can upload their work And which would stay there for years so that after years a student can keep on working on his profile, but that the work at least would be there and This aligns with Google funding we received for creating a forum where Students can start creating a portfolio and if any of you are familiar with the scratch website It's an online learning community around basic computer programming We're trying to create something very similar for 3d animation So we're going to get students around the world uploading work But more importantly seeing each other's work being able to download each other's work It's not just them looking at the finished movie or the finished image. They can download the model They can see how the model is made. They can look at the topology. They can see how the textures were put together them Looking at downloading remixing other people's work and that's really fundamental to putting this community together Also, we think we we are in the process of building this right now And let's talk about teacher resources We want to make it as easy as possible for after-school clubs or teachers to deliver To deliver sessions so they will be teaching resources on here so teachers can use this as part of their delivery of of a course in their school or after school Okay, sure Shall we yeah, so it's like that So we set this up only a couple of weeks ago Because we think it's important to get educators talking together. We've discussed a lot today about what we're doing and I say we have a very Very narrow focus in the sense that it's pre-university and many of you are in other areas of of education and We just want to really Get you just find out a bit more about what people do in the community So we've got ten minutes left and I said two minutes per person that seems a little bit long actually So we might even restrict you just to if you want to introduce yourself what you're doing and Take a minute to do that then we'll pass around and and try and just get to know each other a little bit better Then we're going to retire upstairs where we're going to have a further discussion if you want to continue any of the Discussion that we've had in here today. So if anyone wants to introduce themselves I'm going to give you one minute to do so to describe yourself where you're from How you're working and Yeah, I'm talking too long myself. I know Hi, I am Christoph. I am a teacher for hours after-school teacher for blender for after seven years I teach Kids at the age of ten till well, we are pressed off and I got very very great experience and Likely would share them with you Hi Hi, my name is Kiran Rose. I'm from London in England I run a thing called frog design thinking and tinkering foundation where we literally let the kids design They can muck about with wood. They can muck about with metal. They design. They do interactive design. They Basically, they come along. We get a group of them together They can literally create what they want and the mentors behind the back Literally just guide them along and if we need any more help we look for sources Which can actually come in and lecture and help My background personally, I've initially trained as a graphic designer I'm a masters in interactive digital media, and I'm also currently alongside frog doing a PhD in cognitive creativity Although it's a bit autodidactic because I'm trying to find a university that will actually do it. So Okay, my name is David Gary and from France friends and I'm partly a teacher but In university and high school and the like And I would like to say that in France we have not only school But we have only public libraries actually there are not only books in these libraries. So we call them media tech but People and especially kids have the opportunity to spend a few days in workshops during stop motion and the like and It's really interesting also to have such Such way to to to learn and have a online content to share with them Yeah, that's a good idea. Maybe maybe Okay, my name is Pete from Germany middle of Germany. I teach blender I have the pretty crazy idea of bringing blender into 3,000 schools and you just gave me the idea to make A Dozen or more one-minute videos of How blender 3d can tie into each class so one for physics one for math one for biology one for sports one for Thank you I'm Matthew Dupont de Dinsha. I'm a teacher. I've been teaching in a school of architecture on nine university in communication Section and I founded the fab lab to a maker space where I do some activities with children and To jump on what he said about the media tech We have a lot of contenders for children. A lot of people they do teaching with a minecraft for example They do teaching with the autodesk free. Okay. No, it's not falling the autodesk free softwares and and Yes, I think there is space for blender for that, but it's It would be nice to talk about how to we can get blender and the blender tutorials also in the the media tech for instance What would be necessary for that? That would be cool. Anyone else? Okay, Andre from MCM area. I'm teaching at two high schools here in MCM nowadays used to be scientists and I'm teaching physics not a blender But I just bought a 3d printer for my school and we're going to use it in some way or another So with blender to high schools one is in Amsterdam north Domsteader and the other one is Vincent Scholl here in the Harmerstraut. So so you're welcome to to visit Hi, my name is Alex Chamberlain from Dixie State University in southern Utah you can tell my my accent and my hat that I'm a yank and I've switched our I teach the 3d modeling and the 3d animation classes at our university and I've switched them from Maya to Blender in the last couple of years Really enjoyed it But I'm also interested in just kind of how other people are teaching it and just kind of learning from a group like this So I'm glad we're meeting here Yes, I'm Mattias from Sweden teach art and history animation at the school 16 to 18 years old gymnasium level Yes In Sweden, no, no, no at all with Blender other teach history Animation Visualization I'm his colleague. So we work together Hi to everybody. I'm John Luca Vita. I am teach at the university in Milan at the polytechnic university of architecture and two at the academia de bellarty de Brea is is different is ever kind of university but more Dedicated to art and not to architecture and then I teach to professionals and so architects to use Blender and in all these architect in All this cool. I try and I work is five six year. I teach Blender in different ways obviously it's different for an architect for an artist for a professional but in all this cool the problem is ever the same that my Wish is Beginners interface when you open Blender is like to enter a in a Boeing 747 And the people look it and close it so my people I really recommend take a look at what we've been putting together So yes, yes tutorials are between three and five minutes long And they really focus on creating things rather than a 20-minute video about how the interface works So we've got stuff focused on school children, but it also works with adults We find that adults find it a nice way of introducing themselves something which looks incredibly complex at first But it's actually quite easy. So Anybody else Youngest person in the room Do you want to just into well can we you introduce yourself and I'll pass Okay, and to buy us from Germany. I'm teaching Blender to bachelor science students in computer science and I also want to start a teach Blender to younger students pupils and I would like to know when Blender 101 is Planned to to get ready it would to be ready Okay, so I'm a cool. I'm from Finland and I Study it like on my own. I learned these I've used Blender for a couple of years and now and It's pretty cool Do you mind me? Do you mind me asking how old you are? I'm 14 fantastic Okay, so we're coming up to the end of this session You've got a feel for who everyone is but before we go and we say we're going to go upstairs as a meeting I'm upstairs. We're gonna continue this conversation Can I just have a quick show of hands who's working at university level at the moment with Blender? University who's in university teaching in university? So we've got quite a bunch of you you might want to have a look around just quick again You know who are these people you might want to go and introduce yourselves to them And who's working at pre-university? So anything beneath university? So there's there's a few of us Okay, well as I say we put this into the To the schedule a couple of weeks ago. We want to make this a thing that happens every year We want to keep having this meeting because we can learn from each other We can learn an awful lot from each other so we're going to continue the conversation But hopefully continue the conversation for the rest of this weekend and and through we've got a slack group We've got the mailing list we need we you need to keep in contact because Blender Needs to be in more universities because it's it's free and it's easy and it's great and as we all know Anyway, thank you for that. We're going to move upstairs now and hopefully we'll see


Good afternoon, everyone. I just wanted to take a couple of minutes to welcome you to this very important discussion on antimicrobial resistance. This is one of the key topics for us. For those of you I haven't met, my name is Shyam Bishain, and I head up the Center for Health and Health Care at the World Economic Forum. AMR is a key topic for us. Just recently, a few months ago, we launched a Global Future Council on AMR, which is co-chaired by Dame Sally Davis. She wanted to be here, but unfortunately, for some personal reasons, she couldn't be here, so she sends her regret. But this is a key area of focus for us, because we know what AMR is doing to us as human beings. Every year, about 1.3 million people are killed from AMR. I'm talking about direct impact of AMR. 1.3 million deaths is much higher than if you look at HIV, you look at TB, you look at malaria. I think it's the third biggest disease killer after heart attack stroke. So it's something that we need to take very seriously. People have been working on it, but we need more focus on this. We need more resources on this. And that's why we are here today. Our platform, World Economic Forum, as you know, is to bring public-private sector together, as well as academia, thought leaders, civil societies. And you will see that mix of panelists here. You'll hear much more and a lot more from our distinguished panelists here today. But I just wanted to take a couple of minutes to emphasize how important it is that we all work together on this. I said the number of 1.3 million people dying today. If we continue the way we are, it would be 10 million by 2050. 10 million lives lost that can be stopped, that can be prevented. Economic cost is also huge. According to some estimates, the economic cost of AMR by 2050 could be up to $100 trillion. It's trillion with a T. So this is a huge economic cost as well. It's the time we must do something about this. It's also good that United Nations General Assembly, there will be a high-level meeting on AMR this year. So this is good to know that it's being prioritized. Last week, I was in Rome meeting with the Health Minister. Why Rome? Why Italian Health Minister? Because they have the G7 presidency. And I was very pleased to see that out of the three priority areas for G7 that he mentioned, AMR was one of those. The other two are pandemic preparedness and digital health. So it is garnering a lot of focus, a lot of emphasis. He also told me that the G7 finance ministers are working to create incentives for AMR research. Main problem is that you don't have enough resources going on the R&D side. Because there is not enough push, there is not enough pull. There are grants, loans, and other things required. There are philanthropic organizations. I guess we see welcome trust here. We have Gates Foundation and others putting money into this. But more needs to be done in terms of push. And for pull, governments have to come in. You need to come up with some advanced market commitments. You need to incentivize smaller companies, biotech companies, even big pharma companies to put more resources behind R&D so that we can come up with some good drugs here. So, and as I said, you will hear much more from our distinguished panelists on this. So without further delay here, I know we have very limited time. I would like to hand over the discussion to our moderator on right honorable. I should say Helen Clark, ex-prime minister of New Zealand. And Helen, over to you. You will introduce the panelists and we'll take it from there. Thank you. Thank you, Shyam. And I must commend the forum on the marvellous name they gave the session. Perhaps you're all here because the title is Bad Bugs, No Drugs. And it's more catchy, isn't it, than AMR? That, of course, is not to, in any way, undermine the critical issue that we're dealing with of antimicrobial resistance. And as Shyam said, it's a huge health challenge. I think the lay public would probably be astonished to learn that it's rated now as the third leading cause of death. That makes it, obviously, prepare extremely serious to us. And the thought that the death toll could blow out to 10 million people a year by 2050 is not good. Now, of course, it affects everyone who needs access to effective antibiotics. But let me note, putting on a hat I have as chair of the Partnership for Maternal Newborn Child Health, that children are carrying a disproportionate burden of these deaths. And AMR has the potential to roll back gains we've made in children's health. There's also the particular exposure of women who are 27% more likely to receive an antibiotic prescription during their lifetime than men. And that relates particularly to the section of reproductive health needs that women have. So the time for action, I guess, was yesterday. But if we didn't act yesterday, we can act today. As Shyam indicated, there's quite a lot on the weft itself with the Global Future Council on the future of tackling AMR, which is proposing a grand bargain on how to deal with us. And then those major events, the second high-level meeting at the UN this September, and the opportunities around the G7 and elsewhere. So we're in the spotlight room to put a spotlight on AMR issues. And we're going to roll with our great panel here. We're going to start off with just a broad question to the panelists, or already been asked whether they can talk across each other. And I said, of course, in a civilized manner, befitting Davos. But we're going to have a quick fire round to start with, for asking people to have two minutes each. Flowing from this, that AMR is taking the global stage at the high-level meeting at the UN in September and other important stages. So given these important events coming up, how do our panelists envision the collaborative efforts of the range of sectors, human health, animal health, the environment, playing a pivotal role in addressing the challenges? And what key priorities should guide our actions going forward? I'm going to start immediately to my left with Stella Kiriakides, the EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety over to you. Thank you so much, and good afternoon. It is indeed a great privilege to be part of this panel. And to be able to discuss a title which I remember when we were dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, we often said at the time that we were also dealing with another silent pandemic being that of AMR. And as the EU, we've been committed to tackling AMR for now over 20 years through a one-health approach, which is something that you have mentioned. But I believe that firmly it's really time, and we're all beginning to realize it, that we need to turn this commitment into a reality. By taking specific steps, both at EU level and, of course, at global level, because it is a global problem. And I know that in my initial intervention of two minutes, I just want to touch on two aspects of what we have been working with as an EU. Since the pandemic, we have realized the importance of working for health at the EU level, of building a strong European health union. And we have seen with the pandemic how we are stronger together when we're working in health. So what we have done specifically for AMR is in June 2023, we had council adoption of recommendations and guidelines to address AMR. So asking of the member states to have specific targets to address both the issues of acrimicrobial consumption and to have targets with measurable goals that will allow us then to implement at EU level. And I can go into details of that. But at the same time, because we need to really address it by working at different levels, in the pharmaceutical reform that we put forward in April of last year, we put forward in something that was mentioned about the push and pull mechanisms. We have for the first time introduced the concept and the idea of having transferable exclusivity vouchers in order to address market failure. And this is in order to encourage the development of new antimicrobials. And at the same time, we're working to encourage, through our pharmaceutical reform, the prudent use of antimicrobials in terms of the misuse and the abuse. And because it was mentioned, and I will stop here, of what we know about how citizens perceive AMR, I was quite surprised when I saw in a Euro barometer that one in three European citizens have an antimicrobial prescribed to them almost every day. So this is where we are now. And this is what we need to address. And we need to deal with it because sometimes it's difficult to speak to the world about a concept of AMR and a title of bad that we have in our panel today is more catchy. But the reality is that AMR is on a daily basis impacting on patients' lives. Whether these are patients going through cancer, patients going through other diseases, this is the reality. And we need to all work together globally and horizontally to actually turn our commitment into a reality. So thank you. Thank you, Stella. Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund, please come in. Right, I'll try and make four quick points. First, we have a problem in the AMIs, a disastrous bit of branding. The public doesn't understand it and even within the global health community there's ambiguity as to whether it's just about antibiotics or is it all forms of resistance because every pathogen becomes resistant. Now, that ship may have sailed, but I think if we can come up with sharper terminology that makes it easier for people to understand what we're talking about, that's really important because we will have to get the public involved. The public likes antibiotics. Second, we have to acknowledge that the global community is really bad at dealing with creeping problems, as you say, a kind of silent pandemic. We're much better at having a blazing fire and then marshaling the fire engines. And this is the problem that by the time it becomes a blazing fire, it's gonna be really, really, really dangerous. So we need to use this high level meeting 24 to have a kind of step change in the way we're dealing with that. But that will require us to do something that we're not good at, which is dealing with creeping silent problems. Third, please, please, the global health community is brilliant at creating new silos. Can we avoid creating another new silo? Can we find ways of tackling AMR, using and leveraging connections to other things? And to give you one example, in fact, to compare TB deaths against MR deaths is a false comparison because a third of the MR deaths are MDR TB. And, but also if you think about some of the things, the control of prescribing and all that kind of stuff needs to be within the broader frame of prescription guidance. The infection prevention and control regimens are also incredibly important for a broader set of threats and dynamics. The disease surveillance, we need to understand the evolution of MR has to be within that broader frame. So it's not that we shouldn't be focused, but we should integrate it with other things. Last point, you talked about overuse. Overuse is a huge problem, both within animal health and within populations, within rich countries. I don't think we should forget either that for significant numbers of people in the world, getting access to antibiotics is a massive issue. And we still have problems of basic fundamental access to antibiotics. Done. Thank you, Peter. And we wait for your best branding experts to come up with a new term. We can't use bad bugs, but what could we use? Right, coming next to Aleksandra Agatowska, who's from a Polish company, which is PZU Life. Life. Yes, this is insurance company. Thank you for having me here. It's an honor for me and a nutshell because I agree with you and I won't repeat it because it's not about that. We know AMR becomes the leading cause of that globally. We know that efficacy of empirical therapies declines enormously. And we all know it, but this is for me the knowledge. On the second hand, it's not about not giving or prescribing antibiotics at all, as you said. It's about prescribing them wisely. And for me to do it wisely, we need higher awareness. And it's other thing to have knowledge on some kind of issues and other thing to be aware of this. And I see that in terms of my perspective from working with different clients as they are employers, actually, we have a lot of impact on a big group of people, their employees. And I believe that employers should play a major role here to educate people they have access to. And this education is for me a really important issue to have bigger awareness on the topic. Thank you.  Thank you. Yeah, perhaps I can make three points, building of what I just heard. First of all, Peter, I really agree with you that it needs a holistic approach. And what we see in general with health care is that it's very fragmented. And it's certainly the case when it comes to infectious diseases and doing something about it. It's really along the whole patient journey, starting with prevention, diagnosis. Therapeutics are part of that. But the health care system overall, if you don't have a health care function and health care system in the first place, there's nothing you can do about that. So I fully agree it needs a holistic approach where we all work together. Now, more specifically in terms of pharmaceuticals, basically there hasn't been a major advance over the last 50 years. So if you look at what has come out in the pharmaceutical industry, you can say basically nothing for the last 50 years. There have been some incremental approaches, but no breakthrough really. And I'd say there is at least a perception. We can discuss with its reality that there is no sustainable business model for this industry. So most companies have literally left that segment of the market rush. My company is one of the very few companies who are still active in this field. And we have some potential early opportunities. But by and large, the investments of the pharmaceutical industry into this segment is minimal, marginal, if you look at the overall investments. And what I hear is, well, this is an intrinsic problem. There is just a problem, there is kind of, there cannot be a market. This is an example where the market doesn't work. That's what I hear from some people. And the argument is, because with antibiotics, if you develop them, you should reserve them so the number of patients who get them are very small. And therefore by definition, there's no market. And I think this is utter nonsense. The market is working. There's just no signals to the players in the market to make a sustainable business, right? And I give you a very good example, which I think is telling, and that is orphan drugs. I remember when I started to work in the industry, there was a big discussion about orphan drugs, very seldom genetic drugs, et cetera, rare diseases, where you have a couple of thousand patients, perhaps in the world, right? Now, with AMR, what we heard, it's the third biggest cause of death. So already it's much more people than we have with orphan diseases. And what happened with orphan diseases is that at some point, there was a change in the thinking in society overall and with regulators and policymakers and payers. And societies are willing to pay very high prices for orphan drugs. So there is a kind of out of solidarity. People say, well, if you are unfortunate enough to have a genetic disease, the society is prepared to pay a high amount of money. On top of it, there were incentives for intellectual property, right? So that you have a longer exclusivity before generics come in. And as a result of it, the orphan industry, orphan drugs industry, took off. And today we have many, many, many medicines. There are still many diseases where we don't have a medicine yet, but we have many, many diseases where we have companies who have made a real difference for those diseases. So what we need to incentivize the industry, there's no doubt for me, is not push incentives, in other words, R&D subsidies. No companies interested in this. That is very important in the public setting, for basic research, for academic institutions. But please, all the policymakers out there and here in the room and everybody, don't waste public money for R&D subsidies for private companies. Complete waste of money. Put it into the public sector, public institutions in basic research, because that is a timeframe which the private industry will not cover.  Forget about push incentives for the pharmaceutical industry. And I'd like to commend the European Commission because what you're doing now on a European level is you're looking at a pull incentive. So you create a market. And there are two ways how you can do it. One is that you have a sustainable pricing. And the second one is that you give incentives on intellectual property. And that is what is now at least conceptually moving forward on a European level. It's much more difficult in small countries, right? So here Europe and the US have a critical mass to do that. But beyond that, I would really call and out for providing real signals to this industry that it's worthwhile to invest. Otherwise it will just not happen. And it didn't happen over the last 50 years, let's face it. But it's not a market failure. Actually, what we have is a market who is listening to the signals who are not coming. Yes, as you were speaking, it struck me. It's hard to have a market failure when you have such a high level of use. So there's something else that's much more important than a market failure. So there's something else that's missing in the equation which isn't getting the innovation. And maybe we could drill in a little bit more on that. One sentence on that. So what you have is with antibiotics, today the market is what we call a generic market. So the original antibiotics, by the way, Rorsch has been one of those companies who developed original antibiotics. That business is over, right? So today you have generic antibiotics. And the generic antibiotics you get for cents, literally costs more than a chewing gum, literally, right? So it's down to pure cost. And of course, if payers kind of take that as a reference for a new innovative antibiotic, you can immediately see that it never, ever will make sense. If payers would look at this like an orphan drug, and I think it is eventually an orphan drug, even though we use so many antibiotics, at the end of the day, the number of patients who get these late-line antibiotics is actually a relatively small market. So if we would have somehow a change in the thinking and not always look at it as a mass market, which it isn't, then I think we would potentially change the dynamics substantially. Alexander, would you like to come in on that? I think that insurance companies may not pay for direct consequences, but indirect. Because we, of course, may do something within the product, within insurance products. And of course, it's about risk, because it's insurance, it's obvious. But I believe that the structure of traditional insurance products should be changed in a little bit, not only taking the risk, which is right over, right now, possible, but also to take into account some anticipation, not only risk, but behavior, and to prevent them. To have a product which are from the structure, also educative a little bit. I know that product pay-as-you-live is really hard to implement on the market because measuring is really hard. But I think that insurers are really strictly interested, or should be strictly interested in AMR issue. And yes, you are right. However, we are not working directly, maybe in Poland. I don't know about other markets. I think that this is completely different on the other market. But in Poland, we do not work directly with hospitals, et cetera, with doctors, et cetera. We have some counterpartners between us. However, as I said before, we actually pay for it as a consequence of AMR, and claims are getting higher and higher. Commissioners still are coming back to you. You told us a little bit about the strategy the EU's pursuing. But you've also been the one on the panel who's very much raised the one health issues. And my briefing tells me that 70% of antibiotic use is in the food chain and animal health, which really broadens what we're talking about. So really be interested to hear a little from you about how the EU is addressing this broad spectrum issue, if I could put it that way. Yes, I think that listening to all the other interventions as well makes us all understand how complicated this issue is, and that we really need to all the time be addressing it at different levels, and sometimes thinking out of the box. And this is what we have tried to do with the proposals we put forward in our pharmaceutical reform, as you have mentioned, in order to really incentivize the development of new antimicrobials. Now, in terms of the one health approach, this is the only way that I believe that we can move forward in tackling this problem. And in the council guidelines and recommendations that we have put forward and which went through council so have been accepted by member states, we have put forward specific targets. For example, decreasing by 50% the antibiotics that are used in farm animals and in aquaculture. So you need to really look at it in that horizontal way. But it is not many of the member states have their national plans for putting targets for the prudent use of antimicrobials. What we've come and we are trying to do is putting these targets at EU level, EU recommended targets, but then also having a way of evaluating our recommendation four years after its adoption. So you need to be working at different levels all the time and bringing the member states together so that they feel that they're all working towards a common goal. And if I may just one word on education. I think that this is really vital that we address this because if you ask, I think it was again looking at the Euro barometer that almost 40% of people believe that viruses can be treated by antibiotics. I think some of the numbers I personally found quite revealing that we can solve infections caused by viruses by using antibiotics. Possibly that's why one in three patients use at least one antimicrobial on a given day. So there are initiatives out there to raise awareness. We have a European Awareness Day on antibiotics every November. I think it's November 18th together with WHO. And this year it's dedicated towards working towards the EU 2030 AMR target. So it's a matter of bringing everything together all the time and being able to work horizontally. If I don't like using the term lessons learned from the pandemic, I feel that the pandemic has taught us a great deal. But it's time that we move on and actually apply the lot of what we have learned. But if we have learned anything is that we need to collaborate. We cannot work in silos. I agree so much with that. We need to look out and past ourselves. We need to look globally. And G7 and G20 are already addressing this. And this is a problem that concerns us all. It's not only about industry. It's not about policymakers. We all need to be on this together. We need to be open-minded and listen and try and move forward because I think that we cannot afford to wait. Peter, you raised the term the silent creeping pandemic. Have you got any thoughts about how to jolt us out of complacency on this one and move forward? Well, one thing is we could talk a lot more about drug-resistant TB because drug-resistant TB is seriously nasty. It's got a far higher fatality rate than COVID-19. About 600,000 people in the world at the moment get it. And only 40% of them are treated and the rest mainly die. And the only thing that saved us from it being worse is that it's not nearly as transmissible as COVID-19. But we all know that these things aren't immutable. They can change. And I think we do need, I'm afraid to say, we do need some aspects of the MR problem that focus people's minds. And I think MDR TB could be quite helpful in that. And it's something that we spend a lot of time on. We're basically the primary source of funding for diagnostics and treatment of MDR TB in the world. In terms of the solutions, there's a lot of blocking and tackling basic stuff that can be done as well as some of the harder stuff. There's some really hard problems about creating new antibiotics and things like this. But in much of the world, basic things around prescribing guidelines, control of antibiotic distribution, infection prevention and control in health facilities, waste management, these are. And we're the largest provider of grants for health systems in low and middle income countries. We've really stepped up how much we're doing on some of these core basic building blocks, because they underpin everything. They underpin the work we do on infectious diseases, but they underpin all the surgical procedures, everything else, maternal health. But at the moment, I'd say I'm conscious that we're scratching the surface. There's a huge amount to be done on all of this.  But actually, it's a really important part of this whole equation. Yes, recalling in the distant past, my time as a Minister of Health, prescribing guidelines were really important. And our pharmaceutical system, of course, had all the data. And the practices that were over prescribing, for example, on barbiturates, we'd get a friendly knock on the door to say, we're a little bit concerned about the level of sleeping pills that are coming out of here, or antidepressants, or whatever. So I think how we can ensure that this is built into health systems around the world is really important. Look, we have among us the Minister of Health in South Africa, the Honourable Joseph Fahla. Lovely to have you, Minister.  You're trying to do this stuff. What would you like to say to the audience and our panel about how you in South Africa are addressing this range of issues? Please feel free to stand up and give us your views on that. Well, thank you very much. Thank you very much to the facilitator. And thank you very much to the panelists, indeed, very thought-provoking contributions. Well, we go through the difficulties as a government which must implement the provision of health services, but at the same time, must also regulate. So as the panelists have indicated, and I think you, Chairperson, we focus as a Minister of Health largely on the human consumption of antibiotics, how to regulate, how to monitor. And of course, we have to work with our counterparts in the agriculture area, in the environment side. We've made some progress on the clinical, human sort of monitoring surveillance. Not perfect, especially in our country where we also have a very strong private health care providers. So on the public health side, the clinical guidelines are there. We do try to monitor, not always easy. But then on the private side, you've got the primary health practitioners, your GPs, and also your private hospitals to get the data there in terms of the monitoring, the usage. Very difficult because they also, you know, they have very circumspect about providing information because they believe that if, you know, they compete against each other. So if they were to give us all the information about what is the practice in one group and this as the other, that would lay them, you know, sort of vulnerable. But as you have said, that's just the one aspect, the human consumption. And then you've got the animal side. Some bit of regulation there, very weak in our case. Fairly weak, there's a lot of the animal consumption which is over the counter, which farmers can be able to obtain, obtain without a veterinarian script.  But just listening to the panel here, and of course, I'm also shocked as a bit. 1.3 million deaths already, potentially going to 10 million. So what it says to me is that there's really a lot of agency, real agency, I mean, as across the world in terms of the world. I know this is a regular topic at the World Health Assembly, but in terms of how much member states, as member states, actually we have taken practical steps to keep, I think that's another thing. But I think at the national level, at regional levels, and also at world bodies, what it says to me. And of course, if you say that from the farmer's side, there is no incentive to really do a lot of further research to find new antibiotics. It means we are staring serious trouble in the face. So I think to me the message is agency, that as individual states, regional bodies, EU, in ourselves as the EU, and all other regions, but also at the world stage, we really need to make sure. And I'm happy that the UN will have a high level meeting on this. And I'm hoping that, hopefully, it will check us at the head of state level to pay a lot more attention to this. But to me, the message really is key message is agency. Thank you. And minister, I'm conscious that next year, South Africa, I think, has the presidency of the G20. And you have a health minister's stream. So it may be a time to move it into the G20 health minister's discussion as well. I mean, the economic implications we haven't talked a lot about, but they are huge. The figures are huge. So that would be really encouraging to have your support. Any quickfire questions from our audience or points? Yes, front row. Just introduce yourself quickly. My name is Ayman Damir. I'm a chairman of a health care company in Saudi Arabia, the Damir Group. Very interesting panels. I learned a lot today. But what I've seen, whether raising awareness or having prudent use of antibiotics or whether we prescribe wisely or whether there is enough research in the last 50 years coming up with new pandemics and does the prices from payers justify that. I think there's one thing that maybe we didn't come to. I believe if we could have early diagnostics, instant diagnostics. You know, we live in a tropical country, Saudi Arabia. The use of antibiotics naturally in a humid country, you give it to kids much more often. You're obliged to. For a while, it was the largest therapeutic class in Saudi. That's how big it was. So I think if we could have instant diagnostics where before you take the wrong antibiotic for the wrong reason, or you take it for killing a virus, as you said, or using the wrong antibiotic. I know they're all general, but there are microlights. There are different antibiotics, I think will help a lot the misuse especially in our country and the way we pop antibiotics. Thank you for that. Now, so some more hands up over here. Yes. Roche has it. Yep. Please. Hello. My name is Guilherme Rosso. I'm a WAF Global Shapers from Brazil and Head of Innovation of Little Prince Hospital, the largest children's hospital in the country. Helen Clark mentioned the impact on children. So I would love to hear from the panelists more inputs on the impact of AMR on children and minister. If possible, your perspectives on the challenges of AMR for the countries in the global south. Right, so we've got a couple of questions. We've got five minutes to go, and I'd like our panelists in their last minutes or so each to respond to the questions if you wish. Respond to any point you thought needed to be picked up on the way through. And perhaps just half a word on what is your call to action to ensure that we do really get something moving on AMR. Can I start with you, Severin? Yes. Again, from an industry point of view, I'd make the call for pull incentives, market incentives to incentivize the industry. But let me say a word on the first question, because I think the point you make is a really, really important one, building on what we heard from the commissioner that actually there is an educational issue that people don't even know that a virus cannot be treated by antibiotics. But beyond that, let's face it, in many countries in the world, and that includes the member states in Europe, it's the doctors who are prescribing the antibiotics. And they know it, right? And so one of the very practical suggestions I may make in this final call, really it would be so useful if there was an increase in diagnosis of infectious diseases. Now, if I can just reflect from a company point of view, we are also active in diagnosis. There are only two markets in the world where we have a diagnosis business for infectious diseases, and this is the United States and Japan. And that's it, right? So you can bet if the doctors would ask for a flu test to differentiate whether this is a cold flu, COVID, or really an bacterial infection. And these tests, they exist, right? We have now multiplex testing which can differentiate that. I mean, and this is really cheap diagnostics, right? This is really cheap.  I think this alone would reduce the use of antibiotics in humans. It wouldn't resolve the issue in agriculture. But in humans, dramatically, there's just no doubt. And it would be easy to implement. It would be cheap, actually, and very effective to your point. We can do a lot on the basics here. This is, however, not a matter which can be regulated on a U level. That has to be regulated on the member state level, just to be also very clear. It's not your fault. I mean, it's so obvious. I don't take it personally.  I mean, are these people sleeping or what's happening here, right? It's so obvious what you are saying. It's so obvious. And still, it is not happening. I know Dame Sally who couldn't make it for today.  But in most countries, we don't even speak about it. It's so obvious. So obvious. So thank you for that. Thank you. Commissioner Stella, your last call. I don't take it personally. No, no, no, it's really. And again, congratulations to having that on a European level. A great deal, of course, has been said. And I just wanted to say that I think it's really important that we create the incentives, pull incentives to create new anti-bicrobials. And when I spoke of education, raising awareness, I very much also meant the health care providers. I think that they need to be part of this. And they're, in fact, part of what we have put forward in our pharmaceutical reform in terms of how we can educate them in very specific ways. But you asked for sort of a call to action. And my call to action for this would be to keep this topic of AMR, whether we find a more friendly way of addressing it. I don't know. I think you're absolutely right. At the top of the political agenda, whether this is the EU political agenda, G7, G20, in meetings and conferences, this topic has to be there. Because this is really, when we say the word silent pandemic, it's maybe silent in terms of it's creeping up on us. But it's very obviously there and impacting on people's lives. So that would be my call to action for us to use our voices in every single forum to keep this at the top of the political agenda. And as EU health commissioner, I would be willing to work in every single way out of silos to make sure that we tackle this. Peter, call to action. This is a global problem like climate change. And it's not going to work if half the world gets on board and the other half doesn't. And the reality is that for the poorer countries in the world, this is not their highest priority. And so there is going to be an equity and resourcing issue here. If we pretend that there isn't, it's not going to work.  And South Africa is one of the richest countries in the continent. So I don't think we can dodge the resourcing issue. If we're serious about this, there has to be a funds flow to the poorer countries in the world to help them deal with it. Otherwise, we'll have a problem half solved. Alexander? Thank you. The last thing. I believe that we really have these kind of platforms to discuss and to have all of the people on the board, not excluding any kind of part of the world, as you said. And I believe that One Health Initiative for sure should be the platform to gather different counter partners. And also, I believe that a political agenda is for sure very important to have it in mind. However, in the other side, I also think that what is the cost to think about it costs. And for Poland case, for example, simple, only working part of polls without children. And I believe that costs of treatments on children are even higher. But costs for Poland on only working people is 10.3 billion zlotychpolskih gross of GDP. So I believe that costs are really, really enormous. And this kind of information may help us to make it easier to get it on agenda of politics. Well, great panel. And thank you. We had a full room for the discussion. It's been quick, far and short. But I think we all go away quite a lot better informed. And knowing the complexity of it as well, I think Peter put his finger on it, talking about, you know, we need a better narrative, really, because AMR resistance doesn't ring too many bells out there. And I thought your example, Peter, of the drug-resistant TB, that sort of sends shivers, doesn't it? You say, what about if many diseases had a drug resistance? Wouldn't that work? Yeah. That sort of brings it home. And I think we've got a champion and minister Joe for the G20, maybe, to pick this up. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you.


As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, and as women see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things. And we'll all be better off for it. That's according to the late American legal practitioner, Ruth Bader Gainsburg. Welcome to The Advocate, where thought-provoking topics are discussed with no holds barred here on Plus TV Africa. We basically call a spade by its name. Women leadership and political participation is my focus today. Comfort is saying today that equality in human and women should not be afraid to speak. Ruth also gives reasons for the lack of women participation in Nigerian politics. And finally, any time following the theme for the International Women's Day says, we must break the bias. Sit back and after this break, the women will be here to discuss it all. Stay with us. On the 1st of March 2022, Nigeria's National Assembly made up of 95% men, voted to 1. Declined citizenship to the foreign-born husband of a Nigerian woman.  2. Deny Nigerians in the diaspora the right to vote. 3. Deny women the ability to take indigenship of their husband's seat after five years of being together. 4. Deny 35% appointed position for leaders. 5. Deny women 35% of affirmative action in party administration and leadership. 6. Reject specific seats for women at the National Assembly. All this just a few days before we celebrate International Women's Month. And this year's theme is break the bias. It highlights the fact that there remains a deliberate and conscious bias that has prevented women from excelling. It's a crying shame that at a time when all over the world more and more women are being elected to high political offices and even becoming heads of state. From Angela Merkel, Jacinda Arden, Camila Harris, to the Prime Minister of Namibia and most recently Barbados which has two women at the top of her government. Namely, Mia Motley as Prime Minister and Sandra Mason as President. These women are bringing unique and fresh perspective on the challenges that their countries face and are showing innovative and effective leadership. It's at this time when the entire world is making progress that the Nigerian National Assembly has chosen to continue to see the Nigerian women as a follower and not a leader. They want to keep Nigeria in the dark age and are insisting on relegating women to, in the words of our President, the other room. In 2020, Nigeria's female population amounted to approximately 101.67 million while the male is 104.47 million. This puts the percentage of the Nigerian female population at 49.32%. So why then you may ask is the National Assembly denying us a 35% share of leadership? This is not happening just at the political arena. Even in 2022, amongst publicly traded companies, only a very small percentage of CEOs are female. This year's International Women's Day theme of breaking the barrier, of rather breaking the bias, is an opportunity to address and create a more gender equal world. Currently, there is a coalition group of Nigerian women who are occupying the National Assembly and are determining that until the issues I highlighted above are addressed, they will remain there. As women in Nigeria, we deserve an equal or at the very minimum, the 35% currently denied us, seat at the table. And if we don't get it, then maybe it's time that we bring our own table. 2023 is around the corner and can be a game changer in every field and every profession. There are outstanding women who have changed the game and politics is not different. It's time that there's more female participation in politics. It looks like we can't beat the men, but we definitely don't have to join them. So let's flip and change the narrative. Yes, the part I really liked was where you actually identified and highlighted the fact that bringing our own table. As we were talking and thinking through these issues around women, I realized over the years, all the things that make us human beings as women have been relegated or described as weak or as bad. There's been narratives around, so women are up in politics or in positions, how they dress. You know, when they're showing the Jamaican, when they're showing the precedents, I was like, I was looking and thinking, at the beginning when we're fighting for equality, women will have to wear the box suits and have to wear clothes that are very unflattering just so that they would not, so quote, unquote, attract the male gaze. I'm sorry, really, I think really, really, it's time to own what we are.  We bring different skills to the table, and you cannot do without the other party. It's time to accept it. Absolutely. And really, so I think I agree with you. Flip the narrative. I think for me, I also align with the fact that you have to bring your own table. Yes. Because really, as it stands, there's already a bias that is prevalent in the system.  And I guess that's what women need to do. More women need to begin to see themselves as being as capable as a man. Absolutely. Absolutely. They're not less than a man. Absolutely. In some cases, you're actually better. If you look at it from school days, you realize that women... They're coming to my head. But I agree with you, actually. Academically, from school days, I remember my time, it was the women that were topping the class from my primary up until my university. The best graduate students in my set were, in fact, there were two. There were all females. So I think it just means that women are doing well. But then you see that after university and everything, then the guys flying this way, and then the women are either, they've gotten to a place and they've played suit, or they're staff members. I guess it's just something that we, as well as women, have to think and say, you know what? My space is not ready. I'm not ready gated to the other room. My space is not just in the kitchen. Absolutely. My space is not just to take care of the children. Of course, I'm going to do all of those things, but that's not just all about me. There's more to me than all this. So I can bring as much value or even more value to the table than my male counterparts. Yes. I think that we have to come forward. Come forward. Yes. I agree with everyone. Especially, yes, your last point about bringing, you know, bringing our table. I think that's what resonated with me. I'm sorry. I'm one of the females that does not believe that in the affirmative action being campaigned for women, you want to take power. You don't go as the person who has power and please. Yes. Can you give me some steps? You will become the perfect of the person who has put you there. Whether we like it or not, we have our work cut out for us as women. And if we're going to be very honest, we are doing very minimal work in trying to bring up the women who we want to be in this position. That is one. Either as you, once somebody does put it up now, the issue of believing in yourself, taking your skills on, bringing it to the fore, me and you supporting more women, each women. The narrative is also there. Women support women. But how do we see it? Let's be very, very honest. A typical example is the issue of governor's wives who are supposed to be the leaders of women in their states. While we have issues at home, what do you call it? Election is our first approaching. What was top on their mind was a trip down to another country to go and deliver a box of cakes. How are the people that you want to collect or you want to share power with, how are they supposed to take on serious? So my phone here, I'm sorry. The issue of occupying us, being angry that they did not pass meals. I'm sorry. I think that is, we're majoring in minor. We have to go back to the 20s. We have to go back to the 20s. We have to begin to see how do we hold ourselves accountable, responsible. I'm not even going to go into what you call it now, the degrading of womanhood in the process. In the process, in this whole bid of we are trying to be equal, or we're trying to form freedom.  We have different skillset. There are different things that are expected of us. I'm not a woman who is a king. I'm a woman who is a queen. Until we understand our powers and hernestics and accept our uniqueness, we are going to keep on shouting at the doors of nationality. I think that popular culture has tried over time to put us in a box where if you are a woman, you are made to sort of shrink. So if, for instance, you are assertive, then they say that you are aggressive. They've put all these labels on us and made it to become negative. And because we're constantly then seeking affirmation to prove that, oh, I'm not bossy. I'm just a leader. And as a leader, there are some decisions that I have to make. And that's not negative. We're then shrinking so that we will not be called those names.     Because again, are we really sending the people on merit? Are we sending people who we think are the right representatives of the people or of the women? So yes, I think that it's time that we change the narrative and comfort. Nobody is going to hand over power to us. So going to the National Assembly, while it seems it looks nice, but really we're going to ask for permission again. So at what point do we know that, okay, we can form our own political parties. Exactly. We can build our own candidates. We can bring our own table and design that. Okay, you want to be the president. What's your agenda? What's your plan for the Nigerian world? What are you, what's in it for me? So we have to be thinking, what's in it for me? And then that should lead or guide what we decide to do in the future. I mean, I have a problem with the quota system because in my mind, the quota already says that you are actually dreaming a favor. You're not dreaming a favor. I am smart. I am good. I am as comfortable as my male counterpart. So you're not dreaming a favor to give me a position. You can't do that. So it means that if I know that I'm that good, then I should look at ways in which I could actually occupy those positions. If any female goes out there and is properly funded and decides to run for any political position, if she's good with what her in and she gets in. So I guess that is that narrative of having to wait for us to get some of these. So I think if we want to prove women supporting women right, this may be a good place to start. Exactly. But supporting the women who are aspiring to this, I mean, positions. So let's support each other. I mean, let's push women forward. Comfort is next right after this break.


Jim, let's begin with oil plunging. Yeah, no, our target had been 43. And I arrived at that because Carly Garner, who I regard as being one of the great commodities people of our time, who writes for real money, had been saying, listen, we're going to make a stand at 43, maybe we break it, and then maybe we come bounce back. She says it's going to be pretty messy right here. I contacted her, of course, because when it was at 53, she said it was going to 43. So she has tremendous, tremendous credibility in my eyes.  If your target was 43, don't start saying it was 41. There was someone on this morning who was saying, hey, listen, I think it's going to trade the high 30s. I'm with Carly. I think it makes kind of a stand here, and I think you get a whoosh back.


We service all the NALQ-188 ECM pods. We perform the inspections, maintenance, everything like that related to it. We're the CRF, the central repair facility for these pods, so we're the only one in the continental United States. So we service these pods because we're the central hub for repairs. So we get all these pods incoming from all over the world, like USafie, other ACC bases, garden reserve bases, so we're servicing them and then shipping them back out. So originally, this pod chop was at Tyndall due to Hurricane Michael. It got wiped out, found out DM was like the best spot, like location for it. And then originally when the pod shop moved out here, the area that we're in right now was like kind of run down. So it was in need of a renovation. We just got all the funding and everything for this new shop. It's definitely helped with like efficiency around everything like that. It's nice like going to work and realizing like, hey, I work in a brand new facility where I can actually do my job like completely. So these pods, they're meant for training like ground crews and air crews in the hostile electronic warfare environment. Anything using like radio frequency and especially with way like today's warfare and battlefield goes like cyber warfare and electronic warfare seem to be like leading. Training air crew and ground crews is like key. Training pilots like so they can see what's going to be coming up when they're like downrange and deploy and everything that is going to be huge.


This statement's all right. Thank you, Mr. President. Now, let me ask you this. Is Shambi not aboard on this thing? No, Shambi's aboard. But what he's given is authorization rather than a request, which was the best that could be done in the haggling with him in the last two or three days. Well, now, what's he going to denounce us and say this is a great... Is he going to say this is aggression? No, he's not, Mr. President. He's actually very strong for the operation. That was my impression, but the papers indicate that he says any unilateral decision made without his agreement will be regarded as aggression. No, that is not correct. We checked that out, and that was a statement by an informer. That was a New York Times story, at least the one I saw. And we checked it out, and it was an information officer going off half-cocked at a time before we'd been able to get into Chombi. He does have a political problem, and that he doesn't want to be the fellow who couldn't do it himself. But he has given a written authorization, and we have documents to prove it, and those documents are available both to us and to the United Nations. And there isn't any problem in terms of the legal authorization of the Belgians and ourselves to operate under the Geneva Conventions and our own obligations toward our own nationals. But there is a doubt as to whether he really urges us to do this. He hasn't asked us to do it. He's authorized us to do it. That's right. Now, why do we think that I'm just getting prepared? I want to get a good background on why do we think this is essential? We see no hope of being able to negotiate it out. There's no hope of negotiating it out. What about the United Nations? Well, we've been in and out of every forum.