Okay, and we are being recorded. And I'm just looking to see if we have anybody in the waiting room. Oh, so Tim, I see is here is muted, I guess. I like to see my people here. Somehow I'm not seeing everybody. Oh, here we go. That's better. All right. I think I hadn't saw an email that said that Lauren wouldn't be here. So I think I'm just going to go ahead and, and start. I'm going to read the preamble from the state again, it's pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 and renewed by governor more healing this meeting of the board of health will be conducted via remote means. The public who wish to access the meeting may do so by following the instruction on the board health site board of health posted agenda via zoom. No in person attendance of members of the public will be permitted, but every effort will be made to ensure that the public and adequate access proceedings. And as soon as it is technologically possible. After this meeting, all approved board of health minutes are posted on our website. Once they are approved by the board, I will now open the body art public body art regulation public hearing. And I'm going to do a roll call. Sorry here. Okay. Here. Tim. Here. Here. And I would like someone to give a make a motion to open the public hearing regarding the amendment of the existing body art regulations. I make a motion to open the hearing for modification of the public, you know, body art regulations, but I must. Can we second that. I second it. Okay. Sorry, Risha. The purpose of this hearing is to offer members of the public business owners and other interested parties a chance to provide testimony concerning the proposed changes in the town of Amherst body art regulations. Those who will be asked to raise their hands on the zoom platform. Those calling in will be asked if they wish to speak. Each speaker will be allowed up to three minutes. Those who wish to make a second comment will be allowed to additional minutes. The following are summaries of substantial changes that are under review. Every change in the regulations, but they include the ones that are more than simply changes of wording or length of time that the records should be held. The first one is update to allow an increased variety of piercing sites. Current regulations restrict piercings to those performed on the eyebrow, ear, nipple, nose, lip and tongue. The proposed regulation would allow piercing of the genitalia and other sites. This is specifically restricting the types of piercings that are considered to be of higher risk. This refers to section six. The second is an update to allow for guest artists. The proposed regulations add a temporary license which will allow qualified guest artists to practice body art in Amherst for up to 30 days under the oversight of a licensed practitioner. That is in section 16. An update to codify apprentice programs. The proposed regulations add apprentice licenses and define the prerequisites and the apprenticeship training requirements for, I got lost here. Let me start that again. The proposed regulations add apprentice licenses and define the prerequisites and apprenticeship training requirements for tattoo practitioners and body piercing practitioners. They also stipulate the responsibilities of the training practitioner. Those are covered in section 14 and 15. An update of the standards for autoclave use. The proposed regulations both strengthen the quality control program for autoclave use and add an option to opt out of the autoclave requirement if only single use implements are used. And that's section seven. The hearing is now open for public comment. When called on please state your name, address and any pertinent affiliations. I have two attendees. Oh, and I see that Steven Lambert has raised his hand. So I'm going to go ahead and allow you to talk Steven, just a moment, and you'll have three minutes initially. Go ahead. Hey, my name is Steven Lambert my address seven Jones Street, South Hampton, Massachusetts. I am the owner of wanderluck tattoo. I'm the only tattoo and piercing parlor in the town of Amherst. So, I went over the current regulations that you guys are proposing so I have a few things that I want to address. Is that possible to do now. Yes. Okay. So, on page eight. There is a section B that talks about piercing guns. First of all, I just want to say that those cannot be properly sanitized and when you talk about like a, like a piercing apprenticeship right like. So, the people who are using those aren't going through a piercing apprenticeship so they shouldn't be piercing. Okay, also, on page nine we talked about what what is not allowed. You know, where we talk about piercing like the web, web of the tongue or tongue splitting 3D implants or college modifications. All of those are legal and other towns of Massachusetts I'd like to know why you'd like to keep keep us from doing those, because we may have guest piercers that specialize in those things that would like to do them. Another thing, let's see physical plant. It talks about tattoo stations need to be separated. There are many other tattoo shops in the area, even as close as north Hampton that are completely open concept. Even though like ours are partitioned off, I would like to say that if there's an open concept shop, it actually helps to keep things more cleanly because it's all completely open so everything is completely visible. Okay, also, so I've gone over that. So there's on page 14 and section D, it says no practitioner so provide service to anybody, while they have a communicable disease. So, one, how would we know that and two, if that's under sharing that would basically be against HIPAA laws. So in section three, if we talk about using universal precaution, then basically like wouldn't that negate the other statement. Also, page 17, under employee info, you talk about the requirement of a heavy vaccination, or seconds. And also, like, just closing that would also be in violation of HIPAA law. Let's see, page 19 you talk about, like, in section G, there's something about basically like anybody has like a respiratory infection or anything like that. Would that include having a cold. Yeah, so like those are my questions and my last one is on page 24, there's you have to declare any type of criminal record. And with that, what would basically bar you from a tattoo license, and if somebody served their time, is it just to make them disclose their prior, their prior history. I'm done. Okay, so this isn't, we're not answering questions during the hearing we're just listening to what people have to say. So I appreciate all of those comments. Are there any, I don't know where you are with time but if there's anything else you want to emphasize, you probably have a minute or so. I mean, at the moment I've gone over everything. The only other thing that I saw was like the, the stuff about apprenticeship right and with a length of the apprenticeship it says three years for the apprenticeship. If you look at other towns in the area, it's about two years. I also wonder if we could bring it down to two years so we could be comparable with the other towns. And thank you for your time. You're welcome. Thank you for going over this carefully. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure because I'm the only person tattooing in this town that like, I try to address the stuff that we have, because I realized that like we're the only shop now. But I would like to set a precedent so that it's easier for others to come into this town. For businesses to flourish because I've been in this town in and out since I was in my early 20s and I've seen a lot of shops come and a lot closed down. I'm the only one that's been able to last because we haven't been able to get artists to come in and stay because regulations were so stringent and in many ways. So it was hard to hire new people where other towns around us that had lower. I don't want to say standards but like less standard. It was easier for them to open up stay and flourish. Thank you. No problem. Thank you. Is. Is there anyone else that has raised their hand or is anyone called in I think it was. I would deal with someone who actually was just on the phone if that were to be the case but doesn't. Well it looks that there is one other person. That's here Jill Sherman, I don't see that they have raised their hand so they may not be wanting to make a comment. And Steven if you're finished if you would lower your hand just so it's clear that you didn't want to make another comment that would be helpful. Thank you. And Jill, since I'm not seeing a hand. Sometimes people have a tricky time with the hand so maybe we can just check in and make sure that Jill doesn't want to say anything is that does that sound okay to everybody. Sure.  Fine if not if you want to make comment go ahead if not that's fine too. And I see that you are muted. I don't want to make a comment I just attend all these meetings I think all of you are doing a good job. Thank you so much. Okay. So, with no further speakers identified. I think we can make a motion to close the hearing what our plan is to close the hearing. We have two different zoom links for this so we have to log out of this one and then we'll log into the second one for the Board of Health meeting and the deliberations regarding These regulations will be part of that meeting. And Maureen I'm not sure if you acknowledge that they're about written testimony did you say that we did not receive any written test I did not. We, we did ask of people for written testimony. It was public, all of this. There's a guideline for publication of these changes and disseminating that information. So, there, there has been no written testimony regarding this issue. Okay. All right. Thank you for the reminder. So, do we have a motion to close the public hearing for the body art regulation. I can make a motion to adjourn the meeting, the public hearing on body art regulations and I must. In the second. I'll second. Okay. So this meeting. This hearing is now closed. So goodbye. Thanks everyone to you. And I know the other one is scheduled for six but I think we're just going to follow while we're not going to take a 15 minute break. See you in a moment. See you in a moment.


The mentorship component of the Our Boys Matter program has advanced. June 2021 saw the pairing of beneficiaries with their mentors. In a brief ceremony for the pairing, the St. Lucia Social Development Fund, SSDF, facilitating agency for the program says they will initially challenge with finding male figures to mentor the secondary school boys. Thankfully, members of a Christian Sec, the brotherhood of St. Andrew, availed themselves. What has helped the SSDF meet its mentor quota for the program? There is no shortage of willing ladies to mentor, you know. There is no shortage of that, but there's a shortage of males. And we have, my personal belief is that because a lot of these boys have not been exposed to positive role models that I think it is critical and I've battled a little bit with Ms. Edwin and Ms. Anthony and, you know, in terms of whether we should bring on board female mentors. And finally I said, look, if we cannot get males, let's do females because some sort of mentorship is better than none. So I was very happy when the brotherhood stepped forward and, you know, and willing to assist us with that. But make no mistake about it. These boys and young ladies, by the matter, need the presence of positive male models in their life, role models. And it's for that reason that we're very happy that you are here. Chief Education Officer Dr. Fiona Philip Meyer charged the young men to make the most of the mentorship program. They have decided it is important enough to spend their time with you. So here's what I need you to do, boys. I need you to make some very clear choices as to how you're going to be respectful of their time, you're going to show gratitude for their time, you're going to engage in activities that is for your benefit, not necessarily for them because the benefactor, the beneficiaries are you. The responsibility that they've decided they want to shoulder is that of the society, that of your parents, more so your fathers. And if somebody decides it's important enough for me to spend time with you, respect that individual. The mentorship drive eventually attracted 45 mentors, exceeding the 23 needed for the ceremony's pairing session. The Our Boys Matter program is an ongoing initiative of the SSDF that offers resource support and mentorship for at-risk males at the secondary school level.


Hi everyone, Sean with jaspyscasebrakes.com here doing a 2019 tops tier one baseball, one box break where at the end we're going to be giving away five spots in the upcoming five star 2019 guaranteed hit break. So that'll be coming up after this guys. So here is the list of customers, thank you to everybody that got in on this, Oliver Soria with last spot Mojo times two, Wesley Thomas with the first spot taken and the list of teams from Washington Nationals all the way back up to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Let's get a dice roll here to see how many times we're going to randomize each list. Two into four, six times. One, two, three, four, five and six and final times. DJ Mendenhall down to Matt McClacklin. Now six times on the teams, one, two, three, four, five and six and final time from the Seattle Mariners down to the Cleveland Indians. So we're going to go through this real quick so everybody can see it's one box break. If you would like there will be a trade window so if you're in here feel free to trade. Let's get it all on video. So from the top DJ with the DJ Mendenhall with the Mariners, Wesley Thomas with the Nationals, Daniel Graham with the Yankees, Ben Schicknolly with the Cardinals, Nancy Ripple with the Royals, Anthony Teacher with the Dodgers, Robert Primrose the Rangers, Jacob Palfee with the Angels, Travis Melbourne with the Braves, Sean Maddock with the Diamondbacks, Stephen Kendrick with the Brewers, Oliver Soria with the Blue Jays, Nancy Ripple with the Giants, Sean Atterbury with the Reds, Jeffrey Palkin with the Padres, Joseph Pugue with the Astros, Stephen Kendrick with the Pirates, Oliver Soria with the A's, Wesley Thomas with the Phillies, Jeremy Shacklist with the Tigers, Richard Faradis with the Rockies, Adam Harper with the Red Sox and the Metz, Ben Schicknolly with the White Sox with the Thomas with the Orioles, Joel Lala with the Cubs, David Harrell with the Rays, Mike Krasinski with the Twins, Richard Faradis with the Marlins and Matt McLaughlin with the Indians. Here is while you guys potentially are doing trades or anything like that, here are the loose boxes from 2019 Tops Tier 1. Obviously there are six here, so what we're going to do is we're going to roll a dice and pretty much straightforward, one, two, three, four, five, six, whatever dice it lands on, that's the box we're going to do, so good luck. That's a three. So we're going to do box number three, so the other ones will be for any other fillers and it doesn't look like there's any trade talks, so we'll go ahead and print and rip. So we're looking at 2019 rookie class here, so final list here. All of our Soria last spot mojo with the Oakland A's and the Toronto Blue Jays. We've got four hits of this, typically it's one relic and two autos, but this one looks like it's two relics or two and two autos. So we'll just move that to the back.  Our first auto is Tehran Guerrero for the Miami Marlins, numbered 82 out of 250. Miami Marlins, Richard Perotis. The second auto is Torrey Hunter, nice. 40 out of 100, that is Minnesota Twins version of Torrey Hunter. Mike Krasinski, that's going to you. Love me some Torrey Hunter, as an Angels fan especially. And that's the break. Now let's go ahead and give away five spots in the 2019 Top 5 Star break. So we're going to come back over here. Here's the original list of customers names from Wesley Thomas down to Oliver Soria in the last spot mojo. New dice roll here, Top 5 after 6 and a 4, 10 times. Get entered into this next break. Good luck everyone. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, it was 10 right? Yeah, 6 and a 4, 10 times. 7, 8, 9 and 10th and final time. Good luck everyone. From spots 6 to 30, thank you very much for trying and hopefully I do better for you next time. But congratulations to Nancy Ripple, Sean Matic, Mike Krasinski, Anthony Titra and Oliver Soria with Last Spot Mojo. There you go guys. Thank you very much. That was 2019 Top's Tier 1 Baseball 1 Box Break, Random Team Number 1. I'm Sean, jaspyscasebreaks.com. Coming up 2019 Top's 5 Star, which we just gave away five spots in. We'll see you soon.


Thank you, Pokhara and Nepal for having me as a speaker. I feel privileged to be in Nepal. And I'm going to talk about how to submit items in WordPress repository in a smart way. So it's actually about contributing. WordPress is open sourced, and it's actually growing and developing day by day through contributions. So we need to contribute for the better meant of WordPress and for us too. So this is me. I am Mizan Rahman Mizan. I am a software engineer post-grad in CS and MSIT. I am working with WordPress from 2002, but professionally from 2012. And I was a lecturer in Indian University in Bangladesh, University of Information and Technology and Sciences, and I'm the founder of Technocrats, which already has been addressed. So how to contribute, things we can do in WordPress repository. So I want you to cooperate with me. So do you know how we can contribute to the WordPress community? Any idea? Who are starting WordPress? Who are the beginners? Can you raise your hand? Working with WordPress for at least six months or a year? Can you raise your hand? OK, more than that? More than two years? OK, nice, pretty good. So in WordPress repository, we can actually do three things. We can support others, and we can submit theme and plugin, and we can review theme and plugin. So in order to contribute, what do you need? We need a WordPress.org account for helping and support. You need to have a supportive mind and patience, because it's fully voluntary work, and you are not getting anything but knowledge, and you are helping people, so you are actually getting two things.  And by helping others, you are actually literally learning new things, because people have different questions, and their item has different types of problems. And programmatically, even supportively, we sometimes don't understand what others are saying. So actually, you are supporting others, and you are learning things. So both ways, knowledge way and also skill way. So that's the first benefit of supporting, and it helps a lot, because I have learned my programming by helping in my university chapter, like university student council. I used to volunteer. I used to teach them programming. I was a programming contestant. I did ACM contest, regionals, and stuff like that. So I tried helping. So it helped me a lot to gain knowledge. So you should also try. Even if you know how to write hello world, I think you are a better candidate to be a support staff in WordPress community. So you should jump in. And to review items, let's go to the second, review and submit items. I am going to the next slide. What we need for submitting items. I am addressing items for both theme and plugins. So if you want to develop theme, quite similar. And if you want to develop plugin, you can address, they're correlated, okay? So for submitting theme and plugins, you need a theme and plugins. That's correct, right? Without having a theme and plugin, we can't actually submit that. And the most important thing about WordPress, WordPress is GPL compliance. And you have to have the item fully GPL compatible. And I had one month of headache, understanding GPL licensing with my first item. So make sure that when you are submitting any item, it's GPL compatible. In short, what I can say about GPL is GPL means your item could be easily, anyone can distribute it, redistribute it. Anyone can use your code. Not necessarily, they always have to give you credit, but giving is good. And they can host your items. These are the most common mistakes that we do in our licensing. You have to explicitly declare that your item could be redistributed in any server or anywhere. So redistribution, we make mistake with the redistribution clause. We sometimes say that our item is not possible to use anywhere else, but that's not GPL compliant. Oh, okay. So in WordPress, it has to be GPL compatible, okay? Okay, so that's the first thing. Then properly escaped and sanitized. I hope you have idea about that. WordPress is very strict in the WordPress repository about sanitization and code validation. So you have to use all the special WordPress functions and classes to validate. So you should make sure that you are learning that properly and WordPress encourages us to make an item which is translatable and it's actually now mandatory. So your item should be translatable. So you have to use all the translation functions and methods so your item is easily translatable to any other languages and definitely error-free. So if your code has any error but it's properly displaying things, it's not going to happen. It's not going to come live in the WordPress repository. How to achieve that? I'm talking about theme. There are special guidelines to submit a theme. You should note and I will give this slide to the organizer or in my website. You can have this one. And there are some requirement in this link and you can join the official WordPress Slack channel, WordPress.slack.com. There you can look for the hashtag theme review. You will get a lot of ideas and you can ask any question. Trust me, I am the most silly question-seeker or questioner in the Slack channel. I even asked, what is GPL? I even asked, what is GPL there? So you can ask anything. But make sure that you are making, when you are doing some chit-chat, you make sub-channel or sub-talks with the one who is replying to you. And then otherwise, other will be irritated. So make sure you have all the data and tools. They have made it easier for us. There are a lot of tools for testing your code, both for theme and plugin. It's available in the developer.wordpress.org slash themes release and testing tools. You should have those. I am going to add my testing environment. I will, it's the catch for my talks. I will add my testing environment in my website or in the GitHub, so you can easily download those. But you should check this link.  So I have this one. So the common tools that we use and the reviewer use, the theme sniper from Nepal. The popular one is from Nilambar Sharma from Nepal. And he taught me a lot in my journey too. So I am very grateful to him. And Poena from, I guess, Ireland. They are my WordPress teacher, mentor in WordPress.org repository. So I would like to thank them. If you are listening, Nilambar, thank you so much for asking my silly questions and also Poena. Okay, so you should have the theme sniper, that sniper, I guess, yeah. So in that tool, you will have elaborate description about your code errors and mistakes. There are one from WordPress.org named theme check, but it's okay, but it doesn't give you most of the common mistakes, okay? And your code, you should have a translator creator for your code. I have a CLI, command line interface code from the community. So I'll give that in my website. I have only five or six minute left. So I have to give a lot of information back to the website for you to have it. So translator creator is a CLI based. I use that one. You can have any POD or other tools, but CLI is good. You just run a command and it translate, literally translate your item. And you should have validation for your code. I'm just going to the next slide. So first thing first, your item should be GPL compatible. And right now we can't promote our theme by writing anything, like in the screenshot of the theme. So we have to just take the screenshot from our theme, no extra writing, no feature writing is available. And permutable in the WordPress, no branding is allowed. And you can only write Lorem Ipsum in your code. You can even, sometimes we do write like, this theme is very good. In the body of our theme, the common template, we can't write anything. So we have to use the common pattern of Lorem Ipsum or anything that doesn't give any idea who you are. If you are using any third party tool, like we use Bootstrap, then font like font or Sam and stuff like that. If you use them, you have to give proper licensing and you have to take licensing if needed. So please make sure that you have licensed well and your license should be, you have to do that. Otherwise your item is not going to go live, trust me. And make sure that you have made all the basic requirements so your item don't get stuck for a long time. My first item got approved after five months. So it's a long time. Even I'm a developer for more than 10 years, but I was like, quite, what do you say? I didn't have any patience. I was impatient, so I didn't start it well and just changed one thing and submitted again and waited for six, seven days. And for first time every time six weeks then every two, three days I have to wait and it's a long, tedious journey. So please make sure you are not doing that, okay? And your code will be manually checked also. It doesn't, I have introduced or talked about some tools but that doesn't mean that they're not going to check your code manually. So don't make any manual mistake. Submitting plugin is quite easier compared to theme. That get approved quite quickly, but the rules are similar, okay? And all the theme check address should be issued. Theme check options should be, features should be checked and your code shouldn't have any PHP error. And the ultimate tip from me because I have submitted both theme and plugin to the repository, I'm mostly themes. So my tips to you if you want to submit, try to make a theme that is, you have lots of ideas, you have lots of plans to submit but try to make one minimal. So what I do, I always submit the blog option of my theme. If I have a multipurpose theme, I launch it with the blog, minimal feature. So go for blog or minimal feature with new theme. It will be easier to get approved. Then when your theme is live, they don't actually check too much, it goes immediately. If you update your theme, it is going to be easier, okay? So when you are submitting an item, please make sure that it's minimal and it will be easier for reviewing and then you can add features and bunch of features and make sure that always your item is work-based tools, term of service compatible and make sure the translation is proper. Submitting items for plugin and theme, there are some checklist which you should do. I'm not going to talk about them because my time is limited. So you should note or you can have this from my slide and repeat this thing and your item will be approved, I guess. For reviewing item, you need the same setup. You need same setup for reviewing item that you are using for submitting your items. But the process is different. We need to make sure this everything is correct and anyone can review. So even if you are new, you can still review an item. So make sure you are reviewing even if you don't have any items because even if you review and your review is not correct, then the senior is going to check it anyway. So if you approve something, that's not going to go live. So if you review, that is educational for you and for the community. So please try to review also. So you can check this and my time is, again I have to say that my time is limited. I wish I could have another five minutes. But anyway, you have to go to these two links to review an item. The requirement is on the top one and the second one is requesting an item. When you click on this one, you will have an item. If you are logged in to the WordPress account, your WordPress.org account. So I am going to add the tools in my website, misspress.com, slash workpress, whatcamp-pochara-2018. So you can note that link if you like. So I will add everything and I will have an elaborated video of my talk like an hour of video walkthrough for you to start submitting items and to review items. So I will make a larger, I mean longer video so you can start your journey. Okay, thanks. You can reach me at this website. This is my personal website, misspress. And you can email me or you can follow me and in Twitter or you can send me friend request in Facebook if you like. So this is my reaching point and thanks.


Accepting gifts and money from someone who you don't like um that's a good decision Okay, do you feel like that leads the person on or do you make it very clear?  Can I send you some food like okay? Like you know like Okay, it's because it's like you're not entitled to anything. Okay, I think it's transactional Sorry 51 a date That's a good decision, okay First day is absolutely no absolutely not immediately. No we are not about to go because it's just like that's kind of setting the tone You know because it's only gonna go downhill from that. You know what? I'm not gonna lie We're one of my exes on our first day I thought I was doing something by paying for like so we went out to eat first and then we did an activity after And I was like, you know what I'll pay Bad decisions don't do that cuz that's that's the standard that you're willing to not dish out anything No, let the man provide for you until you feel ready. Okay, don't try to prove a point for these things Don't do it. No, I did it one time. Um, I take that so serious like with the first date There was one time I was with a guy And I guess he didn't have it or something And he started pulling out quarters cuz I was like, no, he didn't And what did you do I left? Oh, what's up y'all? It's your girl Brianna Emani and the clip may be done But there's still more to come so make sure you like comment and subscribe


Scrubby McG, I had a friend that had a conspiracy theory about everything. I wonder if knowing truth is not enough. Knowing the truth is not enough. You have to act on those facts, right?  It's not enough that like I've known a lot of people that read a lot of books, right? Fine. But what are you doing with that information? You can't be a sinkhole, right? We as human beings have to act as notes. We learn something. We pass on that information. We act on that information. We act on that knowledge, right? That's how we create a better society. It's not enough just to consume. You have to also share, to create.


From around the globe, it's theCUBE with digital coverage of IBM Think 2021 brought to you by IBM. Hello everybody, welcome back to IBM Think 2021. This is theCUBE's ongoing coverage. We go out to the events. Of course in this case we do so virtually to extract the signal from the noise. My name is Dave Vellante and now we're going to talk about the intersection of business success and sustainability. It's a hot topic. We have a great panel for you. With me are Ali, Kamali, Sustainability and Climate Practice Lead at IBM Canada. Lucy Bonet is a senior consultant in customer experience and sustainability strategy also from IBM Canada and Karik Morris, executive partner, enterprise strategy, global energy and sustainability lead IBM UK. Folks, welcome to the panel, welcome to theCUBE. Thanks for coming on. Thank you. Thank you. Maybe Lucy you could kick it off to talk about what is sustainability and how has it all of a sudden become such a hot topic amongst leadership? Yeah, sure. So first off, it's actually my pleasure that sustainability has finally become a trendy topic and is now a key imperative in the business world. The pandemic really played a role in it as it made people realize that there's an intricate link between global scale events like the climate crisis leading to the acceleration of viruses spread and their own personal health or of their business. So sustainability really means that you're addressing the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations. To do so, companies use different frameworks and standards including ESG, standing for environmental, social and governance criteria to really assess their progress on their journey to sustainability. It comes with many metrics that they track or should track and choose to disclose for the greater benefit of all. One prerequisite I'd say to really building a successful sustainable company is really the need for a new form of leadership style. One that is purpose driven that really focuses on doing well while doing the right thing. And I mean, you might need examples here to illustrate what I'm saying. You could take Unilever and the really radical transformation of the palm oil industry they're leading. If Unilever did nothing, serious risk would really be posed in a few years on their whole business. So the company has started working with all actors across its value chain from training farmers to building alliances with competitors and stakeholders. And what Unilever is doing for the palm oil industry is actually cementing its reputation as an innovator and they're already reaping the benefits of having been first movers. All right, Karik, Lucy talked about an imperative. So take away there, it's not a check box, it's something that's sort of designed in. I wonder if you could talk to that. Yeah, I mean, sustainability is at the end of the day now is built into every decision, every process, every system. And leadership role in that space is about sort of developing new corporate strategies, new cultures, new approaches which are around. You know, actually how do I sort of do this? It's a real paradigm shift. It's not something you add to your business, it's something that needs to be called to your business. And that's requiring us to kind of re-imagining how we sort of go to work, how we do business, the processes, developing new products, leveraging new technologies. It's putting all of those pieces in and sort of making them work. And the key part of it is how do you do this in a way where we're not forcing people to make a choice between sustainability and profitability, sustainability and a way of quality of life. So it's how you kind of build that into kind of the core products and services and again use that ingenuity to kind of develop those and sort of develop the components that you need to as part of that process. The other part of this is then sort of getting into well actually from a leadership perspective, now how do I then change and the way that I sort of work with partners, with suppliers, with competitors? So it's really fundamentally changing the way the business itself works as well. You know, thank you. You know, Allie, when I talk about ESG, I sometimes tongue in cheek say Milton Friedman's probably rolling over in his grave because he's the economist who said that the only job of a company is to make profits and drive shareholder value. And so that's, I mean, that's a historical challenge but there's actually a business case for this. It's actually good business and we'll talk about that but maybe you could address some of the challenges that organizations are facing to really lean in and address ESG. Yeah, that's right. You know, there are a lot of components to go into this and as Lucy mentioned and Karik mentioned the complexities that come with that are a lot. They're significant. And so I'd say that the first challenge that I see is in regards to the alignment and integration of sustainability strategy within the organization's business model. So if we take a look at the typical life cycle which includes sourcing, production, operations, distribution and then end of life and recycling each of these components must consider the conduits for driving positive social impact and environmental stewardship. But that also, as you said drives opportunity and economic benefits for the organization. So these are components that could fall into three categories. The first one is what is the journey to net zero look like for you? How will I transform my operations, my strategy, my business models to achieve a net zero mission? What is circularity in the context of my business? How do I orchestrate for zero waste and include reuse, regenerative processes, restorative processes? And then how do I build in principles of sustainability into the design so that I integrate those components into the ways of working within this new world of sustainability that we're seeing? It's also the what and the how coming together to enable long-term value creation for the company. The second challenge that I see is around the performance monitoring and management. And as they say, you can't manage what you can measure. And so many organizations might not have the complexity roadmap laid out for the systems and data that's required in order to enable transparent and quality reporting. We think about data knowing what you have versus what you don't. Data management, capturing and transforming that data, integrating that data in a way that has a simple but effective use of methodologies as well as benchmarking. And then having a reporting system that allows you to see everything, almost a control tower of your E, your S, and your G. And then finally, we see sustainability has become a board level priority. It is a hot topic, but it's not always properly understood below the board level. So senior executives sometimes approach the conformance to change in the way that we normally approach things like regulation. But I think in this case, it's quite different because it is a bit of a shift to the person with a purpose as the center. Leaders must lead, they must hire, they must think, design and share. They must meet the challenge paradigms for diversity inclusion. And I think at the same time, encourage diversity but also divergence where it needs to be. They have to have the headspace to accept the truth in the collaboration with all stakeholders. So I think there are ways for companies to do this and for them to be successful. And I think that was one of them. For sure. And I think, Karik, that sort of leads me from what Allie was saying about IBM, big company has a big ecosystem. There are other large leaders within industry that can leverage ecosystems. And it may be set the tone and show the point the way for the long tail of smaller companies. But maybe you could talk about that ecosystem flywheel. What we are sort of saying is actually sort of quite a lot of differences between the way organizations are addressing this. And you are seeing some leaders in this space. And you are seeing people who are taking a stand around these components and actually trying to shape just not only what they do, but also what organizations do around them. And if you kind of look at this, there's almost kind of three categories to that. There are organizations that are sort of seeing this as an existential change. If I'm looking at mining, I'm looking at oil and gas, I'm looking at travel and transport. And what you're sort of seeing there is a fundamental shift in their business. And it's requiring them to rethink how they do things in a very structured and actually quite an extended way. If I'm looking at other organizations like retailers, it's actually a little less of an existential change. It's a more of an incremental one. But even so, they still have to change all that they do. But they can do it in probably a more staged approach. And then you've got influencers around that as well. So governments and financial services players, et cetera, who are sort of shaping the agenda and who need help and support around thinking through how they kind of measure the change, how they sort of make sure they're financing the right things, how they make sure they're actually sort of getting the returns they expect and actually the sustainability components are actually being driven by that. And I think that's kind of sort of where an organization like IBM comes in. There's a lot of technical change in here. There's a lot of data change in here. And actually these are the sorts of things that from a sustainability perspective are going to help to drive this in a more seamless and an achievable way, if you will. And so there's an awful lot that we're looking to try to do to enable that quickly, to kind of take things off the shelf, to rapidly test, and to actually sort of show people both what can be done and the value it then can create by sort of going down the sustainability journey. Okay, got it. Thank you. And Lucy, you touched on some examples at a high level in your opening remarks. And I'm interested in kind of the starting point that you see companies taking. And what's the right regime? I mean, you've got to put somebody, somebody's got to be accountable for the measurements and the cultural changes, but where do we start? Right, so one starting point is definitely to be looking at your data, right? And it's really tempting to forget when you're building products or you're creating experiences, it's tempting to forget thinking about their repercussions on the environment, on communities and on society. Their impact is made invisible for the sake of immediate user satisfaction and short-term business value. And, you know, although 60% of executives consider sustainability to be an essential competitive advantage, 80% actually of the products ecological impacts are locked in at the design phase. So that's why, you know, with a team of four IBM superstars, we've created the Sustainable Design Thinking Toolkit that was just launched and is in the process of being integrated into the official IBM Design Thinking site. And that's really a great start because it's meant to help design thinking practitioners take responsibility on making that impact visible from the very start of the process. And we've used it with multiple clients and for internal projects. And, you know, it's really helped infuse a sustainable mindset throughout the workflows and actually from the very, very start of it. One recent example was in the CPG industry where we've applied our new Sustainable Design Thinking activities to the problem at hand to get consumers to recycle more by enhancing their recycling experience. And what it allowed us to do is really to make sure that, you know, the privatization process of the first ideas that emerged included sustainable value into the mix so that the impact on the planet and communities wasn't a blind spot anymore. So thank you for that, Lucy.  Sometimes I get worried though, there's going to be analysis by paralysis and overthinking the strategy. Are there ways to get in and take smaller bites and iterate? What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, I mean, I think there absolutely are. And, you know, with lots of organizations, they really have to kind of feel their way into this new approach. You know, you actually kind of have to learn both what sustainability means but also sort of what it can deliver. So, you know, usually what we're sort of seeing is as organizations will start off with things which are under their control. So how can I change my manufacturing processes? How can I change some of the internal components of what it is that we do to make them more sustainable, to reduce waste, to reduce sort of kind of the energy usage components which are associated with that.  The second step we're sort of seeing with lots of organizations is that they're then moving into kind of their own ecosystem, if you will. So, you know, actually, how do I manage my supply chain more effectively? How do I drive transparency? How do I sort of also drive efficiency and carbon management from that sort of perspective? But also, how do I sort of highlight the sustainable gains I'm making on my products and get those messages to customers and highlights of what we're doing with both new products and services but also with the existing products and services. And then sort of your kind of your final piece, and actually this depends, it kind of goes back to what I was saying before about what industry you're in. But, you know, a lot of industries are also having to kind of face the challenge of any to change fundamentally. You know, the business I'm in is not going to work the way it works in a sustainable world. So actually, how do I kind of build an ecosystem-based approach? How do I kind of work with other partners? How do I kind of work with suppliers? How do I work with competitors? And actually, how do I build something at scale around a platform in order to be able to deliver these types of things? At IBM, we've been kind of creating some of those platforms and then scaling them quite rapidly sort of across a variety of different sectors. Yeah, and that's where you're going to see the measurable impact. Ali, do you have a framework for what the successful outcome looks like? Are there companies that are sort of models of success? I mean, I think IBM is one of them but maybe you could talk to that. Yeah, there are definitely companies to emulate and companies have really started to think about the connection point between the value that's driven by their business model as well as the effort and the impact that's being driven by their ESG, their ESG focus. And so while there might be components of success, I think getting it all together and all right is going to take time and it's going to be a bit of a sequence but a bit of a thought experiment. If you could sit into a boardroom or at a senior level executive discussion, when you think about success, would you hear things or discussions around how the company is building the environmental and social inputs to its products and services? And what does that sound like? Are they tangible, are they realistic and what are the methods and the tools that they're using? Would you hear conversations about how the company is evaluating or infusing sustainability across the value chain from procurement all the way to end of life or how about the participation of the company into other ecosystems that's driving the value into other industries? And we see the force multiplier effect that comes with that when companies partner together because we are either vendors or providers or consumers of every other product or service. And then I think lastly, would organizations start to think about how to generate value closer to home and how that value can be driven into communities into where their employees are based and those elements really improve the social element. So what to say last is there are elements of what good and success looks like when it comes to sustainability. But I think organizations can set their targets and meet industry benchmarks and frameworks which already exist and are really well-established but continuously increase their own targets to set better and more ambitious goals for themselves to move beyond, to leverage technology and be innovative and apply these tools and best practices in order to get there. And I think we'll get there over time. So I'm really encouraged by the progress that we're seeing and we hope at IBM to help accelerate that journey. Thank you. And Lucy, one of the things I'm excited about is the tech because this is where I think business does meet. Sustainability mean green tech, EEV. I mean, if I'm a nation, I want to be on top of that. If I'm a company, I think there's opportunities for invention and innovation. Can you talk about some of those innovative texts that we're likely to see? Right. Well, yeah, but to piggyback on what Ale is just saying and I think success can come in very different ways and forms be it creating entirely new business models like some clients we help in the oil and gas industry taking really bold commitments to shift to electric energy or significantly cutting costs such as there's brands in the CPG industry that are doing amazing things to optimize their supply chains and make them more efficient, more transparent, more secure or also protecting brand reputation and mitigating risks or gaining market share by creating differentiating value. You might have heard about L'Oréal taking really bold moves and switching all their products to 95% renewable plant sources and circular processes. It can also be about capturing value by charging a premium for sustainable products. Think about Tesla or Whole Foods, for example. I mean, there's so many great examples out there already. Excellent. So we got a wrap on some of my last question and I'll start with Ali and then we'll go to Carrick and Lucy can bring us home. Talk about why you were talking about ESG reporting and transparency and how it's great for the future and the economy and so forth. Why is this not going to be a fad? Why is it going to be sustainable? The sustainability of sustainable.  You're right. This is a big change for organizations and I think naturally their corporate social responsibility and sustainability reports have really been externally focused and I think that has been a great step in the right direction. But I think what's happening now is this convergence of sustainable material and transparent reporting that is equivalent to material financial reporting that we're seeing and eventually I think the end goal would be to be able to read a sustainable report and understand and quantify as well as qualify how much impact is an organization making year to year? And what are some of the initiatives that's driving what we have begun to see as a sustainable business strategy that is also a competitive advantage for organizations? So I think the benefit in the long term is going to create a lot of value for not just the shareholder but for the stakeholders like employees, like the communities in which these companies operate like regulatory agencies as well as municipal, federal governments and state governments. So I think this is a step in the right direction for providing a very clear direction on their sustainable initiatives. Thank you, thank you, Ali. Karik, can you weigh in here please? Yeah, I mean, I agree with all that Ali said there. I mean, I think with those stakeholders, the end of the day, this is a collective responsibility. We have one planet, one rock we all live on and we all need to be part of the process of actually making it change and you can't sort of change what you can't measure. So kind of holding people to account being able to share sort of the data that we've got and making sure everybody understands what the position is, how we're contributing and the role that we're actually still playing is going to be an incredibly important part of collectively coming together and making this change happen and making this change happen quickly which is what it needs to do. And Lucy, your passion shines through here. So it's appropriate that you close it out. Yeah, well, it all comes down to, do you want your business to still exist in a hundred years from now? And it does require courage and determination but we all have it in ourselves. Trying to find the ways that we can change things for the greater good. Find the energy in yourself to inspire others to act. That's why leaders with purpose and ingenuity are so, so important today. Thank you. Folks, thanks so much for the perspectives. You guys are doing a great work. Really appreciate your time on theCUBE today. Thank you. Thanks for having us. All right, it's been our pleasure and thank you for watching. This is theCUBE's coverage of IBM Think 2021, the virtual edition. We'll be right back.


of the German business community, from Robert Bosch, from Bayer, or the CEO of Deutsche Bank. They are here today as transatlantic friends. Mr. Secretary, rarely Europe has faced such a... Yes, you're watching a live presser right there from Berlin, you're Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Is there expected to speak very shortly amid the heightened tensions with Ukraine between Russia and Ukraine, Blinken was in Kiev just yesterday, and of course, attempting to diffuse the tensions with Moscow over Ukraine, warning that Russia could launch a new attack at quote, very short notice with me in studio right now, is Middle East correspondent Alec Pollard. Alec, so much expected of this speech from Blinken, because as the Americans at least describe it, we could see a Russian invasion into the Ukraine very soon, somewhere between January and February. Right, that's correct. Certainly there is concern here that this could blow up into something very serious, and there is that game of chicken where Russia is threatening, and perhaps they can do it as they did with the Crimea situation back in 2014, and the U.S. didn't respond, so they're certainly testing and seeing what they can get away with, and the question is how much of sort of a threat or how much of a deterrence the Americans are able to present here to prevent such an eventuality, and that's what Blinken obviously is going to try to do here in this speech. We already saw him speaking earlier also yesterday saying that if Russia or any Russian troops cross the border into Ukraine, then there will be a very severe U.S. response. But the question is, really, is the U.S. a paper tiger saying that they are going to enforce these type of threats, or will they just stand by idly? Certainly what happened in Afghanistan didn't help them much in that front. Blinken is taking the stage. Let's take a listen. Good afternoon. First let me say how honored I am by the presence of so many friends, colleagues, leaders across different communities here in Germany, and also leaders in the partnership that links our two countries. I'm grateful to all of you for being here. I'm grateful for this opportunity as well to be at the Academy of Sciences and Humanities. I heard a little bit from Seymour about the history, briefly walked the hallways, and I very much appreciate this hospitality. But it's an institution with an extraordinary tradition of scholarship, discovery, stretching back more than 300 years. And I understand that among other luminaries, Albert Einstein was a member here. So I should probably let you know that my remarks today will include very little about astrophysics, which will be to everyone's benefits. I want to thank all the institutions that are co-hosting us, including Atlantic Broca. By the way, my own history with the Broca, the bridge, goes back well more than 20 years. I remember very well spending time with visiting colleagues from Germany during the Clinton administration. But it's a pleasure to be with you, the German Marshall Fund, the Aspen Institute, the American Council on Germany. And I can't not acknowledge a great friend, colleague, going back to my university days, the Clinton administration, the Abad administration, Dan Benjamin. It's wonderful to see you as well. Over the years, these organizations have helped build, strengthen, and deepen the ties between our countries. One of the markers of a strong democracy is a robust, independent civil society. And I'm grateful to our co-hosts for their contributions to democracy on both sides of the Atlantic, and again for bringing us together today. So, as Sigmar said, and as all of you know, I have come to Berlin at a moment of great urgency for Europe, for the United States, and I would argue for the world. Russia is continuing to escalate its threat toward Ukraine. We've seen that again in just the last few days, with increasingly bellicose rhetoric building up its forces on Ukraine's borders, including now in Belarus. Russia has repeatedly turned away from agreements that have kept the peace across the continent for decades. And it continues to take aim at NATO, a defensive, voluntary alliance that protects nearly a billion people across Europe and North America, and at the governing principles of international peace and security that we all have a stake in defending. Those principles, established in the wake of two world wars and a Cold War, reject the right of one country to change the borders of another by the policies it pursues or the choices it makes, including with whom to associate sovereign neighbors to its will. To allow Russia to violate those principles with impunity would drag us all back to a much more dangerous and unstable time. In this continent, and this city, we're divided in two, separated by no man's lands, patrolled by soldiers with a threat of all-out war hanging over everyone's heads. It would also send a message to others around the world that these principles are expendable, and that too would have catastrophic results. That's why the United States and our allies and partners in Europe have been so focused on what's happening in Ukraine. It's bigger than a conflict between two countries. It's bigger than Russia and NATO. It's a crisis with global consequences, and it requires global attention and action. Here today, among this rapidly unfolding situation, I'd like to try to cut through to the facts of the matter. To begin, Russia claims that this crisis is about its national defense, about military exercises, weapons systems, and security agreements. Now, if that's true, we can resolve things peacefully and diplomatically. There are steps we can take, the United States, Russia, the countries of Europe, to increase transparency, reduce risks, advance arms control, build trust. We've done this successfully in the past, and we can do it again. And indeed, it's what we set out to do last week in the discussions that we put forward at the Strategic Stability Dialogue between the United States and Russia, at the NATO Russia Council, and at the OSCE. At those meetings, and many others, the United States and our European allies and partners have repeatedly reached out to Russia with offers of diplomacy in a spirit of reciprocity. So far, our readiness to engage in good faith has been rebuffed. Because in truth, this crisis is not primarily about weapons or military bases. It's about the sovereignty and self-determination of Ukraine and all states. And at its core, it's about Russia's rejection of a post-Cold War Europe that is whole, free, and at peace. For all our profound concerns with Russia's aggression, provocations, political interference, using against the United States, the Biden administration has made clear our willingness to pursue a more stable, predictable relationship, to negotiate arms control agreements like the renewal of New START and launch our Strategic Stability Dialogue, to pursue common action to address the climate crisis and work in common cause to revive the Iran nuclear deal. And we appreciate how Russia has engaged with us in these efforts. And despite Moscow's reckless threats against Ukraine and dangerous military mobilization, despite its obfuscation and disinformation, the United States, together with our allies and partners, have offered a diplomatic path out of this contrived crisis. That's why I've returned to Europe. Ukraine yesterday, Germany here today, Switzerland tomorrow, where I'll meet with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, and once again seek diplomatic solutions. The United States would greatly prefer those to be the case, and certainly prefer diplomacy to the alternatives. We know our partners in Europe feel the same way. So do people and families across the continent, because they know that they will bear the greatest burden if Russia rejects diplomacy. And we look to countries beyond Europe, to the international community as a whole, to make clear the cost to Russia if it seeks conflict, and to stand up for all the principles that protect all of us. So let's look plainly at what's at stake right now, who will actually be affected, and who is responsible. In 1991, millions of Ukrainians went to the polls to say that Ukraine would no longer be ruled by autocrats, but would govern itself. In 2014, the Ukrainian people stood up to defend their choice for a democratic and European future. They've been living under the shadow of Russian occupation and Crimea, and aggression in Donbas ever since. The war in eastern Ukraine, orchestrated by Russia with proxies that it leads, trains, supplies, and finances, well, that's killed more than 14,000 Ukrainians. Thousands more have been wounded. Higher towns have been destroyed. Nearly one and a half million Ukrainians have fled their homes to escape the violence. For Ukrainians in Crimea and the Donbas, their impression is acute. Russia blocks Ukrainians from crossing the line of contact, cutting them off from the rest of the country. Hundreds of Ukrainians are being held as political prisoners by Russia and its proxies. Hundreds of families don't know if their loved ones are alive or dead. And the humanitarian needs are growing. Nearly three million Ukrainians, including a million elderly people and half a million children, urgently need food, shelter, and other life-saving assistance. But of course, even Ukrainians who live far away from the fighting are affected by it. This is their country. These are their fellow citizens. And nowhere in Ukraine are people free from Russia's malign activities. Moscow is sought to undermine Ukraine's democratic institutions, interfered in Ukraine's politics and elections, blocked energy and commerce to intimidate Ukraine's leaders and pressure its citizens, used propaganda and disinformation to sow mistrust, launched cyber attacks on the country's critical infrastructure. The campaign to destabilize Ukraine has been relentless. And now Russia is poised to go even further. The human toll of renewed aggression by Russia would be by many magnitudes higher than what we've seen to date. Russia justifies its actions by claiming that Ukraine somehow poses a threat to its security. This turns reality on its head. Whose troops are surrounding whom? Which country has claimed another's territory through force? Which military is many times the size of the other? Which country has nuclear weapons? Ukraine isn't the aggressor here. Ukraine is just trying to survive. No one should be surprised if Russia instigates a provocation or incident, and then tries to use it to justify military intervention, hoping that by the time the world realizes the ruse, it'll be too late. There's been a lot of speculation about President Putin's true intentions. But we don't actually have to guess. He's told us repeatedly. He's laying the groundwork for an invasion because he doesn't believe that Ukraine is a sovereign nation. He said it flat out to President Bush in 2008, and I quote, Ukraine isn't a real country. He said in 2020, and I quote, Ukrainians and Russians are one and the same people. Just a few days ago, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted in celebration of the anniversary of Ukraine and Russia's unification in the year 1654. That's a pretty unmistakable message this week of all weeks. And so the stakes for Ukraine come more fully into view. This is not only about a possible invasion and war. It's about whether Ukraine has a right to exist as a sovereign nation. It's about whether Ukraine has a right to be a democracy. This hasn't stopped with Ukraine. All the former Soviet Socialist Republics became sovereign nations in 1990 and 1991. One of them is Georgia. Russia invaded it in 2008. Thirteen years later, nearly 300,000 Georgians are still displaced from their homes. Another is Moldova. Russia maintains troops and munitions there against the will of its people. If Russia invades and occupies Ukraine, what's next? Certainly Russia's efforts to turn its neighbors into puppet states to control their activities to crack down on any spark of democratic expression will intensify. Once the principles of sovereignty and self-determination are thrown out, you revert to a world in which the rules we've shaped together over decades erode and then vanish. And that emboldens some governments to do whatever it takes to get whatever they want. Even if that means shutting down another country's internet, cutting off heating oil in the dead of winter, or sending in tanks. All tactics Russia has used against other countries in recent years. That's why governments and citizens everywhere should care about what's happening in Ukraine. It may seem like a distant regional dispute, or yet another example of Russian bullying, but at stake again are principles that have made the world safer and more stable for decades. Now alternatively, Russia says the problem is NATO. On its face, that's absurd. NATO didn't invade Georgia, NATO didn't invade Ukraine, Russia did. NATO is a defensive alliance with no aggressive intent toward Russia. To the contrary, efforts by NATO to engage Russia have gone on for years and unfortunately been rejected. For example, in the NATO-Russia Founding Act, which was intended to build trust and increase consultations in cooperation, NATO pledged to significantly reduce its military strength in Eastern Europe. And it stunned just that. Russia pledged to exercise similar restraint in its conventional force deployments in Europe, again instead it invaded two countries. Russia says that NATO is encircling Russia. In fact, only 6% of Russia's borders touch NATO countries. Compare that to Ukraine, which is now genuinely being encircled by Russian troops. In the Baltic countries in Poland, there are around 5,000 NATO troops who aren't from those countries. And their presence is rotational, not permanent. Russia has put at least 20 times as many on Ukraine's borders. And Putin says that NATO is, and I quote, parking missiles on the porch of our house. But it's Russia that has developed ground-launched intermediate-range missiles that can reach Germany and nearly all NATO-European territory, despite Russia being a party to the INF Treaty that prohibited these missiles. In fact, Russia's violation led to the termination of that treaty, which has left us all less safe. It's also worth noting that though Russia is not a member of NATO, it, like many non-NATO countries, has actually benefited from the peace, stability, and prosperity that NATO has helped make possible. Many of us remember vividly the tensions and fears of the Cold War era. The steps that the Soviet Union and the West took toward each other over those years to build understanding and establish agreed-upon rules for how our countries would act were welcomed by people everywhere because they turned down the heat and made military conflicts less likely. Those breakthroughs are the result of a great deal of hard work by people on all sides. Now we're seeing that hard work come undone. For example, in 1975, all OSCE countries, including Russia, signed the Helsinki Final Act, which established 10 guiding principles for international behavior, including respect for national sovereignty, refraining from the threat or use of force, the inviolability of frontiers, the territorial integrity of states, the peaceful settlement of disputes, and non-intervention in internal affairs. Russia has since violated every single one of those principles in Ukraine, and has repeatedly made clear it's disdain for them. In 1990, the OSCE countries, including Russia, agreed to the Vienna document, a set of confidence in security-building measures, to increase transparency and predictability about military activities, including military exercises. Now Russia selectively follows those provisions. For example, it holds large-scale military exercises that it claims are exempt from the notification and observation requirements of the Vienna document because they're conducted without prior notice to the troops involved. Last fall, Russia conducted military exercises in Belarus with more than 100,000 troops. It's impossible that those exercises were no notice. And Moscow has failed to provide information on its military forces in Georgia to notify the OSCE of its massive troop buildup around Ukraine last spring to answer Ukraine's questions about what it was doing, all of which are required under that 1990 agreement. In 1994, in a pact known as the Budapest Memorandum, Russia, the United States and Britain, committed to, and I quote, respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine and to refrain from the threat or use of force against the country. Those promises helped persuade Ukraine to give up their nuclear arsenal inherited after the dissolution of the USSR, and which was then the third largest nuclear arsenal in the world. Well, we need only ask the people living in Crimea and Donbas what happened to those pledges. There are many more examples I could cite. They all support the same conclusion. One country has repeatedly gone back on its commitments and ignored the very rules it agreed to, despite others working hard to bring it along at every step. That country is Russia. Of course, Russia is entitled to protect itself. And the United States and Europe are prepared to discuss Russia's security concerns and how we can address them in a reciprocal way. Russia has concerns about its security and actions that it says the United States and Europe and NATO are taking that somehow threaten that security. We have profound concerns about the actions that Russia is taking to threaten our security. We can talk about all of that, but we will not treat the principles of sovereignty or territorial integrity enshrined in the UN Charter, affirmed by the UN Security Council as negotiable. And if I could speak to the Russian people, I would say to them, you deserve to live with security and dignity like all people everywhere. And no one, not Ukraine, not the United States, not NATO or its members, is seeking to jeopardize that. But what really risks security is a pointless war with your neighbors in Ukraine, with all the costs that come with it, most of all for the young people who will risk or even give their lives to it. At a time when COVID is running throughout the planet, have a climate crisis, we need to rebuild the global economy, all of which demand so much of our attention and resources, is this really what you need, a violent conflict that will likely drag on? Would that actually make your lives more secure, more prosperous, more full of opportunity? And just think of what a great nation like Russia could achieve if it dedicated its resources, especially the remarkable talent of its human resources, its people, toward the most significant challenges of our time. We in the United States, our partners in Europe, we would welcome that. Tomorrow I'll meet with Foreign Minister Lavrov, and I'll urge that Russia find its way back to the agreements it's forward to over the decades, and to working with the United States and our allies and partners in Europe, to write a future that can ensure our mutual security. But I'll also make clear that that possibility will be extinguished by Russian aggression against Ukraine, which would also do the very thing Moscow complains about, bolster the NATO defensive alliance. These are difficult issues we're facing. Resolving them won't happen quickly. I certainly don't expect we'll solve them in Geneva tomorrow. But we can advance our mutual understanding. And that, combined with de-escalation of Russia's military buildup on Ukraine's borders, that can turn us away from this crisis in the weeks ahead. At the same time, the United States will continue to work with our allies and partners in NATO, the European Union, the OSCE, the G7, the United Nations throughout the international community to make clear that there are two paths before Russia. The path to diplomacy that can lead to peace and security. And the path of aggression that will lead only to conflict, severe consequences, international condemnation. The United States and our allies will continue to stand with Ukraine and to stand ready to meet Russia on either path. It's no accident that I'm offering these thoughts here in Berlin. Perhaps no place in the world experienced the divisions of the Cold War more than the city. Here, President Kennedy declared all free people, citizens of Berlin. Here, President Reagan urged Mr. Gorbachev to tear down that wall. It seems a time that President Putin wants to return to that era. We hope not. But if he chooses to do so, he'll be met with the same determination, the same unity that past generations of leaders and citizens brought to bear, to advance peace, to advance freedom, to advance human dignity across Europe and around the world. Thanks so much for listening. Yes, you are listening right there to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken speaking in Berlin saying the crisis between Russia and Ukraine is a global crisis that requires global attention. The Secretary of State saying the crisis is not about weapons, but about the sovereignty of Ukraine also.


Welcome back to the School of Caste, this is challenge chosen number 70 and this one is Roy of Dave Street because he may not have mentioned it before but has got a master's degree in engineering from the University of Loughborough. How what class was it Dave? It was a first class with honours and best final year project and the deployment of industrial studies. Tim? So for those of you that are like a little bit of engineering I'm going to let head of engineering. Again I was going to bring him a certificate but I forgot. Anyway it is a Leonardo da Vinci self-supporting bridge in the human form. Wow what does that look like? That looks like you and a pro bro tag them in it to do this challenge with. So you need someone but you need someone that you trust and you need someone that is strong and the other thing is trains with good grip and a floor with good grip. Do I fit that criteria? You do all right Tim. You do all right. Yeah you want them with a good core. Right so you're going to go hands together. You start standing. Friendly. Your crates are going to improve as you go down. So you try and lower yourself down pushing in if you create equal pushing in. It gets scary about now and you just shuffle your toes. Bridge broke. Bridge broke. So there's a bit of peril involved in that. There is definitely the risk of hitting your face on the floor but I quite like the finished position. So if you check below for the grades you must tag your pro bow in the comments below so you can do this together and then tag the score cast thenx and challenge users 70 so we can see your attempts looking forward. If you've skipped forward and you've just started now this is not babestation. You're obsessed with that. If you haven't got subscribed to us yet that's somewhere higher than my Tim's. But my hip. If you haven't got the free beginners guide that's on Tim's hip and for last week's challenge that's on my hip down there. So until next week. I don't know where I've got here but class dismissed.


Hey, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Savara. Let me come close to you. I'm thankful so much and just seeing you guys here is such an amazing feeling. Biana said almost everything, so I'll just say thank you and this partnership is going to be awesome. Come to the show, come to the show of a lifetime. To the whole team, we love you man. The sacrifice is crazy. Thank you. We tried our best to give you quality. So with this new album we've gone to an extent of recording with a lot of amazing producers out there, people in LA. We just want to expand our horizon in a way that we believe collaboration is the key. So we've worked with amazing songwriters from all over the continent, from the world. We've had collaboration with other artists. I won't mention right now it's a surprise because also we haven't decided. So we have a list of 80 songs. So we're going to go into the bush and fight. It's always like a super fight. So after so first you're going to go into the bush and then just decide on the number of tracks. So it's still work in progress. I can't reveal a lot of details but just know we've gone to an extent of working with amazing engineers out there. We've recorded in Eze, we've recorded in LA, we've recorded in New York, we've recorded in Kenya, in Oshagoka, Megapia. So there's a lot to expect. Over time we're going to be revealing slowly by slowly. So from 80 songs we're going to see how we're going to go down to like 15 or 10 songs. So it's going to be a battle. So wish us the best. But anyway good music is coming. It's growth in different levels now. Like each one of us is going to explore deeper their own kind of creativity so that when we're back we bring something different on the table. Nisha zoya ujama. Nisha zoya ujama, kuna kitu different hand on the table. So like we used to each other so much that this break is going to be so important for our personal development. So we're going to be diving deep into different kind of creative kind of concepts. So when we come back we're going to come back rejuvenated with new ideas. We're going to be exploring a lot of creativity.