Today, we're giving our top lessons learned from this past year. Welcome to the Smarter Building Materials Marketing Podcast, helping you find better ways to grow leads, sales, and outperform your competition. All right, everybody, welcome to Smarter Building Materials Marketing, where we believe your online presence should be your best salesperson. I am Zach Williams, alongside my co-host, Beth Popney-Glove, and it's been an awesome year. We've done how many episodes, 52? One a week? We probably missed one or two. Yeah, roughly 50. Yeah, 50. We're gonna cross the 200 episode mark this next year. Like, very soon, very, very soon. What are we gonna do to celebrate? What are you gonna give me as a present? Wine? That feels appropriate. I heard the 200th episode is the wine anniversary. That's what I heard. It's well done. From all the podcasting friends you have? Yeah, mm-hmm. I have a whole Pinterest board on it. Excellent. We'll cover that in the next episode. But on today, we're giving our top lessons learned from this past year. Our team has gone through and done a little bit of research on, number one, what was our most popular episodes? And then what were the ones that we got the most feedback from? And so we've got our five biggest takeaways that we're gonna jump into with you here. Beth, what is the first one we're gonna dive into? So the very first one, we are going to go back to the very beginning, almost 12 months ago, to an episode and conversation that you had with Jerry Messina. Do you wanna tee us up for what you guys were talking about and how we came to this conversation for that part, Zach? Yeah, so Jerry's a long time friend of mine and we had him on the show and he was talking about architects and contractors. And he said something that was really interesting. We've always thought and heard from people in the industry that, hey, architects are a little bit more forward thinking. They're more likely to try new products. But in the changes that have happened in the marketplace, his comment was that, hey, contractors, if you can talk about how your product is quicker to installation or quicker to finish or whatever it might be, or you do more of the prep work as a manufacturer, you're actually more likely to flip a contractor. So let's quickly play that clip for our listeners and then we'll give a little recap. Because I know that if you look at all different audiences building product manufacturers target, architects, builders, homeowners, GCs, facility managers, I mean, the list goes on. But like contractors are the ones that are probably for the most part the most reluctant to change. You could argue that, you know, pro against pro for the most part. And I'd be curious to get your perspective on, are you seeing people more likely to try new products? And if so, what's working to get them to try new products? Yeah, I think they are more willing than say an architect, you know, an architect has a reputation and if they find something that works, it's much harder to get them off the spot. A contractor, especially now with labor shortages and the challenge to get folks who really understand how to install a product properly, are a little more open if you can come and say, hey, I can install this X percent faster and here's proof. You know, I did a study, a third party study even would be better. But if I did a study, I got other contractors who've used it and they're validating that this product went in well, it performed because it's so hard now for contractors to find qualified people to do the more technical aspects of a window installation, say that if you can have the product installed quicker, maybe pre-install some stuff to the factory so that when it gets to the job site, there's two less steps they have to do and they can get off the job quicker and get onto their next job. So they are a little more open than I would say an architect might be. That's interesting. Probably like one of the first people, Jerry, that I've heard say that. Zach, it sounds like you were really surprised by the feedback from Jerry there. After thinking about it and having other conversations throughout the year, what do you think now? You know, my first response and thought is like, yes, that makes sense for certain products. Like that totally makes sense. But I think that my big takeaway is that the messaging that works today is gonna, it's always gonna change. And so like one thing we always thought about with contractors was, hey, we do want to help them make more money. We want them to have an easier time installation but there's been so much pain with speed and issues there that there's a higher likelihood of trying new products. So I think about messaging, I think about what moves the needle when it comes to getting somebody to try your product and that the market as a whole is constantly shifting. But I thought it was a great conversation and he brought some really good firsthand insight on what he's seen work in the industry. So the next one on our list here is a conversation we had in episode 162 with Kevin Kilpatrick who's the chief marketing officer of Blue Lake Lumber. And Beth, I'll let you take this one here but I think it's what he's talking about is really interesting and something that honestly applies to every single building product company out there. Like a lot of our shows will apply like to one segment or one audience but it's interesting when we run into an episode where like, oh, this applies to every single brand out there. Yeah, I completely agree. We actually brought Kevin on because he has significant experience in working with manufacturers and building products companies that are going after both an English speaking and Spanish speaking community and building specifically authentic marketing for the Spanish speaking community. And so in this clip, he's talking specifically about that about not just translating what you have in English into Spanish in case somebody needs to read it in Spanish but actually creating a community for the Spanish speaking base of a specific brand. I love what he has to say here. So I'm glad that we get to revisit it. It's absolutely like evergreen advice. I'd love to hear your opinion on how manufacturers can do that in a way that offers authentic customer support to the Hispanic customer base. Simply offering installation information in English and Spanish is not authentic customer service for a significant portion of your customer base. So can you talk a little bit about your experience of building out an authentic presence amongst that target demographic? And that's when we had the name of the media platform was Constragia Al Diaz. So the up-to-date construction guy and it was a hundred percent in Spanish and we started as a magazine and we kind of tripped it into video and social and digital and everything else and really watched trends closely. We can tell you, we worked with over 200 different manufacturers on this process and then targeting this consumer, right? So it is, like I said, there's some intricacies on how they differ and in the media habits or how they learn and then being authentic to your point is so many times we had clients and we would advise against this but they would run an ad with us or buy some media with us and it would be in Spanish and it would look pretty and you'd hit that link and you go to their site and it's in English. I could see it coming, I could feel it. So you're inviting them to the party in Spanish and then you're like, everything's in English. It's easy enough to, I mean, it's an extra step and it's an extra expense but to translate the videos into Spanish and have your own YouTube channel in Spanish. To have your manuals are downloadable in Spanish and every touch point needs to be in both languages from the original ad or the digital ad all the way through their journey and learning about you. The YouTube videos, it's easy enough to translate downloadable information, the white papers. You've already created the content. It doesn't take that much longer to put it in Spanish and create an environment that they feel comfortable in. And so what we saw is that there are so many manufacturers that aren't creating an environment that is inviting and authentic and so they're searching out ones that do. So that they are gonna have the head start with this consumer. You know, that this is a really great clip and I actually did a little bit of research after this episode and the thing I took away was I was trying to see if there was data out there about increasing Spanish speaking individuals within the building product space and how many people are actually trying to translate content and things like that. And there's not like a definitive amount of data there but there is an increasing number of Spanish speaking or native Spanish speaking individuals in North America as a whole. And so to me, there's like two slam dunk wins here is that like if you've got an installer base who needs this, like number one, go do it.  And so it's kind of a no-brainer here. It's just the unfortunate part is it takes time and effort but we've heard time and time again. I mean, Beth, you could speak to this that people tend to respond really well and they'll actually prefer your brand because you care about them and their pain point, you know, being the, getting the content is worth as possible. An easy place to think is if you talk about you have great customer service but you know, you have a significant Spanish-speaking customer base then you need to be servicing that customer where they are and as who they are. This is just a really easy, straightforward, authentic way to show them how much you care and how much you value their business. The next one we've got on the list is episode 160 with Jan Ruckers. She's the president and founder of Vestabule, excuse me, she's the president and founder of Vestabule School of Design and we talk about CEUs here.  And it ended up being like one of our most popular episodes. I agree, yeah. Just because I think that a lot of people have the same questions as we do, which is like, should I really do these things? Are they really gonna help? And it was a really valuable conversation. What did you think, Beth? So like all cards on the table, I had the same feeling. I was like, okay, we should talk about this. This is gonna take a lot of energy to make it interesting. And it was the opposite experience for us. Jan was incredible. Had really good information to share, but that's kind of how people can feel about CEUs themselves. And I think it's a great example of if you're engaged, if you're educated and have an interesting conversation, then actually having an educational tutorial about your product or product category can be really, really interesting. And I love that Jan brought that to the episode and just really brought to life what she preaches, which is making it interesting and impactful for your audience. So if a lot of manufacturers have some form of CEUs, whether on an official website or on their own side or many ways, and if I'm a manufacturer that's already released some type of CEU course or is currently developing one, how would you recommend that I evaluate it to know if I'm doing it right or not? Yeah, well, I think, you know, first off, you know, when you're sitting down to write, to write a CEU, even just putting aside all of the rules and the regulations, there's all of that. You know, I think that just like I said, you've got to go through it and make sure you're talking to the professional, not the consumer. That would be the first thing that I'd be looking for. What type of little tidbits can you offer to that professional that they're gonna get? Like, and I think that's another thing too. As a designer, I've been trained in the elements and principles of design or as an architect, you know, I'm trained in structural and mechanical things as that manufacturer writing a CEU be okay with talking that technical end of it, but without making it dry. So that'd be the first thing. I'd go through making sure you were talking to the professional. The other thing, and this is a real pet peeve of mine, is to really look at your images that you wanna make sure any of the images that you're using in your CEU are appropriate. I cannot believe how often I'll be looking at some educational piece of information and they'll have an image and I'll be reading something and then I'll see the image and they don't compute. They've grabbed a marketing image or they've grabbed a stock image and nobody's really paid attention. And as a professional, you've lost me there. I've seen mistakes from the big organizations right down to the small guy. They make the mistakes. They hand off that end of it to an intern to find some images to go with it and they miss the mark. So those two things, talk to the professional, make sure your images are reflective of what you're saying would be very important. Yeah, it was such a good episode. Episode 160, which I encourage you to listen to if you haven't. The next one on our list is actually episode 163, which was about solutions for labor shortages and how manufacturers can help. We had Spencer Brown, who's director of sales at Fister Fawcett and Kevin Johnson as the president of CHS Plumbing on the show with us. It was a great episode because they were talking about specifically how are they tag teaming the labor shortage issue and how they're going after a younger generation? And this is one of those other episodes that it doesn't matter what category or industry you're in when it comes to your brand, that this is something that's facing almost every single manufacturer out there. So it's a great episode and great reminder for how you can help your partners as well as how you can get ahead of the labor shortage problem. Let's listen to a quick clip of that one. I'm a manufacturer who I see this and I'm like, this is the answer. Let's tell interesting stories. Let's get in front of the younger generation and get them excited, not just make them feel like it's second best option, but a great option. What's next and how could manufacturers get involved or start something like this? Yeah, that's interesting. So as we've come out of this and it started showcasing what we're doing, the amount of other manufacturers that have reached out to us has just been incredible. They've asked how they can be a part of it because they obviously see it too. Their customer base or plumbers, they hear the same thing. And I think a lot of people have tried to do some things differently and try to be involved, but they're seeing what we're doing now. They really want to be involved. And one of the brands that we did bring on in season two was Rigid, which is a big incredible brand name in the plumbing community. They specialize in a lot of tools for plumbers and they're donating product to a lot of the high schools. So there's some things like that in donations or we're not asking for sponsor, we're not getting on sponsor, but they have become a sponsor in a way that they're helping us provide, getting the word out even more for us because of their base. So yeah, I think that's important. Definitely is the, because a lot of these schools, the money is not there.  There's no budget for that. And so it's going to help manufacturers can help support that a lot just by donating. And in return, they're getting their brand name out if these younger students become plumbers, they'll probably remember their brand. So it kind of works both ways. I love this episode because labor shortage is a extremely prominent topic in our industry. But this is, I would file this under not at all what you would expect because they go after it through telling stories. And similar to what we said about Jan, this was incredibly interesting for a topic that you're like, what could possibly be said here that hasn't already been said, that hasn't already been said. And it's the whole episode hasn't been said before. It's such a unique perspective and strategy to tackle the labor shortage issue. I just, I really, really enjoyed the conversation. Highly, highly recommend the episode. And the final one on our list is episode 166, which is how to support builders in today's construction industry. We had Caleb Williams, who's from TrueCraft Builders on the episode with us. And he's talking in this episode about what challenges he and other builders are facing that comes to supply chain issues. And more specifically issues with what happens when they don't have product and or using the example of land. Let's quickly listen to a clip from that episode. If I'm hearing correctly here, Caleb, they're hedging their bets saying, hey, we don't know what the market's gonna look like, but if we wanna survive today, we're having to buy material and just hope. Hope's the wrong word here, but expect that demand is gonna continue. And we're hearing that from other, even contractors too, like I'm having to overbuy product. In order to make sure my doors stay open, you know? Is that right? That's right, we're having to overbuy. I told the guys, I said, we'll use the material somewhere. If you have a leftover store, we'll use it somewhere because it's so hard to get, whether it's plywood, sheetrock, whatever the material is. So we know we're gonna use it somewhere. But the other thing, no one, what they're saying as far as material, the other thing, they're not making any more land. The land that's here is what you have. So as a developer. That's a really great way to say it.  It's probably not gonna be there in two or three years. So if you see land today and you wanna start a development and you have the backing to do that, you've gotta go ahead, even though it might be two years from now, you've gotta buy that land today. And so knowing what Lowe's is saying about, hey, we're buying material for the next two to three years because all the permits that are issued today, short of a war or an economic crisis happening overnight, we're still gonna need these houses. There's such a shortage in houses a year from now. We still won't be caught up. So by looking at that, you can say, hey, I'm gonna go ahead and purchase this land because I know even if I'm not ready for another two years, I've got this land in place, I've got this development planned so that I can move forward at that time. And if you're not thinking that far ahead now, you're gonna be behind. The days of going out and just buying a lot here and there, I think are there in the past, you've gotta be planning for the future. And you can't wait for just months at a time. I can remember three years ago, if you wanted to go a lot, you'd go down the road and you see a lot of sign, you call about it and you get it under contract and that's not the way it is today. This episode is interesting because it's a really good vantage point into how builders think about the problem that they're facing about getting product, getting land, making things happen. I mean, he's literally talking about overbuying. Like overbuying is like, I don't care, like I need to make sure I have this. Yeah, it's not necessarily quite the issue that it once was, but even though it's not necessarily the issue, it goes to show you like what these individuals are willing to do if they see a risk or an issue that comes up against their organization. I think you could say here, we're going into a market that's going to be more unpredictable than we've seen in the past couple of years. There's tons of conversation about what's going to happen, but nobody obviously knows for sure. And it's easy to sit in your own seat and hear sales predictions, concerns about revenue, longevity, keeping the factories running at full capacity, but to remember that for your builders, they have their own pain points and it's not just we have too much inventory and how are we going to sell this, but that goes farther down the chain and resonates deeper with them. And I think that's really what's being said here by Kayla, because he's being really honest about how they had to react, not even wanted to react and just keep that in mind. Well, I think it's also why I like our podcast because we get to hear like all the pain points that are happening in the industry and it's a good reminder. All the honest feedback, like really honest conversations sometimes. Well, we had that one event in Denver where we were asking all the developers and builders, like, hey, what are the problems you're running into? Like, nobody, the great thing about this industry is like nobody really softballs anything. That's my favorite, yeah. Here's the issues, here's why I'm upset, here's what would make me happy. Here are the exponents that I need to use to show you how upset I was. Yes. Which was authentic, it was true, it was really, no one was being rude, it was just, it was a 10 out of 10 emotional experience as well as business experience and that sometimes comes out. True. This to me is a good reminder of the fact that we need to always be listening to our audience and hearing from them what are the things that they're dealing with because you don't want to get in a situation where like what we've had of Alaska of Ears where a lot of manufacturers can't really like have not listened to their audience. They just been like, hey, there's so much demand, there's, you know, I'm gonna sell this thing no matter what. And now manufacturers are playing catch up like the thing we heard from our event and in this episode was that, well, you know, you burn that bridge, I'm not, you know, I'm not necessarily brand loyal anymore. I'm willing to try other things because of how you treated me when things were, you know, crazy. So to your point, it's unpredictable but having that foresight to always care about your customer and over communicate even when there are issues is really, really important. Yeah, absolutely agree. Absolutely agree. Zach, this was a killer year. Killer. Killer year. I wanna take a moment to two things. I'm gonna, Beth, I wanna thank you first and foremost for elevating the quality of this episode or excuse me, all of our episodes, you know? This, no, it's just this one. The rest of them at subpar. No, you do a great job. I've mentioned this before on this show that like every couple of years, like my, well not every couple of years, every year or so my siblings will get around like a Christmas time and like look at reviews of the podcast and they always make fun of me because they're like, everyone's talking about Beth. Like I thought that this was your episode. Well, I'm using this as a story as a reference point to our listeners to, you know, if you wouldn't mind if you're listening to this and you found our episodes helpful or our content helpful, take a moment, go to the iTunes podcast store, find our episode and give us a five star review and a nice comment. We would be so, so thankful and grateful for that. I mean, we wouldn't be able to do this show. It really makes a difference, yeah. It really does make a difference. We wouldn't be able to do this show without you. Like we all the time ask for opinions of like, what do you wanna hear? And I love getting like those random emails from people that are like, hey, I'd really like to listen to X, Y and Z, right? We had one guy, I'm not gonna name his name, we had a guy on the show, we asked him after the show like, hey, what do you wanna listen to? And he's like, I wanna hear from more manufacturers. He's like, I wanna, I just, I just like, I love hearing, I love hearing from more manufacturers than other people are like, oh, I really like hearing from voice of the industry. You know, so we encourage you to drop us a note at podcast.fenvio.com. If there's something in particular we have not covered that you want us to cover in 2023, we're doing some content planning. So there, and we'd find that really, really helpful and give us that five-star review that would be a huge, huge blessing to Beth and I. But again, Beth, thank you so much for a great year. This has been awesome. And 2023 is gonna be even better. I'm excited. Well, for our listeners, again, thank you so much for being a part of our show this past year. It's been our best ever and we are 100% confident 2023. It's gonna be incredible, even better if I can make the prediction. Again, until next time, I'm Zach Williams alongside Beth Popticlove. Thanks everybody.


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Welcome. This is Melissa Armo with the Stock Swoosh and I'm introducing some 40% off sales for Cyberwink. Cyberwink is here. I've already done all of my personal Christmas shopping. So I'm running the sales through Sunday, December 9th. No exceptions. You've got to sign up for that date if you want any of these 40% off offers. So I've been thinking about joining or want to dip your toes in the water with some of my extra classes now is a good time. So I'm offering the Trends course, which includes one month free in the trading room. Normally almost $1,000, $9.99 for $600 for the Cyberwink. The GAP Options course, which is normally $2,500, includes one month of the GAP Options newsletter free. $1,500 is the Cyber Sale price. And the market report for one year, it's a weekly subscription. Normally $600 for the year, $360 is the 40% off price. And the market outlook report, which is $150 for the one time report you get in January, 40% off is $90. So I've been running these sales now for since this week, last week. And it's a good way if you're thinking about joining and you want one month free in the trading room or one month free, the GAP Options newsletter, this is a way to get one of these secondary classes and then spend a month in the room or a month in the newsletter to get a feel for whether or not you like the GAP Trading. And then you can take the bigger classes or you could sign up for the GAP Options newsletter for the one year free, because I don't have a monthly subscription for the GAP Options newsletter. And $1,500 is a great price for that class and the one month of the newsletter. So here was a trade back, gosh, it seems like forever ago, it was back at the end of November before Thanksgiving, when Target gapped up, it had a beautiful move on earnings, closed here around $1,10 change, boom, gapped up over $120, flew like a dickens. This was a really, really nice bullish move. So I had called the $1,21 a cause and this was a fabulous, fabulous move up for the stock. I called it in the pre-market, stock ran up like crazy and actually kept going. So this was an advanced risk. And again, options, you only have at risk what the cost of the option is. So like for example, you could have bought one contract and paid $1.60, but if you wanted to take an advanced risk was 45 contracts, which is essentially like buying 4,500 shares, except for when you buy an option, you don't have to worry about margin. It's just the cost of it, which in this case was really actually very good for $1.60. Exit was at six, a great move up, profit $19,800, 275% return investment and a really nice trade. Huge home run for everybody. Beautiful move in the target. So think about it, the holidays are here. It's a good time to get your mindset and gear, learn some things, start trading, take the momentum into 2020 for you to be successful. I'm here if you have any questions, if you want to reach out to me, if you need anything, if you are trading right now and you're not doing well, it's time to change what you're doing. You don't want to lose in 2020, you want to make money. And I'm telling you, the training for living is one of the greatest jobs in the world. You work for yourself, you work from home. You must have a strategy to trade though. You must know what to do. If you don't, you won't be successful. And so it's very important. I found that even being on television, a lot of people have no clue how to read a chart correctly. And it's the price analysis that tells you what to do. If you're following right now news and trading based on news, you're getting whipped around like a seesaw this calendar year and even last and they'll be worse in 2020. Cause remember 2020 is an election year. So if you want to learn my system, it's called the golden got course. The last class for the year is December 14th and 15th class, tuition is 64 99 class of the class and must be paid up front. The deadline is the 13th, which is December 13th. It's 90 M to 5 PM Eastern time. Again, email me if you want to sign up to get in and take the last class for this calendar year. Then the trends, if you want to do that separately is December 17th, 11 to two, you want to sign up for the combo at 69 99 and you save $500. Don't delay.  Wish the cyber sales are great deals. They're through December 9th. No exceptions. If you want to sign up, email me. 2019 is almost over and it was a good year, but 2020 is going to be even better. It's hard to believe that it is almost New Year's Eve, but it is. And it's time to evaluate what you're doing, make some changes in your life and get moving to achieve the goals that you want and be successful. 2020 is right around the corner. Do not delay. So if you're interested, email me and Melissa at the stocks, wish.com. Have a great week trading everyone and have a fun cyber week shopping.


This is $5 and this is a $5 casserole. Also, I have a secret ingredient that's going to turn this casserole into a masterpiece. So the first one is our brown sugar overnight French toast. So we have 12 slices of Texas toast bread that is $1, 10 eggs is $1.98. Our milk, we only need about two cups so it comes to about 75 cents just for those two cups. Now our butter comes to about $1 for just eight tablespoons. So in total, everything comes to about $4.73. So we're going to take our Texas toast and cut them into about one inch cube. So then you're going to take your nine by 13 and spray it with non-stick cooking spray. And we're just going to start putting in our bread cubes. Now we're going to crack our 10 eggs and add in our two cups of milk into our bowl. Then to all the eggs, we're going to add about two cups of our milk. I love making these $5 recipes, making them to breakfast recipes because I feel like that is one of the cheapest recipes that you can make. All right, into our egg mixture, we're going to add two teaspoons of vanilla. And it's okay if you add a little bit more on the French toast. So we have a fourth cup of sugar and about two teaspoons of cinnamon. So we're going to use some of that but then we're going to use, you guessed it, our new cinnamon churro seasoning because I'm telling you, this stuff makes everything taste so good. So good. Okay, so we're going to just, I'm going to eyeball here because you know that's how I roll. We're going to go about two tablespoons full. Now usually I'll use like a big nine by 13 pan but if I'm going to take breakfast somewhere or just someone, I love using just like the tin foil pans, the aluminum pans. I'm just going to be very careful. It's not usually as big as my nine by 13. The goal is to just kind of get all the bread pieces moist, wet, covered in liquid. There we go. Then we're just going to take this and set it aside because now I'm going to make like the brown sugar topping and I am excited for that. All right, so in a separate bowl, we're going to add about six ounces of butter. I'm actually going to add eight ounces because I like this a little more butter. And then in here, I have a half cup of flour and a half cup of brown sugar that we're going to kind of like fold into this butter. So they say to use like a pastry cutter. I'm going to be honest, I don't have a pastry cutter. So I'm just going to use a fork and just smash my butter into this flour and brown sugar. And we just kind of want like a pastry top, like topping I guess. It will make it so good as it cooks. So I'm assuming that most of you have brown sugar and flour in your pantry. I know that I have a ton, so I'm not counting that towards the $5 because I don't buy those things very often. Now we have like our cinnamon churro topping, which I am so excited for. Also, I forgot to mention, if you want some of the seasonings, I'll put them down below in the description for you, the link for them. There's not a ton of them. The first order is going to be kind of small. So if you want it, grab them quick. Okay, we're just going to do like a little crumble right on top of this French toast. And we're going to stick it in the fridge. Let it sit there overnight. That will make it taste so good in the morning. Now, if you don't have time to sit it overnight, that's okay. You can actually cook it right now and it will still taste good. Okay, I've been sitting in the refrigerator for a little bit. We are going to cook this at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes. You're going to want to watch it. You don't want it to burn. So let's stick it in the oven. Time to taste it. This looks so good. You don't even need syrup on this thing. So good. Five out of five on that one. Definitely five out of five. Okay, Enzli, French toast bake. Bots. It's really hot. It's really hot. It's really, really good. Yeah. What do you rate? What do you rate this? Five out of five. Yes. It is good for a five dollar recipe, right? Yeah. The next recipe I'm making is our cheesy pizza pasta casserole. So we have our pizza sauce is one dollar and 20 cents. Our rotini is 92 cents. Our pepperoni is 272, but we're only going to use half of it. So we're only going to account for a dollar and 36 cents of the pepperoni. And then cheese, I buy cheese in bulk. So for about a cup and a half, it comes to a dollar 50. Then we have a lot of seasoning and stuff. I'm assuming everyone has seasonings in their pantry. So we're not going to count that. All right, so we're going to take three cups of rotini and just put it into the bottom of the Instant Pot. You all know I love cooking noodles in my Instant Pot. Okay, so when you cook in your Instant Pot, you want to pour water until it just reaches the very top of the noodle. Okay. Okay, you just want to make sure most noodles are covered because if you don't, you'll have crunchy noodles. No one wants crunchy noodles. Okay, we're going to go ahead and put a lid on. Okay, we're going to go to pressure cook. And we're just going to cook noodles for four minutes because that's all you need to cook for. So then on this Instant Pot, I need to push start. Once I start it, I can just walk away. So we're going to turn it to medium high heat. And we're going to just add a little seasoning to our pizza sauce. Now, if you want to spend more than $5, this is the time where you add like ground beef or something like that. Add my seasonings. I'll put a link in the description of all the seasonings I have in here. There's quite a bit because we want it to taste good. And we'll just mix it in here. Mostly until it's heated through. We are just waiting for our pasta to finish cooking. Now to spice up this recipe a little bit more, we're using some of our new seasoning. This is our peppercorn ranch. Holy cow. I love ranch in all things, especially in my pizza. So we're just going to add some seasonings. It's going to be good. I'm so excited. Three, two, one. So with pasta, it gets foamy really easily. So I like to press the release, let it release until it starts to come out a little bit more. Then I'll just let it relax a little bit and then I'll crush it again, like just to finish getting all the pressure out. Okay, once all the pressure is released, you can open your lid very easily. Pasta is all done. Hey, I'm going to take my handy-dandy drainer, strainer, drainer. It's like a mixture of all right. We're ready. I'm going to move it. The pasta. Over to the pizza sauce and we're just going to dump it in. Oh guys, I can smell the ranch in there. That smells so good. Right over here, I'm doing a nine by 13 pan. So we have about a cup and a half of mozzarella cheese. It is cheaper if you buy the blocks and shred it yourself, but I found that if you buy these bags in bulk, they're actually pretty, pretty cheap and I use them for many recipes. And then we're only going to use half of the container of pepperoni, which will give you plenty. So now it is time to bake your lovely pizza pasta. We're going to bake it at 350 degrees for about 30 to 40 minutes. Really, everything is pretty warm. You just want the cheese melted and just ooey gooey, right? Pizza pasta done. Well, let's try this. I already know I'm going to love it because it means it's cheese and sauce and pepperoni and it's going to be good. Here we go. That is good. I love the pizza sauce with it. That I even like that better than the spaghetti sauce that we've used before, but pizza sauce with this, delicious. I'm also raking this a five out of five. I don't do that often for my $5 dinner, but this is good. The next recipe I'm making is biscuits and gravy casserole. So we have Walmart brand biscuits. These are 84 cents. This is our ground sausage. Now this is usually about $2.88.  And the last ingredient you're going to need is about two and a half cups of milk, which comes to about 75 cents. And we're going to spray our pan with non-stick cooking spray. Now this recipe says that you want to make it in a nine by nine pan, but we're actually going to do it in a nine by 13 just because I'm going to give it to someone and then it'll be perfect, perfect breakfast for them later. Okay, so we're going to take our biscuits and we're going to cut them into fourths. I did wash these, cut them right into fourths and then we're going to lay them right into the pan. Now these biscuits are going to grow a little bit, so it's okay if they're spread out. So we're going to bake these at about 400 degrees for 10 minutes. We're going to turn our stove top on to about medium high heat and we're going to cook up the sausage. Now if you guys have been watching for a little bit, you know that I love my shopping stir. After a few minutes, after that's been cooking, we're going to add two and a half cups of milk. I know I need a bigger spilt skillet. This is not, oh, it's going to be close. This is going to be tight. That's okay. I love biscuits and gravy with a lot of pepper. Pepper is like my favorite thing in this recipe, so okay, we're just going to stir this until it comes to almost a boil. It's going to thicken up, so you just have to give it a minute. Peace. You look good. Any of you else have this problem where you think you can fit it into a smaller pan, but when really you should be using a bigger one. Let me know, comment down below for me. We're just going to pour the gravy right on top of the biscuits here. All right, so I'm cutting up the biscuits again into fourths and then I'm just kind of laying them where the other biscuits are not. We're going to bake this for 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. We're going to watch it. If the biscuits start getting really brown, we're just going to cover it with foil, but we're going to just see how this goes. This is done, this is nice and cooked and you guys, biscuits and gravy is like the thing that I order whenever I go to a restaurant, so I'm so excited for this. All right, here we go. All right, this might be my favorite video of $5 dinners. All three recipes have been amazing. Okay, if you want more easy casserole recipes, I have some good ones for you. These are the ones my mom used to make. All right guys, I'll see you next time. Bye.


Dear aspirants, Good evening. Welcome to the Hindu news analysis for the date 10th September 2020. Here is the list of the topics along with the page numbers chosen from the different editions of the Hindu newspaper. The PDF link of the handwritten notes and timestamping of the news articles is given in the description box as well as in the comment section. Let's begin the analysis of the first news article. Now let's take this editorial for discussion which is written in the context of digital divide. We know that if there is one issue which got enough attention during COVID-19, other than health infrastructure, it is digital infrastructure. Yes, we are talking about the inability of people to have access to internet and related hardware like mobile gadgets. So in this editorial, we are going to discuss the existing reality of Indian states in the new technology era. Our discussion is based on NSO survey of household social consumption on education in India for the period that is from July 2017 to June 2018. This survey highlighted the poor state of computer and internet access in several states. So based on this survey, the disparities are glaring among different economic groups as well and the digital divide that separates the privileged from the deprived remain unbridged even years after the broadband policy of 2004. We know that the policy recognize the low penetration of internet and the personal computers in India and aim to improve these aspects significantly. But the delayed execution or poor penetration and its effects are painfully visible during the pandemic as the students are struggling to attend the online classes. So according to the survey, only in Delhi and states like Himachal Pradesh and Kerala, the internet penetration exceeds 50% for urban and rural households taken together. While in the states like Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand, it exceeds 40%. But we know that this 40% is small, but the numbers are better than most of the other states because the conditions of large states such as Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, the access rate is less than 20%. And this looks contradictory to the fact that AP is pursued as a tech-savvy state. Furthermore, the internet connectivity is even worse in rural areas in the states of Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, and also in West Bengal. So in such places, how academic work can be progressed and students can continue their online education. So we have seen multiple photos in the social media which showed the plight of digitally vulnerable people and in one case, a father sold his cow to purchase a mobile device to his son. So to conclude that the internet access is critical as most of the advancements in any field can be accessible only with internet that is right from farming to education then from banking to temple darshan. And not just that, there are many operational difficulties like reliability problems and frequent power cuts which further aggravates the issues associated with digital devices. Now we will discuss what is government's stand. Know that Prime Minister acknowledged the digital divide in the country and announced that all villages would be connected with optical fiber cable in next 1000 days. So in this context, know that government in the year 2011 launched National Optical Fiber Network to connect all the gram panchayats with high speed internet and this program was later renamed as Bharatnet. And with the recent Prime Minister announcement, now all the villages not just gram panchayats will be connected with high speed internet. Here one point to be noticed that the envisaged Bharatnet project has not gone as planned. This is because due to low interest attached to digital networks by the successive union governments and state governments. For example, few years back AP government has come up with AP fibernet to connect all villages with facilities like broadband, cable TV and telephone connection with a per month cost of less than rupees 200. But after the new government elected last year, the progress of AP fibernet project is very low-paced. So because of such happenings, neither the broadband policy nor Bharatnet has yielded expected results. So what should be done? In this context, to immediately address the needs of students, Arthur suggests that connectivity for education must be prioritized and mapping the needs of each district based on the NSO data will help to identify areas where children need equipment and connectivity immediately. And such efforts have been launched globally in the wake of COVID-19, some in partnership with the telecom sector to leverage its capacity for surveys and mapping. Even some companies in India have made the valuable suggestions that their used desktop computers could be refurbished and can be used, but for which governments need to open an effective program. Then on the network technology front, a new gigabyte speed wireless fiber standard is being viewed in developed countries as an option to link inaccessible areas. The government needs to look at all possibilities and go into override to bridge the digital divide. Then only the goals like education for all digital India, digital health mission can be achieved only with proper internet access. So in the context of this editorial article, we have discussed the significance of internet connectivity and the present state of internet access in our country. Let's proceed to the analysis of next news article. Now let's take up this news article related to the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019 and the pros and cons of this amendment are important for your playing section as these pros and cons has been in the news again and again. So in today's analysis, we are going to revise the important pros and cons or facts related to the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019. The syllabus relevant to the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. Now Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 amended the Citizenship Act of 1955 and the basic objective of 2019 amendment is to facilitate the granting of Indian citizenship to members of six minority communities who migrated to India from three countries on or before 31st December 2014. You'll notice that you need to remember the cutoff date that is 31st December 2014 and the six minority communities such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians and the three countries are Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. So another amendment persons who migrated to India without valid travel documents or persons whose travel documents validity had expired will be given Indian citizenship. So for this purpose, two enabling changes have been made to the 1955 Act. As per the amendment to section 2 which says that the above mentioned persons shall not be treated as illegal migrant. Then another important amendment deals with the reducing the time period in acquiring citizenship through the process of naturalization for these communities. As we know that as per 1955 Act it provides for five different ways of acquiring Indian citizenship such as by birth, by descent, by registration, by naturalization and also by incorporation of territory. Then section 6 of the 1955 Act deals with acquiring Indian citizenship by naturalization. Now let us discuss in brief the necessary qualifications for naturalization of a person. See preceding the date when the person applies for acquiring citizenship by naturalization the person shall have either resided in India or been in the service of a government in India that is either central government or state government throughout the period of 12 months. And then during the 14 years immediately before this 12 months the person shall have resided in India or been in the service of a government in India for an aggregate period of not less than 11 years. But as per the 2019 amendment Act it reduced this time period to five years for the mentioned six communities. So in the regular route it will take at least two years to get citizenship through naturalization. But as per the latest amendment it will take just six years to get the Indian citizenship by the process of naturalization. And there is a widely held misconception that the Muslim community from these three countries have been excluded from getting Indian citizenship. Know that they can also acquire Indian citizenship through the process of naturalization but through the regular route and it will take at least two years. So following the introduction of citizenship amendment Act 2019 we have witnessed a huge protest in several pockets of India and thousands were arrested. And today's news article says that Supreme Court has granted interim bail to Anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protesters accused of violence in Mangaluru. Furthermore try to remember that as per the Citizenship Act of 1955 it also prescribes three ways of losing citizenship whether acquired under the Act or prior to it. And these three ways are by renunciation, by termination and also by deprivation. Know that any citizen of India or full Asian capacity can make a declaration renouncing his Indian citizenship. But if such a declaration is made during a war in which India is engaged it shall be withheld by the central government. Then coming to termination the Indian citizenship automatically gets terminated when Indian citizen voluntarily acquire the citizenship of any other country. And this provision also does not apply during a war period in which India is engaged. Then in case of deprivation the central government can compulsorily terminate Indian citizenship on several grounds. For example when the citizen has obtained the citizenship by fraud or when the citizen has shown disloyalty to the constitution. So these are certain ways of acquiring Indian citizenship and also ways to terminate Indian citizenship. With this information the display practice question will be discussed at the end of the session. Let us proceed to the next news article analysis. This open news article is written by a scientist who assesses the role played by BT cotton which is the gentrically modified cotton crop in our country. So in this analysis we will discuss what do we mean by GM crop then BT cotton. Then we will also discuss important issues raised in this open article. The syllabus relevant for the analysis of this news article is highlighted here for your reference. Now we will start with the definition of a gentrically modified crop which refers to any crop whose genetic material has been modified using lab based transfer of genetic material from another organisms. For example let us take BT cotton which is a gentrically modified crop variety. So before that we will also see why GM cotton came at the first place. See prior to the introduction of BT cotton the cotton plants were often infested by bollworms and other insects.  Now that in addition to bollworms there were also threats from sap-sucking pests such as aphids and other bugs. So techniques such as crossbreeding hybridization process did not give the intended results. So a gentrically modified cotton crop was needed so that the plant will be resistant to bollworm and other pests. Therefore for this purpose a pesticide gene was obtained from a soil bacterium called as bacillus thuringiensis. This gene was inserted into cotton DNA to make the modified plant as a plant resistance to pests. So this gentrically modified cotton variety is called as BT cotton. This BT cotton which was developed through gentrically modified technology reportedly provided the solution to the infestation by bollworms. Now with this information let us come to the issues raised in this opiate article. In this article the author assesses whether the BT cotton variety was successful in India or not. Then the author also discusses was it a main reason for the increase in cotton production. Now we will see one by one that is the main point of author is that the benefits of BT cotton have been modest and short lived. Here modest in the sense that the benefits are not outstanding just ordinary which could have been achieved even without BT cotton. And the main positive aspect reported about BT cotton is that it is a pest resistant crop variety that is in the beginning years say for the first eight years after the introduction the insecticide expenditure has reduced but later it has increased. Therefore by 2018 farmers were found to spending more amount per hectare on insecticides that is about more than 37 percent than the pre BT cotton spending levels. So why there is increase in such expenditure? This is because one of the pest called as the pink bollworm. It developed a resistance to BT cotton by the year 2009 in our country. So as a result the bollworm spraying begin to rise. Parallel the expenditures for spraying for sap sucking pest also increased and this translated into rising debt among the cotton growers. So the author says that we have to acknowledge that BT cotton has failed in the present circumstances. Therefore we should not enter into further misadventures with other BT crops such as BT brinjal. Now we will see the role played by BT cotton in terms of cotton production. As per the union ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare it states that the production of BT cotton has increased fourfold between 2002 and 2017-18 due to adaptation of BT cotton in our country. But the author refutes or disagrees with this claim of government because increase in production is due to other important factors such as improvements in irrigation facilities then dramatic growth in the use of fertilizers then also use of technology in the cotton cultivation. So to substantiate this author states that the gross fertilizer used for cotton production or for cotton cultivation was more than double between 2007-2013 and the average fertilizer use increased from 98 kilograms per hectare in the year 2003 to 224 kilograms per hectare in the year 2013. So the contribution of BT cotton to the increase in cotton production is minimal as per the latest scientific assessment. So at the end of the day it appears that as if we are again back with the same set of challenges which we had prior to the introduction of BT cotton. So the author calls for a review of use of BT cotton. She states that there are many advantages with Desi or indigenous varieties which can be used for cotton production replacing BT cotton. These varieties are known to resist many pests and they do not present the problems faced with GM cotton. So such varieties are also better at withstanding the vagaries of climate change. Therefore as a long lasting solution the government backing becomes essential to scale up Desi varieties and also for other resources like infrastructure and also availability of Desi or indigenous seeds. So in the context of this news article we have discussed about gentrically modified crop also BT cotton then the important issues regarding BT cotton. Let's move on to the analysis of next news article. Now let's take up this news article which states that a time capsule with history and achievements of oligod muslim university is to be buried for discovery by future generations. The time capsule is to be made of stainless steel with a layer of PVC. The inside would be filled with inert gases to protect the material from decay for at least 500 years. The content would be written on acid resistant papers and distilled copies of the material would also be buried. So in this context let us discuss about the founder of this university which was started as a Muhammadin Anglo-Oriental College. So when we read about releases and social reform moments after 1858 we read about Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. Know that he is one of the most important reformers among the muslims. He was impressed with modern scientific thought and worked to reconcile scientific thought with Islam. He interpreted Quran in the light of contemporary rationalism and science and in his view any interpretation of Quran that conflicted with human reason, science or nature and such interpretation was in reality a misinterpretation. So he advocated students and others to be broad minded and tolerant. He believed that releases and social life of muslims could be improved only by imbibing modern western scientific knowledge and culture. Therefore promotion of modern indication remind his first task throughout his life. So he founded schools in many towns and translated many western books into Urdu. He also established scientific society in the year 1864 to translate western works into Indian languages and to inculcate scientific temperament among the muslims. He also founded the Muhammadin Anglo-Oriental College in the year 1877 at Aligarh in the present state of Uttar Pradesh and this college later grew into Aligarh Muslim University. Know that the college was started as a center for spreading western science and culture and Raja Jay Kishin Das of Alhabar helped Sir Sayed Ahmad Khan in establishing the university. He also extended his support and cooperation in carrying out the work of scientific society as well. Both these leaders were friends and they represented Hindu-Muslim unity. Also remember that Sir Sayed Ahmad Khan wrote in favor of rising women's status in society. He advocated removal of the system and also advocated for spread of education among muslim women. He also condemned the customs of polygamy and easy divorce. So these are certain important details about Sir Sayed Ahmad Khan and Aligarh Muslim University. The latest development with respect to Aligarh Muslim University is that the university was in the list of 15 public and 15 private institutions examined by university grants commission in order to recommend for the status of institutions of eminence. But at present the institution was not given the status of institutions of eminence but in the future the university may be recognized as institution of eminence in our country. With this information let's proceed to the next news article. This news article is about PM Swani this scheme. So in the context of this news article we know that union cabinet had taken several measures to tackle the economic impacts of COVID-19 and an important measure is the special micro-credit facility scheme for street vendors and this scheme is known as Pradhanamantri street vendors Atma Nirbhaar Nidhi that is PM Swani the scheme. See it is a special micro-credit facility scheme launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Also remember that this is a central sector scheme which would facilitate street vendors to access affordable working capital for resuming their livelihood activities after easing of lockdown restrictions. Remember that the scheme targets to benefit over 50 lakh street vendors who had been vending on or before 24th March 2020 in urban areas. As per the scheme the scheme will facilitate working capital loan up to rupees 10,000 at a subsidized rate of interest and this amount is repayable in monthly installments in the tenure of one year. Furthermore the scheme also incentivizes the regular and timely repayment of loans by giving an interest subsidy of 7% per annum. So for the speedy implementation of the PM Swani this scheme an online portal and a mobile application were being developed and this IT platform will also help in integrating the vendors into the formal financial system and this platform will integrate other platforms such as web portal or mobile app with the Vidyamimitra portal of ZB for credit management and it will also integrate with PISA portal of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in order to administer interest subsidy automatically. So this is all about Pradhanamantri street vendors Atman Erbarnidhi that is PM Swanidhi scheme. Let us start our practice question session concerned the following statements regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019. It facilitates the granting of Indian citizenship to members of minority communities who migrated to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh before 1st January 2000. It provisions are not applicable to areas covered under the inner line notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation 1873. The first statement is incorrect because 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act aims to facilitate granting of Indian citizenship to members of six minority communities who migrated to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and the cutoff date is on or before 31st December 2014. In the six minority communities are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians. Note that this amendment shall not apply to tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram or Tripura as included in the sixth schedule of Indian constitution and this amendment also not applicable to areas covered under the inner line notified under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation 1873. So for this question you need to choose incorrect statement or statements. Therefore the correct answer for this question is option A1 only. Now let us take up this question. Consider the following statements. The Scientific Society was established by Syed Ahmad Khan in the year 1864 in Aligarh to translate western works into Indian languages and to inculcate scientific temperament among the Muslims. Syed Ahmad Khan founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Vorental College in Aligarh along with Muhammad Iqbal a great poet of modern India. For this question you need to choose correct statement or statements. So in the context of this question we should know about Sir Syed Ahmad Khan who founded schools in many towns and translated many western books into Urdu. Know that he established Scientific Society in the year 1864 to translate western works into Indian languages in order to inculcate scientific temperament among the Muslims. Also know that he founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Vorental College in the year 1877 at Aligarh in the present state of Uttar Pradesh and this college later evolved into Aligarh Muslim University. So here first statement is correct whereas second statement is incorrect because it was not Muhammad Iqbal who supported Aligarh Muslim University Foundation but it was Raja Jay Kishan Das of Alhabad who helped Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in establishing the university. He also extended his support and cooperation in carrying out the work of Scientific Society as well. So in the context of second statement try to remember that Muhammad Iqbal is one of the greatest poets of modern India and he condemned ritualism and other worldly attitude and he also urged people to work for and achieve happiness in the world of the living. So with this information out of the given two statements first statement is correct whereas second statement is incorrect so the correct answer for this question is option A1 only. Now let's take up this practice question. Consider the following statements regarding PM Swarni this scheme. It is a central sector scheme to facilitate street vendors in urban areas to access affordable working capital loan for resuming their livelihood activities. It is implemented by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. So for this question you need to choose correct statement or statements. So in the context of this question try to remember that Pradhanamantri street vendors Atman Erbar Nidhi that is PM Swarni this scheme was launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. So it is not by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The scheme was launched as a central sector scheme to facilitate street vendors to access affordable working capital loan for resuming their livelihoods activities after the relaxation of lockdown restrictions. Also remember that it covers street vendors from peri urban or peri rural areas till the month of March 2022. The silent features of this scheme include facilitating working capital loan up to rupees 10,000 at a subsidized rate of interest. It also incentivizes the regular and timely repayment of loans by giving an interest subsidy of 7% per annum. So to implement this scheme there is an IT platform of PM Swarni this scheme which would integrate the web portal or mobile app with Udhyama Mitra portal of Sid B and also the PISA portal of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. So in the context of this question try to remember that there is also an important scheme known as emergency credit line guarantee scheme and this scheme is for micro small medium enterprises. Further remember that these schemes were part of Atman Erbar Bharat package or Atman Erbar Bharat Abhyan. So for this question the correct answer is option A1 only. Now let's take up this practice question based on one of the great freedom fighters of India. Three statements are given you need to choose incorrect statement or statements. Govind Ballapant was the first union who minister of independent India. He was the first awardee of India's highest civilian order Bharat Ratna. The water reservoir Govind Ballapant saga named after GB Pant is located across North coil river. Here all the given statements are incorrect because he was not the first union who minister of independent India and know that Sardar Vallabhai Patel was the first union who minister of independent India. Furthermore Sri Chakravarti Raj Gopal Achari Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Dr. Chandrasekhar Venkate Raman were awarded Bharat Ratna in the year 1954 whereas Pandit Govind Ballapant was awarded Bharat Ratna in the year 1957. Also know that in the year 2019 Sri Pranab Mukherjee, Nanaji Deshmukh and Bhupen Hazarika were awarded Bharat Ratna. Here the third statement is also incorrect because the water reservoir Rihanda is named after GB Pant and is located across the Rihanda River which is a tributary of Tone River. So if you look at Rihanda reservoir or GB Panta reservoir it spreads across two states only that is the state of Uttar Pradesh and the state of Madhya Pradesh. So Rihanda dam or GB Pant dam is located in the state of Uttar Pradesh whereas the reservoir spreads in the two states. So the correct answer for this question is option D 1 2 and 3. Now let's take up this question which are the following geographical feature or features is or or shared by Israel. They have given features like West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, Gulf of Acaba. We have framed this question because we have a relevant news article in today's newspaper. Here the news is Israel is in trade talks with India and China. The news article further reports that Israel hopes that tensions between India and China will ease in the coming days. So in the context of this news article we already know that Israel and UAE concluded diplomatic cooperation in wide range of areas such as agriculture, technology, water resources and so forth and so on. So on the similar lines Israel is also planned to discuss India, UAE, Israel cooperation in wide range of areas of cooperation. Furthermore the news article reports that India and Israel stocks were not in an advanced stage yet they were discussing low tariffs on about 200 products that were of importance to both the countries. So with this information let's take up the question which are the geographical features shared by Israel. So to answer this question we should know the geographical location of these features and if you don't know the location of all the four places if you look at the options all you need to know that Israel opens up to Gulf of Acaba or not. We know that these places were in the news again and again because of wide range of issues and try to notice that Golan Heights is located in the northeast of Israel, West Bank is located in the eastern side of Israel, Gaza Strip in the western side of Israel and we know that Israel not only shares border with the Mediterranean Sea but also opens up to Red Sea through Gulf of Acaba. So the correct answer for this question is option D 1, 2, 3 and 4. Now let's take up one practice main's question what is digital divide and suggest measures to resolve the issues of digital divide mainly in the education sector. So this is a 10 marks question and you need to write within 150 words. You can post your written answers in the comment section and suitable feedback will be given within the reasonable time frame. With this we have come to the end of today's news analysis. If you like the video please do like, share, comment and subscribe Shankar Ayes Academy YouTube channel for more updates. Thank you.


Welcome back to the breakfast. A very interesting Tuesday morning we're having here. But we're moving on. Members of the Nigerian Bar Association joined judicial workers yesterday to protest against the non-implementation of financial autonomy for the judiciary. The judicial workers began an indefinite strike two weeks ago, but state governors had opposed the move for autonomy. But yesterday the chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Kaya Defayemi, said they have finally agreed to implement autonomy for state legislature and judiciary from May. Joining us this morning is the National Publicity Secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, Rappulunduka. Good morning. Thank you very much for joining us, Miss Aunduka. Good morning. Good morning. All right. There's been a very, very interesting two weeks. There's been conversations about who exactly is bearing the brunt of this strike. People who have court cases that are not able to of course get that going. And of course we announced earlier today that the Nigerian Governors Forum has promised May to implement the autonomy that has been sought here. So let's start with that. Do you trust that that will happen from the month of May? Do you believe in the Nigerian Governors Forum? When they say that they will go ahead and implement it from the month of May? I must confess that it's really difficult to believe that the promises that they've made will be kept. Now we must understand that this fight has been going on for some years now. There was a time that Jusong went to strike for more than three months, for a very long period of time. And they, at some point, they gave the impression that some states have said they're complying with the financial autonomy for the judiciary. And so the strike was called off. And here we are again discussing the same thing several years after. Now the truth of the matter is that anybody who knows the way the typical Nigerian politicians behave will find it very difficult to trust the Governors Forum. And as far as you can see, the average Nigerian will see that one of those gimmicks again to get them back to work and then renaissance on the promises that they've made. How many times can we actually hold our political office holders accountable for what they tell us and what they say that they will do? So I believe that the average Nigerian would not trust the Governors Forum until they see them start implementing those things.  Okay, Mr. Undrika, Jusong began their strike April 6th, two weeks ago or so. And we saw the president of the NBA, Ulimitak Pata, you know, appealing to you know the workers to shelve the industrial action saying it was ill-timed. See now that the NBA is now, you know, running behind Jusong. So what makes the timing right? So why the support in the strike now? Now the truth of the matter is that we had the opinion or we have the opinion that because of this is just a few months after COVID lockdown, the end surge protests and the and the attendant lockdown, things have not really been normal in Nigeria. A lot of things are suffering, the cases are suffering.  A lot of lawyers who have litigation as their main state are not finding funding. And so the NBA felt that the timing is not true right because of the current economic situation that a lot of people have found themselves in. But then at some point, we also looked at it and we said, okay, number one, Jusong has already started the strike action. There can really be no better time again for Jusong to press, keep on pressing their demands. So NBA would felt that it is better for us to align ourselves mainly because we know that what Jusong is asking for or demanding for is the right thing. That is a constitutional provision. The courts have made each declaration over those sections of the constitution. And so whether we do it right now or we defer it for the next two years, the truth of the matter is that what people would actually suffer, cases would always suffer, but the bottom line is that I believe that if this is achieved, the level of the speed and a lot of good things that will happen to the judiciary, we can't imagine it for now. So I think that even though we said at the first time that it was ill time, well, we now are part of it. We are not saying it's wrong, but right now we are now deep-necked into it and we are fighting alongside Jusong to make sure that the right thing is gone. Okay, Rehsanjika, two questions for you. What's the stance of the NBA regarding the Jusong's call for an independent judiciary? One, and secondly, the NBA went to the National Assembly yesterday in a bulljatter protest. Security officials locked them out, denied them entry into the National Assembly complex. In understate, in Delta, in Lagos, members of the NBA also attempted to protest. But the fact that they were shot out, how do you interpret this move from the lawmakers and how do you foresee this going forward? Well, I will say that it's quite unfortunate that this happened. That lawyers who were not really protesting but came on a visit, that's what we call it. Because we're protesting, it was not violent and we all came there to press our demands, give them our statements and say this is what we want. It's quite unfortunate that they were locked out in a number of places. It tells you also the mindset of the typical politician, the mindset of the people who lead us in Nigeria. And it's quite sad that these things happen this way. But I believe that the bottom line is that NBA, I think that we may, we say that such a thing may happen. And so that's why we said we're not backing down. Doing this visit every single week until we get the governors doing the right thing. So we're not backing down. It's quite unfortunate this happened but we'll keep on pressing and we hope that our leaders understand what democracy is all about. It is about the people. It is about giving the people the right to speak and say their minds whenever they are wrong. So Mr. Utaka, you're not describing it as a protest. You're saying it's a visit. So what really is the stance of the NBA here? The stance of the NBA is simple. We are pressing it on the government or at the federal level, at the state level. Those who can speak to the governors to understand that the judiciary should have its financial autonomy because it is actually the middle of this test to know whether the judiciary is quite independent. There are three arms of government. And unfortunately, I must say that Nigeria seems as if the judiciary is the infant in this three arms of government. They are the ones that are not reconquering it. And this is wrong because if we have equal equality, that's actually what it means. If we are equal in the eyes of the law, they should be given the right to be used to us. Mr. Utaka, I want to know, do you think that over time there have been people in the judiciary that have been clogged in the wheel of this fight? They have basically sabotaged this effort for financial autonomy in the judiciary. Do you think that people in the NBA and of course in the judicial sector have made it difficult for this to be achieved over time? Well, I don't really. The truth of the matter is that whenever it comes to the body of lawyers, lawyers are entitled to different opinions. Most of the times you see lawyers always argued on different sides regardless of even in court for example, you always have a lawyer for the plaintiff and for the defendant. So most of the times we can disagree on certain issues. But the bottom line is that what is the majority saying? What is the association saying as a group? And that is what matters. Now, when you talk about the judiciary and if there are people sabotaging that, I can't really say whether there are people within the judiciary sabotaging that because one of the major hallmarks of the judiciary, our judges and people who own judicial offices, is that they don't really speak when it comes to issues. The reason I'm asking this is because over time we keep, you know, every now and then we see stories of governors buying SUVs for judges building court rooms in their states. You know, every other year we see things like this. Do you think that this has slowed down the conversation on financial autonomy? Well, I don't think so. The reason why I say that is this. At this stage, what we have on ground, they don't really have a notion. Somebody's appointed a judge, somebody's appointed, now the judges are even better off. When you talk about, for example, in a lot of states, in Anambra State for example, about 20, something magistrates we appointed about a year or two years ago and they don't have vehicles.  Now, what that simply means is that a magistrate, for example, who decides people's cases, criminal matters, will after that decision get into a public transport with the same people that he presides over their matters. It speaks volumes. It's not right. Now, so the fact that, now, because we've accepted this state of affairs, that is why it is so. Now, definitely, that is why we are saying that the current state of affairs is wrong and should be changed. We are governed, we are the judiciary has to go cap and hand begging the the the executive for what is due there. But when they have their own financial autonomy, this state will be provided by the judiciary themselves and not the governors. Now, so I really disagree that it is a way of buying them over. It is what is due to them. The only true, the only sad aspect is that the governors now dispense these things at their own pleasure. I think they are doing them a favor, but they're not. All right. Now, the good thing is that give or take, I can't say they are definitely corrupt judges, but most of our judges are above them, are above board. And so, even if you give them the cast, I don't think it stops them from doing justice. All right. Well, you said most, not all, but thank you very much, Rappulunduka, for joining us this morning. Thank you. And we hope that we can have another conversation with this and I hope that there's good news actually before the month of May with regards to the strike. Thank you so much. Good morning to you. Thanks again. I hope so too. All right. All right, that's it here on the breakfast. I just talked about, you know, the juice and strike talking about independence of the judiciary. We had a Mr. Ishaq Al-Kintala from Murik, as well as a lawyer, you know, talking about the resignation or not, you know, that conversation regarding Ishaq Panthemi. Also spoke about the subpoena earlier on plus trending. And yes, that's what we'll call a wrap today on the breakfast. Do follow us on at plus TV Africa lifestyle. That's a new channel. You need to check that for all exclusives from plus TV Africa. I am Annetta Felix. Thank you for being a part of our day today. And of course, remember our social media handles. It's simply at plus TV Africa on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. And there's a new YouTube page also that you should also subscribe to. Also at plus TV Africa and join the family and be a part of, you know, the conversation that we have here. It's goodbye for now and see you tomorrow on the breakfast.


Anything special about just putting pinstripes on for the first time for you? Si, me senti muy, muy emocionado de usar ese uniforme y de representarlo. Of course, yes, you know, very exciting to wear the uniform and You know, put on the uniform represent the uniform, yeah. What do you think of Tanaka tonight, first time seeing him on the same team? Good man, he looked great. It's a complete game, the more you can ask. He's a great pitcher and I'm happy to see the way he's through it today. First, the bat, I think, was a 10-pitch bat. Out of a few pitches there, do you think you just missed a couple there? Ah, yeah, I take a lot of pitches. I saw a lot of pitches today, so I feel good. I just missed a couple of pitches there. I know I can hit him good, but he's part of the game, you know. Let's get in tomorrow. When you've been in the league for a long time, but still has the last 24 to 48 hours been a bit of a whirlwind for you? Well, I've been in the league for a few years now, but the last 24 to 48 hours have been, how could you describe that experience, everything that has happened in the last 24 to 48 hours? Ah, no, it's an experience, every experience that happens is a beautiful experience, an unforgettable experience that I will never forget. Thank God for giving me the opportunity to be here.  But first thing, you know, just thank God for another opportunity to be here, you know.


Hey Virgo, welcome back to your weekend love reading if you're new please smash that like button and do subscribe if you enjoy the Reading keep in mind. This is a general love reading some messages may or may not be for you Take a fit sleeve the rest this as always is a channel for Virgo sunbeam rising your Venus, but all signs are welcome All right, Virgo. Let's get into this weekend. Happy Memorial weekend to all of you who celebrate we're gonna take a look at May 26 27th and the 28th, okay, so Excuse me. Oh my goodness. Well, look what a surprise. Okay Yeah, you've got the six of cups you have the king of swords Okay, let's get it. Let me just I just want to get the cards out Okay, I just want it. I just want to get the cards out I just want to get the cards out and see what's going on here I don't want to spend my whole time shuffling, but I mean Virgo. Wow Okay, interesting so you do have Friday perhaps an air sign who is going to try to reach out to you over the weekend Okay, so Libre Aquarius Gemini understand it could be their Sun Moon Rising or Venus, but there is someone here Who feels compelled Come held to talk to you way to get a fix my camera because what's going on here? Yeah completely compelled to Make a beeline in your direction on Friday for sure.  This is somebody who Felt like they fought the good fight and then you know The round is over they go back to their corner and then they kind of refresh and then you know look at the Check out the replay see what happens. He was going on and then ding ding ding back into the ring So this is an energy of someone with that devil. It's like it could border along obsessed But it's definitely someone who Virgo Could be a Capricorn too. Just so you know But definitely someone who is like I'm just hearing compelled to connect with you, you know, just really Yeah, I mean Virgo look at this. Okay.  Yeah, they're planning to come your way Virgo. Look at that to a once in the chariot. Yep Hey, did you get that new car? How's your car? I heard you bought a new car looking for some kind of excuse Can I take a ride in your car, baby? Yeah Friday? Listen, whoever they are They could whatever sign they are right there There is an energy with the king of sorts if someone is very intentional and strategic and this person has been thinking about this About connecting with you. Okay Having some kind of excuse, you know If you were in like some kind of fender bender, they find out about it And they want to know like how you're doing how you're feeling Asking if you've taken that trip or are you going anywhere doing anything fun? For the weekend. Yeah, Virgo.  You know what I do want to get I Do I said I was gonna retire these but I just want to get this romance angel card. I'm just curious Virgo Masks under feminine energy for sure past life relationship like you can't make this up Virgo Okay passes showing up over this weekend could be getting on Friday, but yeah, I'm gonna hear from somebody All right, let me take a look at Saturday Let's go on for Saturday. All right, Queen of Wands is here. Oh Three of cups. Oh These sorts. Oh, oh my goodness. Are you doing something on Saturday? You don't know You go into a barbecue or a party. Are you doing something? You got plans for Saturday because It might be like you're stepping out Or you get invited by a friend, okay? Yeah, look at the tower. That's like right there. We're cooking some We're cooking some shish kebabs over the fire. Things are heating up. Listen, there's definitely There could be an invite or somebody's like dying for you to come see them or like it's a gathering Possibly Saturday could be Sunday. There's just you know the energy over the weekend the Queen of Wands It could be somebody you get invited by a Queen of Wands masculine or a feminine the Queen Wands is someone who's like She likes to have fun.  Let me see what that tower energy is though Okay, and you also have somebody here like if some of you are posting like, you know Okay, I'm gonna say this for you social media users those of you who like Take a lot of pictures and you go out to the party or you do something and you're posting that stuff I don't know. Somebody's watching somebody seeing it could be the person from yesterday the unknown phone calls coming at you but um are the unknown numbers calling and texting or whatever but Yeah, somebody's goodness. I don't know if they're seeing you on social media or they find out or they're like curious They're they're trying to get more information about something that you're doing over the weekend.  They're like, who's that at the grill?  Let me get some chicken.  Yeah, a little bit of that energy Oh, yeah, let me get Let's see what the romance angel is for that Now for those of you like I said who if you're not if you're not one of those social media people that post stuff or You know, you're what you're doing that kind of thing I do feel like someone will be curious to find out like Asking friends are asking other people are trying to inquire to you specifically like oh, what do you what do you do? What are you doing this weekend? Like who you going out with who you hanging out with where you going? Yeah, a lot of curiosity What happened here, I thought there you go, okay trust the situation is calling if you have faith Okay, I don't even know what that means. What situation you can trust for there's someone spying on you over the weekend Yeah, someone spying on you over the weekend for sure Okay, heart-to-heart conversation. Yeah, somebody wants to talk to you or sit down and have a heart-to-heart to heart And if they're not spying, this is someone who's just very curious about you like talk to me talk to me Let's talk. Let's like, you know, let's discuss how we feel about each other So like if you're going out and like some of y'all are just you know, I just want to have my burger and a beer I really don't want to get into this deep romantic stuff But maybe later after we have a few drinks later on in the evening, you know some of you are just simply like going to have fun and be around family be around friends and I do feel like you'll Get some kind of invite over the weekend to do something or go somewhere. Okay. Um, this can be a short reading because hey Oh, I'm already getting my uh, my picnic party hat on for this weekend. So let me see what's going on Sunday for Virgo Let's go. Oh my goodness. All right, we are not taking all those but I'll tell you what if they show back up again We'll honor it Okay show Virgo Sunday Sunday Virgo is gonna be like, oh, just give me some aspirin and sleep Okay, so Sunday you have what's going on the eight of sorts Yeah, you know what Virgo? I don't know be careful if you're not pacing yourself on Saturday I don't know. Even if you just eat too much.  I know I get it It might just be you eat something and it's like doesn't sit right with you Okay, I kind of feel like Sunday is gonna be just recovery like and I know some of you're gonna have a off work on Monday So, I don't know maybe just you know, but for somebody hands you like I don't know some bacon or some Something they're cooking on the grill. Just be like make sure it wasn't sitting out too long or the flies were like dancing all over it All right, let me say a couple more cards here. Okay. Okay. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah Hmm I Feel like someone's gonna want to connect with you on Sunday. Definitely, but I don't see you I feel like you're like No, I'm staying in somebody's like a total day of rest I don't think you're gonna be feeling all that well And I'm just saying like don't worry.  It's like I gotta get out of here I don't feel good wherever you are Sunday is definitely gonna be a day of rest. That's how I feel. I really do whatever you're doing Okay, let me just see This I feel like I'm like doing a reading for a college student honestly I know not only a drink I just feel like some of you might eat too much cake I don't know.  Just take care of yourself Sunday, yeah, God's coming down with like here take this Fill up on some like vitamins. You need to like Rehydrate Virgo Spirit's coming down with a big ol ibuprofen Virgo. You just yeah, you just seriously need to rest on Sunday I feel like you're gonna be doing that. Let me see what the romance angel message is here for you Some of you might be careful if you kind of like given to someone who wants to like be with you or something I don't know. I don't feel like a lot of Virgos are like that But if you do that you might have a little regret Or something. Oh geez you've got wedding the situation involves marriage. Some of you are gonna be like connecting with like um Someone you were married before maybe a married person. No Virgo. No, don't do it. I Know you don't I know I just I have so much faith in you Virgo. I don't think you'll do something like that just because you're You've been through it. You're like, I don't do that. No, I don't connect with married people, but I mean You might have somebody to come over and try to like Say here. Can I can I help you? Do you need some vitamins? Do you need anything? Somebody takes care of you as well. If you're not feeling well on Sunday I mean listen Virgo could just be like, I don't know. Maybe you have a headache or just something along those lines You know what I mean?  I do kind of get a sense like I Don't know if this is gonna be somebody you're gonna marry they keep telling me that No, like that's just seems weird Let me just get another card You want to give us another? Okay, they do. Oh Oh True love connection. Oh Virgo. Somebody comes and helps you out. Oh, it's so romantic. Somebody comes and like Do you need anything can get anything they come over maybe they bring like I don't know chicken soup for your soul They kind of like want to help you out. I'm something and very you may be like, oh my god This is like so amazing Somebody's like actually coming here to help me. I'm always helping everybody else. Somebody's coming to take care of you Sunday for something No, very good months. Very was like scheming like let me see if I could find some rotten hot dogs Just kind of eat them so I can get somebody over That's crazy. I did not say that. That's super super crazy. Um, yeah, so I'm gonna leave it there. I know I know it was only like 15 16 minutes, but I feel like um, I Don't know don't feel like going any further. So that's that I hope you guys have a fantastic weekend and a fantastic Memorial holiday weekend if you're celebrating and Yeah, I'm gonna open up a few more slots if anybody wants to get a personal reading with me going forward And that's it. So I love you guys and I want you to make good choices going forward in your life and be happy I love you. Have a great weekend. Bye


A large crowd turned out today in McDowell for the honoring of an American hero, Kentucky Route 122 in Floyd County, being renamed in memorial of the service of Lance Corporal Jonathan Thornsberry. We and the General Assembly come together in times like this, not as Democrats, not as Republicans, but as Americans and Kentuckians, and stand together. This legislation passed without one dissenting vote and so on behalf of the members who supported it and the members who support you with their prayers and their thoughts, we just say thank you and God bless you. Well it's a small thing that we can do to help remember our fallen heroes and it's you know you can't replace a young man that gives his life in service for the country, but it's a small way for us to commemorate that and Thornsberry's uncle Paul Lawson says that his nephew was a special young man who loved his country and his new career in the military. I can tell he loved it, he did what he had to do, took it in pride and he loved the Marines that's what he said and he said you know it's better for him to go over there than let them come over here that's what he said before he left so but he loved it like I said he's a great young man and he loved you know life, he loved sports and I can't say enough about him. The sign on Route 122 was not the only one at today's event, Thornsberry's 11 year old daughter was also in attendance and was presented a replica sign to take with her. Reporting from Floyd County for EKB News, I'm Jackson Ladder.


You need a financial advisor with the freedom to focus on your specific needs. Whatever your goals, Reid Potter can create a game plan tailored to you. Call Reid at 432-0777 at Pikeville, Kentucky to learn more. The Veterans Benefits Assistance Center will be holding a car, truck and bike show at Pike Central High School on Saturday, July 22nd. The car show will start about 3 p.m. and it will be everything from old classic cars to bikes, jeeps. I've also added a cleanest cruiser, so if any police officers want to clean up their cruiser and bring it to the show, that would be great. Proceeds from the car show will go towards the Veterans Benefits Assistance Center and helping them to continue to provide support and resources for veterans and their families. Well, it helps to let people know that we're here and that if they do need help with a claim that we're going to be here and it's free of charge. There's no charge for people to come in here and use our services. We're just here to help veterans and their families get what they need. There's a $20 entry fee for those wishing to have their car, truck or bike displayed. Prizes will be given out to the winners in the different show categories. The car, truck and bike show will begin at 3 p.m. on Saturday, July 22nd. For more information or to register, you can call<PHONE_NUMBER>. For Mountain Top News, I'm Kelsey Dean.