Good evening and welcome to the Institute of International and European Affairs in eight great North Great Georgia Street I'm David O'Sullivan. I'm the director general of the Institute, and it's my very great privilege to Welcome you all this evening to our first hybrid event. So this is we actually have people in the room We've actually had a little wine reception, which is very pleasant Sorry about those of you online. You can make my tour. You might like to open your own bottle But it's a fantastic that our first hybrid event back in the building is organized jointly with the John and Pat Hume Foundation And I'd like to say a special word of thanks and welcome to them Sean Farran and Tim Atwood and it's great that we're able to tonight have the second John Hume peace lecture. I had the honor to deliver the first one last year But online unfortunately in this evening. We're very privileged to have Bridget Laffen who will deliver in this hybrid event her the second in the series We're going to start with a short video describing John's remarkable contribution to to peace and and The European spirit of peace and then I will introduce Bridget and we will begin so please enjoy the video We shall overcome. Thank you Process in Northern Ireland as far as I'm concerned has been most heavily inspired by the inspiration of this place When I first came here in 1979 I tell this story often I went for a walk Across the bridge from Strasbourg to Kale. I stopped and I thought 30 years ago if I had stood in this bridge and said don't worry Although there's 25 million people dead for the second time in a century and For centuries these peoples of Europe have slaughtered one another now. It's all over and in 30 years They will all be together. I Might have been sent to see a psychiatrist but it happened and Let us not forget European Union is the best example as we have learned in the history of the world of conflict resolution and The philosophy that created European Union and the peace of Europe is the philosophy if you study it That is at the heart of our agreement respect for difference and for diversity the creation of institutions which respect that diversity But which allow all sections to work together in their common interests Economics Spill their sweat not their blood and by doing that begin the real healing process of Breaking down the barriers of centuries and the new society evolves That is the philosophy of European Union and it's the philosophy of real peace and might I add That is the philosophy That we should be sending to areas of conflict in the world. We should not be sending armies We should be sending a philosophy and given the philosophy that we have in this building It's a philosophy That will resolve conflict everywhere Because at the end of the day all conflict is about the same thing It's about seeing difference as a threat And what we all have to learn is what the peoples of Europe learned and we are learning in Northern Ireland Difference whether it's your race or your religion or your nationality is an accident of birth And it's not something we should be engaged in conflict about it's something we should respect Thank you very much for your expression today The Nobel Peace Prize was collected by the heads of the EU's three main institutions The ceremony took place in Norway's capital Oslo The European Union was awarded the prize for its role in uniting the continent and bringing about Reconciliation after two world wars the prize is for all Europeans and leaders from across Europe stood to show their support The chairman of the prize committee praised the work of the EU Jean Monnier said that nothing can be achieved without human beings But nothing becomes permanent without institutions The EU has constantly been a central driving force throughout these processes of reconciliation The EU has in fact helped to bring about both the fraternity between nations And the promotion of peace congresses of which Alfred Nobel wrote in his will Germany and France were commended for turning from old enemies into allies The persons here today are German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande make this day very Particular symbolic for all of us, I believe Think of the state of the Union I am reminded of the words of John Schum One of the great Europeans who sadly passed away this year If so many people live in peace today on the island of Ireland It is in large part because of his unwavering belief in humanity and conflict resolution used to say That conflict was about difference and That peace was about respect for difference And as he so rightly reminded this house in 1998 and I quote the European visionaries Decided that difference is not a threat Difference is natural Difference is the essence of humanity and of quote and these I don't know how often I hear that speech of John's the European Parliament It's always incredibly moving and of course with the war in Ukraine It has a resonance today, which we never would have expected to see in our lifetime so this is a Remarkable moment to ask Bridget Laugham to deliver a lecture the second in the series of the John European peace lecture Bridget hardly needs any introduction which of course is always how you begin when you then start to introduce someone But she has a very distinguished academic career She's the emeritus press professor at the European University Institute in Florence and she was director of the Robert Schumann Center there for advanced studies Until her retirement quite recently. She was professor of European politics at the School of Politics and International Relations in UCD She was vice president of UCD and the principal of the College of Human Sciences. She was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy In 2004 and she is frankly one of our leading public intellectuals and frankly a globally recognized Expert on European politics so nobody could be better placed than to share with us this evening some thoughts on European Union and peace in these convictual times. Please Bridget, Laura's yours Good evening everyone and welcome to all of you who are linking in on online I want to thank the John and Pat Hume Foundation for the honor of delivering this The second European spirit of peace lecture. John is one of my great heroes and he was that extraordinary mixture of He conceptualized how politics could change and how the world could change but he also then worked From morning to night to deliver that new world. He was both a man of action a warrior for peace But also he conceptualized how politics can change even in the most difficult Even in the most difficult circumstances and so for me It's an honor and what better way to start but to listen to john himself both in the european parliament But also the ways in which the european union represented in some senses that centuries-long search in europe for peace it's very poignant To be delivering this lecture this evening because war has returned to our continent that peace that john was so confident of In the european parliament in one of his last speeches is now gone Europe's security architecture is under Like never before in the post-cold war era and there was much more stability and solidity To the cold war era than there is Than there is today. We live in a world of shift and shock We live in a world of tremendous change at every level at the global at the regional at the national and that that Return of peace that sense in which the 24th of february represented a shattering of illusions for europeans And my view is that we shouldn't really have had the illusions that we had but many many people in europe had those illusions They assumed that peace They assumed that war would not return to our continent and we should remember Not just the collapse of ukoslavia and the barbarity that that represented but also Since 2008 we've had a lot of low-grade conflict in europe And john here when he talks of war he says Whenever there is war there's going to be killing Killing of large numbers of human beings Therefore that should never be a method of solving a problem in other words It just leaves human destruction material destruction and also hatred But one can't imagine how ukraine and russia can live side by side together in any sort of peace and Friendship for a very very long time because of the barbarity of what we are seeing So what I want to do this evening is four things Firstly, I want to talk a little about what kind of eu confronts this war in europe in other words What what has the eu become over this last long decade of crisis? Then how europe responded to the war The impact of this war on the eu which I will argue is fundamental and then I will devote quite Some attention to enlargement because this war has brought enlargement back to the center of Of the european of the european agenda, so I'll probably spend more time On enlargement than I will on the others But let me begin by i'm working on a conceptualization of the eu after this decade of crisis And my view is that a lot of the academic literature on the eu Under over argues its weakness and its Every crisis the eu faces is argued as being existential in other words that this is not a robust political system Well, my view is that it is that it's much more robust and resilient than Than is sometimes Then my fellow scholars argue They you know, there's a literature on the eu it fails forward etc etc There's a literature on disintegration Well, my view for what it's worth is that the eu has become hardened by crisis has become more robust through crisis and more resilient And the overall conceptualization of the eu that i'm working on is that the eu has become a collective power And I argue it's become a collective power because other conceptualizations of the eu One that the eu is market power europe in other words, it's all about the material the single market and the brussels effect I think that's a really important pillar of the eu but does not in any way fully Capture the eu Nor do I think that normative power europe captures what the eu is today because normative power europe is a europe That's driven only by values All political systems have attention between interests and values and one should not Assume that the eu is not as driven by interests as all other political systems in the world. So both Both Market power and normative power are important in the eu but what we need to grasp is What this collective capacity of the eu is And how the eu has garnered this Collective capacity and it's a form. It's a way of looking at the eu that looks not on the eu's command power It's power to get a to do b But rather on its ability to get things done its ability to amass resources Amass policy instruments and achieve outcomes. It's outcome driven Now it's a paper that I won't finish until the Probably until next january But i've been working on it for quite quite some time and it's my it's I probably one of my last contributions i will make to the literature on the uh on the eu But collective power europe also looks at capability and on the full and the parts And I have argued Already that this power was in display during brexit the pandemic and now in the war on ukraine And what are the elements of this? How does how does one analyze this collective power inaction? Well, the first is leadership and framing It's firstly Can the eu collectively frame the challenges that it faces How did it for example frame brexit? How did it frame? The pandemic and how did it frame? How did it frame? The war in ukraine and the speed with which it can frame And unity or near unity is very essential to this unless the eu is unified or near almost unified Then its collective power is undermined and then leadership again when you look at the literature on leadership in the eu The assumption is that there is no leadership in the there is no leadership in the eu Or that that leadership is slow That that leadership Doesn't actually get stuff done and again I think the evidence of all those three crises suggests that that's simply not the case But it's a distributed leadership. It involves the european council the commission national capitals And it very much again is driven by the intensity of engagement that we now see in the eu So heads of government today Each of them has a sherpa their sherpa is in constant permanent contact with the sherpas of every head of government across europe It's they they talked to each other on the phone. It's not like it was even 20 years ago when head of government to head of government involved a very orchestrated Very complex orchestration of time of the phone call etc etc So this intensity that we see Just the minute i mentioned the mobile phone that the the intensity The intensity of engagement that we see at all levels across the capitals horizontally, but also vertically to brosses So one part of this collective far Europe is leadership and framing The second oh, excuse me The second is the institutional coordination and what I would call co-creation of policy and We have not done enough work as academics on the way in which the lisbon treaty has altered Inter-institutional relations in the EU Established new roles in the EU like the president of the european council In other words strengthens the collective element in the brosses in the brosses arena And also that co-creation that yes, there are conflicts between council and parliament mostly but They work very closely together now and particularly the council commission relationship The commission is tasked by the european council, but the commission also has a capacity to act itself and does So it's that the way in which this again intensity of engagement And that starts at the level of european council heads of government dan And I looked at the number of bilateral meetings between heads of government and the lead up to the july And recovery and reform package, which was a major breakthrough in european integration There were 36 meetings in the weeks before between collective heads of government All multiple by some of them bilateral some of them trilateral some of them involving four So there's a There's a change in the way this system is working and the way in which I would argue it's being governed And then finally the policy toolkit the eu Has to be experimental. It's a system with a very high level of diversity as john as as john said And when you've very diverse heterogeneous Engagement of different actors, you must be experimental You must search for ways of either using existing tools that you have or using using Creating new ones. So there those are the three elements of of the collective power europe But moving on then to ukraine How did the how did the framing of the war in ukraine happen? Well, it happened in one day There was a heads of government meeting the evening of the 24th of february and It was very clear that the framing was that war had returned to europe That forced and coercion to change borders Had no has no place in the 21st century. It imposed full responsibility on russian aggression and the breaches of international Of international law and that russia would be held accountable For its war crimes or for what it did In terms of the actors and institutions involved The european council has already met five times on the ukraine war But because it was the war zelensky has joined twice biden attended one and then joined another by video. So there's also Out an extra european dimension to this both extending to the east and involving the united states But all council formations every single council has met on ukraine in one form or another be it transport be it health education education for ukrainian refugees etc etc But they've all they have all met and they're exchanging information But also implementing The responses to the war Of course the commission and the eas are major players the commission Understood that there was a war coming or at least Prepared for it and they had done a lot of work on sanctions so that the eu was literally ready to go and that was internal internal commission driven an internal commission dynamic with the eas And it did matter that bonder line had been a minister for defense. She understood at this uh this area and then It's interesting that the eu military committee Not nato is the clearinghouse for weapons requests from ukraine. Why because nato does not want to be drawn into a hot war with russia It wants to try to keep a cordon sanitaire around it because of the threat of nuclear war and so the nato is very happy to outsource the management of the Of the weapons clearing from ukraine to the eu And of course the other big news and this for ireland matters nato and the eu will work much more closely together from now on. It's been building for quite a while But now there will be more eu member states in nato. We've already seen The the change in the dramatic for me change in sweden I was less surprised by the change in in finland But nato eu Will intensify their engagement on security without And that's something that we in this country need to Need to come to terms with In terms of the policy toolkit the eu used every Capacity that it had we're already at six Sanctions packages and there's coordination both with the us and with the uk on on the sanctions regimes to try to watch the loopholes and try to make sure that That that they they stick Again a game changer for me was the use of the european peace facility Within 72 hours was purchasing lethal weapons to send to a third country And that would all could only happen in the circumstance of a a war the eu mobilized its temporary protection directive For the first time ever it's been on the statute books since about 2004 if i'm correct Used it for the first time ever to facilitate ukrainian refugees and then Trade liberalization has already happened And also macroeconomic support so every capability that the eu has Is being used in the war to support ukraine in this war but of course This war isn't just about ukraine. This war has now become Also about the future of the eu and the kind of eu we will live with In the next period and that happened again very quickly 24th of february the invasion first european council the versai The versai meeting on the 10th and 11th of march Where the conclusions or the versai declarations it's called it begins to look at what this means for the eu And it's very clear that it was a french presidency because the words european sovereignty Found their way into the declaration that wouldn't have happened if that meeting was held in any other country In any other member state, but european sovereignty, which is The french conception of open strategic Open strategic autonomy But again, there was a recognition that for the eu that this had implications for defense implications for energy dependency and implications for That the eu needed to look at its entire model of political economy In order to become more robust supply chains digital All of it cyber everything so it's not this war Has led to a transformative agenda for the eu And the eu already had a transformative agenda, which was the green deal and the climate crisis But now added to that is The challenge of the return of war Of war to europe and one of my big fears Is that the war will crowd out the climate agenda and that's a real danger now And yet the climate crisis is the planetary crisis is the Intergenerational crisis and is the future of the world crisis But it's very hard to argue with artillery and bombs. I'm afraid when that happens You have to you have to you have to respond And then in terms of enlargement The declaration said That ukraine was a member or part of the european family And this i'll now turn to enlargement because this is the big Of the many changes that this war has brought it has ratcheted enlargement of the european union agenda In a way that nothing else would have Enlargement was dead. There was enlargement fatigue and i'll talk about the western balkans but This means there is no alternative But to face up to The potential of a european union of 36 states And that's a frightening prospect because the eu is not currently anywhere close to being able to govern this to manage this And the existing member states Have to rethink and reconceptualize what the eu is and will be because of this scale Scale matters in politics as we know and of course the eu will become Much larger, but just look at the original eu That small six member states the club of the defeated Interestingly, you see algeria still part of the eu simply because at that stage Algerian independence was clearly coming but was not yet secure. It was It was a part of metropolitan France, but that was a club of the defeated the and one of the After the war The eu in military terms or sorry european military terms divided cold war NATO war so packed But in economic in terms of the economic framework It's split in western europe between eu and efta And in the 1950s it could not necessarily have been predicted that this club would become the powerful one Because there were two great trading states in europe in western europe at the time Germany was re-emerging as a powerful trading state and the united kingdom was still a very important trading state My i think efta lost Out in this competition for two reasons Institutionally it wasn't as dynamic as the eu But also germany became a much more powerful trading state than the united kingdom with you you paid decline uh, but if you look at the eu today This is eu 27 completely up to date and You will see that it's now continental in scale, but its borders are not finished And if we look at The eu has had seven enlargements But six of those happened before the end of the cold war And so many more have happened Member states have joined so enlargement was a particular phenomenon Related to the collapse of communism in the eastern half of the continent where the people decided Not elites it was the people decided to look west the people decided that they wanted their future political stability And prosperity guaranteed in the eu And I well, I happened to be there in I think it was may 1991 in prague When miterrand was trying to persuade the checks that they really didn't want to become members of the eu but that they That they should become a part of this european confederation that was that miterrand wanted and miterrand and havel were on a stage And miterrand spoke first and he made his pitch for the european confederation And havel just wiped the floor with him and you knew That the return to europe for these states was not a european confederation But it was to be a member state of the eu So we have to think that enlargement is not something that Happens the eu it's been completely intrinsic to the dynamic of european integration a but of course enlargement because a Because enlargement by definition or when you have candidate states by definition you have unsettled borders and political systems and polities prefer settled borders as we know on this Borders are problematic And so it is a That unsettled nature of the borders of the eu have always that widening dynamic have always been a source of stress and tension But the eu now has one two three four five six seven formal candidate states And three potential candidate states, which if they all join brings the total to 37 My view is for what it's worth that turkey will not become a member of the eu or at least on Not for the receivable future, but no one can say it's not a candidate state and it probably makes no sense to do that But that's these are all the other important thing to remember About the eu is it has not been a club of the rich That 72 percent of all of the member states that have joined the eu have been poorer than the core On accession So it's been a club that's been open to countries with much lower levels of development and much weaker Institutions, but there are there's a lot of difficulty in here in terms of capability capacity readiness, etc, etc And of course the story of the western Balkans has been very problematic that the western Balkans got stabilization and association agreements in 99 and then we've had One country getting candidate status accession negotiations beginning with some not with the others. We've had blockages both the Greeks and Bulgarians blocking And so it's been a very the eu's engagement with the western Balkans Has not stabilized that region in the way that for example the eastern enlargement did That it's been a much more problematic Engagement and it's been a bit like waiting for Goddow And it's waiting for Goddow not just because of the eu But these 10 they're small and unstable states And There's freedom house for example in 2019 downgraded Serbia from being free to partially free Now that's a huge problem. And in my view, uh, Serbia should be Candidate status should be taken away from Serbia. I think you've got the EU and I will argue at the end It's got to be much stricter But of course, it's extremely difficult to be strict with countries on the outside when you've urban on the inside and freedom has had Somewhat similar conclusions about the state of Hungary, which is again not a democracy But there are real problems of criminality rule of law And the EU has learned very painfully That it has not been able to stop backsliding of existing member states for in Hungary and in poland So if the weakness of the internal instruments to address backsliding have been Has been very problematic and there's been resistance in existing member states to yet more enlargement So the argument is that The the argument for enlargement fatigue revolves around an argument about absorption capacity That the EU the big bang enlargement of the mid 2000s stretched the EU's capacity and that is really Almost I think young Chris said it in 14 no enlargements in my during my my my presidency Uh, but of course, there isn't just fatigue. There's also in member states a certain resistance and a worry About what a union of 36 might look like how you absorb all of these states And remember that we worry a lot in small countries about the large states The large states worry a lot about what they call the tyranny of the time In other words the capacity of small states to make life difficult in the in the So enlargement has been on the back burner for For a long time As well as during all of this you had the presence of You had the presence of other powers being very active in the Balkans the russians and the chinese so The EU makes this enlargement challenge after a lot of enlargement fatigue enlargement resistance And a sense in which enlargement has become almost technocratic process rather than polity making But in my view all that changed on the 24th of february And it changed and this is again something that we must remember The reason it changed was the agency of the ukrainians themselves if As putin Expected he'd rolled into Kievan three days And we know that some of the forward battalions had their dress their dress uniforms with them because they thought they'd have their victory march pretty quickly If that had happened the west would have imposed sanctions There'd be a lot of ringing of hands the sanctions would have been draconian But we wouldn't be talking about the enlargement of the union So we have to really salute The resist that the sheer will of the ukrainians To take this on because it's their blood it's their cities and it's their future And so and it's their agency and they are if you look at what Firstly how russia has conducted the war, but also at what his what he what he the aim is Is to destroy ukraine and to have a buffer a buffer zone around vassal states around Russia and what happens in ukraine has implications For all maldova georgia So this war Matters to the future of europe in ways that we're only beginning to really get a handle on And Ukraine cannot lose this war if ukraine loses this war Then the future of europe in my view is very is very different So what was remarkable was the speed with which ukraine Demanded membership it four days into the war A ukraine formally applies to become a member state of the And was very smart politics because if you're If you're facing what they say what what they were facing back then and still face Then you also need to have some perspective in the future and of course the copycat Domino effect came into play immediately with maldova and georgia And what I find again remarkable is all three countries, but particularly ukraine answered the commission's questionnaire the commission True to form sentence questionnaires If you if you want us to issue if if the european council asks us to issue an opinion We need answers to the following questions Well, the ukrainian said if you want if you have questions, we will answer and they will not be the best But it wasn't there was a lot of concern because obviously a country at war But also the readiness of these countries to join the eu their level of economic development the state of democracy, etc, etc But because it was a war and because of ukraine agency in my view It was inevitable that it would have been extremely difficult for the eu to deny Candidate status and as we know the commission on the 17th of june granted Granted Candidate said at least advise the european council While identifying The usual conditionalities in the political the economic And that famous need to be able to implement the akim It was clear to me that once all the heads of government went to kiv Before the european council of the 23rd and 4th of june it was a done deal It was clear that the european council would support candidate status for two of the three countries and They very clearly say that the future of all three countries Lies within the european union And that then candidate status would be granted to the ukraine and to moldova And of course then the hedging the bets Will depend on meeting the kopenhagen criteria Taking consideration into consideration the eu's capacity to The eu's capacity to to implement now Given that this will involve a very big shift In the eu if we're thinking of an eu party 6 There's been a reemergence of a lot of debate on what's called differentiated integration or integration A europe of concentric circles a multi speed etc etc I think the important distinction is between multi speed and multi end Multi speed means that countries will join the eu That they will approach the same end And will do so Over over time but multi end means different forms of membership and any Poor country the rich if you're norway the united kingdom or switzerland you can afford to have multi end relationships with the eu But if you're ukraine moldova and any country in the western volcans You rightly want the seat of the table and full membership So multi end Only works for for some Um Obviously the other important dimension is geography and territory and how much How much differentiation you can have within the eu based on on territory or concentric circles And then multi menu different levels of Policy engagement the eu already has Very significant what's called variable geometry But what are the ideas out there? Well firstly our friend Andrew duff has been arguing for a new form of membership called affiliate membership An affiliate membership would be much more than the existing association agreements based on partnerships Greater access to eu institutions for the countries in the partnerships And would be open to any existing member state that wanted to go down Into an affiliate membership rather than full membership. It's all about the uk in my view and andrew and i have debated this Have debated this at length but in in in in response to this he sees The eu core would need a much stronger federal government And that you would have a european security council Now i'm going to pass over what he says about the institutions because i don't think there's a hope in hell it'll ever happen Leta very similar talks of seven unions sectoral integration across foreign policy asylum energy, etc concentric circles geography with a highly integrated federal hard call And the and this the this is the one area that i really agree with him on the veto and unanimity Has to be addressed. So let the enrico leta former and then we have mackles european political community Which is very resonant of mito ha and his european confederation And for mackle this european organization Could engage in a lot of coordination cooperation future partnerships Now he has said It can be a lead up to membership but doesn't prevent membership And interestingly the european council Again because it was a french presidency uses the term european political community in its conclusions And european council conclusions are the bible and if you have something there then it can be worked on thereafter And this would Offer a platform to all of the neighborhood to all of the neighborhood countries Interestingly the european council said while respecting the eu's decision making processes. So again the protective the protective mechanism coming in But the only reason i'm introducing all of these is to say that there are a lot of ideas floating out there On how the eu addresses this next massive wave of enlargement Uh so In my view and this is uh my very simplistic terms in my view we need to Seize thinking of enlargement as a ladder to be climbed and see it rather more as blocks of Work policy areas that a country may get access to Before full membership and the way to do it is not to the accession treaty because that's a one-off The way to do it is enhanced association agreements And you could well begin to have you could well begin to see that in the in the next wave So then i'm now going to finish. There is nothing but challenge here for the eu The enlargement will be very difficult very tricky It will matter on the timing and sequencing It can't be the unforeseen future For example, I would argue Bulgaria rumania joined the eu when they weren't ready, but it was much better for them and the eu they were in And I would say that what the eu needs to do Is there must be internal eu reform And particularly the veto you cannot have A an eu of 36 states with every country being able to To veto important areas of cooperation and we only think need to think back to the history of Poland Where they effectively destroyed the country because of the veto A Security will be much more important in the future of this eu than it was in the past And here one has to think about Ukraine will not become a member of natals So what security guarantees can be you but also member states give you crane because they're going to need some or else They're not going to be secure enough in the in the future But regardless Defense and security has also ratcheted up the eu agenda And in the eu it would be around areas like pesco It would be to make sure that if the member states are now about to spend a lot more on defense That they do so with far more effectiveness than they have in the past The e the problem although defense expenditure has declined The biggest problem is the lack of interoperability Across Europe. There is an enormous waste of money in this field in europe and europe can no longer Indulge itself in that way because we also have to think about the emergence of a trump or trump like presidency in the in the united states an increasingly polarized country A country where in in the wrong hands a president could simply withdraw article five simply Void article five and then the europeans we will have no option including this small island But to decide how we defend ourselves in a world of great power competition and increasing security threat I think it would be very important to be able to reverse there has to be carrots for Candidate states, but also sticks because we cannot have a future in which new member states or existing member states can backslide On either the rule of law or basic democratic values and practice And then there has to be extraordinary support for these countries Their state capacity is much weaker than existing member states And then there will have to be an enhanced neighborhood policy And one has to hope that at some stage in the future European-russian relations will Restabilize and become positive rather than negative. I don't know when that can happen. I don't know It will happen, but I don't know when it could be a very very long time because the legacy of this war Will be a shadow over europe and we still don't know The outcome of the war I'll simply end by saying That what john said in the european parliament all those years ago still holds That this continent Given its history and given the level of diversity and heterogeneity And the nature of the international system we now live in in my view has no choice But to get its house in order to maintain its house in order Because without it This will become a very ungovernable part of the world and when you don't have good government Then you have all sorts of other problems. So thank you very much, and I look forward to your question Well, bridget, thank you so much. What a tour de force. I I think You you've raised the bar even higher than my speech of last year So good luck to whoever comes next year, right? Listen, we don't have a huge amount of time and I I could ask you lots of questions I just wanted to make one personal remark You were right to make the emphasis on enlargement and the challenges and I think you did it brilliantly Um, I think the part of the issue is the nature of joining the european union I remember being in the oval office with bill clinton and romano brody in 1999 And linton was pushing turkish membership of the eu and and Romano, you know in his way said, yeah, you know bill it'd be like mexico becoming the 51st state of the union And all the advisers but no no no no and then bill clinton said hey, I kind of get what you mean Yeah, that's that's a really interesting perspective and it is true that membership of the european union It's not the same as joining nato. It's not the same as joining the wto or joining the council of europe It is linking your your economy your politics Your your your societies in irreversible ways for the moment except for brexit The other thing I loved was by the way your map of 1957 reminding us that the first country to leave the eu was algeria, right? So listen, since this is our first hybrid meeting I'm going to go straight to the floor to demonstrate that we do have people in the room That this is not just a virtual occasion and we have a roving mic there And I will luke has the mic who would like to ask the first question Barbara thank you. Hello, pretty and I just wanted to say you know one thing you didn't mention It's the whole financial aspect of being a member of the european union, of course hugely important to these countries. I mean they see algerado And and they've seen you know the development that has happened across the eu but also I think that um Anything less than membership and I mean these are all interesting ideas I think always looks very much second best and very much not what these countries aspire to and unless One of these sort of pathway houses if you like Can actually, you know, give them some perspective in terms of also making final membership But also, you know, some of the the carrots coming on the string as well as the sticks And I really don't see any of them flying because it will never be seen as The desirable thing uh for them to do So I just um like to If you agree, I'll take one or two questions and then because otherwise we Any other? Yes Luna Thanks, Bridget. You know Bridget, you put a certain emphasis on the need to give the future to reconsider the veto and unanimity I'm just wondering whether you included in that concept the legal situation whereby in passing legislation the inactive legislation council can only act By qualified majority vote With the agreement of the commission and requires unanimity to go against the agreement of the commission because if you would Do away with that principle you change the whole Configuration of the EU institutions and the relative power and influence of the commission in particular Thank you Barry And then for develop that you were fine Oh, Bridget, thank you. Thank you so much a quick one. What do you think the EU institutions can or should do to address democratic backsliding in current or prospective member states given the risk of poses to peace and social cohesion Thanks. Well, no challenge there. You you have 30 seconds. Okay, right? So it's a firstly Barbara on with national aspects absolutely right But if you think about the EU budget is a relatively small budget but what if you kick start And it can elevate companies based infrastructure their educational system So in my view, it's an absolutely necessary company of Entry to what is a very tough competitive market You've got to have solidarity in my view and I think the structural funds have been in both by introducing planning and all of that have been brought a very great success Not always, but Not all countries have used structural funds well or wisely. We probably I would say in this country ended up with too many golf courses That's another that's another matter. I fully agree with you on membership in second That anything less than for membership for these companies would be seen as second best and therefore Whatever european with the community emergency if it does Then will only be a staging for for these countries would be only a staging, but it may be something that other countries like the security council in the UK in all ways Might might want I also think that the EU already has a core And the core of the EU are all those countries that are in everything So it's an open core It's not a clue, but those who argue for The so-called mildly with a hard better record They really do want a tiered political system and that doesn't in my view work. So I I fully agree I fully agree with you Una on on the veto when I When I say the need to look at the veto So I think it has to be looked at really carefully in foreign policy And there I think what you're looking for is not traditional QMD But consensus minus one or two in other words to prevent one country being able I think you would have to expand Significantly the use of QMD across policy fields Just to ensure That the EU could could act but on the On the Requirement to the council commission Unlimited but that's part of the institution of balance. That's not the that's not what I'm talking about I'm talking more about the capacity of member states to veto And so I fully I fully agree with the importance of the institution of balance and the protection of the commission because uh Without the commission The EU does not have the knowledge power the fire power To develop collective policy Without the commission you simply can't get I'm thinking to the mff and the recovery fund But there was a lot of work done on the recovery fund in the euro group necessary to get the the To get the finance ministries on board But the actual package Could only It's the only institution capable of constructing packages Because you know, I it's the label technocratic. It's also the knowledge carl house of this system And without it the system would be in trouble. And then what the EU could do about backsliding I think it was most unfortunate that urban started backsliding in 2010 as the EU was entering the etude phase of the original crisis The there simply was not enough political capacity in the system That handled all of the time and then he got away with too much and as he got away with too much he He then became emboldened and did more And remember that all but all one started Controlling the hungarian political system from the bottom up He didn't start with the problem. He started so he doesn't support them So he fractured a stage And I'm I'm more About Poland because Poland has continued to have a viable opposition But can I tell you what I would do with them? I would love them with auditors and make their lives That's what I would do. I would send Auditors to all of everything because you will find it. The corruption is there on the system structure from their lives Article seven was designed for one rule to say to the EU It was designed at a time of optimism about democracy and transition and the permanence The end of history And we know that's not our word But if we actually talk about political development in Europe and talk about the histories of all of this part of Europe they've had very weak democratic traditions and democratic experience And a lot of contestation around borders minorities. So we should not be surprised And so for me, it's not and I know that there are A lot of my colleagues who might have tremendous respect for they're fighting the rule of law fight every single day calling it out And I think that's necessary If this is episodic Then there isn't a problem long term general intergenerational change we sorted over time But if it becomes a permanent feature of the EU Then that that is a problem But one thing we should welcome at least is that the EU has become a far less diplomatic and far less alike system There was a time when heads of government would be green or be critical of a fellow head of government around the table It was simply not done That's no longer the case Things are called out by heads of government after we've seen, you know, real rousals But real rousals are good. That's that's politics. But my I would I would use the conditionalities the rule of law conditionalities for the rrs and things like that On Poland at the moment, I think there's a very Deleted balance between ensuring that Poland is healthy account While also helping Poland given the pressure that it's under from the war you think So I think I think it's not I don't think it's I don't think it's as easy a case I think there's a real challenge to the EU in keeping that balance and as we see within the commission It's called a lot of conflict and a lot of soul searching because there are no easy ends But auditories I would make their lives paperwork very Thank you very much. I'm very conscious of passing time And so I'm going to take just one question from our one of our online audience from jack o' sullivan of irish solar innovations, which I think Gives us a question with a Brings us from full circle from the beginning saying after such a wonderful and uplifting opening to the seminar and john Hume's devotion to peace so perfectly expressed. I have one question What would john's advice be today in response to russia's invasion of ukraine and the on-going? So I I think john would recognize That this war was not something that ukraine wanted or asked for It was something that they were invaded And I think john was not a pacifist He didn't like war And For good reason because no one I mean no saying human being should should want war But I think he would recognize ukraine agency Thank you Well, we're going to have closing words from john farron the chairman of the john and pat hume foundation. So perhaps no better person to Maybe provide also an answer to that question Sean, please Thank you very much indeed. David David said i'm chair of the board of the john and pat hume foundation But before I proceed with expressing The board and the foundations. Thanks to all those who've been involved in Organizing this evening's event. I would like to make on behalf of the foundation presentations to bridget and belatedly to to david and Oh, thank you Thank you My son won a painting believe it or not on zelensky And so this is going to go beside zelensky Thank you I want to express of course our very sincere. Thanks to professor bridget For a wonderfully stimulating lecture The analysis and the views she expressed I think would have been strongly very strongly endorsed by john and pat hume deeply committed europeans that both of them were indeed pat Often recalled that the first time she heard john speak in public Was that a debate in dairy? Where the motion was that ireland should join The european common market So from his earliest Ventures onto the public stage john made no secret of his support for the european project And as we know he remained one of its strongest advocates Throughout his political career So thank you bridget for your contribution In john and pat's honor Thanks also to David ambassador david For moderating this evening's event and david of course inaugurated The series of lectures dedicated the memory of john and pat hume last year The foundation also wishes to express its thanks to the institute For agreeing to host this evening's event. And so we thank Barry colfer and his team And we thank also members of the board and in particular rory quinn who's been with us this evening And rory assures me that There will be plenty of opportunities for cooperation between the foundation And the institute as we Both develop our respective programs Our thanks to our own foundations general secretary tim atwood For all the hard work that he has put into organizing this evening's event Very typical of tim Indefatigable in Undertaking all the responsibilities that fall to him. So thank you very much indeed tim And finally let me Thank yourselves whether here in person Or with us virtually We trust you will keep in touch with The foundation as we develop our programs The foundation has been established and in the public domain only a year and a half at this stage It's been established to both commemorate The memory of john hume the contribution that he made And indeed supported in making that contribution by his wife pat But also to sustain and to develop The principles and the values that john Stood by and articulated throughout his public career So I hope that you will keep in touch with us our website is hume foundation dot org and with that I invite you to a mingle and to Sup a glass or two of wine And thank you again for your attendance and thanks in particular to david and to bridge It for their great contribution. Thank you


Hey, this is Brett, and this 2019 Hyundai Elantra GT is stock number 13247ZB. I am here at Summit Automotive in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, your new and used car headquarters. This 2019 Hyundai Elantra GT has the 2.0-liter 4-cylinder engine, puts out 173 horsepower. It's going to get you 32 miles per gallon on the highway, 25 city. This vehicle has been fully safety and inspected by our service shop per the state of Wisconsin inspection process, has a fresh oil and filter change, all the fluids have been checked and topped off, and this car is 100% ready to go. I'm going to go all the way around in this video, inside, start it up, take a look under the hood to give you the most accurate representation of the vehicle possible. Summit Gray Metallic is the color, and I shoot all my videos in 4K, so if you have HD capabilities, turn them on now, because it is your best way to check out the quality, condition, options, and cleanliness of the vehicle before seeing it in person. Going down the driver's side here, you can see the rear quarter and doors all look really good. Front fender is in fantastic condition as well, and if you like the video, you can subscribe to my YouTube channel, which is youtube.com slash summitauto. Click the bell notifications, and you'll get updates on the videos I do each and every day here at Summit Automotive. Very nice down that side, this one comes with the painted and polished aluminum wheels, and it has General Ultimax RT tires. These are 225, 45R17s, and they have a really good amount of tread left, I'd say probably 75% of the tread left on those tires. Once again, front fender is absolutely perfect, it does come with the projector lamp head lamps, the LED fog lamps there. Front bumper is in great shape, I didn't see any major dents, dings or cracks on there, and the hood is in very nice condition as well. Passenger side front fender is in nice shape, and the passenger side front wheel, no major scuffs or scrapes on there. Summit Grey Metallic's got a lot of metal flake in it, a lot of purples and blues and greens, really a cool looking color. And as you go down this side of this 2019 Hyundai Elantra, take note of how clean that body is, how reflective and mirror-like that paint is. I take these HD videos, so if you are far away or even if you're close by, you just cannot make the trip down but you're still interested in purchasing the vehicle, you can see the car, hear the car, and have confidence in the vehicle that you're looking at before you even get here. So when you do get here, there's absolutely no surprises, and you can make a smart and informed buying decision before even making the trip, or just making sure that the car that you're coming to see is in nice shape. Back wheels in great condition, and the back tire has just about all the tread left on it. Four-wheel disc brakes on this vehicle, rear bumpers in pretty nice shape, does have a couple little scuffs there, nothing too bad, rest of the bumper looks great. Back storage area is very nice and clean, it does come with a spare tire and jack tools. This piece goes up so that you can make it a flat or a higher floor, and a flat floor when those seats are down. Those seats do fold down for extra storage, and you can see that the shocks are doing a nice job holding that hatch out. Speaking of that hatch, that shuts nice and solidly, and for full disclosure, this back wheel is just as nice as the rest. And once again, driver's side doors look fantastic. Do you get power mirrors with blind spot mirrors?  There are no rips or tears on the seats, they are in very nice condition, driver's seat height adjuster. In the front, we have some nice custom fit all-weather floor mats. Stability control, auto headlamps, power windows, locks and mirrors. Take a quick look at the back seats, they are just as clean as the front seats, no rips or tears back here. It does have the latch child safety system for any child car seats you may have. These seats do fold down for extra storage. Like I said, when that flat floor is up, it goes completely flat with the back seats, which is really nice if you have to haul a bunch of extra stuff. That carpeting is in excellent condition and you do get child safety locks on the back doors. Inside and bottoms of the doors all look fantastic. We'll hop inside, check out the miles, the radio and everything that this car has to offer on the interior. You can see that this one has 88,290 miles on it. Instrument cluster is very clean, you get a digital speedometer outside temperature display. Turn wheel has bluetooth and audio controls on the left, cruise controls and information center controls on the right. You get the touch screen radio here, this one has AM, FM and Sirius XM radio capabilities on it. You have all your different apps including Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. This is also where your backup camera shows up and you can see that that is working nicely. Down here are your climate controls, auxiliary and USB jack. Down there as well as two 12 volt power points. Automatic transmission, passenger side format and seat are in fantastic condition. I don't think this car has ever been smoked in and it smells very clean inside. The headliner is in great shape and does have map lights up there. We'll start it up and take a look under the hood. Starts right up, no check engine lights or anything like that. And those lights on as well. I would personally like to thank you for checking out the video today. And hopefully from this HD video you've been able to verify the quality condition options and of course cleanliness of this Hyundai Elantra GT inside and out. Really a nice car for the miles. Under the hood we have the two liter four cylinder engine. Once again 173 horsepower engine base, very clean runs, very smooth. Once again this car has been fully safe and inspected by our service shop has a fresh oil and filter change all the fluids have been checked and topped off. And it is 100% ready to go. See all those lights are working nicely. And I would highly recommend this car for make quality and condition standpoint. And to see more pictures of this Hyundai Elantra GT or one of our other 550 new and used car trucks, SCVs, minivans, wranglers, halftones, three quarter tons, one tons, you name it, we've got to go to that website right there. Summitauto.com full pictures and descriptions of every single vehicle from two locations all at Summitauto.com. And if you'd like to check out more HD videos you can go to youtube.com slash summitauto. Remember to like, subscribe, and share on this video and all the videos that you see there click the bell notifications you'll get updates on the videos I do each and every day here at Summitautomotive. In fact in a second you will see a link to subscribe to my YouTube channel on the left. The link to more Hyundai Elantra videos I've done in the upper right, a link to this vehicle on our website on the lower left and a link to one of our latest YouTube videos on the lower right. Click those, check us out. We're super excited to help you with this Ultra Clean 2019 Hyundai Elantra GT in Summit. Great metallic. Thanks again for checking out the video remember to like, subscribe, and share on the YouTube channel I really appreciate it. Thanks again.


Hi everyone, Joe for JaspysCaseBreaks.com coming at you with 2022 Bowman's Best Baseball 8 Box. Pick your team number 5. All teams are in. All cards ship big thanks to everybody here for making it happen on a Thursday. Now, if you have a little rooftop next to your name, that means you won that spot in the filler. And Eric got official last spot in Mojo. Got the cardinals before all the teams were pulled for the filler. All right, let's pop this case open. There are your eight boxes right there. Let's do this. Four autos a box. A lot of parallel opportunities. A lot of big hit opportunities. Bowman's Best Traditionally a pretty popular product from year to year. It's been around for a while. Everyone knows what it's about. We have a World Baseball Classic action happening soon. I think it's on FS1, which is channel 219 on our Direct TV. You know, King's abs are happening right now, but they're going into the third intermission. Oh, no. I think I could watch the King's game. I like King's game and then watch World Baseball Classic action. I've been, for those of you who are into this sort of thing, I've been investing in some of these World Baseball Classic games. And I've just been kind of just to goof around. Just going underdogs in the group stage.  But so far I am a 4-in-1. The opening game, I had the Netherlands plus 150. They were the underdogs. Won that. The next game, Panama at Taiwan. They were the dogs. Panama was a dog plus 165. Now, I was stunned at this one. Australia plus 450. I didn't think I'd win that one, but they ended up beating Korea. That was actually a pretty exciting game. Alright, couple of nice things here. We've got a Bobby Whitjr atomic. That's going to go to the Royals, Joe E.P. with that one. And then there's a Julio Rodriguez refractor, rookie refractor going to Robb and the Mariners. First of many, I hope. Our first autograph is Anthony Gutierrez for the Rangers. That's going to go to... It's going to go to Paul and Texas. Got a nice Juan Soto Dyka, the atomic refractor. And Yasir Mercedes. Yas. Yas indeed. Twins. That's going to be for In Koo with the twins. And we've got a Spencer Torkelson to 199 Aqua Lava. That's for Detroit. That's going to be for Raymond. Jordan Alvarez, Speckle to 299. And a Wander Franko, Global Impact Dyka. Nice one for Tristan and Tampa Bay. Jordan Alvarez, many diamonds for Edward. Edward C. and the Astros. Another Julio Rodriguez and an Averson Arteaga. Autograph for my rivals, the Giants. James with the Giants. And another Julio, this is for Seattle. That's for Robb. And we've got another Ranger, Danyar Cueva. That will be for Paul and the Rangers. Marcella Meyer, Green at many diamonds for Ed P. And the Red Sox. Alright, one box down, another box to go. And that's Australia beating Korea. Australia plus 450, which for baseball, it's a pretty big line. Korea is a bullpen, kind of giving up some late runs. They should be able to beat Australia, but... My loss was Panama plus 155 at the Netherlands. And then overnight I won Italy at Cuba, Italy plus 130. And then tonight, going with Czech Republic at China, China plus 122. And then the later night, getting Cuba at Panama, Panama plus 140. Let's see how long this streak lasts. If you're any golf fans out there, Player's Championship, the unofficial fifth major, as they say. So I'm in a pool where I pick... You pick one golf from each tier. Alright, so the first tier would be like one through ten. World Golf rankings, eleven through twenty would be another tier, so on and so forth. I'm doing alright in that. It's just round one. Way too early to get too excited, but fifth on the leaderboard so far. Here's Won Bin Cho for the Cardinals. Eric Houston with the Red Virts. Lasbon Mojo, 70% of time. Lasbon Mojo hits 100% of time. Some of these can be autographed too. I really like the design of this insert. Royals, Joey Pruitt. And then we've got a Drew Gilbert autograph for Edward C. and the Stroes. Bryce Harper, Aqua Lava to 199. That'll be for the Phillies. It's going to go to Ed. Edie Kapp, Global Impact Eye Cut. And a Colson Montgomery for the White Sox. Chad Dahl with the White Sox. That's 30 out of 150. Nice. Can't forget this Wander Franco. Tristan with Tampa Bay. And we've got Curtis Mead for Tristan. And there's a out of 25. Yas. That goes to Inku and the Twins. Another box. So from the tier, so this pool that I'm in, the golf pool that I'm in, it's all tiers. And it's interesting because it doesn't go by, and I don't know how common or not common this is. I'm just not that, I just don't know. But this particular pool, we go by dollar earnings. So not by place. So I mean, whatever the first place winner wins, like $4 million or something, $2 million could be that. And the second place is $500 or whatever it is. So it goes by that, not by their finishing position. So it went with tier one. So one through 10 in the world rankings. Going with Scottie Scheffler. Who did all right today? I think Scottie Scheffler is in, yeah, he's T6. Matthew Fitzpatrick had a rough day. I think Keith Mitchell did okay. Siwoo Kim had a great day. Brian Harmon, not so much. But then Justin Suh, who was in tier six. So I think he's ranked like 90 something in the world. I think he's type of third at some point right now. Oh no. So I apologize, Pete. Pete's got a sister Hazel song stuck in his head because we were singing that the other night. The other week maybe. It's a good one. I mean, that was probably on heavy radio rotation back when people listened to the radio for their music. Remember when people used to do that? Vidal Bruhan Atomic. And we got Eddie's Leonard for the Dodgers. That's going to be for Rob. And there's Tyler Whitaker for Edward and the Astros. And Rafael Devers, Aqua Lava for Ed P. and the Red Sox to 199. Honestly, you've never heard the entire song until I mentioned it. Now it's a top song for you. That was a monster hit. I don't know if they had any other hits. Not maybe they did, but not to that caliber. We've got a Henry Davis Global Impact, Die Cut. And we've got a Stephen Kwan for the Guardians, Aaron with the Guardians. Been waiting patiently for this break. It's the Stephen Kwan autograph. And another Stephen Kwan this time. Number eight out of 99. Double Kwan's in this mini box. And a purple Stephen Kwan to 250. Look at that. And a Jose Ramirez too. All the cards too. All right, another box. All right, well, Pete. Sister Hazel, who sings All For You. They were formed in Gainesville in 1993. And it was named after Sister Hazel Williams, a local missionary who ran a homeless shelter. That's nice. The band's second album, I guess that was the big one. I guess it was released. The band's second album, somewhere more familiar, was released in 97 and sold approximately 30,000 copies through its initial pressing, which I guess was good. Prompting Universal Records to sign the band, then they re-released it in late 1997. And the single All For You hit number one, number 11, sorry, on the Billboard Top 100 and remains the band's most successful single. Hmm, that's interesting. There might be two versions of the song out there. According to Wikipedia, All For You is the debut single by American alternative rock band Sister Hazel, originally appearing on their eponymous debut album. In 1997, the song was re-recorded for their second album. Oh, Pete, if you really want to deep dive into this, apparently there might be a second version of this song. Re-recorded for their second album. Right, there's the Sister Hazel album, Sister Hazel. They've got a version of All For You. And then there's the one that we're probably more familiar with that was re-recorded for their major label release, Knowledge. Now this being a top song for Pete, one has to wonder, right, is Sister Hazel on tour? They are on tour. They're going to be in Houston on the 17th and going through Louisiana, through Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Florida, Florida, Mississippi, Florida, California, Alabama, South Carolina. They're on tour this year. Man, Sister Hazel should be paying me money for this promo. Ryan Reckley to $2.99. James and the Giants. James and the Giants Peach. More Giants for James. Averson, Arteaga. Looks like they're working the festival circuit for the most part. This is up 3-1 on The I Was Nice. Junior Perez for the A's. That's for Simon and the Athletics. Sister Hazel would be a good band to get like a festival where you just want to hear that one song. You just time it where you're like, all right, I'll catch Sister Hazel at the end of their set. Watch them do the third thing. Then go see the other band. All right, Rob with the Mariners gets the Julio Rodriguez, the Junior Perez once again for Simon. The Gavin Sheath to $25. For Chad and the White Sox. Anthony Arizzo, Die Cut. And Adrian Plascencia going to the Halos. Rob for the Halos. Purple Christian Hernandez for the Cubs. Raymond to $2.50. Popped early here. Otto should be down there somewhere, right? And it's a double Otto. For the Pirates to $25. Michael Lossia picking the Pirates straight up gets the 16 out of 25 dual Otto. Dual on-card Otto. Cabrion Hayes, O'Neill Cruz. Could be the two centerpieces for the Pirates for years to come. Nice one. All right, we are halfway through this full case break. And we've got another case coming up right after this. First dual Otto that I've pulled out of here. I wonder if Jason's pulled any dual Otto's from the Personal Breaks channel. Global Impact Die Cut Otani. And we've got Marcello Meyer. Ed P. and the Red Sox. To $1.50. Got a Marcello Meyer Atomic. And nice UFO autograph. Colson Montgomery, $40 out of $50. Nice gold parallel going to Chad Da and the White Sox. And that's on-card too. Yeah, that is real clean, isn't it? I like that UFO insert in the first place. I feel like a couple of previous ones, we saw sticker autos on them, but I guess some of them can be on-card as well. Gold Lava. And we've got Jordan Alvarez, Mini Diamond to $99. Green Mini Diamond. Bowman Masterpieces, Bobby Witt Jr., another Bobby Witt Jr., Joe Ryan. Gold Lava to $75. Twins. And the Bobby Witt Juniors, of course, go to Joey and the Royals. And we've got Luis Mesa, Tristan and Toronto. Colorado Posa Gold Band. And we've got Jack Sawinski, Rookie Auto. Nice, that's another one. Another pirate from Michael. And we've got Elijah Green to $50 for the Nats, Jeff for the Nationals. All right, another box. Baseball news, that's of importance. I guess Hunter Green. Oh, named a... Ooh, L.A. King Scored, nice. Back to a two-well lead. Hunter Green, named opening day starter for the Reds. Fancy baseball players. He's supposed to have a... I think he's poised to have a breakout season. That's what a lot of the so-called experts are hoping. Albert Pujols open to coaching role in the future. Pretty cool seeing Albert Pujols back in the dugout. Harper won't rush. Eyes all star break for return. Carlos Rodone heading to the IL. Hmm. That Yankees starting rotation with a little bit of an injury bug. Um... Well, that was the thing about Carlos Rodone, right? He had put together two amazing seasons, which led him to a nice little contract, but there were some injury concerns which led the White Docks not to re-sign him or extend him to a longer-term deal, but ended up with a nice season with the White Sock and then signed a two-year deal I think with an opt-out with the Giants, which he had a really nice season and then opted out. I want to say it was two seasons and then that was it. I forget something like that. But short. Taj Bradley for the Rays. Tristan and here's a nice UFO insert, Julio Rodriguez. Rob Mariner's. It's a holiday. Oscar Colas to 2.99. Mini Diamonds. And a wander Franco for Tristan and Tampa Bay. Colas goes to Chad and the Jordan Wicks Otto will go to Raymond and the Cubs. Juan Yepes for Eric and the Cardinals. It's 2.50. Noel Naranado, die-cut. And we have the Gabriel Arias Autograph for the Guardians. Aaron Cleveland! This is for you! Those Stephen Kwan autographs earlier as well. That was nice. And there's Henry Mendez. Henry going to Henry with Milwaukee. Bobby with Junior for the Royals for Joey and then there's Juan Soto Blue to 1.50 for the Padres, Kevin. Alright, two more boxes to go. Good luck. Another two mini boxes. Another master box. Another four autos. We've seen, have I seen, I've only done this is only my third case, but we didn't have a train whistle yesterday, right? When we did those two cases maybe we're due. Maybe in this case or the next. Maybe an out of five. A red lava out of five. Maybe a super fracture. I got fooled yesterday. There was just a straight red. But those are out of ten. Alright, we've got a Eric Brown Junior. 19 out of 75. Gold Lava for the Brew Crew. That's for Henry. Yas, Yasera Mercedes. Another one for the Twins. That'll be for Inku. I've not seen any Zavala yet. Maybe some base cards, but in terms of autographs or parallels no. But here's George Valera to 2.50. That's going to be for Aaron. Oh, there was a super fracture. Well, not one that I pulled, right? There's Danny on a day on Friday. Inku with the Twins. Twins box. Maybe Jason pulled the super fracture yesterday. I don't think I did though. It's Joey Vado, Mini Diamond. And there's Earth Bobby with Junior. And there's a Norhe Vera for Chad Dahl and the White Sox. And there's Brian Della Crews. 50 out of 50 for the fish. Goes to Kenny. Alright, final box coming up. Good luck. Good luck, good luck. Good luck. Buena Suerte. Bon chance. Belly Jean. Is there a filler for the Immaculate Six Fox break? Yes. I think it should be the product right next to it. Or near it. Somewhere in the football section. And it should say in the title X amount of Immaculate RT spot giveaway. Devin, this is five. Or Devin, this is whatever the schedule says. Check the schedule. No worries, Devin. I got to try to teach people to fish. I just can't give it to them. But yeah, this is five. Six is coming up right after this. And then we've got, I think Flaal is coming up after this. And then that should bring us to the last hour of the show. I want to say close to it. Give or take. There's Samuel Munoz, 299. Mini Diamond for the Dodgers. That'll be for Rob. Jordan Lawler, Atomic. Bobby Wood Jr. And we've got Nico Cavadas. That's going to be for Ed and Boston. And a redemption. Any guesses on that redemption? Who could it be? For bragging rights. Guess the redemption. There's Kevin Parada, New York Mets. That'll be for Raymond Lubis. We've got Raymond Domingo and Raymond Lubis in this one. Raymond L. With the Mets. 250. That's for Seattle. Now Rex, of all the ridiculous ideas you've pitched to me over the years. That actually might be the best idea yet. If we had some sort of Jaspie's version of Alexa where some people, ah, that'd be awesome. Where they can just be like hey Jaspie, do do you know what time is the Flaalus break? The Flaalus break will be at 8.45 p.m. Pacific. Tre Sweeney to the Yankees. Tristan, that'd be awesome. Hey, hey Jaspie. How, uh, how many spots are left in that? How many fillers do we have to do for this break? Two fillers. Oh my god. That'd be a life changer. Someone work on that. There's Hedbert Perez. Brewer's, Henry. Oh, sorry Alan. Aaron Judge to 150. I know. People like asking, Joe. Alright, here's a water rookie card, Julio Rodriguez, Atomic Refractor. Looks pretty cool. Hey Jaspie, if it sells out, will it break tonight? Yeah, it would automatically say yes. That'd be great. Alright, congratulations to someone you are due to receive a best of 2022 autograph Gold Refractor Parallel. We had, uh, our guesses were Mike Trout from a couple people, Julio, Luciano, Jared Duran, etc, etc. Congrats to somebody. Good luck. It's gonna be The city is H. There's only one baseball team where the city starts with H. It's Houston. It's Houston Astros Jeremy Pena. Nice. That goes to Edward C. That's our last auto of the break. And a strong one as well. There you go, ladies and gentlemen. Alright, here is the recap. Some nice stuff out of here. Some nice colors, some nice autographs, some nice players, hopefully future stars. Alright, this is Bowman, so these are all on the prospect level mostly. We want to see them continue to evolve as players. Turning to stars, that's what we need them to do. And of course, we have that nice dual autograph to 25, Cabrine Hayes O'Neill Cruz. There you go, everybody. I'm Joe for jazpeascasebreaks.com and I will see you next time for the next break. Bye-bye.


కమికానింధడిింపతిండి. క్బకింని. మతోర౓నుతెర్ందిండుర్. మరోఔకికేడిాంపినింతోంపి. మధంపిండింంపినుంపింఖికికాకి. The bill seek to protect the right of widows, guarantee appropriate measures against gender discrimination in political and public scene, and prohibit violence against women in Nigeria. The bill was rejected by some male lawmakers who argued that the Nigerian constitution was clear on the right of citizens, including women. Biodun Olujume, senator representing the Kiti South, however, reworked the bill and continued the pursuits in the Senate since first reading in 2019. After scaling second reading and referred to the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, unfortunately the bill was rejected again by some male lawmakers claiming that the bill was against religious practice and that they can only favor gender equity over gender equality. Now, great women and men were recognized in the Quran and the Bible. So, why shouldn't we give anyone equal opportunities in contributing to the attainment of a balanced and progressive nation?  So everyone deserves fairness, justice, socio-economic opportunities. The strength of a state is seen in her ability to see possibilities parity in leadership offers. It also calls for the need to look beyond biases and utilize diversity to strengthen its systems. However, recent trends and happenings have proven that the issue of gender equality mainstreaming is bound to be swept under the carpet as a particular gender at the helm of leadership is seen as a taboo in some certain areas. In the 21st century, where nations around the globe are searching for more advanced ways and solutions to tackling problems, some are still at the very low of thinking gender equality should not be encouraged. This anomaly begs the following question. What is our future with policies that have no place for gender equality or equality at large? Are we governed by bias belief that some sets of individuals are not fit to rule? What happens to the fundamental human rights which stipulates right to freedom from discriminatory biases based on sex, ethnicity or religion? These and many more are the questions roaming the minds of progressives amongst us. The issue of gender equality is a universal debate and patriarchal systems have been gender equality almost impossible. People are not supposed to be evaluated by their ethnicity or gender but by their abilities to deliver only and if only we as a nation can see the possibilities of equality then we are sure to be one step further in the progress ladder. In conclusion, leadership, intellectualism, greatness has no gender. It could be attained by anyone who puts in the necessary efforts. Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance. That's for Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary-General. God rest his soul. That's a good one. I agree with you on all counts that in the 21st century we shouldn't be having the kind of conversation that we have in the parliament over the extent to which we are going to include women in mainstream politics and other facets of society. Having said that, I have not read the legislation or the bill so I wouldn't know the angle of decent or convergence. But I understand that whatever the case may be, some people are saying that women should not be, they should not be, they should not be, they should only be seen. And they should not be heard. I think that is so obvious. In the 21st century it should not be heard. You just remind, I was watching at the Zira yesterday and I saw that in Afghanistan the current regime there has passed a law that women cannot write more than this. Without having a male guy or what they call Muharram in Islamic context. So that we cannot, Afghanistan should not be the standard that we aspire to as a nation. We are a democratic government whereby the constitution that she pointed out in session 42 has recognized the fundamental right of everybody irrespective of the agenda and any form of inclination. So we will continue to advocacy to revive that bill and see that eventually it sees the light of day. But that notwithstanding, I would like to be devil's advocate here. Having really tried to work with women in legislation, they are not the easiest people. You say with women? Yes. I think that, I mean, I think that it goes beyond working with the women in legislation. I'm looking more at what it means, the system as a whole. Essentially in 2021 where we have world leaders of countries, heads of states as women, how can we in 2021 in Nigeria still hold such backward views. And I do call them backwards and I often wonder what supersedes in Nigeria. Is it the law of the country or a religious law? I don't get it and I think it's just sad.  Because if we're women, people will be like women are taking it. So it's a good thing. As a woman, I know what it is to have that bias used. For instance, I don't know now, but do you know that you cannot even apply for Nigerian passport as a woman without either your husband's consent or your father? It's ridiculous. In 2000, you didn't know that, did you?  But yes, so did your husband, your husband has to sign something or your father and I'm thinking, okay, I'm a widow and I'm an orphan. I think it's not, that maybe it must have changed because I know quite something. It has changed but I actually went through it.  Children, you have to have the father's consent.  And that's just the basic. That's just the fact. But you see, I think it goes also because of the fact that law and custom are really head-to-head here.  Yes, it's head-to-head. So even when you get an edge in the legal side, you have the custom running up next to you and you know, changing it. Because sometimes we change and should change. But we can't seem to do that. But you know what is funny? It's funny how in some instances, the culture wins because it suits our purpose at that time. It suits our purpose. We're not consistently choosing culture. In the things that really matter to the men. Exactly. They're not choosing culture. Speaking of how this whole thing is, is even beyond the Nigerian context. I was watching an interview the other day on the same magazine. It was Antonio Gutierrez, the current United Nations General. So the journalist asked him that when are we going to have the first female... It's Secretary General. No, he now said that when we will have the next Madam General. And Antonio Gutierrez was sure he couldn't answer the question. So he owned up to him that yeah, we understand that this issue is also in the United Nations. And that we will continue to see how it works. It is everywhere. So it's a good answer. It was worse in Nigeria. It was not just Nigeria. In some countries. In some countries. Tell you where religion plays such a role. Since we are playing the religious card, the Bible and the Quran mention prominent women that have expressed leadership. So they should stop deceiving the people. Going for that, the Bible says that they are neither male nor female. Nothing male. Sure. Sure. Barbados just had a woman leading them into the future. And guess what? There is another woman who is actually leading English authorities. In Elizabeth's woman, leading English authorities. Even in New Zealand. In New Zealand, the woman understand what's her name again. She's doing well. In fact, there was a survey of countries that properly managed the COVID situation. And it was women. But let me say something. I think that while we are talking about all the things that need to change, we must also admit that some things have changed. There are a lot of the bank heads in Nigeria recently. They are all women. Which means that obviously, I mean, I hope it's not a political thing. I hope they are not playing to the gallery. But these women are qualified. I think we are making progress. But the problem is that there are some in part of the country. Some persons from some part of the country are trying to drag us backward. While some other parts are moving forward. I agree with you. I agree with you. But that notwithstanding. I mean, I know that women in places like Cross River, Ogoniland and things like that. They are women. They are women. I have a friend. She is the leader of the house. She is the chief of army staff in a government. Chief of staff. Chief of staff. Sorry, chief of staff. Chief of staff. I am looking at this woman. And I am thinking, how can she? Because she is the young woman from Niger Delta. So I can't imagine her standing there and telling those men to... That's very interesting. It can happen everywhere. Not until our Nautan brothers and sisters experience this. We will keep talking because it's easy for some of them to say we will get married off our girls at the age of nine. And then you don't want the girls to go to school. Imagine the religious police in a particular state which sees a smart room from girls. See, it's wrong for them. I don't understand. There are these ladies who are... They are from Miss Nigeria. Yes. A beauty pigeon. Yes. This religious police had someone her parent to explain why they have to allow the daughter to... So it speaks to how this is more entrenched in some part of the country. And she is very beautiful. She is a very beautiful woman. Thank you all for your review. Well, a woman should know her place. And her place is in the driver's seat. Well, thank you for your attention. Why the programs lasted. We hoped our conversations resonated with you. Little drops of water they see make a mighty ocean. Don't forget the advocacy continues on our social media platform on Facebook at plus TV Africa hashtag the advocate ng and Instagram at plus TV Africa hashtag the advocate ng. To catch up with previous broadcasts go to plus TV Africa dot com forward slash the advocate ng. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel plus TV Africa. Thank you for your constant love and support in the past year. Yes to another amazing year. Let's keep advocating for a better society. See you next time and happy new year once again.


Hello. Hey, Mr. Moore. Yes. This Ricky Caruth at Remex of Orange Beach. How you doing? Good man. Glad we missed this storm. Man, that was, that was about, that was, I don't, I haven't seen the aftermath but I know it was about as bad as Ivan down here, the hit down here. Hey, I didn't want to take up too much of your time. I've got, you got 1101. I've got 701 listed for 489. And I was just calling to see anything in the world I could do for you. So not only am I going to teach you how to crush the first 20 seconds of any cold call, I'm also going to give away 3 signed copies in my book, list to last. What's up everybody? Ricky Caruth here. Welcome back. If you're new here, welcome to the family. If you haven't clicked subscribe yet, what in the world are you waiting on? I'm making over a million dollars a year as a single real estate agent in Alabama and I'm coaching thousands of real estate agents for absolutely free teaching them everything in the world that I know. In an attempt to reduce the failure rate in the real estate industry, all that can be found at 02diamond.com. There's a course, a 90 day action plan and live training sessions twice a month with me right here on this YouTube channel. Tomorrow is our live training session and I'm going to be making live cold calls. So today we're going to dive into how to crush the first 20 seconds of any cold call and tomorrow you're actually going to be able to watch me do this live. There's a link in the description below to make sure that you don't miss this live call session. So let's dive right into this first 20 seconds of the cold call, how we're going to win, how we're going to nail it, how we're going to crush it, how we're going to actually create and begin this lifelong relationship that we want out of every prospect that we possibly can. So I like to refer to this as the FE effect. F can stand for friend or family, but it's going to be the friend or family effect. We're going to give them the FE effect. We're going to make them feel like we're a friend or a family. We want to make them feel comfortable. We want to make them feel as if though they're our brother, cousin, mom, dad, sister, a relative that we feel very close to, that's how we want to talk to our prospects. So we're going to make them feel comfortable with us. They're going to enjoy talking to us and they're going to want to do business with us. So a couple of things you need to know before I dive into exactly what to say in that first 20 seconds. And the first thing is is that cold calling is absolutely not an option for an ambitious salesperson. For somebody who wants to get to the top really fast, exponentially grow your business, you're going to have to make phone calls. There's no way around it. It's not an option. If you want to hit your goals, you have to make cold calls. And if you're not making them, I promise you somebody else is out there making them for you. The second thing is cold call reluctance. Everybody has cold call reluctance. It's absolutely 100% natural. I had it when I first started. Every single person has it. I still have it. Just a little bit. That little butterfly in the pit of my stomach right before I start making cold calls, I still get that. But I know because I've been there so many times before that it's part of the process.  You're talking to these people. You're helping them. Everything is actually positive. Even when you get cussed out and hung up on it, doesn't matter. Because the positive phone calls, the people that you run into that you create those lifelong relationships with and gain those incredible clients for life, makes it all worth it. And I'll tell you what I tell a lot of my students that is that if you're unwilling to feel a little uncomfort to put yourself out there to at least give yourself a chance to succeed, then you're being selfish. Because you know that making the calls is going to make you successful, but you're not willing to do it because that little bit of fear, that little bit of unwillingness to feel uncomfortable and that's holding you back from providing better for your family and providing better for all those around you.  So when I ask people what they're scared of to make phone calls, what's their fear of cold calling? They never have an answer. They say I don't know. It's crazy.  It's fun and you can watch me do this tomorrow. I can't wait. So here's a few things that I don't want you to do when you're making your cold calls. One big thing is agents that just talk a lot. They just start blabbing on if they're nervous or they don't know what's going on, but they're just blab out a bunch of stuff. Hey, this is so and so with whatever real estate I was just calling to see if you might be interested in selling your home. We sold a home. We're calling all the neighbors in the area and the house was this price for this square footage. It was on the market this many days. They just start blabbing all this stuff and the prospect 99% of the time does not care. Okay, there's that 1% chance that the prospect you're talking to does want to know all that information, but what we have to do is wait for them to ask that information. They'll let us know if they want to know all that information and then we can pour it on thick. When they hear an agent talking a lot and not giving them a chance to talk and they haven't even asked them how they're doing or respected their time in any kind of way, they're just trying to figure out how they can get off the phone and more than likely they're just going to hang up. So everything you say needs to be short sweet to the point in with the question mark. That's going to require a response from them and that's going to give you some information to work with to read them. You also want to have a very inviting tone. You don't want to talk really fast. You don't want to talk really slow. You want to talk very calming. You want to be straight to the point and just have a very nice, friendly tone. Another thing you don't want to do is talk about yourself a lot or your company. The phone call does not need to be about you. It needs to be about them. What do they need? How are they feeling? How are they doing? What you can do to help them? If you show them that you care about what's going on with them, then they're going to start to feel comfortable with you and they're going to start opening up and we're going to be able to begin that relationship. So just so you know, I've made over 100,000 phone calls in my career. I'm making over a million dollars a year as a real estate agent, making cold calls and over the last 16 years of my career, I've really perfected my phone calling strategy, what I say, why I'm saying it, how I'm saying it and all that good stuff. So my philosophy on the first 20 seconds is there's three questions. These questions are designed to throw out there, receive responses and we take that information and we can use it. We can use it to read who we're talking to or they happy, glad, mad, sad, busy, what's going on with them and then we're going to flow the conversation accordingly. On top of being able to read them, the first three questions also throws them off a little bit and releases a little tension that might be there in a normal sales call where it's all about business and it's all about what they can do for you. These scripts and everything I'm doing for all my coaching students is to teach you how to find out what you can do for the client, not what they can do for you in terms of a deal or a transaction. We want to know what we can do to help them right now and for the rest of their life. So the first question is ring, ring, ring hello Mr. Johnson? We're going to ask who it is basically. We're going to state who it is in the way of a question. So it's going to say ring, ring, ring, hello Mr. Johnson? So it's short, sweet to the point. We're not going to say is Mr. Johnson there or we're not going to say is this Mr. Johnson? We don't want to say anything long. Remember we want everything short, sweet to the point. So we're going to say Mr. Johnson and wait for a response. We're going to see if this is Mr. Johnson we're talking to. We're trying to get the right person on the phone. So if they say this is Mr. Johnson we're going to flow with what I'm fixing to tell you in a minute. If they say this is not Mr. Johnson we're going to say okay cool, is Mr. Johnson there? We're trying to get Mr. Johnson on the phone. Once we get Mr. Johnson on the phone or maybe he was on the phone from the beginning he says yes this is Mr. Johnson we're going to go into our second question. We're going to introduce ourselves and ask the question. So we're going to say hey Mr. Johnson this is Ricky Carruth down at Remax of Orange Beach. How you doing today? Okay so the second question is how you doing today? It also introduces ourselves. Okay so it's ring ring ring hello Mr. Johnson. Yeah this is Mr. Johnson hey Mr. Johnson this is Ricky Carruth down at Remax of Orange Beach. How you doing today? You see how my tone is? You see how I have a friendly demeanor about how I'm saying this and I'm talking very clear, precise to the point confident, calm, powerful okay and we're trying to give that FE effect, that friend or family effect to make them feel comfortable. So they're going to say yeah I'm doing good. Now they could say anything right here. They could say I'm doing good, I'm a little busy what you got, how did you get my number who is this again? They could say all kinds of stuff okay. We're going to flow the conversation from there but once we've established wherever we are in that part of the conversation we're going to say I got you well look I'm enjoying the day. Isn't it gorgeous outside? This is our third question. Now a lot of agents get this third question mixed up because they say they don't feel comfortable talking about the weather or whatever their excuse is but this is a really crucial question okay because we're not diving right into the business part of the call and it's really releasing a lot of tension that if you go straight for the business that tension is still going to be there and they're still going to have a wall up but if you can take one more stab and loosen them up just a little bit more and get some more information about how to read them and how to make them feel comfortable all the better but here's the cool thing about the weather part of the call that question doesn't have to be about the weather. It could be something about football or baseball or a holiday or you know something going on in the news could be anything going on in the current events of the world of the local you know whatever it could be something going on other than the weather. I like the weather because everybody can relate and you wouldn't believe how many conversations I have about the weather we'll talk for 10, 20, 30 seconds about what the weather is doing what it's going to do tomorrow what it did yesterday and it really creates a really nice flow for the conversation so these are the three questions we're going to ask them who they are we're going to ask them how they're doing and we're going to ask them aren't they enjoying the day and you can tweak this as you go tomorrow when I make my calls you're going to see me using Thanksgiving are you ready for Thanksgiving stuff like that I may use that for the first 5 or 10 calls see how people respond if it goes good I'll keep using it if not I'll tweak it or I'll do something different so it's whatever you feel comfortable with and you're getting the right response don't be scared to tweak it a little bit so once we get through these three questions okay who they are how they're doing and whatever that third question is after that we're going to have this little conversation about whatever it is and then here comes the awkward part of the call where there's silence we don't know where to go okay this is a beautiful part of the call because we're going to use our first transition the transition is I got you we'll look I don't want to take up too much of your time today but okay that's a transition that you all have to get down okay as soon as it comes to that awkward part of the call be ready to say I got you we'll look I don't want to take it too much of your time today but a house down the road just sold a house just listed a house just went into contract and I didn't know if there's anything in the world I could do for you today okay so we're not asking if they want it by ourselves we're giving them some market information but we're not giving them all the market information unless they ask and we're respecting their time okay this is how you nail the first 20 seconds of a real estate cold call and this is how you do it every single time thank you so much for watching all this video I hope it really helps you understand how to nail the first 20 seconds of your cold calls if you want to download my full scripts you can do that at zero to diamond.com there start a free account download the scripts and there's all kinds of educational stuff there like I said there's a course a 90 day action plan and the live training sessions twice a month definitely don't miss the live call session tomorrow and right now I want to give away three signed copies of my book lists the last all you have to do if you want to copy is follow my facebook page and subscribe to this youtube channel links are in the description for that just comment below done I'm going to pick three winners over the next couple days and if there's anything in the world I can do for you reach out anytime we'll talk to you soon