Okay, so one basic question, so why are we studying about the work of the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts? No, why should we study about the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts? Work of the Holy Spirit. Sorry. To know more about, it's relevant. Okay. It's more in-depth, it's relevant. It's the the work of the Holy Spirit. Yeah, so why are we, you know, why are we studying this? How does it help us? There's a question, no. Like when you're studying anything, I'm sure in your subjects, you studied, you know, maybe trigonometry, calculus, then you're wondering how will this help us? You know, in daily life, will I actually use it? Pythagoras theorem. Right, sometimes you learn that and it's wondering algebra, will I ever use this in life? Right, so Okay, so Daniel says to be filled with the Spirit, Lucy says to strengthen us to walk with Christ. To receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, even we can be blessed. Yeah, so even we can be to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, okay. Okay, so this is the thing, you know, the New Testament Church we see the beginning of the New Testament Church and we are the Church in the New Testament. Yes or no? Yeah, we are the Church in the New Testament. Okay, and we know the Holy Spirit ministered in a different way in the Old Testament before the cross, right. We came upon people, people, assignments were finished and then, you know, he would come upon others. Now he ministers in a different way, same Holy Spirit, same power, everything, but he ministers in a different way. He moves in a different way, right. And the way he moved in the New Testament Church that we see in the Book of Acts is the same way he moves now. Okay, so for all of us to understand that this is what we have available for us or this is who we have available for us in our daily lives, in our daily lives, in our ministry, in, you know, in everything that we do, this is how I can interact with the Holy Spirit. This is what I can expect from the Holy Spirit. Okay, so I should not be closed to certain things that and say, okay, maybe the Holy Spirit will not do it in our day and time. No, this is a modern time. This is signs and advancement. Why should God move in that way? Well, Holy Spirit does. This is how he moved in the New Testament Church. This is how he moves in the New Testament Church, right. So what happens is when we study the working of the Holy Spirit, when we, when we learn about all the possible ways in which he works in the New Testament Church, we will open up our lives and we need to open up our lives and invite and say, Lord, you have your way, right. I'm opening up. I'm not being closed to the way you minister. I'm not being closed. You know, I'm opening up and what happens is it builds faith in us. Faith in what God can do. Faith in what God can do in us, what God can do through us, right. Because if you look at the book of Acts, all these were ordinary people, yes or no, right. Ordinary people, people who had limitations, people who had failings, ordinary people and the Holy Spirit worked in these ordinary people to do extraordinary things. Extraordinary works, right. So many times we think, oh, it happened then. That was lovely. Just think about it. Oh, Holy Spirit did them. What is it? Pavitratma, all those things he did. Today, you know, I'm just an ordinary person, right. Can the Holy Spirit, can negative things about the other person? Yeah, so we see that he brings correction. Yeah, so he can bring correction for the other person. Like we see in the life of David, Nathan, prophet Nathan was sent in order to correct, bring correction because, you know, to tell him of his faults and all that. So, yeah, the Holy Spirit can bring correction. But the way he brings correction is in a very edifying manner, right. So when I bring correction, I can do two things. I can just destroy the person and still bring correction. You know, I can do it very dishonorably. I can remove all dignity from that person and say, what you've done is the same. You are destroyed. I can bring that or tell them their faults in that manner. The other way to do that is how a father would. The father doesn't want to destroy the child, but the father wants the child to change correct so that the father can go beyond, so the child can go beyond even where the father went. So that's another way. That's why we see in 1 Corinthians 14 that prophecy, prophecy brings edification, exhortation and comfort. That's why we see that, you know. Prophecy brings, yes, it does bring correction, but it's always with that edification, exhortation and comfort. So it's with that spirit, spirit of the father, right. So, yeah, that's a thing, right. Okay, so, yeah, where were we? So this is why, you know, we need to study about the Holy Spirit so that it's not just an academic interest, right. Okay, in 1907, this is what he did. I remember the date and time. That's great, but we also, you know, open up our lives and say, Lord, what you did then, you do it now, right. What you did in that person's life, God, do it in my life.  So that is something that we will see. Okay, so Acts chapter 2 verses 38 and 39, right, we saw that. Let's go to Acts chapter 4 verses 8 to 12. Okay, Acts chapter 4 verses 8 to 12. The context is this. Okay, what has happened is this is again about Peter, Peter saying something. Now, Peter and John go to the temple, right, and there, they actually, you know, they minister to someone who was not able to walk since birth. Okay, and that's, we see in Acts chapter 3. Okay, they go to this person who's unable to walk. It says he was lame from his mother's womb, which means that when he was born, he could not walk. And he's about 40 years, I think, right, so old. And yeah, I think that's, let me see if he's, what is the age? Yeah, I think he's around 40. I'm not sure. One of the verses mentioned that.  And now chapter 4, they're arrested and they are standing before the leaders of the church, rulers of the people. They're standing before them and they're asking, why do you do that? By what power do you do these things? Okay, verse 8, let's read. Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them, rulers of the people and elders of Israel, if this day we are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man stands here before you whole. This is the stone which was rejected, you know, and yeah, I think we can stop there, right? And then he goes on to say, salvation is no other name except in Jesus, right? So several things we see here. Okay, so they're asking the question by what power has this been done? Okay, so here verse 8 says, Peter filled with the Holy Spirit. Okay, now what happened in Acts chapter 2?  Was he baptized in the Holy Spirit? Yes, he says here that he was filled with the Holy Spirit. So which means we learn that, yes there is one baptism of the Holy Spirit, right, which releases the gifts and so on, but there are many infillings of the Holy Spirit and that's why, you know, in scripture we see that exhortation, be filled with the Spirit. Do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit. So we can be filled with the Holy Spirit multiple times, many times and we ought to just ask him and say, Lord fill me, right? So Peter filled with the Holy Spirit, he tells them very boldly, it is because of the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Okay, this is Jesus' work, by him this man stands before you whole. Okay, so very boldly. The thing is we should understand that those who are called or those who are following Jesus, you know, after this, this major persecution, the religious leaders, they were always against anyone, you know, because they got Jesus crucified and they were against anyone teaching or doing things. So they arrested and they're saying, how do you do this? How did this happen? Okay, now one thing to understand is that here's Peter. Now if you look at, you know, Gospels, what did Peter do when these religious leaders took Jesus? And you remember that that night, you know, he was betrayed and everything. So he was taken, he was cursed, and the same religious leaders, actually same characters are there. It's not too long ago, right? So the same people are there and it's the same, maybe Peter could even recognize some of those people who are there, but it's a different Peter, right? So when we read about what happened to Peter and the Gospels, who asked, there was a servant lady, right? She came and said, hey, I saw you with Jesus. I saw you with Jesus. I remember you saw you with Jesus. And he refuted that. He says, I don't even know Jesus. Yeah, I don't even know Jesus.  I don't know this person. I don't know Jesus. And he's betraying or denying Jesus. He's saying, I don't know this person. Who is this Jesus? I don't know. And here it seems like a very different Peter. And the only difference we can say is that he's filled with the Holy Spirit. Something has happened to him. And the Lord promised that when you're filled with the Holy Spirit, you will witness with power. So the first thing that we see here is he's filled with boldness.  There he was afraid of his life. What will happen to me? What if they hurt me? What if they kill me? And so he says, I don't know Jesus.  And here he doesn't care. He doesn't care.  You guys crucified that same name, the authority and the power in that name this person is made alive. And verse 12 he says, there is salvation in no other name except in Jesus. Very clear, very categorical. Okay. So verse 13, when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived they were uneducated, untrained men, they marveled and they realized that they had been with Jesus. Okay. So when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we read about the fact that the Holy Spirit makes Jesus real to us, right? He takes off orders of the Lord and he teaches. He exalts Jesus in our lives. That's what he does. Right.  He's talking with so much boldness. They realize, hey, these guys are not trained. They are uneducated. And here is that they are quoting Scripture, you know, verse 11. This is the stone which was rejected by the builders, which had become the chief cornerstone. Right. So that's, that's from the Old Testament, from one of the Psalms. And then he's like, wow, who are these guys? Right. And they realize that they have been with Jesus. Okay.  There is change. There is hope. Our temperament changes. Our temperamentally we are transformed. Of course, we need to cooperate. But Peter chose to, you know, just cooperate with the Holy Spirit, led by the Holy Spirit. Then another thing that we notice is the Lord Jesus told them. Right. In that day, you will, when you are taken, when you're taken before rulers of this world, don't premeditate about what you're going to say. Or in that hour, it will be given you what you should speak. You remember that? Right. So when the Lord was teaching about the Holy Spirit, he said this, he said to his disciples, you know, you will be persecuted. But when you are persecuted, when you are taken before the people who are persecuting you, don't have to analyze, think, premeditate what you're going to say. It will be given to you what you will say. And we see here, Peter's filled with the Holy Spirit.  And he is saying some things. He's quoting from Scripture again. Earlier, he was quoting from Joel chapter two years, quoting from Psalms. And then he's saying, you know, this is about Jesus. And we see that prophecy also coming through, or that what Jesus taught about the Holy Spirit, coming through. Right. That when they are persecuted, it will be given them what they should speak. And they, yeah. Okay. Daniel's question, so Daniel D is different from Daniel Oliver, is it? Okay. Do we have to speak in tongues to be saved? No, we don't have to speak in tongues to be saved. Okay. And Romans 10, nine is the answer. What should we do? What must we do to be saved? And also Acts chapter two was 39 is the answer, 38, 39 is the answer. Okay. Okay. Then we go on to Acts chapter four was 31. When they, when they prayed. So what happens is, you know, this, this is something that happens to them, Peter and John, and they are arrested and they are asked, you know, interrogated. And they say, they testify with great power and bold as they testify and say, this is what the, this is how he was, this is how he was healed. Right.  Okay. So they go back home, they go back to their friends after this incident, and they tell them, you know, this is what happened. We were arrested, they told us not to speak in the name of Jesus. But, you know, we, this is what we did. And, and everybody starts praying. Okay. They start praying versus 23, 24 onwards, right, is the prayer. Everybody gets together and they pray verse 24, Acts chapter four, verse 24. Okay. Onwards is the prayer. Verse 31 says, when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken.  And they spoke the Word of God with boldness. Okay. So this is what happened. They prayed. Yeah, regarding Peter. So when we read about baptism of the Holy Spirit, we see that it's an experience which results in the release of the gifts of the Spirit, you know, and release of the power and so on. And it's for every believer. When we see that baptism is a one time thing that you are baptized with the Holy Spirit and the new experiences. But we see that infilling or filling of the Holy Spirit happening multiple times in the lives of the disciples. Like we read just now, chapter four, twice we see they're filled with the Holy Spirit. So which means that, you know, when we will actually go into the depths of this, when we study about that is the Holy Spirit. But when we are baptized with the Holy Spirit, it is right to say that we are filled with the Holy Spirit. But every time we are filled with the Holy Spirit, it would be incorrect to say that we are baptized with the Holy Spirit. But every time we are baptized, so what is the difference? The baptism, so we can say maybe it's the first time that we are experiencing, you know, as a believer, as a disciple of the Lord, that the Holy Spirit gives us that experience. So maybe we can say it is the first time and we are filled with the Holy Spirit. But there are multiple times when we are filled with the Holy Spirit and not necessarily say we are baptized. I think it's a, we look at it some more, right? Yeah. Okay. So yeah, see, yeah, in just to follow up with the answer, if you actually read, there are five places in scripture in the book of Acts, where it talks about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, five places where we read that believers who trusted in Jesus are baptized in the Holy Spirit. Acts after two is one, Acts after eight, Acts after nine, Acts after 10, Acts after 19, five places. In all these places, it talks about people who became believers and then they are baptized with the Spirit. Yeah, they, they fall, they, and it's, it's like the first time, first time occurrence in all these places. But we also see Paul saying, be filled with the Spirit. He's telling the people who are already filled, who are already following Jesus. So, so my answer is based on that. Okay. Okay. So let's move on. So from this, we understand that, you know, this baptism of the Holy Spirit, it results in transformation. Here is a man who denied Jesus and here is a man who's testifying about Jesus. Right. Something happened before and after. It's a different Peter, because he has had this whole experience of being baptized, being filled with the Holy Spirit. Okay. Okay. Let's move to Acts after five. Okay. Acts after five, we see something happening here and we read about who the Holy Spirit is. We read about the deity of the Holy Spirit. Right. Acts after five, it talks about Ananias and Sapphira. Okay. Maybe we won't read through the whole thing. I'll just pick out the verse. Ananias and Sapphira, a married couple. Okay. So just a background to that. People who are actually selling off property and giving that money to the disciples to distribute to everyone who has need. Okay. So people have need. They say selling it. Now I have this money. So why don't you give it to people who have need? Because they were doing that. So this couple Ananias and Sapphira, they do the same thing, but there's a difference. Right. They, what they decide is they sell something and they say, okay, I don't want to give this whole thing. Right. I'm going to keep back. But they, in the way they did it, they pretended as if they were giving the whole thing. Okay. That was the only mistake or only difference. Right. They gave money, but they did it as if to show that this was the entire money which was, which came from the sale of the land. But they knew that they were actually keeping back a part of it. Okay. So that's the background. So we see here verse three, Acts chapter five and verse three. Okay. Acts chapter five and verse three. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? Okay. So what has he done? Did he speak a lie? He acted something. He did something which was lying to the Holy Spirit. Okay.  Verse four said, while it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not your own control? Why have you conceived this in your heart? You have lied to, you've not lied to men, but to God. Okay. So he's saying, you have lied to the Holy Spirit. You have not lied to men, but to God. Okay. So God, the Holy Spirit, you have lied to right now. Okay. And then something terrible happens. Ananias falls down dead. Then after some time, Safira, his wife comes, the same thing. Right. Verse nine, Peter said to her, how is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door and they will carry you out. Okay. So he says that and then Safira also falls down and there's a great fear. So now certain things that we observe here is how did Peter know? Right. How did Peter know? They brought money, they kept it and said, Peter, please use it, please distribute it. This is all the money that we got when we sold our land. Right. They must have said that. So how did Peter know that they kept part of it? Again, it was revealed by the Holy Spirit. Because Peter very clearly says that you have not lied to man, but you have actually lied to God. Right. So God knows the intents of our heart. Yeah. Question? Yeah. I can't see the scriptures. I've only seen it for Acts four through eight. Can you move it up on the notes? I'm sorry? I said, I can't see the verse that you were reading, Acts five on the notes. Can you move it up? Oh, okay. And also too, I have another question. When I printed this out, it didn't have all the scriptures. Did you modify this? Just one second, Shani. Yeah, you can see the scripture. Yeah. Go ahead. What was the second question? When I printed this out a couple weeks ago, I just have a list of scriptures. They're not, they don't have the actual scriptures in it. Did you modify this? Yeah. This is, I just updated it so that we could, so I could upload this as well. Okay. Yeah. I just, I just thought it would be convenient for us to go through instead of turning in. So, yeah. Okay. Diksha's question, Diksha here, you asked, okay. If we got Holy Spirit one time, then why are we sometimes unable to feel the work of the Holy Spirit in our life? Does the Holy Spirit leave us? Okay. The answer is no. We don't, the Holy Spirit does not leave us. That's for sure. Like we can, we can say, okay, how do you say that for sure? Right.  We looked at it, but then let's, let's look at that, those scriptures again. We go to John chapter 14. Okay. John chapter 14 and verses 15 and 16. If you love me, keep my commands, commandments. And I will pray the Father and He will give you another helper that He may abide with you forever. Okay. So verse 16 is very clear. The Lord is talking about how the Holy Spirit will come and abide with us forever. So that's one. Another verse that we can go to is in Ephesians chapter 1, Ephesians 1. It says, in Him, one and verse 13, in Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. That's verse 14. Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory? So it's talking about what does that verse mean?  He is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, which means until the final redemption. The final redemption is when we receive glorified bodies. Now we have gone against spirit. Mine needs to be renewed, consecrated as we live our life. The final redemption is when our bodies are glorified. We receive glorified bodies until that final redemption. So He's saying, hey, this is the guarantee. The Holy Spirit is our guarantee until that time. So Holy Spirit, He will not leave us, but the thing is when we, let's say we sin, we willfully sin, commit acts of sin, then we are unable to hear the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. We feel the grief. Holy Spirit is greed. And the thing is, our own works of the flesh, our own voice of the flesh, if you want to call it that, actually drowns out the voice of the Spirit. So He doesn't leave us. He's very much there. Okay, what if the person backslides? Okay, question, we can know what is happening inside through the Holy Spirit. That's right. Then what if the Holy Spirit, what if the person backslides? Yeah, so we are talking about that situation. We are talking about a believer who backslides, he or she commits a sin knowingly, unknowingly. Backslides meaning, they are actually, they are living as if they are not following Jesus. They are living as per the world, but they made a commitment to follow Jesus. Now they are dabbling in sin and they are living a life that is not honoring, God honoring. Yes, the Holy Spirit is drawing them back, is convicting them. They are living a miserable life because they do those things and they are not happy. They're committing acts of sin, maybe it gives them momentary pleasure, but they're not happy because they are convicted by the Holy Spirit. And it's a miserable life. It's not a happy life. And the Holy Spirit is there to bring them back. He's working in them. He's talking to them.  Sometimes it's just a week, sometimes it's a month, sometimes it's years. So yeah, even if a person backslides, the Holy Spirit works, brings them back. Now, of course, if the person continues to walk willfully in sin or reject Jesus, completely reject Jesus, well, they can come a point where they're completely rejecting and there's no other hope for them. There's no going back. It is possible they can do that. The person can come to that place, but we don't know. We can't say, oh, that person. Once he was saved, now he's not. We can't say that. Only God knows that. You're not feeling in the sense your senses are not aware of the Holy Spirit. That's what you're saying. Certain times we feel the tangible presence of the Holy Spirit. When we talk about the presence of the Holy Spirit, presence of God, God is omnipresent. He's there. The Bible also talks about the fact that where two or three are gathered, the Lord Jesus said, I am there and they're missed. So we have the promised presence of God. We have the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. So he convicts us, we feel the joy of the Spirit. He bears the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, love, joy, peace, patience, conviction from sin. So we feel that. That is also the presence of the Holy Spirit. And at times, like maybe in times of worship, maybe we are praying in the Spirit and engaging, reading the Word, we feel the tangible presence of the Holy Spirit. But you know in your heart, God is here.  It's so close. That's the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the presence of God is so strong and so real that you can't even say anything. Sometimes it's just tears. You don't know why. Maybe it's just laughter and joy bubbling up and you don't know why. But it's the presence of God. It's so strong. So we feel all that, you know, all that is true. It is the presence of God. Sometimes there is not the tangible manifest presence of God. But that does not mean that the Holy Spirit has left. He is there. And the promise of the Lord is that He will stay with us forever. Okay, how do we immediately obey when the Holy Spirit is guiding us, things to do or don't? And or later realize, yet, but okay, I'm just trying to understand your question, Lucy. How do we immediately obey when the Holy Spirit is guiding us, things to do or don't? Or later realize the Holy Spirit told me not to do it, but yet I did. Okay, so the thing is in hindsight you realize, God told me I should obeyed and I didn't. Or maybe, and then you reap the consequences of that decision. You know, you feel that okay, maybe today I need to do this. And then you didn't do it, but then later you realize that was actually Spirit of God speaking. So it's a journey. Okay, so it's a journey. So the next time when you feel the same thing in your heart, saying that, okay, maybe that's God's Spirit saying, speaking, go ahead and obey. So do it and yes, you will see the fruit of it. So it's a journey. It's a relationship. Walk with God is not a formula, but it's a journey. It's a relationship. So we get to understand, we get to learn, we get to have clarity about how He speaks to us and how He leads us. Okay, I hope that helped. Yeah, Lucy. Okay, yeah. So also, you know, your question could be, we're going to learn about how the Holy Spirit works in the life of a believer. Your question could be, you know, how do I know this is the voice of the Holy Spirit? Right. So that's where the whole thing of having the word in our heart, because He will agree with the word. Right. And how the, how we grow in our understanding of the word and when He quickens the word, we know it in our heart and sometimes we need to put away the things of the flesh, right? Maybe our own fears prevent us from doing certain things or maybe our own desires draws into doing certain things and we think, okay, God wants me to do this, right? It's our own desire. So we will know what is of the flesh, what is not of the flesh and the Word of God, Hebrews 412 says that the Word of God is living, alive, powerful and quick and sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing even to the division of soul and spirit. The intense thoughts of the, you know, what is in our mind and the intense of the heart. So the Word of God will be the discerner. So it's, we need to be filled with the Word of God. There need to be a rich deficit in the Word of God. And that's always a safeguard and also a reference point to be led by the Spirit of God. Right. Okay. So let's move on to the next one. So we read about Ananas and Sapphira. We see that Peter knew because of the leading of the Holy Spirit and speaker. I mean, Peter spoke these things. God, the Holy Spirit, you know, he knew these things.  Yeah, I just want to clarify. I know you were saying earlier, when, when you, you were saying that when somebody is in sin, that the, that's your flesh is drowning out the voice of God. Is that what you said? I'm sorry. Does it mean again? When you, when you, when you were talking about in terms of people, you know, being in sin and hearing from God, you were saying that, I know you sin, you're sin, you're able to hear from God, but you say that when, when somebody's in sin, that their flesh is drowning out the voice of God. I thought that's what you said. Oh yeah. Right. So, so the question was, you know, does the Holy Spirit leave us and, you know, and we, because we're not feeling the presence of God and we think that we're not hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit and that's because our own appetites of the flesh, the things of the flesh are so strong. Right.  So then we might come to the conclusion that, hey, maybe the Holy Spirit is not there, but He is there. He's speaking to us. For example, you know, in Romans chapter 8, I think we read about the carnal man. The carnal man cannot hear the things of God, you know, Romans 8 and verse 6, it says, to be carnaly minded is death, to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it's not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. Okay. So what is a carnal mind? It's a fleshly mind. It's a mind which is on the things of the flesh rather than on the things of the Spirit. So it could be a believer. Right. He could be a believer. She could be a believer, but the mind is carnal because the mind is so filled with fleshly things or given to the appetites of the flesh. So that is what I share. Right. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Shall we move on to the next one? Any questions? You had a question? Okay. Okay. So let's look at Acts chapter 6. Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenist because the widows were neglected in the daily distribution. Then the twelve summoned the multitude of disciples and said, it is not desirable that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables. Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom whom we may appoint over the business, over this business, but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. Okay. So early church administrative problem. Right. So they're saying, okay, some people are not giving the food and these are these Greek speaking widows. And so they have a problem against the, you know, Hebrew speaking people. And then they're saying that, hey, our people are getting neglected. The widows there are getting neglected. And so Peter says, you know, instead of us, I'm sorry, not Peter, the disciples, so they say that instead of us getting into this, we want to appoint seven people who can actually look into this matter. Right. And look at the quality attribute they say is, first of all, they say men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. Okay. Men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. So these people were selected, there were seven of them. The names are mentioned there.   Right. Is there some indicator, some fuel tank shows, you know, full empty? How do you know? It's by the works which follow. Right. So it says here about Stephen, he was a man full of faith. How do you know as a man of full of faith, it comes out in the speech. It comes out in the action. Right. Maybe he's facing a difficult time.  He's saying, hey, I'm trusting in God. No problem. I'm trusting in God. I'm not going to be swayed by this. I'm trusting. I'm not going to run away. I'm trusting in God. Right. Similarly, a man who's full of faith. And, you know, when you go to verse eight, okay, we are in Acts chapter six, we are looking at verse eight. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and signs among the people. Okay. He was full of faith.  And his ministry testified to that, that he was a man of faith, he was a man of power because the Holy Spirit says that he did great signs, great wonders among the people. And if you look at Stephen's life, we see that they could not resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. Okay. Let's look at verse 10. Okay. Verse eight onwards, it says that he did great things, signs wonders among the people. Verse nine says that they arose some people from the synagogue. Verse 10 says that they were not able to resist. Right. Resist what? Resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. Which means they were not able to resist the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. They were not able to resist the things that he was speaking. It made so much sense. Right. It made so much sense. It was in line with scripture that they knew because they were people from the synagogue and it made sense. They were not able to resist. So what did they do? They said, okay, we need to finish him off. This talking and reasoning is not helping because we're not able to, you know, resist that. What he speaks seems to be the truth. Right. And not only that, but his speaking is also accompanied by some supernatural things which we cannot deny. Okay. So they decided to blaspheme, they decided to say things against him, false charges. So it says, verse 11, then they secretly induce men to say, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God. False charges. Then they actually, you know, they got him martyred. Right. Got him executed. So we read about that in chapter seven. Okay. Okay. What is the fruit of the Holy Spirit? Okay. Fruit of the Holy Spirit is the work of the Holy Spirit in our life. You know, fruit just means the result. Okay. What is the outcome? The end result. So when we say fruit of the Holy Spirit, Galatians five is a good place to go. Galatians five and verse 22, yeah, talks about the fruit of the Holy Spirit. So which are all attributes, characteristics of God himself. Right. So the fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, verses 22 and 23. Okay. If you read the verses before that, it talks about the works of the flesh or the fruit of the flesh. Meaning, if you indulge in the flesh, if you resist the work of God, what are things, some things that can happen? You know, it talks about, you know, works of the flesh, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions and all those things, jealousies. Then when you look at verses 22 and 23, it talks about the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the work of the Holy Spirit, resulting in bringing all this in the life of a believer, like who co-operates, who co-works with the Holy Spirit. Right. I hope that helps viking. Okay. Fine. So let's move on to chapter seven, chapter seven, just a reference, verse 51, what Stephen says.  Okay. Galatians 5, 22 and 23. Shani, the verse on the fruit of the Holy Spirit, verse 22 and 23. Okay. Okay. So Acts chapter seven was 57, 51 and 51, these are words of Stephen. Okay. So Stephen is addressing those people who have arrested him and they are just ready to actually execute him.  Okay. As your fathers did, so do you. Okay. So what is the truth that we learn? Holy Spirit is all powerful. Yes or no? Oh yes, he's God. He was over the waters.  It's not about creation. We see that. But you and I can resist the Holy Spirit. So it just blows our mind, right? This is God. Can't he just force me to do the right things? Can't he just, you know, just program me in such a way that I do only the right things? No. Because he's given us free will or the ability to say yes and the ability to say no. And God wants us to say yes to the right things. God wants us to say no to those things which, which are not good. But it is in our hands. It is, you know, he's given us the ability to choose what is right. So he's saying you resist the Holy Spirit, which means there is a choice, right? Even for us, there's a choice. We can either, what is the opposite of resisting, surrendering, yielding, right? Accepting. So we can either yield, work, cooperate, collaborate with the Holy Spirit or we can resist the Holy Spirit. That's the reality.  He will always give you a choice, right? He will always give us a choice. He will always prompt us, convict us, maybe through people encourage us. But it's weak. We need to understand that, hey, I can resist, right? So I need to be careful. So Stephen is saying, you resist the Holy Spirit. You always resist the Holy Spirit. Verse 45, sorry, verse 55, talks about how being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. So he has this, he has this vision or he has, his eyes are open and he sees the glory of God. He sees Jesus standing next to the Father at the right hand of the Father. And it talks about that. So the reality of heaven, the reality of the triune God, right? All that, because the Trinity is mentioned there, right?  Heavens were open. He saw Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father. So we see the three persons of the Trinity in that one verse. And we studied first chapter, okay, right? Okay, so I think we'll stop here and then we'll continue with the rest of the verses. So what I'd encourage us is to read through, okay? There are several references from chapter eight on to chapter 23, is it? 21, sorry, 21. Okay, so just read through that so that in the next class we can just mention these and yeah. Okay, thank you online students. God bless. See you guys next time. Thank you very much, sir. God bless. Bye. What verses did you want us to read for next week again? You can read the rest of the scriptures that are mentioned in the notes, starting from chapter eight. What are the scriptures I mentioned there? Okay, thank you. Okay.


This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Businesses are structured in different ways to meet different needs. The simplest form of business is called an individual or sole proprietorship. The proprietor owns all of the property of the business and is responsible for everything. For legal purposes, with this kind of business, the owner and the company are the same. This means the proprietor gets to keep all of the profits of the business but must also pay any debts. Another kind of business is the partnership. Two or more people go into business together. An agreement is usually needed to decide how much of the partnership each person controls. One kind of partnership is called a limited liability partnership. These have full partners and limited partners. Limited partners may not share as much in the profits, but they also have less responsibility for the business. Doctors, lawyers and accountants often form partnerships to share their risks and profits. A husband and wife can form a business partnership together. Partnerships exist only for as long as the owners remain alive. The same is true of individual proprietorships. But corporations are designed to have an unlimited lifetime. A corporation is the most complex kind of business organization. Corporations can sell stock as a way to raise money. Stock represents shares of ownership in a company. Investors who buy stock can trade their shares or keep them as long as the company is in business. A company might use some of its earnings to pay dividends as a reward to shareholders. Or the company might reinvest the money back into the business. If shares lose value, investors can lose all of the money they paid for their stock. But shareholders are not responsible for the debts of the corporation. A corporation is recognized as an entity, its own legal being, separate from its owners. A board of directors controls corporate policies. The directors appoint top company officers. The directors might or might not hold shares in the corporation. Corporations can have a few major shareholders. Or ownership can be spread among the general public. But not all corporations are traditional businesses that sell stock. Some non-profit groups are also organized as corporations. For VOA Special English, I'm Mario Ritter. You can learn more about business and economics and find activities to learn English at voaspecialenglish.com. We're also on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube at VOA Learning English.


Hi, my name is Jeremy Thake. I work at HyperFish as the VP of Product Technology. For my sins, I've been in SharePoint since about 2004. I moved to Australia after graduating from a university in England and ended up in a web shop where I did .NET at uni and all the web developers there were JavaScript developers and this big government contract came on that was, hey, we needed to work on ASP and JavaScript inside of SharePoint and you're the only one that seems to know anything about SharePoint, which I didn't, but it got me the job and for all that time now I've been working as a developer in that space, kind of the journey through ASP, ASP.NET to all the different models and on from there. It's interesting, I had a kind of unique experience with the SharePoint framework. I actually worked at Microsoft for three years on the developer marketing side with Chris Johnson, CJ, who's also at HyperFish now as well. We were involved really in the foundations of finding out that the SharePoint engineering team were going away and building a SharePoint framework and naturally I was very passionate about the fact that I'd worked with the full trust solutions model and also the sandbox solutions model and the adding model and so then naturally I had a lot of passion and emotion for the community to make sure that, hey guys, let's try and make sure we're doing the right thing by introducing another developer model into SharePoint and so they're in the inception working with Adam Harmetz and Dan Kogan and Chaka Deep and it was really interesting to see kind of the framework evolve so yeah, from the very kind of beginnings. My impressions of ASP FX have been really that since when I first saw it in Inception I think the thing I'm kind of most proud of and happy that's gone in that direction is the fact that they've really listened to a lot of the feedback from actual SharePoint developers that have been in this space for a long time. I think their initial intent from engineering perspective was let's build this thing with JavaScript because we want to go get all the JavaScript developers in the world to build on SharePoint and that naturally wasn't going to happen immediately because SharePoint has a bad tang in the mouth with a lot of developers that have been dragged into that space over their career and I get the intent that by moving into that JavaScript tooling that it'll make it easier for those developers to come in but it's very obvious that they've spent a lot of time making sure that it's going to be an easier transition for a SharePoint developer that's been in this space for a long time working in Visual Studio and .NET and transitioning into this new tool chain. So the roadmap is a little bit kind of dependent on what the engineers want to commit to and obviously having insight into this being in the inside I can totally understand and empathize with the fact they don't want to over promise and then under deliver and so you see that they'll call out the big things they know they're definitely going to hit which are priority ones within the engineering team but they'll keep some other things back but I understand that they can't really commit to too much there because you don't know what those bigger things that they're introducing into the framework are going to take and what that impacts of things that drop off maybe not the P1 features but the P2 features so the roadmap is really just indicating the bigger things that they know they're definitely going to have all their developers working on inside of Redmond. For me we've spent a lot of time in the SharePoint world of having been so far back in time against when you went to like a build event or if you went to a web event somewhere. When I was in Australia I was always known as the SharePoint guy and was never respected against other developers that are in the .NET space or in the node space and so forth. Having the ability to be on the same level playing field being able to use the frameworks they talk about and use the techniques they're talking about with the tool chain for me is really what gets me excited as a developer but I think the biggest thing is that the experience for the end user is so much better. When I go into a modern page in SharePoint and I go into the plus sign and open up my toolbox and add my web part there's no longer these like full page reloads there's no longer when I go change a web part setting a full page reload so the experience is much like what people have been used to in the consumer world for a long long time. Now that's just the nature of SharePoint catching up and Microsoft will try and make you seem like they've done something new and innovative but the reality is that really that's what the rest of the web has been doing for five years and so I'm excited now that we have the ability to be on the same playing field as some of the other technologies that are out there. So at HyperFish obviously we're very focused on how we can help organizations complete and update their profiles and we do this via bot technology where we email the user when their profile isn't up to the company standards or we reach out to them via Skype. What we intend to do in the future is be present in people's intranets and other surface areas within Office 365. Now the SharePoint framework is great because it allows me to build web parts that can be appeared and snapped into intranet homepages or even departmental sites or individual team sites. The problem that we have at HyperFish is that there's no real store commercial model for that. So if you're a developer out there watching this video and you feel like you've come up with this call, weather web part, here's a tip, don't build a weather web part because everyone's built them for the last four models and you're not going to make any money out of it. But if you did want to do that, you're not going to be able to do that because there's no store mechanism and there's no easy way for an end user to actually go deploy your web part. You do need to go and speak to a SharePoint administrator to be able to deploy anything like that. And so other development models that SharePoint have have a store ability that doesn't require a SharePoint admin to deploy and there's lots of other kind of angles that can be taken by power users and citizen developers to get things into intranets. So for us as a vendor, we are desperately waiting for that kind of support where the business owner can actually deploy these things without having to go to their IT guide to get these things deployed. I am far as pretty hard with the existing SharePoint developers because I am one. I did delete from ASP to ASP.net. We were always lagging on the .NET framework in terms of not being able to use the latest framework whenever it was announced in a Microsoft Keynote and there were some really cool things that I wanted to be able to leverage but you had to go build that stuff rather than leverage a class library that existed in the framework because you're an older version. I think with the way the SharePoint framework is going as a new node developer and learning JavaScript and TypeScript and all the tool chain I believe it would have been better if we had prioritized a bit more on where those Visual Studio developers exist and live right now and getting them comfortable with the framework working there as well as trying to encourage them to move to things like Visual Studio Code and other code editors. The main reason being is that you don't want so much of a giant big bang change all at once and it's perfectly capable and there are experiments going on right now that people like Eric Shupps are working with the engineering teams to get full blown Visual Studio working with the framework and I just feel like if we had anything to change I would have been more empathetic towards our existing SharePoint base getting them into the framework before we tried to sell this cool SharePoint product to node developers that want to build everything from scratch themselves with a thousand different frameworks. I think the biggest challenge of the SharePoint framework adoption is the fact that not everyone's on SharePoint Online not everyone's on SharePoint 2016 Feature Pack 2 when that comes out with some of the SharePoint framework capability it's not going to have everything that you can get at that's available in SharePoint Online so the adoption rate is going to be pretty low until they satisfy the server version of SharePoint having the framework and also then the subsequent release where some of the new extension things for when I'm in a SharePoint library having the ability to override UI controls there because I feel like the SharePoint framework first release will be in Feature Pack 2 it doesn't do enough for the enterprise to switch when they're already building things in the Adi model or to be honest they're probably still not using the Adi model they're using full trust code because it doesn't matter to them because they're never going to the cloud the reality is they'll go to the cloud eventually but there's a fair population of customers that are still camping on SharePoint 2010, 2013 and 2016 that aren't even indicating that they're going to move to a Feature Pack when it releases they'll give it 9 months to a year before they'll even consider putting a Feature Pack in and so for the mindset of those customers that's going to really hurt SharePoint framework adoption and obviously for us as a vendor when we make decisions about we're going to build the HyperFish web part for profile updates the challenge that we have is that we want to go to the biggest population of audience we don't want to kind of limit ourselves just to those that have the capability to run the SharePoint framework and so we'll probably do a bit of a combination of JavaScript that can be deployed as an Adi model capability for those that are on 2013 or 2016 but you know the best experience would be if the JavaScript was running inside a SharePoint framework and deployable to SharePoint online or SharePoint 2016 we feature Pack 2 deployed so the SharePoint framework's been released for about a year now so I expect Microsoft to release another developer model in two years no I'm kidding because if they did that they would be hosed I think the SharePoint framework has to be their last effort at this they really can't kind of deviate from this I do believe that in that timeframe they won't be able to get rid of the Adi model the main reason they won't be able to get rid of the Adi model is purely because the decision they made architecturally that the framework lives in the client side in the browser and it has basically full realm to the whole page model now again if I go back to being a vendor and building a web part if I'm calling our HyperFish API that's living inside of Azure somewhere and I'm using an OAuth token other web parts from other vendors could sniff those tokens and start calling our API ourselves and either trash our service or kind of read and inspect information we're storing in the databases that are kind of behind closed doors in Azure and so there will be times not just for vendors that are fearful of kind of multiple vendors living on a page or not wanting customers to have that kind of access but they'll have to use the Adi model to get that isolation security where I can have my own Azure AD token that only my pages can get at because they're in a separate DOM which is elevated outside inside that iframe which you don't get with the SharePoint framework so I guess the main prediction will be SharePoint framework is hopefully their last bet and they're going to really invest in that and not go and throw the towel in and get a new one but I also definitely believe that the Adi model has to exist for a long long time to come purely because of the deployment strategy and the isolation of security I'm fortunate enough to call Andrew a good friend and we've actually worked together a lot on SharePoint training and I've actually trained Andrew's content for a long long time when I was in Australia and that's how we first met many years ago he taught me through his 2007 WCM book How to Code in SharePoint web content facing sites which earned me a ton of cash when I was in Australia so my advice would be if you want to learn the SharePoint framework you have to go to Vortanos and use his content to learn it it is simply the best stuff that I've seen so far out there from all the different Microsoft internal things that are being pushed out to some of the bloggers out there across the globe and Andrew's been in this space for a long time he's teaching not only the fact that he knows SharePoint from the weeds all the way up to the top but also Andrew did a really big pivot a long time ago when he always packed in a towel with SharePoint and jumped into that no JavaScript space so I think the benefit of going for the Vortanos content is that it's not just SharePoint-oriented knowledge but it's also really really good knowledge around how you should genuinely building node type scripts and the whole tool chaining from woe to go whether you're on a Mac or a PC so it's the best place to go for learning the SP FX framework


My name is Nasa Hanafi and I work in the civil society team in communications at the European Central Bank and I am delighted to have Iddo Deyong with us today. Iddo is team lead in the market innovation and integration division of the director general market infrastructure and payments. He is responsible for policy development on innovative payment solutions and he coordinated the ECB retail payment strategy which is a topic of our session today. Iddo will present the main goals of the ECB retail payment strategy as well as the reasons for this strategy and the ECB's role in the retail payments. Before I give the floor to Iddo, I would like to share some practicalities on the session with you today. We'll start with the presentation around half hour and then open the floor for the remaining 30 minutes for questions. Please make good use of this question and answer session as would like to keep it as interactive as possible. You will have noted that your microphone and camera are switched off by default. However, after the presentation you will be able to turn on your camera and you will be automatically unmuted. And we'll show a slide with some instructions on how to raise your virtual hand. Finally, and as stated in the invitation, this seminar will be recorded and uploaded to the ECB's website after the event. With any further ado, I'll hand over now to our guest speaker, Iddo, the floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you, Nasser. Also, from my side, I would like to welcome you all to today's seminar. The retail payment strategy is our latest stance on what is needed to improve retail payments in the Euro area, in Europe and beyond. And I'm also keen to hear your views and your expectations for retail payments after my presentation. I will start my presentation with the reasons for our new strategy. Also explaining the tasks and the roles of the ECB which we perform together with the national central banks of the Euro area. Together we are the Euro system. Later on in my presentation, I will briefly touch upon how we organize a continuous stakeholder dialogue on retail payments. But first, why are retail payments important to economy and to society? First of all, the cost of retail payment instruments is around 1% of gross domestic product in Europe. But this 1% is just the average. At the level of a country, some countries only spend 0.7% on retail payment instruments whereas other spend almost double that amount. This makes clear that more efficient or cost efficient retail payments can save a society a lot of money. When countries migrate to electronic retail payments, this spurs overall economic development in that country. A third reason to look carefully at retail payments is that they tend to lead to market concentration. Meaning that only a few companies could dominate almost the entire market. And for instance, could set higher prices than in a situation where there was sufficient competition between providers of payment services. A further important matter is to look at the proper design of retail payments. Elements like privacy, security, prevention of fraud, transparency and rights as consumer. If we look at European retail payments, it's good perhaps to start with comparing us with some other countries around the world. As you can see in the slide and in the graph, Europe, which is on the left, has much less check usage compared to the US or Canada. In the European Union, there are more direct debits than in most other regions. Also more credit transfers, more than in the US, more than in Canada, but below Australia and South Korea. But perhaps the most striking information we can take from this overview is that there is a lot of scope to increase the usage of card payments in Europe. Or another type of payment solution, which you can use in shops and when shopping online. Why does the ECB look into retail payments? If you look up the treaty on the European Union, you will find that among our basic tasks is the task to promote smooth operation of payment systems. We may also provide facilities to ensure efficient and sound clearing and payment systems. Lastly, we shall be consultants and we may advise on any proposed EU Act or any national legislative provision when it falls in our fields of competence. What does it mean to promote the smooth operation of payment systems? Generally, it is considered that there are three functions. First is to have a conversation, a dialogue with stakeholders and trying to persuade them to improve the way payments are made and received. This is called a catalyst role. The second role is the one of an operator. We offer payment systems to commercial banks as we are then the central place for them to make payments to each other. The third role is the one in which we supervise payment systems and payment instruments. This is called the oversight function and these together are the three roles the ECB has in retail payments. Since the start of the ECB, and that is 21 years ago, our focus in retail payments has been on integration. Integrating the various systems that were present in the countries forming the Euro area. The major achievements have been the delivery of a European credit transfer or a SEPA credit transfer and also a SEPA direct debit in 2008 and 2009. However, this process of integrating the different national payment systems and payment setups is incomplete. For instance, we don't have electronic mandates that you can give for a direct debit. Some complaints still come in about urban discrimination, meaning that you can't use your payment account for making payments in another country. So it's important to note that even though we are 20 years on our way, still things are incomplete. Whereas the first phase of SEPA was focused on integration, in recent years we have spent more time and could spend more attention to modernize payment services. To stimulate innovation and to foster competition. Basically, to try and make European retail payments ready for the digital age. One good example of this is the introduction of instant payments. So payments that arrive at the beneficiary within 10 seconds. For this, the market has launched the SEPA credit transfer instant scheme in November 2017. At the moment, 59% of European banks adhere to this scheme and can offer it to their customers. But the actual usage, the uptake of SEPA credit transfer is only about 9% of credit transfers. So a lot of work is still needed. This is also important because SEPA credit transfer instant can be the basis of new services, innovative payment solutions, including for paying in a shop where the credit transfer is set up with a card. At ECB, we have ensured that there is a pan-European processing infrastructure for instant payments that will enable full reachability, meaning that all banks can reach each other for making and receiving SEPA credit transfer instant payments. Important implementing measures are being taken this year. The European legislators have also adopted the modern European law, the revised payment services directive, which provides a legal basis for innovative payment services based on access to payment account. Work is ongoing to standardize the interfaces that FinTech companies can use to make payments on behalf of the customer. Work is still on its way in this field. If we look at the broader picture and we look at the status of retail payments in Europe, we do see that for card payment transactions, 70% of those are made with cards from international card schemes. And this percentage has been steadily increasing over the past decade. We also can see that we don't have a European or a pan-European solution for making e-commerce payments. In fact, those are dominated by one global provider. For making online payments, also card schemes are used. Now, I didn't put the names of these companies on this slide because it's not about the specific companies. It is about that we are relying for the bulk of our payment transactions on just three companies. This is evidence of how payment systems can lead to a market concentration in which only few providers remain active. This would now enable them to set higher prices than it would have been the case if there were still plenty of providers. Another reason for some concern is that these are companies that are active on a global level. This means that they might not be able to adjust their products and services exactly to the European requirements. One example may have been the migration to the EMV chip, which has provided more security for card payments. And we can also see that various countries around the world outside of Europe have chosen to set up their own card scheme to be less dependent on others for the core of their payment services. One further development that we notice is that Big Tech, and I will explain it on the next slide, might move more deeply into the profession of retail payments. Some of the well-known Big Tech companies are on this slide together with the number of countries they are active in. In contrast to how payment services are normally organized, where you have multiple banks offering services to end users based on common rules between those banks, based on systems for the processing of transactions, and finally for the settlement of these transactions, Big Tech is more focused on the user experience. They are able to organize all processes within their own house. Furthermore, it might be that instead of relying on the euro and processing in euro, they might replace that with something what is called stablecoin. So it's a fundamental change to retail payments, and it's important to be prepared for such potential changes. It's one of the reasons why work has started, preparatory work has started, to be able to issue a digital euro should the need arise. As mentioned at the start of my presentation, we take stakeholder dialogue very serious at the ECB and certainly for payments. We have set up some years ago the Euro Retail Payments Board. That's a high level strategic body tasked with fostering the integration, innovation and competitiveness of Euro Retail Payments in the European Union. It was launched in December 2013, but before that already a similar type of institution existed. Important is that it brings together the user side of retail payments, and I've listed the organizations that participate to the Euro Retail Payments Board. And on the other side, it is the provider of payment services, not just banks, but also the electronic money institutions, the payment institutions and the third party providers. They meet twice a year, and they discuss and hopefully agree on the common priorities for the development of retail payments in the Euro area. Over the years, the UPB has worked on many important topics for retail payments based on the priority set. Currently, the UPB has worked on transparency for end users so that it's clear from your account statement which payments you have made. The SEPA API access scheme is to enable third party providers together with banks to make full use of the opportunities that were created with the payment services directive. And also access to CAS is a concern of stakeholders and the UPB is looking into ways to improve that. Now let me come to the main item of the presentation, but I think the background is almost as important. The retail payment strategy was launched in November 2019. Its main goal is to support and foster the development of pan-European payment solutions in shops and online. And together we call this the point of interaction between the payer and the payee. You had seen that there is a high reliance on only a few companies for card payments and for e-commerce payments. So it comes to no surprise that this is the top priority. Last year, this strategy was complemented with the following goals, the full deployment of instant payments. I mentioned that users stood at 9% who would like to see this grow to 100% if possible. I spoke a lot about the Euro area, about Europe, with also payments that go into the European Union or come out of the European Union. It is a topic that has been neglected a bit and there is a global initiative to improve also these type of retail payments. We like to support innovation and also an innovative payments ecosystem where banks and Sintek companies can compete and can work together to improve retail payments and to deliver more choice to consumers. The environmental sustainability of payments, we are looking into that. We are starting a study on improving that. And I mentioned accessibility, especially in the digital age, it's more important that every citizen can have use to payment systems. The top priority is the support of market initiatives that launch a truly pan-European point of interaction payment solution. We will support any market initiative that is willing to adhere to five key objectives, including a pan-European reach and customer experience. And of course, convenient and cost efficient, safe and secure with a recognizable European brand and also governance and management of the payment solution that would ensure that European requirements are met. In the long term, we would also like such a payment solution to be acceptable around the world. And in July 2020, we have welcomed the European payments initiative, which is the only initiative so far that we have welcomed together with the European Commission, but we remain open to engage with other initiatives. To tell you a bit more about the European payments initiative, it is developing a solution for card online and mobile payments with a harmonized card digital wallet, which would be usable across Europe. The start is made by banks from eight countries. One is the euro area plus one from Poland. They are concentrating on setting up the solution at the moment, but thereafter they will focus again on expanding to all countries of the euro area and Europe. These are the goals of the retail payment strategy. Instant payments need to be offered to all individuals and businesses and under attractive conditions. Obstacles need to be overcome. One specific challenge is the need for anti-money laundering checks, which need to happen in real time. By improving cross-border payments will support people and businesses when making and receiving payments from overseas. Actively supporting a European ecosystem for payments will help opening up for innovation and competition, including by non-banks like FinTechs. We are addressing the environmental sustainability payment transactions and infrastructures. We would like to ensure that all Europeans have access to safe, efficient and convenient payments in view of the all-encompassing digitalization process. This retail payment strategy does not stand by itself. At the same time we are analyzing and experimenting on a digital euro. We have also adopted the cash strategy and we have developed recently a new oversimped framework. Then let me conclude, despite the separate achievements, gaps remain. We don't have a pan-European card scheme. There is no pan-European e-commerce payment solution and the uptake of instant payments has been slow so far. We noticed the expansion of Big Tech in payments, possibly with a completely new arrangement based on global stablecoins. The retail payment strategy is there to meet European stakeholders' needs and expectations for an increasingly digital economy and society. Preparatory work is ongoing should the need arise to introduce a digital euro. More European integration is needed, more innovation, more competition and more sovereignty. I am very keen to hear your views and your expectations for retail payments. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Ido. I have a very interesting presentation. We all agree that you have covered a wide range of important topics. Ladies and gentlemen, let me remind that if you experience any technical issues or have a question, please reach out to us by using the chat function and make sure you send your message to all panelists. We are very much interested to hear your views now. It's time to make this session as interactive as possible and you will see now a slide with some instructions on how to raise your virtual hand. When I see your hand, I will call your name. You will be unmuted automatically and will be able to turn on your camera. Please introduce yourself shortly before asking your question. This might take a moment or two until we have the first question. And I would like to start with Mr. John Walker. I said, you will be able now to turn on your camera, please. The floor is yours. Thank you, Chairman. Can I be heard? Yes, please. Thank you very much. Some of the topics which you covered are retail people going to shops and buying things. But some of your presentation related to e-commerce, and I'm sorry if I'm slightly off script, but prior to Brexit, it was possible to send money sterling from the Euro area to the UK without having penal charges. Now there's a penal charge, which for small payments is, I find, at 35 Euros plus VAT to send an electronic payment from the Euro area to the UK to be rather high for something that could be about £200. So we managed to find one way out, this is the European Small Business Alliance, to spend the whole payment for one year rather than paying it quarterly, which actually saved us a bit on bank charges. Before Brexit, it cost 10 Euros plus VAT to send a payment from Belgium to the UK. Now these suppliers have been with us for a long time and they provide the services that we need. And I know possibly during trade with the UK is not the sort of thing you want to discuss, but nevertheless there is a commercial need to have these two clients in the UK providing the alliance with services, which they've done for many years and know our requirements. I'm just wondering if something, whether these charges, if we send Euros from Belgium to the UK, it costs £7. If it's sent in sterling, it costs 42 Euros including VAT. So I'm sure I'm not the only business with this type of issue where all of a sudden bank charges have gone up by 300%, which does seem rather challenging for not just us but many others. I hope I'm not too off-script in raising that, but it is certainly an issue that hopefully will be looked at at some point. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Worker. Thank you very much for your question. It does remind me about the situation before the start of SEPA, before the start of the Euro where indeed making payments across countries was very expensive. A payment from the Netherlands to Spain, which could indeed cost you 10-20 Euros, also as a private citizen and I'm sure also for businesses. So it took also legislation, European legislation, that prescribed that banks cannot differentiate in their prices when you make a payment within Germany or from Germany to Greece. Of course you mentioned Brexit has implied that some of these laws do no longer apply when you make payments from the UK to the European Union. There is not much I can say about it. I mean we have certainly heard this complaint before, but for mostly it seems to be based on legislation not longer applying to these transactions. We do hope to improve cross-border payments in general because also when you make a payment from Europe to the Philippines, people are faced with high charges. So in that sense the problem in general is on the agenda and not just for the ECB, but in fact around the world. It's a topic that is discussed under the G20 of the major industrial countries. So work is done, but the specific reason for this fee is now applying is indeed because of the law no longer applying. Thank you very much. Mr. Walker, let me remind you to lower your virtual hand please after you ask your question. The second question we have from, allow me, I don't know, Mr. Ms. Orien Tuja. Sorry, I can't see the full name here. Please turn on your camera, introduce yourself shortly and take the floor. Thank you very much and you pronounced it quite well. Thank you very much for your presentation. I'm Orien Tuja Batsahan from Positive Money Europe and I would like to ask a question related to of course our current situation and the global pandemic and there is quite a bit of research and evidence based research as well as anecdotal evidence emerging on the preference of card payments over, let's say physical cash. In relation to that, I wanted to ask what's the kind of emerging evidence for the euro area for Europe and what does it mean for retail payment strategy going forward. And another question, if there is evidence of use of cards and more online payments and as we go in the future, then how do we ensure that there is a maximum financial inclusion? And not only that, but also data protection. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for your more than one question. Well, at least two questions I will try to answer them. Indeed, we have also done studies ourselves into the payment behavior during the pandemic and how it is different from how we used to pay before. Indeed, there is a higher preference for using card payments, especially those type of card payments where you don't need to touch anything. Including not typing in your pin number. We do think this will be a trend that will continue also when the pandemic will be subsiding. I mean, for ECB, we also still remain responsible for issuing of euro banknotes. So we don't have a view on card users versus banknotes users, we just try to facilitate both in the best possible way. Financial inclusion could indeed be a bigger issue of concern. Not everybody is as able to use smartphones, digital payment solutions. So it's actually one of the one of the goals of the retail payment strategy to look into the we call it accessibility. It's maybe not exactly the same as financial inclusion, but we do want to study and ensure that all citizens have access also to the more digital payment solutions that we are using more and more. Thank you. Thank you. It's promising to be really active. I'm delighted to see a question coming in. The next question comes from John Ali. As usual, please, you will be automatically unmuted. Turn on your camera and take the floor. Thank you. My name is Jean-Alexandre presenting as the the Bergs European Consumer Organization, an old friend of Edo. My question is about what you have said at the beginning of your presentation. When you have said that in terms of GDP, in some countries 0.7% in some in other countries, it's 135 and you say quite a double. Can you go into more detail about that? Oh, can you explain that there is such a huge difference from one country to another as regards the cost for the society in particular for consumers, of course, of payment. Is it a question of lack of competition? Is it a behavior of some banks in some country? Is it banks which are not efficient in some countries and much more efficient in other countries? I would like to have more background on your policy when you see the difference from one country to the other as regards the cost of payment for consumers. And so between friends. Yes, okay. Thank you, Jean, for your question. Indeed, there are big differences between countries that were part of this study. And I think all of the reasons that you mentioned add to this big difference. In the mix of payment services used. I mean just an example to pay with a check, to process a paper check, to physically move it from the shop to the bank of the shop. Sometimes all the way to the bank who issued the check. This involves a lot of cost. This is into the cost of payments. So it's not per se the price levels that consumers face. It is the cost of reducing these these payment services. Competition can also make a difference. If there are only a few major providers. Maybe it's easier for them to set to have less incentive to be efficient and they can set higher prices to consumers. Stimulating competition also from other types of players, supervised non bank providers could help. We are keen to to repeat this this study, but as you can imagine it takes a lot of work to get into the details in and also in all European countries. I think gradually the move to more electronic retail payments has helped to reduce the cost of retail payment systems. As I said, we are very keen to do another study to to see the latest situation. Thank you. You know, before we take the question from Mr Martin smart street. I would like to have a comment with the chat from Mr Walker. Like to share with you. He says I fully agree with the point about not everyone having a mobile smartphone. There can be digital exclude exclusion for those without one. Thanks for that comment. Well noted. So, Mr Schman sleep. Maltz read. Please turn on your camera and reduce yourself. And the floors yours might take a minute. Hello. Yes. Okay. So I'm Martin Schmalz reader work for the Confederation family organizations called the safe families Europe. You mentioned about you were talking about competition and the importance of competition. And you also mentioned stable coins, as you probably know, there are many stable coins dominated in other currencies, for instance, the Canadian dollar, the Australian dollar, even the pound, the bridge pound, the US dollar. So of course, to transfer those stable coins from one wallet to another, very easy to open wallets also with no impendements whatsoever. There is yet, I think there's one European stable coin that is in development. But to my knowledge, there isn't a real operational one that is globally used at this moment. Do you have a reason for that, or do you have some insights into that, or, and do you think that there will be developments of such stable points equivalent to the dollar denominated ones in the future. Thank you very much. An interesting question, maybe not an easy question to answer. In general, the ECB, the Euro system we favor innovation, we favor competition. But we also think it's necessary to have a level playing field when it comes to regulating the providers of payment services supervising them. And maybe the approach in Europe has focused more on ensuring that such providers of stable coins do need to first meet the requirements of law and of supervision. And in some other jurisdictions, the emphasis has been different, but I can't speculate on what companies might do in future. Thank you, Ido. I actually was waiting for someone to reflect on something you mentioned, your presentation, and maybe I will do that. I took a note that you spoke about supporting an innovative European ecosystem for banks and non-banks like FinTechs. Could you elaborate more, why should the ECB make a difference between banks and non-banks? Yes, thank you. Here it's important to say that in general, banks provide payment services in a specific way, and we see that other types of entities, maybe smaller entities, technologically agile companies that have more direct contact with retailers, e-commerce websites, maybe they are able to organize themselves differently, offer different type of payment solutions, so we're actually increasing the choice available to retailers, to merchants and shopkeepers. So there we think it's important to enable both type of providers to provide their payment services, and it's important to say that they are supervised, banks are supervised, and also these FinTech providers are supervised, so they do have to follow the same set of rules. But when there is a proper level playing field, we think this can increase choice and also meet the requirements of retailers better. Can I change you a little bit more? You mentioned in your presentation European sovereignty. Is that the topic for the ECB or why is that important for retail payments? Yeah, European sovereignty as such, we would have to look into what we mean by that. In my presentation, I mentioned how if you rely on global companies, you cannot be sure that these global companies can listen to European requirements. They will have to listen to the whole world and they have to make the decisions based on that. So sovereignty means that you are able yourself to make sure that the payment services that are being offered also meet the requirements of European stakeholders. And that's actually what we mean, that we do not rely or depend on a few companies, but that if stakeholders together agree that there is a need to work on a specific European payment solution that we can also make that happen. Thank you very much for that. Let me check if we still have some questions from our audience. By now doesn't look like that. Ladies and gentlemen, if you have questions, I would interest in any other topic that you would like us to present in future seminars. Please reach out to us. Our email address is civil society to one word civil society at ecb.oropa.eu. I think we can close now. Of course, I would like to thank you for this presentation. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen for being with us today. We are very interested to hear your views. Again, not only on the topic of today's but in general, your views are very important to us. Right now we will share with you a short survey in the chat. It should take not more than two minutes of your time to complete and it will help us tailoring our topics for you in the future. Thank you very much and goodbye.


And Benua State Governor Hyacinth Aliya says in a few months of violent conflicts in Benua State will be reduced to the lowest minimum. The governor made this known at the government house in Makode while receiving a delegation from the Benua State Commission for Peace and Reconciliation and other peace organizations as part of activities to mark the 2023 International Peace Day. Benua State, our administration has taken proactive measures by institutionalizing the framework to support peace building and peace enforcement and in a few months from now violent conflicts would be reduced to a very minimum level. The state government is also strengthening the state commission for peace and reconciliation as the main instrument for the actualization of this peace from work. So let's put this commission together to help advising on policies that will ensure that peace is returned to Benua. On the top of the agenda is relocating or re-settling the IDPs back to the accessor homes. One of the strong messages you are giving us is the issue of a nebulous environment for private sector to thrive in the state. It is only when the private sector tries to say that they will create jobs and take the law for use that are used as deciliers to cause disruption of peace in society that we have useful engagements. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.


Now the 2022 gubernatorial election in Oshun State will now hold on Saturday 16 July 2022. This information was contained in a timetable released through the Independent National Electro Commission, INEC. The timetable dated 10 July 2021 and which was signed by INEC Secretary Rose Ogyaron Antony, the schedule of activities for the election will start from the publishing of Notice of Election on the 1st of February next year.


Okay, we're here at the search me booth for a big exclusive announcement for your new launch. Hey, John. How are you? So you're announcing new products. We are What we're announcing is a multimedia search which combines video image web content and music together In a search experience that is new. It's sort of the holy grail of search I want to show you an example of how that works right now I just typed in a query for the police which is a band Let's take a look at what we get from search me. Let's take a look at this I'll look at a glare here. So you type in the police in the search box right there So the first page that we see is the police calm home page We also see another page here for music videos from the police a Wikipedia page for the police In this case rock sand the music Auto play auto plays in line also have Other music interleaved in here and we could do other queries where we will get video and images Good that's a good one at the police Jump in the f-bomb and search me up. Good So this is not just like text results. I see you guys get a lot of press out there with Twitter Oh, absolutely the apple of search results with the with the beautiful flowing that So, you know, it's so you have categories up here still That's right. You're interlacing media types of search results The default is all which gets you a combination of web video images music news and news All together in a search result if you really wanted to refine your search to just save video Very easily done by clicking the video button and immediately you go to YouTube live video for YouTube I Great good stuff. Yeah, you have great presentation graphics here in this and this is running on a 3g connection So you guys have the iPhone app which I just installed we do we do There's the iPhone app which by the way has like almost a thousand reviews on it so current location Very cool on the iPhone app And you're doing other phones too, right yet iPhone right today, we're launching in the Nokia obi store We're also on Android phones and we have two other Smartphone platforms are going to be announcing here in the next couple weeks So the question you know This is a conference that's grown from online advertising banner ads to you know now You know search search was a big gravy train for ad tech Everyone knows it's like a search SEM SEO conference, but people are really trying to figure out what's next beyond search And you guys obviously are a new search engine new visual search. Yeah great results It makes me feel like I'm in a media playlist, right? What do you guys see in there on the corner with advertiser uptake and just overall well One of the things that we're doing That's really unique is blending together search marketing and display advertising in visual search And we're able to do that in visual search in a really unique way Let me just show you what that looks like I'm going to take a an example for the query gold green glare issue here, but okay Yeah, so this is a page. That's actually an advertiser. Can you can you go back one sure? So that's Wikipedia, right? So Wikipedia page. This is search results for gold Go got it and the next result is actually an ad That's been placed in by one of our sponsored search advertisers match to the actual keyword gold So it's elegant and it's relevant very relevant. Yep, and you know what I could we can also integrate video Ads in there as well. Let me show you a current advertiser who's advertising there through a video So this this ad is all this is an ad and it's also a video. Yeah, and it's matched by keyword as well Yeah, I mean, yeah, I've always been a big lead that content is the ad and that's where everyone's going now And you guys are perfect for that the question I have for you out there That's on everyone's mind is how do you get paid for that CPC? CPC. So so we have three different ad platforms We have sponsored search, which is a CPC times CTR and that's an example that we just looked at for Fallout 3 and for the gold query We also have paid inclusion which interleaves your pages in based on relevance and that's a flat CPC as opposed to a bidded CPC And we also have a display solution as well on our home page Which I can show you here. So no new no new products. They can use their existing vehicles to add in here I think the real story here is that you're actually paying to get your branding on a CPC basis as opposed to the CPM So it makes it more efficient You can stretch your dollars a lot farther and you get a more qualified user because they see before they click It feels like a display ad but it's really performance. That's right. That's exactly right Cool great stuff.  That's really the spot where I think search Me's going to shine. Yeah, we talk about two different user experiences the lean forward experience where you're quick in and out and the Lean back when you're sitting on your couch with your remote and you want to experience the web and the internet from your television Search me is a great solution for that type of an interaction Cool too because I just got the same navigation Exactly because what happens with with the iPhone is it makes it more efficient to use your phone for search, right? How often are you frustrated by how long it takes to find what you want the page load time? With search me you can actually see what you're going to get before you I mean It's like all the best of like Google search, but I can't imagine Google being on my IP TV But I can see myself browsing through screenshots of shows and whatnot videos. Yeah, I love this Any any discussions with YouTube about them going in this direction? Well, you know YouTube is compiling lots and lots more professional content on their side I'm sure you saw the announcement with Disney and So I see YouTube as a potential competitor to people like Hulu and that's got to be scaring any of the big Media, you know companies or direct TV anybody who is reliant on driving revenue from a typical cable connection As opposed to the internet is more and more people are thinking about getting consuming their television content via the internet As opposed to the cable connection. We're here with John from search me great demo. Congratulations. You're announcement Thank you John iPhone app Nokia cell phones hinting towards IT TV reality or is it happening or Coming soon or coming soon. I can see it great stuff put that video back on again that police video That was cool. You got it. Yeah, let's type it in again. Let's search music this time Great for bands great for all kinds of rich media Auto plays right out


Hello and welcome to the session on Distributed Deadlock Detection in Distributed Computing. Before we move forward, here are the learning outcomes. At the end of the session, students will be able to uniquely identify the preliminaries and deadlock handling strategies in Distributed Computing. Distributed System is a network of sites that exchange information with each other by message passing. It consists of computing and storage facilities and interface to local users and a communication network. Deadlocks is a fundamental problem in Distributed Systems. In Distributed Computing, a process can request and release resources in any order. The resources are local or remote, which may not be known a priori and a process can request some resources while holding others. If the sequence of allocation of resources to processes is not controlled in such environments, deadlocks can occur. If the sequence of allocation of resources to processes is not controlled in such environments, the deadlock can occur. Here we are going to discuss deadlock handling strategies in Distributed Computing. Deadlock Detection techniques based on various control organizations, preliminaries, the system model. The problem of deadlock in centralized system under a very general system model. Conditions for a deadlock and methods to handle deadlocks in various special cases that we discuss here. The problem of deadlocks has been generally studied in Distributed Computing under the following models. The systems have only reusable resources. Processes are allowed only exclusive access to resources. There is only one copy of each resource. A process can be in two states, running or blocked. In the running state, a process has all the needed resources and is either executed or is ready for execution. Running state is also called the active state. In the blocked state, a process is waiting to acquire some resources. Resource versus communication deadlock. Two types of deadlocks have been here resource deadlock and communication deadlock. In resource deadlocks, processes can simultaneously wait for several resources and cannot process until they have acquired all those resources. A set of processes is a resource deadlock. If each process in the set of request resource held by other processes in the set and it must receive all the requested resources before it can become unblocked. In the communication deadlocks, processes wait to communicate with other processes among a set of processes. A waiting process can unblock on receiving a communication from any one of these processes. A set of processes is communication deadlock. If each process in the set is waiting to communicate with another process in the set and no process in the set ever initiates any further communication until it receives the communication for which it is waiting. A graph-theoretic model. The state of process resource, the state of process resource interaction in distributed computing can be modeled by a directed graph called resource allocation graph. The nodes of this graph are processes and resources of a system and the edges of the graph depicts assignments or pending request. A pending request is represented by a request age directed from the node of a requesting process to the node of the requested resource. Resource assignment is represented by an assignment age directed from the node of an assigned resource to the node of the assigned process. A system is deadlocked if its resource allocation graph contains a directed cycle or not. Wait for graphs. In distributed computing system, the state can be modeled or represented by a directed graph called wait for graph. Also denoted as capital W F G. In wait for graph, nodes are processes and there is a direct age from node P1 to node P2. If P1 is blocked and is waiting for P2 to release some resource, a system is deadlocked if and only if there is a directed cycle or not in the wait for graph. In distributed database system, users access the data objects of the database by executing transactions. A transaction can be viewed as a process that performs a sequence of reads and writes on the data objects. The data objects of a database can be viewed as resources that are required and released by transactions. In distributed database system, a wait for graph is referred as transaction wait for graph. Also denoted as capital T W F. In transaction wait for graph, nodes are transactions and there is a directed age from node P1 to node P2. If P1 is blocked and is waiting for P2 to release some resource, a system is deadlocked if and only if there is a directed cycle or not in its transaction wait for graph. Here pause the video, think and answer. Which of the following is the visual way to determine the deadlock occurrence? Resource allocation graph, starvation graph, inversion graph and none of these. So the answer is A that is resource allocation graph. We can determine the deadlock occurrence. Here the deadlock handling strategies in distributed computing. There are three strategies to handle deadlocks. Deadlock prevention, deadlock avoidance, deadlock detection. Here you have to note that deadlock handling is complicated to implement in distributed computing because no one site has accurate knowledge of the current state of the system and because every intersite communication involves a finite and unpredictable delay and examination of the relative complexity and practicality of the three deadlock handling strategies in distributed computing are as follows. Deadlock prevention is commonly achieved by either having a process acquire all the needed resources simultaneously before it begins execution or by preempting a process that holds the needed resource. In the first method, a process request or release a remote resource by sending a request message or a release message to the site where the resource is located. This method has number of drawbacks. First it is inefficient as it decreases the system concurrency. In second method a set of processes can become deadlock in the resource acquiring phase. For example, suppose process P1 at site S1 and process P2 at site S2 simultaneously request two resources R3 and R4 located at site S3 and S4 respectively. It may happen that S3 grants R3 to P1 and S4 grants R4 to P2 which resulting in deadlock. This problem can be handled by forcing processes to acquire needed resources one by one and this approach is inefficient and impractical. Third method is that in many systems future resource requirements are unpredictable. Here is my reference. Thank you.


As a financial analyst, I move the money that meets the fleet needs. As a chemist, I test and evaluate cutting-edge science and technology that optimizes warfighter safety and readiness. I collaborate with international partners to ensure our warfighters and allies have the decisive advantage in the battle space. As an aircrew survival equipment, I inspect and maintain the survival gear to keep our aircrew safe in every possible scenario. As a flight instructor, I bring mission experience to the classroom for the next generation of test pilots. I keep them fixed for the fight as a double-level artisan is my job to make sure when called our aircraft are ready to go. It's all about teamwork. As a naval flight officer, I manage the crew to execute missions. If it's broke, it's my job as an aviation mechanic to fix it. I inspect, maintain and repair aircraft to keep our fleet flying. As a test pilot, I lead technical teams testing innovative ideas in the air to bring the latest technology to the fleet.


This research proposes two new techniques for analyzing the reliability of multidimensional non-linear dynamic structures. The first technique uses an agotic time series to accurately estimate the system's failure probability. The second technique utilizes an extreme value prediction method to provide reliable estimates of system failure probabilities. These techniques can be combined to provide more accurate results than existing methods. This article was authored by Oleg Gaidi, Jin Xiangshu, Ping Yang, and others.