Hello everyone. I guess we are about to start as it's already 15. So yeah today's topic is how can QA and developer teams work together and how they can improve the automation test coverage and overall the whole experience in a project. So I will quickly go through the agenda. Of course I will do a brief introduction on myself. Then we are going to establish a base one and actually talk more about what are the requisites of having a good QA and development team relationship. We are going to talk about a bit for planning action and delivery of our automation test. And of course, as I like every time to show some examples, I will give you some of the problems that we faced and how we actually solved them together.  So yeah, starting with the introduction. My name is Tony and yeah, I'm a senior automation lead at FFW. This is me in office situation. And this is again me keeping my cool when things go sideways. Because I think it's important everyone to stay calm, no matter what happens. And in order to act as the best of our abilities. Because when people start to get nervous, get over excited in a bad way, they start to think sideways and we are not delivering the best. So and our clients of course get disappointed. So a little bit about the company I work in. It's called FFW. We have over 800 employees almost all over the world. And I'm from Bulgaria. And yeah, I've been in the company for 10 years now, actually turned 10 years on 1st of October. And basically, this is my first IT job. So my whole career is based in one company, which for some people might, yeah, might be a minus because you have to go around, see how other people are doing some stuff. But I believe that this helped me prepare and be with a good connection with the people I work with. We've become not only colleagues, but friends. So I believe this is one of the key points to have a good results. So let's move on about what we need to establish first when we gather a new team and or we start as the same team on a new project. So first of all, having people with the right mindset, I believe is the key. Everyone should have the same focus and the same goals. And it's really important on both QA and their side to have everyone on the same page. What we are doing, what we are going to deliver, what is clients main goal and what if the project that we are working on the product we are building, if it's aimed at end users, we need to understand how the end users are going to use it because actually we discussed this earlier during the coffee breaks with some colleagues that not always the developers understand how and why we are building what we are building. Actually, we discussed with the meter here that there are two types of people. One of them are strictly following instructions. And yeah, don't think about how actually end users are going to use it. And it's important to think about the thing that we are doing. It's important to put ourselves in the perspective of the end user. And actually what we are doing, is it usable? Is it really practical? Or we are just focused on doing our job and getting things done. So why we need to have QA and dev teams united is for me the most beneficial thing is that we can face the clients and defend ourselves when we need to do something. For example, spend some time on developing QA tests, automation tests, introducing new tools, etc. In order to be more convincing in front of the client, we need to be united. And to be united, we need to have the proper mindset. So in order to bring the developers on our side, as I'm a QA, we need for me to let them know how actually the tests works. No matter what framework we choose to use. I think we need to spend the time to show them how it works and best case scenario to have them set up the framework that we have locally. So just to give an overview of the audience here, how many of you are developers? So most of you, I guess, are developers and I guess you are interested in how to achieve things more. So why this is the question? Because a couple of years ago, in my experience, developers, most of them didn't actually understand why we have the tests, why we have automation frameworks, etc. And I believe that by spending the time showing them what exactly is the purpose and how actually the tests are helping us in the long term by spending a couple of hours, couple of sessions together to show you, I mean, to show you from QA side to show the developers what we are doing. Of course, they will, developers will be a bit more interested in this topic because it's kind of technical. It's not so, for example, some scrum stuff or some other stuff that are purely theoretical. And by showing them how and why, they will start more to think about the work that they deliver, how they can help us case deliver it better. So one thing I mentioned, and it's on here on the slide, it's best if developers have the automation tool of the team set up locally. So when developing new features, for example, or a major change to do a local run and see if they're not going to push something that will break, for example, the whole development environment. Of course, it's not always the case. It's not always possible. But this is the goal that we need to aim. So about planning and good results. Good planning means good results, of course. But what actually is good planning? First of all, we are, I guess, most of us work with stories. And when we are on a planning session, and we start discussing specific story, first thing from QA side, I believe is to discuss with the developers if a story is automatable. I don't know if this is a real word, but let's use it. So we should aim, of course, to automate all the things. But of course, it's not possible. So it's really important to decide and scale. Is it worth it? Because let's say we are developing a certain functionality, we will spend a lot of time automating it. But at the end of the day, is it going to be really the most crucial functionality that we are doing? Or there are more important stuff like, for example, imagine you have a social network and you have a registration page. Of course, this is your most important thing on the site to work. But then you have block pages and some search, which is more important. Here you need to think like the end user. Is it more important from the end user for the registration to work or to have the search of the block pages? Because on social networks, not many users read block pages. And this way, you need to structure the most important things, start covering them and go down to the less important stuff. One more thing that is also important during these planning sessions is to estimate both the manual and QA work. As you may know, QAs are working. There's two main differences between QAs. Manual and automation QAs. And it's important to estimate both of the work. Because sometimes it may happen that the manual work is much less than the automation work or vice versa. And one more extra step is to have split between the QA members of the automation and the manual work. What I mean is that, of course, if you have more QA members, sometimes you have only one. But if you have two or more, I think it's important to one of them to do the manual work and the other one to do the automation work. Because this way, you are doing a cross check and everyone can make a mistake. Everyone can miss something. And when you have two people different working on the same thing, you will, of course, catch something that the other guy missed. And I've seen a lot of examples of bugs that are not reproducible manually, but the automation tools, as you know, they behave quite different. They catch some issues. And yeah, when you discuss on this planning for a story that needs to be automated, but let's say you are pressured by the time and you can do it within the current story scope, of course, you can go ahead and move it away as a work and have a separate backlog of issues to handle in terms of automation work. And what I believe is the right way to go is to always bring some of this work into your sprint or whatever time frame you have defined to work with. But always, always take some of this work because this way you are going to constantly improve your coverage. You are constantly going to deliver better product for the clients. And this point is not only related to QA and DEVS. It's related to all the team members. They all need to push with suggestions. Yeah, Siri activated. And it's important everyone to be aware of how actually the automation tool works and what can be done in a specific example. So in our case, in my experience, we even had the clients understand how the automation tool works and they are giving us suggestions. Do you think this is a good item to be automated or something like this? So, yeah, I don't know if I'm ahead of time, but as I said, I really like to talk with examples. So I will just give you a couple of real case issues that we faced and how we solve them with the help of developers. Of course, I'm very grateful to all my colleagues that spend the time to give us solutions because, yeah, not all QA guys are so technical. Of course, developers are working all day with technical stuff and they have a better understanding. So one thing we introduced during last couple of years is having all our tests running nightly. So at each morning, we have an overview, a report of what's working and what's not. And I believe that this helps us keep even the deaf environment stable enough. Of course, there are always red flags every morning, but it's easier for the QA team to have an overview, send the proper feedback to the developers and get things solved as soon as possible. One other thing is, as you know, when you delete a user in Drupal, some content is deleted and some is not. And when we are running our automation test, we tend to leave no trace behind, meaning that every content created by the users that the automation test uses needs to be gone. So we faced a problem where you delete a user, but of course, there are items like terms and manual items that leave behind. This made us do a custom QA delete module that was, of course, developed by our deaf team. But this module tracks all the entities that are created in the Drupal by every user. And then when deleting, we added actually an extra option for cancelling user, which says delete FFW, QA, delete content and user. And what this module is doing is actually deleting everything, not only the notes, but all the entities that are created this way. After the test run is finished, there are no test items, no dummy content, and nothing is left. Of course, this was done with the purpose of keeping our development environments clean, not having so much dummy content. And this will also prevent doing mistakes if we decide to run the test on production, because we don't want to have any test content life. One more thing, as you know, Drupal has weird ways of naming fields, etc. really, really long selectors. And as you know, IDs are the best way to end the fastest way to select an item in terms of automation tools. So whenever and needed, we asked our kind developers to add some custom IDs so we can use them instead of the long Drupal selectors. Of course, there are cases where you can still use the ones provided, but you can't have a case where you don't. One more thing that we faced as an issue was a capture. Of course, it's created to avoid bots, and when running automation tool, it's actually controlled by external, no matter if it's a Selenium or any other driver, but yeah, it's hard to bypass captures its purpose. What we did is to create a custom endpoint where when you hit it, it sets a cookie and in our dev environments, when you have this special cookie, which is randomly generated in each run, the environment knows to bypass the recapture and move forward. This way, we can submit forms that have recapture and other and use it on other places where it's used. So and one of the other things we implemented and faced as an issue was working with dynamic data. Imagine that you have an eBay search listing and constantly the items that are listed there are changing and they are coming from outside source feed or something like this. You're just consuming the list of items. So each day, you don't know what is going to be there. How we solved this is we created our internal API, which the automation to cause stores the data and then runs the automation to and starts behaving like a user and it knows to expect certain items with certain titles so it can search for them and expect them as a result because and also you can have some properties like in this example, color, series, etc. And this is also very usable in live productions sites when we use when we're on our smoke test after each deploy. We use this API to gather the data because we of course cannot create dummy data on life and we tend to not do it on our dev production because we have external feed in our case. And I think this is a really good solution for dynamic content. So thank you very much. And yeah, no, no, the question is not for me. The question is from a sum. How can you unite the tools to use for both sides developers in QAs when they are different for this? All tools or the automation tools? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe you can. How can you unite them? So you're saying that you don't want to have an extra tool in your setup? Yeah. Well, how can you unite it? Maybe you can work together. Currently, in my case, in my experience, we just have it set up extra. Because the developers usually you maybe use Docker or something else and everything is there already. And maybe you can work together to introduce the automation tool of the QAs also in the Docker and have it there in place and have it installed already when you spin up a new container. Yeah. And maybe just want something for me because I have been a developer and he has been my QA. I know very well that, you know, when we choose tools, we try to choose tools which are, you know, with the same background like we use Behat. Behat is using PHP, right? And Drupal is using PHP. So yeah, we very often have our developers able to use to write Behat test. And now with the JavaScript frameworks, it is it is the same. So at the end of the day, we speak the same or write the same language. So no other questions here. Thank you very much. Yeah, thank you.


It is the tattoo here on Y-254, I'm still hanging out with the Vitalis and Mike on everything that has been happening here in the world of football. Let's talk about the Champions League and the Europa League, but some new information coming in is that now the Kampunu is not a sportive stadium. Sportive stadium will be very hard for us to remember and recall that. But it is money for Barcelona, I want to club that. I should be neutral but I don't like them. We'll talk about that. But as we talk about European football and everything that happened during the week, it has not been a very good season, not a very good year for the last two or three years. It has not been a very good time for Barcelona when you look at the way they have been performing. What do you make of them so far where they have been handed as the coach? I think Barcelona has got a bigger problem than what we see on the field. Financial matters aside, I think they have too many egos to massage. And you see when you have too many egos, people that you want to sell and they say, I cannot be sold, I have a contract, then that makes it even worse in terms of the dressing room. So I think we are going to, it's very unfortunate that Barcelona is on the down scale in terms of their performance on the field, which people like us the fans feel really, we feel like we are robbed in terms of the performance. We expect, there are those teams that we always expect that they will be fortresses. For example in Spain we have Madrid, Real Madrid and we have Barcelona.  So when you see Barcelona the performance in terms and considering so many goals in a competitive match, especially Champions League, that one is going to really affect their performance even in the La Liga, despite them having a good run in the La Liga. So I don't know what to say but I really feel like the problems of Barcelona does not necessarily emanate from the field. It emanates way before even the financial issues and all that. So I think Savi has a problem in handling that dressing room because we have players like Young, we have Lewandowski, we have big name players who have been performing at the highest level and right now they are not performing and that should tell us definitely there is an issue with the dressing room as well as the time of management in terms of management of the players themselves. We mentioned all teams in England and never mentioned Liverpool just in Manchester United and the other teams. But you look at Barcelona, they have not been doing very well and they have gone on to the Europa League. What do you make of them so far? I am very happy. Super excited. Because they robbed us of all the players that were supposed to come to Chelsea. I am a very happy person. They robbed us of all the players that were supposed to come to Chelsea. I remember when Romero, the journalist to Barcelona, he was pushing this hashtag to Barcelona. I hated that moment and I hated it when they took Rafinha away from us, the lights of Lewandowski but they did us a favor by taking away Makos Alonso. But I hated every moment. I am loving it but there is a toxic situation in Barcelona. They are in financial crisis. Spotify, they are sponsor, they have them by the balls.  They have given you money. That means that they have you by the balls. It's either you accept it or they find you. They are in a financial deep. They are very toxic. All players differed wages. Lights of PKs, Hajub Biscuits. And again, they were chasing away Frankie. Ah, the young. The woman think that he gave all that he had. He is willing to give everything. He is willing to sweat blood from the Catalan side. But it's a loss.  I am super and excited and very happy that they are playing in the Euro. We are tired for a week. It has been for FC Barcelona finishing third in their group and now going down to the Europa League. We will be seeing how they will be performing there and who they are going to be paired with. But it was a very good one for Chelsea also with Graham Porter coming in and also topping their group with the last matches coming in. Probably they will make it to the knock-out stages of the Champions League. Graham Porter with Chelsea. Graham Porter is a decent manager. Extremely decent manager. If you want to know that Graham Porter is a manager with a vision and a kind of a manager who decides how he wants his team to play let's get back to the match between Chelsea and Manchester United. That was the match that was tactically masterclass for Graham Porter as well as my greatest manager Ten Hag. Graham Porter realised that he had made a mistake in terms of his selections and tactics and he didn't wait until most manager would wait until you sail through the first half and probably go up to the 68th minute before you make changes but Graham Porter decided to change the match and you see when he brought in coverage things changed. Again we've seen that Graham Porter did not have the European Champions League experience. I believe he had his debut with Chelsea but he's really gone into this team. Everybody was expecting that Chelsea will have a downfall but he's unbeaten so far and I'm looking forward to him going further with that Chelsea team in the Champions League because they have a good defence as well as the mid that is very solid. But when you say manga atapatikana too what do you think? Very good manager that has come in for Chelsea and everything but is he good for you guys? Do you enjoy his game? I'm enjoying what you're winning but will you say ma atapatikana too? I'm hoping atakama atapatikana atapatikana ki dog wa moachili e Graham Porter is a decent coach as he said he realised that he made a mistake he was unremostful because of bringing off Maku Kurea actually I was watching the game he's a Chelsea fan it's very hard for a typical Chelsea fan to accept defeat but I was watching the game with some fellow friends of mine and my companion and I was complaining and I was saying that the junior does not deserve to drive that midfield we need Kovacic right now Manchester United had the best chance for the opening 35 minutes before we brought on Kovacic but after he brought on Kovacic at the game you could see the atmosphere changing and the rhythm changing and I think he has brought Mison Mount to life he has brought him to life together with the likes of Kepa Rizabalaga a guy whom we bought for around 72 million kweeb and he was underperforming but when he was given the chance he fought for his place he has given some players the motivation the legs of Konogalaga who only stood a chance for only two games under Thomas Tukul after he has read we as the Chelsea fan base doubt that he will never get a chance but right now some confirmation coming in my phone is that Konogalaga will be starting today in the Chelsea team big one therefore Chelsea as they also advance on to the knockout stages of the UFR champions because also Manchester City Dortmund they are fighting for their position Man City is still leading that group Big One for them Real Madrid also leading their group with 10 points Chelsea also leading in that group Tottenham is in a group that any person at the moment can also go on to that knockout stage but Antonio Conte seems the Premier League staff but he is managing in the Champions League I think he is managing with the whisker because as it stands he could end up at the Europa League as well and the Europa League is going to be the best tournament compared to the Champions League why that might be true actually because you look at the teams that are coming down as well as the greatest team that are there already but it's the reality the Europa League might end up being the most watched it's going to be the most watched because you don't expect a tournament that has Manchester United Arsenal Barcelona the lack of such teams as well as those that are coming down for example AC Milan that is a tournament to look forward for so I'm looking at a situation where Tottenham has just to win convincingly and beat myself even a draw would make them proceed but then they wouldn't go further they just have to beat myself the likes of Alexis Sanchez and remember Marcel has got so many players from London the other team that really fights in terms of who owns London so you expect a tough one a big conversation but one team that has actually impressed me when it comes to the European Champions even in their league has got to be Napoli this is what Napoli is playing good for the way they defeated Rangers comfortably dominating and everything it's a gem to watch in the Champions League I am afraid of Napoli and I am praying to God that Chelsea beats Enamu Mosco in their final match so that we can be the group winners so that we cannot face Napoli in the round of 16 because they have quality the likes of Zelenski the likes of Victor Simhay from Nigeria the likes of Kvaara he has a very hard name Kvaara something the likes of Diego Simeone it's cold actually very young and energetic large I am afraid of Napoli the team they have a good chance but you know what happens in the UEFA league we were discussing about we were talking about luck do you remember the Ajax team of 2020 the likes of ZH the likes of Tadej the likes of the league do you remember they had beaten Chelsea four walls to two before the two sending offs the two sending offs which made Chelsea qualify for the quarter finals in Tinsu so they might be unlucky either in the round of 16 or either in the knockout stages in the quarter finals and as we are going to watch the Champions League it's also happening next week those matches will be coming and all the highlights will be live on Y254 and it is the touchling at Mirumbia Sores where you can find me on Twitter at Twitter yeah, you're not on Twitter man no, I'm not on Twitter I'm not on Twitter, I'm not on Facebook you're on Instagram Instagram, TikTok what is your handle on Instagram Maruba Laskovi you can find him on Instagram I'm on Twitter at Simeu Wafula at Simeu Wafula on Facebook at 4man001 4man001 on Instagram what is my handle simi underscore Wafula yes well Y254 is on all the social media platforms at Y254 but Mirumbia Sores is where you will find me on Twitter and this conversation is also there we are discussing everything that is happening when it comes to the world big shout out to my sister Diana Bocherre who actually graduated yesterday this show is actually dedicated to her as she is actually enjoying her graduation for me it is the touchline Maxwell Oseke is also telling me big guys from Langata are also watching and view one and they are enjoying what is happening and the discussion that we are having and they are saying Manchester United is the team to watch when it comes to the Europe but big conversation there but also we will talk about that when we come there but before we talk about the Premier League we have got to talk about also the Europe League and one team that is impressing so far in the Europe League and also in the league has got to be Arsenal this is nothing you can take away from Arsenal they are really performing very well Arsenal is a great team it can only be beaten by the great team that is the truth it has been beaten twice this season and I really like Saka Saka is a gem I am just hoping that Arsenal will now maintain the consistency because they have already found that they have gelled in terms of they understand their tactics they understand every player seems to understand the role they need to play unfortunately they always become suspects and I don't know why it's not hatred but it's just the reality they don't know how to sustain a given kind of a form and I fear that probably somebody has found a way of okay let me not wish them I am being reminded that our social media platforms are twice of a four our social media manager put a photo there yesterday one famous actor and he was thinking that Arsenal will finish number 6 and even the ancestors don't know how it is going to happen but they are going to finish but I don't believe that it is going to happen this season with the way they are playing Mikael is a great coach in his decent his tactics is ok but the same role he has been in even the ancestors I am afraid of Arsenal because after Manchester United Barcelona I hate Arsenal because they have robbed us they always beat us we met this season so far pre-season but the premier ignored it they gave us a good thrashing so Arsenal they gave us a good thrashing so Arsenal there was a wise man and he said Arsenal was the third and he was the third and he was the PSV during the week day when I look at the PSV side actually before the half time they had scored two goals Arsenal had scored two no PSV and Shavi Simons for his goal the second goal which was disallowed actually felt but because he danced through the Arsenal defenders as he scored I am hoping that Watapati Kana I am hoping because as he said they are playing in a great way but they always fall first Arsenal is actually leading their group even though they lost to PSV in midweek there by two goals they are leading in that group so Baturina also in their group they are doing very well Real Betis Ludogorets also playing very well as Osem Mourinho's team Esiroma at seven points also they might limp onto the second there and also Kulfa and Osem Mourinho doesn't like teams from Champions League going to Europa League he says the shark failures of Champions League now coming on to the Europa League but you cannot take anything away from Osem Mourinho even with Esiroma he might be playing safe and can win that trophy Yeah, Osem Mourinho is a master tactician and you see for you to be considered and to play at the highest level and win all the trophies I think he's won almost every trophy that is there to be won and Mourinho has got always this kind of a team he builds a team that fights for him Yes fights for him no matter what you might have a 90% ball possession but one chance would always put you aside so Mourinho always plays psychological reverse psychology especially when he's going to meet a team that believes is a better team in terms of technical players as well as gifted players and Roma this season is not performing so well so it's been always Bahati in all through their successes especially in the Europa as well as the Serie A so I think much as Roma looks like a team that is shaky it could actually shock many people because Mourinho knows how to win tournament he has that test for tournaments and definitely he might want to add these after the Manchester United Europa League so never rule out Mourinho and Roma as well it's good that you have brought in Manchester United shaky starts for them that they started within the Europa League even in the Premier League but so far consistent with the way they are actually playing and comfortably defeating Sherif at the Europa League and that shows the depth that Ten Haag has, the team that he has the great players that he has what do you see what do you place them in the Europa League as we head on to the no-call stages I am hoping that Manchester United can win the Europa League and that Chelsea can win the UEFA Cup so that we can meet and play against them playing the Super Cup so that we may settle this beef if the 90 minutes won't be enough to go to the extra time the extra time would be enough but Manchester United Etihad, director Haag he's a great coach right now I respect the guy you know sometimes even though I'm a football fan and I hate I hate, I dislike Manchester United you give credit to it Etihad he has he knows how to deal with the egos even though Cristiano is a bit frustrated by the way he has been hungry of late and the media has propelled the fire against Etihad cropping Cristiano Ronaldo I think that this guy he is the guy that identifies players nobody would have thought of a 5 foot 4 center back center back that is Lissandro Martinez nobody would have thought of a guy going for Malasha in Firenode who knew Malasha I personally never knew Malasha right now he is playing with Karnacho a very young chap a very young talented chap who is very technical who has the foot ability and the skills to drive through to drive through the defender I think Erectin Haag he deserves respect well big matches that are coming away this afternoon already 12 minutes into the early kickoff match and we've got Leicester City at the King Power Stadium where the Man City the game is still at 0-0 and we'll be giving you all the updates as they come in gold rush we'll be having some of the big matches FC Bournemouth will be home against Tottenham Brentford will be playing at home against Worlds Brighton have will be playing against Chelsea that is Grand Porter going back home against Brighton how is that much going to be emotions that will be in that stadium is a great great match that you'll have to be watching then Crystal Palace will be playing home to Southampton and then Newcastle will be playing Aston Villa Fulham vs Everton and then big match of the night will be at Anfield where Liverpool will be playing Leeds United and it's also a big conversation there if a match might be fired after losing to Liverpool tonight so Jürgen Krop you have someone's job in your hands today so play safe as we watch that let's start off with Leicester City Man City not a good start this season for Leicester with Brandon Roy also another man who is shaky with his job the way it is happening Man City might trouble him but how do you see them playing so far against Man City I think Leicester has always been a problem for Man City but eventually they are always softened and beaten I don't expect anything less especially now that Man City is looking at this match that could potentially be a decider for them to get back on top of the league so I think Brandon Rogers has had a good match the previous match they bet I don't know which team it was for Nila and it was a decent match as well but Man City Man City is a difficult team I'm looking at probably a 2-nil or 3-nil win this is a big one they have a big conversation for Brandon Rogers and Leicester City not a good start for him but he has got the players that can make a difference those are players who can make a difference but you don't expect them to go against Man City today Leicester City they have been very shaky remember the starting of the season they lost to Chelsea 11 men against 10 men so I think and I believe that Man City if they don't go play softball against Leicester they have the better chances of winning against Leicester City they have the quality they have the players to deliver and they have purpose but again you have said that Leicester City they have players that likes Yuri Tillamans Madison are great players and I never understand why Madison doesn't want to get off the Leicester City side because Madison can flourish and shine in a big team like Manchester United it's the same as Yuri Tillamans where we saw in August the summer window the likes of Arsenal they were going for him I think he has one year left in his contract I'm not sure but I believe that their quality players and they need to get off that team because it's the meaning well it's a big conversation there between Leicester City and Manchester City a big game that is happening at the king power stadium 15 minutes into that game and it is 0-0 some of the matches that we have been talking about Bournemouth Tottenham big match let's talk about Brighton vs Chelsea Graham Porter going back to the team that actually made him and also the team that he made lot of emotions for Graham Porter going back to the stadium I love the story of Brighton from the moment they sold their stadium and all that and then they rose to the level they are and Brighton plays a very beautiful football they always are a thona big boys and they have failed to beat Chelsea the last three matches and I believe that they have ended in a draw goalless draw and two 1-1 1-1 draws and it is a courtesy of Graham Porter he is always a tactical manager and since he left Brighton have not been the same Brighton as well but I think the emotions I am expecting that Porter would be given a good reception because he made Brighton but I am also expecting that the likes of Trostada would not fear Chelsea and Chelsea right now are having a problem of scoring more than two goals and Brighton can score two goals so I am looking at a situation where Chelsea might come out with a draw out of this match or Brighton might decide to upset for my manager as well and just say goodbye for that well it's a big one there between Brighton and Chelsea it is your team what do you expect as a Graham Porter going back home should you play and let Brighton win we are going back to the army and as he said they have been done to the big boys they rushed them in a good manner but this is a team that inside outside you know how they play I believe that I cannot disrespect the Brighton side they are a good team and they stand a chance they stand a chance but Chelsea have not lost any game where Trevor Chaloba has started they have not lost any single game no any game so I am hoping that we will beat the Brighton team today but we cannot rule them out we are going back to the army stadium we are going back to our place where it is filled with a lot of emotions especially for the Graham Porter side together with the background stuff because Chelsea have gone on a shopping spree in Brighton they have gone for their background manager their technical director so I believe it is a good match and I am hoping that we cannot afford to draw or maybe it knows the only thing we can afford to do is win win win and the big boys in Manimes expecting to score today well big confidence both there for Chelsea as they play Brighton they say even at 5pm but we also got Crystal Palace lost to Everton last weekend as they are playing Southampton who had a very good draw again as they ask for last weekend that is a very good match to watch between these two sides so do you think we can Viera go against Hassanat for you to be a tactician in Europe especially in England then you have to be a very decent one of that and also the Premier League especially the Premier League and I watched a previous interview by Viera and then he was asked about why he is the only black coach and he was like no we shouldn't look at me as a black coach let us look at me as a good coach or a bird coach and Viera has really built that Crystal Palace and he has made it a team to recon with especially when they are meeting there is something with Crystal Palace whenever they meet a bigger team the conventional top 6 team Zaha will always become they will always frustrate you now he is going to meet he is going to meet Southampton who have a confidence boost because you see drawing with the Arsenal is no joke especially I watched that match and that score the equalizer that was called it wasn't just a goal that came by it was a goal that was made and because of that I am expecting that Southampton a decent confidence boost going into Hellspark and I don't know I just have a feeling that Southampton could get a draw a big one there will be waiting to see how that one comes but one team this season that has also coming in with big money and is travelling the tradition of big boys has got to be new castle where they are playing and Eddie how in that court go to love the way they are coming up and they are knocking on the top 4 position not everyone expect them to be there in new castle does money come with confidence money comes with confidence but remember they still have to stick to the financial play situation so they have quality they have quality they have they have Bruno Gimeris who is wanted by Real Madrid at the moment in Chelsea because he has become this hot topic this hot guy this guy is a great midfielder they have the likes of Miguel Amiro at the front and they are saying that Jack Grilish is a shitty Miguel Amiro they say it is a payback for him for saying that is it Amiro is it from Urugu, Argentina that is not a good player and he cannot score goals but he is the one who is scoring for Newcastle and Grilish is not scoring for city Newcastle is a good team we played Newcastle and it ended and that much I can tell you that was a decent match Eddie Hohe knows how to plan his team and as you said with money comes confidence if I have a million feelings in my briefcase I will slap people I will slap people left and centre so I think other Saudi Arabians who have bought Newcastle and pumped in more money they are building something and Newcastle has always been a big team until recently when they started becoming a mediocre team but right now I believe they are building when you look at Trippia Trippia is a very very decent player you see for someone of Trippia's Kali but to come out of Atletico Madrid and play for Newcastle there is an intent that Newcastle is showing and proving and it should be kind of a statement to the rest of the Premier League because Newcastle are now fourth and they are strongly contenting to remain there so I can see Newcastle might win because they have Kallum who knows how to score as well he scored a decent goal against Tottenham he is somebody who fights until the last moment another match there that people will be watching very keenly has got to be Everton against Fulham looks to be a very good before we talk about Everton and Fulham also what are your thoughts it was not a bad one for Steven Gerrard the Aston Villa manager what do good players need for them to win because Steven Gerrard is a great player won the league with the Rangers but the Premier League is not a very good cup of cake for him it's not a cup of cake for anybody you need to come here you need to show quality you need to deal with these players individual players you need to be a tactician because they are great managers and for you to shine here it takes courage and confidence and if you are not shining you gotta go you gotta go he remember the likes of Lampard when he was brought on he was not performing in the EPL he was performing in the Premier League so you got to go Gerrard was a good coach but Baruwajayiba Baruwajayiba for you to be a good coach in the EPL you need to go through a certain route you need to go through a certain route you need to go through a certain route you need to go through a certain route for the likes of Villa I remember playing against Villa you could hear that the fans they were frustrated you could hear in the pitch the fans they were very frustrated you could see a player in the Villa side but passing he heard the fans shouting and cheering he was not supposed to do that we wanted to drive, we need this result they were a bit unlucky because they were supposed to punish us in Russia but Gerrard never performed through the expected level he has good results in the previous season he never performed through that Villa has been also a good dawn for the big boys this season they have been quiet and the coaches don't want to go to Villa Tukil doesn't want Villa Pochettino doesn't want Villa who do you see in the market for that job Villa I think they have brought in Emery they have brought in a good manager I think Gerrard lost it from the dressing room the problem with him was management and you could see it from even players like Ince Ince was a decent striker he used to score about 15 goals every season Emiliano Buendia he was a decent player actually look at Koteño those are decent players look at those players they cannot rise up to the occasion for Steve and Gerrard because good players Steve and Gerrard is fired the next game you are playing while you are winning it's like those players never rose up for Steve and Gerrard I think his man management was a problem and there must have been a dressing room issue you remember he even came out and said there is no problem at the start of the season but he mentioned that those are problem in the dressing room and then he played it down so you see whenever information leaks from the dressing room about a manager those players will put you under the bus definitely and I think that is the situation that Gerrard found himself in I'm looking at a new manager's bounce that for Neil was it Brentford was a new manager's bounce and Emery is a decent coach and I feel like he'll have a play a part to play for today's match possibly they might not win but they wouldn't lose we'll talk about waiting for a fixture between Aston Villa and Arsenal because they let Emery go for Michaela Teta to take over the latest clash there will be Liverpool versus Leeds big one for Liverpool what a loss they had last weekend I was watching that game somewhere and the place went stands there from I think the 70th minute to the last everybody was rooting for Nottingham to win this game and they won it looking like it's not a good season for Yaggen Klopp and Liverpool Can I tell you a fun fact do you know that in the 7th season of Klopp's reign there is always a misfortune in every club that he goes to in the 7th season and they were relegated in the 7th season at Dortmund they failed to qualify for the Champions League and this is the 7th season of the Yaggen Klopp and Liverpool he's kind of bit unlucky he's kind of bit unlucky it's fate against Yaggen Klopp and he might you remember last time and I said family that if he doesn't perform he gotta go who is going to come in and it looks like it's not performing we don't know but Leeds Leeds is quite a peculiar team they stand up to the occasion against the big boys and this season we have tested them and they gave us a good beating they gave us a good beating they have the legs they have the legs they have the legs they have the legs they have the legs of this young man called Sinistera I think Leeds they can raise up to the occasion but Salah is a sneaky boy wow finally Mike I've got to hear let's finish with you Cristiano Ronaldo coming in for Manchester United in the Europa League is he discovering that it's my time now to go he's walking away during the Totenham game that was very disrespectful I love Cristiano Ronaldo because of the history that he's conquered in the world of sports as well as the history that he has with the greatest so it was very unfortunate to see because he's a mentor and so many young players look up to him and when a coach puts you or wants to sub you in you play because you are a player and I really love the way Erikton Haagas handle the situation despite the pressure from the media as well you see the media will always blow up things I love that I love the way Erikton Haagas taken decisions into his own hands he's managed the player and I was watching the press conference and he said that they had a very positive conversation that means he managed the situation properly and eventually Cristiano Ronaldo really looked for his goal and he scored during the Europa League outing which was also a good goal it was a goal out of sheer passion and hard work so and he was asked whether Cristiano could score another 18 goals and Erikton Haagas said yes it's possible because he finds himself in a good position as well as he's a decent greatest of all time players so I'm looking at a situation where you see Manchester United playing against western David Moyes team that has never won David Moyes as a coach has never won against Manchester United at Old Trafford and he would come to this match with the feeling that I need to overturn that and Manchester United of late we've been solid not really solid at the back but in the midfield we've been very solid and Kasemiro has helped so much and we've created also chances but we've not been converting them so I'm looking at a situation where Erikton Haagas would want to get two chances that can be converted into goals and I really want Cristiano Ronaldo to play and score that's where we come to the end of the touch Vitalis how do you rate Mike today in the net in the football analysis you should do 2.2 2.2 that's the situation with Manchester United he's a Chelsea segment he's talking about the greatest team in England and we're thinking about in England Vitalis Mike, thank you for coming here for the touchline, I'm Robert Rosoro for everyone who has made this production a success we say good afternoon enjoy the rest of your viewing here on Y254


Hey spirit family, it's been a while hasn't it? I know it might have seemed like things were really quiet on spirit science for a while, but rest assured, behind the scenes there's been a lot of motion. We've been letting you guys know what's up through Patreon and our bi-weekly hangout calls but we haven't wanted to publish any videos on our main channel about it until we've actually had something to share with you. Well, recently, we at long last moved into an actual office and were even able to bring in a few friends to start making video content together. We have an introduction to the studio coming soon as well, but today we just wanted to pop in and say hi for a moment. As we've been building our studio, we've also been opening up to make some new friends, and today we want to acknowledge and honor some new friends of ours, the fine folks at Gaia. These guys have put together the largest network of conscious media in the world. They even have more videos than Netflix, covering everything from world spiritualities to life-changing scientific breakthroughs. They have short films, long films, a massive list of series, and even the world's largest collection of online yoga practices. We wanted to make this video to tell you about it, so that while you're waiting for some new spirit science episodes to watch, there's plenty of stuff on Gaia to check out. Gaia has offered to share a few of their videos on this channel while we're getting our new spirit science episodes rolling, and we wanted to start with this one. This is a short film about the activation of the pineal gland, the third eye.  Without further ado, enjoy the activation. Near the center of the brain, we find a tiny pinecone-shaped gland, which may be one of the most wondrous parts of our physical body. We know that the pineal gland produces serotonin and melatonin, neurotransmitters which regulate waking and sleeping cycles, as well as playing a crucial role in mood. But it may also be true that the pineal produces DMT, or dimethyltryptomy, a neurotransmitter which creates a natural psychedelic state of consciousness. If so, then this little gland plays not only a crucial role in our psychological well-being, but it may hold the key for unlocking the true potential of humanity. In this gland, there is floating water, a reservoir of water, with crystals that actually have piezoelectric properties. There's also another thing called piezoluminescence. If you have a little lighter and you hit the lighter and then you get that little spark that comes out, that's from a crystal being compressed. And as the crystal is compressed, it releases photons. In your brain, you have these little floating crystals that actually have that quality and even better than that. Is there is another characteristic called piezochromism. Piezochromatic crystals are crystals that can release any color of light in the rainbow. Dimethyltryptamine is the main chemical that seems to do this. When DMT is chipped out of a tray that it was synthesized in, you hit it with a screwdriver, bam, you get these big bursts of colored light. Big burst of red, big burst of green, big burst of yellow, big burst of blue. Well you have these little crystals floating in your brain. DMT is this, you know, dimethyltryptamine, it's what they, the theory is that it's what's released by the pineal gland that gives us these elevated states of the inside. Maybe DMT is the lens of our pineal gland, allowing us to see wider areas of reality than are normally accessible to our senses. You remember that image of like a Buddha with the halo? There's always a halo around the Buddha said, or Jesus. People say there's a cross behind him in that halo, but it's the beams of light. It's exactly what you can learn or remember to activate. Many ancient esoteric traditions and mystical schools knew of the potential of the pineal. The ancient Greeks believed it to be our connection to the realms of thought. Buddhists know it as a symbol of spiritual awakening. In Hinduism, the pineal connects with the third eye chakra, the seat of intuition and clairvoyance.  If René Descartes is right and the pineal gland is indeed the seat of the human soul, then these traditions are correct in believing that it serves as the connecting link between the physical and spiritual worlds. How did they know about the third eye? Because each chakra connects in to an organ. So what fascinates me is the sixth chakra plugs into the pineal gland. The pineal gland has photoreceptors on it, and yet they knew that thousands of years ago before they ever knew that there were photoreceptors on the pineal. So that to me, it shows you that we know a lot more in the past than we even do now with our technology. The pineal gland is lined on the inside with tissue called pinealocytes. These pinealocytes are similar to the rods and cones in the retina of your eye. That's right, it's the third eye. Your brain has a third eye in the center, and it has retinal tissue. It also has the same wiring as your physical eyes do to the visual cortex in your brain. How did they know that all the way back then? That would imply very advanced technology that would have been required for them to gain such incredible information about the brain, and yet they did. And so think about what that means. If you have little crystals that can vibrate and release all the collars of the rainbow, and people claim when they go out of body or have a near-death experience that they see a silver cord. There is a cord linking their astral body to their physical body. Indeed it appears that the pineal gland is our connection to higher dimensions, giving us access to the psychic and spiritual realms. If this is true, then humanity is upon the precipice of a greater awakening as a whole. But this awakening does not come without its challenges and oppositions. It's well known that fluoride interferes with functioning of your endocrine system, the glands. These glands are the gateways to spiritual connection, to energetic layers. And I think what's really going on here is that fluoride shuts the door to spiritual connection.  We clearly are not as aware as we could be of our potential and are not living a life that probably is as healing or as generous or as nurturing as we're capable of doing. This is why you get so many people today who are somehow convinced, and mainstream science is teaching this, that you are nothing but a biological skin bag and that you do not have any existence beyond the physical.  That's a very dangerous philosophy. And we are dealing with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ADHD, all of these neurological diseases. And so I think there's a concerted effort to dumb down the population so that when they figure these things out, they're paralyzed and don't know what to do, don't know how to respond or simply can't grasp the concept that it is happening, which is the bigger picture. In the Book of Revelation, people that have the mark of the beast on the forehead, that's the closed down pineal gland, the closed down third eye that prevents them from having access to the cosmic nature of who they are, and that will be transformed. That's a very important part of what's going on here. Spiritual death is transformed into enlightenment, and it will happen in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. Despite exposure to toxins in our environment, and various chemicals in our heavily processed diets, humanity is still awakening. Every day, the light of a new eon shines upon us, bringing with it an unexpected source of enlightenment. The people don't realize is that your consciousness is governed by light, and the pineal gland is the center of consciousness. The brain chemistry works in accordance with this. So when you wake up in the morning and the receptors in the back of your eye pick up light, the moment that happens, your optic nerve sends a signal to the pineal gland, and the pineal gland starts making serotonin. And serotonin is the daytime neurotransmitter. This is all brain chemistry.  That's all part of consciousness, and it's all guided by the sun. The energy of the earth is higher than it was in 2012, and it will continue to increase. All of the solar storms that are bombarding our earth has been proven to create psychoactive experience. And so the color of light changes your consciousness, and if the sun is changing, then it's possible that our consciousness is changing. And it's all, I believe, part of this greater awakening that we're going through at this time. This pineal gland activation, you could call it that, you could call it the coming golden age, you could call it the energetic shift that we're going through at this time. It could be that the changing nature of the sun over the last 20 years is what's causing the great awakening that's happening. I take the same data that the universities have garnered and draw a different conclusion. Their conclusion may be that an anionic ratio change creates hallucinations. Therefore the hallucinations are not real. I take those studies and say that the anionic ratio change opens doors within the pineal gland and allows us to have multi-dimensional experiences. Knowing that the pineal gland plays a key role to our spiritual evolution, we must undertake the noble effort to make sure our third eye stays open so that we stay connected with the higher realms of being. There is a misconception, I think, for many people that the human auric field is automatically managed. It is not. It requires maintenance. And there are keys and responsibilities to maintaining our auric field. That's why people that are older, they lose a bit of joy of life. So what you can learn very simply by realizing that all that is in your body and that you can reconnect to it, is that you will start to create alpha waves. That's the first step.  You can realign everything and then actually you can open up your third eye. You can reactivate these beams of light. You'll be much more psychic, so telepathic, you'll receive more, you'll be much more sensitive. So in the beginning you get this blast, you're like, whoa, you know the world is opening up, but after a while you will just get used to it. It will be normal. So in day to day life, yes, it's useful, at the same time it will become normal. For the first time in history, humanity as a whole is being presented with the opportunity to unlock the dormant potential that's swirling inside each of us. By avoiding toxins, getting sunlight, and undertaking various forms of meditation, one may improve the overall performance of this tiny little gland, and bear witness to the greatest secrets of the universe. We hope you enjoyed this film. We're so happy to partner with Gaia, the world's largest resource of conscious media. They share our vision to create a new reality, one of mindful people living in harmony with our environment and each other. If you like this movie and you want to see more films just like it, follow the links in the description and sign up for as little as 99 cents today. The information is waiting for you. All you have to do is dive in. Thank you so much for watching and we'll see you again real soon. Follow your curiosity to Gaia.com and unlock the entire library with a special start-up offer. Click the link in the description to get started for only 99 cents.


With the face-off in the People's Democratic Party and other political events leading to the 2023 elections, the governors in the South-South state areas are yet to meet with and review activities within the region. The Director-General of the Bialsa River's Aqaibom Cross River, Edo and Delta Commission, Ambassador Joe Keshe, said due to variations and bitterness of the succession politics in some states in the area, the governors that emerged from the 2015 normal elections could not meet to discuss the Bialsa, Rivers, Aqaibom, Cross River, Edo and Delta fee being negated. Well joining us to discuss this is Ken Robinson, he is the National Publicity Secretary, PAN DEF, which is PAN Niger Delta Forum. Thank you so much Mr. Robinson, it's so good to have you here. Thank you for this opportunity to speak to these issues. Thank you. I wonder what Ambassador Joe Keshe is referring to, so I'll just put it blatantly, what is the problem within the Niger Delta state and of course the governors? Is there some form of bitterness as he said, is there any truth to it? The Niger Delta region is the peculiar region in Nigeria. If you go to the south east, they understand themselves, that's in terms of language. If you go to the south west, they understand themselves across the south west, from ondo to Lagos to Ayo, they understand themselves to a larger extent in terms of language. And across Northern Nigeria, to a larger extent from Sokoto to Boronu state, they understand themselves. In the Niger Delta, within six states, there is so much diversity in terms of language and it's a problem that we've had so far and it's one of the responsibilities that PAN DEF has given to itself to see how, in spite of our diversity, how we can work together as a people, because the problems we are confronted with are common. I would say that, yeah, go ahead. There is common knowledge that people say politics is a game of interest. And we see this happening across Nigeria, where people project and elevate their personal political interests above the common or shared interests of their people. And this perhaps has been taken to the extreme in the Niger Delta and it is not just new, it has been our story and we hope that our politicians, our political leaders, will rise above their personal political interests and consider the interests of the region and the people more than what they think to gain in terms of political advancement. Well, let's talk about – I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry to talk over you. Now I want to go to what the commission was established for. The commission was established essentially to foster economic cooperation and integration among South-South states. The main objective, as we know, was to create sustainable zone for economic development with the capacity to create employment and prosperity. But so far, politics, like you said, has come between us and of course you've talked about the language barrier, but there's so much in the Niger Delta, there's so much potentials to be harnessed. But then we've not even been able to scratch the surface, apart from a few states who might be doing so well, maybe the likes of Rivers and Aqaibom, the same cannot be said for the rest of the state. So why can't governance band together, if not for anything, for economic purposes? We cannot stop to re-emphasize and stress on the issue that we work together, we are better working together than working as individual states. Either South-South states of Nigeria are working together, the governors are working together as people with common problems. It's certain that our economic and political and even social state would have been different. Now Brace Commission, as you rightly said, was established to foster economic cooperation and integration. Unfortunately, as the DGO Brace Commission has said that this has not been happening, the fact remains that we need to call on our political leaders to understand that we are a people and we are confronted with the same problems across the Niger Delta, from cross-strait states to those states. As we speak today, it's difficult for commuters to drive from smoothly, from worry to bini. It's also difficult to get yourself from Uyut to cross-strait states. The same thing in some sections of East West Road, in river states, from the enemy junction in Portugal to the enemy junction is terrible. And this situation, that's just one of the issues. But if we work together and we've asked ourselves, why can't the six states of the South-South cooperate and build a super highway from Calabar to Edo state? And whatever we want to do with that road, it's our road, it's our resources and we can do that. Unfortunately, politics has been cited, has been elevated, political interests. Where next should I be? Political supremacy. Who should be in control of the South-South? Who should be the political leader of the South-South? Not just in the PDP. That happens also in the APC, and we have seen party members, political party leaders in the same party, fighting supremacy battles to the detriment of the people of the Niger Delta. But let me emphasize that your entire idea says leadership deficit crisis. It's not just about the Niger Delta, Nigeria has a leadership crisis. Problems of Nigeria are leadership problems, and until we get leadership right, we might not be able to resolve the crisis in the Niger Delta as well as in the larger Nigeria. Interestingly, you actually led me into my next question. It's one thing for us to say that the country as a whole has bad leadership, but then the government that is closest to us are our governors, our local government heads, our national state assembly members. So let's start from home before we get to the national. If our governors who took a note to represent us, to protect, to serve us, to make our lives a lot better by creating avenues or laws or whatever it is to make our lives easier, I'm not doing that, but you also talked about political interests. I think I'm wondering, should the people in the States not be holding these so-called leaders to some level of responsibility? I mean, do we really realize how much power that we wield as a people? Again, as the Niger Delta, we're a region that has been bedeviled by all spillage, environmental degradation, et cetera, et cetera, the list is endless. Why are we still quiet about this and just pointing fingers at these so-called leaders? We could make all the noise that we could make, we could say all that we want to say. For us in Panda, it's strategic for us not to be involved in the crisis within the leadership crisis within the Niger Delta region, particularly that's the differences between the governors. What we can do as leaders and fathers of the Niger Delta region is to see how we can talk to these people to put their differences aside and work towards the interests, the overall interests of the Niger Delta people. But when you talk about monitoring and taking the responsibility to say, look, you're not doing this right, you're not doing that right, it becomes difficult because the Nigerian political system, particularly the constitution that we operate with, has reduced the citizens to spectators in their own country. The governors, as we have always said, are like demigods and the president of Nigeria is like the god of Nigeria. And you can see that even if a national assembly goes against the president of Nigeria in ways and manners that the presidency do not fashion, the next election cycle you will see some of those senators that we are seeing as troublemakers not returning to the national assembly. And it's the same with the state assemblies. The state assemblies across Nigeria are like total, are under the total control of the governors. And that's why for us in Panda it is the restructuring of the country, it's the re-jigging of the political system and ensuring that political institutions are strengthening. The legislature is strengthening to be independent to the extent that they could do their oversight functions so that they have the proper check and balance system in the political system to strengthen our democracy, to reduce the powers of the of the executive. We've had some governors of states say, I have enormous powers. You don't know the kind of powers that I have. We can't, you know, function as a proper society in that kind of a system. And we've said before now that even if you bring an angel into Nigeria and giving those kind of awesome outstanding, outrageous powers, it will take some extra human forces to ensure that you don't abuse them and try to make yourself an emperor of a state or emperor of a country. I want to re-trade to my question.  But these people are made by certain people. Who makes them? Who gives them the power? I can hear you in my head saying, well, I mean, these people take the power. But then I'm imagining the number of people who we call our leaders in this country, they're just a tiny minority compared to the people who follow them. Because this not cost for us to look within us and re-evaluate our position as citizens of this country if a handful of people can tell us this is what they want and they go ahead and do is we reckless abandon. Should we not be worried and re-evaluate within ourselves, don't forget, we're getting ready for campaign season and the election is just around the corner. How do we go into the next election cycle with this kind of mentality? We're hoping that the next set of people that we merge will be people that will elevate their dispositions of nationality and they trot us into extreme levels and that there will be people that will suppress their personal interests and desires and political advancement. To get to a level in life when you begin to tell yourself, look, what is all this about? We look back at those who have been governors of various states and what are their lives today if they are not celebrated, they are people. So it's about human behavior, it's about self and we call it self intervention. You telling yourself, look, let's make things differently and it starts with of course all of us Nigerians that in the next coming elections, people will be able to say, look, this is the Nigeria that we want, these are the kind of leaders that we want. But as I've said always that we will continue to say that we have a system that is faulty and so when you make a king, the king becomes the king and the king makes us a subject of the king and if the king is not well prepared, he's not cultured, he's not refined, he's not properly mannered. He becomes an emperor, he becomes a demigod and everybody is a slave as it were and that's what we see in some of the states. And that is what the governors, some governors, let me not say all the governors, some governors have continued to demonstrate. In the south side there is the supremacy battle, who is the king maker, who is the lord of the lords, who is the governor of governors and so people are resisting, some are saying I want to be the governor of governors, others, people are lining to various positions and the complexity of the situation is that for us, pandas and some of us, we are also taking positions because of the overall interests of the country and the Niger Delta region, particularly constraining the presidency of Nigeria as we have always said in 2023 based on the fundamental principle of power rotation between the north and the south, the next president of Nigeria should come from southern Nigeria. Let's talk about the politics of this because right now, I was just having a conversation earlier today and I said if you turn to every single part of this country, there's something that's going wrong. We're having issues that are laced with tribal sentiments, I mean it seems the election that we're getting ready for is somewhat the political parties have decided to take positions, zonal positions, so one party, party A is for the south, party B is for the southeast, party C is for the north. But again, we also are dealing with issues of insecurity, we're dealing with issues of the economy, we're seeing, I mean the oil theft in the Niger Delta and other parts of the country has led to that 40-something billion Naira contract with Tom Polo. There's so many issues that are be dabbling us around the country right now but then we still stoop to support these same people who are, one way or the other, part of the problem. So again I want to ask, what is Pan-Niger Delta Forum doing in the Niger Delta to one way or the other change the mindsets of people? Again, like you said, language can be a barrier but first, do we see ourselves as Nigerians as opposed to what language you speak, or where you come from, or what political party that you support? First of all, PANDAF is pushing the idea that we could be Robos, we could be Jaws, the Czechirvijs, the Bibyans and all of that, we are Zogonis but first of all we are Niger Delta people. But the fact has to be said that I'm in Nigeria and because I'm from River State because I'm a Nigerian because I'm from Calabari and that's what makes me a Nigerian. And if I were situated in some other part of the world, I wouldn't have been a Nigerian except for us by naturalization. So first of all, who I am, where I am from. I am a Nigerian because I'm from River State. I'm in River State because I come from a community situated located in River State. So does that not complicate the issue? Because you see again, these are, I've spoken to many people, political scientists who have said that because of these ethnic divisions or in a bid for us to say, oh I'm an indigent of this and that, politicians take advantage of it and continue to widen those gaps and then we keep seeing ourselves as this and that as opposed to being Nigerians having one particular motive which is to grow our economy and to make Nigeria a better place. I completely disagree. The problem we have here is the mismanagement of our differences. Our differences, our complexity should be a blessing because we bring several positives to the table that should be managed properly. And let me say that every crisis is as a result of the mismanagement of interests. All that we are having in the Northwest, what we are having experiencing in the Southeast, in the Northeast, in the North Central, in the Southwest of Nigeria are results of mismanagement of interests by leaders of Nigeria. If we know that we are different people who by circumstances have been brought together to be part of a country called Nigeria and we manage our diversity and our complexities to the extent that we cannot satisfy everybody, but reasonably, then some of this crisis will not exist. Yesterday, I was in an engagement with officials of the Dutch Embassy in Nigeria and I made an illustration that we are six on the table and if food is served and only three persons on the table continue to eat and the next time food is served, those three persons eat and other persons need to keep washing, the point will cover inside to break the plate. And that's what's happening in Nigeria. Okay. Well, we're hoping that these lines can be blurred, hopefully, before the elections or we can see that these differences do not necessarily negate the fact that we're all Nigerians and we all hope for one thing to happen and which is unity. Well, Ken Robinson is the National Publicities Secretary of Pan-Niger Delta Forum, PANDF. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure to have you here. Thank you so much for the wonderful job you're doing. All right. We appreciate it. Well, before we go on the show tonight, I will give you my take. Here's my take. Now, all is fair in love and war, at least that's how the saying goes. But interestingly, the court conspicuously leaves out the battle's thoughts in the political arena because it is often said that politics is a dirty game and political rivals are allowed to go after each other in any way, short of criminal behavior. Sometimes even at the risk of wasting judicial resources, you know, opponents will go after each other legally, you know, over dubious positions that serve as nothing more than political theater meant to distract. If facts are what you seek about a candidate, the last place you'd ever find that is in your opponent. Yet, when it comes to the rules of what passes for an acceptable campaign, even the Independent National Electoral Commission, a buddy that ought to be impartial, fails to live up to delivering these facts. It is a known fact that the incumbent party sets the rules of engagement in an election. So trust, when I say fairness, is the least of the objectives in setting those rules. Well, something for you to think about. I am Mary Anacone and it's been Plus Politics. I'll see you tomorrow on The Show. Stay with us.


and you know first give a very brief introduction this is going to be a very basic overview of kidney cancer and then we'll get into more details. So here is a picture of the kidney and you know the important thing to point out is that this is the renal cortex but you can see that there are other malignancies that can happen in the kidney too. So I put in renal pelvis is a ureothelial cancer so that's very confusing to a lot of patients where they actually have a bladder type of lining so in the center is where urine is made so as I point out here this is called the renal pelvis and this is where urine is made it comes down the urine tube called the ureter which is then connected to the bladder so you can get when there's cancer in this lining it's typically more a urinary type of cancer and again the kidney is removed for it but it's not really kidney cancer so true kidney cancers that we are going to be spending time talking about today are those cancers that occur here in the cortex. Then there are other type of tumors that can happen in the kidney too there is lymphomas there are sarcomas but our group today we are going to focus on true kidney cancers. So what's the incident so this is this is the 2013 estimate of new cancers both in men and women and as you can see kidney cancer features it's not very common so compared to cancers like prostate and breast cancer which affects 250,000 people per year kidney cancer affects about 45,000 people per year but it still features as the top cancer in men and in women. The second half is what are the deaths that happen from kidney cancer and unfortunately kidney cancer features as the top 10 causes of death from cancer in men and so there remains a lot of work to be done in trying to improve that. So what about kidney cancer at diagnosis? We'll talk a little bit about the staging of kidney cancer but overall about 50% of patients at diagnosis will have their disease confined to the kidney so we call that localised disease and a quarter of patients present with locally advanced disease so that could involve the tumor involving the renal vein the blood vessel surrounding fat and finally a third present with metastatic disease meaning that the disease has left the kidney and has spread elsewhere so this is not uncommon and it's very classic where patients go in for completely another reason altogether so you go in for abdominal pain you get a CT and they find a tumor in the kidney. Fortunately those are localised again so that represents this group of patients but there are patients who go in for to the emergency room for a cough and they find spots in the lung and that then leads to a CT scan where you then find a kidney tumor so even today a third of patients at diagnosis already have disease that spread elsewhere and that's metastatic disease. So here is the TNM staging so this is important just to keep in mind every cancer it's not just specific to kidney but this is true for every cancer that we deal with once a diagnosis is made you want to know what's the stage and this TNM basically stands T stands for tumor N stands for node and M stands for metastasis and you pick one from each of this and it give you a stage in numbers as either one two three or four so let me just walk you through the stage. So stage one T1 tumors are those that are less than seven centimeters in size and you know seven seems like a big number but for kidney cancer it's still considered stage one if you were to have a tumor that's less than seven centimeters and all confined to the kidney would be a stage one so that's T1 there is no lymph nodes and there is no metastasis and that's stage one. Stage two would be if tumors are greater than seven centimeters but they are still confined to the kidney so that makes it a T2 again no lymph nodes no metastasis and that makes it a stage two. Stage three tumors on the other hand could be whatever size it could be a six centimeter tumor but if it has involvement of lymph nodes that becomes a stage three if it involves the blood vessels such as the renal vein or the big blood vessel called inferior vena cava that makes it a stage three and then finally stage four could be any size but if there are metastasis such as disease in the lung that becomes an M1 and it automatically makes it a stage four. Now how about the classification of kidney cancer? We know that all tumors we need to look at it under the microscope and that's what the pathologist tells us as to what type of kidney cancer it is and I want to say here that today we treat all kidney cancers alike but that just goes to show how rudimentary we are in our staging and things are improving where we are now able to know that kidney cancer is not the same there are different types of kidney cancer and the most common one on when it when we look at it under the microscope is called clear cell kidney cancer that's what happens in 75 percent of kidney cancers that are removed are of the clear cell type then there are other less common categories the second most common one is called papillary and typically you'll hear pathologists and you'll hear physicians lump them together as clear cell or non-clear cell and the non-clear cell includes these subtypes they include papillary and we have two types of papillary today papillary type one and papillary type two and then there are less common types called chromophobe or oncocytoma why do these matter because we know that these different types are driven by different type of mutations so we know that the biology of the disease is not all uniform and papillary type clear cell type of kidney cancer is driven by the one hyperlinda mutation and i'm going to talk about that in my next slide and then papillary is driven more by this mutation called C met and the point that i want to make for you to take from this slide is that there are different drugs that are in development that are coming along for different cell types so in the future we hope that we will be able to do different analysis on tumors that tells us exactly what is driving an individual's tumor so that we can target drugs individually and not use this broad one drug fits all as we do today so this a little bit of background so again you know kidney cancer typically again 75 percent are clear cell prior to 2005 we call it the pre-targeted era where the most common treatment used to be interferon or immunotherapy including intraleukin two and then starting in 2005 just our understanding about the biology of this disease led to a variety of drugs which we'll touch upon in the next several hours today that led to seven approved drugs for kidney cancer in the span of about eight years and i think that list hopefully will continue and i think till we have patients cured from this disease till we have patients who remain without any evidence of disease the search will continue for new drugs so here is a progress that has been made in kidney cancer in terms of drug therapy so in 1992 was when high dose intraleukin two was approved and i'm going to show you a little bit on subsequent slides about what the effectiveness of this drug is but typically interleukin two was approved in 1992 and has not been widely used because it's not the right drug for every patient but it's certainly been around and we have learned how to use that drug well and then starting in 2005 you can see that we've had a variety of new drugs the first approved targeted drug which affects the VEGF pathway was Surafinib and then in 2006 we had a drug called Sunitinib that was approved in 2007 there was a drug called Temserolimus which is a new class of drugs called mTOR inhibitors and then in 2008 there was an intravenous drug called Bevacissimab or Avastin which was approved for kidney cancer in combination with interferon and then 2009 there was an oral mTOR inhibitor called Everolimus and 2010 Pezopinib and in 2012 Axitinib so it's a great way to have all these drugs available to patients and I think one of the things that's remarkable in kidney cancer is that a given patient could get benefit from all of these drugs at various stages of their disease so I think that's perhaps the most encouraging news that having these seven drugs that we hope that every patient gets benefit from each of these drugs when they need it so here is just a brief background about the science behind all of this drug development so the key in kidney cancer is this protein called VHL so patients who have an hereditary or an familial acquiring of this VHL abnormality are predisposed to developing kidney cancer and they have not just so if you have this VHL syndrome you not only get kidney cancers but you also have other cancers such as tumors of the brain there are liver tumors that happen with it so the VHL syndrome is an abnormality of this VHL gene and people who have that have predilection for kidney cancers and variety of other cancers too but what we have learned is that even people who don't have this genetic predisposition in regular kidney cancers this VHL protein is abnormal and it's mutated so what happens when you have this abnormal mutation so here on the left is what normally happens to VHL so here is the normal VHL protein it combines with this protein called hydroxyproline it's an amino acid and it binds to this HIF1 alpha and then after that binding happens it normally gets broken down by this ubiquitin and it gets degraded that's the normal process that happens now if you have an abnormal VHL as happens in kidney cancer you can see that this binding does not happen okay so this HIF1 alpha just accumulates and it cannot get broken down and so there is an accumulation of this HIF1 and the consequence of increase in HIF1 are all these hypoxia inducible genes such as VEGF, PDGF so it was really this discovery that led to drugs that people started wondering okay if there are drugs that can block VEGF can we then make a difference in kidney cancer if there are drugs that block this PDGF would that make a difference so really it was understanding this pathway that led to the development of all of these new drugs so here is an example of the VEGF pathway which we now know in kidney cancer is really the key in some of the drugs that we use so this VEGF is called the ligand and it can be blocked in many different ways okay there are antibodies that can prevent this binding so that's what a vastness it's an anti-VEGF antibody or you can just prevent this this this VEGF is the ligand it has to bind to this receptor called VEGF-R and once that binding happens the tumor then can proliferate and can grow so you can prevent this either by an antibody up here or you can prevent this VEGF from binding to the receptor and that's what these small drugs such as sunitinib, soraphinib and other drugs do so that's the VEGF inhibitors and you can see up here we have drugs such as sunitinib, soraphinib, axitinib and posopinib all working by blocking this VEGF inhibitor and then we also have the other class of drugs which are called mTOR inhibitors and you can see they all complexly interact with each other and we have two drugs everolimus and temsirolimus so in summary then the medical therapy for kidney cancer in 2014 really includes three classes of drugs you have immunotherapy which includes intralukin-2 and interferon and you'll hear as the day goes by that we are hopeful for the future that this list is going to be expanding and there are many new drugs in development and very close to coming to patient care in the future and then these are the VEGF inhibitors they include sunitinib, soraphinib, posopinib and axitinib and bevacissimab which is the intravenous form and then the third class of drugs are the mTOR inhibitors everolimus and temsirolimus so this is a brief overview just so that you're introduced to what you're going to hear in the day today so with that I'm just going to share with you the agenda for today I've just done my little welcome spiel unfortunately the next person which is the CEO of kidney cancer association he couldn't be here today but he shared a slide which I'll show you in a minute and then I'm going to then give you again maybe I see Ben up here just for the chronology of things it might be a good idea for Dr. Chung to talk a little bit on local therapy because that's what really happens you have tumors confined to the kidney and we want to talk about the surgical management and then I'll come back and talk about the medical treatment just to give you an overview of each of these drugs and some of the important questions that we have learned over the last decade with all of these new drugs then we are going to have Dr. Horstack so she's a medical oncologist who's now at Kaiser she's going to come and talk to us about immunotherapy and I think that's really the most exciting area in the last year that we have learned about some of the new drugs so she's going to give us an update and then I'm hoping that Dr. Louis John-Louis he's on call today but he said he would come by so we may have to have some flexibility in the agenda today so he's going to come and he's a radiologist here at Stanford he's going to show us some of the novel ways by which radiologists are able to do local therapy and he's going to use liver directed therapy as an example for how radiologists can help us treat some of these tumors that you don't need a full systemic treatment but may be confined just to the liver we are then going to have some time for panel discussion again as I said this meeting is for you so I really want to encourage all of you to participate and feel that your questions have been answered so that's a good time for discussion we are going to break out for lunch and during lunch we are going to have one of our social workers her name is Jordan Chavez who's going to help all of us interact and perhaps if you feel comfortable telling your story so that the rest of us can hear about it Jordan is going to help facilitate that at lunch and then in the afternoon we are going to have Dr. Leppert who's one of our urologists he's participated in this conference many times as well he's going to talk about some fluorescein imaging that he is engaged with we are then going to have again an overview from one of our radiologists in nuclear medicine Dr. Eric Mitra who's going to just give us what is done for imaging how best can we look at different scans for kidney cancer and how best imaging is done one of our junior colleagues her name is Alice Fan she's a medical oncologist who works with us here she's going to come in the afternoon and talk about how do we know that the treatment that you're getting is working so she is engaged in some very novel ways in which we can help determine those for for our patients and finally we'll hear about the side effects from some of these drugs and how best to manage those side effects so we have invited Melissa Vietori she used to be a nurse practitioner here at Stanford who's now at UCSF so she's going to come in the afternoon and help give us a talk and with that we'll close the day so we have a very good agenda for you and again I want to thank all of you for coming here and sharing your day with us today