Please say good morning. You're all very very welcome to this morning's state of the union address. For those of you who don't know although it's so great to see so many familiar faces. My name is Dermot Holland and it's a really privileged for me to chair once again this morning session which is being organised by the European Commission representation here in Ireland by the European Parliament Liaison office at the Iiea in Dublin. of present Fonderline's address, her third such address. Possibly Annar, we're thinking for the address to take place, but you will get a chance to take part in the discussion. Those here in Dublin in the audience can participate in the Q&A by just raising your hand and letting us know. Anyone else who's joining us on YouTube or elsewhere on the live stream, you can send in your Q&A through the Zoom function and we will get to as many of them as possible. Submit them during the Q&A function and whether you're here or elsewhere, do let us know who you are when you get to your question. For those in the room, just as a courtesy door contributor, if you could put your phones on silent. Without further ado, let me introduce you to our panel, none of whom needs any introduction. To Bridget Laffan, Professor Emeritus and Former Director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the EU Institute in Florence. You're very, very welcome. Bridget, Alice-Marie Higgins on my far right, is an independent senator in Sianadair where she leads a civil engagement group and she's a member of so many committees, environment, climate action, finance and public expenditure and reform. John O'Brennan who almost gave me a little heart attack because I didn't know where he was because he went to the wrong mine street. He is the gene manager in European integration and director for the Centre of European and Eurasian Studies at Maynooth and last but not least. We are joined by David Sullivan who is the IAA director general amongst many, many other accomplishments. I think we can see a very, very prominent theme which is going to set the scene for much of the address this morning. What I'm going to do is we're going to have just maybe some brief initial thoughts from everyone here on the panel and as soon as we see it go live we will join the address. Bridget Loughnan, I might just start with you. Europe it seems and certainly since President von der Leyen has taken over it seems to be one existential crisis after another. What are you looking out for this morning? The first thing I would say is we've actually got to stop using the word existential when it comes to the EU because everyone says every crisis is existential and it survives them all. The EU is not an existential crisis, it will survive this one as well. Significant, significant challenges facing. Huge, huge. I would say this is a State of the Union speech like no other. It's at a time when Europe is at war, when war has returned to Europe. So I would say I would watch the tone. Let's see how she frames this because she knows all governments are facing very sensitive issues as well. So what I would say we should pay attention to tone and then I think in terms of what will be majored on clearly Ukraine and Ukraine in terms of geopolitics because Europe has fretted a lot about geopolitics in terms of supply chains in China that remains but now it's hard geopolitics as well. Clearly the energy crisis, I think she will make proposals on energy. She has to the ministers met last Friday. It's the top issue for the winter and the broader social impact inflation, the impact on families, the cost of living crisis and all of that. Clearly climate and climate transition and then I would say she will remind the EU, the member states and the citizens because I think she's trying to speak to the citizens as well today that when Europe hangs together, when there's solidarity, then it's stronger. So I would say that she will argue that this crisis Europe has to be united, has to be at one and only if it's at one can it pull through. And then finally I would say you get something on the future of Europe. I don't expect anything on Brexit but some reference to the Queen. And obviously Olga Zelensky, John, receiving an applause there this morning. There is now a State of the Union political bingo game you can play. You can guess what is going to come up in the speech. What do you think is not going to come up? What do you think might be omitted? Well, energy, Ukraine and tackling democracy. I think those are obviously the three things that are most important. I'd be very interested in the light of the revelations yesterday about Russia's sponsoring of extreme parties and disruption in democracies in the west. What she's going to say about that because obviously there are member states of the European Union where the rule of law is in a pretty dreadful state and there have been regular criticisms of the commission that it hasn't acted sufficiently or sufficiently robustly to protect democracy in Hungary, Poland and elsewhere. It's a sensitive issue, ongoing negotiations with both Budapest and Warsaw about commitments that they have made around rule of law issues, but it's sensitive for a whole variety of reasons. And there we are very much on time this year. Let's cross over to John and David. We won't get to everything obviously. David, at the opening, Brigid invited us to pay attention to the tone. It began with we will be tested. We will prevail. Ukraine crisis showed Europe at its best. What were your initial thoughts? Well, you know, I can be a bit of a cynic occasionally, you know, 40 years of working in the European institutions. I've seen a lot of things come and go. I've written a few of these speeches. I have to say, I thought that was genuinely inspiring. I thought it was a remarkable speech. I thought she really captured the mood. I think the commission's communication skills have improved remarkably, Barbara, from the early days when we were very clumsy. I think it has. But I really just felt she really captured the mood. I mean, we can discuss, you know, some of the details. I'm sure the proposal for a European convention will have a few member states scratching their heads. But I thought, you know, her basic emphasis on values on what we stand for on the challenge which the war, Russian war in Ukraine poses, not just to, you know, a military situation or the independence of Ukraine, but to what we stand for, what kind of future we have. The link between the energy crisis, climate change, the emphasis on the need to kind of have a new economic and social model, business model to adapt to the changing situation. The reference to young people, of course, because I think we all know this is a very real challenge with a generation feeling perhaps that my generation hasn't left them in as good a shape as we were able to be. So I honestly, Shapo, I thought she really, it was an excellent speech.  English is not her native language, but I really thought she, the only thing that disappointed me, if I may say so, was on the parliament side. There were quite a few empty seats, mostly on the right-hand side of the hemicycle, but honestly, all throughout it. I thought the parliament let itself down a bit there by not turning out in full force. I mean, if you go to the State of the Union in Washington, which I had the privilege to do on four occasions, I mean, it's literally there are people sitting on the steps. So I thought maybe that was a lost opportunity for the parliament to assert its role, but otherwise, honestly, excellent performance. I mean, then we can discuss some of the proposals are controversial, some of them will be, you know, some of it will maybe not go as far as we might like it to, but one of the best speeches I've heard from a president of the commission in a long time. Alice Murray, courage, solidarity. These were the big, big themes. It was certainly the frame within. Everything was set. It was amazing to see all the female leaders, as they could all out in their blue and yellow. Certainly that was the big, big support, but beyond Ukraine, and I suppose the connections between the Russian aggression and the energy crisis. Looking at the temporary and exclusionary measures being proposed in respect of energy and the companies, and also her comments in respect of not just household, but also SMEs facing what she described as both inflation and uncertainty. Do you think the speech delivered on what is, I suppose, heating and eating, I think we can reduce it down to what most people are worried about going into winter? I think there is really interesting, so on energy, a lot of it is some of which we've seen, we knew coming out of the meeting of energy ministers, the direction, but I thought it was, there were some very interesting things around energy because there are those temporary measures that we've heard about, but she did also talk about that kind of structural reform of the market. It's interesting that we're seeing the fact that the need for different measures in how, for example, gas is being treated and how renewables are, and in a way it's a different, if we look just back one year when you had the taxonomy and kind of an attempt to blend together gas and renewables, we are seeing this acknowledgement of very different strategies and very different approaches needed on boats. I thought I was very struck by the, you know, we had the car free weekends, but the same road, so what I thought was interesting was these kind of emergency measures that are there, that idea of, you know, the capping of prices and so forth, but also the recognition for the need for radical reform in the market. And I wonder will it leave to a shift away from that gas approach. On the economic, the eating and heating, the basic need piece was covered, but I must say I have a little bit of concerns just around some of how, you know, there seems to be a little bit of a role around towards the old fiscal rule framework, so the idea of, you know, strategic investment being excluded. And there is a real debate there because, you know, things like education that were being spoken about very strongly and repeatedly by the commission president, some of those are not going to fit a strategic investment frame within, for example, the semester process and others, because they don't deliver an immediate financial benefit, but they're crucial for society. So I suppose the social spending piece, I'm left with a few question marks around, is there really support for social spending? Are we going to, you know, for example, with sustained, that idea of spending sustainably, but what about, you know, the sustainable development goals and those whole picture, not all of them fit an investment return mechanism? Just remind everybody if they're using, there's three handles at EU Ireland, at EPN Ireland and at IAEA and using the hashtag SOTEU22. Coming back to you, Bridget, obviously that £140 billion being promised by the crisis levy or looking at the companies, but also this notion of a hydrogen bank and the delicate balance between reducing the gas dependency particularly the Russian supply, but also trying to meet the emerging, well not emerging, the full blown climate crisis that we're facing. That's a very, very delicate balance and you could really see her trying to make those connections between both. Absolutely and of course energy dependency has put Europe, walked into and Germany in particular has proved to be one of Europe's achilles heels and now the shock of Ukraine means that that is being addressed, will be addressed.  For me, I think the strategic actually matters a lot. Why? Because Europe needs to be, the world is shifting very dramatically and Europe has got to be very strategic about its political economy, its energy. We're now in a time when Europe in 30 years will be determined a lot by what we do over the next 10 to 15 years. So I welcome anything that makes Europe more strategic, anything that makes Europe look at not to become protectionist because that won't work, but understands that dependency, strategic autonomy has, has meet. And so I really welcome the strategic discussion around energy because also it's intergenerational. If we don't get this right, we're really, the cost will be born by the next generation. Which of course was her final point when she was building up towards the European Convention, which we will get to, but it was interesting when you said not protectionist and yet when she was talking in the context of the new European sovereignty fund, she was talking about a future of Europe made in Europe, even the critical materials act. It is not quite tax cuts and jobs act, but you did get a sense of bringing it back home as efficiency on the continent. So I think Europe is not saying no to globalization. What Europe is saying now is shifting globalization in certain ways that suit us better. In other words, breaking that dependency because I can't remember the dependency on China was 90% for, it was 60% for Lithium and 90% for something else, but that's too high. That's way too high. That's handing China huge power. And the other thing I would say is we're also seeing an EU emerge where public finance plays a very important role in the future. There was historically Europe's main public power was regulation. That continues to be important. But here we're seeing the development of a public finance Europe that's very different to the old budgets that I wrote a book about in the 1990s. And that's something I think to watch. But I do think we are seeing, I've argued since Brexit, we have seen and are seeing a very new European Union emerge. And to me, everything she said today confirms the fact that Europe is trying, and it's extremely difficult because of heterogeneity and difference, to really respond to the world that Europe finds itself in rather than the world that Europe would want. Europe always would prefer if the world was more like Europe. We now know it's not. So it's very good that the wake up call in Europe that the world, we now have to face a world that isn't entirely of our making, but we have to try to steer a pathway through that world. And none of this is easy. None of this. There isn't any easy public policy challenge here. And that includes, I suppose, John, foreign policy, two major issues in respect of accession, but also democracy she spoke of the need for a defence of democracy pact, and also huge support for Georgia, Moldova, for Ukraine at the heart of Europe. But even that is not as easy as it sounds. No, it isn't. I agree with Bridget. The commission set out an ambition at the beginning of Underline's term to be a geopolitical commission, and I think we're getting there. It is becoming more strategic in all kinds of senses. But specifically on accession, I noted that, and I agree with David, it was the finest state of the Union speech that I have seen, but the language she used at the beginning about Ukraine was very, very emphatic, I think. And she came back to it when she spoke about defending democracy, attacking corruption within the European Union, and so on. Which got huge applause. It got a lot of applause. Within Europe, within the continent, that she identified that, and I note that Emily O'Reilly also wrote a silly into peace earlier this week, pointing to issues of that, of the need for Europe to get its house in order before it tells others, including accession countries. I think the reason that you saw that kind of response in the parliament is that the parliament is, to some extent, significantly ahead of the commission, and has been very critical of the failures of the commission over many years to adequately tackle, on behalf of the EU, the abuses of power that we have seen in Hungary, in Poland and elsewhere. I noted, however, on accession, where she mentioned Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. She didn't mention the Western Balkans to my mind, and this is the most fragile region of Europe. These countries were promised European Union membership in Thessaloniki in 2003, so they've been waiting two decades. They have essentially been flatlining along this trajectory of broken promises. There's absolutely no incentive for reform. Yesterday we saw an ultra-nationalist government in Serbia cancelling the Euro Pride festival, which is supposed to take place this weekend in Belgrade. It was merely the latest indication of just how distant Serbia is from membership. Also, just to hear John say, we'll continue to defend the independence of the judiciary, as if that is something that needed to be said in the heart of Europe. I'm going to go to the panel, because David, you identified correctly what a lot of people would be interested in. This is a question from Anouk Moula. He's a student in the Ren Political Science Institute in France. She says, first of all, she's very impressed by the solidarity shown to Ukraine, and in a way, she says to Uweager. She said, I have a lingering question, as you had after listening to President van der Leyen. What does the panel think she means with this European Convention? And could you explore what that goal and form of this initiative might be, not least because treaty change, of course, is a company by referendum, certainly, in this jurisdiction? Well, I mean, I think this is ultimately one of the more difficult challenges we're going to face in the next few years, because as the President said, and I don't think she mentioned the Western Balkans clearly. I mean, we have, I think, 10 countries lined up for, especially, I didn't mention Turkey, which is a candidate country, but where things are not going very well. It is clear that if we are talking about a further expansion of the European Union of that scale, we need internal reform. We are not capable of absorbing 10 new countries with our existing structures and systems, but nobody really wants to engage in that discussion. And this is the challenge. So, I mean, what she meant by European Convention, I mean, she specifically mentioned it strangely, I thought, about intergenerational solidarity. I mean, it seemed to be a rather limited thing, because if you started a discussion about reforming the treaties, it will run much, much broader than that. What she actually said was it's time to enshrine solidarity between generations in our treaties post up, and then the moment has arrived for a European Convention. So, I was trying to see. Yeah, well, I'm assuming that, yes, she was specifically mentioning that, but she knows, as everyone does, that if you launch a European Convention on Institutional Reform and Treaty Reform, it will have a much broader agenda. Osmyr, what were your thoughts on that? I thought it was very interesting. I was a member of the future of your process, and I suppose I'm looking to, you know, some of the focus was around the things that involved treaty change, but there was a lot of other recommendations, some of which were still seen, you know, which there's no obstacle to that. There's no obstacle to moving forward on that haven't yet been moved forward. So, I suppose when we saw it, I was wondering, I mean, is that the youth test that we've, you know, has been promised, how much progress could be made on the youth test, you know, without or previous to a convention, you know, the fundamental rights. So, one of the issues, if I look to the issues that had really strong messages from those participating, that idea of most people already think in Europe we found that the Charter of Fundamental Rights is part of the rule of law, but of course it's not. And that's why in the rule of law engagement at the moment with Hungary, you know, it's focusing on procurement, on corruption, on the financial issues, whereas a lot of the public concern has been on those issues of the breaching of fundamental rights. So, you know, is it a convention around the protection of fundamental rights? Is that what we mean by do no harm or is there going to be something pushed out front and then there's a whole load of other issues that are probably more controversial that maybe weren't talked about in terms of the convention around the processes. So, I think it's one of those areas where more definitely needs, but the principle of a convention has been pushed for by the parliament. The question of, is it a convention about how we work, you know, is it a convention around strengthening those individual rights? And for me I certainly had a sense that there were certain issues supported more from the convention on the future of Europe than others. Sort of a big tease at the end of it. We've done very much a tease. A youth test that would be the showpiece on the convention. What is the convention probably or what does it mean? Bridget, can I go back to you just on the Green Deal agenda, which I know is a subject that is close to your heart, because, you know, you read the business pages, there are countries that are trying to prevent a Lehman-like response, huge liquidity crisis for many companies that are facing collateral obligations. Some of the things that she was talking about, the measures, both on a standalone basis and collectively, are actually, you're talking about major structural reform to key utility markets. And speaking to, you know, that earlier discussion, does it have the institutional and governance capacity, do you think, to address all of that? Because those are things we can try to tackle immediately, but that have long-term market implications. Absolutely. So, I think that what the war in Ukraine has done is it has exposed and made, firstly made more urgent the climate issues and the acceleration of the climate crisis itself. But it has also exposed the pain involved. In other words, this is the mother of all collective action problems. I think what she was saying about the market for electricity, that's been on the agenda for ever and ever and ever. I, in my last life in Shuman, we had what was called the Florence School of Regulation, which was set up after something called the Florence Forum on Electricity Markets, which started tackling the utility, the monopoly problem. And of course, these are very big monopolies, they're very powerful and very hard to change. But now we're in a new game and a new, there's a new stage. And Europe has tended to find the governance capacities either formally or informally and also cross the levels when it needs to. So I would expect that it will, I think it will be extreme, it is very urgent and will be addressed. But what we still, the struggle in Europe will be, the impact of all of it, not just on our SMEs, but on each of us as individuals, households and all that. Are us turning the lights out when the last visitor goes to the Eiffel Tower? Exactly. The kind of, all of that. And so I think that's such a big societal shift that it requires more than government. That's a pact with society to change how we are. And of course what Europe does on the climate crisis in and of itself is simply not enough. So that's also the partnership with other parts of the world. But I do think what we've seen over the last, in an accelerated way over the last number of years, is we can't hide from the climate crisis anymore. Can I, just before we go on, I will be taking questions. I want to go to Alison John on just an issue relating to the rule of law. It was interesting. We can't get through the entire speech, but when she was talking about that incident in Amsterdam last year, the creation of various institutes, the disinformation campaign is not just being waged by both outside of the union. It is very much something that is alive and central here. And although courage, solidarity were the big themes, the energy crisis, the general political division, the culture wars, everything, is a challenge to social cohesion within the union? Yeah, on China I think the EU has been late to wake up to the nature of the threat, but it has. And the Amsterdam case was replicated here in Ireland, you may remember, when an academic at UCD, who was raising serious issues about human rights, the treatment of the ugar population, for example in western China, we then saw the Chinese government try to put pressure on the Department of Foreign Affairs and the government to the great credit of his department, Bridget's old department, they absolutely supported him solidly. But it's an indication of the insidious ways in which China has tried to insert these soft power instruments into the member states of the union. So I think we have to be very careful. The universities, I think, really should do a complete inventory of all our links with China. And I would suggest that we should divest almost completely from China because we'll be in the same sort of situation that many were in terms of their institutional links with Russia. Because Xi Jinping's much more muscular Chinese foreign policy suggests that that problem is certainly not going to go away and it's probably going to get worse in the years ahead. Can I just on that social cohesion particularly when the reality is winter is coming and people are going to be under so much pressure as President von der Leyen said, we will be tested. So just really quickly though on the human rights piece, because I did want to add in, it was something, we do need that human rights regime that was tested, that there is consistency around the human rights testing so we know that there's a rightful move away from Russian gas but we also need to be looking at the human rights issues in relation to Saudi Arabia and for example in relation to, there are concerns around, even under repowering EU, some of the agreements signed for example with Israel that are not as clear about occupied territory. So there's a few, I think for Europe to be strong on that human rights piece, we will need to be shown to be applying it very strongly in all of our agreements and of course in terms of things like lithium, that's going to be, we know that the trade agreements with Chile are being renegotiated and that's going to have to be, you know, there's been some concern. You talked about the need to build up strategic reserves. Yes, and in terms of being strategic is really important but it's also important, there's a strong ethic in that and I thought, you know, we saw the decolonised Russia poster that is there. When we talk about the world that Europe finds itself in, Europe did shape a lot of that world and I'd like to acknowledge that and that's where things like going and having an impact in the climate talks will mean that Europe and Ireland need to be contributing around things like the climate justice and the 100 billion followed in that regard. But on social cohesion and that's what I say strategic. I'm not saying let's not have strategy, the question is what do we mean by strategic and I think it was acknowledged the errors that the years it took in terms of the financial crisis partly because there was not enough strategic emphasis placed on social cohesion and that was something that then in the COVID crisis Europe said social cohesion needs to be a priority. So when we talk about strategic I'm just saying it's very important that in our financial solutions and our instruments even especially in the changes to our economic governance that we make sure that social investment in social cohesion is recognised as strategic as well and I think that's going to be crucial. It's good that there's going to be pricing impacts from the energy piece. I think the idea of that collective public spending. I think that the return of public spending for making the changes we need as was mentioned. We didn't even get I think the 100 billion spent under the next year and about 700 million to go. I think that's really positive as well. Is there a mic for everyone in the room? There is. So put your hand up. Before I come to it, David, I'll give you an easy question here from Paul Oatwer formerly of the Department of Finance. He wonders whether the rapid deepening of EU integration in response to recent crisis is leading us. He wants to know where is that leading us. He said, are we seeing the emergence of a European super state? So an easy one for you. Look, this European super state is a complete myth. It's not the model we're following. What we are doing is building something completely unique in international relationship which is building a voluntary union of sovereign states who act collectively where it delivers better outcomes than can be delivered by individual countries. That's what it is. So it's wrong to compare it to a country like the United States or like France or even a federal state like Australia or Canada. That's not what we're doing.  We're building a unique model and we have to find unique ways of doing it. That reflects the institutional setup. We have to also recognize that our people are deeply attached to their national identity, their language, their history, their culture. People do not want to lose that. But on the other hand, as the president said, we absolutely know that as individual countries we are much less powerful, much less capable of delivering for our citizens than when we act together. But you have to demonstrate that case by case and it changes. Who would have thought we would have had common procurement on vaccines until the pandemic came? Now we have to reform our energy market in a way which will be much more integrated because of the war in Ukraine and because of the consequences and for climate change. So it's an evolving process. There will be a tendency if we enlarge further, if we get to, I think it's potential, at the moment it's 10 countries are sort of candidate stages. That takes to 37 countries. That's not going to be a federal state run with a central government. So this balance between doing things collectively at a central level with real institutions, with a rule of law and governance over those institutions but at the same time maximizing the autonomy and the capacity of individual countries to choose their own way of life is the model. Are you okay for about another eight to ten minutes? Because I do want to get to everyone on the floor if you're okay with that, Barbara. There's a lady here just in the third row. And again if you just let us know who you are and where you're from as you pose your question to the panel. Thank you. Thank you so much and thank you for the invite. It's great to be here with European and global friends. My name is Marius Goyd. I'm the Norwegian ambassador. So I'm very happy to partake in this discussion and listen to this speech, which was really, really very good. Norway and the EU enjoys a very close partnership. Of course the EEA is the fundament for this, but we have also 70 other agreements between Norway and the EU. And we are like-minded in foreign policy and security policy and solidarity with Ukraine and so on and so forth. So we share the objectives. We share the visions. We stand solidaric. And we, of course, we are a reliable and predictable partner to the EU not only in the current energy crisis, but also with the visions for the Green Deal in democracy, rule of law. And I would encourage all our EU colleagues to engage with us at the political level, of course, but also at other levels because we need to prepare the decisions. We need to engage in this discussion if you're going to find a way out of the current crisis. I would like to ask the panel how you see Norway as a predictable partner and solid partner to the EU. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ambassador John. Oh, for sure. Norway is a truly important partner. Can you hand up if you'd like to... I'm going to try and keep everyone going while you answer. So put your hand up if you'd like to ask a question. Thank you. I also note that Norway has been incredibly generous to Ukraine looking at financial dispersals and things of that in recent times. I note also that Norway might have been a member. We're coming up to our 50th anniversary membership. Norway had that choice, but, I mean, it's locked into a relationship with the European Union that's very positive for both sides. And I think the Ukraine War has only enhanced all of that. It's not just about Finland and Sweden changing their minds about NATO, Denmark closer to European security policy, opting into that. Norway is also part of this because it's part of that ring of structures that surround the European Union. It's all for the good, in my view. That's great. Have we any more questions from the floor? Don't be shy, this gentleman here in front and actually this gentleman at the back. So we'll take those two, maybe two of the two questions and throw them to the panel. Thanks. Thank you very much. I'm asking a question maybe similar to Norway, but it's with relevance to Ireland. I have four children. They emigrate. They're emigrating during a good time. They emigrate to the Anglo-American countries. They don't emigrate to you reporters as the president said. There's shortage of labour. They're highly skilled. They're from a very good background. And if you're from Balbrigan or Balita Harb, I think if you're going to emigrate, or if you're going to leave the island, the tendency is to go to Anglo-American cultures. So how can we... I'm completely a Farms European, had the pleasure of studying in Newfoundland, lived in Italy. How can we as an island or island contribute more to Europe and get ourselves more in the European vein? Because we might end up becoming a small little talking shop, not really of relevance. I might throw that to you, Bridget Haven, being in Florence and being at the heart of that. We didn't get to everything, but obviously education and skills was a major, major part of this. You said 2023 had to be the year of education and training. So I think the answer to your question is that migration tends to follow migratory pathways. And so if historically, I mean in an earlier period of European history, the Irish went to the continent and then they started to go both to the Anglo world. So I think there's that. I think it's English. It's the ease with which Irish people can rock up to an English speaking country and settle in and there's not just a resistance to language acquisition in Ireland now, the numbers doing French and German are down. And I think that's an enormous problem, not just for us in terms of skills and education, but just culturally. I think just culturally it impoverishes us to be locked predominantly into an Anglo world. But I would say also, don't underestimate the number of Irish people across the continent. I mean there are 50 plus Gaelic football teams on the continent. That means there are a lot of Irish in a lot of places. So I understand the draw of English, but I think there are migratory flows to the continent as well. And very vibrant Irish communities in Brussels, in Italy where I live, the Irish were there too. But I do think language acquisition in our educational system is something. Also for the other big issue for the Irish is the generation, David's generation are leaving or have left the commission and we now need people to take jobs in the institutions who are good enough, have the language skills to get those jobs because if we don't, we lose soft power. And it's of immense importance that Ireland finds it has sufficient numbers of high quality people in the institutions at senior ranks. If we don't, it's a problem. OK, this gentleman here, Charlie, thank you Bridget. Thanks very much and thank you for the event. It's very nice to be out at an in-person event. I keep saying it. I'm going to ask probably a non-fair question given that we've all just heard about the convention and the reform, but would the panel care to speculate on what type of timeline we might be looking at if we're talking about the type of targeted reform potentially that Senator Higgins mentioned or a broader piece? Thank you. David, what do you think just in terms of that? How long is a piece of string? I mean, look, we've been here before. We know that either will be a lot of resistance from Member States because it doesn't really fit with national politics in any country at the moment. Nobody wants to have another referendum on Europe, so there will be resistance. On the other hand, there's an issue there that needs to be addressed and it's not going to go away. So my guess is eventually it will be set up, but it will take time because it will need a moment when people feel we've arrived at a point where you can have this debate nationally and we're not there yet, it's clear. So I will probably talk about several years in my view and certainly before you would get to a text of amending the treaties, you know, that's going to take, this is a medium term project, but I think it's what was significant was that she had the courage to call for it and what impresses me with President von der Leyen is she's more often than not slightly ahead of the posse on a number of issues, on candidacy for Ukraine, on the reform and recovery fund, on the procurement for the pandemic. So she does take some risk because, you know, the member states are not necessarily going to follow you and I've worked with many presidents of the commission. You're always nervous if I go out there and say we should do this and then everyone says no, but she takes some risk and I think today, not only was it a fine speech, but she had the courage to put that out there. It's a controversial issue and it won't immediately take root, but we will remember that this was perhaps the right moment. I think it's already had a desired effect because we're all talking about it, Barbara. Barbara Nona had a European Commission representation here. First of all, I'd like to thank all the audience for coming, our panel. I think I would agree with David that it was, I think, one of the best, the best, if not the best speeches I've seen. I would say that, wouldn't I? In the immortal words of Mandy Rice-Davies or whoever said it. But I do think that it was a courageous speech. I think it struck the right tone. I'd just like to come back, John, on what you said. In fact, I'm reading the line here, so I want the people of the western Balkans of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia to know you are part of our family, your future is in our union and our union is not complete without you. So she did mention it. I think to be fair, she is probably, she's been really at the forefront of recognising the importance of the western Balkans and the importance of bringing them into the European family and stabilising the situation. So I think, you know, she's sort of stuck her neck out, if you like, on that at a time when maybe other heads of state and government aren't so convinced that this is the right time. Exactly, the problem is within the council. I am determined to get you out by 9.40. So very, very quickly, I'm going to go to the panel. We're midterm, but it's a term like no other. So just maybe just from each of you to some concluding remarks before we bring the event to a close. I think she's been a very good president. I think putting climate change at the heart of the commission's programme was the right thing to do. We've seen it replicated in the COVID recovery funds. Climate change spending is about a third or more of what governments are spending. But to go back to our last point, there's only so much that the commission can do. It can set the agenda. There are policy proposals out there as it did with the energy proposals last week. But as ever within the union, a system of divided government, it is very, very difficult to reconcile even within the council 27 different national positions and then to match the ambition that's often put out there by a commission president in these proposals. I think it's more or less a positive report card at halftime. For you, Alice Murray. I'm making sure that those wider frames that go wider than the EU, the human rights frame, for example, that that is kept peace. Migration was mentioned in that. I thought it was interesting. There's going to be negotiations around the migration pact for the next four presidencies. It's not just Ukraine. That idea of that being a model was very interesting to me in terms of does that mean that we're putting a kind of human centre? That came out of the future of Europe very strongly. Then within our energy policy again, climate, so you have to look to those things that we can do in terms of in Europe but that we frame it within that wider human rights frame internationally and within the wider, existential is overused, not in terms of climate crisis. It is in that sense. I think that's crucial. There are a lot of battle still, the hydrogen strategy. Is that going to be green hydrogen or is it going to be a last other pass for the gas industry? I don't understand what she said but I did think it was a strong speech and I think it opened up and made clear lots of key decision points and I think it will be over the next year in six months that we see unpack what the different arguments are within them. David, at the State of the Union it is sort of something of a US import but how important do you think it is for the legislative agenda and when she's talking about new iterations of the CHIPS Act for lithium, for other critical materials what do you think are the chances of realistically implementing many of the things she outlined today? If you watch the State of the Union speech in America it's an event in and of itself it tends not to have much of an impact afterwards it's a media show. She has borrowed some of the elements the special guests they are trying to make it personal the reference to the two Polish girls and their work for refugees but I think she has announced that this commission has honestly produced fantastic output under huge pressure and I honestly think they have delivered I think the challenge the tectonic plates are shifting internationally and we have to define what that means for the EU 27 what it means for our neighbourhood those of our neighbours who never want to be members the UK, Norway, Switzerland but who are still strong partners those of our neighbours who want to join and how do we manage that and how do we then fit internationally United States, China, Russia obviously in a very difficult place at the moment this is the challenge and at the same time meeting the issue of climate change which is the single greatest challenge we face and I think this commission has done a good job of framing that then can we agree at 27 often than not yes but never quite to the level of expectation which is made in the speech and the last word to you, Brittany Latham so I think we haven't spoken at all about the fact she's a woman and I think that has really mattered to her commission she's the first woman president of the European Commission but much more it's the tone she strikes she at ease talks about children she humanises it and I think that's been really important for this phase of European integration so I think the fact she's a woman has actually had an impact on matters not just symbolically but much more substantially and that is where you began indeed at the beginning you were talking about tone and that is all way of time for I want to on your behalf to thank Maria Alice, David, Bridget and John and thank you to our hosts obviously the European Commission the European Parliament leads an office and it's great to be with you all again finally thanks to you all for turning out in person and all of those hundreds of you on YouTube so thank you and that brings to a close the state of the EU 22


We can use a very simple demonstration to show how differences in velocity from one end of an air parcel to the other can cause changes in area. Let's let this be our air parcel here, outlined in the dark blue. Several things can happen to this air parcel. One, it can translate, so it can just move with a certain velocity across from left to right. The second thing it can do is it can have a zero velocity here and have a higher velocity here on this end, and it can then grow, and so you see that the area is increasing as time goes on. So we can combine these two motions to see what happens, and so we have some velocity at the parcel, but we have a greater velocity on the right hand side, and we see that as it moves, it grows. It is also possible that as it moves, it shrinks because if the velocity on this side is less than the velocity on this side, then as it moves along, you will see that actually the area is contracting. We can do the same sort of analysis in the y direction, and from this we can show that in fact the difference in velocity from here to here can result in the growth or the shrinking of the area of the parcel.


Hi everyone and welcome back to another episode of our Road to Ranked roulette series. We kicked off in our last episode with your nominations being thrown into the roulette wheel and it came out with this team right here. We had two good games yesterday, if you want to check those out and I would definitely recommend checking out yesterday's second game if you haven't seen it. The hype is unbelievable, not second game, I'm not going to spoil it. I'll put a card up there for you, you can go and check it out and then come into today's episode. To recap the team as always we've got the Salazzle, we've got Kingler, Shiftry, Haxerous, the Restricted Combination of Dialga and Palkia. So off the back of yesterday's second episode I'm hoping we can continue this hype train on today with the team. Haxerous and Salazzle put in so much work yesterday, it was incredible and I cannot wait to get into today's episode. So without further ado we're just gonna jump straight into it. As always if you do enjoy this sort of content guys please make sure to drop a like on the video, do subscribe to the channel for more glorious Pokemon content and other content that I'll be doing around that and leave a comment down below because you know, you know how much I love hearing from you all. So we'll go over to this screen and we've got our first opponent. So 1486, got some tasty points that we could have and wow, is that a sub striker? That looks cool. Okay, well let's get into team preview. Okay so my opponent is running a team of Gengar, Kyogre, Yveltal, Zebstriker. I'm pretty sure that's how it is pronounced, the Zebra, Electric Zebra with Lightning Road. Then Stuck Attacker and Tabulele, the Lightning Road really helpful for supporting Kyogre and Yveltal. The Lele likely to be Scarfed, you've got a Trick Room mode and potentially a Tailwind mode here for my opponent. If we can deal with the Lele, our restricted pairing does pretty well against this team. It's just dealing with the Lele and if it is Scarfed Lele it is a lot more difficult. We could go down the one hit KO route with Haxerous as a lead. It's not a bad option to be honest and the Helga is decent as well. I do want to bring Kingla here. Kingla could be good. Kingla could be good. Kingla and Palkia, not bringing any fake out, doing each shiftry. Let's go Kingla because the rain is going to be there in Palkia and yeah, we're gonna lock in. We're gonna get into this first one today. Yes, you need, if you haven't, I'm strongly recommending the hype of yesterday's episode. Like I said yesterday in that second game, probably the best moment in all of Rulet. Wrote around Rulet history on this channel. I think it was just amazing that I got a bit, I went way over the top with my reaction but it was all worthwhile. Right, we're gonna see the Gengar and Yveltal come up from my opponent. Haxerous is gonna hit the field. We could lock ourselves into stomping tantrum here and potentially get rid of this Gengar which would be a nice thing to be able to do. I'll go for that and then should we trick room? I mean it's probably the best thing to do. I think yeah, we'll go for the trick room if you can get it off. If the Gengar survives, it could go for a taunt. I don't know what the Yveltal's gonna do if it's a salt vest, maybe, which they normally are in this sort of team, but they can tend to be Z-Move as well so we can't underestimate that. Gengar gonna switch out. What's it gonna be? Stacks? Oh, beautiful. We like that. Donk, donk, donk. Can we pick up the knockout? Knock a bit. Stack attack is just too bulky, isn't it? Ah, there's a Z-Move. Where's it going? Is it going into Haxorus potentially? If it's into Dialgar, I think we take this. It should just proc our wiki berry. Well, we definitely 100% take it I think with Dialgar. It's into Haxorus. I don't mind this to be honest. We're getting a trick room up. We'll be able to get at least a free switching because Haxorus in trick room is no good so our opponent's kind of doing us a favor here. There's a trick room set up. Should we get Kingler onto the field? Should we keep Kingler for later and bring Palkir in and we can start doing some? I mean, the thing is with Kingler is that we can wide guard and get around the rock slide flinch issue. We can also crab hammer the Veltal. We could crab hammer the stack attack. What's the best option to do here? We could guillotine as well. Guillotine Veltal. I'm going to guillotine Veltal. I'm going to just earth par. Earth par stacks. Come on, Kingler. You saw Haxorus do it yesterday. There's the rock slide. Dialgar avoids. Kingler is pretty defensively bulky so taking that. Come on, come on, Kingler. Earth par. Procnochaka but because of the damage it's already taken. So we get rid of that, Pokemon. Dark pulse. Where are you going into? Dialgar, that's fine. We get another shot at our guillotine. What's going to come in? I don't think it'll be... Oh, it is again, go. Let's go for that guillotine again into Veltal and we'll just go for another earth par into Gengar. If we can get rid of the Veltal I think we can win this match. It's all about Kingler and your guillotine abilities. You've got the biggest claws out of any Pokemon in the game. Come on, you can hit the guillotine just chop into the Veltal. One hit kill. Protect itself this turn which makes a lot of sense. You could have went for the double up into the Gengar as a guillotine. It's probably going to try and target down the one hit kill here. I don't expect this to be able to knock out Gengar but does respectable damage. Sludge bomb. Can Kingler take it? It's not the strongest, especially defensively but we'll get Parkirin and we're in a nice position now. I wonder if the Gengar actually protects now. That would be my bet. That would definitely be my bet I think. The question is have we got enough to take down the Veltal? Hydro pump and a flash cannon probably will be enough to get the Veltal. We've got to double into it I think now. I think the Gengar probably protects and knowing that you can get taken down. No protect from the get- Come on.  I don't think the spatial rend would have been enough. We need the hydro pump there. The snarl course and we're going to take. This is it now because probably double protect but we've got one play we can do. Sludge bomb as long as we don't get poisoned. Of course. That's what happens. Is this the last turn of trick room it is? Let's pull the double trick room to set it all back up again. Hopefully my opponent double protects. I think they will. Here we go. The poison. This is why I didn't want poison because the poison is making it way more difficult for us. We've seen dark pulse snarl. I'd say there's tailwind on the Veltal and protect so maybe no sucker punch which does give us a bit of a better time and there's a trick room setting back up again. So I mean we're giving ourselves as best an opportunity as possible. It's whether or not this Veltal has sucker punch and I'm going to bank on it. I'm not going to bank on anything because when we bank on stuff it doesn't happen. Does it? Hydro pump into Veltal. We'll put it into Gengar and hopefully the hydro pump takes down the Veltal. Does connect. Come on. Still not enough. Man that is weak. So weak. We need Palkia for the Kyogre. I don't think we're going to be able to win this one now. That first hydro pump. We would have been better. Ah it's because it's yeah okay. Yeah another poison. A critical hit on the Kyogre. Come on. Come on really. Yeah we would have been better going for two special runs but then again special runs are not the most accurate move is it? Then that's why the poison is the most annoying thing. There's no support obviously helping. The Veltal out massively here and in comes Kyogre and I don't think yeah we can't win. We can't beat Kyogre with Darga. Not without thunder or something. We needed Palkia here to to deal with it and I mean even as low health as we were with Palkia probably get one attack off maybe. Never mind. It's looking like it's going to be a short lived match here. We'll go for a flash cannon. Veltal probably protects I'd imagine. We'll probably see what's about from the Kyogre. It's sitting pretty safe here. We do actually manage to get the Veltal so taking it down to a one on one but we've got no chance to take this Kyogre out. It's a bit unfortunate. There's a what's about. This will do more than enough damage. We had thunder. If we had thunder it wouldn't really make a difference from this point but go for a good old earth power. See what damage it does. It'll do about three hit points of damage. There we go. See three hit points. Nice beam. Good game to my opponent. I think the hydropump miss did matter because then we could have got rid of the Veltal a turn earlier. None of that wouldn't have killed. We should have probably put a lot more pressure on to that slot initially than we were doing. Going for the double up because the Gengos it got the poison which didn't help. That's just the thing but it wasn't really pressuring as much as the Veltal. Disrupting as much as the Veltal so concentrating down on that slot would have made a lot more sense and trying to preserve Palkia for a late game versus Kyogre. It's really where our win condition would have come from. A little bit unfortunate but not the end of the world. Right let's lock in with. Let's go Elite 4 as our music and hopefully we can pick up so we're one win two losses at the minute. Let's see if we can tie it up with our next one. It would be absolutely amazing if we can. I'm just getting tweets about the dead time between when I say I was going to cut and we'll cut to our next opponent and I totally forgot to edit it out on Friday's episode. And there's just me suffering badly with Hayfever gone. At least I didn't do anything too bad. I do all sorts. I balance things on my face and do all sorts of crazy stuff when I'm waiting for opponents so it's a good job we cut most of the stuff out. I'm really bad at fidgeting and I can't really sit still so I'm always picking things up. It's good to have a clear desk space in front of me and then it just makes sure I'm concentrating on the task at hand. But saying that I am going to cut now. We're going to come back when we find our next opponent because it might take a little bit longer than what I'm expecting. And we've got our next opponent finally. Finally. It's been taken. I like three tries here but we've got our next opponent so let's hop into team pre. Okay so our next opponent is running a team of Kyogre, Melotic, Lunala, Stack Attacker, Landerous Theory and Form and Incineroar. So we've got the restricted combination of Lunala, Kyogre, really strong pairing here. Lunala can offer Tailwind Trick Room to support that Kyogre. Lots of options there. You've got Trick Room on the Stack Attacker as well.  It can also take advantage of the rain. Also has speed control in icy wind. And then you've got two intimidators sitting on the end there with the Landerous Theory and offers probably an alternative Z-Crustle there maybe or a Scarf, a Soulfest even and the Incineroar. We know what Incineroar does. Tired of talking about Incineroar but I feel like Kingler could do some work here maybe. We've got to be a bit careful around the Lunala. I'm going to bring Shift Tree though because the Shift Tree is pretty decent against Kyogre and the Melotic. It's got Snarl to help against the Lunala for sure. We definitely want a dragon pair for sure and Kingler. I might just do that you know. I think if we do that it's kind of alright because yeah let's go Palkia, Kingler and Dialga. Let's do it. Let's get into this one. Kingler, Palkia, Dialga and Shift Tree. What a combination of Pokemon. I'm excited. I don't know if we can win. We can win. We can win anything. Living the Green Eyes, Emerald Eyes. Stacks and Lunala. I wonder if we can just go Snarl and Hydro Pump. The Lunala's got to feel a bit pressured here. Snarl, I'm just going to do it and I'm going to go for the Hydro Pump. I'm not really worried about setting the trick room up yet because maybe the Stack Attacker decides to go for that itself and maybe the Stack Attacker just protects. I don't know what Lunala's going to do. It could fire off and attack into Palkia but it's more likely to try and set up I think here rather than fire off as they move. Although it's not really out the question but it's got to feel a little bit threatened by the Shift Tree. Come on we learned Sucker Punch so if you know anything about the tree then you know it learns the Sucker of the Punch. Stacker actually protecting here. I wonder what we're going to see. What we're going to see. Hydro Pump. Nada. Snarl. We're going to see a trick room from Lunala. Oh well at least the Snarl helps us out there massively. Chips the Shadow Shield as well which is nice. There's the Trick Room. I don't mind that at all really because Shift Tree should underspeed the Lunala anyway. Um then we could double into the Stacker for sure with Leaf Blade but we could pull a switch into Dialga. No I'm going to keep Shift Tree. Oh do we because Shift Tree is quite important for us to deal with. Well it's not that important actually. We've got double Dragon we're fine. Let's just go for the same thing again. Snarl and the Hydro Pump. We'll probably see a Rock Slide come out here. Both Pokemon take it pretty comfortably. Get that Snarl off again. Do a bit more damage to this Lunala and really weaken it to the point where it's not going to be able to do very much. Nice crit there on the stacks and come on Parkour. Put those goggles on today. You've got them on. You listened. Good Parkour. Wow. That is a strong Hydro Pump. Bye bye Stacks. See you later. Moon Blast. Moon Blast. What? Yeah it's very weak though. Double Snarl. Shift Tree too strong. Um what comes into the party now? Incineroar. Oh no I'm bringing in the Kyogre. Deciding to bring the Olga to the party. It's never a party without Kyogre is it? I can't believe the Moon Blast. Moon Blast Lunala. I've seen it all. Primordial Sea. We can totally make a good work of... Are we going to underspeed this Kyogre or is it going to be like Min Speed Kyogre? And I imagine it probably is Min Speed Kyogre isn't it? It might be a good thing to bring in Kingler now and just go for... Do we go Hydro Pump into Lunala? I'm not really too worried about it to be honest. Just spatial rending into the Kyogre. Yeah let's do that. Get some damage onto that thing. Kingler coming in. I'll be able to take down the Lunala the next turn. Get Kingler in it. In the rain it's going to love it. Kyogre going to protect. What's Lunala going to do now then? What are you up to Lunala? You trick rooming again? I think you are. Yes. Okay well we can play that game as well can't we because we can trick room all we want. I need to remind myself what speeds that we are with like Kingler. Kingler how are we looking? 101. Okay so we're definitely going to underspeed the Kyogre. Does it have thunder? Does it? Probably. But we can totally set up a trick room. We'll indicate that my opponent's not got something they want in trick room in the back. Let's just go. Okay Kyogre going to switch your room. Milotic going to hit the field. Okay well we should be able to get a trick room up now which is pretty good. Lunala going to protect dead turn. Free trick room. Kingler going to protect as well. I want to go to town on this Milotic this next turn with these guillotines. Come on Kingler you've got to do it. You've got to get the Milotic. Getting the Milotic in this next turn will be the most phenomenal thing ever. We'll go space your rend into the Lunala that should take it down. Come on guillotine please. Okay Kyogre going to hit the field once again. Please Kingler hit the guillotine come on. Please please please. I get way too excited about the potential of a one hit KO hitting. Ah come on. Spoiling all the fun here Milotic. Guillotine. Come on. We'll go for that guillotine again and I'll go for the space your rend into the Kyogre. Come on. We'll probably see the Milotic switch out into Lunala expecting that the guillotines go into that slot. But I want to try. I want to try and get this Milotic. Kingler's got his eye. His beady crab eyes on that Milotic. He wants to get the guillotine. Stay in. Stay in. Don't switch to Lunala. It's a bad idea. Lunala will go down while I want. Okay Kyogre going to switch out. We're going to see the Milotics stay on the field though. So that's amazing. Space your rend hits here then we're fine. Ah guillotine come on please hit. We just want one one hit. You're good like that's two we've tried. We missed. Okay get the Lunala which is good. Apalco is in a decent position now to take on this this Kyogre. We still got Dialga in the back as well and the Shiftry. So we're not looking too bad at the moment. Not looking bad at all. And as long as Kingler can hit one of these one hit kills I think the Milotic probably protects this turn. Yeah we've got two turns of trick room. I'm going to guillotine the Kyogre and I'm going to space your rend the Kyogre as well. Kyogre might protect but I would say more the Milotic protects than the Kyogre here. That would be my best guess. That would be my best guess. I don't know though. Let's see. I just want the one hit kill to hit. Come on. Hype City. Yes. Come on Kingler. You are the king of all crabs in the whole entire poker universe. Kingler is the one to hit KO wonder. Joining Haxorus in the ranks the historic legendary status that you are gaining now. Palke frozen. What is this? Okay I mean we can't really complain too much but Kingler you are the man. You are the man. Come on. Let's get one more. Let's get Milotic once again. We'll just try and throw out I guess. We'll space your rend. Hopefully we can throw out. Palke doesn't get scald. Does it get scald? Guillotine. Oh my god. Kingler. Kingler is the king. King crab. Kingler. Yes. Kingler is just we don't need attacks. We just need one hit KO moves. That's all we need. Kingler is like we're not losing another game. We're not losing. We're going to tie this up. We're going to end in style. Haxorus did it yesterday. I'm going to do one better than today. I'm going to use both.  I've got my BDI on you Milotic. You dodged it one too many times. What a great way for us to finish again. This is awesome. Okay guys I'm really loving this team. I really am. I think we could mix things up a little bit. Do let me know because we can activate some buttons tomorrow but we're going to call it a day there. We'll be back with another episode tomorrow so make sure you do tune in for more one hit KO action. I'm hoping we can at least get someone hit KO wins every single day of this week. That would be good. We're two and two at the minute. I'm confident that we can do something this week. It would be a lot of fun if we can finish really positively. We might activate a button tomorrow. We might not but tune in nonetheless and we'll see you for that one there. Have a great rest of your day. Take care and I'll see you all for the next episode. Until then, take care and bye bye.


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So I'm super excited. It's Friday night and I was going to do this huge live on challenge. Come join us. And then I got inspired to do something completely different.  That's all you have to do. Just hit 22 below and I'm going to send you some information about the challenge we're doing. It's simply amazing. It's simply awesome. But what we're really going to talk about is we have a Nashville event coming up and I know the world's been shut down. It's been very interesting and things are happening constantly and when's it ever going to end? I don't know. But we decided that we're going to, a small group of us are going to get together in Nashville and do a mastermime and it was very inspiring. So I decided that I'm going to add a couple of new things that nobody knows about. Actually, two people do. I had to share it with a few people. But it's going to be really cool. What I've learned over the last six years is that if you want to have success in whatever it is you want to do. If you want to be financially successful, you want to be healthy, successful, you want to be more religious, whatever it is, surround yourself with the people that already have those or are doing those things. You want to be our better dad, surround yourself with better dads. You want to be our moms, surround yourself with really great moms. Right? If you want to run a marathon, surround yourself with marathon runners. What's up, Michael? How are you doing, sir? So here's the deal. If you want to do the challenge, we're doing an unbelievable challenge. It's going to be a four-week challenge. It's really simply laid out. It's very isolated. Just put 22 below in the chat and I'll get you figured out. We'll get you dialed into the challenge.  And so we're going to be doing on January 22nd, we're going to Nashville. I'm going to actually pull up the video here in a second if I can find it. We're going to Nashville and doing an unbelievable mastermind that's going to help people dream and believe more about what's possible, give them systems in place to help them be successful in their life, in their future, in their business, whatever business it is. Obviously, we're promoting our own business, but I don't care what kind of business it is. The rules apply to everything.  It's Nashville. So really quick, I got asked, who's been to Nashville and what's your favorite thing about Nashville? If you've been. If you haven't been to Nashville, have you ever wanted to go? And I'll tell you a story. I'm going to actually see if the video is here. Let me see if I can get it sent to me quick. But if you haven't been to Nashville, send me Nashville video. Send me Nashville video. The Nashville video is actually on my phone right now that I'm live on. But if you haven't been to Nashville, Debbie and Debbie and Matt Hammond are coming. Michael, are you coming? Come on now. Dawn, are you going to be there? Let's go. So here's the cool thing. Have you been to Nashville? What's the favorite thing you've been? Nashville is one of my, I've never been, Michael's never been. It is one of my favorite cities in the country. And for whatever reason, I've always wanted to own property in Nashville. I don't know why. Honestly, it's just one of those things that's like, it's called a sixth sense. And that's been like 20 years in the making, by the way. I drove through the city of years and years and years and years and years ago, almost 24 years ago, I drove through that city. But about eight years ago, I actually, my wife was pregnant with my son. We were actually walking, we went to the Grand Ole Opry and it was just such an inspiration to me because, you know, when you, when you get to meet some celebrities or stars, right, the country, country Western stars, you know, they weren't celebrities when they started, right? They were basically a nobody hoping to make it. And then at some point they crossed that stage, some of them do at the Grand Ole Opry. And it's just like this, this, this step of making it. But outside of it, there's a hotel called the Gaylord. And it's, I, my wife and I walked through it and I've never seen a hotel like that in my life. It just blew my mind. I was just like, oh my God, this is amazing. I've never seen anything like this. And I told her, I go, we got to come back here sometime and stay. Well, her and I have never done that. We've never, her and I have never been, we've been around the world in Arkansas 17 times now. We've seen a lot of cool things in our world and we've seen some cool things in Europe and Paris and Germany and Switzerland and Dubai and Australia. We've seen some cool things, right? But we've never been back to that place. So we're going back to the Gaylord, to Nashville on January 22nd, 23rd. And we're going to be doing a very strategic mastermind. We're going to be focusing very much on how to help people grow where they're at. Where are you starting?  You're planting into the ground. Now you don't have, you're not a, you're not a full tree. You can actually move and adjust. But we're going to establish your roots so that you can grow and expand. Judy, you're coming. You're ready, Judy. We'll see you. We've been out of school for two weeks already. Awesome. Michael, that means that she'll be back in school when the event happens, so you can come down. Judy, we'll see you there also. But here's the deal is about eight, nine years ago, I learned that you, Alicia, she's in. That's awesome.  You want to have the shortest path of success. That's probably why. You can figure it out on your own, but man, it's easier to find, to follow somebody else through a minefield than it is trying to figure it out on your own. That's a lie. That's a lie, I believe. That's what my good friend of mine, Brian Underwood, always said. He goes, if you want to get through a minefield, follow somebody, right? A minefield, when they explode the mines, explode if you walk on one. And so there's clues, success leaves clues, right? And so surround yourself with successful people, then you're going to find the clues faster, right? And I didn't know that. I kind of like to find the hard way to things.  Not that you can't learn from that way, but it's a longer path. And so if you want a shortcut to success, come and join us in Nashville. Obviously, it's a team event. So if you're on our team, join us in Nashville. If you're new and you don't know who we are, reach out, let's get you involved, then let's get you to Nashville. But we're going to have lots of fun. We're kicking off the challenge. We kicked up the challenge in January. We're going to be doing the challenge. Anybody can join us in the challenge through this month. So if you're interested in health changes and life changes and transforming your life, if you're interested in helping other people do the same thing, just put 22 in the chat. If you're on my personal page right now and you're watching this or the replay, go to the Keto Pro on my business page and actually hit 22 there. On this video, you'll actually get into a system and I can actually follow up with you better. But the hotel is amazing. Dawn. Oh my God, I can't wait to see you. They're done. Yeah, the hotel that we're staying at is absolutely extraordinary. It's an event in itself. So you have the most extraordinary hotel in Nashville, one of the most extraordinary cities in America. It's probably one of the top five cities in America. We have the top leaders and international global builders and team builders that are going to be there in Nashville to pour in and give insight and information. It's going to be absolutely extraordinary. And I have two surprises that none of my team has ever done. My team leaders are never done. It's absolutely extraordinary. It's two different trainings that we're going to do. I just got off a call earlier today with, let's just say he is a global icon in the space of personal growth. And he and I talked earlier. I have the whole thing written down here on my sheet of paper. Everything's going to be planned out and we're going to be doing it there in Nashville. So I'm super excited. It's one of those things that's like Christmas for me because I get to unveil something that nobody else has ever experienced that's going to be there. And I get to see how they react. So it's really, it's just as much for me. It's really more for me than it's for them. But it's going to be a huge, unbelievable process for everybody to go through. And so I'm super excited. Anyway, I'm rambling. I was getting on tonight because I was going to talk about the challenge and I was going to be basically come to the challenge with us. Come change your life. And y'all look at this. I can raise my arm. Like I'm pretty stoked. My arm is getting so much better. I just had surgery. Look at that. It's like one of nine incisions they put my shoulder.   It's what, it's just what happens when you surround yourself with the right people. So it's going to be absolutely extraordinary. Just remember if you want to jump on the challenge with us, just put 22 in the chat either on, on Instagram or go to the keto pro on Facebook, put 22 in the chat. If you're on YouTube, go over to Facebook now, Facebook isn't dead yet. It's not dead yet. Come on now.  So it is what it is. But y'all, I got to go. I'm going to see if this video is up and I'll play it for you if it is, but I don't think it is. It looks like it. Just hold the phone for a second. I have two phones. So one of them transfers all my other stuff to my other phone, but it hasn't transferred yet because it's got 60 items to do.  I don't know. Maybe maybe you just like listening to me speak, but here's the deal. Let's go. If you're watching the replay, thanks for sticking around. If you're watching this live, come to Nashville. If you want to transform or change your life, I have a few questions concerning keto. I can talk to you about that. I'm not sure if that's your name though. Trending topics. Is it trending or trending topics? Shoot me off some questions. I'll talk keto all day long. I want to change the world. Alicia, I do too. I can't wait to spend more time with you. You're about to ask. You're awesome. But if you have keto questions, shoot them. To be honest, that's my favorite thing to do. I will be doing a keto event, a virtual event, actually a personal one on I think the 25th or 26th. Awesome. Trending topics, 804. Shoot away. If you have keto questions, I'd love to answer your questions. That's my favorite topic. The truth is, when you look at the world of keto right now as you're typing your questions in, if you look at the world of keto, there's probably only a handful, maybe four or five people that have actually taught a lot of people how to do keto. There's a handful of researchers that have been researched for a long time. But for the most part, anybody that you position themselves as a keto expert for the most part either has just learned it or has never really coached a mass amount of people in it. You always got to be careful when you're out there on the global web. Six years ago, when we started talking about this conversation, we tell people, hey, Google keto, you can Google research and all the good research was there. But now that the marketers have gotten involved and the people that are really good at positioning themselves in ads and marketing, they confuse people on it. It's actually really simple. But let me ask this question here. I've just started keto about two weeks ago and I've experienced a lot of fatigue and suggestions. The biggest suggestion is that when you start keto, there's two reasons why people get tired when you start keto. Number one is that you're not burning your—because we have this thing called the Glute 4 transporter that activates and it's supposed to help you metabolize fat. Basically it helps you get energy into your cell better, right? But if that's not activated because of metabolic or health challenges that you've maybe had, you're not burning enough fat to keep your body get energy. So you're basically kind of withering through the process. That's roughly 60% of humans in America that have that problem.  The other reason—what I recommend if you do this right now, if you're tired right now, take an eighth, let's say a sixteenth of a teaspoon of sea salt, like a good heavy pinch of heavy sea salt, like a Himalayan or Celtic or real sea salt, and put it under your tongue and then drink some water and then do it again 30 minutes later. If you wake up, if you feel energy, that tells me that you're given a diuretic effect and ketones are a natural diuretic. So if you're prone to dehydration or if you don't hydrate well, meaning if you drink water that's over filtered like bottled water or reverse osmosis or distilled water, or if you don't drink enough water, you tend to dehydrate. So if you notice energy boost after putting salt in your mouth, it's got to be a decent amount. So an eighth of a teaspoon, so it's a sixteenth, let's do a sixteenth for 30 minutes and do it later. If you need a big boost, that doesn't mean that we need to increase your electrolytes and hydration needs to become more prevalent for you. Now once you get fully keto adapted, it might not be so bad, but that's the two reasons. Either you're not burning enough fat fast enough and if that's the case, you have to drink our product, you're not going to get around it, you're going to struggle and you're going to quit, or it's dehydration through electrolytes and we need to increase our sodium levels for a while. And then once you get those levels up, then we got to focus on other electrolytes to balance it all out. So that's what I'd recommend. You can always hit me a private message and I can give you that formula very, very much specifically. So I hope that helps if you're getting fatigued on keto. That's usually the two most common reasons. Outside of that, you're maybe not getting enough overall calories in. That could be the other option, but most likely it's one of those two. I love the vision. Kids have the TV and I'm gaining my ambition. Yes, kids are still awake. Awesome. Hey, kids can be awake. Our kids are awake too, but we're on the West Coast at 730. So I hope that answered your question. If you have more questions, shoot them out at me. Honestly, my favorite thing to do is Q&A because I think it's real. It's what really happened in real lives and that's what matters most. What people need now versus the theory behind it or the concept. Because I'll be honest with you all, there's no perfect. If you want to find the perfect diet or if you want to find the perfect lifestyle, it's always individual. No matter what somebody else has done, it's probably not going to work for you. If that makes any sense, you've got to find it's a blend. But also keep in mind, you're the first person to lie to yourself and you're the first person to justify why you should do something differently. I had a glass of wine tonight and if you shouldn't drink, then you can always justify why you should. So that's the same thing in anything we do. We're going to be biased towards certain things and I'm biased towards keto. But scientifically, it's very evident that we should be in ketosis a lot of the time, so it's how do we find the way that can work for every individual person out there worldwide? And that's why the mission to a million is so important is that we want to be able to help people find their own confidence in their own lifestyle and block out the noise of what the world is telling us and scaring us about. Because some things are not worth worrying about and some things we should take at a higher priority. So, but any more questions, pop them in there, buddy. I'd love to answer them. Karina, are you coming to Nashville? Hopefully Karina, I'll see you in Nashville. Looking forward to Nashville. Nashville is going to be a cool place. Judy, Judy in disguise. That's what you want. What's happened to Instagram? I wish TikTok is up. I got TikTok. I don't want to start them now. There's too late, but my tech group, I wish they were up. It's funny because platforms are different now. I don't know if you guys realize that. They're kind of all the same. They work really the same in essence, but the personalities are all different. The people that are on them are different. Like the certain people resonate towards certain platforms. It's kind of funny.  But at the end of the day, it's just you got to leave with the heart and be good with it all. So, if there's no more questions, I want to let you guys all get to bed. It's Friday night. I hope to see a lot of you in Nashville. I hope to see a lot of you join us in the challenge. The challenge is one of the most groundbreaking challenges I've ever seen in my 30, all that 30, 20 plus year, all 25 year career. So if you want to do the challenge with us, just pop it in, 22 down below. We'll get back to you.  What is better, Keto Pro or Uncharge Nat in the evening? What's your goal, Judy? Judy's asking, should you drink Keto Pro at night or should you drink Keto S Nat at night? And I'm going to ask Judy, what is your goal? What do you want to achieve from that? Angela, you better be coming. Come on, Angela. If not, I've always seen you in Florida. She has a long trip to make, but so Judy is sleeping. So Judy wants to sleep better. There's two things I recommend for sleep. Keto Pro is better for sleep, I believe, because it has medium chain fatty acids with it. So it'll keep your ketones, it won't spike them fast. It kind of will keep them gradually coming up and then it'll keep them level longer.  I don't want you to wake up and go potty. The second thing I like, and I actually do, I don't do Keto Pro anymore for whatever reason, and I recommend both because I've found now over the world, it's worked differently for everybody. So that's why everybody has to find their own path. But non-ca, this is a caffeine, but non-caffeine free cell ketones. I do these with a mitoplex before I go to bed about two hours because it does make me pee. So here in about 20 minutes, I will have one of these with a mitoplex before I go to bed and it's exponentially improved my sleep. I don't think I can do it on here, but if you look at my sleep, I have an aura ring in my hand here, aura ring. And it's exponentially improved my sleep, like night and day. And when I drink those together, but the Keto Pro also improved my sleep. It's just for whatever reason, the way this hits my brain is better. I get in this deeper state of sleep. So that's what I do now. So those are my two recommendations.  The science, there's science on the Keto Pro. Hi Dustin, no audio on your IG. Either the audio just turned off or the guy that I was talking to earlier or lied to me. So anybody else on Instagram not hear me, just put me down if you can't hear me. Just put me down, say you can hear me. But the science behind the Keto Pro has actually been proven. They've did studies on that where if you can use ketones and medium chain fatty acids and give us, because people wake up because they run out of energy. They wake up because they don't, I think it's just you, hopefully. I don't, I can't hear you. But people wake up because they run out of energy. It's one of the main problems that they have. Also ketones help calm down the brain. So that's why Keto Pro is really, really good because it lasts longer. But for whatever reason, the, what's up Jeff Greer? Good to see you buddy. Dude, I miss you. Come to Nashville, Jeff. If not, we'll see you in Utah. I got a plan out. I'm not ready for that. But the free cell technology seems to hit my brain differently and I don't know why. I gave it to Dr. Ryan Lowry. He drank it the next day. He's like, dude, I slept different. I don't know. I understand. I go study it. I go study it. Like, what do you do? Like, so besides it, you're being anecdotal, that anecdotal, anecdotal, anecdotal. And whatever word that is. It seems to work for some people really well having the Keto, the free cell before you go to bed. Now I don't do the free cell during the day. I only do it at night because for whatever reason, it really calms me down. Maybe I should do it more often because I'm kind of hyper. Instagram, can you guys hear me over here? Yeah, I've been rocking and rolling. My wife says, I told her 20 minutes and she goes, it's never 20 minutes. It's always 30 or 40 or 50. I'm at 19, 20 right now. So with that said, I'm going to keep it at 20. I appreciate y'all. If you're up for a challenge to change your life, remember, just hit me back, hit 22 in the chat. If you're on my personal page, jump over to the Keto Pro, hit 22. If you are looking for an adventure, if you're looking for something really fun, looking for something really cool, come to Nashville with us. We're going to do a really cool mastermind. We're going to do some really fun things there. And it's going to be epic. We're going to have some really cool secret things planned. And there's two things that nobody's ever done that's coming that I know of that I've never done before. At least not in this environment. So it'll be pretty cool. And we're at 1959 and I'm out.