We're in the middle of a global pandemic and we have a president who is holding daily news briefings for COVID-19 and this is exactly what we should expect from a leader, except instead of actually reassuring people that everything is going to be okay, he's basically going on television every single day and throwing temper tantrums and shitting himself. This is what we're dealing with. Now I will admit that the strategy of holding these daily press briefings, it's not just what leaders should do, but politically speaking, this is beneficial to Donald Trump theoretically because Joe Biden has basically been invisible throughout this COVID-19 crisis, hence why a lot of Democrats are kind of gravitating towards Andrew Cuomo, mistakenly so, but nonetheless, that's what's happening right now because they're desperate for a leader. So for Donald Trump to just be visible in and of itself, I think there is some value in terms of helping him with his reelection chances because if voters value anything in a leader, it strength its leadership and that's the bare minimum. But as we've seen with Donald Trump, he can't even do the bare minimum for too long before he starts having meltdowns because he literally can't even bother to seem somewhat competent. He can't pretend long enough until he's off air. And Donald Trump has been doing so little to assure people that he has this under control that his overall approval rating has actually gone down throughout the course of these daily press briefings. And this comes after a majority of Americans supported his response initially. And let me remind you that Donald Trump's approval rating should have been at 0%. The fact that a majority of Americans initially approved of his handling of COVID shows how much the media failed. Because he is the reason why this is so bad in the United States. He ignored repeated warnings time and again. So if we acted sooner, it's unquestionable. We would be better off. We wouldn't have been able to skirt this pandemic altogether. It was something that we were going to have to deal with, but it's not even arguable. He put us in a worse off predicament. So the fact that a majority of voters approved of his job was awful. It speaks to the failure of the media, but it's also embarrassing as an American because I mean, come on.   He was talking about reopening the country by Easter, until smart people around him had to let him know that that would be a terrible decision. And as Mary Popinfuss of HuffPost reports, in his haste to jumpstart the economy, Trump posed a frightening scenario to Dr. Anthony Fauci during a task force meeting in the situation room. No COVID-19 countermeasures would be taken so that people would quickly become infected with some recovering to create a protective herd immunity, sources told the newspaper. Quote, why don't we let this wash over the country? Trump asked. A question others told the post the president has raised repeatedly in the Oval Office. Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, realized with surprise that Trump was serious the post reported. Mr. President, Fauci responded, according to the post, many people would die. Now the fact that this even had to be explained to the president of the United States is utterly absurd. Like he genuinely believed for a period of time, maybe he still believes this, that we actually could choose between killing off Americans and the economy, as if lots and lots of people dying in and of itself wasn't going to be bad for the economy if you just let this disease wash over America.  But thankfully there are people in his ear, for now anyways, like Dr. Fauci, who are actually smart. And the reason why I say for now is because in an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN, Dr. Fauci admitted what was obvious to everyone. Of course, if we acted sooner, we would have been better off, which led to Donald Trump retweeting a chud who called on Dr. Fauci to be fired for daring to suggest that Daddy Trump could ever be wrong in any circumstance ever. And make no mistake about it. What Trump is doing here is kind of firing off a warning shot to Dr. Fauci. While in line, obey me or you're gone. Now Trump knows that politically this isn't going to help his case going into November because Dr. Fauci is one of the most trusted entities in American government currently. So if Donald Trump were to fire him, this wouldn't bode well for his electoral chances. So Donald Trump is probably having an internal battle right now.  But on another hand, he knows that he kind of has to play nicely with Dr. Fauci currently if he wants to reassure the American people that he's competent and he should be re-elected. And it kind of seems like after today, he is siding with his inner authoritarian. Because there is a battle that's going on currently between governors and Donald Trump's administration. You see kind of a pact forming along the West Coast and some other states. They're basically saying we're going to be the ones who dictate when we reopen our state's backup. And Trump wants to reopen sooner rather than later because of course he's self-interested and he thinks that the economy tanking is something that is going to hurt him. So if we reopen the economy, just push everyone back out into the workplace, get them all sick sooner, it's better for him. So if state governors are going to defy him, then he's not just going to stand idly by. So it's kind of mask off and he's just going full authoritarian case in point. When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total. And that's the way it's got to be. It's total. It's total. It's total. And the governor is now that. If a governor is now that, now you have a couple of bans of, excuse me, excuse me, you have a couple. Could you rescind that order? You have a couple of bans of Democrat governors but they will agree to it. They will agree to it but the authority of the president of the United States having to do with the subject we're talking about is total. The sitting United States president just said the president's authority is total. Wow. Now I actually think that it's pretty smart for governors to go back and forth with Donald Trump here because they know that Donald Trump is unhinged and he's going to battle them. And whenever he battles them, this helps raise their profile. Like Gretchen Whitmer has benefited a lot from Donald Trump attacking her. And she's believed to be a potential VP pick for Joe Biden. So they know that battling Donald Trump, it helps them politically at least in terms of throwing red meat to your own base of Democratic Party voters.  I think this is kind of a good move for them. It shows strength. It shows leadership where we get none federally. At least we get it at the state level in some states. But here's the thing. If Donald Trump says we're going to reopen the country back up, whatever that means in whatever capacity he's thinking he has the authority to command them to do, what if they just say, no, like what is he going to do? What are you going to do, Trump? Are you going to send in the military to force them to reopen the state? Like what does that even look like? What authority does Donald Trump think he has here? You have federal recommendations from the CDC and whatnot. But at the end of the day, governors are the ones who get to dictate when states reopen. And you have the West Coast, Washington, Oregon, California, aligning with some East Coast states. And they're saying, actually, we're going to choose when it's best for our states each with our own unique internal battles with COVID-19.  Now, somebody asked him a follow-up question about what he meant by that and how it's obviously not true. And he just kind of had a temper tantrum and melted down. You said when someone is president of the United States, their authority is total. That is not true. Who? You know what we're going to do? We're going to write up papers on this. It's not going to be necessary because the governors need us one way or the other because ultimately it comes with the federal government. That being said, we're getting along very well with the governors. And I feel very certain that there won't be a problem. Yeah, please go ahead. Has any governor agreed that you have the authority to decide when their state is back up? I haven't asked anybody. You know why? Because I don't have to. Go ahead, please.  Enough. Please. You mentioned the vice president. Now, if you notice, he's kind of backtracking a little bit. In that first video towards the end, he said, you know, the president has total authority when it comes to this issue. Not true. Here, you know, he says, he kind of softens it a little bit. You know, actually these governors, they need the federal government when it comes to funding and supplies. So, um, yeah, that's what I meant. I didn't mean that I was going to be like this petulant authoritarian and force them to reopen their states, even if they think that that would be unsafe. Well, that's exactly what it meant. And because you know that you don't have the power short of some type of weird like unconstitutional power grab, he has no choice but to back down because this is a battle that he can't win because he doesn't have the authority to command states to do that. They're saying, no, what are you going to do? What are you going to do?   But the mere fact that he would even suggest that the president has total authority and use that authoritarian language, that should worry everyone. I should tell you that Donald Trump doesn't actually care about checks and balances. He literally does not believe that there is any check on his authority, even if he is actually saying it's only with regard to this issue. It's an unlimited scope that I have total authority. I don't believe that he believes that, but even if he thought that in a limited scope, he had total authority. That's not something that you say. As a leader, you say, you know, what I'm doing is I'm working with the experts and together we're formulating a response. We're formulating a plan to reopen the country. But he can't even do that because he can't help himself. Instinctively, he is an authoritarian to his core. He is not authoritarian. And each successive president has increased the power of the executive branch. George Bush did this a lot. We saw substantial increase in executive power under his administration. We saw another increase under Obama and we're seeing it again with Donald Trump. And this is going to be a trend that continues until we finally get someone in power who's not self-interested, who limits the scope and Congress actually stands up and does its job and the courts do its job. But as you can see, you know, what we have are institutions that just have completely caved to the executive. So there is really no check on authority. He doesn't have the constitutional ability. To be able to have total authority over anything. But the fact that he thinks he does, that should worry everyone. So let me just say that we are so and I cannot emphasize this enough. Fucked.


Love in fantastic triumph-sate, whilst bleeding hearts around him flowed, for whom fresh pains he did create, and strange tyrannic power he showed. From thy bright eyes he took his fires, which round about in sport he hurled, but twas for mine he took desires enough to undo the amorous world. From me he took his sighs and tears, from thee his pride and cruelty, from me his languishments and fears, and every killing dart from thee. Thus thou and I the God have armed, and set him up a deedy, but my poor heart alone is harmed whilst thine the victor is, and free. And of poem this recording is in the public domain. From thy bright eyes he took his fires, which round about in sport he hurled, but twas for mine he took desires enough to undo the amorous world. From me he took his sighs and tears, from thee his pride and cruelty, from me his languishments and fears, and every killing dart from thee. Thus thou and I the God have armed, and set him up a deedy, but my poor heart alone is harmed whilst thine the victor is, and free. End of poem this recording is in the public domain. Love in fantastic triumphs sate, while bleeding hearts round him flowed, from whom fresh pains he did create, and strange tyronic power he showed. From thy bright eyes he took his fires, which round about in sport he hurled, but twas for mine he took desires enough to undo the amorous world. From me he took his sighs and tears, and thee his pride and cruelty, from me his languishments and fears, and every killing dart from thee. Thus thou and I the God have armed, and set him up a deedy, but my poor heart alone is harmed whilst thine the victor is, and free. End of poem this recording is in the public domain. Song by Afra Ben, read for LibriVox.org by Ezwa. Love in fantastic triumphs sate, whilst bleeding hearts round him flowed, for whom fresh pains he did create, and strange tyronic power he showed. From thy bright eyes he took his fires, which round about in sport he hurled, but twas for mine he took desires enough to undo the amorous world. From me he took his sighs and tears, from thee his pride and cruelty, from me his languishments and fears, and every killing dart from thee. Thus thou and I the God have armed, and set him up a deedy, but my poor heart alone is harmed whilst thine the victor is, and free. End of poem this recording is in the public domain. Song by Afra Ben, read for LibriVox.org by Joe Brenman. Love in fantastic triumphs sate, whilst bleeding hearts around him flowed, for whom fresh pains he did create, and strange tyronic power he showed. From thy bright eyes he took his fires, which round about in sport he hurled, but twas for mine he took desires enough to undo the amorous world. For me he took his sighs and tears, from thee his pride and cruelty, from me his languishments and fears, and every killing dart from thee. Thus thou and I the God have armed, and set him up a deedy, but my poor heart alone is harmed whilst thine the victor is, and free. End of poem this recording is in the public domain. Song by Afra Ben, read for LibriVox.org by Jeanette Ferguson. Love in fantastic triumphs sate, whilst bleeding hearts around him flowed, for whom fresh pains he did create, and strange tyronic power he showed. From thy bright eyes he took his fires, which round about in sport he hurled, but twas for mine he took desires enough to undo the amorous world. For me he took his sighs and tears, from thee his pride and cruelty, from me his languishments and fears, and every killing dart from thee. Thus thou and I the God have armed, and set him up a deedy, but my poor heart alone is harmed whilst thine the victor is, and free. End of poem this recording is in the public domain. Song by Afra Ben, read for LibriVox.org by Leanne Howlett. Love in fantastic triumphs sate, whilst bleeding hearts around him flowed, for whom fresh pains he did create, and strange tyronic power he showed. From thy bright eyes he took his fires, which round about in sport he hurled, but twas for mine he took desires enough to undo the amorous world. For me he took his sighs and tears, from thee his pride and cruelty, from me his languishments and fears, and every killing dart from thee. Thus thou and I the God have armed, and set him up a deedy, but my poor heart alone is harmed whilst thine the victor is, and free. End of poem this recording is in the public domain. Song by Afra Ben, read for LibriVox.org by Mark Smith. Love in fantastic triumphs sate, whilst bleeding hearts around him flowed, for whom fresh pains he did create, and strange tyronic power he showed. From thy bright eyes he took his fires, which round about in sport he hurled, but which was from mine he took desires enough to undo the amorous world. From me he took his sighs and tears, from thee his pride and cruelty, from me his languishments and fears, and every killing dart from thee. Thus thou and I the God have armed, and set him up a deedy, but my poor heart alone is harmed whilst thine the victor is, and free. End of poem this recording is in the public domain.


Welcome and Aloha. I'm Mark Shklav, host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea program. I love to travel across the sea, especially to meet friends at professional legal conferences. Making those in-person professional contacts has been very meaningful and helpful to me and my clients in my law practice. However, because of this pandemic we've all been going through, I have had to cancel plans to attend legal conferences in Shanghai and Tokyo. My question, when and how are we going to be able to safely travel across the seas again? My guest is Wendy Goodenow. Wendy is the president of H&L Travel Associates and is a certified travel counselor. For many years, Wendy has been helping her clients realize their dreams of travel and adventure around the world. I've asked Wendy to share her knowledge and help us learn to navigate across the seas again. Welcome, Wendy. It's good to see you. We have on the screen right now something from your H&L Travel website where you say, let me read this. Even in an uncertain world, we believe in the allure of travel. It's still okay to dream. Travel provides the joy of dreaming, the excitement of the experience and a lifetime of priceless memories. Now, Wendy, hello, how are you? Thanks, Mark. Appreciate having that postcard there. That was actually something we sent to our clients about four months into this pandemic. Just to let them know we're not giving up. Well, I like the philosophy expressed there. And what is the basis for your philosophy about travel that it provides the joy of dreaming and the excitement of the experience? How did you come to that? Well, you know, I grew up in this business with my mother and she instilled in me the desire to learn and absolutely everything you do traveling is a learning experience. So it opens your eyes to everything. You see how other people live. You should not go to some country and expect the Hilton around the corner or the McDonald's down the block. You need to experience the local style. Learn about people and learn and maybe make some friends if possible, I guess, in these countries. And that may help bring us all together, perhaps. And I guess that's what I got out of what you were saying. And I really appreciate that. That's been true in my experiences with travel. Now, we've been going through this pandemic, this COVID-19 pandemic for over a year. What is the current status of the travel industry after we've gone through all these shutdowns and travel restrictions? Where are we now? What's happening in the travel industry, Wendy? Well, as soon as I tell you something, it's gonna change. I must get 50 to 100 emails every single day from a vendor, a tourism board, a friend telling us about the latest, sometimes not greatest news. And of course, the minute I say one thing, it's gonna change. I had that experience with a client personally last week. And it's a real challenge. However, with the vaccinations and things, we've opened up the world of thinking about travel. Now comes the get out of our shell and really decide something out there, maybe down the road is appropriate. But a lot of the people I'm talking to now, they wanna go tomorrow and they wanna know yesterday it was okay. Okay, well, let's talk about today. And what are the current rules for traveling into and out of Hawaii? I mean, what right today? Traveling out of Hawaii, there really isn't a rule. We don't need to do anything to leave Hawaii. Residents have just been given a great reprieve if you've gotten your vaccine here as of June 15th, you no longer have to take the COVID test on the return. You do have to upload your vaccine card as well as carry it with you because if they don't verify it before you arrive, you'll have to show it to the authorities at the airport. And we just had up on the screen a document and that comes from your firm, from H&L Travel. What was that? Mark, I took a trip with my husband to the Pacific Northwest last month. And in the process of doing my own safe travels, we turned home because it was before June 15th. I kept trying to figure out which comes first, the force of the cart. So I literally wrote down every single step that I went through in the process because I was leaving my husband up there and he would have to do his own coming home a week later. So he had no concept of what to do or how to do it. So I literally put it step by step. Now, just this week, I've added the white resident portion, but it's still a challenge getting that uploaded. And when you upload it, they have to verify it to actually get you through the process. So yeah, so you tried to prepare a step by step way on how to travel. How to do the Safe Travels Hawaii program. Okay, well, all right, what is Safe Travels Hawaii? What is that about? Safe Travels Hawaii is a program that the state has created that every time someone travels into Hawaii, they have to go online and fill it, go through the process, give them all your flight information, and then within 24 hours of your flight, you then have to go in and either upload your COVID test or upload your vaccine card, answer the health questionnaires, make sure everything works to get your QR code that gets you through the doors, so to speak, once you arrive to avoid quarantine. And so that's for folks coming into Hawaii. Correct. And this documentation that you prepared, you prepared that for your clients also? I give it to anybody and everybody that I think is even thinking about traveling. Okay, so how would somebody that's thinking of traveling, how would they get that from you, or how would they find out that step-by-step process that you prepared? I have it on emailable documents. I don't have it on my website as yet. That's a little more technical. I think it's going on to my Facebook. Okay, so people can, if they go on H&L Traveler, they could at least find out how to find that information. It's not top secret. It's on, if you just Google Safe Travels Hawaii, you will find sort of the same information. It's not quite as technical or detailed as I put it for my husband to understand. I like that step-by-step process. In the Safe Travels, they also talk about trusted partners. What is that? There is a list of trusted partners being where you can go to get a COVID test that they will accept. There's a lot of Walgreens, CVS. Actually, there are a couple of airlines that have set up their own program for testing. Hawaiian in fact has their own test site. And if you go onto their website once you're ticketed, you can put in the city you're coming home from and it'll tell you exactly where to go. You can make an appointment. It's very simple. Okay. I noticed that a lot of these rules seem to require a computer competence. And what if you're not computer competent? What do you do?  Call your grandkids or your kids. Get help. You need to be on the computer. It needs to be done on the computer. And it's really a lot easier if you physically do it on a desktop type computer. It's not as easy, especially on a phone, but once you've completed it, you can pull it up on your phone and it's all there, very easy to read. I see. So yeah, I mean, I'm just looking for ways to get us back traveling. Now you mentioned that you and your husband recently traveled to the mainland. I know that you did both business and fun. What was that experience like compared to prior to the COVID? The pre-COVID? Well, besides the mask and sanitizing and, you know, we were kids, our parents used to always tell us, wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands. That's no different today. You need to be doing that more often than not. A lot of people carry sanitizer, the airlines when you get on the flight, they'll hand you a little handy white so you can double check your seat area. They're very cognizant. I tell people, take three or four or even five masks with you on the flight because what I do is I change the mask every hour or two because it has pressure points on your face. But if you change the mask, the pressure points are different. Some masks are easier to breathe with. I do know now you always need to carry some kind of paper mask. There are airlines that will not accept cloth masks now. Okay, that's interesting. Good to know. In fact, Lufthansa in Frankfurt in their lounge will only allow you in with an M95 mask. Wow. Yeah. You have to check in advance a lot of these things and in a way just keep your area around you clean and keep yourself free from getting contamination, I guess. It's the best way. Yeah. Now, I've noticed from reading the newspaper that there seems to be a lot of rapid upsurge of travel into Hawaii at this time, but I mean, and after there seems to be a lot of rules about coming into Hawaii, and you've showed them to us and talked about them, but why do you think Hawaii is so popular now? Now, even with all these rules, the safe travel rules. Well, I think people love Hawaii anyway. People have waited a year and a half to come back and with the governor allowing no mask out in public, that tends to get approval from a lot of people that I still wear my mask when I'm out and about because I'm protected, I'm vaccinated, but I don't know about anybody else. So it sounds there's two factors here. One is that there's a perception that Hawaii is a safe place to travel and people like to come to Hawaii. Well, we have had a constant low count. I don't know if anybody really realizes it, but we have been one of the better states in terms of being extra careful, although our governor and lieutenant governor are often criticized about being too strict, I'd rather be on the safe side for a shorter period of time and having to prolong it because we aren't being careful. So Hawaii seems to be popular for those reasons. What other venues or locations or travel destinations are most popular right now at this period in time today? Well, I can tell you there's a number of countries that have opened up already. The Caribbean is open, but you have to be basically vaccinated to get through the things you need to do there. Depending on where you're going and you always, always, always have to go online and look at travel.hawaii.gov to see Cummings and Goings for Hawaii as well as travel.state.gov for international travel. Well, based on the international travel, I mean, where are your clients wanting to go? Where have they, I mean? I know a lot of people want to go to Japan. I mean, I had to cancel a conference there, a lot of friends there. You know, kind of like Canada, they're more controlling of the tourists there. So right now you can't go to Canada, you can't go to Japan, you just gotta wait. I hate to say that, but everybody has their own rules. And that's why I say you have to go online almost every day to see where each country is at. It's just absolutely amazing. And when your clients, is that what they're contacting you about mostly is where can I go? I mean, we talk about dreaming of traveling again, but they want to be safe, right? And so is that what you were finding, people are contacting you about is how can I be safe traveling? Well, a little bit of that, but more so they have in their mind, they want to go somewhere and maybe it's this year, maybe it's next year, but they want to know yesterday it's okay. So for the travel advisors, it puts a lot of strain on wanting quick answers because everything changes daily. And as soon as I get these rules down and I understand them, they change them. So we really, and from day one, I have never pushed people to want and book something. I just think people have to be very comfortable in what they're doing. They have to be comfortable knowing that they've taken all the precautions that they need to take. And it's partly my job to share some of that importance on keeping safe and well in the meantime. So really what you're talking about doing is providing knowledge and information really on a daily basis for people and you can't predict the future, can you? I mean, my wife and I would love to be able to travel we're travel dreamers when we, even on professional trips where we go to a convention or I go to a law convention, but we'll take a day or so and go like, when we go to Japan and go to Kyoto, even though I've been there many times, I still love to go there or some other location within Japan. But obviously we're not doing it now. I mean, even the, it's questionable about the Olympics. If they're gonna, I'm sorry, yeah. I mean, it's just, how are we gonna, when are, I mean, is there any, what advice would you give us?  We just have to wait. Is that, I guess that's the advice. You just have to wait and see. It's really a hurry up and wait game because although we recommend that you start booking travel to some degree, it changes all along the way. I mean, air flight schedule changes. You know, we go through the normal daylight savings time on and off scheduled changes, but all these airlines are now having to bring more and more planes on. So their schedules are changing. And it's pretty much supply and demand as to where they're gonna add on flights first. So you're providing information basically on a daily basis to your clients, but you know, when you talk about the airlines, one thing we've heard a lot about the airlines is, you know, fights, you know, what's going on with that? And what's being done about that? I mean, do I have to, Matt, is that another worry when you get on a flight somewhere that there's gonna be a passenger, unruly passenger and a fighter, somebody trying to break into a cockpit? What's all that about? That's a lot of pandemic pent up, anger and angst and unaware of anxiety that people have, you know, Mark, if I knew I was gonna get hit by a truck, if I crossed the street, I wouldn't cross the street, but then I'd never go anywhere, you know? I can get hit at home just as easily as anywhere else in the world. So there is some risk, no matter what, is what you're saying. There's always gonna be risk. I mean, look at what's going on anywhere in the world. It's just tragic as to how people have taken things in their own hands because of their angst. Are there any destinations in the world today where people can travel to help reduce their stress?  You see some advertisements on TV, but I don't necessarily buy into that, but do you have some suggestions or some thoughts? Well, first of all, you can go out or island without any testing issues and you don't have to do the safe travel program in your island anymore. That's a big help. I went yesterday to the North Shore of our own island and rode horses and I can't tell you how restful that was. And so out of my, I mean, this is my office, this is my element, five, six days a week. And just to drive for an hour and get on a horse, it was like heaven. You know, I like that. That's good advice. I mean, Hawaii, hey, this is the place. This is not a bad place to relax. My husband is hesitant now about international travel. He wants to see the US, he wants to see America and how many people ever think about that? You know, our own country. And it's got fascinating views and places to go and people to see that live a very different lifestyle than we do. So I think that's fabulous. Yeah, so look inward maybe in a way, travel within our own home country and islands. Yeah, yeah. And as we are looking towards the future now, post-pandemic, what are you suggesting for travel advice, for safe travel? I personally can't wait to get on a ship. You can put me out over the horizon and I'd be happy as a clam. But that's sort of a test case. We have to go through for a few weeks to see how well that works.  When you're on a ship with 4,000 of your closest friends, that's a destination. Yeah, there's been a lot of cruising. It's the best way to travel. You unpack once. They've resanitized all the ships. They've done so much and they've gotten so much scientific information about cruising that I truly feel that that's probably a very safe place to be. Ah, so that's interesting because the cruises got a lot of criticism for the spread of COVID within the ships. That could have been anywhere. That could have been on a train. That could have been on a airplane. It could have been anything. Okay, now, so cruises you think are learning to change and be safe. They have been on the water, but not sailing for over 16 months now. And in the process, they've had their own scientific panels of advisors to be sure that they're doing what's right for their clients. I'm afraid it's just gonna take one more incident and it'll shut them down again. Well, that's good to know. I mean, I like to go on cruises too, but just there's been some worry and concern. We have a little bit of time left, but how about hotels? Or if we wanna stay somewhere? Little by little. They may be open, but maybe they don't have all their rooms available. There were some hotels that shut down to do major renovations, which was really smart because now that things are coming back, they open up and they're top of the mark. So if somebody wants to travel, they can contact you and get some advice on cruises, hotels, travel locations. And you wanna help them with information. You're not pushing anybody. Yeah. I can't push people to go out and do something immediately, but I can understand their fears and work with them to make it a win-win. And we just put on your contact information on the screen. So there we go. There's your H&L travel information that folks wanna contact you and maybe realize their dreams of travel again and find some adventure. They can contact you. Well, Wendy, I wanna thank you very much for being my guest today.  And in the legal profession, I gotta tell you just traveling is not, it is beneficial to everybody. In my personal experience, I've been doing it for 40 plus years and I just find the benefits from it are great, especially in Hawaii, which we're right in the middle of every place and close to Asia, close to the United States, mainland. And so it's meaningful to me. I wanna get back on it. So thank you for sharing your knowledge and hopefully our dreams will come true. Aloha. Aloha. Thank you, Mark.


And then we'll take that over to the elevator and ride it up and then we'll drive to the next stop. How's that? Does that work? Pretty good. You'll be driving that thing. I'll tell you something. There's a lot of these tailors which they can go up and down the elevator. I'll bet you there's a lot of people right now that are going to be just tagging along. That's it. Okay? So we're on your timeline now. What works? Is aircraft will come in? The Air Boston. How about the elevator ride, Mom? That was great. What has your journey been like from all over the places you've been? What has it been like to be a part of something like this? It's just mind boggling. I started out back home. I went to all the western states. I went all the way around through Florida and up. What would your word of advice be for living life? You're really living life to the fullest. Right. Do what you want. The doctors aren't always right.  Oh, this is great. I've never seen them much during the summer. Usually about a week or two and they'd be off again. I got them listening. Or I'm with them, I should say. Anything you can say about the shipbuilders here that build these ships? Can you imagine what they would send to build something like this? No. That's why I say it's so amazing. I've never seen anything like this before. It's great. A little over a year or so here. On this incredible journey traveling the country and everything, what brought you here today is one-year time in waves and one-year unique connection with our namesake, President Ford. How exactly did you meet him? This was a long time ago, back in 1949. We were just out, my husband and I were both just out of the service. He was in the Army Air Corps.  So we had to go up to Grand Rapids. And the government didn't follow, after a note from Toledo, our last three cents, right to Mr. Ford. And see if he can help us. He was the new Congressman from Michigan. And so that's what I did. And he came out and resumed us with our checks. Let's check. Do you ever think... Just at all. How is this whole experience for you? How would you describe it? Exciting. I just can't express it any other way. Give us any tips on life and enjoying life to the full. Anything you can say. We need wisdom here. So wise. Do what you want. Do what you think is the most right for you. What's been your most memorable experience? Oh, I knew you was going to ask me that. I don't know. This, I think.  Yes. This is it. We've got a lot of stuff. Yeah, I don't think we'll get much better than this. What do you think of the sailors on board? Oh, they look great. They really do. Are they as good looking as they were in World War II? How do you feel about the ship, to not do the chemo treatments and to just go, go with it and enjoy it? I couldn't see me. You know, guaranteed to be any better. Probably worse off than I was just there. How do you feel now? How much do you think this trip has done for your mind, body, and soul? I think a lot. Do you think you'd like to add something? Just say thanks, Mom. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all very much. Thank you.


This step-by-step video will help you find and check out e-books from the San Francisco Public Library. With your San Francisco Public Library card and pen, you can check out books and more for free. Let's get started! Open your web browser and type in sffl.org. If you want to view our website in Spanish or Chinese, click here and select the language of your choice. For this video, we will view the website in English. Let's start our search by finding the white box with the downward arrow. Click on the arrow and select Books from the drop-down menu. Let's search for the Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo. In the white search box, type the title The Poet X. And then click the magnifying glass. This will take you to a new page with all the books with this title. Let's take a closer look at what's on the screen. Here is a picture of the book cover. The title of the book is in bold. The author's name is below the title, last name, then first name. I can see here that there are eight different listings for this book. If it says book, that means it's a physical book. If it says e-book, that is an electronic book that you can read on a device like a computer, tablet or phone. The year tells you when it was published. And here is how you can access the book. If it's a physical book, it will say available if it's ready for checkout. For e-books, it will say e-book followed by the type of app you will need to read the book. By the way, we also have audiobooks where you can listen to a recording of the book. If you see downloadable audiobook, you can download these recordings to your device. Our e-books are available to read on four different platforms. They require you to download a free app depending on which platform you will use. The apps are either Access360, Libby, SimplyE or Hoopla. If you find your e-book on Hoopla, good news. You can access that e-book immediately. There are no wait times for Hoopla titles. For that reason, we will use Hoopla as our e-reader platform and download the Poet X. Click on Instantly Available on Hoopla requires registration. When you see the book cover again, click the blue borrow button. Select borrow from the pop-up screen to confirm the loan. The book will now download to your device. Click the blue read button to open the book and start reading. You will have three weeks to return the e-book. Don't worry about returning it since it will be returned automatically when your three weeks are up. To read e-books on your device, you will need to download the free apps Libby for Overdrive, Access360, Hoopla and SimplyE. Go to your app store and download the app you want. Each app will require you to set up an account with an email account, username and password. You will need to have your library card number and pin available. To learn more about downloading e-books, visit sfpl.org forward slash e-books. If you need help at any step of the way, call the San Francisco Public Library at<PHONE_NUMBER> or email us at info at sfpl.org. We are standing by to assist you. Happy reading!


Venezuelan baseball we got a tie game in the top of the 8th and an all-time botch play McGee row our dude was the batter and McGee row just keeps on running he's tired he's gassed they're now up five to three there's two on okay but only one more out and they win there's the ground out Alcitas Escobar at second botches that one and allows two runs to score on this side Escobar's like shit damn five runs a piece top of the 11th runner-on first one out and look who steps to the plate our dude Yasiel Puig and it's hammered and it's gone and Puig stares at it and watches it and sees it go pisses the Braavos off says we are not the Braavos


Good afternoon. A warm welcome to you all and I hope you are keeping well and staying safe at this time. My name is Joyce O'Connor. I chair the digital group here at the IIEA. We were really delighted to welcome you to today's webinar towards European Digital sovereignty. This is the first event in a series of events of a new IIEA project, Europe's Digital Futures. This project will be a year long series of events and research to explore European digital sovereignty. But today I'm really delighted to welcome back Dr. Roberta Viola to the IIEA. A very distinguished keynote speaker today and we're very pleased that you have joined us out of your busy schedule. As you know, Dr. Viola is director general of DG Connect and has a really very broad brief because his brief covers communication, networks, content and technology. So you're very welcome again, Roberta. In his presentation, Dr. Viola will give us an overview of the concept of European digital sovereignty from the perspective of the European Commission. Roberta will outline the Commission's planned regulatory measures and the EU funding mechanisms that will help promote Europe's digital sovereignty. Roberta will speak for 15 to 20 minutes and then we will take questions from you, our audience. You can join the discussion as you know by using the Q&A function at the end of the bottom of your screen. Please feel free to send in your questions during the presentations and I'll come to them once Roberta has finished his presentation. I'd very much appreciate if you give your name and designation when you're asking a question. A reminder that today's presentation and question and answers are on the record. And please feel free to join our discussion on Twitter with the handle at IIEA. It goes without saying that digital and emerging technologies like blockchain, AI, IOT are impacting our lives on a daily basis. Technology can help redefine problems but also help us reimagine the future. And we know that areas like digital sovereignty is emerging as an increasingly prominent concept in the European Union and has triggered a lively debate. For all member states, but particularly for small open economies like Ireland, where the global digital industry is particularly important, the implementation of digital sovereignty will be significant. As I said, our distinguished speaker Dr Viola has also a very distinguished career to date prior to being Director General of DG Connect. He was the formerly chair of the European Radio Spectrum Policy Group, a member of the Board of the European Regulatory Group. He also served as Director of the Regulation Department and Technical Director of ACOM. He served in various positions including head of telecommunications and broadening, broadcasting, satellite services at the European Space Agency. Roberto, we're really looking forward to your presentation and thank you very much again for being with us. Yeah Joyce, I hope you can see and listen to me well. I can very much. Thank you. So thank you very much for the invitation. It's really a pleasure to join again in one of the events. And unfortunately, this time it's a virtual event. Well, this is real because we are all connected, but we are digitally connected. And to a little bit go in this journey of understanding together what digital sovereignty or whatever word we want to use for being digital savvy means, I would like to start from a dystopian perspective, actually a dystopian present. So we, I asked you to do an exercise with me and to think of you one year ago. And to see the world today, people wearing masks, everybody at home, working from home, connected like this. And then you would say, oh, this is a very nice movie, things like this do not happen in reality. So I think we really, we really could not have anticipated what happened. There were weak signs here and there that our society did not have all the ingredients for resilience inside. And it's always with weak signs and always with the crisis. Those signs are not easily recognized until they come and then it's too late to have a systemic response and then you have an emergency response. I mean, we are coping now with an emergency that unfortunately still with us and we all hope it will be over. We don't know when it will be over. And we have found our society to have weak spots. We have found ourselves less savvy than what we thought we should have been. And we also have found that having really relied upon global value chains and global manufacturing chains when it comes to emergency. Sometimes you have basic needs that needs to be fulfilled and you don't know how to fulfill that from basic protective equipments from basic pharmaceutical products. So I think Europe as a large continent. And when you look at Europe, the digital market, the market is the wealthiest of the world. I mean, has been a little bit. I mean, always looking at the perspective that the divisional labor division responsibility collective effort in the world would have solved every problem, which is of course, a way that even in this dystopian present that we should not abandon at all. Openness is the key for a wealthy and well functioning society and we will be defending openness or markets and technologies, services. Even if we speak about gaining a little bit more of empowerment for our citizens and our society in terms of having more resilience when it comes to, I mean, supplying services and goods to our citizens. So this is the type of reflection where you need to keep the balance right between openness and the need to have a society which is empowered. And the other element I would say is the responsibility that is on Europe to be one of the major contributors of the wealth and the well being our society in the world of just in Europe. And that means many things. First of all, it means that when it comes to the basic research and the basic development, we need to continue a contribute to breakthrough innovation. And breakthrough innovation does not come from private companies, although private companies are the ultimate one that would exploit it or sometime there will be a sparkle somewhere from an innovator that works in the private sector but it's an ecosystem of innovation that you need. And that's one of the big failures of this crisis. We have discovered that I mean private research without an underpinning and strong underpinning from the public side is not enough. We thought that we had all sorts of AI solutions. We discovered that AI is useful. It, it actually we deployed it in hospitals, but as far from being the game changer that we thought we would be, we will be offering. Now, I'm sure if you are from now it will be the game changer, but I'm equally sure that AI medicine AI public services AI in terms of safety of our transport system. This is something which is a responsibility of our society to invest on. We cannot just rely on power on private companies to do that because that's not the job. The job of the private sector is for sure to exploit this and to go on and propose more and better innovative products. The other element where we have a responsibility. It's the rulemaking. Some outside Europe speak about the Brussels effect, which in other words is what we managed to do in terms of the digital rules of the government our society and economy. When it comes for instance from seems like privacy with a GDPR. The fair use of the internet with the net neutrality law which exists in Europe and doesn't exist in many other parts of the world. The respect and protection of fundamental rights in general. So this element, which is again, letting market forces to offer services but having a public governance oversight on the fundamental rights of citizens. This you can call it the Brussels model, and it remains the model of reference in the world. We have created the spirit in which we have presented them the two twin regulation we have presented at the end of this year, which are the digital service act and the digital market. Our services are being offered to citizens. And the second is what is the relationship between those service providers platforms and the rest of the business, which are using those platforms to actually do business. So these are complementary goals of the two days if you like to well actually then I said 30 which I will mention in a second. So this digital service that digital market act go in the direction to say digital economy is transformative digital economy society is going to be our new normal. In the meantime, there's something which is not right and something which is not right is the private enforcement of fundamental rights that cannot be. So in order for things in society to be in equilibrium things where I mean this ultimately constitutional guarantee on the freedom of speech on the freedom I mean to express ideas within the check and balances that the constitutional modern liberal constitutional office. That's for the state level that's for Europe that for the member states that's for governments I mean to offer services to respect certain rules to offer within the rules. That's for companies. And I think in the digital economy, this equilibrium has been a bit lost because everything came so quickly and so transformative. The things got a bit confused at a certain point, we should decide that the citizen access to social media and can speak, we should not. I mean, in the real world, clearly, we have answers, which are constitutional are called constitutional guarantees. So what is guaranteed and the real world what is illegal in the real world should be also like this in the digital. And that's the essence of these two acts. So that means constitutional guarantees that should be enforceable also in the digital world and what is illegal in the real world is illegal in the digital world. It's what I call normal, and that was like find the part of the new normal society, which after this pandemic will rely heavily on digital systems in order to live better to be more resilient and also to work and live in a way that is more near to what are our goals, maybe is to live in a nice countryside but still be part of the corporation. This, again, this is not a dystopian dream. This is a utopian dream that is more and more coming, becoming a reality. The third in regulation is the data governance act that also we presented at the end of the last year, which is about data sharing and data sharing has been a bit the quick spot on this pandemic from the very beginning, in terms of first of all having the right data or what was going on. Imagine we would have known much more in advance than the end of last year, what was going really on in China. Imagine we would have been sharing much more information in the various areas of the world, much quicker. We're trying to share as quickly as we can information, for instance, on the variation of the various on the mutation, but I mean data repositories, genetic databases where all this it's available are in the making, but they are halfway. This is just pandemic. This is about our society. Imagine I mean the sharing data, much more data about how we move and how we use transport to make our transport system safer, more green, much more data about consumption of electricity at our homes to save money. And also to have a better plan. All of this means that the data allows the society to be better to be more. So the data governance act. It's about this. It's about governments sharing more data with companies. It's about the company sharing data among ourselves without having one company conflict of interest with others. It's about citizens, if they want to donate data to research to improve our society. So with these three days we hope to contribute not only to a better society and economy in Europe, but a better economy society in the world. And to come back is to the other element of resilience and the new normal is through digital technologies we hope that our society will be better as I said, and for me better means that what we have learned during this crisis and what we have gained of the crisis so more digital savings, more freedom to organize our work will become the normal. But in order to do that, we need investments. I mean, just not talks like this are enough. And that's why the recovery of Europe has been not just a talk shop, but it's been a very serious decision taken by it's a state of government. Last July that I mean lined up 2.4 trillions euros for the recovery part of this is the so called recovery plan, which is sent up by the company commission but I mean organized by the member states. And as you know legally 20% of the recovery plan should go in the direction of improving our digital society and economy. So, I'm, I'm not sure that I can give a precise meaning to the world sovereignty and I would discard the older, the bad feelings that people in the in this event that would have about sovereignty somebody imposing something on somebody else. If the meaning is digital empowerment that starts with the research and development starts with investment in infrastructure and looks at the things like you mentioned, for instance, using blockchain digital identity using new technologies such as quantum or AI, and the ability to improve our society. Well, I can live with this, and I may be to say this is it. I mean, if it is about closing borders to cooperation, creating I mean a kind of iron ivory castle. Well, that's not what we have in mind. The rules. Once again, if sovereignty again means empowerment. That's what we have in mind empowerment of the citizens of companies of having a real society or equals as much as possible for the society is difficult to equalize everything. But I mean, you can make sure through public intervention that distances are less. And if this is the meaning, then this is all about the 3D is the digital service are the digital market act and the digital governance act. So that's the effort. The effort is to have a society which is more resilient the society which is open and to take up our responsibility as public powers to do what public powers should do in terms of research and development and our responsibility in the world. If this is the meaning of digital sovereignty, then I'm happy to use even this term. So this in terms of my introductory remarks. This is what I wanted to say, and I'm very much happy to share the rest of the event and in a dialogue with you Joyce and with the rest of the audience. Thank you very much, Roberto. I think it's very interesting how you focused on the power and empowerment and the power of citizens to become more involved in their society through digital. I think that's that's really and emphasizing the resilience and the opportunities and very positive view and not looking at an enclosed protective society, rather, in fact, enabling things to open up. Your mention of the 3D is these, you know, the Digital Service Act, the Market Act and the Data Governance Act puts a framework on that as well. So that's really interesting. So thank you very much for that tour de force because you've brought an awful lot together with both the technology, the responsibility and the empowerment of the citizen but also the responsibility of the state and the private sector. So I'll turn it over now to the audience. I see questions coming in. Just. Yeah, here's one from Seamus Allen, who's our digital policy researcher here at the IAEA. When he asked the question, how does Europe plan to balance the promotion of greater data sharing with the data protection and privacy standards? Yeah, this is a very good question. I don't think, frankly, that one is the enemy of the other. So that the more you protect the less you share or vice versa. I think, again, we have to start from who was the center of data generation. I mean, if me as an individual through my sensors and my movement I generate data, I think I have the right to decide whether I want to give this data for a better society, or I want to have services offered to me with this data or not. So this empowerment is the fundamental element of the GDPR. And if exercise correctly in a way that citizens understand what they are doing, not as a kind of bureaucratic reflex, can be the center of a data saving society. And this is one of the pillars of the data governance act. The data donation, it's a concept that is absolutely allowed by the GDPR probably not very clear how to exercise it. It's a bit like when you want to donate your money. I mean, that's perfectly okay. I mean, there are public schemes to guarantee that the people that are offering you to donate data for a course, they are not actually offering a scam. It's a real donation scheme for a real purpose. And here in the data governance act is a bit the same and give confidence to the citizens that those data organization, the donation organization are serious. So by exercising their rights of privacy and the rights of ownership of the data generated by themselves in and then moving into organizations that can actually allow citizens to donate the data. We think we go one step further in the debate. The same applies to things which are not personal data, but maybe belong to an entity, being a private entity, a citizen, like an object in the house, a connected object, or they belong to a company. What could be the reflex to generate a virtual circle by which data is put in common and everybody put in the data in common and gets a benefit out of it. For us, the key of this is about avoiding conflict of interest that one of the participants to this clip, so to say, as a need an agenda by which I mean hijacks the data of the others for its own purpose. That's why we are pushing the data act for neutral program. Of course, it's not an obligation. If you like conflict of interest in and you are happy with this. You can find fine for Europe. So the key to resolve this tension or this equilibrium between privacy protection intellectual property sharing for us. The answer we give in the data governance act is empowering companies and citizens to make their choice and to find organization that could actually make sure that they can exercise those choices. But it's a very good question. Thank you, Roberto. And we've got a question, I think from Garrett Blaney, chair of comrade Garland's communications regulator to understand that he'd like to ask the question live, is that right? No. Is that okay? No. Yes, got it. Yeah. Garret, are you there? Hello. No, I might have misinterpret that. I'll come back later. And we've got a comment and a question from Turlock Denahan from my back. Turlock says you're very modest Roberto about your role in innovation that you've contributed an awful lot to it. We've got a message. A question from Peter McClune who's a member of the board of the IAEA. And he asked the question have EU member states fully agreed a common position and approach to digital sovereignty, or in effect will each country have to develop their own strategic approach to protect citizens. I think there's a desire that the digital future of Europe, it's a common future. And the indicator of this is the common will of a state of government to place digital at the center of the recovery efforts for Europe. The second is that there's been a call last October to the European Commission to say, you come up in March with what is the vision in the next 10 years. So how digital will develop. And so we are given this task, then for the state government to reflect on what our suggestions as an indication of the understanding that digital no snowboarders digital requires massive investment to be transformative. Some of the investments are local for instance when it comes to digital infrastructure force I mean you have to deploy those infrastructure locally. But the gigantic are in the effort that is necessary for transformative technologies, the one I mentioned you mentioned I mean blockchain AI quantum. Those kind of effort, not even the largest countries in terms of GDP can afford it in Europe. It's only by working together that we can really make the difference. So, I think, again, if the meaning of so what is shared responsibility a shared empowerment in the in the common construction of a European future. I would say that that's a common understanding of where we have to go but it's also clear that this doesn't mean that the member states can forgive the homework to do. When, for instance, you look at the digital administration in our recovery plan we insist that digital administration. It's linked with reforms. It makes little sense to digitize bureaucracy. It makes a lot of sense to simplify processes to have as you were saying Joyce kitchen table democracy so that is available to everyone. Services, the government as a service, and then, of course, use the best of digital technology to do that. But if you take a bureaucratic process and your your intention is to keep it to preserve it forever and to digitize it. Then of course, we will really miss the mark of having a more resilient and more future proof society. Thank you, Roberto. I've got the question from Garrett Blaney. He asked, can we work more closely with the new administration in the US to facilitate better regulation of digital platforms? Definitely, definitely. This is the intention of the European Commission. We have published a policy document as we call it a communication where we said exactly this in our policy communication that our wish and our president repeated this last week in parliament. Our wish is to be digitally engaged with the new administration. We actually made a quite a concrete proposal to create a high level trade technology panel to discuss the interlinkage within traditional regulation digital technologies and to have a fully fledged agenda for cooperation and when it comes to the digital rules, we are more than happy to actually contribute together with the new administration of the United States. As I said that we're world order, we're rule of law, respect of citizens, it's the north. Okay, thank you very much. A question here from Andrew Gilmore from the IIA. EU Member States recently agreed a joint statement on a European Cloud Federation. Can you give a sense of the role and importance that a European crowd federation guy may are expected to play in the use of data in Europe. Thank you for this question Gilmore. The goal, as I was saying in my introductory remarks is to have a data savvy society and of course to be data savvy data have to be somewhere. We think it should be, I mean, the way that are organized they said of course there should be some regulation we discussed this, but also there should be some technology. And when looking at the future of data processing and storage. We see that the world becomes much more distributed is today. So from large data centers and data processing facility we will move to a more distributed collective brain if you like. This vision technology vision, which I mean translates in things like I mean blending high performance computing and what they're called edge computing distributed and centralized cloud systems. We want to give our technical technological contribution and also a greener way of processing and storing data. So new technologies that are efficient, allow to process and store the data closer to the users and are open. That's the other important thing. No single vendor should have the monopoly of data storage or data processing. Banks, corporations, citizens, small enterprises should have the freedom of choice should have the possibility to port their data and their service to another cloud provider if they wish so. And that's the sense of the cloud alliance with the member states. I mean to do to realize distributed cloud federated cloud system open and possible also, and that that's also very important technological objective green. Thank you again, Roberto, the question from Paul Colleen from the NS AI, and he asked you very I think quite a complex question. Roberto, could Roberto give a brief high level summary of the core and differences between the three days data Governance Act digital services and Digital Markets Act in the context of what he describes of your nice digital empowerment framework. Hi, that's right. So let's start with the first day. I am not necessarily the importance or the alphabetical DSA. Why does the word that says it all. It's about services and in particular intermediation services that are, let's say, being offered to companies and citizens. So there they did the problem to be sold this to maintain the pillars on which digital services are offered. And that's something where Ireland has been fighting for and we are all in favor with with with Ireland on this and I would say there's a larger concept, very large consensus in Europe. You should not ask for a government permission to offer some digital services, you should place your company wherever you like in Europe. That's called the country of origin. And the third element, you should not be legally responsible for things you don't know, and that's the key of hosting services because I mean otherwise it's the end of the cloud business is the end of any data intermediation business. At the same time, the world is going on. So there are now companies that are not simply hosting providers, these companies are also offering themselves the services. The more you are vertically integrated, the more you take responsibility and liability for what you offer, the more you are larger, the more you should have responsibility in knowing your customers in so know your business customers being introduced, the more you should have systemic control on your platform. So the DSA provides an increasingly high level of intensity in terms of check and balances that digital service provider have to do. And of course it starts with a very minimum for a very small platform and it's quite a more articulated set of obligation when it comes to that platform with the idea to make sure that those services are safe and they can be shared everywhere in Europe. The DMA, the key word of course is M stands for market, looks at the complementary, as I said, objective, which is to make sure that companies doing business on the platforms, they can actually reasonably stay alive and do transactions without being cornered, if I can use non-technical words to describe. So basically, we try to identify a platform that we call digital gatekeepers, which are essential trading partners for all the other businesses. So if a platform is without this platform, you cannot be in the digital ecosystem, you can imagine a two or three platform very easily. If you are not present on this platform, you do not exist digitally. Then we call them gatekeepers, which is not necessarily a best thing to say, simply it's a statement of fact. Then for those kind of platforms, we want some behavioral rules in terms of data sharing, transparency of data, transparency of dealing with the other businesses, which you would say it's almost common sense that this happens. But I mean, beside common sense and the reflex of every business to internalize as much as value, there's of course attention, and that's where the DMA comes in with the public rules, and we are clear obligations for those gatekeeping platforms to keep the other businesses as part of an open ecosystem. And for the Digital Governance Act, the key word is G, for data, sorry, Governance Act. Well, actually there are two key words, data and governance, and as I said, it's about data sharing. Governments sharing more data with companies and citizens, sharing more data with companies and research organizations, and companies sharing more data among themselves. And there are three different mechanisms according to three scenarios that facilitate data sharing. No losers, no winners. I mean, that's not for legislation to say that, but really we hope much more data sharing. Thank you, Roberta, you covered that extremely well. I tried. Extremely well. I have a question here from Hugh Lowke, who's the IIEA member and a former EU official. And he asked the question, shouldn't we be concerned that so much of the digital infrastructure, particularly the wealth generation, dimensions of it is more and more privately owned and virtually self-regulating worldwide? Well, it's what I tried to cover in my introductory remarks. I said, we are concerned if this results in private enforcement of constitutional principles. I think we should not be concerned if a company is successful. We should upload. That's not the point. And if a company abuses of the success, there's competition law and there's regulation. What has been increasingly difficult in this world that accelerated in terms of digitization is the relationship between citizens, freedoms, and those actors. Those actors probably have been faced with responsibilities which are higher than what they should take as private companies. And this is also because of the absence of rules. Let's face it. So we cannot blame, I mean, large platforms if the rules are not clear. And that's exactly what we are trying to do with the Digital Service Act and Digital Market Act. It's a democratic process. Of course, these are legislative proposals. There will be a democratic process, European Parliament and Council as it is like this in Europe and producing legislation. We'll have to vote and find an agreement and then we'll be at European law. And this then will be respected and that will be the norm. My best wishes of success to everybody in the web also allow me to say the small ones, not only the big ones, but then my my opies within a framework or clear rules and the rules again should not be privately set. Of course, co-regulations nice, but I mean the basic fundamental rules should be public rules. I have a question here from Barry Larry, the government CIO. And he asked the question, the implementation of pan European contact tracing apps was not possible because countries has clearly different positions on the national need versus individual privacy debate, leading to the centralized versus decentralized How can we get shared technology solutions without shared positions on the meaning of data sovereignty at both state and individual level. Thank you Barry. First of all, many congratulations for the work you do and all the contribution you did to this debate. Let me say, well, actually, all the tracing apps that use the same technology, the so called decentralized technology are today connected. So the Irish shop works already in 14 member states, very soon will work in every member states with the exception of a couple that they've used a different technological solution. And that's a bit of a pity that we although we went very far. And now we can say that those technologies are there to help, of course, then depends very much on our technology you. And I think Ireland, by the way, it's a country that did particularly well in tracing apps, because managed to link it with also prevention. And in a way that has been accepted by citizens and tracing apps in Ireland, I have the highest diffusion in Europe. So an Irish citizens when it will be possible to travel a bit more, they can use this up everywhere in Europe thanks to the collective work. Not everything went well in this journey, as you are saying. And I think we should learn from this. In particular, I'm thinking about the one upcoming proposal where we should be very united and find a common solution, which is the European digital identity. I don't think to be a digital citizen, you need to use your personal identity. And again, I don't think the private supply of digital identity is the solution. Of course, and I don't, but I mean, as in the real life, when you are born, somebody takes care to give you an identity and you use the identity. And the same should be on the web. You should be using your own identity to do many things. And of course you are the owner of the data that you generate by doing transaction with your identity. When we arrive this, it's the intention. Well, it's been a request of the head of state, the European Commission will present a proposal in June. And of course, we need a real good technical understanding with all the CIOs in Europe with all the people that can contribute to arrive to a sound technical solution which is not divisive on the contrary, which unites the intent. Thank you for that. Another question from Anne Flanagan. As has been mentioned, digital sovereignty can be a divisive term and can unfair data localization restrictions or other artificial barriers to international business. How can Europe convey to the rest of the world that it is still open for business while stepping up in its global leadership of digital. That's why, frankly, the world sovereignty, I don't use it. Because it could be misleading. I think there's no continent more open than Europe. I mean, frankly, when you look around, it's clearly like this. And so that's why I mean, sometimes rhetoric confuses the reality. We have been the one in WTO offering openness when it comes to data exchanges. We have been the one championing trade agreements with the free flow data. We have a very solid regulation inside the union for free flow of data. Of course, there's a little but to all of these being open doesn't mean to be naive. And it takes in a trade agreement or in an agreement to tango. So, if the other party. It's interested to get your data but doesn't offer the same level of exchange or doesn't offer as it in some jurisdiction, any kind of guarantees in terms of protecting the intellectual property right or companies in terms of cybersecurity. Of course, you have to be a bit careful.  I mean, I'm sure we are all very open in our thinking with respect to our friends and families and people we know, but I don't give the keys of my house to everybody in a lighthearted matter. Here is a bit the same. I think the keys of the house we can share with with many and we are doing that and we probably championed it. But it's time we say to certain jurisdictions you behave. That's the point you behave because I mean there are red lines that cannot be trespassed. The red line about respecting the fundamental rights, the red line about not attacking with cyber attacks Europe, the red line of enforcing I mean inside the given jurisdiction the protection of fundamental data. At the same time, I mean, when when when you discuss international there are principles but there are also the willingness to move ahead and even in problematic jurisdiction, we are willing to see how we can move ahead and how we can, I mean, make sure that there's more openness on both sides. So the intention is absolutely to maintain an open dialogue and sharing data as much as we can. But of course, in doing so, we have to be also a little bit savvy that we don't give the keys of our house to everybody. Maybe some of this everybody is not to be trusted. Yes, good point. I think Roberto. Thank you. A question from Hannah DC from the the AI and moving to artificial intelligence, following the use white paper on AI last year, new EU AI regulations are anticipated this year. Are you able to give any sense on what teams are emerging as the most important in regulation in AI from these consultations. Thank you and thank you and for this question because it gives me the opportunity to speak a little bit about AI that for time constraints I didn't do in my introductory remarks. Indeed, we made quite some effort in the last years, first of all, to have experts and the stakeholders at large to speak about whether we need rules and what kind of rules we need for AI and whether we should then present regulation. As I said, my introductory remarks, maybe the the eyes we see AI are a little bit different before the pandemic that if you remember the debate before the pandemic was AI is here everywhere, and now we need to regulate it. I would say after the pandemic. We should probably say AI is not here. If AI would have been here would have been a welcome supplementary help to find the pandemic. It's anecdotically here and there, but the effort in terms already still gigantic to bring us to a society that can actually benefit from it and we should not deflect from this effort. In the meantime, there are emerging application the more and more rely on AI. And that I come to the also the feedback we got from the white book consultation, we should not when it comes to regulation shoot in every direction, just the fact that you use AI should not be make something eligible for regulation. However, I think we start start maturing things that we collectively think it cannot be. It cannot be. And I'm also referring to some tragic events happened in the last few days that adolescence through AI are exploded on social media.  It cannot be that I mean you use face recognition in an indiscriminate way without any link to for instance security need. So there are certain cannot be. There are certain you should be cautious. I mean, for instance, we have been deploying AI in hospitals, as I said, but in some cases the performance was not what was announced because doctors sported the training data set that was not the right one. So, I think in AI, we can say out of the consultation we have seen three things happening. Really the dawns the thing that should not happen. The things where you have to give a bit of a warning. I mean, what we call a bit the iris applications and also the heads of state of government asking the commission be a bit more clear what are the iris nothing wrong. I mean, car, it's an iris machine that's why you have standards and you have test and whatever I mean. So that the fact that something is iris that doesn't mean that they should not be marketed I mean, simply means attention. And then the third element is the things that are not iris cannot I mean forbidden and they should simply be allowed. In this case of why there should be regulation. So, I think, what is very clear from what the ESO states told us, and what is emerging from the debate. There's a clear distinction between things that are okay I think is where we should be attentive and that's a bit the philosophy according to what the European Council has asked us, which we are looking to a limited set of rules. And that would be really useful in framing the future of AI in the direction, as I said, to have much more AI in our society, and much more people that trust. Thank you, Roberto, a question now from Michael Collins, who's DG of the IAEA, and he asked the question, what is the future between the EU and the UK in terms of cooperation in the digital space. Before this question, I think the future is is written in agreement, and in part, it's, it's to be still defined better. I think the first answer is that there's a difference to be part of the digital single market to be out, and that should be clear. And that that we did not determine this future, it was determined by the choice of the UK citizens. And we have to respect this, but at the same time we have to say very clearly. One thing is the future digital future of a member state of the union, one thing is the future relationship with someone that is a standard to the unit. So there will be a difference. At the same time, being different and being, I mean, partners, one, the union, the other, a standard member state. This does not mean that certain degree of cooperation is possible and that's what the agreement is picturing in terms of changing data in terms of selecting some areas in which common research can be, can be undertaken. In terms of general general regulatory cooperation, and also some forms of a, let's say, security cooperation, which are also very welcome in the area of cyber security. All of this needs to be better detailed in the coming weeks and months, but the intention of course is to maintain good relationship but it will be a very, very different relationship. Thank you for that, Roberto. A question here from Ricardo Rodriguez asking, what exactly does European identity mean? What benefits would it bring for citizens?  Because if we laugh at it, you can say, rent a car, we really barely managed to get out of our house, but frankly, let's hope that this will be the case in not so distant future.  Imagine instead you have a certified provider that has all these attributes, the driving license, who you are, your credit card, in a way that you can manage this and change this in a secure format. Then, I mean, renting the car will be a click away. Of course, you will clearly select, as you do in front of an employee of a rented car organization, which information you want to give or which information are necessary. So this is a very simple example. The other example could be opening a bank account or could be, I mean, signing a contract for something. So the digital identity, it's a collection of who you are in multiple dimension, including your social interests and other things, and what you want to communicate to others in a way that I mean you allow the interaction. If you want to communicate that you are member to the local golf club, you can do that through the, I mean, managed identities. If you want just to communicate, for instance, using social media your age, you can do that. If you need to communicate your driving license you communicate your driving license and when it comes to healthcare you have your nice and secure wallet. I mean, if you need to communicate certain things to a doctor which you authorize to know the information you can do that. So it's a very, very different world from the collection of passwords pieces of digital real information papers and things that we have today. So that's our dream. Well, what a great answer to that question of digital identity because it shows the power, doesn't it, of what can happen and what we hope will happen in the future and particularly, I suppose, with the power of blockchain and other emerging technologies. Indeed, indeed, indeed, indeed, absolutely. And blockchain is a big part of this exercise, of course. Yes, thank you. No, it's coming back to the question that was before about standards and what type of tracing apps. That's why I said we got to get it right. We got to get it right. Well, there's lots of questions and this is the last question unfortunately but we've lots of them left behind Roberto, and this is from John Dooley from the DETE. I think it's very positive that enabling investing and driving Europe and digital society will be balanced with preserving an open economy. It would be good to hear more and how this balance can be struck. So we can strengthen our competitiveness of an economic power without compromising fundamental principles of openness, transparency, inclusiveness and a level playing field. To stay ahead, we need to balance the need for proportionate levels of regulation at EU and member states level, which do not impose unnecessary burdens with the need to promote and enable innovation that ultimately drives economic growth. I don't know if that's more a statement than a question Roberto, but I don't know if you'd like to respond. Yes indeed, it's a bold statement, but maybe since it's the last question allows me to repeat certain things I've been saying throughout this very, very nice discussion we had. The first is, I think the world needs Europe and we need the world, there's no doubt. And in digital, Europe has a role responsibility that we have to exercise in driving the new normal with a better dimension for citizens. And this respect, I mean, we don't need to, because I mean if someone closes a market, it's a defensive reflex and it's a sign of weakness, no, in a certain sense. And we have no weakness here because we are by GDP, the largest market or digital market of the world. We are by tradition by facts, the market where the most advanced rules are being crafted. We have indeed a weakness when it comes to having neglected too much in the past, the power on innovation when it comes to digital and this weakness that we need to catch up. That's why these investments in the recovery plan in advanced digital technologies are extremely welcome. But I mean, if you catch up in a race, there's no reason why you should shoot the tires of the opponent. I mean, that's not the way to win the race. And so this is a race, eventually the real price is to have a real new normal where something will happen, will never happen again. Unfortunately, it will happen again. But I mean, at least we will have the tools to combat it better. This is the cap for winning this race. And this is a cap we can share, this war cap with others. I mean, but we have to do our job in Europe. We are too big, too important not to do our own work. And what went wrong is that we didn't do our own work. And we cannot simply blame others if they have done the work. And now they're offering services and process in Europe. We have to do our work. And we can maintain all our efforts to be open and assertive by doing our work. Roberto, thank you so much. Unfortunately, time has cut off with us, but I have to thank you for your amazingly capacity to answer all these diverse questions. It's such a really good way and clear way. And I think for giving us a really powerful message of the power of this digital empowerment framework with our 3Ds, the Digital Service Act, the Market Act and the Governance Act, but also more importantly, the role that citizens, business and the states as well as Europe can play together, that it is about openness, it is about working together. So I think it is a really powerful presentation and particularly your answers, as I said, in such a wide range. So thank you so much for that. I'd like on our behalf to thank the IAE production team, Locan Mullally and Sarah Burke and the Digital Policy Researcher, Shea Miss Allen for their work in this webinar. But I'd like to thank you, our audience, for such active engagement with Roberto and for that range of questions that you so ably answered, Roberto. Thank you very much. I really appreciate that. So we look forward to seeing you all again at our next event. And you Roberto, I hope in the new normal that you talked about that you can come to Dublin to see us and tell us more about what's happening in such a wide range and really positive digital agenda with so much happening. And also I think importantly with that fund behind us that will ensure it will happen. So thank you very much again. And I hope you keep safe and keep well and thank you. Thank you Joyce likewise and thank you for all the contributions we received to this very rich debate and thank you for the invitation. I surely will and I hope soon.