So, Sarah asks, if she has 10 thermometers worth of temperature data in 10-minute increments, but they didn't all start at the same time, is there a way to match up all the different thermometers? So, here, what we have is just five, so that if it's on the screen, well, five different temperature readings, T1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, and time stamps that are close, but not quite lined up all in 10-minute increments. I'm going to show you a way with VLOOKUP, and I'm going to also show you a kind of cheat way just using DELETE. So, let's make this smaller. I'm going to take these, copy and paste right here, that was CTRL C and CTRL V, and I'm going to remove the headers for T1, T3, T4, and T5 time, but I'm going to leave the one for T1, and then let's make all of these just a little bit smaller to fit in. You'll see why I left these blanks in a second. It's kind of a way to cheat because I'm incredibly lazy, and I like to copy and paste without typing. So, these time stamps, I'm going to CTRL C and CTRL V, these time stamps, make this a little bit bigger so you can see them. And then for T1, what we're going to say is equal VLOOKUP, and we want to look up this value, that time stamp right there. And I don't want the letter to change because I'm going to copy and paste this formula going to the right. I don't want the letter to progress, so I'm going to put a dollar sign on it so that the M stays in M, but I'm not going to put a dollar sign on the two because I do want the two to go down as I drag down. And what VLOOKUP is telling me is saying, look up this value in some table. So to put that table in there, I just need to put a comma. Now it says table array. What I want the table array to be is this table. So I'm looking for this value, M2, in this table, comma. The column index number is I want the second column to be returned from this table. There's only column one and column two, so it's pretty easy, but column two right there. And then the last one is it says true or false for this last statement. I'm going to go ahead and just click or type false. That means I want it to be exact. That's what false means, and it'll tell you that. And I'm going to end the parenthesis there, but before I go, I want the two from that table to always stay a two, and the 22 to stay a 22. So that when I drag down, those numbers don't change. Enter. So I'm going to double click this box right here in the lower right so that it auto-drags contiguous cells. And we'll see that sure enough, this table matches that table just like we wanted. So now what I'm going to do is take these results right here. Control C. I'm going to control V here. Control V here, and control V there. And now what that should do is line these all up, and you're like, well, why are these NAs here? Well, if we go back to T2, we'll see that it started at 430. So there is no value for 420, 410, and 4. Same for T3 and T5. Coming down, it looks like we could have come down a little bit further since some of these go to 740, but I'll just leave it there for now. Now what you could do if you want to graph this is only start right here, or you could graph it with the NAs. And that should do the trick. If you wanted to try kind of a way without formulas, it's just delete the data that you don't want in order to make all the times line up. So we can see that 430 is the latest start time.  And then this one, we only have to get rid of 420. I'm going to use Control Y, which just redos our last thing. And then 4 to 420, Control Y again, and 410 to 420, Control Y again. You can see all our 430s line up, and so we can now get rid of each of these timestamps just like that.


it's pretty good. So, as mentioned, I'm Colin Charles from the Iberia DB Project. I'm one of the lucky few people to get paid to work on this database. I always like to start with the Alexa rankings. They have 500 top sites in the Iraqi globally. I picked the 20 that you can fit up on the slide. Out of 20, 19 of them run some variant of my SQL. Nobody really runs my SQL in production without patches. Facebook, number two, basically started the web scale SQL project with Twitter number eight as well as LinkedIn number 12 and what they do is they take my SQL 56 and add on hundreds of patches to it and they use that as a base to build their own distributions of my SQL. Companies like Google, YouTube, AutoGoogle, Wikipedia, they all run MariaDB, Wikipedia soft MariaDB, Google, obviously a very customized version of MariaDB and lately I'm sure some of you may have heard of Amazon's Aurora RDS service. Anybody heard of that? Use AWS. We're working quite actively with Amazon and Aurora as well. So on the top 20 websites out there and some of the sites that don't make it include Tumblr, WordPress, .com and so forth, they all run somewhere into my SQL or most likely even MariaDB nowadays.  Some would call us a fork but every month or every second month an article makes a release, we actually make a merge. So you get the features that we have plus the features that Oracle has fixed with my SQL and a lot of the stuff we do is focused on community development and I think that's really important for us. Communities are key to us. We are on launchpad, we are on GitHub. It is as easy as branching the code base, parking it and then saying you'd like a call request submitted and you don't even need to sign a contributor agreement today. We accept BSD licensed code. This is one of the main reasons why it's hard for WebScale SQL features to make it back up into upstream my SQL. It's because you have to sign a contributor agreement. The contributor agreement is something that many corporate lawyers don't like people signing. We obviously feature enhanced. We spend a long time working on MariaDB. We definitely application compatible.  We actually celebrated our fifth birthday on February 1st. We've been around now for five years shipping GA releases. In that time we've had over 2 million downloads and our average is about 200,000 downloads from the website a month. This is not counting the downloads you get from the distributions and BSDs and so forth. In that short span of time we've made over 88 releases of software in the server. 61 GA releases, 7 RCs, 11 patas, 9 alphas. Just in the past week we made two more GA releases. So we're pretty active for a very relatively small team compared to the engineering prowess that Oracle could hire for my SQL. We've made many favorites. In the last five years the MySQL world has seen MySQL 55, MySQL 56 and the top of MySQL 57. In the past five years we've done 51, 52, 53, 55, 10, 0, a couple of GA releases and we're on track to release 10-1. Sometimes this year it's already in beta. So final releases in quite a short period of time. Why MariaDB? Why LibreOffice? A lot of this has to do with vendor independence and freedom from vendor locking is truly important. MySQL has a single owner, a single vendor. MariaDB has a foundation to ensure that this sort of thing never happens again. It also has a cooperation backing it. So you can think of this very much like the Mozilla cooperation and foundation to that extent. There will never be another fork on MariaDB thanks to the foundation and it's relatively strong considering that there are many other people supporting MariaDB outside of the cooperation. I would say that the ecosystem development for MySQL is that it's most vibrant now. All thanks to the owner of MySQL. Many people are working on branches and our forks. The community gets any feature you want, you think is useful, you can be getting it shipping in a major release. That's how we've gotten contributions for things like multi-sales replication and so forth. And if you're a storage engine vendor like TopiTag making new strides with indexes like factory indexes instead of regular B plus three indexes or you think you want to make a no SQL storage engine against say a Cassandra cluster or a Padoon cluster, we provide the ability for you to do that relatively easily and we ship all these engines that allow connectivity to other places. We'd like to be in the middle that allows you to connect to SQL, no SQL, big data storage layers. Pretty much all the early MySQL developers joined MariaDB in the early days including obviously MySQL's creator Michael Monti Vidinius. We have many many contributors and the ratio is actually pretty impressive. You can go to Launchpad and check but you to get common right access you need to be what is referred to as a Maria captain. We recently been migrating to GitHub so there are a bunch of people moving here and there and you'd realize that we have along the lines of about 25 external contributors, so people in the community, 18 who work for the corporation and five who work for the foundation. So the split is actually pretty even and actually leading towards more community contributors who are working at major web companies and so forth actually pushing code to MariaDB. Besides the server, MariaDB also focuses on LGPL client libraries or connectors as you may. One of the major ones we actually had to obviously make was DC connector so you could build things on top of it. Why LGPL and not GPL? Because when you go to data of mysql.com and download a connector you're getting a GPL client with false exceptions which allow you to use the connector for false applications but if you're going to embed it you would actually have to pay a license fee to get past GPL as part of your license. We give you LGPL connectors so you never have to pay a license fee when you want to embed be it for C, be it for Java or be it for OUBC and there are community connectors that are being built and we will eventually when they get to a virtual level bring them back into the project maybe in the C++ area and curl. C++ mainly for the library office project because they also want a database connector for the base application. We also really like to focus on making the things you can get in mysql enterprise open. And a great example of why we do things in the open. We initially saw a thread pool in mysql enterprise. A thread pool is basically allowing you to open up a limited pool of threads that can be reused because the mysql model is to open up one thread per connection and then this is bad for CPU locality. We made a thread pool, we released this open source. Another company, Percona, improved the thread pool and because they had a customer that needed some features and then we managed to take their features back again. This is something that I'm pretty sure many of you in the open source will understand. Having Percona out there in the open makes a lot of sense. Many eyes also make shallow bugs. So when there are enterprise features that you have to pay for, you don't really know if you're going to hit it in a bargain. But with the open version, at least you know that you're getting many, many people using and all working on it. Our knowledge base is also fully open content and also license friendly, GMDL as well as credit comments. You may want to check it out. But MariaDB has grown beyond just being a server and connectors. Recently, we've also come up with a level seven proxy that actually basically understands the mysql protocol. It allows you to route connections or statements. It's a pluggable router and the best part is is you can also write your plugins relatively easily you would see and this product really only became GA in January and there's already another company that's started up and it's March now. So that's literally two months and another company started taking use of this and putting it, putting dashboards and so forth out there for you to call Maxfair. Then we have people who want to use binary log relays and you know the database will always have binary logs long before the system B will happen. And we like binary logs because we can replay binary logs on another machine. We can literally grab through them with a tool. So we really do like when you have multiple states, you can use Maxfair as a binary log relay server to actually push to multiple states. The possibilities with this are generally kind of endless and the fact that you can also load balance to galore clusters so you don't have to use any proxies kind of handy. A very common use case for this is to allow the proxy not only to write to MariaDB or mysql backend but also another backend say MongoDB because you can actually write the queries rewrite on the fly and actually insert it into another database and they are plugins already available for this. You can get MariaDB at MariaDB.org and presumably all of you run Linux on your servers and you'll find that it's a default in things like Rails 7, Santos, Sousa and Price 12, OpenSousa, etc. In fact, Fedora was one of the first distributions to start shipping MariaDB 5.5 and recent releases of Fedora actually had that upgrade go from Fedora MariaDB 5.5 to MariaDB 10. And the pod count, we were actually really worried that users would complain that there would be huge amounts of bugs and so forth but actually the pod count didn't increase. People are using MariaDB 10 as a job and replacement without having any issues and these include apps that are built against it as well. So default might bring mysql in pretty much many of the distributions. When you ask for mysql, you get MariaDB for free. So you may not know that you're already using MariaDB to never start a client. We also really love participating in Google summer of code and from the first year we participated, we got a committer. The second year we managed, someone within the foundation managed a higher person who came out of it and we just got accepted for 2015 as well and all this is students writing code and our shipping and parent releases of MariaDB. Now you might be wondering who is using MariaDB. Most likely you are using it even without knowing you didn't put up your hands on it because pretty much all the next distributions will give it to you for free as mysql. You start it up, type in mysql as well. Google was migrating to MariaDB last year but I'm very happy to say that throughout the most of last year they've actually pretty much completed the migration to MariaDB 10. They funded the parallel application work we do and parallel application is actually pretty handy because you can have parallel apply to your slave servers or parallel apply even when you run. They also do code reviews, generally they all happen on public, they do QA, they do testing and you know we have to thank Edward Snowden for telling us that the NSA is hacking lots of servers so Google has decided that they want end to end encryption for everything which is why they want to search, they want HTTPS and internally they also like to run things encrypted and they actually wrote a feature called table space encryption that allows you to encrypt your entire inner DB table space and then we obviously have key management externally and they contributed this code for MariaDB 10.1 so not only are they consuming MariaDB, they're also extending MariaDB and making it better for you and for the first time in the MySQL world and MySQL will be 20 years old in May we have actually done encryption for table spaces. This should be a huge huge thing for enterprise use cases or anybody who cares about their privacy and early testing suggests performance degradation of no more than 10% on regular hardware, not even modern hardware just regular they went from MySQL 5.1 to MariaDB 5.5 and also started migrating pretty much to MariaDB 10 in recent times. The initial reasoning was the better optimizer and that's the most true, we also shipped extra DB though the extra DB in the DB delta is getting a lot smaller but we can be there, there are major improvements for query times, they were getting anytime between 4 to 15 percent query time improvements which would help things load faster and why would you care if things load faster? I mean in Singapore you have one gigabit internet to your home right? But if you think about the rest of the world where there are things like Wikipedia 0 and Facebook 0 where they actually basically tell carriers not to charge on mobile devices, having a Wikipedia page load 15 percent pasta means the carrier pays less, a user in some free thermal country doesn't wait 15 percent longer and so forth, this is actually pretty impactful for real world use cases. Anybody here use Kakaotalk for messaging or is everybody a WhatsApp user? So they generally are very famous if you're in the Korean or K-pop scene of space, if you like, the Hollywood, they have a lot of active users, they started with MariaDB 5.5, they also moved to MariaDB 10 and keep in mind MariaDB 10 only became GA last April so all these all these migrations that happened within the span of less than and not only are they actively using the server, they're also doing code contributions so they've actually backbotted in a DVD fragmentation, they backbotted these from web scale and so forth so we not only have happy users, we also have happy developers. One of the interesting migrations that I've seen lately is Greeds, they didn't just migrate from my SQL to MariaDB but they actually ditched Oracle Rack which is really expensive for MariaDB Galarock cluster and they claimed that they were getting a lot better lower the GCO as well as admin costs and you don't need shared storage any longer. These people are in the e-commerce greeting card space but we see similar things from people in the web hosting space, the telco space, people just love migrating to MariaDB so you know Alcatel Lucent 10s, mix user connectors and so forth. A lot of talk is about 5.7. 5.7 is not here today, always remember that. 5.7 has been talked about since last year, it'll be talked about again this year and it may show its hit end of the CO next year. We're giving you innovation today that you're going to see in 5.7 tomorrow, we've had a lot of these features already in 10.0. Multisource Replication is a lab's release that you can get from labs.mysql.com and we've been shipping it for a long time, it was contributed by Tava, it allows you multiple masters to write to a single slave. You can either use this for analytics like front class games where it has nodes and AWS Singapore does, you can use this for complete backups, you can use this for whatever you really want. We've been shipping GIS functionality so you can actually now make use of latitudes and longitudes and transformations and get parts between them since Marinev5.3. We've shipped NoSQL APIs like Handler Socket that skip the entire SQL layer that write directly to InnoDB for create read, update, delete operations and we also provide dynamic columns which allow each and every row in your table to have different amounts of columns, very NoSQL like so to speak and that feature also allows you to get the output, you can query the output and get it back as JSON output so you can use that in your web app relatively easily. Already mentioned power replication, we've done GTID better.  We just append the GTID to the replication packet so you can actually upgrade in production in C2. And we also shipped the correct engine which can now read JSON and JSON and you can try this today. Not only does it read JSON the standard, it also reads the MongoDB Veson so you can actually read MongoDB Veson files with ease today. Where do we go from here? Today if you're playing around with the open stack worlds or any of these cloud worlds, they will generally recommend that you want to have something like Galera Cluster. Galera Cluster supports fully synchronous replication whereas Maya SQL and MariaDB only support asynchronous replication or semi-synchronous Maya plugin. Fully synchronous means that all nodes get the comment or no nodes get the comment. And we've made life easier. In 10.1 we've integrated Galera Cluster into MariaDB. So now there's only one download. Not only is there only one download, you can turn on and off the feature as and when you feel like it, which is a huge bonus. So now if you have multi-geographical centered environments, you may want to have synchronous replication, say in Singapore asynchronous to Tokyo, maybe fully synchronous again to the US. All this is not fully possible with MariaDB 10.1. Not only can we encrypt table spaces thanks to Google, we also took in a contribution from another company called Ebrida allows you to encrypt just individual tables. So don't encrypt everything, just encrypt some tables. Now some of you may think this is not the best idea. Encrypting is tables because it leaves all the control into the hands of an admin, but in many shops the admin really does that control anyway, especially if you're small. We also invest heavily in instrumentation around the information schema, which is just a metadata engine as opposed to performance schema, which actually has performance heat. We really are focusing security. We've put in the past validation plugins. We can now check your password against Pam Cracklet to tell you your passwords are too weak. Also giving you cover authentication in addition to the Pam authentication that we've already provided and the LDAP authentication. And we also integrated pretty much every web scale patch that makes sense to the greater MariaDB environment. So generally speaking, today you can download MariaDB 10.1 Beta. In five years we've come pretty far for a relatively small team of developers and it's largely thanks to the fact that there are a community of users, not only users out there playing around with the database for fun, but also users in production in large companies believing that we can do MariaDB. So five years, still a branch, not a fork. Check us out if you haven't already. With that I say thank you and I guess I'm open to questions. We're a little tight on time, so we have one focus question. So technically, could you give a quick comparison between MySQL Enterprise cluster and Galera cluster? So you want a quick, I need to clarify this quick difference between MariaDB Enterprise cluster and Galera cluster. So MariaDB MySQL Enterprise cluster or MySQL cluster carrier grade is something called NDB cluster. That's a technical name in the storage engine. That is a different storage engine compared to NDB. NDB cluster requires you to have literally a minimum of five nodes. It does not need to run in NDB and when you want to do things like complex joins, it still happens to go over the network because of the data model. Galera cluster does the joins locally and then streams that it's going to write in the streams that are after the commit. So NDB cluster is used in the telcospace quite a bit and pretty much only in the telcospace. Galera cluster can be used in the telcospace and every other space and the main player to claim and benefit I would say is the fact that it actually runs in NDB. Now nothing would be complete because there's always trade-offs. With NDB cluster, you could probably grow to N amount of nodes and N is the number that is probably large. With Galera cluster, because of synchronous replication, if you keep on adding nodes, say you hit 15 nodes and N above, things generally stop slowing down because it has to do the writes and every nodes. The reads and the reads and the writes will definitely slow down. That's when you start using things like max scale, orange and proxy because you send writes to just a few nodes and reads to all the other nodes so you end up using low balance. So that's a general thing for the virus. I may do this much more, but now is not the time. Thank you very much. Quick update on the schedule.


The transition to zero emissions by 2050 is, for developing countries, a very serious challenge because here we're looking at two different existential problems. The first, of course, is global warming and simplifications, but for us it's also much more significant, a development challenge, problems around poverty and energy access. So for us, how do we deal with extreme poverty and getting millions of people out of extreme poverty and of course its implications, disease and all of that, and premature mortality, and at the same time meet the objectives of the, meet the objectives of our climate change objectives, especially net zero by 2050. So for us, the process of getting to net zero by 2050 and development and ensuring that we're able to take millions of people out of poverty, must be thought of together. Energy, of course, is a huge part of that. The whole energy challenge is a huge part of that. So for us, the process is as important as the objective. In other words, that transition is as important as getting to net zero because the transition for us has to be a just transition, it has to be a transition that is fair and balanced. If we don't have a transition that is fair and balanced, then we're going to end up jeopardizing the lives and livelihoods of millions while at the same time exposing ourselves to the great dangers of global warming. So in addition to that, of course, is the fact that all of the global issues to work website of SDGs, even in the Paris Agreement, expect that there will be an inclusive, equitable planet and people transition as opposed to one that's just heading for 2050 without taking into account the various issues that would attend the transition for countries such as ours. Now, I think also an important point that we ought to make, and this is also an important point, is that today we're faced with a situation where many of the wealthier countries are of course moving quickly towards net zero emissions, but are also insisting on banning all publicly funded fossil fuel projects, including gas. So we have examples such as the European Union, the UK, Denmark, to mention a few as well as specific institutions such as the Swede Fund, the World Bank, and several other, you know, several other institutions and development finance institutions at the moment. And they're saying, well, in order to meet the objectives of net zero by 2050, we need to ban all fossil fuel investments and gas investments as well. Now, there are even the institutions, for example, the African Development Bank, are just prepared to take a more nuanced approach. So the African Development Bank says, okay, we accept that it might be good to ban hydrocarbon investments, but that gas, for example, is an important transition for you. So we must have a way of preserving gas, gas investments and gas funding. But even those institutions such as the African Development Bank are finding it extremely difficult because, of course, they're part of an ecosystem and they are also not being funded. So they're finding it difficult to close any deals that involve hydrocarbon funding. So gas projects are practically all around the world, and especially in the developing countries and in Nigeria, but find it of course difficult to get any sorts of investments in gas projects. Now that is a major challenge for us because that approach is not mindful of even, you know, all of the commitments that we've made as nations of the world to come on with differentiated, come on with differentiated aspirations and all of that. And it's evident to us that if things go this way, we will end up in a situation where the economies of countries such as ours are completely damaged. And what we're trying to avoid, namely, you know, all of the fatalities, mortalities and the loss of lives and livelihoods and results of climate change. We're going to end up with those figures anyway because what we need to be able to get from the point where we are to 2050 will be to ensure that our people are able to survive and live their lives and all of that. And if that is taken away, then we have a very, we're putting a very difficult situation. Now I just want us to then ask ourselves a question. So how does a just transition look? How would a just transition look? How would a fair transition to 2050 look, you know, because obviously at the point that we're trying to take is that we cannot, as if we cannot today, have a fair transition if we are following the programs as laid out, you know, by many of the world-year countries. So I think that a just transition, and I'm sure many of us are familiar with these facts, you know, for example, we know that excluding South Africa, the remaining one billion people in South Africa are serviced by a power generating capacity of just 81 gigawatts of power. So outside of South Africa, all the powers available in South Africa is 81 gigawatts. And all of that has contributed less than 1% of cumulative CO2 emissions. Now, most countries on the African continent, of course, are low emission and, of course, energy poor countries. With per capita emissions of somewhere in the order of 0.8 to 1%, at all of what, you know, many of these countries in South Africa in particular, and an average of under two tons per capita in South Africa and in other African countries are included. So even if we triple electricity consumption solely through natural gas, if we triple electricity consumption in the whole of South Africa using natural gas, we'll just add up to 0.6% to global emissions. Now, compare that to the United States, which has an installed capacity of 1,200 gigawatts of power and a population of 321 million people. And its emissions stand at 15.5% per capita. Now, of course, the UK has 76 gigawatts of installed capacity, or 67 million people. So per capita energy capacity in the UK is almost 15 times that of the whole of South Africa. Now, among the average, Europe has per capita emissions of 6.5 tons. So I think we can learn, you know, and the truth, of course, is that given those kinds of figures, it's evident that for those of us in South Africa, we are the least polluters, we have the least emissions, we are the worst affected, and we're being asked to make the kind of sacrifice that would literally cripple our economies and make it impossible for us to ensure that people are able to live normal lives, and go into us 2050. So that's the kernel of the argument. And so I think that what we need to do, obviously, is to ask how then can this be made to work? You know, it's evident that if African countries, especially the Iroca upon which African countries are allowed to or are funded in order to be able to achieve their targets, we still would not have, and of course to use clean energy resources, we still would not have any of the very terrible consequences that may be envisaged. Now, I want to also just point out that natural gas is currently used for industry, for fertilizer manufacturing and cooking. And these are more difficult to transition than power generation. LPG is already today replacing the huge amounts of hazardous coal and kerosene cookstones that are most widely used for cooking, while saving millions of lives that are lost to indoor air pollution annually. So we have a situation where in order to transcend to cleaner fields, we need gas. So for example, we know that cooking gas is the best replacement for coal and firewood, which is what the vast majority of people in the rural areas, all our crops are used today. Now that is dangerous not only because it's a major polluter, but also because of the exposure to dangerous gases in house and of course a lot of the fatalities that resulted from that. So we need to transit to cleaner cooking, and cleaner cooking means using LPG, but which of course as you know is gas. We're also looking at how to transit from petrol for cars to LPG and CNG, which of course are cleaner now. To do that of course naturally, we need gas. So practically every step of the way we're going to need gas as a major transition fuel in order to be able to meet not just our energy demand, but also in order to be able to make the transition to much cleaner fuels. So I think in order to then achieve our aims, in order to get to where we're going, and also to ensure that we're able to do so in a manner that takes into account all of the challenges that have outlined, we need to ensure that we're adequately funded for that transition. Now, if we're going to achieve net zero by 2050, and we've drawn up a very comprehensive energy transition plan, we have the able, very able assistance of the energy transition council. A few minutes ago I met with Alok Sharma, who is the chair of that, and I know her as a co-chair of the energy transition council. They helped us quite a bit in being able to produce an energy transition plan. Now that energy transition plan just tells us how we're going to get from now to assuming by 2050 the target for zero emissions, how do you get there, what will it cost, and what sort of options are we going to deploy, what sort of energy options are we going to deploy. And for us access to energy, how do we ensure access to energy to millions of people who require, who require electrification. Now in order to do that from point A to point B, we're going to need about 400 billion in non-business as usual, 400 billion dollars that is, you know, over business as usual funding. Now that's quite a bit of money considering that that's almost the size of our GDP, right. And the commitments that have been made since Paris of 100 billion dollars a year have not been met even for one year, you know. So we're at a point where, you know, obviously we think that it will be important for us to be more intentional about how we are able to promote our own position and enable and ensure that that funding is available. And if you look at it, there's currently a mismatch, you know, in energy investments. So while representing just 15 percent of the world's population, high income countries received over 40s or 45 percent of global energy investments. At least the figures we have from 2018 show that that is the case. So developing countries with 40 percent of the world's population received just 50 percent of global energy investments. Energy consumption in developing countries has doubled in the last 15 years and is expected to grow another 30 percent in the next 50 years. So making capital available to fulfill our own growing energy demand and the energy demand of our regions of the world is central to reaching the goals of the bias agreement. I think that this is a point that we've made repeatedly and which we will continue to make. So while we are resolutely committed, you know, to all of our goals, all of the goals that we've set out for ourselves under the bias agreement, obviously we've also, in fact, recently updated our ambitions, especially our NDCs, our contributions were significantly updated because certainly we were committed to the process. But we also strongly believe that that process is one that has to be fair, has to be just, and has to be supported, not just for Nigeria, but for most African countries and for many countries in the global world who have the same kinds of concerns that we have. And just as I, just before I close, I'd just like to mention that so in going to COP26, obviously there's so many issues that are rising. Now after looking at our own plans, setting out our own plans and what to do cost, what to do take, you know, where, for example in Nigeria with under economic sustainability plan, we're doing a major solar power project, you know, where we're connecting 5 million homes in solar power, that's about 25 million individuals under economic sustainability plan. Now that's just one phase. I mean, 5 million or 85 million is really just scratching the surface. But the most important part of that is that that whole enterprise requires gas as base load, especially if we're going to use this as grid, if we're going to put it on the grid. So we want to be able to put renewable energy on the grid. We want to ensure that, you know, of course we have solar home systems, but we need renewable energy on the grid. We need power for industry, right? And of course, you know, we're still by looking at the signal stand costs of that. So everything that needs to happen now and all of what we're looking at obviously will come down to, you know, how much this is going to cost, how long it will take and all that. And we're the first African country to develop a comprehensive plan and looking at the plan and looking at the targets, looking at the cost. Every time someone says 2050, it's a target, you know, we'll look at our plans and cost and how much we expect to find. And so far the kinds of commitments will be sealed around the world. For us, it's looking pretty challenging. And that's just to put it as delicately as possible to be able to get to, let's say, by 2050. So again, just to say thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to you. And I hope that you'll be able to collaborate even more, especially with some of the grid work that my powers and esteem are doing. Thank you all very much.


algae have been identified as a promising source of renewable energy due to their ability to produce large amounts of lipids and carbohydrates. Environmental factors such as temperature, light, and pH, as well as nutrients like carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and trace metals all play a role in determining how much carbon is fixed into these compounds. By understanding how these factors interact, it may be possible to optimize algae production for biofuel applications. This article was authored by Ganti S. Morthy, Ruben Michael Sabalos, and Anki de Gineja.


You're very welcome to today's IIA webinar. I'm Seamus Allen, a policy researcher here at the IIA, and today I'm delighted to be joined by Jacob Machangama, CEO of Justitia. Jacob is going to talk to us today about recent developments in online and free speech regulation, and the main topic today is the Digital Services Act. Jacob will speak to us for about 20 to 25 minutes, and then we'll go into a discussion and a Q&A with you, our audience. You can join the Q&A using the Q&A button at the bottom of your screen. So do send in questions as you think of them, and we'll come to the months Jacob has finished his presentation. Please do include your name and your organization name in your question. And a reminder that today's webinar and the Q&A are both on the record. Jacob, as I said, is the CEO of Justitia, which is a think tank in Denmark that deals with rule of law, human rights, and freedom of expression issues. And he also directs its future free speech project. He's an expert commentator in international media and international forums on issues relating to freedom of expression, human rights, and technology. He recently published his new book, Free Speech, a Global History from Socrates to Social Media, which I would really strongly recommend and which is really interesting and stimulating and insightful on a lot of these topics. And it really shows how the history of this topic is very, very relevant to a lot of contemporary debates. And in some cases can be sound eerily familiar. So Jacob, thank you so much for being with us today. We really appreciate your time. And I'll hand over to you now. Thank you so much, Seamus. It's a real pleasure and an honor to be addressing this forum today. Thank you for inviting me. And depending on your perspective, this is also a very good timing given developments over the DSA and the role of free speech online, which is hardly debated everywhere. Before sort of zooming more in on the free speech related aspects of the Digital Services Act, I think I want to start by going back a couple of decades to the 1990s, which is sort of the high watermark of techno-optimism or techno-utopian optimism, some might say. This idea that the World Wide Web, which was being democratized, would basically mean that freedom democracy would be spread to all corners of the world and that old-fashioned censorship would no longer be relevant. And nothing more embodies this zeitgeist than the Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace from 1996, authored by John Perry Barlow. And I want to quote for it. It says, governments of the industrial world, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from cyberspace, the new home of mine. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. I welcome among us, you have no sovereignty where we gather. I declare the social space we're building to be naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to impose on us. You have no moral right to rule us, nor do you possess any methods of enforcement. We have true reason to fear. We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity. So that is sort of this radically utopian and optimistic vision of what the internet would bring to free speech online. And I think in the following decade or so, techno-optimism was the norm. So Obama came to power in the US using social media, using the internet to great effects, energizing younger voters with a positive message of change. The Arab Spring was very much seen as sort of, again, the embodiment of the positive nature of social media that people in the Middle East who had for such a long time been without a voice, could suddenly mobilize, could speak out, could circumvent traditional censorship on social media and topple regimes that had been in power for decades. But then there was a reversal of attitudes that we're still living through, sort of skepticism, pessimism crept in. It may have started with ISIS, sort of, and terrorism, ISIS being able to coordinate, spread its propaganda online to recruit members online. Then came Brexit, then came the refugee crisis where in Europe where lots of hate speech was spread online. And perhaps most importantly, the 2006 US presidential election, which was said to have been perhaps determined even by the spread of Russian disinformation and fake news that supposedly decided it in favor of Donald Trump. And that led to a huge backlash against social media platforms and skepticism about the potential of free speech. And suddenly free speech was seen perhaps more as a threat than as a promise for democracies. And we saw a number of initiatives to rein in free speech on social media. So the Code of Conduct on Hate Speech in 2016 between the European Commission and a number of big tech platforms followed by a Code of Practice on Disinformation. Then Germany actually became the pioneer in online regulation with its NETS DG law from 2017, which essentially obliged social network with more than 2 million users to remove illegal content, manifest illegal content within 24 hours of face fines of up to 50 million euros. A law, an intermediate liability law that spread rapidly to around the world, including unfortunately to countries like Venezuela, Russia and others who were delighted with a precedent drafted in the European democracy. And now the Digital Services Act is sort of hailed as the gold standard by the European Union to create a rules-based order in the cyberspace. And one of the stated aim of the DSA is to set rules for safe, predictable and trusted online environment in which fundamental rights enshrined in the charter are effectively protected. And one of those rights, of course, is freedom of expression, which includes the freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority regardless of frontiers that follows from Article 11 of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, which again is to be interpreted in light of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights as authoritatively interpreted by the European Court of Human Rights under the Council of Europe, not the European Union. The problem though is, you know, is the DSA mostly focused on protecting this right or does it pose a threat to this right even though it explicitly says that the protection of this right is part of its purpose. And I think to be fair, we're still very much in the initial stages of the implementation of the DSA, not all parts have fully entered into force, but I will color myself pessimistic based on what we have seen so far. And I'll highlight a number of risks that I see in the DSA. One of them or perhaps the biggest one is the obligation on very large online platforms or VELOPS and very large online search engines to assess and mitigate so-called systemic risks which their services are deemed to generate and or contribute to. And these risks include, among other things, the dissemination of illegal content and the much broader actual and negative effects for the exercise of fundamental rights on civic discourse and electoral processes and public security but also public health. And so here we see that systemic risks relate not only to what is illegal but also what may be deemed lawful but harmful based on very broad definitions. And of course, the enforcer of these systemic risks, the regulator, if you like, is the European Commission which seems to view free speech as more of a danger to be countered than a fundamental value to be protected. And why do I say that? Well, Cherie Breton, the European Commissioner who is spearheading the DSA, has been very, very prominent in his promotion of the DSA and his views on what DSA obligations entail and very much seems to be a harm-oriented approach. In other words, that especially big tech platforms have to do much more to counter illegal hate speech. And I think a very recent example is the fallout over the Israel-Hamas War where Cherie Breton has sent letters to X, to YouTube, Meta and TikTok demanding that these V-Labs not only delete illegal content but also disinformation and he's sort of given them 24-hour deadlines to respond to his letters even though there's no explicit basis for him to demand. So since the DSA does not prescribe 24-hour deadlines we've also seen a letter from October 20th this month with the Commission urging Member States to coordinate efforts to target illegal and harmful speech and essentially to act as a prolonged arm of the Commission which sees itself as best position to enforce the DSA when it comes to V-Labs. So I'll return to illegal content but the focus on disinformation, I think, is particularly concerning. First of all, disinformation is not illegal as such neither under European human rights law nor under international human rights law. So for instance, Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights under the UN standards. So when countering disinformation you're immediately in uncertain territory because who determines and defines what disinformation is. And I think, again, the current conflict Israel-Palestine shows this. So a number even of legacy media outlets reported based on Palestinian sources that an attack on a hospital in Gaza was due to an Israeli strike and that had been 500 casualties. However, open source intelligence experts have raised serious questions about this narrative and I think right now the most likely explanation is that it was not an Israeli strike but this shows the difficulties of establishing what is true or not because depending on whether this was an Israeli strike or whether it was a rocket from a Palestinian group that has huge consequences for the narrative surrounding the conflict on either side. And of course, how well could the European Commission determine the truth of this? This is a matter that cannot be authoritatively determined. We may not now know the truth but we will never know the full truth and so legislating that is deeply problematic. Another thing is in Ukraine. How do we best counter Russian propaganda which is a big worry for the commission? The commission published a report which showed its views on how to counter disinformation under the DSA and that report suggests that any Kremlin-based narrative even if shared by non-Kremlin actors could be assessed as a systemic risk to be mitigated by view-ups. Now that's again a very, very broad definition of systemic risks and again one that might have collateral damage on the ecosystem of information and opinion which the commission claims that it wants to protect because how do you counter Russian disinformation and propaganda? Well again I would say open source intelligence has been at the forefront of this at sort of showing through geolocationing using videos from uploaded by Russians and Ukrainians themselves to counter in real time claims made by parties to the conflict and in order to be able to effectively do this you need the content, you need access to the propaganda, you need access to what might be lies so you need as much information as possible in order to try and create a more reliable narrative rather than deciding on what is truth or not and banning it. It is also true that the European Union has gone very far in encountering Russian disinformation in other ways for instance suspending the broadcast activities of state-sponsored Russian media and the European Commission went so far as to point out that social media companies must prevent users from broadcasting any content of RT and Sputnik so again this is not only applies to the platforms themselves but the users of the platforms. We've also seen that Cherie Pretent has suggested citing the DSA that social media platforms could face shutdowns if they don't crack down on problematic content doing riots in France this was something that Breton was then forced to walk back a bit after pressure from civil society. So that's one issue when it comes to disinformation as I mentioned a concept which is not even illegal but what then about illegal content from the outset if content is illegal why is it problematic if it should be removed and this is what the DSA envisages with a notice and action mechanism but I would argue that this mechanism can also create issues regarding over-sensoring so basically the mechanism is aimed to allow the individual or entity to notify providers of hosting services of the presence on their services of specific items of information that the individual or entity considers to be illegal content now the illegal content is not defined by the DSA that is to be defined by national law and European law the problem with this is that what is illegal in the member states varies very, very widely so if you go to France for instance people have been fined for depicting President Macron as a Hitler-like figure due to his COVID policies so someone was fined 10,000 euros for that in Italy currently an author is facing a defamation lawsuit by the Prime Minister Miloni for calling her something like a bastard something which in many other jurisdictions would be seen as perfectly within the bounds of free speech but if this constitutes illegal content then from the outset such content could and should be removed by platforms we also have countries like Austria, Finland and Germany where you have blasphemy laws and of course you have countries in the European Union that are not necessarily very liberal democratic so Viktor Orbens-Hungary has banned certain forms of quote-unquote LGBT propaganda so what do you do with that should that be removed as well and I would say that this creates a narrative again for platforms to develop their own terms the categories of prohibited content in their own terms to be broader than the national law or European human rights standards now this is already happening so my organization has done reports that show that for instance on Facebook and YouTube the content removed there tends to be overwhelmingly legal lawful content this year we issued a report which basically tracked the hate speech policies of eight major social media platforms and we found that all of them had dramatically expanded the scope and protected characteristics in their hate speech policies over the past decade and that all of them went much further than required by human rights standards and so these reports, empirical reports I think have the potential to turn things on their head so if you accept our findings and obviously they haven't investigated all platforms in all countries but they suggest that the real problem might be over removal rather than platforms removing too little if you accept that the vast majority of content being removed is actually lawful and so you could argue that if the commission was to take the stated commitment to article 11 of the charter seriously it should focus more on content staying up rather than being removed but that is certainly not the message that the commission is signaling right now of course a lot will depend on how enforcement turns out both at the national and at the commission level but certainly now I very much worry about the consequences for free speech and here I want to focus on my big worry is not the consequences for Meta or Google they have the resources and the incentive to comply and ultimately their commitment is to their shareholders and maximizing profits the real losers will be the users in the member states who rely on social media to access and impart information without censorship now before I end I also want to just briefly say that this cannot be looked at in isolation from a European angle because we see this spreading to a number of countries I mentioned how the NETS-DG was quickly seized upon by countries like Russia, like Venezuela a number of authoritarian countries that enacted internet sweeping internet censorship and referenced the NETS-DG as its inspiration of course these countries would still have adopted censorship but when they were able to reference a law adopted by the largest and most influential European democracy in Germany it makes it more difficult for democracies to protest against these practices and it provides legitimacy and what I would call what aboutary points to a country like Russia the same is likely to happen for the DSA it doesn't serve as a blueprint and the European Union has itself said it's a gold standard but what happens when this kind of law is being adopted copy pasted in countries that have far less robust protections of free speech, less robust standards of the rule of law separation of powers and so on we already see this in India for instance where the government has cracked down on Facebook and Twitter for failing to comply with government demands for takedowns we've seen the IT rules from 2021 which has been used to allow the Indian government to flag fake or false or misleading information and require platforms to remove it and these have been expanded this year so it allows a fact-checking unit of India's Press Information Bureau to basically assess whether information is fake or false and demand platforms to remove it and we've also seen worrying developments in Brazil the largest democracy in Latin America the judiciary has given itself powers to identify fake news and propaganda aimed at democratic institutions and then to order platforms to remove such content so a bit like what is envisaged with the powers of the European Commission when it comes to V-LOPS but sort of the DSA on steroids if you like and what has been proposed is to give these in Brazil these powers even more powers with a so-called fake news bill which references the DSA and which has been tabled and which would oblige social media platforms to identify and remove legal content within very, very short time frames interestingly when Telegram and Google criticized this bill as an attack on freedom of expression the companies were met with demands that they removed this content because such an opinion about the fake news bill itself constituted fake news that was illegal and therefore had to be removed contrast this with the recent decision in the United States in Missouri versus Biden where the Fifth Circuit came to the conclusion that a number of federal agencies including the White House, the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had leaned on social media platforms to remove content legal content and this practice constituted a violation of the First Amendment now this decision will go to the Supreme Court and we'll see whether it upholds it or changes it but I think this decision even if it might have gotten some of the facts wrong is a more promising way forward in ensuring that governments don't have the power to put undue pressure on platforms to remove content that they deem undesirable and unfortunately I think the DSA is moving in the direction of politicizing content moderation to the detriment of free speech and as such will risk undermining democracy not only in Europe where at least we have robust free speech standards we have national constitutions independent courts that can serve as a counteract to this but also to legitimize similar and much more sweeping bills around the world from illiberal democracies like India and increasingly Brazil but also in outright authoritarian states who will look to the DSA and say this will serve our purposes very well so those were my initial comments I thank you for your patience and I look forward to your questions and comments


Test test test test Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us for today's public safety briefing led by deputy mayor for public safety Phillip banks following our last speaker We will take a few questions from the media followed by some questions that have been submitted by the public ahead of today's briefing I would now like to turn it over to deputy mayor for public safety Phil banks Good morning everybody and welcome to this week's public safety briefing and every Friday We hold these discussions to let you the public here directly from Leaders throughout the city about the ways in which we are working to keep you safe and the information you need to help protect Yourselves and loved ones. This is a two-way street. This is collaboration We need to hear from you and how we can do that is if you sign up from here from Eric comm There we will be you could be a prize a future topics We're going to discuss and that is a platform for you to send us your suggestions and your questions Today, I'm joined here by three guests. Of course the mayor of New York City, Mayor, Eric Adams We have the Department of Education Chancellor David Banks and the NYPD Commissioner Ed Caban You will be hearing about the use of technology that's going to increase security in our schools Programs to protect students well-being and their opportunity to succeed The NYPD will be discussing the recap of the summer Labor Day weekend Juve and also some back-to-school Partnerships with the NYPD and with that I will turn it over to the mayor of the city of New York Mayor Adams. Thank you Thanks so much Phil deputy mayor banks and I really want to thank our school Chancellor David Banks and our police commissioner Eddie Caban You hear you have heard me state over and over again if you don't educate you will incarcerate and the number is bear that out 80% of the men and women on Rikers Island of my last check Don't have a high school diploma or an equivalency diploma and some of them are there because I always state is the betrayal of our educational system that has a downstream mindset anytime you have a system where 30 to 40% of those who are incarcerated are experiencing learning disabilities like dyslexia we create a pathway for Imprisonment and not a prep pathway for careers and that's why that we are all here together one of the first things we did was to create a relationship between our police department and The Department of Education Chancellor Banks and the former police commissioner Kishan Sue ensured that the commanders Had regular meetings and check-ins with the principles of schools and superintendents that develop an amazing Relationship and it's not lost on me that we have not had one shooting on school Property or inside a school building as we have witnessed mass shootings and shootings across the country inside school's buildings We have not had a shooting in a school building in the city of New York And I think it has a lot to do with that collaboration But we've always talked about our upstream approach and Chancellor Banks will go into some of the upstream approaches that we are Implementing not only last year, but during this school year and the development of the full personhood of our children on several different levels He gave me a briefing this morning And I'm excited as we start the new school year with all the challenges that we are facing It is clear to us that we are ready to accept those challenges if you start a school year Hoping everything is going to be smooth without any bumps in the road You'll send yourself up for disappointment We must suggest to those point those bumps pivot and shift and make sure that we can create a safe environment We can educate our children and have a productive year in school We can't fail our school if produces negative effects down the line and something that we are going to continue to fight to Move our children in the right direction New York City's school children deserve to learn Just also just to be kids School should be fun enjoyable. They should be excited about meeting their friends and Introducing themselves to new friends and when the first day of school just around the corner I want to be clear that we are creating a school system where every child cannot just survive But the child could thrive When we invest upstream our children will invest in the city's future and since day one this Administration has believed that and we will continue to lean into that. I was extremely proud of When the Chancellor instituted universal dyslexia screening our program Look at the numbers over half a million students have gone through a level of some form of screening And when you identify those 1500 Approximately that were indicators that we need to drill down on we were catching them Upstream to give them the services that they deserve. No child should have go through what I went through Waiting into college before identifying that I had a learning disability We need to stop the pipeline and that is what this Chancellor is committed to do in partnership with our police Commissioning and reading the math out of foundation of everything we do So we are also making a historic shift and the way we teach our young people reading and math through New York City reads. This is a extremely exciting Pivot and what we have been doing for far so long making literacy reading and math instruction the core focus of our public schools Now for some of our children the breakfast and lunch they eat at school are their only meals think about that Breakfast and lunch for many of our children That is the most important meal for them and it is the most stable meal that they receive We are taking a giant step forward to making sure our students have access to healthy Nutritionist meals that are currently that culturally appropriate is vital to keeping our young people New Yorkers in school. I don't think there's ever been a student in the history of the New York City public school system That did not say that the school meals are terrible. We want to turn that around We want them to enjoy the meals to be part of the engagement looking at the cafeterias changing the lunchroom Experience and I was really impressed this morning during a briefing when Chancellor Banks talked about how he sat down With students and had lunch with them engage and not academic but engage in just everyday Conversation and he encouraged the principles that we had this morning to do the same We want to make sure that every student graduates from a New York City school We have a clear pathway to the future that is why we are leading the way with programs like some of youth program summarizing program and future ready New York City program We also want to make sure their recreation is solid and safe with our Saturday night lights program is helping keep them in a safe space and using Existing school builders to do so our schools are important and we are clear that every zip code every block every neighborhood Every child should have an opportunity regardless of their background Regardless of the language they speak a regardless scholars of what culture they have and we know the challenge We're facing this year particular We're dealing with thousands of students that are part of the migrant and asylum seekers The Chancellor did not sit back and wait his team spent the entire summer Making sure that we can make some of the technical changes within the department of New York City public schools to provide the proper instruction education language Disabilities and translation all of those services we took into account throughout this entire summer We did not wait and become reactionary We spent the summer being proactive and the results will speak for itself So again, thank you deputy mayor Banks and I look forward to engaging in a lively briefing with the press and with the community. Thank you very much Thank you, Mr. Mayor next we're gonna hear from the Chancellor of the Department of Education and So a Dave welcome. I think that you're gonna be talking a little bit about technology right to increase your security in our schools Also about students well-being. I know that the school year is about to open up. It was the worst time of the year for me All right, that particular time has had to go back to school But I know that's a big big a big deal for the Department of Education So, you know shoot tell us about it. I love getting ready for the school year Love there's a school year open though. No as kids come off the summit There's always a certain level of angst As everyone comes off the summer and that's a level of angst for kids as well as their families But it is the beginning of the end of the summer and in the beginning of the fall season and And we are ready. I'm really excited To be in this position as Chancellor Thank you, mr. Mayor again for your belief in me to be the leader of the New York City public school system largest school system In the nation that has been a real honor for me to serve in this role And and I think the best days for our school system are absolutely in front of us I'm filled with a level of excitement, but I will tell you that you know one of the Parents and their kids and they expect two things in particular one their child is going to be safe and That secondly their child is going to learn to read Because reading is the gateway then for all the other subject areas including math and science if you don't learn to read It's very difficult for you to achieve a level of success in any of the other core Subject areas as well and next week. We'll be having a press conference together with my entire senior leadership team Right before we open our schools where we're gonna delve into all of these issues We're getting prepared to open up the school year But today I really wanted to talk a little bit about safety and our safety preparedness for all of our schools I'm so thrilled the partnership that I have with the NYPD and the police commissioner from police commissioner a quiche on soul to now a police commissioner caban Commissioner caban and I speak on a regular Basis and that was not always the case in prior administrations Police department and New York City public schools oftentimes operated in silos Both trying to do good work, but we recognize in this administration as the mayor has said from the beginning The alignment of our values and our efforts you optimize the work when you're working together and so Commissioner caban and I speak on a regular basis. In fact, just yesterday the commissioner Hosted my entire senior leadership team for a two-hour tour at the New York City Police Academy's training center Which if you have never visited we should create a moment for them to see it It is an amazing facility and it is a world-class gold standard operation for how you prepare a New York City police officers And in fact, it has served as an inspiration for me to create a similar type of facility New York City public schools We do not have one particular facility where we train all of our Teachers and our parrots and all of our school a's and all of our workers We train them over a wide range of facilities and so that facility serves as an inspiration That's the reason we did the visit yesterday We have members with us from the school construction authority as well but the highlight of the visit for me Was as we went into several different rooms and we met the recruits. We're coming on the NYPD We're getting ready to come on with the new class of school safety agents And I asked a simple question How many of you are actually graduates of New York City public schools? And I'd say in each room I went to well over 90% of the hands that went up And I just looked at our team and I said these are our kids These are our kids. These are the folks that we work with in third grade eighth grade 10th grade Who eventually when we say these are our kids? Really represent our future and to see them now moving into these kinds of positions is really important And it was inspiring for me to see that and I saw at least three young men from the Eagle Academy And those of you know I hope to start the Eagle Academy's and and the Bronx School for Law Government and Justice Where I served as principal before the Eagle Academy and to see some of my students from those schools in these Programs now getting ready to come out and provide safety for all of the residents of New York City Was really really just a highlight for me. So Commissioner I want to thank you for for hosting us for being there with us yesterday and the work that we're going to do together The mayor had set out very early on that he wanted a deeper level of communication between our school principals and the NYPD and So during the last semester the mayor convene a zoom with every principal in New York City over 1,800 principles Together with every commanding officer from the New York City Police Department who oversees a particular precinct and Together what we decided to do was that there would be a weekly zoom with the commanding officer of the precinct Every commanding officer probably has anywhere from 25 to 35 schools in their command Those folks ought to be talking to each other We're not trying to militarize our schools and we're not doing that We're not trying to over-police our schools and we're not doing that But what we are doing at the behest of our mayor was to say enhance a level of communication So that the principals when they are seeing things that are happening in their schools If they're seeing other kids coming to their school trying to create problems after school Who do they alert so we can alert the commanding officer the precinct give them a heads up and they can help to connect those dots That enhanced level of communication has already shown I think a marked improvement during the last semester of the school year And so very very happy we're going to continue to do that We're adding into that now the borough commanders will be meeting regularly school superintendents and So we're enhancing a deeper level of Communication as well to fortify the gains that we've already made and to ensure that our kids are going to continue to be safe So so that's one piece that we're doing the other thing that we're really excited about and we've made Multimillion dollar level of investment in this is our door locking system We have seen all across the nation These folks who've come into public schools and have Created a level of violence and where many of our young people have died and we continue offer up our thoughts and prayers We want to make sure that we're doing everything in New York City to prevent that from ever happening here And so as the mayor said we're proud that we have not had that Knock on wood But beyond knocking on wood you got to prepare and you work hard and you and you communicate and One of the things that we're doing is where we're launching our door locking system and so starting with this school year Which includes for us our phase one has over 740 722 schools how many schools mark with 744 744 elementary schools a part of our phase one work We will be locking the front door of the schools after the students are already in the school It's not meant to keep parents away. It's a door locking system, and it's a camera system So after the school day has begun in that front door locks Anyone who shows up at the school will press the buzzer They will be seen on camera by the school safety agent at the front door They will be able to communicate with them. They will present their ID and the reason for them being there Before we gain entry the mayor and I visited a school in Queens last year where we had a young man who was released from a facility and Within moments of being released from that facility entered into one of our schools And we're not for the hard work of that school safety agent and the principal who together a Wrestled this person to the ground. They might have created all kinds of harm for our babies in that school we want to prevent that from happening in the first place and so and so by this spring We will have completed this work for all of our elementary schools And then we will begin the work for our middle schools and our high schools But we certainly want to start with our youngest children first in doing that And so that door locking system has taken place We have a number of schools which we've already put in place But by the spring we'll have completed the work for every elementary school In the city, but we also recognize that it's not just the work of the NYPD that guarantees the safety of our kids Or our school safety agents they all play a role But we need our community to be actively involved and engaged and that's one of the reasons why last year we launched project pivot So project pivot is now going from 144 schools from last year to 250 schools this year These are schools that are in some of our highest need areas where we've seen the greatest uptick in violence And we've gotten community-based organization members these are the folks who grew up in these communities They know the communities they know all the folks in the community to be involved And we've given them contracts to work with us in our schools And the work that they're doing has a wide range from tutoring to taking kids on trips to providing safe passage to and from schools Because last year we were disturbed to see the uptick in the amount of weapons that have been brought to our schools But kids were not bringing these weapons to school to do damage to their classmates They told us over and over these weapons have been used to make sure that they can protect themselves to and from school But we don't want kids to have to bring weapons at all We want them to feel safe at all times the project pivot community-based members are helping us to do that So we're very excited about that our ability to expand on that work to take a deeper dive on that work We continue to learn each and every day In this work that we're doing and then finally I would just say as the mayor talks about the prevention The mindful breathing work that we're doing many of our schools had already started that work because they understood the importance Helping a young person understand how to center themselves is critically important. It's not just who's coming to break up the fight Or what disciplinary action will take place afterwards But helping kids to develop the skills and ability inherently to know how to calm themselves down in the face of challenge and turmoil and sometimes confrontation and So aware we are working this year to ensure that every school in the city is going to have at least two to four minutes of Mindful breathing for all of our students. It's not just a nice cute thing to do It is a lifelong Skill that we want to see our schools get better at and develop over a period of time So that when they are faced with any level of trauma They know How to take a deep breath and Try to make better choices before they just react and We feel very good about helping our schools to be able to do that So there are a host of things that we're doing we'll talk more next week at the press conference That we'll do together with our entire senior leadership team But we're really excited about the work for this school year and marks the beginning of my second full year As chancellor and I'm thrilled to work together with the police commissioner together with the deputy Deputy mayor who I know a little bit as well And I think that all of this together enhances the level of communication Which gives us the best chance to continue to be successful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you chancellor Okay commissioner, how you doing? I'm doing good. Very good I know that we're gonna talk a little bit about the recap of the summer, right? And I know that it was from a violence perspective We are really heading in the right direction like a lot a lot of progress You've been there since the beginning Labor Day weekend coming up So, you know, we got Juve's always just a challenge and the West Indian day parade and of course You're gonna talk a little bit about your partnership with the DOA. So So good morning, everyone. Thank you for having me. I want to echo the chancellor's sentiments and thank you for your continued partnership It's truly remarkable what we're doing right now David appreciate everything you've done what your team is done You know what we're seeing at the rival of school year and the conclusion of the summer We're seeing a coinciding with the continued reduction in violence in New York City Since are some of the employment plan went to place at the beginning of May Shooting incidents across the five boroughs are down 26 percent Which means there were 135 fewer shootings compared to the same period last summer The result is 193 fewer people struck by gunfire this summer You'll also continue to see the clients and murders So far this year. We had 27 fewer murders city-wide When I look at it, you know, these trends should come as no surprise to anyone Your NYPD officers are out there day and night going toward danger Holding those willing to pull triggers accountable So far this year. We've taken over 3,000 guns And we've made over 3,000 gun arrests in New York City this year alone And this weekend as the city gears off to celebrate Juve The NYPD will be doing the same The name of public safety. We will not let up There'll be thousands of officers deployed in and around the west indian american day parade route And as I mentioned yesterday, we want everyone to come out and enjoy themselves and have a wonderful time The reduction of violence we are seeing at the summer draws to a close Is an excellent backdrop to the start of the school year My team and I are regularly communication with chancellor banks and his managers This coordination continues throughout our organizations Between my commanding officers, his school principals We share information about corridors that have historically presented challenges And we're going to be out there to ensure that there are no issues We also discuss congregation points where kids like to hang out And we will have a strong presence in those places as well From our patrol officers to our youth coordination officers Our school safety agents and of course our school crossing guards We have a big dedicated team looking out for our kids We will also have increased presence in a transit system keeping watch over our students as they travel to and from school The nypd is also paying close attention to crimes involving kids We will look to see if there's a nexus between larger crime patterns A connection of acts of domestic violence or even truancy at school At the end of the day the goal is always to protect our children Creating environment where they can learn and safety and peace And to that end I want to express my gratitude and respect for our school safety agents They are everyday heroes doing the important work In the schoolyards, in the corners, they are building trust Cultivating relationships and easing tensions before things escalate And as always Technology is key for everything we do Which is why we are working on creating a tip line that will allow folks to share information That we should be aware of regarding schools and the kids Is being built out and will be up and running this fall And also our school safety division is also launching a command center in the coming months It will be an information hub that coordinates all the resources dedicated to the safety of our schools All in all as the school year kicks off You feel very good about the comprehensive plan that we have in place to ensure the protection Of new york city's most precious gifts our children Thank you very much deputy one one final point. I do want to add deputy may if you don't mind A just point of information prior to the pandemic we had 5,063 school safety agents When we came in as this administration, we were down about 2,000 agents Over the course of the pandemic. We have cut that number in half So we're up to about 4100 agents now With another 250 that are going into the next class In october So we'll continue to uh to boost the ranks if you will and for those of you Some of you know that I used to be a school safety agent I worked at claire barton high school in brooklyn prior to becoming a teacher Probably the first chancellor in history that was a school safety agent And uh, it was a point of great pride for me and I understand the great work that they do And that they are they are an essential component to the culture of any successful school Because they they do more than provide safety. They are big brothers. They are big sisters They are aunties and uncles for many of the kids who are in in those schools And uh, they're they're central to everything that we do and I have great great respect for each and every one of them And you just want to just reiterate, you know, I had a compliment uh the commissioner had made a comment and to to the public and he says uh I've been working with you for 20 years. I've never heard you ever give out a compliment Uh And uh, so I started thinking about it. Maybe he probably hasn't heard it because I probably didn't do it but Um, I was part of the merger the school saved the agents and there's a lot a lot of heroes in new york city But I put the school safety agents up there with anyone the amount of work that they do that's remarkable It is they're just it's the challenges they face every day So, uh, I just want to screw save the ages out there to hear from the mayor and to the leadership Of uh, new york city if nobody else appreciates you which I know they do We certainly appreciate you and I just want to say hats off and good luck to a very successful year And and and uh, I think deputy mayor if you recall on the campaign trail There were many who was calling about removing school safety agents from school And I was very clear that was not going to happen if I was the mayor of the city of new york and we did uh, uh approximately I think anywhere from uh, 12 to 13 town hall with young people And the young people there were two top issues at every town hall They wanted their school safety agents and police and they wanted to deal with mental health issues Every town hall we attended with young people across the city with dycd And at mitchell from man up, uh, they talked about the relationship with their police And the relationship with their school safety agents So sometimes those who speak the loudest are speaking for themselves and not those who are impacted by these decisions Those young people want to feel safe in their school and that is what we're providing for them Thank you deputy mayor. We will now take a few on-topic questions from the media related to today's presentations For chancellor brooks. You were talking about banks. I'm sorry You were talking about a safe passage Uh and corridors. So how will these safety corridors be set up because there have been incidents of violence and several incidents of gang violence around schools Um, in france, it leaves that island. So how will that work? And how many will there be? Well, that's sort of a formal process Well, and the police commissioner certainly speak to this as well But this has been part of our communication efforts to target these very specific neighborhoods because this is not something that we're finding It's happening in every school in every school community for sure But where we have seen the highest rates of those incidents, um, there will be a beefed up presence But also that's the places where we're doubling down on our project pivot workers as well to ensure a greater, uh, Safe carter to and from school But what we're also doing is we're reaching out now to more of our parents and our families because we want the community to recognize as well That safety is not just the job of the police department or the school safety agents It is a community responsibility And so we want our parents and our families to also be out there You know when you have schools where you will have parents who not only drop off their child But we'll take an extra few minutes to just be around their their presence alone Uh as a deterrence, uh for nonsense if you will and so, uh, we've identified a number of these schools And we'll be working with the principals as well to begin to drive that down those incidents Uh, I don't have number up top. We can certainly furnish that with your mark of the specifics off of off of those But suffice it to say that it's the schools that we have seen where these great Number of incidents have taken place and we're going to be leaning in a much much more focused way this year as well Hey, how's it going? On the use of drones to monitor activities ahead of jubay in the coming labor day weekend I believe the PD said yesterday that they were going to be sending them in some cases to like barbecues or home parties Um, what to say to people who feel like that's a little more intrusive than You know the police normally operates and you know as opposed to a helicopter these drones could be very close To hear what people are talking about You know, thank you. Um, and of we have to push back on the sci-fi aspects of drones Of no one is going to be up monitoring Of you know, what you're talking about your conversation I uh, there were two occasions that I was just extremely impressed and really Knew we were on the right thing using drones one was at the Washington square park after the Pride parade The park was just reached a point of being just disorderly and dangerous of the commissioners team made the decision to deploy the drones and made a simple announcement that the park is closing You have to leave the park and Watching that park just clear out It was just so impressive that I knew we were on to something the second time We policed this city from the ground Not three-dimensional from the sky and we did not know what was going on ahead of time the washington square the union square park When you saw the young people several thousand took over the park My team was here Watching the activity live while the Chief was on the ground with his team The commissioner was able to see it remotely We were able to see it remotely and we had a view that the Responding units did not have and we were able in real time to communicate with them where the problem spots were What we had to do how we had to close down the streets how we were able to see where dangerous place were It was unbelievable, you know in my entire career Career of being around law enforcement never did I experience that level of firsthand on the ground I didn't have to guess what was taking place I was able to immediately communicate with the chief and his team and my team here and the commissioner We were able to execute. So what we're doing over this weekend There are a number of calls of loud music disruptive Of behavior instead of the police having to respond And uh, look at those they're going to utilize drones from a safe distance up Not down flying in someone's backyard to see what they have on the grill They're going to utilize the drones to determine should they send crisis management teams there right away to help mitigate the problem We don't want police to be the same The only response and we were very clear. I think the chief made it clear. We want people to Enjoy the festivities that that that come with the Western Indian Day Parade in Juve And so we want to utilize this technology to compliment our crisis management team compliment our police personnel and respond appropriately And be able to respond in record time You know a drone could get to a location in 30 40 seconds Where we're going to have crowded streets where police are not going to be able to get there as fast This is a smart excellent tool and I really take my hat off to the police commissioner and how his team particularly uh, assistant commissioner cash door tree They have they traveled around the country looked at other police departments and unfortunately we were not leading We are now going to become the leader and how to properly use our drones Commission, I don't know if I touched on anything if there's anything else you want to touch on it Absolutely. It's been a wonderful thing everybody Like the mayor said is worried about sci-fi now We're using these drones as an extra resource a force multiplier where instance like juve We could we have our 311 calls and they're complaining about noise. We could deploy the drones to see Just might be people having a nice early party So we don't have to deploy so many resources We could have one officer go over there with our partners With a doe go over to check our sound meters and say, you know what? It's perfectly fine And we'll go about our business and they can enjoy their night And that's just what it is for you And one thing on that is just in this for the public about the use of drones and the mayor's push for technology, right? It's going to Compliment the services. We're we're looking at drones now that can when people having a heart attack Can the master's if the drone can get there? Before right not instead of but before we respond to emt and can give some advice to the person who's the non ill person Why would we not explore it? So there's a lot of exploration going on We don't need to be afraid of the unknown or maybe a little bit of a human nature Uh, but we're trying to keep this city as safe as fair as possible And you're going to be seeing a lot of those particular things at the mayor's direction And maybe walk us through a little bit in the event of a strike How does the uber like how does that process work for parents if they want to? The chances give you the update, you know Something's always happening in the city I woke up the other day and I heard that a water main break, you know, I mean this city No, this is an amazing place and the ferry We selling the ferry contract selling over 80 percent of our union contracts Having 90 something ratification on all of these contracts people knew we paid them the right salaries We want to do what's right by bus operators there. They are moving our Children to and from This is you know, it's another day in the city and another incident Issue that we will come to a resolution the resiliency of this city. It always amazes me But I know the chancellor he briefed me this morning. He's deep in this issue with the atu and The vendors and so, you know, you could give them an update on what yeah Well, first of all, I think it's very important to know right that that we are not the direct party involved here What you have is The union the atu Local 1181 is in negotiations with the various bus vendors. We contract with those Vendors and sort of the negotiation is essentially between them We're at the table. We're trying to be as helpful as we can possibly be I'm still hopeful that we will be able to avert a strike But in the in the event that there is a strike, we have already sent out guidance to our families across the city those who We'll be providing metro cards For anyone including for the families as well. So for the students and the families, we should know that what we're talking about with this particular strike Effects problem could potentially affect anywhere from 85 to 90 thousand students Including about 25,000 Students with special needs and these are generally our youngest students. This is not really affecting high school kids Um, so these are our youngest students and you should know as well that these numbers Are inclusive of about 25,000 students who are in charter schools As well So there's not just simply the students who are in our traditional public schools. It's all of all of our students And so we're making available Right share opportunities for for families Including possibilities for families who will drop their child off to school and then have a right chair that will actually get them to work And back We're sorting out the details of who will get that because we can't offer that to everyone But but suffice it to say every family will at least have some form of ability to get to and from school with their child That being said it is going to be a challenge any time you have a strike It will be a challenge and it will be a major major Inconvenience for all of our kids and their families. Uh, so we're doing everything we can to avert it We'll be talking more about the specifics on it when we have the press conference next week Chancellor can you What many people don't realize Bussing is a service we provide, you know, not a mandate We provide this because we believe it's the right thing to do for our children and we're going to continue to do that Absolutely. Yep. And and and the busing Is something that we will continue to do Including we provide these opportunities even for charter school students as well Uh, which some people are a little surprised to hear but that is we look these are all of our kids And all of their families and we're doing everything we can the same way that we provide Food for all of our kids whether they're in traditional public schools or charter schools for anyone who wants it So for any child and family even when the charter schools will looking for these opportunities For transportation. We're doing what we can to provide that as well One of the challenges that we have is a long standing challenge Is that we don't always have enough our bus drivers And that contributes to some of the ongoing Challenges that we face with busing even in the best of times And that's why you know, the the union is working for the best contract that they can possibly get Which will help with the overall recruitment and retention of drivers Um, but but you know, this all has to happen within the fiscal constraints that we all are dealing with So continuing to be at this. They're working around the clock and we're certainly hopeful for a for a good outcome Thank you earlier this week the administration reached out to new yorkers asking them to submit questions for the officials that have joined us here today Since we're running up on time, I will ask two of them very quickly First one is from ashlee minhatten for chancellor banks who asks What steps are being put in place to make sure our children are safe from bullying? I'll say from bullying but you know bullying bullying is a um It's a manifestation oftentimes of Culture within a school itself. I was a principal of two different schools over the course of 11 years and you can have all kinds of mandates from uh, New york city department of education But at the end of the day what matters most is what happens within the four walls of that school And the tone that is set in the culture That is established by the leadership in the school And that's where we will be working very closely. We continue to do that Um, we have specific things that we do when kids are bullied and they're disciplinary repercussions as a result of that But I think if you take a macro view of it, um Kids need to know things like bullying Are not acceptable In that school and schools that are well run That have teachers who are in full alignment And and and a staff that works really closely With the parents and the families They keep issues like bullying to a minimum Um, and because they establish a culture of love And togetherness and and a spirit of of oneness in a school And so that's what we will work to continue to support Um, and we no child should ever feel should ever be bullied Or should ever feel intimidated, uh, at all But we also recognize that sometimes kids themselves can be cruel And and and we have to help the kids who are doing the bullying To understand that that is not acceptable and that they also have to make better choices Um, but all that comes through the leadership And the culture that exists within individual schools and we will continue to work to support that Thank you And our final question comes from Malik in the Bronx for commissioner kaban Who asks how does the role of a school safety agent differ from a regular police officer? And so I think though one of our school safety agents is they're dedicated to the schools They work closely with the Department of Education. They work closely with the kids And that work is crucial to what they do each and every day Yeah, you know and before I depart of I want us all to remember and particularly to the new york city public january 1st 2022 Of this public safety issue was a real crisis And we came at it. Uh, Nat had hazard lead but with a plan No one wanted to be on our subway system Because they were afraid We came up with the subway safety plan partnered with the governor who allocated millions of dollars And appointed a real leader down in the subway system that continued in the past and you see in record levels of decrease in crime We have an over proliferation of guns on our street. We put in place our anti-gun unit Removal probably a total of over 11,000 guns In the my time in office A little over 3,000 this year Target specifically those who are carrying guns And during during the summer we normally Spike in crime as long as I can remember over the summer months It becomes a real problem Where a crime starts to spike We saw just the opposite because of the commissioner's Summer safety plan. We saw crime do something that it historically does not do and that is Decreased, but it was not only about enforcement Added to the subway safety plan we did The summer rising 110,000 children were placed in safe environments full school day Able to provide a real safe atmosphere Added to that 100,000 summer youth jobs partnering with our crisis management team So we did not get here looking at the success Of children and families based on guess work We planned and you saw the plan we rolled it out We announced it to all of you and we told everyone our expectation And we were successful in the plans we put in place And this school year we are continuing that success by rolling out these new plans Because as I say over and over again, uh Public safety injustice is the prerequisite to prosperity And we're going to continue to be the safest big city in america. Thank you Thank you. Thank you all