and welcome to today's IIEA discussion on Taiwan, a smallish but globally significant island at the other end of Eurasia from us here in Ireland. In a year of many significant elections around the world, Taiwanese voters went to the polls in January and elected a new president, Lai Ching-tae, of the party that has held the presidency for almost a decade, the Democratic Progressive Party. We are grateful to be joined by two speakers based respectively in Taipei and Hong Kong to discuss a range of economic, political, and geopolitical issues for Taiwan itself, East Asia, and indeed the world. Our first speaker, Zuzana Forenzi, is affiliated scholar at the Department of Political Science of the Free University of Brussels, a research fellow at the Institute for Security and Development Policy in Stockholm, and adjunct assistant professor at the National Donghua University in Taiwan. Our second speaker is Nick Morrow of the Economist Intelligence Unit. He is lead analyst for global trade, and he has spent over a decade in Asia analyzing trade policy. He also concurrently helps to lead the EIU's coverage of China and Taiwan. Nick previously conducted trade research in Beijing with the US-China Business Council. Our two speakers will speak for about 10 minutes each, and then we will go to Q&A with the audience. You'll be able to join the discussion using the Q&A function on Zoom, which you should see in your screens. Please feel free to send your questions in throughout the session as they occur to you, and we'll come to them once our speakers finish their presentations. A reminder that today's presentation and Q&A are both on the record. Please feel free to join the discussion on X1Reed Twitter using the handle at IIA. So with that, I hand over to Zuzana for the opening remarks. Zuzana. Thank you. Thank you, Dan. And let me just say thank you to you and your institute and also your team for organizing this webinar. It's really a pleasure to join you from Taipei. So because we don't have much time, I'll jump right into it. So what I would like to do is actually two main things, and unpack the outcome in a way of the elections through a European lens, as I am based in Taiwan. And that allows me also to kind of shed light perhaps on some of the nuances that are often lost in the European debate. And it's important to pay attention to those, as I've learned as a European. And also the second part I would like to do is to talk about the implications of the elections for EU-Taiwan relations. So transition from part one to part two and kind of look at the bigger picture. So in terms of the outcome, I think there's no big surprises, no big winners and no big losers in these elections. The DPP, as you already announced earlier or mentioned, the DPP's candidate to lighten to won the elections with a little over 40% of the vote. And this is the party that is in power. It has been in power for two mandates, eight years. The same party that Beijing has refused to have dialogue with since 2016 when Taiwan came to power. So that's just the background. So what's the outcome's implications? Well, an overwhelming majority, I think the meaning of the elections is that an overwhelming majority of Taiwan's people prefer to preserve the status quo. That's one thing. Second, I think for Beijing, any outcome of an election held in Taiwan that is free, fair, held in transparency and is praised internationally, is a risk. So in that sense, I think that lies victory in itself doesn't raise the risk of war because for Beijing, it doesn't change much. Beijing's plans to take Taiwan by force if necessary will remain. So Beijing will continue to calculate its plan to take Taiwan according to perceived risks, benefits and costs. And I think here on, because I already mentioned nuances and I mentioned that DPP's victory might not raise the risk of war. I think one nuance here is that there's a misconception I think in Europe that I sense when I have discussions in Europe or with Europeans, but not just Europe, but outside of Taiwan is that DPP is often seen as a pro-independence party and KMT as a pro-China party. And that is an oversimplification of what Taiwan's society is. It's immensely polarized. It's not black and white. The question is not whether we want as Taiwan to be with or without China to put it simply. So I think that's important to keep in mind. Nonetheless, even though there's a lot of polarization, I think there's one common element or consensus in society that democracy matters and that's really the problem for Beijing. Because whether you're blue as in KMT or green as in DPP or white with TPP, democracy is a core element of what it means to be Taiwanese. And also central to Taiwan's self-perception. So what can we expect from from Lai Qingta as a president? Well, I think he ran as a continuity candidate. So I think we can expect him to be a continuity president and also in a way continue on the path of Tsai Ing-wen, the current president, in terms of actually has four priorities that he put forward is to build deterrence, economic security as a national security matter. So reduce trade over reliance on China to form partnerships with democracies. And number four is to pursue steady and principled cross-trade leadership. So again, because democracy is so vital and so central to the DPP, but also in general to Taiwan, Lai himself on the eve of the election, he said that this is a new chapter in our democracy. He said that between democracy and autocracy, we stand on the side of democracy as in Taiwan. So in contrast to that, of course, if we ask the question what to expect from Beijing, I think in a way also continuity in terms of pressure. So no compromise on Taiwan, no dialogue, which is suspended, as I mentioned since 2016, and no de-escalation really. I mean, we haven't really seen de-escalation for the past decade. And we've seen pressure built up and that particularly ahead of the elections, there was a lot of or increased tension and pressure in terms of military maneuvers, economic coercion, cyber attacks, foreign interference, or information manipulation, shaping the narrative inside Taiwan, at least trying to do so. And not so much with, say, fake news, but using generative AI or fake, sorry, not fake, but deep fakes. Yeah, that's still fake, but deep fakes and using the technology in order to amplify that polarization that already exists in society. So they would pick up an issue that is already, that is homegrown, it polarizes people, you know, blue or green or white, and then there would be through social media accounts, fake accounts and all that, there will be an amplification of that. So this allows me to kind of transition to the European context in a way or at least to the EU-Taiwan context, because the same sort of tactic in a way or the idea of putting pressure on Taiwan internally and to shape the narrative and impose false narratives is something that China has also been pursuing in its relations with Europe when it comes to Taiwan. So this is something that in a way has brought Taiwan and Europe closer. And it's also to a good point or a good time to point out that Taiwan in a way is a testing ground for hybrid warfare and hybrid tactics. So whatever can be tested and can work in Taiwan then can be used in other parts of the world. So the democracy element therefore is important. So it's not just because it sounds good and it's a nice value to cherish, but it's really through an attack to undermine democracy and through that to undermine the public's trust in its own democratically elected government that Beijing tries to really have an impact on Taiwanese society. So Taiwan has actually I think done really well in terms of withstanding attacks. Of course, Taiwan is very vulnerable. That's no question about that. But I think in terms of resilience, there's been a lot of awareness. Also Taiwan has capitalized on its recognition as a partner in the Indo-Pacific, a vital element or a vital actor in the economy, when it comes to semiconductors and supply chains. So Taiwan has used this recognition and capitalized on it through the Taiwan can help. And Taiwan is helping slogan through COVID. So I go back in time, but that's I think it helps us to also see what is happening in EU Taiwan relations, not just now in 2024, but how we got here. So I think there's a shift in perceptions in Europe, definitely when it comes to Taiwan, and that's closely linked to how we see China. So we see Taiwan as a as a frontline democracy, something that has intensified after Russia's invasion of Ukraine as well. And also a high tech island and Taiwan's ability to kind of leverage these two in the Indo-Pacific. I think that secured Taiwan, this kind of global recognition, despite its abnormal international status and the growing pressure. So when I say that there's a new reality in EU Taiwan relations, I really mean that there is one more awareness of Taiwan in the EU and Taiwan's geostrategic importance to Europe's prosperity and security. Second, there's more clarity in the EU's discourse, both on Taiwan and China. Third, there is a more assertive language that comes out of institutions, some member states more than others. And therefore there's a more pushback from Europe against attempts from Beijing to undermine democracy, but also to undermine global governance and international rules based order. And so this pushback is in a way, to me, it illustrates that this change in the shift in perception has taken place. And in a way, I think it's irreversible. So we started seeing Taiwan more as the opposite of China in this. I mean, I'm simplifying it, but when it comes to transparency, reliability, a partnership, none of that is something that we can claim that we have with China today, although we consider each other strategic partners. So perceptions have changed. Obviously, I'm aware that the old issues remain in terms of the EU's divisions internally. The EU is 27 countries with a lot of more fragmentation within each country. There's different governments, different corporate sector, different interests. So with that in mind, I think there is a convergence because there's more awareness that the threat is real. And so we see, and I'm coming to an end here because I probably am reaching my 10 minutes, but I think we see Taiwan both through a democracy lens, which I already elaborated as a partner on its own merit, not through a China lens only. And second, we also see Taiwan through a security lens. And that is maritime security, given that the Taiwan Strait is the main shipping route between China, Japan, the US, Europe, and so much is happening there in terms of global trade. So if something happens there, it will affect definitely European interests. And the EU is the largest investor in Taiwan. I did not mention that, but it's important. And perhaps the last thing before I finish is also because I want to just add a sentence, why I say that there's more clarity in the EU's discourse is to say, and it's closely linked to the pushback, is to say that what we're doing with Taiwan does not violate our relationship with China. We are committed to a one China policy, according to which we recognize the PRC as the sole legal government of China. And at the same time, we maintain cooperation with Taiwan. So what's changed is that we are more assertive about this right or this cooperation that we can do. So that clarity was not there five years ago. And I think that clarity is important to send signals towards Beijing, also Taiwan, and like-minded partners in the region. So Taiwan matters for Europe's security. But the EU is still cautious in elaborating how events or anything that happens in the Taiwan Strait can impact its interests. So perhaps I'll stop here so we have more time for discussion. Thank you. That's great. Thank you for that. And just to follow up and maybe to link both of you as speakers, Nick's economist intelligence unit does an annual democracy index on Taiwan. It may be something that is not so well known, but I think certainly the last time I looked at it, Taiwan was the highest ranking in terms of its quality of democracy in the region. And indeed, in the top 10 globally in terms of its free media, rule of law, personal freedoms, you might as somebody who lives there, you might just elaborate a little bit on the quality of the democracy that exists in Taiwan. Sure. If I can do that in a minute, let me see. So yes, what I appreciate a lot is this bottom up approach and society's participation in the decision making process. And that happens because the government has, I think, opened up towards society to kind of collaborate with society. And this is not a perfect collaboration, right? Because Taiwan's democracy is robust. There are, of course, challenges when it comes to certain issues. But I think the process is very transparent. And I would use the digital minister's Audrey Tang, her description of a radical transparency that is used in order to gain the trust of the people and also to have people trust the government. So it's a two way trust. And I know that in a European context, speaking about trust between the people and the government is a very difficult one. But this is what I experienced. And I think there's a lot we can learn in terms of how this is done in Taiwan in spite of that pressure that comes from China. Great. Thank you. Good. Nick, we look forward to your opening remarks. The floor is yours. Great. Thank you very much. And I'm happy that you brought up the Democracy Index because that's how I wanted to begin my remarks. So just to throw out some numbers for the group, Taiwan is ranked 10th in our Global Democracy Index rankings. It's second regionally, but that's if you include New Zealand. So if you're looking at kind of a traditional geographic scope of Asia, it's number one. It's headed South Korea, Japan, Singapore, definitely Hong Kong. And we upgraded Taiwan to full democracy status in 2020 in recognition really of the democratic reforms that Taiwan has undergone since the 90s. If you look at the state of democracy in Taiwan, I think that's a nice starting point to kind of kind of set the stage for my remarks, which I'm going to try and do looking at the U.S.-Taiwan relationship to balance the E.U.-China ties that were so thoroughly laid out by Yuzha. But if you look at the state of democracy in Taiwan, I think the January elections were very much a validation of the strength of Taiwan's democratic institutions. And as Yuzha mentioned, importantly, it was a validation of the public support and respect for those institutions with most candidates, all candidates, eventually accepting the win. There was a bit of a touch-and-go moment with some of the candidates for a while, but nothing serious and nothing compared to what we're seeing in the U.S., for example, where I'm from. I think the issue of combating fake news is really interesting. It's something to watch, but that's a commonality across all democracies. And in Taiwan's case, you've had some discussions around kind of the media landscape. So back in, I think, November 2020, the ruling DPP bans a media outlet called Zhong Tian, Wanwan, China, given their unabashedly pro-China stance. But it was beyond that. Essentially, that TV station was promoting what I think even reporters without borders came out with saying was fake news. All of that said, even since that incident, Taiwan has taken remarkably light touch when it comes to pushing back against this combating of disinformation, combating of kind of how deep fakes, everything that you just mentioned around how that's changing the electoral and political landscape. And that's something which really puts Taiwan in contrast with many of its regional neighbors and peers. You look at what's happening in Singapore and South Korea, where laws are being passed to disenfranchise certain candidates or to smother discussion under the pretext of fighting fake news. And I think Taiwan has taken a very, very careful approach in terms of being aggressive in combating disinformation, but also not moving too harshly to undermine the civil, civic media and political institutions that underpin Taiwanese society. There's still some areas of improvement in Taiwan, ranging around the absence of voting. There's no voting by absentee ballot, for example, there's still some instances of social and institutional discrimination against migrant workers. But on balance, Taiwan's democracy is healthy, although we are seeing this feeling of growing disenchantment, which Azuzan mentioned, which had emerged as kind of a theme during the elections this past January. And that brings me to kind of a very quick discussion, which I hope will be complimentary to that assessment of the elections, which when we think about Taiwan's elections, particularly at the presidential level, it's very much done in the context of that overarching China question, that question of how does Taiwan relate to China? And if you look at the victory by Lai Qingde, he won with the plurality, not an absolute majority. And it's potentially likely that if the TPP, this third party hadn't been in the running, the vote could have been split in a much different way, and we could have had a very different outcome. I think we see these dynamics much more prominently in the legislative elections, where we saw the TPP lose its majority of the legislative yuan, which really I think speaks to kind of the feelings of kind of the broader electorates. When we look at Taiwan and look at the governing record of the DPP since it's been in power since 2016. And the reason why I want to talk about that is when we look at some of the economic issues in Taiwan and how they relate to democracy and latching this policy as he looks to 2028, we see a number of issues that are really driving popular concern. Monthly wages in US dollar terms, for example, have largely stagnated. They're still below Singapore, Japan, South Korea, and you know if they're still above Malaysia, Vietnam and China. But even that's very industry dependent. So for example, Chinese tech sector wages are very, very high. And they've been very successful at worsening this brain drain that Taiwan's been dealing with the last couple of years, whereby salaries in China are just so much higher that Taiwanese workers are finding opportunities in the Chinese market. And that's raised some national security concerns in tandem, as well as some kind of policy responses by the DPP. Wage growth in China and Vietnam has outpaced that in Taiwan, while real wage growth, that is wages benchmarked against inflation, it's largely been flat in Taiwan over the past decade and actually turned negative last year. And so this dissatisfaction with the economic and political status quo, that really drove a lot of electoral dynamics in January. And it's likely why we saw the Taiwan People's Party, the TVP, this third force in Taiwanese politics, it's likely why we saw it do so well, particularly in the legislature. These issues might be things to watch as we think about the next elections in 2028, particularly because the legislative UN right now is divided. The KMT is the main opposition, the Guamidang. And they have adopted a very kind of obstructionist approach. The TVP is playing kingmaker in terms of throwing its weight behind the TVP or the KMT to get policies through. But it's also going to be looking out for itself. It's going to be kind of making decisions based on its own political interest of, we're going to do what we need to do to survive as this third force in Taiwanese politics and to avoid being wrapped up into the wider dynamics under the TVP or the KMT, which is very much the fate of past third parties. And that might also play an obstructionist role in policymaking. The current speaker of the legislative UN is a man named Hanguo Yu, who is somewhat of a controversial figure in Taiwan. He was the presidential candidate of the KMT in 2020, lost by quite a wide margin. He was eventually recalled as mayor from the city. He was kind of serving his mayoral ship because of public just unhappiness with his role. But it goes to show that Taiwanese politics are becoming increasingly interesting and perhaps a bit more theatrical and maybe even combative when we think about the next four years. So that's kind of a domestic political outlook. I want to take this opportunity now and kind of zoom back and look at the US-Taiwan relationship because when we think about Taiwan's most important security and economic partners, it really comes from its unofficial partnerships. Taiwan only has about, I think, 13 official allies. And so it's those unofficial partnerships with Japan, the EU, Australia and the US, which really are the guiding, most important pillars for Taiwanese foreign policy. And for the US, the big issue here, the big kind of role here is its role as a security guarantor. When we talk about Taiwan, I think we're going to try our best in this session to not let the discussion be dominated by the cross-strait question. But of course, that is the big question moving over everyone's heads. And when we think about the risk of a war between Taiwan and China, we see the greatest deterrent really being the likelihood that the US would involve itself in a cross-strait war. The US policy towards Taiwan is specifically officially one of something called strategic ambiguity. It means that if China invades, the US might intercede. It might not. Who knows? And that's very purposeful because it doesn't want to kind of encourage pro-independence voices in Taiwan to effectively declare dependence, which would then be the main cause for a war. But all that being said, we are seeing a de facto deepening in US-Taiwan ties. We're seeing this on a bipartisan level. Although I should note that the goals and strategies here are very different. Democrats in the US, for example, tend to engage with Taiwan on shared values of democracy, institutions, progressive issues, human rights. Republican and sent to see Taiwan as more of a chip when it comes to bargaining with China. This idea that they can use tighter Taiwan ties as a way to get concessions from Beijing. That's not the, you know, that's a very oversimplification of kind of partisan dynamics in the US. I think the visit by Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan was also couched in this idea of political optics. It looked very good for her to visit a place that the economist Newt Daper called the most dangerous place on earth, which I did say it's not the EIU's position, but for her to visit the most dangerous place on earth as a political bargaining chip for her own voter base. But that really shows that within the US, the conversation around Taiwan, it's bipartisan in that there's strong support, but it differs in terms of the tactics and the goals that are trying to come out of this relationship. And then when we look into Taiwan, especially or domestically as well, we see a little bit of a difference between how the DPP, the KMT and the TPP view the relationship with the US. The KMT has advocated a bit more of a distance position primarily because they're worried about how China will react to deepening US Taiwan ties. But I should say that on balance, you know, the Taiwanese electorate is generally very pro US. And we see that replicated in the politics as well. The big risk here is of course what happens if Donald Trump comes back into office. We are currently conducting an assessment of the economies and countries that are most exposed to a Trump 2.0 presidency. And we see Taiwan as among the top 10, mostly because of Taiwan's trade relationship with US, including its dominance in chip supply chains. And so that's something which could move Taiwan US ties back to a more transactional basis if we see Donald Trump take back the White House. But perhaps we can just save some of those questions for the engagement of the audience after this. And I'll try and finish up my remarks very quickly. And I'll do that by just having a very, very quick discussion on risk. So I alluded to this idea that there's so much else going on in Taiwan that goes beyond the cross trade story, but the cross trade story is still incredibly important. That's something that we talk to companies in Hong Kong or governments in the region. It's the number one question. And our core view with the EU is that, you know, we don't expect the Chinese invasion of Taiwan anytime soon. Again, US deterrence is the main factor here, but I want to really emphasize that China has watched what Russia's experience has been following the invasion of Ukraine. It's seen Russia become an international pariah. One of China's biggest diplomatic priorities is ensuring that third markets don't turn against it. This idea of choosing sides between China and the US, that really makes policymakers anxious. And this is very much contextualized China's own relationship with Europe in recent years, given that that relationship has come under significant strain. And China is trying to rebuild that to separate topics, not going to go into that too much. But I think a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would really turn a lot of third countries against China, particularly in Southeast Asia, given that their own, those countries already very worried about dynamics and say the South China Sea. There are a number of triggers that we should be watching in terms of the conflict. I mentioned that a declaration of independence by Taiwan would be the biggest trigger, but we don't see that as likely.  Although the DPP has been characterized, particularly by international media, as the pro-independence party, really it's the pro-status quo party. And Laiqing is not going to move in that direction, despite the fact that in the past he had said things that he's a pragmatic worker of Taiwanese independence, but he has genuinely kind of softened that view, particularly as he's come into government. The bigger thing to watch are what we call gray zone tactics, which I know are very familiar to many of our audience members in Europe, but this would essentially be China's attempts to unilaterally change the cross-strait status quo. In the last couple of years, that's involved aerial intrusion into Taiwan's air defense identification zone. It's involved in the last couple of weeks, the dispatching of balloons across the Taiwanese main island, as well as efforts to change flight paths and to change kind of the administrative status quo in the Taiwan Strait. By that, I mean we're now seeing incidents whereby the Chinese Coast Guard is demanding entry into Taiwanese tourist vessels, for example, or stopping ships and requiring them to comply with Chinese inspections, which didn't used to happen in the past, but is now changing. And the reason why this death by a thousand cut strategy is important, because the more you do it, the more you're changing the status quo, and the more you're making it difficult for the world to respond in kind. I mean, gray zone tactics are very much set up to be noticeable, but to pass under the radar. No one wants to start a war or have confrontation over the collision of fishing vessels, for example. But it's that collision of fishing vessels, which might then lead to the deployment of Chinese military resources in and around waters close to Taiwan, which then may change the status quo in China's favor. And indeed, if we think about kind of the intrusions by China into Taiwan's air defense identification zone or across the median line, they're happening with such frequency now that three or four years ago, people would have been very spooked now and no one bats an eye. And so looking at these kind of gray zone tactics, that's going to be really important. Because if we were to see a conflict, we would likely see an unintended incidents as really being the big trigger here, collision between fighter jets, the accidental firing of a missile, the confrontation of, you know, coast guards on both sides. I think the risks around a direct war are a little less likely, given all the factors I mentioned around the blowback economically and diplomatically to China. But if you want to have a bit more of a nuanced discussion there, perhaps we can save it for the Q&A and just end on my final kind of thesis here, which is as worrisome as the cross-strait scenario is in Taiwan, it looks to be containable. And there's so much else going on in Taiwan that we should really get Taiwan the respective reserves in terms of talking about things that go beyond the cross-strait relationship. So I'll stop there.


Hi my friends, I have been accumulating makeup since it all started to release and drop. This is my favorite time of year drugstore makeup comes out with some absolutely amazing things and it's when all the affordable goodies hit is around the beginning of the year. So I have a bunch that we're going to get into right now and yeah, we're going to talk kind of fast and go through it kind of quickly because I have so much to share with you. Let's do this review right now. All right, what's new at the drugstore is a whole lot. We're going to get into it immediately. This is from Essence. These are two sprays, which I really actually do like a lot. Both of these are from Essence. They are oil-free and they are alcohol-free, which I think is great for a drugstore company to be able to come out with this. This one is called Hello Good Stuff. It's hydrate and fix and refresh with watermelon extract and yes, it does smell like watermelon. I'm not crazy about having fragrance in my skincare, but this is actually watermelon extract that makes it smell. It might have a little bit of fragrance in there as well, but this doesn't irritate my skin at all. And the same thing with the Fix and Last 18-Hour Makeup Fixing Spray. This is for matte effect and it's waterproof. Now I don't find that it makes my skin too matte. I use it to set my under-eye concealer. I've actually used both of these. I actually used this one on this side today and this one on this side. And I don't think you can tell much difference as far as the finish goes. So it kind of depends on whether or not you want that watermelon in there. And there is hyaluronic acid in this one. So this one's going to keep you a little bit more matte. I assume this one's going to be a little bit better in the summertime. We shall see. So here are both of those so that you can see those as well. But right now I'm enjoying both of those and I wanted to tell you about them. I have two primers, which I really do like. But by far, the Milani is my favorite, the LA Girl Luminous Glow. This is the Skin Illuminator. You actually don't have to use this one just as a primer. You could use that as an actual highlight. It does leave a little bit more of a white cast than I would like as a highlight. So that's why I go in with it first and then my foundation. But personally, I'm not as impressed with that one as I am with this one. And this is the Milani Skin Quench Hydrating Primer with Hyaluronic Acid Coconut Water. So heads up, if you're allergic to coconut, you want to be careful about that one. So here is the product so that you can see that. And this I have on today. I've been wearing it since I got it. I love this. If you are a fan of the City Beauty Veil Primer, I like that one too. It's really good. It has skin loving ingredients in it. I think this one is better. It grips my makeup a little bit better. I love it because I can tell by the consistency of it that it does have a little bit of that pore refining effect in it. So it might have a little bit of dimethicone in it, but I can feel that grip. And I know that this is not a brand new product. This is basically repackaged, possibly reformulated product. But I had never tried this particular one before. And I love it. I absolutely love it. It is so nice on the skin as you're rubbing it in and it doesn't feel heavy or greasy. It feels hydrating. So if you have oily skin, you might want to skip it. But I know that Milani just released all of theirs in this repackaged formula. So maybe take a look at some of those that leave you a little bit more matte if you are oily. A couple that I want to tell you steer clear of. I went to my Walgreens and I got these from Rimmel. And these are the mini power plat palette, eye, lip and cheek palettes. OK, it has a cream product right here. You can tell that it this hardly looks like I've done anything to it. I don't like this formula at all. This is so patchy and so nasty on both of these. And it has that cream product in there that doesn't do a darn thing. I'm sorry, but it just doesn't. And both of these that I got were just they just fell so short for me. So I am not impressed with those at all. I didn't feel like I could get enough of a pigment out of them in order to do a really nice look.  It's the bite size ones again, and I'll throw the names up on the screen for you. And I will show you the two side by side. Please know that, even though, yes, I am shaking. I have a palsy that is a disability and I just try not to let it run my life. I try to run it, but sometimes it gets the better of me. And today I'm a little bit more shaky than usual. Let me show you the swatches. This is this one on the top right here. And I really like the pigment on these. It's the same quality as their other quad shadows. And then this one right here, beautiful, yummy, mint, cool tone palette. So pretty. I really have been impressed with these and really have been liking working with them. And actually today I am wearing both of these in kind of a combination on my eyes today, so that you do know that. And then ColourPop released these five pan palettes that I'm assuming that they're trying to dupe Natasha Denona. And I will throw up on the screen what these are called. They're very nice quality. Again, they're pretty much the same as all of the other of ColourPop shadows. I've enjoyed working with them. They're a good formula. They they stay on, they blend all of the good things that you need. I will say that a couple of them kind of get a little bit repetitive and I'll show you what I mean by that. So if you look at these three that I have right here, look at this color right here. I know it's looking a little bit different on camera, but pretty much that is the same color across the board. And then these colors that are down here, you kind of have the same thing. You have that high metallic, almost, you know, white cast. So I feel like they could have done just a tiny bit better job of these. The other thing that I'm not crazy about is that middle pan. Really chunky glitter. Both of these have that super chunky glitter in them. So again, the quality on these is everybody is good as ColourPop has. You know that I'm a ColourPop fan, so I do like these. My worry with ColourPop is that they bring so much out that they don't really take time to restock it and get us to love some of their products. They are just like the one hit per week wonder. And they just want us to buy and buy over and over again, different things. All right, from Catrice. This is their camouflage camouflage cream. And this one is called Wake Up Effect and this is a color corrector for light skin gals. They do have a couple other colors of these that are a little bit more along the lines of yellow.  This is a great color corrector if you are super fair skin. I just wanted to mention it. It's got a nice consistency about it, although, you know, I wish that they would be inclusive of colors. This one really is a lot like the Pixie little brightener in brightening peach. I think it is. And then they have another one that is. I can't remember what the other one's called. So it came out with a lot of new products. Some were hit, some were misses. I did like that color corrector. They also came out with this true skin hydrating foundation. High Leronic Acid Longwear Foundation has a pump. It's really nice delivery system with a glass bottle. It is what I'm wearing today. I have kind of fallen in love with this. It does look very natural and it's just a beautiful foundation on my skin. It wears really well throughout the day. And yeah, I'm really, really liking it and the way it covers and everything that it's done for my skin. And then they have the Eye Foundation that is not good. I don't like this one at all. And the reason is this because for my eye primer, I really like getting ones that kind of take out the darkness that I have. This is just a clear one. There's no color in it at all. But if you are one that doesn't need that opaque color on your lids in order to take out darkness, you might really like this because it did keep the shadow on. I just I didn't care for it as much as I do my Anastasia Beverly Hills, which I talk about in every tutorial. I also tried their powerful five lip gloss. This is a nice lip gloss. I do like it. This one is called Leche Glaze. It's a pretty color. I do really like it. OK, so it says it has Hyaluronic Acid, Vitamin E, Shea Butter, Green Tea and Goji berries, so it's got a lot of really good ingredients in it. Very nourishing feeling. It doesn't have any sort of a plumping effect to it. It's not sticky at all. It really hydrates my lips and really gives that full pout that I like about any sort of a lip gloss and it definitely has all those skin loving ingredients in it. And along with that, I also got the Diamond Plumper from Physicians Formula. I thought this was one that I would really like. I'm not crazy about the formula at all. Actually, Physicians Formula just came out with a bunch of stuff. I had some of it in my video that was disappointing at the drug store. It's just a clear gloss. It isn't anything to write home about. It has that kind of medicine smell to it, vitamin E smell. I shouldn't say medicine smell to it. So I'm not really impressed with it, but I do really like the Catrice one. And then ELF has their shadow sticks and they kind of expanded their line of colors and I am in love with these. Now, this one is kind of a brightening pink color and you're not going to be able to see it very well. And then this one is a beige color. This was again in their little mint collection that they just released. That is kind of just a beautiful. It's a high metallic, almost a champagne color to it. And then this one is the blue that is like a cornflower blue, which you don't see that very much in shadows. And I love these. I love working with these on days when I just want to just get out the door. So I'll just put it across my eyelids or in the crease and then I'll just really lightly buff it with my fingers and they're very easy to work with. And they blend out really nice and smoothly. So if you need it like one and done, these are really nice. And they last a long time after they sat down and I love that about them. Essence also came out with new lip liners. I am so bummed out at this on the Essence website. You can still get my favorite. The contouring lip pencil, which is was basically what these are. Same thing, they've just brought out different colors, tried to reformulate it or tried to say it's new, whatever they're trying to do. I'm just not very happy with this because of the colors. This one is a kind of a nude peach. The next one is kind of supposed to be a rose, but again, it pulls a little orange and then the next one and they all look the same. Look at those, they look exactly the same. I got three colors thinking, OK, well, these are all going to be different. Mauve, rose, that kind of thing. They're all the same. So I'm disappointed in those big time. Another disappointment, please save your money, is from L'Oreal, the infallible 24 hour fresh wear foundation, powder foundation. I am not impressed with this at all.  L'Oreal's packaging is very nice. I love that about them, but the product is just so, so chalky. And that is not something that I can do on my mature skin. It might be for somebody else, but it does not wear or look anything like a regular powder foundation does or a mineral foundation does. It just looks really, really cakey and yet I found another two products from Catrice. This is the Triangle Artist Contour Stick from them. And this one I do like, but not for a contour. So they've used that triangle effect. I don't remember which company it is that actually has. I think it's their foundations. Somebody has this where they think you can just, you know, draw it on there. And it'd be the best contour. Well, I'll tell you what, this is way too warm for a contour for me. Anyway, if you've ever seen any of my videos where I talk about contour and, you know, how to do that on your face. I don't like an orange contour or a warm contour as opposed to a cool contour that is going to look like a shadow. This looks like warmth. I do like this as a cream bronzer, and I'll just put my stipple brush around in there and then I will just, you know, do a little bit of warmth up against my skin. I'm loving cream products. The product in here itself is nice. It's a creamy product. I would not, if I were you, do what I just did and draw it on your skin and then try to buff it out. It just doesn't work as well as just putting it onto a brush and then stippling it onto your skin. It's easy to blend out. It's not bad at all. I just think you would get too much down if you tried to just draw it on in the beginning of whatever you're doing. So I do like this. I just don't like it as a contour, but I really do like it as a bronzer. It's a really beautiful cream bronzer. Also from Catrice is the more than a glow highlighter. This is one that is so pretty. I love that. Catrice does their little imprint on there until I've already been using this a ton because the imprints almost gone of those little flowers. But this is a beautiful highlighter that I do have on underneath my blush today. It is gorgeous and it is just the most beautiful glow, no sparkle, no glitter. It just gives you that very high metallic look. If you go in that strong, as I did right there, you can buff it out. So if you're somebody that just likes a little bit of glow, you can buff it out for sure, you know, use again that stipple brush. I always find it works so well or a nice fan brush that works really well to put on a little bit, but putting it underneath your blush every time it will work so good. So when Wild recently released a bunch of stuff as well, you all know, if you watched my video on disappointing products that I am not a fan of their new shadow formula, I don't know what they were thinking, but it just doesn't work for me. It's not one that I like, but they did also come out with the incognito full coverage concealer. I actually really like this. Normally, when a concealer comes out from Wet and Wild, I'm not that crazy about it, but I am wearing it today. I felt like it did a great job of concealing all of my imperfections along with the Catrice corrector. They just worked really well together. If you take it and use the very, very smallest amount that you possibly can, it's going to work a lot better for you than if you go in with a heavy hand. So I actually use again, I've gotten into using brushes so much. You can do it on your beauty blender if you like to, too. Just a tiny bit on the brush and then stipple just a little bit. Let it set down a little bit, go back in, and it's just been working so nicely for me, basic doe foot applicator. And you can tell right there, hopefully you can tell that it is a pretty good coverage on it. So I've been really enjoying this. Also, Elf came out with a new mascara, Lash in Loud mascara. I like this a lot. It is a plastic applicator or a brush instead of the actual natural bristle brush that they have on so many. I think that's why I like it because I don't have a ton of lashes that are long, but I don't have a ton. So I actually like that the plastic bristles can kind of define those a little bit more. This is great to build on. It is what I have on today and I've really been enjoying it. I did a video where I showed you the Essence one that I absolutely fall in love with and I still like that one a little bit better for its staying power. But as far as what it does for the lashes, this is a pretty darn close second to it. And I also did try because so many of you are asking me to try the Sky High from Maybelline Mascara. This is pretty nice and I do like it. The wand again is a plastic wand, but I will tell you what I don't like about the wand. Look at how it bends. The wand can completely bend. I don't like that because I feel like when I go down into my eye, the wand is bending with my eye instead of getting that base of the lashes that I can wiggle and then up because it's bending. And so I'm not crazy about that delivery system. The product itself is pretty good. I do like it. I love all of Maybelline's mascaras, honestly. I think Maybelline is a brand at the drug store that just knows how to do mascaras. I actually really like this packaging too. It's got some embossing on it. I did try to use it to build up like crazy. And then I ended up going in with the elf on this eye to get my last final bit of length out of my eyelashes that I wanted to. So it's pretty good. I can give it a thumbs up. Probably if I was going to say four out of five stars, the elf and the essence ones that I've shown you before, those are like four and a half out of five stars. So definitely like that one. But this one goes down a notch just because that bendy little bit of a wand. And that kind of drives me a little bit crazy. And then elf also came out with this dual ended brush for foundation and for concealer. I love this. It's great. It reminds me of the it cosmetics foundation brush that they have the duo one. It's actually almost identical to it. So if you're wondering about that, it is a great brush. I'm a big fan of elf brushes anyway. These are soft. They're really nice. They buff in your foundation really well. If you're going to use powder foundation, this would probably be a really good one if you needed a lot of coverage, but it's great for liquid foundation. And I've just been really liking both sides of it. I love these little concealer brushes that I've been using lately. And they just they work so well. All right, that is it, I think for what's new at the drug store. I hope you guys did enjoy this little bit of a review. All of these products I've been trying for a while. Nothing in here is anything that I just tried once or haven't tried at all. So I like bringing you full reviews before I dive in and say yay or nay. So you kind of get a good idea of what I'm liking and what just does not work. Thank you guys so much for spending a little bit of your day with me today. Have you picked up any of these products yet? And are there any that I have not seen yet that are in here? I do have a few high end items that I'm going to review for you in probably my monthly favorites this month of things that I am kind of quite liking. So watch for that. Thanks so much for spending a bit of your day with me. Hope everybody is happy, healthy, stay safe. I love you very much and I'll talk to you in my next video. Bye, friends.


Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to everybody from here where I sit in Cambridge, Massachusetts to across the world. It's such a privilege for me to be part of this very special event, the 15th USAIC annual biosummit. It's my fifth year having the great privilege to serve as master of ceremonies. I'd like to make a few opening comments and then we'll start with just an absolutely incredible agenda. If we can get the first slide up please, Priam. We live today in just a remarkable world. We can go to the next slide please. And we've named our summit from over the past couple of years and it remains this year from end of one to end of a billion and it's meant to signify the great innovation that we're seeing in our industry. Innovation that's taking us to the point where we can make therapies tailored to even single patients. That's just remarkable. But we haven't done our jobs unless we can ensure that there's access to these therapies to the billions of patients who live around the world. And this past year has been the greatest illustration of that need ever in the history of our industry. But let's look back at innovation over the last decade. We are in the golden era of life sciences. Many believe that in this century we have the opportunity, if we don't get in our own ways, to cure every disease. What we've seen over the last decade has been remarkable if you look across any number of indicators. Let's just go to the US and FDA where we see year on year an increasing number of approvals. And not just approvals of any medicine but of incredibly novel medicines, particularly of advanced therapies like cell and gene therapies. What we've seen in terms of investment in our industry has just been remarkable. And I think we were all blown away at the continued trends that we saw even during the pandemic last year. A 50%, almost 50% year on year increase for financing in our industry, just really remarkable. If we can go to the next slide, please. If we can go to the next slide, please, Priam, yeah. And certainly it's been nine months since we last gathered here at USAIC. The world has changed immensely. We've lived through a pandemic that continues to rage on worldwide. Just two weeks ago we passed a grim milestone, more deaths globally in 2021 than in all of 2020 due to COVID-19. Next slide. Many have called this virus the SARS-CoV-2 by its technical name, the inequality virus. What we've seen is great discrepancies across the world in terms of access to medicines. Even within regions of the world like the United States, we've seen great inequities across racial groups. This is something that we have to solve collectively as an industry. We're going to go to the next slide, please. Today we see we're coming out of this incredible situation in the US, but we have parts of the world that are still languishing. India, which is a major focus for this group, the sixth largest economy, still only has 3% of its population vaccinated. What we've done, though, collectively, and here from Albert Borla just shortly over the past year, has been equally amazing and also humbling. We've come together as an industry. We've collaborated. We've found new ways of working. We've accelerated the development of vaccines and therapies in ways that none of us ever would have imagined possible. We go to the next slide, please. And let me just say that there are two places that I leave from this pandemic. The first is thinking about pandemics and our responsibility collectively as a life science ecosystem. I would say that if we look back over the last year, we were both incredibly skilled. The work that came out of so many companies, the collective collaborative efforts of industry, academia, governments and not-for-profits was truly unprecedented. We were also lucky. Let's be realistic. We were lucky. We knew that this virus was coming. We weren't prepared as we should have been. And we were lucky that the virus didn't look like SARS or MERS or Ebola. We were lucky in many ways that the mortality rates were only, and I say only, about 1%. But luck is in a strategy. We have huge learnings that we can take out of this past year and apply them to the future. And we have to be ready for the next pandemic because we know, we know that it will come.  The slides have come off, Priam, if we can just go to the last slide. I'm going to say that I'm an optimist, and you need to be an optimist in our industry. You need to recognize that what we do, if we go to the last slide, what we do is we overcome nature. And that's almost magical. I'm a huge optimist, and I think that if you go to the next slide, please, Priam, the last slide, there are better days ahead. There are much better days ahead. We're coming out of an awful pandemic. We're coming out of it with immense learnings, with immense successes. And we're coming out of it in an industry that's fully leveraging and embracing innovation.


Hey everybody, I'm gonna get straight to it. This is going to be a Black Friday computer build guide. All of the sales that you're gonna see are gonna be components that I am actually buying for myself. I have a family member who needs a computer and this computer will be capable of video editing, any content creation, Photoshop, you name it, streaming as well as gaming. So if you're looking for a computer that can do all of that, this will be a very good guide for you. And in case you catch this video late, after Black Friday, you can actually still use this guide to build yourself this computer because these components tend to run a little bit on the cheaper, more affordable side but still have excellent value because their performance has always been, since the release, very strong. And I can imagine that this computer and this build list will be relevant for at least the next two, three years. So let's get right into it. Number one, we're gonna be talking about the processor. Every build starts with a processor. This is the AMD Ryzen 7 1700X. This has been the processor that literally every tech tuber is talking about. We've all done our homework and we've seen that this thing is going for incredibly cheap. It has eight cores clocked at 3.4 gigahertz and can be overclocked and it is going for $150 on newegg.com. That's where a lot of these deals will be coming from.  Now, a lot of you don't live near a micro center. So the other option you can actually look into is if you go on eBay right now, there is a code. It's called pick fast all caps. You probably don't need to use all caps but they put it in all caps. Pick fast and they will give you 15% off of anything. That deal is gonna end today. You're seeing this video, it ends today. I believe at 8 p.m. East Coast time, you can do your own homework if you go on eBay.com. It'll tell you, but that code only works on mobile, only on the app.  Here's what I'm actually gonna be throwing this processor in. I'm gonna be using an X370 motherboard. Now if you want to use newegg.com and if you're okay with mail-in rebates, here's a pretty good suggestion. This is the MSI X370 Gaming Pro Carbon, beautiful motherboard. It does have quite a bit of features. The one thing that I will point out though is that if you are gonna be buying this motherboard, if you don't like mail-in rebates, it's gonna cost you $110. Here's the thing with mail-in rebates. Sometimes they get lost in the mail. Sometimes you actually get the card and you don't activate it. Sometimes you get the card, activate it and forget you have it and then you don't end up spending the money and the card expires relatively quickly but here's the thing. If you do like mail-in rebates, it'll end up costing you $80. If you don't, $110. So if you don't wanna deal with any of that, what I'm actually gonna be doing is getting a CPU motherboard combo through newegg.com. I've done my homework and seen X370 motherboards on eBay as well as the processor and tried to see if that 15% discount was worth it but I ended up deciding that this is actually a better value for my dollar. We're getting both the motherboard and processor for under $250 which is an incredible deal and I'm more than happy with that. So as for the cooler, this is an eight core processor and eight cores working in one tiny little chip can run pretty hot if you are gonna be streaming or in gaming and doing anything that is an activity for a lengthy period of time at your computer. I personally am not gonna be buying it but this is my suggestion to you. There is a dual fan radiator that is going for decently cheap and if you get it on newegg right now, $60. Again, mail and rebate if you wanna go ahead and do that. You'll save yourself another 10 bucks and get it for 50. As for the case, we're gonna be getting the H500i. I believe this is an absolutely beautiful case. Has a lot of features. One, it has the RGB lighting here at the top. It has the vertical GPU mount and then finally it has a beautiful, simple design with tempered glass on the side. Now, like I said before, if you wanna get this thing for cheaper, you'd go to eBay, find the same case. You'll see it's similarly priced, $85. Buy it through the mobile app, which by the way, you can only use Pick Fast once.   Go through eBay. If the product that I am suggesting is on there. If you don't want to get this case because there are better deals out there, something I would recommend that still looks very sleek, very nice and is actually even cheaper is the Fractal Design Meshify CY. Now, I love white cases. I don't know if a lot of you do. I personally, I just, big fan. So this case, very beautiful. Doesn't have the vertical GPU mount, does have the PSU shroud, has the white, simple tempered glass look. So if this is something you would like, it's amazing. It goes for $10 cheaper and you would get the additional 15% off. So that's up to you. As for the RAM, we are gonna be going with the Corsair Vengeance RGB. We're gonna get 16 gigabytes clocked at 3,000 megahertz speed and even better, the latency is 15. So this will run quite nice. Now, for those of you guys that don't know, Ryzen processors work better with specific types of RAM. Corsair Vengeance is one of those brands, which is why I am personally recommending it. But the other reason we're going with this specifically, because there are some cheaper options, not much cheaper, but you know, just slightly, is because it actually has this beautiful RGB, which I love. Now, you know, my family member probably isn't gonna need it or notice it all that much, but it helps tie in the overall aesthetic together a little bit nicely, especially if you're trying to match a color scheme. And I think the details matter. And since I know I'm gonna be building this thing, I wanna put my best foot forward when I'm doing that. As for the drive, I'm gonna be going with the Crucial MX-M.2 250 gigabyte SSD. Now, the reason I'm going with an M.2 SSD and not the traditional is because me personally, getting a little bit tired of the additional cable management of having a traditional SSD where you take the SATA cable, plug it into the drive, run it through the case, get it into the motherboard. It's not that big of a deal, but you know, it does add a little bit of extra work. And I'm gonna try to avoid that because it'll make the build process a little bit easier. And since it is Black Friday, let's splurge. You know, let's get something a little bit nicer. So we're gonna get this M.2. If you do wanna save that little bit of money, because you know, this does cost 50 bucks for only 250 gigabytes of space, you could get a PNY CS900 for $46.  I think after you install your operating system, you'll have about 20 gigabytes less of space. But since it is only going to be a boot drive, I think that is more than fine for what we need for this computer. However, if that small amount of space really is gonna bug you that much, on eBay, they're actually selling two terabyte WD Black hard drives. These are top-of-the-line hard drives. They work really, really well. I actually use one for my home security system, and I've never had a failure. Everything records perfectly to it, so I can imagine for your computer needs, it would be more than fine. Now, as for the power supply, this Black Friday, there are actually a ton of different options. If you were to go through Newegg, in my opinion, the best value would be the EVGA 550B3. It's 80 plus bronze rated. It is fully modular, which is awesome for those of you who are really nitpicky with your cable management, but it is $50. And I do know that there is a 15% off code through eBay, like we've touched on before. So I'm actually gonna be getting the Rosewell 650 watt gaming computer power supply. And it's actually only $45, not even taking in that 15% off yet. So save even more money. And it does come with an additional 100 watts of power. It isn't fully modular like the B3 is, but for me, that's not too big of a deal because I'm actually pretty slow with my cable management, so I know I can do a pretty good job of it anyways. If you wanna save even more money, you can actually still go to the midweek madness page on EVGA that is only today, because it is a Wednesday, and you can get an EVGA 400 and save yourself what? Oh God, it's $15. I mean, I don't recommend getting a 400 watt power supply for this build at all, but you can scroll down and find better options and do more of your own homework if you really are trying to save an additional 20 bucks. Now, as for the graphics card, this Black Friday, I actually am not going to recommend you buy a graphics card. I'm just saying that for this specific instance right now. It is the 21st of November. Out of all of the deals that I have seen from all my websites, from everywhere I check, I have not found anything that I can personally recommend to you that I think is worth spending money on, brand new. I know a lot of you guys are probably not happy about that answer, but here's the thing. From one person to another who really is trying to save some money, if I found something that was even like remotely worth suggesting, I would have done it. I just, I cannot bring myself to tell you something just to make it easier. There is nothing I can see today, today that is. That is worth spending money on. That is a good sale price. Now, if you really, really desperately need something and you're like, please, spoon feed me the answer. If you go to Zotac, if you Google literally, Zotac refurbished, and you look at the refurbished products, there is this 1063 gigabyte variant for under $100 before shipping. If you calculate shipping, it'll probably end up coming to like 110. And for a refurbished product, which will probably give you a year of warranty, that's a pretty good deal. I wouldn't buy this. I don't really love Zotac, but it's something there and it is pretty good value, but it isn't brand new. So that's part of the reason why I'm kind of hesitant to suggest it. Now, if you want to continue to do your own homework and stay updated on the Black Friday deals, because as we're all kind of seeing, Black Friday isn't turning into like a one day, here's everything, pick what you want quickly before it runs out of stock. It's kind of been this week long thing for us this year. So here's my best suggestion to you. If you don't already follow this, you need to. Get a Reddit account and follow the subreddit, build a PC sales. These are all sales that are being posted by users who like you and me are looking for the best deal possible. You can sort all of the deals by hot and see what is the most upvoted deals that people are going after, or you can sort it by new and see which deals are being posted minute by minute as this Black Friday unveils. So if you're gonna be using my specific suggestions to build this computer, this Black Friday, this computer minus the graphics card should cost you just under $600. Now, I know 600 isn't a small amount of money, but when I think of the first computer I ever bought for $800, that thing could not do 25% of the computer I am suggesting you build here today. So I'm telling you right now, this is a significant amount of savings. And if you are one of those people that look to splurge and spend a little bit extra during the Black Friday time of the year, this is a really good use of your money. There's not really anything I can think of that you would not be able to do with this system. So I'm sorry, this was kind of a rushed video, but with the nature of sales being very time sensitive, I figured it's best to just get this out there and throw out my suggestions so that you guys have some direction if you didn't have some already. So I appreciate you guys so much for watching. I hope that you get everything you're looking for this Black Friday. If you're gonna be going out there, please be safe. I really don't like tuning into the news and seeing that people got injured even worse, you know, killed for just trying to save some extra cash. So be safe. I hope all of you guys have a really good Thanksgiving for those of you that celebrate. And yeah, thank you guys so much for watching. And as always, have a good day. Great day, have a great day. Have a great, have a great.