Good morning, everyone. I think we are now live. Welcome to our first Green Deal hour organized by the European Committee of the Regents. For those who are not familiar with this EU body, we are the EU Assembly of Cities and Regents. And it's a delight, an honor, and a pleasure to have for this first session Rafał Szaszkowski, Mayor of Warsaw. Good morning, Mayor. Thank you very much for being with us today. I'm going to start very straightforward. The pandemic of COVID-19 thus has not erased the fact that we do live in a climate emergency. Is the pandemic pushing the climate agenda forward or backwards? Good morning. Good afternoon. It is an honor to be with you and to have this opportunity to exchange views on our utmost priority. Because if we do not treat the Green Deal seriously, if we do not treat the climate emergency as the top priority, we are going to waste the greatest opportunity to actually tackle one of the biggest problems that is ahead of us. And I think that if a politician, if someone involved in social life deems himself or herself to be progressive, to respond to the citizens' needs and to really tackle head-on, the biggest challenges that are before us, that is our top-most priority. Now, it is a very good question, because whether the pandemic and our fight against climate change are going to reinforce one another in a sense that the pandemic will allow us to change our thinking about the future and will allow us to actually revolutionize the way in which we do business or whether politicians will just focus on the pandemic and forget about all the priorities. This is one of the most topical questions that are before us. Now, I'm absolutely convinced that there is no other way but to actually do two things at the same time. Deal with the pandemic and bring recovery back to Europe, and at the same time use this crisis as an opportunity to change our way of thinking, change our way of doing business, and with the money that is on the table that is supposed to actually rejuvenate the economy and help us recover from the crisis, to use it wisely so that we invest it in ways that are going to be friendly for the environment, that are going to help us tackle climate change, that are going to actually put an end to the fossil fuel economy in the future, in the foreseeable future, so that we can emerge strong, innovative, so that we can emerge revolutionized, so we can think out of the box and most importantly save the climate. Good. And that's kind of the objective of the European Green Deal. We are going to talk today about the Green Deal. What is it exactly? It's the European just for our audience which are maybe not familiar with the Green Deal. It's the European Union new strategy to reach climate neutrality for 2050. That's going to be a main topic of today with you, Rafał Mayor of Warsaw. We are going to talk about the climate pact as well. I'm here kind of summarizing our five key topics today and then we will go through very concrete examples of what Warsaw is actually doing to move sustainability forward in three areas. Energy efficiency in buildings, the transport and making our cities green. The team here is telling me that we might have a technical problem, but I would like to ask you meanwhile, Rafał, about the Green Deal, our first topic. Do you think it is feasible to reach climate neutrality, that the European Union has the sufficient means to reach climate neutrality by 2050 right now with, as you said, with the money that's in the table to push for the recovery? Will these means be sufficient? Well, first of all, we need the commitment, a real commitment of the national governments. We need the commitments of the local and regional authorities and we need the commitments of the people on the ground. And if we have that commitment, if we raise awareness and that's what Green Pact is all about among our citizens, this is our topmost priority, then I think that the money which is on the table should be sufficient for us to be ambitious. Now, of course, the money is not enough, it has to be wisely spent and unfortunately some of the governments, the conservative government in Poland is a good case in point, might not be able to actually spend the money in the most effective way because, you know, these guys are politicizing everything and they want to share the money according to political criteria. So even if the money is on the table, the Commission, the European Parliament and of course the Committee of the Regents needs to make sure that the money is wisely spent and effectively spent so that we really attack the priorities, we attack the main sources of global warming so that we can be so that we can be as effective as possible. I think that the tools are on the table when it comes to legislative means, when it comes to the money and so on. I think that the European Union showed an incredible commitment. When we push the laggards and when we include the regional local authorities, and that's the job of the Committee of the Regents as well, then we can be successful. So the Committee of the Regents has one claim that cities and regions should be directly involved in the design of the economic recovery plans that have to take us out of these economic and social crisis. Now, we succeeded in making the European Commission do a recommendation to member states to actually involve cities and regions in the design of recovery plans. We are concerned about the certain over-centralization. How was this process in Poland? Like, have you been contacted by the central government on what priorities Warsaw would like to invest? Well, yes. I mean, we want the local and regional authorities to be involved and not because we think we are the wisest, but simply because we think we are closest to the people. And if you really want to attack the sources of emissions, then you need to do all the work on the ground. And of course, the cities are responsible for producing 70% of the emissions so we know best how to tackle the problem. And on top of that, we are pressurized. We're pushed by the people every day of our life when we walk the streets of our cities. People ask us questions about how are we going to tackle the most important problem that is ahead of us, because it's, of course, saving the planet, but it's also fighting for cleaner air, which is more palpable and people understand better. Now, unfortunately, quite a lot of governments want to centralize the system and want to take all the shots and all the decisions on how the money should be spent. This isn't not a good idea. I mean, we could, we should include as many actors as many stakeholders as possible, regional and local authorities, but also non-governmental organizations, also the citizens. And that's what we are doing with the European Commission through the impact. The Polish government decided just to fake some consultations. They are taking decisions which are grounded in politics. They are unfortunately now adopting criteria which are going to be influenced by politics, not by effectiveness. And that's why we are in constant contact with the European Commission so that the scrutiny of the whole process is as strong as possible, because we need to spend the money wisely. We need to adopt transparent and non-political criteria. And that's what we're going to push for. And it's not only the case of Poland, Hungary. I've talked to my colleagues in Spain. They are also complaining that the government is centralizing the process. My Italian colleagues are not so happy. So I think that we are all having a good argument to make that we should be all included, because then we will make sure that the money is spent in a way which is most effective. Absolutely. And next next weeks and next months will be crucial for that because one thing is to involve citizen regions in the design. And that is obviously somehow disappointing across Member States. But well, now we come to the implementation. So here, do we have another chance for the EU to work directly with citizen regions? I mean, how are we going to tackle that issue of over-centralization when it comes to the implementation of all the investments to put the EU economy back on track? Yes, of course. I mean, implementation should be overseen. Should be overseen by local and regional authorities. We should have part in overseeing the whole process because we are the experts. And of course, the European institutions should also oversee the process so that it's as transparent as possible and as non-partisan, as non-political as possible. I mean, for example, the Conservative government in Poland, the peace government, took a decision to actually make it difficult for the cities to apply for help. They decided to make it difficult for cities to actually invest in public transportation. They're doing it on purpose because they know that people in cities are generally more liberal and less prone to vote for them. And of course, that shouldn't be the case. I mean, politics should be out of it. All the decisions should be taken only on the grounds of effectiveness when it comes to meeting priorities. And that's why we should all be included in scrutiny. That's why European institutions should exercise a role and be tough because we cannot waste the money. We cannot spend the money in a way which is least effective. And here at the European Committee of the Regents with you as a member and with your colleagues and regional presidents from member states, I am sure that in a coalition and together we can make sure that cities and regions do have direct access to your funds for the benefit of every city. Now, Raphael, if I may, you are one of the youngest mayors of leading the new capital. You are highly engaged in working to a fully sustainable city that meets in tackling the energy efficiency in buildings that transport the clean air. We are going to talk about these three topics as we go along. Now, you are particularly focused on engaging with citizens, local neighborhoods and communities to boost civic participation and make sure that the transition towards climate neutrality, the green transition is inclusive and fair. And that's kind of the objective of the European climate pact, isn't it? What can you say about the European climate pact? Well, you know, there are quite a lot of initiatives all around Europe which are fighting for climate change. And now climate pact is an umbrella, is an umbrella which is to organize, to help organize all of those initiatives, put them under one roof and make them more effective so that all the non-governmental organizations, the local and regional authorities, the citizens who fight for climate neutrality can do it in a way which is more effective. It's an enabler of cooperation with the European institutions so that we can actually work in synergy and increase awareness of the problem because, you know, the younger generation know fully well that this should be our topmost priority. But the older generation sometimes have doubts, either even whether climate change exists or even if they know that it exists, they do not know what measures should be taken in order to fight it. Or, for example, you know, I have quite a few friends who are aware of the climate change but they are not that happy that we would, for example, try to reduce car circulation in the center of the city and prioritize public transportation. So we need to make those links visible so that people understand what kind of challenge are we facing and what are the means of fighting it. And that's what GreenPact is all about, about talking, about acting in order to increase awareness and also increase the effectiveness of our actions through benchmarking, for example, because thanks to GreenPact, we're meeting new people, we are seeing what they're doing, we're learning from one another, we are re-energizing each other to fight in a more effective way for climate with climate change. So you are a climate pact ambassador, which means that that's exactly also your role as a climate leader in Europe to to demonstrate that good practices are possible, that economic benefit comes also in parallel of environmental benefits. And in terms of engaging with citizens, I think you do have some very complete examples in Warsaw on how you actually involved citizens and youth in particular on climate action. I've heard there's some big project coming up. Well, yes, I mean, first of all, we do a lot of consultations on the projects that we're proposing. Secondly, we have the participatory budget and we are inviting people to put forward initiatives which are there to fight for climate neutrality and we're pretty successful at that. We have quite a lot of awareness exercises that we do with the citizens, but the most I think that the most revolutionary thing that we've done was a citizens panel. Citizens panel is a tool of direct direct democracy whereby we chose 100 people from inhabitants of Warsaw to tell us about energy efficiency and I and I promised I took upon myself to implement their recommendations so that their recommendations are actually binding for me. And we received those recommendations on energy saving from the citizens directly and I've sublimated myself to realize them and I treat them as binding so that actually citizens are involved in the decision making. That's what we're doing. But also, I'm not only the mayor of Warsaw, I'm also a politician. So I have this initiative at the end of August where we gather more than a thousand of young people from all around Poland to talk about the challenges of the future. And of course, climate change will be our top subject to discuss so that we can actually project the knowledge, increase the awareness and work with the young people all around the country and of course in my city in order to tackle the problem. That's that's extremely interesting to see how, as you said, direct democracy in the making, implementing direct democracy in our cities, in our local communities. That's what's all about also about the climate pact. So we take the opportunity here to call on the audience and to check on the European Climate Pact website just because if you are concerned about the climate, if you want to do something about the climate or if you are already doing something about the climate like, you know, taking public transport or cycling instead of taking your car, there are 16 different actions listed in the European Climate Pact website. And the objective of the European Union is that between the 18th of June and the 17th of July, we reach the highest number of people pledging climate action in one month to be in the Guinness World Records book. So since Climate Pact was one of the topics today, Raphael, then we take the opportunity to call for action to our audience. And if you fly, want to fly less, get some solar, green your money, drive electric, switch your energy, insulate your home and some other measures, you can let us know. And then, you know, these actions are not hidden. And, you know, we can also see what people in every day life they are doing. So let's, let's go. One sentence if you allow me.  And of course, it is difficult to be radical. So I mean, for example, to say, okay, I'm not going to use my car, I'm going to use public transportation. Or for example, to say I'm not going to eat meat from today onwards, it's difficult, it's radical. If you are strong enough, do it. But if you're not strong enough, I mean, start with a small commitment. For example, I'm going to use biking bikes and public transportation on the weekends. Or at least when I'm moving in my own district of the city, when I'm not going to the center or so on, then I will bike or I will walk. Or for example, you know, I will not eat meat on or I will eat meat only once a week. You know, start with with small commitments, realistic ones, and then you can make a world of a difference. Because I know that it's difficult to simply say, you know, I'm not going to use my car. Warsaw is a huge city. I need sometimes to be at 10 places at a time. But for example, you know, when in my private life, when I'm spending a weekend with my family, I try to use the subway or bike or walk. And by the way, it is much better for your health. You are you can lose some kilos after the epidemic, which are so necessary after this pandemic. And when someone when people are in there, beautiful force, isn't it? In any case, Rafa, you touch a topic that for me, I'm very concerned. It's the role of consumer in the fight against global warming and versus the role of producers. Let's not forget today that sometimes people think that they are being asked big changes, like drop their old car and buy a new one for 25,000 euros. People just don't have these 25,000 euros. On the other side, industry, coal, carbon intense industries, tax exemptions for fuel for aircraft fuel, all these measures, they contribute so much to global warming. So here, let me ask you, you know, we put the spot on the consumer, but I always think that we have to push production towards sustainability as a key measure if we are to reach climate neutrality. I'm talking about program obsolence. I'm talking about, you know, buying a charger every year, because we didn't manage to put a single charger for all phones. What do you think about the role of production, energy production, transport? And, you know, at the end of the day, coal is still a problem in Poland and in other regions in Europe. What are we going to do from the production side, from the big emitters of CO2 emissions, in addition to individual actions that we can all take? Well, I mean, first of all, the things that we are talking about are very much linked, because I mean, as you raise the awareness, especially among the young people, the young people are pressurizing politicians, they're pressurizing their parents into behaving in a responsible way. So for example, they ask, you know, what is the carbon footprint? Why are we using this? Why are we using something which is more eco-friendly? Do we really need to use the car on that particular occasion? And of course, you know, this pressure is organized by the grassroots. But we need to do more. And why the European Union is so much needed? Because it gives us the legal framework and it can create laws which are going to actually influence also the behavior of the producers. Because through the whole legal framework, one can influence the way in which we use our cars. Because simply when we take political decisions which influence the taxes, which influence the benefits from production of cars or other vehicles, then we can actually influence the way in which we can influence the pricing, the pricing of energy as well. I mean, for example, you know, 10 years ago, renewable energy was expensive. Today, it is much, much cheaper. In a few years, it will be even cheaper than fossil fuels. Similarly, when European Union policy and national policy is wise, you know, electric cars will become much, much, much cheaper. And this is the way forward. Raising awareness and also creating a legal framework and taking decisions, for example, on tax, which are going to simply lower prices of those utilities that are simply friendly to their environments. This is the way forward. And that's going to happen anyhow. I'm talking sometimes to the conservative politicians who tell me that they don't believe the global warming. And I tell them, forget it. I'm not going to have that conversation with you because I'm not going to convince you because it's impossible. You are so set in your ways. But remember this, if we are not going to use the revolution and if we are not going to modernize our economy, invest in green solutions, then we are going to be relegated to the margins of the European society because Europe will go there anyhow. So either we go with them, either we become innovative green, or simply our economy will not be able to compete because the rules will be adopted, which are going to simply make fossil fuels too expensive. And through certain decisions that we make as politicians, we can also reinforce it. For example, in Warsaw, we are giving those subsidies to people who are changing their coal-powered furnaces into renewables. Or we pay our citizens, we give them money when they install renewable energy. Or we have those special programs which actually make it easier to invest in retention of water. So those are the things that we can do in order to reinforce changes through direct means. And that's why I was always pledging that the EU money, that there should be programs of the EU within the Green Deal that are used directly by cities and regional authorities because we know best how to actually help citizens change the way in which they behave through simply reinforcing such behaviors with financial means. So Mayor, you talked about environmental sense and then economic sense. It's about if you don't jump into the transition, it's going to happen anyway. But there are certain very concrete examples where we can see the question about reconciling environmental and economic benefit is actually fully consolidated. The European Union actually is the proof that in the last 40 years we managed to growth economically and decrease emissions. And it's absolutely possible, so it's kind of if you don't do it for the environment, do it for the money. And here, and let's straightforward go to buildings, energy efficiency in buildings is the example where you protect the environment and you save money at the same time. With insulation of your windows, with replacing a fossil fuel solves or heating systems. And you've mentioned already the program of Warsaw in the sense, but I wanted to ask you, energy poverty in Europe, in my opinion, within all this debate about climate and energy, it's one of the most dramatic aspects in Europe, as much as 40 million Europeans cannot heat their homes properly in winter. That's 10% of the population. And we've seen how energy prices have been growing up for the last 20 years. We are not going to enter on the monopoles that still exist in many countries. But what can you, let's start by, how are you tackling in Warsaw the question of energy poverty and the decreasing of emissions from buildings? Well, yes, I mean, you know, this is a real problem in Europe that some of the means are not controversial and are easy to implement. Some of them are more controversial and some of them are very controversial. Let me give you an example. I mean, I think that no one should be convinced that we should save energy and energy efficiency measures are not controversial at all. And we can implement them with all the people being happy about them. And that's exactly what we're doing. And also, we are tackling energy poverty as well. For example, you know, the poorest neighborhood in Warsaw, they had a problem because they were not connected to the central heating. 10 years ago, only 10% of the district, which was the most privileged, was connected to the heating system. Now it's 50-60%. So we are making a huge progress on connecting those regions, those districts of Warsaw to central heating. Or, for example, we pay for the exchanges of the heating system from fossil fuel to renewables. And this is not controversial. Everyone agrees that it should be done and we can see the palpable benefits. I can even tell you that, you know, we had in one of the districts of Warsaw, we had rankings in educational system which were a bit lower. And a lot of people were saying yes, because, you know, that's the problem that people do not take sufficient attention and so on. And it turned out that the reason was very simple. That simply some of those houses in winter were not warm enough because people couldn't afford it. And the kids were catching cold more often and they were out of school for many more days than kids in central Warsaw. So it has a huge impact on the city. That's why we are doing all of those measures, connecting to the heating system and so on, and so forth, liquidating the coal power stoves and so on, which also has an impact on clean air. But this is relatively uncontroversial. Then you have a second batch of measures. For example, public transportation, prioritizing public transportation, limiting the movement of cars in the center of the city. We have plans of doing a clean zone in the historical center and so on and so forth. And people say, yes, we should do it, but then when it influences their own life, for example, you know, they say, no, no, I want to use my car. I want to enter the city center whenever I want, you know, you shouldn't increase the parking fees and so on and so forth. Then it becomes controversial. So people would agree on the direction, but then when it touches their own life and they have to change their habits, then it gets more difficult. And then of course, the third sort of category is the most difficult, because in Poland, we are dependent 75% on fossil fuels. We are the most dependent European nation on coal, which also gives us certain independence vis-à-vis those countries which use energy as a political tool. And it is very, very difficult to change it overnight. And of course, you know, the conservative government is not doing enough. They wasted six years in government in not addressing these challenges. But it has to be said objectively that it is difficult because it requires a lot of money. It requires massive investments. It requires a lot of effort on the part of the people to actually change jobs. And of course, the government and we can introduce those requalification schemes, but it's not easy. And finally, there is this cultural thing. I mean, it is very difficult for people for whom coal mining is part of their culture. It's a part of their DNA. Changing it overnight has proved in Britain, has proved in Spain, has proved in France. It's not easy. So, you know, that's the problem, that we have those different categories of things. Some of them are not conservative. We can do them overnight. Some of them are more controversial and require the change of habits. And some of them are the most difficult and actually necessary massive investment. But of course, we should focus on those because those are going to give us change. And we should invest the money wisely, talk to the people, include them, allow them to re-qualify. And that's what we should be doing on the national level. So, it's about raising awareness, evolving citizens, education, obviously, but then offering alternative and new jobs to the people. Before we go to transport, which is a very, very popular topic in our chats today, I want just to talk about energy bills. Poland is below the EU average of the kilowatt price per hour. But still, in the EU, prices, energy bills have gone up substantially in the last 20 years. We have, I often put the example of telecommunications and air transport, where the liberalization of the European Union has benefited the consumer. Obviously, that's the ultimate goal. We pay much more or less for phone calls today than 25 years ago. And we, lucky or not for the climate, well, that's another topic. The monopoles on airlines have, you know, we are, it's much cheaper to fly and to travel. And there has been democratization of traveling in the past 25 years. With the energy, it seems that something blocks. We cannot, we do not manage so far to decrease energy bills for the European consumer. That's also a main reason why energy poverty rates are so high in Europe. Do you think we are seriously reaching an end to the energy monopoles and that we are going towards a decentralization of energy production? And like most importantly, are we finally going to get energy bills lower for EU citizens anytime soon? Well, yes, hopefully. I mean, unfortunately, the prices of energy up. And if the national governments are not keeping up with the European laws and are not investing in changing the energy mix, you know, those bills will go up. And of course, it's a paradox because the prices of green energy actually go down. And we need to invest. We need to think about smart grids. We need to increase those possibilities of using the energy and making it cheaper, obviously. But at the same time, we cannot lose from site energy security. And that's the problem that, you know, the same governments which are trying to be as green as possible, now they want to open a new chapter of fantastic relations with Russia when Russia is being incredibly aggressive. And when it uses energy as a tool, as a political tool. So I mean, consistency is very important. You know, we need to decrease the prices. We need to change our energy mix. But at the same time, we cannot forget about energy security because, you know, there has to be a balance between the two. And I hope that with the legal framework that the European Union is introducing, energy sooner or later from renewables will become cheaper. But for now, I mean, this situation is difficult. And in Poland, for example, the energy prices are skyrocketing. Why? Because the government was not doing enough to actually adopt the new circumstances. They've wasted their years in government when it comes to meeting these challenges of new green economy. And that's why we should, as citizens, as opposition politicians, as responsible people, we should be pushing the governments to actually be more be more innovative and be more ambitious. Thank you, Mayor. There's a lot of from the audience about transport. And in any case, transport was a key topic of our conversation today. So transport accounts for around 40% of CO2 emissions in the European Union. We have many questions on the chat. You've answered some of them. I was talking to a Polish friend living in Warsaw. He said that the public transport in Warsaw is one of the best. It is. It is. I mean, it is very punctual. It is clean and more and more low or zero emission. We are investing in the subway, we are investing in the tram lines. We've bought, we have the biggest tenure in Europe outside of London for no emission buses. We've got 130 no emission buses and low emission buses. So yes, I mean, we treat it as an absolute priority. And also we are prioritizing public transportation in the cities, through bus lines and so on and so forth, because we think that that's the way forward. And more than 50% of the people living in Warsaw use public transportation, which is a great result. Of course now, I mean, there is a certain influence of the pandemic where those rates are falling a bit, but we hope they're going to go back up after the pandemic. I mean, you know, we need to do it and we need to advertise the way that our public transportation works really great. I mean, you know, I live at the outskirts of Warsaw and, you know, sometimes when I use my car, it takes between 40 minutes to an hour to get to the city center. Sometimes it takes an hour and a half. When I jump on the subway, it's 25 minutes, 28 minutes. So when I do, when I really need to be on time, I use the subway. There you go. Let me ask you a question from the, from the audience is Warsaw planning a zero emission zone when it comes to, you know, a clean transport zone, but you did say already that the city center, can you tell us a little bit more about it? We are planning to have a zero emission zone in the historical center and around it. Now, of course, that's also the decision which needs to be done by the city council, but we are going to be proposing such solutions. When, when do you think that's going to enter into force? And if I may also ask whether I will have the majority for it in the city council, because, you know, some of colleagues of mine, even in my own, in my own caucus, are not that progressive. But we hope we can do it in the coming years, first planets and then executing. Very good. Another question from the audience on transport, which is the most popular topic here. What measures limiting the demand for individual car transport are planned by Warsaw? We are kind of answering these with your combination of buses, trams and metro. You also planning this second metro line, right? Well, we are building the second, second metro line. We are investing in railway, which is in the bounds of the city. We are building those park and ride places. We've built quite a few in Warsaw, the outskirts, so that you can leave your car at the parking and then switch into public transportation. We are doing bus lanes. We are, of course, building bike lanes and more and more Varsovians use bikes to commute. You know, we were starting from a very, very low level of one percent. We're slowly reaching 10 and more. So, of course, it's not yet Copenhagen or Amsterdam, but more and more people use bikes. And we're also changing the city centre so that it's more amenable to people who walk, who use public transportation or the bike. So, I was in Madrid last week, work-related and keeping the safety measures, but la Gran Vía Madrileña, they also reduced by two car lanes recently. And now it is a much more pleasant pedestrian zone, which very much benefits the local commerce and businesses, but from theatres to cinemas to shops. So, how can we, you know, better communicate or, you know, I've heard that there is a certain controversy in Warsaw with the bike lanes, but I don't know how it, we know that it's beneficial from the environmental and health perspective for citizens, but also for local businesses. So, how can we better manage this transition and people's expectations? By simply demonstrating it to them. I mean, you know, the problem of Warsaw is this. I mean, it's one of the most dynamic cities in Warsaw, and it has those islands of activity, fantastic places where, you know, there are hundreds of restaurants, hundreds of clubs, which live 24 hours a day. And then, you know, there are those pathways, those avenues in the city center, which are kind of dead, because there are only banks there, there are only big chains there, there are no greenery, no bars and pubs and so on and so forth.  I mean, what we are trying to do, we are trying to remodel the city center. So, to bring life back to those big avenues, we try to control the prices of some of those rented spaces so that booksellers, little studios and bars and restaurants can come back and actually enliven those avenues and bring more benches and bring more bike lanes and greenery and so on and so forth. We want to stitch the center together so that those islands of activity are connected. And that's what we're doing, that's what we're planning. But it of course means that we want to slow down a bit the traffic in the city center, make one or two streets pedestrian zones, just as it's done everywhere in the modern world, because we want to give the city back to the inhabitants so that the center of the city lives. And of course, sometimes you need to use a car if you need to go to a hospital or to a business center or so on and so forth. But yeah, go there for two or three hours, do your business and then leave. I mean, it shouldn't be affordable for someone to come and leave his or her car for two or three days in the city center. I mean, the city center is best communicated with the rest of the city and should be given back to the people who really want to use it. So yes, if you need to use a car, we will facilitate that. But we will give biggest priority for public transportation, for walking, for biking, because the city center should be stitched together and work as an organism which which which lives and pulsates 24 hours a day. Thank you, Mayor. So almost almost two million people in Warsaw, right? 1.8 million people, very vibrant, dynamic, a lot of real state going on, new construction, but you also talk about greening. How do you reconcile this dynamism, obviously, and a vibrant, Poland capital growing in a in a in a rapid path and at the same time, willing to green the city and obviously tackle one of the major problems I've heard in for Warsaw, people living in Warsaw, which is clean air. How do you reconcile economic growth of a vibrant capital with greening the city? Well, I mean, you know, 10 or 15 years ago, people wanted to buy apartments, live in a city center, but now they want to buy apartments in the city center or in the in the districts of Warsaw when there is a park nearby, when there are benches, when there are, you know, green spaces because people know how important it is. So so now we simply are more demanding on the investors so that they create green spaces so that they conserve energy so that they conserve water and so on and so forth. And I think also, you know, people who are buying apartments now are pushing for that. People who are building also, you know, offices are now much more demanding. And I think that people who work in those offices want to have want to work in a place which is greener, which has more light, and so on and so forth. So that's why Warsaw is transforming itself. And for example, you know, those those offices which were built 15 years ago, 12 years ago, people are leaving them, they want new, modern, more green, more more light and so on and so forth. That's why Warsaw is so dynamic and so vibrant, and it's changing so quickly. Because all of us, we, you know, we exist, exercise pressure on the investors so that they take quality of life into the account. That's what we're doing now. I mean, Warsaw is at a different stage of development. We are not only about expanding our city, but we are about quality of life, like some of the most ambitious cities in Europe. So, you know, please come, see it, spend a lot of money, and you will see that I'm right. Rafaal, nine million trees? Yes, nine million trees. We're counting, we're counting.  So that's what we're doing. You know, we're installing those new installations to actually measure air quality. We are counting trees in Warsaw and also trying to see what kind of financial benefit it brings to the city because it does in order to base our decisions on data and in order to be able to show to the citizens that actually investing in greenery is beneficial for all. We've also created this green fund where investors can actually pay into this common fund and decide what they want to change in the city, whether they want to invest in parks or whether they want to invest in retention reservoirs to bring more water to Warsaw, and so on and so forth. So yes, we're doing it together. And trees, I've planned to plant another million till the end of my term in order to have as many as possible. And yes, sometimes it's great to actually count them. It's sometimes great to name things. It's sometimes great to measure things because then you can show the results and to make informed decisions. You're talking about measuring and we have a question from the audience here. How do you intend to motivate citizens to be more environmental friendly, to make them contribute? But the second part of the question says, can you create a contest, a tracker? We're talking about measuring here, where citizens know exactly how much they contribute. What can we say? We are, I mean, some citizens even invent such competitions through the participatory budget. We've done, for example, at Invaver in one of the districts of Warsaw where we invest in renewables and we have this huge clock which shows the results. It shows how much money was saved, how much energy was saved in this particular district of Warsaw. And it's great because people can see every day how they contribute to the prosperity of their own district and to the environment. So here about, let me ask you, please, the relation between climate and health is a direct one.  And I have to ask you because obviously my Warsaw friends told me as well that sometimes you have no choice but to recommend Warsaw citizens, especially the elderly, to stay home during certain winter days where there are some pollution picks. I've been told that this is something that very unfortunately has been happening regularly for the past years. What's the situation now and do you think that all these measures you are implementing in Warsaw will hopefully and eventually lead to a cleaner air in winter times as well where people can freely walk around and open the windows if they wish? Yes, I mean we are doing everything we can but of course it takes time. So you can sometimes see very quickly locally that the situation has been changed because for example when we took away the coal power stoves in Praga in one of the districts of Warsaw, immediately after a year you can see the difference in quality of air but the pollution and especially in winter days sometimes when there is low temperature and there is no wind and so there is a little wind which blows the emissions from outside of Warsaw but it's not strong enough as to blow it over. You know we have those days where the emissions peaks are huge and of course you know I mean we are not going to be able to deal with it overnight or in a year or two because it is dependent on the energy mix of the whole country because the emissions are blown from outside of Warsaw as well. We cannot change the way in which people use their cars overnight but slowly but surely I mean those indexes are improving and will improve when we have enough financial means to bring some of our programs into conclusion. So locally we see the differences already when it comes to the city as a whole it will take time but surely you know those indexes are changing for the better. Thank you very much Mayor. So I'm having more questions from the audience. Let me pick up this like do you think can cities put effective pressure on national authorities for the necessary regulation and support to facilitate the creation of clean transport zones and the construction and upgrading of walking and cycling infrastructure. Obviously there are sometimes political choices not sometimes often political choices drive policies. Do you find support or do you find support from national police national authorities when it comes to greening cities here for instance the question is on transport and you know upgrading cycling. Unfortunately you know the relations with the conservative governments are strained in Poland of all regional local authorities because they treat us especially the mayors of the cities smaller and bigger as a foe and they're distributing money according to political criteria so they are trying not to invest too much in the big cities but I hope that at the end of the day they will realize that if they want to meet the priorities of the European Union they need to invest in the cities as well. So I mean you know I hope that that at the end of the day they will be pushed into investing in the cities and treating those priorities seriously. Now we are a few months ahead of COP26 the United Nations climate change annual summits we are in a situation where people have the tendency to forget that we live in a climate emergency and maybe have the tendency to push for economic measures that do not take into consideration the environment and the lowering of emissions. What at the global scale you know climate is about acting local but there is a global debate about climate. How do you see the situation right now on the global climate agenda? What do you expect also from COP26 in Glasgow next November? Well I expect more ambitious goals and of course you know the European Union has always been ambitious. Now we are very hopeful with the change of the American administration with Joe Biden because he is much much more ambitious on the Green Agenda and even the Chinese in the past 10 years they have did a U-turn on their policy so I'm hopeful because if if those three biggest players in the world treat global warming seriously the European Union the United States of America and China I think that we can make progress. Global to the local one question about how is life today in Warsaw what measures safety measures for against the the the COVID-19 are in place and how is how is life in Warsaw today? Well the government has opened up the economy and kind of went back to normal 60 percent of the inhabitants of Warsaw are inoculated so and I hope you know the whole program will speed up because it's slowing down unfortunately and we need to be vaccinated because if we vaccinated by 80 percent we limit the risk of the fourth wave but of course we are watching what's happening in Britain and in Spain you know the Delta variant is spreading widely so we hope that it will have a limited impact on our city but we all know that it depends on the level of vaccination on how those vaccines how effective they are so we are you know I had for example for a month we didn't have a city COVID alarm desk because we were meeting you know in those meetings emergency meetings every week twice or three times a week for a month we didn't have one and I just called one today because we need to observe the situation as it is changing. So thank you very much Rafa we are closely ring the end of our first Green Deal Hour with you and our audience live on Facebook five very short questions for you please for our audience tell us would you advise us a cool book to read this summer? Oh yeah there are plenty of books I could advise you on I'm reading one on the crusades you know by by Jones I think his name is I'm reading Henry James Henry James's short stories which are actually quite quite intriguing even though written more than 120 years ago and I'm a fan of detective stories so I can always say read Robert Harris he's always fantastic and and John K. K. R. R. Fantastic book. Excellent so there's a variety of options yes we can see that are you in your office in the city council yep you are so tell me what's your favorite band? Jamiroquai. Jamiroquai excellent excellent I wanted to tell you lately mine is Oscar and the Wolf they are from Antwerp Belgium so I wanted you'll check them out thanks so tell us what are you doing this summer? I don't know I don't know yet I hope I will have time for a vacation but I will plan it in August because I always plan my vacation in August and we'll see I hope I will see as always sorry you hope you excuse me I will be able to do a bit of diving a bit of diving there you go another recommendation for our audience and then my last question there's a dog star who's more famous you you or the dog? Of course my dog of course my dog my dog he's a french bulldog and he was very much disappointed that friends does not play anymore in the World Cup so now he's cheering for Italy because you know those he's closest friends and his name is Bumble which is a bubble in polish and he's a pretty nice fellow very good he has more Twitter followers than you? Well not yet but but I think he's quite popular and and even even my political foes do not hate him because it's impossible to hate a french bulldog is it? I would have and the audience would as well certainly have many many more questions just allow me please to have a very final one when we will have the pleasure to see you in Brussels again. Well I hope after after after vacation I hope that there will be no more lockdowns and no more waves of COVID and that we can actually resume our work in in September. Excellent we have a lot coming up after the summer we have the European Union Week of Regions and Cities which is the largest event in the EU it's all about cities and regions and cohesion policy and investing in in sustainable policies and how cities and regions are actually the drivers of the climate neutrality transition that the European Union is aiming for 2050. Rafał Szaszkowski thank you so much for being with us in this first very first edition of the Green Deal Hour organized by the European Committee of the Regions the European Union Assembly of Cities and Regions it's 1 p.m. Brussels time it's been a pleasure very interesting a very inspiring I hope it was the same feeling for our audience to the point that they are going to take climate action we are all responsible a bit for the biggest challenge of our times we could even say thank you so much Rafał for being with us we'll see you in Brussels very soon thank you everyone yes certainly thank you very much thank you very much thank you and remember it's more seasonable seasonable fruit and vegetables walk and bike that's what we can all do for fun from the fork from the fork to the fork thank you very much mr mayor thank you and thank you everyone for watching we'll see you very soon in our next Green Deal Hour thank you for watching have a good day


Hello everyone, I am D.V. National Commander Butch Whited. I am so pleased to be joined today by D.V.'s Washington Headquarters Executive Director Randy Rees and National Service Director Jim Marslack for a special presentation to a very deserving individual. It is an absolute honor to recognize Board of Veterans Appeals Chairman Cheryl Mason as our 2021 Outstanding Federal Executive of the Year. Thank you so much. This is an award we only give to one individual each year for northerly performance in service to veterans and looking back over the past year as so many have been impacted by the pandemic, it was clear that this selection would be an easy one to make. Chairman Mason, Randy and Jim have nothing but good things to say about your relationship with you, with the Board and the work you do for veterans, particularly in the wake of COVID. Congratulations to you and I'll let Randy and Jim offer a few words. Congratulations Chairman Mason. You know since 2017 seems like a lifetime ago due to COVID in circumstances that have intervened but in reality from day one, from confirmation in November of 2017, picking up the mantle of a brand new law and starting to move people over through the ramp process into the new dockets of the Appeals Modernization Act and then executing in 2019 just in time for Procopio and Bluewater Navy claims. But I think that the tide turned whenever the choice was made by the majority of the VA to stop processing Bluewater Navy claims and your leadership shown through when you decided the Board was going to process those claims and we certainly recognize that and appreciate that and then in 2020 with COVID-19 when everybody is kind of going offline and locking down, the Board followed suit, just put on the mask and continue to truck along and go virtual. So for outstanding leadership, we couldn't ask for more than Chairman, a six-year term you're going to get your fair share. We appreciate your leadership and your excellence. So congratulations again. Jim? Chairman, it's been a privilege to work with you for so long right and we go way back before AMA and just some great opportunities working together to build something that really is changing the lives for veterans and their families.  So we certainly appreciate it. And this was an easy choice as the Commander had mentioned for us. So congratulations. And we're always here to be able to help you guys in any way we can. So thank you. Well, thank you. And I'm going to hold it up again for a minute before I start remembering Mark. So I just want to thank you so much. This is an honor. And I just want to say good morning to you all again. It's really an honor to receive this award. It was a huge surprise to me. As you know, ensuring veterans receive the benefits and services that, you know, they deserve is not something that we can do by ourselves. We have to rely on you, our partners and our many partners throughout the VSOs. But I will say that DAV is a very special organization for us. Anything we ask you guys are there stepping forward and showing the way. And we really appreciate it. So I have to thank all of you from Commander Whitehead, Executive Director East, Jim, Tom Wendell, who does a great job here on site for us. And with for your commitment to our veterans and their dependents as a dependent of a veteran and a longtime military spouse and the daughter of a veteran.  I really think that it's very important that each one of us every day understand what our veterans need and look for a way to deliver those benefits and services where we can under the law. And that's the board's mission. So I really appreciate everything you've gone. You've done this, as you've noted, has been a very challenging year this past year with COVID. But none of us stopped. We just pivoted and we figured a way to pivot. And so when I asked you guys for help with our virtual telehearings, you stepped forward and you worked with our great board employees, our judges and our hearing team and our attorneys to make it work. Everyone stepped forward and really made it work. And that kind of partnership is really important for all of us serving our veterans and our veterans community. And so we look forward to our continued partnership with you and adapt as we adapt to move forward. So again, it's really an honor to receive this and a huge surprise. And I really have to accept this on behalf of our board employees and staff, the judges, the attorneys, our administrative staff, our hearing branch personnel and our operations staff, because I'm just the leader here. They really are the ones that get the job done. And it's an honor to serve with them and serve them while we serve veterans. So again, I just really appreciate it. And I thank you for this tremendous honor. So thank you all so much. Thank you. Chairman Mason, I think it goes without saying that we look forward to our continued partnership with the board and with you again. Congratulations on this well deserved recognition. And thank you for what you do day in and day out for our veterans. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you.


presentation of TFNN. The Tom O'Brien Show is produced every business day. Tom takes your phone calls toll-free at 1-877-927-6648 internationally at<PHONE_NUMBER>. Let's get a mic in Southern California. Hey, Mike, what's going on? Hey, Tom, nice to talk to you again. And I have to start out and first tell you, I love this trading room. This thing is great. This app, it works great. And getting all the information, you're instantly there. No delay, nothing. I know, listen, I appreciate you growling proud with us. Your channel is in my pocket all day long. It's wonderful. Thank you, man, thank you. Now, Tom O'Brien. Welcome, folks. This is Tom O'Brien of TFNN. We go five days a week. We go seven hours a day. We go 24 hours a day on the internet at acttfnn.com. Always remember, folks, whatever you think about, you bring about whatever you focus on grows so everyone's having a great day, safe day. Let's make it a great week, folks. Kicking into Labor Day weekend, there we go. Love coming out of you makes you happy. The whole world can love you, but that's not the love that'll make you happy. What will make you happy is the share all the love you have inside of you. That is the love that will make a difference. Mugging wise, let's take a look at it out here. We have the Dow Industries up 170. We get Nasdaq up 94, S&Ps up 22. Gold contract up $8.10 traded 1948 and ounce. We have Silver up 4 cents, $24.62 an ounce. Light sweet crude up 31 cents, $80.14 a barrel. Notes and bonds. A 10-year note, up 7 ticks, trading 109.21. The 30-year up 9 ticks at 120.01, a King dollar. King dollars down 15 ticks, trading 104.062. The Euro out here at 108. The ends at 146 and the British pound is at 126 to one US dollar. Our phone number is<PHONE_NUMBER>. Give us a call, folks. Wanna know what's going on in your world and the world of the S&Ps? Let's take a look at them. What do you have? Well, we pull the spy up first. What we have out here is that on Friday, folks, you came down, you didn't break the swing. You rejected lower price at the highs of the lows and bottom line, let's say, guess what, higher price is coming at us. So we're at $442 and what's game here still is this $446.27. The $446.27, where I'm getting that from, by the way, folks, okay, and we'll see how it comes into it. That's the last time we were really coming down with some big volume, not with some big volume, meaning there's big volume at the bottom that already rejected that. So we had come off the highs. We had a couple of big volume days there and right there is basically, is that that's ice? That's what that is, okay? You know, we almost had hit it when we went up on Friday. We hit $445.22, bottom line, it's gonna get deviant and get up into that area. The cues, we take a look at the cues, same type of set up inside the cues. The cues had come down. You know, bottom line rejected lower price. We got down, you know, bottom line, get down to the price point of that $358.50. The low there was $354. The high was at $359, so we rejected that area. And it looks to me like the cues can actually get up into this $373.13 area. That's how it's set up. And we did hit that $372.74 on Thursday. You know, as my take is over, so we're going right back up to that area because that's ice also, and we'll see how we get there. Now you gotta remember, we're coming into Labor Day weekend, so we're also coming into window dressing, you know? Notes and bonds. But I think we got a couple big turns in the marketplace, folks, and one of them is the note and bond market. So what you have with a note and bond market is this. We, let's put it much longer term here because you'll see just type of devastation on the way down it was. Let's see if I put a generic one. Okay, cool. Okay, so I'm gonna put a generic one up, meaning that it just ties the contracts together and put this up for a full year. And you can see that the 10 year, we went down from 117 and we hit 108. Now when we take a look at this, I'm gonna put this on a two year weekly now. Clip this around. And on a two year weekly, what you can see the low that was established, this goes back to 2022 was 108.26. Well, we hit 108.28. I think that's it. That's my point and the reason I'm saying that is that what you had, if we take, now let's go to the actual bond. If we take a look at the bond, what you're gonna see, the note rather, just do the note though on a daily basis.  You came back into that sign of strength and you didn't get to the low of the sign of strength. What it also did is that when you take a look at it on a technical basis, it broke the downtrend. The only downtrend that it actually broke here is from the 111.29. The type of beating that this took is gonna be step by step. But that's telling me that this 10 year note wants to go to this 111.29. Now you put that together with the aspect of how many rate hikes we've had, what Powell has to say about the aspect of inflation and they're gonna be diligent and there's no doubt about that. At Jackson Hole, and then on top of that, I keep a close eye, folks, on transportation cost. From Shanghai to Tampa, and let me tell you, so this is the number, this is the factual number. At the peak, a container from Shanghai to Tampa was 14,500. Do you know what they are right now? Just take a guess. And now this is a spot rate, 3,000 bucks.  You can imagine what Walmart, what Amazon, what all these people are, they're way down there. Who knows, I have no clue, but I can tell you something. You can see that the amount of destruction and price is absolutely dramatic. So my take is that we've reversed this whole deal. Higher rates are over, and then let's go to the US dollar. We take a look at the dollar, and what's so intriguing about the dollar is this. The dollar's been on a run, there's no two ways about that. Now that's on the daily, and the dollar's been trying to get into this swing point from May of 2021. That swing point is 104,699. Now we made it to 104,447. That being said, now watch this. When you actually put this on a larger scale, you can see that we've been in a consolidation. This consolidation has been out here for quite some time. We spiked it, and the lower part of this consolidation, bottom line is down there at the 99.57. So we take a look at this, that's quite a consolidation. And my take is that it's failed at these higher prices. They failed at the higher prices, lower prices are coming at us. So there it there folks, come right back. We have the Dow, the Dow industrials right now trading up 162, Nasdaq's up 90, S&P's up 21 will come right back. Currencies, commodities, and bond markets are as important as ever right now with how they're driving the volatility in equity markets across the globe, which is why it's a great time to try out Teddy Kegstad's Tiger Forex report. Teddy Kegstad breaks down the Forex markets every Monday using his 30 plus years of experience as a trading veteran of futures, Forex, stocks, and options. Teddy releases his weekly Tiger Forex report every Monday morning with coverage of all the major currency pairs, including the Dollar Index, the Euro Dollar, Pound Dollar, Dollar Swiss, Dollar Yen, as well as many more. And he also has weekly coverage of the crude oil market and the 30 year T-bonds as they both influence Forex markets tremendously. When you sign up for the Tiger Forex report, you also gain instant access to Teddy's 60 minute webinar archive. He just hosted Forex Strategies and Fundamentals, What is Behind the Tiger Forex Report? 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First-time subscribers also get a 30-day money back guarantee. If you're not satisfied, let us know and you'll get a full refund within 30 days of signing up. Subscribe to the Fibonacci 24-7 newsletter today. TFNN.com, educating investors. Toll free at 1-877-927-6648, internationally at<PHONE_NUMBER>. Welcome back, folks of Dow. Dow investors right now trading at up 163 at the Nasdaq of 86, S&P's up 20. Now check this out. So I just brought up the Baltic Dry Index. This is also a transportation index. It also gives you an idea of what I was just talking about. You can see this. Pretty amazing, man. I brought this back two years. Two years ago, 5,600. Today, 1,080. And what this gauge is, let's go through what this gauge actually is. So this gauge is the average of, OK, so you have all these different ships and what they rent for, folks. So this one here is 40% of this is a cap size. That's the certain size of a ship. 30% is the pan max. 30% is a super max. The bottom line is that you can see the difference. The difference is that. Now this has all rates. This is you're talking about ship rates. You're talking about dry goods. I mean, it's 5,600 to 1,000. Yeah, that's where this thing is going. See, it's already done. That's the thing that is so impressive about this. It's already done. Let's go take a look for one of the tigers at one of the silver set equities out here. You got First Majestic Silver, the Lowes 524, the Highs 981. This company here, let's take a look at it. So this company here does business in the United States and Mexico. They take $130 million in the United States, $486 million in Mexico. Gold is $389 million. Silver is $237 million. So it's interesting that it's called the Silver Company, where it still takes more in gold. But bottom line, you know. So what you want with this one, you know, when I finished the gold report out here this morning. So I'm doing a gold report seminar for my subscribers this Wednesday. If you want to be in that webinar, it's four to five. Go over and sign up for the gold report. It comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. So you'll get the gold report for 30 days. If it works for you, great. If it doesn't work for you, 29-day, just cancel it and you'll be in the webinar. This one here, and this is, there wasn't a lot of them like this, but what there was is this. You had, in gold and silver equities, folks, well, hey, let me go through this first. This is going to need more volume. Because what happened is this, is that when you go through these, you can see that, you know, it had some decent volume, but not enough to really get juice underneath it. So we have a bit of divergence inside of the gold and silver equities. Most of them are a lot stronger than this. And what this is all about, this is all about Mexico. Because what has happened is that there's a new law in Mexico and, you know, the bottom line is that that can be trouble in a very large way for many of these miners. You know, one of the miners that it is trouble for, okay? Oh, my God, let me get this, come to me in a second. But first I want, okay, and what you also want to see is this, is that the silver market, now the reason this stock should be much stronger, I know this stock really well, is that the silver contract is much stronger than the gold contract. Now, golds come off the bottom, that's my take, but what you can see is this. You can, silver rejected the lows that were established out here in June, this past June, okay? Rejected them, had lighter volume all of the above. When we go look at the gold contract, the gold contract went all the way back to its strength of last match. That shows that silver is leading out of here. And what that should mean is that that should mean simultaneously is that what you would have, is that you would have silver stocks that should be much stronger than the gold stocks. And in this particular case, you know, that's that equity there needs more help. That's the bottom line, you know? So if we take a look at the GDX, what you're gonna see is that actually, you know what you wanna look at here, check this out, the GDXJ, this is gonna get really interesting here, is stronger than the GDX. Now this is the juniors, the GDXJ, you know, didn't get all the way down to the, it was close, it was close, okay? This is almost the same chart, it was close, but you can see the type of volume that came in a GDXJ. The GDXJ, we're trading out at a 35 right now. It looks to me like this thing wants to run to that 39. That was a decisive break, as a lot of them did, okay? Came back and tried to test, excuse me, come back and test it, had light of volume on the test, we're talking about 6.7 million versus 12 million on the test of the lows that had 5 million versus 25 million, okay? But the GDXJ has a whole different ball game going for it. And I've seen that happen many times in the business when medals are gonna start running, because what happens is this, picture this, the juniors will get hit harder on the way down because they're more speculative and they start moving faster on the way up because they're more speculative, because you gotta remember something with the juniors. What the juniors, what happens is that many of the juniors just getting going, are they still in the exploration phase? So that price of gold and the price of silver is a huge deal for them because everything is predicated on what that price is. And the speculation is, if someone's gonna take you over, the higher that that price of silver or gold goes, the higher the greed factor comes into it, and that's where the juniors really get some real traction because what ends up happening is that when you look at the juniors, they will come down on a fundamental basis, much higher, much lower if we're going down than the actual producers, the larger producers, which makes sense because what ends up happening is that it's a promise going forward that when you're looking at a junior versus a Newmont versus a Barrack, versus an eco-eagle versus a Goldfields versus a Harmony, those stocks are established. They do millions of ounces of gold. You know what you're gonna get. You don't know what you're gonna get many times on the junior because what ends up happening is that they're at the point of their lifespan that they're saying, we can get this much out of it, and if they do and that the price of the actual metal is going up, well, then they get real action. We're gonna take a look at the... No, so let's go back to the GDX for a second. So we just did the GDXJ. We take a look at the GDX. The GDX right now, you know, bottom line, had a nice sound of strength, come back, tested it at life volume. We tested with 16 million versus 18, versus 30 in the way up. The low tested with 18 million versus 56 million. You know, that's a nice setup, man. So if you'd like to be in this workshop, folks, come over, sign up for the Gold Reports right under the front page of TFNN, and we'll be growling and prowling out here Wednesday afternoon, four to five. And we're gonna be... We're gonna be talking about not only the gold silver, we're gonna be talking the dollar and bonds because that's what moves this gold market. Dow, Dow Industries right now, 147 Nasdaqs up 76, S&P's up 17 will come right back. With rising inflation, rocketing interest rates of all to dollar and uncertain market, there's an asset that all traders flock back to, gold. However, these are regular times also mean a regular gold market, which presents its own unique challenges. This brings up the question, what moves the gold market? This is a question I'll be answering in my next live webinar. On August 30th, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., I'll be hosting a live free webinar for all those who've subscribed to my newsletter, The Gold Report. The Gold Report has been in publication for over two decades, and I've seen just about every market gold has been traded in. This experience lends me great insight when trading gold and other mining equities, and now that insight can be ours. On August 30th, I will deep dive into gold, bonds, and the dollar, where they are now, how they affect each other, and what to look for when looking to set up a trade. Additionally, I will provide a comprehensive breakdown of the XAU, HUI, and GDX, as well as cover individual gold equities and answer questions live on the air. Subscribe to The Gold Report today so you don't miss this rare moment of gold. TFNN Educating Investors. Steve Rhodes started his trading career as a student almost 20 years ago, and the student has now become the master. Steve won the prestigious Timer of the Year Award in 2018, and barely missed that mark again in 2019, finishing at number two for the year, an amazing accomplishment. Steve Rhodes is committed to sharing his techniques and knowledge with anyone who wants to learn, and he shares his vast amount of trading knowledge every day. It is Mastering Probability Newsletter. Steve's award-winning newsletter, Mastering Probability, is delivered every trading day with updates throughout the afternoon. Sign up for Steve's market newsletter, Mastering Probability, and you'll receive access to seven of Steve's educational webinars absolutely free. At TFNN, all our newsletters come with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Visit TFNN.com and try Mastering Probability 30 Days risk-free today. TFNN Educating Investors. Sharpening your skills as an investor is like getting better at playing a musical instrument. You have to practice, sure, but you also need excellent instruction from experts. At TFNN, you'll get advice and guidance from the authority and technical market analysis, and it's not just dry, tedious text, either. TFNN airs live financial content streamed live on TFNN.com and TFNN's YouTube channel with Tiger TV, live every market day from 8.30 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. Eastern. For free, each host is an experienced trader and gives their take on the market while taking calls and questions live from around the world. From the moment the market opens and bell sounds, Tiger TV has eight different shows with expert hosts to help you make the right moves with your money. Watch online at TFNN.com or on TFNN's YouTube channel and become the investor you were born to be. TFNN Educating Investors. Welcome back, folks, to Dao. Dao Industries right now trading up $159. You get them as like $82. S&Ps are up $18. Let's go inside the Dao Industries and see what we're moving as we grind higher here, folks. Point-wise, what you have is this. We have 3M putting 33 positive points, Goldman putting 30, Boeing putting 20, Home Depot putting 16. Taken away from it, you got Johnson & Johnson minus 14, Merck minus 9, Travelers minus 6. Inside the NDX100, what you have is CGen is up 3.4%. You got Warner Brothers up 3.3%. Charter Communications is up 3. And Lucid, the car maker there, is up 2. Taken away from it, CrowdStrike's down 4. You got Dexcom off 1.5. You got Zscaler down 1. So if we go over, let me see if I can get this up quick because what we do have coming in here... No, there we go. No, I can't. Coming into Florida, what we do have is that... There we go. So let's take a look at this. You know, where we are in the St. Pete area, folks, you know, Clearwater Beach, St. Pete, Clearwater, St. Pete Tampa. We've been always, not always, but we've been pretty lucky. And the reason is this, this is how this works. Now, if you're watching Tiger TV, I'm going to show you the storm. Now, the storm itself is just at Mexico right now. Right now, it's a tropical storm. What tends to happen, and I take these very seriously because the fact that a matter is up in Hurricane Bob, up on Cape Cod in the 90s, Tommy and I, well, he was with me in Hurricane Bob also, we were a Katrina, okay? So I know what a hurricane does, and you really have to take every one of them very seriously because they're very dangerous, they're fast, they're furious, and all of the above. Now, that being said, I've been in a lot of them down here, meaning I've been down here in our 24 years. You can see this right now, you know, the band is pretty large, but that's the saying, okay, where's it going to hit? And what makes sense is pretty large because what you have is that it's still down in Mexico, okay? So the speculation is that once it comes into the Gulf, because the waters are so hot, and they are, they're steaming, okay, that it will turn into a full-fledged hurricane. Now, what has happened many times, and this is where the poor people in the Panhandle and New Orleans, what tends to happen is that it's almost like a magnet that right now you can see this is bearing right, that's how they have it, but what seems to happen every single time, not every time, I can't say that, that's the last thing I want to say, okay? Where is, here it is. It seems that every time that it comes in here, though, okay, so here it is here. What tends to happen is that it comes in and then picture, this is almost like a gap, that up at the top in the Panhandle is like a magnet, and so instead of taking a right, it has to take a right to basically hit, you know, if you watch the weather channel today, the bottom line is that they're saying that, yeah, we're going to get hit, meaning the Tampa Clearwater area. Well, what seems to happen, it's already moved slightly to the north and you're way down here, you know? So my point is this, is that if you're in these areas, keep a close eye on it, make sure that you do have what you need, but I suspect what's going to end up happening is that it's going to keep moving north and we'll see whether it turns into a full-fledged hurricane. When they do change, folks, right now, it's only going three miles an hour. When they do change, it can be very fast and furious. There's no doubt about that. That's what happened with Katrina. What happened with Katrina, within basically about 36 hours, that thing just accelerated beyond belief, man. But as I said, you know, it's the Panhandle, it's New Orleans when they get in here because you can see, if you happen to watch it here, you literally have to, especially how far this is out right now from the coast, you have to come up and take a right. The ones that come and actually can get into the west coast a bit actually are much closer coming into Key West because then you can get brushed along the side. So bottom line is that we have our fingers crossed. There's no doubt about that. And, you know, most people, I suspect, have already done exactly what they've done. I haven't boarded up houses yet, but we're ready tomorrow morning.  So we'll see how this shakes out. We take a look at the, now let's go take a look at the 30 year. So I talked about the aspect of the note and bond market bottom and out. We take a look at this and what you're going to see, I'll pull this back now. This is the same type of setup, meaning that when we came in, let me see this. When we came in last week, that was a huge sound of strength. That was after rejection of lower price. Let's go to John in New York. Hey, John, what's going on? Hi, Tom, how are you? I'm doing great, man. How you been? Okay. Good. PPTA. Okay, let's take a look. Boston has a big chunk of it. Do you know anything about it? Who has a big chunk? Paulson. Okay, Paulson. Okay, cool. So let's take a look. This is a mineral exploration company focused on gold mining. Low is $1.69. The high is $5.44. Let's see what they do here. So it's still, they don't produce. And as John's talking about, if you don't Paulson, yeah, Paulson owns 39% of the company right here. Okay? So Paulson, you know, has been in the gold business a long time. Also, see this one right underneath at Sun Valley. Sun Valley is a big player inside the gold market. That's a big player. And they own 7.8% of it. Okay, so let's see what we have. So where, let's see. Where do they do business, you know? Where are they doing business? I think it's in Idaho. Idaho. Oh, that's even better. Okay, cool. That's about as good as you can get. Okay, so, put this on a weekly. You know what this used to be called? Midas gold, I think. Oh, okay. I'm familiar with this. I got it. Yes, that makes sense. Okay. That's, they changed the name. Okay. Let's put this on a monthly then. Okay.   I mean, you know, this came off the lows, like the rest of them, but I don't see, there hasn't been a sign of strength out here yet, John. Do you know what I mean? You want to see a sign of strength, which is a wide price spread, and you just don't have it yet. Okay. You have any more questions? Come back. Want to wait? Yeah. Stay right there. Come right back. If you're looking for potential trading setups in the stock market, then Rocket Equities and Options Report is a newsletter you should try. Tommy O'Brien delivers options and equity trades when the markets present them, using a combination of fundamentals and technicals. Sign up for Rocket Equities and Options Report today with a 30-day money-back guarantee so you have nothing to risk. For all the details and to start your subscription today, visit the front page of TFNN.com. TFN, Educating Investors. You might think that if you want to be successful at trading in the stock market, you're going to need a crystal ball. After all, it's impossible to predict the future, right? Like any endeavor in life, before you decide it's impossible, get some advice from the experts. You might find that it's not so impossible after all. For daily market overviews that give you direction on the key indices, selective stocks, and commodities, subscribe to the opening call newsletter at TFNN.com. The opening call newsletter is written by Basil Chapman, creator of the trading methodology known as the Chapman Wave. The Chapman Wave up-down sequence gives you an edge in identifying price turns. Finding the peaks and valleys in stock prices.  First-time subscribers also get a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you're not satisfied, let us know and you'll get a full refund within 30 days of signing up. TFNN.com Educating investors. Biotech is booming, but for how long? Whether you think the Biotech bull has room to run or has run its course, trade LABU or LABD. Directions daily S&P Biotech three times bull and bear ETFs. 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There's no cash or added costs when you join our community of traders. Sign up today and become a part of this educational community of traders. Just visit the front page of TFNN.com. This program is brought to you by Vistagold, traded on the NYSE American and TSX under the symbol VGZ. Welcome back, folks. It's our Dow Industries right now, trading up 171. You get the NASDAQ up 94. S&Ps are up 21. We're talking with John from New York. And what's the next one you want to talk about, John? Vistagold, how does it compare with that perpetual gold? Cool. Let's take a look at it. So you get Vistagold, Low's 45, the High's 75. Now, what's intriguing about this is that, watch this. You don't have Paulson, but see Sun Valley? Sun Valley, you're going to find many equities, but Sun Valley's the top owner of Vistagold, 16.5%. Now, technically, the way you can see this is that you can see that you came off the Low's. What a decent sign of strength. Nothing heavy, but a decent sign of strength. What this has already done, however, is that you're going to take a look at this and you're going to see it's ready to break the 50. It already broke the nine, okay? It broke the nine four days ago. It's on the right side of the nine now, right? And then, if you take a look at this, it's also on the right side of the middle of the Bollinger. It jumped up there last week. So technically, this thing is ready to go again. And that's how this, this the trades like this, okay? And we'll see whether we get the traction. They both are still in the expiration phase. There's no doubt about that. I don't know minus, okay, what they have going. I know Vistar upside down, you know? Well, Sierra shakes out, man. Was that the sign of strength last week? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Well, you had both. You had the rejection of lower price. So if I bring this back here, let me bring this back for a bit. You're going to see where it rejected lower price also. You can see straight across here. You know, it never made it to the bottom actually, but I'm glad it didn't make it to the bottom.  But it rejected lower price, and then you finally got a sign of strength. And in this particular case, it's not that it, you know, it broke the downtrend, but it's just like when I first started, you know, even with the GDX, okay? That's just to say in that, okay, you're at 50, and that's saying it wants to go to 56. But it's a start. That's the bottom line, you know? And when you go through enough of these, the ones that did act like that, if you're going through the year equities, right? The ones that acted like that, they have started. What you don't want to see, which a few of them are, is that here's your downtrend, right? Here's your downtrend. Well, let's do it this way. I've got to do it this way, because it's opposite, I believe. Yeah, let me do it this way. No, it's opposite. I don't know. I'm trying to figure out which way you see it on TV. Anyway, here's the downtrend, right? And so what ends up happening, a few of them basically haven't broken it yet, and they should have broken it. You know what I mean? Because we just had gold reject 1914, and it already had 1948, and we had silver reject the 23-doll level, you know? So as long as they go high enough, we know how this goes. They all go, okay? But when you get nice lows like this, it's nice to be in the strongest ones, because the strongest ones are going to go first. Cookin' man. Thank you. Good to hear your voice again, too, John. That's a great one, man. Have a safe one. Let's go take a look at the S&Ps, okay? So the S&Ps, they've been in a little consolidation all day long out here. Take up the futures. Take a look at these babies. So I'm going to run to the top of it again. You can see that we've been in this consolidation from the 4447, you know, down to the bottom here of 22. So we've been at 23-point consolidation, you know? And it looks the way it looks here. There's not going to be nothing heavy, but it looks to me like they'll run it to the top of this consolidation coming into the close. And as I said, at the beginning of the program, I think, well, what we're going to have now is this. You're going to get a lot of economic news this week. It looks to me like, you know, no matter what it is, positive or negative, you know, it's always how the market looks at it, right? But the news is probably going to be, let's say, negative enough, meaning the employment, you know, like what is happening with hiring right now, right? Is that, you know, it's not real easy to get a job anymore, okay? The bottom line is it's not like it was two years ago.  That's not happening. It is happening on the union jobs and that's going to continue to happen no matter what the matter is.  The new guy that's out there is saying, hey man, this is insane when Mary Barr can take in $20 million, you know, in a few years and rank and file that are making the cars, you know, so they're going to get that pay raise. There's going to be lingering pay raises that are out there and they're going to get them. They're going to get them, the pilots got them, the transportation, you know, the Sean O'Brien from Boston, local 25, I know local 25 upside down because the bottom line is that I'm from Boston and that was always a powerful union, you know, but other than, you know, that and these are make-ups, these are make-ups for, you know, things that have happened in the last four or five years, one in fact, the companies and the executive suite has just taken money out of the market beyond belief and this has been going on for a long time, man.  So if we want any cars on the road, folks, they're getting a raise. But as I said, to me, inflation is going the opposite way and has already gone the opposite way. Those numbers are going to be coming in and those numbers, I suspect, are going to be heavier, meaning smaller than we ever could imagine because I can tell you this, man, a year ago, I could never imagine that we could come down this fast. I just couldn't. And then I start selling those containers and I start seeing every day, I says, hey, man, this is happening a lot faster than I ever thought it would actually happen. So we'll see where it goes, but that's what it looks like to me. Let's go to the oil. Let's take a look at the oil market. So the thing that's going to be interesting about the oil market now is this, so check this out. Because of the fact that oil is priced in dollars, it's like, you know, you can make the argument that, okay, you know, if things are slowing down, you know, bottom line, the oil should come down. Well, the other side of that, on a fundamental basis, you know, is that oil is priced in dollars. And so if the dollar is getting weaker, well, most times when the dollar gets weaker, oil goes higher. You know, right now we have a, you know, we're at 80, at 79, you know, bottom line, this volume down there. So I think it's going to first count at 79. We'll see where that shakes out from here. Don't forget about the Gold Report, folks, if you would, we want to sign up, want to be in that workshop on Wednesday. Just come over to our website at TF. It's right under the featured content. You can sign up, be in the workshop, get it, Monday back guarantee 30 days. Stay right there, folks, come right back. Are you ready to take your trading to the next level? Introducing Tom O'Brien's award-winning newsletter, Market Insights, your key to successful active trading. Tom O'Brien, renowned for his expertise in the financial markets, has designed Market Insights to be your daily guide to profitable trades. Tom publishes his daily Market Insights newsletter every market day before the market open, along with updates when warranted. Stay ahead of the game with Tom's real-time analysis and trade recommendations delivered straight to your inbox.  Ready to join the ranks of successful traders? Head over to TFNN.com and subscribe to Market Insights today. Don't miss out on this opportunity to supercharge your trading results. Market Insights comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee for all new subscribers, so you have nothing to risk. Don't miss out on this opportunity to revolutionize your trading game. Head over to TFNN.com right now to join the thousands of traders who have already experienced the power of Tom O'Brien's award-winning newsletter, Market Insights firsthand. TFNN, educating investors. You might think that if you want to be successful at trading in the stock market, you're going to need a crystal ball. After all, it's impossible to predict the future, right? Like any endeavor in life, before you decide it's impossible, get some advice from the experts. You might find that it's not so impossible after all. For daily market overviews that give you direction on the key indices, selective stocks, and commodities, subscribe to the opening call newsletter at TFNN.com. The opening call newsletter is written by Basil Chapman, creator of the trading methodology known as the Chapman Wave. Chapman Wave up-down sequence gives you an edge in identifying price turns, finding the peaks and valleys in stock prices.  First-time subscribers also get a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you're not satisfied, let us know, and you'll get a full refund within 30 days of signing up. TFNN.com, educating investors. Everything in the universe is governed by the Fibonacci sequence. This mathematical principle is responsible for everything, from the most aesthetically pleasing artwork to patterns in the stock market. To stay on top of stock patterns you can take advantage of, sign up for the Fibonacci 24-7 newsletter at TFNN.com. When you subscribe, you'll get a weekly report from veteran day trader Larry Pezzavento on stocks you need to pay attention to, and you can trust Larry's analysis. After all, he's got 45 years' experience as a day trader. Larry will also provide daily charts, videos, and data on the key markets that he's tracking. Expect notifications from Larry on market movement you need to act on at any time. First-time subscribers also get a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you're not satisfied, let us know, and you'll get a full refund within 30 days of signing up. Subscribe to the Fibonacci 24-7 newsletter today. TFNN.com, educating investors.  Go to TFNN.com, then hit Watch Tiger TV. That's TFNN.com, then hit Watch Tiger TV. Welcome back, folks. And yeah, if we take a look at the SGOV, one of our targets was saying, you know, this is an ETF that tracks the zero-to-three-month treasury bond. Now, I need this to say that, yes, okay, that's been a good trade, okay? If I'm right on the context of where this is going, the sweet spot right now is actually setting up a longer one and it would be the five-year. The reason being is that you have the two-year right now trading at five, which is good. That's two years.  The five-year is at 4.3, you know? So between the two-year and the five-year, because those will come down very quick. If, in fact, this note-and-bond market does bottom out and has bottomed out, you'll see that five-year come down bang, just like this, you know? And, you know, that's where it comes down to that, yeah, everything's a risk, but the reality is that maybe a year from now, 5%, four, five years on a treasury is going to probably look pretty- I think it's going to look really well, really good, actually. And I'm not saying the context that, you know, it's going to be cut, cut, cut, meaning the rates. It doesn't have to be. But when you make a turn, okay, when you can't bust them up, you're going to try to bust them down. And what will end up happening is that the way the Fed looks at it is that there's been a restrictive policy because what do you do with this? You're going to take the rate of inflation, the real rate of inflation versus what the 10-year treasury is, okay? And the bottom line is that whatever that difference is, is the restrictive rate. Well, if in fact we get down to 2%, well, the bottom line is that that would mean that the 10-year treasury is basically 2.3% over what the normalized rate would be, you know? So that's a double. That's a double. I always remember folks, I can claw your heart out the book and run you over and thank God. There's always another trade. Health, habits, and prosperity. Have a great night, folks. Have a safe night. Come back and visit Tommy tomorrow morning. Kicks us off at 9 a.m. Great show, folks. Oh, yeah! Look at him, folks.


Coming to you from RGIS Studios, I am Anisia Antoine and this is your Midday News Brief. The Department of Gender Relations recently conducted a three-day training for public officers from various departments on drafting national reports. Among the reports is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which is submitted every four years by countries that have signed onto the Convention. The report places emphasis on bringing the female half of humanity into the focus on human rights concerns. St Lucia is preparing to submit its seventh to ninth combined report and has been hosting training exercises in preparation of these reports. The second part of a two-part exercise was recently hosted by the Department of Gender Relations through the technical support from Sisters for Change through its Equality and Justice Alliance initiative. Acting Director of the Department of Gender Relations, Cheney Joseph, says the department is hoping that by November 2019, a final draft can be taken to Cabinet for approval to coincide with the start of the 16 days of activism to end gender-based violence from November 25th. The trade programs known collectively as the Caribbean Basin Initiative, CBI, remain important elements of U.S. economic relations with the Caribbean. The CBI is intended to facilitate the development of stable Caribbean economies by providing beneficiary countries with duty-free access to the U.S. market for most goods. Chairman of CARICOM and Prime Minister, the Honourable Allen Shasne, indicated that he has been dialoguing with U.S. congressmen and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on a number of initiatives, including immigration, free borders and security. All of which he explained can be beneficial to the Caribbean. The CBI was launched in 1983 through the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act and expanded in 2000 by the U.S. Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act, and again by the Trade Act of 2002. The Minister of Education is currently hosting a Miko North Summer School at the Miko Innovation and Career Development Centre. A group of 100 individuals is expected to participate in the program, which will be held over a period of two weeks. The participants will learn new skills in the areas of multimedia design, development of their soft skills and use of programs such as Microsoft Word and Excel. This has been your media news brief. Thank you for watching.