Saturday, December 31, 2022
Brazil: President leaves country avoiding inauguration of Prez-elect, flies to Florida | WION - WION
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December 31, 2022 at 07:14PM
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Friday, December 30, 2022
North Korea fires at least three short-range ballistic missiles, South Korea says - CNN
Seoul, South Korea CNN —
North Korea fired at least three short-range ballistic missiles from a site south of Pyongyang on Saturday, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the latest in an unprecedented year of weapons testing.
In a text to reporters, the Joint Chiefs said the projectiles were fired from the Chunghwa area of North Hwanghae province at around 8 a.m. local time Saturday.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said three ballistic missiles – each with a maximum altitude of approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles) and a flight distance of roughly 350 kilometers (217 miles) – had fallen into waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula, outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
This is the 37th day this year that North Korea has conducted a missile launch, according to CNN’s count.
Last week, it fired two short-range ballistic missiles, according to South Korean officials.
In 2020, North Korea conducted four missile tests. In 2021, it doubled that number. In 2022, the isolated nation has fired more missiles than any other year on record, at one point launching 23 missiles in a single day.
North Korea has fired more than 90 cruise and ballistic missiles so far this year, showing off a range of weapons as experts warn of a potential nuclear test on the horizon.
Though the tests themselves aren’t new, their sheer frequency marks a significant escalation that has put the Pacific region on edge.
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December 31, 2022 at 08:11AM
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North Korea fires at least three short-range ballistic missiles, South Korea says - CNN
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Thursday, December 29, 2022
U.K. medical practice mistakenly texts patients they have "aggressive lung cancer" instead of wishing them a merry Christmas - CBS News
A medical practice in England intended to text its patients wishes for a "very merry Christmas." Instead, the mass text told patients they had "aggressive lung cancer" that had spread and asked them to fill out a form for terminal patients.
The mass text from Askern Medical Practice in Doncaster was sent out on December 23, according to the BBC. In it, the practice says that the doctor has asked the recipient to fill out a form DS1500 – which according another U.K. hospital system is meant for people who have a terminal illness to apply for benefits. The text also tells recipients they have been diagnosed with "aggressive lung cancer with metastases."
In a second text, patients were asked to accept the center's "sincere apologies."
"This has been sent in error," it states. "Our message to you should have read We wish you a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year."
The center, which has roughly 8,000 patients according to the BBC, has not publicly commented on the mishap. The practice's last news release, issued in September, recognized the "excellent feedback from patients regarding telephone consultations."
Carl Chegwin told the BBC that his mother was one of the patients who received the text.
"The first thing I thought was, 'is this some kind of sick joke?" Chegwin said. "It completely took me by surprise. ... They've just told people a few days before Christmas they've got terminal lung cancer. They can't do that."
Another woman who asked not to be named told the outlet that the text made her "very worried," as some of her family members had recently undergone tests for chest issues. She also saw several other people panicking about the message.
"I rang the doctors but on hold as usual. So I walked round as I live around the corner and there were, I'd say, six people all there panicking as they had got the same text," she said.
The National Health Service of the U.K., which oversees publicly funded health care, has also not commented on the situation. The same day the texts went out, the service unrelatedly tweeted, "Be kind to yourself if you are grieving," alongside information about how to cope with grief during the holiday season.
"What if the message was meant for someone, and then they are told it's a Christmas message, then again told, 'oh no, that was actually meant for you,'" Chegwin said. "If it's one of their admins that's sent out a mass text, I wouldn't be trusting them to empty the bins."
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December 29, 2022 at 10:59PM
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U.K. medical practice mistakenly texts patients they have "aggressive lung cancer" instead of wishing them a merry Christmas - CBS News
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Tuesday, December 27, 2022
Monday, December 26, 2022
Moscow's ultimatum: Ukraine fulfils its proposals or Russian army will decide - Reuters.com
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KYIV, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gave Ukraine an ultimatum on Monday to fulfil Moscow's proposals, including surrendering territory Russia controls, or its army would decide the issue, a day after President Vladimir Putin said he was open to talks.
Kyiv and its Western allies have dismissed Putin's offer to talk, with his forces battering Ukrainian towns with missiles and rockets and Moscow continuing to demand that Kyiv recognise its conquest of a fifth of the country.
Kyiv says it will fight until Russia withdraws.
"Our proposals for the demilitarization and denazification of the territories controlled by the regime, the elimination of threats to Russia's security emanating from there, including our new lands, are well known to the enemy," state news agency TASS quoted Lavrov as saying late on Monday.
"The point is simple: Fulfil them for your own good. Otherwise, the issue will be decided by the Russian army."
Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, calling it a "special operation" to "denazify" and demilitarise Ukraine, which he said was a threat to Russia. Kyiv and the West say Putin's invasion was merely an imperialist land grab.
While Moscow had planned a swift operation to take over its neighbour, the war is now in its 11th month, marked by many embarrassing Russian battlefield setbacks and Ukraine’s successful defence of most of its land.
In the latest attack to expose gaps in Russia's air defences, a drone believed to be Ukrainian penetrated hundreds of kilometres through Russian airspace on Monday, causing a deadly explosion at the main base for its strategic bombers.
FIERCE FIGHTING
Russian forces have been engaged for months in fierce fighting in the east and south of Ukraine, to defend the lands Moscow proclaimed it annexed in September and which make up the broader Ukrainian industrial Donbas region.
The Ukrainian top military command said on Monday that Russian forces carried out 19 attacks over the past day in the area. Russia's defence ministry said it had advanced its positions in the region and its missile troops and artillery had hit 63 Ukrainian units in the previous day.
In his nightly video message on Monday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the situation along the frontline in Donbas "difficult and painful".
"Bakhmut, Kreminna and other areas in Donbas ... require a maximum of strength and concentration," Zelenskiy said.
"The occupiers are deploying all resources available to them - and these are considerable resources - to make some sort of advance."
Oleh Zhdanov, a military analyst based in Kyiv, said heavy fighting was going on around elevated areas near Kreminna in the Luhansk region.
He also said that fighting has picked up along the Bakhmut and Avdiivka, a line of contact further south in the Donetsk region, after a brief easing in previous days, with Russian forces launching a series of attacks in the area.
"The arc of fire in Donetsk region continues to burn. There has been very little change on either side of the front line in Donetsk region," Zhdanov said in a social media video post.
Zelenskiy said as a result of Russia's targeting of energy infrastructure nearly nine million people were without power. That figure amounts to about a quarter of Ukraine's population.
Sergey Kovalenko, head of YASNO, which supplies electricity to Kyiv, said late on Monday that while the power situation has been improving in the city, blackouts will continue.
"While repairs are underway, emergency shutdowns will continue," Kovalenko said on his Facebook page.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians have died in cities Russia razed to the ground, and thousands of troops on both sides have been killed, forcing Putin to call up hundreds of thousands of reservists for the first time since World War Two.
RUSIAN AIRSPACE
Moscow on Monday said it had shot down a drone believed to be Ukrainian, causing it to crash at the Engels air base, where three service members were killed. Ukraine did not comment, under its usual policy on incidents inside Russia.
A suspected drone struck the same base on Dec. 5.
The base, the main airfield for the bombers that Kyiv says Moscow has used to attack Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, is hundreds of miles from the Ukrainian frontier. The same planes are also designed to launch nuclear-capable missiles as part of Russia's long-term strategic deterrent.
The Russian defence ministry said in a statement no planes were damaged, but Russian and Ukrainian social media accounts said several had been destroyed. Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.
Putin hosted leaders of other former Soviet states in St Petersburg on Monday for a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States group, which Ukraine has long since quit.
The invasion of Ukraine has been a test of Russia's longstanding authority among other ex-Soviet states.
In televised remarks, Putin made no direct reference to the war, while saying threats to the security and stability of the Eurasian region were increasing.
"Unfortunately challenges and threats in this area, especially from the outside, are only growing each year," he said.
"We also have to acknowledge unfortunately that disagreements also arise between member states of the commonwealth."
Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Michael Perry and Lidia Kelly; Editing by Himani Sarkar
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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December 27, 2022 at 09:59AM
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Moscow's ultimatum: Ukraine fulfils its proposals or Russian army will decide - Reuters.com
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Russia claims it shot down Ukrainian drone nearing airbase deep inside Russia - CBS News
Kyiv, Ukraine — The Russian military reported on Monday that it shot down a Ukrainian drone approaching an airbase deep inside Russia, the second time the airbase has been targeted this month, raising questions about the effectiveness of Russia's air defenses if drones can fly that far into the country.
Russia's Defense Ministry said the incident took place in the early hours of Monday and that three servicemen were killed by debris at the Engels airbase that houses the Tu-95 and Tu-160 nuclear-capable strategic bombers that have been involved in launching strikes on Ukraine.
Engels is located in Russia's Saratov region on the Volga river, more than more than 370 miles east of the border with Ukraine.
No damage was inflicted on Russian aircraft, the ministry said.
Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat, speaking to Ukrainian television on Monday, didn't directly acknowledge his country's involvement in Monday's incident, but said: "These are the consequences of Russian aggression."
He added: "If the Russians thought that the war would not affect them in the deep rear, they were deeply mistaken."
Separately, Russia's FSB domestic security service said Monday it had killed four "saboteurs" from Ukraine who tried to cross into the Russian border region of Bryansk, Agence France-Presse reported. The FSB claim was carried by Russian news agencies.
The four hadGerman submachine guns, navigation equipment and "four improvised explosive devices" on them, the FSB added.
Russia has accused Kyiv of staging several sabotage attacks, including a blast that damaged a bridge linking annexed Crimea to Russia.
Ukrainian officials have never confirmed sending drones into Russia. They have maintained ambiguity over previous high-profile attacks, including drone strikes on Russian military bases earlier this month.
On Dec. 5, unprecedented drone strikes on Engels and the Dyagilevo base in the Ryazan region in western Russia killed a total of three servicemen and wounded four more. The strikes on the airbases were followed by a massive retaliatory missile barrage in Ukraine that struck homes and buildings and killed civilians.
In Ukraine, at least four civilians have been wounded in Russian shelling of five regions in the country's southeast over the past 24 hours, according to the deputy head of Ukraine's presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko. Overall though, the intensity of the shelling the night from Sunday into Monday has been significantly lower.
For the first time in weeks, Russian forces didn't shell the Dnipropetrovsk region, which borders the partially occupied southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, its governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, reported on Telegram.
"This is the third quiet night in 5.5 months since the Russians started shelling" the areas around the city of Nikopol, Reznichenko wrote. Nikopol is located across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under control of the Russian forces.
Ukrainian-controlled areas of the neighboring Kherson region were shelled 33 times over the past 24 hours, according to Kherson's Ukrainian Gov. Yaroslav Yanushevich. There were no casualties.
On Sunday, Russian forces attacked the city of Kramatorsk, where Ukrainian forces are headquartered. Three missiles hit an industrial facility and damaged residential buildings, but no casualties were reported, according to the battlefield report from the Ukrainian presidency.
In the partially occupied eastern Donetsk region, fierce battles continue around the city of Bakhmut, which Russian forces have been trying to seize for weeks to consolidate their grip on Ukraine's east.
In the neighboring Luhansk region that's almost entirely under Moscow's control, the Russian forces are "suffering huge losses and medical facilities are overwhelmed with wounded soldiers," Luhansk's Ukrainian governor, Serhiy Haidai, told Ukrainian television Monday. The Russian army is redeploying paratroopers from the Kherson region to the area, Haidai said.
On Saturday, a deadly attack on the city of Kherson, which was retaken by Kyiv's forces last month, killed and wounded scores. Local residents are lining up to donate blood for those wounded in the deadly attack, Gov. Yaroslav Yanushevich said Monday.
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December 27, 2022 at 07:22AM
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The AP Interview: Ukraine FM aims for February peace summit - The Associated Press - en Español
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s foreign minister said Monday that his nation wants a summit to end the war but he doesn’t anticipate Russia taking part, a statement making it hard to foresee the devastating invasion ending soon.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told The Associated Press that his government wants a “peace” summit within two months at the United Nations with Secretary-General António Guterres as mediator.
The U.N. gave a very cautious response.
“As the secretary-general has said many times in the past, he can only mediate if all parties want him to mediate,” U.N. associate spokesperson Florencia Soto Nino-Martinez said Monday.
Kuleba said Russia must face a war-crimes tribunal before his country directly talks with Moscow. He said, however, that other nations should feel free to engage with Russians, as happened before a grain agreement between Turkey and Russia.
The AP interview offered a glimpse at Ukraine’s vision of how the war with Russia could one day end, although any peace talks would be months away and highly contingent on complex international negotiations.
Kuleba also said he was “absolutely satisfied” with the results of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the U.S. last week, and he revealed that the U.S. government had made a special plan to get the Patriot missile battery ready to be operational in the country in less than six months. Usually, the training takes up to a year.
Kuleba said during the interview at the Foreign Ministry that Ukraine will do whatever it can to win the war in 2023.
“Every war ends in a diplomatic way,” he said. “Every war ends as a result of the actions taken on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.”
Commenting on Kuleba’s proposal, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the state RIA Novosti news agency that Russia “never followed conditions set by others. Only our own and common sense.”
A Kremlin spokesman said last week that no Ukrainian peace plan can succeed without taking into account “the realities of today that can’t be ignored” — a reference to Moscow’s demand that Ukraine recognize Russia’s sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed in 2014, as well as other territorial gains.
Kuleba said the Ukrainian government would like to have the “peace” summit by the end of February.
“The United Nations could be the best venue for holding this summit, because this is not about making a favor to a certain country,” he said. “This is really about bringing everyone on board.”
At the Group of 20 summit in Bali in November, Zelenskyy made a long-distance presentation of a 10-point peace formula that includes the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the withdrawal of Russian troops, the release of all prisoners, a tribunal for those responsible for the aggression and security guarantees for Ukraine.
Asked about whether Ukraine would invite Russia to the summit, he said that Moscow would first need to face prosecution for war crimes at an international court.
“They can only be invited to this step in this way,” Kuleba said.
About the U.N. Secretary-General’s role, Kuleba said: “He has proven himself to be an efficient mediator and an efficient negotiator, and most importantly, as a man of principle and integrity. So we would welcome his active participation.”
The U.N. spokesman’s office had no immediate comment.
Other world leaders have also offered to mediate, such as those in Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
The foreign minister again downplayed comments by Russian authorities that they are ready for talks.
“They (Russians) regularly say that they are ready for negotiations, which is not true, because everything they do on the battlefield proves the opposite,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed few days ago that his country is ready for talks to end the war in Ukraine, but suggested that the Ukrainians are the ones refusing to take that step. Despite Putin’s comments, Moscow’s forces have kept attacking Ukraine — a sign that peace isn’t imminent.
Zelenskyy’s visit to the U.S. was his first foreign trip since the war started on Feb. 24. Kuleba praised Washington’s efforts and underlined the significance of the visit.
Ukraine secured a new $1.8 billion military aid package, including a Patriot missile battery, during the trip.
Kuleba said that the move “opens the door for other countries to do the same.”
He said that the U.S. government developed a program for Ukrainian troops to complete training faster than usual “without any damage to the quality of the use of this weapon on the battlefield.”
While Kuleba didn’t mention a specific time frame, he said only that it will be “very much less than six months.” And he added that the training will be done “outside” Ukraine.
During Russia’s ground and air war in Ukraine, Kuleba has been second only to Zelenskyy in carrying Ukraine’s message and needs to an international audience, whether through Twitter posts or meetings with friendly foreign officials.
On Monday, Ukraine called on U.N. member states to deprive Russia of its status as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and to exclude it from the world body. Kuleba said they have long “prepared for this step to uncover the fraud and deprive Russia of its status.”
The Foreign Ministry says that Russia never went through the legal procedure for acquiring membership and taking the place of the USSR at the U.N. Security Council after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“This is the beginning of an uphill battle, but we will fight, because nothing is impossible,” he told the AP.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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December 27, 2022 at 05:07AM
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Sunday, December 25, 2022
King Charles' first Christmas speech reflects cost-of-living crisis - BBC News - BBC News
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December 25, 2022 at 11:49PM
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King Charles' first Christmas speech reflects cost-of-living crisis - BBC News - BBC News
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Putin says Russia ready to negotiate over Ukraine, Kyiv says Moscow doesn't want talks - Reuters
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MOSCOW, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Russia is ready to negotiate with all parties involved in the war in Ukraine but Kyiv and its Western backers have refused to engage in talks, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview aired on Sunday.
Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has triggered the most deadly European conflict since World War Two and the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
There is, thus far, little end in sight to the war.
The Kremlin says it will fight until all its aims are achieved while Kyiv says it will not rest until every Russian soldier is ejected from all of its territory.
"We are ready to negotiate with everyone involved about acceptable solutions, but that is up to them - we are not the ones refusing to negotiate, they are," Putin told Rossiya 1 state television.
An adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Putin needed to return to reality and acknowledge it was Russia which did not want talks.
"Russia single-handedly attacked Ukraine and is killing citizens," the adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, tweeted. "Russia doesn't want negotiations, but tries to avoid responsibility."
'NO OTHER CHOICE'
Russian attacks on power stations have left millions without electricity, and Zelenskiy said Moscow would aim to make the last few days of 2022 dark and difficult.
"Russia has lost everything it could this year. ... I know darkness will not prevent us from leading the occupiers to new defeats. But we have to be ready for any scenario," he said in an evening video address.
The Ukrainian armed forces' general staff said there was still a threat of air and missile strikes on critical infrastructure across the country.
Russian troops had shelled dozens of towns and positions along the front line, it said in a Facebook post.
Zelenskiy, referring to a strike on the southern city of Kherson on Saturday that officials say killed at least 10 people, vowed, "We will find every Russian murderer".
Putin accused the West of trying to cleave Russia apart.
"I believe that we are acting in the right direction, we are defending our national interests, the interests of our citizens, our people. And we have no other choice but to protect our citizens," Putin said.
Asked if the geopolitical conflict with the West was approaching a dangerous level, Putin said: "I don't think it's so dangerous."
Putin said the West had begun the conflict in 2014 by toppling a pro-Russian Ukrainian president in the Maidan Revolution protests.
Soon after, Russia annexed Crimea and Russian-backed separatist forces began fighting in eastern Ukraine.
"Actually, the fundamental thing here is the policy of our geopolitical opponents which is aimed at pulling apart Russia, historical Russia," Putin said.
Putin casts the conflict in Ukraine, which he calls a "special military operation," as a watershed moment when Moscow finally stood up to a Western bloc that he says has been seeking to destroy Russia since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Ukraine and the West say Putin has no justification for what they cast as an imperial-style war of occupation.
Putin described Russia as a "unique country" and said the vast majority of its people were united in wanting to defend it.
"As for the main part - the 99.9% of our citizens, our people who are ready to give everything for the interests of the Motherland – there is nothing unusual for me here," Putin said.
"This just once again convinces me that Russia is a unique country and that we have an exceptional people. This has been confirmed throughout the history of Russia's existence."
Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Gareth Jones, Diane Craft and Leslie Adler
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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December 26, 2022 at 12:01AM
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Putin says Russia ready to negotiate over Ukraine, Kyiv says Moscow doesn't want talks - Reuters
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Pope Francis says world suffering a 'famine of peace' - BBC
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Pope Francis has said the world is suffering from a "famine of peace", in his annual Christmas Day message from the Vatican.
He called for a end to the "senseless war" in Ukraine, condemning what he said was the use of "food as a weapon" of war.
Ukraine shipped about 30% of the world's wheat and prices have jumped since the Russian invasion in February.
It was Pope Francis' 10th Christmas Day address since he assumed the papacy.
While the war in Ukraine occupied much of his 10-minute speech, he spoke of "a grave famine of peace also in other regions and other theatres of this Third World War".
He singled out conflicts and humanitarian crises in the Middle East, Myanmar, Haiti, and the Sahel region of Africa.
The pontiff also prayed for "reconciliation" in Iran, where mass anti-government protests have swept the country for more than three months. The protests there have been met by a crackdown, with more than 500 people, including 69 children, killed, human rights groups say.
Speaking from a balcony at the basilica overlooking St Peter's Square, the 86-year-old Pope lamented the human cost of war. He urged not to forget those "who go hungry while huge amounts of food daily go to waste and resources are being spent on weapons".
"The war in Ukraine has further aggravated this situation, putting entire peoples at risk of famine, especially in Afghanistan and in the countries of the Horn of Africa," he said.
"We know that every war causes hunger and exploits food as a weapon, hindering its distribution to people already suffering."
The Pope said "those who hold political responsibilities" should lead the way to make food "solely an instrument of peace".
His message was followed by the customary Urbi et Orbi (To the City and to the World) blessing, recited in Latin and traditionally in many other languages as well.
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December 25, 2022 at 07:27PM
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