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☆ Confident Kenin continues resurgence by reaching Guadalajara semis
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

"I'm very happy, very proud of myself," said Kenin, who is bidding to make her first WTA 1000 final. In the semi-finals, Kenin will take on American world number 111 Caroline Dolehide who saved four matchpoints to beat Martina Trevisan 3-6 7-6(9) 6-3. "To be honest, I had to find a way today to win," Dolehide said after reaching her first Tour-level semi-final. "I just played with my kick, played with my best shots and I ended up winning that set. The Frenchwoman meets second seed and last year's runner-up Maria Sakkari, who eased past Emiliana Arango 6-3 6-4.

Persons: Sofia Kenin, Canada's Leylah Fernandez, Henry Romero, Leylah Fernandez, Kenin, I've, Caroline Dolehide, Martina Trevisan, Dolehide, Caroline Garcia, Garcia, Maria Sakkari, Emiliana Arango, Shrivathsa Sridhar, Stephen Coates Organizations: Panamerican Tennis Center, Canada's Leylah Fernandez REUTERS, Rights, San Diego Open, Victoria Azarenka, Thomson Locations: Guadalajara, Mexico, Rights GUADALAJARA, Melbourne, Bengaluru

☆ WTA roundup: Russian teen wins opener at Guangzhou
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Shnaider won six straight games in the first set and came back from a 2-0 hole in the second set to win in 75 minutes. Denmark's Clara Tauson eliminated Fruhvirtova 6-2, 7-6 (6). In other second-round matches, Martina Trevisan upset 15th-seeded Jasmine Paolini 7-5, 6-2 in an all-Italian matchup, and seventh-seeded Veronika Kudermetova of Russia downed Canada's Eugenie Bouchard 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-4. Colombia's Emiliana Arango knocked out 11th-seeded Russian Anastasia Potapova 6-4, 6-3, and Italy's Camila Giorgi defeated Egypt's Mayar Sherif, the No. 14 seed, 7-5, 6-3.

Persons: Maria Sakkari, Russia's Diana Shnaider, Carl Recine, Diana Shnaider, Claire Liu, Shnaider, Liu's, Linda Fruhvirtova, Denmark's Clara Tauson, Magda Linette, Jodie Burrage, Minnen, Harriet Dart of, Akron Hailey, Karolina Pliskova, Baptiste, Pliskova, Martina Trevisan, Jasmine Paolini, Veronika Kudermetova, Canada's Eugenie Bouchard, Victoria, Caroline Dolehide, Emma Navarro, Sofia Kenin, Sachia Vickery, Colombia's Emiliana Arango, Anastasia Potapova, Italy's Camila Giorgi, Egypt's Mayar Sherif Organizations: Melbourne, Guangzhou, Harriet Dart of Great Britain, Guadalajara, Akron, D.C, WTA, Victoria Azarenka, Thomson Locations: Melbourne, Australia, China, Czech Republic, Poland, Britain, Spain, Belgium, Harriet Dart of Great, Akron Hailey Baptiste, Washington, Guadalajara, Mexico, Russia, Belarus, United States

☆ Feinstein Battle Over Her Late Husband’s Fortune Heads to Mediation
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-11 | by ( Tim Arango | More About Tim Arango | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A judge in San Francisco on Monday ordered the two factions of Senator Dianne Feinstein’s family fighting over the estate of her late husband, the wealthy financier Richard C. Blum, to try to settle the case through mediation. The order, which both sides agreed to, came as the lawyers in the case appeared in a courtroom for the first time after trading hostile accusations in legal filings over the summer. On one side is Senator Feinstein, who at 90 is in declining health and has faced questions about her ability to carry out the duties of her job, and her daughter, Katherine Feinstein, a former San Francisco judge. On the other side are the three daughters of Mr. Blum from a previous marriage, and his former business partners who are the trustees of his estate. In three separate lawsuits, Senator Feinstein, with her daughter serving as her legal representative, is fighting to sell a multimillion-dollar vacation home in Stinson Beach, north of San Francisco; seeking proceeds from the estate, including from Mr. Blum’s life insurance policy, to pay for her medical expenses; and asking the court to allow her to appoint Katherine Feinstein as a trustee of the estate.

Persons: Dianne Feinstein’s, Richard C, Blum, Feinstein, Katherine Feinstein, Mr Organizations: Monday Locations: San Francisco, Stinson Beach

Five more people have been identified, but their names have not yet been released because the authorities have not been able to notify their families. The last time the death toll changed was on Aug. 21, the day that President Biden visited Lahaina, a span of time that reflects the new phase of the recovery effort, as well as the likelihood that many people’s bodies were reduced to unrecoverable ash. The actual death toll is unlikely to be determined for weeks or months. He said that ANDE’s technicians have left Maui, and that determining the final death toll would now largely rely on slow-paced detective work — for instance, interviewing the family and friends of those missing to determine if they were in Lahaina that day and where. The authorities will have to determine whether their investigative results are sufficient to declare those still missing as dead.

Persons: Biden, Stephen Meer, — Locations: Lahaina, California, Colorado, Maui

Officials have been bracing the public for the likelihood that the number of confirmed dead from the fires — which stands at 115 — will rise substantially. officials, along with Maui Police, the Red Cross and other agencies, examined various lists compiled by shelters, cross referencing and combining them into one tally. Many people died near Front Street in Lahaina, which runs along the sea wall, in their cars or in the ocean. So far, the authorities have released the names of 35 people who are confirmed dead and have been identified through DNA testing. On Thursday, the first child, a 7-year-old, was added to the list of confirmed deaths.

Persons: Mr, Pelletier, F.B.I Organizations: Maui Police Locations: Lahaina

In the aftermath of the Camp fire that destroyed Paradise, Calif., in 2018, the tally of the missing reached almost 1,300. But by releasing the names of the unaccounted for, the authorities were able to slowly whittle down the list. Of the more than 1,000 still missing in the Lahaina fire, officials from the county of Maui said they did not have any estimate of how many were presumed dead. They did say they had not identified any minors in official tallies of the missing. Classes at four schools on West Maui had been canceled the morning of the fires because of high winds and power outages, according to local news reports.

Persons: ” Steven Merrill, whittle Locations: ’, Honolulu, Maui, Calif, Lahaina, West Maui

Jason Musgrove has spent every day for the past two weeks trying to find out whether his mother is alive or dead. He and his stepfather drive to shelters, clinics and aid distribution sites around Maui, lurching between hope and despair, like hundreds of other families still searching for relatives and friends in the wake of the fires that destroyed the coastal town of Lahaina. Mr. Musgrove asks: Has his mother, Linda Vaikeli, 69, ended up as a Jane Doe in a burn unit? The fire’s official death toll of 115 marks the worst wildfire in more than a century, but that figure has overshadowed a potentially more ominous statistic: Roughly 1,000 to 1,100 others are still listed as unaccounted for, according to the F.B.I. They include immigrant hotel workers who spoke little English, multigenerational families who were living in close quarters when the fire swept through their homes, residents of homeless encampments, and grandparents who had trouble walking and did not use cellphones.

Persons: Jason Musgrove, Musgrove, Linda Vaikeli, Jane Doe Locations: Maui, Lahaina, Mr

It was the firestorm that wildfire experts and residents on Maui had warned about for years — a blaze fueled by hurricane winds roaring through untamed grasses and into a 13,000-person coastal town with few ways in or out. Local officials had released plan after plan acknowledging that wildfire was all but certain. Cellphone sites were burned and lost power, leaving people unable to communicate or receive emergency alerts. And while fire departments and wildfire-preparedness groups have long urged people in fire-prone areas like West Maui to be ready and leave early, other advice from the authorities was far less concrete. The state of Hawaii’s own guide for how people should respond to hurricanes, tsunamis and other disasters does not include any direction on what to do in a wildfire.

Locations: Maui, Lahaina, West Maui

☆ First, a Ferocious Fire. Now a Slow, Grim Search for the Dead.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Tim Arango | More About Tim Arango | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

DNA specialists who have been working with Ukrainian investigators to document suspected Russian war crimes. Veterans of the post-Sept. 11 search at ground zero. Anthropologists who were enlisted to examine human remains after the California wildfire that until last week was America’s deadliest in more than a century. They are among the experts who have been arriving in Maui this week to join the painstaking process of recovering and identifying at least 101 people who perished last week in the historic Hawaii town of Lahaina. “Over the course of the next 10 days, this number could double,” Gov.

Persons: Josh Green, “ Organizations: ”, CNN Locations: California, Maui, Hawaii, Lahaina, “, Northern California, Paradise, Sierra Nevada

Many wildfires in the United States occur when poles owned by utilities or other structures carrying power lines are blown down, or when branches or other objects land on power lines and cause them to produce high-energy flashes of electricity that can start fires. Image Nearly a week after the wildfire tore through Lahaina, state and local officials have not determined a cause for the blaze. Like most other utilities, Hawaiian Electric operates under the scrutiny of public commissioners who have to approve its spending plans. Power lines have caused catastrophic wildfires in California in recent years, prompting lawsuits that have led to multibillion-dollar payouts by the state’s utilities. Hawaiian Electric in a regulatory filing last year detailed measures aimed at reducing the risk of its equipment causing fires.

Persons: Hurricane Dora, “, ”, James Frantz, Frantz, There’s, Max Whittaker, Shahriar Pourreza, Shelee Kimura, ” Ms, Kimura, Pourreza, Michael Wara, Philip Cheung, Bob Marshall, Jim Kelly, Ken Pimlott, Anne Lopez, Mr, Wara, Kellen Browning, John Keefe, Susan C, Beachy, Alain Delaquérière Organizations: Wildfire, National Weather Service, Frantz Law, Hawaiian Electric, The New York Times, Guggenheim Securities, Maui Electric, Pacific Gas, Pacific Gas and Electric, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Pacific Disaster Center, Stanford University, The New York Times Lightning, Western, NASA, Whisker Labs, Labs, California Department of Forestry, Stanford, U.S . Energy Information Administration Locations: Lahaina, West Maui, Maui, California, United States, Northern California, Paradise, Hawaii, Western United States, Maui County, Germantown, Md, San Francisco

Raised in affluence, Senator Feinstein has long been among the wealthiest members of Congress. Among the backdrops to the fight over Mr. Blum’s estate, however, are questions about the extent of his fortune, as well as the out-of-pocket cost of home health care that Senator Feinstein has received since her bout with shingles earlier this year. During his lifetime, Mr. Blum, Senator Feinstein’s third husband and a private equity magnate, was often referred to in public accounts as a billionaire. However, people familiar with the family’s finances dispute that characterization and say that Mr. Blum’s wealth was less than some heirs had expected. Mr. Blum’s friends said that the pandemic cut deeply into his investments, particularly his extensive holdings in hotels.

Persons: ”, Jerry Roberts, Dianne Feinstein, Feinstein, Blum, Feinstein’s, Blum’s Organizations: Senate Locations: San Francisco neighborhood, Pacific Heights, Aspen, Colo, Hawaii, Kauai, Washington ,

☆ Survey of 30 U.S. Cities Shows Nearly 10 Percent Drop in Homicides in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Tim Arango | More About Tim Arango | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Even so, violent crime is still considerably higher than just before the pandemic, the benchmark that police chiefs and city leaders are striving to return to, as cities remain awash in guns. In the new report, the nonpartisan Council on Criminal Justice examined crime data from 30 U.S. cities — including Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and Denver — and found that through the first half of the year there were 202 fewer homicides, a drop of more than 9 percent. Still, homicides across those cities are 24 percent higher than in same period of 2019. “I would call the result heartening,” said Richard Rosenfeld, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis who was the lead author of the report. Most cities have not returned to the homicide levels that were prevailing just prior to the height of the pandemic.

Persons: George Floyd, “, ”, Richard Rosenfeld, Louis Organizations: Criminal, Denver, University of Missouri Locations: Minneapolis, United States, U.S, Chicago, Los Angeles , New York, Philadelphia

☆ Top FARC dissident leader Ivan Marquez dead, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Luis Jaime Acosta | Thomson Reuters | Luis Jaime Has Worked At Reuters For More Than Years. While He Chiefly Covers Colombia'S Armed Conflict | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The attack against Marquez, whose real name was Luciano Marín Arango, may have been led by Ivan Mordisco, leader of a rival FARC dissident group, according to security sources. Colombia's Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez told journalists there was still no official information on Marquez's death. Marquez later emerged as the leader of the so-called Segunda Marquetalia, a group of former FARC who took up arms anew. Marquez died in Venezuela the two people familiar with the matter told Reuters, which also included an intelligence source. Petro reopened diplomatic and trade relations with Venezuela and Venezuela is a guarantor at Colombia's peace talks with the National Liberation Army rebels.

Persons: Ivan Marquez, Marquez, Luciano Marín Arango, Ivan Mordisco, Ivan Velasquez, Gustavo Petro, Miguel Botache Santillana, Gentil Duarte, Seuxis Hernandez, Hernan Dario Velasquez, Jesus Santrich, El Paisa, Nicolas Maduro, Petro, Luis Jaime Acosta, Vivian Sequera, Oliver Griffin, Julia Symmes Cobb, Michael Perry Organizations: Reuters, Revolutionary Armed Forces, Segunda, Colombia's, Venezuela's Ministry, Information, National Liberation Army, Thomson Locations: BOGOTA, Venezuela, Colombia, Caracas, Venezuela's, United States, Colombian

☆ Top FARC dissident leader Ivan Marquez dead - sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Luis Jaime Acosta | Thomson Reuters | Luis Jaime Has Worked At Reuters For More Than Years. While He Chiefly Covers Colombia'S Armed Conflict | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BOGOTA, July 6 (Reuters) - Ivan Marquez, the well-known leader of a faction of former FARC rebels who returned to arms after a peace deal with Colombia's government, has died in Venezuela, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday. The attack against Marquez, whose real name was Luciano Marín Arango, may have been led by Ivan Mordisco, leader of a rival FARC dissident group, according to security sources. Colombia's Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez told journalists there was still no official information on Marquez's death. Marquez later emerged as the leader of the so-called Segunda Marquetalia, a group of former FARC who took up arms anew. Petro reopened diplomatic and trade relations with Venezuela and Venezuela is a guarantor at Colombia's peace talks with the National Liberation Army rebels.

☆ Check out the pitch deck Maza used to get Andreessen Horowitz to lead its $8 million seed round to help immigrants access financial services in the US
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Now, Maza has just raised $8 million in seed funding from investors like Andreessen Horowitz. A year and a half later, and Maza has raised $8 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz. Customers will have access to Maza's banking services, which include card services, check deposit, and tax services. Down the road, however, the cofounders envision Maza as an "identity" company rather than a banking company, akin to CLEAR in airports, said Arango. Check out the 14-slide pitch deck that Maza used to raise $8 million in seed funding: (Note: certain proprietary information has been redacted.)

Persons: Maza, Andreessen Horowitz, Maza cofounders Luciano Arango, Robbie Figueroa, Siggy, Arango, Anré Williams, Figueroa, Wells Fargo, Seema Amble Organizations: Maza's, LinkedIn, SV Angel, Restive Ventures, Global Founders Capital, American Express National Bank, William Hockey, Plaid Locations: United States, Bilstein, Maza, Wells, Colombia

☆ Schools Bring Police Back to Campuses, Reversing Racial Justice Decisions
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( Tim Arango | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The trial — thought to be the first in the nation against a member of law enforcement for inaction in a school shooting — has raised questions about the duty of campus officers during school violence. A CBS News poll conducted after the Uvalde shooting showed that 75 percent of parents of school-age children wanted armed security on their campuses. The role of school resource officers is as complicated as ever. And the Parkland and Uvalde shootings highlighted failures by the police to stop mass killings, bringing into question how effective they may actually be. Less than six weeks later, a 17-year-old student at the same school shot and wounded two school administrators; he was later found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot.

Persons: Scot Peterson, —, Peterson, Luis Garcia Organizations: CBS, East High School Locations: Florida, Parkland, Uvalde , Texas, Denver

☆ Liberal Prosecutors Are Revisiting Police Killings but Charging Few Officers So Far
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( Eliza Fawcett | Tim Arango | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The special prosecutor, Lawrence Middleton, had secured convictions in a 1993 federal trial against Los Angeles Police Department officers for beating Rodney King. (“Both officers’ use of deadly force was reasonable under the circumstances,” Ms. Lacey wrote in a 2019 memo.) The re-examinations themselves take time, and liberal prosecutors may yet file criminal charges against more officers in past cases. The police had responded to a call that Mr. Gonzalez, 26, was acting strangely in a park and talking to himself. The officer, Hector Jimenez, was cleared in each case and remains with the Oakland Police Department.

Persons: Lawrence Middleton, Rodney King, Christopher Deandre Mitchell, ” Ms, Lacey, Irving, “, Ed Obayashi, Mario Gonzalez, Gonzalez, Obayashi, Price, Mr, Ms, Price’s, Moppin, Hector Jimenez Organizations: Los Angeles Police Department, Attorney’s Office, Oakland Police Department Locations: Maine, California, Alameda, Alameda County

☆ San Francisco’s Ousted District Attorney Has a New Job
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Tim Arango | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It was almost a year ago that San Francisco voters ousted their liberal district attorney, Chesa Boudin, in a recall election, as public frustration was growing over property crime and the visible despair and squalor on city streets. There was no compelling evidence that Boudin’s policies had made crime worse; overall, crime in San Francisco changed little in the time he was in office. The job is wide-ranging and will involve teaching, researching the effects of changes in criminal justice laws in California and advocating new laws, in the State Capitol and in court. “It’s a job that’s going to allow me to draw on the lived experience I had visiting my parents in prison for a combined 63 years, and the practical professional experience I had both as a public defender and elected district attorney in San Francisco,” Boudin said. When he was a toddler, his parents, members of a radical left-wing group, went to prison for their roles in a botched robbery that left three men dead.

Persons: Chesa Boudin, Boudin, “, ” Boudin Organizations: San Francisco, Law, Justice Center, Berkeley School of Law, State Capitol Locations: San Francisco, California

☆ Can Reparations Bring Black Residents Back to San Francisco?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Tim Arango | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

SAN FRANCISCO — Standing at the stoop of her childhood home — a slim but stately Victorian shaded by an evergreen pear tree — Lynette Mackey pulled up a photo of a family gathering from nearly 50 years ago. The men were all in suits, the women in skirts. Ms. Mackey, a teenager in red bell bottoms, stretched her arms wide and had a beaming smile. Soon after that time, in the 1960s and 1970s, Ms. Mackey watched the slow erasure of Black culture from the Fillmore District, once celebrated as “the Harlem of the West.” The jazz clubs that drew the likes of Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington disappeared, and so, too, did the soul food restaurants. In many cases, the old Victorian homes were torn down and replaced with housing projects, but the city kept Ms. Mackey’s home standing, and it has since been renovated into government-subsidized apartments.

☆ Foods and drinks packaged for kids are higher in sugar and lower in nutrition, study shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Madeline Holcombe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Products with marketing that appealed to children were higher in sugars and lower in all other nutrients, according to the study, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One. The study looked at nearly 6,000 packaged foods to analyze their number of marketing strategies aimed at children and their nutritional information. “We are likely underestimating just how much marketing children are exposed to on food packages in real time — and packaging is just one of the ways that food companies target children with food marketing,” she said. And governments will need to step in to regulate companies’ ability to target children directly when marketing products that can harm their health, she added. Mulligan recommends talking to kids about how companies use marketing and how it might influence their choices.

☆ In Berkeley, a Library Protest Is a Fight for Anthropology in an A.I. Age
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Tim Arango | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Charles Hirschkind, the chair of the anthropology department, said that the university had reduced the number of graduate students it accepts into the anthropology since 2004 by a little more than half, reflecting, he said, the department’s “weaker financial situation” and the rise in costs to support graduate students. “When we’re talking about budgetary restraints, we are also talking about priorities and where one decides to invest,” he said. And the occupation of the library, to some, is reminiscent of an earlier activist era at Berkeley. Worried that the university is trying to run out the clock until summer break and then dismantle the library, the students say they will stay as long as it takes. “They can give us the library tomorrow,” Mr. Molloy said, “and we’ll all be happy to go home.”

☆ Emotional trauma from your past jobs is real. Here's what can help.
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-10 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Research suggests the weight of work-induced emotional trauma can damage people's self-esteem and hurt their careers. Today, amid a seemingly never-ending global pandemic and increased rates of anxiety and depression worldwide, learning how to navigate and recover from emotional trauma is a critical skill. What emotional trauma at work feels likeWhen Margo Lovett closes her eyes, she can almost hear her colleague's raspy voice spewing vitriol over the phone. How to navigate and recover from emotional traumaThere are productive, science-backed ways to help you sift through the emotional wreckage of past jobs. Getty ImagesResearch suggests that resilience training is also beneficial for managing the effects of emotional trauma and handling stress.

Oh my God.” “While watching the George Floyd trial, I noticed the differences and the importance of footage.” “This corner —” “When Stephon was murdered, we only had the officers’ footage. They handcuffed him after he was dead.” “Excessive force.” “Excessive force and lethal force after the fact of death. Anything that does not deal directly with the murder of George Floyd is irrelevant in my opinion.” “He’s 6 to 6 and a half feet tall. George Floyd is already dead.” “That’s right. I feel like it’s a bittersweet thing that’s happening watching the George Floyd trial.

Persons: ”, George Floyd, Stephon, ” “ Bro, ” “, “, Tiffany, Lora, Lora Dene King, Rodney Glen King, King, they’re, ” “ It’s, George Holliday, George Floyd’s, she’s, Wanda Johnson, I’m, Oscar Grant, ” “ Grant, Oscar, bro, Y’all, — ” “ —, let’s, God, Jesus Christ, Sequette Clark, Stephon Clark, ” “ Clark, Floyd, Chauvin wouldn’t, didn’t, “ Poppa’s, They’re, he’s, Rodney Kings, George Floyd — ”, We’re, don’t Organizations: “ Police Locations: Lora Dene, ”, Los Angeles, America

Derek Chauvin was found guilty of two counts of murder on Tuesday in the death of George Floyd, whose final breaths last May under the knee of Mr. Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, were captured on video, setting off months of protests against the police abuse of Black people. After deliberating for about 10 hours over two days following an emotional trial that lasted three weeks, the jury found Mr. Chauvin, who is white, guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for the killing of Mr. Floyd, a Black man, on a street corner last year on Memorial Day. Mr. Chauvin faces up to 40 years in prison when he is sentenced in the coming weeks but is likely to receive far less time. The presumptive sentence for second-degree murder is 12.5 years, according to Minnesota’s sentencing guidelines, although the state has asked for a higher sentence. The verdict was read in court and broadcast live to the nation on television, as the streets around the heavily fortified courthouse in downtown Minneapolis, ringed by razor wire and guarded by National Guard soldiers, filled with people awaiting the verdict.

Persons: Derek Chauvin, George Floyd, Chauvin, Floyd Organizations: National Guard Locations: Minneapolis

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