My friend Ivan Ronaldson, who has died of a heart attack aged 51, was an inspirational real tennis professional. He mentored dozens of future stars at clubs including Hampton Court, Fontainebleau, France, and Prested Hall in Essex. Prior to his coaching career, Ivan was a brilliant junior player winning a string of national age group titles.Real tennis is the forerunner of lawn tennis; it was played from medieval times and enjoyed by Henry VIII. The game is little changed today, with players hitting solid, hand-stitched balls with asymmetric wooden rackets over a drooping net and off the walls of the court. Continue reading...
Singer jokes on SNL that everyone was happy about his planned half-time show, even Fox News'Bad Bunny responded to homeland security secretary Kristi Noem's threats to send federal immigration enforcement agents to the Super Bowl next year, joking during Saturday Night Live that everyone was happy about his planned half-time performance, even Fox News".The 31-year-old Puerto Rican singer who has criticized the Trump administration's aggressive immigration policies hosted the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, using his opening monologue to address controversy around his 2026 Super Bowl performance. Continue reading...
In holding the line on healthcare' Democrats answered the call to do something in a rare display of unityFor months, as Donald Trump has used the levers of the US federal government to consolidate power, silence dissent and punish his political enemies, Democrats have been bombarded with a single demand: do something. Last week, they did.In a rare display of unity, out-of-power Democrats embraced the risky politics of a government shutdown - their boldest effort yet to rein in a president whom many Americans and constitutional scholars now view as a threat to US democracy. Continue reading...
Homeland security secretary takes aim at city's mayor who has called deployment of national guard unhinged'Kristi Noem, Donald Trump's homeland security secretary, called Chicago a war zone" on Sunday after federal agents shot a woman and the governor of Illinois accused the administration of fueling the crisis rather than resolving it.Speaking on Fox News Sunday morning, Noem took aim at the city's mayor, Brandon Johnson, who has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration's Ice raids and deployment of the national guard in Illinois, a measure he called unhinged and unhealthy". Continue reading...
Secretary of state says we'll know very quickly whether Hamas is serious or not' about release of hostages from GazaThe US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said on Sunday that the war in Gaza has not ended, despite Israel and Hamas both agreeing to aspects of Donald Trump's plan for an end to the almost two-year conflict in Gaza.We will know very quickly whether Hamas is serious or not by how these technical talks go in terms of the logistics," Rubio told NBC News' Meet the Press about the release of hostages from Gaza. Continue reading...
Billionaire ticks all the boxes on the antisemitic score card as Trump attacks Democratic contributors before midtermsPam Bondi, the US attorney general, said everything is on the table" and left it there. But Donald Trump threw discretion to the wind and was far more specific about his choice of enemy to go after.If you look at Soros, he's at the top of everything," the US president said. Continue reading...
States opposed to Trump can create a compact - a new prototype for American government - even if it's perceived as political theaterTrump is all about political theatre, or circus, and it often seems that even in resisting him, as decent citizens must do, we become part of the circus too. We are like the extras who splutter while he thrills the base by violating some heretofore inviolate human norm. So the show goes on. But why not put on our own show, our own form of political theatre, that leaves Trump out - or at least has a different focus?We could consider the kind of political theatre that Americans created from 1768 to 1776 to resist Britain's growing crackdown. Instead of employing their creaky legislative bodies, they opted for new forms of resistance, non-importation committees, even a first continental congress with no apparent legitimacy or precedent.Thomas Geoghegan is a lawyer and author of Which Side Are You On? (1991) and The History of Democracy Has Yet to be Written (2022) Continue reading...
Jennifer Welch and Angie Sullivan's podcast I've Had It has risen up the charts and created a community with a brand of fuck-you politics'When Donald Trump scheduled a press conference after a weekend in which rumors about his health swirled, two women in red-state Oklahoma launched a livestream for their more than 1 million followers on YouTube to speculate about the condition of Cankles McTacoTits", shortened to Canks for expediency and spite".It was fitting for the profanity-laced, straight talking liberal podcast I've Had It that quipped, after interviewing Barack Obama, that the former president has big dick energy". Continue reading...
The president of the United States seemingly does not understand what the military is forNo dictator or would-be dictator on day one has ever assembled before him in one room the entire senior officer corps of his armed forces in order to have them belittled as failures and humiliated for their slovenly personal appearance, while degrading whole classes serving in the army, navy and air force degraded as inferior and unworthy. No dictator has ever pleaded for generals and admirals to applaud his remarks, followed by deafening silence.Donald Trump is used to entering to the din of a mob jazzed up with YMCA. I've never walked into a room so silent before," Trump said when he addressed the country's highest-ranking military leaders at the Marine Corps Base Quantico on Tuesday. Don't laugh. Don't know if you're allowed to do that." He was trying to force some tittering, an old lounge act gag to rouse a dead audience. You know what? Just have a good time." The comedian who felt his routine was bombing before he even began sought to relax the room. Then Trump instinctively replaced the ingratiating gestures with threats. If you don't like what I'm saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future." Continue reading...
I've never been accused of any crimes, let alone prosecuted. My experience sums-up the draconian plight of non-citizens in the USWhen I arrived in the US four years ago to start my doctorate at Cornell University, I thought I'd be the last person to be hunted down by the immigration authorities. As far as I could tell, the special relationship" meant that a British passport carried a sort of immunity akin to that enjoyed by diplomats; it was a mobility that allowed me to work, after all, as a journalist unscathed across west Africa's restive Sahel belt for years.Things began to fall apart after I attended a pro-Palestine protest on campus in September last year. We had brought a job fair to a standstill - because it featured booths from Boeing and L3Harris, companies that supplied Israel with the armaments it needed to carry out its genocidal campaign in Gaza. Although I was there for just five minutes, I was subsequently banned from campus, a punishment that felt like a kind of house arrest because my home was on the university's Ithaca campus in upstate New York. While I could continue living there, I was barred from entering the university premises.Amandla Thomas-Johnson is a journalist and writer covering global Blackness and contemporary IslamDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...
The president's threats to attack Venezuela are regressive, dangerous and almost certain to backfireRunning for president in 2024, Donald Trump vowed to avoid costly, often disastrous overseas US military interventions like Iraq and Afghanistan. This was a key plank in his isolationist America first" platform. Yet within months of his inauguration, US forces were bombing Yemen and Iran. Looking south, Trump threatened to seize the Panama canal. Now, the Pentagon is gearing up for attacks on terrorist" drug cartels deep inside Colombia and Mexico. Of most immediate concern is a possible renewed White House effort to forcibly impose regime change on Venezuela.Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela's hard-left authoritarian president, believes this effort is already under way. He says the US is waging undeclared war" on his country after several deadly strikes on Venezuelan vessels in international waters. Trump notified Congress last week that the US is engaged in armed conflict" with drug cartels. He claims, without providing evidence, that the targeted boats were carrying US-bound illegal narcotics - and that Maduro is responsible. He has placed a $50m bounty on Maduro's head.Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator Continue reading...
Illinois governor JB Pritzker calls move unnecessary and a manufactured performance' - key US politics stories from 4 October at a glanceDonald Trump has moved to deploy the national guard to Chicago, the White House confirmed on Saturday, even as a federal judge blocked his administration from deploying troops to Portland, Oregon.White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson confirmed that the president had authorized using Illinois national guard members, citing what she called ongoing violent riots and lawlessness" that local leaders have not quelled. Continue reading...
by Adam Gabbatt, William Christou, Helen Livingstone on (#70H3Y)
US president says he will push to finalize agreement in the coming days even as scores of Palestinians killed in latest Israeli attacksDonald Trump's son-in-law and a senior envoy are heading to Egypt to begin ceasefire negotiations, the White House has said, as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he hoped to bring all remaining hostages home in the coming days.A White House official said the US president was sending his envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, to Egypt on Saturday to finalise the technical details of a hostage release and discuss a lasting ceasefire deal a day after Hamas said it was ready to free hostages under Trump's plan to end the two-year-old war. In an interview, Trump said we are very close" to reaching an agreement. Continue reading...
Illinois governor JB Pritzker says administration is escalating aggression against Illinois citizens and residents'Donald Trump has moved to deploy the national guard in another city by authorizing 300 troops to protect federal officers and assets in Chicago, where the government said border patrol agents shot and injured a woman while firing at someone who tried to run them over.White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson confirmed that the president had authorized using Illinois national guard members, citing what she called ongoing violent riots and lawlessness" that local leaders have not quelled. Continue reading...
US district judge agrees with Oregon assertion that deployment would likely inflame rather than calm protests in cityA federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from deploying the national guard to Portland, Oregon, according to court documents.Donald Trump had announced on 27 September that he would deploy troops to Portland, authorizing Full Force, if necessary", ignoring pleas from local officials and the state's congressional delegation, who suggested that the president was misinformed or lying about the nature and scale of a single, small protest outside one federal immigration enforcement office. Continue reading...
Circumstances surrounding incident remain unclear with Sanchez still in hospital and not yet booked in detentionPolice have said that former NFL quarterback and Fox Sports television star Mark Sanchez has been arrested at the hospital he was taken to after being stabbed late Friday night in downtown Indianapolis.The Indianapolis metropolitan police department said in a statement that after investigation and consultation with prosecutors, Sanchez, now a television commentator, was arrested for battery with injury, unlawful entry of a motor vehicle and public intoxication", all of which are misdemeanors. Continue reading...
Ruling temporarily prevents transfer to adult detention centers that advocates said were planned for this weekendA federal judge has temporarily halted a Trump administration initiative that would have kept immigrant children in custody after their 18th birthdays, preventing their transfer to adult detention centers that advocates said were planned for this weekend.On Saturday, US district judge Rudolph Contreras in Washington DC issued a temporary restraining order directing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) to stop placing unaccompanied immigrant children into adult detention once they reached legal adulthood, reported the Associated Press. Continue reading...
US treasurer says officials looking at drafts for country's 250th anniversary featuring president with raised fistTo commemorate the 250th anniversary of the US's independence, the treasury department is mulling production of a $1 coin displaying Donald Trump with a clenched first under an American flag and the words fight, fight, fight".The words overtly reference what Trump said immediately after narrowly surviving an assassination attempt four months before he won a second presidency. Continue reading...
At the centre of the government shutdown is the issue of healthcare for Americans being stripped by Trump's big, beautiful bill'Leading up to the government shutdown on Wednesday, congressional Republicans and Donald Trump have repeated misleading claims that Democrats were trying to pass a resolution that would provide free healthcare for illegals". It's become a well-rehearsed refrain fueling GOP lawmakers as government funding lapsed this week.At the White House on Wednesday, the vice-president JD Vance said the Democrats' spending plan would have undone" the work of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) - which ended the eligibility of many types of lawfully present immigrants to access federally funded health coverage, like Medicaid, Medicare and Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies for private health insurance. Continue reading...
Homeland security chief also excoriates NFL for selecting Bad Bunny to perform during game's half-time breakKristi Noem, Donald Trump's homeland security secretary, has said that only Americans should attend next year's Super Bowl and warned that Ice agents will be all over" the event.Speaking to the rightwing podcaster Benny Johnson on Friday, Noem also said the NFL will not be able to sleep at night" over its decision to choose Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican rapper who has criticized the Trump administration's aggressive immigration policies, as its half-time performer. Continue reading...
The move comes as GLP-1 drug prices have soared as supply continues to be increasingly limitedCostco has struck an agreement with drugmaker Novo Nordisk to make anti-obesity GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy available to its members at roughly half the usual cost.Through the store's prescription program, members with a valid prescription can buy a four-week supply of the injectables for $499. The offer is available only to those paying out of pocket, since many insurers still do not cover these medications. Continue reading...
A 13-year-old and a four-year-old died in shooting as police say all parties involved have been detainedTwo children were killed and two more were critically injured in a shooting early on Saturday near the Houston suburb of Angleton, Texas, authorities said.The Brazoria county sheriff's office said in a Facebook post that deputies responded to reports of the shooting and found two children, ages 13 and four, fatally shot. Two other children, aged eight and nine, were flown by medical helicopter to a hospital and were in critical condition. Continue reading...
Anthony Salisbury displayed chat about deployment of 82nd airborne division on cell phone while in MinnesotaA senior White House official accidentally leaked details of plans to send an elite army unit to Portland, in the latest intelligence leak by the Trump administration.Anthony Salisbury, a top deputy to Stephen Miller, the influential White House policy adviser, was observed using Signal in a public place to discuss a plan to deploy the army's 82nd airborne division to Portland, the Democratic-run Oregon city which Donald Trump has repeatedly castigated as being war-ravaged". Continue reading...
Bank of England is at crossroads over the use of crytocurrencies and establishing a financial framework for transactionsThere are those among us who like the idea of swiping and tapping their way through life, armed with a lifetime of digital information as they enter buildings, book online appointments and take train rides to work.Others are not so keen, fearing that big brother databases chock full of personal details will one day control their movements, if that is not happening already. Continue reading...
Salvadorian national successfully sued White House over his deportation before charges were filedA federal judge has concluded that the Department of Justice's prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia on human-smuggling charges may be an illegal retaliation after he successfully sued the Trump administration over his deportation to El Salvador.The case of Abrego, a Salvadorian national who was a construction worker in Maryland, has become a proxy for the partisan struggle over Donald Trump's sweeping immigration policy and mass deportation agenda. Continue reading...
Jon Harrison, appointed in January, had been key to broad changes in military branch's policy and budgeting officesPete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, abruptly fired the navy chief of staff on Friday, removing an aide who had been key to the Trump administration's efforts to reshape the Pentagon.Jon Harrison, who was appointed in January, had been key to broad changes made to the navy's policy and budgeting offices. Together with John Phelan, a Trump mega-donor who was confirmed as navy secretary in March, Harrison had reportedly sought to limit the influence of the navy under secretary, who typically has a key role in managing that military branch's budget. Continue reading...
Adelita Grijalva of Arizona came to Washington DC this week, but returned two days later, a little confusedCongress's newest member, Adelita Grijalva, came to Washington DC this week, expecting to be officially sworn in by the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.Two days later, she returned to her southern Arizona district disappointed, if not a little confused. No swearing-in ceremony had been organized, meaning Grijalva, a Democrat who easily won a special election last month to replace her late father, Raul M Grijalva, was not able to start her new job. Continue reading...
In the two years after Roe v Wade was overturned, hundreds were charged amid growing acceptance of fetal personhood'Every 74 seconds, someone in the US is sexually assaulted. And every nine minutes that someone' is a child, according to statistics collated by the anti-sexual violence non-profit Rainn.Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...
Jackson enters her fourth year on the supreme court on Monday. As its fiercest liberal voice wary of Trump's growing power, she faces an intense battle aheadHer sharpest words were not in the body of her opinion. They were tucked away in a footnote.That subtle placement speaks volumes about Ketanji Brown Jackson, the supreme court's newest member and already its fiercest liberal voice.See E. Fraenkel, The Dual State, pp. xiii, 3, 71 (1941) (describing the way in which the creation of a Prerogative State' where the Executive exercises unlimited arbitrariness ... unchecked by any legal guarantees' is incompatible with the rule of law) Continue reading...
Debra Houry speaks after testifying on eight months under Kennedy, who critics say shuns science and spreads falsehoodsRobert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has avoided meetings with top health officials, even as deadly outbreaks unfolded, and pushed to make unprecedented changes to the childhood immunization schedule, according to a recently ousted leader of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Debra Houry, the CDC's former chief medical officer, spoke with the Guardian after testifying before a Senate committee about her eight months serving under Kennedy, offering insight into a health secretary who has been criticized as shunning expertise in favor of spreading misinformation, denigrating science, and dismantling institutions crucial for Americans' health. Continue reading...
Black, brown and LGBTQ+ students across the US are puzzled by all the praise the far-right commentator has received after his killingAlana*, a student at Utah Valley University, was taken aback by the deification of Charlie Kirk in the wake of his assassination on 10 September. As an Afro-Latina genderqueer senior at DC's Howard University, she found it off-putting when she saw an image on Instagram of Kirk hugging Jesus. He wasn't this national hero or politician," Alana, who is using an alias, said. He was just a white man with a loud opinion."The sentiment on the historically Black university's campus, she said, is that Kirk's rhetoric about marginalized communities was hateful and that they are being unfairly blamed for his death. Continue reading...
The court's opinion in a case on immigrants' right to free speech is a powerful lesson in civicsDemocracy requires that we do more than look out for our own interests and defend our own rights. Ever since the birth of this nation, its citizens and leaders have echoed Benjamin Franklin's admonition that we must all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."In Donald Trump's America, hanging separately seems to be the order of the day. This seems especially true when it comes to his treatment of this country's millions of non-citizen residents. Continue reading...
A facility in Broadview, a mostly Black suburb, has become the site of escalation and targeted attacks' on protestersKristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and Gregory Bovino, a border patrol sector chief, were seen at an Ice facility in suburban Chicago on Friday where law enforcement has been cracking down on protesters.In recent weeks the Broadview facility has become the site of escalations by federal agents against protesters and journalists. Videos of agents deploying tear gas, pepper balls and roughly throwing protesters to the ground have gone viral, amidst the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Continue reading...
Trump administration has transformed tone and tenor of media interactions by centering rightwing voices and reporter sycophancyI've often said: Trump could cure cancer and people would still criticise him," observed Brian Glenn, a rightwing reporter standing in the Oval Office.It's true," replied a gratified Donald Trump, sitting behind the Resolute desk. Continue reading...
The Flying Frenchman thrilled crowds for two decades with acrobatics, charisma and pure joy. As he heads for retirement in 2026, the sport loses a rare entertainerThe curtain call has come for another beloved tennis star: the veteran French player Gael Monfils will retire at the end of the 2026 season, his 22nd year on the men's tour. In a social media post announcing the news on Wednesday, Monfils struck an upbeat tone, thanking family and fans while doffing a cap at the range of opponents he was privileged to face during the game's golden age"; prominent among his mentions were Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic - the only one in that group who is still playing. And while history is likely to remember the 39-year-old Monfils - whose resume includes nearly 600 match victories, a career-best No 6 singles ranking and more than $24m in on-court earnings - as one of the more unfortunate victims of the Big Four epoch, he makes a compelling counterargument for style over stats.Federer, Nadal, Murray and Djokovic may have all the titles. But while they were stifling three generations' worth of tennis muscle, Monfils emerged as the era's most dazzling performer. For years US tennis commentators groused about the home federation not doing enough to steer the country's best young athlete away from other stick-and-ball sports and make American tennis great again. But it's obvious now that the player they were constructing in their minds was Monfils: a 6ft4in skein of fast-twitch sinews, with the devil's own forehand tacked on for good measure. In his own social media post, the estimable coach Patrick Mouratoglou framed his compatriot's retirement as a mighty blow to the sport. Tennis needs players like him," he wrote. They are so rare." An athletic prodigy since elementary school, Monfils underscored his special talent after claiming victories in France's under-13 and under-14 100m championships. His athletics coach at the time thought he could make an Olympics sprint final on that potential alone. Continue reading...
Mark Kerr's rise and fall was captured in a cult MMA documentary. Now Dwayne The Rock' Johnson has brought his story to Hollywood with A24's The Smashing MachineIt started with an affirming nod of heads between two tough guys at a Santa Monica Gold's Gym in the summer of 1997. One-time Olympic wrestling contender Mark Kerr was training for his first Ultimate Fighting Championship fight, having dominated in a three-fight, one-night tournament in Brazil two months earlier. Dwayne Rocky Maivia" Johnson, a former NFL prospect sidelined with a knee injury suffered during his second year with the WWE, approached him.Can I take you to lunch?" Johnson asked Kerr, who obliged him at the Firehouse restaurant in Santa Monica. The conversation inevitably drifted to mixed martial arts, as Johnson peppered the 1992 NCAA champion with pointed questions about the unregulated sport. MMA was gaining popularity in Japan, where multiple promotions hired pro wrestlers for crossover" fights. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#70GVM)
The EU and UK have imposed mandates, and investors see its value - but the industry has mixed viewsOne hundred years ago, the Italian aviator Francesco de Pinedo was attempting the unprecedented feat of crossing the Indian subcontinent in a flying boat. He later splashed down on the Tiber in Rome to national acclaim, having flown via Asia to Australia and back over seven months, taking off and landing in water 80 times.Aviation has been marked by stop-start journeys on hitherto uncharted courses to unlikely, if not unreachable, destinations. Today's collective act of faith - amid much scepticism - is in following an uncertain path to sustainability, through green fuels that are yet to be widely produced. Continue reading...
The mountain-running legend has just completed States of Elevation, scaling every fourteener in the contiguous US in a single month, powered only by his legsAs I waited for the sun to crest over Colorado's Front Range, adjacent to the sprawl of Denver-Boulder-Fort Collins, a west wind gusted, sending a shiver down my spine. With temperatures around freezing on a rocky ledge at 13,700ft, I searched for reprieve on the lee side of a boulder. I could see the city lights in the distance, but was more concerned with two headlamps approaching quickly, a few hundred feet below.Between us lay a slab of coarse granite, known as the Cables Route. It's the most direct way to the summit of Longs Peak, but is less travelled because it's rated a class 5 rock climb and often carries a river of verglas - black ice - running down it, which climbers must navigate. Continue reading...
Governor Gavin Newsom signs measure opening path to more than 800,000 drivers to bargain for wages and benefitsMore than 800,000 ride-hailing drivers in California will soon be able to join a union and negotiate for higher wages and better benefits under a measure signed Friday by the governor, Gavin Newsom.Supporters said the new law will open a path for the largest expansion of private-sector collective bargaining rights in the state's history. The legislation is a significant compromise in the years-long battle between labor unions and tech companies. Continue reading...
Richard Fatherly was charged with second-degree murder in the death of Charles Adair, arrested a day before his deathA white Kansas sheriff's deputy charged with murder in the death of an incarcerated Black person shoved his knee into the cuffed man's back for 1 minute and 26 seconds after he was wheeled back to his cell from the infirmary, newly released court records show.Richard Fatherly was charged last month with second-degree murder and an alternative count of involuntary manslaughter in Charles Adair's 5 July death in the Wyandotte county detention center in Kansas City, Kansas. Adair had been arrested one day before his death on misdemeanor warrants for failure to appear on multiple traffic violations. Continue reading...
President says Israel must stop the bombing of Gaza' while Palestinian group says it wants further negotiations over plan - key US politics stories from 3 October at a glanceHamas said on Friday it approved parts of Donald Trump's ultimatum to end the war in Gaza, agreeing to a hostage exchange and to surrender governing power in the Gaza Strip, but insisted on further negotiations over aspects of the plan.The group did not say whether it would lay down its arms - a key part of Trump's proposal - and kept its response vague to other parts of the 20-part proposal unveiled on Monday. Continue reading...
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Combs, who was convicted of transportation to engage in prostitution', sentenced in New York. This blog is now closed.The prosecution submitted several victim impact statements to the court ahead of sentencing, including one from Ventura.While the jury did not seem to understand or believe that I engaged in freak-offs because of the force and coercion the defendant used against me, I know that is the truth, and his sentence should reflect the reality of the evidence and my lived experience as a victim" Ventura wrote. Continue reading...
Voluntary departure has always been an option, but astonishing' decision to incentivize children to leave is newThe Trump administration wants to offer immigrant children $2,500 to self-deport, according to a memo obtained by the Guardian.The memo, sent by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to legal providers representing unaccompanied children and reviewed by the Guardian, says that immigration officials have identified unaccompanied immigrant children 14 years of age and older in government custody who have expressed interest in voluntarily departing the US. Continue reading...
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