Environment news

• Get your sunscreens out but beware of pollution as temperatures set to soar this weekend

  04-05-2016 23:41
  
  Summer weather will be accompanied by an unusually large dollop of air pollution.
  
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• Greens' want 1.2m households to install renewable energy storage

  04-05-2016 22:04
  
  Energy spokesman Adam Bandt says program – estimated to cost $2.9bn – could be funded by scrapping concessions to fossil fuel-intensive industriesThe Greens want millions of households to install renewable energy storage units, saying battery storage could “revolutionise” Australia’s energy system.They have announced a five-year support package for 1.2m homes and 30,000 businesses, to encourage the take-up of solar storage across Australia.Continue reading...
  
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• Oil turns lower after bigger-than-forecast U.S. crude build

  04-05-2016 21:45
  
  By Jessica Resnick-Ault and Catherine Ngai NEW YORK (Reuters) - A bigger-than-expected build in U.S. crude inventories to fresh record highs pushed oil markets lower on Wednesday after an early rally over concerns about production cuts in Canada's oil sands region due to a wildfire. U.S. crude stocks, which have been setting record highs since January, grew 2.8 million barrels last week, government data showed, about a million barrels more than analysts' expectations. Gasoline stocks also posted
  
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• Raging wildfire bears down on Canadian city as 88,000 flee

  04-05-2016 21:44
  By Topher Seguin ANZAC, Alberta (Reuters) - A massive wildfire that has forced the evacuation of all 88,000 residents of the western Canadian city of Fort McMurray and burned down 1,600 structures has the potential to destroy much of the town, authorities said on Wednesday. Fort McMurray had been largely emptied of its residents by Wednesday afternoon, officials said, despite fuel shortages, snarled traffic and a highway closed by the flames in the northeastern part of the province of Alberta, t
  
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• Florida's coral reefs rapidly 'wasting away' under stress of climate change

  04-05-2016 19:12
  
  Accelerated acidification of coastal waters has brought about structural decline of only reef in continental US, initially pegged by scientists at around 2050Florida’s coral reefs are disintegrating far more quickly than previously thought, with warming, acidifying oceans causing a “wasting away” of the coral structures that support an abundance of marine life, new research has found.Scientists had previously thought that Florida’s reef, the only barrier reef in the conti
  
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• Embryo study shows 'life's first steps'

  04-05-2016 19:04 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Scientists have developed a technique to grow human embryos in the lab past the point they normally implant in the womb.
  
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• Libyan crude output at risk as east and west tussle for control

  04-05-2016 18:35
  BENGHAZI/LONDON (Reuters) - Libya's crippled oil production appeared at risk of further decline on Wednesday after an escalating stand-off between rival eastern and western political factions prevented a cargo belonging to trading giant Glencore from loading. A Tripoli oil official warned the country's oil output could fall by 120,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) if the Benghazi-based National Oil Corporation (NOC), set up by the eastern government, continues to block tankers loading for Tripoli from t
  
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• Fracking: environmental groups sue EPA in call for strict rules on waste

  04-05-2016 18:33
  
  Fracking has led to hundreds of billions of gallons of waste full of toxic chemicals – yet the process is hardly subject to any standards, coalition saysFrack waste has triggered earthquakes from Ohio to Oklahoma, and fouled rivers in Pennsylvania to North Dakota – and now the Obama administration is being sued by environmental groups to crack down on industry.A coalition of environmental groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday to demand a strong uniform standard
  
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• US ceases efforts to end global trade of polar bear parts

  04-05-2016 18:17
  
  US Fish and Wildlife Services to shift focus to climate change’s effects on bearsCanada had opposed ban as threats to hunting economy and Inuit practices The US government has quietly dropped its campaign for an international ban in the trade of polar bear parts, which would have given the practice the same outlaw status as the elephant ivory market.
  The US Fish and Wildlife Service has spent several years attempting to ban the overseas trade of polar bear skins, teeth, paws and other part
  
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• Oil pares gains as U.S. crude stocks post bigger build

  04-05-2016 17:11
  
  Oil prices pared gains on Wednesday as a bigger than expected gain in U.S. crude stocks tempered concerns about reduced production in Canada's oil sands region due to a wildfire. U.S. crude stocks grew by 2.8 million barrels in the last week, versus expectations of a 1.7 million barrel build, Energy Information Administration data showed. The development limited concerns over evacuations in the Canadian province of Alberta, where a wildfire took hold in the heart of the country's oil sands regio
  
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• David Attenborough at 90: a TV legend’s top 10 moments

  04-05-2016 17:00
  
  As the wildlife presenter approaches his 90th birthday, we take a look at some of his most awe-inspiring work – from meeting a cannibal tribe to cuddling gorillasTo celebrate Sir David Attenborough’s 90th birthday on 8 May, wildlife television producer Stephen Moss has chosen his top 10 TV moments featuring the great man. Enjoy. Continue reading...
  
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• Climate change, chaos and inexact computing

  04-05-2016 16:37
  
  Perimeter Institute public lecture by Tim Palmer of Oxford University
  The May 2016 Perimeter Institute public lecture is this evening. Tim Palmer of Oxford University will take about climate change, and the computational techniques used to evaluate the predictability and dynamics of weather and climate. The lecture will be followed by a question-and-answer session, and a recording will appear here one the live broadcast has finished. Continue reading...
  
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• Wildfire destroys homes in Canadian city; 80,000 ordered evacuated

  04-05-2016 16:32
  (Reuters) - A wildfire that raged out of control destroyed much of one neighbourhood in the remote western Canadian city of Fort McMurray and badly damaged others, the local government said on Wednesday, with all 80,000 residents ordered to leave in the biggest evacuation in the area's history. By early on Wednesday morning, Shell had closed one oil sands mine and was in the process of closing another. Henry said upgraders, which process oil sands to produce crude, would operate for a few more d
  
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• Mobile game 'helps dementia research'

  04-05-2016 15:56 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Dementia researchers develop a video game they hope could further the development of diagnostic tests for the disease.
  
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• Leopards have lost 75% of their historical habitat

  04-05-2016 15:20
  
  New research shows the big cats’ global range has shrunk by a shocking amount over the last 250 yearsThe area of the world roamed by leopards has declined by three quarters over the last two and a half centuries, according to the most comprehensive effort yet to map the big cat.Researchers said they were shocked by the shrinking of the spotted hunter’s range, and that the decline had been far worse for several of the nine subspecies of leopards and in some parts of the world. Continu
  
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• Greece's sole oil producer boosts output by 30 percent

  04-05-2016 15:09
  Greece's sole oil producer, Energean Oil & Gas, has stepped up daily production by about 30 percent since early January, it said on Wednesday, as the debt-ridden country seeks to tap into its limited oil reserves. Plunging crude prices have deterred spending on oil projects around the world but Greece is pushing ahead with investment in the industry in a bid to reduce dependence on oil imports and boost public finances. Many analysts are now growing more confident that a new-two-year rout in
  
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• Tanker leaves east Libyan port without loading, amid stand-off with Tripoli

  04-05-2016 15:04
  A tanker that an oil company set up by Libya's eastern government prevented from loading has left the eastern port of Marsa el-Hariga on Wednesday, after a Tripoli oil official warned that blockages at the port could reduce production by 120,000 barrels per day. The Seachance, which had been due to load 600,000 barrels of oil for the National Oil Corporation (NOC) in Tripoli, left the port of its own accord, a port official said. The stand-off at Hariga, part of a broader political struggle betw
  
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• Brazil's prosecutors hit Vale, BHP with 155 billion-real civil lawsuit for dam collapse

  04-05-2016 14:33
  By Stephen Eisenhammer RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Mining companies Vale SA and BHP Billiton were hit with a 155 billion-real (£29.9 billion) civil lawsuit for the collapse of a dam at a mine last year that killed 19 people and caused damage that prosecutors said was comparable to BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The 359-page lawsuit brought by independent federal prosecutors was the result of a six-month investigation and is also against state and federal governments. Prosecutors accu
  
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• Coastal birds understand tides and the moon's phases

  04-05-2016 14:28 via feedproxy.google.com
  Coastal wading birds shape their lives around the tides, and new research in The Auk: Ornithological Advances shows that different species respond differently to shifting patterns of high and low water according to their size and daily schedules, even following prey cycles tied to the phases of the moon.Many birds rely on the shallow water of the intertidal zone for foraging, but this habitat appears and disappears as the tide ebbs and flows, with patterns that go through monthly cycle
  
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• Donald Trump's election would derail Paris climate deal, warns its architect

  04-05-2016 14:13
  
  A climate change denier as US president would dramatically threaten global action to cut carbon emissions, says ex-French foreign minister Laurent Fabius The election of Donald Trump would derail the landmark agreement on climate change reached in Paris last December, the architect of the accord has warned.Trump is now virtually certain to be the Republican candidate for president and has said “I am not a great believer in manmade climate change”, leading to fears he would attempt to
  
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• Air quality takes centre stage in Gatwick and Heathrow's expansion battle

  04-05-2016 13:56
  
  Gatwick Airport has claimed it is the "only" airport that can deliver the economic benefits of expansion without "dramatic and unacceptable" impacts on air quality, after the Transport Committee continued to back the third runway development plans at Heathrow.
  
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• Tributes for Nobel Laureate Harry Kroto

  04-05-2016 13:50 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The science community pays tribute to Nobel Laureate Sir Harry Kroto, who passed away over the weekend aged 76.
  
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• Libya's east tests muscle with oil shipment, troop dispatches

  04-05-2016 13:47
  By Aidan Lewis and Ayman al-Warfalli TUNIS/BENGHAZI, Libya (Reuters) - By defiantly attempting to export their own oil and dispatching troops towards the centre of the country, Libya's eastern factions may be gambling on force as they bid for a larger stake under a U.N.-backed unity government. It could be a costly bet, one that ignites renewed conflict between east and west over territory, slashes oil production, and pushes Libya closer to a split that has threatened the country since the upris
  
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• G-Star RAW launches scheme to halt plastic pollution in oceans

  04-05-2016 13:32
  
  Designer clothing company G-Star RAW has joined forces with marine pollution campaign group the Plastic Soup Foundation in an effort to prevent microfibres creating plastic pollution in the world's oceans.
  
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• Scientists are figuring out the keys to convincing people about global warming | Dana Nuccitelli

  04-05-2016 12:00
  
  Understanding the greenhouse effect, the expert consensus, and that humans are causing global warming are gateways to support for climate policies
  The latest survey data from Yale and George Mason universities underscores the partisan divide on climate science denial – 73% of Americans realize that global warming is happening, including 71% of liberal/moderate Republicans, but the average is dragged down by the mere 47% of conservative Republicans who answer this question correctly. On the
  
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• Abseiling into an Antarctic chasm

  04-05-2016 11:58 via bbc.co.uk
  
  BBC Weather's Peter Gibbs visits the ice chasm threatening a British research base on the Brunt Ice Shelf.
  
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• London mayoral election: The green policy showdown

  04-05-2016 11:53
  
  With the race to enter City Hall drawing to a conclusion on Thursday (5 May), edie rounds up the environmental credentials and ambitions of the five main candidates bidding to be the next Mayor of London.
  
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• Former EDF CFO says he had wanted a three-year delay on Hinkley Point

  04-05-2016 11:17
  PARIS (Reuters) - The former chief financial officer of French utility EDF wanted the company to delay a final investment decision on its Hinkley Point nuclear power plant project in Britain by at least three years, he told French parliament on Wednesday. "In January 2015, I proposed to chief executive Jean-Bernard Levy to negotiate a three-year delay with our client because we reasoned that the weight of the project on EDF's balance sheet would be significant," former CFO Thomas Piquemal said a
  
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• Crows swoop on puppy, carrying it away from back garden

  04-05-2016 11:12
  
  Owner heard four-month-old chihuahua ‘screaming’ before she disappeared from outside her Melbourne homeThe owner of a chihuahua puppy remains hopeful the dog is still alive after it was snatched from her backyard and carried away by crows.Four-month-old Fudge, who was small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, was swooped upon by crows while outside her owner Heather Sinden’s home in Melbourne’s outer east on Wednesday afternoon. Continue reading...
  
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• Renewable energy: rapid acceleration needed to meet 2020 target

  04-05-2016 10:34
  
  Twenty large windfarms would need to be committed to in 2016 to get renewable energy target back on trackMeeting Australia’s renewable energy target for 2020 appears increasingly difficult, with a report released on budget night describing the progress so far as “adequate under the circumstances” but saying a rapid acceleration is needed.The Renewable Energy Target 2015 administrative report shows that last year about 409 megawatts of renewable energy was committed to. To achie
  
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• Welsh biologist Carl Jones wins top environmental award

  04-05-2016 10:22
  
  Biologist who saved nine species from extinction has been given the Indianapolis Prize for conservationA biologist from Wales who saved nine species from extinction has been given a prestigious environmental award.Prof Carl Jones has been awarded the 2016 Indianapolis Prize, often dubbed the “Nobel prize” of conservationism. Continue reading...
  
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• Oil edges up as Canadian wildfire reduces oil sands production

  04-05-2016 10:02
  By Henning Gloystein SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices edged up on Wednesday as an uncontrolled wildfire near Canada's oil sands region reduced production there, but overall markets were weighed down by slowing economic growth in Asia and the United States. The Canadian province of Alberta raced to evacuate the entire population of Fort McMurray, where a wildfire was taking hold in the heart of the country's oil sands region, reducing output at some facilities. Brent crude futures were trading at
  
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• Aldi jumps on sustainable bananas bandwagon

  04-05-2016 10:00
  
  German supermarket group Aldi has become the latest retailer to pledge to source its entire range of bananas from either Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance-certified farms before the end of 2016.
  
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• edie Live survey reveals extent of gender pay gap in sustainability

  04-05-2016 09:30
  
  The average annual salary of men working as energy, sustainability and resource efficiency professionals is £11,500 higher than women, edie Live's Sustainability Salary Snapshot survey has revealed.
  
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• Shell cuts spending further after BG deal

  04-05-2016 09:09
  By Ron Bousso and Karolin Schaps LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell on Wednesday cut its 2016 spending by another 10 percent after completing the $54 billion acquisition of BG Group, warning that low oil prices will continue to weigh. In its first earnings results since the Feb. 15 deal that transformed it into the world's top liquefied natural gas producer, Shell reported better-than-expected first-quarter results despite a 58 percent drop in profits. Reflecting the deal, Shell said it sold 1
  
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• Glencore reports lower commodity output after production cuts

  04-05-2016 08:15
  BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Commodity miner and trader Glencore on Wednesday reported a fall in output of copper, zinc, lead, coal and oil following a decision to cut production because of low prices. It said full-year production guidance was unchanged, except for oil, where reductions in exploratory drilling would mean 0.3 million barrels less output than previously expected. Copper production was 4 percent lower for the first quarter versus a year ago, reflecting reductions in Africa, though partly o
  
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• Celebrity ape selfies harming efforts to curb wildlife trafficking, UN body warns

  04-05-2016 08:00
  
  Instagram snaps of celebs such as Paris Hilton and James Rodriguez posing with orangutans and chimpanzees is endangering the survival of the great apesInstagram snaps of celebrities including Paris Hilton and James Rodriguez posing with apes in the Gulf are damaging efforts to clamp down on wildlife trafficking and endangering the survival of some species, a UN body has warned.
  New research by the UN’s great apes survival partnership (Grasp) points to an alarming rise in trafficking of ora
  
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• Canadian wildfire forces evacuation order for entire city

  04-05-2016 07:36
  By Nia Williams CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - The Canadian province of Alberta raced to evacuate the entire population of Fort McMurray where an uncontrolled wildfire was taking hold in the heart of the country's oil sands region, with dry winds forecast for Wednesday that could fuel the blaze. Alberta appealed for military help to battle the fire and airlift people from the smoke-filled city after authorities issued a mandatory evacuation order for 80,000, but officials said army and air force a
  
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• Oil stable after two-day decline on stall in global growth

  04-05-2016 06:52
  By Henning Gloystein SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices stabilized on Wednesday after falling for two straight days on concerns that slowing economic growth and rising Middle East output would extend a global supply overhang. International Brent crude futures were trading at $44.95 (31 pounds) per barrel at 0445 GMT, down 2 cents from their last settlement. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were up 7 cents at $43.72 a barrel.
  
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• Floating crowfoot toughs it out with the frogs

  04-05-2016 06:30
  
  Swch Cae Rhiw, Ceiriog Valley In the puddle, among the crowfoot, wriggle scores of tadpoles, dark sperm-like beingsHigh up the valley a patch of white looks as if there have been snowflakes blowing across the hills, even in bright sunshine. It turns out to be flowers on the surface of a puddle, a kind of layby to the stream running alongside the track. The white flowers are a kind of water crowfoot, one of a group of amphibious buttercups with little white star flowers and rounded, lobed, leaves
  
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• U.S. oil industry bankruptcy wave nears size of telecom bust

  04-05-2016 06:06
  By Ernest Scheyder and Terry Wade HOUSTON (Reuters) - The rout in crude prices is snowballing into one of the biggest avalanches in the history of corporate America, with 59 oil and gas companies now bankrupt after this week's filings for creditor protection by Midstates Petroleum and Ultra Petroleum . Charles Gibbs, a restructuring partner at Akin Gump in Texas, said the U.S. oil industry is not even halfway through its wave of bankruptcies. Some oil producers appear to be holding on, hoping th
  
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• Killer whales: drone footage off the Western Australian coast – video

  04-05-2016 05:41
  
  Two young aerial photographers filmed a pod of orcas off Bremer Bay on the south coast of Western Australia. Jampal Williamson said the orcas moved so fast they were difficult to film. Williamson and his friend Michael Goetze are using drones to capture different perspectives of WA for their aerial photography project, Salty Wings Continue reading...
  
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• Top prosecutor asks to investigate Brazil president

  04-05-2016 05:00
  Brazil's top prosecutor has asked the Supreme Court to open an investigation of President Dilma Rousseff for trying to obstruct a massive corruption probe involving state-run oil firm Petrobras, Globo News reported on Tuesday. Rousseff, likely to be ousted from office later this month on unrelated charges of breaking budgetary laws, had previously avoided being dragged into the largest corruption investigation in Brazil's history. The request will be analysed by Supreme Court justice Teori Zavas
  
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• Brazil prosecutors file 30 billion pounds lawsuit against Vale, BHP for dam spill

  04-05-2016 04:06
  By Stephen Eisenhammer RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors in Brazil filed a 155 billion-real (30 billion pounds) civil lawsuit on Tuesday against iron miner Samarco and its owners, Vale SA and BHP Billiton , for a collapsed tailings dam in November that killed 19 people and polluted a major river. The 359-page lawsuit, which is also against the two states affected by the spill and the federal government, is the result of a six-month investigation led by a task force set up after the
  
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• QUIZ: London mayoral election - who said what on the environment?

  04-05-2016 02:20
  
  Was it Sadiq or Zac? Caroline or Sian? Find out which London mayoral candidate said what on the capital's energy and environment in edie's flip cards quiz ahead of Thursday's election.
  
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• 'A silent catastrophe': Chilean fishermen protest failure to mitigate toxic 'red tide'

  04-05-2016 01:38
  
  Thousands of fishermen are protesting the government’s failure to mitigate effects of a poisonous ‘red tide’ agal bloom scientists call largest in historyThousands of Chilean fishermen have blocked roads with barricades in the region of Los Lagos, saying government efforts to mitigate the economic effects of a harmful algal bloom have been insufficient. For the last four weeks, the southern-central region of Los Lagos has been plagued by what scientists say is the biggest &ldqu
  
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• Heathrow expansion opportunity squandered, MPs say

  04-05-2016 01:01
  
  Transport secretary urged to commit to timetable in light of Airports Commission report backing third runwayDelaying a decision on a third runway has “squandered the opportunity” to act on evidence and expand Heathrow, a cross-party committee of MPs said as it called on the government to commit to a clear timetable. The Commons transport select committee described ministerial claims of progress in the decision-making process as “illusory” and demanded that the transport s
  
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