General news

• Two men seriously injured in Glasgow incident

  02-02-2019 23:58
  Police were called and the men were taken to the city's Queen Elizabeth University Hospital for treatment.
  
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• PM's office denies report of June 6 election plan

  02-02-2019 23:33
  Prime Minister Theresa May's office denied a report in the Mail on Sunday newspaper that the prime minister's advisors were considering scheduling a national election for June 6."It's 100 percent untrue," a Downing Street spokeswoman said about the article, which reported that May's advisors were considering a June 6 election under a scenario in which Brexit was delayed past March 29 but May subsequently won parliament's backing for a withdrawal deal in April.
  
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• Thousands call for review after youth discharged in sex assault case

  02-02-2019 23:11
  Christopher Daniel was given an absolute discharge after being found guilty at Dumbarton Sheriff Court.
  
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• Pro-Brexit MP makes ‘totally false’ claim about Europe after WW2 on Twitter

  02-02-2019 23:06
  Daniel Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury, claimed in a tweet that there was 'no Marshall Plan for [Britain] only for Germany'.
  
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• Voters will never forgive Tories for a no-deal disaster, says minister

  02-02-2019 22:59
  Voters will be right to turn on the Conservative party should it allow Britain to crash out of the European Union without a deal, one of Theresa May’s ministers has warned.With concerns rising about a no-deal Brexit across Whitehall and inside the cabinet, Richard Harrington, a business minister, said that such an outcome would turn “a crisis into a catastrophe”, with manufacturers already stockpiling at the fastest rate since records began in the early 1990s.
  
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• Voters will never forgive Tories for a no-deal disaster

  02-02-2019 22:59
  Voters will be right to turn on the Conservative party should it allow Britain to crash out of the European Union without a deal, one of Theresa May’s ministers has warned.With concerns rising about a no-deal Brexit across Whitehall and inside the cabinet, Richard Harrington, a business minister, said that such an outcome would turn “a crisis into a catastrophe”, with manufacturers already stockpiling at the fastest rate for 27 years.
  
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• UK weather forecast: Britain braces for coldest night in nine years

  02-02-2019 22:10
  Britain is bracing for what could be the coldest night in almost nine years as temperatures look set to fall to -16C (3.2F) in Scotland.The UK has not seen temperatures that low since December 2010, when Scotland recorded -21.3C (-6.3F), according to Met Office records.Forecasters have said parts of England could see sub-zero temperatures reach double digits too.
  
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• West Indies thrash hapless England by 10 wickets to seal series victory

  02-02-2019 22:05
  • Second Test day 3: England 187 & 132; West Indies 306 & 17-0
  • West Indies win by 10 wickets to take 2-0 series leadEngland have never won a Test in Antigua and their 10th attempt to do so ended rapidly and ignominiously. They were defeated inside three days by 10 wickets. Once again Joe Root’s tourists have been thoroughly outplayed from start to finish. Here was a pale imitation of the 80s and 90s except for the fact that the accepted wisdom before the series was that
  
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• 'We are very close': Tens of thousands in Venezuela demand Maduro's exit

  02-02-2019 22:04
  Protests take place in cities across the country amid optimism from the opposition, as president speaks to rival marchTens of thousands of Venezuelan protesters streamed on to the streets of the capital on Saturday for what they described as the final push to force Nicolás Maduro from power.“I believe [the end] is coming very soon – this week,” said Barbara Angarita, 49, as she and thousands of other demonstrators poured down the Avenida Principal de las Mercedes in Cara
  
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• The centre ground may look barren but that’s the place to look for life

  02-02-2019 22:04
  Scratch the surface with voters and it’s clear there would be strong support for politicians – even a new party – taking the middle wayPopulists have tripled their vote share in Europe over the past 20 years and one in four Europeans now votes populist. From a global perspective, during the 2000s and up until recently, progressive and centrist movements lost ground and many believe the centre is dead. However, there are signs that change is in the air with a growing number of c
  
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• Rebel Labour MPs set to quit party and form centre group

  02-02-2019 22:01
  Growing discontent over policy on Brexit, anti-Semitism and Venezuela spur breakaway movementA group of disaffected Labour MPs is preparing to quit the party and form a breakaway movement on the political centre ground amid growing discontent with Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership on Brexit and other key issues including immigration, foreign policy and antisemitism.The Observer has been told by multiple sources that at least six MPs have been drawing up plans to resign the whip and leave the part
  
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• Brexit played ‘inevitable role’ in Nissan X-Trail decision, says MP

  02-02-2019 21:59
  The company is expected to confirm the cancellation of plans to build the new version of the SUV at its Sunderland plant on Monday.
  
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• Virginia governor denies he is in racist yearbook picture – and will not quit

  02-02-2019 21:42
  Ralph Northam asks for ‘opportunity to earn forgiveness’ but also recalls darkening skin for Michael Jackson costumeVirginia’s governor, Ralph Northam, denied he was one of the people dressed in a Ku Klux Klan uniform or in blackface in a photo from his medical school yearbook page, amid pressure to resign.
  Delivering a statement in Richmond on Saturday afternoon, the Democrat conceded it would be difficult for many people to believe he was not in the photo when just 24 hours e
  
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• Using the big freeze to deny climate change... stupidity or cynicism? | Michael M Mann

  02-02-2019 21:30
  The reaction to the polar vortex reminds us it is important to have a citizenry who can distinguish between scientific fact and fictionThe winters of the early 1970s were very cold and snowy in the northeastern United States where I grew up – as elsewhere around the US and Europe. I remember snowfalls that came up to my chin (though, of course, I was only a few feet tall back then). We now call those “old-fashioned winters”, precisely because they have grown so rare as a conseq
  
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• We don’t value these vulnerable children – or the foster parents who care for them

  02-02-2019 21:00
  The real scandal is the harm being done to already damaged young livesFoster care in Britain facing ‘looming crisis’ – report
  Children in care are in danger. They are in danger because they’re being placed with foster carers who the Fostering Network’s State of the Nation’s Foster Care report clearly shows are unqualified, unskilled and uninformed. They’re in danger because 48% of foster carers say the child is unsupported for mental health needs, and 50
  
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• Foster care is faced with a ‘looming crisis’

  02-02-2019 21:00
  Fostering Network accuses politicians of ‘inertia’ as recruitment faltersCarers speak out: ‘Fostering can be heart-wrenching’
  Foster care in Britain is facing a “looming crisis” because of lack of government funding and support, leaving carers feeling demoralised, overworked and struggling to cope with the complex needs of the vulnerable children they look after, experts have warned.The Fostering Network, the charity representing foster carers, has accused the
  
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• UK could see coldest night in almost a decade as big freeze continues

  02-02-2019 20:43
  But the Met Office has said warmer temperatures are on the way, with milder air expected on Sunday.
  
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• Labour slump gives Tories biggest lead since general election

  02-02-2019 20:40
  The Conservatives have recorded their biggest lead since the last general election after support for Labour slumped by six points, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer.Theresa May’s party recorded a seven-point lead over Labour in the poll, its biggest since the disastrous election campaign that left her without a majority and relying on the support of Northern Irish DUP MPs.Labour’s support fell from 40% in the last poll to 34%, while Tory support went up from 37% t
  
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• In Pictures: Britain keeps shivering as cold weather continues

  02-02-2019 20:34
  Traffic was also hit as heavy snow blanketed roads.
  
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• ‘Bullshit’, not lies, is the corrosive influence blighting our public life | Kenan Malik

  02-02-2019 20:30
  Endless bluffing reveals a shallowness in our political and media discourse‘Bullshit,” the philosopher Harry Frankfurt observed in a seminal essay on the subject, “is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about.” He wrote that in 2005, but he might have been watching recent episodes of This Week, BBC’s late-night politics show, presided over by Andrew Neil. Over the past two weeks, it’s thrown up two car-
  
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• Search zone for missing footballer Emiliano Sala narrowed

  02-02-2019 20:26
  The search for the wreckage of the plane that disappeared while carrying footballer Emiliano Sala has been narrowed to four square nautical miles in the English Channel.Both pilot David Ibbotson and the Argentinian footballer are missing, presumed dead.Sala had just completed a £15m transfer to the Premier League, joining Cardiff City from French club Nantes.
  
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• Man flees on bike after armed robbery bid

  02-02-2019 20:16
  Police are appealing for witnesses to the incident in Dunblane.
  
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• Blake Austin powers in debut try as menacing Warrington thrash Leeds

  02-02-2019 20:15
  • Warrington 26-6 Leeds
  • Australian finishes off superb move to cap dominant displayOne performance does not define a season – particularly in the unpredictable world of Super League – but this was about as emphatic an opening-weekend display from Warrington as you are likely to find. Granted, they were perhaps fortunate to face a Leeds side who will clearly take some time to get going in 2019, but there were no such signs of early-season rustiness from the Wolves.The rugb
  
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• Reports Nissan could abandon X-Trail building plans ‘deeply troubling’

  02-02-2019 20:06
  The Japanese company has refused to confirm the plans.
  
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• Henry Slade scored twice as England stun Ireland in Six Nations

  02-02-2019 20:06
  • Ireland 20-32 England
  • England score four tries to claim bonus-point win in DublinIreland’s six-year ground record in the Six Nations was seized by a ruthless England side that was as clear in its thinking as it was muddled a year ago. They not only won there for only the third time in the Six Nations but did so with a bonus point after taking control of the game from the start and relentlessly grinding down the champions, whose paucity of ideas when chasing a game was exposed
  
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• Police ‘extremely concerned’ for missing student, Libby Squire

  02-02-2019 20:03
  The 21-year-old has not been seen since Thursday night.
  
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• Carry on shivering … overnight freeze brings new threat to travellers

  02-02-2019 20:03
  Sporting fixtures postponed amid clear-up with -16C low forecastAfter two days of snow left travellers stranded in many parts of Britain, people across the country were struggling to get back to normal on Saturday, amid warnings of more dangerous weather Sunday.Drivers were returning to collect cars they had been forced to abandon at the roadside during the snowfall – up to 14cm deep in some places – while workmen were clearing roads of ice, snow and debris. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘Dragon of Bethesda’ causes traffic havoc in north Wales

  02-02-2019 19:45
  The 25ft beast, carved from a fallen tree, looms out of the undergrowth on the A5 near Tregarth.
  
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• Ireland v England: Six Nations 2019 – live!

  02-02-2019 19:37
  Minute-by-minute updates on the action in DublinScotland 33-20 Italy | Wales extend winning runAnd you can email Niall or tweet @niallmcveigh 6.37pm GMT More changes: John Cooney is on for Conor Murray, while the exemplary Mako Vunipola and Jamie George are finally stood down. Luke Cowan-Dickie and Ellis Genge come on. 6.36pm GMT I’m not sure even Eddie Jones saw this coming. Ireland are getting shown up in their own backyard, Farrell stretching the lead to 19 points. Continue reading...
  
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• Leeds United v Norwich City: Championship – live!

  02-02-2019 19:36
  Updates from the top-of-the-table clash in the ChampionshipLive scores: the goals as they go in around the UK and EuropeSend your thoughts to Scott by email here 6.36pm GMT Leeds get the second half underway. They’ve made a double change at half-time, hooking Pablo Hernandez and Jack Harrison and replacing them with Barry Douglas and the exceptional young talent of Jack Clarke. 6.24pm GMT Half-time advertisement. Continue reading...
  
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• West Indies v England: second Test, day three – live!

  02-02-2019 19:33
  Over-by-over updates on the action at the Sir Vivian Richards StadiumBroad earns just reward but England sleepwalk towards oblivionAny thoughts? You can email them to Tanya here 6.33pm GMT 26th over: England 66-4 (Stokes 2, Buttler 0) Joseph is borderline unplayable this afternoon. He’s a 22 year old beanpole, no overt exuberance, not that you would expect it on such a sad day, but just testing spitting ball after testing spitting ball.I’m still thinking about Root - i’ll try a
  
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• Forget philanthropy. The super-rich should be paying proper taxes | Nick Cohen

  02-02-2019 19:30
  Rather than funding a better state, they hide behind the fig leaf of charitable givingA half-lie dominates modern culture that is worse than a straight lie because it contains enough truth to persuade readers who otherwise wouldn’t be fooled. The people from somewhere have risen up against the people from nowhere, it runs. The globalised elites, once as comfortable in Manhattan as Davos, have been humbled by the left-behind working-class.The half of the lie that’s true is that Brexit
  
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• Corbyn calls for snap election to help put an end to austerity

  02-02-2019 19:20
  Labour leader wants people bearing the brunt of ‘nine years of austerity’ to have their sayJeremy Corbyn has called for a snap general election during a meeting of anti-poverty charities in Glasgow. He said that people who have experienced “the brunt of nine years of austerity” must be allowed a new vote.The Labour leader met with voluntary organisations and charities working to tackle poverty in south-west Glasgow on Saturday, where he criticised “Tory cuts”
  
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• One family’s Brexit dilemma: ‘I’ll fight to keep us together until the very last day’

  02-02-2019 19:15
  Scotswoman faces parting with disabled Belgian husband or abandoning daughterIt is the worst kind of choice: does Patricia Goossens lose her Belgian husband and their family’s only guaranteed source of income, or does she abandon her home in Scotland and leave her autistic adult daughter behind?Her husband, Frans, is disabled and receives invalidity benefit payments from the Belgian government after contracting peritonitis in 2006, a debilitating abdominal infection that left him in a coma
  
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• What 2,000 job cuts tell us: the free market kills digital journalism

  02-02-2019 19:08
  Big commercial online news providers are shedding staff in large numbers as social media firms swallow advertising revenuesIn December 2016, Jonah Peretti, the charismatic founder of the digital news and entertainment company BuzzFeed, penned his annual memo to his 1,400 staff. The memo outlined some of Peretti’s frustrations after that year’s US presidential election had revealed how much shoddy and misleading content was circulating online. His own news site had revealed some of th
  
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• Observer archive: char ladies of the Foreign Office, 4 February 1968

  02-02-2019 19:00
  Photographer Jane Bown and writer John Gale met the Londoners who were facing the loss of their jobs.Rumours that the Government is planning to sack hundreds of its office cleaners in the name of economy have aroused indignation in the ranks of Whitehall’s early-morning army. The Civil Service Union still hopes to get the Treasury to change its mind.Outside the Foreign Office one cold morning last week, the cleaners, wonderful women with bags, fur coats, paste brooches, warm boots and silk
  
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• James Lasdun: ‘I had psychic material to work with’

  02-02-2019 19:00
  The writer and poet on his accidental #MeToo novel, his love of classic novellas, and why male friendships are eternally fascinatingJames Lasdun is a novelist, short-story writer, poet and film-maker. With Jonathan Nossiter, he co-wrote the films Sunday (1997) – which won the grand jury prize and the Waldo Salt screenwriting award at Sundance – and Signs & Wonders (2000), starring Charlotte Rampling and Stellan Skarsgård. He was born in the UK – the son of architect S
  
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• Inside Theresa May's brain – cartoon

  02-02-2019 19:00
  The prime minister contemplates her next move Continue reading...
  
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• Book clinic: what’s likely to impress an English literature admissions tutor?

  02-02-2019 18:59
  Philip Hensher suggests some great novelists, from GK Chesterton to VS Naipaul, who aren’t on the curriculumQ: What books should my daughter read to impress English literature admissions tutors at interviews for university?
  Anonymous policy officer, 48, SurreyA: Philip Hensher, novelist, critic and professor of creative writing at Bath Spa University, writes:
  Academics are literary professionals. They are going to value someone who engages with literature, even disagreeing with books while
  
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• Blair Kinghorn hat-trick sparks Scotland’s Six Nations victory over Italy

  02-02-2019 18:55
  • Scotland 33-20 Italy
  • Three late Italy tries in vain with Scotland well clearBLAIR Kinghorn scored Scotland’s first Championship hat-trick in 30 years as the home team got their Six Nations campaign off to a competent start against a limited Italian side. Stuart Hogg and Chris Harris also touched down as Gregor Townsend’s team had the bonus point wrapped up with 25 minutes to play, but some chaos and confusion ensued in a final 10-minute spell which saw Italy, who previo
  
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• French 'yellow vests' march in Paris to denounce police violence

  02-02-2019 18:31
  Protesters injured in previous weeks of violence put at the front of the protests in French capitalSeveral thousand “gilets jaunes” protesters have marched through Paris and other French cities on Saturday on the 12th weekend of action against the government despite opinion polls pointing to a recovery in Emmanuel Macron’s popularity.The protests – named after the fluorescent jackets French motorists are required to carry in their cars – began in November over plans
  
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• Virginia governor refuses to resign over racist yearbook photo

  02-02-2019 18:17
  Ralph Northam reportedly questioning whether he appears in image, despite earlier admissionThe Virginia governor Ralph Northam has refused to resign, despite widespread calls for him to step down in response to the publication of a decades-old picture the Democrat admitted showed him dressed as either a member of the Ku Klux Klan or in blackface.Northam said he would not resign on Saturday morning, according to the Virginia Democratic party. According to reports, Northam was questioning whether
  
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• Police van collides with stolen car after pursuit

  02-02-2019 18:16
  Three teenagers, aged 13, 14, and 18, were inside a stolen Mini car when it was involved in a collision with the police van.
  
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• Men stopped attempted rape of teenager and held suspect until police arrived

  02-02-2019 18:11
  Greater Manchester Police appealed for witnesses in connection with the incident in Ashton-under-Lyne.
  
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• Slavery in Britain: the photographer documenting the streets where people have been held

  02-02-2019 18:00
  About 13,000 people are kept in slavery in the UK. Amy Romer’s book The Dark Figure* reveals the terrifying ordinariness of the sites of their captivity
  In 2013, a 22-year-old Hungarian woman responded to an online ad for a babysitting job in London and, after a telephone interview, was offered the post. When she arrived in Budapest to travel to London, she was met by three men who confiscated her mobile, drove her to Slovakia and forced her on to a coach bound for Manchester.There was no
  
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• Screen dreams: cinemas of the world – in pictures

  02-02-2019 18:00
  For 16 years, Paris-based photographer Stephan Zaubitzer has been photographing cinemas around the world. His Cinémas project started in 2003 in Burkina Faso, where he began to shoot open-air cinemas. “With the arrival of video and television, the very existence of these cinemas is under threat,” he says. “The cinema defines the neighbourhood it is in. When a cinema closes, the whole soul of the neighbourhood is lost.” Zaubitzer has visited 15 countries, including
  
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• Hazard and Higuaín maul Huddersfield as Chelsea end their wobble in style

  02-02-2019 17:57
  There have been times over the last week when Maurizio Sarri’s decision to pin his hopes on Gonzalo Higuaín had felt risky. Witness that display in midweek when the Argentinean had barely mustered a touch as Chelsea, collectively and ignominiously, subsided at Bournemouth. Or indeed the head coach’s post-match observations on the south coast that the striker was “not in good shape”. This team needed the loanee from Juventus, hardly an ideal buy at 31, to hit the gr
  
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• Nissan shelving plans to build new X-Trail in UK, claims report

  02-02-2019 17:56
  Firm plans to move production claims Sky News, raising concerns about Brexit impactNissan has refused to comment on reports that it is abandoning plans to build a new model of one of its flagship vehicles at its Sunderland plant.The Japanese car manufacturer said in 2016 it would be building the new version of the X-Trail SUV at the factory along with its next-generation Qashqai, prompting claims that Nissan and the government had struck a “sweetheart deal” to protect the company fro
  
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• Police rescue flock of sheep from Yorkshire garden

  02-02-2019 17:54
  'Hope the culprit is caught and put behind baahhs,' quipped one commenter.
  
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• Charges dropped for deputies accused of forcing inmates into 'fight club'

  02-02-2019 17:53
  San Francisco prosecutors say they had to dismiss charges because sheriff’s department destroyed evidence in investigationThe San Francisco district attorney’s office on Friday dropped all charges against three San Francisco sheriff’s deputies accused of forcing inmates to fight for their entertainment.The San Francisco district attorney, George Gascón, filed charges against deputies Scott Neu, Eugene Jones, and Clifford Chiba in March 2016, a year after the city’s
  
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