Archive for May 2018

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Report: Europe, China, Russia discussing new deal for Iran

May 20, 2018
Five world powers reportedly mulling offering Tehran financial aid in exchange for it adhering to 2015 nuclear accord, curbing its missile program and limiting its meddling in the region.
Reuters Published:  05.20.18 , 10:22
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5265665,00.html

Diplomats from Europe, China and Russia are discussing a new accord to offer Iran financial aid to curb its ballistic missile development and meddling in the region, in the hope of salvaging its 2015 nuclear deal, a German newspaper reported on Sunday.

The officials will meet in Vienna in the coming week under the leadership of senior European Union diplomat Helga Schmid to discuss next steps after the May 8 decision by US President Donald Trump to pull out of a 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, the Welt am Sonntag newspaper said, citing senior EU sources.

Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China would participate in the meeting, but the United States would not, it said. It was not immediately clear if Iran—which has resisted calls to curb its ballistic missile program in the past—would take part.

L to R: leaders of Germany, Russia, US, Iran, Britain and France (Photo: AP, AFP, EPA, GPO)

L to R: leaders of Germany, Russia, US, Iran, Britain and France (Photo: AP, AFP, EPA, GPO)
Under the 2015 deal, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for the lifting of most Western sanctions. One of the main complaints of the Trump administration was that the accord did not cover Iran’s missile program or its support for armed groups in the Middle East which the West considers terrorists.
Concluding a new agreement that would maintain the nuclear provisions and curb ballistic missile development efforts and Tehran’s activities in the region could help convince Trump to lift sanctions against Iran, the paper said.

“We have to get away from the name ‘Vienna nuclear agreement’ and add in a few additional elements. Only that will convince President Trump to agree and lift sanctions again,” the paper quoted a senior EU diplomat as saying.

No immediate comment was available from the German foreign ministry.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (Photo: EPA)

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (Photo: EPA)

 

The EU’s energy chief sought to reassure Iran on Saturday that the 28-member bloc remained committed to salvaging the nuclear deal, and strengthening trade with Tehran.

Officials from the EU, Germany and other countries that remain committed to the deal have said it would disastrous if EU efforts fail to preserve it.

Iran has struggled to achieve financial benefits from the deal, partly because remaining unilateral US sanctions over its missile program deterred major Western investors from doing business with Tehran.

The officials are looking for a new approach given an understanding that it would be difficult for European firms to work around new US sanctions, the newspaper reported.

It said the new deal could include billions of dollars of financial aid for Iran, in line with an EU deal that provided billions in aid to Turkey for taking in millions of migrants and closing its borders, which helped end a 2015 migrant crisis.

Iran and European powers have made a good start in talks over how to salvage the 2015 deal but much depends on what happens in the next few weeks, Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said last week.

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Trump ME peace plan: Half West Bank for Palestinians, Abu Dis as capital

May 20, 2018

May 20, 2018 @ 10:04

https://www.debka.com/trump-me-peace-plan-half-west-bank-for-palestinians-abu-dis-as-capital/

President Donald Trump sees his peace plan as a springboard for shaping an Israel-Arab track – even  if spurned by the Palestinians at first. He is preparing for the second time to unveil the all-but complete peace plan in mid-June i.e., after the month of Ramadan, subject to the situation in the region, five administration officials informed US media on Friday, May 18. His son-in-law and senior advise Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, his special adviser for international negotiations, had originally been instructed to tie up the last ends in time for its launch with the US embassy dedication in Jerusalem on May 14. The spadework was in hand. The president had discussed the peace plan’s content with three Arab leaders, Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, UAE emir Sheikh Muhammad bin Zayed, the Qatari ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi, as well as thoroughly briefing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was invited to come aboard, but he rebuffed the offer – and that was even before he generated a crisis with Israel for its deadly confrontation with Hamas in Gaza.
Some of the elements incorporated in the Trump peace plan were revealed by DEBKA Weekly 798 on April 27

  • The plan will be released on the date scheduled by Washington, regardless of a boycott by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian leadership.
  • The Arab world is expected to publicly nix the blueprint while keeping it afloat by offering to make the acceptable elements the basis for further discussions for an eventual peace deal between the Palestinians and Israel.
  • In search of a measure of Palestinian assent, the White House, Egypt and Gulf nations agreed to headhunt Palestinian figures living outside the PA domain, who hold different views from the Ramallah elite, and would be willing to underwrite the plan. Five eminent Palestinians have been found as possible candidates, including Abbas’ arch-foe Muhammed Dahlan. Feelers are still ongoing.
  • The Israeli prime minister will issue a cautious statement proposing that the Trump plan be the springboard for immediate negotiations with Arab governments on certain mutually acceptable points. Administration emissaries have buttonholed a wide range of Israeli political leaders, both in the government coalition and on opposition benches, who have agreed to look with favor on the Trump plan and not obstruct it.
  • Kushner and Greenblatt are assigned exclusively with the task of shepherding the peace plan from one stage to the next.
    The Trump plan is not a definitive document. It is designed to generate momentum for key Arab governments, notably the three Gulf emirates and Egypt, to sit down with the US and Israel and start the ball rolling for peace talks. Since this will be a long process, the Palestinians will have a chance to jump in at some point. At all events, the Arab and Israeli governments are expected to establish a mechanism for airing common issues that will be open to co-optiong Palestinians.

Sources who have had access to the text told DEBKAfile that it addresses the subjects at issue in detail, including Jerusalem. They disclosed the following nine elements:

  1.  A Palestinian state will be established with limited sovereignty across about half of the West Bank and all the Gaza Strip.
  2. Israel will retain security responsibility for most of the West Bank and the border crossings.
  3. The Jordan Valley will remain under Israel sovereignty and military control.
  4. .The Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem will pass to the Palestinian state, excepting the Old City, which will be part of Israeli Jerusalem.
  5. Abu Dis east of Jerusalem is the proposed capital of Palestine.
  6. Palestine and Jordan will share religious jurisdiction over the city’s mosques.
  7. Gaza will be integrated in the new Palestinian state provided Hamas agrees to disarm.
  8.  There is no provision in the plan for the Palestinian refugees’ “right of return” – but a compensation mechanism will be established and managed by the international community.
  9.  The Trump plan mandates Israel’s recognition as the homeland of the Jewish people, and Palestine with limited sovereignty as the Palestinian homeland.

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Aussies stand with US and Israel against the UN Human Rights Commission rabble

May 20, 2018

As my fellow editor Louisiana Steve observed in his kind welcome message to me here,  Australia and the US are similar in may ways:

Meet our new Editor – David King

And here is a good example of that similarity.

Although if the Labor Party (main left wing party in Australia, as opposed to the Liberal Party which is in government , being the main right wing party in Australia) was in government, the vote would have been an abstention.

UN Human Rights Council votes to investigate Israel for Gaza protest deaths

GENEVA, Switzerland — The UN Human Rights Council on Friday voted to establish an investigation into Israel’s killing of Palestinians during protests along the Gaza border, in a move Israel rejected as being an attempt to undermine Israel’s right to self-defense.

The council voted 29 in favor and two against with 14 countries abstaining. Australia and the US were the two countries to oppose the decision. The council also condemned “the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by the Israeli occupying forces against Palestinian civilians.”

A television screen at the UN Human Rights Council shows how countries voted on a resolution approving an investigation into Israel's handling of deadly clashes on the Gaza border, on May 18, 2018. (Foreign Ministry)

Rest of the article is here, if you wish to read the usual depressing, predictable stuff:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/un-human-rights-council-votes-to-investigate-israel-for-gaza-protest-deaths/

 

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Why do the media keep encouraging Hamas violence? 

May 19, 2018

Source: Why do the media keep encouraging Hamas violence? – Opinion – Jerusalem Post

Calling this the “dead baby strategy” may seem cruel, because it is cruel. But don’t blame the messenger for accurately describing this tactic.

BY ALAN DERSHOWITZ
 MAY 17, 2018 22:18
A Palestinian woman walks with a kite as other demonstrators pose before trying to fly them.

A Palestinian woman walks with a kite as other demonstrators pose before trying to fly them over the border fence with Israel, in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on May 4, 2018.. (photo credit: SAID KHATIB / AFP)

Hamas’s goal is to have Israel kill as many Gazans as possible so the headlines always begin, and often end, with the body count. Hamas deliberately sends women and children to the front line while their own fighters hide behind these human shields.

Hamas leaders have long acknowledged this tactic. Fathi Hammad, a Hamas member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, stated as far back as 2008:

“For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land. The elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahedin and the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly and the mujahedin, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine.

It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: ‘We desire death like you desire life.’” Hamas used this tactic to provoke two wars with Israel in which their fighters fired rockets from civilian areas, including hospitals, schools and mosques. When Israel responded, it tried its best to avoid civilian casualties, dropping warning leaflets, calling residents of potential targets and dropping non-lethal noise bombs on the roofs of houses that were being used to launch rockets and store explosives. Inevitably, some civilians were killed, and the media blamed Israel for these deaths, despite the precautions it had taken.

The same was true when Hamas built terror tunnels used to kidnap Israeli civilians. The entrances to these tunnels were in civilian areas as well, including mosques and schools. Using their own civilians as human shields, while targeting Israeli civilians, is a double war crime. Yet, the media generally focuses on Israel’s reaction to these war crimes, rather than Hamas’s war crimes themselves.

The cruel reality is that every time Israel accidentally kills a Gaza civilian, Israel loses. And every time Israel kills a Gaza civilian, Hamas wins. Israelis grieve every civilian death its army accidentally causes. Hamas benefits from every death Israel accidentally causes. That is why it encourages its women and children to become martyrs.

CALLING THIS the “dead baby strategy” may seem cruel, because it is cruel. But don’t blame the messenger for accurately describing this tactic. Blame those who cynically use it. And blame the media for playing into the hands of those who use it by reporting only the body count and not the deliberate Hamas tactic that leads to one-sided body counts.

It is true that Gaza is in a desperate situation and that it is wounded. But the wound itself is self-inflicted. When Israel ended its occupation of the Gaza Strip – removing every single soldier and settler – Gaza could have become the Singapore on the Mediterranean. It is a beautiful area with a large seacoast. It received infusions of cash and other help from Europe. Israel left behind agricultural equipment and greenhouses. But instead of using these resources to feed, house and educate its citizens, Hamas built rockets, terror tunnels and weaponry. It threw dissenters off the roof and murdered members of the Palestinian Authority who were willing to recognize Israel and negotiate with it.

Hamas rejects a two-state solution or any solution that leaves Israel intact. Its only solution is violence, and the events at the fence these past days are a manifestation of that violence. Would any country in the world allow 40,000 people, sworn to its destruction, knock down a border fence and attack its citizens living peacefully near the border? Of course not. Could Israel have done more to reduce casualties among those trying to breach the border fence? I don’t know, and neither do the legions of arm-chair generals that are currently criticizing Israel for the steps it took to prevent a catastrophe among the residents of kibbutzim and towns that are proximate to the border fence.

One thing is crystal clear: Hamas will continue to use the dead baby strategy as long as the media continues to report the deaths in the manner in which it has in recent weeks. Many in the media are complicit in these deaths because their one-sided reporting encourages Hamas to send innocent women and children to the front line.

Perhaps Israel could do a better job in defending its civilians, but it is certain the media can do a better job in reporting accurately the Hamas strategy that results in so many innocent deaths.

There is a marvelous cartoon that illustrates the difference between Hamas and Israel. It shows an Israeli soldier standing in front of a baby carriage shielding a baby in the carriage. Then it shows a Hamas terrorist standing behind a baby carriage with the baby in it, using the baby to shield him. This cartoon better illustrates the reality that is occurring at the Gaza fence than most of the “objective” reporting by the media.

Follow Alan Dershowitz on Twitter: @AlanDersh and on Facebook: @Alan- MDershowitz. This article was originally published on TheHill.com.

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11 said killed, dozens hurt in blasts at Syria’s Hama air base, cause unclear

May 19, 2018

Source: 11 said killed, dozens hurt in blasts at Syria’s Hama air base, cause unclear | The Times of Israel

Conflicting accounts emerge for what set off huge explosions at military airfield; Sky News Arabia reports attack on powerful Iranian air defenses, others say it was an accident

By JUDAH ARI GROSS 18 May 2018, 4:19 pm
Smoke is seen following reports of explosions at Hama air base in Syria on May 18, 2018. (Screen capture: Twitter)

Smoke is seen following reports of explosions at Hama air base in Syria on May 18, 2018. (Screen capture: Twitter)

Massive explosions rocked the Hama military air base in western Syrian early on Friday afternoon, killing at least 11 pro-Assad regime fighters, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syrian state media confirmed that blasts were heard coming from the base, but made no comment on casualties or the cause of the explosions.

There were conflicting reports as to what set off the blasts, which sent a huge plume of grey smoke into the air above the base.

“The explosions struck several regime depots of weapons and fuel at Hama military airport,” the Observatory said.

Syrians in Hama reported hearing at least five successive blasts, likely indicating that fuel depots and weapons caches had been hit by the blast, setting off a daisy-chain of explosions.

At least 11 members of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s coaltion were killed and dozens more were wounded in the mysterious blasts, according to the monitor.

According to the Observatory, both Syrians and foreign nationals were among the casualties.

The Sky News Arabia outlet reported that the explosions were caused by an attack on an advanced Iranian air defense system.

However, Syrian military sources told the Lebanese el-Nashra TV station that the blasts were caused by a “technical malfunction” at a weapons storage depot.

There were no immediate comments by Syrian officials on who or what was behind the explosions.

The blasts came soon after midday, as the region is experiencing a scorching heat wave. Almost all previous Israeli airstrikes on targets in Syria have been late at night or in the pre-dawn hours.

According to Sky News, the target of the strike was an Iranian Bavar 373 long-range missile defense system, a state-of-the-art model that was unveiled in 2016 and put into service in March 2017. Iranian officials compare the system to the Russian-made S-300 system, which is considered a powerful air defense platform.

Video footage from the scene, posted to social media, showed a huge cloud of smoke rising out of the military air field.

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Living in the Gaza Strip isn’t so bad, despite what Gazan protesters say

May 18, 2018

by Michael Rubin | May 14, 2018 03:57 PM Washington Examiner

Source Link: Living in the Gaza Strip isn’t so bad, despite what Gazan protesters say

{Something you’ll never hear about in the mainstream media. If you really want to blow your mind about life in Gaza, check out the following BONUS link from our friends in the ‘Down Under’. – LS}

Bonus Link: Luxury in the world’s largest prison

Israeli forces reportedly killed 52 Gazan protesters along the border fence amid violent protests. The Palestinian Authority called the killings a “terrible massacre” and the United National Human Rights Council called for the Israelis responsible to face justice. South Africa recalled its ambassador to Israel until the occupation of Gaza ends (seemingly unaware that happened 13 years ago).

Let’s put aside the fact that the same activists condemning Israel for defending itself against Hamas were largely silent when the Syrian government destroyed a Palestinian refugee camp last month. And let’s also ignore that while the world blames Israel for the Gaza siege, Egypt also shares a border with the Gaza Strip and allows far less humanitarian transit.

Eight years ago, against the backdrop of a Turkish-sponsored flotilla to bust Israel’s blockade of Gaza, Washington Post columnist George Will noted the irony that Turkey was sponsoring the Gaza flotilla at a time when Gazans enjoyed higher life expectancy and had better health than Turks. While the situation in Gaza is far from ideal, some perspective is necessary: In terms of health and welfare, the plight of Gazans today is far better than those living in many other countries.

Take, for example, life expectancy at birth. According to the CIA’s World Fact Book, Gazans born today can expect to live 74.2 years. That’s higher than Peru, Iran, Brazil, Jamaica, Ukraine, Russia, India, and more than 90 other countries.

The pattern is more the rule than the exception. Consider infant mortality. In Gaza, it is 16.6 deaths per 1,000 live births. That’s better than Pakistan, Ethiopia, Senegal, India, South Africa, and several dozen other countries.

Youth unemployment in the Gaza Strip is bad, but young Gazans are still more likely to find jobs than young South Africans, Bosnians, or Greeks.

The economy is still a problem. The Gaza Strip leads the world in gross domestic product decline, but then again, its decline is inversely proportional to the money which Hamas spends on rockets and other systems of terror. It can be hard to make ends meet anywhere in the world, but consumer price inflation is less in the Gaza Strip than in Egypt, Argentina, Turkey, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.

Cell phone penetration in Gaza is greater than in much of Africa, and more Gazans use the Internet than Lithuanians. If the Gazan leadership wanted, they could transform their territory into a regional Singapore. That they choose not to is no one’s responsibility but their own.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, leaving behind intact infrastructure capable of supporting a number of industries and to employ thousands. Rather than accept Israeli largesse, the Palestinians in Gaza destroyed greenhouses and tens of millions of dollars in other structures. Simultaneously, the international community has donated more to the Palestinians on a per capita basis than to any other people on earth. Palestinians may seek to ascribe current suffering to Israeli actions, but Palestinians have agency and, for more than a decade, have emphasized terror over welfare.

The situation in Gaza is tragic, but it’s important to keep perspective: Life for the average Gazan is far better than for the average South African, Egyptian, or Russian. That may not be the story told by press and self-described human rights activists, but World Bank and U.N. statistics do not lie.

If the international community truly wanted to help Gazans, perhaps the best way would be to hold their own government to account rather than a neighboring democracy which no longer occupies the Gaza Strip and which has allowed sufficient aid and assistance through to give Gazans far better opportunities than many Turks, Russians, and Egyptians enjoy. Let’s hope journalists and diplomats fact-check protesters, because to buy into Hamas propaganda is to endorse the tactics Hamas embraces in the Gaza Strip and to ensure terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere replicate them.

Michael Rubin (@Mrubin1971) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Pentagon official.

 

Categories: Gaza, Gaza blockade, Gaza electricity shortage, Gaza war, Israel and electricity for Gaza, Media and Gaza
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The Blame Game

May 17, 2018

Source Link: Legal Insurrection Branco Cartoon

{Yep. – LS}

Categories: Hamas
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Israeli Researchers Announce Patent of Molecule that Could Reprogram Cancer Cells

May 17, 2018

 

by ISRAEL21c | The Tower

Source Link: Israeli Researchers Announce Patent of Molecule that Could Reprogram Cancer Cells

{Saving mankind one cell at a time. – LS}

A novel molecule that not only inhibits growth of cancer cells but also has the ability to reprogram the cancer cells back to normal-like cells is patented and ready to be further developed with a commercial partner, according to BGN Technologies (the tech-transfer company of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) and the National Institute for Biotechnology, a research institute at the university.

The potentially groundbreaking approach, which came out of a research group led by BGU Prof. Varda Shoshan-Barmatz, is based on preventing the expression of VDAC1, a protein that is highly overexpressed in many solid and non-solid tumors.

VDAC1 serves as the gatekeeper of the mitochondria, organelles that control cell metabolism, and is therefore crucial for supplying the high energy demands of malignant cells.

Shoshan-Barmatz showed that silencing VDAC1 expression using the siRNA method leads to inhibition of cancer cells (but not healthy cells), both in vitro and in mouse models of glioblastoma, lung cancer and triple negative breast cancer.

Treating cancer cells with VDAC1-specific siRNA also induces metabolic rewiring of the cancer cells, reversing their oncogenic properties and prompting normal cell differentiation.

“Although still in early stages, we are excited with our results that demonstrate the potential of this novel molecule for cancer treatment,” said Shoshan-Barmatz.

The paper revealing the results of the studies was published in July 2017 in the journal Neuro-Oncology.

Dr. Ora Horovitz, senior vice president of business development at BGN Technologies, said, “We are now seeking partners for the further development and advancement of this promising patented treatment towards the clinic in the hope that it will lead to a novel path for cancer treatment.”

(via Israel21c)

[Photo: Spongelab Community / YouTube ]

 

Categories: Israeli technology
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Turkish Banker Sentenced to Prison for Helping Iran Evade U.S. Sanctions

May 17, 2018


In this courtroom sketch Mehmet Hakan Atilla, second from left, listens to the judge during his sentencing, flanked by his attorneys Cathy Fleming, left, and Victor Rocco as Atilla’s wife, upper right, listens to the proceedings Wednesday, May 16, 2018, in New York. U.S. District Judge Richard Berman imposed a sentence of 32 months in prison on the Turkish banker convicted of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

OAN Newsroom Thurs. May 17, 2018 One America News Network

Source Link: Turkish Banker Sentenced to Prison for Helping Iran Evade U.S. Sanctions

{Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. – LS}

A Turkish banker is sentenced to 32-months in prison for helping to execute one of the largest sanction evasion cases ever prosecuted in the U.S.

A New York-based federal court announced the decision against Mehmet Hakan Atilla on Wednesday, just months after he was convicted of bank fraud and conspiracy in January.

A judge is granting Atilla time served for the 14-months he already spent behind bars following his arrest in 2017 during a trip to the U.S. This means the 47-year-old could return to Turkey in little more than a year.

The sentence comes as a disappointment to prosecutors, who recommended Atilla serve at least 20-years for jeopardizing U.S. national security.

They say he abused his top position at a state-owned Turkish bank a decade ago to help Iran circumvent U.S. sanctions and access frozen assets.

The move helped to pour billions of dollars of Iranian oil profits into the world market, creating a slush fund for the country to use.

Eight other Turkish and Iranian defendants were indicted along with Atilla for their alleged roles in the evasion.

One of the men — prominent gold trader Reza Zarrab — shocked the world by pleading guilty and helping the U.S. to unravel the scheme.

The judge ruled Atilla was more of a minor player in the overall plan, and not the mastermind prosecutors tried to paint him out to be.

The decision came in part after more than 100 letters from Atilla’s friends, family and colleagues were read by the courts attesting to his character as a family man.

Turkish President Tayyib Erdogan has weighed in on the case, blasting it as a slight towards the whole country.

The legal proceedings have caused further division between the U.S. and its NATO ally Turkey. Lawyers for Atilla say he plans to appeal the ruling.

Categories: Iran - sanctions, Iran - sanctions enforcement
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Guatemala Opens Embassy in Jerusalem, Israel

May 17, 2018

by Jim Hoft May 17, 2018 Gateway Pundit

Source Link: Guatemala Opens Embassy in Jerusalem, Israel

{Congrats ! – LS}

Guatemala became the second country following the United States to open its new embassy in Jerusalem, Israel.

Guatemala held an opening ceremony in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

The United States opened its embassy in Jerusalem on Monday following decades of promises.

Categories: More countries moving embassies to Jerusalem
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