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Spain: PM rules out post-election alliance with center-right

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez says he would not consider forming a government with the center-right Citizens party, clearing a major unknown heading into Sunday's general election.

The Socialist Party is ahead in polls, but even in the most favorable scenario, Sánchez would need to form a governing coalition or at least get support from others in parliament to stay in office.

At a televised debate Tuesday night, Sánchez said that "it's not in my plans to make any deal" with the Citizens party.

Citizens leader Albert Rivera has repeatedly ruled out an alliance with the Socialists because Sánchez was elected prime minister 10 months ago with the votes of Catalan separatists.

The Socialist leader has not accepted an offer to form a coalition with the far-left Unidas Podemos party.

Source: Fox News World

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Emerging online threats changing Homeland Security's role

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Monday that her department may have been founded to combat terrorism, but its mission is shifting to also confront emerging online threats.

China, Iran and other countries are mimicking the approach that Russia used to interfere in the U.S. presidential election in 2016 and continues to use in an attempt to influence campaigns on social media, she said. Under threat are Americans' devices and networks.

"It's not just U.S. troops and government agents on the front lines anymore," she Nielsen said. "It's U.S. companies. It's our schools and gathering places. It's ordinary Americans."

Devices and networks are "mercilessly" targeted, she said. Those responsible are "compromising, co-opting, and controlling them."

Nielsen was speaking about the priorities of a sprawling department created after the Sept. 11 attacks. It handles counterterrorism, election security and cybersecurity, natural disaster responses and border security — President Donald Trump's signature domestic issue.

The president on Friday issued his first veto, to secure money for a U.S.-Mexico border wall. Nielsen did not specifically mention that fight, but made clear that she sees a humanitarian and security crisis at the border because of an increasing number of Central American families crossing into the U.S. to seek asylum.

While the overall number of migrants coming into the U.S. is down from a high of 1.6 million in 2000, the number of families crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has reached record highs. The system is at a breaking point, she said.

Nielsen said the department has introduced tougher screening systems at airports and is working with the State Department to notify other countries of stricter information-sharing requirements. She said the countries that work with the U.S. will make the world safer, and those that do not "will face consequences."

Source: Fox News National

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Behind the budget ‘gimmick’ that could help secure Trump’s border wall

Certain things in Washington demand astute attention. Then there are things which serve as spectacular distractions.

President Trump released his budget request this week. Note we said a “budget request.” It’s up to Congress to decide if it should direct money toward the President’s priorities (unless of course, the chief executive declares a national emergency).

TRUMP RELEASES BUDGET SEEKING BILLIONS FOR BORDER WALL, WORK REQUIREMENTS FOR WELFARE PROGRAMS

Budgets are worth investing some time to cull through. A close reading of the budget helps one develop a sense of the policies and positions advocated by administrations. A budget is a wish list. An aspiration. But no one should interpret a budget as a raw, fiscal ledger.

First off, budgets aren’t binding. Congress doesn’t have to approve or reject a president’s budget. That said, some lawmakers from the party opposite of the President periodically try to engineer a vote on the budget request. This is an effort to weaponize a roll call vote against vulnerable lawmakers from across the aisle – and then guffaw that the President’s budget only received so many votes from his most-loyal supporters. White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney executed such a maneuver with one of President Obama’s budgets when he served in the House as a Republican Congressman from South Carolina. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., suggested the same about Mr. Trump’s budget earlier this week.

This is where budget requests devolve into classic, Inside the Beltway theatre. In addition to the President’s budget request, the House and Senate are supposed to adopt budgets to set broad spending parameters for the entire federal government for the new fiscal year. But these budgets are “resolutions” and are not signed into law.

This is why lawmakers from both sides attempt to mastermind a series of “gotcha” votes for the other side with the budget process. This is precisely why House Democrats may not even adopt a budget this year – to say nothing of the fact that Democrats may have trouble coming together to approve a budget blueprint.

Now, if you retain nothing else from the rest of this essay, remember the following: budgets are not the same as appropriations. Lawmakers and reporters sometimes mention a “budget” when they are actually discussing appropriations. This creates infinite confusion as the public tries to understand exactly what’s important in Washington. “Appropriations” refers to the 12 spending bills Congress must approve by October 1 each year – or face a government shutdown. So, Congress certainly won’t adopt President Trump’s budget. It’s doubtful the House and Senate will adopt a budget this year, either. But what lawmakers MUST do is approve the appropriations bills or spill into yet another government shutdown come fall.

Appropriations are actual live ammo. Appropriations are real money. Budgets, again, are simply sketches.

This brings us to a familiar calisthenics routine in the annual budgetary repertoire: When does a President’s proposal forecast that the budget will balance?

NIELSEN DECLARES MIGRATION CRISIS 'SPIRALING OUT OF CONTROL,' WARNS IT WILL GET 'EVEN WORSE'

President Trump’s budget for FY 2020 says the U.S. should be able to balance the books by 2034. We’ve heard similar assertions by both Republican and Democratic Presidents for more than 40 years. And it never works.

In February, 1981, President Reagan told Congress he’d balance the budget by the end of his first term, January 1985.

Didn’t happen.

Leon Panetta served as President Clinton’s Budget Director in the early 1990s. Panetta said that

Mr. Clinton was crafting a budget which would balance in a decade.

Didn’t happen.

Republicans controlled both bodies of Congress in the mid-1990s. Then House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., crafted the so-called “Contract with America,” projecting a balanced budget by 2002.

Didn’t happen.

In February, 2007, President George W. Bush advocated for a balanced budget by 2012.

Didn’t happen.

In 2013, then House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and future Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., pushed for a balanced budget by 2023. We’re still four years away from 2023. But there is no way the federal government can curb the current fiscal trajectory in such a short timeframe.

Moreover, Ryan became House Budget Committee chairman in 2011. Ryan’s stock in trade was balancing the budget down the road and slashing close to $6 trillion in spending. These efforts were known colloquially as the “Ryan Budget” and formally as “The Path to Prosperity.” Fellow Republicans perceived Ryan as a budget genius. Ryan’s fiscal doctrine helped fuel his political ascendency. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, tapped the Wisconsin Republican to be the GOP Vice Presidential nominee in 2012. Ryan claimed the Speaker’s gavel in 2015.

As for balancing the budget and cutting spending?

Didn’t happen.

So, the latest goal for a balanced budget is 2034.

“The theme of this budget is promises kept. Taxpayers first,” said Acting Budget Director Russ Vought on Fox. “From day one, this President has put forward spending reductions in his very first budget that were the most in history of any President.”

So, 2034?

Well, anything is possible. But outside budget experts have decried the Trump budget as stocked with gimmicks. Likely they can balance the budget by 2034? Or ever? Just look at the track record.

This is why scouring through some of the President’s annual budget is an exercise in futility.

But here’s something which does deserve some scrutiny in the document.

Lawmakers and presidential administrations have long dealt with fiscal phenomenon called OCO. It’s pronounced OH-koh. It’s short for Overseas Contingency Operations. There are 12 annual spending measures which fund the federal government. But residing off to the side of those 12 spending silos is OCO. It’s not an individual appropriations bill. OCO is real money which adds to the deficit. It’s a fund lawmakers use to cover military and “overseas” spending needs which they don’t tuck into the regular spending bills.

Members of both parties have long criticized “gimmicks” like OCO as a way to spend money “off budget.” A better way to say it would be “off appropriations.” That way, the actual spending number in the separate appropriations bills looks good. But Congressional leaders need to court the support from lawmakers who simultaneously want to cut money and expend resources on various federal projects. That’s where OCO comes in.

Moreover, OCO isn’t subject to “sequestration spending caps” imposed in 2011. To solve the 2011 debt limit crisis, Congress and the Obama Administration agreed to “sequestration,” a set of mandatory restrictions, capping the size of each of the 12 spending bills. Those ceilings remain in place. But the sequestration restrictions don’t apply to OCO.

At a briefing Monday, Vought told reporters that the administrations does “not request any OCO money, for the purchasing of or for the completion of the wall.”

True. But OCO is connected to the wall.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., has said repeatedly his panel will attempt to “backfill” money the administration is decanting from the spending bills to pay for the wall. But there’s a problem. The sequestration caps block Congress from just shoveling more money into the looted appropriations silos to make up the difference.

So how do you make up the difference? 

Easy. Do the OCO-motion.

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Multiple Congressional sources note how the administration budget proposal entails $70.6 billion for defense OCO and $12.3 billion for non-defense OCO. The budget request maintains the sequestration caps. But in order to bolster defense, they added an OCO backfill. The easy place to make up the difference is OCO.

The backfill - whatever the means - is important. Lots of Republicans are for construction of the wall and the declaration of a national emergency. But they don’t want the administration to pilfer one of the spending silos and where money is directed to projects they support. That’s why the backfill is critical.

So, if you’re looking for things to count in the President’s budget, don’t pay heed to claims of balancing the budget by 2034. But do pay attention to OCO. It can be gimmicky. It’s not even a regular spending bill. But it is real money. And, OCO is key to understanding this year’s budget, the fight over the border wall and Mr. Trump’s national emergency declaration.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Barr assembles ‘team’ to look into counterintelligence investigation on Trump campaign in 2016, official says

Attorney General Bill Barr has assembled a "team" to investigate the origins of the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign, an administration official briefed on the situation told Fox News on Tuesday.

Barr told lawmakers at a contentious hearing on Tuesday that he was reviewing the bureau's “conduct” during the summer of 2016. Republicans have repeatedly called for a thorough investigation of the FBI's intelligence practices following the conclusion of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe.

This is a developing story; please check back for updates.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Trump administration ends MLB/Cuba baseball deal

The Trump administration is moving to end a deal allowing Cuban baseball players to sign contracts directly with Major League Baseball organizations, a change that appears to once again require Cuban players to cut ties with their national program before signing with MLB.

The Treasury Department told MLB attorneys in a letter Friday that it was reversing an Obama administration rule allowing the major leagues to pay the Cuban Baseball Federation a release fee equal to a percentage of each Cuban player's signing bonus. The letter was made public Monday afternoon.

By barring the payments, it appears to make the deal unworkable. The Cuban federation had agreed to release all players 25 and older with at least six years of professional experience.

Source: Fox News World

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Barr says Mueller probe did not establish Trump coordination with Russia

U.S. Attorney General Barr prepares to speak at a news conference to discuss Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential race, in Washington
U.S. Attorney General William Barr prepares to speak at a news conference to discuss Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential race, in Washington, U.S., April 18, 2019. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

April 18, 2019

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General William Barr said on Thursday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation did not find that President Donald Trump or members of his campaign worked with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.

The “investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” Barr told a news conference.

(Reporting By Amanda Becker, Ginger Gibson and Karen Freifeld)

Source: OANN

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DA, defense clash in push to seal records in officer's case

A prosecutor says family members of an armed black man who was fatally shot from behind by a white Nashville police officer in July want a slew of records made public in the officer's first-degree murder case.

But Nashville officer Andrew Delke's attorney, David Raybin, responded Tuesday that 25-year-old Daniel Hambrick's family might not want to see what the defense has.

In Tuesday's hearing on whether the records should be sealed, Raybin said District Attorney General Glenn Funk's preference of publicly filed pretrial discovery documents would let the case be tried through news coverage. Raybin said the discovery filing breaks with a state Supreme Court ruling that Funk backed.

Funk said Nashville has exceptions when cases involve children victims or rape, but Delke's case doesn't warrant the same privacy protection.

A ruling is expected early next week.

Source: Fox News National

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Cambodian authorities have ordered a one-hour reduction in the length of school days because of concerns that students and teachers may fall ill from a prolonged heat wave.

Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron said in an announcement seen Friday that the shortened hours will remain in effect until the rainy season starts, which usually occurs in May. The current heat wave, in which temperatures are regularly reaching as high as 41 Celsius (106 Fahrenheit), is one of the longest in memory.

Most schools in Cambodia lack air conditioning, prompting concern that temperatures inside classrooms could rise to unhealthy levels.

School authorities were instructed to watch for symptoms of heat stroke and urge pupils to drink more water.

The new hours cut 30 minutes off the beginning of the school day and 30 minutes off the end.

School authorities instituted a similar measure in 2016.

Source: Fox News World

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Explosions have rocked Britain’s largest steel plant, injuring two people and shaking nearby homes.

South Wales Police say the incident at the Tata Steel plant in Port Talbot was reported at about 3:35 a.m. Friday (22:35 EDT Thursday). The explosions touched off small fires, which are under control. Two workers suffered minor injuries and all staff members have been accounted for.

Police say early indications are that the explosions were caused by a train used to carry molten metal into the plant. Tata Steel says its personnel are working with emergency services at the scene.

Local lawmaker Stephen Kinnock says the incident raises concerns about safety.

He tweeted: “It could have been a lot worse … @TataSteelEurope must conduct a full review, to improve safety.”

Source: Fox News World

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The Wider Image: China's start-ups go small in age of 'shoebox' satellites
LinkSpace’s reusable rocket RLV-T5, also known as NewLine Baby, is carried to a vacant plot of land for a test launch in Longkou, Shandong province, China, April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

April 26, 2019

By Ryan Woo

LONGKOU, China (Reuters) – During initial tests of their 8.1-metre (27-foot) tall reusable rocket, Chinese engineers from LinkSpace, a start-up led by China’s youngest space entrepreneur, used a Kevlar tether to ensure its safe return. Just in case.

But when the Beijing-based company’s prototype, called NewLine Baby, successfully took off and landed last week for the second time in two months, no tether was needed.

The 1.5-tonne rocket hovered 40 meters above the ground before descending back to its concrete launch pad after 30 seconds, to the relief of 26-year-old chief executive Hu Zhenyu and his engineers – one of whom cartwheeled his way to the launch pad in delight.

LinkSpace, one of China’s 15-plus private rocket manufacturers, sees these short hops as the first steps towards a new business model: sending tiny, inexpensive satellites into orbit at affordable prices.

Demand for these so-called nanosatellites – which weigh less than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and are in some cases as small as a shoebox – is expected to explode in the next few years. And China’s rocket entrepreneurs reckon there is no better place to develop inexpensive launch vehicles than their home country.

“For suborbital clients, their focus will be on scientific research and some commercial uses. After entering orbit, the near-term focus (of clients) will certainly be on satellites,” Hu said.

In the near term, China envisions massive constellations of commercial satellites that can offer services ranging from high-speed internet for aircraft to tracking coal shipments. Universities conducting experiments and companies looking to offer remote-sensing and communication services are among the potential domestic customers for nanosatellites.

A handful of U.S. small-rocket companies are also developing launchers ahead of the expected boom. One of the biggest, Rocket Lab, has already put 25 satellites in orbit.

No private company in China has done that yet. Since October, two – LandSpace and OneSpace – have tried but failed, illustrating the difficulties facing space start-ups everywhere.

The Chinese companies are approaching inexpensive launches in different ways. Some, like OneSpace, are designing cheap, disposable boosters. LinkSpace’s Hu aspires to build reusable rockets that return to Earth after delivering their payload, much like the Falcon 9 rockets of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

“If you’re a small company and you can only build a very, very small rocket because that’s all you have money for, then your profit margins are going to be narrower,” said Macro Caceres, analyst at U.S. aerospace consultancy Teal Group.

“But if you can take that small rocket and make it reusable, and you can launch it once a week, four times a month, 50 times a year, then with more volume, your profit increases,” Caceres added.

Eventually LinkSpace hopes to charge no more than 30 million yuan ($4.48 million) per launch, Hu told Reuters.

That is a fraction of the $25 million to $30 million needed for a launch on a Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems Pegasus, a commonly used small rocket. The Pegasus is launched from a high-flying aircraft and is not reusable.

(Click https://reut.rs/2UVBjKs to see a picture package of China’s rocket start-ups. Click https://tmsnrt.rs/2GIy9Bc for an interactive look at the nascent industry.)

NEED FOR CASH

LinkSpace plans to conduct suborbital launch tests using a bigger recoverable rocket in the first half of 2020, reaching altitudes of at least 100 kilometers, then an orbital launch in 2021, Hu told Reuters.

The company is in its third round of fundraising and wants to raise up to 100 million yuan, Hu said. It had secured tens of millions of yuan in previous rounds.

After a surge in fresh funding in 2018, firms like LinkSpace are pushing out prototypes, planning more tests and even proposing operational launches this year.

Last year, equity investment in China’s space start-ups reached 3.57 billion yuan ($533 million), a report by Beijing-based investor FutureAerospace shows, with a burst of financing in late 2018.

That accounted for about 18 percent of global space start-up investments in 2018, a historic high, according to Reuters calculations based on a global estimate by Space Angels. The New York-based venture capital firm said global space start-up investments totaled $2.97 billion last year.

“Costs for rocket companies are relatively high, but as to how much funding they need, be it in the hundreds of millions, or tens of millions, or even just a few million yuan, depends on the company’s stage of development,” said Niu Min, founder of FutureAerospace.

FutureAerospace has invested tens of millions of yuan in LandSpace, based in Beijing.

Like space-launch startups elsewhere in the world, the immediate challenge for Chinese entrepreneurs is developing a safe and reliable rocket.

Proven talent to develop such hardware can be found in China’s state research institutes or the military; the government directly supports private firms by allowing them to launch from military-controlled facilities.

But it’s still a high-risk business, and one unsuccessful launch might kill a company.

“The biggest problem facing all commercial space companies, especially early-stage entrepreneurs, is failure” of an attempted flight, Liang Jianjun, chief executive of rocket company Space Trek, told Reuters. That can affect financing, research, manufacturing and the team’s morale, he added.

Space Trek is planning its first suborbital launch by the end of June and an orbital launch next year, said Liang, who founded the company in late 2017 with three other former military technical officers.

Despite LandSpace’s failed Zhuque-1 orbital launch in October, the Beijing-based firm secured 300 million yuan in additional funding for the development of its Zhuque-2 rocket a month later.

In December, the company started operating China’s first private rocket production facility in Zhejiang province, in anticipation of large-scale manufacturing of its Zhuque-2, which it expects to unveil next year.

STATE COMPETITION

China’s state defense contractors are also trying to get into the low-cost market.

In December, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC) successfully launched a low-orbit communication satellite, the first of 156 that CASIC aims to deploy by 2022 to provide more stable broadband connectivity to rural China and eventually developing countries.

The satellite, Hongyun-1, was launched on a rocket supplied by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC), the nation’s main space contractor.

In early April, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALVT), a subsidiary of CASC, completed engine tests for its Dragon, China’s first rocket meant solely for commercial use, clearing the path for a maiden flight before July.

The Dragon, much bigger than the rockets being developed by private firms, is designed to carry multiple commercial satellites.

At least 35 private Chinese companies are working to produce more satellites.

Spacety, a satellite maker based in southern Hunan province, plans to put 20 satellites in orbit this year, including its first for a foreign client, chief executive Yang Feng told Reuters.

The company has only launched 12 on state-produced rockets since the company started operating in early 2016.

“When it comes to rocket launches, what we care about would be cost, reliability and time,” Yang said.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

Source: OANN

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At least one person is reported dead and homes have been destroyed by a powerful cyclone that struck northern Mozambique and continues to dump rain on the region, with the United Nations warning of “massive flooding.”

Cyclone Kenneth arrived just six weeks after Cyclone Idai tore into central Mozambique, killing more than 600 people and displacing scores of thousands. The U.N. says this is the first time in known history that the southern African nation has been hit by two cyclones in one season.

Forecasters say the new cyclone made landfall Thursday night in a part of Mozambique that has not seen such a storm in at least 60 years.

Mozambique’s local emergency operations center says a woman in the city of Pemba was killed by a falling tree.

Source: Fox News World

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German drug and crop chemical maker Bayer holds annual general meeting
Werner Baumann, CEO of German pharmaceutical and chemical maker Bayer AG, attends the annual general shareholders meeting in Bonn, Germany, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay

April 26, 2019

By Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger

BONN (Reuters) – Bayer shareholders vented their anger over its stock price slump on Friday as litigation risks mount from the German drugmaker’s $63 billion takeover of seed maker Monsanto.

Several large investors said they will not support aspirin investor Bayer’s management in a key vote scheduled for the end of its annual general meeting.

Bayer’s management, led by chief executive Werner Baumann, could see an embarrassing plunge in approval ratings, down from 97 percent at last year’s AGM, which was held shortly before the Monsanto takeover closed in June.

A vote to ratify the board’s actions features prominently at every German AGM. Although it has no bearing on management’s liability, it is seen as a key gauge of shareholder sentiment.

“Due to the continued negative development at Bayer, high legal risks and a massive share price slump, we refuse to ratify the management board and supervisory board’s actions during the business year,” Janne Werning, representing Germany’s Union Investment, a top-20 shareholder, said in prepared remarks.

About 30 billion euros ($34 billion) have been wiped off Bayer’s market value since August, when a U.S. jury found the pesticide and drugs group liable because Monsanto had not warned of alleged cancer risks linked to its weedkiller Roundup.

Bayer suffered a similar defeat last month and more than 13,000 plaintiffs are claiming damages.

Bayer is appealing or plans to appeal the verdicts.

Deutsche Bank’s asset managing arm DWS said shareholders should have been consulted before the takeover, which was agreed in 2016 and closed in June last year.

“You are pointing out that the lawsuits have not been lost yet. We and our customers, however, have already lost something – money and trust,” Nicolas Huber, head of corporate governance at DWS, said in prepared remarks for the AGM.

He said DWS would abstain from the shareholder vote of confidence in the executive and non-executive boards.

Two people familiar with the situation told Reuters this week that Bayer’s largest shareholder, BlackRock, plans to either abstain from or vote against ratifying the management board’s actions.

Asset management firm Deka, among Bayer’s largest German investors, has also said it would cast a no vote.

Baumann said Bayer’s true value was not reflected in the current share price.

“There’s no way to make this look good. The lawsuits and the first verdicts weigh heavily on our company and it’s a concern for many people,” he said, adding it was the right decision to buy Monsanto and that Bayer was vigorously defending itself.

This month, shareholder advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis recommended investors not to give the executive board their seal of approval.

(Reporting by Patricia Weiss and Ludwig Burger; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Source: OANN

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