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Biden Has the Best Shot at Beating Trump

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WASHINGTON -- Joe Biden begins his presidential campaign with a lead over the crowded Democratic field and a simple message the nation can immediately grasp: I can stop the madness. I can beat Donald Trump.

That doesn't mean Biden will necessarily win the nomination, which depends on a host of factors, including how well the 76-year-old former vice president performs -- and whether a party eager to turn a generational page is willing to embrace him. Age is an issue for Biden, no question. But at least he can boast of being younger than his closest competitor in the polls, Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is 77.

As he makes his announcement, according to the Real Clear Politics average of national polls, Biden leads all comers with the support of 29.3% of Democratic voters. Sanders is second at 23% -- with everyone else far behind.

Four candidates who are bunched between 8.3% and 6.3% in the RCP poll average -- Sen. Kamala Harris, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former congressman Beto O'Rourke -- might be considered a second tier, I suppose. But at this point it's a pretty low tier. If the race were a skyscraper, that group would be on the mezzanine -- with Sen. Cory Booker struggling to join them. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro and the rest of the multitude remain stuck, for now, on the ground floor.

State polls tell much the same story. Warren did well earlier this month in a poll of Democrats in her home state of Massachusetts, as did Harris in a poll in her home state of California. But in those surveys, as in all others I can find, Biden and Sanders were well ahead of the pack.

Familiarity has a lot to do with it -- Biden has been on the national stage since before most Americans were born, and Sanders came close to beating Hillary Clinton for the nomination in 2016. Things could change dramatically after the debates begin and voters get to know the cast of characters.

But my guess is that electability, or perceived electability, is also playing a role in boosting Biden to an early lead. The one thing that must be accomplished in 2020 is the defeat of President Trump. In the announcement video he posted on social media Thursday, Biden called it a "battle for the soul of this nation." He said the question was whether Trump's tenure would turn out to be an "aberrant moment in time" or an eight-year presidency that "forever and fundamentally" coarsened, cheapened and divided our society.

Biden's video focused on Trump's reaction to the 2017 rally of white supremacists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members in Charlottesville, which led to the murder of an innocent counterprotestor, Heather Heyer. Trump reacted by saying there were "some very fine people on both sides."

At that point, Biden said, "I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had seen in my lifetime." He said that is why he is running for president.

Conventional wisdom holds that the Democratic candidates can't just be anti-Trump -- that they must talk primarily about bread-and-butter issues such as health care, the opioid crisis and the hollowing out of the working class. Indeed, Democrats do have to offer solutions. But to be silent about Trump is to tiptoe around the elephant in the parlor. The single biggest issue, for the health and prosperity of the nation, is getting him out of office.

We will hear much in the coming months about which candidates appeal to which components of the electorate. Biden potentially could do very well with two widely disparate groups in particular -- the white working-class voters in the Rust Belt who gave Trump his 2016 victory; and the African Americans without whose support no one can win the Democratic presidential nomination.

But is he too moderate for a party that has moved leftward in recent years? I think Biden should invite a group of the fiery first-term Democratic women in the House to lunch. Instead of trying to hug them, he should listen to what they have to say. If he fails to make a real effort to understand how the party has changed, his first day on the campaign trail may turn out to have been his best day.

There's nothing wrong with his calculation of the stakes, however. The Democratic nominee has to be someone who can stand up to Trump and ultimately beat him. Biden says that's what he'll do.

(c) 2019, Washington Post Writers Group

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Boeing rolls out software fix to defend 737 MAX franchise

737 Max aircrafts are pictured at the Boeing factory in Renton
737 Max aircrafts are pictured at the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, U.S., March 27, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson

March 27, 2019

By Eric M. Johnson and David Shepardson

SEATTLE/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Boeing Co on Wednesday took its most aggressive moves yet to defend its core 737 airliner franchise, saying it had developed software fixes to prevent failures of an automated flight control system that is being scrutinized after two deadly crashes in the past five months.

Boeing, in the midst of one its worst crises in years, is under pressure from crash victims’ families, airlines, lawmakers in Washington and regulators around the world to prove that the automated flight control systems aboard its 737 MAX aircraft are safe, and that pilots have the training required to override the system in an emergency.

A Boeing official in Seattle said on Wednesday the timing of the software upgrade was “100 percent independent of the timing of the Ethiopian accident,” and the company was taking steps to make the anti-stall system “more robust.” There was no need to overhaul Boeing’s regulatory relationship with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) now, the company said.

“We are going to do everything that we can do to ensure that accidents like these never happen again,” Mike Sinnett, Vice President for Product Strategy and Future Airplane Development told reporters.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and some lawmakers on Wednesday questioned why Boeing did not require safety features on its top-selling plane that might have prevented the crashes.

“It is very questionable if these were safety-oriented additions, why they were not part of the required template of measures that should go into an airplane,” she said, adding she was not ready to require that all safety options be retrofitted on existing airplane.

A spokesman for the FAA said the agency had not reviewed or certified the software upgrade yet.

Southwest Airlines Co, which on Wednesday became the first major airline to formally cut its financial outlook for the year after being forced to pull its MAX fleet of 34 jets out of service, supported Boeing’s decision.

“Boeing’s software update appears to add yet another layer of safety to the operation of the MAX aircraft,” Southwest’s certificate chief pilot Bob Waltz said. The carrier would fully comply with final guidance from the FAA, he said.

Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines Group Inc pilots, said they were pleased with Boeing’s progress on the software but warned that the certification process should not be rushed. The fix should be fully vetted and take into account any further information from an investigation into an Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10, the association said in a statement.

Airline stocks turned positive after Boeing unveiled its 737 MAX software fix.

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The world’s largest planemaker said the anti-stall system, which is believed to have repeatedly forced the nose lower in at least one of the accidents, in Indonesia last October, would only do so one time after sensing a problem, giving pilots more control.

It will also be disabled if two airflow sensors that measure the “angle of attack,” or angle of the wing to the airflow, a fundamental parameter of flight, offer widely different readings, Boeing said. Reuters reported those details earlier this week.

The anti-stall system – known as MCAS, or Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System – has been pinpointed by investigators as a possible cause in a fatal Lion Air crash in Indonesia and the one in Ethiopia.

Existing 737 pilots will also have extra computer-based training following criticism that MCAS was not described in the aircraft manual.

Boeing has previously said existing cockpit procedures would cover any example of runaway controls caused by MCAS.

The changes were drawn up in response to the Lion Air crash but are seen as crucial to regaining the trust of pilots, passengers and regulators after the Ethiopia crash prompted a worldwide grounding of Boeing 737 MAX planes.

Ethiopian officials and some analysts have said the Ethiopian Airlines jet behaved in a similar pattern before crashing shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa, but that investigation is still at an early stage.

Boeing’s Sinnett said the software had been through extensive testing, including flights with the FAA. However, he said he could provide no timeframe for when the 737 MAX jets would return to service.

Boeing said it would change the design of the system so that it no longer relied on a single sensor. The changes also would make standard visual warnings to the pilots if the system had stopped working. Previously, those warning messages and displays had been optional.

Reuters reported in November after the Lion Air disaster that some aviation experts believed the optional alert could have alerted engineers about mechanical faults, leading to an industry debate over whether the system should be mandatory.

Current 737 MAX pilots have criticized Boeing for not disclosing more details about MCAS initially. Sinnett said the company has added details on MCAS to its flight crew operations manual. All pilots will need to complete this training before returning to the skies, he said.

John Hamilton, chief engineer for 737 Max flight displays, said in a statement that “all primary flight information required to safely and efficiently operate the 737 MAX” was already included without the features that would now be offered.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle, David Shepardson in Washington, Tim Hepher in Paris, Tracy Rucinski in Chicago and Allison Lampert in New York; writing by Ben Klayman; editing by Grant McCool)

Source: OANN

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Despite pressure, Venezuela’s Maduro seems set on staying put: U.S. envoy

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro attends a rally in support of his government in Caracas
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro attends a rally in support of his government in Caracas, Venezuela March 9, 2019. Miraflores Palace/Handout via REUTERS

March 10, 2019

By Lesley Wroughton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – There are no signs that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is open to negotiations to end the political impasse with opposition leader Juan Guaido, Washington’s envoy for Venezuela said.

Elliott Abrams, who served in the administrations of both Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, said any negotiated solution would need to be reached among Venezuelans, and that the United States could help by lifting or easing U.S. sanctions and travel restrictions once Maduro agreed to go.

Abrams, however, played down any possibility that the Venezuelan president was ready to talk about his exit. “From everything we have seen, Maduro’s tactic is to stay put,” Abrams said in an interview on Friday.

Some 56 countries have recognized Guaido as Venezuela’s interim head of state, but Maduro retains the backing of Russia and China as well as control of state institutions including the military.

Abrams has met with Russian representatives to the United States about Moscow’s support for Maduro. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier this month, after a phone call with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, that Moscow was ready to take part in bilateral talks on Venezuela.

“The Russians are not happy with Maduro for all the obvious reasons,” Abrams said. “In a couple of conversations I have been told they have given advice to Maduro and he doesn’t take it.”

“They continue to support him and there is no indication that I have seen that they are telling him it’s time to bring this to an end,” he said, adding: “There could come a point where the Russians reach a conclusion that the regime is really unsalvageable.”

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Washington has called on foreign banks to ensure that Maduro and Venezuelan government officials are not hiding financial assets abroad. John Bolton, the U.S. national security advisor, last week threatened to impose sanctions against any financial institution that help Maduro.

“We are not going to get any cooperation on this from Russian banks, but I think every step we take makes it harder for the regime to steal money,” Abrams said.

Moscow is owed $3.1 billion in sovereign debt by Venezuela and acted as a lender of last resort for Caracas, with the government and Russian oil giant, Rosneft, handing Venezuela at least $17 billion in loans and credit lines since 2006.

Abrams said he had not yet spoken to Chinese government officials about Beijing’s support for Maduro, blaming scheduling issues. “We will do it,” Abrams said.

Referring to Cuba, the U.S. envoy described it as “a parasite that has been feeding off Venezuela for decades” by taking its oil while offering intelligence and other protections for Maduro.

“There are thousands of Cuban officers, and literally, physically, around him. In some ways they are the key advisors to Maduro,” Abrams said of Havana’s role.

Communist-run Cuba has been a key backer of the Venezuelan socialist government since the Bolivarian Revolution that began under former leader Hugo Chavez in 1998.

Cuba has denied it has security forces in Venezuela and said statements like Abrams’ were part of a campaign of lies aimed at paving the way for U.S. military intervention in the South American country.

(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Additional reporting by Christian Lowe in Moscow; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

Source: OANN

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Berlin subway transport strike results in graffiti bonanza

A 24-hour transport strike in Berlin has proved a golden opportunity for the German capital's graffiti scene.

The publicly owned BVG transport company says about 140 subway cars were spray-painted during Monday's strike — about 10 percent of its underground rolling stock — despite "all security measures."

In a statement Tuesday, the company said the graffiti covered a surface of about 2,000 square meters (21,530 sq. feet).

BVG says some of the trains will have to be put into service despite being defaced, but some delays are inevitable.

Source: Fox News World

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North Korea’s Kim Jong Un says U.S. must change stance, gives deadline

FILE PHOTO - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un takes part in the 4th Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang
FILE PHOTO - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un takes part in the 4th Plenary Meeting of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) in Pyongyang in this April 10, 2019 photo released on April 11, 2019 by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). KCNA via REUTERS

April 12, 2019

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said the breakdown in talks with the United States has raised the risks of returning to past tensions, but he is only interested in meeting President Donald Trump again if the United States comes with the right attitude, state media KCNA said on Saturday.

Kim said that he will wait for the United States to decide “until the end of this year”, according to KCNA.

“What is needed is for the U.S. to stop its current way of calculation, and come to us with a new calculation,” Kim said in a speech on Friday, KCNA said.

(Reporting by Joyce Lee, Heekyong Yang and Josh Smith; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: OANN

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Trump Mocks Beto’s Hand Gestures: ‘Is He Crazy, or Is That the Way He Acts?’

President Trump on Thursday responded to Beto O’Rourke throwing his hat in the ring by mocking the way the failed Texas Senate candidate moves his hands.

During a meeting with Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar in the Oval Office, the president questioned if the hand gestures made by O’Rourke were authentic or a symptom of some underlying mental illness.

“He has a lot of hand movement. Is he crazy or is that just the way he acts?” Trump answered when asked his thoughts on the Texas Democrat’s presidential announcement. “I’ve never seen hand movement, I watched him a little while this morning, doing, I assume some kind of a news conference. I’ve actually never seen anything quite like it. Study it. I’m sure you’ll agree.”

Another reporter asked the president who he thought the bigger Democrat threat was between O’Rourke and former Vice President Joe Biden.

“Whoever it is, I’ll take them all,” Trump responded.

O’Rourke, who lost a Texas Senate race in 2018 to incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz, broke news of his 2020 presidential aspirations on social media early Thursday morning.

O’Rourke also spoke to supporters in Iowa after his presidential announcement.

Throughout the 2016 presidential election campaign, then-candidate Trump displayed his flair for inventing descriptive terms and nicknames for his opponents — deemed “linguistic kill shots” by hypnotist and Dilbert creator Scott Adams — which worked to harm their public perception.


Source: InfoWars

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Jobs With the Highest Gender Pay Gaps

The topic of gender pay gap has become a hot one in recent years and a fresh wave of studies have been released highlighting the issue and identifying jobs that pay women the least.

The Pew Research Center noted last month, while the gender gap in pay has narrowed since 1980, it has remained relatively stable over the past 15 years. According to the report, women earned 85 percent of what men earned last year. Based on this estimate, it would take an extra 39 days of work for women to earn what men did in 2018.

Heidi Hartmann, president of the Washington-based Institute for Women's Policy Research noted there have been numerous debates on whether or not this wage gap is due to occupational differences, or "women's choices," but data shows the gap is not a result of choices by women.

"Analysis finds that we have actually been underestimating the extent of pay inequality in the labor market," Hartmann said, according to Reuters.

Amid ongoing investigations, Stacker set out to do an analysis of its own, examining 113 occupations against data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to establish the jobs that had the highest gender pay gaps. According to the report, women were hit the hardest in the financial world, where roles of securities, commodities, and financial services sales agents were dominated by men. The weekly difference in earnings between men and women in the field was $592, the report noted.

Insurance is another field with a large gender pay gap. Stacker noted women in credit counselors and loan officer positions earned only 65.7 percent of a man's salary, making a net loss of nearly $26,000 a year.

The medical field sees its share of wage gaps, with a weekly difference in earnings of $836 between men and women. However, Stacker noted, as more women enroll into medical school, the pay gap may close.

Truck driving is another job that sees a high gender pay gap but the occupation is largely seen as a "man's" job. Meanwhile in the office, Stacker found a whopping $752 difference in weekly earnings between men and women in Chief executive roles.

The report found, in many companies across the U.S., female employees accounted for just over 40 percent of the staff complement, with 37 percent of first-level and middle-level officials, and 27 percent of executive and senior-level managers.

Other jobs with a notable gender pay gap, according to Stacker, include:

  • Real estate brokers and sales agents: With a $381 difference in weekly earnings between men and women.
  • Financial managers: With a $522 difference in weekly earnings between men and women.
  • First-line supervisors of production and operating workers: With a $305 difference in weekly earnings between men and women.
  • Retail salespersons: With a $221 difference in weekly earnings between men and women.
  • Taxi drivers and chauffeurs: With a $178 difference in weekly earnings between men and women.

Source: NewsMax America

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The headquarters of Wirecard AG is seen in Aschheim near Munich
FILE PHOTO: The headquarters of Wirecard AG, an independent provider of outsourcing and white label solutions for electronic payment transactions is seen in Aschheim near Munich, Germany April 25, 2019. REUTERS/Michael Dalder

April 26, 2019

BERLIN (Reuters) – Wulf Matthias will not stand for a second term as Wirecard’s chairman in 2020, German daily Handelsblatt said on Friday, citing sources in the financial industry.

For age reasons alone this would not be an option for Matthias, aged 75, Handelsblatt added.

Matthias will keep his mandate until it ends in 2020, the paper quoted a company spokeswoman as saying.

Wirecard was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters.

(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Thomas Seythal)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The Credit Suisse logo is pictured on a bank in Geneva
FILE PHOTO: The Credit Suisse logo is pictured on a bank in Geneva, Switzerland, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File Photo

April 26, 2019

ZURICH (Reuters) – Shareholders approved Credit Suisse’s 2018 compensation report with an 82 percent majority on Friday, overriding frustrations expressed at its annual general meeting over jumps in executive pay during a year its share price plummeted.

Three shareholder advisers had recommended investors vote against Switzerland’s second-biggest bank’s remuneration report, while a fourth backed the report but expressed reservations about whether management pay matched performance.

The approval marked a slight increase over the 80.8 percent support garnered for the bank’s 2017 compensation report.

(Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Michael Shields)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the trading floor of Barclays Bank at Canary Wharf in London
FILE PHOTO: Traders work on the trading floor of Barclays Bank at Canary Wharf in London, Britain December 7, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Simon Jessop and Sinead Cruise

LONDON (Reuters) – Activist investor Edward Bramson is likely to fail in his attempt to get a board seat at Barclays’ annual meeting next week, even though shareholders are dissatisfied with performance of the group’s investment bank.

New York-based Bramson’s Sherborne Investors and the board of the British bank have been sparring for months over Barclays’ strategy.

Bramson wants to scale back Barclays’ investment bank to reduce risk and boost shareholder returns. Barclays Chief Executive Jes Staley remains staunchly committed to growing the business out of trouble.

After failing to persuade Staley to change course since he began building a 5.5 percent stake in the bank in March last year, Bramson hopes a board seat will rachet up the pressure.

Both sides have written to shareholders pitching their case and Bramson has courted investors in one-on-one meetings, although none have publicly backed him yet.

Interviews by Reuters with five institutional investors in Barclays suggest Bramson has failed to persuade them.

Sherborne declined to comment.

Mirza Baig, head of investment stewardship at top-40 shareholder Aviva Investors, said Bramson was welcome on the bank’s register but the boardroom was a step too far.

“He has created a lot of value at other businesses, but, generally, when he has come in as executive chair and taken full control. This would be a different case where he would just be one lone voice on the board,” he said.

A second Barclays shareholder said he backed Bramson’s goal of improving returns but via an “evolutionary” approach.

“If you look at banks that have tried to restructure their operations in investment banking – you look at Natwest Markets, Deutsche Bank – I struggle to think of an example where a roughshod restructuring has been accretive to shareholder value.”

A third, top-30 investor said he had been impressed by incoming Chairman Nigel Higgins’ grasp of the challenge in hand, and felt investors would give him time.

“Management know they have to execute and deliver improved returns… [Higgins] will continue to re-shape the board but obviously he didn’t feel that having someone with a diametrically opposed view on it would be helpful.”

A fourth, top-30 investor agreed: “We voted for the chairman to come in and it would be crazy to allow an activist to join the board (at this time).”

Jupiter Fund Management, the 24th largest investor, said it also planned to vote against Bramson.

Barclays has nearly 500 institutional shareholders, Refinitiv data showed.

Since Staley joined Barclays in 2015, the investment bank returns relative to capital invested have increased but are still underperforming the overall business.

Barclays’ first-quarter figures showed the investment bank posted a 6 percent drop in income from its markets business and a 17 percent fall in banking advisory fees.

Returns in the investment bank fell to 9.5 percent from 13.2 percent a year ago.

Famed for successful campaigns against smaller British companies in sectors from chemicals to advertising, Bramson’s board seat pitch has been rebuffed by shareholder advisory firms.

Institutional Shareholder Services, the world’s biggest, said Bramson’s proposal “falls short of what can reasonably be expected from a shareholder trying to address issues at a 28 billion pounds, systemically important bank”.

Glass Lewis also flagged concern about Bramson’s lack of banking experience and “questionable” shareholding structure, referring to Sherborne’s use of derivative contracts to hedge losses should its strategy fail.

Critics said the arrangement meant his interests are not truly aligned with those of other long-term shareholders.

British advisory firm Pirc, however, said it recommended that investors abstain in the vote on Bramson’s proposal as a challenge to the board to do better in the year ahead – or face a similar contest in 2020.

(Editing by Jane Merriman)

Source: OANN

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https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2019/04/918/516/02_2.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

After an over 15-month pregnancy, “Akuti,” a 7-year-old Greater One Horned Indian Rhinoceros, gave birth as a result of induced ovulation and artificial insemination at Zoo Miami, April 23, 2019.

Ron Magill/Zoo Miami

https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2019/04/918/516/02_2.jpg?ve=1&tl=1

Source: Fox News World

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FILE PHOTO: File photo of a Chevron gas station sign in Del Mar, California
FILE PHOTO: A Chevron gas station sign is seen in Del Mar, California, in this April 25, 2013 file photo. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – U.S. oil and natural gas producer Chevron Corp reported a 27 percent fall in quarterly earnings on Friday, hit by lower crude prices and weaker margins in its refining and chemicals businesses.

Net income attributable to the company fell to $2.65 billion, or $1.39 per share, for the first quarter ended March 31, from $3.64 billion, or $1.90 per share, a year earlier.

Earlier in the day, larger rival Exxon Mobil Corp reported earnings well below analysts’ estimates, as margins in its refining business were hurt by higher Canadian prices and heavy scheduled maintenance.

(Reporting by Arathy S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Source: OANN

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