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Mass riots along Gaza border, IDF soldier critical, Israel bombs Gaza

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Hundreds of Palestinians approached the fence and confronted Israeli troops that were deployed along the border, leading to major clashes throughout the day and to dozens of injuries.

The Israeli Air Force attacked several targets in northern Gaza on Saturday night, following mass riots along the Gaza border fence on that lead to an Israeli soldier being critically injured.

The soldier was reportedly shot in his head. He was evacuated by helicopter to the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba for emergency surgery. The IDF is investigating the incident.

According to Israeli reports, he was part of the Border Police Mista’arvim special unit, which operates undercover by assimilating among Arab populations and carrying out intelligence gathering, law enforcement, hostage rescue and counter-terrorism operations.

“This is a very tough incident, the entire unit has suffered a blow,” a senior Border Police officer told Maariv.

Hundreds of Palestinians approached the fence and confronted Israeli troops that were deployed along the border, leading to major clashes throughout the day and to dozens of injuries.

Over 40 rioters were injured, including a 13-year-old who is in critical condition, according to Palestinian reports.

“During the riots hundreds of protesters approached the fence in the northern part of the Strip. The protesters attempted to climb the fence and confronted IDF soldiers. The troops were well prepared and utilized riot dispersal means, as well as Ruger fire and sniper fire when necessary,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement.

Videos circulating online showed rioters burning tires and rolled them along the border.

One video shows several rioters trying to grab a weapon of a soldier through a slit in the fence. At one point one rioter carrying a pistol runs towards the opening and fires several bullets through it.

“The soldier fought back and managed to prevent [the rioters] from stealing his weapon,” the IDF later reported.

The riots, which lasted for about 3 hours, were part of a mass rally organized by Hamas to mark 52 years since the burning of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and attended by thousands of Palestinians marching near the border from the early afternoon.

The rally that quickly developed into violent clashes with the IDF, was carried out despite Israel’s recent approval of a deal that would allow the transfer of Qatari aid to the Gaza Strip via the United Nations.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz addressed the events along the border in an interview with Channel 13 and said that “these are very serious incidents and we will respond to them.”

(World Israel News).

Israel’s homegrown vaccine better than Pfizer? Data says yes

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“Unlike Pfizer, apparently there is no decline in the effectiveness against infection with the Israeli vaccine,” N12 reported.

Volunteers who received a high dose of the BriLife coronavirus vaccine in clinical trials have been notified that they do not yet need a third dose, indicating that Israel’s homegrown vaccine may be more effective than that of Pfizer, N12 News reported Saturday.

N12‘s Yoav Even reported that he is one of 230 Israelis who received two high-dose shots of BriLife six months ago.

The Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR), the government-run laboratory that developed the vaccine, has been analyzing monthly blood samples from the volunteers and has notified them that they currently do not need to take a third dose.

“The reason for these notifications is that, unlike Pfizer, apparently there is no decline in the effectiveness against infection with the Israeli vaccine. And even though this vaccine is still experimental, this is definitely good news,” Even said.

However, the volunteers who received a medium dose of the Israeli vaccine have been notified that the dose they received is ineffective against the coronavirus.

According to Even, those who received a medium dose were thanked for “volunteering in the national effort” and advised to now take the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

And volunteers who received a low dose of BriLife were notified several months ago that they needed a Pfizer or Moderna shot.

BriLife is a self-propagating, live-virus vaccine, unlike the mRNA vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech.

According to IIBR, BriLife uses a vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) which has been genetically modified to express the spike protein of the coronavirus.

Last week, the Ministry of Health approved a plan to administer a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine to individuals aged 40 and older, healthcare staff, teaching staff, caregivers of older adults, and pregnant women of all ages if at least five months have passed since their second dose.

“Israel is the pioneer of the third dose of the vaccines against the COVID virus. We’re seeing profound effectiveness, efficacy of the vaccines,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Friday.

Last month, Israel began administering a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine to immunosuppressed individuals and those aged 60 and older.

In early July, the Ministry of Health announced a decline in the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine. “Starting June 6th, the effectiveness of the vaccine decreased to 64% in preventing infection and 64% in preventing symptomatic illness,” the ministry said.

(World Israel News).

Shaked: Yamina to quit government if Lapid advances Palestinian state

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“There will not be a Palestinian state in a government that we [Yamina] are party to,” said Yamina MK Shaked.

The Yamina Party will quit the government if Foreign Minister Yair Lapid advances Palestinian statehood when he replaces Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked warned on Sunday.
“There will not be a Palestinian state in a government that we [Yamina] are party to,” said Shaked, who is a member of Bennett’s Yamina Party.
There is an agreement that this government will not deal with divisive matters such as this one, Shaked told the KAN News radio program.
Last week Lapid told KAN’s television station Channel 11 that a two-state resolution could be advanced when the government rotates in two years’ time, but until then nothing can happen on this matter because Bennett doesn’t support it.
The question of two states has suddenly resurfaced in the headlines because Bennett is due to meet with US President Joe Biden later in the week.
What happens if Biden asks Bennett to support a two-state resolution to the conflict? KAN asked.
“He will say that he is opposed,” Shaked said, adding, “This is nothing new. Bennett’s opinion is known. We [Yamina] are opposed to a Palestinian state – and even President Biden knows Bennett’s opinion.”
Shaked said she believed the meeting would deal primarily with Iran and the COVID-19 pandemic.
KAN asked what would happen if Biden simply waits until Bennett leaves and then moves forward on two states with Lapid?
“There won’t be a government,” Shaked said. “This is known both to Lapid and to the left-wing partners” in the coalition.”
“The topic of the Palestinians is not the most burning issue on the agenda, not even for the President,” said Shaked.
In contrast to what Shaked said, the White House has been clear that the Palestinian issue will be on the agenda along with Iran.
Biden believes in a two-state resolution to the conflict based on the pre-1967 lines but has not put forward any initiative for the resumption of an Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Source: JPOST

Study: Pandemic Saw More Than 300% Increase In Drinking Among Mothers Of Young Children

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The National Institute on Alcohol and Alcoholism released a study that found mothers of young children during the coronavirus pandemic increased their alcohol consumption by almost 325 percent.

The data show that overall drinking consumption in the United States was 39 percent higher in November 2020 than the previous February, before the pandemic.

The recommended drinking guidelines for men allow for up to four drinks a day but no more than 14 drinks a week, while for women no more than three drinks a day or seven drinks a week, the study pointed out as the basis for finding the large increases in alcohol consumption.

The New York Post reported on the study:

Americans exceeding those guidelines increased by 27 percent from February and April of 2020 — and jumped to 39 percent between February and November, the new study found.

Additionally, binge drinking that increased 26 percent between February and April 2020 only jumped further, to 30 percent, between February and November.

More women disproportionately reported exceeding the recommended drinking guidelines than men between April and November 2020. Women with children under age 5 in their homes increased alcohol consumption 323 percent, the study found.

Read more at Breitbart.

{Matzav.com}

Sifrei Torah Stolen, Shul Vandalized At Chabad of Long Beach, NY

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A Chabad House in Long Beach, NY, was vandalized and some Sifrei Torah stolen.

According to a report by CHI, The Rov of the Shul – which was recently taken over by the Chabad House – went on Motzei Shabbos to make things were secure after Shabbos, and was shocked at the sight he was met with.

“I found our beautifully renovated sanctuary vandalized, talleisim strewn on the floor, the holy ark broken off the hinges and a number of holy Torah’s stolen with two lying on the ground,” the congregant told CrownHeights.info. “Most of the sliver crowns were missing as well.”

The Nassau County Police are investigating the incident.

RABBI ELI GOODMAN, THE ROV OF THE SHUL, TELLS YWN THE FOLLOWING:

This Shabbos we had a soft opening at our new location at 570 West Walnut where we celebrated a most beautiful Shabbos and Bat Mitzvah of a local family. I went to the Shul around 11.30 pm last night to ensure everything is secure and everything is put away.

I found our beautifully renovated sanctuary vandalized, talleisim strewn on the floor, the holy ark broken off the hinges and a number of Torah’s stolen with 2 lying on the ground. Most of the sliver crowns were missing as well.

911 was called immediately and detectives together with Crimes scene unit from Nassau County are investigating.

All local Shuls should take extra care in ensuring the security of their facility.

 

Source: The Yeshiva World News

 

While Afghanistan fell, US military focused on “diversity”

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The Afghan military was falling apart while the Joint Chiefs of Staff head Milley was defending “critical race theory”. Op-ed.

“I want to understand white rage, and I’m white,” Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whined at a congressional hearing.

He might have done better to understand Muslim rage.

A week after his testimony, the Taliban had not only doubled their number of districts, but possessed hundreds of captured U.S. armored vehicles, along with artillery and drones.

The Pentagon’s spokesman told reporters to ask the Afghan military about the gear.

In May, Milley had shrugged off questions about whether the Afghan military would survive. “We frankly don’t know yet. We have to wait and see how things develop over the summer.”

The Afghan military was beginning to fall apart while Milley was defending critical race theory.

A week earlier, the New York Times had described “demoralized” Afghan forces “abandoning checkpoints and bases en masse.” Two days after Milley’s disgraceful performance, the media reported that even the Taliban were “surprised” at how fast they were advancing.

At the beginning of July, the Biden administration abandoned Bagram Air Force Base. A week later the Taliban reclaimed the Panjwayi District where the Jihadist movement had gotten its start, seized the largest border crossing with Iran and the millions in revenue that came with it.

The United States Army responded by announcing that it was putting “a renewed emphasis on diversity, inclusion, and equity” or DEI. Had the brass ordered it as diversity, inclusion, and equity, the resulting acronym would have been more reflective of the real world.

While the Taliban were conquering Afghanistan’s rural provinces and then moving on to besieging its cities, the Army was wrestling with the “effective messaging that demonstrates why DEI efforts are critical to the success of the Army”.

The new messaging would explain how the “talents of a diverse workforce” that included “language, race, color, disability, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity” were vital to whatever its mission was.

The Taliban, who were mostly Sunni Islamist Pashtun tribesmen, would spend the next two months demonstrating that diversity was not a strength, but a serious weakness.

While the Afghan government and its military were divided between diverse tribal factions, some of whom would flee to Iran and others to Uzbekistan (depending on whether they were Hazaras or Uzbeks) while the Pashtuns would surrender to their fellow Taliban tribesmen, the Taliban showed that unity would stomp diversity in the face and then dance on its grave.

Meanwhile the military brass in this country, as discussed in my recent pamphlet, Disloyal: How the Military Brass is Betraying Our Country, was busy dividing our own military from within in pursuit of diversity. It was pitting black and white service members against each other in “critical conversations” and urging them to accuse their country and services of “systemic racism”.

As the Army brass were striving to establish the “Army as a global leader in DEI”, America’s enemies were plotting to become global leaders in land, power, and military victories.

By late July, Milley admitted that, “Strategic momentum appears to be sort of with the Taliban.”

By “sort of”, Milley meant that the Taliban had more than doubled their territory again and were marching on half of the provincial capitals.

Few reporters asked follow-up questions about the “sort of” because the leading story in D.C. was an anti-Trump book which flatteringly portrayed Milley as preventing a Trump “coup”.

No one, from the media to Milley, cared about the actual coup underway in Afghanistan.

“This department will be diverse. It will be inclusive,” Biden’s Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin insisted. “I’m committed to that. This department is committed to that. The chairman’s committed to that.”

While Biden’s brass were pledging allegiance to diversity, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi welcomed Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar to the People’s Republic of China. Yi praised the Taliban as a “a pivotal military and political force” and mocked the United States.

The United States Army was busy “developing and implementing a strategic plan to advance DEI across the Total Force” as the Taliban seized the capitals of Helmand and Herat.

But the Navy faced its own crisis when Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Adm. John Nowell Jr. warned at a DEI panel at the Sea Air Space conference that removing photos from promotion boards, a diversity measure from last year, actually undermined diversity because the brass no longer knew exactly how many minorities they were artificially promoting to fit diversity quotas.

While the Navy was grappling with this dark night of the soul, Staff Sgt. Nicholas Jones with the 2nd Marine Raider Battalion received the Navy Cross for his heroism during a six-hour battle with ISIS last year during which he rescued a French ally and risked his life to try and rescue two wounded comrades.

Jones “continued fighting until forcibly evacuated”.

Sadly, Jones is a straight white man from Kansas, and doesn’t really fit the DEI template.

But in happier diversity defense news, the new Navy Secretary is an immigrant, the first female sailor graduated from Naval Special Warfare training, and the Naval Institute published a confession by Lieutenant Commander David Elsenbeck that he was “unconsciously biased” and a “member of the dominant group in a society suffering from institutionalized and historically ingrained bias”.

Eisenbeck urged immediate “bias education”.

American POWs used to be starved, beaten, and had bamboo shoots driven under their fingernails without repeating the Marxist dogma they were being indoctrinated with. But hardly a week goes by now without another litany of Marxist confessions at military struggle sessions.

The Taliban, who actually are a member of the dominant group, began swallowing up a series of provincial capitals and marrying off young girls to their Jihadists. Back home, the Virginia Military Institute’s first-ever Chief Diversity Officer, Jamica Love, announced that she intended to pursue “institutional change” to transform the VMI’s culture. That’s what the Taliban were also up to.

While the Taliban advanced, CIA Director William Burns commented that increasing “diversity and inclusion” was among his top priorities. “We cannot be effective around the world if everybody looks like me,” he complained. To that end the CIA had unrolled an ad campaign featuring a Latina cisgender intersectional worker wearing a pink gender power clenched fist t-shirt.

But the widely hated woke ad was only the tip of the agency’s diversity iceberg.

“At CIA, we don’t just leverage diversity, equity, and inclusion; we embrace and celebrate it,” an agency diversity report insisted. “This ethos must be woven in to our day-to-day tasks.”

How were diversity and equity woven into the task of monitoring the Taliban’s advance?

No one knows. But, like the military, the CIA went on holding “critical conversations” in which minority employees were encouraged to spout racism accusations.

Sonya Holt, Deputy Associate Director of CIA for Talent for Diversity and Inclusion, who had started out as a mere recruiter, assured that through DEI, “the Agency will be better prepared to address intelligence challenges and support its customers.”

While CIA officers were learning “how diversity, equity, and inclusion are essential to mission success”, the agency began belatedly considering how to extract its assets from Afghanistan.

Recent intelligence reports “warned that Kabul could fall to the Taliban within years”. And it did – within days.

But while the CIA tried to figure out how it would collect intelligence on the Taliban after the withdrawal, its employees did have the benefit of 15 affinity groups including ANGLE (Agency Network of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Officers and Allies), DAC (Deaf Advisory Council) and SALAAM (South Asian Leadership and Advisory Membership.)

The CIA was also working to hire “neurodiverse” personnel, which it defined as people suffering from ADD, Dyslexia, or Tourette’s Syndrome. Or as the CIA ‘wokely’ put it “differences labeled with” these syndromes.

Key Afghan figures had warned that there was a conspiracy underway to hand Afghanistan to the Taliban. The drumroll surrenders of cities and much of the Afghan military appeared to confirm that backroom deals had been made. The obvious players able to pull off such deals were Pakistan’s ISI spy agency, the original backers of the Taliban, along with Turkey and Qatar.

Biden’s CIA director had turned to Pakistan in the hopes of allowing the agency to run a spy base in the country that had harbored Osama bin Laden. The Biden administration’s military and diplomatic response to the Taliban was being run out of Qatar. And it had handed security at Kabul Airport over to Turkey before frantically taking it back when the Taliban took the city.

The CIA should have been on top of this, but it had better things to do with its time.

An unclassified intelligence community report did warn that the Taliban was “broadly consistent in its restrictive approach to women’s rights.”

The Taliban have now taken over Afghanistan, but it’s not all bad news on the military front, since equity and inclusion have made giant leaps forward:

.”While Trump administration Pentagon nominees were overwhelmingly white and male, the Biden administration says 54% of its national security nominees ? to the Pentagon, State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development ? are women, 40% are people of color, and at least 7% identify as LGBTQ,” the publication thrillingly reports.

Better yet, “recent weeks saw two LGBTQ women confirmed to top military positions. Air Force Undersecretary Gina Ortiz Jones is the first out lesbian to serve as undersecretary of a military branch, while Shawn Skelly, the assistant secretary of defense for readiness, is the first out transgender person in the job and highest-ranking out transgender defense official in U.S. history.”

The State Department is doing its part by “asking” (in reality: begging) the Taliban to form an “inclusive and representative government.” And if they refuse to have as many neurodiverse black transgender defense officials as us, Biden won’t give them any more humvees, artillery, choppers, or drones.

The Taliban may have won Afghanistan, but we’re winning the diversity race. And since diversity is more important than winning wars or being a military superpower, we’re beating the Taliban. Not to mention Russia, China, and Iran in the field of transgender defense officials.

Asinine wokeness is leading our military to disaster, disgrace, and defeat.

Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity, (sorry, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) is at “the heart of everything” that Biden’s military does – and our performance reflects the focus on DEI.

Afghanistan is a disaster, but hey – we’ll have the most diverse military in the world.

Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center’s Front Page Magazine.

(Arutz 7).

Haredim over 21 to be exempted from IDF draft

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Government votes to lower draft exemption age for haredi men to 21 – before rising to 23. ‘This is a historic moment,’ says PM Bennett.

The Israeli government voted Sunday to approve a plan to lower the draft exemption age for haredi men to 21 – before increasing it to 23.

The plan, drawn up by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Defense Minister Benny Gantz, and Finance Minister Avidgor Liberman, temporarily reduces the age limit for drafting yeshiva students to 21.

Currently, yeshiva students must obtain an annual draft deferment, and risk immediate induction into the army if they leave their yeshiva in order to pursue a career.

Under the new arrangement, yeshiva students will be able to either to enroll in a jobs training program or enlist in a non-military national service program, serving as emergency first responders, search-and-rescue workers, or other civilian national service positions.

The temporary lowering of the draft exemption age is aimed at encouraging some yeshiva students to join the job market, giving them a three-year period during which they will be able to pursue a career without being drafted.

After two years, the draft exemption age for haredi men will be raised to 22, and three years from now, it will be raised to 23.

The plan also allows haredi soldiers to end their service early once they have reached the age of 21, if they join a job training program or civilian national service program.

The bill must pass the Knesset before going into effect, but will take effect immediately once the Knesset has voted to give final approval.

“For decades, the State of Israel has cut off its nose to spite its face,” said Prime Minister Bennett. “Meaning, because people were so angry that the haredim aren’t being drafted, they also put them into a position in which they were forced to stay out of the job market until a late age. Today, we are putting an end to that, and opening the gates of employment to young haredim.”

“This is a historic process for the future of Israel,” Bennett continued.

(Arutz 7).

The Biden Administration considers Hope to be a Plan

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Biden’s judgment has been hope-based rather than reality-based. He is unfit for the job, was wrong on nearly every policy question. Op-ed.

The Biden Administration hoped that the Afghani military would be effective in defending the majority of the Afghani people against the Jihadists. Hope failed to match reality. The Afghani army, the one that had been paid for, trained and supplied by the Americans was completely vaporized in front of the advancing Taliban.

The US army abandoning their military airport in the middle of the night without telling the Afghan forces beforehand was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

They hoped, they did not test it. They did not verify it. They did not try to understand it. Hope was the plan. The Biden Administration did not understand the Afghani army’s lack of resolve, its inability to fight without the seeming safety net provided by the presence of even a small American fighting force.

When the US military put out the final good night, it amputated the Afghani military’s fighting spirit with these announcements. A fighting force lacking resolve, courage, morale and self-confidence is futile; it’s as hollow as a sinkhole. Any little mouse can punch through this hope-generated photoshop image of a hungry cat.

But the Biden Administration just wished that everything would be OK once they left.

Hope was the plan.

When President Biden criticized Trump’s immigration policies by making major concessions to illegal immigrants and cancelling, defunding anything with Trump’s name on it, he hoped that his actions would satisfy the “progressively”-minded members of his Democratic party.

He hoped that his anti-Trump immigration policies would correct “mistakes” and “unjust” policies formulated by Trump. He hoped without truly understanding the consequences. He did not see the human tidal wave and the chaotic aftermath of his actions.

Hope was the plan.

When President Biden cancelled the Keystone pipeline he hoped that his actions would serve as an example to the world greatest CO2 polluters convincing them to follow suit. The opposite has happened. Russia and China took the moment to cash in on America’s hunger for energy.

Lack of US domestic production allowed Russia to increase its oil exports and gain handsomely while China has continued its aggressive pollution-filled industrial production while enjoying the higher US Balance of Payment deficit.

Hope, rather than economic analysis, or political understanding, was the plan.

When President Biden softened his stance on Iran’s nuclear and imperialistic/terroristic ambitions by lightening economic sanctions, including his return to negotiations, he hoped that Iran would respond in kind, halt its nuclear program, stop violating the Obama and Kerry’s “genius” nuclear deal with the Ayatollah, and thank him for his noble intentions.

The Biden Administration hoped. Hope was the plan, but the opposite has taken place.

Iran kept breaking restrictions imposed on it by this faulty nuclear deal; the Ayatollah regime is now very close to the realization of the bomb. Their terror machine has been working at full capacity; their aggression-filled hubris took a major step upward.

Biden hoped that his mollifying moves would generate conciliatory responses from Iran, but the opposite has happened. His moves were interpreted as weakness to be taken advantage of.

Hope was a bad plan.

When the Biden Administration continued to insist that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was: two-states living in peace side by side, he was dreaming again. He refused to learn from history. This solution has been tried with Lebanon, with Hamastan in Gaza, with the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria following the Oslo Accord and the peace conference between President Clinton, Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat.

In all these cases the withdrawal of Israeli troops gave rise to the formation of a terror state.

When the Israeli military returned to Judea and Samaria, it was able to put an end to the terror machine. And now Biden wants to go back to the failed “Two-State Solution”, a solution that had failed twice, in 1947 and in 2000.

But Biden wants to go back to his ignorance-based fantasy that a two-state solution will bring peace. It’s a hope based on dreams of Paradise; it’s not a reality-evidenced decision backed by recent history. It’s a false hope that carries grim consequences if implemented.

Robert Gates, the former Bush’s and Obama’s Defense secretary, a person who was in close professional relationships with this president, described Biden as someone who had been wrong on nearly every foreign policy question. And now, I may add, it’s not limited just to foreign policy.

Biden has been trying to project the image of a good person, but his judgment has been hope-based rather than reality-based.

He is unfit for the job he holds, and he brings shame to the greatest country in the world.

One of his puppeteers should have told him that hope is not a plan. But then, this is not going to happen. Those surrounding him are made of the same or even darker cloth.

(Arutz 7).

CA Wildfires Latest

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About 11,000 firefighters are battling 13 active wildfires in California.

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