| Top House Armed Services Republican: Trump's Ukraine call was 'inappropriate' but not impeachable Posted: 10 Nov 2019 08:57 AM PST  Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, said President Trump's call with Ukraine's president was "inappropriate" — but it did not warrant his impeachment.
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| A black man was put in handcuffs after a police officer stopped him on a train platform because he was eating Posted: 11 Nov 2019 02:06 PM PST  Bay Area Rapid Transit police said Steve Foster, of Concord, California, violated state law by eating a sandwich on a BART station's platform.
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| Mexico massacre unites Mormon sects, even their exiles Posted: 10 Nov 2019 05:45 AM PST  The 35-year-old Seattle homemaker had spent much of her life trying to keep away from her parents' self-described fundamentalist branch of the Mormon faith and Colonia LeBaron - her polygamist father's Mexico community where some of the massacre victims were from. "The massacre has simply allowed me to support and love family," said Bostwick, a convert to Christianity, whose mother was 15 when she gave birth to her, and who was later adopted by her U.S. grandparents. The Nov. 4 killings have traumatized northern Mexico's breakaway Mormon communities.
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| Poland Rebukes Netflix After ‘Terrible Mistake’ on Holocaust Posted: 11 Nov 2019 09:49 AM PST ![Poland Rebukes Netflix After 'Terrible Mistake' on Holocaust]( "Poland Rebukes Netflix After 'Terrible Mistake' on Holocaust") (Bloomberg) -- Poland's prime minister wrote an official letter to Netflix Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings requesting that the media streaming company correct facts about the Holocaust in its "The Devil Next Door" documentary series.The European Union member lurched into the international spotlight last year after its nationalist ruling Law & Justice party outlawed the phrase "Polish death camps." It also criminalized suggesting that the nation was complicit in the mass murder of Jews and other people by the Nazis during their occupation of the country in World War II.A Netflix spokesperson said the company is "aware of the concerns" about the show and is "urgently looking into the matter" after Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote to Hastings.Morawiecki called out Netflix for what he called "a terrible mistake" in the five-part series. The show focuses on John Demjanjuk, a retired Ford Motor Co. auto mechanic who was stripped of his U.S. citizenship and convicted by a German criminal court for aiding in the murder of Jews during the Holocaust.The series showed a map of death camps that said they were located in Poland, using the country's current borders.The Polish government has repeatedly pushed for commentary on the death camps to label them as being operated by the Nazis in "German-occupied Poland," because the eastern European nation had no government of its own on its home soil after the invasion of Adolf Hitler's forces."Not only is the map incorrect, but it deceives viewers into believing that Poland was responsible for establishing and maintaining these camps," Morawiecki wrote, saying he believed it was an "unintentional" mistake. "Today, we still owe this truth to the victims of World War II."Morawiecki enclosed a 1942 map in the letter, which was backed by a comment from the Auschwitz Memorial saying that "more accuracy" should have been expected from the production.(Updates with details of complaint in sixth paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Maciej Martewicz in Warsaw at mmartewicz@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Wojciech Moskwa at wmoskwa@bloomberg.net, Michael WinfreyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Father of Atatiana Jefferson dies of heart attack, family spokesperson says Posted: 10 Nov 2019 04:14 AM PST  The father of Atatiana Jefferson, the black woman who was fatally shot by a Fort Worth police officer, died of a heart attack, a spokesperson said.
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| Capitalism and socialism are just words Posted: 11 Nov 2019 02:45 AM PST ![Capitalism and socialism are just words]( "Capitalism and socialism are just words") As the field of Democratic Party presidential contenders narrows, we may well find ourselves stuck in a big ideas debate over the merits of "capitalism" versus "socialism." Of the three front-runners, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) famously called herself "a capitalist to my bones," while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) identifies as a democratic socialist. Former Vice President Joe Biden seems to be... whatever will keep the big money donors rolling in. Meanwhile, a lot of centrists, liberals and leftists are drawing up battle lines depending on whose label they prefer.But "socialism" and "capitalism" are just words. And the way they get used in everyday debate covers a vast and diverse array of economic arrangements. At the edges, they bleed into one another to the point you can't tell where one ends and one begins.For instance, consider the way your average Fox News pundit slings the word "socialist" at anyone to the left of West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. Or how the establishments of both parties, as well as the American billionaire class, are hell-bent against Warren becoming president. These are the defenders of America's status quo, which is understood to be capitalism. But whatever Warren means by the term is clearly something they want no part of. Meanwhile, if you actually pick through Sanders' definition of democratic socialism, it's basically some combination of Franklin Roosevelt's politics plus Nordic social democracy -- two things lots of people traditionally understood as falling under the capitalism umbrella.The difference between, say, giving markets "better rules" -- as Warren says she wants to do -- and "interfering with" or "disrupting" markets -- as Warren and Sanders' critics say they will do -- is entirely in the eye of the beholder. That's because markets themselves are social constructs all the way down. They simply don't exist before government, or whatever your local social authority is, lays down some rules giving them form and structure.In that spirit, allow me to sketch what is, I think, something close to my own ideal economy: The private sector is made up of many small-to-medium sized firms, all run and owned by the workers who labor within them. Wages are determined through sectoral bargaining. If stocks still exist at all, they confer no voting rights, and are simply an alternative means of raising finance. Financial markets are modest and straightforward affairs geared solely toward facilitating real investment. Wall Street and the big banks are no more, and loans for private business are created through a national network of public banks and credit unions. Major conglomerates, corporate monopolies, and big tech platforms have all been smashed by antitrust law, nationalized, or tamed as tightly regulated public utilities.Companies are still permitted to go under if they can't compete, and banks are still allowed to fail if they make bad bets. But the government stands ready to ensure continued full employment, through a national job guarantee, public investment, and industrial policy as needed. The government also provides (not necessarily exclusively) health care, education, child care, sweeping public transit, public housing, basic utilities, retirement income, a vast suite of cash welfare benefits, generous research and development funding, and community development grants. Steeply progressive taxes put a hard ceiling on how much income one person can bring home, and how much wealth they can accumulate.So... is this a capitalist economy or a socialist one?Those aforementioned Fox News pundits, party establishments, and Bloomberg-ian billionaires, I'm sure, would all say my vision is socialism -- and they'd consider it some mix of absurd and horrifying. On the flip side, markets and competition and the iterative trial-and-error that is capitalism's best feature still play big roles in this scenario. Companies that are not competitive still go bust; banks and financial institutions still suffer losses if they make bad investment decisions.Self-identified socialists have long said that markets would still play a role in their preferred societies -- but exactly what role tends to be vague. One of the more useful thinkers on this score is Karl Polanyi, because he was very concrete and specific: get land (housing), labor (employment), and money itself (i.e. credit and financing) out of the market context. I think you could throw stuff like health care and education and transit onto that list as well. But the point is, if we say markets will play some limited role -- as opposed to gobbling up all of society like they do now -- then we're not really saying anything until we start laying down specifics. All the real work is in the nitty gritty of this question.I've been reading Matt Stoller's Goliath, about American politics' long battle against monopolies -- which we are currently losing badly. One thing he touches on is how much of the post-war U.S. left became infatuated with bigness: organizing an economy of shared abundance is easier when you have a few giant unions and giant corporate powerhouses to deal with, rather than a vast system of modestly-sized yeoman businesses and worker organizations. The problem is that, historically speaking, big central planning has tended to come packaged with authoritarianism and repression. See modern China or Soviet Russia -- or, as Stoller notes, the historical linkages between monopoly cartels and fascism. Friedrich Hayek was onto something in that regard.America's current irony is that, in its efforts to avoid socialist authoritarianism, it's delivered itself into the hands of capitalist authoritarianism. In both cases, the mistake is the same: the refusal to grapple with the structure of power. And I hope one thing my little scenario gets across is how a society that embodies socialist values could also be a decentralized one, with lots of little power centers engaged in a democratic give-and-take with one another, instead of a few big power centers running everything."The people will own the means of production" is not a terribly helpful phrase. How exactly will that ownership be structured and enforced? By what processes will we determine what the people wish to do with their property? At what level and jurisdiction will those processes operate?These are the questions that determine whether you've built democracy and egalitarianism into the structure of the economy itself, or whether you merely have a democratic government that hopefully remains democratic as it runs a top-down economy. I think it's clear that you can't really achieve the former without significant reliance on competitive markets in some way. At the same time, modern America's vacuous faith in "unfettered" markets as the solution to all social problems ultimately ends with neither democratic government nor democratic economics.At the end of the day, I don't really care if you call yourself a capitalist, a socialist, a distributist, a progressive, or a populist. Tell me how you will organize and dole out power.Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.More stories from theweek.com The coming death of just about every rock legend The president has already confessed to his crimes Why are 2020 Democrats so weird?
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| Jordan retakes lands leased by Israel in 1994 peace accord Posted: 11 Nov 2019 11:15 AM PST  Jordan's king announced Sunday that his country is retaking "full sovereignty" over two pieces of land leased by Israel, reflecting the cool relations between the neighboring countries as they mark the 25th anniversary of their landmark peace deal. King Abdullah II had said last year that he wouldn't renew the parts of the 1994 treaty that gave Israel a 25-year lease of the two small areas, Baqura and Ghamr. "Today, I announce the expiration of the Peace Treaty annexes on Ghamr and al-Baqura and the imposition of our full sovereignty over every inch of those lands," he said.
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| Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hasn't stopped blocking critics on Twitter despite settling a lawsuit charging she violated the First Amendment Posted: 11 Nov 2019 07:14 AM PST  Ocasio-Cortez recently apologized for blocking a critic on Twitter and settled a lawsuit he filed alleging she violated the First Amendment.
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| Trump 'fighter' Jim Jordan likely won't get much airtime in impeachment hearings Posted: 11 Nov 2019 08:49 AM PST  For all the hype surrounding the move by House Republicans to place Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio on the Intelligence Committee so he can be part of the public impeachment hearings, the conservative firebrand is not likely to have much of a role to play based on the rules governing the hearings.
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| Condoleezza Rice Calls Giuliani’s Ukraine Involvement ‘Deeply Troubling’ Posted: 11 Nov 2019 01:23 PM PST  Former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said Monday that reports detailing the involvement of President Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in the White House's Ukraine policy were "deeply troubling.""What I see right now troubles me. I see a state of conflict between the foreign policy professionals and someone who says he's acting on behalf of the president but frankly I don't know if that is the case," Rice said at a conference in Abu Dhabi. "This is just not a good thing. The world shouldn't get confusing messages from the United States of America."Multiple witness have alleged in house testimony that Giuliani conducted his own investigative work without regard for the administration's formal policy.William Taylor, the former top American diplomat in Ukraine, whose testimony was released last week, asserted that Giuliani was actively undermining U.S. foreign policy."The irregular channel seemed to focus on specific issues, specific cases, rather than the regular channel's focus on institution building," Taylor said, according to the transcript. "So the irregular channel, I think under the influence of Mr. Giuliani, wanted to focus on one or two specific cases, irrespective of whether it helped solve the corruption problem, fight the corruption problem."Earlier Monday, news broke that Lev Parnas, an associate of Giuliani, will tell investigators that Giuliani attempted to leverage an official visit from Vice President Mike Pence to coax Ukraine into announcing an investigation into Joe Biden's son Hunter's business connections to Burisma.Rice also said she thought Trump's mention of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who served on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma, during the call was "out of bounds.""The call is murky, it is really murky. I don't like for the president of the United States to mention an American citizen for investigation to a foreign leader," Rice said.
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| Swedish police set up task force to combat gang violence Posted: 11 Nov 2019 04:12 AM PST ![Swedish police set up task force to combat gang violence]( "Swedish police set up task force to combat gang violence") Swedish police said on Monday they would set up a special task force to deal with a wave of shootings and bombings linked to criminal gangs following the fatal shooting of a 15-year old in the city of Malmo at the weekend. Sweden has long held a reputation as being one of the safest countries in the world and while overall crime and murder rates remain low, gang wars in major cities have claimed an increasing number of victims in recent years. On Saturday, two 15-year-olds were shot outside a pizza restaurant in Malmo in what police said appeared to be a gang conflict over control of the drug trade in the area.
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| These Are the Shortest-Stopping Cars We've Ever Tested Posted: 11 Nov 2019 03:13 PM PST |
| Klobuchar attacks Bloomberg and Buttigieg as Democrat infighting grows Posted: 10 Nov 2019 09:20 AM PST  * Polling shows voters generally satisfied with the candidates * Can Pete Buttigieg's moderate message win over purple Iowa?Senator Amy Klobuchar campaigning in Iowa on 8 November. Photograph: Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Wire/REX/ShutterstockOn a weekend of sharp infighting among Democratic presidential candidates, Senator Amy Klobuchar hit out at Michael Bloomberg."When people look at the White House and see this multi-millionaire messing up so many things," the Minnesota senator told CNN's State of the Union, "I don't think they think, 'Oh, we need someone richer.' I think you have to earn votes, not buy them."Klobuchar also criticised Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who has surged in Iowa. The senator repeated her contention that a female candidate with Buttigieg's experience would not have made the debate stage.Bloomberg, 77 and a three-term mayor of New York, has an estimated personal fortune of $51.1bn. Having long flirted with a run for the Democratic nomination, on Friday he registered to enter the Alabama primary.Responding to comments by a Bloomberg adviser that the former mayor thinks none of the current contenders will be able to beat Donald Trump, Klobuchar said: "I don't think you can just waltz in and instead of saying, 'I'm good enough to be president,' your argument is that the other people aren't good enough."I'm looking forward to debating Mayor Bloomberg but not if his whole purpose is to say the rest of the field isn't good enough."A Bloomberg run is not a done deal.Advisers to the billionaire indicated earlier this week that he plans to win the nomination by skipping early voting states like New Hampshire and Iowa before making a massive ad spend in larger states.But polling of likely Democratic primary voters generally indicates satisfaction with the candidates who make up a historically large and diverse field. A Morning Consult poll conducted on 8 November found that just 4% of Democratic primary voters would make Bloomberg their choice.As Klobuchar spoke on Sunday, one news outlet reported that "sources close" to Bloomberg were already walking back the likelihood that he will enter the race, describing his move this week as a trial balloon.Axios reported that even Bloomberg's own polling data pointed to "perhaps insurmountable hurdles", especially if former vice-president Joe Biden stays in the race as the leading centrist candidate.On Saturday, news broke that Amazon owner Jeff Bezos had asked Bloomberg to enter. At a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders greeted the report with laughter.On Sunday, Klobuchar denied a reported rift between her campaign and that of Buttigieg. Confronted with a New York Times report which detailed supposed irritation with the 37-year-old's success among older candidates who have held state or national office, Klobuchar said she believed Buttigieg was qualified to be president.But she added: "I'm the one from the midwest who has actually won a state-wide race over and over again. That is not true of Mayor Pete. We should be able to have those debates about candidates without being accused of being negative."Klobuchar has qualified for the next two Democratic debates but remains way off the pace set by Warren, Biden, Sanders and Buttigieg. Referring to herself, Warren and Senator Kamala Harris of California, Klobuchar suggested a woman would not be on the debate stage if she held the same qualifications as Buttigieg."Do I think that we would be standing on that stage if we had the experience that he had? No, I don't. Maybe we're held to a different standard."Klobuchar also responded to feuding between the frontrunners over Warren's "Medicare for All" plan, which would eliminate all private insurance. After Biden painted the Massachusetts senator as an out-of-touch elitist, Warren retorted that if the former vice-president was just going to repeat Republican talking points, he should run in a different primary ."I don't think Elizabeth Warren is elitist," Klobuchar said. "She's pushing for a policy I don't agree with that would kick 149 million Americans off their healthcare in four years."
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| EU unveils sanctions plan to hit Turkey over Cyprus drilling Posted: 11 Nov 2019 11:28 AM PST  The European Union on Monday unveiled a system for imposing sanctions on Turkey over its unauthorized gas drilling in Mediterranean waters off Cyprus but no Turkish companies or officials have yet been targeted. EU member countries can now come forward with names of those they think should be listed. Turkish warship-escorted drillships began exploratory drilling this summer in waters where EU-member Cyprus has exclusive economic rights, including areas where European energy companies are licensed to conduct a hydrocarbons search.
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| Saudi Arabia Gives First Permanent Residencies to Foreigners Posted: 11 Nov 2019 03:17 AM PST ![Saudi Arabia Gives First Permanent Residencies to Foreigners]( "Saudi Arabia Gives First Permanent Residencies to Foreigners") (Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia granted 73 foreigners "premium" residency under a new program to attract overseas investment by enabling selected people to buy property and do business without a Saudi sponsor.The kingdom received thousands of applications after offering permanent residency for 800,000 riyals ($213,000) or a one-year renewable permit for 100,000 riyals. The first batch of recipients come from 19 countries and include investors, doctors, engineers and financiers, according to a statement Monday from the government's Premium Residency Center. It didn't detail how many were granted permanent residency.The program, approved in May, is the latest sign of how the kingdom is rethinking the role for foreigners as it works to reduce the economy's dependence on oil. It's a landmark move in a region where many overseas workers are subject to some of the world's most restrictive residency rules. The premium residencies also allow holders to switch jobs, exit the kingdom easily and sponsor visas for family members.The idea for a long-term Saudi residency was first floated in 2016 by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. At the time, he estimated the program would generate about $10 billion in annual revenue by 2020.While Saudi Arabia is seeking to encourage the affluent to stay, monthly fees imposed on foreign workers and their families, along with sluggish economic growth, have prompted hundreds of thousands of other expats to leave. Those levies are designed to spur private businesses to hire Saudi nationals as citizen unemployment hovers above 12%.To contact the reporter on this story: Vivian Nereim in Riyadh at vnereim@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams, Paul AbelskyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Mexico makes arrests in last week's massacre of 3 women, 6 children Posted: 11 Nov 2019 02:36 PM PST  Mexico has made an unspecified number of arrests in last week's massacre of three women and six children of dual U.S-Mexican nationality in the north of the country, Security Minister Alfonso Durazo said on Monday. "There have been arrests, but it's not up to us to give information," Durazo told reporters in Mexico City.
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| Tulsi Gabbard is demanding an apology from Hillary Clinton Posted: 11 Nov 2019 06:58 AM PST ![Tulsi Gabbard is demanding an apology from Hillary Clinton]( "Tulsi Gabbard is demanding an apology from Hillary Clinton") Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is keeping up her feud with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.Gabbard's 2020 campaign released a letter from its legal counsel Monday demanding Clinton apologize and retract comments she made about her in October, The Hill reports. Clinton in a podcast on Oct. 17 called Gabbard the "favorite of the Russians," also saying she's being groomed for a third-party bid. The latter remark was initially reported widely as referring to Russians grooming Gabbard, though Clinton's spokesperson later said she meant Gabbard is being groomed by Republicans. Clinton additionally referred to Jill Stein as "also a Russian asset" after talking about Gabbard, with the "also" seeming to suggest Clinton thinks Gabbard is one as well. Gabbard's legal counsel rejected Clinton's explanation for the "grooming" comment, in the Monday letter calling the idea that she meant Republicans "spin developed only after you realized the defamatory nature of your statement, and therefore your legal liability." Clinton's comments are "actionable as defamation," the letter also says, going on to demand she "immediately hold a press conference to verbally retract -- in full -- your comments." Beyond that, Gabbard's counsel demands Clinton release a retraction on her Twitter account and distribute it to major news outlets, with an exact wording even being provided; a statement has Clinton saying she made a "grave mistake," that she apologizes, and that "I support and admire" Gabbard's work.This is Gabbard's latest escalation of her war against Clinton after tearing into her immediately after the October comments in a stunning Twitter thread, calling her "the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long." More stories from theweek.com The coming death of just about every rock legend The president has already confessed to his crimes Why are 2020 Democrats so weird?
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| Iran says new oil find adds only 22 bln barrels to reserves Posted: 11 Nov 2019 12:00 AM PST  Iran's oil minister said Monday that an oil field whose discovery President Hassan Rouhani announced at the weekend adds only 22.2 billion barrels to the country's estimated crude reserves. Out of the amount at the site, only a tenth -- 2.2 billion barrels --- can be extracted due to technological limitations, the minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, told reporters in Tehran. Rouhani on Sunday announced the discovery of a field containing 53 billion barrels of oil in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, saying it was a "small gift by the government to the people of Iran".
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| Douglas MacArthur Is One of America's Most Famous Generals. He's Also the Most Overrated Posted: 11 Nov 2019 12:03 PM PST  He might be one of President Trump's favorite generals, but as Hampton Sides writes, Douglas MacArthur was far from a military genius.
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| UPDATE 1-Putin, Merkel say Ukraine's Donbass should get special status - Kremlin Posted: 11 Nov 2019 10:28 AM PST ![UPDATE 1-Putin, Merkel say Ukraine's Donbass should get special status - Kremlin]( "UPDATE 1-Putin, Merkel say Ukraine's Donbass should get special status - Kremlin") MOSCOW/BERLIN, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed on Monday that Ukraine should give its separatist-led Donbass region a special status set out in Ukrainian law, the Kremlin said. It gave no further details of the leaders' discussions on the future of Donbass during a phone call, but agreement on its status would be a step towards convening a four-nation summit on ending five years of conflict in the eastern region. Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy said last month that Kiev had agreed to grant Donbass special status and let local elections go ahead there.
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| Conn. man charged in hotel worker's death skips hearing Posted: 11 Nov 2019 02:07 PM PST  A Connecticut man charged in the death of a hotel worker he says attacked his family in Anguilla has declined to return to the British Caribbean territory for the most recent pretrial hearing, a spokesman said Monday.
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| Russia's F-35 Killer: Report Claims S-500 Air Defense System Was 'Tested' in Syria Posted: 11 Nov 2019 02:55 AM PST  A defense industry source told Russian news outlet Izvestia last month that the S-500 recently underwent field testing in Syria, where the Russian Aerospace Forces continue to maintain a significant presence. Moscow denied it--but won't dey what they think this air defense platform could do in battle.
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| Turkey starts returning IS fighters; deports US national Posted: 11 Nov 2019 11:48 AM PST  Turkey on Monday deported citizens of the United States and Denmark who fought for the Islamic State and made plans to expel other foreign nationals as the government began a new push to send back captured foreign fighters to their home countries, a Turkish official said. The move comes just over a week after the Turkish interior minister said Turkey was not a "hotel" for IS fighters and criticized Western nations for their reluctance to take back citizens who had joined the ranks of the extremist militant group as it sought to establish a "caliphate" in Iraq and Syria. Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said last week that about 1,200 foreign IS fighters were in Turkish prisons and 287 members, including women and children, were recaptured during Turkey's offensive in Syria.
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| Missing for 75 years, WWII submarine found after translation error discovered Posted: 11 Nov 2019 11:11 AM PST ![Missing for 75 years, WWII submarine found after translation error discovered]( "Missing for 75 years, WWII submarine found after translation error discovered") The USS Grayback, a World War II sub, sank in February 1944 and had been missing ever since. A team of explorers just found it off the coast of Japan.
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| Local Authorities Crying Out for Billions as U.K. Austerity Ends Posted: 10 Nov 2019 04:01 PM PST  (Bloomberg) -- Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.Local authorities in England will require billions of additional pounds if they are to meet the rising cost of adult social care, according to new research.A growing gap is emerging between the tax income that councils receive and what they need to deliver services to help elderly and disabled adults live independently, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said in a report published Monday.The findings underscore the mounting pressure on the public purse as years of belt-tightening wind down. With Britain heading for a general election next month, both the ruling Conservative Party and the Labour opposition are promising to plow billions more into austerity-ravaged public services.Local authorities are largely dependent on two property-based taxes: the council tax, which is levied on households, and business rates paid by firms. These revenue sources are failing to keep up with the demands of a growing elderly population, more disabled adults and increases in wage costs, according to the IFS.Even if the council tax rose by 4% every year -– double the rate of inflation -– local jurisdictions may need an additional 1.6 billion pounds ($2.1 billion) in real-terms by 2024–25 to maintain services at current levels, the IFS warned. This figure would be augmented if pledges made during the election campaign are implemented, such as Labour's promise of free personal care for people over age 65.Local Income Tax"The long-term funding gap could be closed by giving councils additional tax raising powers, such as via a local income tax; or they could be provided with additional grant funding from Westminster," the IFS said. "The former would give councils and their residents more discretion over how much to tax and spend, and stronger financial incentives to grow the local economy. But the latter would more easily allow money to be targeted at places where spending needs are the highest and/or local revenue-raising capacity is the lowest."An extra 1.3 billion pounds has been allocated to councils for the coming financial year, and authorities with social-care responsibilities will be allowed to increase council tax by up to 4%. However, this will only undo around one fifth of the cut to public-service budgets since austerity began, the IFS said.To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Atkinson in London at a.atkinson@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Steve GeimannFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
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| A Closer Look at the Beautified Architectural Revolution Within China Posted: 11 Nov 2019 01:45 PM PST |
| Joe Biden aides reportedly worry their meetings are too congratulatory Posted: 11 Nov 2019 07:22 AM PST ![Joe Biden aides reportedly worry their meetings are too congratulatory]( "Joe Biden aides reportedly worry their meetings are too congratulatory") Former Vice President Joe Biden seems to feel his 2020 run may be faltering. His campaign aides still reportedly don't want to tell him that.Biden's presidential campaign has all the trappings of a winning run: An experienced, beloved politician with a tragically heroic backstory, Edward-Isaac Dovere describes in The Atlantic. But polls and fundraising totals are showing Biden isn't thriving the way he'd hope, and his staffers are reportedly struggling to claim otherwise."Biden's campaign lives in a dual reality," in which he's simultaneously winning most polls and yet still "being written off as finished," Dovere writes. Biden aides chalk a lot of that rhetoric up to the media, making "vaguely Trumpian" complaints in which they claim reporters "cover only bad news about Biden and fail to understand what actual heartland voters want," Dovere continues.Yet behind the scenes, Biden is "aware that there are issues with the campaign, especially as it relates to money," one staffer said. His Iowa organization is smaller than Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and even South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg's, and fundraising shortfalls have turned into cutbacks on TV and online ads. That fact has led some aides to "feel like they're just spinning one another in staff meetings about how well things are going," some tell The Atlantic -- and even Biden himself is reportedly "realizing with dread that the race might be slipping away."When asked about his supposedly falling campaign, Biden unequivocally defended his fundraising and organizing. Read more at The Atlantic.More stories from theweek.com The coming death of just about every rock legend The president has already confessed to his crimes Why are 2020 Democrats so weird?
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| Australian citizen jailed in Vietnam for 'terrorism' Posted: 11 Nov 2019 02:55 AM PST  Vietnam jailed a dissident with Australian citizenship for 12 years Monday on terrorism charges, his lawyer told AFP, in the one-party state where anti-government criticism is routinely quashed. Chau Van Kham, who fought against the communists during the Vietnam War, belongs to the outlawed Viet Tan group and was in Vietnam for a fact-finding mission when he was arrested in January. Kham was jailed alongside Nguyen Van Vien, who got 11 years, and Tran Van Quyen who was sentenced to 10 years, both on the same charges.
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| UPDATE 1-Three performers stabbed at Saudi entertainment event -state TV Posted: 11 Nov 2019 02:59 PM PST ![UPDATE 1-Three performers stabbed at Saudi entertainment event -state TV]( "UPDATE 1-Three performers stabbed at Saudi entertainment event -state TV") A man stabbed three performers at a live show in Saudi Arabia's capital and was arrested, state television reported on Monday, adding that the victims were in stable condition. The incident occurred at King Abdullah Park in central Riyadh, one of several venues hosting a two-month long entertainment festival as part of government efforts to open up Saudi society and diversify its economy away from oil. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has eased social restrictions and promoted entertainment previously banned in the conservative Muslim kingdom, risking a backlash from religious critics.
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| Police Employees Charged in 911 Medical Fraud Ring Posted: 10 Nov 2019 09:05 AM PST  NEW YORK -- For years, Angela Meyers, a 911 operator with the New York Police Department, fielded emergency calls, then filed reports about the calls within the department.But according to court documents, when someone called 911 after a car accident, Meyers did something else: She also passed victims' information to an insurance fraud ring in Queens.Meyers was one of six current and former New York Police Department employees charged in federal court Thursday with conspiracy and bribery. They are accused of being part of a citywide medical insurance fraud ring that sent thousands of car accident victims to specific health clinics, doctors and lawyers in exchange for kickbacks.Law enforcement officials arrested 27 people in connection with the scheme -- 23 of those were expected to appear in Manhattan federal court Thursday.A key component to the scheme were the five 911 operators and an active police officer, Yanaris Deleon, who provided victims' confidential contact information to the scheme's ringleaders, prosecutors said. Four of the five 911 operators were active employees; one had previously resigned, police said."There is no place for corruption within the NYPD," James P. O'Neill, the police commissioner, said in a statement. "By tarnishing the shield, as well as their sacred oaths, these employees will be held to the highest account the law provides."According to court documents, the 911 operators and Deleon provided victims' contact information to the scheme's fraudulent "call center."The call center would then contact those victims and coax them to visit prearranged medical clinics and lawyers, court documents say. Those call center offices would then pay the ringleader of the scheme, Anthony Rose, 51, in exchange for that information, according to authorities.Prosecutors said the department employees received thousands of dollars for their part in the scheme."These actions have undermined the integrity of our emergency and medical first responders," said Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan. "This office is committed to rooting out corruption wherever it is found and will not rest until those who seek to profit by corrupting our public institutions are brought to justice."The fraud ring employed a network of people within hospitals, medical service providers and law enforcement. Rose, who is from Queens, ran the scheme from at least 2014 to November 2019, prosecutors said.As recently as June, Deleon texted Rose on encrypted messaging app WhatsApp and provided a list of "nearly two dozen names and telephone numbers" of accident victims, court documents said.Prosecutors estimate that as many as 60,000 car accident victims may have had their confidential information improperly disclosed.Rose ordered his co-conspirators to target car accident victims from low-income neighborhoods because they were more vulnerable, according to court documents. He told his fraudulent call center not to target victims in Manhattan, court documents said, because "those people got attorneys.""We need all the 'hood cases," Rose told the call center people, according to the documents. "We want all the bad neighborhoods."In addition to the Police Department sources, Rose also bribed employees at hospitals and medical centers to violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA, and disclose confidential patient information for car accident victims, the documents say.The investigation is continuing, prosecutors said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2019 The New York Times Company
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| China's Investments In Special Forces Are Paying Off In Deadly Ways Posted: 09 Nov 2019 07:00 PM PST  Special operations soldiers are a force multiplier.
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| Shootings, blasts prompt Denmark to tighten border controls Posted: 11 Nov 2019 07:50 AM PST  Denmark will temporarily reinstate border controls with Sweden and step up police work along the border after a series of violent crimes and explosions around Copenhagen that Danish authorities say were carried out by perpetrators from Sweden. The checks, which start Tuesday for six months, will take place at the Oresund Bridge between Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmo, and at ferry ports.
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| Trump impeachment: CNN host interrupts senior Republican to correct president's false claims on Ukraine aid Posted: 10 Nov 2019 10:24 AM PST  CNN host Jake Tapper interrupted a senior Republican to correct him as he repeated a false claim by Donald Trump about European aid to Ukraine.Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate homeland security committee, cited the president's claim that he had withheld almost $400 million in military assistance because he was concerned that the EU was not doing enough.
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| Uber, Lyft say proposed California ballot measure is a good deal for drivers. Economists disagree Posted: 11 Nov 2019 03:33 PM PST  Battle in California over the future of app-based services could have ramifications for the rest of the nation.
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| Cops Bust Unicorn Protesting White Supremacy at Indiana Farmer’s Market Posted: 11 Nov 2019 12:21 PM PST  Courtesy of The Purple Shirt BrigadeThe arrest of an inflatable purple unicorn on Saturday wasn't even close to the strangest event to unfold at Bloomington, Indiana's Community Farmers' Market this year.The market was once the peaceful home of fresh vegetables and goat cheese. But after the owners of a market stall were outed as supporters of a white supremacist group, it has become the center of a fierce debate on bigotry and free speech. The controversy has led to new rules about where people can hold signs and distribute flyers in the market—and on Saturday, five anti-racist protesters were arrested for allegedly breaking those rules.The unicorn was the first to go. Dressed in an inflatable purple pony suit with a golden horn, protester Forrest Gilmore was removed from the market by two police officers, each gripping one of his purple hooves.Gilmore is part of the Purple Shirt Brigade, an activist coalition that formed this year in response to allegations of white supremacists working at the Bloomington Community Farmers' Market. Those allegations began after the arrest of Indiana resident Nolan Brewer for spray-painting Nazi flags on the side of a synagogue and setting off a fire outside. Brewer told authorities he was a dues-paying member of the hate group Identity Evropa, and described getting dinner with another member: Sarah Dye and her husband Douglas Mackey. Brewer also told investigators the screenname Dye used in an Identity Evropa chat room. Local activists then matched that name to Dye and a series of racist messages she posted as "Volkmom." (Dye denies being a white supremacist, but describes herself as an "identitarian," a term with little to no meaningful distinction from white supremacy, and which has become popular among white supremacists hoping for more mainstream acceptance.)Farmers' Markets Have New Unwelcome Guests: FascistsActivists also connected Dye to Schooner Creek Farm, the farm she runs with her husband. The two have a stall in the Bloomington Community Farmers' Market, where some local activists began distributing "Don't Buy Veggies From Nazis" buttons this summer. The group "No Space for Hate" announced plans to protest at the market, prompting counter-protests from right-wing groups like a local "Three Percenter" militia and new rules about where and how people can express themselves in the market. One anti-Schooner Creek protester was arrested for holding a sign in front of the stall.Bloomington officials ruled this summer that Schooner Creek Farm was not breaking any rules, and that Dye and her husband had a First Amendment right to their beliefs. The protests, however, became the subject of new rules. "New signage will clearly indicate areas designated for flyering and expression and publicize market rules," the city announced in August.On Saturday, the Purple Shirt Brigade tested those rules."The idea was to find a way to protest directly in the market," a spokesperson for the group told The Daily Beast. "Most of us had been protesting with No Space for Hate previously (and still are). The market had created rules earlier in the summer to ban the use of signs in the marketplace."The group pointed to pictures of a number of recent guests with far-right ties at the Schooner Creek farm stand, including Patrick Casey, the leader of Identity Evropa (which rebranded this year as the American Identity Movement). Casey and other group members attended Unite the Right, the deadly 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.'Whiter Every Election Cycle': How Identity Evropa, a Far-Right Hate Group, Joined the GOPOnline, the farm stand has also received support from the right. When Dye shared pictures of protesters this summer ("violent Indiana ANTIFA terrorists at our farmers market booth today"), a commenter asked, "why didn't anyone just shoot them?"Previously, the Purple Shirt Brigade skirted the anti-signage laws by printing their messages on T-shirts. ("Justice is what love looks like in public," the shirts read, "Boycott Schooner Creek Farm.") But they've pushed the rules in a bid to see exactly what's allowed."We have wanted to challenge the signage rule because we believe it's a violation of our First Amendment rights," the spokesperson said. "One week we brought purple fans to the market (they looked like signs), and the market staff let us get away with that. However, this week we created signs with statements made by SCF supporters about us (from Facebook comments)."Protesters carrying the signs dressed up as unicorns, vikings, and Wonder Woman. Five were arrested on counts of disorderly conduct and trespassing, and issued 24-hour bans from the market area, the Bloomingtonian reported.In a video captured by the Bloomingtonian, the purple-clad protesters sang "no neo-Nazis in the market" while two unicorns argued with a police officer over exactly how they could protest."So we can't sing?" one unicorn asked over the sound of a guitar."Not in here," the officer responded. He turned to the other unicorn. "Forrest, I need you to leave as well."Police were filmed writing the unicorn a citation shortly thereafter.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Scott Walker objects to 'holiday tree' and Twitter critics let him have it Posted: 11 Nov 2019 07:58 AM PST  Democratic Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers unveiled a holiday tree in the state Capitol last week, and his predecessor did not respond well. Scott Walker and other Republicans in the state used the "holiday tree" to revive the old "War on Christmas" talking points common in right-wing circles.
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| UPDATE 3-Resignation of Morales, last of 'pink tide,' polarizes Latin America Posted: 10 Nov 2019 03:15 PM PST ![UPDATE 3-Resignation of Morales, last of 'pink tide,' polarizes Latin America]( "UPDATE 3-Resignation of Morales, last of 'pink tide,' polarizes Latin America") The resignation of Bolivian President Evo Morales, the last serving member of the 'pink tide' of leftist leaders that swept Latin America two decades ago, polarized governments across the region on Sunday, with presidents from Venezuela to Argentina denouncing a "coup" and others cheering his exit. Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous leader, ended his 14-year rule after allies deserted him following weeks of protests over a disputed Oct. 20 election that has roiled the Andean nation. Right-leaning governments in Latin America, among them Colombia and Peru, called on the Bolivian state to ensure new elections would be lawful.
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| Study This Picture: China's J-10 Fighter Is One Tough Fighter Jet Posted: 10 Nov 2019 03:00 AM PST  A big deal?
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| Hong Kong police shoot protester, man set on fire Posted: 11 Nov 2019 08:55 AM PST  Following a day of violence in which one person was shot by police and another set on fire, Hong Kong's leader pledged Monday to "spare no effort" to halt anti-government protests that have wracked the city for more than five months. "I do not want to go into details, but I just want to make it very clear that we will spare no effort in finding ways and means that could end the violence in Hong Kong as soon as possible," Lam told reporters. Lam also refused to accept the protesters' demands for political concessions.
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| Bernie Sanders declares it's 'not antisemitic' to criticize Israel Posted: 11 Nov 2019 10:07 AM PST ![Bernie Sanders declares it's 'not antisemitic' to criticize Israel]( "Bernie Sanders declares it's 'not antisemitic' to criticize Israel") Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has his own plan for "how to fight antisemitism."In an op-ed published Monday on the progressive site Jewish Currents, Sanders reflects on something he usually doesn't "spend a lot of time talking about:" his experience as a "proud Jewish American." But it's been a year since "President Donald Trump's own words helped inspire the worst act of antisemitic violence in American history," Sanders said, so he's outlining policies and ideologies he feels are needed to "confront this hatred."Last October, 11 people were killed at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synogogue, with the shooter using Trump's term of "invasion" to justify his attack. That's an obvious example of how "antisemitism is rising in this country," with the FBI reporting "hate crimes against Jews rose by more than a third in 2017," Sanders wrote. And the only way to combat this is to "do exactly the opposite of what Trump is doing and embrace our differences to bring people together," Sanders continued.Sanders called out how false "accusations of antisemitism" are often lobbied at progressives, saying "it is not antisemitic to criticize the policies of the Israeli government," Sanders declared, though some of that criticism can "cross the line." "I will always call out antisemitism when I see it," Sanders said, also adding that he will also "rejoin the United Nations Human Rights Council, which Trump withdrew from" and immediately appoint a "special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism." From there, Sanders will continue to call for independent Israeli and Palestinian states and push for "solidarity" among all people working for that same goal.Find all of Sanders' plan at Jewish Currents.More stories from theweek.com The coming death of just about every rock legend The president has already confessed to his crimes Why are 2020 Democrats so weird?
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| These are the New Cars That Depreciate Least Posted: 11 Nov 2019 01:35 PM PST |
| No more fire in the kitchen: Cities are banning natural gas in homes to save the planet Posted: 11 Nov 2019 10:21 AM PST  Thirteen cities and one county in California have passed building codes encouraging — or requiring — all-electric appliances in new homes.
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| Small plane crashes in Texas during 'gender reveal' stunt Posted: 10 Nov 2019 07:13 AM PST  Passenger injured as pilot slowed plane at low altitude to 'dump 350 gallons of pink water' in stunt gone badly wrongGender reveal parties let expecting parents reveal whether they are going to have a boy or a girl. Stunts gone wrong have become a staple of online reporting. Photograph: Beautyinoddplaces/Getty Images/iStockphotoIn another instance of a "gender reveal" stunt gone badly wrong, a small plane crashed in Texas after "dump[ing] about 350 gallons of pink water" to indicate that a friend of the pilot was going to have a daughter.According to a National Transportation Safety Board report into the crash, which happened near the town of Turkey on 7 September, "the pilot reported, that while maneuvering at a low altitude in an aerial applicator airplane, he dumped about 350 gallons of pink water for a gender reveal."The airplane 'got too slow', aerodynamically stalled, impacted terrain and came to rest inverted."The pilot reported no mechanical failures or malfunctions before the plane crashed.The NTSB report added: "The Federal Aviation Administration inspector … [said] there were two persons on board the single-seat airplane."The pilot was not injured. The passenger suffered minor injuries.Gender reveal parties let expecting parents reveal whether they are going to have a boy or a girl. Stunts gone wrong have become a staple of online reporting.In Iowa in October, a 56-year-old grandmother was killed when a device meant to shoot out coloured powder exploded instead.In Arizona in 2017, a man fired a rifle at a target that exploded, releasing blue powder. It also started a wildfire that burned 73 sq miles of mostly Forest Service land. The man was ordered to pay nearly $8m in restitution.Earlier this year, Jenna Karvunidis, a mother of three who in 2008 was one of the first people to hold a gender reveal, told the Guardian she "had released something bad into the world".Aside from accidents, Karvunidis said she regretted the focus of such events on traditional notions of gender."I started to realize that nonbinary people and trans people were feeling affected by this," she said, "and I started to feel bad."
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| Airlines are flying tons of unneeded fuel around the world to save as little as $52 by not filling up in countries with higher prices Posted: 11 Nov 2019 06:18 AM PST  The practice, called fuel tankering, gives airlines an often tiny saving at the cost of much-larger carbon emissions, BBC's 'Panorama' said.
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| Amazon's $1.5 million political gambit backfires in Seattle City Council election Posted: 10 Nov 2019 07:06 PM PST  Seattle voters, in a rebuke to heavy corporate campaign spending by Amazon.com, have kept progressives firmly in control of their city council, reviving chances for a tax on big businesses that the tech giant helped fend off last year. Amazon poured a record $1.5 million into a Super PAC run by the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce to back a slate of candidates in the Nov. 5 council elections viewed as pro-business, or at least more corporate friendly than the incumbent council majority. Amazon, the world's leading online retailer whose chief executive is billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, accounted for more than half of nearly $2.7 million raised by the Super PAC, a group allowed to accept unlimited sums from wealthy donors in support of their favorite candidates.
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| Thai convent weaves 'beautiful' robes for Pope Francis visit Posted: 11 Nov 2019 01:55 AM PST  Sewing machines whir in a Bangkok convent as workers feverishly finish silk robes in brilliant golds and reds, made especially for Pope Francis and his entourage visiting Thailand this month. Seamstresses at the Praharuthai Convent in Bangkok are working hard ahead of the trip to ensure Pope Francis and his bishops, deacons and priests are decked out in the country's finest threads. "I feel happy and very proud that our convent has been selected to do this most honourable job," said Sister Sukanya, who oversees the tailoring.
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