April, 14 2021, 12:00am EDT

For Immediate Release
Contact:
Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, Western Environmental Law Center, (575) 770-1295, eriksg@westernlaw.org
Taylor McKinnon, Center for Biological Diversity, (801) 300-2414, tmckinnon@biologicaldiversity.org
Virginia Cramer, Sierra Club, (804) 519-8449, virginia.cramer@sierraclub.org
Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians, (303) 437-7663, jnichols@wildearthguardians.org
Landon Newell, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, (801) 428-3991, landon@suwa.org
WASHINGTON
Hundreds of climate, Native American, religious, business and conservation organizations today called on the Biden administration to do a comprehensive environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act and other laws to align federal fossil fuel programs with U.S. climate goals to curb global warming.
The letter asks the Interior Department to evaluate a legal finding of climate harm from fossil fuel expansion. It describes how the administration can use existing laws to end new fossil fuel leasing onshore and offshore and manage a just, orderly decline of production consistent with its goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The letter also calls for the fair and meaningful involvement of communities vulnerable to climate change, affected by or dependent upon the federal fossil fuel program.
In February the Biden administration issued an executive order pausing oil and gas leasing onshore and offshore pending a climate review of federal fossil fuel programs. In June the Interior Department will issue an interim report describing findings from a March online forum and public comments being solicited through April 15.
In January, 574 conservation, Native American, religious and business groups sent the then president-elect text for a proposed executive order to ban new fossil fuel leasing and permitting on federal public lands and waters.
Today's letter, authored by Western Environmental Law Center, the Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians and Sierra Club, was signed by organizations from across the United States, many with members who live on the front lines of fossil fuel pollution and in communities harmed by climate change.
Quotes From Organizations
"The comprehensive review of the federal fossil fuels programs is a long-needed step in the right direction," said Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, executive director of the Taos, N.M.-based Western Environmental Law Center. "Done right and coupled with investments in workers and frontline communities, it can spark a long-needed transition away from fossil fuels and toward a just, equitable and climate-resilient economy where public lands serve as a cornerstone of climate resilience and conservation, not exploitation."
"Runaway pollution from the federal fossil fuel programs has been worsening climate chaos for decades," said Taylor McKinnon, a senior campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. "The Biden administration must do a comprehensive review and make frontline communities a part of this process. This will inevitably show the need for a ban on new leasing and a just, orderly decline of oil and gas extraction on public lands and waters."
"The climate crisis requires immediate action. The BLM must put a halt to all new leasing of public lands if there is any chance of avoiding the most severe impacts of a changing climate," said Landon Newell, a staff attorney with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "For far too long the BLM has wrongly elevated oil and gas leasing and development as the primary use of our nation's public lands, threatening our climate, wildlife, cultural treasures and wild places. This unbalanced approach must stop now."
"The writing on the wall is clear. The long-term health of our communities, economies and our climate requires phasing out fossil fuel leasing on public lands," said Eric Huber, managing attorney for Sierra Club's Environmental Law Program.
"We cannot afford to close our eyes to the dangers of inaction; we need bold action now to halt new leasing and to diversify economies in ways that allow everyone to benefit."
"It's time to put public lands and waters to work for our climate and justice, not for fossil fuels," said Jeremy Nichols, climate and energy program director at WildEarth Guardians. "We're counting on President Biden and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to boldly reform federal oil and gas management to ensure we keep fossil fuels in the ground and our nation on track for climate progress."
"Together our groups represent millions of people across the country all urging the Biden administration to put the health and safety of our communities and our climate before oil and gas profits," said Nicole Ghio, senior fossil fuels program manager at Friends of the Earth. "The Department of the Interior must meaningfully engage with the public and start managing our lands and waters for the public good instead of selling out future generations to prop up the fossil fuel industry. This starts with permanently halting new leases on public lands and waters."
"As mothers and grandmothers, we want to know that future generations have clean air, clean water and a climate-resilient economy," said Shelley Silbert, executive director of Great Old Broads for Wilderness. "Our best use of public lands is to ensure the safety and health of America's communities and our land, water and wildlife. The fossil fuel industry has for too long put profit above all else. The leasing pause is a valuable way to review impacts and align priorities toward a livable future."
"Winding down federal oil and gas leasing and permitting programs is critical to saving the West," said Natasha Leger, executive director of Citizens for a Healthy Community. "The largest climate hotspot in the U.S. is over the 15 water-producing counties for seven states in the West and Mexico, where we're experiencing extreme drought. We cannot expect to adapt our way out of the climate, ecological and health crises exacerbated by oil and gas extraction."
Background
Fossil fuel production on public lands causes about a quarter of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution. Peer-reviewed science estimates that a nationwide federal fossil fuel leasing ban would reduce carbon emissions by 280 million tons per year, ranking it among the most ambitious federal climate-policy proposals in recent years.
Oil, gas and coal extraction uses mines, well pads, gas lines, roads and other infrastructure that destroys habitat for wildlife, including threatened and endangered species. Oil spills and other harms from offshore drilling have done immense damage to ocean wildlife and coastal communities. Fracking and mining also pollute watersheds and waterways that provide drinking water to millions of people.
Federal fossil fuels that have not been leased to industry contain up to 450 billion tons of potential climate pollution; those already leased to industry contain up to 43 billion tons. Pollution from the world's already producing oil and gas fields, if fully developed, would push global warming well past 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Signing Organizations:
Alabama Interfaith Power & Light, Alliance for Climate Education (ACE), Amigos Bravos, Animal Welfare Institute, Animals Are Sentient Beings, Inc, Animas Valley Institute, Anthropocene Alliance, Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, Athens County's Future Action Network aka Athens County Fracking Action Network, Audubon Society, Aytzim: Ecological Judaism, Azul, Black Warrior Riverkeeper, Breast Cancer Action, Bronx Jewish Earth Alliance, Bucks County Concerned Citizens Against the Pipelines, Bucks Environmental Action, Businesses for a Livable Climate, California League of Conservation Voters, Californians for Western Wilderness, Call to Action CO, CatholicNetwork.US, CELL, Center for Civic Policy, Center for International Environmental Law, Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT), Central Bergen Circle of GreenFaith, Central Colorado Wilderness Coalition, Chaco Alliance, Church Women United in New York State, Citizens' Environmental Coalition, Citizens for a Healthy Community, Climable, Inc., Climate Action Now Western Mass, Climate Advocates Voces Unidas, Climate Advocates Voces Unidas (CAVU), Climate First: Replacing Oil & Gas (CFROG), Climate Hawks Vote, Climate Hawks Vote, Climate Health Now, Coalition for Outreach, Policy & Education, Colorado Rising, Common Ground Rising, Community for Sustainable Energy, Community Health, Conservation Voters New Mexico, Cooperative Energy Futures, Corporate Ethics International, Corvallis Interfaith Climate Justice Committee / Corvallis Carbon Offset Fund, Defend Our Future, Defenders of Wildlife, Defiende Nuestra Tierra, Dine C.A.R.E., Earth Action, Earth Action, Inc, Earth Action, Inc., Earth Day.org, Earthworks, EcoFlight, Endangered Habitats League, Endangered Habitats League, Endangered Species Coalition, Environmental Protection Information Center, Environmental Protection Information Center, Extinction Rebellion San Francisco Bay Area, First United Methodist Church, Environmental Care Team, Food & Water Watch, Fossil Free California, Foundation Earth, FracTracker Alliance, FreshWater Accountability Project, Friends of the Earth, Gas Free Seneca, GASP, Georgia Conservation Voters, Geos Institute, Golden Egg Permaculture, Grassroots Coalition, Great Egg Harbor Watershed Association, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, GreenFaith, Greenpeace USA, Gullah/Geechee Fishing Association, Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, HealthLink, Inc, Healthy Gulf, Heartwood, High Country Conservation Advocates, Idle No More Michigan, Indigenous Environmental Network, Inspiration of Sedona, Interfaith Earthkeepers of Eugene/Springfield, International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute, JewishClimateAction-MA, John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute, Kickapoo Peace Circle, Klamath Forest Alliance, KyotoUSA, Lifelong Medical, Los Padres ForestWatch, Lynn Canal Conservation, Malach Consulting, Massachusetts Forest Watch, MassAmerican Energy LLC, Mid-Missouri Peaceworks, Milwaukee Riverkeeper, Milwaukee Riverkeeper, Mining Impact Coalition of Wisconsin, Mission Blue, Montana Environmental Information Center, MountainTrue, Native American Caucus, New Mexico Sportsmen, New Mexico Wild, New Hampshire Audubon, New Mexico Environmental Law Center, No Coal In Richmond, Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson, North Carolina Council of Churches, North Range Concerned Citizens, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Northern Arizona Climate Change Alliance, NY4WHALES, Oasis Earth, Ocean Conservation Research, Oceanic Preservation Society, Oil Change International, Oregon Wild, Our Climate Education Fund, Our Revolution Michigan, Patagonia, Pelican Media, People's Party, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Physicians for Social Responsibility Arizona Chapter, Physicians for Social Responsibility Florida Chapter, Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania Chapter,PNM Shareholders for a Responsible Future, ProgressNow New Mexico, Public Lands Project, Pueblo Action Alliance, Rachel Carson Council, RapidShift Network, Raptors Are The Solution, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, Resource Renewal Institute, Rio Arriba Concerned Citizens, Rio Grande Indivisible, NM, River Guardian Foundation, RootsAction.org, Safe Energy Now/North County, San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility, Santa Barbara County Action Network, Santa Barbara Standing Rock Coalition, Santa Barbara Urban Creeks Council, Santa Fe Green Chamber of Commerce, Save Our Shores, SAVE THE FROGS!, Seaside Sustainability, Seneca Lake Guardian, A Waterkeeper Alliance Affiliate, Seventh Generation, Sisters of Charity Federation, Sisters of St. Dominic of Blauvelt, New York, Social Eco Education (SEE-LA), Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, Southern Oregon Climate Action Now, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Spottswoode Winery, Inc., Sunflower Alliance, Sungage Financial LLC, Sunrise Corvallis, Syracuse Cultural Workers, System Change Not Climate Change, Tennessee Riverkeeper, The Climate Center, The Enviro Show, The Forest Foundation, Inc., The Samuel Lawrence Foundation, To Nizhoni Ani, Toxics Information Project (TIP), Turner Endangered Species Fund, Turtle Island Restoration Network, Unite North Metro Denver, United for Action (based in NYC), Upper Green River Alliance, Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition, V & T Ventures, LLC, Vote Climate, Wall of Women, Wasatch Clean Air Coalition, WATCH, Inc, Waterkeeper Alliance, Waterkeepers Chesapeake, WCCUSD, WESPAC Foundation, Inc., Western Colorado Alliance, Western Watersheds Project, Wild Connections, Wilderness Workshop, Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), Wyoming Sierra Club, 2degrees Northampton, 350 Colorado, 350 Conejo/San Fernando Valley, 350 Everett, WA, 350 Hawaii, 350 Humboldt, 350 Mass Metro North Node, 350 New Orleans, 350 Seattle, 350 Silicon Valley, 350.org. 350.org New Mexico, 350Corvallis, 350Kishwaukee, 7 Directions of Service
At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
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Trump Rally in Waco Called Not a Dog Whistle, But a 'Blaring Air Horn' to Far-Right
"There's not really another place in the U.S. that you could pick that would tap into these deep veins of anti-government hatred—Christian nationalist skepticism of the government," said one extremism expert.
Mar 24, 2023
While former U.S. President Donald Trump's 2024 campaign insists it is purely coincidental that his planned Saturday rally in Waco, Texas falls during the 30th anniversary of a deadly 51-day siege targeting a religious cult, some Texans and extremism experts aren't buying it.
Since law enforcement—including Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents—carried out the botched operation at a Branch Davidian compound near Waco from February 28 to April 19 in 1993, the event has been a source of anti-government sentiment for the likes of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and U.S. militia movement members.
"When Donald Trump flies into Waco on Saturday evening for the first major campaign event of his 2024 reelection quest, dog ears won't be the only ones twitching," the Houston Chronicle editorial board argued Thursday. "Trump doesn't do subtle; dog-whistle messages are not his style. The more apt metaphor is the blaring air horn of a Mack 18-wheeler barreling down I-10."
"'Waco' has become an Alamo of sorts, a shrine for the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters, the Oath Keepers, and other anti-government extremists and conspiracists."
"The GOP-friendly city of Waco—Trump won McLennan County by more than 20 percentage points in 2020—has every right, of course, to host a former president, the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, but 'Waco,' the symbol... means something else entirely," the board stressed. "'Waco' has become an Alamo of sorts, a shrine for the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters, the Oath Keepers, and other anti-government extremists and conspiracists."
The twice-impeached former president faces potential legal trouble in multiple states and at the federal level for everything from a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to trying to overturn his 2020 electoral loss and inciting the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump, a documented serial liar, took to his Truth Social platform last weekend to say that he would be arrested Tuesday—as part of a New York grand jury investigation into the hush money—and call for protests. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Thursday that Trump "created a false expectation that he would be arrested."
In a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump
warned of "death and destruction" if he is indicted—which led the watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) to charge that "he's not being subtle, he's threatening prosecutors with violence."
The Chronicle board tied Trump's legal problems to his Waco trip:
Thirty years later, the anti-government paramilitary groups feeding off lies about the "deep state" and a stolen election periodically visit the modest, little chapel on the site of the sprawling, ramshackle building that burned to the ground. Although the Branch Davidians had nothing to do with anti-government conspiracists, chapel construction was funded by loud-mouthed conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Militia members and conspiracists know exactly what Trump's Waco visit symbolizes. They have heard him castigate the FBI and the "deep state," particularly after agents searched for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. How they'll respond to his remarks, particularly if he shows up as the first former president in American history to face criminal charges, has law enforcement in Waco and beyond taking every precaution. What he says will likely set the tone for the presidential campaign to come. Every American should be concerned.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung wrote Friday in an email to The New York Times that Waco was chosen "because it is centrally located and close to all four of Texas' biggest metropolitan areas—Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio—while providing the necessary infrastructure to hold a rally of this magnitude."
The Chronicle board noted other local options, writing that "the Waco Regional Airport and an expected crowd of 10,000 or so fit the bill. Of course, Temple or Belton or Killeen (home to Fort Hood) would have fit the bill, as well—without the weight of symbolism."
The Texas newspaper was far from alone in sounding the alarm about Trump's upcoming trip to Waco.
"Waco is hugely symbolic on the far right," Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, toldUSA TODAY. "There's not really another place in the U.S. that you could pick that would tap into these deep veins of anti-government hatred—Christian nationalist skepticism of the government—and I find it hard to believe that Trump doesn't know that Waco represents all of these things."
"Waco has a sense of grievance among people that I know he's got to be trying to tap into," Beirich added. "He's being unjustly accused, like the Branch Davidians were unjustly accused—and the deep state is out to get them all."
The newspaper pointed out that "though Trump has held more than 100 campaign rallies and similar events, and mounted a near-daily schedule of them during his campaigns, this week's appears to be the first one ever held in Waco."
Megan Squire, deputy director for data analytics at the Southern Poverty Law Center, also rejected the Trump campaign's suggestion that the trip isn't connected to the 1993 standoff and what means to many members of the far-right.
"Give me a break! There's no reason to go to Waco, Texas, other than one thing," Squire told USA TODAY. "I can't even fathom what that's about other than just a complete dog whistle—actually forget dog whistle, that is just a train whistle to the folks who still remember that event and are still mad about it."
Even some right-wing figures are openly making the connection, as TIMEreported: "Posting on the messaging app Telegram, far-right activist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer called the rally in Waco 'very symbolic!' A few MAGA influencers on social media noted the choice of location, with one calling it 'a meaningful shot across the brow of the deep state.'"
Nicole Hemmer, a Vanderbilt University associate professor of history and author of Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics and Partisans: The Conservative Revolutionaries Who Remade American Politics in the 1990s, wrote in a Friday opinion piece for CNNthat Trump's trip is "a provocation of historic significance."
"When Trump became president in 2016, rather than becoming synonymous with the federal government as previous chief executives had done, he styled himself as both its victim and its adversary, promoting conspiracies about the deep state and encouraging supporters to keep him in power by any means necessary," Hemmer highlighted. "In choosing Waco as the kickoff site for his campaign rallies, he has signaled that his courtship of extremist groups will continue, and that he sees his role as a pivotal figure in the far-right mythos as central to his efforts to retake the presidency."
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'No One's... Having Fun': Surveys Show Soaring US Economic Pessimism
"An overwhelming share of Americans aren't confident their children's lives will be better than their own."
Mar 24, 2023
A pair of polls published Friday revealed that the rising cost of living is causing financial strain for most Americans—especially people with lower incomes—and that pessimism about the state and future of the country's economy is pervasive and spreading.
A
Wall Street Journal/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that 80% of 1,019 respondents said the nation's economy is in "poor" or "not so good" condition. Asked about the future of the economy, 47% of those polled said they believe it will be worse in a year, while just 15% said they think it improve. Thirty-eight percent of respondents said the economy will be in about the same shape a year from now.
The pessimistic economic outlook can be summed up in one survey question: Asked if they felt confident that life for their children's generation "will be better than it has been for us," only 21% of respondents answered affirmatively.
The Hillnoted that 42% of people who took a similar survey in 2001 said they didn't think their children would enjoy better lives than theirs. Today, that figure has soared to 78%.
Other survey findings include:
- 92% said that rising costs of living is creating some degree of financial strain in their lives, or will cause problems if prices keep rising;
- 52% said it would be difficult to find a job with another employer with approximately the same income and fringe benefits they have now;
- 56% said a four-year undergraduate degree isn't worth the cost because people often graduate without specific job skills and with a large amount of debt; and
- 44% said their personal finances are in worse shape than they imagined for themselves at this stage of life.
Despite the respondents' economic pessimism, 68% of people polled said they were "pretty happy" or "very happy" in life.
The Associated Pressand NORC—the University of Chicago's research arm—published a separate poll Friday that found "about half of U.S. adults in households earning less than $60,000 annually and about 4 in 10 of those in households earning $60,000 to $100,000 say they're very stressed by their personal finances."
According to the AP:
About three-quarters of adults across income groups say their household expenses are higher now than they were a year ago, but those in households earning less than $100,000 a year are more likely than those in higher-income households to say they also have higher debt. Those facing a combination of rising debt and expenses overwhelmingly say their financial situation is a major source of stress.
One 76-year-old woman interviewed by the APsaid that "there's no comfort zone in their finances—no vacation" for people like her, who are " just getting by."
"Medications are expensive. Groceries. No one's living large or having fun," she added. "They should be having fun."
A 28-year-old single mother who works at an Alabama Walmart told the AP: "I used to do three grocery trips a month. Now it's one-and-a-half at the most."
"We're just gonna have to cut back on a lot of things," she added.
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'Scorched-Earth Politics': Indian MP Ousted, Sentenced to 2 Years Over Modi Insult
"The metamorphosis of BJP's vindictive politics into autocracy is happening at an alarming pace," one Indian state's chief minister said in response to the parliamentary expulsion and criminal sentencing of Rahul Gandhi.
Mar 24, 2023
Democracy defenders sounded the alarm Friday after senior Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was ousted from his parliamentary seat a day after being sentenced to two years in prison in a dubious defamation case involving an insult against the surname of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
India's lower house of Parliament announced Friday that Gandhi—a former president of the Indian National Congress party (called Congress for short) who until Thursday represented the constituency of Wayanad in the southern state of Kerala—was disqualified to serve in office due to his conviction for defaming the Modi name.
The case involved Gandhi allegedly asking during a 2019 campaign rally in Kolar, Karnataka, "How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?"
The Times of Indiareports Surat Chief Judicial Magistrate H. H. Varma convicted Gandhi for defamation under the Indian Penal Code. Varma granted Gandhi bail on a bond of ₹15,000 (approx. $180) and suspended the sentence for 30 days so he may appeal.
While convicting Gandhi, Varma said that the defendant could have limited his insult to the prime minister, but by disparaging all people with the name, the defendant "intentionally" defamed them.
The Modi surname comes from the Modh Ghanchi or Teli Ghanchi community primarily inhabiting western states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Rajashtan, and traditionally employed in the oil pressing and trading business. Although officially designated an Other Backward Caste, Gujaratis do not view the widely successful group as such.
Gandhi
tweeted Friday that he is "fighting for the voice of India" and is "ready to pay any cost."
Congress called Gandhi's conviction an "infirm, erroneous, and unsustainable" judgment.
Party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the government's "efforts to create a chilling effect, a throttling effect, strangulating effect on open, fearless speech relating to public interest, will not stop either Rahul Gandhi or the Congress party."
"There are some disturbing aspects of this judgment which of course will be subject to challenge immediately, but firstly, the heart of the law of criminal defamation is that persons who are complainants should be those who must be able to demonstrate how they personally have been defamed, or prejudiced," Singhvi continued.
"Now," he added, "the admitted position is that no one who is the subject matter of the statement which is found to be offending has filed a criminal complaint."
M.K. Stalin, the leftist chief minister of Tamil Nadu state, tweeted that "the metamorphosis of BJP's vindictive politics into autocracy is happening at an alarming pace," a reference to Modi's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The prime minister is also a member of the Hindu supremacist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) paramilitary group.
"The disqualification of Rahul Gandhi is an onslaught on all the progressive-democratic forces of our country," Stalin said in a statement Friday. "All the political parties in India shall realize this and we should oppose unitedly."
In the United States, Democratic California Congressman Ro Khanna—whose parents immigrated from Punjab state— called Gandhi's ouster a "deep betrayal of Gandhian philosophy and India's deepest values."
"This is not what my grandfather sacrificed years in jail for," Khanna added, referring to former Congress parliamentarian and independence movement figure Amarnath Vidyalankar. "Narendra Modi, you have the power to reverse this decision for the sake of Indian democracy."
Arundhati Roy, the renowned Indian writer, said during a Wednesday lecture at the Swedish Academy in Stockholm that "India's democracy is being systematically disassembled. Only the rituals remain."
Mentioning the persecution of religious minorities—especially Muslims—the brutal military occupation of Kashmir, and the imprisonment of journalists, Roy added that "India for all practical purposes has become a corporate, theocratic Hindu state, a highly policed state, a fearsome state [seething] with Hindu supremacist fervor."
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