Tiger King star Carole Baskin earns Biden’s support on big cat bill

Photo by Araya Doheny/Getty Images for NightFly Entertainment, Ltd.

On Tuesday, the White House officially threw its support behind a bill pushed by Tiger King star Carole Baskin to restrict exotic animal ownership.

In a statement, the Biden administration said that the Big Cat Public Safety Act “would build on existing laws that protect big cats like tigers, cheetahs, jaguars, and other wild animals living in captivity in the United States” and “limit ownership of these animals to zoos, sanctuaries, universities, and agencies.”

The measure — introduced by Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) — would formally ban the cub petting industry of lions, tigers, and other big cats featured in Netflix’s hit Tiger King documentary released in 2020. As highlighted in the show, private zoos...

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Zuckerberg says Meta and Apple are in ‘very deep, philosophical competition’ to build the metaverse

Photo by AMY OSBORNE / AFP via Getty Images

Mark Zuckerberg believes that Apple and his company are in a “very deep, philosophical competition” to build the metaverse, suggesting the two tech giants are ready to butt heads in selling hardware for augmented and virtual reality.

The Meta CEO told employees earlier this month that they were competing with Apple to determine “what direction the internet should go in,” according to a recording of his comments during an internal all-hands meeting obtained by The Verge. He said that Meta would position itself as the more open, cheaper alternative to Apple, which is expected to announce its first AR headset as soon as later this year.

“This is a competition of philosophies and ideas, where they believe that by doing everything themselves...

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Google parent Alphabet’s profit slips again after CEO warns of ‘economic headwinds’

The company’s profits are lower for another quarter. | Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Profits are down at Google parent company Alphabet for the second quarter in a row, even as it brings in more money. Alphabet brought in around $16 billion in profit during its second quarter of 2022, down from $18.5 billion during the same period last year, the company reported in its Q2 2022 earnings report this afternoon.

As with last quarter, it seems like rising expenses have played a part; the company actually brought in more revenue than it did in Q2 2021. This quarter, its revenues were almost $69.7 billion, up from last year’s $61.9 billion. However, compared to this time in 2021, Google’s spending around $3 billion more on both research and development and sales and marketing.

Google’s working towards a “sharper focus”

During...

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SpaceX says Dish’s 5G plan would be ‘detrimental’ to millions of Starlink users

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket delivers a new batch of Starlink satellites into orbit. | Image: SpaceX

SpaceX is pulling out all the stops to prevent Dish and other wireless companies from using the same radio frequencies as its internet-from-space Starlink satellites. Today, in a rare media call with reporters, SpaceX representatives reiterated how damaging they believe it would be for Starlink users if the Federal Communications Commission were to open up the 12GHz frequency band — which SpaceX’s satellites currently use — to other terrestrial uses like 5G.

“Essentially, the band would become unusable,” David Goldman, senior director of satellite policy at SpaceX, said during the press call. “It would potentially end services for customers.”

Dish hopes to use the spectrum to build out its new 5G network and has argued the deployment...

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Yes, it’s weird for the two-year-old Meta Quest 2 to go up in price

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Meta just made the surprising announcement that it will be raising the price of its Quest 2 virtual reality headsets by $100 next month. If you did a double take upon seeing that news, we commiserate — it’s weird for a two-year-old consumer tech product to suddenly go up in price.

We’re conditioned to expect the price of tech products to go down over time thanks to the relentless advancement of technology and more efficient manufacturing processes. But here, the same product you could buy in September 2020 will cost 33 percent more in August 2022.

The official reason Meta is upping prices is that “the costs to make and ship our products have been on the rise,” according to a company blog post credited only to the “Oculus Blog.” “By...

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NPM users can now connect a Twitter account as a recovery method

NPM has more than 11 million users worldwide. | Image: NPM/GitHub

Developers who use NPM, the popular JavaScript package manager, will now be able to connect their Twitter and GitHub accounts to the software as a recovery method.

The move was announced Tuesday along with a handful of other features meant to combine enhanced security with usability for the GitHub-owned package manager.

In a blog post, GitHub said that the changes would make it easier for users to secure their accounts, while also streamlining some security features that users had found burdensome.

“The JavaScript community downloads over 5 billion packages from npm a day, and we at GitHub recognize how important it is that developers can do so with confidence,” wrote GitHub product managers Myles Borins and Monish Mohan. “As stewards...

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Xbox and Windows fall in Microsoft’s $51.9 billion quarter

Photo by Sam Byford / The Verge

Microsoft posted the fourth quarter of its 2022 financial results today, reporting revenue of $51.9 billion and a net income of $16.7 billion. Revenue is up 12 percent, and net income has increased by just 2 percent. But while revenue was up, Microsoft saw some of its core businesses, including Windows and Xbox, start to slip.

The PC market had been thriving throughout the pandemic, but PC shipments experienced a big decline in the recent quarter — nearly 13 percent according to Gartner. It’s the sharpest decline in nine years, thanks to geopolitical tensions, inflation, and continued supply chain challenges.

Microsoft’s Windows OEM revenue, the price PC manufactures pay Microsoft to put Windows on machines, fell 2 percent in Q4, driven...

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Discord voice chat is now available for Xbox beta testers

Discord voice calls on Xbox | Screenshot: Tom Warren / The Verge

Discord and Microsoft announced Discord voice chat last week, making it available initially to invite-only Alpha and Alpha Skip-Ahead Xbox testers. The new feature is now available to Xbox Insiders in the Beta ring, which doesn’t require an invite.

Microsoft is releasing a new Xbox dashboard update for beta testers at 5PM ET / 2PM PT today that will include Discord voice integration. The voice chat works by first linking Xbox and Discord accounts and then connecting to a Discord voice call using the mobile app and transferring the call to an Xbox console using the Xbox mobile app.

The process is a little involved, but once the initial setup is complete, it’s relatively easy to connect to Discord voice calls and transfer them to an Xbox...

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Uber doesn’t have to provide wheelchair-accessible vehicles in every city, judge rules

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Uber’s decision to not offer wheelchair-accessible service in every US market does not violate the federal law prohibiting discrimination against disabled individuals, a federal judge ruled this week.

The ruling represents a win for the ride-hailing service, which has been criticized by disability advocates for providing only limited wheelchair-accessible service in a handful of cities.

Two motorized wheelchair users, one in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the other in Jackson, Mississippi, sued Uber over the lack of accessible service in either city. Both plaintiffs use wheelchairs that can’t be folded and placed in a trunk. They claimed that Uber was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which prohibits businesses...

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You can join Sony’s queue to buy a PS5 right now

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

While a PlayStation 5 is still not yet a thing you can find on every store shelf any day of the week, availability has certainly gotten better in recent weeks. Sony has been dropping public restocks with some velocity of late, and today is another chance. You can hop in a public queue on Sony’s site to virtually line up for a PS5 console right now.

The recent restocks have been fairly easy to score a console from, though you’ll still want to be attentive to your listed wait time until you hear the chime sound that signals it’s your turn. If you get through the queue, you may have a few options for PS5 consoles to pick between, including the regular $499 model that has a disc drive, the $399 Digital Edition that doesn’t, or the Horizon...

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Xbox is trying to make it easier to tell which games you’re allowed to play

Games that can’t be played may have an exclamation point icon. | Image: Eden Marie on Twitter

Scrolling through your Xbox game library, it can be difficult to tell which games you can actually play at the moment — perhaps you downloaded something from Game Pass, but it’s no longer on the service, or your friend came over to play a game and took the disc it was on home with them. Microsoft is currently testing a solution to this problem, with badges that will warn you that a game can’t be launched, according to Xbox engineering lead Eden Marie.

In a Twitter thread, Marie explains that the feature adds two badges on screens where you see games, like the homescreen or game library. If you can’t play a game because of licensing issues — say, it was taken off of Game Pass, or you’re currently not logged into the Xbox Live account...

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How to buy a PlayStation 5

A year after launch, Sony’s PlayStation 5 remains (almost) as elusive as ever. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

As Sony’s PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Digital Edition approach their second birthday, supplies of both of next-gen consoles may finally be catching up with demand. Both models still tend to sell out quickly during restock events, but the window for snagging a console online and in-store has become somewhat more forgiving in recent months. The process for buying a PS5 online hasn’t changed all that much, however, many retailers have made stocks more readily available at their brick-and-mortar locations. Thankfully, there are also still a number of ways to keep on top of supply whenever an online retailer or a store near you gets a fresh batch of the next-gen machines.

With a little patience, determination, and luck, you can still get...

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Fired cable news hosts Cuomo and Olbermann plot podcast comebacks

Photo by Cindy Ord / Getty Images for SiriusXM

I hope you all had a good weekend. As you can tell, I did not get eaten by a shark, though that is because my husband forgot to register for a beach pass. Next time’s the charm, Evan!!

On tap for today: cable news rogues turn to podcasting, pornographic content on Spotify, and earnings previews (that last one is a little less spicy than the first two).

Chris Cuomo and Keith Olbermann return from cable news exile with new podcasts

Why try to reason with cable news execs when you can just launch your own podcast? In the past week, both Keith Olbermann and Chris Cuomo announced new shows that will put them back in the limelight (maybe).

Olbermann, who was fired from MSNBC in 2011 for donating to a few Democratic campaigns (2010 scandals...

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Here’s where to buy the Meta Quest 2 before it costs $100 more

The Meta Quest 2 is arguably the default VR headset, but it’s getting more expensive soon. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The incredibly popular Meta Quest 2 VR headset will have its price increased starting in August, with the 128GB configuration getting a price hike to $399.99 and the 256GB model being inflated to $499.99. However, you can still find both models on sale for their original price of $299.99 and $399.99 at multiple retailers, giving you some time to grab one before the price goes up.

To be clear, Meta isn’t adding any new features or hardware once the price goes up — the Meta Quest 2 will be the exact same console, just $100 more expensive. Anyone that purchases a Meta Quest 2 within 30 days of the price hike will get a free copy of Beat Saber (a $30 value). If you’ve been on the fence about owning one of these VR headsets, now would be a...

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Unpaid and unprotected: a volunteer on the 2020 Yang campaign sues for discrimination

Photo by Drew Angerer / Getty Images

A volunteer on Andrew Yang’s 2020 presidential campaign is suing for discrimination and retaliation, alleging that after she spoke up about misogyny in campaign Facebook groups, she was denied opportunities for advancement. Now, Yang’s lawyers are trying to get the case thrown out, arguing that because the volunteer, Erica Lee, was never hired as a paid staffer, she doesn’t have the labor protections she’s claiming.

“If their argument prevails, any volunteer anywhere can be horrible sexually harassed, or the victim of horrible discrimination, and there would be no recourse,” says Lee’s lawyer, Vincent P. White. “I don’t know if anyone wants to live in that world. It’s a horrific world that they’re describing.”

Andrew Yang’s lawyers...

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Uber’s posh electric car service is coming to more cities

Photo by Andrew Hawkins / The Verge

Uber’s premium electric car service is arriving in more US cities, the company said. Uber Comfort Electric, which is more expensive than Uber X but not as posh as Uber Black, is now available in seven additional cities, including Las Vegas, Seattle, Portland, Denver, Austin, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.

In May, Uber launched Comfort Electric in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Dubai. Only premium EVs, like Tesla, Polestar, and Ford Mustang Mach-E, would be considered eligible for Comfort Electric trips. It will sit alongside the company’s other EV product, Uber Green, which gives drivers an extra fee (usually $1) to use electric vehicles.

Comfort Electric is an extension of Uber Comfort, in which riders could request extra...

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What’s the best student laptop? We asked students

The Dell XPS 13 is one of the best laptops for high school and college students. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Shopping for a laptop can be stressful — doubly stressful if you or your children will be learning online for the first time. Kids of different ages have a range of different laptop use cases and different needs. And as the choices for best laptop and best Chromebook evolve, so do students’ needs. So I spoke to some experts on the subject: students themselves.

My recommendations here are meant to accommodate a variety of preferences and price ranges. But they’re a jumping-off point rather than an exhaustive list: every student is different. Before making a decision, you’ll want to make sure you read reviews and try out devices yourself if you can. I’ll do my best to keep this article up to date with items that are in stock.

Best laptop...

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Meta is raising Quest 2 headset prices by $100 next month

The headsets were some of the least expensive out there. | Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The Meta Quest 2 (formerly known as the Oculus Quest 2) is about to get $100 more expensive, bringing the price for the 128GB model to $399.99 and the 256GB model to $499.99. According to a post from Meta, the price change for the almost two-year-old headset will take effect “starting in August.”

As much as I hate to recommend buying things under pressure, you should probably act fast if you’re hoping to get your hands on one before then. It seems likely that scalpers and their armies of bots are about to have a heyday with the models that are currently for sale at the old price. You can pick them up from places like Meta’s official store, Best Buy, Amazon, GameStop, Target, or Walmart.

This is a hefty price jump for what was one of the...

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You can finally send friend requests from the Nintendo Switch Online app

Illustrations by Alex Castro / The Verge

It’s easier than it has ever been to add someone as a friend on your Nintendo Switch account with just your phone now that you can input a friend code into the Switch Online mobile app and send a request. An update in March made it simple for people to copy their code from the app to share it with others. Now you can more easily expand your friends list when you don’t happen to have your Switch handy.

The updated version of the mobile app on iPhone / iPad or Android (version 2.2 or higher) also allows you to share your friend code as a URL for someone else to click on so they can send a request or a QR code so they can get there just by using their camera.

Image: Richard Lawler

The Nintendo Switch Online app on...

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Crypto exchange Coinbase is reportedly facing an SEC investigation over securities

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is reportedly facing an investigation from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over whether it allowed users to trade unregistered securities, according to a report from Bloomberg. The SEC’s probe hasn’t yet been made public.

Sources close to the situation told Bloomberg that the SEC started taking a closer look at Coinbase’s practices after the exchange added over 100 additional tokens to its platform, including Dogecoin, the joke cryptocurrency based on the Shiba Inu meme. These types of coins typically do well after they’re first listed, but they’re very volatile, and their value typically evaporates over time.

This investigation is separate from the SEC’s case against former Coinbase...

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This website lets you watch US heatwaves in real time

A woman wipes her forehead at the top of the stairs to the Lincoln Memorial during a heatwave on July 22nd, 2022, in Washington, DC. | Photo by Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images

Summers are nowso brutally hotthat the US government created a new website, heat.gov, to help Americans stay safe during dangerous heat spells. It featuresmaps that show current heat conditions across the country and provides other tools and resources to help people beat the heat.

The main goal of the website is to prevent heat-related illness and death by sharing up-to-date information on extreme heat. Heat kills more people in the US than any other weather disaster. Often, it disproportionately harms vulnerable pockets of people, including children, older people, and communities of color who live in urban and formerly redlined neighborhoods designed in a way that traps heat.

“We don’t have to accept this. Right? This doesn’t have...

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MultiVersus, WB’s free-to-play crossover brawler, launches in open beta

A chaotic battle in MultiVersus_._ | Image: WB Games

MultiVersus, Warner Bros. Games’ free-to-play fighting game starring characters from many WB universes, launched in open beta in the Americas, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand on Tuesday. The game is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X / S, and PC, and it has crossplay and cross-progression across all platforms.

Technically, the open beta went live at 12PM ET, but there have been issues right from the start — I personally haven’t been able to get past the title screen at all. The developers have since put in the game in maintenance mode and are promising that “servers will be back online soon.”

Maintenance mode activated - servers will be back online soon, MVPs! #MultiVersus

— MultiVersus (@multiversus) July 26, 2022

M...

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Titanium Blockchain CEO pleads guilty to $21 million crypto fundraising scam

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Michael Alan Stollery, the CEO of blockchain company Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services (TBIS), has pleaded guilty to securities fraud over a $21 million cryptocurrency scam. The California man admitted to falsifying details around the BAR coin, a crowdfunding token that should have — but wasn’t — registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The TBIS scam was one of many dodgy initial coin offerings, or ICOs, in the late ‘10s. According to the complaint, between 2017 and 2018, Stollery introduced TBIS as a new company and hyped its coin with a string of elaborate false claims. TBIS touted nonexistent links with companies like Apple, Boeing, and IBM. Some of the “partners” complained, to which Stollery apparently...

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Faraday Future delays launch of its debut electric vehicle

Faraday Future’s first car is still a far way off in the future, according to recent regulatory filings.

The California EV company that has flirted with bankruptcy more times than I can count said this week that it needs more cash in order to launch its debut electric vehicle, the FF91. As such, the company is pushing back customer deliveries to the third or fourth quarter of 2022.

That may not seem so far off, but Faraday Future is not exactly known for its ability to meet deadlines. The company was late reporting its first quarterly earnings after going public through a merger with a “blank-check” company. And, of course, Faraday Future has missed several self-imposed deadlines for the launch of the FF91, which has been in...

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Netflix adds Before Your Eyes to its mobile game lineup

Image: Netflix

Netflix is expanding its mobile game offerings with another banger. Hot on the heels of the platform’s launch of Into the Breach, this time, Netflix is serving up the exclusive mobile debut of last year’s critically acclaimed Before Your Eyes.

Before Your Eyes (not to be confused with the Netflix noir thriller Behind Her Eyes) tells the story of the recently departed Benjamin Brynn. Using eye-tracking technology, the game allows you to experience Brynn’s memories of life on his journey through death. According to Netflix, the game will utilize your mobile device’s camera to capture players’ blinks and glances. The PC version of Before Your Eyes also had mouse support, but it’s unknown if the Netflix version will have some sort of touch...

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Netflix is turning The Gray Man into a cinematic universe

Ryan Gosling in The Gray Man. | Image: Netflix

The Gray Man just debuted on Netflix last week, but the streamer already has some big plans for it as a budding franchise. Today, Netflix announced not just a sequel for the thriller but also a spinoff, instantly turning The Gray Man into the company’s next cinematic universe. The company says its plan is to turn it into “a major spy franchise.”

Netflix says that the currently untitled sequel is in development and that star Ryan Gosling and directors Joe and Anthony Russo are all set to return alongside co-writer Stephen McFeely. There’s no word on when it might debut. As for the spinoff, Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, best known for their work on the Deadpool movies, will serve as writers. According to Netflix “the logline is being kept...

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Blood oxygen sensing is finally rolling out on the Oura Ring

Oura’s adding two new metrics that make use of its SpO2 sensors: average blood oxygen and breathing regularity. | Image: Oura

SpO2 sensors, which enable blood oxygen monitoring, were one of the marquee upgrades when Oura announced its third-generation smart ring. The only catch was that, even though the new Oura Ring had the necessary hardware, the feature itself was still in the works. Now, roughly nine months after launch, Oura says blood oxygen sensing will finally start rolling out to users this week.

Blood oxygen metrics have become increasingly popular when it comes to sleep tracking. It generally works by shining a red LED onto your skin. The amount of light that’s then reflected back is used to estimate how much oxygen is in your blood. The feature works similarly on the Oura Ring Gen 3, which uses a combination of red and infrared LED sensors. But...

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Quick fixes: use dictation when you can’t spell a word

Your phone has a way to turn your voice into text.

Issue

Sometimes a word can be so hard to spell that any attempts are too garbled for autocorrect to offer helpful suggestions.

Quick fix

Use your device’s built-in dictation.

The Full Story

Whenever I find myself struggling to spell a word, I double-tap the Command key on my Mac to activate dictation mode. From there, I can say the word out loud, and most of the time, the word I’m looking for will appear on my screen. I can then double-tap Command again to tell my computer to stop listening.

Being a terrible speller, I do this trick at least once a week, and it’s the only reason I’m able to spell the word “guarantee” because my brain just cannot retain it.

Most devices have a built-in way of doing voice-to-text, but there’s often a tiny...

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Samsung’s new art-inspired Frame TV is on sale today for its best price ever

Samsung’s The Frame TV starts at $739.99 instead of $997.99 today only. | Image: Samsung

It’s too hot to go outside (at least here in California), so if you – like me – are spending a lot of quality time with the TV while feeling guilty about the lack of culture in your life, you might appreciate today’s deal. Samsung’s latest version of The Frame is a unique 4K TV like no other that, in a way, brings a little bit of the museum experience home that you can enjoy in between binging on your favorite shows. That’s because – when you’re not using it – the gorgeous screen displays artwork that, thanks to the new anti-glare, low-reflection matte coating, bears a remarkable resemblance to an actual canvas painting you see hanging in museums. When turned on, however, it transforms into a QLED TV with a speedy 120Hz refresh rate and...

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Shopify is laying off 1,000 employees

Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke made the announcement in a memo to employees.

Shopify is laying off 10 percent of its workforce, a move that affects about 1,000 of its employees, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. In a memo posted on Shopify’s website, CEO Tobi Lütke says the company “has to go through a reduction in workforce” that mostly affects those working in recruiting, support, and sales.

Lütke notes that the e-commerce company is also cutting down on “over-specialized” and duplicate roles as well as “groups that were convenient to have but too far removed from building products.” He attributes the layoffs to a miscalculated bet that the e-commerce industry would continue to grow beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

As pointed out by the WSJ, Shopify’s workforce jumped from 1,900 in 2016 to around...

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