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Bolton plans industrial space and homes on land removed from green belt

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Health Innovation Bolton is largest site covered in council proposals

How the Health Innovation Bolton (HIB) project could look

How the Health Innovation Bolton project could look(Image: Health Innovation Bolton (HIB))

Bolton council wants to develop three areas which are currently green belt.

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Their draft plan identifies the main areas where up to 14,052 new homes and a minimum of 135,099 sq m of industrial space is to be built before 2042.

Health Innovation Bolton (HIB) is the largest site earmarked to be taken out of the green belt. It is a large area of land between Royal Bolton Hospital and the M61 where it is proposed 1,895 homes and 40,839 sq ft of employment space will be created.

Another current green belt area within the draft plans is described as the Blackrod employment cluster, which is green land close to the village’s railway station. It is allocated for 44,800 sq m of employment space.

The third potential area of green belt to disappear is an extension to the Logistics North industrial park, just off the M61, near Over Hulton. That would accommodate between 30,000 to 80,000 sq m of employment space and possibly some housing.

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A council cabinet report states that there are ‘two mixed use sites’ in the plan.

It said: “Health Innovation Bolton is a health innovation district combining housing with employment located with the hospital and the University of Greater Manchester medical school, creating high-quality jobs across healthcare, education, research, innovation, manufacturing and supporting sectors and the Logistics North extension floorspace is expressed as a range because it may include an element of housing to the west, reflecting its position between Logistics North and neighbouring residential areas.”

The report identifies a need for 14,052 housing units to be built during the period of the plan. Sites which already enjoy planning permission make up 4,976 of that number.

Additional strategic and ‘key housing allocations’ identify another 5,715 new homes. They are made up of Crompton Place (340), Health Innovation Bolton (1,895), Anchor Lane, Farnworth (460), Lee Hall (1,450), Ditchers Farm, Westhoughton (570) and Burnden Way, Middlebrook (1,000).

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The report said the remainder of the home build target would be met by strategic housing and employment land availability assessment sites (1,741) and windfall sites (1,600).

The report contains a section titled ‘Brownfield Prioritisation and Green Belt’. It said: “Brownfield regeneration remains the priority and the first source of supply, and regenerating the town centre in particular is the starting point for the plan.

“Crompton Place is allocated because of its prominent location and should not be read as the only site that will come forward.

“The green belt boundary was established by Places for Everyone.

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“This plan alters it only in exceptional circumstances, to meet identified development needs that cannot be met elsewhere.

“All available sources of supply have been assessed, and the needs cannot be met on brownfield or other non-green belt land within the borough.”

If the cabinet approves the proposals at its meeting on Monday, September 28, the draft local plan will go out for public consultation. Following that period, the representations received and assessment will be reported to council in December. At that stage approval to submit the local plan will be sought.

An inspector appointed by the Secretary of State from the Planning Inspectorate will then test the plan’s legal compliance and soundness at public hearings, expected during 2027.

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The council said that timetable depends on the Planning Inspectorate’s capacity, with a large number of authorities, including several Greater Manchester districts, expected to submit in December.

Earlier this month, an agreement was signed by partners hoping to bring forward Health Innovation Bolton, the largest green belt allocation in the draft local plan. Partners said it would ‘create a new neighbourhood’ and transform much of the south of Bolton.

The agreement was between organisations including Bolton council, Peel Land and the hospital trust, which would have a capital investment of £520M.

The group said a public consultation on the scheme will take place in 2027 ahead of any planning application.

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Immigration policy can ruin aged care, panellist says

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Immigration policy can ruin aged care, panellist says

Former AMA WA president David Mountain claimed aged care would be decimated because of the federal government’s migration system changes, during a discussion on challenges in the health sector.

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Welspun Corp shares rise 4% after US subsidiary bags $412.5 million HFIW pipe order

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Welspun Corp shares rise 4% after US subsidiary bags $412.5 million HFIW pipe order
Welspun Corp shares rallied as much as 4.49%, touching an intraday high of Rs 2,813 during Friday’s trading session after the company announced that its wholly owned US subsidiary, Welspun Tubular LLC, had secured its largest-ever order for High-Frequency Induction Welded (HFIW) pipes.

The order, valued at approximately $412.5 million (around Rs 4,000 crore), is the largest in the company’s history in terms of volume, length and value. The pipes will be manufactured at Welspun’s newly upgraded HFIW mill in Little Rock, USA, which has enhanced production capabilities.

According to the company’s filing, the order is scheduled to be executed during FY28 and FY29.

Following the order win, Welspun Corp’s global order book has reached a record $4.7 billion (around Rs 45,000 crore), marking the highest level in the company’s history.

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The company said the order highlights the scale and execution capabilities of its operations and supports its strategy of expanding global manufacturing capacity and strengthening relationships with international clients.

Share price performance, valuation and technical indicators

Welspun Corp shares have gained 20% over the past month, while the stock has surged nearly 93% over the last three months. The company currently has a market capitalisation of Rs 72,618 crore, while its 52-week high stands at Rs 2,836.
On the valuation front, Welspun Corp has a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 31.95 and a price-to-book (P/B) ratio of 7.84.From a technical perspective, the stock is trading above all eight key simple moving averages (SMAs).

In the latest June 2026 quarter, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) increased their holding in the company to 14.61%, from 11.23% in the previous quarter.

Disclaimer: The views/recommendations mentioned in this article, wherever applicable, are those of the respective SEBI-registered Research Analyst/brokerage and have been reproduced/reported with due attribution. They should not be construed as the views or recommendations of The Economic Times Digital or the journalist. Readers are advised to consider the original research report and make their investment decisions based on their own assessment. Brokerage disclaimers here

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Why is Nanexa stock surging today?

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Why is Nanexa stock surging today?

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Advanced Economies Report Further Growth In September, But U.S. Outperformance Widens

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China's PMI Data Suggests Domestic Demand Remains Soft

Advanced Economies Report Further Growth In September, But U.S. Outperformance Widens

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OFSS shares tumble 5% after Oracle sends ‘force majeure’ notice for data centre project. Are AI worries coming true?

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OFSS shares tumble 5% after Oracle sends 'force majeure' notice for data centre project. Are AI worries coming true?
The shares of Oracle Financial Services Software (OFSS) tumbled more than 5% on Friday after its US-based parent Oracle sent a ‘force majeure’ notice to developer Blue Owl to protect itself from potential delays at a massive data centre project in New Mexico, triggering worries through the trillion-dollar market for AI infrastructure financing.

OFSS shares tumbled more than 5% to trade at Rs 10,332 apiece on NSE, marking the lowest level seen by the stock in more than nine weeks since July 23. It is currently the top loser on the Nifty IT index, which itself is down around 1%.

Oracle’s force majeure notice was issued for Jupiter, a data centre campus which Blue Owl unit STACK Infrastructure is building to support ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, marking the latest setback for a sector where lenders and investors are growing more cautious about financing the industry’s breakneck expansion. Blue Owl said Oracle’s notice did not alter the parties’ commitment to the project.

Also read | Oracle cites ‘force majeure’ to shield itself on controversial data centre

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As a result, Oracle shares dropped around 3.5% on Wall Street, while those of Blue Owl fell around 4%. Oracle is aiming to delay payments should the data centre dubbed Project Jupiter get derailed and fail to come online in 2028 as planned, rather than exiting as the main tenant, Bloomberg News reported. Companies typically invoke force majeure to free themselves from contractual obligations when problems arise beyond their control.


“The financing side of the AI buildout is starting to ask much harder questions than the demand side,” Reuters quoted Sean McDevitt, a partner at management consulting firm Arthur D. Little. “The underlying demand still appears very strong, but investors and lenders are increasingly focused on how risk is allocated.”
Notably, the latest development comes as the program was being delayed by a year, Reuters quoted a person familiar with the matter as saying. Notably, Blue Owl has about $3 billion of equity invested in the project and earns a lower return during construction, with returns increasing once the data centre is completed, the report added.Earlier this month, OFSS shares faced a sharp downturn after the Financial Times reported that around $18 billion in loans tied to an Oracle-leased data centre in New Mexico has come under pressure, with loans quoted at 89 to 91 cents on the dollar by syndicate banks including Santander and Jefferies.

This came amid concerns regarding the escalating local opposition to the 1,400-acre “Project Jupiter” campus in Dona Ana County over fears it would impact water supply and air quality could derail Oracle’s massive AI infrastructure build-out, the FT report said. OFSS is the Indian subsidiary of Oracle.

Also read | Why is Oracle stock crashing today at NYSE, Wall Street? Check reason behind ORCL share price bloodbath on Thursday

OFSS share price

OFSS shares have fallen more than 12% in one week, underperforming the Nifty IT index which has fallen nearly 3% at the same time. The stock is overall down 11% in one month. However, OFSS shares have bucked the trend to deliver 36% returns overall in 2026 so far, even as other IT peers fell and pushed the Nifty IT index down more than 26%.

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In the longer term, OFSS shares jumped 17% in one year, and delivered multibagger returns of 153% in three years and 122% in five years. The company has a market capitalisation of nearly Rs 90,900 crore.

Disclaimer: This article has been written by Debaroti Adhikary, who is not a SEBI-registered Research Analyst or an Investment Adviser. Debaroti Adhikary and his/her ‘relative(s)’ (as defined under Section 2(77) of the Companies Act, 2013) do not hold any financial interest in the companies mentioned in this article as of the date of publication. The views/recommendations mentioned in this article, wherever applicable, are those of the respective SEBI-registered Research Analyst/brokerage and have been reproduced/reported with due attribution. They should not be construed as the views or recommendations of The Economic Times Digital or the journalist. Readers are advised to consider the original research report and make their investment decisions based on their own assessment. Brokerage disclaimers here.

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Balrampur Chini Mills shares rally 4% as company receives Rs 75 crore BioE3 grant from government

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Balrampur Chini Mills shares rally 4% as company receives Rs 75 crore BioE3 grant from government
Shares of Balrampur Chini Mills jumped 4% on Friday to the day’s high of Rs 689 on NSE after the Government of India awarded a Rs 75 Crore BioE3 grant to advance India’s bioeconomy.

According to a filing with the exchange, this was awarded by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) under the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, for establishing a 100 TPA PLA CoPolymer R&D Facility under the Government’s flagship BioE3 (Biotechnology for Economy, Environment & Employment) initiative.

Also Read | Balrampur Chini gets government grant for biopolymer R&D facility

The grant will accelerate the development of advanced biobased materials, strengthen India’s indigenous biomanufacturing capabilities and reinforce the country’s ambition to emerge as a global bioeconomy powerhouse.

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The pilot-scale R&D facility will be established at BCML’s integrated manufacturing complex in Kumbhi, Uttar Pradesh, where the company is also setting up India’s first integrated commercial PLA manufacturing facility.


The new facility will serve as the innovation engine for developing next-generation PLA grades and Co-polymers, enabling rapid product development, technology indigenisation, customer validation and seamless scale-up to commercial production.
The facility will develop specialised PLA grades and advanced PLA co-polymers for high-value applications. It will generate techno-economic data and process know-how for commercial-scale manufacturing. This facility will train highly skilled talent for India’s emerging biomanufacturing sector and enable collaboration with industry and research institutions to accelerate innovation in sustainable materials.Designed to bridge the gap between laboratory research and commercial manufacturing, the facility will support every stage of product development from understanding customer requirements and developing new PLA formulations to producing pilot samples, validating product performance and preparing successful technologies for commercial-scale manufacturing.

It will also create opportunities for collaboration with academia and research institutions through a limited-service model, helping strengthen India’s biotechnology innovation ecosystem.

“The Government of India’s support through this ₹75 crore BioE3 grant is a strong endorsement of the strategic role that advanced biomanufacturing will play in India’s future. This facility will help build indigenous technology, develop next-generation bio-based materials and create the scientific and technical capabilities required for India to lead the global transition towards sustainable manufacturing,” said Avantika Saraogi, Executive Director, Balrampur Chini Mills.

“We are grateful to the Department of Biotechnology and BIRAC for their confidence in our vision and look forward to contributing to India’s emergence as a global bioeconomy powerhouse,” Saraogi further said.

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Also Read | PB Fintech shares in focus after massive 36% crash in a single day. Here’s why Jefferies cut target price

As countries around the world increasingly adopt bio-based materials and circular manufacturing practices, BCML’s PLA Co-Polymer R&D Facility is expected to play an important role in strengthening India’s innovation ecosystem, accelerating the commercialisation of advanced biopolymers and positioning the country as a global hub for sustainable materials.

Balrampur Chini Mills share price performance

Over the past month, Balrampur Chini Mills shares have gained 1.37% and nearly 54.52% so far this calendar year. Over the past year, the stock has rallied 42.99%, while it has gained nearly 53.83% over the past three years and 88.18% over the past five years.

Disclosure: This article has been written by Surbhi Khanna, who is not a SEBI-registered Research Analyst or an investment advisor. Surbhi Khanna does not hold any financial interest in Economic Times as of the date of publication. The views/recommendations mentioned in this article, wherever applicable, are those of the respective SEBI-registered Research Analyst/brokerage and have been reproduced/reported with due attribution. They should not be construed as the views or recommendations of the EconomicTimes Digital or the journalist. Readers are advised to consider the original research report and make their investment decisions based on their own assessment.

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SSO: Near-Term Bullish Trend Can Be Quickly Reversed By Macroeconomic Conditions

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polygonal bull and bear shape writing by lines and dots over Innovation Technology background, trading and finance investment concept

SSO: Near-Term Bullish Trend Can Be Quickly Reversed By Macroeconomic Conditions

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Peninsula records minor MRE lift at Lance

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Peninsula records minor MRE lift at Lance

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Flock Safety camera hack yields 1.6M images, but expert says network safe

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Flock Safety camera hack yields 1.6M images, but expert says network safe

A stolen Flock Safety license-plate camera yielded roughly 1.6 million images after hackers physically removed and reverse-engineered the device, but a former Secret Service cybercrime expert says the incident does not appear to have compromised Flock’s broader cloud network.

Jason Brown, director of customer advisory and counter-fraud lead at threat intelligence firm iCOUNTER, spent 25 years with the U.S. Secret Service and specialized in cybercrime.

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Brown told FOX Business that the distinction between accessing one physically stolen camera and breaching Flock’s network is critical.

“The biggest thing I keep hammering at home [is] that Flock was never compromised,” Brown said. “So there’s never been a large dump of information out of their network.”

AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER SAYS OPENAI AGENT ACCESSED GOVERNMENT HEALTH WEBSITE, RAISES ‘EXTREME CONCERN’

A Flock Safety automated license plate reader camera

Hackers physically removed a Flock Safety license-plate camera and reverse-engineered the device, recovering roughly 1.6 million images, according to WIRED. (Getty Images / Getty Images)

According to WIRED, hackers physically removed a Flock camera from above a roadway and reverse-engineered it. They reportedly discovered encrypted and unencrypted portions of the device’s storage and recovered an encryption key stored on the camera that allowed them to unlock additional data.

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“This was a situation where somebody physically had access to a camera because they stole it off of a pole, took it home, and then did backward engineering on that camera,” Brown said.

“That did not give them the capability to actually log into the cloud portion of Flock, and nothing in the cloud of Flock proper was accessed.”

According to WIRED’s analysis, the recovered logs covered roughly 21 days of activity, including 1.6 million images, 50,200 vehicles and 27,000 short video clips.

Flock cameras capture images and short videos of passing vehicles, which are transmitted to the company’s cloud infrastructure for processing and can then be searched by authorized law enforcement users.

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OPENAI, 100+ COMPANIES WARN OF COMING SURGE IN AI-POWERED CYBERATTACKS, CALL FOR GLOBAL DEFENSE PUSH

Former U.S. Secret Service cybercrime expert Jason Brown

Former U.S. Secret Service cybercrime expert Jason Brown told FOX Business that hackers’ access to a physically stolen Flock camera did not amount to a breach of the company’s broader cloud network. (FOX Business / FOXBusiness)

Brown characterized the stolen-camera incident and an earlier security issue in which some cameras temporarily became accessible over the internet as isolated events rather than evidence, based on what he knows, of a broader compromise of Flock’s system.

“They are one-off situations and don’t show a larger problem for the Flock system that I’m aware of,” Brown said.

Brown said some cameras had previously been remotely accessible because of weak authentication controls, but said the issue was addressed and did not result in access to Flock’s cloud infrastructure.

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He said Flock reports that about 97% of law enforcement agencies using the system now have multifactor authentication enabled.

Brown also argued that the presence of a Flock camera should not change how people conduct themselves in public.

“Should a person conduct themselves differently because a Flock camera is there? I would argue no,” he said.

BANKS WARN AI SHOPPING AGENTS COULD INCREASE RISK OF SCAMS, FRAUD AND DATA PRIVACY BREACHES

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A Flock Safety camera

Flock Safety cameras capture images and short videos of passing vehicles that can be searched by authorized law enforcement users. (Flock Safety / Unknown)

“We’ve seen good uses of the technology, where individuals, a murder is committed in one city and the individuals responsible for it were identified by Flock cameras in another city,” he continued. “You know that that’s a positive, but we all have to understand that whenever we’re out in public, we do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. We are in public. Anybody can take a picture of us at any time. It may not be the polite thing to do, but anybody can do it at any point in time.”

“The debate of do you have Flock in your community – that’s a debate for the community,” Brown added.

Still, Brown said the incident illustrates a broader cybersecurity issue involving third-party and supply-chain risks “that many corporations would see.”

Brown said the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence makes addressing those risks increasingly important.

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“The security posture of everything is changing by the minute,” he said.

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In this photo illustration, the Flock Safety logo is being displayed on a mobile phone screen on March 20, 2025. (Osmancan Gurdogan/Anadolu via Getty Images / Getty Images)

“We have [to] gather intelligence on what is happening with the third parties and then work with those third parties before the incident even occurs to ensure that they are secure, so our customers are ultimately secured,” he continued. “And in this day of AI, the speed and the veracity of that only increases by the minute.”

FOX Business has reached out to Flock for comment.

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foreign exchange reserves: Safety most important in managing forex reserves says RBI Deputy Governor Rohit Jain

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foreign exchange reserves: Safety most important in managing forex reserves says RBI Deputy Governor Rohit Jain
Mumbai: Safety of foreign exchange reserves is the most important consideration before the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) because reserves are ultimately borrowed funds which have to be handled very carefully, deputy governor Rohit Jain said. Return should not be the only consideration when deploying these reserves and that is why a lot of care is taken to deploy these funds.

Jain who as deputy governor is responsible for departments of external investments, foreign exchange and risk management among others said in response to a question by State Bank of India (SBI) managing director Ravi Ranjan at the SBI Banking and Economics Conclave.

Read more: India’s forex reserves drop $4.92 billion to $780.78 billion as of September 11

“We track market variables and parameters very closely. We keep on the lookout for better opportunities. The principal considerations in managing forex reserves are three, safety, liquidity and return. All three are important but the order is also important. Safety, liquidity and return (in that order). Because these are borrowed funds, these forex reserves have to be handled very carefully,” Jain said. He pointed that the latest foreign exchange reserves at $781 billion is the highest ever reserves the country has ever had and is the fifth largest in the world.

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“Return should not be the only consideration when deploying these reserves and that is why a lot of care is taken. Very clear objective frameworks are laid out and we manage these reserves with the intent that they provide very strong external resilience for the country and foreign investors and foreign counterparties have the confidence that the country has enough forex reserves to support its needs,” Jain said in an elaborate reply on how the regulator will manage the $133 billion received through the FCNR (B) scheme.


Read more: RBI revises FCNR(B) inflows upwards to USD 133 billion after robust response from NRIs
Later speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the conference Jaina said in the meeting with the regulator, banks have expressed confidence that the new funds due to the FCNR (B) inflows will be absorbed. “Banks will take their own call based on credit demand which is fairly broad based. There is no concern on the deployment of the deposits,” Jain said.Replying to another question on state governments increasingly resorting to market borrowings for financing their gross fiscal deficit, Jain said that the RBI has been telling states to do more reissuances so that the secondary market activity develops which state governments have been complying with.

“We have also focused on a benchmark issuance strategy which we have been doing for the central government. We are now asking state governments also to adopt a benchmark issuance strategy and so far 19 states have already adopted this new strategy. The remaining states are also likely to join in shortly. This will greatly improve the liquidity and the secondary market in the state government security and I believe that we will be able to manage these state government borrowings much better,” Jain said.

In his speech at the conference, Jain said that financial institutions must develop the institutional capacity to identify technology vulnerabilities early, make informed decisions, limit the impact of disruptions, protect customers and recover critical services. “Technology investment should be treated also as a risk investment – it is an investment in continuity, confidence and financial stability. Scale in digital payments and financial services must not come at the expense of trust and resilience. AI is expected to fundamentally change financial services – but governance must precede scale,” Jain said.

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