In Japan and South Korea there is deepening concern over the reliability of long-time American security guarantees – whether the U.S. will come to their aid in the event of a war. This has been turbo-charged by Donald Trump’s tough treatment of traditional U.S. allies, which has some in Tokyo and Seoul calling for a reassessment of their non-nuclear policies.

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[–] 55 points 1 year ago (7 children)

After the UN ramble yesterday, no one should rely on Trump and the US for anything. Every country should be looking for alternatives to US guarantees.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    I didn't watch and haven't seen anything on it. Was it Normal 2025 Trump bad, or something extra special?

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  • [+] 13 points 1 year ago (5 children)
  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago

    Also him whining about the building because he didn't get the contract to renovate the place or some dumb shit. "Eeerg the escalator broke" bitch shut up they just became stairs move your bloated legs once in a while

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    It's very incoherent. Either Donald has become the usual "old man yelling at the sky", or he's genuinely unhinged long time ago. People say Donald used to be more sane decades ago but it could've been an act back then. Anyway, sorry for making comparison with Hitler again but Hitler also did the same on his book Mein Kampf; a lot of it is just rambling.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Watch the videos. There are interviews in the 80s or 90s where there is a clear train of thought and a logical progression to his statements. His phone interview after 9/11 is less coherent, but not too bad from a grammatical and logical standpoint. These days, he can't string together 2 or 3 complete sentences about a single topic. Note that none of this is related to the truth or accuracy of his statements.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    If you watch something like the Charlie Kirk service, sometimes he can't even string a complete sentence together without losing his train of thought, or at least forgetting the words he wants to use. He sounds like my granddad before he died - he'll talk coherently for a minute or two, but if he has to talk for more than 2 or 3 minutes at a stretch, he starts falling apart and can't string words or concepts together.

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  • [–] 44 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    This is going to result in some really confused Akira spinoffs

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    Evangelion 2048, the Angels are Trump shaped.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Replace Lilith with Trump. Ew.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)
  • [–] 31 points 1 year ago (11 children)

    I can't blame them for wanting to do it. Same with a whole lot of other countries right now.

    I'd also like to point out that this will necessitate a new round of nuclear weapons tests. We're giving up on a hard won success:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel#Present_day

    World anthropogenic background radiation, caused by atmospheric nuclear testing, peaked at a level 0.11 mSv/yr (4%) above the natural 2.40 mSv/yr. It began to fall in 1963, when the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was enacted, and by 2008 it had decreased to only 0.005 mSv/yr above natural levels. This has made special low-background steel no longer necessary for most radiation-sensitive uses, as new steel now has a low enough radioactive signature.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (10 children)

    Well, France or the UK could also share their technology, or even Pakistan or India. I imagine it's easier to buy the technology from an ally than developing it from scratch.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago* (9 children)

    Eh. There's nothing too crazy about developing from scratch. The hard part is generating your first batch of enriched uranium. A physics grad student could probably design a basic nuke. The US actually ran a test to that effect decades ago; a couple of physicists with no specialization in the nuclear side of things, and using only publicly available material, were able to design an implosion-type device. The expert consensus was that it would have worked just fine.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Buying the blueprints would still remove the need for extensive testing, but you make a good point. After I posted the comment, I actually wondered about how hard it would be since there is so much information about nukes publicly available.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    Eh, you would still want to test. Even buying from an ally, there's no telling if the blueprints haven't been sabotaged to be ineffective or maybe just inefficient. (Maybe your ally supports you having nukes, but wants to make sure their nukes are better.)

    But even beyond that, when you test a nuke, you're not just testing the design. You're testing your materials. You're testing your manufacturing capability. You're testing every bit of the vast production process that went into making the weapon. And you're testing your own technical ability to design nuclear weapons. Getting blueprints would be beneficial, but there's no real substitute to designing your own bomb optimized to your own available materials and production processes.

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  • [+] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    He made a neutron emitter, not a nuclear fission bomb. A great way to turn your back yard into a Superfund site, not so great as a nuclear deterrent.

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  • [–] 28 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    As an American, I don't trust Trump to come to America's aid. I'd be sweeting bullets if I was Korea and Japan.

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  • [–] 27 points 1 year ago (27 children)

    it seems that only my country (iran) having nukes is bad.

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  • [–] 22 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Wrong Abrahamic DLC is all it takes.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    jewish isis already has, so....

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    The funny part is they're all wrong about reality.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (20 children)

    Apples & oranges honestly. Best would be no one resorts to that strategy. 2nd best is extreme regimes - especially vindicative and religious ones - don’t have such weapons.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    Honestly, I trust Iran to behave like a rational actor a whole lot more than I trust Trump. Yes, they're run by religious nutjobs, but they have been proven to show some restraint on international policy.

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  • [–] -3 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    Rational? While they push for shit like virgins in the afterworld ? No thanks. But you are right that suddenly USA isn’t rational anymore either. It seems harder to deprive someone than to simply prevent access to.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    "virgins in the afterworld" as an irainian the first time I heard that was from a stand up comedy from Robin Williams.

    don't believe the bullshit.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago

    Dude, don’t act as if your government was anything short of extremism. Setting aside the people obviously. It is absolutely a theocracy which is fucking insane in 2025. Just look at it from the sky and tell me how wonderful it is the best country in the world. That’s no utopia…

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (11 children)

    I mean I am sure usa germany and japan are the most peace loving countries in the last century. unlike iran that literally didnt start a war in that last 200 years.

    sorry.

    from my perspective my country needs nukes the most of the "Candidates"

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (10 children)

    Actually this is a good point. 2 of them actually grew out of their initial ways. Admittedly one regressed.

    But neither Germany nor Japan are fucking theocracies beheading gays or whatever.

    So you gouvernement can suck dicks and hopefully gets replaced by a secural one.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (7 children)

    if palestine shown anything is that the collective west didnt grow out of any of its bad habits.

    whole of west got behind destroying syria so that "assad" should go because he was bad. because assa "bombed hostpitals and you wouldnt do that even to kill Al-Qaeda terrorists"

    now he is replaced with Al-Qaeda commander and he gets welcomed in france and usa. and jewish isis gets to bomb every hospital and university and be the animal that they are because "khamas".

    if you think western regime goals is "saving gays" or something like that you are retarded.

    if Libya Syria Afghanistan and of course the best of them saudi arabia was not enough to show you what is the most important foreign goals of eu and usa, I can't help you.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (6 children)

    The hell you bring Palestine into how a theocracy should be prevented to get access to nuclear dissuasion? Stay on the topic please… They are a shit regime that must not have access to more than what they have and even that is too much.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (5 children)

    I am trying to show you some points.

    all those you call secular governments in west like uk usa france germany and so on, did and continue to do invasions war crimes and atrocity world over.

    so I don't get your obsession with non-secular countries, and thinking that only non-secular countries are capable of good.

    whatever my government does , doesn't even get near to level of what Israel did for the last 80 years and especially last two years.

    and all those "secular" countries supported israel completely with actions (words are useless)

    israel is a secular country? if so that is news to their government which read from their religious texts when they do an genocide and war crimes. if you have not head that it is because you are ignorant. and those secular regimes is west are completely fine with them doing it.

    so I don't think west care about religious genocide if their buddies commit it.

    and my country needs the nukes to survive as history has shown western regimes treaties are not worth the paper that it is written on. if jcpoa didnt show that nothing will. they bombed who they want and kill whoever they want.

    be better informed and don't be fox news level of ignorant.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    I don’t think the US is secular anymore.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    I dont think usa was secular ever (in the france kind of secular).

    but if you mean that religious extremism retoric have become the norm in US , that is correct and kinda obvious.

    to be honest I can't even fault the folk that are christian Zionist (an weird combo) because a lot of money have been poured into it. And if last decade in US shown anything is that money(greed) is king.

    and I don't think this is reversible because the rich elites in USA are getting more and more concentrated power and put more money into those extremists.

    a good example is just observing oracle founder Larry Ellison and Peter Thiel and palanter Alex Karp owner and others like them and see them become even more ghoul-like and very direct and if you face. they no longer cover up their inhuman genocidal ideas behind interest groups and shell think-tanks.

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  • [–] -1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Again you are steering away from the discussion ; focus please. 2 wrongs never did a right.

    Whatever you try to weasel about comparing other countries is absolutely irrelevant when discussing the likelihood of Iran having access to nuclear weapons being a good thing.

    The rest of the world being filled to the brim with assholes is irrelevant. My county is irrelevant.

    We are just looking at a shit gouvernement in Iran in a fucking vacuum.

    And the possibility that THEY get nuclear weapons being is atrocious in itself.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago*

    way less than jewish isis having nuke and acting like barbaric god chosen people.

    way less than germany or japan. if you think they are reformed... then sure america was reformed after it killed all the native americans.

    go watch any real politikcs about iran and nuke like john mershaimer. maybe you learn some history.

    I judge conutries and regimes by their acts. in international arena iran behaved way better than all the other countires you named.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    I support Iran getting the bomb. In the regional context, it would be an overwhelmingly positive thing. History suggests it would be a great mellowing influence on the whole region. The region is unstable right now because there's one nuclear power in the region without any counterbalancing nuclear power to hold them in check. Israel, a democratic theocracy, now acts with impunity against every country in the region. The US acted the same way prior to 1948, threatening to use its nukes in ways and scenarios we would now consider unthinkable.

    Every single time a nation has been near the bomb, they have been portrayed as a bunch of crazy nutjobs that are going to blow up the world. Russian and China were both portrayed as fanatical Communists willing to die for the cause. India and Pakistan were religious fanatics that were going to blow up the world. North Korea was a dictatorship ruled by a madman that was going to level Seoul. Every single time a non-Western nation is close to getting the bomb, that nation has historically been portrayed as being lead by world-risking madmen or fanatics of one sort or another. The narrative is always that only Western countries can responsibly hold the bomb, and all those other potential nuclear powers will handle the power poorer that the enlightened Western nations have.

    And yet, time and time again, that doesn't happen. It turns out that rulers, whether elected or dictatorial, tend to care most about maintaining their own power. And even if they think they can miraculously personally survive a nuclear war; no one wants to rule over a radiation-blasted hellscape. And no one wants to see their homeland nuked, even an evil tyrant.

    If Tehran gets the bomb, it won't immediately use it on Israel. Why? Because the Iranians don't want to be vaporized. Israel has its own nuclear arsenal, including a submarine-based second strike capability. If they nuke Israel, every major city in Iran is going up in a mushroom cloud.

    It turns out, MAD actually works. And while I would prefer that no nation have nukes, the only thing more unstable than two nuclear-armed rivals is when there are two rivals and only one of them has nukes.

    This is why I want Iran to have the bomb. Do I think Iran is lead by particularly good people? Not at all. But I trust the Ayatollahs with the bomb about as much as I trust the Israelis with the bomb. And Iran getting nukes would greatly stabilize a region that has been so destabilized by having only a single unbalanced nuclear power.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)

    You made abortions illegal, you have the right to point fingers?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    I what?

    So not only you keep on steering away from the point but you are hilariously wrong on all your assumptions.

    My county of residence and origin is absolutely not making abortions illegal.

    Also I, as a citizen, am not making anything illegal. I’m taking great care to separate country, government and citizen which you should really consider doing as well.

    Governments makes things illegal. An often times a specific branch there of. Generally not citizens themselves with very odd exceptions like parts of Switzerland and such.

    I’m having an opinion which I’m very much entitled to in a fucking democracy. Which might be an alien concept to you I gather.

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  • [–] 47 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    You know who really needs the bomb? Canada needs the bomb. It has a hostile authoritarian military superpower on its border with 10x the population, hostile trade relations, and a stated intention by national leaders to invade and conquer core Canadian territories. Canada is in the exact situation where a nuclear deterrent is most justifiable. If nukes are ever justifiable, they're justifiable for small powers facing potential invasion by aggressive larger ones.

    Canada needs the bomb.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago

    That's the difference between Obama's stance of "we won't use the bomb if you don't have it" and trump/Putin's "we won't take you seriously if you don't have the bomb"

    One encourages disarmormebt. The other armorment

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  • [–] 85 points 1 year ago (9 children)

    Hey Canada...We should be thinking about this, also.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago* (7 children)

    I wish but.. Do you think they won't invade us at the whiff of nuclear armament?

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  • [–] 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Building nukes is like unionizing; ideally you don't go public until you already have your nukes/union

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  • [–] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Do what isreal did and lie about it while building one

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  • [–] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    My understanding is that Japan is de facto an nuclear armed state, they simply haven't made an warheads. They have the all the necessary technology and fuel enrichment, so they could quickly arm if they thought it would be necessary in the near future.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (1 child)
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    Probably not terribly relevant if their only requirement is to drop one on Pyongyang if necessary. Japan's got planes. I don't think anyone else outside of their hemisphere is saber-rattling at them at the moment.

    From what I understand from sitting in the comfort of my own armchair, North Korea's air defenses and indeed pretty much all of their traditional military is pretty rickety at this point. They rely on the nuclear threat plus the assumed support and intervention of China, along with a battery of conventional artillery pointed directly at Seoul, to dissuade any other state from just steamrolling them. North Korea's missile game is pretty weak, too, but likewise really all they need to be able to do is hit Japan. Hell, if all they wanted to do was cause chaos in the south they'd just have to truck a bomb to the edge of the DMZ and set it off right there.

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  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Japan having nukes is gonna be PR nightmare given their imperialistic history lol.

    As for South Korea and ROC/Taiwan, sure thing. UK ot France should sell them some nuclear armed submarines lol.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    what if they launch them out of gundams? that seems like it wouldn't be quite so much of a PR nightmare

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I mean, not really. Barely anyone is alive who remembers these things viscerally, and people don't pay attention to history at all, if they even know the broad strokes

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago

    There's still alot of animosity from South Korea towards Japan. The threat from China and American unreliability has driven them together politically but the animosity still remains on an individual level.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    I suppose. At the moment, most countries in East and South East Asia are wary of China because of maritime disputes. If anything, this will be a good PR opportunity for Japan to gloss its history by engaging with countries having a problem with China. Tokyo already made overtures to India and Philippines because of China.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago

    Japan actually has the technology and know-how to rapidly spin up a nuclear weapons program because they were already doing it before signing up on their non-nuclear policies with the US.

    The real question is which country is going to be the first to actually jump ship. I'm fairly certain like 95% of the UN is just going to wait out Trump's term and hope the next president will undo all his insane plans, because no one wants to lose longstanding ties with the US, even as the rug pull of 70+ years of American influence going under gets closer to reality.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    Don't be silly, the US will be happy to sell weapons to South Korea and Japan. Also, they will sell to whoever attacks them!

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Oh ffs, we don't need more nuclear powers.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    The only options for nuclear weapons are none at all, or everyone with one.

    Unfortunately, we live in a world where they exist, and as such, you cannot trust enemies or even allies to have good conscience. If the only way to guarantee your country's safety against a country with nuclear weapons is your own, then this headline was inevitable.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    War is just another game

    Tailor made for the insane

    But make a threat of their annihilation

    And nobody wants to play

    If that's the only thing that keeps the peace

    [Chorus]

    Then thank God for the bomb

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago
    4 comments in c/endlesswar@lemmy.ca view that post
    [–] 6 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Not sure about the “gaslighting”. I think that term is misunderstood, and misused. "Gaslighting is the manipulation of someone into questioning their perception of reality. The term derives from the 1944 film Gaslight and became popular in the mid-2010s. Some mental health experts have expressed concern that the term has been used too broadly." The movie is worth a watch if you haven’t seen it: A psychological thriller film directed by George Cukor, starring Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten and Angela Lansbury in her film debut.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago

    Gaslighting is the manipulation of someone into questioning their perception of reality

    For 80 years, reality in the colonies has been to accept every US imposed fear, and force amplify the US on every corrupt war. Full media and political harmony with CIA in every colony. Perceiving the US empire as a force for good was an absurdity always the result of gaslighting by consensus.

    As the reality of consensus dedication to US empire fades away, the pure demonic sycophancy to US propaganda and brainwashing sustaining past fears and imposed enemies becomes far more transparent gaslighting. Instead of real fear against your real enemy, promote the past demonism in furthering extreme alliance to your real enemy.

    Some speech needs to be exterminated for democracy to function. Unfortunately, establishments don't want democracy to create prosperity and survival. They just want establishment power to persist.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    That's an odd title, is it editorialized? I had difficulty parsing it, the title I see at the link is

    Trump shock spurs Japan to think about the unthinkable: nuclear arms

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 year ago

    Content of article matches my headline. The purpose of nuclear weapons consideration is not to fight US extortion and increased US extortion. It is to strike North Korea and China. It might as well be asking US to operate Japan's nuclear arsenal for them. It is the most purely absurd reaction to US imperialism amplification.

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