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Stimulus checks, jobless help and extra in $900B coronavirus aid plan

Stimulus checks, jobless aid and more in $900B coronavirus relief plan

The U.S. Capitol building after a rainstorm on Capitol Hill in Washington, December 4, 2020.

Tom Brenner | Reuters

The deal by Congress for a $ 900 billion plan to fight coronavirus includes more aid to small businesses, another round of direct payments to Americans, an additional unemployment benefit, and funding to streamline the distribution of Covid vaccines.

Legislators wanted the package to be passed by Monday evening along with a government funding proposal of $ 1.4 trillion. The much-needed help comes from the fact that millions of Americans are struggling to pay for food and housing, and face possible loss of unemployment benefits and eviction protection in the days ahead.

Many economists and lawmakers say the measure will help, but it won’t go far enough to contain the damage that households and small businesses have suffered during the pandemic.

The more than 5,000-page bill, which the legislature released Monday afternoon, would cover a number of topics.

  • A weekly unemployment insurance surcharge of $ 300 per week would be added by mid-March. The plan would also extend the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs, which expand entitlement to unemployment benefits and allow people to continue receiving payments until mid-March after their government assistance expires.
  • The bill would put $ 284 billion in Paycheck Protection Program loans that are available, which would allow hard-hit small businesses to get a second round of funding. It would include $ 20 billion in grants for businesses in low-income areas and money for loans from community and minority lenders.
  • The package would send direct payments of $ 600 to most Americans – up from $ 1,200 passed under the CARES bill in March. Families are also paid $ 600 per child. Individuals who earned up to $ 75,000 per year and couples who made up to $ 150,000 in 2019 will receive the full amount. Payments will expire until ceased for individuals and couples who have earned $ 99,000 and $ 198,000, respectively. Mixed status households where a family member does not have a social security number will also receive payments retrospectively under the CARES Act.
  • The bill would extend the federal eviction moratorium to January 31. He would invest $ 25 billion in a rental assistance fund that states and municipalities would make available to people for use in past due and future rental or utility payments.
  • The plan would allocate more than $ 8 billion to distribute the two FDA-approved Covid-19 vaccines. It would also set aside $ 20 billion to make sure Americans got the shot for free. It would send at least $ 20 billion to states for testing and contact tracing efforts.
  • During the worst hunger crisis the US has seen in years, the move would raise $ 13 billion to boost Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits by 15%, including funding food banks.
  • The bill would allocate $ 45 billion for transportation, including at least $ 15 billion for airline payroll assistance, $ 14 billion for transit systems, and $ 10 billion for state highways.
  • The legislation would pour $ 82 billion into education, including more than $ 54 billion for K-12 public schools and nearly $ 23 billion for higher education. Schools need additional resources like personal protective equipment to stay open safely.
  • This will spend $ 10 billion on childcare.
  • The proposal would send $ 15 billion to live venues, cinemas, and cultural museums.
  • The move provides $ 7 billion to improve broadband access.
  • It would expire the Federal Reserve’s end-of-year emergency powers established by the CARES Act and recycle $ 429 billion in unused funds. A proposal, backed by GOP Senator Pat Toomey, to prevent the Fed from setting up “similar” programs in the future temporarily sparked the last attempt to create a bailout. The parties eventually chose a language that would not allow the Fed to issue identical loan regulations.

– NBC News contributed to this report

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Stimulus Deal Supplies Financial Aid, for Now

Stimulus Deal Provides Economic Relief, for Now

The Congressional deal for a $ 900 billion dose to fuel slowing economic recovery likely saved millions of Americans from a winter of poverty and prevented the country from falling back into recession.

For much of the economy – especially people and industries isolated from the worst effects of the pandemic – Sunday’s deal could build a bridge to a vaccine-related rebound. This is especially likely if the vaccine is fast and widespread, and the growing number of coronavirus cases doesn’t force another round of widespread shutdowns.

However, for tens of thousands of failed businesses, the money comes in months late, and it may not be enough to feed the unemployed until the labor market recovers. In addition, it could be the last aid from Washington that the economy is getting soon.

The package requires a vote in both Houses and its text was finalized on Sunday. However, it is expected to include most of the elements that economists have long said are critical to avoiding further disasters and helping a recovery. It expands unemployment benefits for millions at risk of losing it and adds money to their checks to pay their bills. It revitalizes the Paycheck Protection Program that kept many small businesses alive last spring.

It continues the eviction moratorium and expanded nutritional benefits that have fed and housed many of the most vulnerable families during the crisis, according to a statement by the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate on Sunday evening.

It also offers a new round of direct payments for most Americans. This element was a lower priority for many economists as many families have maintained their jobs and incomes through the very uneven recovery from the spring stalemate. Still, the checks will gross the economy billions of dollars and help people who keep their jobs but have lost hours or incomes.

However, the help may not be enough to propel the economy past the recovery that has spanned the recent recessions. There are already signs that the crisis is taking a lasting economic toll: long-term unemployment is rising, racial disparities are widening and more people – especially women – are leaving the workforce.

Cash payments in the new package – up to $ 600 per person for households and a weekly supplement of $ 300 for unemployment benefits – are half what they were in Congress last spring. This means that they cause fewer economic problems and do not do as much to offset the savings of the unemployed who get by on benefits that are typically a few hundred dollars a week.

And two programs – one for those who are not covered by traditional unemployment insurance and one that provides assistance after state benefits have expired – will be extended for less than three months. Millions of unemployed Americans will lose vital support if recruitment does not increase significantly in the meantime.

The recovery can also be hampered by what Congress has not done. At its greatest threat is the inability of negotiators to reach an agreement of hundreds of billions of dollars to fill gaps in state and local budgets that have cost 1.3 million jobs since March. Forecasters say the decline in sales makes sustained layoffs likely.

“Things aren’t as bad as they looked in the dark days of March and April, but there are still risks,” said Tracy Gordon, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington. “It takes a while for things in the economy to find their way into government budgets.”

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the Democrats in Congress characterized the relief package as a down payment to prevent short-term economic damage. These efforts should be followed by further assistance to ensure a robust recovery.

But Republican opposition – and growing optimism that vaccine use could stop the pandemic and kick-start tourism, live events, indoor dining, and other declining industries as the New Year begins – makes it likely that Congress will have a hard time overtaking another major bailout package. Achieving this goal in Mr Biden’s early days as president could depend on Democrats winning two runoff elections in Georgia that will determine control of the Senate.

Economy & Economy

Updated

Apr. 18, 2020 at 12:25 am ET

Legislators quickly agreed on the $ 2.2 trillion CARES bill in March but got bogged down in a second round of relief for months after the Democratically controlled house passed a $ 3 trillion version in May would have. The delay took a toll on the recovery and hurt both households and business owners.

The rebound started quickly when companies reopened in May and June, but has slowed significantly and there have been signs in recent weeks that it will reverse. Layoffs are rising, retail sales are falling, and the surge in virus cases has led many states to cut back on business and consumer activities.

Business owner data collected by Alignable, an online small business network, showed steady improvement in their business operations over the summer as the economy reopened – and then struggled again since September when aid dried up Virus cases increased and consumers withdrew.

“A lot of those companies who thought they saw the light at the end of the tunnel in June or July are now looking back and realizing that it’s just a train heading for them,” said Eric Groves, CEO of Alignable.

An analysis of 40,000 small businesses that are tracked by Homebase and provide scheduling and time tracking software for businesses shows that nearly half of the businesses that closed in March at the start of the pandemic either did not reopen or reopen, but then closed again were. The smallest companies were most likely to stay closed or closed again, said Jesse Rothstein of the University of California at Berkeley, who is a member of the economics team that studied the data.

“Everyone laid off a few workers,” Rothstein said as demand plunged into crisis. “If you only had a few workers, it meant you went away.”

For the surviving businesses, the new aid package revitalizes the Paycheck Protection Program, which offers employers forgivable loans.

However, it’s not clear whether the aid will be timely or enough to save companies that have been marginalized, said Kenan Fikri, director of research at the Economic Innovation Group in Washington.

“Small businesses have only just gotten through and now we are in a precarious stage where many of them cannot expect a full return on sales for at least six months depending on when we launch a vaccine,” he said. ‘Did we lose in the seventh inning?’ I think we’ll find out the question here. “

There are reasons to be optimistic. The economy has proven to be more resilient than many forecasters expected earlier this year. The unemployment rate fell from nearly 15 percent in April to 6.7 percent in November, and economists, including the Fed, have repeatedly raised their economic forecasts. Many companies have found new ways of operating. The recent surge in layoffs is far less severe than the spring job losses.

This resilience is due in part to previous rounds of government assistance that have proven sustainable. Household savings spiked in the spring when stimulus checks and increased unemployment benefits surfaced on American bank accounts. According to JPMorgan Chase, the typical family’s balance in October, although they have declined since then, was above pre-pandemic institute levels.

However, the effects are not evenly distributed – and even if the most recent round of relief contributes to a full recovery, scars remain.

“I don’t think we can undo the damage,” said Michelle Holder, an economist at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. “The damage is done.”

Account balances have declined fastest for low-wage workers, who were hardest hit by job losses during the pandemic and most likely to need the $ 600 grant that ended in July.

Researchers estimate that millions of families have fallen into poverty during the pandemic. While a new round of government aid could bring many of them back above the poverty line, it will still have lasting effects.

“The best scenario is we look back at it and say, ‘Well, an ounce of prevention would have been worth a pound of cure,” said Elizabeth Ananat, an economist at Barnard College who researched the effects of the pandemic on low-income households.

“The more likely scenario,” she added, “is that we will all spend the next 30 years documenting the damage it does.”

Emily Cochrane contributed to the coverage.

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Politics

Distribution cash at stake in Covid reduction talks

Distribution money at stake in Covid relief talks

Congressional efforts to fund state and local distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine continued to be balanced on Monday, even as the first doses of Pfizer’s landmark vaccine were given.

Legislators have yet to agree on a funding package to support health departments in the unprecedented vaccination campaign, despite bipartisan agreements that billions of dollars are needed.

The funding negotiations were fraught with deadlocked talks over possible bills that would provide economic relief to millions of Americans who have suffered from the coronavirus-related financial crisis.

These talks, which seemed to be moving slowly over the past few weeks, have taken on a new urgency as the Christmas holidays approach and the reality of viable Covid-19 vaccines has set in.

However, earlier in the week it was not clear whether Congress would make significant progress in passing its first major aid package to Covid-19 since the $ 2.2 trillion CARES bill was passed in March.

The latest plan, which is part of a $ 908 billion bailout bill tabled by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, puts $ 6 billion in sales efforts. The legislature should publish a legislative text on Monday.

The $ 6 billion price tag is in line with the Trump administration’s requirements, but well below what groups of health departments consider necessary.

For months, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials and the Association of Immunization Managers have been demanding that Congress allocate at least $ 8.4 billion.

“These funds are urgently needed to expand and strengthen federal, state, local, territorial and tribal capacities for a timely, comprehensive and equitable vaccine distribution campaign,” the groups wrote in October.

The groups said that the $ 200 million previously allocated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was a “down payment.”

CDC Director Robert Redfield told the Senate in September that it would “take anywhere between $ 5.5 [billion] on $ 6 billion “to distribute a Covid-19 vaccine, saying the matter is” urgent. “

The Department of Health and Human Services, where the CDC is located, has not returned a request for comment on the state of the Congressional negotiations.

So far, the nature of the latest proposal to fund state and local vaccine distribution has only been published in summary form.

According to legislative summaries, the $ 908 billion package would provide $ 3.42 billion in direct grants to states and communities, $ 2.58 billion to fund CDC “vaccine distribution and infrastructure,” and $ 129 million for tribes and tribal organizations contain.

Claire Hannan, executive director of AIM, said her group was still learning the details of the $ 6 billion proposal, but that it looked promising that lawmakers would move the funds to distribute the vaccine from the funds for tracking and testing separated from contacts.

However, she cautioned against allocating less than needed to “programs with severe disabilities by registering more providers and expanding vaccination efforts”.

“Bottom line: If Congress doesn’t reach an agreement, we fear that the programs will not be able to expand their capacity to register additional providers, which means there could be fewer places and opportunities to vaccinate people and a longer period of time to emerge from this pandemic “, she said.

The bipartisan plan now under discussion was drawn up by a group of moderate senators from both major political parties and endorsed by the House Problem Solvers Caucus.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., And Senate Minority Chairman Chuck Schumer have tentatively approved the plan and identified it as a starting point for negotiations.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who would be instrumental in getting laws passed, has yet to board. On Monday, however, McConnell described the vaccine distribution fund as “incredibly urgent”.

“This is the support that state and local governments need most,” McConnell said, saying the money would “vaccinate citizens now to end the fight.”

The ongoing negotiations go beyond funding vaccine distribution.

Unemployment benefits, which were expanded as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, will expire the day after Christmas, cutting payments to 12 million people. Each new deal is also expected to raise more funding for small businesses hit by the public health crisis.

Despite the widespread recognition that some sort of relief must be given, the barriers to reaching an agreement have remained largely unchanged for months.

Democrats have pushed for more spending and support to state and local governments facing budget crises as a result of the pandemic. Republicans largely oppose state and local aid, and have insisted that any deal include safeguarding businesses from liability claims arising from the crisis.

In addition to these sticking points, Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a progressive, and Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, a Conservative, have proposed a bill that does not include direct payment to Americans in that sense of the $ 1,200 stimulus- Checks sent out earlier this year. The $ 908 billion plan does not include direct payments.

So far, White House involvement has been limited, although Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has continued to negotiate with Pelosi.

President Donald Trump has shown little interest in reaching an agreement on Capitol Hill and has instead focused on his failed legal efforts to overthrow the 2020 election. If no agreement is reached in the coming weeks, the problem could soon be on President-elect Joe Biden’s plate.

Biden, who has already named several top doctors to positions in his administration, has signaled that distributing the Covid-19 vaccine will be a top priority for his administration in its first few days and is committed to 100 million doses in its first 100 days submit.

But Biden, who will be sworn in on Jan. 20, has suggested that if Congress fails to reach an agreement, his plan could be foiled.

During an address in Wilmington, Delaware, Tuesday, the former vice president urged Congress to quickly fund sales efforts and warned that efforts after an early round of vaccination could slow and stall after an early round of vaccination. “

“Let me repeat, we need Congress to end the bipartisan work, or millions of Americans may be waiting months longer – months longer – than they would otherwise have to get their vaccinations,” Biden said.

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Business

Aid Therapeutics shares have soared 38,000% in 2020

Relief Therapeutics shares have soared 38,000% in 2020

Medical staff examine a patient in the Covid-19 intensive care unit at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston on November 16, 2020.

Go Nakamura | Getty Images

LONDON – Swiss biotech company Relief Therapeutics saw its share price jump 38,000% this year as it develops a drug that focuses on respiratory failure due to severe Covid-19.

Last week, the company, together with US partner NeuroRx, achieved the target agreed with the US Food and Drug Administration of 165 patients in the ongoing Phase 2b / 3 study with RLF-100, a patented version of Aviptadil.

Aviptadil is a synthetic formulation of a naturally occurring peptide called Vasoactive Intestinal Polypeptide (VIP), which is primarily concentrated in the lungs and resets the immune system’s response, acts as a vasodilator, and promotes the production of surfactant in the lungs allowing the transfer of blood oxygen.

RLF-100 has been around since 2000, when it was developed to treat acute respiratory distress and other lung diseases and was subsequently acquired by Biogen. Earlier this year, Relief scientists discovered that it could protect the cell attacked by the Covid-19 virus.

Ram Selvaraju, chairman of Relief Therapeutics, spoke to CNBC from New York by phone that the ongoing study is expected to provide topline data in the first half of January, and attributed the company’s stock price surge in part to evidence of effectiveness in ” otherwise untreatable patients. “

“Where other people have mainly focused on lightly infected or moderately infected people, we have tried carefully to see if our drug can benefit the seriously ill and the terminally ill,” he said.

Early results of extended access use of RLF-100 in patients with critical Covid-19 and severe comorbidities showed that 72% of patients admitted to the ICU survived.

Relief Therapeutics had a market cap of less than 100 million Swiss Francs ($ 113 million) in late July and surpassed the first 21 patients treated with RLF-100 under the FDA Expanded Access Protocol on August 10 after promising results 1.6 billion Swiss people. Since then, it has flattened to just under CHF 1 billion.

The 38,000% increase largely corresponds to the low level of the original share price, which was just under 0.40 Swiss francs per share on Friday afternoon. Shares in the multinational Roche, on the other hand, are worth 306 francs.

Other therapeutics that have been tested on patients with more moderate symptoms have been purchased by government agencies to help fight the pandemic. The US government’s Operation Warp Speed ​​ordered Gileads Remdesivir and Eli Lillys Bamlanivimab.

Selvaraju announced that Relief Therapeutics and NeuroRx were in contact with Operation Warp Speed, and said that if the drug successfully proves its effectiveness in critically ill patients after phase three randomized tests, the company expects to see stock orders on a scale similar to that Gilead and Eli Lilly. A US Department of Health spokesman was not immediately available for comment when contacted CNBC.

Covid the “tip of the iceberg”

In June, the FDA granted RLF-100 fast-track designation and also received orphan drug designation for the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

Since the drug is not an antiviral drug specifically designed to fight the coronavirus, Relief Therapeutics hopes the current pandemic is “a chance for this drug to shine” if it turns out to be a therapeutic one clinical benefit in the treatment of respiratory disease due to Covid- hat. 19th

“Covid-19 is really the tip of the iceberg, the head of the spear. If we can prove this drug works for Covid-19-related respiratory distress, we will assume that we can use these results to further develop the drug testing.” in other forms of acute respiratory distress syndrome unrelated to Covid-19, “Selvaraju said, adding that this puts Relief Therapeutics in a” pretty unique position “.

“While many other experimental therapeutics will either live or die due to the development of the pandemic, on the contrary, we believe that once we have established the therapeutic benefits of this drug in the context of Covid-19, hopefully we should have our long-term vision for this drug too a kind of workhorse for emergency rooms and intensive care units as well as hospitals and hospital systems everywhere. “

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World News

Trump indicators funding invoice amid Covid reduction push

Trump signs funding bill amid Covid relief push

President Donald Trump signed a week-long government funding extension Friday as Congress rushed to secure coronavirus spending and relief.

The Senate passed the measure in a vote earlier in the day, and the House approved it this week. Funding would have expired on Saturday if Washington hadn’t passed a spending plan.

The law will fund the government until December 18th. Congressional leaders hope to have both a year-round funding package and pandemic aid approved by then. You have tried to reach an agreement on both fronts.

The appropriators have agreed on a $ 1.4 trillion price for the legislation to keep the government running through September 30, 2021. However, they have not agreed on exactly where the money should go.

Despite the most frantic effort in months to develop a coronavirus bailout, Congress must resolve several major disputes to reach an agreement. Millions of Americans await help as an uncontrolled outbreak ravages communities across the country, creating hunger that has not been seen for years.

If the legislature cannot pass relief laws in the coming days, around 12 million people will lose unemployment benefits the day after Christmas. An eviction moratorium and provisions for family leave introduced at the beginning of this year will also expire at the end of December.

Two senators, the independent Vermont-based Bernie Sanders and the Missouri Republican Josh Hawley, threatened to block the spending measure when they urged Congress to send more aid to Americans. Legislators wanted to vote on a proposal to send another direct payment of up to $ 1,200 for individuals and $ 500 per child.

Sanders said he decided not to object to government funding on Friday but would do so next week if Congress didn’t seek more relief.

“We are more hungry in America today than ever before in the modern history of this country,” said the senator when pressing for direct payments.

For months, Congress failed to provide more aid to Americans, despite ongoing health and economic crises. A GOP-backed proposal to give businesses immunity from coronavirus-related lawsuits and a plan to send more aid to state and local governments backed by Democrats and many Republicans remain the biggest sticking points in reaching a settlement .

Democrats have also criticized the fact that the recent $ 916 billion aid offer from the White House, blessed by GOP congressional leaders, does not include additional federal unemployment insurance funds. It has a direct payment of $ 600, half the total of the March stimulus checks approved by Congress.

Democrats have put their weight behind a $ 908 billion package put together by a non-partisan group. The measure would include unemployment benefit of $ 300 per week but no direct payments.

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Checks, legal responsibility amongst aid disagreements

Checks, liability among relief disagreements

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) arrives for the press conference after the weekly Senate Republican Caucus Politics lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

Congress attempted an elusive coronavirus relief deal Tuesday as known barriers stood in the way of aid to Americans struggling to cover food and housing costs.

Washington leaders hope to pass a bailout before the end of the year after months of inactivity. If no further aid is sent by then, unemployment benefits for around 12 million people can be cut and millions of people threatened with eviction.

To reach an agreement in time, Republicans and Democrats must resolve even bigger disputes over corporate liability protection, state and local government relief, and direct payments to Americans. Legislators plan to buy more time to reach both pandemic relief and spending agreements by passing a week-long rolling resolution to keep government funding going through December 18.

A non-partisan group worked for days to produce a $ 908 billion compromise bill. Legislators intend to release more details on the proposal on Tuesday afternoon.

While the Democrats have adopted the plan as a basis for talks with Republican leaders, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Has continued to call for a “targeted” bill of around $ 500 billion. According to Bloomberg, he plans to meet with Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to discuss the development of stimulus plans.

A daily average Covid-19 infection rate of more than 200,000 has overwhelmed hospitals across the country. States and cities have put new economic restrictions in place to slow cases in an already sluggish economy where around 20 million people are receiving unemployment benefits.

Where the plans are

Congress leaders have signaled that they want to incorporate coronavirus control measures into spending legislation. The move would allow Congress to approve both must-pass invoices in one fell swoop.

Getting an agreement on both fronts is the hard part.

The bipartisan plan, as first outlined last week, would invest nearly $ 300 billion in paycheck protection program small business loans and $ 160 billion in support from state and local governments who may have to lay off workers. It would reintroduce the federal unemployment insurance surcharge at $ 300 per week and provide funding for the distribution, education, and transportation of Covid-19 vaccines, among other things.

The proposal originally presented would also give companies temporary federal liability for coronavirus-related lawsuits until states enact their own laws. However, negotiators have not yet decided how to produce the final text on legal protection and state and local aid, West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin said Tuesday.

McConnell has insisted on including liability coverage in an aid package. His narrower approach includes this provision along with PPP loans and vaccine distribution and education funds. He has spoken out against new state and local easements.

Chuck Schumer, Chairman of the Senate Minority, DN.Y., spoke in the Senate on Tuesday calling on the GOP to abandon the demand for legal immunity.

“The situation is really quite simple,” he said. “There are blatant needs across the country and we have to work across party lines to pass laws that meet those needs.”

Stimulus checks have turned out to be a problem in an aid agreement. Two senators – Vermont independent Bernie Sanders and Missouri Republican Josh Hawley – have signaled they oppose a package that doesn’t include direct payments to families.

House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Told Bloomberg Tuesday that she would like to continue to want stimulus checks in an agreement. She said the question of including her was “really a matter for the president,” the news agency said.

On Tuesday, Politico reported that the Trump administration would push for direct payments in aid legislation. At the same time, McConnell’s opposition to the provision is “softening,” according to the report.

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