Saturday, December 4, 2021

Coronavirus

To Share His Voice, Bocelli Goes Online

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By Lizzie Stricklin

MAIN IMAGE: Opera singer Andrea Bocelli will be performing at the Milan Cathedral in a virtual concert on Sunday. Source: Shen Xin, Pixabay

Andrea Bocelli will stand alone before the towering pillars of the Milan Cathedral. The room will be silent, although thousands of fans will be listening closely, awaiting his opening breath as he begins  a rousing rendition of “Ave Maria”.

His voice will fill the empty chapel. No applause will be heard – for his audience will be miles away, possibly halfway across the world, listening with awe through the connective power of the internet.

This may be the future of musical performances – at least until the world has emerged from its coronavirus restrictions.

On Sunday,  the renowned Italian opera singer will be streaming a live Easter concert from the Duomo that people across the world can watch. His virtual concert is just one of many examples of how people around the world are taking to digital platforms to share events and music to cope with difficult times.

The Easter concert, entitled “Music for Hope”, will be viewable on Bocelli’s YouTube channel at 7pmlocal time (Central European Standard Time), and will feature pieces like Mascagni’s “Sancta Maria” and an arrangement of John Newton’s “Amazing Grace”.

“It’s not a performance. It’s not a concert. It’s only a prayer,” Bocelli told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

He added, “I will go there to pray, and I’d like to think that everyone listening to me sing can pray with me.”

Bocelli’s virtual concert will follow Pope Francis’s virtual Easter mass, which will also be livestreamed around the world. This  will start at 10:55am CEST.

Bocelli’s use of the internet to share his performance is a practice being picked up by many artists, both professional and amateur, around the world. Musical livestreams, artistic tutorial videos, and social media challenges have encouraged people to find new creative outlets as they are distanced from their normal work and social lives.

Opera fans can continue their at-home viewing with nightly streams from the Metropolitan Opera. This weekend, viewers can enjoy free filmed productions of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Donizetti’s Don Pasquale and Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte.

Fans of pop, rock, and EDM may have been disappointed by the postponement of the American music festival, Coachella, until October. To fill the void, YouTube will be releasing the documentary “Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert”, which explores the history of the music festival, today.

https://twitter.com/coachella/status/1248431030865780736

The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles will also be bringing musical artists directly to their audiences via the internet. The museum is releasing digital content from its archives, including exclusive sit-down interviews with musical artists, from Andrea Bocelli himself to Billie Eilish and Sabrina Carpenter. Virtual exhibitions are also being released online, with slideshows from past exhibitions featured in the museum.

One group of amateur performers that utilized the internet to spread their voices is the Roedean School choir from Johannesburg. The girls’ boarding school produced a virtual choir that performed “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen as “a timely reminder that we are indeed #TogetherApart”.

Unlikely performers have appeared on the internet as well. On Thursday, the Cape Town Stormers rugby team released a video they had recorded a few days before lockdown started. The men came together in their  team kit, not to compete but to perform with various South African celebrities, including Francois van Coke and Amy Tjasink, singing “The Crossing” by Johnny Clegg.

“The song was chosen by team management as Johnny Clegg was a nation-builder who crossed over different communities — much like the Springboks did by winning the Rugby World Cup in 2019,” the Stormers said in a press release. “Their goal in the Stormers’ 2020 Super Rugby campaign was to build on that concept of unity and ‘The Crossing’ epitomised that spirit of uniting people and moving forward to a new world.”

Ramaphosa calls for national solidarity as lockdown is extended through April

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By Skylar Thoma

MAIN IMAGE: President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses the nation to announce that South Africa’s three-week lockdown has been extended to five weeks.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Thursday that South Africa’s nationwide lockdown would be extended by two weeks, to the end of April. 

Thanking the nation for their efforts to date, Ramaphosa said it was clear the lockdown which began on March 26 had had a significant impact on slowing the rate of new infections. However, he said it was imperative that the restrictions should not be lifted too soon and the decision to extend the lockdown had been taken to prevent an “uncontrollable resurgence of the disease”. 

He said the government would roll out a program with three main focuses over the lockdown period. The first would be an intensified public health response to slow down and reduce new infections.

Over the next two weeks, a community testing and screening programme would be rolled out, focusing on the most vulnerable communities in the country, he announced. Those testing positive would be isolated at facilities that were being equipped to house them.

The president announced that 20,000 cellphones had been donated to the government by Vodacom. The phones had been preinstalled with an app that health workers will be able to use to send data on the screening program directly into the national data tracking centre.

A second focus would be to provide economic support measures to assist businesses who were severely impacted by the lockdown. Ramaphosa said the Unemployment Insurance Fund had set aside R40 billion to help employees who are not able to work during the lockdown. The UIF has paid out R356 million to claimants during the lockdown period so far.

Ramaphosa said he would be working with cabinet to develop a comprehensive package of urgent economic measures to respond both to the immediate crisis “and to the severe economic challenges that we must confront in the months ahead”.

He appealed to large businesses “not to resort to force majeure” during #LockdownSA and to continue paying their suppliers if possible.

“The government is continuing its efforts to provide vulnerable communities with food, water, and other basic needs,” he said. “To date, the government has delivered over 11 000 water storage tanks to communities across the country.” 

Ramaphosa also announced that he, along with the deputy president, members of his cabinet and the provincial premiers, would take a cut of a third of their salaries for the next three months. This money would be donated to the national Solidarity Fund. The fund was established at the start of the earlier lockdown to assist in providing funds for the country’s Covid-19 fight.

Ramaphosa concluded with a call for vigilance and solidarity.

“The struggle against #COVID19 is far from over. We are only at the beginning of a monumental struggle that will require every resource.  We cannot relax. We cannot be complacent.”

“Until we contain the virus, the same rules remain,” he said.

He ended his address saying, “Much is being asked of you. Far more than should ever be asked but we know that this is a matter of survival and we dare not fail. I know we shall recover and I also know we shall overcome. May God bless South Africa and protect her people.”

Several commentators on Twitter expressed admiration for Ramaphosa’s difficult decision.

WHO warns world to be cautious as Wuhan lifts lockdown

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By Skylar Thoma

MAIN IMAGE: Scattered people walk about a park in Wuhan, China. The city in which the coronavirus epidemic began is now relaxing its lockdown measures. SOURCE: Pexels

After more than two months under a strict lockdown, Wuhan, the city where coronavirus was first reported, is finally beginning to relax restrictions on movement. 

On Monday (6 April) China reported no new cases of the coronavirus, and announced on Wednesday that it was easing the tight controls it had put in place in Wuhan. 

But as promising as the news seems, the World Health Organization (WHO) is warning other countries not to be too hasty in relaxing their measures to combat the epidemic.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said there is a possibility of the virus resurging if restrictions are loosened too quickly.

“It’s similar to being sick yourself,” he explained to reporters during a virtual press briefing. “If you get out of bed too early and get running too early you risk falling back and having complications”.

The city of Wuhan had been under a strict lockdown since January 23. Residents are now allowed to travel outside their residential compounds, although schools remain closed and some travel restrictions remain in place. 

In several other countries where lockdown measures are in place, rates of increase in infection numbers appear to be tapering.  The Washington Post reports that among these, New Zealand’s numbers are low. Rates of increase in Italy and Spain are also reported to be flattening.

Some countries are hoping to follow China’s lead and begin relaxing lockdown measures. Denmark hopes to phase out its lockdown if the number of cases can stabilise by Easter, according to Reuters. 

But in other countries, authorities are cautious about making promises. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told reporters on Tuesday that no decision had yet been made about lifting or extending the country’s nationwide lockdown. The administration is waiting on a scientific report on the effectiveness of the lockdown before making a final decision, according to News24. 

US President Donald Trump had raised the possibility of reopening the country in late March, but has since walked back his suggestion as the country is undergoing a surge of new cases and deaths.

Many countries are becoming increasingly worried about the economic fallout from the pandemic. But WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned that the economic damage will be far worse if lockdown measures are lifted too quickly, reports CNBC.

“Ultimately the best way for countries to end restrictions and ease their economic effects is to attack the virus”, he said.

Experts interviewed by Nature magazine believe that if China can end its lockdown without a resurgence of the virus, other countries may follow suit. But for now, health experts say, countries need to stay vigilant and watch for a second wave.

President puts South Africa’s minister of communications on leave

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South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has moved swiftly to discipline his Minister of Communications, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, for violating the country’s coronavirus regulations.

On Sunday, Ndabeni-Abrahams was pictured in a post on the former deputy minister of higher education Mduduzi Manana’s Instagram page, enjoying a lunch with her husband at his home, directly contravening the government’s efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

First shared by @MDUMANANA on instagram

Manana is a controversial figure who was previously in the public eye when he was caught on video assaulting a woman in a Johannesburg nightclub. Recently he has been preparing to start a YouTube ‘connoisseur real estate show’. A publicity video for the show which is to due air from July shows him in his home has been shared on social media.

This prompted many South Africans to call for action to be taken against her. On Wednesday President Ramaphosa revealed that after meeting with Ndabeni-Abrahams, he had asked her to take a two month leave of absence, one month of which is to be unpaid. 

https://twitter.com/PresidencyZA/status/1247803734421172224?s=20

Ndabeni-Abrahams was also directed by Ramaphosa to address the nation and issue a formal apology. 

In a short video she released in the course of the day, the minister asked South Africans to forgive her and apologised to the President and to the nation at large, and urged them to obey the regulations.

However, some South Africans are saying the punishment is no more than a slap on the wrist and is not enough. Many have taken to social media to call for her arrest, arguing that she breached lockdown regulations and must face the same punishment as ordinary citizens have faced for doing so.

In response to calls for Ndabeni-Abrahams to face the law, Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Khusela Diko, said, “As to allegations that the minister violated the lockdown regulations, the law should take its course”. 

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has filed a criminal complaint against Ndabeni-Abrahams, and has called for her to be removed from the cabinet. 

7 ways to feed your creative need while staying locked indoors

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By Lizzie Stricklin and Skylar Thoma

Creativity is blooming on the internet as people around the world are being inspired to take up artistic challenges from wherever they find themselves in lockdown.

An explosion of online content, from silly social media challenges, to museums and universities sharing their resources, is giving people a way to stay sane during these trying times. Here are just seven ways the artistic and creative world has continued to shine during these turbulent times.

Recreating the Classics

The Getty Museum in Los Angeles took to Twitter this month to encourage fans of visual art to recreate their favourite paintings using only three items found around the house. Although some of the participating photos used more than three items, they all have produced creative takes on paintings from Jan van Eyck to Pablo Picasso. Here are some of our favourite DIY creations:

Exploring Museums from the Couch

https://twitter.com/Italia/status/1247215241156530176
The Vatican Museums now offer virtual tours of their exhibits, including one of Raphael’s Rooms.

Although many museums have been forced to close their doors for the foreseeable future, museums from around the world have moved some of their exhibits online in partnership with Google Arts & Culture. Visitors can view the collections as an online gallery, and, if the museum has the technology, take a virtual reality tour of the museum. Over 2,000 museum collections from six continents have added their exhibits so far.

Taking a Seat – Or Creating One

On March 18, Spanish designer Max Enrich started an Instagram challenge encouraging followers to craft little #isolationchairs out of miscellaneous household items. In the past three weeks, this challenge has taken off, with posts displaying hundreds of pint-sized creations made from items ranging from matches to breakfast sandwiches circulating the internet. Here are some of our favourites:

View this post on Instagram

#isolationchair #isolationchairchallenge

A post shared by Noemí Blanch (@miblae) on

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Bringing the Theatre to the Living Room

The lights may have been dimmed, but the show must go on! Broadway and West End theatres, as well as some regional theatres, have released pro-shots of plays and musicals that theatre fans around the world can watch for free or with a small donation. Andrew Lloyd Weber himself has started a YouTube channel dubbed The Shows Must Go On, through which a different Weber musical recording will premiere every Friday.

The National Theatre in London will be releasing a recording of a play every week, and Broadway stars have held virtual play readings. Regional theatres like TheatreWorks Silicon Valley have also joined the online stage by holding a “virtual opening night” for its musical production of Pride & Prejudice, which included interviews with cast members and was hosted by Broadway star Beth Leavel.

Worldwide Orchestras

Choirs and orchestras are organizing their performances online, often with individual members recording themselves and compiling their videos into a final product. Some conductors are hosting live sessions over YouTube and other streaming platforms. Here are some impressive performances done without any of the performers in the same room:

Slovenian acapella group Perpetuum Jazzile performs an original piece using recordings from each singer.
The Symphonic Orchestra of Castille and Leon performs Ode to Joy using recordings of each musician.
The Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra shared a Proudly South African performance of the National Anthem.

Sharing Their Craft

For aspiring artists who have no idea how to begin, there are an abundance of online classes available for all manner of things. The online website Class Central has compiled over 450 free online classes from the eight Ivy League universities, including courses in music, photography, and architecture. Scores of artists are also using YouTube to host online classes of their own on every topic imaginable: drawing, knitting, painting, playing instruments, and more.

Mo Willems, artist-in-residence at the Kennedy Centre, is hosting periodic doodle sessions on YouTube.
For those who are more industrially minded, the New York Times has created a guide for how to make your own protective face masks to wear if you need to venture out in public.

Going Out in Style

As more people commit themselves to social isolation and self-quarantine, sometimes the only time they leave the house is to take out the trash. Members of the Australian Facebook group “Bin isolation outing” (https://www.facebook.com/groups/306002627033697/) found a creative way to make taking out the trash fun by donning costumes for the daily chore.

The Australian Facebook Bin isolation dress-up challenge is being taken up by people around the world, including this woman in Croydon, UK, who put on her finery to take out the trash.

The fun has now spread around the world, with participants from Scotland and the United States putting their own spin on the silly costumes.

Western Cape government calls for medical volunteers to help fight Covid-19

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By Ainsley Ash 

MAIN IMAGE: A graphic issued by the Western Cape government showing the spread of Covid-19 cases in the province.

The Western Cape Government has issued an appeal for medical volunteers to sign up to help fight the spread of COVID-19 as it gears up for a rise in case numbers in coming weeks. 

On Friday the government issued a statement explaining that the pre-existing burden of disease among the province’s population combined with the COVID-19 pandemic were increasing pressure on medical facilities. It called on doctors, nurses, pharmacists, pharmacy assistants and emergency medical service personnel who were not already employed by the Department of Health to sign up online to offer their services.

The request came as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the province rose to 418, with 25 people in hospitals, seven of them receiving intensive care. 

https://twitter.com/WesternCapeGov/status/1246046870956359680?s=20

On Thursday, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde and health officials took to Facebook for a live presentation to discuss the province’s response to COVID-19.

“We have got enough hospital beds, enough ICU beds and enough quarantine facilities right now,” Winde said. “But we’ve got to be preparing for what the impact is going to be in a week, two weeks, and two months’ time?”

While the province’s numbers are currently low, Western Cape Head of Health Dr Keith Cloete said that the numbers of locally transmitted cases, hospitalisations, and ICU patients was expected to continue to increase. 

Dr Keith Cloete explains challenges of preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the province. (Ainsley Ash)

Cape Town has been the epicenter of the spread of local transmissions with 333 of the 418 reported cases residing in the Cape Town metropolitan area. Before the government’s request for volunteers, over 100 students at the University of Cape Town had already begun volunteering to run a local COVID-19 hotline.

Members of the UCT Surgical Society who opted to volunteer have been classified as emergency medical personnel, giving them the necessary permissions to travel to and from the Tygerberg Hospital Disaster Management Centre where the hotline is located.

This week, the national Health Department will begin to conduct mass community screenings and testing to track and prevent the spread of local transmissions. According to Cloete, community health workers and NGOS will carry out these preventative efforts, beginning with vulnerable communities in the Cape Town Metro.

Coronavirus cases pass one million, but virus-free pockets remain

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By Lizzie Stricklin

MAIN PHOTO: Samoa is one of the few nations that has not reported any coronavirus cases. SOURCE: Simon Steinberger, Pixabay

Global COVID-19 cases have exceeded one million, global news outlets reported yesterday.

According to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at John Hopkins University, cases have been confirmed in more than 180 countries and territories, with the United States containing the most confirmed cases at 243,453 and Italy following with 115,242 confirmed cases. There have been over 50,000 confirmed global deaths due to COVID-19, according to the John Hopkins data.

Only 18 countries have not yet confirmed any cases of the virus: Comoros, Kiribati, Lesotho, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, North Korea, Palau, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Yemen.

https://twitter.com/cobbo3/status/1246047558448885760

The majority of these countries are small Pacific island nations, including Kiribati and Nauru. One similarity is that none of the reportedly virus-free nations are tourist hotspots, with seven of the world’s ten least-visited places on the list.

Despite having no confirmed cases, these nations all took precautions to limit internal spread of the virus. Lesotho has been under lockdown since March 13, when it was the first African nation to close its borders. South Sudan, Samoa and Tonga have also been under lockdown since late March. Island nations like São Tomé and Príncipe, Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu have declared states of emergency and limited or suspended international travel.

However, some experts believe that the lack of confirmed cases in some of these countries may be because of lack of sufficient reporting. Reuters reported that North Korea has requested foreign aid and supplies like masks and test machines to help fight the virus, despite denying any cases. Various other sources have alleged varying numbers of cases and casualties in North Korea, but the country has not officially reported any COVID-19 cases.

Reportage of the extent of the virus is constrained in countries like Turkmenistan as well, where zero cases have been reported but the word “coronavirus” has been removed from official informational brochures, according to Reporters Without Borders.

According to coverage by the BBC, health experts like Peter MacPherson of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Andy Tatem of University of Southampton predict COVID-19 will eventually infect every country, but suggest that small Pacific island nations may hold out the longest due to their natural isolation.

In a time of isolation, communities come together

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By Laura Peterjohn

MAIN PHOTO: An image that has been widely shared shows a pair of bears outside a house in Stockport, England. The owners of the house have been putting them out in different outfits, enacting different home-bound scenarios for the entertainment of their neighbors and gaining a following on social media. SOURCE: @Adam_Harrison13 Twitter

While people are being forced to make sure they keep their distance, communities are uniting behind a common cause: supporting each other in a time of need.

As health care workers place themselves on the front line of the pandemic, working long hours at great personal risk, communities have been getting creative in finding ways to show thanks while still following the strict social distancing guidelines in place.

In a gesture that started in Wuhan, China, the city where the disease was first reported, people  began taking to their balconies at an agreed time each evening to cheer loudly in support of the workers on the front lines.

When the disease began migrating, so did the shows of support. Evolving into clapping, shouting, drumming, whistling and even blowing trumpets or South African vuvuzelas the cheer can be heard every night in nations on every continent. 

https://twitter.com/dr_boland/status/1244086214711365632?s=21

 In Italy, one of the nations hit hardest by the pandemic, communities have taken it to another level with residents playing music together and singing songs nightly. CNN reports that during the lockdown, radio stations have even gone so far as coordinating the songs they play, with the national anthem being played at the same time every night.

In the United States teddy bears have started popping up in windows all over the country reports the BBC. A scavenger hunt that is perfect for social distancing, the bears are encouraging children to go on socially-distanced walks outdoors while providing a safe activity for them during quarantine.

https://twitter.com/CityofKalamunda/status/1245645153429159945

Also in the United States, Little Free Libraries that usually serve as places where you can take books that their owner wants to give away are becoming food pantries with the idea that those who are in need can take.

Feel-good fake news? Shutdowns bring spate of urban wildlife sightings – and plenty of misinformation

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By Ainsley Ash & Renny Simone

Viral photos, purporting to show wild animals ‘reclaiming’ cities left vacant by coronavirus shutdowns, have been making the rounds on social media. But are these feel-good posts too good to be true?

A recent tweet featuring photos of dolphins and swans swimming in clear Venice canals has amassed tens of thousands of likes. The user celebrates that “[n]ature just hit the reset button on us”. Another tweet celebrating the first sighting of the critically endangered Malabar civet since 1990 has been retweeted thousands of times – with a video to prove it.

Like the countless others that have followed, these posts claim that shutdown protocols are causing the return of wildlife to the world’s now-vacant cities. The reappearance of these animals has been the subject of articles from outlets including The Guardian, the New York Post, and The New York Times. 

https://twitter.com/twooshar/status/1245832078106562560

Posts like these provide a silver lining for victims of COVID-19’s disruptive spread, but the reality behind them is often disappointing. National Geographic wrote that the video of the ‘Venetian’ dolphins was actually taken at a port hundreds of miles away.

Why do people want to believe these posts? Susan Clayton, a psychology and environmental studies professor at the College of Wooster, told National Geographic, “People hope that, no matter what we’ve done, nature is powerful enough to rise above it.” The sense of hope that the stories bring might feel real, but the posts themselves often are not. 

As for the posts that are genuine, there is usually much more to the story than coronavirus shutdowns. Urban ecologists have been studying the return of wildlife to cities for decades. Many of these changes came before coronavirus and the emptying of urban spaces. In San Francisco, for example, excited Twitter users have been uploading photos of coyotes roaming the streets. But an article about the city’s rebounding coyote population was published on February 20th – more than two weeks before San Francisco’s first reported case of COVID-19. 

Ecologists have been quick to warn against the spread of misinformation about urban wildlife. Parveen Kaswan, a member of the Indian Forest Service, corrected a misleading photo purporting to show deer walking the streets of Jaipur. According to Kaswan, the photo was actually taken in Haridwar, where such sightings are common – the city borders Rajaji National Park. “[S]preading positivity is one thing,” Kaswan tweeted. “Dumbing down society is another.”

Others, though, have taken a more lighthearted approach to the issue of misleading wildlife posts. Memes and screenshots depicting everything from dinosaurs in New York’s Central Park to the cast of Cats in a London square celebrate the ‘return of nature’ to the world’s cities.

It is too early to tell which impulse – to celebrate, educate, or make fun of – will win the day.

200 Homeless People Escape Mandatory Shelter in Pretoria

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By Ayinde Summey

Caption: Homeless people at the Caledonian Stadium in Pretoria. Photo: Department of Social Development.

Authorities in Pretoria this week found themselves with a headache after their efforts to provide accommodation for homeless people in a local stadium has been rejected by some.

Tshwane Law Enforcement officers relocated more than 2 000 homeless people to the Caledonian Stadium in Pretoria. There they were given shelter with food. However the conditions became an issue for some people. Crowding also became a problem and no one was allowed to leave.

Yesterday, several news outlets reported that about 200 people had escaped from the shelter, taking advantage of distracted and severely outnumbered police officers.

The escapees said there was insufficient and poor quality food being supplied.

The authorities reportedly had not anticipated that so many people would need to be accommodated.

Instead of trying to fit all the homeless people into the Caledonian Stadium, it will be used as an initial screening centre before people are allocated accommodation. New locations for homeless people are now being set up.

Yesterday Social Development Minister Bogopane Zulu visited the stadium to see for herself what conditions people are being kept in and to monitor lockdown regulations.

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