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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks B.

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Speaker 2: Mike Hardley is our travel correspondent. He's with us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Hey Mike, good morning Jack.

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Speaker 3: Just plane spotting qualifiers in Olympic Sports.

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Speaker 2: Well, have you seen the breakdancing this morning?

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Speaker 3: I've seen a bit of it. It's extraordinary.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm I'm not just I'm not disputing that they're

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Speaker 2: really talented, but I'm also convinced about the breakdancing just yet.

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Speaker 2: And I wonder if breakdancing is a sport then, hey,

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Speaker 2: plane spotting in years to come? Gaming? You know why not?

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Speaker 3: Yes?

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Speaker 2: You know?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been watching a Singapore Lines plane which it's

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Speaker 3: been circling around christ Church for the last two hours.

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Speaker 3: Can you imagine how mind coming that must be for

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Speaker 3: the passengers? Yeah, they must have I know, they must

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Speaker 3: have a lot of fuel on board. There's been major

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Speaker 3: fol problems. That's quite a cheap so right, desperate to

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Speaker 3: get this plane in And I mean obviously ultimately they'd

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Speaker 3: have to pull the pin and go to walkland if

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Speaker 3: the folds clear.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, oh that's frustrating. Can they Lenda Wellington? Those

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Speaker 2: big jumbos this plane can't not too big, right. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: It's currently the most watched flight in the world on

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Speaker 3: flight Radar twenty four, so I'm not the only.

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Speaker 2: Trade Okay, yeah, very good. Ah, look the plane's botting.

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Speaker 2: Nerds unite great well. Speaking speaking of dramatic trips and experiences,

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Speaker 2: this morning, you are venturing to Valletta, right, that's how

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Speaker 2: we say Valletta in Malta. Yeah, and so along with

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Speaker 2: the capital city, I mean, Malta is one of the

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Speaker 2: most fortified countries in the world.

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Speaker 3: Right, astonishing You would not want to take them on, Jack.

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Speaker 3: There are just fortifications everywhere. They garbed cities, coastlines, harbors.

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Speaker 3: It's the most striking first impression of my when you

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Speaker 3: go there and those structures they have been successively built

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Speaker 3: and rebuilt over three thousand years, and I think it

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Speaker 3: all serves as a reminder that one strategic position in

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Speaker 3: the med has been such a coveted target for so

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Speaker 3: many powers over the centrix. But you do feel like

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Speaker 3: you're walking into a movie set in Malta.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, what is so distinctive about the letter.

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Speaker 3: It is such a jewel of a city, Jack, And

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Speaker 3: I think it's once again the location because it sort

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Speaker 3: of is perched on top of this very narrow peninsula

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Speaker 3: above what they call the Grand Harbor. It's the deepest

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Speaker 3: natural harbor in the Mediterranean. It's been in use since

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Speaker 3: the Phoenetian era, and the city itself has been so

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Speaker 3: beautifully preserved. So you wander these cobbled streets, and the

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Speaker 3: sweet reward at the end of virtually every street is

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Speaker 3: a soul flipping view of the sea. You've got that

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Speaker 3: sapphire blue of the med contrasting with the golden butterscotch

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Speaker 3: of the city's limestone buildings. It really is amazing. And

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Speaker 3: the city has got a grid street pastern of these

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Speaker 3: elegant tanhouses. Best of all, architecturally, the money shot are

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Speaker 3: the Maltese balconies. There are thousands of them, and they've

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Speaker 3: all been fully enclosed, brightly painted wooden balconies with glass windows,

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Speaker 3: and they jut off the side of every floor of

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Speaker 3: every townhouse. And the letters so that will fill your

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Speaker 3: gram Oh awesome.

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Speaker 2: So tell us about Fort Saint Elmo.

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Speaker 3: Yes, Now, this fort played a huge role in the

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Speaker 3: defeats of the Ottomans when they tried to conquer Malta.

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Speaker 3: So the Knights of Saint John, they said, the Ottomans packing.

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Speaker 3: But the National War Museum is at Fort Saint Elmo's

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Speaker 3: today and it does such a good job of whizzing

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Speaker 3: you through Malta's battle history. The funny thing about the

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Speaker 3: Knights is they became very corrupt and fell out of

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Speaker 3: public favor. So Napoleon Bonaparte, God bless them, sniffed an

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Speaker 3: opportunity and seized control of Malta for a while. But

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Speaker 3: then his troops started looting the treasures from the churches,

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Speaker 3: So the locals appealed to the British for help, and

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Speaker 3: the Brits sent to the French packing. So there's been

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Speaker 3: this just incredible sequence of conquest on Malta. Best of all,

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Speaker 3: they played a huge role as the Mediterranean base for

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Speaker 3: the Allies during World War II, and it's that aspect

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Speaker 3: of their history that is brilliantly showcased at the museum.

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Speaker 3: That even got President Roosevelt's jeep at the museum in

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Speaker 3: the letter. So yes, some really cool stuff to check out.

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Speaker 2: Very good. Yeah, that's quirky. What draws the crowds to

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Speaker 2: Saint John's Cathedral?

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Speaker 3: Well, this is a very showing treasure and it's the

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Speaker 3: final resting place for hundreds of nights of Saint John.

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Speaker 3: They're all laid to rest beneath the marble slabs of

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Speaker 3: the floor. But every pillar, jack, every rib of that

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Speaker 3: church is just encrusted with gold. It's ridiculous. The biggest

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Speaker 3: draw of all Cardivaggio's only signed painting, his dramatic masterpiece,

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Speaker 3: The Beheading of John the Baptist. It's the largest of

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Speaker 3: all of his paintings. And the amazing thing is it

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Speaker 3: hangs inside the church, above the very spot where the

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Speaker 3: artist himself was stripped of his knighthood after he decked

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Speaker 3: a higher ranked night. Apparently Count of Vaggio was as

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Speaker 3: mad as a cut snake. But yeah, all over the letter,

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Speaker 3: the place just is drenched with history.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, oh that is amazing. So that's not food, our

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Speaker 2: favorite subject, always the cafe scene and street food. What's

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Speaker 2: it like?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, on the go, I would be sure to

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Speaker 3: get your teeth into fitterra. It's what the locals bingon.

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Speaker 3: Faterra is this flattened sourdough bread, typically stuffed with tomato paste, tuna, caper's, onion, olives,

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Speaker 3: and peppered goat cheese. And they will just munch those

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Speaker 3: all over the city really good. I'm a walkover for

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Speaker 3: old school coffee shops. And there is this amazing cafe

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Speaker 3: called Cordina in Valeta. It's been going for about two

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Speaker 3: hundred years. They are toasted for terras are really good,

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Speaker 3: by the way. But if you want some sweet treats,

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Speaker 3: go to Cafe Cordina for their date frisses. So these

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Speaker 3: are deep fried wine based dough filled with sweet dates,

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Speaker 3: very sort of Arabic sweet dates, and then served with

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Speaker 3: ice cream. They are so good. But beast of all

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Speaker 3: Jack at Cafe Cordina a slice of Diplomatica. It's a

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Speaker 3: rum soap sponge with marsipan and hazelnut cream housed between

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Speaker 3: layers of puff pastry and the top of with icing sugar.

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Speaker 3: Thank me for that later.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that sounds incredible. And what about the signature dishes?

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Speaker 3: Yes, three very quick mentions. Maltese blistered octopus. Now they

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Speaker 3: take the octopus and they cook it in garlic with

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Speaker 3: a tomato, olive and can composition. Babulous for the intrepid

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Speaker 3: rabbit stew is the national dish of Malta, and hot

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Speaker 3: on the heels of that traditional horse meat stew and

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Speaker 3: a red wine and time gravy.

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Speaker 2: Jack.

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Speaker 3: I have a confession. I thought I was notching on

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Speaker 3: the rabbit. It turned out to be the horse too,

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Speaker 3: but it was admittedly really delicious that time gravy. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: so good.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, you didn't even I don't think I've eaten horse,

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Speaker 2: so I don't know what I have it. I shouldn't

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Speaker 2: eating rabbit a few times, but yeah, horse, yeah, I

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Speaker 2: mean why not you know?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well that's it. I mean I didn't know I

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Speaker 3: was having horse, but the horse was good.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, very good. Well, yeah, horse probably isn't saying that.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's so small a I think of Malta's

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Speaker 2: being just like really good, Like could you could a

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Speaker 2: keen half marathon a kind of run around the whole island?

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Speaker 2: Is it that vibe or is it? Yeah?

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Speaker 3: That's right. And they haven't registered a metal Telly at

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Speaker 3: Paris unfortunately not yet.

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Speaker 2: Yeah right, okay, all right, very good. It sounds like

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Speaker 2: an amazing spot. I'm really envious. I would absolutely love

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Speaker 2: to visit Malta. So maybe one day, maybe one day

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Speaker 2: if they can get any planes back in. Yeah, very good,

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Speaker 2: we will catch it, so bike, thank you very much

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Speaker 2: Mike Yardley, our travel correspondent, all of his tips for

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Speaker 2: feasting your way from exploring your way through Malta and

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Speaker 2: Valletta will be up on the news Talks he'd be website,

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Speaker 2: News Talks, heedb dot co dot NZ Forward Slash Jack

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Speaker 2: is the best place to go for everything that we

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Speaker 2: talk about on our show. Before Middaytaday, we're going to

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Speaker 2: play some new music, the second album from Australian musician

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Speaker 2: Tones and I Plus we will have you book picks

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Speaker 2: for this weekend. Next up, Jason Pine is here ahead

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Speaker 2: of a massive weekend sport

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, Listen live

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Speaker 1: to news Talks he'd be from nine am Saturday, or

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