Governance
Sep 21 Guardian UK plans an all-male team to host next year’s Cop26 UN climate summit...
...flouting international norms and angering activists and observers, who say the lack of gender balance imperils progress on key issues…
...politicians ...from the business secretary Alok Sharma, who will act as president of the summit, to his team of climate and energy ministers – Lord Callanan, Zac Goldsmith and Kwasi Kwarteng ... prime minister, Boris Johnson, and the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab [who also take prominent roles] … former governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney [on] finance issues as UN envoy …. Nigel Topping, the government’s high-level climate action champion [who’s] charged with bringing businesses onboard … leading negotiators and civil servants … including the chair of the talks, Peter Hill, the lead negotiator, Archie Young, the envoy John Murton, and the Foreign Office official Nick Bridge.
A government spokesperson said: “The UK is committed to championing diversity and inclusivity throughout our COP26 presidency, and our network of leaders, diplomatic representatives and expert voices reflect this in all of their work.”...
Riiiight…..
Sept 18 Guardian Bilge, booze and misogyny: why I'm outraged by a new idea to police pregnant women - This refers to #2 of 5 headings/statements briefly summarized below from an in-development UK National Institute for Health & Care Excellence standard [here] for preventing and addressing Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. The full document is 21 pages, and #2 might not be the only troubling one:
...Statement 1 Pregnant women are given advice not to drink alcohol during pregnancy at their first contact appointment.
Statement 2 Pregnant women have information on their alcohol consumption recorded throughout their pregnancy.
Statement 3 Children and young people with physical, developmental or behavioural difficulties and probable prenatal alcohol exposure are referred for assessment.
Statement 4 Children and young people with confirmed prenatal alcohol exposure or all 3 facial features associated with prenatal alcohol exposure have a neurodevelopmental assessment if there are clinical concerns.
Statement 5 Children and young people with a diagnosis of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) have a management plan to address their needs.
Huffpo, Sep 21 — Congress finallly passes Savanna's Act bill on coordination and data collection between tribal, local, state and federal law enforcement, and requires federal agencies to consult with tribes in cases involving Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women, originally authored by former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) — Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) “promised Heitkamp she would see it through to passage” — passed by Senate in March, now to *rump to sign. Maybe.
The House also passed the Not Invisible Act on Monday, a related bill OKed by the Senate in March that would make the federal government step up its response to Indigenous women going missing, being murdered or forced into sex trafficking. That bill now heads to the president’s desk, too.
... the first bill in history to be introduced by four enrolled members of federally recognized tribes, … May 1, 2019 — Reps. Deb Haaland D-NM (Pueblo of Laguna, Co-Chair of the Congressional Native American Caucus), Tom Cole R-OK (Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, Co-Chair of the Congressional Native American Caucus), Sharice Davids D-KS (Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin), and Markwayne Mullin R-OK (Cherokee Nation)...
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*rump’s Operation Lady Justice Exec. Order 13898 signed November 26, 2019 —“which does not offer any room for criticism of the president” — has been actively undermined by his approvals of pipelines through tribal territory:
..."Are you examining the issue of resource extraction?" asked Kristin Welch, a community organizer for Menikanaehkem, a Native women-led initiative in Wisconsin, [with a list] of infrastructure projects approved during the Trump era, some by the president's own actions. Construction and operation of pipelines, including activities occurring amid the COVID-19 pandemic, bring in large numbers of non-Indians who remain out of reach of tribal authority due to gaps in law and policy at the local, state and national levels.
"Cases of violence against Indigenous women are increased by 70 percent because of man camps," Welch asserted ... highlighting a problem that Native women say hasn't been considered during reviews of large-scale infrastructure projects...
(in June,Trump appointee Tara Sweeney, an Alaska Native activist and political operative serving since 2018 as Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, overseeing the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Education at the US Dept of the Interior, attempted to link outrage over the Minnesota police killing of George Floyd to violence in Native communities...)
from National Indian Health Board email yesterday:
Administration for Children and Families Requests
Input on Draft Framework on Missing and Murdered
Native Americans
Comments due on October 9, 2020.
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) sent a Dear Tribal Leader Letter (DTLL) requesting input on the draft Framework on Missing and Murdered Native Americans (MMNA). The ACF heard from Tribal leaders on ACF’s Tribal Advisory Committee, participants from Tribal consultation sessions, urban Indian organization leaders, and Native American advocates on issues that impact the ongoing crisis of MMNA in Tribal communities. The phrase MMNA recognizes that all Native Americans -- women, men, girls, and boys -- may go missing or murdered.
In November 2019, President Trump signed Executive Order 13898, on the severity of the MMNA problem and established the first Presidential Task Force, called the Operation Lady Justice (OLJ) Task Force, to ensure high-level and visible leadership. In carrying out its directive, the OLJ Task Force is coordinating across federal departments and engaging Tribal leaders.
While the justice system is a critical component in responding to violence and victimization, a public health and human services response is also needed to prevent MMNA tragedies from occurring and to address the consequences – to individuals, families, and communities – when tragedy does happen. The draft Framework on Missing and Murdered Native Americans is an essential component of the comprehensive response to the victimization of Native Americans.
…
For more information, please contact [nihb.org] Established by the Tribes to advocate as the united voice of federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes, NIHB seeks to reinforce Tribal sovereignty, strengthen Tribal health systems, secure resources, and build capacity to achieve the highest level of health and well-being for our People.
<big><big>🏴</big>from Jezebel.com — England and Wales propose adding misogynist crimes as a hate crimes category<big> 🇬🇧</big></big>
<big>NYT — Young Women Take a Frontline Role in Thailand’s Protests: "Women, many of them students, are speaking out against a patriarchy that controls the military, the monarchy and the Buddhist monkhood, Thailand’s most powerful institutions."</big>
AP via Medscape & SanGabrielValleyTrib etc — Congressional Hispanic Caucus members to tour Ocilla GA ICE Detention center based on allegations of detainees and of Dawn Wooten, formerly a nurse there, to Project South & the Government Accountability Project — the Irwin County GA gynecologist and hospital manager, accused of non-informed non-consent sterilization of detainee women, is no longer getting patients from the LaSalle private prison ICE center there. Investigation into that issue (and presumably the PPE nonprovision to detention center staff and other pandemic issues) continues.
Violence against Women
Sept 26 — BitterSoutherner Breonna Taylor, Say Her Name — Louisville poet and activist Hannah Drake reflects on the women in her family whose names were lost and stolen, and the names of Black women that must never be forgotten.
..."It is in Louisville that I was reminded as a Black woman, I will always be screaming to be heard.
However, I refuse to be silent. This city, this state, and this nation have silenced Black women long enough.
So, I say her name, Breonna Taylor. I say her name loudly. I say her name often, fighting back the tears. I find myself whispering her name."...
Yahoo news - Sep 18 —at Los Angeles courthouse arraignment of actor Danny Masterson on forcible rape charges dating to 2001 & 2003, Leah Remini attends to support the 3 women accusers
If convicted, he faces a possible maximum sentence of 45 years to life in state prison … The [women] were members of the Church of Scientology, [to] which Masterson has belonged. They, along with a fourth [previously] filed a civil suit against the That ‘70s Show star and the church [claiming] the church tried to silence them. [That] lawsuit remains unresolved…
UKMirror - Sep17 [TRIGGER WARNING — EXTREME VIOLENCE] Professional poker player Susie Zhao, 33, lifetime poker earnings $225K, found dead in Michigan on July 13, 90% of her body burnt, and violently battered sexually. Last seen alive by her mum the evening of July 12. Phone records showed 8 calls between her and the accused, a registered sex offender. Until about 5a.m. her phone was traceable to his motel….
Abortion
Guardian - Sep 22 — Zoe_Williams - the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg means the issue of abortion is now centre-stage in the US presidential election. Campaigners must seize the opportunity…
Reuters via Medscape — Sept 16 — Loosening Mifepristone Rules in Canada made it easier for primary care to offer medical abortion, notably in areas that had no prior abortion options.
Communications & Media
The Reductress “The first and only satirical women’s magazine” founded 2013 by Beth Newell and Sarah Pappalardo. “Like SNL but online.”
<big><big>📱</big></big>
https://weareultraviolet.org/about-us/ UltraViolet is a powerful, rapidly growing community of people mobilized to fight sexism & create a more inclusive world accurately representing all women, from politics & government to media & pop culture.
<big><big>📱</big></big>
From Jezebel.com — University of Georgia student asks frats and sororities to socially distance. Frat responds with an avalanche of racism and sexism.
<big><big>📱</big></big>
From NYT Dec 2019 <big>A Farewell to Feministing and the Heyday of Feminist Blogging</big>
...Soon after Anna Holmes took on the job of building the website Jezebel, in 2007, she set it apart from established publications like Vogue and Elle with a post offering $10,000 to anyone who would send in the best unretouched version of a women’s magazine cover photo. And with that, Jezebel had marked its territory: feminist cultural criticism, with an edge.
“It seems quaint now, because there are tons of media outlets influenced by Jezebel,” Ms. Holmes said. “But at the time, there was no proof that it was marketable...”
….In the aughts and the earlier part of this decade, other online feminist publications sprang to life — Feministing, The Hairpin, The Toast and many others — covering everything from paid leave to the Kardashians in a conversational voice that was sometimes rude, sometimes funny and never didactic.
Now many of those sites are dead or dying, and Jezebel is ... part of a stable of publications run by the hedge fund-controlled ownership group, G/O Media... Feminist media has been especially hard hit by the financial turbulence in the news industry…
...At its peak, [Feministing] had 1.2 million unique monthly visitors, with most revenue coming from ads and reader donations. The co-executive editors, Lori Adelman and Maya Dusenbery, said Feministing helped popularize the term “slut shaming,” ran early interviews with chart-toppers like Lizzo and pushed for coverage of Gamergate, a cybermob that targeted women…
...[Holmes:] “I worry that people are afraid to align themselves with publications that are explicitly feminist...”
philanthropywomen.org Dec 14, 2019
...Yet another U.S. feminist media outlet bites the dust, a blow to women’s voices in the world. [In a] lengthy article in the Sunday New York Times, December 8, 2019 … author, Emma Rosenberg, writes, “Feminist media has been especially hard hit by the financial turbulence in the news industry”? Or, as she also states, “the sites were undone by their own popularity…..larger media organizations…hired {these women journalists}”?
...Money and the lack of it is the core reason that feminist media continues to have such trouble. This problem runs deeper than “turbulence in the news industry.” Over the summer, I wrote about other feminist media in trouble, and raised concern about how the chronic underfunding of feminist media has crippled the movement for gender equality...
wnyc.org/story/end-era-feminist-blogs/ Dec 25, 2019
"Saying immigration is a feminist issue, and we're going to put this on the front page … or saying our feminism is radically trans inclusive, being able to showcase a range of issues under the umbrella of feminism, given these kind of historic exclusions, was an act of politics in and of itself," Lori Adelman told WNYC's cultural critic Rebecca Carroll. Adelman was [co-] executive editor of Feministing … that recently announced it will shutter after 15 years.
Founded in 2004 by writers and sisters Jessica and Vanessa Valenti, Feministing was widely considered a forerunner to other feminist websites, among them Jezebel, The Toast, and The Hairpin. Jezebel is now under new ownership, while The Toast and The Hairpin, among other sites influenced by Feministing, have either shut down or been re-branded. Samhita Mukhopadhyay, a former executive editor of Feministing, and current executive editor of Teen Vogue online, said … historically, white men in newsrooms who thought they were being objective, were also pushing an agenda."
Adelman pointed to the work of black women and women of color in both the activism and journalism spaces that went unnoticed [before] the #MeToo movement...
"As wonderful as Ronan Farrow is," Adelman said, of Farrow, who has broken some of the most trenchant and telling stories in the movement since 2017, "I don't see other women who were having these early conversations getting the credit and prestige that he has, as a relatively privileged white man. Tarana Burke was doing this work, but #MeToo had not hit mainstream consciousness."
The end of Feministing leaves a gap in accountability media, a place that amplifies and centers the voices of women — especially women of color. But it also served as a launch pad for those voices...
Workplace
HuffPo - Sep 22 NASA Plans To Send First Woman To The Moon In 2024 — in the Artemis Program to reestablish a presence on the moon “in preparation for human exploration of Mars.” www.nasa.gov/ press release/nasa publishes artemis plan to land first woman & next man on moon…
[I’d rather 3 women, but I don’t run NASA :)]
“...The logo of the program, coloured in "Earth blue, rocket red and lunar silver", incorporates an arrowhead from the quiver of the mythological Artemis with a depiction of a trans-lunar injection trajectory.”
from Undark via Medscape (free site, just have to register) —with thanks to wasplover for the news last week— <big>a career profile of and interview with pioneering microbiologist Rita Colwell, PhD, whose memoir "A Lab of One's Own: One Woman's Personal Journey Through Sexism in Science</big> (Simon&Schuster), written with Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, was released in August, 2020.
Her work on cholera helped illuminate the interplay between the environment and public health. She was the first woman to serve as director of the National Science Foundation, and is currently a Distinguished University Professor at both the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has authored or co-authored more than 800 scientific reports and publications along with 19 books, produced the award-winning 1977 film, Invisible Seas —in which the Univ of Maryland-College Park microbiology dept demonstrates the metholodies marine biologists must use for studying ocean microoganisms, with emphasis on its importance for determining pollution’s impact on our oceans. As founding editor of GeoHealth, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. Colwell recognized the increase in published Geohealth research as signifying advance in our understanding of how Earth and space sciences supply deeper insight into health and disease in both people and ecosystems. Despite entrenched discrimination, “Colwell also found allies along the way, and her book is something of a celebration of what can be achieved when science strives for inclusivity.”
Early in the interview:
UNDARK: You point out that not only could one face obstacles for being a woman Ph.D. student, you could face a backlash if you supervised too many women Ph.D. students. What was that about?
Colwell: The assumption was that anyone who was really brilliant, with great ideas, would work for a male professor. So if you took women students, it was assumed they weren't the best and the brightest. Having women students would mark you as "not serious"; your students were just going to get married, and you're just wasting all this time...
Interviews at Medscape and Forbes of Uché Blackstock MD, daughter of a physician mother, and together with her twin sister the first Black mother-daughter legacy from Harvard Medical School. Washington Journal video interview here on COVID-19 Impact on Minorities., and House Oversight Committee (Democrats) Testimony “Coronavirus Racial Health Disparities Briefing Statement”. Blackstock is
...best known for her work amplifying the message on racial health inequities and ... speaking on the COVID-19 pandemic. She has been featured on Meet the Press, PBS NewsHour, Slate and Forbes among others.[1][2][3][4] Blackstock became a Yahoo! News Medical Contributor in June 2020...
philanthropywomen.org/ Sep 22, 2020
Cognizant U.S. Fdn Joins Reboot Representation with $1.5 Mil Grant
In the US, Black, Latinx, and Native American women make up 18% of our population. However, this same group represents only 4% of computing degree recipients. …
The Reboot Representation Tech Coalition, a partnership of 17 companies working together to improve representation in the technology industry, aims to increase the number of Black, Latinx, and Native American women employed in tech. This September, Cognizant U.S. Foundation became the next member of the Coalition with a $1.5 million grant–the first step in the Foundation’s announced $5 million commitment to communities of color...
Women’s Health
from Medscape - Sep 14 —(free to read, just have to register) <big>Mega Vitamin D Harms Bone in Women, Not Men, Without Osteoporosis</big> — In University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada research led by Lauren A. Burt, PhD, published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research,
...results suggest that "if you have normal bone density and adequate levels of vitamin D, there is no bone benefit in taking doses of vitamin D above the standard recommendations [for preventing] vitamin D deficiency, and [4000 IU/day and up] might even be detrimental to bone, especially in females..."
...Invited to comment, Meryl S. LeBoff, MD, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, told Medscape Medical News that this finding "warrants further research," because it is "important" to discover sex differences in bone responses to vitamin D.
LeBoff was lead author of a subanalysis of the Vitamin D and Omega-3 Trial (VITAL). As she reported at last year's ASBMR meeting, that analysis showed that in healthy adults who did not have vitamin D insufficiency, taking vitamin D3 supplements for 2 years did not improve BMD compared with placebo (recently published), nor was this linked with fewer fractures...
See also wik’s Vitamin D toxity. But all that being said, vitamin D deficiency is identified in poor bone health (among other deficits), and is linked to increased risk for Covid19 and poor outcome. So, if you’re having bloodwork done shortly, it might be worth asking to have the test for serum Vitamin D included, to find out if you need D3 supplementation.
Medscape - Sep 14 — Sex- and Gender-Informed Medicine: Why It Matters — A recent paper in The Lancet and another in JAMA Internal Medicine address the crucial role of sex and gender in health and disease, including “impact on disease incidence, clinical manifestations, and response to treatment…”, reviewing the ever-growing evidence that biological sex and sociocultural factors encompassed by gender, including lifestyle factors, social determinants of health, and interactions with healthcare systems, are critical in individual health, making them critical in precision medicine healthcare. The papers
discuss several domains, including genetic and chromosomal differences, epigenetic programming, gene expression, sex steroid hormones (including exposure to hormones in utero and throughout the life course), and immune function differences.
It's well known that [men and women differ regarding] prevalence risk for various diseases. Women are much more susceptible to autoimmune disorders, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, whereas men are more likely to have autism and attention deficit disorders. But even within certain diseases, there are major differences that are due to sex and gender.
I'm going to focus on heart disease and COVID-19...
Dr JoAnn Manson, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, reviews some differences between women and men in how heart disease shows and kinds of damage it does, disparities in care they’re likely to receive, differences in COVID-19 outcomes, and the promise inherent in harnessing all these kinds of differing information to improve disease prevention and treatment with precision for each individual in society.
Medscape, Sep 16, study of rural county-level 2003-2015 data from the Alabama Department of Public Health found the presence of active labor and delivery units associated with better perinatal outcomes, and absence associated with higher mortality.
...Although association does not establish causation, these data raise concern "for the current trend of diminishing L&D units that is occurring in many rural settings," according to the authors of the study, led by John B. Waits, MD, of Cahaba Medical Care, Centreville, Ala. … Almost 20% of U.S. women of reproductive age live in rural communities...
Medscape - Sep 21 — The latest existential threat against the Affordable Care Act, oral arguments scheduled at the Supreme Court a week after the general election in November, stemming from a Feb. 27, 2018 news conference held by Republican attorneys general of Texas and other states, referred to as a "discussion about the Affordable Care Act lawsuit." With the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, that case could well become the predator that brings down the law in its entirety and and rolls back women’s reproductive freedom.
IN THE FAMILY
On seeing a MetroUK link from Angmar, I researched further, finding articles here and 2 of local reportage & others (btw, don’t google sibling abuse without clicking news first or you get pages of porn sites). <big>The 2 oldest (age 22 & 18) of 4 brothers who raped and impregnated their pre-teen sister across 2019-2020, </big>have been sentenced to 15-year prison terms suspended providing they each comply with: 5-years probation, lifelong sex-offender registration, pay $250 to the Missouri Law Enforcement Restitution Fund (LERF), within 1 year complete the Missouri Sex Offender Treatment Program and 100 community service hours, and within 30 days write apology letters to Seymour’s Amish community where they live, including (or separately to the prosecutor, Ben Berkstresser, or the final presiding judge) “explaining how they’ll protect their own children from abusers like them”selves.
Charges [initially filed —each 6 counts of felony statutory rape & one felony count of incest, and according to one report, one charge of sodomy] on Thursday, July 2, by Kara S. Hofman-Johnson, an assistant prosecuting attorney for Webster County.
At first, the brothers and community hadn’t wanted to hire legal counsel, but Berkstresser —who said he’d previously been tough on such crimes— felt they needed it “and helped connect them with [attorney Will Worsham] who previously had represented Amish clients in Webster County.”
Upon arrest and arraignment before Webster County Associate Circuit Court Judge Chuck Replogle, bond for each was set at $100,000 and was posted with terms requiring they wear electronic-monitoring devices while out on bond and prohibited from contact wih their by-then 13-year-old sister/victim, and from going anywhere “children are likely also to be.” They were allowed contact with their parents. (No other mention of these parents arises.)
Berkstresser then joined in plea-bargaining down to one count each of 3rd-degree child-under-age-14 molestation, a Class C felony, presided over by 30th Circuit Court Judge Michael O. Hendrickson.
The situation only became known to law enforcement because the victim (or others on her behalf, unclear) sought pregnancy care from a doctor June 6, 2020 who “hotlined” the case to the Webster County Sheriff’s Dept. Per the probable-cause statement of the dept’s Cpl. Ryan Wells, who interviewed the brothers at the family home, all 4 brothers acknowledged knowing their sister’s age and “having sexual relations” with her multiple times each. When the 22-year-old
was asked if it was going to happen again, he told Wells in the interview, “Not to a little one like that.”
It appears he knew of the pregnancy by then, so exactly which “little one” he would spare is unclear, but his wording suggests he considers other under-age victims legitimate. It hasn’t been determined which of the 4 brothers fathered the infant the now-13-year-old has given birth to.
In similar cases, heads of household often face charges too, child endangerment at least, but there’s no mention of that here, and the admitted 2 younger rapist brothers face no legal action because they’re “minors”. Prosecutor Berkstresser said the Amish “community” told him all four boys were very severely punished.
“It needs to be noted that in this case, there were four brothers, two of them minors … All of them had sexual relations with (the under-aged female relative) ...There is no question this occurred,” Berkstresser explained…
“...[the two older] boys are very immature relative to their respective ages. Maturity wise, they are much younger than their age...”
“In the end, this wasn’t a case of ... a parent in a position of authority [who] sexually abused or exploited their child. This was [four siblings who] engaged in acts with their sister. I offered a 15-year [suspended] prison sentence based on this ... it was a different relationship ... These two young men would’ve been eaten alive in the state prison system.”
Regarding the “different relationship” than an incestuous parent in a position of authority over the victim, Patheos.com's writer said
...anyone who has lived in a rigid patriarchal environment, as I did in Saudi Arabia for 27 years, knows that males — young and old — hold tremendous authority and sway over females in their families and societies. Likewise in the “fundie” Christian world, this is because male dominance is viewed as a divinely authorized power...
Postscript: As with some past rape cases reported in this diary series, the only woman involved in an official prosecution capacity seems sidelined almost immediately, and all other persons in legal authority are male.
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Action Item
Chrystul Kizer is an incarcerated trafficking survivor who is being charged with life in prison for acting in self-defense against her trafficker. The punishment that Chrystul is facing for defending her own life signals that black women and girls have no selves to defend. Right now Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley has the power to drop all charges against Chrystul immediately. We are urging Graveley to do the right thing and drop all charges now so that instead of enduring more violence, Chrystul's healing can being with her family and community. Please show your support for Chrystul by signing this petition!
BACKGROUND
At 17-years old, Chrystul was trafficked by Randall P. Volar III from Milwaukee to Kenosha, Wisconsin where she experienced ongoing physical and sexual abuse. Volar was under active investigation by the Kenosha Police Department for sexual conduct with additional underage girls prior to his death. In the state of Wisconsin, people under the age of 18 years old are not able to consent to engage in sexual activity therefore, any “sexual conduct” Volar had with these girls, including Chrystul, was sexual violence….
This Week In The War On Women welcomes all who are interested to comment in the discussion, bring relevant links and stories, join in order to reblog to our group, and consider writing for the Saturday schedule (our diaries are a team effort — we help!) — see schedule comment in the thread.
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Particular thanks this week to Angmar, Tara the Antisocial Social Worker, SandraLLAP, elenacarlena, and wasplover
24 women’s-news sources are here. (Please comment to link us to yet more.) Our Saturday posting history - here. Trailblazing Women and Events in Our History (wow2) - here. Everything blogged&reblogged to our group - here.
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