Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Announces Future Closure

Ken Silva
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Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Announces Future Closure

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) In its first 25 years, the Gates Foundation became one of the world’s largest charitable foundations and one of the most powerful institutions in global health — an accomplishment that carried both accolades and controversy.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was formed in 2000 by the merger of two family foundations and funded by Gates’ Microsoft wealth and later, by tens of billions from investor Warren Buffett, and it quickly inserted itself into the architecture of global health. Gates poured billions into the foundation, which spent $100 billion in its first 25 years, with about half going toward global health.

That era now has an end date. Gates announced Thursday that the foundation will close in 2045, pledging that he plans to donate 99% of his remaining fortune, which would be $107 billion today, to the nonprofit by then. Gates said the foundation can maintain its culture and workforce over that time.

The announcement about the impending closure was announced with much fanfare, with mainstream media outlets publishing glowing articles about what the Gates Foundation has meant for public health.

However, the foundation funded a number of controversial initiatives, including investing more than $55 million in mRNA vaccines during the COVID era. Scientist Drew Weissman, who won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his role in developing mRNA technology, warned in a 2018 paper about the risks and side effects of mRNA vaccines.

It was previously reported that Bill Gates, with the approval of the Biden administration, released an army of genetically modified mosquitoes in the states of Florida and California, while also being suspected of doing a similar thing in Massachusetts.

Before that, Gates had other ideas on how he could control the population, among which was pushing the airborne, insecticide-like “vaccines.” As of Oct. 2, 2023, researchers from Yale University already begun human trials on these types of “vaccines.”

Gates also used his foundation to garner political power. For instance, he offered Kathryn Ruemmler, who was Obama’s White House counsel from 2011 to 2014 and now works at Goldman Sachs, to sit on the foundation’s board. Gates reportedly even had Jeffrey Epstein make the offer to her.

“In 2014, Epstein called Ms. Ruemmler within weeks of her leaving the Obama White House. Epstein planned a lunch in August 2014 at his townhouse, followed by a series of meetings to introduce her to a wider circle of his acquaintances,” WSJ reported in April 2023.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

Kash Patel Seeks a Bigger Budget for the FBI

Headline USA Editor
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Kash Patel Seeks a Bigger Budget for the FBI

(Headline USA) The man who once promised he’d close the FBI’s headquarters and turn it into a “museum for the deep state” is now seeking a bigger budget for the bureau.

FBI Director Kash Patel broke with the Trump administration Wednesday over a budget proposal that would dramatically slash funding for the bureau, telling lawmakers, “We need more than what has been proposed.”

The 2026 budget proposal released on Friday calls for a funding cut of more than $500 million for the FBI as part of what the White House said was a desire to “reform and streamline” the bureau and reduce “non-law enforcement missions that do not align” with the priorities of President Donald Trump. Patel warned that such a cut would be harmful for the FBI as it reorients priorities to focus on violent crime.

Asked to specify at a House Appropriations subcommittee which positions would need to be cut if the funding reduction was implemented, Patel said he hasn’t even begun to consider that possibility.

“At this time, we have not looked at who to cut. We are focusing our energies on how not to have them cut by coming in here and highlighting to you that we can’t do the mission on those 2011 budget levels.”

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, pressed Patel for details, saying, “This is your budget. You have to have some idea of what you want to fund or not fund, or where you can cut or not cut, and provide that information” to the Office of Management and Budget.

“That’s the proposed budget — not by the FBI,” Patel replied. “The proposed budget that I put forward is to cover us for $11.1 billion, which would not have us cut any positions.”

Patel also defended the FBI’s plan to relocate about 1,000 FBI employees from the Washington area to cities around the country, one of the first initiatives he revealed upon being sworn in as director in February.

“Part of the process is not just putting people out sporadically, throwing darts on the map. What we’ve done is we’ve taken a process with the (career employees) at the FBI and said, ‘Where are some of the most violent crime places in America?’” Patel said.

Patel also clashed during one contentious exchange with Democratic Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, who served as a House impeachment manager during the second of two impeachment cases against Trump in his first term.

She asserted that the FBI had become “weaponized” under Patel and confronted him over a book he had authored, saying a list of Trump adversaries he included in it amounted to an “enemies list” and was being used by Trump as a “blueprint for revenge.”

Patel replied that he was the one who had been “targeted by a weaponized FBI,” presumably referring to the fact that he was among the people whose records were secretly seized by the Justice Department years earlier as part of media leak investigations when he was a staffer on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence conducting an investigation into Russian election interference.

“You should read the book because there’s no enemies list (in) that book,” Patel continued. “There are people that violated their constitutional obligations and their duties to the American people, and they were rightly called out. And you should give that book to every one of your constituents so they can read” about it.

“I won’t be doing that,” Dean shot back.

“That’s their loss,” Patel said.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Three Border Agents Charged for Greenlighting Smuggling of Illegal Aliens

Luis Cornelio
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Three Border Agents Charged for Greenlighting Smuggling of Illegal Aliens

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Three Customs and Border Protection officers are facing federal charges after allegedly allowing vehicles packed with illegal aliens to pass freely through the San Ysidro Port of Entry while on duty. 

Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that the officers—Farlis Almonte, Ricardo Rodriguez and Kairy Stephania Quiñonez—provided their lane assignments and work schedules to co-conspirators in a brazen scheme to smuggle illegal aliens through the port.  

The trio even used “code words” to signal to the vehicles to pass through with impunity. Even more troubling, the officers allegedly falsified reports about the number of vehicle occupants to conceal the presence of illegal aliens. 

Almonte and Rodriguez are charged with accepting bribes as public officials, meaning they took money in exchange for failing to enforce federal immigration law. 

Each defendant also faces charges of conspiracy to bring in illegal aliens for financial gain, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, and aiding and abetting, which carries up to 15 years with a five-year mandatory minimum. 

The bribery charge alone carries a maximum sentence of 15 years. 

The charges were made possible through a joint investigation by the DHS Office of Inspector General, Homeland Security Investigations, the DEA, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations, and Border Patrol. 

It is still unclear how many illegal aliens were smuggled through the border in the scheme—or how long each officer had been employed by the federal government. 

The charges come as President Donald Trump unleashes his tough-on-illegal-immigration agenda, vowing to reverse the chaos caused by the Biden administration’s open-border policies. 

Russia Says It Will Implement Three-Day Ceasefire Despite Ukraine’s Rejection

Headline USA Editor
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Russia Says It Will Implement Three-Day Ceasefire Despite Ukraine’s Rejection

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) Russian officials said Tuesday that Moscow intends to implement a three-day truce with Ukraine that starts at midnight on May 8 but vowed any Ukrainian attacks during that time will be met with a response.

The ceasefire will coincide with Russia’s celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory against Nazi Germany in World War II.

“There will be no hostilities. However, if there is no reciprocity from the Kiev regime and they continue to attack our positions or facilities, we will retaliate,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

Over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected the idea of a three-day truce, saying it would not help negotiations for a lasting peace, and backed a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire.

“Let me remind you that on May 3, Zelensky publicly refused to support this initiative, trying to claim that the proposal was not serious,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

Zelensky has also advised world leaders to avoid Russia’s Victory Day parade, saying he couldn’t guarantee their safety, which Moscow has taken as a threat since Ukrainian intelligence has carried out multiple bombing attacks inside Russian territory.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who is planning to attend the parade, also took Zelensky’s comments as a threat. “I reject such threats for security reasons. I fully respect that the safety of participants is an internal matter of the Russian Federation. But if Mr. Zelensky believes that his statements will force foreign delegations not to come, then he is deeply mistaken,” he said.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.

Israeli Minister: Gaza Will Be ‘Totally Destroyed,’ Population Will Be ‘Concentrated’

Headline USA Editor
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Israeli Minister: Gaza Will Be ‘Totally Destroyed,’ Population Will Be ‘Concentrated’

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Tuesday that within a few months, the Gaza Strip will be “totally destroyed” and the entire Palestinian population will be “concentrated” into a tiny area in the southern part of the Palestinian territory before being forced to leave as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign.

“Within a few months, we will be able to declare that we have won. Gaza will be totally destroyed,” Smotrich said at a conference on illegal settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to The Times of Israel.

“In another six months, Hamas won’t exist as a functioning entity… The population of Gaza will be concentrated from the Morag Corridor southwards. The rest of the Strip will be empty,” Smotrich said.

The Morag Corridor refers to a strip of land between the southern Gaza cities of Khan Younis and Rafah.

“The Gazan citizens will be concentrated in the south. They will be totally despairing, understanding that there is no hope and nothing to look for in Gaza, and will be looking for relocation to begin a new life in other places,” Smotrich added.

The Israeli minister said that the Palestinian population will “leave in great numbers to third countries.” Throughout Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, Smotrich has been an outspoken proponent of the ethnic cleansing of the territory.

Smotrich’s comments come after the Israeli government approved military plans to completely occupy Gaza. According to Axios, the plan will involve flattening every single building, forcing the civilian population into one small area, and pressuring Palestinians to leave, though it’s unclear where they could go.

In his speech on Tuesday, Smotrich also vowed that the current Israeli government would annex the West Bank. “It will happen this term. It is one of our most important challenges. We are at a historic opportunity,” he said.

Smotrich is a West Bank settler himself and holds another ministerial position in the Defense Ministry that gives him the power to expand settlements in the occupied territory.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.

Prince Andrew Rocked by O’Keefe Bombshell: ‘He Was F***ing Underage Girls’

Luis Cornelio
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Prince Andrew Rocked by O’Keefe Bombshell: ‘He Was F***ing Underage Girls’

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Prince Andrew is under renewed fire after journalist James O’Keefe released an undercover interview Wednesday afternoon, featuring one of Andrew’s alleged former advisers.

The man, John Bryan, claimed the royal had sexual relations with minors. 

O’Keefe published the footage on social media on Wednesday, showing a covertly recorded conversation with Bryan, a man who once advised Andrew during his Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

In the clip, Bryan alleged Andrew had lied to him about his ties to Epstein, the convicted sex offender accused of running a child sex trafficking ring. 

“I knew he [Prince Andrew] saw him [Jeffrey Epstein],” Bryan said, according to O’Keefe’s reporting. “But he lied to me that he was such a close friend.” 

Headline USA could not independently verify Bryan’s allegations. Prince Andrew has long maintained the sexual abuse claims stemming from his relationship with Epstein are false. 

In 2019, Andrew told BBC News he did not know Virginia Giuffre—the woman who claimed she was raped by Andrew at Epstein’s direction. She reportedly took her own life last month. 

Bryan recounted entering Royal Lodge to provide “crisis” management advice. He told the New York Post the royal family had brought him in to help Andrew. 

“Andrew was so distressed, he wasn’t able to focus for more than 40 minutes,” Bryan said at the time. 

In the secretly recorded interview with O’Keefe’s reporters, Bryan admitted, “I did a big thing in The Daily Mail saying that I believed Andrew. And then I found out he was lying. I was so pissed.” 

Asked what Andrew had lied about, Bryan stated bluntly, “That he was f**king underage girls. That’s not cool.” 

O’Keefe Media Group said it had reached out to both Bryan and the Royal Family for comment.  

Prince Andrew is widely regarded as one of the most disgraced members of the Royal Family, having been stripped of his official duties in 2019. 

Bryan previously made headlines in 1992 after photos surfaced of him kissing the feet of Sarah, Duchess of York—Andrew’s former wife.

Trump Says U.S. Will Stop Bombing Yemen

Headline USA Editor
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Trump Says U.S. Will Stop Bombing Yemen

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) President Trump said on Tuesday that the US will stop bombing Yemen, claiming the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, said they would “not be blowing up ships anymore.”

The president said that the Houthis said “they don’t want to fight anymore” and “we will honor that.”

“We will stop the bombings. They have capitulated… we will take their word that they will not be blowing up ships anymore, and that’s the purpose of what we were doing,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of Ansar Allah’s political bureau, said in a statement after Trump’s announcement that the Houthis will stop attacks on US assets in the region if the US stops bombing Yemen but vowed operations against Israel will continue until there’s a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the blockade on the Palestinian territory.

“Our military operations in support of Gaza will not cease until the aggression against Gaza stops and the blockade on its residents is lifted, allowing the entry of food, medicine, and fuel,” al-Bukhaiti said in a post on X.

“As for our attacks on the US, they fall within the context of the right to self-defense. If it halts its attacks on us, we will halt our attacks on it. This position also applies to Britain,” he added.

Al-Bukhaiti made the same offer to the US in an interview with Drop Site Newsback on April 10.

Mahdi al-Mashat, the head of Ansar Allah’s Supreme Political Council, also vowed attacks on Israel will continue, warning Israelis to “remain in shelters because their government will not be able to protect them.”

Al-Mashat also said that the Houthis “indirectly informed the Americans that continued escalation will affect the criminal Trump’s visit to the region.”Middle East Eye reported that Saudi Arabia pressed Trump to end the bombing campaign in Yemen before his visit to the Kingdom, which will begin on May 13.

Trump said the US would stop bombing Yemen “effective immediately.” A Pentagon official told CNN that the US military had been given a stand-down order to stop strikes on Yemen on Monday night, although US airstrikes were reported in the country early Tuesday morning Yemen time. Israel also launched heavy airstrikes against the Sanaa International Airport and other targets in the capital.

According to the CNN report, Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, worked over the past week to reach a ceasefire with the Houthis in talks facilitated by Oman.

Oman’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that Muscat was involved in the talks and released a statement on the ceasefire deal. “In the future, neither side will target the other, including American vessels, in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait, ensuring freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping,” the ministry said.

The Houthis stopped attacks on Israel and on Red Sea shipping when the short-lived Gaza ceasefire went into effect on January 19. After Israel violated the deal by imposing a total blockade on Gaza, the Houthis announced they would re-impose the blockade on Israeli shipping.

It was in response to that announcement that the Trump administration launched its bombing campaign in Yemen on March 15. Since then, the US has launched over 1,000 strikes on Yemen, killing more than 200 civilians.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.

 

Alligator Eats Florida Woman after Tipping Her Canoe

Headline USA Editor
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Alligator Eats Florida Woman after Tipping Her Canoe

(Headline USA) An alligator killed a Florida woman after tipping over a canoe she and her husband were paddling, which investigators say appeared to be an accidental encounter.

The attack happened Tuesday afternoon near the mouth of Tiger Creek into Lake Kissimmee, south of Orlando, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said. It’s near the same location as a March alligator attack in which a woman was bitten on the elbow while kayaking.

Investigators said at a news conference Wednesday that the couple was canoeing in about 2.5 feet (less than 1 meter) of water when they came upon a large alligator. The startled animal thrashed suddenly, tipping over the canoe and sending both people into the water.

“It sounds like the canoe drifted over, on top of the alligator. The alligator was startled,” said Roger Young, the FWC executive director.

Witnesses told investigators the husband tried to fight off the animal but was unsuccessful. FWC officials identified the victim as 61-year-old Cynthia Diekema of Davenport, Florida. It wasn’t clear if her husband was injured.

A trapper captured an alligator measuring more than 11 feet (3.3 meters) that is suspected of being the animal involved, but investigators caught another large alligator that also could have been responsible, officials said.

Since 1948, when officials began tracking alligator bites involving people in Florida, there have been 487 unprovoked bites through 2024, according to FWC data. Of those, 339 were major bites and 27 were fatal.

The most recent fatal alligator attack was in February 2023 when 85-year-old Gloria Serge was killed while walking her dog along a community pond in Fort Pierce, officials said. Earlier that year, a 23-year-old man lost his arm in an attack near a pond behind a bar in Port Charlotte.

Alligator encounters with humans are more common in the spring mating season when they are most active, Young said. There are an estimated 1.3 million alligators in Florida.

“While alligator attacks resulting in fatalities are extremely rare, this tragedy serves as a somber reminder of the powerful wildlife that share our natural spaces,” Young said. “Be cautious of your surroundings. Know what wildlife is in the area.”

The alligator attack comes as FWC officials continue to investigate a rare fatal black bear attack Monday that took the life of 89-year-old Robert Markel and his dog near his home in Collier County, in southwest Florida. Wildlife officers have killed three bears in the area since the attack.

The FWC plans public hearings on whether to hold a black bear hunt in parts of Florida later this year.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

 

Gold’s Strange Behavior

Money Metals News Service
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Gold’s Strange Behavior

(Brien Lundin, Money Metals News Service) Yes, it’s different this time.

I know that’s about the most dangerous phrase in all of investing, and virtually everyone who has ever uttered it was ultimately made a fool by the markets.

But there’s no denying that this gold bull market is unprecedented for a number of reasons.

A Bull Market Like None Other

First off, understand that gold, while it has a five-millennium history as money, has only been an investable asset (and not officially regarded as money) since 1971, when President Nixon severed the dollar’s last remaining connection to gold.

So if you count the early ’70s as one bull market, the late ’70s as another, and the 2000s as the third, then the current bull market is only the fourth in the history of gold!

Amazing to think that I’ve witnessed every gold bull cycle. (Admittedly, I was a teenager in the ’70s and, fair to say, interested in other things.)

Anyway, when I say this gold bull market is unprecedented, I’m only comparing it against three other periods in history.

Still, this one is different because it has been largely driven by official buying from central banks and, to some degree, by demand from Chinese investors.

And this explains some of the unusual features of this market:

  • The relative nonparticipation of Western investors, whether institutions or retail.
  • The underperformance of silver and mining shares.
  • Outside of post-election correction in November, the lack of any significant price pull-backs.
  • Depressed and falling energy costs which have served to further expand mining margins as the gold price has exploded higher.
  • A period of economic and geopolitical turmoil in which the U.S. is regarded by other nations not as a leader or savior, but rather an instigator and adversary.

I can’t remember any single one of these factors being extant in any previous gold bull run, much less all of them at once.

This is truly uncharted territory.

Today, I want to briefly examine two aspects of this situation — gold’s strange behavior, and the opportunity that’s being presented.

A Refusal To Fall

Over the previous 14 months, I have joined many of my compatriots in the metals and mining markets in analyzing the gold market as a normal phenomenon.

That means that we’ve been expecting it to ride the waves of investor sentiment, from exhaustion to euphoria, with the gold price rising and falling in typical waves.

But gold hasn’t obliged us. Every time we’ve expected a typical market correction, the price has either continued to rally or the “correction” has been merely a pause. The declines have never been as deep or lasting as we’ve expected.

This seems to be because this gold bull market isn’t being driven by the typical swings in investor emotions. Instead, it’s being directed by geopolitical strategy at the highest levels and fueled by the deepest pockets imaginable.

Now, my headlines at the top of this letter are a bit misleading, because every analyst worth their salt was confident that gold would rebound once China returned from holiday yesterday, and it wasn’t surprising that the gold shorts rushed to cover on Monday in advance of that.

But still, two hundred-dollar days in gold, in a row, is amazing. (Note that we’ve given up some of those gains today.)

More generally, what I’m referring to when I refer to gold’s strange behavior is this refusal to undergo a significant price correction during this bull run.

Again, this is largely because of the strategic, even desperate buying from official sources — primarily China… and possibly even the U.S.

The Opportunity…

One of the factors I listed above is the remarkable affordability of energy as the gold price soars. The result, as we’re seeing from the quarterly financials of gold miners, has been record cash flows for the producers.

For the past couple of months, we’ve seen that begin to filter down to the juniors. Even as gold soared yesterday, for example, the gold mining stocks outperformed the metal.

As I’ve said many times, this is a generational opportunity.

In past bull markets, we saw the prices of junior exploration/development companies multiply, sometimes many times over.

And for all the reasons above, plus the fact that gold is already far above any previous record and heading higher, this mining bull market promises to be more rewarding than anything ever seen.

To get Brien Lundin’s ongoing commentary on the markets at no charge, click here to subscribe to his free Golden Opportunities newsletter.

Brien Lundin is the publisher and editor of Gold Newsletter, the publication that has been the cornerstone of precious metals advisories since 1971. Mr. Lundin covers not only resource stocks but also the entire world of investing. He also hosts the annual New Orleans Investment Conference. To get Brien Lundin’s ongoing commentary on the markets at no charge, click here to subscribe to his free Golden Opportunities newsletter.

Trump Says He’s Directing DOJ to Work on Releasing Tina Peters

Headline USA Editor
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Trump Says He’s Directing DOJ to Work on Releasing Tina Peters

(Derek Draplin, The Center Square) President Donald Trump says he’s directing the U.S. Department of Justice “to help secure the release” of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who’s in a Colorado prison for her role in tampering with election equipment.

Peters, who was the Republican clerk of the western Colorado county during the 2020 election, was found guilty by a grand jury on seven charges related to election integrity, including three counts of attempting to influence a public official. She was sentenced to nine years in prison last October.

“Radical Left Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser ignores Illegals committing Violent Crimes like Rape and Murder in his State and, instead, jailed Tina Peters, a 69-year-old Gold Star mother who worked to expose and document Democrat Election Fraud,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, calling her an “innocent Political Prisoner being horribly and unjustly punished in the form of Cruel and Unusual Punishment.”

Trump pointed to Democrats flying to El Salvador to try and free Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who his administration alleges is an MS-13 gang member, while at the same time “cruelly imprisoning” Peters.

In the months after the 2020 election, Peters allowed an unauthorized person access to the county’s electronic voting machines and take images of server hard drives.

“Colorado must end this unjust incarceration of an innocent American,” Trump added. “I am hereby directing the Department of Justice to take all necessary action to help secure the release of this ‘hostage’ being held in a Colorado prison by the Democrats, for political reasons. FREE TINA PETERS, NOW!”

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser responded to Trump’s comments in a written statement provided to The Center Square.

“Tina Peters is in prison because of her own actions. A grand jury indicted her, and a trial jury found her guilty of breaking Colorado’s criminal laws. No one is above the law,” he said. “The Colorado Attorney General’s Office will continue to defend this criminal conviction in post-conviction proceedings and on appeal. We are firm in pursuing justice for the people of the state of Colorado, protecting free and fair elections, and standing up for the rule of law.”

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