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Commodore 64 Ultimate review – it’s like 1982 all over again!

Showing the value of great design over visual impact, this faithfully resurrected home computer seamlessly integrates modern tech with some wonderful additional touches

The emotional hit was something I didn’t expect, although perhaps I should have. The Commodore 64 Ultimate, a new version of the legendary 8-bit computer, comes in a box designed to resemble the original packaging – a photo of the machine itself on a background of deep blue fading into a series of white stripes. Then when you open it, you find an uncannily accurate replica of what fans lovingly referred to as the breadbox – the chunky, sloped Commodore 64, in hues of brown and beige, the red LED in one corner above the row of fawn-coloured function keys. It’s like 1982 all over again.

My dad bought us a C64 in late 1983. It was our second computer after the ZX81 and it felt like an enormous leap into the future with its detailed colour graphics, advanced sound chip and proper grown-up keyboard. We unpacked it on our dinner table, plugging it into a small portable TV and loading the one game we had, a very basic Donkey Kong clone named Crazy Kong. My life would never be the same again. This contraption was my obsession for the next four years – my friendships and free-time would revolve around games such as Bruce Lee, Paradroid and Hyper Sports. To this day, I treasure the memories of playing golf sim Leaderboard with my dad. The sound effects, speech samples and graphics conjured by that computer have lived rent free in my head for, god, almost 40 years.

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© Photograph: Commodore

© Photograph: Commodore

© Photograph: Commodore

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Stirring the Melting Pot: capturing the New York immigrant experience – in pictures

A new exhibition at the New York Historical museum looks at the immigrant experience in New York City through a range of revealing and diverse viewpoints, with more than 100 photographs and objects showing how the city has been shaped by people from across the globe. The exhibition runs to 29 March

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© Photograph: Patricia D. Klingenstein Library, The New York Historical, Alexander Alland Photograph Collection

© Photograph: Patricia D. Klingenstein Library, The New York Historical, Alexander Alland Photograph Collection

© Photograph: Patricia D. Klingenstein Library, The New York Historical, Alexander Alland Photograph Collection

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‘The consumers are still out there’: why a bankruptcy for Saks Global may not spell the end

Just more than a year after the new luxury behemoth was formed, it announced it had filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy

Every year, the stores down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue dress up their windows at Christmastime. Tourists from all over the world come to gawk at all the glitter, lace, ruffles and bows.

Saks’s Fifth Avenue location, so iconic that it’s embedded in the brand’s name, is usually dressed top to bottom during the holidays. In 2023, the store partnered with Christian Dior to display a giant zodiac calendar. As part of the light show, fireworks were released from the top of the store to the oohs and aahs of spectators.

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© Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

© Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

© Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

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Each NFL playoff team’s fatal flaw: the Bills’ run defense to the Sam Darnold problem

The eight remaining teams all have elements of brilliance. But they also have weaknesses that could send them crashing out of the postseason

Defending the run has long been a sore spot for the Bills – they finished the season 25th in defensive rush success rate. Inside, they lack mass, and are too easily pushed around by teams committed to a smashmouth approach. Outside, they struggle with discipline and technique. Against Jacksonville last weekend, both fell apart. The Jaguars rushed for 154 yards, with 119 of those yards coming on outside runs. It was the Jags’ highest total on outside runs this season. This weekend, against a Broncos offense that is happy to punch anyone in the mouth, that could put the Bills in a lot of trouble.

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© Photograph: Godofredo A Vásquez/AP

© Photograph: Godofredo A Vásquez/AP

© Photograph: Godofredo A Vásquez/AP

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France latest to confirm Nato troop deployment after Trump says Greenland ‘very important’ for US national security – Europe live

Múte B. Egede, Greenland’s deputy prime minister, said more soldiers were expected in the coming days

Irregular border crossings at the EU’s external borders fell by over one-quarter (26%) in 2025 to almost 178 000, less than half the total recorded in 2023 and the lowest level since 2021.

While key routes were down – Northern Africa to Italy by 66% and western African to the Canary Islands by 63% – there was no commensurate drop on the English Channel to the UK.

“This drop shows that cooperation can deliver results. It is not an invitation to relax. Our responsibility is to stay alert, support Member States on the ground, and ensure Europe is ready for new challenges at its borders.”

“Migration pressure can shift quickly between routes, shaped by conflict, instability and smuggling networks.

“The European Union is also already coping with attempts by hostile actors to exploit migration flows to put pressure on the EU’s external borders.”

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© Photograph: Alessandro Rampazzo/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Alessandro Rampazzo/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Alessandro Rampazzo/AFP/Getty Images

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Raducanu stunned by wildcard Preston in Hobart after tough Australian Open draw

  • Australian Taylah Preston, world No 204, wins 6-2, 6-4

  • Raducanu could face Sabalenka early in Melbourne

Emma Raducanu ended her preparations for the Australian Open with a miserable 6-2, 6-4 defeat by Taylah Preston, a 20-year-old Australian wildcard, in the quarter-finals of the Hobart international.

As the top seed in Hobart, a small WTA 250 tournament, Raducanu had entered the tournament with a real opportunity to compete for an elusive second career WTA title since her win at the US Open more than four years ago. Instead, the challenging rainy conditions were seemingly all it took to unsettle the Briton, who put in a dismal performance on Thursday evening. Her defeat against Preston, the WTA No 204, is her fourth-worst defeat by ranking since 2021.

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© Photograph: Steve Bell/Getty Images

© Photograph: Steve Bell/Getty Images

© Photograph: Steve Bell/Getty Images

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British diplomat expelled from Russia after being accused of being a spy

Moscow alleges unnamed diplomat is affiliated ‘with the British secret service’ as it gives them two weeks to leave

A British diplomat has been expelled from Russia after being accused of being a spy.

The diplomat, who was not named, has two weeks to leave the country, the Russian foreign ministry said, after it received information “regarding the affiliation of a diplomatic employee at the embassy with the British secret service”.

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© Photograph: Vasily Maximov/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Vasily Maximov/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Vasily Maximov/AFP/Getty Images

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Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials review – think Downton Abbey is real? This terrible adaptation is for you

Martin Freeman does his best to lift this three-parter, but it feels like Enid Blyton – made for an international market that thinks Paddington Bear is holding the queen’s hand in heaven

‘Tis the season, just, for your annual Agatha Christie. In recent years, the adaptations have been infused with the grief and instability of the postwar backdrop against which they all exist, and been given rich, dark, adult inflections by Sarah Phelps for the BBC.

The latest, however, is for Netflix by Chris Chibnall and we are back in the world of period costume, clipped vowels and dialogue infused with nothing but plot, designed to get the puzzle pieces recited into the right position for the next bit then the next bit then the solve – this time at the end of three very hour-long episodes.

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© Photograph: Netflix

© Photograph: Netflix

© Photograph: Netflix

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You be the judge: should my daughter pay the fine we incurred dropping her at the airport?

Margaret says her daughter didn’t pay the airport charge, so it’s on her. Georgie says this cock up is all her mum’s doing. You decide who got them into this fine mess
Find out how to get a disagreement settled or become a juror

We dropped Georgia off in her own car and she didn’t pay the drop-off fee, so the fine is hers

I didn’t know you had to pay for drop-off. Mum knew and didn’t tell me, so she should help pay

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© Illustration: Igor Bastidas/The Guardian

© Illustration: Igor Bastidas/The Guardian

© Illustration: Igor Bastidas/The Guardian

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Andy Warhol would have hated safe spaces. So why keep dragging dead artists into today’s culture wars?

Critics and curators are reframing great artists, from Gentileschi to Soutine, to fit with modern ethical narratives. But this ignores the glorious ambivalence of their creations

One rainy afternoon last winter, sitting under a blanket with a cup of tea, I found myself Googling paintings by Chaïm Soutine. It’s a pastime I’ve indulged ever since visiting an exhibition of his portraits of hotel staff on the French Riviera during the 1920s – paintings that combine such a mixture of tenderness and debasement that it’s as if his brush is kissing and beating his subjects at the same time.

I flicked through images of hopelessly innocent cooks and bellboys, with complexions the colour of raw sausage and ears that look as if they have been brutally yanked. And as I did, I came across a review of the very show where I had first encountered Soutine’s works. Ah, I thought, looking forward to luxuriating in literature about his particular genius for kindly sadism.

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© Illustration: Alamy

© Illustration: Alamy

© Illustration: Alamy

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What’s in a club DNA? Alonso exit shows the only reliable predictors of success are wealth and good decisions | Jonathan Liew

Real Madrid and Manchester United put their faith in familiarity but the lesson of Ferguson is dynastic greatness rests not in tradition but ditching principles

“It is all too easy to make mistaken inferences unless the process involved is already very well understood.” Francis Crick, molecular biologist

“This club is about winning, winning and winning again. It’s in our DNA.” Álvaro Arbeloa

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© Composite: Real Madrid/Getty Images; Manchester United/Getty Images

© Composite: Real Madrid/Getty Images; Manchester United/Getty Images

© Composite: Real Madrid/Getty Images; Manchester United/Getty Images

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Whether or not Trump invades Greenland, this much is clear: the western order we once knew is history | Timothy Garton Ash

The EU must be more robust in order to stem the tide of international disorder, or it risks falling to authoritarian imperialism

Donald Trump is threatening to take over Greenland, the territory of a Nato ally, possibly by military force, as Vladimir Putin is trying to take over Ukraine. Even if he doesn’t actually do it, this is a new era: a post-western world of illiberal international disorder.

The task now for liberal democracies in general, and Europe in particular, is twofold: to see this world as it is and to work out what the hell we’re going to do about it.

Timothy Garton Ash is a historian, political writer and Guardian columnist

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© Photograph: Christian Klindt Soelbeck/Reuters

© Photograph: Christian Klindt Soelbeck/Reuters

© Photograph: Christian Klindt Soelbeck/Reuters

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Roger Federer hails Alcaraz and Sinner’s ‘great’ rivalry amid Australian Open return

  • Six-time champion returns for opening ceremony

  • World No 1 to face Adam Walton in first round

Roger Federer hailed the dominance of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner as the six-time champion returned to the Australian Open for the first time since his retirement in 2022.

Federer, who last travelled to Australia in 2020, will headline the inaugural opening ceremony with a doubles exhibition match alongside Andre Agassi, Patrick Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt.

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© Photograph: Shi Tang/Getty Images

© Photograph: Shi Tang/Getty Images

© Photograph: Shi Tang/Getty Images

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Football transfer rumours: Everton to sign Youssef En-Nesyri and Callum Wilson?

Today’s rumours are air-tight

David Moyes is a keen admirer of massive centre-forwards, so it should not come as a surprise that Everton want to bring in all 6ft 2in of Youssef En-Nesyri from Fenerbahce. An initial loan offer, with a £20m option, is on the table for the Moroccan, leaving a decision to made in Istanbul. There is a chance Callum Wilson could swap West Ham for Merseyside to join up with Moyes, too.

Nottingham Forest are also interested in En-Nesyri but their main striking target is Olympiakos’ veteran forward, Mehdi Taremi. Sean Dyche was hoping for a quiet month but needs must and that could include sending Oleksandr Zinchenko back to Arsenal after a very forgettable loan spell at the City Ground.

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© Photograph: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters

© Photograph: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters

© Photograph: Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters

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I’m Ann Lee, and this is my testament about the mind-scramble of sharing your name with a movie character

From amused texts to awkward introductions, the run-up to the release of awards-tipped Shaker biopic The Testament of Ann Lee has been a strange experience

The messages started over a year ago. “The title cracked me up,” my film-loving friend Matt texted me, along with a tweet announcing a new musical called Ann Lee, starring Amanda Seyfried and directed by Mona Fastvold, about an 18th-century leader of the Shaker movement. Why would such innocuous film news delight him so much? Well, because my name is Ann Lee too.

“Yes! Fame at last!” I replied. I’ve answered in a similar vein to all the messages since then from other friends eager to break the news to me that my name was getting top billing in a prestigious Hollywood film. And I was genuinely amused and excited; for most of my life Ann Lee had seemed the beigest of names. Lee, or Li as it’s also spelled, is one of the most common surnames in the world and shared by more than 100 million people in Asia. I was sure there were many many Ann Lees out there. But when you get a film title dedicated to it? Now that’s when you start to feel your name might be special after all.

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© Photograph: Capital Pictures/Alamy

© Photograph: Capital Pictures/Alamy

© Photograph: Capital Pictures/Alamy

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Off the Scales by Aimee Donnellan review – inside the Ozempic revolution

A fascinating deep dive into the discovery, use and implications of a revolutionary new treatment

Few aspects of being human have generated more judgment, scorn and condemnation than a person’s size, shape and weight – particularly if you happen to be female. As late as 2022, the Times’s columnist Matthew Parris published a column headlined “Fat shaming is the only way to beat the obesity crisis” in which he attributed Britain’s “losing battle with fat” to society’s failure to goad and stigmatise the overweight into finally, shamefacedly, eating less. The tendency to equate excess weight with poor character (and thinness with grit and self-control) treats obesity as a moral as well as physical failing – less a disease than a lifestyle choice.

One of the great strengths of Reuters journalist Aimee Donnellan’s first book is its insistence on framing the discovery of the new weight-loss drugs within the fraught social and cultural context of beauty norms, body image and health. For those who need them, weekly injections of Ozempic, Wegovy or Mounjaro can be revolutionary. Yet for every person with diabetes or obesity taking the drugs to improve their health, others – neither obese nor diabetic – are obtaining them to get “beach-body” ready, fit into smaller dresses, or attain the slender aesthetic social media demands of them. Small wonder some commentators have likened the injections to “an eating disorder in a pen”.

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© Photograph: Alones Creative/Getty Images

© Photograph: Alones Creative/Getty Images

© Photograph: Alones Creative/Getty Images

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‘Love can be an addiction’: Nan Goldin’s Ballad of Sexual Dependency – in pictures

For the first time in the UK, the photographer’s magnum opus is going on display in its entirety – introducing new viewers to New York’s edgy downtown scene and a generation lost to Aids. Here, she looks back at the ‘fearlessness and wildness’ of her life and times

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© Photograph: Nan Goldin

© Photograph: Nan Goldin

© Photograph: Nan Goldin

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‘I’ve never felt such a skin-zinging feeling of being alive’: my year of swimming in Nordic seas

Dipping in the freezing waters of Scandinavia, Greenland and Finland was life-changing – and full of warmth thanks to saunas, hot springs and like-minded people

Warm lights shine from the houses that dot the wintry slopes of Mount Fløyen and a cold wind blows as I stand in a swimming costume trying to talk myself into joining my friends in Bergen harbour. Stars are already appearing in the inky mid-afternoon sky.

Life-changing moments are easy to spot in retrospect, but at the time they can feel so ordinary. I didn’t know then that my wintry swim would lead to a year of adventures. I was a hair’s breadth from wimping out, but then I was in. The water was so cold it burned. I gasped for breath. The bones in my feet ached with cold as I trod water, legs frantic under the dark surface. It lasted under a minute and then we were out.

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© Photograph: @laurahall

© Photograph: @laurahall

© Photograph: @laurahall

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Theatre of catastrophe: the hard-hitting play about France’s Grenfell moment

Mathilde Aurier’s 65 Rue d’Aubagne looks at the 2018 house collapse in Marseille and how the city healed itself through ‘love and solidarity’

“It was a turning point for Marseille, and it spotlighted the politics of France’s second city. There’s still a lot of things that have been left unsaid, things that aren’t pretty. But it set things into motion too.”

Playwright and director Mathilde Aurier is talking about what has been referred to as France’s Grenfell moment: the collapse of two dilapidated houses on 5 November 2018 on the Rue d’Aubagne in the Noailles neighbourhood, just a few hundred metres from the magnificent Old Port. Eight people were killed, causing a national outcry about urban inequality and social deprivation.

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© Photograph: Clement Vial

© Photograph: Clement Vial

© Photograph: Clement Vial

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Clickbait review – gripping drama about the human cost of moderating the internet

A social media content moderator becomes obsessed with a violent video in this restrained, unsettling workplace thriller starring Lili Reinhart

Here is a workplace drama, of sorts. Like many people, Daisy (Lili Reinhart) works a desk job using a computer. Unlike most people, fainting at work is a rite of passage; she moderates videos on social media that have been reported for violating the terms of service. That means watching everything from horrible porn to horrible politics to horrible accidents and everything in between, a non-stop diet of videos with titles such as “fetus in blender” or “strangulation but she doesn’t die”.

Her boss takes her to task for deleting a graphic video showing a suicide, which supposedly has news value and should have been left up. But the tipping point for Daisy is a really nasty video titled “nailed it”, which shows violence and cruelty that she believes is real and non-consensual. So begins a low-key quest to track down the perpetrator, though she is far from sure what she will do when she finds them. Nor is she altogether sure why it is this particular video, of all the trash and hatred washing over her, day in, day out, that has inspired her obsession. Her colleagues and boss shrug off her concerns: this video is nothing special.

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© Photograph: Roland-Guido Marx/Signature Entertainment

© Photograph: Roland-Guido Marx/Signature Entertainment

© Photograph: Roland-Guido Marx/Signature Entertainment

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Thursday news quiz: Golden Globes, Grateful Dead and global threats

Test yourself on topical news trivia, pop culture and general knowledge every Thursday. How will you fare?

It feels as if this really is the start of a new era for the Thursday news quiz. Not only was there last week’s announcement that Willow had retired from her role as the official dog of the Guardian Thursday news quiz, but this week we have a new visual tone, courtesy of a set of lovely, whimsical illustrations by Anaïs Mims. Rest assured, not much else has changed. It is still 15 questions on topical news, pop culture and general knowledge, and it is still packed every week with the same hackneyed old in-jokes. There are no prizes, but tell us how you got on in the comments. Allons-y!

The Thursday news quiz, No 230

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© Illustration: Anaïs Mims/The Guardian

© Illustration: Anaïs Mims/The Guardian

© Illustration: Anaïs Mims/The Guardian

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All Blacks begin search for new coach after ‘gutted’ Scott Robertson departs

  • Robertson leaves role two years into four-year contract

  • Decision to part ways comes after internal NZR review

Scott Robertson has stepped down as New Zealand coach following an internal review of the All Blacks’ performance.

Speculation over Robertson’s future has mounted since December amid reports of friction between senior players and All Blacks staff.

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© Photograph: Matt Impey/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Matt Impey/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Matt Impey/Shutterstock

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Trump is making China – not America – great again, global survey suggests

Exclusive: US is less feared by its traditional adversaries, while its allies feel ever more distant, results show

A year after Donald Trump’s return to the White House, a global survey suggests much of the world believes his nation-first, “Make America Great Again” approach is instead helping to make China great again.

The 21-country survey for the influential European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) thinktank also found that under Trump, the US is less feared by its traditional adversaries, while its allies – particularly in Europe – feel ever more distant.

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© Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

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Trump and Robertson complete remarkable sweep of 6-2 wins at Masters

  • Trump defeats Ding Junhui, Robertson sinks Wakelin

  • All eight first-round games ended in same scoreline

The world No 1 Judd Trump made three centuries as he saw off Ding Junhui 6-2 to move into the quarter-finals of the Masters, before Neil Robertson defeated Chris Wakelin by the same score – meaning that all eight first-round matches at London’s Alexandra Palace finished 6-2.

After edging a lengthy first frame, Trump – who was not able to lift any silverware in 2025 – crafted a fine break of 116 which was followed with a break of 69 to open up an early 3-0 lead.

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© Photograph: Bradley Collyer/PA

© Photograph: Bradley Collyer/PA

© Photograph: Bradley Collyer/PA

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