March 14, 2026

~~~ Marie: I knew when I typed "March 14, 2026" this morning that there was something about the day. I just couldn't remember what it was. RAS remembered. BTW, I had to go back to the original Squarespace-supported Reality Chex to pick up this graphic, and it still doesn't work right/at all. The program won't open the facility to edit the pages. Squarespace really sucks. Coincidentally, I did get an email this morning from one Prince Kumar who has offered to design me a new Website. I didn't open the email to find out how many pieces of silver I would have to lay across Prince Kumar's hand for him to say he would do the design, but it was nice to know that had I opted to respond, it turns out that Someday My Prince Will Come, after all. (Just maybe he would skip out before he did the site design.)

Marie: Here's something I forgot to post yesterday. It's one of those leaks that's not a leak: ~~~

~~~ Diana Nerozzi & Eli Stokols of Politico: “Vice President JD Vance was skeptical of the U.S. striking Iran in the leadup to ... Donald Trump’s decision to launch the war, two senior Trump officials told Politico. Vance, who has long questioned U.S. intervention abroad, has publicly defended Trump’s Iran operation. But White House officials revealed that the vice president made his opposition known in the leadup, pulling the curtain open after months of speculation about Vance being far more tepid about military action than Trump. Vance is 'skeptical,' is 'worried about success' and 'just opposes' the war on Iran, a senior Trump official said via text message.... The fresh example of a policy divide between the two men comes as Trump has cited a role for both Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio – who is publicly more aligned with the president on Iran – on a 2028 ticket. Even Trump on Monday brought up the division – but it didn’t seem to bother him. Vance 'was, I’d say, philosophically a little different from me. I think he was maybe less enthusiastic about going, but he was still quite enthusiastic,' Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago.” MB: This is to say, of course, that JayDee is both keeping up his creds with the MAGA base AND knocking Little Marco.

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The New York Times' live updates of developments in the Iran war are here. From the linked item at 5:40 am ET: “The United States bombed military installations on [Kharg Island,] an island that serves as Iran’s main oil export hub and threatened to 'wipe out' the oil infrastructure there if Iran continues to block the Strait of Hormuz. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps replied on Saturday that Iran would turn U.S. regional economic interests 'into a pile of ash' if the United States carried out its threat. Raising tensions further, an Iran-backed militia group in Iraq said it had attacked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad early Saturday, the fourth attack on a U.S. diplomatic installation since the war in Iran started two weeks ago. The attack on the embassy was confirmed by two Iraqi security officials.... Oil prices have risen by more than 40 percent since the United States and Israel began the war with Iran nearly two weeks ago.” ~~~

     ~~~ The AP's live updates are here. 

Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: “About 2,500 Marines aboard as many as three warships are heading to the Middle East from the Indo-Pacific region, as Iran increases its attacks on the Strait of Hormuz, two U.S. officials said. The shift ... comes as Iran’s response to nearly two weeks of aerial bombardment and long-range artillery strikes has proved more resilient than Trump administration officials anticipated. The Marines will join more than 50,000 American troops in the region.”

Most Wanted. Stephen Smith & Sarah Baldwin of CBS News: "The United States on Friday said it was offering up to $10 million, and the potential opportunity to relocate, for information on the whereabouts of 10 senior Islamic Republic leaders. The U.S. State Department's Rewards for Justice program announced the reward on Friday for information on Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and nine other 'key leaders' in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps."

Tara Copp, et al., of the Washington Post: “All six service members aboard a U.S. Air Force refueling aircraft that crashed in Iraq while supporting operations in Iran are dead, military officials said Friday. U.S. Central Command said, in an apparent midair accident with another aircraft. Centcom’s announcement brought the death toll of the crash from four to six, after earlier saying that rescue efforts were underway for the last two crew members.” The NBC News report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Bibi's Bitch. Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: “The United States has been the Jewish state’s most important backer for decades, providing it with weaponry and working closely with the Israeli military. But successive U.S. administrations avoided fighting with Israel as a wartime ally. They were worried about losing U.S. support in the Arab world and have seen Israeli interests in the Middle East as divergent from American ones.... Now ... [Donald] Trump has become the first American leader to embrace fighting a full-fledged, joint war with Israel — a level of coordination that [Dennis] Ross[, President Clinton's Middle East envoy,] said would have been 'unthinkable in the past.'” 

Marie: Mairav Zonszein of the New York Times writes (what seems to me like) a good assessment of "a war for one man." That one man in Benjamin Netanyahu. The link is a gift link. 

Barak Ravid of Axios: "Israel is planning to significantly expand its ground operation in Lebanon, aiming to seize the entire area south of the Litani River and dismantle Hezbollah's military infrastructure, Israeli and U.S. officials say.... The Trump administration backs a major Israeli operation to disarm Hezbollah, but is also pressing to limit the damage to the Lebanese state and pushing for direct Israel-Lebanon talks on a postwar agreement." 

Erik De La Garza of the Raw Story: “"...  Donald Trump and some of his closest advisers were caught off guard by the scope of Iran’s military response to U.S. strikes, while key Gulf allies have privately expressed anger at the White House’s decision to escalate the conflict, according to a Wall Street Journal report.... 'Allies in the Gulf are privately furious with the U.S., according to diplomats and others familiar with the matter,' the Journal reported Friday. 'They blame the Trump administration for triggering a war that put them in the crosshairs and pierced their image of a luxurious, business-friendly locale free of the region’s chaos.'” ~~~

~~~ It Was Obvious. Rebecca Elliott & Vivian Nereim of the New York Times: “Of all the risks the global energy system has long faced, none was bigger or better known than the potential closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The narrow passageway out of the Persian Gulf is both vital — serving as the only gateway to the rest of the world for huge amounts of oil and natural gas — and extremely vulnerable to attacks.... Within little more than a week, oil production fell by several millions of barrels a day collectively in Iraq, Kuwait, the Emirates and Saudi Arabia, according to estimates from the research firm Rystad Energy.... More than a quarter of the oil typically exported via the Strait of Hormuz in the form of either crude or fuels like diesel is still able to get out, the I.E.A. estimated. That is because the Emirates built a short pipeline from Abu Dhabi to Fujairah that started operating in 2012, circumventing the Strait of Hormuz, though Iran has targeted facilities on both ends.”

Justin Fishel of ABC News: "... on Friday morning [Donald Trump's] message to Iran was that the U.S. has 'unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time.'... On the other hand, it's only 'a little excursion,' Trump has said.... [He] is referring to a war in Iran that has so far killed 13 American service members and wounded at least 140.... Which is it, a war or an excursion? [a reporter asked]. 'Well, it's both. It's both,' he replied. 'It's an excursion that will keep us out of a war, and the war is going to be, uh -- I mean, for them it's a war. For us, it's turned out to be easier than we thought.'"

Penny Stupid, Pound Idiotic. Luke Broadwater & Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: “In an effort to crack down on nations it views as promoting terrorism, the Trump administration has been carrying out a campaign of seizing tankers carrying oil, a move the president has repeatedly characterized as a financial boon for Americans. But ... the ships are highly expensive to maintain. And the Trump administration cannot legally sell their oil without a judge’s permission. Maintaining the seized tankers has already cost the United States tens of millions of dollars ... and complicates Mr. Trump’s claims of swift financial victories from his military operations targeting Venezuela and Iran.... The government has already spent $47 million repairing and maintaining [just one] aging ship, which is only valued at $10 million, federal prosecutors said in a court filing. And it will most likely need to spend another $5 million over the next few months to cover insurance and crew, among other costs. Moreover, storing the ship’s oil costs the government $15,000 per day, or about $450,000 per month.” Read on. Earlier administrations took only the oil; they knew better than to seize the tankers, too. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: These costs don't "complicate Trump's claims of financial victories," as the writers assert; the costs refute, dispute obliterate Trump's claims. And of course the costs of maintaining the tankers doesn't take into account the billions and billions of dollars Trump's "little excursions" cost. Nor does it account for the incalculable costs in lives and other human suffering. Trump and Drunk Pete think this is all a fun video game. They call it "Epic Fury." It's epic tragedy, and the people of the world are the collective victim. Those historians who equivocated during Trump's first term about whether or not he was the worst president* in U.S. history or the second- or third-worst surely are no longer equivocating. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE, Don't Forget Trump's Gift to Russia. Catherine Belton of the Washington Post: “Russia is reveling in the Trump administration’s decision to lift U.S. sanctions on Russian oil at sea, a move Moscow hopes will lead to further relief from penalties that had only recently begun to bite deep.... For Russia, it’s a break from restrictions that were imposed to reduce the Kremlin’s ability to finance its war in Ukraine.... “This one concession alone by the United States could give Russia about $10 billion,” [Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky] said at a news conference in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron. “This certainly does not help peace.”

You Can't Stage a Revolution if You're Afraid to Leave the House. Rachel Chason of the Washington Post: “Two weeks into the war that ... Donald Trump initially said was intended to force regime change in Tehran, the Iranians living [in Dubai] say their families are mostly huddled at home, trying to avoid both the U.S.-Israeli strikes and supporters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) patrolling the streets with guns.... [One professional woman] said she hoped that eventually, people would take to the streets to demand a return to democracy, as her own family had during mass protests in Iran in December. 'But right now,' she said, 'most people are too scared to move.'” 

RAS linked to a Joe.My.God post that captures the essence of Trump. Read the whole page. ~~~

~~~ AND There's This. Barak Ravid of Axios: Donald "Trump told G7 leaders in a virtual meeting Wednesday that Iran is 'about to surrender,' according to three officials.... 24 hours later, Iran's new supreme leader issued his first public statement vowing to keep fighting.... While claiming Iran was about to surrender, he also suggested there were no officials left alive in Tehran with the power to make that decision. 'Nobody knows who is the leader, so there is no one that can announce surrender,' Trump said, according to two officials briefed on the call." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ AND This. Nicholas McEntyre of the New York Post: Donald “Trump issued a new threat against the 'deranged scumbags' leading Iran, vowing to use his 'unparalleled firepower' for a fresh wave of deadly attacks Friday — which Secretary of War Pete Hegseth warned would see the 'highest volume of strikes that America has put over the skies of Iran.' Trump’s chilling message came after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei delivered his first public remarks and after two extremists attacked a synagogue and a college in the US on Thursday. 'We are totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise, yet, if you read the Failing New York Times, you would incorrectly think that we are not winning,' Trump wrote on Truth Social just after midnight Friday.... 'Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today,' Trump said.” So presidential*. (Also linked yesterday.)

And We Must Not Forget This Is the Most Corrupt Presidency* Ever. Daniel Hampton of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump's political action committee kicked a hornet's nest with a fundraising email that uses a solemn moment to rake in cash, according to a new report. Never Surrender, Inc. sent an email promising "National Security Briefing Membership" complete with a photo from Saturday's dignified transfer honoring six fallen U.S. soldiers at Dover Air Force Base, CNN reported Friday evening. The email encouraged recipients to "claim your spot" and included donation links 'in what it describes as an exclusive group receiving updates about national security threats.'... The email features Trump saluting beside a flag-draped transfer case in an official White House photograph, blending patriotic imagery with aggressive fundraising language."

Dan Lamothe & Alex Horton of the Washington Post: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday that the U.S. military has opened a comprehensive investigation into last month’s deadly strike on an elementary school in Iran, in what appeared to be a tacit acknowledgment of the United States’ responsibility for the incident and a shift to examining how it occurred. Hegseth, speaking at a Pentagon news conference, did not explicitly acknowledge the United States was at fault for the Feb. 28 incident — which left at least 175 dead, mostly children, according to Iranian officials — but he said that 'the truth matters.'”

Edward Wong & Michael Crowley of the New York Times: “Throughout his long political career, [Marco Rubio] has advocated toppling governments hostile to the United States. He was once considered so ideologically out of step with Mr. Trump that many officials and politicians doubted he would last a year in the administration. But today, Mr. Rubio is at the helm of Mr. Trump’s aggressive campaigns to reshape the governments of Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and beyond. The U.S. president, who promised to end American wars, is now embracing the policies backed by Mr. Rubio and the secretary’s ideological compatriots, dismaying supporters who thought Mr. Trump had ushered in a new era of military restraint.... [The policy that has emerged] is a merger of neoconservatism with Mr. Trump’s transactionalism, and it amounts to using U.S. military and economic power to turn authoritarian countries into client states. It is regime compliance rather than regime change, a doctrine of destroy and deal.”

Elsewhere in the Kleptocracy. Rob Copeland & Maureen Farrell of the New York Times: “Jared Kushner, one of the U.S. government’s chief negotiators in the Middle East, is trying to raise more money for his private equity firm from governments in the region.Mr. Kushner..., [Donald] Trump’s son-in-law, has spoken with potential investors in recent weeks about raising $5 billion or more for Affinity Partners, his investment firm, according to five people with knowledge of the talks who were not permitted to speak publicly about the discussions. As part of the fund-raising effort, Affinity’s representatives have already met with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which invests the proceeds of the kingdom’s vast oil reserves, two of the people briefed on the discussions said. PIF is led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has formed close ties with Mr. Kushner and the Trump administration.”

Robert Jimison of the New York Times: “As the governor of Virginia during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Tim Kaine [D] attended more deployments, homecomings and funerals of his constituents than he cared to count, traveling to the Middle East to visit the troops and sitting with their families.... So after he was elected to represent the state in the Senate in 2012, he arrived in Washington fixated on reasserting Congress’s role in decisions about using military force abroad.... Mr. Kaine ... has thrust himself to the forefront of his party’s efforts to push back against ... [Donald] Trump’s unilateral military moves.... Despite serving in the minority, Mr. Kaine ... has repeatedly managed to force the Senate into hours of debate and five votes aimed at limiting Mr. Trump’s ability to wield military power without Congress’s approval.... The measure[s] failed....  But Mr. Kaine says the resolutions are less about politics than about his desire to get back to the separation of powers outlined in the Constitution, after decades of Congress abdicating its role in questions of war.”

Michelle Singletary of the Washington Post: “...  perhaps the clearest sign of this administration’s perverse priorities is found in the latest West Health-Gallup Affordability Index. The data confirms the lasting truth of a line from Tupac [Shakur’s 1993] anthem 'Keep Ya Head Up': 'They got money for wars, but can’t feed the poor.' While billions of tax dollars are allocated to the new conflict in the Middle East, the domestic situation is in a crisis for millions of households. About one-third of Americans — roughly 82 million people — say they have had to make financial sacrifices to cover health care costs. This isn’t just about cutting back on a morning latte or a Netflix subscription; it’s about families skipping meals to afford medication or stretching out their prescriptions to make their medicine last longer.... It’s a cruel catch-22: Being sick is expensive, and those costs force you to skip the very care you need to get better.”

There is abundant evidence that the subpoenas’ dominant (if not sole) purpose is to harass and pressure Powell either to yield to the president or to resign and make way for a Fed chair who will.... On the other side of the scale, the government has offered no evidence whatsoever that Powell committed any crime other than displeasing the president. -- Judge James Boasberg, decision ~~~

~~~ Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Washington threw a major roadblock into a criminal investigation of Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, quashing grand jury subpoenas issued to the central bank by federal prosecutors over renovations underway at its headquarters in Washington. In a blistering 27-page decision unsealed on Friday, the judge, James E. Boasberg, derided the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington for pursuing a case against Mr. Powell, delivering a serious setback to ... [Donald] Trump in his effort to use the criminal justice system to punish political foes or pursue his agenda. Mr. Powell has long resisted calls from the White House to significantly lower borrowing costs, prompting a litany of attacks that has also included an effort by the president to fire another top official, Lisa D. Cook.” ~~~

     ~~~ Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of MS NOW: “A federal judge has quashed the Justice Department’s subpoenas targeting Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, according to a court filing unsealed Friday — a major blow to the Trump administration’s criminal investigation into the central bank’s leader. In a remarkable decision, Chief Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote that 'a mountain of evidence' suggested that 'the Government served these subpoenas on the [Federal Reserve] Board to pressure its Chair into voting for lower interest rates or resigning.' Boasberg added that federal prosecutors “produced essentially zero evidence to suspect Chair Powell of a crime,'  calling the Trump administration’s case 'so thin and unsubstantiated that the Court can only conclude that they are pretextual.' Boasberg went even further, writing that the investigation into Powell fit a 'pattern' that several of the president’s adversaries have now faced from Trump’s Department of Justice.... [U.S. Attorney Jeanine] Pirro[, who opened the case,] responded immediately and defiantly in a press conference, calling the decision ... 'untethered to the law.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Andrew Weissmann, speaking on MS NOW Friday afternoon emphasized how "unusual" it was for a judge to quash a grand jury subpoena or to find that the suit was brought for an "improper purpose."

Christopher Rugaber of the AP: “An inflation gauge closely monitored by the Federal Reserve moved higher in January in the latest sign that prices were persistently elevated even before the Iran war caused spikes in oil and gas costs. Prices rose 2.8% in January compared with a year earlier, the Commerce Department said Friday, slightly below December’s increase in a report that was delayed by last fall’s six-week government shutdown. The shutdown created a backlog of data that is nearly cleared. Yet excluding the volatile food and energy categories — which the Fed pays closer attention to — core prices rose 3.1%, up from 3% in the prior month and the highest in nearly two years.” (Also linked yesterday.)

You can barely see the teensy White House near the upper-left corner of the rendering.

~~~ Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: “The White House on Friday unveiled plans for a 33,000-square-foot visitor screening center, located below a park southeast of the mansion, the latest step in ... Donald Trump’s effort to remake the White House grounds. Visitors and tour groups would access the White House grounds by going into a facility beneath Sherman Park, according to plans posted on the website of the National Capital Planning Commission, a committee charged by Congress with overseeing federal construction. The new seven-lane screening center would replace temporary trailers and tents that have long been used to screen White House visitors, who sometimes face lengthy wait times during major events. The White House also proposed a new 5,000-square-foot recessed plaza on the south side of Sherman Park abutting the screening center, which the White House said would be used to enter the facility and prevent queuing on 15th Street NW. Visitors would exit the screening facility via a new 4,000-square-foot building close to Trump’s planned ballroom, according to the plans....

“The White House said that Trump was personally driving the project in an effort to provide 'the best experience possible' for White House guests.” MB: And here I thought Trump didn't care about us little people. 

Adam Nagourney & Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: “Richard Grenell, a close ally of ... [Donald] Trump, is leaving his position as head of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after a tumultuous year that included an exodus of artists and audiences from the Washington cultural institution. Mr. Trump announced Mr. Grenell’s departure from the center, which will soon close for two years of renovations, in a post on social media on Friday afternoon. 'Ric Grenell has done an excellent job in helping to coordinate various elements of the Center during the transition period, and I want to thank him for the outstanding work he has done,' Mr. Trump wrote.... Under Mr. Grenell’s leadership, dozens of Kennedy Center employees were fired or quit. The institution increasingly bowed to Mr. Trump’s demands and, at times, his cultural preferences.” ~~~

     ~~~ Earlier That Same Day. Sarah Rumpf of Mediaite; “... Donald Trump is planning to oust Ric Grenell as head of the Kennedy Center, reported CNN Friday afternoon, with the president later confirming the report in a Truth Social post.... The turmoil from the changes to the Kennedy Center has sparked 'a slew of negative headlines,' reported CNN, which has 'frustrated' the president, and now he 'kind of is souring on [Grenell].'... 'One source familiar with the White House view said that the president liked Grenell, but felt that he had fumbled when it came to his leadership of the Kennedy Center, including on managing the publicity,' reported CNN. Another source 'lamented that Grenell had no experience or grounding in the arts world and came in “with a sledgehammer” and “campaign schticks” that are moving the institution in the wrong direction,' the CNN article noted, with people who were working with Grenell at the center 'described him as combative, confrontational and headstrong.'”

Lauren Hirsch & Andrew Duehren of the New York Times: “Investors in a deal to create a U.S.-controlled TikTok are set to pay $10 billion to the U.S. Treasury, the latest example of the Trump administration’s inserting the federal government into corporate deal making in unusual ways. The fee, which the U.S. government is considering a transaction fee for its role in helping bring about the deal, will be paid by new investors in the U.S. TikTok, according to two people briefed on the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly about the transaction. The new investors paid the Treasury roughly $2.5 billion of the fee when the deal closed in January. They plan to pay the rest of the fee in an additional set of payments, one of the people said. The investors include the software giant Oracle; MGX, an Emirati investment firm; and Silver Lake, another investment firm, which each own about 15 percent of the company.”

Eddie Pells of the AP: “The World Anti-Doping Agency is considering rewriting its rules to try barring ... Donald Trump and all U.S. government officials from attending the LA Olympics in 2028 in a move that could also have implications for the World Cup being hosted by the U.S. this summer. The proposal, on the agenda for next Tuesday’s meeting of the global drug-fighting watchdog’s executive committee, is the latest maneuver to come out of a yearslong refusal of the U.S. government to pay its annual dues to WADA. The refusal is part of the American government’s unanimous, bipartisan protest of the agency’s handling of a case involving Chinese swimmers and other issues.... The rule, if passed, would figure to be mostly symbolic, given the limits an international sports federation could have on the president of a country attending an event inside his own borders.” ~~~

     ~~~ Here's some background by EPSP on the U.S.'s objections to paying its dues. 

Pentagon Orders Stars & Stripes to Cater to Warfighting Trumpy White Boys. Scott Nover & Liam Scott of the Washington Post: “The Defense Department outlined a sweeping 'modernization' effort for Stars and Stripes, the independent military newspaper, according to an internal memo reviewed by The Washington Post, following up on a promise made in January to overhaul the publication and rid it of 'woke distractions.'... [Two months ago,] Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesperson, promised the department would revamp the newspaper to 'focus on warfighting, weapons systems, fitness, lethality, survivability, and ALL THINGS MILITARY.'... Stripes ombudsman Jacqueline Smith, who is charged by Congress with defending the outlet’s editorial independence, told The Post in an interview that the memo 'threatens Stars and Stripes’ continued editorial independence, and it does so at the detriment of the troops who rely on the newspaper for complete coverage and continued accurate coverage that is not propaganda.'” 

~~~ Or Not. ~~~ 

~~~ Sex & the Senate. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: “Former U.S. senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona acknowledged having an affair with a member of her Senate security detail while in office but argued in a legal filing that a lawsuit filed by the bodyguard’s former wife should be dismissed. In court documents filed Thursday, Sinema acknowledged that her relationship with Matthew Ammel 'became romantic and intimate' in May 2024.... The filing, first reported by TMZ, is part of a motion to dismiss an 'alienation of affection' lawsuit against Sinema from Ammel’s ex-wife, Heather Ammel, who alleges Sinema broke up her marriage by 'willfully and intentionally' seducing her husband despite knowing he was married with three children.” ~~~

~~~ AND Tom Cotton is so gay. Marie: Okay, I have no idea if this is true, but rumors have circulated for years. Even though I can't stand him, I'd feel a little sorry for Cotton for fearing to come out. IF he hadn't promoted anti-gay policies & legislation. (The photo at JR's gay bar is from 2014.) 

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Michigan. Praveena Somasundaram & Victoria Craw of the Washington Post: “The man suspected of ramming a car into a Michigan synagogue Thursday had family members who were killed in an Israeli attack on Lebanon this month, officials said. The crash, which started a fire at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, is being investigated as a targeted attack on the Jewish community. The Department of Homeland Security identified the perpetrator as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, and said he came to the United States from Lebanon in 2011 as the spouse of a U.S. citizen and was granted citizenship in 2016. Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun said in a Facebook post late Thursday that the suspect was a resident of the city. Several of Ghazali’s loved ones, including his niece and nephew, were killed in an Israeli attack on their home, Baydoun wrote.... 'Yesterday’s attack was antisemitism. It was hate, plain and simple,' Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said Friday at a news conference.” (Also linked yesterday.)

North Carolina. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: “Election officials moved one step closer on Friday to determining the winner of one of the most consequential Republican primaries in North Carolina, one that could shift the balance of conservative power in the battleground state. A formal tally from county officials showed Sam Page, a small-town sheriff steeped in ... [Donald] Trump’s political movement, leading Phil Berger, North Carolina’s most powerful legislator, by a margin of 23 votes in the race for a State Senate seat. The Associated Press has not yet called the race, and given the tight margin, Mr. Berger can ask for a recount up until noon on Tuesday. His campaign has indicated that it plans to do so, though it has made no formal request. Election experts say a recount is highly unlikely to flip the result to favor Mr. Berger.... That means Mr. Page is poised to pull off one of the most shocking upsets in North Carolina’s recent history.... Mr. Berger and his allies spent a staggering $10 million in the race, and Trump-Berger signs were plastered all over the district, which includes Rockingham County and parts of Guilford County, to highlight  [Mr.] Trump’s endorsement of the Senate leader.”

Oklahoma Senate Race. Reid Epstein of the New York Times: “The Oklahoma Senate seat being vacated by Senator Markwayne Mullin’s selection as homeland security secretary has been all but handed to Representative Kevin Hern after ... [Donald] Trump endorsed him and the other Republicans believed to be interested in the race said they would not run. Mr. Trump endorsed Mr. Hern, who was first elected to the House in 2018 after a career as a McDonald’s franchisee, calling him 'a true friend of MAGA' in a social media post on Friday night.”

Texas. J.D. Miles of CBS News Texas: "A man shot and killed by Dallas police earlier this week was ... part of the security detail for U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, sources told CBS News Texas.... The man, known publicly as Mike King, had been using aliases while running a business that placed officers in off‑duty jobs. King was killed Wednesday night after a standoff with Dallas police SWAT officers. Police say he fled into a hospital parking garage, barricaded himself inside a vehicle, and was forced out by tear gas before pulling a gun on officers. Sources say he was wanted for impersonating a law enforcement officer and had claimed to be one while operating Off Duty Police Services, an online platform connecting North Texas officers with off‑duty work. Authorities have not released his real name.... Images ... show King standing close to Crockett at events and on the campaign trail during her recent run for a U.S. Senate seat.... His background – which sources say includes a criminal history – raises questions about how he managed extra‑duty jobs for police officers and secured a high‑level security role for a sitting member of Congress. 

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Canada. Ian Austen of the New York Times: “Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada unveiled a multibillion-dollar plan on Thursday to significantly build up the country’s military capacity in the Arctic, including establishing new bases in a region where the country has had to rely on the United States to ensure its defense. The announcement follows ... [Donald] Trump’s repeated calls for Canada’s annexation and his musings about acquiring Greenland, Canada’s Arctic neighbor. Mr. Carney is not the first Canadian prime minister with grand plans for improving the security and asserting Canada’s sovereignty over its enormous yet largely unpopulated Arctic region. But his proposal is more comprehensive and extensive than past efforts.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Cuba. Frances Robles, et al., of the New York Times: “In what was seen as a last-ditch effort to save his hobbled government, President Miguel Díaz-Canel of Cuba announced on Friday that his government had been holding talks with the Trump administration while managing an increasingly severe lack of fuel. Cuba’s government is facing an existential crisis as the Trump administration ratchets up pressure on the 67-year-old Communist state, maintaining what amounts to an oil blockade. Fuel is rapidly running out, plunging Cuba into prolonged periods of darkness. Though the discussions with the United States had previously been reported by U.S. news outlets, it was the first time the government had acknowledged that talks were underway.” The link appears to be a gift link. (Also linked yesterday.)