July 18, 2026

The New York Times is liveblogging developments in the Iran War. From the pinned item at 5:25 pm ET Saturday: “Two U.S. soldiers were killed and a third service member was missing after an Iranian attack on a base in Jordan on Friday, the U.S. military said, the first American troops to die from hostile fire since an initial truce in early April. The Jordanian base came under fire from Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, according to a statement on Saturday from U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in the region. Sixteen U.S. service members have died in the war.... Iranian state media reported on Saturday damage to bridges and roads in the south of Iran, and said that a water desalination plant in Jask was hit. It cited a local official as saying that about 10,000 people were facing water shortages.... On Saturday, Iranian missiles and drones pummeled the Gulf state of Kuwait, where the government said another power and water treatment plant had been attacked — the second in two days — sparking fires. An oil facility was also struck, leading to injuries and 'severe material losses,' according to Kuwait’s state-run petroleum corporation. Air-raid sirens also continued to ring out in Bahrain on Saturday morning, warning of new Iranian strikes. And the Jordanian military said it had intercepted 10 Iranian ballistic missiles overnight.” ~~~

     ~~~ A Stars & Stripes report on the deaths of the two soldiers & related casualties is here.  

Dasha Burns of Politico: “... Donald Trump’s Thursday night speech was far tamer than some of his closest aides feared. Acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte, a favorite of the president’s, had in the days leading up the speech pushed to reveal the names of intelligence officials accused of concealing election interference from Trump.... Senior officials, including chief of staff Susie Wiles..., argued to Pulte that naming individuals involved in an alleged cover up of election fraud could lead to conspiracy theorists to take the law into their own hands.... '[Pulte] got POTUS all spun up and then was incredibly scared when he realized people could die with his reckless behavior,' [said a senior official]. Simultaneously, several Trump officials urged the president to remain restrained and on script....” ~~~

~~~ Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: “When you commandeer prime time, or try to, you’d better have something prime to say. Trump didn’t. His speech on Thursday was a dud — a batty stew of whiny complaints stemming from an election that he claims was stolen that wasn’t, during a period when he was running the country. If something was wrong, dude, why didn’t you fix it? He still has no proof, and he muddied matters by releasing documents containing information already known and warning about 'vulnerabilities' his administration has made worse.... He is willing to undermine and destroy any institution, law, norm or ideal cherished by Americans in a bonfire of his vanities.... He seemed impotent, raving about nonsense, threatening to punish ABC and NBC for not taking his weird rant live. He struggled to wield his superpower: creating a fake alternate universe for his supporters.” ~~~

~~~ Maggie Miller of Politico: “Election officials are warning that ... Donald Trump’s assertion that America’s voting machines aren’t safe is far more dangerous than the vulnerabilities he highlighted in his Thursday night address. Flaws in electronic voting machines have been well-documented for more than a decade by researchers, and states have poured money into bolstering security. Still, none have ever been exploited by malicious actors to successfully change the outcome of an election.... Investigators did find that Russian hackers successfully accessed the voter registration databases of a few U.S. states ahead of the 2016 elections, but they never changed any votes. To date, that’s the most intensive hacking effort documented by federal authorities involving U.S. elections.”

There seems to be a pattern of charges being filed without any merit. -- Jimmy L. Arce, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago ~~~ 

~~~ A Disastrous Record of Losses. Mike McIntire, et al., of the New York Times: “In its nationwide immigration crackdown, the Trump administration has charged hundreds of people with assaulting or impeding federal agents.... [Donald] Trump has branded them 'insurrectionists,' 'animals' and 'thugs,' part of a broader effort by his administration to cast protesters and immigrants as violent criminals. But a close examination of those cases reveals that in its rush to meet White House demands for deportations, federal law enforcement has engaged in extensive misconduct — ranging from attacking protesters to destroying evidence and misrepresenting facts in court. The New York Times found that the Trump administration has filed assault charges against more than 550 people who were caught in its immigration dragnet — far more than previously known. Of the more than 400 cases resolved so far, nearly half have unraveled: Juries acquitted defendants, judges threw out charges, or prosecutors withdrew them. The record is abysmal by the typical standards of federal prosecutions: The Justice Department seldom loses criminal cases, with more than 90 percent of defendants pleading guilty or being convicted at trial.” The link appears to be a gift link.

A New Trumpy Star Chamber. Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: “The Trump administration has activated a secretive and never-before-used legal process to quickly deport foreign nationals deemed to be 'alien terrorists' or their immediate family members. The Justice Department submitted the first-ever application to the Alien Terrorist Removal Court — which has lain dormant since it was established by law in 1996 — with little notice earlier this week. The details of the July 15 application are sealed and an accompanying cover sheet indicates that the substance is classified. The chief judge of the court, U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen, held a sealed hearing on the matter Thursday and subsequently issued an order asking the government to make a more 'thoughtful' application.... She noted that she had lingering questions about the actions taken by the Justice Department target and how they connect to the laws providing for the removal of 'alien terrorists.'” ~~~

~~~ Marie: The Sixth Amendment guarantees that "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial...." Emphasis added. This amendment protects non-citizens as well as citizens.

Christina Jewett & Julie Creswell of the New York Times: “Taylor Farms announced late Friday that it was recalling iceberg lettuce that had been shipped to retailers in 27 states because it was potentially contaminated with cyclospora, a parasite that can cause severe illness, including vomiting, cramping and explosive diarrhea. Although the investigation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tied the parasite to lettuce that Taylor Farms shipped to Taco Bell in five states, the company’s recall notice suggests far broader distribution of potentially contaminated greens. The announcement listed eight brand codes but did not say what they stood for. The company did not respond to questions about them on Saturday morning.” The second link here -- “retailers in 27 states” -- lists the names of the states plus the brands Taylor Farms is recalling. 

Wisconsin Gubernatorial Race. Democrats in Disarray! Julie Bosman & Mitch Smith of the New York Times: “Wisconsin’s Democratic primary for governor was turned on its head on Friday as one high-profile candidate from the party’s establishment wing exited the race and another rejoined it. Early in the day, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez dropped out, citing problems with her campaign’s financial reports. By evening, David Crowley, the Milwaukee County executive, signaled his plans to get back in the race, from which he had withdrawn just last week amid poor poll numbers. The change in candidates was the latest rupture in a crowded contest to replace Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat who is not running for re-election in the closely divided state. Some more moderate Democrats in Wisconsin have watched the primary with growing trepidation, worried that the winner in August could be State Representative Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist who has excited voters on the party’s left flank.... Days ago, Ms. Rodriguez disclosed that she had fired her campaign manager after discovering a shortfall of more than $1 million.” ~~~

     ~~~ Gregory Svirnovskiy of Politico: “Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley reentered the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor on Saturday and quickly nabbed an endorsement from Gov. Tony Evers — a major reversal in a fractured primary that has top state party officials scrambling less than a month before Election Day.”

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Here's a bit of fun. Thanks to RAS for the link: ~~~

I wasn’t ready for this. ☠️ 😭

Low T Pete will never live this down. pic.twitter.com/gQ4k4vwv9R

— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline) July 17, 2026

Time for Some War Crimes. The New York Times' live updates yesterday of developments in the Iran War are here. From the pinned item at 5:00 pm ET Friday: “Bridges, rail lines, power and water facilities and other targets in Iran, Kuwait and elsewhere in the Middle East were attacked in airstrikes on Friday as the United States and Iran broadened their weeklong crisis over the Strait of Hormuz into tit-for-tat strikes targeting infrastructure that can serve civilian purposes. Since ... [Donald] Trump declared a cease-fire agreement 'over' more than a week ago, daily bombardments have escalated into some of the most widespread attacks since the war began in late February. The U.S. strikes have hit bridges and a control tower at Iran’s third-largest port. Iran has tried to strike similar targets in U.S.-allied Gulf countries. On Friday afternoon, the U.S. military said that it had launched yet another round of strikes, marking the seventh consecutive day of strikes. The command has made no mention of civilian infrastructure.... [Mr.] Trump has threatened to attack an even wider array of civilian infrastructure to try to force Iran’s leaders to make a deal. Such attacks could be considered a war crime, and Iranian officials have warned they would retaliate more broadly.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., of the New York Times: Donald Trump “made sure there would be little room for ... dissent when he returned to the White House. Those seeking to join Mr. Trump’s second administration had to pass a key litmus test: Did they believe the 2020 election was stolen from Mr. Trump? With like-minded allies now positioned in key roles throughout the government, Mr. Trump has trained the full arsenal of the federal government on one of his most persistent obsessions: sowing doubt about the security of the country’s election systems. Major agencies such as the Justice Department, the F.B.I., the Homeland Security Department and the U.S. Postal Service have taken steps to revive his false claims about the 2020 election and try to assert federal control over state-run elections....

“Mr. Trump has installed election deniers and loyalists throughout his administration, including in agencies that have historically helped state governments shore up their elections.... The president’s ability to bring a whole-of-government approach to shape how Americans view their elections — and potentially who gets to vote — has alarmed public officials and election experts across the country.... Earlier this year, Mr. Trump went so far as to say he wanted to see the federal government 'take over' and nationalize elections, which under the Constitution are administered by the states.” Update: the link has been changed to one that appears to be a gift link.

Perry Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump used his prime-time address Thursday to amplify an exaggerated claim that noncitizens are registering to vote en masse, threatening to undermine the nation’s secure elections.... According to Trump and [DHS Secretary Markwayne] Mullin, about 278,000 noncitizens are unlawfully registered to vote in federal elections in a number of states where they said the rolls were reviewed. They said 250,000 of those people were in just four states: Nevada, California, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.... But a review of public documents and interviews with government officials and election experts shows that the figure is significantly overstated and that officials have struggled to find instances of voter fraud by noncitizens to back the president’s assertions.... Mullin said Friday morning that the 250,000 figure came from a DHS review of public voting data from four Democratic states that did not willingly hand over their voting rolls to federal officials.... But relying on publicly available data means that federal officials were probably not using verified and up-to-date information.” ~~~

     ~~~ Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Friday threatened state election officials with possible prison time if they don’t comply with Trump administration methods to determine whether noncitizens are on voter rolls. Expanding on ... Donald Trump’s election speech a night earlier, Mullin said that the Department of Homeland Security had preliminarily determined there were more than 250,000 noncitizens on voting lists in at least four states: California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Mullin demanded states run their voter rolls through a federal database maintained by DHS to determine if noncitizens were on lists and said if they don’t, they won’t be able to access federal grants. But the use of the DHS database — which was historically for assessing immigration benefits — has been blocked by a federal judge, who ruled that repurposing it for this effort violated rules on the disclosure of Social Security records. The database has also proved to be error-prone when used to evaluate voter rolls. It often flags newly naturalized citizens as noncitizen voters. Voting rights experts say the use of the database is flawed and could result in registered voters purged from rolls." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here; the link appears to be a gift link.

Michael Gold, et al., of the New York Times: “As ... [Donald] Trump wrapped up a prime-time address in which he rattled off ominous and at times outlandish assertions about U.S. election vulnerabilities, he repeated his demand that Congress pass strict voting restrictions that have been stalled in the Senate.... Though Mr. Trump’s most devoted loyalists in Congress quickly repeated his call to pass the bill known as the SAVE America Act — demands they have been making for months — most other Republicans stayed quiet, and at least one skeptic indicated that the speech had not moved the needle. 'If it was meant to influence people like me, it didn’t get me there,' Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican who has publicly opposed the measure, said in an interview on Friday.... Broadly, it was not clear that Mr. Trump’s message was resonating beyond the far right of the Republican Party that has long unquestioningly echoed his baseless and unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: One reason the speech didn't influence many Republicans to change their positions on the SAVE America bill might be that the bill itself does not address the bogeymen he raised in the speech. The speech concentrated on boosting intel documents he hadn't read, docs he claimed showed that China and Venezuela, especially, had rigged the 2020 presidential election by magically hacking into U.S. voting machines in cities run by Democrats. But the SAVE America Act does not address foreign interference of that nature; the crux of it is voter suppression. The bill is mostly meant to keep college students, poor people and married women from voting because they can't provide IDs that match their birth certificates.

Heather Cox Richardson puts Trump's Thursday night speech in a broad context: Donald Trump "has put the far right in power, where they are destroying the modern American state. Right-wing officials have undermined the world trade system that underpins American prosperity, empowered economic monopolists by slashing regulations and public lands, decimated reproductive rights and healthcare, cut social safety programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid, slashed medical and scientific research, and dismantled the post–World War II rules-based international order that has maintained global stability for seventy-five years. But the right-wing push to get rid of the modern state is deeply unpopular. And so Trump and his loyalists are embracing the idea that his opponents are in league with a historic throughline of left-wing revolutionaries. Trump’s speech [Thursday] night began with a completely fantastical vision of current conditions in the U.S. that has been widely debunked, point by point, by fact-checkers."

BUT. Peter Charalambous of ABC News: "A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., handed the Trump administration a temporary win on Friday in its attempt to increase federal oversight of elections.  In a unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals put on hold a lower court ruling, which had blocked the U.S. Postal Service from attempting to restrict mail-in voting. However, the Trump administration does not yet have a green light to move forward with the proposed rule. A separate judge in Massachusetts blocked the policy last month, and that injunction still stands. The cases center on a proposed rule from the U.S. Postal Service that sought to compel states to create lists of approved voters, as well as impose stricter regulations on mail-in ballots. Last month, Postmaster General David Steiner told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that under the proposed rule, the Postal Service would refuse to deliver mail-in ballots in states that do not turn over their voter lists.” Emphasis added. Thanks to RAS for the lead.

Fox Won't Let Trump's Phony Claims Burn It Again. Tom Durante of Mediaite: “As other networks picked apart ... Donald Trump’s prime-time address to the nation early Friday morning.... Fox & Friends produced not one mention of the president’s address from the night before, during which the commander in chief once again attempted to cast doubt on the integrity of American elections.... Instead, the regular lineup of co-hosts Brian Kilmeade, Ainsley Earhardt, and Lawrence Jones discussed the latest campaign of U.S. airstrikes against Iran, the air quality crisis choking much of America, disastrous flooding in Texas, the World Cup, and a 'phenomenal' speech — by Marco Rubio.... The network carried Trump’s 26-minute speech in full on Thursday night. As it concluded, chief political anchor Bret Baier said Fox News 'is not in a position to evaluate the accuracy of the president’s statements and claims at this time.'... Fox got burned by Trump’s election claims back in 2023, when the network settled with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million over its false claims about fraud.” Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

Ian Austen & Matina Stevis-Gridneff of the New York Times: Donald “Trump threatened on Friday to charge Canada tariffs to pay for harms caused by the wildfire smoke affecting American cities, joining a handful of Republican lawmakers who have criticized the Canadian government for what they claimed was poor forest management. In a social media post, Mr. Trump said the United States was being “unnecessarily invaded by filthy, polluted, and unhealthy air, the quality of which is dangerous, and totally unacceptable,” and said he would call Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada on Saturday to discuss the issue.... On Thursday, Mr. Carney did not directly address the accusations lobbed at his government by Republican lawmakers, but suggested the United States should do more to combat climate change, which scientists say is a significant factor in bigger, longer and fiercer wildfires.” Thanks to Ken W. for the link. MB: If Trump ups tariffs on Canadian imports to "pay" for poor air quality, the people who pay the tariffs, of course, will be American consumers. ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: “Trump’s [threat to impose tariffs on Canada] was presaged by Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) introducing a bill to sanction Canadian officials found 'responsible' for the fires, revoke their visas and express a sense of Congress that the Canadian ambassador is a 'persona non grata' until the wildfire smoke is gone. 'We will not tolerate this incompetence,' vowed ... Moreno, who may not understand how climate change works.... The threats against Canada, which environmental organizations described as meritless, combine two of the most outlandish elements of Trump’s second term: The GOP’s return to a party that largely denies the reality of man-made climate change and Trump’s personal obsession with alienating Canada.... The root of the problem is climate change, which has dried out Canada’s forests so dramatically over the past decade, [Tim] Gray[, executive director of Environmental Defence Canada,] said, that once an arboreal fire starts, it creates its own weather system and generates lightning within it. Fire crews can’t even get close to the source of these fires because they’re too hot.”

The following would be the perfect Emily Litella moment if only Trump had the intelligence & grace to say, "Never mind!" (Thanks to RAS for the link.) ~~~

Trump is so fucking dumb that when he heard that semiconductors use "transistors," he thought they said "transgenders."

That's how fucking stupid our President is. https://t.co/NXewCQxrLr

— Christopher David (@Tazerface16) July 16, 2026

Jennifer Scholtes & Kyle Cheney of Politico: “A federal judge declared Friday that the Trump administration can’t cancel grants based on new rules or goals established after the fact — in a blow to its efforts to terminate billions of dollars already promised. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, denied the Trump administration’s request to dismiss a lawsuit brought by 20 states, three governors and the District of Columbia challenging the cancellation of billions of dollars in federal grant awards since ... Donald Trump was inaugurated last year.”

Brian Schwartz, et al., of the Wall Street Journal, republished by MSN: “The Treasury Department’s top tax policy official was forced out of his job after he warned that the White House was at risk of violating a federal law prohibiting senior officials’ involvement in IRS audits.... Kenneth Kies, an assistant Treasury secretary and acting chief counsel of the Internal Revenue Service, is leaving those posts in the coming weeks. Kies at times clashed behind the scenes with White House officials.... That included a recent meeting in which he contended that a potential White House request would violate Section 7217 of the Internal Revenue Code.... That law prohibits the president, vice president, White House staff and certain agency heads from directly or indirectly requesting that the IRS conduct or terminate an audit or investigation of any particular taxpayer. Violations are punishable with up to five years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines, and IRS officials have long seen the prohibition as an important shield against the kind of political interference that President Richard Nixon tried to impose on the tax agency.... It couldn’t be determined what White House requests Kies objected to and whether the administration plans to follow through with them after Kies departs.” Donald Trump appointed Kies to this political post. Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ Marie: I suppose Kies got the boot because he wouldn't allow an audit of one or more of Trump's "enemies," but I wonder if he's been making noises about that fake "settlement" Toady Todd arranged so the past returns of Trump & Sons & Co. could never be audited.

Erik Uebelacker of Courthouse News Service: “Immigration and Customs Enforcement has made yet another arrest at a New York City immigration court, despite a May ruling from a federal judge that broadly blocked such detentions. U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled May 18 that ICE never had the legal justification to make these arrests. His order, which applied to immigration courts in Manhattan, kneecapped the agency’s controversial strategy of detaining people as they arrived for mandatory immigration hearings. Despite that, ICE has made at least six arrests in Manhattan immigration courts since Castel issued his order. The latest arrest came on Thursday, when agents detained Bronx resident Matar Ndiaye while he was 'dutifully attending an immigration court hearing for his asylum claim,' according to court filings.... Ndiaye [said in the filings that] he had no due process and no prior warning before he was detained. He was never deemed a flight risk or a danger to the community by an immigration judge.” 

Dara Kerr of the Guardian: “An employee of a company that runs an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Colorado is under arrest after shooting and injuring a woman on Thursday evening. The incident happened after the woman participated in a protest in front of the facility earlier that day, according to the Aurora police department. When officers arrived on the scene, they said they found the woman with a gunshot wound in her lower body.... Police said they stopped a man in his vehicle not far from the scene. They seized his car and gun and identified him as Brandon Booth, 42, an employee for Geo Group. 'We are aware that an off-duty Aurora ICE Processing Center employee was involved in a shooting incident,' a spokesperson for Geo Group said in an email. 'This individual has been placed on unpaid administrative leave, and we will fully cooperate with law enforcement.'... The injured woman was transported to the hospital and treated for her injuries, which are believed to be non-life threatening.” 

First, Kill All the Manatees?? Jake Spring of the Washington Post: “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could soon declare that pygmy rabbits or Florida manatees are threatened with extinction. But under a policy change issued by the Trump administration on Friday, Americans could still kill, trap and harass them. That action — paired with another issued Friday that requires regulators to consider the economic toll of habitat protection — is part of ... Donald Trump’s broad attempt to reinterpret the 1973 Endangered Species Act in ways that weaken protections for imperiled plants and animals.... On Friday, the Fish and Wildlife Service rescinded what is known as the 'blanket rule,' which ... gave threatened species the same protections as endangered ones — broadly prohibiting illegally killing, trapping or harassing them. The rollback would only apply to newly declared threatened species, such as the Florida manatee, whose case is still pending.”

Katherine Tully-McManus & Meredith Hill of Politico: “House GOP leaders released text Friday for a bill to fund the vast majority of the federal government from the start of the next fiscal year on Oct. 1 until after the midterm elections — bypassing the bipartisan appropriations process and daring Democrats to pick a shutdown fight months before voters head to the polls. Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday he plans to put the legislation on the floor next week.”

Lena Sun & Miriam Waldvogel of the Washington Post: “Hours after Taylor Farms announced Friday that it was voluntarily removing iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico from the U.S. market, the Food and Drug Administration said the company informed the agency that it would also initiate a recall. Unlike a voluntary product hold or removal, a recall requires a company to actively notify customers and work to recover affected products from commerce, making it a broader and more costly response.... The actions come after federal investigators linked some of the lettuce it provided to Taco Bell restaurants to one of the largest U.S. outbreaks of cyclosporiasis this summer.” A related New York Times story is here; the link appears to be a gift link.

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Ukraine. Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: “In his zealous efforts to popularize drone warfare, Ukraine’s young defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, also gained widespread popularity himself. And that, political analysts and opposition politicians said, may have helped bring about his downfall this week, as President Volodymyr Zelensky sided against him in a titanic clash with the country’s top military commander. Mr. Zelensky’s dismissal of Mr. Fedorov, 35, sidelined a potential political rival who had seized the spotlight. The timing of his ouster is awkward, just as drone warfare has helped tilt the scales in Ukraine’s favor. The move also indicates Mr. Zelensky’s misgivings about Mr. Fedorov’s vision of drones as nearly the entirety of the country’s future in fighting the war. The firing of Mr. Fedorov came after he had blocked purchases of artillery ammunition in favor of drones. The commander of Ukraine’s military, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, had insisted that the ammunition was still needed in the brutal trench fighting in the country’s east.... Politically, the firing fit a pattern in which Mr. Zelensky has sidelined potential rivals during the war, though none, including Mr. Fedorov, had publicly voiced political ambitions.”

U.K. Rowena Mason of the Guardian: “Andy Burnham has pledged to lead a united Labour government free of infighting and factional politics as he takes over as leader.... The new Labour leader, who will become prime minister on Monday, set out a distinctly leftwing vision for Britain with promises to undo the Thatcherism of the 1980s, bring in more public ownership of utilities, find the money to fix social care and build a new generation of council homes. But he also insisted he would run a 'pro-business' Labour government just as he had done as mayor of Greater Manchester. Arguing his election is the most significant change in British politics for 40 years, Burnham said this was the 'last chance' for Labour to get things right, and he appealed for unity in order to beat Britain’s new right'.” Thanks to RAS for the lead. MB: I don't know if this is “the most significant change in British politics in 40 years,” but it certainly has been the least newsworthy, if the U.S. press is any indication. (Also linked yesterday.)