Congress fails to act as Fisa spy powers set to expire
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A key surveillance tool that allows the US to collect intelligence abroad appears certain to expire after Congress failed to temporarily extend the program.
The impasse is a protest against president Donald Trump’s temporary pick to head the nation’s intelligence agencies, AP reported.
Trump doubled down on his choice of Bill Pulte for acting director of national intelligence, despite the federal housing finance regulator having little experience.
In response, Democratic politicians said they would not support the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as Fisa, unless Trump withdraws Pulte’s appointment and nominates a permanent replacement.
The House vote collapsed, with 19 Republicans and nearly all Democrats rejecting the temporary measure, 198-218. The Senate tried to approve its own versions, but also failed, with the law due to expire today at midnight.
After the votes, Trump announced Jay Clayton, a US attorney who previously served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, as his permanent pick as intelligence director. But the president’s move did not seem able to break the standoff over Pulte before the deadline.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said:
Pulte has to go. He cannot be in the DNI role. It’s too important.
In other developments:
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Donald Trump declared “a great settlement” with Iran, which could be signed soon “maybe in Europe, over the weekend”.
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Trump’s hand-picked board at the Kennedy Center is mounting a last-minute effort to keep his name on the facade of the performing arts facility before a court-ordered deadline to remove it by Friday. The board voted on Thursday to seek a stay of US district judge Christopher Cooper’s 29 May ruling that said Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center, according to a person familiar with the move who requested anonymity to discuss a private meeting.
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Congressman Robert Garcia, who is in line to chair the House oversight committee next year if Democrats win back the majority in November, called for testimony from vice-president JD Vance and other senior officials over what he called “the White House cover-up” of the Epstein files revealed by the New York Times.
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US federal authorities are investigating what appears to be a massive etching of “8647” into the grass of the National Mall. Live webcam footage from atop the Washington Monument as of Thursday afternoon shows the markings, with a highly visible “8,” along with less visible “6”, “4” and “7”.
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Several Iranian media outlets have been reporting what they described as details of a draft proposal being reviewed by Iran’s leadership. Some of the terms of the agreement, according to the reports, include Iran’s control of the strait of Hormuz and postponed discussions on its nuclear programme (see more here and here).
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Trump said the reports were inaccurate and lashed out at Iran, calling them “very dishonorable people” and warning, “They better get their act together, and FAST!”
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He wrote on Truth Social:
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The terms that Iran leaked out to the Fake News have NOTHING to do with the terms that were agreed to, in writing. What they said, including their weak and pathetic statement on having a deal, bears no relation to the truth. Very dishonorable people to deal with. With them, there is no such thing as dealing in good faith. AMAZING! Also, their totally rebuffed Drone attack last night against Indian Ships leaving the Hormuz Strait is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. They better get their act together, and FAST!”
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Section 702 of Fisa due to expire tonight – and remain so for at least a week during recess – amid backlash to Trump’s pick Bill Pulte for acting DNI.
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While Trump has moved to contain the furor – announcing his nomination of another top official, Jay Carney, to take the role on a permanent basis, yesterday – Congress has so far failed to extend the key power in time for tonight’s deadline.
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But, per my colleague Sanya Mansoor while the Pulte row brought Fisa back in the spotlight, underlying concerns over the program’s balance of civil liberties and national security has been the subject of fraught debate and controversy in recent months, and years.
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Section 702, first enacted in 2008, allows national security agencies to collect and review texts and emails sent to and from foreigners living outside the US, without a warrant. If an American is talking to a non-American target living abroad, their communications can get swept up too.
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Privacy advocates say that while the law is intended to surveil foreigners outside the US, the federal government uses this loophole to spy without warrants on Americans, an unconstitutional practice. Intelligence agencies say they need these surveillance powers to prevent terror attacks.
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speaker Mike Johnson speaks to the media after the House failed to temporarily extend the key Fisa power on Thursday.”,”caption”:”House speaker Mike Johnson speaks to the media after the House failed to temporarily extend the key Fisa power on Thursday.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Ken Cedeno/Reuters”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
This year, Congress has only been able to pass short-term re-authorizations of the section 702 program. Trump and Republican leaders in the House of Representatives have tried, unsuccessfully, to push through longer extensions that do not include key reforms demanded by a broad coalition including progressive Democrats and far-right Republicans.
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In refusing to allow a vote on a warrant requirement to surveil Americans’ communications, Republican House leadership has closed the door to the most important change that dissenting lawmakers and privacy advocates are asking for. They, in turn, blame House speaker Mike Johnson for tanking repeated attempts to extend the program by taking a “my way or the highway approach”.
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What happens now? Well, government surveillance under section 702 can actually still continue through March 2027, because it operates through year-long certifications approved by a special federal court.
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Some lawmakers are worried about a statutory lapse and the program “going dark” – and the Trump administration has accused Democrats of playing politics with national security by blocking its renewal over Pulte’s appointment. But privacy advocates say this is a scare tactic, since all existing certifications and directives continue to be valid.
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“It is shameful, and it is very, very dangerous,” a vexxed Johnson told reporters after yestserday’s failed House vote. “We did everything in our power to try to ensure that this statute does not expire.”
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As you know, the House has left town and is scheduled to return on 23 June – two weeks after the surveillance program’s deadline.
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Jake Laperruque, with the Center for Democracy and Technology, said Johnson’s willingness to send lawmakers home this week, without resolving the Fisa issue, is proof the national security implications aren’t as dire as he has suggested. “They would not be flying off to go home if they actually thought it was a real threat,” he said.
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Autistic children as young as 18 months old are being injected with human stem cells derived from umbilical cords in unapproved, unproven and potentially harmful “treatments” that scientists warn are proliferating across the US under the active encouragement of the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
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Clinics in Florida, Texas and other states are selling what they bill as “regenerative medicine” to families with autistic children who have intensive care needs.
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The procedure, which can involve the child being sedated with ketamine before receiving intravenous doses of millions of stem cells, costs up to $20,000 each treatment. Families are often advised to return for regular top-ups.
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Profoundly stressed parents are being wooed to the clinics with promises that a high-dose infusion of umbilical cord stem cells can lead to dramatic improvements in their children’s ability to speak, socialise, or avoid aggressive or self-harming behaviour. Yet there is no scientific evidence that the procedure works – the most comprehensive clinical trial staged so far, a placebo experiment conducted by Duke University, found insignificant benefits for most of the 180 children tested.
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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) directly cautions parents that if they are being offered stem cell treatments outside an approved clinical trial, “you are likely being deceived and offered a product illegally”.
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Though the Duke trial found minimal safety concerns with properly administered stem cell infusions, authorities continue to highlight the potential risks of under-regulated therapies.
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The FDA warned in 2021 that it had received reports of complications following applications of umbilical cord stem cells and other related unapproved products leading to “blindness, tumor formation, infections and more”.
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In his 16 months as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services within the Trump administration, Kennedy has undercut established scientific endeavors. He has fired thousands of federal health officials, dismissed longstanding scientific advisers, defunded $31m in autism-related research and attempted to shrink the recommended list of childhood vaccinations.
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At the same time, largely unnoticed, he has given his backing to alternative health providers moving to fill the gap. Kennedy appeared by video link at the first two annual summits held in San Diego by Autism Health, a leading advocate of stem cell infusions for autistic kids.
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At the summit last year, he told the audience that “your issue is no longer on the fringe”. At this year’s gathering in April, he promised to “create opportunities that extend across a lifetime” and to work with the stem cell providers “to drive solutions together”.
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Here’s Ed’s full report:
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Hello and welcome to the US live blog.
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A key surveillance tool that allows the US to collect intelligence abroad appears certain to expire after Congress failed to temporarily extend the program.
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The impasse is a protest against president Donald Trump’s temporary pick to head the nation’s intelligence agencies, AP reported.
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Trump doubled down on his choice of Bill Pulte for acting director of national intelligence, despite the federal housing finance regulator having little experience.
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In response, Democratic politicians said they would not support the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as Fisa, unless Trump withdraws Pulte’s appointment and nominates a permanent replacement.
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The House vote collapsed, with 19 Republicans and nearly all Democrats rejecting the temporary measure, 198-218. The Senate tried to approve its own versions, but also failed, with the law due to expire today at midnight.
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After the votes, Trump announced Jay Clayton, a US attorney who previously served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, as his permanent pick as intelligence director. But the president’s move did not seem able to break the standoff over Pulte before the deadline.
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Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said:
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Pulte has to go. He cannot be in the DNI role. It’s too important.
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In other developments:
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Donald Trump declared “a great settlement” with Iran, which could be signed soon “maybe in Europe, over the weekend”.
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Trump’s hand-picked board at the Kennedy Center is mounting a last-minute effort to keep his name on the facade of the performing arts facility before a court-ordered deadline to remove it by Friday. The board voted on Thursday to seek a stay of US district judge Christopher Cooper’s 29 May ruling that said Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center, according to a person familiar with the move who requested anonymity to discuss a private meeting.
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Congressman Robert Garcia, who is in line to chair the House oversight committee next year if Democrats win back the majority in November, called for testimony from vice-president JD Vance and other senior officials over what he called “the White House cover-up” of the Epstein files revealed by the New York Times.
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US federal authorities are investigating what appears to be a massive etching of “8647” into the grass of the National Mall. Live webcam footage from atop the Washington Monument as of Thursday afternoon shows the markings, with a highly visible “8,” along with less visible “6”, “4” and “7”.
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Key events
Trump lashes out at ‘dishonourable’ Iran over terms of deal reported in state media
Taz Ali
Donald Trump has dismissed Iranian media reports on an imminent deal with the US as “fake news”, saying they were not the terms Washington agreed to.
Several Iranian media outlets have been reporting what they described as details of a draft proposal being reviewed by Iran’s leadership. Some of the terms of the agreement, according to the reports, include Iran’s control of the strait of Hormuz and postponed discussions on its nuclear programme (see more here and here).
Trump said the reports were inaccurate and lashed out at Iran, calling them “very dishonorable people” and warning, “They better get their act together, and FAST!”
He wrote on Truth Social:
The terms that Iran leaked out to the Fake News have NOTHING to do with the terms that were agreed to, in writing. What they said, including their weak and pathetic statement on having a deal, bears no relation to the truth. Very dishonorable people to deal with. With them, there is no such thing as dealing in good faith. AMAZING! Also, their totally rebuffed Drone attack last night against Indian Ships leaving the Hormuz Strait is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE. They better get their act together, and FAST!”
Analysis: controversial spying power is set to expire – what happens now?
Sanya Mansoor
Section 702 of Fisa due to expire tonight – and remain so for at least a week during recess – amid backlash to Trump’s pick Bill Pulte for acting DNI.
While Trump has moved to contain the furor – announcing his nomination of another top official, Jay Carney, to take the role on a permanent basis, yesterday – Congress has so far failed to extend the key power in time for tonight’s deadline.
But, per my colleague Sanya Mansoor while the Pulte row brought Fisa back in the spotlight, underlying concerns over the program’s balance of civil liberties and national security has been the subject of fraught debate and controversy in recent months, and years.
Section 702, first enacted in 2008, allows national security agencies to collect and review texts and emails sent to and from foreigners living outside the US, without a warrant. If an American is talking to a non-American target living abroad, their communications can get swept up too.
Privacy advocates say that while the law is intended to surveil foreigners outside the US, the federal government uses this loophole to spy without warrants on Americans, an unconstitutional practice. Intelligence agencies say they need these surveillance powers to prevent terror attacks.
This year, Congress has only been able to pass short-term re-authorizations of the section 702 program. Trump and Republican leaders in the House of Representatives have tried, unsuccessfully, to push through longer extensions that do not include key reforms demanded by a broad coalition including progressive Democrats and far-right Republicans.
In refusing to allow a vote on a warrant requirement to surveil Americans’ communications, Republican House leadership has closed the door to the most important change that dissenting lawmakers and privacy advocates are asking for. They, in turn, blame House speaker Mike Johnson for tanking repeated attempts to extend the program by taking a “my way or the highway approach”.
What happens now? Well, government surveillance under section 702 can actually still continue through March 2027, because it operates through year-long certifications approved by a special federal court.
Some lawmakers are worried about a statutory lapse and the program “going dark” – and the Trump administration has accused Democrats of playing politics with national security by blocking its renewal over Pulte’s appointment. But privacy advocates say this is a scare tactic, since all existing certifications and directives continue to be valid.
“It is shameful, and it is very, very dangerous,” a vexxed Johnson told reporters after yestserday’s failed House vote. “We did everything in our power to try to ensure that this statute does not expire.”
As you know, the House has left town and is scheduled to return on 23 June – two weeks after the surveillance program’s deadline.
Jake Laperruque, with the Center for Democracy and Technology, said Johnson’s willingness to send lawmakers home this week, without resolving the Fisa issue, is proof the national security implications aren’t as dire as he has suggested. “They would not be flying off to go home if they actually thought it was a real threat,” he said.
Also in attendance at the match later will be California governor Gavin Newsom. According to Politico, he and secretary of state Marco Rubio – both widely considered potential future contenders for the presidency – are expected to sit within close proximity of each other at kickoff at SoFi Stadium.
“The Governor is there to support Team USA. Any frame-mogging that occurs will be purely incidental,” an official familiar with the governor’s plans told Politico. Rubio’s office declined to comment.
The United States begin their World Cup challenge – their first on US soil for 32 years – today, taking on Paraguay in a high-stakes match in Los Angeles.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio will attend the opening match. Donald Trump has said he would be present at other games in the tournament, but hasn’t specified which.
The start of the action on the pitch yesterday will have come as a welcome relief to football’s world governing body Fifa, which has faced stinging criticism over the eye-watering cost of tickets.
In addition, Trump’s immigration crackdown has seen a top Somalian referee, Iranian team officials and dozens of fans refused entry to the United States.
For all things World Cup, my colleagues have got you covered:
About half of evangelical Christians – a core component of Donald Trump’s political base – believe his administration’s approach to the Iran war and immigration enforcement is not in line with their understanding of Christianity, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
Evangelicals helped power the Republican’s 2024 election victory, and Trump and his top officials including defense secretary Pete Hegseth have regularly used religious language in describing their goals and policies.
Republicans will be counting on them in the November midterm elections, when they will be defending thin majorities in the US Senate and House of Representatives.
Some 54% of evangelicals in the 3-8 June poll said Trump’s use of the military in Iran was not in line with their understanding of Christianity, while 41% said it was in line with it.
Some 51% of evangelicals said the administration’s approach to immigration policy was not in line with Christian values, with 44% saying it was.
Donald Trump’s hand-picked board at the Kennedy Center is mounting a last-minute effort to keep his name on the facade of the performing arts facility before a court-ordered deadline to remove it by Friday.
The board voted on Thursday to seek a stay of US district judge Christopher Cooper’s 29 May ruling that said Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center, according to a person familiar with the move who requested anonymity to discuss a private meeting.
The formal stay will be filed on Friday, the person said.
Cooper ruled that only Congress could institute a change to the Kennedy Center’s name and ordered references to Trump be removed by Friday. He also blocked the administration from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations that had been planned to start in July and last for two years.
The board move marks a shift from a 4 June memo to staff from the Kennedy Center’s Office of General Counsel saying email signatures, letterhead and other documents must reflect the name as “The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts” or “Kennedy Center”.
The Kennedy Center’s website has dropped the president’s name. And an email earlier this week sent to members offering ticket packages for the 28 June Mark Twain Award for American Humor ceremony came from the Kennedy Center without including Trump’s name.
Autistic children injected with unapproved stem cell treatments supported by RFK Jr
Autistic children as young as 18 months old are being injected with human stem cells derived from umbilical cords in unapproved, unproven and potentially harmful “treatments” that scientists warn are proliferating across the US under the active encouragement of the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Clinics in Florida, Texas and other states are selling what they bill as “regenerative medicine” to families with autistic children who have intensive care needs.
The procedure, which can involve the child being sedated with ketamine before receiving intravenous doses of millions of stem cells, costs up to $20,000 each treatment. Families are often advised to return for regular top-ups.
Profoundly stressed parents are being wooed to the clinics with promises that a high-dose infusion of umbilical cord stem cells can lead to dramatic improvements in their children’s ability to speak, socialise, or avoid aggressive or self-harming behaviour. Yet there is no scientific evidence that the procedure works – the most comprehensive clinical trial staged so far, a placebo experiment conducted by Duke University, found insignificant benefits for most of the 180 children tested.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) directly cautions parents that if they are being offered stem cell treatments outside an approved clinical trial, “you are likely being deceived and offered a product illegally”.
Though the Duke trial found minimal safety concerns with properly administered stem cell infusions, authorities continue to highlight the potential risks of under-regulated therapies.
The FDA warned in 2021 that it had received reports of complications following applications of umbilical cord stem cells and other related unapproved products leading to “blindness, tumor formation, infections and more”.
In his 16 months as the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services within the Trump administration, Kennedy has undercut established scientific endeavors. He has fired thousands of federal health officials, dismissed longstanding scientific advisers, defunded $31m in autism-related research and attempted to shrink the recommended list of childhood vaccinations.
At the same time, largely unnoticed, he has given his backing to alternative health providers moving to fill the gap. Kennedy appeared by video link at the first two annual summits held in San Diego by Autism Health, a leading advocate of stem cell infusions for autistic kids.
At the summit last year, he told the audience that “your issue is no longer on the fringe”. At this year’s gathering in April, he promised to “create opportunities that extend across a lifetime” and to work with the stem cell providers “to drive solutions together”.
Here’s Ed’s full report:
Congress fails to act as Fisa spy powers set to expire
Hello and welcome to the US live blog.
A key surveillance tool that allows the US to collect intelligence abroad appears certain to expire after Congress failed to temporarily extend the program.
The impasse is a protest against president Donald Trump’s temporary pick to head the nation’s intelligence agencies, AP reported.
Trump doubled down on his choice of Bill Pulte for acting director of national intelligence, despite the federal housing finance regulator having little experience.
In response, Democratic politicians said they would not support the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as Fisa, unless Trump withdraws Pulte’s appointment and nominates a permanent replacement.
The House vote collapsed, with 19 Republicans and nearly all Democrats rejecting the temporary measure, 198-218. The Senate tried to approve its own versions, but also failed, with the law due to expire today at midnight.
After the votes, Trump announced Jay Clayton, a US attorney who previously served as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, as his permanent pick as intelligence director. But the president’s move did not seem able to break the standoff over Pulte before the deadline.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said:
Pulte has to go. He cannot be in the DNI role. It’s too important.
In other developments:
-
Donald Trump declared “a great settlement” with Iran, which could be signed soon “maybe in Europe, over the weekend”.
-
Trump’s hand-picked board at the Kennedy Center is mounting a last-minute effort to keep his name on the facade of the performing arts facility before a court-ordered deadline to remove it by Friday. The board voted on Thursday to seek a stay of US district judge Christopher Cooper’s 29 May ruling that said Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center, according to a person familiar with the move who requested anonymity to discuss a private meeting.
-
Congressman Robert Garcia, who is in line to chair the House oversight committee next year if Democrats win back the majority in November, called for testimony from vice-president JD Vance and other senior officials over what he called “the White House cover-up” of the Epstein files revealed by the New York Times.
-
US federal authorities are investigating what appears to be a massive etching of “8647” into the grass of the National Mall. Live webcam footage from atop the Washington Monument as of Thursday afternoon shows the markings, with a highly visible “8,” along with less visible “6”, “4” and “7”.
