Good morning! Welcome to the future. It’s weird. Some people in Phoe nix can now get their Uber Eats delivered by fully driverless Waymo cars. The only downside? Gotta put some pants on to go outside and get the food out of the trunk. Feels like that’s worth it though, no?

WORLD

🇨🇺 Havana nights, Havana days

The president calls you into his office one night for a very important, personal mission: “I need 1,000 Cuban cigars by tomorrow morning.” That’s exactly what President Kennedy told his aide the night before banning trade with Cuba in 1962. The aide, Pierre Salinger, came back with 1,200.

Yadda yadda yadda: The U.S. had severed diplomatic ties with communist Cuba in 1961 and closed the embassy (though Americans later worked out of the Swiss embassy for 38 years). Kennedy’s trade embargo was the final nail in the coffin.

• The CIA kept trying to assassinate longtime Cuban President Fidel Castro. That stopped when President "Party Pooper" Ford banned political assassinations in 1976.

• Cuban Americans (all 2 million of 'em) are a wildly important political demographic. They’re part of the reason Florida has trended so Republican.

Cuba today struggles with mass food shortages, power outages, and economic growth. Last month, the Cuban people began rare protests against the dire situation. Similar protests in 2021 were put down by force.

• Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said yesterday that his country had secured enough food to guarantee rice supplies until June. They’re working on milk and wheat. No word yet on the Nutter Butter situation.

• More important than his title of president is that he’s the head of the Communist Party of Cuba. In communist systems, that’s the big dog.

• Some Americans believe the U.S. embargo is making the situation worse. They want that policy to change.

Here's the wild part: President Obama reopened the U.S. embassy in Havana, Cuba in 2015 to much celebration (but didn’t lift the trade embargo). In 2016, American diplomats there began experiencing bizarre medical problems: severe headaches, ringing ears, and brain damage. This little problem was given a nickname: Havana syndrome.

• It affected Canadian diplomats, too.

• And Americans in random places around the globe: Russia, Georgia (the country), Australia, Uzbekistan, China, and more.

• Cases of this popped up clear into 2021.

What’s causing it? No clue. Intelligence officials say it’s probably nothing. Congress isn’t sure. Cuba thinks we’re faking it. But "60 Minutes” and “The Insider” claim to have proven that this is an “acoustic weapon" built by Russia's GRU intelligence operatives. And they've got an insanely well-disguised FBI agent to prove it.

POLITICS

🔵 A congressional primary in California just officially ended in a tie — 30,249 to 30,249. California uses a funky “jungle primary” system. Candidates from every party run together in the primary. The top two make it to the general election. These two gents just tied for second place. Which means they’re both moving on to the general. California’s top-two system just became top-three.

🔵 Here’s what’s going on in Biden world:

• First Lady Jill Biden will host a "Teachers of the Year" state dinner at the White House on May 1 in addition to the regular ole non-food ceremony.

• The Biden campaign and the Democratic party have together opened more than 100 field offices across the country for the campaign. Team Trump has opened…zero?

• The DOJ wants prison time for Aimee Harris. She pleaded guilty to stealing, with a friend, the diary, phone, and tax records of presidential daughter Ashley Biden. They later sold the stash for ~$40,000.

🔴 A few goings on with Donald Trump:

• Biden set a fundraising record last week with a $26 million event in NYC. Trump plans to blow that out of the water with a $43 million soiree in Palm Beach, FL. The tickets? Up to $814,600 a pop.

• He posted a $175 million bond while appealing his $454 million verdict in New York. Now the state wants the bond underwriter to prove the money's good.

• Trump’s been charged (with 18 others) by the state of Georgia with racketeering for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election. A Fulton County judge just denied Trump's request to toss that case. But his bid to get the prosecutor dismissed for misconduct is still rolling.

⚪ Independent centrist group No Labels is officially out. The magical unicorn candidate they were searching for to run a presidential “unity ticket” doesn’t seem to exist.

⚪ Seems like the strongest (but still longshot) third-party candidate will be environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Some updates:

• On CNN, RFK called Joe Biden a worse threat to democracy than Donald Trump.

• Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) said she turned down RFK’s offer to be his running mate.

• His campaign qualified for the ballot in North Carolina (his fifth state) after collecting 23,000 signatures. He’ll be listed under his "We The People" party.

🔵 Former 2 Live Crew frontman and rap legend Luther Campbell (D) wants to run for Congress in Florida. This could be wild. This guy is literally why some albums have “explicit content” labels.

🔴 National Republicans are pushing Republican-controlled Nebraska to overhaul the way it doles out its electoral votes. All but two states — Nebraska and Maine — give theirs to the statewide winner. The two weirdos do it by who wins in each congressional district. The Omaha area went for Biden in 2020 as Nebraska overall went for Trump. So this change would net Trump +1 electoral vote. That could make the difference in a close race. But there’s doubt they can get it done in time.

⚪ Republicans have a slight edge in the enthusiasm gap. A Gallup poll shows 59% of Republicans are jazzed about voting this year. Only 55% of Democrats said the same. Why this matters? People who aren’t excited about voting are less likely to vote (surprise, surprise).

TRIVIA

Every state has its own legislature. And each has a different number of members than the next. Only one, however, reserves seats specifically for Native American tribes. Which state’s legislature seats three non-voting delegates from Native tribes?

WORLD

🇮🇱 Israel: Israeli embassies around the world are on high alert over fear of an Iranian attack. This comes after Israel offed a senior Iranian military leader in Syria. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are stopping all leave for combat soldiers and calling up reservists in preparation. And GPS is blocked in much of Israel to block incoming missiles. On a related note, Israel will allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza after a warning from the White House.

🇺🇦 Ukraine: House Speaker Mike Johnson said he'd put Ukraine aid up for a vote ASAP. Now that could be weeks away as he deals with a brewing coup in the Republican caucus. Meanwhile, the U.K. Foreign Secretary is leading a European pressure campaign to get Johnson to act.

🇨🇾 Cyprus: This little Mediterranean island nation (and E.U. member) is just off the coast of the Middle East. And they’re blaming Lebanon for a new migration “crisis.” By this point last year, 78 people had arrived by sea. This year? It's over 2,000.

🇷🇺 Russia: Russia's fourth-biggest refinery has cut gasoline production by 40%. They've got a broken turbine that can't be fixed. Why? Well, well, well. The only company in the world that can repair it is... American. Oops.

BRIEFS

• Google’s AI had trouble generating images of white people and now Facebook’s can’t generate interracial couples

• An 87-year-old British billionaire with an eye patch will pay a $5 million fine for illegal insider trading

• Say it ain’t so, Joe — Trader Joe’s is allegedly just ripping off the creations of small food companies

• Kansas and Utah are on the hunt as Kansas City, MO voters rejected using public funds to rebuild the city's MLB and NFL stadiums

• Disney CEO Bob Iger will keep control of the House of Mouse after winning the boardroom fight with a billionaire investor

• Most CVS drug plans will fully cover the nation's first over-the-counter birth control pill

• Boeing has paid Alaskan Airlines $160 million for lost revenue caused by the grounding of its janky 737 MAX 9 jets

• The Department of Education is throwing gas on the FAFSA dumpster fire — they just sent incorrect financial aid info to universities

• Over 500 Baltimore-area businesses applied for a federal loan program designed to provide relief during the port closure

QUOTE

SNACKS

🏀 Sports: The end is nigh, non-sports fans. The NCAA women's Final Four games are today (NC State vs. South Carolina and UConn vs. Iowa). The men’s games are tomorrow (Purdue vs. NC State and UConn vs. Alabama). Bracket talk should die out by Tuesday. But be warned. The Masters kicks off in full on Thursday.

👱‍♀️ TV: “What, like it’s hard?” Amazon is working on a new “Legally Blonde” show for streaming. Reese Witherspoon is set to produce.

🍎 Apple: You love to see it. A new report suggests Apple is pivoting resources from its busted car project and going all in on a robot butler idea.

ANSWER

If you guessed one of the states with the highest relative Native population — Alaska, Oklahoma, New Mexico, or South Dakota — you would be super wrong.

The winner here rings in at #28 on that list. The great state of Maine is just 0.6% Native American. But the Maine House of Representatives reserves three seats for tribal delegates from the:

• Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians

• Passamaquoddy Tribe

• Penobscot Nation

This system is similar to the one used for delegates from Puerto Rico, Guam, et al. to the U.S. House of Representatives. The delegates can’t vote on the floor but are members of legislative committees and vote there and co-sponsor bills.