Good morning! President Biden will host a state dinner at the White House for the prime minister of Japan tonight. The president of the Philippines will join the party tomorrow to make this summit “trilateral.” We’ll have more on this in Friday’s issue. You know, once the meetings actually happen.

If you fail, try try again. But at some point, maybe don't? A guy in India has run for office 238 times… and has lost 238 times. The "elections king" has run for everything from local council to the presidency. This time around (#239) he's running for parliament. He says he's "happy losing" and that the real courage is just showing up. Go off, (elections) king.

STATES

🏛️ Courting controversy in Arizona

Some things never go out of style. Levi’s. Leather jackets. Civil War-era pre-statehood territorial abortion laws.

Yesterday, the seven-member Arizona Supreme Court overruled the state's 2022 15-week abortion ban. Not because it violates the state constitution. But because it's superseded by a stricter law passed in 1864.

• To the surprise of many, old laws are still laws. Our British friends are still enforcing a few from 1267 (no, that’s not a typo).

• This bad boy was passed when Abe Lincoln roamed the earth. That’s 48 years before Arizona even became a state. In the court’s view, it was explicitly folded into state law in 1913 and never repealed.

• The law was put on ice when the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide in 1973. That changed in 2022 when the justices overturned that 1973 decision.

This law bans abortion outright in all cases with one exception: to save the life of the mother. Breaking the law is a felony offense.

Arizona’s Attorney General said she won’t enforce the law or take legal actions against anyone violating it. Planned Parenthood says it will keep offering abortions in the state at least through the state's declared 45-day probationary window.

Political reactions: Both candidates running for U.S. Senate in Arizona this year — Democrat Ruben Gallego and Republican Kari Lake — oppose the decision. Some Arizona Republicans, including a few vulnerable congressmen, came out against it. They want the state legislature to change it ASAP. State Democrats oppose it, too, and tried to tie Republicans to the ruling.

On the national level:

• President Biden called the decision “extreme.” He’s sending Vice President Harris to Arizona on Friday to “continue her leadership” on the issue.

• Donald Trump hasn’t specifically addressed it. But he blasted Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Monday for pushing a national abortion limit. Trump called that an electoral disaster for Republicans.

• Pro-life groups celebrated the ruling, saying it would "protect 11,000 babies" each year.

Looking forward... this thing may not last long regardless. Pro-choice activists in Arizona are collecting signatures to get a legalization measure on the state’s ballot this fall.

ELECTIONS

👸 Miss Congress 2024?

Miss America 2017 is running for Congress. North Dakota's own Cara Mund ran in 2022 as an independent (no Dem ran that year) and got a whopping 38% of the vote. North Dakota is a super Republican state. So, obviously, she's running as a Republican this time around. Mund is pro-choice and is positioning herself as the moderate in the Republican primary against four more conservative rivals. She hopes they'll split the (larger) conservative share of the vote so she can sneak up the middle and win. We'll find out in June if that strategy works. Incumbent Kelly Armstrong is retiring from Congress to run for governor.

Mund isn't the first Miss America with political aspirations.

• Erika Harold, the 2003 winner, has run for two offices. In (very) Democratic Illinois. As a Republican.

• Mallory Hagan, the 2013 winner, has also run for two offices. In (very) Republican Alabama. As a Democrat. Despite having won her crown as Miss New York.

Maybe Mund’s a winner. She's at least got the party issue sorted out.

POLITICS

⚪ America's TV networks wrote a letter to Joe Biden and Donald Trump begging for debates. Televised debates have been held in every presidential election since 1976. Trump's in. But Biden's iffy. He says it all depends on Trump's "behavior." That said, the Commission on Presidential Debates already has the shouting matches debates scheduled for this fall.

🔵 Joe Biden might not be on the ballot in Ohio this fall. Ohio law requires candidates to be certified by Aug. 7. But Biden won't be the official Democratic nominee until the Democratic Convention two weeks later. This situation affected both parties in 2020. So the legislature granted exceptions. But the Republican convention is in July this year. So this is a Dem-only issue. Team Biden is confident they’ll get another pass.

🔴 A New York state-level judge declined Donald Trump's request to move his hush money trial out of Manhattan. His lawyers claimed he couldn't get a fair trial in liberal Manhattan. The trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 2.

🔴 Trump Media stock has fallen by a whopping 53% since the company’s first public stock offering two weeks ago.

🔴 Former. Rep. Mike Rogers (R) might be registered to vote in Florida. That’s not a problem. Except for the pesky fact that he’s running for Senate in Michigan, the state he repped in Congress for 14 years until retiring in 2015. Michigan Democrats are (obviously) hitting him for this. Rogers hasn’t responded to the accusation yet. But he’s spent almost his whole life in Michigan (and has presumably moved back). So this might not hurt too badly. But it definitely won’t help.

TRIVIA

In 2022, the Census Bureau estimated America's foreign-born population to be 46.2 million people. That's about 14% of the U.S. population. More than half of these people live in just four states. Which four states contain the largest foreign-born populations?

Hint: We’re talking sheer numbers here. These aren’t necessarily the four with the highest percentage of foreign-born residents.

WORLD

🇨🇳 China: U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is in China trying to improve relations. On that front, she and U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns are engaged in "food diplomacy." Her chopstick skills and choice of beer (an IPA) are hot topics on Chinese social media.

🇨🇭 Switzerland: The European Court for Human Rights ruled in favor of 2,000 Swiss women (all over 64) who sued their government for failing to fight climate change. They say older people are more susceptible to its effects. The landmark ruling is legally binding and will force the Swiss to adjust their climate policies or face penalties.

🇹🇼 Taiwan: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) will use federal subsidies to build a second U.S. plant in Arizona. Most of the world’s computer chips come from Taiwan. With China (maybe) planning an invasion, the Biden administration views access to those chips as a national security issue.

🇺🇸 United States: Vice President Harris met yesterday with families of hostages held by Hamas. Five Americans are missing and believed to be held by Hamas in Gaza. Sunday marked the six-month anniversary of the Oct. 7 assault that captured the hostages.

BRIEFS

• The Justice Department (DOJ) arrested an eighteen-year-old in Idaho they say planned to attack churches on behalf of ISIS

• Hawaii's legislature is debating a ban on short-term rentals to combat high housing costs, which run ~2.5x the national average

• Costco is selling an estimated $100 million to $200 million in pure gold bars each month to members

• Norfolk Southern Railway will pay $600 million to settle a class action lawsuit for a 2023 derailment (and chemical burnoff) in Ohio

• The parents of a Michigan school shooter were each sentenced to 10+ years in prison after convictions for manslaughter

• A Boeing engineer told the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that the company ignores safety concerns in favor of faster production

• Simon Harris, 37, took office yesterday as taoiseach ("tea-SHOCK" — aka prime minister), becoming the youngest in Ireland's history

• A Republican congresswoman and Democratic senator unveiled a bill yesterday to set "clear, national data privacy" standards

• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wants to overhaul Italy's post-WW2 constitution to stop the revolving door of PMs (5 in 10 years)

• Seven states are suing the U.S. Dept. of Education to stop the SAVE student loan forgiveness plan, which they say is unconstitutional

QUOTE

SNACKS

🍿 Movies: WB just dropped the teaser trailer to Joker 2, which is — inexplicably — a musical. Joaquin Phoenix is back in the lead role while Lady Gaga co-stars as Harley Quinn. The movie comes out on October 4.

🏀 Betting: Did your friends convince you to bet on the NCAA tourney? Did you lose your shirt? You may be in luck. You might be able to claim those losses on your taxes next year. The reverse is true for your friends who lucked into winning by picking the funniest mascot in each matchup. Those winnings are subject to income tax. The IRS never misses, does it?

🟫 Scrabble: The old one isn’t going anywhere. But devout Scrabblers have zero chill about Scrabble’s plan to release an updated version of the game aimed at younger players who prefer a more collaborative, less competitive game.

ANSWER

The Census Bureau posted some fresh data on this yesterday. The four states with the most residents not born in the U.S. of A. are:

1. California (10.4 million — 27%)

2. Texas (5.2 million — 17%)

3. Florida (4.8 million — 22%)

4. New York (4.5 million — 23%)

If you want to go by the foreign-born share of each state’s population, the numbers shift a bit: CA, NJ, NY, FL, NV, MA, TX, HI, MD, CT (there’s your top 10 by percentage).