Happy Friday! Adidas Sambas owners were devastated last week to see British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sporting the gym shoes—er, “trainers”—in an interview, thus immediately rendering them uncool.

Sunak issued a “fulsome apology” while noting that he’d been wearing the shoes for “many, many years.” There’s a simple solution here, Mr. Prime Minister.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• The Ukrainian parliament passed a law on Thursday to boost military mobilization and conscription by increasing pay incentives for people to join the military, stiffening penalties for men who try to dodge the draft, and decreasing the number of exemptions for military service. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law last week lowering the conscription age for Ukrainian men from 27 to 25, and this new bill still requires Zelensky’s signature to come into force. Meanwhile, Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, head of the U.S. European Command and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, testified before Congress yesterday that Ukraine will be outgunned by Russia “10 to one in a matter of weeks” without additional U.S. security assistance.
• The House Rules Committee advanced an updated version of the bill to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) on Thursday. The bill would reauthorize the program for only two years instead of five, and the rule on the bill—a procedural measure that sets the guidelines for debate—allows for a vote on an amendment that would add a warrant requirement to Section 702 for searches of Americans’ data. Some of the hardliners who shot down reauthorization earlier this week signaled Thursday that they would vote “yes” on the rule, likely allowing the procedural vote to proceed today. 
• The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said in a report released Thursday that the U.S. is in danger of losing its measles elimination status—meaning no outbreak has lasted for more than a year—due to the growth in cases in recent months. There were 97 cases reported between January and March of this year, compared to an average of five such reported cases during the first quarter of each year between 2020 and 2023. The report noted that the “risk for widespread U.S. measles transmission remains low because of high population immunity,” but emphasized the need to increase vaccination coverage in under-vaccinated communities.
• Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley announced her retirement on Thursday, saying she won’t seek another term when her current one ends in 2025. Because the state’s court currently has four liberal-leaning and three conservative-leaning justices, Bradley’s retirement opens up the possibility that control of the court may change hands, which could have implications for abortion access in the state. 
• The Atlanta Journal Consitution reported Thursday that Georgia state prosecutor Pete Skandalakis will lead an investigation into Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones for his alleged involvement in an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state as a false elector. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis was barred from investigating Jones in 2022 because she hosted a fundraiser for his political opponent. 
• O.J. Simpson, the Buffalo Bills football star and infamous criminal defendant, died of cancer on Wednesday at the age of 76. Simpson’s mid-1990s murder trial—related to the deaths of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman—and his subsequent acquittal captivated and divided the country. In 2008, Simpson was convicted of kidnapping, assault, and armed robbery and handed a 33-year prison sentence, of which he served nine years before being released on parole in 2017. 

Biden and Kishida Shoot the Moon

State dinners in honor of visiting dignitaries have a familiar rhythm: U.S. Presidents raise a glass to their ally, talk of enduring friendship, and feast on fancy foods in black tie garb. When Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida came to town this week, American folk singer Paul Simon serenaded the guests, among whom were the Clintons, Jeff Bezos, Robert De Niro, and Kristi Yamaguchi.

During these functions, the language of high-level diplomacy can be a little stuffy and contrived. “We also affirmed the science and education ties between Japan and the United States,” President Joe Biden said in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday. But sometimes, couched in all that diplomatic jargon, the assembled leaders make an announcement that is—simply put—really cool. “Those ties stretch up to the moon,” he continued, “where two Japanese astronauts will join future American missions, and one will become the first non-American ever to land on the moon.”

“I would like to propose a toast to our voyage to the frontier of the Japan-U.S. relationship with this word: boldly go,” Kishida said at that evening’s dinner. 

But this week’s meeting was about far more than sending Japanese astronauts to the moon or celebrating the best of 1970s Americana; it underlined the growing importance of …

As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our full 1,656-word story on the trilateral meeting between the leaders of the United States, Japan, and the Philippines is available in the members-only version of TMD.

Worth Your Time

• For the New York Times, Jon Grinspan—the curator of political history at the Smithsonian—argued that the 2024 election is a lot like the 1892 battle between Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison. “The 1892 election marked Cleveland and Harrison’s second contest against each other,” he wrote. “It was an unwanted rematch between unloved combatants. People liked to joke, of the cold Harrison and the cussed Cleveland, ‘One had no friends; the other, only enemies.’ But as we are seeing again, it is possible for an election to simultaneously make the public fighting mad and bored to tears. The repeated, deadening matchups of Cleveland and Harrison in 1888 and 1892 did just that. They may be the best parallel for what is coming with a second Biden-Trump election this November. There are other rematches in American presidential history, but 1892 was the only time a sitting president lost re-election, ran four years later against his vanquisher, and won. That weird race has a message for all those planning to hit snooze on the coming campaign: Great political change can unfold when the system seems woefully stalled.” 
• Figures like Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and J. D. Vance, among others, are amplifying bogus claims that illegal immigrants are voting en masse for Democrats. Walter Olson evaluated those claims and their consequences for public trust in our elections. “It’s true that some laws do get violated a lot,” Olson wrote for The UnPopulist. “Is the law against non-citizen voting among them? Does enough such voting go on to sway many electoral outcomes? While it’s impossible to prove a negative, there are ways to assess the probabilities. And as we do, we will find ourselves circling around to another question: If Musk or Trump or Vance have good evidence that this is happening, why haven’t they presented it? … The claim that illegal voting is swaying American elections is nothing if not sensational. Those who levy sensational charges should bear the burden of proving them. But they haven’t. It’s just assertion after assertion, with no refutation of the considerable evidence to the contrary.”

Presented Without Comment

Axios: Harvard Reinstates Standardized Testing Requirement, Following Yale, MIT

Also Presented Without Comment

The Hill: Republican Colorado State Lawmaker Apologizes for Leaving Loaded Gun in State Capitol’s Bathroom

Also Also Presented Without Comment

The Athletic: Ippei Mizuhara, Shohei Ohtani’s Former Interpreter, Charged With Bank Fraud and Stealing More Than $16M

At one point, Mizuhara sent a message to one of three unidentified bookmakers referenced in the complaint asking if the bookmaker had seen the stories about his dismissal.

“Yes, but that’s all bulls—,” the bookmaker wrote. “Obviously you didn’t steal from him. I understand it’s a cover job I totally get it.”

“Technically I did steal from him,” Mizuhara replied. “It’s all over for me.”

Toeing the Company Line

• In the newsletters: Mike and Sarah previewed Trump’s upcoming criminal trial in New York, which is set to begin Monday, Will explored how the debate over net neutrality has shifted, and Nick unpacked (🔒) the ways in which some nationalists’ are using Christian tribalism in foreign policy.
• On the podcasts: On today’s episode of The Dispatch Podcast, Sarah, Steve, and Jonah discuss Trump’s abortion positioning, the war in Gaza, the Berkeley Law grad dinner “protest,” and more.
• On the site: Kevin deconstructs Trump’s abortion statement and Charlotte reports on Israel’s efforts to prepare for a possible attack by Iran or its proxies.