Top of the Fold

• Is Putin’s price hike real?: Earlier this month, a liquefied natural gas plant in Quintana Island, Texas, experienced a damaging explosion that had an immediate impact on U.S. natural gas exports to Europe, driving up energy prices. While Joe Biden and his administration dubiously insist that Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is primarily responsible for America’s skyrocketing gas prices, Putin may indeed be legitimately blamed for contributing, but not in the way Biden claims. According to recent reports, the explosion at the natural gas plant known as Freeport LNG may have been intentional, a targeted operation conducted by a cyber unit connected to Russia’s military intelligence service, or GRU. The Washington Examiner reports that “U.S. LNG exports have long been a priority concern for Russia, viewed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a means for the United States to undercut Russia’s domination of the European gas market.” Freeport LNG is one of several such plants currently operating in the U.S., and the explosion has completely shut down the plant for at least three months and prevented a return to full operational capabilities for the rest of the year. Meanwhile, in Europe, the German government has acknowledged that the country is in the midst of a fuel crisis brought on by Russia as it diminishes its deliveries. “The reduction in gas supplies is an economic attack on us by [Putin],” Germany’s minister of the economy Robert Habeck argued. “We will defend ourselves against this. But our country is going to have to go down a stony path now.” If Putin is responsible for the attack — a clear escalation against the U.S. — how will Biden respond? For whatever it’s worth, he has already warned the Russian strongman against attacking our infrastructure.

• Holding medical providers accountable for gender experimentation: On Wednesday, Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Representative Jim Banks (R-IN) announced that they will introduce legislation in their representative chambers to hold medical providers accountable for gender-transforming procedures performed on minors. The “Protecting Minors from Medical Malpractice Act” is an attempt to address the growing medical concerns surrounding the promulgation of what is euphemistically mislabeled “gender-affirming care.” Providing unnatural physical alterations that include everything from puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to surgeries that alter an individual’s outward appearance is simply wrong. The bill would also clarify “that federal law cannot be construed to force medical practitioners to offer such procedures” and disallow “federal health funds from going to states that force medical practitioners to perform gender-transition procedures.” Cotton and Banks are responding to both the World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s (WPATH) recent change to standards (now advocating hormone treatments for minors as young as 14) and Joe Biden’s executive order to the Department of Health and Human Services to prevent federal funding from going to institutions that offer so-called “conversion therapy” as well as “expand support for services to help survivors.” Cotton said, “Gender-transition procedures aren’t safe or appropriate for children,” but “unfortunately, radical doctors in the United States perform dangerous, experimental, and even sterilizing gender-transition procedures on young kids, who cannot even provide informed consent.” He added, “Any doctor who performs these irresponsible procedures on kids should pay.”

• Democrats call on Google to shadow-ban pro-life advocacy: Democrats from both chambers of Congress recently called on Google to effectively censor pro-life content online via shadow-banning. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) and Representative Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), along with 19 other Democrat lawmakers, want the tech giant to “limit the appearance” of pro-life search results or add “user friendly disclaimers” to “ensure women seeking health care services are directed to the basic information they request.” The Democrats cite the British-based censorship advocacy group Center for Countering Digital Hate in making their dubious argument to suppress online free speech. CCDH produced a study logging Google searches for “abortion clinic near me” that supposedly found a significant quantity of “anti-abortion fake clinics” in the results. The study claimed that 11% of results produced “fake clinics” that offered “free pregnancy tests, abortion counseling, pre-abortion screenings, abortion education, post-abortion care, or after-abortion help.” In other words, these “fake clinics” were delineated as such by Planned Parenthood, the nation’s number one abortion provider. This is like asking a criminal to define what constitutes a crime. Democrat lawmakers want to silence the online voice of the opposition, as they ridiculously contended that CCDH’s finding “undermines the integrity of Google’s search results.” What makes this even more devious is the fact that Google is already heavily engaged in suppressing search results that favor and promote conservative perspectives. Who are the real fascists?

Headlines

• 2A win: Supreme Court strikes down New York concealed-carry restriction (NR)

• House GOP leadership rejects Senate gun bill as conservatives revolt over Second Amendment restrictions (Washington Examiner)

• Biden administration to force schools to adopt radical gender policies (Daily Signal)

• Former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum indicted on conspiracy, wire fraud charges (Fox News)

• The cost of your July 4th cookout just went up 17% thanks to inflation (Not the Bee)

• Just 11% of Americans blame Putin for high energy prices (Breitbart)

• Ron DeSantis leads Trump in 2024 New Hampshire primary, general election polls (NR)

• DNC slashing price of Kamala Harris photo-op (Fox News)

• Disney’s “Strange World” animated film to include openly gay teen romance (Daily Wire) | Disney stock has tumbled nearly 50% as audiences turn away (RedState)

• Uvalde school district police chief placed on leave as investigation into shooting continues (Daily Wire)

• Louisiana governor signs bill banning abortions (LifeNews.com)

• Cleveland’s “Officer of the Year” praised Hitler, joined Facebook group honoring Osama bin Laden (PJ Media)

• Policy: Germany’s “green” energy disaster is a warning to the U.S. (The Federalist)

• Satire: Biden seen shouting at gas station sign to lower its prices (Babylon Bee

For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit Headline Report.