Top of the Fold

• Rep. Jackie Walorski killed in car crash: Republican Representative Jackie Walorski of Indiana was killed in a two-vehicle car crash on Wednesday. The vehicle Walorski and two other passengers were in collided with an opposite-bound vehicle. All individuals involved in the accident died. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) responded to the news with the following statement: “Dean Swihart, Jackie’s husband, was just informed by the Elkhart County Sheriff’s office that Jackie was killed in a car accident this afternoon. She has returned home to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers. We will have no further comment at this time.” Walorski was first elected in 2012 and was serving her fifth term in Congress representing Indiana’s 2nd District. Prior to entering politics, Walorski worked as a TV news reporter and served for four years with her husband as a missionary in Romania, where they focused on helping children in poverty. She was the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Worker and Family Support, as well as the ranking member on the House Ethics Committee. Meanwhile, the Leftmedia sunk to a predictable low in reporting on Walorski’s death by painting her as an anti-abortion, right-wing extremist who voted against impeaching Donald Trump following the January 6 Capitol riot.

• Saudi Arabia humiliates Biden even as Iran loves him: Last month, Joe Biden went hat in hand to beg Saudi Arabia to increase its oil production to help drive down the skyrocketing price of oil back in the States. Following the visit, the Biden administration sought to paint a picture that some deal for increased production had been reached, though the specifics were lacking. Yesterday, it was announced that OPEC, which Saudi Arabia essentially controls, would be ramping up production to the tune of just 100,000 more barrels of oil a day. For context, the U.S. uses roughly 21 million barrels of oil a day, so Biden’s kowtowing to the Saudis got him an increase that amounts to a rounding error. Talk about humiliating. That’s not even the end of it, as Iran has been making bank off its illegal oil trade, raking in $44.7 billion since Biden took office in January 2021. Most of Iran’s illegal oil sales have been to China. Again, to put things in perspective, during Donald Trump’s presidency Iran’s illegal oil sales were sharply down, with his last year in office seeing Iran’s illegal oil sales total $22 billion. Biden’s first year saw a 77% jump in illegal oil sales totaling $39 billion, thanks in large part to his administration effectively turning a blind eye to Iran’s black market, all because Biden wanted to resurrect Barack Obama’s disastrous Iran nuclear deal.

• Senate green-lights Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership: On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate voted to approve Finland and Sweden’s request for membership in NATO. The vote passed 95-1; two-thirds of the Senate is needed to ratify the treaty agreement. Biden will submit the decision to NATO, joining 20 other NATO countries that have already given their approval. The six remaining NATO countries will need to approve before Sweden and Finland can be accepted. The treaty requires unanimous consensus from all member countries before any new member can enter NATO. The lone senator to vote against Sweden and Finland joining NATO was Josh Hawley (R-MO), who contended that the U.S. must be more focused on its biggest geopolitical foe. “U.S. resources are not unlimited,” he said. “Already we spend the better part of a trillion dollars a year on defense. And our manpower is already stretched thin across the globe. The United States must prioritize the defense resources we have for the China effort, while there is still time. Until our European allies make the necessary commitments to their own national defense, we must not put more American lives at risk in Europe while allowing China’s power to grow unchecked.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) rejected Hawley’s characterization, noting that having Finland and Sweden as part of NATO would “improve burden sharing across the alliance,” and it would “help us counter Russia and China.”

Headlines

• China fires “precision missile strikes” in Taiwan Strait day after Nancy Pelosi concludes visit (Fox News)

• Republicans introduce bill to prevent ChiComs from buying American land (Townhall)

• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspends Soros-backed state attorney who refused to enforce abortion ban (Fox News)

• “Protecting life at all stages”: Georgia adopts policies to support pregnant women and foster kids (Free Beacon)

• In Capitol Hill testimony, scientists contradict Anthony Fauci’s claim that NIH never funded gain-of-function research (Daily Wire)

• Karine Jean-Pierre says it was “unconstitutional” for Supreme Court to overturn Roe (Daily Wire)

• San Francisco DA revokes dozens of plea deals made by woke predecessor, cracks down on drug dealers (Daily Wire)

• Paul Pelosi pleads not guilty to DUI charges months after crashing Porsche in California (Fox News)

• Summer gasoline demand in inflation-saturated U.S. drops below pandemic levels (Bloomberg)

• Policy: Why electric car drivers might not be pumped over privacy-jolting mileage taxes (RCI)

• Satire: Sodom and Gomorrah declare state of emergency over monkeypox (Babylon Bee)

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