Cross-Examination

• U.S. asked China before draining SPR: Prior to Joe Biden’s politically motivated decision to open and release millions of barrels of oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in a vein effort to combat spiking gas prices in late 2021, his top energy official held secret talks with China. It has come to light that Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm had several meetings with China’s National Energy Administration Chairman Zhang Jianhua wherein the two reportedly discussed energy policy. Biden’s subsequent action to drain roughly 250 million barrels of oil from the SPR, putting it at its lowest level in almost 40 years, appears to be a decision that most benefits China — raising the question of Beijing’s influence over Biden’s energy policy. “Instead of focusing on creating real energy independence for America, Granholm has been too busy parroting Chinese energy propaganda and insisting ‘we can all learn from what China is doing,’” contends Americans for Public Trust Executive Director Caitlin Sutherland. “The public deserves to know the extent to which Chinese officials are attempting to infiltrate U.S. energy policy and security.”

• Find the children: Since Joe Biden took office, his administration has lost contact with roughly 85,000 migrant children released into the U.S. These unaccompanied minors were released to sponsors, and authorities can no longer locate them. According to The New York Times earlier this year, “Overall, the agency lost immediate contact with a third of migrant children.” Back in April, Biden’s Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement Director Robin Dunn Marcos admitted before Congress that the agency “does not monitor or track the whereabouts of children after they are released from our care." In lieu of this stunning admission, Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) will be introducing legislation to require the federal government to track down these lost children. These children "need to be protected from … terrible traffickers who will exploit them, rape them, put them into forced labor of some kind,” Smith argues. “And so, it’s a very real problem that’s happening all over the world, [and] happening right here in our backyard.”

• Suing Biden over student loans again: The Cato Institute and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy filed a lawsuit Friday against Joe Biden’s latest student loan cancellation gambit. Biden’s plan would use income-driven repayment plans already in existence to effectively provide $39 billion in loan forgiveness to 804,000 borrowers. That effectively games the system by including periods of non-payment as contributing to a borrower’s 20 or 25 years of payment in order to ensure that borrowers meet the threshold for loan forgiveness. The lawsuit argues, “No authority allows the Department to count non-payments as payments.” Therefore, “The inescapable conclusion is that the One-Time Account Adjustment is substantively and procedurally unlawful.”

• Back to the office: With the COVID pandemic long over and fast fading in the nation’s rearview mirror, one thing has yet to get back to pre-pandemic norms — working at the office. This has especially been the case in Washington, where a majority of federal employees are still enjoying working from home. That means federal government office buildings are nowhere near capacity. A recent report from the Government Accountability Office found that nearly two dozen federal agencies’ headquarter offices are currently over 50% vacant. Seeking to remedy this, the Biden administration is pushing to get more federal workers back into the office. White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients sent an email telling agencies to begin “implementing increases in the amount of in-person work for your team” and “to aggressively execute this shift in September and October.”

• Pediatric groomers: The board of American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirmed its commitment to promoting gender-bending treatment on abuse of children. The AAP represents some 67,000 pediatricians nationwide. AAP Chief Executive Mark Del Monte said, “The board has confidence that the existing evidence is such that the current policy is appropriate.” However, in recognition that European countries have increasingly distanced themselves from gender-bending treatment on minors, the AAP board commissioned a systematic review of policy regarding these treatments. This admission looks more like an effort to placate the objections to this ridiculously political and medically harmful stance rather than any sincere concern for questions or objections — much less the kids under the knife.

• Teens riot over PS5 giveaway in NYC: Dozens of teens and young adults were arrested Friday in New York City after a “full-on riot” broke out during an event held by popular video gamer celebrity Kai Cenat. An estimated 2,000 teens and young adults showed up at Union Square Park, where Kai Cenat was promising to give away free PS5 gaming consoles as well as other gaming equipment. The event was being live-streamed and was intended by Kai Cenat as a generous give-back to his fans. The trouble is that Kai Cenat effectively promotes himself with the gangsta image and three months prior had been banned by the gamer platform Twitch for live-streaming himself ingesting and passing out edible marijuana. It therefore comes as little surprise that one who promotes lawlessness would attract a fanbase of lawless thugs.

Headlines

• United States Women’s National Team suffers earliest elimination from World Cup (OutKick)

• Elon Musk vows to go to war against companies that punish employees for activity on X (Daily Wire)

• Former Kamala Harris staffer says VP is unpopular in polls because she’s a “black woman” and a “history maker” (Fox News)

• The institutional left has been hit by a wave of layoffs (but they aren’t sure why) (Hot Air)

• U.S. deploys more than 3K sailors, Marines to Middle East following Iran’s targeting of ships (Fox News)

• Colorado raises age to buy firearms to 21 (PM)

• Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture erases J.K. Rowling from Harry Potter exhibit (PM)

• Millions of U.S. workers near retirement age have zero money saved (NY Post)

• U.S. housing affordability at an all-time low (Fox Business)

• How leprosy arrived in Florida, and how it is spreading: New clues are emerging (SunSentinel)

• Satire: White House says Bidenomics so successful the average American has twice as many jobs as they had two years ago (Babylon Bee)

For more editors’ choice headlines, click here.