Welcome! The Biden administration has confirmed it wants taxpayers to pay for sex-change operations on minors.

HEADLINE: In the Speaker's race, it's Kevin McCarthy versus the phantom conservative - SEMAFOR

NEW: US gas is cheaper than before Russia invaded Ukraine - CNN

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Clip of the day: In an unbelievable statement, Janet Yellen blamed inflation on Americans for “splurging.”

Tom Elliott @tomselliott

Don't blame the Biden Admin printing trillions of dollars: @SecYellen tells @StephenAtHome the real reason inflation is out of control is because Americans are "splurging" on goods; "and, remember, Russia has conducted a brutal war against Ukraine"

Tweet of the day:

Nathan Leamer @NathanLeamerDC

🚨🚨🚨 Stacey Abrams to the FCC?!?!?!

The Interview

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried ignored the advice of his legal team and did interviews with Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times DealBook Summit and George Stephanopoulos at GMA on the collapse of FTX and the billions of investor dollars lost. Neither interview went particularly well.

unusual_whales @unusual_whales

Sorkin: "Can you please ask SBF why he decided to steal my life savings, and $10 billion dollars more from customers to give to his customers, Alameda. " SBF: "Yeah. Um, I mean, I’m deeply sorry about what happened."

Tom Elliott @tomselliott

Ponzi schemer @SBF_FTX says he's not like Bernie Madoff because "FTX was a real business"

Why it matters: As the Security and Exchange Commission and prosecutors in New York evaluate whether to press charges against the FTX founder, Bankman-Fried is doubling down on ignorance. Bankman-Fried claimed he was unaware FTX funds were commingled with the highly leveraged sister company Alameda until it was too late.

Go deeper: FTX’s Collapse Was a Crime, Not an Accident - Coinbase

China Doublesdown

China is doubling down on censorship efforts following mass protests across 15 cities over the past week. The government is mandating that tech companies expand censorship of anti-government protests along with scuttling private networks that allowed protestors to privately use the internet. Go read the full story at The Wall Street Journal. Here’s the paragraph that matters:

The Cyberspace Administration of China issued guidance to companies on Tuesday, including Tencent Holdings Ltd. and ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese owner of short video apps TikTok and Douyin, asking them to add more staff to internet censorship teams, according to people familiar with the matter. The companies were also asked to pay more attention to content related to the protests, particularly any information being shared about demonstrations at Chinese universities and a fire in the western Xinjiang region that triggered the nationwide backlash over Covid policies.

NEW: Florida Bails on BlackRock

Insider Paper @TheInsiderPaper

JUST IN - Florida to pull $2 billion worth of its assets managed by BlackRock, the biggest such divestment by a state opposed to the asset manager's environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) policies. - Reuters

The rest of the news:

Denver Broncos in disarray as fans and team turn on Russell Wilson - Axios
Blake Masters Is What Went Wrong for Republicans in the Midterms - National Review
Dems' rail-strike challenge: Save the economy and your ties to unions - Politico
FBI denies purging conservative employees in letter to Jim Jordan - Fox News
‘Just Stop Oil’ Activists Threaten to Start Slashing Priceless Paintings in Escalation of Criminal Tactics - National Review
This is what McDonald’s drive-thru of the future could look like - CNN
Anyone But McCarthy? - Puck (paywall)
Thiel’s Midterm Hangover & More Hakeemology - Puck (paywall)

Tweets that caught my eye:

Clay Travis @ClayTravis

So @Apple you’ve got some major explaining to do. You need to leave China, apologize to everyone you employed there, & call for basic human rights all over the world. Watch this footage:

Josh Kraushaar @JoshKraushaar

“Trump has called David Friedman, his former ambassador to Israel, to express his displeasure with Friedman’s tweet criticizing him, advisers said.”

washingtonpost.comTrump’s dinner with antisemites provides test of GOP response to extremismRepublicans are showing increasing willingness in criticizing Trump over his meeting with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West who has issued anti-Jewish diatribes.

Will Hild @WillHild

.@arthurbrooks on corporations going woke: "We need to tell CEOs...3% of your employees are activists...blowing up your Slack demanding that you get involved in a culture war and make political statements. Don't do it. The rest of your employees are feeling bullied as well..."

Market snapshot:

THE SHOW NOTES: Florida Bails on BlackRock…