Today's Top Stories From the Breitbart News Desk

The Biden administration faced its first China test this week and flunked it. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began the meeting by lecturing China that its action in Xinjiang and Hong Kong were “threatening the rules-based order that maintains global stability.” China responded by immediately breaking the rules of the very meeting—in which opening remarks were supposed to be limited to two minutes—to launch into a lengthy harangue about America's "human rights violations" and racism. Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi engaged in an 18-minute tirade against the U.S. moral standing in the world.

"China has made steady progress in human rights, and the fact is that there are many problems within the United States regarding human rights, which is admitted by the U.S. itself as well," Yang said.

All this would be humiliating enough, but team Biden made it even worse by not standing up for the United States against China's outrageous accusations. In fact, Blinken's people agreed to the premise that America is a deeply flawed country that needs to be made "more perfect" through progressive policy. As it turns out, when your administration preaches critical race theory and spends its energy deploring white privilege, it's hard to turn around and defend yourself against foreign tyrants who accuse your country of being racist.

It was always going to be a struggle to build the multilateral coalition to put pressure on China that Biden promised on the campaign trail. But what happened in Alaska has probably assured that the plan will fail. Who is going to look to U.S. leadership after watching our diplomats get bullied by China on our home turf?

Nike quarterly sales missed estimates, with the company blaming shipping issues and pandemic-related slumping sales at brick-and-mortar stores. The company also disappointed investors with its full-year revenue forecast. This shouldn't have been too surprising. With many schools still shuttered, school sport-related purchases have fallen off steeply. Gyms have been closed in much of the country. Things like pick-up basketball games have been declared off-limits in cities. And with people staying home more, there is just less demand for shoes in general. Few of us have worn out the treads on the sneakers we bought prepandemic.

The good news is that Americans are starting to travel again, even though the Centers for Disease Control still say we should avoid doing so. Data from the TSA indicates that airline travel hit the highest level in over a year, although still well below prepandemic levels. Hotel occupancy hit its best level since the pandemic in March as well.

– Alex Marlow & John Carney
Breitbart News Network