Top of the Fold

• Nearly half a million illegals have gotten away so far this year: Record numbers of illegal aliens continue to pour into the U.S. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which runs calculations using a range of border surveillance technologies including arial drone footage, over 476,000 migrants have evaded apprehension in the current fiscal year. That’s nearly 80,000 more than the FY2021 total of 389,000. The average daily total of migrant got-aways sits at 1,700. Meanwhile, more than 7,000 migrants are arrested by Border Patrol every single day. At the current pace, this year’s number of got-aways will more than double last year’s total. Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling freeing Joe Biden to end Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, the situation at the open southern border will likely only get worse.

• Billions still flowing into Afghanistan even as Biden’s State Department blocks audit: Over two decades, the U.S. spent some $146 billion on reconstruction projects in Afghanistan. Following Joe Biden’s abysmal surrender and retreat last August, it should come as a surprise to most Americans that the U.S. government is still sending billions of dollars into Afghanistan. Why? And where is this money going? The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has been trying to answer these questions but has thus far been rebuffed by the U.S. State Department, which has refused to comply with requests from auditors. SIGAR head John Sopko recently sent a letter to the State Department specifically regarding its offshoot department, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) headed by Samantha Power. Sopko blasted the agency for failing to respond to more than 20 requests for information over the past eight months. “Billions of dollars have been spent in Afghanistan and billions more continue to be spent,” he wrote. “Congress and American taxpayers deserve to know why the Afghan government collapsed after all that assistance, where the money went, and how taxpayer money is now being spent in Afghanistan.” To make matters worse, the agency has further rebuffed SIGAR by informing it that the State Department would be choosing its own auditor. Sopko observes, “It should go without saying, but neither SIGAR’s authorizing statute nor the Inspector General Act of 1978 contain a ‘choose your own auditor’ provision.”

• Biden’s approval rating sinks to new low: The latest polling from both Civiqs and Monmouth find that Joe Biden’s approval numbers are continuing their downward trend while his disapproval ratings continue to climb. Civiqs found that just 30% of registered voters approve of Biden while 58% disapprove. Similarly, Monmouth found that Biden’s approval rating sank to 36% while his disapproval rating climbed to 58%. Biden has now been under water for a year. According to Monmouth, 57% of Americans see Biden’s policies as hurting families compared to just 8% who believe they have benefited. Maybe most devastating of all for Biden is that a whopping 88% of Americans say the country is on the wrong track, marking an all-time low for the Monmouth poll since it first began asking that question in 2013. As Monmouth University Polling Institute Director Patrick Murray observed: “The state of the economy has Americans in a foul mood. They are not happy with Washington.”

Headlines

• Joe Biden renews gun control push following Highland Park attack (Breitbart) | Suspect wore women’s clothing during attack (PM) | How shooter was able to buy guns despite threatening to “kill everyone” (Daily Wire) | The victims of the massacre (Fox News)

• Dave Rubin suspended from Twitter for tweeting about Jordan Peterson’s Twitter suspension (Fox News)

• Hunter Biden’s laptop had contacts for Google execs, U.S. officials for China policy (NY Post)

• Biden regime admits on camera: Ushering in “liberal world order” more important than affordable gas (The Federalist)

• Governor Ron DeSantis blasts fake federal civics bill (National Review)

• Kentucky Supreme Court blocks near-total ban on abortion (Fox News)

• Policy: West Virginia v. EPA ruling a win for self-government and affordable energy (Daily Signal)

• Satire: Biden calls on pollsters to raise his approval rating (Babylon Bee)

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