U.S. job market booming
State unemployment benefit claims are measured weekly and are one of the strongest measures of the economy. Perhaps Democrats who insist that President Donald Trump is responsible for the state of the economy would like to take a look at those numbers. Last week, initial claims for benefits fell to 194,000, below Reuters’s forecast of 200,000. This marks the sixth straight week that benefit claims have been at or below 200,000. This indicates that the U.S. job market is growing rather than shrinking. In mid-July, claims fell to 189,000, the lowest in almost 60 years, and current numbers remain within striking distance of that low watermark.

Robinson trial date in contention
Tyler Robinson’s defense team has requested an extremely slow timeline for the trial of his case, asking the court to set the trial in 2029, nearly three years from now and four years after Robinson murdered Charlie Kirk. In response, Erika Kirk’s attorneys have filed a motion for a speedy trial in Utah, seeking the “earliest practicable date.” Kirk called the defense’s timeline “grossly out of line” compared with similar cases and stressed that justice should be served as soon as possible for the sake of her family. It seems obvious that the defense is trying to delay the inevitable, as they have pointed to a large volume of evidence they say requires two years of preparation. If convicted, Robinson would likely face the death penalty.

Iran claims it struck oil tankers; Trump says it’s fake news
On Thursday, Iran claimed it had attacked and struck seven oil tankers traveling through the Strait of Hormuz this week. This claim apparently sent the global price of crude oil up to $113/barrel. President Trump responded to the claim by posting on social media, “Iran is doing everything they can to drive up the price of Oil prior to the U.S. Midterm Election. They are even making up fake hits, mines, and everything else, because more Oil is coming through the Hormuz Strait now than it did even prior to the beginning of the Conflict.” Indeed, a Wall Street Journal report says more oil now flows through the Strait than before the conflict. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which tracks international shipping traffic, did confirm two attacks on tankers this week.

Update on Ilhan Omar
Any normal person would know for certain whether they married their brother, but when Ilhan “Omar” was asked in an interview on Wednesday with MS NOW whether she had married her brother, she answered, “Not to my knowledge.” After a motion was filed by U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro on Wednesday using the phrase “Congresswoman Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar,” the prospect that she did in fact marry her brother to get him a green card seems more likely. Her former husband’s name is Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, whom she divorced in 2017. Perhaps some siblings did something. Either way, federal investigators are probing whether she or her father committed fraud when filling out immigration paperwork, and sources familiar with the investigation report that Omar is not her birth name. If she has been living her whole life under a false identity, that calls into question the massive number of documents she lied on, many of which were sworn under penalty of perjury.

AOC and Manchin campaign on opposite sides in Maine
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former Senator Joe Manchin used to be Democrat colleagues. Now AOC is campaigning for Democrat Troy Jackson, and Manchin is campaigning for Republican Susan Collins. Less than a year before leaving office, Manchin changed his party registration from Democrat to independent, saying the party had shifted too far left. Collins is banking on moderate and independent votes to keep her Senate seat. On Wednesday, Manchin joked that AOC wouldn’t benefit Jackson’s campaign. The next day, perhaps responding, AOC said of herself, “There are a lot of consultants out here in Washington that would say, ‘Do not sit on a stage next to her.’” Jackson has also faced controversy over his long-term relationship with his second cousin.

Students hate nuanced article Columbia published about Cornell 7
Last week, the Sundial, a student newspaper at Columbia University, published an opinion piece about the Cornell 7 controversy. The two student authors argued that Jane Doe’s encounter was “reasonably consensual but regrettable” and that the unproductive uproar over the case “neglects any and all facts of the case which disagree with the ‘preferred’ narrative.” Immediately, Columbia students tried to cancel the article, sparking a debate about free speech. The Sundial’s editor said she disagreed with the piece but thought the backlash was still disproportionate. A different Columbia newspaper condemned the article for implying blame for rape lies with the victim, not the perpetrators. The school canceled a press-freedom panel, fearing students would show up to protest the article. Columbia has a reputation for favoring the Left. Last year, for example, it paid $200 million to settle allegations of antisemitism.

Shapiro refuses to denounce black racist for killing white cop
“There is a rot at the center of our society, and this week it was laid bare on the street,” said then-Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro of George Floyd’s death, claiming the killing was racially motivated despite any evidence. Now that Shapiro is Pennsylvania’s governor, he is less willing to cry racism even when the killer says the murder was racially motivated. On October 10, Eric Lewis shot and killed Philadelphia Police Officer Shane Seiber; Seiber’s partner survived the shooting. Lewis, a black man, later told a black officer that he shot them for being white and that if the black officer had responded instead of Seiber and his partner, they “would have just had a conversation.” Despite this clearly racially motivated hate crime, Shapiro made no mention whatsoever of the dangers of racism in our society while speaking at Officer Seiber’s funeral.

Marine statue vandalized
A Mexican national who is living in the country illegally, Miguel Soriano, defaced an Iwo Jima statue at Marine Corps Base Quantico by taking a sledgehammer and decapitating one of the soldiers. Police arrived on the scene outside the entrance of the National Museum of the Marine Corps, where Soriano was actively damaging the statue, and arrested the former DACA recipient. He has been charged with felony destruction of property, trespassing with intent to damage property, and felony injury to a monument. He is being held without bond, with the court date pending. According to police, the damage is estimated to be hundreds of thousands of dollars. Federal officials say Soriano entered the U.S. illegally in 1999, received protection under Obama’s DACA policy, and received many extensions until the Trump administration did not renew it.

Dem support for mail-in voting drops
Skepticism has grown among Democrats for mail-in voting. According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, only 64% of Democrat voters are confident that mail-in ballots will be counted properly, down from 85% in 2024 and 88% in 2022. Just 42% of Republicans express confidence in mail-in ballot counting. Furthermore, only 15% of Democrat voters plan to vote by mail, down from 21% in 2024 and 22% in the 2022 midterms. Meanwhile, Republicans’ mail-in voting has also dropped slightly, down to 9%. For Democrats, confidence in in-person voting has also dropped, down to 81% from over 90% in prior elections. Among Republicans, in-person voting confidence is down to 84%. Regardless of how people vote, President Trump’s message to voters is simple: “If you have a mail-in ballot, return it immediately, and if not, go vote at the polls right now.”

New accent unlocked, but Kamala still can’t campaign
Former Vice President Kamala Harris made another stab at campaigning for another Democrat Senate hopeful in Mississippi. Scott Colom is a long-shot candidate running against established GOP incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith, and he joined the list of candidates who are desperate enough to reach out to Kamala Harris. Yesterday, Harris spoke in front of a half-empty high school gym in Columbus, Mississippi, utterly confusing the audience with her trademark “word salad.” She attempted an inspiring quote that fell flat, prompting her to repeat it, probably with someone holding up an applause sign based on how the crowd reacted. She also tried to use a Southern accent, which sounded hilariously fake. At least Colom was as honest as he could be when asked why he brought Harris, responding with, “Why not?” Colom is clearly throwing everything at the wall, but bringing in Kamala definitely did not stick.

Headlines

  • DOJ opens investigation into Trump ally Corey Lewandowski (Fox News)
  • Trump must sit for deposition in BBC lawsuit, judge orders (WSJ) 
  • Supreme Court blocks use of student IDs as voter identification in New Hampshire (Fox News)
  • The El-Sayed family’s terror ties keep tumbling out on the campaign trail (Townhall)

The Executive News Summary is compiled daily by Jordan Candler, Thomas Gallatin, Sterling Henry, Jacob Geoffrey, Hudson Baldwin, and Sophie Starkova. For the archive, click here.