White House announces Xi state visit Thursday.
Today's events
Xi at the White House.
Trump will host Xi Jinping for an official state visit on September 24, the first in more than a decade, with a South Lawn arrival ceremony, a State Dinner, and a B-2 flyover.1Sep 22 · WHJapan and Korea talks.
Rubio met Japan's and South Korea's foreign ministers at the United Nations and issued a joint statement committing to a three-way supply-chain early-warning system, new economic-security consultations, and a plan to speed small nuclear-reactor exports.2Sep 21 · StateArctic foreign ministers.
Rubio met the foreign ministers of Canada, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, who agreed Arctic security needs sovereign military capability and resilient critical infrastructure to deter strategic competitors.3Sep 21 · StateItaly minerals deal.
The United States and Italy signed a critical-minerals memorandum in New York; Tajani called it a key point of Italian industrial policy and a follow-up to Rubio's Washington minerals conference.4Sep 21 · StateScam-network visa bans.
State revoked visas and barred entry for 32 people tied to the Prince Group, a Southeast Asian criminal network Treasury has sanctioned twice; such groups took $18.2 billion from Americans in 2025.5Sep 21 · StateVenezuela sanctions sentence.
The former chief executive of Puerto Rico's Nodus International Bank drew 112 months for looting $24.9 million and conspiring to evade Venezuela sanctions, and forfeits $16.9 million. The bank failed in 2023.6Sep 21 · DOJGerman drug prices.
The U.S. Trade Representative holds a public hearing today in its trade investigation of Germany's persistent underpayment for innovative medicines, a case aimed at European drug-pricing rules.7Sep 22 · USTRFive-country dumping case.
Commerce's trade-enforcement arm filed determinations that linear hydraulic cylinders from Canada, China, India, South Korea and Mexico were sold in the United States below fair value.8Sep 22 · CommerceAnimal-testing shift.
Health and Human Services announced agency-wide moves to human-based research: an FDA rule allowing non-animal methods to clear drugs before first human trials, and more than $95 million from the National Institutes of Health for organoid, quantum and computing test infrastructure.9Sep 21 · HHS
This week
Interest rates rose.
Federal Reserve policymakers voted 12-0 on September 16 to lift the benchmark rate a quarter point to 3.75–4 percent, saying inflation remains elevated and the move supports a timelier return to the 2 percent goal. Two days later the Fed's supervision chief released initial findings of an independent Silicon Valley Bank review, concluding supervisors knew of the bank's vulnerabilities as early as March 2022 and did not act. It led the September 17 brief.1Sep 16 · FedCanada out of federal buying.
A presidential memorandum signed September 16 and published September 21 directs budget and trade officials to identify and remove Canadian-origin goods from the federal civil procurement system, citing Canada's “Buy Canadian” preferences. Canadian suppliers currently reach more than $280 billion in annual U.S. federal purchasing. A separate presidential determination the same week named Canada and Mexico as needing to do more to stop drug flows. September 17 and 21 briefs.2Sep 16 · WHChina talks before a summit.
Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York on September 20 to prepare a U.S.–China summit in Washington. The meeting fell in a week when Commerce issued two preliminary duty findings against Chinese tin mill steel — the material in food cans — one on subsidies, one on below-fair-value sales. The drug-transit determination also listed China. September 20 daily.3Sep 20 · USTRKremlin murder-for-hire charges.
The Justice Department charged five Russian intelligence operatives on September 15 with financing terrorism and murder-for-hire, alleging they paid people to surveil and kill targets in the United States and to attack infrastructure in European states backing Ukraine. All five remain at large. Commerce renewed export bans on Aeroflot, UTair and Azur Air two days later, citing continuing violations of the controls imposed in February 2022. September 16 and 18 briefs.4Sep 15 · DOJCarbon rules cut, coal kept.
The Environmental Protection Agency repealed most of the 2024 greenhouse-gas standards for fossil-fuel power plants on September 17, dropping carbon-capture requirements for coal units and new gas turbines. Two days later the Energy Secretary ordered two Indiana coal plants kept available through December 18; units at the Schahfer and Culley stations had been scheduled to shut at the end of 2025. September 17 and 20 briefs.5Sep 17 · EPAShareholder resolutions.
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed a 196-page proposal on September 18, published September 21, to rescind Rule 14a-8 — the federal requirement that public companies carry qualifying shareholder resolutions in their proxy materials. A companion release would drop the annual-report delivery requirement. If adopted, the terms on which investors put questions to management would be set by state law. September 19 and 21 briefs.6Sep 18 · SEC
Allied Governments
U.S. torpedo, British drone.
The UK fired a U.S. torpedo from a Plymouth-built undersea drone for the first time and announced a new British-American partnership on artificial intelligence and autonomy; Britain will host the Group of 20 summit in Manchester.aSep 22 · UK GovOccupation vote rejected.
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the UK called Russia's State Duma elections in occupied Ukrainian territory a gross violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and of the UN Charter.bSep 21 · Australia DFATDiego Garcia base.
Britain's prime minister told Mauritius's Navin Ramgoolam he would work with Mauritius and the United States on a way forward that secures the operation of the Indian Ocean military base.cSep 21 · UK No.10
Voices
“The United States reiterated its ironclad commitments to the defense of Japan and the [Republic of Korea], backed by America's unmatched military strength.”
Joint Statement, United States–Japan–Republic of Korea · Sep 212
“Italy is an industrial country, the second most important industrial country in Europe, and on trade we are number four in the world.”
Italian Deputy PM Antonio Tajani, New York · Sep 214
“In 2025 alone, [transnational criminal organizations] in Southeast Asia, like the Prince Group, defrauded Americans out of at least $18.2 billion through cyber-enabled scams.”
U.S. Dept. of State press statement · Sep 215
“The defendant abused his position with Nodus Bank to commit fraud for his own enrichment and to willfully evade sanctions on a designated individual.”
AAG A. Tysen Duva, DOJ Criminal Division · Sep 216
“We are moving HHS toward a new era of biomedical research that puts human biology at the center of science.”
HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. · Sep 219
“The defendant's scheme didn't stop at fraud; it extended into conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions designed to protect our national security.”
Acting SAC Charles Miller, IRS Criminal Investigation · Sep 216
Sources
- White House, “First Lady Melania Trump Releases Details Ahead of His Excellency Xi Jinping, President of The People's Republic of China, and Madame Peng Liyuan's Visit to The White House,” September 2026. whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/…/xi-jinping-state-visit
- U.S. Dept. of State, “Joint Statement from the Trilateral Meeting of the United States of America, Japan, and the Republic of Korea in New York City,” September 21, 2026. state.gov/releases/…/us-japan-rok-trilateral
- U.S. Dept. of State, “Secretary Rubio's Meeting with Arctic Allies,” September 21, 2026. state.gov/releases/…/rubio-arctic-allies
- U.S. Dept. of State, “Secretary Rubio and Italian Deputy PM and FM Antonio Tajani at a Critical Minerals MOU Signing Ceremony,” September 21, 2026. state.gov/releases/…/italy-critical-minerals-mou
- U.S. Dept. of State, “Announcing Steps to Impose Visa Restrictions on 32 Individuals Connected to Prince Group TCO & Others Scamming Americans,” September 21, 2026. state.gov/releases/…/prince-group-visa-restrictions
- U.S. Dept. of Justice, “Former Bank CEO Sentenced to Over 9 Years in Prison for Multimillion-Dollar Wire Fraud Conspiracy and Venezuela Sanctions Evasion Scheme,” September 21, 2026. justice.gov/opa/pr/…/nodus-bank-venezuela-sanctions
- USTR, “Public Hearing Regarding Section 301 Investigation of Germany's Persistent Underpayment for Innovative Pharmaceutical Products,” September 21, 2026. ustr.gov/press-releases/…/germany-pharmaceutical-hearing
- Federal Register, “Sales at Less Than Fair Value; Determinations, Investigations, etc.: Certain Linear Hydraulic Cylinders and Parts Thereof from Canada, the People's Republic of China, India, the Republic of Korea, and Mexico” (International Trade Administration), September 22, 2026. federalregister.gov/…/linear-hydraulic-cylinders
- U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, “HHS Accelerates Shift to Human-Based Research, Reduces Reliance on Animal Testing,” September 21, 2026. hhs.gov/press-room/…/human-based-research
- UK Government, “Prime Minister drives global work on artificial intelligence at UNGA as UK and US make history with firing from undersea drone,” September 22, 2026. gov.uk/government/news/…/unga-ai-undersea-drone
- Australia DFAT, “Joint statement on Russia's sham elections in Ukraine's temporarily occupied territories,” September 21, 2026. dfat.gov.au/news/media-release/…/russia-sham-elections
- UK Prime Minister's Office, “PM call with Prime Minister Ramgoolam of Mauritius: 21 September 2026,” September 21, 2026. gov.uk/government/news/…/pm-call-mauritius