The News Roundup For September 18, 2026

27:04Well, that leads us to another facet of the president's attempts to seize control of voting and to undermine confidence in the results. On Tuesday, the attorney general, Todd Blanche, told reporters to stand by for what he called a big announcement from Ryan Raybould, who's the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, about non-citizen voting. Over the past week, six defendants by my office were indicted and another charged by criminal complaint. Arrests have already been executed. As of this morning, we got the last individual. The big announcement, Margaret Tala, six individuals, says the U.S.

27:41attorney. What is the administration trying to do here? To amp up the idea that there are rampant problems with non-citizens voting, to give a predicate for efforts to make it harder for people that the administration doesn't want to turn out to turn out to vote, and also to create a predicate down the line for folks like the Postal Service to get involved and also to legitimize in his base's eyes all of what he's trying to do overall and also to create chaos and confusion so that people don't trust election results if they're not the election results that he would like. It's a multi-pronged effort.

28:21We've been following that effort and covering that effort in detail here on 1A, especially on Mondays on If You Can Keep It, And we will continue to do so the president's ongoing campaign to undermine the midterms in this country. One more thing before we go to a break that I want to make sure we cover. Bad polling numbers this week for the president and Republicans. One new poll from New York Times, Siena University. Democrats hold a nine-point advantage over Republicans on the generic ballot. A big reason why, according to the poll, Arthur mentioned it, the public has lost trust in the president's handling of the economy.

28:55But then there's this. Even some Republican lawmakers are looking at Trump's numbers and getting very worried. I want you to listen to Florida House Representative Maria Elvira Salazar in her latest ad. Keep in mind, this is Florida. Mr. President, some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far. In July, 50 percent of the 50 ,000 people that were detained had no criminal record. Be careful what your advisers are telling you about immigration policy. The same Hispanics who helped you get to the White House in 2024 feel betrayed today. Arthur Delaney, why would a Republican in a red district, in a red state, who voted for massive increases in ICE funding, say all that in an ad?

29:37Well, part of it in Florida is they're deporting Cubans and Venezuelans who supported. The president did not expect to be the targets of his deportation regime, but this is happening in other places starting now. There's also an ad by another Republican who said it was touting her work with Democrats reaching across the aisle. These are in recent years unheard of statements from a Republican running for Congress. And it just shows you how bad the polls are looking. What can we surmise from what Maria Salazar might be seeing in her own district about why she would cut an ad like that? Well, something that is not obvious to those looking in.

30:11It's bad polling from within her campaign, I suspect, because that's a red district. That's a likely or lean red district. In a red state on Donald Trump's signature issue, a remarkable ad from a Republican lawmaker. We'll stick with it. We'll be right back.

30:30This message comes from Jerry. Many people are overpaying on car insurance. Why? Switching providers can be a pain. Jerry helps make the process painless. Jerry is the only app that compares rates from over 50 insurers in minutes and helps you switch fast with no spam calls or hidden fees. Drivers who save with Jerry could save over$1 ,300 a year. Before you renew your car insurance policy, download the Jerry app or head to jerry.ai.npr. This message comes from Grainger. This is the story of the one. As a procurement manager for a hospital system, she keeps every facility in her network stocked and ready.

31:10That's why she counts on Grainger to be her single source for thousands of products, from disinfectants to lighting, air filters, and more. And with fast, dependable delivery, Grainger helps her keep every facility stocked, safe, and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done. This message comes from MSNOW, introducing a community experience that gives you connection, not just content. Visit ms.now slash membership to join and save 50%. Offer ends September 30th, 2026. Terms and conditions apply. Welcome back to the 1A podcast.

31:51This week, an investigation from ProPublica found that a man named Umar Kremlev personally attended Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding in the Bahamas in May. It was a dream wedding in many ways. Blue water, white beaches, good-looking people, if I can say that. Kremlev also secretly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to bankroll part of that celebration. That's remarkable because Kremlev is a Russian oligarch and a close associate of Vladimir Putin. In an Instagram post on Monday, Don Jr.'s wife, Bettina Trump, confirmed this story. She said Kremlev covered two after parties, not the ceremony itself.

32:37She called it, quote, an extraordinarily generous gift. ProPublica said Kremlev paid to reserve a private island for the party and a firework show launched from a nearby barge. Democrats in the House have already opened an investigation. Here's Chuck Schumer, minority leader of New York. He spoke on the Senate floor on Tuesday. Have you ever heard anything like this? So corrupt, so venal, so endangering our national security? I don't know the answers to those questions, Margaret, but why would a Russian oligarch spend that kind of money on Don Jr.'s wedding? And why are Schumer and others calling it dangerous?

33:15Yep. I think those are the right questions to be asking. I mean, the president's son, Don Jr., has said that these two men are friends, that Kremlev is his friend, and that they never discuss business or politics, by extension, that they were introduced through a mutual hunting buddy and that they both love boxing. In fact, Kremlev leads a boxing organization that is quite controversial. It's funded by Gazprom. And not only is he close to Putin, but he's just been, I don't think knighted is the right word, but he just got tapped with the order of something. Order of friendship. Yeah. Very good.

33:53Russian honors from Putin. Very good. So So the concerns like are obvious. The concerns are foreign influence. This is a pathway into the White House. And the concerns are corruption. Could it be feeding Trump family business interests that have nothing to do, for better or worse, with the American people? So these are the concerns. And that's what investigations would look at, particularly if Democrats regain control in November. But what is sort of the extra irony or cherry on top is how hard Don Jr., President Trump himself, the Trump political circle went after Joe Biden by proxy by raising all sorts of accusations, many unfounded, about appearances and relationships between Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and, you know, a business interest in Ukraine.

34:50And now to have a completely different, like, there's nothing wrong with this. We're just friends. It's quite striking. Shelley Banjo, our colleague, Julia Yaffe, who writes for Puck and is a Russian speaker and a Russian-American, said on social media, I thought it was very poignant. She speaks Russian, of course. And she said, in Russian, we don't say there's no such thing as a free lunch. We say the only free cheese is in a mousetrap. And I thought that spoke volumes. Don Jr. and the family, though, Shelley Banjo, seem to be doing very little to hide this. I mean, Kremlev, I mean, it was a secret, but he posed in a wedding photo.

35:28Bettina confirmed it. What does it say now that the president's son barely tried to hide a relationship like this? Yeah, this is a common deflection strategy we've seen from the Trump administration, which is we have nothing to hide. If it's all out in the open, then we're doing nothing wrong, right? If it was something wrong, then we would try to hide it. And so, you know, let's put it all out, flood the zone. There's nothing to see here. You've sort of seen this time and time. And again, you know, we're normalizing this issue by, you know, not hiding and saying, hey, this is nothing wrong. You know, but it does, to the earlier points, I mean, it fits into this bigger picture pattern around this political business connections between the Russian business folks and the Trump family using, you know, informal social channels that leads to commercial access, the sort of normalized entanglement where we're not even like, we no longer even have the premise of avoiding contact with the Putin allies here.

36:29We're just going full force to it. Arthur. The ProPublica interviewed other guests at the wedding and they were like, we kept saying, who's those Russian guys? Standing in the corner. Yeah. Why is there a bunch of Russian guys here? They didn't know them. So that was funny. And apparently Kremlev doesn't really speak much English. One of his associates said he can't carry on a conversation in English. That's right. And like Margaret was saying, I spent years reading the depositions of the people who had dinner with Hunter Biden. And they're like, well, which Chinese guy was there? Which Ukrainian guy was there?

37:02And this is so comically that, but times a thousand. We're going to talk more about the ways President Trump and his advisors are wielding foreign policy for personal gain, including their involvement with foreign oligarchs and what it all means for our democracy. That's on Monday during our politics series. If you can keep it, do tune in. And in the meantime, what questions do you have about the Trump administration's approach to foreign policy and what concerns do you have about the corruption that we're talking about? You can leave us a message, 855-236-1A1A, or you can find us on the 1A VoxPop app.

37:40Well, we've talked about it in detail. The economy is dragging on Republicans in these upcoming midterms, at least according to the polls. And so is the president's signature issue, immigration. This you might not have expected at this time two years ago. The Trump administration continues to push hard, not just on rounding up undocumented and documented people for deportation, but also curbing who can even enter the country. On Monday, a federal judge halted a Trump administration plan to cap visas for international students and cultural exchange fellows in the United States at four years and visas for journalists at just 240 days.

38:19It was all supposed to go into effect on Tuesday, affecting more than 2 million people. Judge blocked it. Margaret, why did the judge move to block the proposed cap from taking effect now? So this is Judge Saylor out of Massachusetts. And I think it's important to note this is a preliminary injunction. This doesn't necessarily block this forever, but it does stave it off for now. That means the legal challenges can go forward. And what the judge said is that the Trump administration, the U.S. government, had not sufficiently explained why the system needs to be replaced and hadn't sufficiently thought through other alternatives that might be less restrictive.

39:01Well, several states also filed lawsuits to stop a separate federal regulation that would allow immigration authorities to deny green cards to immigrants who legally use public benefits. Legally, in other words, benefits that they already pay taxes to access. Arthur, where do these suits stand right now? What are they arguing? Well, that's a tug of war over the public charge rule, which has been going on for years and years. and under the rule you're not allowed to get only certain cash benefits and the definition excludes the ones that people actually use the most, like food stamps or SNAP. And the problem with this rule was that they said, we will allow states to use other criteria and they just didn't say which criteria.

39:44And so as Cato Institute's experts said, they got rid of the existing rule and replaced it with nothing. So it sounds like a little bit of slapdash governance, which is, of course, a hallmark of Trumpism. Meanwhile, was I correct that these are legal documented immigrants? So these are benefits they are paying for. They pay taxes. Well, if you're working, of course, you pay taxes. But this isn't like unemployment insurance where you specifically had a dedicated tax and are getting money as a result of it. It's not an entitlement in that sense. Many cases in play. We continue to follow them here on the show.

40:18Well, back on Capitol Hill, this was important. This was an issue that affects only half of the population of America. It gets almost no research support, not zero, but close to zero in the grand scheme of things. Congress held its first ever, that's remarkable, first ever hearing on menopause led by New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Republican Florida Senator Rick Scott. They want the government to study doctor training for menopause and funding for menopause research such as it is. The issue is tied to an estimated$5 billion a year in lost work. Here's Senator Gillibrand. For generations, women have been told to suffer in silence.

40:59I'm done with silence. Margaret Taleb, what made menopause the issue both parties agreed needed a hearing now after all this time? Of voting and money?

41:12as the menopause representative on this panel, I will say that there have actually been a lot of, there has actually been a lot of quiet movement in this direction before this became a political issue, right before the midterms. The president's previous first FDA guy has championed the use of hormone treatment for women in menopause after there was faulty studies that for years led women to believe that they were at greater risk for cancer when it turned out that they really weren't, and it was a bad study. And so you've got this demographic trend of tens of millions of women that this impacts, and they have a lot of buying power, and there's a lot of medicine and economic benefits to dealing with these issues.

42:00That's Margaret Tolliv of Axioshelli, Banjo of Semaphore is here, and Arthur Delaney of HuffPost. I'm Todd Zwillick. This is 1A. Shelly Banjo, it is remarkable. Yes, I know the election's coming. Yes, I know women vote more than men. That's not new. This is more than half the population, either having gone through menopause, going through it currently, or it's in their future, I suppose. I did look, the federal research funding via NIH is in the low tens of millions or mid tens of millions. That's nothing in a world of billions. It's nothing. Yeah, I mean, women's research and funding toward most women's diseases are lower than, you know, others.

42:45We sort of saw this with pregnancy as well. I think there's very little research. There's very little funding around pregnancy in most women's, and menopause is even less than that. You're also starting to see a groundswell of business and financial interest going into this, which is turning into a big business market. Lots of apps and others that are launching to help this sort of growing market here. And so I think there is a new sort of groundswell of focus on this area that is also hitting Washington. All right. Well, if there's money to be made, industry will follow and maybe the government will as well.

43:22We just wanted to give some light and voice to that because it was just so remarkable that it was the first ever hearing of its kind. But while we're on Capitol Hill, let's talk about health of another kind. Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, the former majority leader, back on the Senate floor this week after a three-month absence. That was after a bad fall in June that left him unconscious, sent him to the hospital and rehab for a long stay. He's 84 years old. He's not seeking reelection. Arthur, can you describe the scene of McConnell's return, how he looked, what he was saying to people, if anything, what people are saying about aging lawmakers, their ability to do their jobs?

44:02I know there was lots of chatter in the hallways as McConnell rolled by. First of all, a lot of people were saying, well, Mitch McConnell's clearly dead and they're hiding it. And I said that's a conspiracy theory. And look, I told you all. Anyway, this was very weird. It started with TMZ and other reporters staking out his house near the Capitol where he was wheeled into a car and smiling a big smile while they said, Mitch, Mitch, how are you? Are you ready to vote? And he just didn't seem to acknowledge it. And then he came into the Ohio Clock Corridor, which is a main area just off the Senate floor, and he made remarks that seemed to have been prepared.

44:41Now, he wasn't a chatty Cathy before, but he just said, you know, I've been dodging your questions all these years, but I'm here to help with the farm bill. Okay. And then he couldn't – he voted no on the farm bill in the Agriculture Committee. And then everyone had to say Senator McConnell. They had to ask him to do it again, and people were reaching for him and saying, oh, yes. The senator from the Bluegrass State does not vote against the farm bill. Yeah, so it's good to see that he's alive, but I don't think he's doing that great. Guys, I want to thank you for being part of this. Margaret Taulev of Axios Arthur Delaney for OffPost.

45:17Shelley Banjo. Shelley, thank you from there at Semaphore. We appreciate you. All right, stay with us. We're just getting started with the week's headlines. And when we come back after the break, we'll have a new panel and all the news from around the globe.

45:35This message comes from Jerry. Many people are overpaying on car insurance. Why? Switching providers can be a pain. Jerry helps make the process painless. Jerry is the only app that compares rates from over 50 insurers in minutes and helps you switch fast with no spam calls or hidden fees. Drivers who save with Jerry could save over$1 ,300 a year. Before you renew your car insurance policy, download the Jerry app or head to jerry.ai.npr. Welcome back to the 1A podcast. It's the international half of our weekly news roundup. We'll talk about Zelensky and Putin. They're trading barbs and missiles on their oil infrastructure.

46:18Yemeni Houthis hit the oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. And what will happen when President Xi comes to Washington? Abigail Hausloener, U.S. Middle East foreign affairs correspondent at the Financial Times. Hi, Abby. Hello. Joyce Karam is here, editor-in-chief of All Monitor. Always good to see you, Joyce. Great to see you, Todd. Great to have you. And Vera Bergen-Groon is with us, national security reporter at The Wall Street Journal. Vera, great to have you. Thanks so much. All right. Let's start with the latest front in the Iran war, this time not in Iran, but between Saudi Arabia and Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

46:55A decade-long war between Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni Houthis militias had mostly quieted under a 2022 ceasefire. Then, after the start of the war in February, Houthis have hovered at the fringes, sometimes attacking Israel, sometimes harassing ships in the Red Sea. And now the evolution into a new theater of the Iran war is apparent. The Houthis have seized the Red Sea port of Mocha, several islands inside the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a key shipping passage. And this week, their advance continued along the Red Sea coast into Saudi territory. The United Nations estimates more than 125 ,000 people in Yemen have been displaced by the violence just this month, with many people living in makeshift camps and tents.

47:46We fled from the war and took nothing with us. We didn't even bring the children's clothes. We have no flour. The children are hungry. We have no food. Joyce, Houthi control is stronger than ever over one of the world's most important shipping corridors. What's the latest in this expanding story here? Absolutely, Todd. This is huge. This is the largest Houthi offensive since the start of the Yemen civil war in 2014. And what we've seen happening, it's not, I mean, it was completely foreseeable. So they've been building up their capacity. They've hugely benefited last year from infighting between Saudi Arabia and the United Emirates inside Yemen.

48:31So UAE said, OK, we have nothing to do with that. The southern separatists will withdraw from key areas. And now we're seeing the Houthis just dominate the Red Coast areas in Yemen. Why this is important? Because of, obviously, Bebel Mentib. But it also speaks to the human power capacity and the military capacity that the Houthis have built over time. The Saudis caught off guard here? Not completely. But I think how swift and big the advance is has surprised the Saudis. And their oil routes are now completely cut between the Hormuz and Bab al-Manda. And we're going to talk more about those oil routes being cut, the implications not just for the region, but for the world, including energy, supplies and prices here in the United States.

49:24This week, Riyadh in Saudi Arabia claimed the Houthis had fired a drone at the holy city of Mecca. but the missile was destroyed by Saudi defense forces, according to the Saudis. The Saudis say any attack on Mecca is a red line. Houthis deny that claim. Our operations target their oil facilities and military bases, far from the holy places. Well, the United States labeled the Houthis a foreign terrorist entity in March of 2025. On Monday, the vice president, J.D. Vance, confirmed that the U.S. was now in direct contact with the Houthis, again, who are branded a foreign terrorist entity by the United States.

50:03So far, the administration has refused to get directly involved in this conflict, despite requests from our longtime ally, Saudi Arabia. Vera, why is President Trump refusing to come to Saudi Arabia's aid here? They have asked. Right. So, I mean, to an extent, Trump isn't really refusing to help Saudi Arabia. You know, they're still providing them with intelligence and targeting assistance and all of that. But he's really refusing to directly commit the U.S. military to yet another front, given how heavily entrenched and engaged they are against Iran. He just doesn't want to open yet another front.

50:38He wants to keep these forces focused on Iran, on Hormuz. And he's essentially saying, you know, we'll help you defend yourselves, but we're just not going to fight another front for you here. What about the claim that the Houthis fired a missile at Mecca? This seems designed for a certain audience, the Muslim world. There is a Mecca defense pact. It involves Pakistan, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. I guess we can't confirm from this table whether that missile strike is true or not. Abby, what does it suggest that Saudi Arabia is trying to find other ways to draw allies to its side here? Well, again, yeah, right.

51:15Without knowing conclusively that the Houthis actually did fire that drone or did mean to attack Mecca, it's hard to say. But, you know, as you mentioned, there's this defense alliance and a fairly recent one as of this year that Saudi Arabia signed with Pakistan, specifically a mutual defense alliance and now with Turkey. And so, yeah, you know, sorry, the Saudis asked the Trump administration, you know, for assistance here, for more assistance in fighting back against the Houthis. They haven't received that. And so now we see them turning to their other regional allies. And the Pakistanis have in turn sought to put some pressure on Iran saying, could you please try to pull back the Houthis, restrain them a bit, or we might have to come to Saudi Arabia's assistance.

52:06Joyce, Iran doesn't directly control the Houthis, but they have a great deal of influence, of course. What does all of this have to say about Iran's ability to open new fronts in this war, in this asymmetric war as they look for leverage in the Persian Gulf? This is a very good week for Iran. Let's just put it that way. They have their darkest horse in the region. The Houthis were able not only to get to Bab al-Manda, but they were able to control, expand their control in Yemen. And they're doing so while brokering deals. There was a U.S. Houthi meeting in Oman over the weekend. They're not targeting Israeli ships at this time.

52:46So they're working their arrangements within Yemen. The problem for Saudi Arabia and Trump at this time is there is a lot of friction between both. You know, the Saudis did not come to help Trump when he wanted to do the Hormuz opening operation. If you remember the Washington Post story at the time that they didn't want their bases to be used. There's been some Saudi investments that withdrawn from the U.S. So not all is good on the Washington-Riyadh situation. And what is happening really, Todd, the problem here for the U.S. is this does shake the security posture for the U.S. in the region.

53:29Now, not only you lost Hormuz, but this is the other waterway that you're having to defend or work an arrangement with the Houthis to make sure that oil markets don't completely crumble. Meanwhile, the war and its effect on Iran back in Iran, a U.N. report released this week found reasonable grounds to believe that the United States committed war crimes in that school attack on Manab in southern Iran near the beginning of the war. It's now been nearly seven months since the Iran war began. And now, with this conflict escalating in the background on Wednesday, President Trump said the United States is hopefully, his words, toward the end of its nearly seven-month war with Iran.

54:09Here he is speaking in North Carolina on Wednesday evening. That war is going to end very soon. Watch. You just watch. Trump was right about everything. You watch. They're getting decimated. And they want to make a deal so badly. They call. We want to make a deal. We want to make it. And they're not ready yet, I don't think. But we could have a deal anytime we want. There's been no confirmation from Tehran that direct negotiations with Washington are taking place at all right now. Vera, what about it? Just the day before Iran doubled down on its demands with the United States, do they have any incentive to negotiate right now?

54:48It appears that escalation is what's in the offing. more ships struck in the Persian Gulf, an escalation with the Houthis. What's your read on the overall posture between Iran and the United States and the other actors in the region right now? I mean, when it comes to Iran, as we've just been discussing, they do seem to be having some competing incentives. You know, obviously waiting and not, you know, not having an incentive to negotiate. I mean, that's really exploit this political pressure on Trump, on the Trump administration ahead of the midterms. You know, we hear Trump constantly explain this away, but, you know, you just can't after seven months of war.

55:24It's really hitting people. It's very unpopular in the United States. People are really seeing the impact. So, you know, I think they have an incentive to kind of let it drag on for that reason on the political front. But obviously, economically, Iran has strong reasons not to wait and to kind of take what they can get if there is an opening to really negotiate something. So it's really hard to tell these days because, again, because you kind of hear such conflicting messages coming out. But I think those two purposes are kind of at crossroads. Abby, we've seen the satellite images of Saudi oil infrastructure, pipeline infrastructure in cinders, essentially.

56:00now, the alternative routes that were supposed to send oil toward the Red Sea instead of through the Strait of Hormuz. What does all this mean now as markets and consumers and truckers and politicians watch the price of oil and the price of diesel? The Saudis are really crunched, is the short answer. You know, as Joyce mentioned, the Strait of Hormuz obviously was the main export route for Saudi Arabia and its other Gulf neighbors. That has, you know, effectively been shut or very, very limited by the Iran war with no end in sight. And then the Bab el-Mendeb Strait being closed, that's another major route.

56:40Overland pipelines have been attacked, and they certainly weren't transporting enough oil. We've seen, you know, the Saudis have now told, you know, the Europeans, for example, not to expect crude next month from Saudi Arabia. Joyce, as we look across the world, we have just a moment. Is there any downward pressure on oil prices anywhere right now? Or is it all upward pressure? I mean, it looks, I'm not an oil expert, but it looks like upward pressure going from here. And it's not just oil, I would say with Babel Manda, it's coffee too. We get most of our coffees from Ethiopia, from Yemen. We used to get more before the war.

57:18So it's really problematic. Well, we talk about American interests in Yemen, in Saudi Arabia, with the Houthis, in Iran and around the Persian Gulf, and also with Israel. This week, the Trump administration struck a deal with Israel for a$2.8 billion arms package. The Washington Post reports that that sale includes 2 ,000-pound bombs. This is the largest single sale of that controversial munition because they're so big in recent years. Congress has been informally notified about this pending deal, most of which is to be paid for with foreign military financing. Abby, what should we know about the sale, the type of weapons, the financing, the details?

58:03Right. So, Todd, as you mentioned, these 2 ,000-pound bombs are an extremely controversial weapon. These are what we know, as what we refer to as the bunker busting bombs. Israel has been heavily criticized for using these in densely populated Gaza, you know, where just the blast radius of these things can level in a densely packed city block, essentially. So a lot of civilian casualties, they've used them in Lebanon as well. And now amid all of this really heavy criticism globally of Israel's conduct in Gaza, in Lebanon, in the region, the U.S. is sending in this really kind of historic shipment, or has agreed to, of 40 ,000 of these weapons.

58:48What do you make of the timing of this, given the increasingly complicated relationship between Benjamin Netanyahu and the Trump administration, specifically the president himself? They have been at odds over Lebanon. They have been at odds at times over Gaza. Both of them have elections coming up, and yet at least according to the Trump administration, the heavy weapons still flow, Abby? You know, it's really interesting because I think the Trump administration is trying to walk a fine line here. They are under pressure from a public ahead of midterms that, you know, does not like the Iran war, where public opinion of Israel has really dropped, including we're seeing it in the Republican Party.

59:27At the same time, you know, a majority of Republicans still support, strong U.S. backing of Israel. So it seems like they're trying to kind of thread this needle, which may be difficult to do, signaling, you know, we're still giving Israel all this support. You know, Israel gets something like$3.8 billion U.S. tax dollars in support, military assistance every year. And at the same time, we heard the vice president, J.D. Vance, just earlier this week saying, we've heard him say this before, that U.S. policy towards Israel is not going to be subservient. Let's hear from the vice president himself.

1:00:05You see a similar pushback when the president makes the argument that he's made about NATO, which is, yes, obviously a lot of important relationships, a lot of important partnerships in NATO, but that doesn't mean that we're going to completely make our European foreign policy subservient to NATO in the same way that we cannot let our Middle Eastern foreign policy be subservient to the state of Israel. That's a loaded word, subservient, Vera Bergen-Gruen. What do these comments reveal about what we've described as the increasingly complicated relationship between Netanyahu, the Trump administration, and more broadly, Israel and the United States?

1:00:43Yeah, I mean, Vance has been way out front over here. You know, he's always he's been the senior administration official who speaks most directly about this. Drawing this distinction and is really like, you know, become more direct as the months have gone on between American interests and Israeli interests. I mean, he's not saying that Israel isn't a critical partner or a really important ally. He never said something like that. But increasingly, you know, there's this gap between what Trump wants out of this war and what Netanyahu wants out of this war. And so Vance has been really sharpening the language here and saying Netanyahu does not get to set America's regional strategy or the end goal, which are the two things where they're increasingly diverging, while obviously not going as far as really showing a lot of daylight between these two allies.

1:01:26That sounds to me, Vera, like a criticism of the president himself. Netanyahu, we've seen report after report after report, president after president was lobbied by Benjamin Netanyahu to launch this war. They all refused until Netanyahu brought the pitch to Trump. Then things changed. Right. I mean, it's been pretty interesting. Trump himself has changed his language a little bit. Right. So I'm not sure it is necessarily exactly a criticism of Trump as much as, you know, he's just way more direct than Trump. But, you know, I think one of the things that really sticks to my mind is when Rubio in the early weeks of the war kind of basically said on Capitol Hill that the U.S.

1:02:05had to go into Iran because Israel was going to go anyway. Right. Which was kind of a huge faux pas and created a lot of headaches for them. But again, like it's been these things that are kind of pretty obvious to them. And Vance is the only one who puts it in as explicit language. So we've talked about this a lot on the roundup. Elections are coming in Israel. Netanyahu is up and he's in trouble. We know that in October. We have midterms in this country. Of course, the focus is going to shift to 2028. And J.D. Vance and many others are in that conversation. And both parties are shifting in their commitments to Israel.

1:02:39We listened to J.D. Vance there, Joyce. Certainly, there's a whole conversation about Democrats and their shifting attitudes, really the building opposition to Israel on so many fronts. Do you think we're looking at a real change in U.S.-Israel relations for the long term here? So the real change in the U.S. public opinion toward Israel, latest Gallup poll, 60 percent of Americans view Israel unfavorably. Only 32 percent view Israel favorably. That's a sea change for what was once closest American ally in the region. So but I just want to caveat that. The problem is you're not seeing sea change with the administration toward Israel.

1:03:21Yes, there is the criticism from J.D. Vance. Trump is trying to keep distance from Netanyahu ahead of the elections. But Israel is still getting substantial military support, is still getting substantial intelligence support. They're still getting a blank check when they're bombing Gaza. There were strikes just this week. They're still occupying Lebanon. So when it comes to policy, when it comes to pressuring Israel to change, to compromise, to give concessions, for example, to the Lebanese army or on the table with Hamas in Gaza, we're not seeing that. Abby? Yeah, I can tell you, for one thing, that the Israeli government and the pro-Israel lobby is very concerned about the potential for this relationship changing.

1:04:05You know, as Joyce mentioned, certainly if Democrats take control of the House and Senate or just one of those, we could see some real pushback against what has been this very consistent bilateral U.S. support for Israel over decades. And we saw evidence of that concern just late last month. I was at the Republican Jewish Coalition meeting in Las Vegas. And there it was speaker after speaker warning if the Democrats take control, the U.S.-Israel relationship is going to change as we know it. All right. Well, let's talk about another front for Israel and for Iran, as we often do. And Joyce just mentioned it.

1:04:52It's Lebanon. On Thursday, European and Arab military chiefs met in Paris, this time to assess the capabilities of the Lebanese Armed Forces, the LAF, and the looming end of a United Nations peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon. Israel and Lebanon agreed to U.S.-mediated framework deal in June, but the agreement didn't force Israel to withdraw from the large area of southern Lebanon it now occupies. It didn't seem to change too much on the ground. Joyce, what came out of this meeting? The French meeting is an effort from Paris to say, you know, we support the Lebanese army. We are supporting the state of Lebanon, but France doesn't hold the courts when it comes to a renewing UNIFIL mandate that both Lebanon and France want.

1:05:38Now, UNIFIL is the UN peacekeeping force. Deployed in Lebanon since the late 70s. And what Israel is looking for is a more coercive force that could go in with the Lebanese army to dismantle Hezbollah. I was just in Lebanon. The picture is not good. I mean, this is the country internally is falling apart. The centralized government does not have much power. The Lebanese army, despite attempts to go into Ali Tahir village to dismantle Hezbollah, was not allowed by Hezbollah. So this is a government that's fighting both Hezbollah and Israel. And they're in a tough spot. I think the administration is trying to back them up.

1:06:19But with the UNIFIL deadline looming, with Israel not playing game before the election, we're looking at more of a stalemate in Beirut. What role does the U.N. security force currently play in southern Lebanon? What does it mean if they go away? They're a buffer between... Whoops. We all get phone calls on the air once in a while. That's all right. Go ahead. So they're a buffer behind the blue line demarcated between Israel and Lebanon. So they've been over time, you know, tried to keep Hezbollah out of that area. But if they go away, I mean, it could be, and if the Lebanese army does not come in, that means a prolonged Israeli occupation.

1:07:05One last question on this. For decades, one of the key problems here has been the Lebanese army's ability to police and secure its own territory against a muscular Hezbollah backed by Iran. And of course, Israel says, look, any country that had rockets by the thousands pouring into its territory would make an incursion into the neighbors to put a stop to it. And if the Lebanese army had the ability to do it, we wouldn't have to. How far is the Lebanese army from that dream? Not far. I mean, I don't want to go into an existential debate about Lebanon and how the state was founded that the Lebanese army would remain weak and the focus would be on the banking sector and the economy.

1:07:46That's 70s, 80s. We went into civil war. That'll be in your book. Where we are now is the talk is more, do you bring an international force to help the Lebanese army? Because the Lebanese army, despite help from the U.S., from the U.K., from France, is still not capable. And there is the sectarian balance within the Lebanese army in Lebanon. You have one third that are Shia that they don't want to fight Hezbollah. So all these sensitivities come into play. But you need Israel to play a game, to play ball with you after the elections to find some sort of international arrangement that would replace UNIFO.

1:08:21Abby? Yeah, I mean, I think it's really hard to say. I mean, the Lebanese forces, I think, probably have a long way to go still. Israel certainly believes they do. Yeah. And I mean, just, you know, there, as Joyce said, we could get into an existential discussion of Lebanon's history. But, you know, Israel has been waging war, these periodic, really, really destructive wars in Lebanon for a long time. and that have the effect in many ways, while possibly not intentional, of also degrading the Lebanese armed forces by empowering Hezbollah, by giving them sort of popular support on the ground. Because Hezbollah, let's remember, you know, has in the past not just been a military force.

1:09:15It also provides – it's also a government. It's also a political party. It provides humanitarian aid. And so, you know, the government remains to be seen. The Lebanese government really needs to be able to and be empowered to go in there, provide security and services. All right. Let's move from the Middle East for the moment. We will be back to it, as we say, every week here on the Roundup. A little bit closer to home now, the trade war that President Trump launched against our friend, against Canada. It's still in high gear. And now it appears to be doing what Canada's leaders warned it would, pushing America's allies, or is it former allies now?

1:09:55I'm not sure. Closer to one another to become less dependent on the United States as a friend and a trading partner. The latest, the European Union is inviting to Canada to become its first associate member. We must urgently reimagine our partnerships. So I would like to work with you on opening the door for Canada to being the first associate member of the European Union. And there it is. That's Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission on Wednesday in Strasbourg, France, with Canada's prime minister, Mark Carney, in the front row. And here's Carney. I'm not proposing a third bloc in order to become a great power rival, only with better manners.

1:10:44All of this following U.S.-Canada trade talks, they collapsed in August, bilateral trade war, setting tariffs of up to 50 % on roughly$20 billion of goods on both sides. You've heard the list, everything from wine and auto parts, hockey sticks, American aluminum and steel, lumber, billions of dollars, not to mention the fraying of one of the world's most closest culturally language relationships from across the earth. What is the prime minister, Vera, telling Canadians and the world about this new relationship with Europe? What's the message here? I mean, as you just mentioned, they're basically saying, you know, we just can't remain overwhelmingly reliant on any country, even the United States.

1:11:31And, you know, this category that they're trying, that you mentioned with the EU, I mean, it's not even a legally defined term. It's not something that currently exists. But they're basically saying that they want much deeper integration with Europe on all of these different things, on defense, on energy, on critical minerals, AI. You know, they're never going to be able to obviously divorce themselves from the United States. It's just like way too heavily dependent. But they're looking, you know, concretely, not just in this category with the EU, but just towards European defense suppliers and different security arrangements.

1:12:01and just kind of really, again, trying to make it clear that they can't afford to be so reliant on the United States, even if some of these things that they're saying right now are purely symbolic. Abby, can you tell us a little bit more about what it might mean practically? Canada and the EU already have a close trading relationship. Associate member, is it a troll against Donald Trump and basically saying, look, we're welcoming them then in for messaging purposes? Is there a practical effect here? There is a practical effect, but this is a process. And I think they need to work out the EU and Canada, what exactly associate member means and entails.

1:12:41And this is, you know, this is the notoriously bureaucratic EU that Canada and EU leaders who are in favor of this have to navigate. That means they have to make sure that European countries are still incentivized to be part of this union while also working out an arrangement that benefits Canada and the EU. So, you know, I think this is not going to move as quickly as Carney would like it to. But I do think this is serious. Well, here's how the president reacted to Brussels announcement. Canada has been a terrible trade partner. And no, I don't see that. And if they do that, if I think it's an all a hostile act, I will put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe.

1:13:26This was remarkable, Joyce. This comment went with very little notice to a lot of people. But some economists I read did notice it. This was the president really threatening to hold a gun to the United States economy if he didn't get what he wants. I don't know if he meant it. What did you make of this? I mean, this is, you know, again, a self-inflicted wound by the administration. You pick a trade war with Canada, the Canadian Prime Minister of Europe swoons them. So now you're upset at the Europeans. You want to put more tariffs on them. But there is a lot of room for cooperation between Canada and the EU, especially because of the trade war that Trump launched, mainly on tech, mainly on minerals, the Arctic.

1:14:08So there is a lot that could change here because of the U.S. tension with both camps. Well, let's talk Russia and Ukraine. We do this every week here on the Roundup. Of course, they're always a stop on our tour during the International News Roundup. And with good reason, we've been doing this now for more than four and a half years because that's how long it's been since Vladimir Putin invaded the territory of Ukraine. On Monday, President Trump said on social media that both Russia and Ukraine had agreed to halt strikes on energy targets. He added this. The world's diesel price rise is mostly caused by the Russia-Ukraine war, not by Iran.

1:14:49Analysts say that's simply not true, that the war in Iran is probably a bigger factor on gasoline and diesel prices. And as we said previously here on the show, a report from the Congressional Budget Office this week blamed the war in Iran for more than 30, in fact, 40 percent of inflation, energy-driven inflation here in the United States. But back to Ukraine. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky the same day responded that he's ready to de-escalate and halt attacks on energy and critical infrastructure inside Russia only if the United States can get Russia to stop hitting Ukraine's infrastructure.

1:15:29And Zelensky's been asking for U.S. intervention like that for more than four years. Joyce, what incentive does the United States have to help negotiate now, now that the president falsely, though it seems, is now blaming the Ukraine-Russia war for high inflation? Does that change the incentive structure from the White House to do something about it? What changed in the last few days is Congress passing the Russia sanctions bill. And while that gives President Trump more tools to just sanction Russia, to put 100 percent tariffs on institutions and other corporations that deal with Russia, there is still a problem here that the president doesn't want to do it.

1:16:14And he has full discretion to how much tariffs he wants to impose. So the Trump administration, his envoys, Kushner and Woodcoff are still determined to pursue a peace deal through incentives, through carrot and stick approach with Vladimir Putin. But so far, they've been focused more on the incentives and on business deals that they could pursue with Russia. Obviously, I mean, this president wanted to end the war on day one, but it's not happening. And we still see fighting on the ground. Avera, one controversial part of this new sanctions bill that was passed, I think, to honor the late Senator Lindsey Graham, Joyce just put her finger on it.

1:16:56It gives President Trump broad new authority to issue tariffs. Now, Democrats and a few Republicans have voiced their fear that he's going to abuse that power as fond as he is of tariffs. He's already been pulled back by the Supreme Court once on his Liberation Day tariffs. What exactly does the new sanctions regime allow him to do, even if right now he says he doesn't want to use it? Right. So, I mean, lawmakers worry that this tariff authority, you know, obviously it was intended for Russia, but it could be used against other countries or even U.S. allies. It could be used against India. It gives such broad presidential discretion that, as you mentioned, effectively just hands back some of the trade powers that the courts had limited for Trump.

1:17:39And especially given how he tends to wield this as a, you know, pretty blunt weapon, you know, even even just verbally without actually enacting things whenever when he wants in order to punish foes. I think they're really quite concerned that they're basically just loosening something that will allow him to use this against whoever he wants, including allies. All right. Well, next week, all of this is going to be on the agenda, just like it is here on the Roundup. It will also be on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly. They call it UNGA. It's the annual meeting there on the east side of Manhattan, right on the East River.

1:18:14And it happens next week. After the meeting, China's President Xi Jinping heads to Washington for a much anticipated meeting with President Trump. Avira, what's on the agenda for that meeting and how is the agenda shifting now? I mean, what isn't on the agenda, right? I mean, there's just an extraordinary number of negotiations. They're all going to be happening at once from what we can tell. You know, trade, AI, technology, Taiwan, Iran, drugs. I mean, these are all things that officials have told us are going to be on the agenda. Trade is probably the most immediate pressing issue from both sides.

1:18:48You know, the tariff truce between the U.S. and China expires in early November. So, you know, that and AI are probably going to overshadow a lot of the rest of it. But I wouldn't really expect all of this to build towards, you know, one kind of grand bargain. I think we're likely going to see a couple of kind of narrower agreements and understandings on some of the things that I just mentioned. While kind of, I guess, trying to do some kind of tune up of this, you know, we've reported that President Trump has told his cabinet members to basically take it easy. don't rock the boat, you know, you know, don't criticize China, basically, or Xi ahead of this summit.

1:19:25He wants to have a nice summit. There will be a state dinner. And we've seen a lot of them, including Secretary of State Rubio, who used to be or is in some ways the China hawk, really kind of bite his tongue when asked about a lot of these things ahead of the summit. So we'll see if all of that actually, I guess, bears fruit, whether that was worth it and whether they're actually going, you know, how productive this summit is actually going to be. Abby, a friendly summit with a nice state dinner and no contention. Is that the kind of summit that President Xi wants to have? There's plenty of writing this week about how Xi likes to play this role.

1:19:58He prefers sort of simmering relationships with no real confrontation or result. Is he playing his cards that way here? Yeah, I think so. I mean, remember this Trump famously went to Beijing, you know, just back in May. There's a lot of hype around that visit from the Americans about everything that was going to be accomplished and everything that Trump was going to take away from it. And, you know, Xi rolled out the red carpet for him there, but ultimately Trump returned with virtually nothing. And so now, you know, Trump has been talking about this visit for weeks. He's very excited to show Xi his new helipad.

1:20:35He's been talking about it a lot in the Oval Office. But in the end, you know, I think Trump has a lot that he wants from China. You know, he wants a trade deal. And if Xi can come out of this much like he did in May with this big state dinner and red carpet welcome, but without actually sort of giving anything up, compromising, then he may come away looking like the stronger leader. Okay, but let's talk about something a little bit more urgent, a lot more urgent, artificial intelligence. We've all heard the warnings from tech leaders this week that have really set off alarm bells across not just the political culture but American culture more broadly, that these systems may soon be out of control, that they act on their own, that they don't obey human instructions, that there might be a lot more at stake than just a chat GPT and Claude here.

1:21:32The president has called concerns over AI a hoax, just like he says climate change is a hoax. But climate change is real, and probably so is this risk. Now, one of the arguments, Joyce, against doing anything to slow down AI is that we're in an arms race with China. Either they get to superintelligence first or we get to superintelligence first, and it's better if it's us, despite the dangers. How much can we rely on this summit coming to any substantive agreement or any progress on an issue that the tech leaders themselves say is very, very urgent? So the good news is both, I mean, the mainstream political establishment in the US and in China, they agree that there should be some regulatory framework over AI.

1:22:21China agrees too. China agrees too. She gave a speech in July just about AI arguing for a regulatory framework. Obviously, China, you know, being a communist, oppressive country, they mean by it more state control. They mean by it just clamping down on usage of AI. But there is room for China and the U.S. to work together on AI regulatory framework when it comes to military misuse, cyber risks, preventing big accidents or attacks. So there is room there. But the way China sees AI is still different from the U.S. And it wants more state control. Abby, I noticed reports in the New York Times this week.

1:23:07I'm not the only one who noticed. It was on the front page. That spy chief in the PRC was also warning that AI threatens party and state control in China. That seemed meant to get the Chinese attention and to show people there might be, you know, mutual interest here between the United States and China to get on top of this issue. Yeah, so it's interesting. I was actually on Capitol Hill yesterday and I was talking to senators from both parties about this and I was hearing a couple of different things from Democrats, obviously, a lot more concerns, people saying we need to reach some sort of agreement with China to get this under control.

1:23:47And I've heard the argument much in the same way that the U.S. and the Soviet Union agreed to rein in nuclear power during the Cold War or at the end of the Cold War. And so, you know, there's this sense also, you know, from AI experts, some AI experts, that, you know, it doesn't really matter in this supposed arms race if China develops the most advanced AI or the U.S. does without restraint that either country's AI could ultimately jump the boundaries, so to speak. It's measles. Anybody can catch it. Exactly. And we've already seen it happening, right, in these recent breakouts that have been documented in the U.S.

1:24:33And so, you know, I also heard, I'll just add from Republicans, some expressions that, you know what, China is not a good faith actor. We can't trust them. And so, you know, some pessimism that we're not going to be able to get a deal with them. So we'll see. Pessimism also may be when the president himself says the entire concern is a hoax, just like climate change. That's also an area of concern. I want to talk about Taiwan. We could do a whole show on Taiwan and China and the United States, but let's make sure we touch on it because it's important. This is decades old, Vera. Taiwan operates as a self-ruling democracy.

1:25:09Of course, China says it's ours. The United States has treaded a gray zone here for many, many decades. There's some concern among allies and analysts now about what President Trump might do if Xi presses him on Taiwan at this summit next week. That's right. I mean, I think the fear isn't that Trump is going to recognize Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan, but it's this slow erosion of the deterrence that has existed for a long time with U.S. leaders, right? I think the thing that I keep thinking of is, you know, he called arms sales to President Trump, called arms sales to Taiwan a negotiating chip and has just been kind of very blunt about how he sees that.

1:25:47And I think that's something that's really concerned allies. You know, these arms packages that have been held up and have been awaiting approval. You know, he's basically saying that he could trade some element of U.S. support for Taiwan, possibly for economic concessions from Xi or something else. But just the way his rhetoric around it has really concerned allies quite a bit. And, you know, we obviously never get full clarity into what's discussed behind closed doors between these leaders. So I think just, you know, given how transactional he is and his track record, I think people are quite concerned.

1:26:17And given how, you know, how invested he is, as we've been saying, and having this really friendly, warm rapport with Xi, like there's just a lot that could potentially go wrong there. Well, I want to make sure you know that on Tuesday, we're going to dig more into the Xi Trump summit, the stakes and the diplomatic relationships between Washington and Beijing. And we'd love to hear your thoughts. What do you think should be on top of the agenda for these two superpowers next week? What questions do you have about the upcoming meeting? You can leave us a voicemail, 855-236-1212. Or you can send us an audio file through our app, 1A VoxPop, which is great.

1:26:54It gets your voice here. on the air here on 1A, and you can hear that conversation, Washington, Beijing, the United States, and China here on the show on Tuesday. Well, ahead of the meeting next week, President Trump is also downplaying reports that Iran used Chinese satellite images to plan an attack that killed three U.S. troops at a base in Jordan in July. We talked earlier in the show about the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, their advances along the Red Sea that are threatening Saudi Arabian oil imports. But, Vera, that's bad news for China, too. China relies on oil from the Middle East. On Thursday, China pressed Iran privately to rein in the Houthi rebels that Joyce so aptly described in their advances along the axis there with Saudi Arabia.

1:27:43That's according to reporting from Reuters. What kind of leverage does China have here? What kind of role could China play in de-escalation in a war that is clearly expanding? Right. I mean, China has something that obviously the U.S. and most other countries don't have or don't have to that degree, which is really significant economic leverage and, you know, somewhat of a more open political relationship in a way to talk to them. But to your point, I mean, you know, first of all, it uses that leverage very differently from the United States. I mean, you know, as we've seen, especially under the Trump administration, They will rely much more on sanctions, you know, ending civilization kind of language.

1:28:23We will bomb you into the Stone Age. China tends to do, you know, behind closed doors, quiet diplomacy, like different kinds of economic leverage on Iran. And as you've said, I mean, they're not doing this as a favor to the Trump administration or to Washington. They have a very practical reason. They need Middle Eastern energy. So, you know, they do have some, you know, quite, I guess, a significant amount of leverage, and they are likely to use it if it benefits them, which it likely will. Well, Vera, we got to go. We have just a couple of moments here, but I want you to describe. You were just on a trip with Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, through Latin America.

1:28:58He's moving millions of dollars in military assistance from Slovakia, North Macedonia, Tunisia, Iraq, to other places around the Western Hemisphere, other areas of U.S. influence. We just have just a quick moment. What do we need to know about how these funds are going to be used? That's right. I think the thing to know is that they're basically building the sprawling military alliance with Trump-friendly governments where they're just going to do joint operations with the U.S. in order to go after, to basically expand Trump's drug war. So I think we can expect to see a lot more money being pulled from some areas to Latin America.

1:29:32And I think just this morning we're seeing reports of actual, you know, aircraft and other weapons basically being sent there, pulled from Africa, pulled from the Middle East. And I think we're going to see a really active kinetic, you know, uptake in these operations in Latin America as they really make good on their promise to go after these drug cartels and criminal groups. New money for right-wing Trump-friendly governments in Latin America. That's Vera Bergen-Gruen of The Wall Street Journal. I want to thank Abby Hasloiner of The Financial Times and Joyce Karam of All Monitor. Mike Kidd is our sound designer and engineer with help this week from Kellen Quigley.

1:30:07Chris Castano is our digital editor. Maya Garg is our senior managing producer. Alexandra Botee is our senior supervising producer. Aileen Humphreys is our senior producer and editor of 1A On Demand. And Thomas Liu and Matthew Simonson produce our podcast. This program comes to you from WAMU, part of American University in Washington. It's distributed by NPR. I'm Todd Zwilich. This is One N.

1:31:02on budget with employee meal programs, flexible payment options, and 24-7 customer support all on one platform. Learn more at easycater.com. This message comes from MSNOW, introducing a community experience that gives you connection, not just content. Visit ms.now slash membership to join and save 50%. Offer ends September 30th, 2026. Terms and conditions apply. This message comes from the NBC News podcast, Here's the Scoop. It's a daily look at the top headlines with deeper conversations about the stories shaping the world, from the economy to AI to the midterms. Listen to Here's the Scoop, a podcast from NBC News.