Washington, DC

1. Call to probe Trump Jr.
2. Trump’s UNGA meetings
3. Mideast conflict widens
4. Tariff refund pressure
5. College sports bill endgame
6. Golden controversy
7. Collins pressured on FDA nom
8. Trump’s AI cheerleader

PDB: Trump gets along with Mamdani

Senate votes on judicial nominee … Tune in to Semafor’s Next 3 Billion event … China’s Alibaba unveils powerful new AI chip

Curtis: Subpoena Trump Jr., Hunter Biden

A Republican senator is calling for a congressional probe into Donald Trump Jr. over his apparent ties to a Russian oligarch, an eye-opening move that Sen. John Curtis says should be part of a bipartisan effort to investigate “the use of presidential family relationships for private financial benefit” by both parties. The Utah senator wrote to the GOP-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee asking leaders to subpoena Trump Jr. as well as Hunter Biden as part of the investigation. Curtis said “questions have arisen” about the president’s son regarding wedding festivities paid for by Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev — compounded, the senator said, by his “active promotion of family-backed cryptocurrency ventures,” foreign real estate deals, and defense contractor investments. Curtis said the probe should determine whether existing laws are sufficient or whether more is needed “to prevent the presidency from becoming a vehicle for private enrichment by those closest to it.”

— Burgess Everett

Trump’s high-stakes UNGA meetings

President Donald Trump’s busy schedule at the UN General Assembly includes his first ever sit-down with interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez and a meeting with Gulf leaders. The private talk with Rodríguez is taking place as the Trump administration faces rising questions about the prospect of democratic reform in Venezuela nearly nine months after the US’ capture of Nicolás Maduro. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has taken on a leading role within the administration on Venezuela, is expected to attend that meeting with Trump, a White House official told Semafor. Trump’s Gulf meeting, meanwhile, will be closely watched for signs of next steps in the ongoing conflict with Iran. Trump in recent weeks has faced pressure from Saudi Arabia to launch strikes against the Houthis in Yemen; so far, he has resisted that push. Today’s meeting will focus in part on the conflict’s impact on Gulf nations.

— Shelby Talcott

Saudi-Houthi conflict poised to escalate

The conflict between Saudi Arabia and the Iran-backed Houthis is “entering a new phase,” one security expert warned, after Houthi fighters struck Riyadh and its airport over the weekend and the State Department issued a region-wide security alert for US citizens. “Now, the Houthis have truly been activated,” said Dale Buckner, a former Green Beret and CEO of security firm Global Guardian. He cited the Houthis’ growing control of the Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb Strait and intensifying strikes on Saudi infrastructure as signs of a “likely escalation on the horizon.” As Saudi Arabia weighs a response — and seeks US backing — a renewed campaign against the Houthis may have limits. “Are we going to destroy the Houthis in one fell swoop? That is not going to happen because they are light, because they’re buried in the mountains, and because they can hide,” Buckner said.

— Lauren Morganbesser

Senate Dems press Greer on tariff refunds

Six Senate Democrats are urging the Trump administration to refund consumers alongside importers after the Supreme Court struck down a previous round of tariffs. “Without such a plan, President Trump’s reckless trade policy risks becoming nothing but a multi-billion-dollar scheme to transfer wealth from consumers to giant corporations,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and five colleagues wrote in a letter, shared first with Semafor, to US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer last night. The private sector, which has so far gotten back about $100 billion, is trying to do some of the work itself by plowing the money into price cuts and parceling out refunds. Companies that have opted out, including Ford and Costco, are facing lawsuits. The lawmakers ask whether officials are monitoring firms’ actions and weighing direct refunds, like tax relief — plus they lay the groundwork for future Democratic oversight of current levies.

— Eleanor Mueller

Today, Semafor hosts The Next 3 Billion in New York City, bringing together global leaders to explore how AI, energy, and emerging technologies can connect the 3 billion people still offline and expand opportunity across the world’s fastest-growing regions.

The Next 3 Billion features interviews with H.E. William Samoei Ruto, President, Republic of Kenya; H.E. Judith Suminwa, Prime Minister, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General, World Trade Organization; Sanda Ojiambo, Assistant Secretary-General, CEO and Executive Director, United Nations Global Compact; James Manyika, SVP, Research, Labs, Technology & Society, Google-Alphabet; and more to explore how AI, energy, and global development can expand access, unlock opportunity, and drive inclusive growth across the world’s fastest-growing regions.

Sept. 22 | New York City | Watch Now

Murphy pushes athlete unionization rights

The price for Senate Republicans to finish the college sports bill quickly this week might be a roll call vote on allowing NCAA athletes to organize. It could take all week for the Senate to process the bipartisan college sports bill. To speed things up, Democrats want amendment votes, most notably one that would allow college athletes to collectively bargain. The amendment, from Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., would replace a portion of the bill that is neutral on employment status with Murphy’s College Athlete Right to Organize Act. The college sports bill is splitting Senate Democrats; many aren’t backing it because it is not seen as labor-friendly, and labor groups like the AFL-CIO oppose it. Murphy also has amendments that would subject coaches to the same transfer portal restrictions as athletes and protect athletes who report physical or sexual misconduct.

— Burgess Everett

Golden provokes Democrats

Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, is once again frustrating his fellow Democrats after endorsing Republican New York Rep. Mike Lawler, a top target of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. In response, Jeffries dismissed Lawler as a “partisan hack and Trump sycophant” who is “peddling an 11th hour endorsement from a retiring Congressmember who represents an out-of-town district more than 400 miles away.” Golden, who is no stranger to voting against his party, has taken an iconoclastic approach to his last months in Congress by repeatedly backing Republican procedural votes. With Maine once again hosting a competitive Senate race, the obvious next question is whether Golden will stay neutral as he did in 2020 — or if he’ll back GOP Sen. Susan Collins. A Golden spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on his stance on the Senate race.

— Nicholas Wu

Collins urged to vote down Overton

Collins is facing a slew of advertisements in her home state urging her to oppose Heidi Overton, Trump’s pick to lead the FDA. Overton, a White House Domestic Policy Council staffer, is scheduled to testify before the Senate HELP Committee on Thursday. If she loses a single Republican vote on the committee, that would almost certainly prevent her nomination from advancing to the Senate floor when it comes up for a committee vote. The statewide digital ad campaign — backed by national reproductive rights organization Free & Just — has nearly $250,000 behind it. Collins, a member of the HELP committee who is facing a difficult reelection bid, has previously voted down Trump nominees.

— David Lim

New AI adviser won’t fix industry’s problems

Trump’s declaration over the weekend that he’d appoint an AI czar was an attempt to smooth over the bad PR the industry has been getting in recent weeks. There’s little reason to believe the new adviser will change the narrative. The Trump administration’s commonly deployed defense has been the argument that frontier labs are perfectly capable of policing themselves, while US government policy should focus on outcompeting China. David Sacks, who formerly held that AI czar title and still chairs a White House council on science and technology, has been hammering Trump’s anti-regulation message hard despite no longer being an official government employee. Meanwhile, the broader policy conversation is trending toward some kind of action: Chinese and US officials are discussing AI risk cooperation, OpenAI is suggesting global risk-sharing, and countries are uniting at UNGA this week to strategize how to mitigate AI’s harms.

Blindspot: ActBlue and Trump

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets.

What the Left isn’t reading: House Republicans are still focusing their investigative powers on the Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue, Fox News reports.

What the Right isn’t reading: Transgender rights advocates have co-opted President Trump’s warnings of “transgender for everybody” as an ironic rallying cry, NBC reports.