Welcome to The Week Ahead! This is an experiment. A dedicated Sunday email that previews the week ahead. Everything from sports to politics to entertainment, all summarized to prepare you for the week ahead. If enough people like it, we’ll keep doing it.
Welcome! The world is coming to America this week. The U.N. General Assembly’s general debate opens Tuesday in New York, and two days later Xi Jinping arrives at the White House Thursday for his first state visit to the United States in over a decade, all while early voting spreads across the country with the midterms now six weeks out. Buckle up.
But first: I'm writing this on my way back from DC, where I was a guest with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News. Check it out here. Or, look for it on my socials tomorrow.
1. Xi comes to Washington. President Trump hosts Chinese President Xi Jinping for a state visit beginning Thursday, September 24 — an invitation Trump extended personally at a state banquet in Beijing back in May. Xi is reportedly traveling with a large delegation of Chinese CEOs, which tells you Beijing wants this to look like a business trip, not a summit of rivals. Watch the deliverables, not the pageantry: what does Beijing actually commit to on trade and technology, and what does Taiwan get in return for the photo op? Xi told Trump in Beijing that Taiwan could become a flashpoint between the two powers — every China hawk in the Republican Party will be reading the fine print. This will dominate Thursday and Friday.
2. Trump takes the U.N. podium — with a war on. The general debate of the 81st General Assembly runs Tuesday through Saturday, and by custom Brazil speaks first with the United States right behind — meaning Trump takes the green marble podium Tuesday morning. The administration’s stated goal this year is “delivering prosperity through peace” and bringing the U.N. “back to basics” — expect Trump to make the case bluntly, with the Iran war and $100 oil as the backdrop. One more wrinkle: the race to pick the next U.N. Secretary-General is expected to dominate the corridors all week. And yes — New York’s Mamdani administration is hosting all of this.
3. The midterms enter the voting phase. The talking is over; the voting has begun. Virginia, Minnesota, and South Dakota opened early voting Friday, and Illinois joins them Thursday, September 24 — kicking off the final six weeks before Americans decide who controls Congress. Watch the early-vote numbers by party registration in Virginia this week; they’ll be over-read by everyone, but they’re the first real data of the cycle. The surrogates are fanning out too — Kamala Harris plans to be in Michigan this week campaigning with Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed.
Monday, September 21
📺
PREMIERES: Fall TV premiere week begins in earnest — The Voice returns for Season 30 on NBC at 8 PM ET with new coaches Queen Latifah and Riley Green, and NBC’s new drama Line of Fire debuts at 10 PM. -TVLine⛳
MEDINAH: Presidents Cup week begins at Medinah Country Club outside Chicago, with Golf Channel’s “Live From” coverage starting at 4 PM ET. -Golf Channel🌍
G7: G7 foreign ministers hold an informal meeting this week on the margins of U.N. week.
Tuesday, September 22
🇺🇳
UNGA: The General Assembly’s general debate opens; Trump expected at the podium in the morning session (U.S. speaks second, after Brazil). -United Nations🏦
FEDSPEAK: Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin speaks to the CFA Society Baltimore at 1 PM ET — the first extended Fedspeak since Wednesday’s hike.📺
PREMIERES: Fox’s medical night returns — Best Medicine at 8 PM, Doc at 9 PM. -TVLine
Wednesday, September 23
📊
DATA: September flash manufacturing and services PMIs, 9:45 AM ET — the first broad read on business activity after the Fed’s move.🏝️
SURVIVOR: Survivor Season 51 premieres on CBS, two hours, 8 PM ET. -TVLine
Thursday, September 24
🇨🇳
STATE VISIT: Trump hosts Xi Jinping at the White House. The main event of the week. -NY Post🗳️
EARLY VOTING: Illinois begins early voting, 40 days out from Election Day. -Washington Examiner💵
EARNINGS: Costco reports fiscal Q4 after the close — the best real-time read on the American consumer we’ll get all month. -Ad Hok📊
DATA: Jobless claims at 8:30 AM, August new home sales at 10 AM, and Barkin speaks again at the Economic Club of Washington at 8:30 AM. -Bitget⛳
PRESIDENTS CUP: Day 1 matches begin at Medinah, opening ceremony at noon ET on Golf Channel. -Golf Channel🏈
TNF: Falcons at Packers, 8:15 PM ET on Prime Video. -ESPN
Friday, September 25
📊
DATA: August durable goods orders at 8:30 AM and the final September University of Michigan consumer sentiment read at 10 AM — watch those inflation-expectation numbers.📺
DATELINE: Dateline returns for Season 35, NBC, 9 PM ET. -NBC
Saturday, September 26
🏈
COLLEGE FOOTBALL: The best Saturday of September — Oklahoma at Georgia, Texas at Tennessee, Texas A&M at LSU, and Oregon at USC headline Week 4. Oklahoma comes to Athens off a brutal opening stretch; Sanford Stadium will be electric. -Sports Illustrated⛳
PRESIDENTS CUP: Day 3 at Medinah — double sessions.
Sunday, September 27
⚾
GAME 162: The MLB regular season ends with all 30 teams in action — including Dodgers at Giants and Cubs at Fenway. Playoffs open Tuesday the 29th. -NBCBayArea🏈
NFL WEEK 3: A 14-game Sunday including Chargers-Bills, Chiefs-Dolphins, and Ravens-Cowboys, with Rams at Broncos on Sunday Night Football, 8:20 PM ET on NBC.⛳
SINGLES SUNDAY: The Presidents Cup concludes with singles matches at Medinah.📺
ANIMATION: Fox’s Sunday lineup returns — The Simpsons and company, now joined by Animal Control. -TV Insider
The main story: Digestion week. The Fed raised rates a quarter point Wednesday — the first hike in three years — to a 3.75%–4.00% target, and this week markets find out how serious the follow-through is. Warsh’s “inflation is too high, and has been for too long” message pointed to higher-for-longer; every asset class trades off that premise now. -Yahoo FinanceThe Fed: The speakers take over. Barkin goes twice — Baltimore on Tuesday, the Economic Club of Washington on Thursday — and with 16 of 18 officials penciling in at least one more hike this year, listen for anyone putting October on the table. -CNBCData docket: Flash PMIs Wednesday; jobless claims and new home sales Thursday; durable goods and final Michigan sentiment Friday. Housing data matters more than usual with mortgage rates headed the wrong way for buyers.Wildcard: Oil. Crude at $100 a barrel with the Iran war grinding on is the reason the Fed is hiking into an election — and any escalation headline out of U.N. week or the Xi summit can move everything at once.
The shutdown that isn’t: For once, September 30 comes and goes quietly — Trump signed the continuing resolution funding the government through December 11 back on September 2. The real fight is the nine remaining FY27 appropriations bills, none of which have cleared the Senate Appropriations Committee. Watch for any minibus movement before members bolt for the campaign trail — and remember the December 11 cliff landsafterthe midterms, when leverage looks completely different. -SpacePolicyOnline.comElection mechanics: Early voting is live in Virginia, South Dakota, and Minnesota, with Illinois starting Thursday; Idaho absentee voting is also underway. Keep an eye on North Carolina, where Republicans forced a mail-in ballot rule change just hours before ballots went out — expect litigation. -Washington ExaminerSCOTUS: The justices are still between terms, so it’s emergency-docket watch — with the new term gaveling in the first Monday of October. The redistricting wars are the sleeper: multiple legal tracks over congressional maps are still moving with the election six weeks out, and every ruling now changes real seats. -ABC News
📺
PREMIERE WEEK: The broadcast fall season arrives all at once — The Voice (Mon/Tue/Wed on NBC), Survivor 51 (Wed, CBS), and Fox’s game-show Monday. Network TV’s annual bid for your living room starts now. -TVLine🎬
AT THE MOVIES: Brad Pitt and a retired combat dog surviving Alaska (Heart of the Beast) versus a family cartoon (Forgotten Island) versus Marvel nostalgia (Endgamere-release). Something for every seat in the minivan Friday.⛳
THE PRESIDENTS CUP: The U.S. leads this series 13-1-1 all-time, and Snedeker’s squad — led by Scottie Scheffler — faces Geoff Ogilvy’s Internationals at Medinah starting Thursday. If you watch one session, make it Sunday singles. -Yahoo Sports⚾
PENNANT MATH: Every division race and wild card gets settled by Sunday evening. Most final-day games start simultaneously to protect the integrity of the races — flip wisely.🏈
CIRCLE IT: Oklahoma at Georgia, Saturday, between the hedges. That’s the one.
I’ll be live on the radio Monday through Friday breaking all of this down as it happens — the Xi visit, the U.N. speeches, the Fed, and the campaign trail. The Week Ahead is free — but The Show Notes, my daily blueprint for radio, is for subscribers only. It’s how I prep the show every single day, and you can subscribe and read it here. See you Monday morning.
— Erick
