A look ahead at the key events leading the news agenda next week, from the team at Foresight News. Delivered to your inbox on Fridays.
Leading the week
Next week’s political agenda is still being fleshed out after the DNC in Chicago wrapped up last night, but so far former President Donald Trump is scheduled to be in Detroit on Monday (August 26) to address the National Guard Association and in Washington DC on Friday (August 30) to speak at the Moms for Liberty Summit, while his vice presidential candidate JD Vance headlines a fundraiser in Nashville on Tuesday (August 27).
Vice President Kamala Harris has also been invited to the National Guard conference, which kicks off today; there’s no word yet on whether she’ll accept, or potentially send her running mate Tim Walz, a National Guard veteran who may be keen to set the record straight over his military service.
SpaceX looks to make history again early Tuesday (August 27) morning with the launch of Polaris Dawn, which plans to carry out the first-ever all-civilian spacewalk on the third day of its five-day mission. Bankrolled by American billionaire Jared Isaacman, the flight’s mission commander, the Polaris Dawn project is intended to push the boundaries of space exploration by illustrating the viability of sending non-commissioned astronauts into space and eventually to Mars.
While the mission will include a slew of scientific experiments, including on the effects of radiation as the capsule passes through the high-radiation South Atlantic Anomaly, the main focus will be on the spacewalk, set to take place at an orbital altitude three times higher than the International Space Station. Two of the four crew members, who include a former US Air Force Colonel and two SpaceX engineers, will spend about 20 minutes tethered outside the craft to test SpaceX’s new space suits.
If Polaris Dawn is successful, it will stand in stark contrast to Boeing’s efforts in its ongoing space race with SpaceX. Boeing’s first crewed flight of its Starliner, which launched in June, has not gone to plan. Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are still onboard the ISS despite initially being scheduled to return on June 14. NASA managers are set to decide as soon as tomorrow whether Starliner can safely return the astronauts soon or if they need to catch a ride on a SpaceX dragon flight in February 2025.
The Paris Olympics saw a host of star names deliver on the biggest sporting stage despite political division in France that had threatened to overshadow the country’s hosting of this year’s games. Attention now turns to the Paralympics, which begin with an opening ceremony in the center of Paris on Wednesday (August 28) before the sporting competitions get underway the following day. The 2024 Games will feature more than 4,000 athletes competing for 549 medals and boasts the highest-ever number of female competitors, so there are plenty of candidates to add their names to the pantheon of Paralympic greats over the 11 days of action.
There are medals up for grabs from day one, with early highlights likely to come in the swimming and track cycling finals on Thursday (August 29). The athletics gets underway on Friday (August 30) with finals in the women’s and men’s 100m teeing up an action-packed track and field calendar where medals are awarded every day until the Games end on September 8. The first archery medals are handed out on Saturday (August 31), while qualification hots up in the wheelchair sports along with rowing, badminton and boccia. Sunday (September 1) is the busiest medal day of the Games so far, with winners crowned across 10 different sports.
Team USA’s medal favorites include six-time Paralympians Jessica Long, who’s looking to add to her 29-medal haul in swimming, and Tatyana McFadden, who could become the most successful American track and field athlete if she adds to her 20 Paralympic medals. Discus thrower Jeremy Campbell, who won golds in Beijing, London and Tokyo, is expected to dominate once more, while shotput reigning world champion Noelle Malkamaki looks to set a Paralympic record after taking the sport by storm in the last two years. Meanwhile, the men’s wheelchair basketball team will be hoping for a three-peat this year after winning gold in Rio and Tokyo.
Elsewhere, Italy’s Simone Barlaam will be looking to improve on his Tokyo haul of four medals in the men’s swimming, while Japan’s 53-year-old Keiko Sugiura will be aiming to follow up on her success in the women’s track cycling. Dutch wheelchair tennis star Diede de Groot is aiming for a second consecutive gold, German ‘Blade Jumper’ Markus Rehm is going for a fourth Paralympic long jump title (and a potential tilt at his own world record), and Brazil’s blind football team will be looking to secure a sixth Paralympic title and maintain their record of winning gold at every Games since Athens 2004.
Looking abroad
Leaders from the Pacific Islands Forum gather in Tonga on Monday (August 26) for a five-day summit focused on regional issues. As always, climate change is likely to be top of the agenda for the vulnerable island states, and to that end leaders will be hoping to make progress on the establishment of the Pacific Resilience Facility, with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on hand to lend support. There’s also likely to be discussions on the situation in New Caledonia, where a PIF fact-finding mission following violent protests earlier this year was recently delayed over disagreements with France on the terms of the visit.
But the regional issues may be overshadowed by the global ones as the US and China continue to compete for influence in the Indo-Pacific. Some PIF members raised concerns when a Chinese police delegation visited Tonga in April to provide assistance ahead of this week’s summit, and Chinese President Xi Jinping used a visit by Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka this week to pledge stronger trade and investment ties.
Just beyond the PIF’s borders, US troops will be taking part in this year’s Super Garuda Shield 2024 exercises in Indonesia from Monday (August 26) until September 6, which Washington views as a key show of solidarity for Indo-Pacific security amid ongoing tensions between China and its neighbors over the South China Sea.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador prepares to deliver his final state of the nation-style report on achievements on Sunday (September 1) amid nationwide judicial strikes that began this week in protest at planned reforms that would see judges elected rather than appointed. Lopez Obrador is hoping to push the reforms through before handing over the reins to his protege Claudia Sheinbaum on October 1, and Sunday also sees the opening of a new session of Congress, in which their Moreno party won a surprising supermajority in June’s elections. Opponents say the reforms risk politicizing the judiciary and the judges’ union has warned of an ‘unprecedented constitutional crisis’ if they go ahead. Markets have also reacted badly this week, with the peso falling as businesses worry about the potential for corruption. Lopez Obrador has vowed to push ahead with his plans.