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
As the DNC’s virtual roll call formalizing Kamala Harris’s nomination as the Democrats’ presidential candidate ends on Monday (August 5), Harris is set to unveil her choice of running mate before they hold a first rally together in Philadelphia on Tuesday (August 6). The pair then head to Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday (August 7), North Carolina on Thursday (August 8), Georgia and Arizona on Friday (August 9), and Nevada on Saturday (August 10) as the campaign hopes to capitalize on the momentum generated by the new dynamics of the race.
The list of potential VP picks has shifted over the last week, with North Carolina’s Governor Roy Cooper having ruled himself out of the running. While the choice of Pennsylvania for the first event has fuelled speculation that she might select the swing state’s Governor Josh Shapiro, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly continues to be viewed as potential choice while Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear are among other names in the mix.
Donald Trump has so far only announced one event next week, a rally on Friday (August 9) in Montana, a state where Republicans are hopeful of flipping the Senate seat come November.
Primaries, meanwhile, take place on Tuesday (August 6) in Michigan, Missouri, Washington and Kansas.
In Michigan, Rep. Elissa Slotkin is expected to secure the Democratic nomination to succeed retiring Senator Debbie Stabenow, while Rep. Mike Rogers, who has been endorsed by Donald Trump, is likely to defeat his two remaining rivals, former Rep. Justin Amash and physician Sherry O’Donnell, in the GOP primary.
In the Democratic primary for the 7th Congressional District seat being vacated by Slotkin, former state Senator Curtis Hertel Jr. is the sole candidate. He’ll face another former state Senator who is running unopposed, Republican Tom Barrett, in what is likely to be a closely watched race come November. Look out too for the primaries taking place in the recently-redrawn 8th Congressional District, where incumbent Democrat Dan Kildee is retiring.
In Missouri, the leading Democratic contenders vying to take on Senator Josh Hawley in November are state Senator Karla May and former Marine Lucas Kunce, who lost the 2022 primary to Trudy Busch Valentine. In the 1st Congressional District, meanwhile, Squad member Cori Bush is facing a challenge from attorney Wesley Bell in a race that has drawn comparisons to the New York primary that saw Jamaal Bowman defeated by George Latimer.
In Washington, the Republican primary in the 3rd Congressional District is likely to see Republican Joe Kent chosen as the party’s candidate, teeing up a rematch with Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who narrowly won in 2022 in the tossup district. In Kansas, look out for the crowded GOP primary in the 5th Congressional District, where Republican Jake LaTurner is retiring.
Paris Olympics
It’s another jam-packed week of action at the Paris Games ahead of the closing ceremony at the Stade de France on Sunday (August 11).
Monday (August 5) will see Simone Biles compete in her final two events of the competition, the beam and floor. Biles, a favorite in both events, became the most decorated US Olympic gymnast in history earlier this week as part of the winning US team. After her victory in the women’s individual all-round competition yesterday, she now has nine medals, including six golds, and her tally may well be higher before we get to Monday’s events. In track and field, keep an eye out for Swedish pole vaulting phenomenon Mondo Duplantis, the current Olympic and world champion, who broke his own world record earlier this year and could do so again in the final on Monday evening.
On Tuesday (August 6) highlights include the final in the women’s 200m track finals, where the US will be hoping Gabby Thomas can improve on her bronze medal at the Tokyo Games. Thomas, the fastest woman over the distance this year, will likely face Shericka Jackson in the final with the Jamaican having announced she would be skipping the 100m to focus on the 200m. Other names to watch include St. Lucia’s Julien Alfred and Team GB’s Dina Asher Smith.
In the skateboarding, keep an eye out Team GB’s Sky Brown, who is competing in her second Olympics after winning a bronze in Tokyo at the age of 13, making her Britain’s youngest ever Olympic medallist. The women’s skate park prelims take place on Tuesday morning followed by the finals that afternoon.
On Wednesday (August 7) the pick of the day is likely to be the men’s 400m track final, where Great Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith, the fastest man over the distance this year, will likely face Team USA’s Quincy Hall, the only other man to have run a sub 40 seconds in 2024. On Thursday (August 8) it’s the men’s 200m track final with Team USA’s Noah Lyles the favorite coming in to the race after running a world-leading 19.53 at the US trials to beat Michael Johnson’s 28-year-old record set during qualifying for the Atlanta Games in 1996. Thursday also sees the final in the women’s 400m hurdles, where USA’s Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who broke the 400-meter hurdles world record again at the US trials in June with a time of 50.65 seconds, will likely face her Dutch rival Femke Bol, who ran an impressive 50.95 in mid-July.
On Friday (August 9) there’s the always exciting men’s and women’s 4 x 100m relay finals on the running track, while breakdancing will make its Olympic debut in the Place de la Concorde with the B-Girls competition, followed by the B-Boys on Saturday (August 10). Competitors will be scored in five categories – musicality, vocabulary, originality, technique and execution – with each category making up 20 per cent of the score. Team USA flagbearer LeBron James will then be hoping to lead his teammates to gold in the basketball on Saturday night. The women’s final follows on Sunday (August 11) when the US women’s team featuring WNBA stars Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner, who spent 10 months in Russian custody being released in a prisoner exchange, are the overwhelming favorites to take in gold.