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:
After the DNC confirmed plans to proceed with a virtual roll call to formally select the Democratic presidential nominee in the wake of President Biden’s decision to end his reelection campaign, next week is likely put to rest any doubts as to whether Vice President Kamala Harris – who today picked up the endorsement of Barack Obama – will be the party’s nominee.
Speculation of a meaningful challenge had already pretty much evaporated on Monday as a slate of potential rivals announced their endorsements for the former California Senator, and by the time of her rally in Wisconsin the following day, she was able to announce that she had secured enough delegates to clinch the party’s nomination. The DNC then confirmed the outline of the virtual nomination process and, barring a last-minute challenge, voting on Harris’s nomination is set to begin on Thursday (August 1).
With Harris now the presumptive nominee, attention has shifted to who she will choose as a running mate before the DNC’s August 7 deadline for the ticket to be confirmed. Three names appear to be on the shortlist: former astronaut and now Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, former Pennsylvania Attorney General and now Governor Josh Shapiro, and outgoing North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper (pronounced Kuə-per). An announcement on her pick could come as early as next week, rounding off the latest twist in this extraordinary presidential campaign.
Speaking of twists, gymnastics phenomenon and four-time Olympic gold medallist Simone Biles will be hoping to further cement her place in sporting history with multiple chances to add to her medal tally over the course of the week at the Paris Games.
Her widely chronicled withdrawal from the Tokyo Team finals in 2020 after suffering what gymnasts call the ‘twisties’ is now the subject of a Netflix documentary that also charts her impressive return to form, with Biles going on to win a record-breaking sixth all-around title at last years’ World Championships.
Her raw talent and inspirational narrative coming in to the competition has ensured that millions of viewers will tune in to watch her performances, starting on Sunday (July 28) with the team qualifications followed on Tuesday (July 30) by the team final, when the US are favorites to win gold. Her first chance to pick up an individual medal comes on Thursday (August 1) in the all-around final, followed by the vault final on Saturday (August 3) and the uneven bars, her weakest apparatus, on Sunday (August 4). Yet more medal chances will come in the balance beam and floor finals the following Monday (August 5).
On the running track, next week also sees the finals in both the women’s and men’s 100m sprints, for many the marquee events of the Olympics.
In the women’s race on Saturday (August 3), Team USA’s Sha’Carri Richardson, who is making her Olympics debut, comes into the race favorite to add her to World Championships win last year.
Richardson controversially missed out on the Tokyo Games after testing positive for marijuana, which she conceded she had used in the wake of the death of her mother. Last month she ran a 10.71 to win the US trials, the fastest time by any female sprinter this year. Richardson is likely to be joined in the final by St. Lucia’s Julien Alfred, who ran a 10.78 at the start of June, and Shericka Jackson, who won the Jamaican national championships, also in June, with a 10.84.
Three-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, meanwhile, has also qualified to represent Jamaica at the age of 37, having announced plans to retire after the competition, her fifth (!) consecutive Olympics.
In the men’s on Sunday (August 4), all eyes will be on Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson, who ran an impressive 9.77 to win the island nation’s trials last month, the fastest time this year. He is now the fourth-fastest Jamaican in history, behind Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake and Asafa Powell.
His compatriot Oblique Seville, who finished second with a 9.82 in that race, is another one to watch. US hopes, meanwhile, rest with Noah Lyles, who appears to be coming in to form at just the right time, having run a personal best of 9.81 in London earlier this month. Keep an eye too on Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala, who ran a 9.79 back in June, the second fastest time by any athlete this year.
Looking abroad:
With the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine dominating foreign affairs discussions in recent months, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will continue his lengthy tour of Asia next week. Announced as sending the message that America is “all-in on the Indo-Pacific”, the trip got off to a less-than-ideal start when Blinken was forced to reschedule his visit to Vietnam and miss the funeral of Vietnamese Communist Party head Nguyen Phu Trong to instead take part in meetings in DC with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Following stops in Laos and Vietnam to pay his respects on Saturday (July 27), Blinken holds meetings on Sunday (July 28) in Tokyo alongside US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and their Japanese counterparts, before attending a Quad meeting on Monday (July 29) with his counterparts from Japan, India and Australia in the Japanese capital ahead of a planned leaders’ summit in India later in the year. Then on Tuesday (July 30) in Manila, Blinken will be joined again by Austin at two-plus-two talks with their Philippine counterparts, with Blinken rounding off the trip with stops in Singapore and Mongolia. Later in the month, on August 6, Blinken and Austin will host their Australian counterparts for AUSMIN consultations back in the US.
China is likely to loom large over all the meetings as the Biden-Harris administration attempts to reassure its allies of its commitment to the region despite the conflicts in Europe and the Middle East.
This is particularly the case with the Manila talks, which take place amid heightened tensions between China and the Philippines over the Philippine-occupied Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea. Despite a recent interim agreement between Beijing and Manila aimed at deescalating the situation, the (albeit remote) risk that the Philippines could invoke its mutual defense treaty with US remains, with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan having recently reiterated that the deliberately-grounded Philippine warship on the atoll is covered under the terms of the agreement.