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 Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s campaigns decided to shun the traditional Commission on Presidential Debates, the two men are set to hold their first head-to-head on Thursday (June 27) when they meet in Atlanta for a debate moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. In a departure from 2020, there will be no live audience or opening statements during the 90-minute debate, and the candidates’ microphones will be muted except when it’s their turn to speak. Despite these measures aimed at ensuring a ‘civilized discussion’, the debate has the potential to turn ugly. Trump has already suggested Biden may be planning to use drugs boost his performance and accused him of being mentally unfit for the presidency. Meanwhile the Biden campaign, having initially shied away from leaning into Trump’s recent conviction, this week released a new ad describing Trump as a ‘convicted criminal’ as well as raising his civil sexual assault and fraud cases. The next debate, hosted by ABC, is scheduled for September 10.
New York, Colorado and Utah hold primaries on Tuesday (June 25) while in South Carolina there’s a primary run-off.
New York’s key race to watch is the 16th Congressional District Democratic primary, where the war in Gaza’s polarizing effect on the party is on full display as the progressive and moderate wings fiercely compete in what has been labelled as the most expensive House primary ever. Incumbent and Squad member Jamaal Bowman has struggled to fend off moderate challenger George Latimer in the solidly Democratic district, with a recent poll showing Latimer leading Bowman by 17 points.
In Colorado, Lauren Boebert’s decision to switch seats appears to have paid off, and she is now the favorite to win the Republican primary in the 4th Congressional District, which opened up after Ken Buck’s surprise early departure in March. In the 3rd Congressional District being vacated by Boebert, attorney Jeff Hurd is considered the frontrunner in a field of six Republican candidates.
In the race to succeed Senator Mitt Romney in Utah, Rep. John Curtis has a considerable lead in polls over his three ‘America First’ Republican competitors. Governor Spencer Cox, meanwhile, is expected to defeat his Republican challenger, state representative Phil Lyman, despite the Utah GOP’s endorsement of Lyman.
In South Carolina, a close race is expected in the run-off in the 3rd Congressional District Republican primary between Trump-endorsed pastor Mark Burns and National Air Guard Lieutenant Colonel Sheri Biggs. It follows a crowded primary earlier this month for the heavily Republican seat being vacated by Rep. Jeff Duncan.
Looking abroad
Having spent over 450 days in pre-trial detention, Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich is scheduled to appear in court in Yekaterinburg on Wednesday (June 26) after Russia’s prosecutor general announced that a trial would go ahead on accusations Gershkovich was collecting secret information about a military facility on behalf of the CIA when he was detained last March. News that proceedings will be held behind closed doors has reinforced widespread concerns of a sham trial, with the WSJ describing the charges as ‘repugnant, disgusting and based on calculated and transparent lies’. With Gershkovich facing a 20-year prison sentence, Russia has continued to signal openness to a prisoner swap that could potentially also see Paul Whelan, another US citizen held by Russia, returned.
Iranians will elect a new president on Friday (June 28) following the death of Ebrahim Raisi alongside foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and several other senior officials in a helicopter crash last month. Former Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who is associated with the violent suppression of student protests, is being viewed as the frontrunner, facing off against leading reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian and hardline former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili. Regardless of the outcome, ultimate authority will remain in the hands of the country’s ailing Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, who may be as concerned about the prospect of yet another election characterised by low voter turnout as he is about who wins the contest.
In France, the first round of snap parliamentary elections takes place on Sunday (June 30) ahead of all-important run-offs on July 7 in the wake of European elections that saw the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) win over 30 per cent of the vote. President Emmanuel Macron’s shock decision to dissolve parliament has triggered a dramatic scramble among parties, with the right-leaning Républicains ousting their party leader Éric Ciotti for suggesting an alliance with the RN before he successfully challenged the move in court, while leftist parties have formed a Nouveau Front Populaire alliance that will see them back single candidates to avoid splitting votes.
Current Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, of Macron’s Renaissance party, will be hoping that the prospect of RN premiership under Jordan Bardella or a far-left government under the influence of Jean-Luc Mélenchon is enough to convince voters to back centrist candidates from the Ensemble pour la République bloc who broadly support Macron’s administration. Ahead of the vote, Attal, Bardella and Manuel Bompard of the NFP will take part in a televised debate on Tuesday (June 25).