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
Following his brief remarks on the campus protests controversy yesterday, President Joe Biden is due to address the Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Days of Remembrance (DOR) ceremony on Tuesday (May 7), when he is likely to allude to concerns of antisemitism from some of the protesters. Meanwhile, Columbia University announces the winners of this year’s Pulitzer Prizes on Monday (May 6), as the campus continues to be a focal point of the student protest movement. The Pulitzer Board issued a statement yesterday recognizing the ‘tireless efforts’ of student journalists covering the unrest across the country, including Columbia students who turned Pulitzer Hall – where the prizes are awarded – into a makeshift newsroom as the NYPD raided the protest encampment on Tuesday.
But journalists have been critical of restrictions on media access and police threats to arrest students covering the protests right outside of the building where the prestigious prizes will be announced. There’s also a potential for controversy around the winners of the journalism prizes, after the Pictures of Year Awards came under fire in March for honoring an AP photo from October 7 which showed the body of German-Israeli Shani Louk in the back of a truck, while the New York Times has seen its newsroom divided over the paper’s coverage of the conflict.
Boeing’s Crew Space Transportation Starliner spacecraft is scheduled to lift off for its first crewed test flight at 22:34 EDT on Monday (May 6) from Cape Canaveral. Starliner’s veteran NASA test flight pilots, Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Suni Williams will be the first humans to launch into space atop the United Launch Alliance Atlas V Rocket, as they begin their 10-day voyage to the International Space Station (ISS) and back. Tests and observations carried out during the flight and docking will inform development for the spacecraft’s operational use in 2025.
Monday’s launch is a crucial step in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program that has seen Boeing collaborate with the space agency for over a decade on more effective, partially reusable spacecraft to ferry cargo and astronauts to and from the ISS, but Starliner’s development has been plagued by technical setbacks. Though Boeing built a stellar reputation for civilian and military aircraft manufacturing during the 20th century, even working on the Apollo program, they’ve found themselves playing catchup to relative newcomer SpaceX, which has been delivering cargo to and from the ISS since 2012. On top of the near-decade delay to Starliner, Boeing’s reputation has suffered in recent years after deadly plane crashes in 2018 and 2019 blamed on malfunctioning software and a mid-flight door blow-out earlier this year caused by a loose bolt. The company will be hoping a smooth test flight on Monday goes some way to repairing the damage from the aircraft defects and paves the way for a long-term commercial relationship with NASA.
In other star-related news, the Met Gala takes place in New York City on Monday (May 6) night, with some of the biggest names from fashion, entertainment, sports and beyond descending on the Big Apple to attend the annual fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. The theme for this year’s show is Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion, though guests attending the ‘Oscars of Fashion’ have been told to look to J.G. Ballard’s The Garden of Time for inspiration for their often-outrageous outfits. Hosts this year, alongside Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, are singer Jennifer Lopez, actors Zendaya and Chris Hemsworth, and rapper/singer Bad Bunny. TikTok CEO Shou Chew is an honorary chair alongside Loewe’s creative director Jonathan Anderson.
Looking abroad
Chinese President Xi Jinping pays a rare visit to Europe next week, starting with a two-day state visit to France on Monday and Tuesday (May 6-7). In Paris on Monday, he’ll hold talks with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the Élysée, followed that evening by a state dinner. On Tuesday, Macron, Xi and their spouses head to the Hautes-Pyrénées for more informal talks, expected to include the war in Ukraine and China’s support for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It’s no accident that Xi’s itinerary after France includes stops in two of Europe’s most pro-Putin nations. He is due to arrive in Serbia on Tuesday, which coincides with the 25th anniversary of NATO’s 1999 accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. Three Chinese journalists were killed and a further 20 embassy staff members were injured in the incident, which China continues to exploit to criticize NATO. On Wednesday (May 8) he heads to Hungary, where he’ll meet with Viktor Orban, the country’s Russia-friendly prime minister who is often described as a thorn in the EU’s side. Putin, who is due to begin his fourth term as president on Tuesday, has already announced plans to visit China this month. On Thursday (May 9), he’ll oversee the annual Victory Day Parade in Moscow’s Red Square that’s supposed to commemorate the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany but will likely focus as much on current Russian efforts in Ukraine.
It’s a busy week for elections. Monday (May 6) sees a presidential election in Chad, where military leader Mahamat Idriss Déby, aka Kaka, is widely expected to win. Kaka is the son of long-time ruler Idriss Déby, who died in 2021 from injuries apparently sustained while personally taking part in a battle against rebels in the country’s north. A run-off, if needed, is scheduled for June 22. In North Macedonia, parliamentary elections are held on Wednesday (May 8) alongside a runoff in the presidential election, where opposition candidate Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova remains on course to become the country’s first female president despite being unable to achieve an outright majority in last month’s first round.
On Sunday (May 12), voters in Lithuania head to the polls to take part in the country’s presidential election, where incumbent Gitanas Nauseda is expected to secure re-election, though it’s not clear he has enough support to avoid heading to a May 26 runoff. Snap elections are also scheduled Sunday in the Spanish autonomous region of Catalonia, which could have national ramifications amid tensions between Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and his Catalan nationalist allies Junts, who accuse Sánchez of using his recent threat to resign as a ploy to sway Catalan voters.
The conflict in Gaza will be looming over the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö on Saturday (May 11), an annual, often-bizarre singing competition that features acts from 26 European (and non-European) countries. The world’s largest live music event is a serious cultural moment across the continent, and Croatia and Switzerland are the entries tipped for success after this week’s first rehearsals. But the unifying competition is also frequently the subject of political controversy, and the geopolitics may be even more overt this year after a row over Israel’s participation and apparently political song lyrics. Several acts released a statement in March calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, and protests have taken place at national selection events in the run-up to next week’s final. With tensions running so high, the Israeli security cabinet this week issued a travel warning for the Swedish city and the IDF said it would use an emergency alert system to warn Israeli attendees of any potentially dangerous situations.