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 this week’s decision by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to order an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden and news overnight that Hunter Biden has been indicted on gun charges following the collapse of his plea deal with prosecutors, Attorney General Merrick Garland is set to be grilled by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday (September 20) as House Republicans continue to push their case that the Department of Justice has become ‘politicized and weaponized’ under his leadership. Garland will likely face questions on IRS whistleblower claims that DoJ officials blocked special counsel David Weiss’ efforts to investigate the president’s son as Republicans try to make the broader case that the DoJ under Garland ‘has been attempting to circumvent the rule of law in favor of Hunter Biden, President Biden, and the Biden family’.
While Biden is in New York next week for meetings at the UN (more on that below), his would-be Republican successors will be out and about on the campaign trail ahead of their next debate in California on September 27. Donald Trump, who continues to hold a commanding lead in polls despite his legal woes, will be back in Iowa on Wednesday (September 20) with scheduled stops in Maquoketa and Dubuque, the same day that Ron DeSantis campaigns in Midland, Texas. Ahead of that, Mike Pence is scheduled to deliver a speech on China at the Hudson Institute in DC on Monday (September 18), while Tim Scott will start his week in Iowa before heading to New Hampshire on Wednesday to take part in the Politics and Eggs series. Vivek Ramaswamy, meanwhile, heads to Michigan later in the week, where he is scheduled to address the Mackinac Republican conference on Friday (September 22).
In economic news, the big story next week will be the Federal Reserve’s latest interest rate decision, announced on Wednesday (September 20). Although the Fed is generally expected to keep rates unchanged, Jerome Powell’s press conference following the announcement will be closely watched for any indication as to whether a further increase this year might be on the cards following Powell’s at-times hawkish speech in Jackson Hole at the end of August.
Looking abroad (sort of)
Biden heads to New York on Tuesday (September 19) to join world leaders attending the UN General Assembly’s General Debate. While some regulars, including France’s Emmanuel Macron, won’t be attending, there are many others still making the trip, including Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Iran’s Ebrahim Raisi, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu.
In addition to his address to the General Assembly on Tuesday, Zelenskyy is expected to take part in a meeting on the conflict in Ukraine at the UN Security Council scheduled for Wednesday (September 20), and reports suggest Biden plans to host the Ukrainian leader for talks at the White House later in the week. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, meanwhile, has indicated he plans to use his meetings with Zelenskyy, Erdogan, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to press for the re-establishment of the Black Sea Initiative facilitating crucial exports from Ukraine. And though Biden’s full schedule hasn’t been announced, Netanyahu’s office has confirmed that, despite ongoing tensions over Israel’s controversial judicial reforms, the pair will meet in New York (and notably not at the White House) for their first in-person talks since Netanyahu returned to office in December.
Topping the list of events taking place on the margins of General Debate is the UN Climate Ambition Summit on Wednesday (September 20), which is viewed as a key moment in the build-up to December’s COP28. Other key meetings include the SDG Summit opening on Monday (September 18) and a high-level meeting on pandemic prevention scheduled for Wednesday (September 20). Leaders may also find time for emergency discussions on Libya and Morocco, where thousands of people were killed last weekend following catastrophic flooding and a 6.8 magnitude earthquake.