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
Queen Elizabeth II is laid to rest on Monday (September 19) in the first state funeral the UK has seen since the death of Winston Churchill in 1965. US President Joe Biden is among over 2,000 people attending the service, including dozens of world leaders and royals who have reportedly been asked to travel to the ceremony by bus. The day will be heavy on the kind of pomp and ceremony that often fascinates American viewers. The Queen’s coffin will be taken from Westminster Hall, where thousands of people have queued for up to five miles to see the former monarch lying in state, to Westminster Abbey via a procession, accompanied by the King, Princes William and Harry, and other senior royals. A nationwide two-minutes’ silence after the service will be followed by another procession, this time punctuated by gun salutes and tolling from Big Ben.
The Queen’s body will then be driven to Windsor Castle for a smaller, 800-person committal service in the chapel there. In a final symbolic ritual, the Imperial State Crown, the Orb and the Sceptre will be removed from The Queen’s coffin and placed on the altar, and the most senior officer in the Royal household will break his Wand of Office to place it on the coffin before it’s lowered into the Royal Vault. The Queen will be buried privately alongside her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, later that evening.
The next presidential election is over two years away, but Republicans are already on manoeuvres with lots of action next week. Outgoing Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney will deliver a speech at the American Enterprise Institute on Monday (September 19) in which she is likely to continue making the case that Donald Trump is unfit for a potential second term in office. Tuesday (September 20) sees former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo head to the early primary state of New Hampshire to take part in the Politics & Eggs series organized by The New England Council and the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College. Pompeo, who has been increasingly open about his 2024 ambitions, will also be in Iowa on Thursday (September 22). Another likely candidate, former South Carolina Governor and US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, is also out and about next week, speaking at the United Against Nuclear Iran summit in New York on Wednesday (September 21). Trump, meanwhile, is holding a rally next Friday (September 23) in North Carolina. But the last word, at least for next week, will go to Cheney, who is delivering the closing keynote on Saturday (September 24) at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin.
Looking abroad
Following the Queen’s funeral, world leaders will travel en masse from London to New York for the UN’s annual general debate, which opens on Tuesday (September 20) and continues all week. Though the revisions necessitated by the funeral make it difficult to know yet which leaders will be speaking on which day, highlights are likely to include the speeches from Biden (expected on Wednesday, September 21), UK Prime Minister Liz Truss, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid. Neither Russian President Vladimir Putin nor Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend, though this has been the case for years. Ukraine is seeking a special exemption to rules barring leaders from participating virtually to allow President Volodymyr Zelensky to address the debate virtually – a vote on that in the General Assembly is due later today. A ministerial session of the UN Security Council takes place on the Thursday (September 22) to discuss the war in Ukraine.
Italians head to the polls on Sunday (September 25) to vote in snap elections prompted by the collapse of the coalition led by former European Central Bank Governor Mario Draghi over the summer. The election is garnering particular attention amid polling which suggests Giorgia Meloni, the 45-year-old leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, is favorite to become the country’s next prime minister. Meloni leads a coalition that also includes far-right Lega party leader Matteo Salvini and 85-year-old former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who would be making quite the political comeback for someone forced out of office amid the now infamous ‘bunga bunga’ sex parties.