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
With Congress not due to reconvene until September 9, the presidential campaign is set to once again dominate politics next week. Kamala Harris starts Labor Day in Detroit on Monday (September 2), before joining President Joe Biden at an event in Pittsburgh, in what will be their first joint appearance on the campaign trail since Biden dropped out of the race. Biden will be back in Wisconsin on Thursday (September 5) then Michigan on Friday (September 6) in his capacity as president, though given the likely importance of both states come November, the distinction between the campaign and administration has become somewhat blurred.
Donald Trump, meanwhile, has announced plans for a Fox News town hall hosted by Sean Hannity on Wednesday (September 4), after the Harris campaign declined to take part in a Fox debate that day. As things stand, the pair’s first debate remains scheduled for September 10 on ABC. Trump’s running mate JD Vance heads to another key swing state, Arizona, on Wednesday. Trump is also scheduled to headline the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual Leadership Summit in Las Vegas that runs Wednesday to Thursday (September 4-5).
Back in Washington DC, Trump’s election interference case resumes on Thursday with the first hearing since July’s landmark Supreme Court ruling that found the former president is broadly entitled to immunity for official acts, complicating several cases against him.
Thursday’s hearing was initially scheduled for August 16 but was postponed following a request from Special Counsel Jack Smith for a delay to give his team more time to review the implications of the ruling, resulting in a revised indictment that was filed earlier this week. All four charges remain the same, but the indictment has been narrowed in scope in a bid to remove elements that could fall foul of the Supreme Court opinion. Trump was characteristically outspoken in his criticism of the new indictment, while Vance echoed Trump’s remarks, accusing Smith of filing ‘absurd lawsuits in order to influence the election.’
On Friday (September 6), oral arguments are scheduled in Trump’s appeal over the May 2023 verdict in the first civil case brought by author E. Jean Carroll. In that case, Trump was found liable for defamation and sexual assault over allegations that he raped Carroll in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s, and was ordered to pay $5 million – a sum that was dwarfed by the $83 million Carroll was awarded in her second defamation case earlier this year.
Looking abroad
The ninth annual Eastern Economic Forum takes place in Vladivostok, Russia, from Tuesday to Friday (September 3-6), with President Vladimir Putin’s intervention during the event’s yet-to-be-announced plenary session and his ‘international program’ on the margins of the gathering likely to be closely watched given deepening ties between Moscow and Beijing. Putin’s visit may also provide insight into Russia’s growing links with North Korea; Putin used his visit to the country’s east for last year’s conference to host talks with Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, and earlier this year Putin visited Pyongyang for the first time in over two decades. Back in Europe, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is due to chair an in-person meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base, expected to take place on Friday (September 6), when the recent escalation in Russian attacks on Ukraine and Ukraine’s bold incursion into Kursk are likely to be addressed.
Pope Francis departs Rome on Monday (September 2) headed to Indonesia, the first stop on a four-country tour that will also see him visit Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore. The trip had initially been planned for 2020 but, like so many other events, was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After he lands in Jakarta on Tuesday (September 3), highlights of the 87-year-old Pontiff’s trip include a meeting with outgoing President Joko Widodo on Wednesday (September 4), an interfaith meeting at the iconic Istiqlal mosque on Thursday (September 5), and a mass at the Gelora Bung Karno stadium that evening.
On Friday (September 6), the Pope lands in Papua New Guinea in what will be his first visit to the country, though Pope John Paul II visited in 1984 and 1995. He begins his trip in the capital, Port Moresby, where a morning mass is scheduled on Sunday (September 8) ahead of a visit to Vanimo in the country’s north-west to meet with missionaries before returning to the capital.
The following week will see the Pontiff visit Timor-Leste from September 9 and Singapore from September 11. Pope Francis typically holds a press conference with traveling journalists on the flight home from his trips, so keep an eye out for lines on the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East on September 13.