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
Despite a back and forth over the issue of muted mics, on Tuesday (September 10) Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will meet in Philadelphia for their first and possibly only debate ahead of November’s presidential election.
The debate, moderated by ABC’s David Muir and Linsey Davis, is being viewed as a potentially key moment in the tight race between the two candidates. Democrats have been energized following Biden’s decision to end his candidacy, notably following a calamitous performance during his own debate with Trump back in June, and polling in battleground states now indicates the White House race is very much back in play.
The Trump campaign, meanwhile, has struggled to land significant blows against Harris, and in recent days has had to fend off criticism over the Arlington Cemetery incident. But Trump comes into Tuesday’s debate with the advantage of experience, having already taken part in six presidential debates while this will be Harris’ first.
Given the high stakes, it’s perhaps unsurprising that analysts are predicting the debate could set a new record for viewing figures, topping the 84 million who tuned into Trump’s first debate with Hillary Clinton in September 2016.
The 76th Primetime Emmy Awards taking place in Los Angeles on Sunday (September 15) have the opposite problem – the ceremony’s viewing figures have been on the decline for years, hitting a record low in January when only 4.3 million people watched the awards, which had been delayed for four months by the writers’ strike.
Season two of The Bear has 23 nominations, a record for a comedy series (despite the debate over whether it should be competing in that category). Historical drama Shōgun is up for 25 awards, including for outstanding drama series, lead actor, lead actress, and outstanding directing, while Hulu comedy Only Murders in the Building has 21 nominations, including for songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul in the outstanding original music category. A win would see the pair join an elite group of people to have achieved EGOT status, having earned a competitive Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. Elton John became the most recent artist to achieve the feat when he won an Emmy in January for Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium.
Looking abroad
Mass protests and a general strike were held in Israel this week following the news that the bodies of six hostages taken by Hamas on October 7 and apparently killed as IDF forces neared their location had been recovered. That momentum continues with the weekly rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday as family members urge Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure an agreement that would see the remaining hostages released. But despite the domestic and international pressure, Netanyahu’s response has been typically defiant, and he remains adamant that continued occupation of the Philadelphi corridor – viewed as a red line for Hamas – is essential and non-negotiable. The situation in Gaza and recent IDF operations in the West Bank, meanwhile, are set to dominate a gathering of Arab League foreign ministers taking place in Cairo on Tuesday (September 10).
Extraordinarily, a World Health Organization campaign to vaccinate some 640,000 Gazan children against polio has been underway amid the fighting, facilitated by ‘area-specific humanitarian pauses’. Assuming all goes to plan, the third and final phase of the initial round of vaccinations is scheduled to take place in northern Gaza from Monday to Wednesday (September 9-11). A second dose of the vaccine will need to be administered in four weeks’ time.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi will have plenty to discuss when he briefs the UN nuclear watchdog’s Board of Governors on Monday (September 9), after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv and paying his fifth visit to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant earlier this week. Grossi was also in Russia last month to visit the Kursk nuclear power plant, the latest potential nuclear catastrophe stemming from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Ukraine’s recent partial occupation of the region. He’ll likely face questions on both visits when he holds a press conference in Vienna later on Monday, as well as on a possible trip to Iran, where new President Masoud Pezeshkian is reportedly open to fresh engagement with the IAEA over Iran’s nuclear program.