- Kirsty Wark
- 14 Feb 08, 04:48 PM
Dear viewers,
George W Bush
We kick off tonight with the first interview for the 大象传媒 with George W Bush in many a long year. He heads to Africa tomorrow and has given 大象传媒 America's Matt Frei an eve-of-visit interview. Sudan - and Steven Spielberg's resignation from the Beijing Olympic ceremony - will be at the top the agenda, but he was also asked about Iraq and his legacy at home and abroad. Watch the interview here.
Kosovo
From Kosovo we'll have a film from the 大象传媒鈥檚 Allan Little, who was there during the conflict and in Bosnia before that. It is now almost certain that the Kosovan Albanian leadership will declare independence this weekend - a position supported by the US. After that Northern Kosovo, almost entirely populated by Serbs, may declare independence, followed by the Serbs in Bosnia - it is believed land swaps are already being arranged. Will this be tantamount to permanent partition and what are the implications for the region?
Raissi
Lotfi Raissi, wrongly accused of training pilots involved in 9/11, should be allowed to claim compensation the court of appeal ruled this morning. The judgement was very critical of the Crown Prosecution Service and the Home Office for granting an extradition request from the Americans. He will be live on Newsnight tonight.
Brits in Space?
...and what has Space exploration done for us? A revolution in communications for one thing, but today as the Government launches its new Space Strategy is there a danger we are going to hitch our wagon to Nasa and manned flights, rather than take a more imaginative route to new frontiers?
I hope you'll be on board tonight Kirsty
- Newsnight
- 14 Feb 08, 03:48 PM
Classical improvisation was a serious art for masters such as Beethoven and Liszt, and Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero is fast proving it is not a lost art.
Montero can take whatever suggestions she is given and turn them into fully formed compositions, drawing on jazz, tango and even blues.
For Newsnight, she has set herself a challenge: on Tuesday's programme Gabriela will perform an improvised live piece based on your suggestions.
In the past she has improvised around classical works from Vivaldi, crossed Bizet with Scott Joplin and played Bach in the style of Italian pianist Busoni. Her repertoire also includes more eclectic inspirations - the Archers theme tune, Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive, Christmas carols and even football chants have been woven into pieces. She is also happy to use abstract themes - weather, moods, seasons - as leitmotifs. Listen to Gabriela鈥檚 take on Vivaldi鈥檚 Summer and Winter (courtesy of EMI Classics)
Below are the suggestions you sent for Gabriela to improvise around - but which one will we choose? Watch Newsnight on Tuesday to find out...
- Newsnight
- 14 Feb 08, 10:25 AM
Dan Kelly is today's programme producer - here is his early email to the production team. But what do you want to see covered?
Good morning. Happy Valentine鈥檚 Day.
Matt Frei has an interview with George W Bush - the first 大象传媒 interview for many years. The pitch for the interview was to speak about Africa on the eve of Bush's trip there - fortunately for us Darfur, and the role of China in Sudan has become a very big issue this week. We could do a discussion off the back - who would you like on?
Lotfi Raissi, wrongly accused of training pilots involved in 9/11, should be allowed to claim compensation the . The judgement was very critical of the CPS and the Home Office for granting an extradition request from the Americans.
A review into Britain's space programme is launched today - and the prospect of a British manned mission is now very real. Is this the right direction, or a huge waste of money? Which guests could we get on?
We have a film from Kosovo by Allan Little, ahead of the expected declaration of independence this weekend.
We should keep an eye on Beirut. What else have you seen? What guests would you like to see on?
Dan
