´óÏó´«Ã½

Gavin Esler presents tonight's Newsnight, here's what to expect.

Quote for today
"I hope, and I'm sure, like Londoners, Bombayites are resilient, brave and will withstand this onslaught on the city" - British businessman Sir Gulam Noon, who was forced to barricade himself and several colleagues into a room at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel during the terror attacks in India ().

Mumbai
. Fresh explosions and gunfire at the Taj Palace Hotel and loud blasts at the Jewish centre where commandos have attempted to free several hostages. We - along with the rest of the British media - are investigating comments from the Indian Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh that British nationals are among the captured terrorists. Among our guests tonight, a former CIA operative who has worked in India.

Damian Green
The arrest of a leading Tory MP yesterday has been described as a . The Government deny that they had any prior warning of the police action. Michael Crick is on the case.

Aids and South Africa
South Africa's record on Aid is dismal - in fact it is even worse than that. President Thabo Mbeki's denial of the link between HIV and Aids plus some of the bizarre supposed health initiatives associated with that denial have resulted in misery for thousands. Our Science Editor Susan Watts reports on how South Africa is trying to make amends.

Gavin

Here's Martha with a look ahead to tonight's Newsnight Review:

Do you ever get that annoying thing in a film or a play when you recognise an actor and can't place them?

It happened to me this week at at the National Theatre. I poked my editor in the ribs and said "Look, he's a really famous actor". Then I began to wonder where I'd seen him.

It took until the intermission to place him in the dramatic firmament. Gary Cole is the dodgy dad in Desperate Housewives. Oh, and the vice-president in The West Wing. How deep is my cultural hinterland? Or should that be shallow?

Anyway, that doesn't give a very good indication of the play which had been a huge hit on Broadway with its writer Tracey Letts compared to Eugene O'Neill and Tenessee Williams. It is certainly very enjoyable and I don't often say that about plays which are three and a half hours long, I tell you. But does it really have the same depth as plays by those great masters? I shall leave that to my panel - , and the .

Read the rest of this entry

Gavin presents tonight's Newsnight - here's his rundown of what to expect.

"This is a horrific incident which has shocked and outraged people around the world" - Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the Mumbai terror attacks.

India
Who did it and why? We'll have the latest on the terrorist attacks and the hostage situation, plus analysis of the kind of groups who may have carried out these attacks. And the big question: was this internal terrorism or an attack given support from outside India's borders as the Prime Minister of India claims?
We will also discuss the future of India after this major terror attack.

Sudan
Rich Gulf nations are ploughing money into Sudan - using its fertile land to grow food for their people. This at a time when the people of Darfur are starving and relying on handouts from the international community.

Baby P
Martin Narey, Chief Executive of 's - which has promoted its cause recently using some very shocking and arresting advertisements - said last night:

"The tragic probability is that had baby P survived, and following a childhood of abuse, he might have been unruly by the time he was 13 or 14. At which point he'd have become 'feral', 'a parasite', 'a yob', 'helping to infest our streets'. All quotes used recently, on newspaper websites about children. And our response? We'd probably have locked him up."

Beyond the shock value of this statement, is there something to the wider argument that in many developed countries there remains a group of families in a continual cycle of poverty and abuse, where those who do the abusing have themselves been scarred by some history of childhood abuse? We'll debate.

Gavin

Last night poet Murray Lachlan Young came on the programme to - after the government's announcement it will .

And Murray chipped in with our economics coverage on the fall of High Street stalwarts Woolworths and MFI with his own ode to the credit crunch.

We'd like you to chip in too. By way of inspiration, here's Murray's poem:

Adios then Woolworths
Farewell MFI
Bon voyage the QE2
Now resting in Dubai
Back home the crunch is grinding
The dino-stores must fall
Each day another famous name is driven to the wall
So as winter comes among us
And thousands face the dole
Whilst Gordon shovels borrowed wedge into his giant hole
What is there to rely on?
Whilst politicians bitch and fight
Well, I suppose one thing is for certain we know
You're still assured a good old fashioned kicking if you venture onto Newsnight.

Read the rest of this entry

Jeremy presents tonight. Our programme producer is Kavita Puri - here's her outline of what's on.

Nightmare on the High Street
and the board of . Many thousands of jobs are to be lost. Retail drove our economy in the boom times. But we've spoken to one expert who says 12 major high street chains may go by next year. So are we seeing the end of the High Street as we know it, and what will the impact be on our economy? Tonight we'll be speaking to the heads of some of the High Street's top chains.

Immigration
During a recession do we need a higher level of immigration or less? The Labour Government has been sounding more trenchant on immigration. Tim Whewell has been to Peterborough to see if attitudes have changed. And we'll be speaking to the Immigration Minister Phil Woolas who'll meet some of his critics.

Sudan
Gulf rich nations are ploughing money into - using their fertile land to grow food for their people. This at a time when the people of Darfur are starving and relying on handouts from the international community.

Poet Laureate
across the wires the electric message came:
he is no better. He is much the same.
So wrote Alfred Austin Poet Laureate writing on the death of Prince William in the early twentieth century. Culture Secretary Andy Burnham has started looking for the next Laureate - . But what role has the Poet Laureate today in embodying the spirit of the nation?

Jeremy Paxman presents tonight. Here's what's coming up in the programme....

Banks under pressure
The UK economy will go into "steep recession" if the banks do not resume normal lending levels, the Bank of England Governor, Mervyn King said today, "this [is] more important than anything else at present" he said. The Governor even warned that nationalising banks could not be ruled out. So why has the injection of millions of pounds into the banks failed to boost lending to homeowners and businesses, and what can the Government do to end the credit famine? We'll speak to the banks and the lenders.

Is New Labour dead?
Where does yesterday's budget statement leave the New Labour coalition, and is it a serious error to effectively end the tax policies that won Labour the last three elections? There is a nervousness among some Labour MPs that tax has once again returned as a weapon that could destroy the party - today Labour and the Tories clashed about how much "middle Britain" will have to pay for the Chancellor's plans. Jeremy will speak to one of the architects of New Labour, Alastair Campbell, and Thatcher's former Chancellor, Lord Lawson.

Iraq's Prisons
. He has had unique access to inmates at Baghdad's Rusafa prison - the first time the foreign media have had such access to an Iraqi jail since the US invasion in 2003. Many prisoners complain that they are held without charge and kept in appalling conditions - so how much has changed since Saddam's day?

And we speak to the Women's Institute and English Collective of Prostitutes about the WI's plans to monitor prostitute adverts in local papers.

Should be interesting.

Big day in more ways than one here at Newsnight. Here's our new editor on what's in store tonight.

Dear Newsnight viewer,

It is looking like a one story programme tonight. The chancellor ended his pre-Budget statement by telling MPs that "exceptional times" required "exceptional measures". There will be a temporary cut in VAT. It will come down - on Monday - to 15%, and won't go back up again for 13 months. Mr Darling also said the economy would shrink next year - and positive growth would not reappear until the financial year 2010/11.

You can get more details on the details but if you want to know if the government's big gamble will pay off join Jeremy and the Newsnight team including Political Editor Michael Crick and Economics Editor Paul Mason at 10.30 tonight. We will also be asking senior politicians and the Newsnight political panel whether the measures will work.

I have picked an interesting day to start the new job.

Peter Rippon
New Editor
Newsnight

It's a busy day for Kirsty, she's presenting both Newsnight and Review. Here's her run down of what's on the former (details of the latter here).

PBR
Tonight we're talking big numbers. Ahead of Monday's Newsnight is distilling all the figures down to the key elements. Is our borrowing in comparison with the rest of the world healthy or unhealthy? Are we, as Treasury officials say, about to have a mammoth shock to the economy. How much borrowing can this country afford? And what real difference will it make to the household budget? Is Alistair Darling, as George Osborne would have it, about to unleash a tax bombshell primed to detonate after the next election? Tonight we gear you up for Monday's big announcement.

´óÏó´«Ã½
There were red faces at the ´óÏó´«Ã½ earlier in the week over from Strictly Come Dancing but the Corporation has today faced over the more damaging . The telephone calls by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand to Andrew Sachs have been judged by the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust to be a "." How will the ´óÏó´«Ã½ respond?

USA
As the world , a new report predicts that . Countries like India, China and Russia will challenge US dominance over the next two decades, according to the . So can Obama maintain America's status as top dog?

Join us at 10.30 tonight.

Kirsty

Here's Kirsty with a look ahead to tonight's Newsnight Review:

At 11pm I'll be joining my guests , and for Review.

Read the rest of this entry

Here's Kirsty with a look ahead to what's on tonight's programme:

Tonight, the start of a Newsnight series on . Also, what possibility is there of a 2009 election? Plus the riots and demonstrations at factories in China, the Communist Party don't want you to see - as the Asian Tiger succumbs to the economic downturn.

Leaving Care
Had Baby P been taken away from his mother and into care he would have been spared a terrible death, but what would his life have been like? There are 60,000 children in England and Wales in care - to me that seems like a huge number - and their outcomes are far from good. Four to five times more likely than their peers to have mental health issues, a third of all young offenders have at some time been in care, the same proportion who end up homeless. It is extraordinary isn't it? Newsnight has been given the rare opportunity to follow four young people as they leave care and learn how to fend for themselves. Tonight you will meet Cherish, Jareth, Cass and Phil.

Election 2009?
Could there be an election in 2009? A few weeks ago it would have seemed inconceivable, but undoubtedly Gordon Brown's popularity has improved and an early election could help to cash in on his new found authority before the expected recession really hits home. Michael Crick considers the case for and against. I'll speak with the Spectator Editor, Matthew d'Ancona and Tony Blair's former speech writer, Phil Collins.

Chinese Unrest
The Asian Tiger is suffering too in the global economic crisis, and in China the prospect of unemployment for millions of workers is terrifying. The Chinese authorities say they are taking measures to curb growing unemployment and civil unrest - a problem particularly acute in the Southern Chinese province of Guangdong. There have been protests and riots. Paul Mason finds out what's really going on behind the Red Curtain.

See you at ten thirty.

Not only is over his exit from Strictly Come Dancing riding high in the ´óÏó´«Ã½ News website's , but last night we also learnt that Strictly host and light entertainment heavyweight Bruce Forsyth - - is a big Newsnight fan and is desperate to appear on the programme.

"All my life I've wanted to be on Newsnight", Bruce told Claudia Winkleman on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Two's Strictly show, It Takes Two.

Read the rest of this entry

Jeremy steps out for tonight's all-singing, all-dancing Newsnight. Here's programme producer Robert Morgan with what to expect.

LIBERATA
Tonight who tells us the inside story of Liberata - the huge outsourcing company which has after it failed to provide grants for sixth-formers. He tells us that the company was told a year in advance that "they couldn't deliver the service" but they didn't tell the government or the Learning and Skills Council. College principals are outraged and tell us the Liberata team should be "shot at dawn". What's more the whistle-blower tells us Liberata also had problems with local council work. He says they failed to produce council tax bills in time for the deadline so sent out thousands of empty envelopes to taxpayers in the hope the council would never find out.

BNP
After the full line, political geographers at least have been rubbing their hands at a chance to pour over the demographic profile of one of the nations most secretive political parties. Who are the BNP? Michael Crick finds out.

STRICTLY
of Strictly Come Dancing, saying there is a real danger he might win. The former ´óÏó´«Ã½ Chief Political Correspondent had created controversy because the judges have ridiculed his dancing skills, but his popularity with viewers has kept him in the contest. He says it would be a "joke too far" if he had won the competition. We sent Jeremy along to the hastily convened press conference at TV centre to add some solemnity to the occasion and ask the difficult questions.

TURKEY
Eighty people are accused of conspiring in an ultra-nationalist plot to overthrow the government of Turkey. For decades reformers have suspected the existence of an anti-democratic network buried deep in Turkey's military and other state organisations. Now there might be some real answers in the offing. The trial could also shed light on the death of Hrant Dink, the dissident writer who was assassinated last year after he was convicted of insulting Turkishness. We have a special report from Turkey. Read reporter .

Jeremy presents tonight; Kavita Puri is programme producer. Here's her outline of what's on the programme:

Spending plans
"It used to be you could not insert a Rizla paper between the two parties on tax and spend. But the credit crunch and the recession have blown a chasm between them."

That was our economics editor Paul Mason's analysis of the effect on British politics of the Tories ditching their pledge to match Labour's spending from 2010. So the gloves are off. We now have a clear dividing line between the main parties in British politics. It'll be the battleground of the next election.

Pirates
The Saudi Foreign Minister said the Somali pirates who hijacked an oil tanker were akin to "terrorists". Yet another ship was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden today. So should there be a comprehensive law of the seas? We were hoping to bring you a pirate in our discussion, but instead we'll be talking to a company that hires private security guards for boats in the Gulf. And we will also be speaking to a managing director whose ship has been hijacked and is currently negotiating with pirates over the ransom.

Congo
"Never again" was uttered after Rwanda. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced in Congo after the last few weeks of fighting. Today the French called for 3,000 extra UN troops. Allan Little, who has travelled extensively in Congo, reports tonight. We have also spoken to Lord Malloch Brown who, wearing his green wristband inscribed with the words "Never Again", says sending British troops has not been ruled out.

Nabokov
Our culture correspondent , author of the scandalous 'Lolita'. The new title "The Original of Laura" is set to be a sensation when it's published in 2009.

Do join Jeremy at 22.30.

Jeremy presents tonight; Dan Kelly is programme producer. Here's his outline of what's on.

Christmas Cheer or the "Borrowing Bombshell"?
Given recent political history, we find ourselves in the curious position that the Labour Party is backing tax cuts in time for the Christmas sales, while the Tories have set themselves against unfunded giveaways - . Michael Crick investigates how united the Tories are in their attempts to balance the books.

Pirates
in the Indian Ocean which was travelling towards the US. The vessel is now heading towards the Somali coast, with the US navy in pursuit. The vessel can hold up to two million barrels of oil - more than one quarter of Saudi Arabia's daily exports - worth over $100 million. What can the US military do about it? We'll have the very latest.

China
We have a fascinating film from our award winning about the extraordinary - and often brutal - transformation of rural China. Over the last two and a half years Newsnight has followed the fortunes of White Horse Village, which is about 1000 miles from Beijing. Tonight, farmers protest to the local party official about the destruction of their houses and the lack of school places for their children - places apparently reserved for the local elite. You can watch tonight's film right now on the website - .

Tonight at 22.30, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Two.

Gavin presents tonight's Newsnight - here's his outline of what's in store.

Thought for the Day: "Debt has been this government's biggest growth industry" - Sir John Major.

On tonight's programme:

International rescue
There are big hopes for the but imagine a party where the host hasn't turned up. Leaders of the world's superpowers are gathering in the States to attempt to sort out the world's economic problems but the man of the moment, Barack Obama, won't be there. So what can the G20 achieve this weekend without the next leader of the world's economic superpower? Will Gordon Brown be able to convince the rest of the world to follow his model of fiscal stimulus? Paul Mason is in Washington and I'll be speaking to leading politicians from the summit.

Baby P
The torture of the toddler known as Baby P has provoked uncomfortable questions about the safety of the most vulnerable children in our society. Today it became apparent that a Haringey social worker flagged up concerns to ministers about the risk of a repetition of the Victoria Climbie case six months before Baby P died. What happened next clearly wasn't enough to save Baby P - so how did the authorities respond to the warning?

Join us at 10.30pm on ´óÏó´«Ã½ 2

Gavin

Here's with details of .

On Review at 11pm I'll be joined by , and to discuss fiction forged from antiquity, the recent past and the present.

Body of Lies
International cultural conflict has been a pressing concern for director Ridley Scott who, after Black Hawk Down and Kingdom Of Heaven, returns with a third film in which Western forces do battle with a Muslim foe. I'll be asking Ridley Scott whether he intended Body of Lies - which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a CIA agent in the Middle East and Russell Crowe as his Washington handler - as the final part of a trilogy. And I'll be asking our panel whether 'geopolitical thriller' is a contradiction in terms. Watch a clip and read more on Body of Lies .

Gethsemane
is another artist who likes to get his teeth into the big issue. In the 90s his 'state of the nation' plays tackled the Church, the judiciary and the Labour Party. More recently he's borrowed real-life characters and phrases to discuss railway privatisation and the war in Iraq. His latest play Gethsemane is about political fundraising and the betrayal of ideals. There's a rock-fan prime minister, a Cabinet member whose husband is up to his neck in dodgy deals abroad, and a party fundraiser who made his money in the music biz. It may all sound familiar but according to David Hare Gethsemane is a work of "pure fiction". Yeah, right. There's more on Hare's Gethsemane .

Babylon
It was once the greatest city in the world, a towering metropolis in which spectacular gardens may (or may not) have hung. After the invasion of Iraq and the fall of Saddam, the ruins of Babylon were turned into a military base, incised with deep trenches. The desecration of one of the original wonders of the world is a sad coda to a series of amazing historical and mythical tales retold at the . Read more about the Babylon exhibition .

Survivors
In the early 1970s, just as I'd stopped hiding behind the sofa when Dr Who came on, along came another scary television thriller from the pen of Timelord writer . Survivors imagined a deadly plague wiping out most of the world's population. Now there's a contemporary take on the scenario, a series in which flu results in more than a shiver and a sniffle. More on the new Survivors .

Hope you can join us at 11pm.

John

Here is Emily with details of tonight's programme.

"Thank you for welcoming me back on board, as we say in Corfu."

The words of award-winner Peter Mandelson, as he received his prize from none other than George Osborne, at the Spectator's Parliamentarian of the Year lunch. Photo ops don't come much better than that. We hope to bring you a taste of a thoroughly golden moment a little later in the programme.

First though, tonight:

Recession in the suburbs:

BT announced today that they're cutting 10,000 jobs. Virgin Media and Yell.com already announced redundancies in their thousands earlier this week. These jobs are going in the very sectors we used to think of as above the danger zone - financial services, telecommunications and new technology. This time around it's not just manufacturing. So is this the beginning of the first real white collar recession? We'll be talking to heads of industry in the studio and asking what impact this will have on our cities and our society.

US Recession:

We'll also be bringing you the story of white collar recession from the suburbs of Washington - Rockville to be precise. David Grossman looks at what happens when the engine of the world - the American consumer - simply stops spending.

And we'll be talking to a key member of Barack Obama's transition team, financial advisor Robert Shapiro, who worked as Under Secretary of Commerce for Bill Clinton.

Children:

Does this country have a problem with the way it protects its children? It may be a strange question to ask in the week that we've heard about the brief life and tragic death of 17-month-old "Baby P" and on a day when two more tiny children have been found stabbed to death in their home in Manchester. But tonight, we attempt to get the facts straight - what is the British record on child protection and child abuse, and are we in danger of drawing the wrong lessons from these very tragic, but very exceptional cases?

Afghanistan:

On the day two Royal Marines have been killed it is hard to find any voice - diplomatic, political, military or local - that will say Afghanistan is a success story at present. An opinion poll - commissioned by the ´óÏó´«Ã½ - suggests that two-thirds of people think British troops should leave Afghanistan. The country has seen violent incidents rise ten-fold in the last year, 50 per cent of the economy is once again coming from the opium trade, nearly half of the country is viewed by the UN as an "uncontrolled hostile environment" and the man in charge is seen as weak, indecisive and unable to clamp down on the corruption in his own government. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ has secured an interview with President Hamid Karzai. We'll be asking if he is still the right man for the job and how this mission has to change if it is to succeed.

Hendrix:

The Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell has died at the relatively unrock-legend age of 62. He's the last of the three to go. And we will have a tribute to him - them - and, hey, to rock itself on the programme tonight with our Culture correspondent Steve Smith.

This week we learned that the apostrophe is the punctuation mark which causes most problems. IT firm SpinVox found nearly half of 2000 adults it tested were unable to use the apostrophe properly. The possessive plural was most misunderstood, with 46% thinking the example "people's choice" was wrong despite being correctly punctuated.

Unsurprisingly, teachers came top of the class in the test, with 80% getting full marks. Perhaps more surprisingly, especially given the comments on the Newsnight blog, journalists came second.

Read the rest of this entry

Kavita Puri is tonight's programme producer. Here's her outline of what we have planned for the programme. Jeremy's presenting.

Reality bites
""

So asked Newsnight's Economics Editor Paul Mason to the Governor of the Bank of England (). Mervyn King said he had not lost touch with reality. But he admitted we are in a recession, national output could shrink by 2% next year, and interest rates could drop further; this on the day that unemployment figures were at their highest since 1997. King also said policymakers can only have a limited impact at national level. So as G20 leaders prepare to meet in Washington - what's their vision for the new financial world order to get us out of recession?

Defence intelligence cuts
The Butler review into the intelligence relating to Iraq's WMD, which played a key part in the Government's decision to invade Iraq, said there should be no cuts in defence intelligence spending. This was agreed to by the government. But our Diplomatic Editor Mark Urban has learnt there will be at least a 20% reduction in staff. A key witness to the Hutton inquiry, Defence Intelligence Staff analyst Brian Jones tells Newsnight the government has failed to learn the lessons from the Iraq WMD saga. And a former deputy chief of defence intelligence says the cuts will make similar mistakes more likely in the future.

Baby P
An extraordinary exchange during Prime Ministers Question Time on the inquiry into the death of Baby P. Our Politics Editor Michael Crick reports.

The Curve
Nestled in Leicester's city centre is the Curve - the city's new theatre. Designed by the Uruguayan Raphael Vinoly, it is hoped that it will regenerate the area. Will it do for Leicester what the Guggenheim did for Bilbao? Our Culture Correspondent Stephen Smith has a sneak preview.

Do join Jeremy at 22:30 - .

Here is Robert Morgan with details of tonight's programme.

Baby P

Two men have been convicted of causing or allowing the death of a 17-month-old child who suffered dozens of injuries, even though he was being monitored by social workers. The boy's mother admitted the same offence. Officials in Haringey, in North London say three professionals involved in the case have received written warnings. The government has ordered a review of child protection services in England.
The case comes five years after the report into the death of Victoria Climbie detailed a "gross failure of the system" and "widespread organisational malaise". What happened to the 108 recommendations in Lord Laming's Inquiry?

Conservative tax cuts?

With the government due to make an announcement next week. David Cameron has unveiled the Conservatives' proposals for tax cuts to try to ease the economic downturn. He would like to encourage business to take on the unemployed in exchange for a slice of the money saved on benefits. Will this reduce unemployment and boost the economy? Jeremy will be talking to a senior shadow cabinet member.

Oxford Laboratory

Oxford University says the first animals have been moved into a new research laboratory in the city. Construction on the building was halted for more than a year point after protests from animal rights groups let to the contractors pulling out. Our medical correspondent Fergus Walsh is the only journalist to have been allowed inside to see the new facilities. Does this signify a turning point in the debate between animal rights and medical research? We'll bring together a scientist who does research on animals and a leader of an anti-vivisection group.

Apostrophes?

A new survey claims that half the population is unable to use the apostrophe correctly - is it time to scrap it?

Tax cuts
On tonight's Newsnight, Jeremy will be kicking off with the thorny issue of tax cuts. As the three political parties for our floundering economy, Gordon Brown gives his annual keynote speech to the City of London at the Mansion House, where our big editorial guns also lie in wait for him. We ask exactly what he and the other political leaders can actually offer and, more worryingly, can it work.

Obama
tonight as President Bush gives him and his wife the guided tour. While Michelle measures up the curtains and the kids fight for the best bedroom, what will the incoming and outgoing Presidents find to talk about? As the transition team get busy listing all the Bush legislation that's due for the chop the day after inauguration, David Grossman has the Obama hitlist, including such items as the stem cell research funding ban, and decisions on offshore oil drilling.

Missing bomb
An extraordinary story from the Cold War when an American B52 carrying 4 Atom bombs crashed into the Greenland ice sheet 40 years ago. Fortunately none of them went off. Unfortunately, one of them is still missing, now thought to be at the bottom of the Ocean possibly leaking plutonium. The ´óÏó´«Ã½'s security correspondent Gordon Corera investigates what befell those who undertook the secret clean-up.

Miriam Makeba
And a rare and beautiful piece of footage of the at the height of her powers, taking Europe by storm in concert back in 1966. Not to be missed.

Here is Gavin Esler with details of tonight's programme.

Quote for the Day

"As you can probably guess, I'm not so much a lame duck now as a dead duck" -
Robert Tuttle, US Ambassador to London.

Obama.....It's the economy....

In fact some of us are hoping the new ambassador might be Oprah Winfrey, though I doubt if we will hear any news on that key appointment for a while. What we are expecting is Barack Obama's first news conference since being elected President and it is the economy that is expected to dominate. There was more evidence today that the US is in recession. The unemployment rate has reached a 14 year high and the car giant, General Motors, has said it may run out of cash next year. We're hoping to speak to a key member of Obama's transition team.

Rates Cut

The banks have finally agreed to pass on yesterday's rate cut, so have they given into government pressure, or are they just responding to a welcome fall in the Libor rate?

Brown Bounce

Labour held on to their seat in Glenrothes dealing a big blow to the hopes of the Scottish National Party. Does this mean Gordon Brown is bouncing back? And do the circumstances of Scotland - where the threat to Labour is the SNP - replicate themselves in the rest of the country, where the main threat of course is the Conservatives?

Georgia vs Russia

After Tim Whewell's exclusive report from South Ossetia, Tim now has an extraordinary follow up. One of the former OSCE staff in Tbilisi says that Georgia did launch an indiscriminate attack on the town of Tskhinvali, and claims that he tried to warn his organisation that Georgia was building up forces in the area. So why was he apparently ignored? I'll interview the Chairman in Office of the OSCE.

And finally my thanks to Newsnight viewer Sean Naylor for the following Joke Fit For a Recession.

Q: What is the definition of optimism?
A: A banker ironing five shirts on a Monday morning?

Newsnight - with plenty of freshly ironed shirts - is at 10.30pm on ´óÏó´«Ã½ 2

Gavin

Here's John Wilson with details of tonight's Newsnight Review.

Join me for Newsnight Review at 11pm when my guests - Ian Rankin, Julie Myerson and Sarfraz Manzoor - will be discussing age and wisdom, guilt and humility and dynastic struggle.

King Lear

Pete Postlethwaite's turn as Shakespeare's mad monarch has been billed as one of the starry highlights of Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture. It's also a sort of homecoming for Postlethwaite who - despite being born in Warrington - is regarded by many in the city as an honorary Scouser. In the foyer of the Everyman Theatre on Hope Street, there's a 1970s photograph of the rep company in which he's pictured alongside the likes of Julie Walters, Alan Bleasdale and Willy Russell. This week he returned to the Everyman as a Hollywood star, three decades older and with a massive specially-grown beard.

Alastair Campbell

To misquote King Lear, a man more sinned against than spinning? The former No.10 communications chief may want us to think so - he's written a novel about guilt and humility. No, really. All In The Mind tells the story of a top psychiatrist, Professor Martin Sturrock, who's in need of the sort of counselling he dispenses so brilliantly to his patients.

Easy Virtue

Old English manners are challenged by loud-mouthed modernity in this feisty new version of an early Noel Coward play. Director Stephan Elliott - best known for The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - has given the piece a musical twist, with Cole Porter classics sharing the soundtrack with jazz-age versions of Car Wash and Sex Bomb. Hollywood starlet Jessica Biel is glamorous American racing driver Larita, Ben Barnes is her foppish new husband; as the family matriarch, Kristin Scott Thomas is on hand to raise her eyebrows with haughty disdain at the vulgarity invading her corner of England. And the dog gets what he deserves.

The Devil's Whore

Peter Flannery created a masterpiece with his television series Our Friends In The North. Fans of Tosker and co. may well recognise the themes of fractured friendships and shifting political allegiances played out in Flannery's new Channel 4 drama The Devil's Whore. Set during the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell (The Wire's Dominic West) and his more radical friend Thomas Rainsborough (Michael Fassbender from new film Hunger) vie for power as they plot a republican England. John Simm is a mercenary who begins to follow his morals, not just the money. Andrea Riseborough plays the fictional character Angelica Fanshawe, who has visions of the devil.

The Review pundits will be here with their verdicts at 11. Do join us.

John

Here is today's output editor Robert Morgan with details of tonight's programme.

Interest Rates Slashed

The Bank of England has surprised the city by slashing interest rates by 1.5% - the biggest reduction for more than a quarter of a century. The base rate now stands at 3 per cent - lower than the Eurozone. Gordon Brown has urged banks to pass the cut on to homeowners. Economics Editor, Paul Mason asks whether the UK's current policy framework can actually cope with a period of recession, financial crisis and potential slump.

Obama

Barack Obama has begun the task of forming his new administration - just a day after becoming the American President elect. He's named several key figures of his transition team, and has asked an Illinois Congressman, Rahm Emanuel, to be his Chief of Staff. Over the next few days he's also expected to announce the name of his Treasury Secretary - who will have the task of steering the US economy through the global financial crisis. David Grossman will be in Chicago where President-elect Obama is preparing his White House team.

We'll also be joined by a senior Democrat to talk through who will get the key White House posts.

Glenrothes

Voters are still at the polls in the Glenrothes by-election. Labour is defending a majority of more than 10,000 in the Fife constituency following the death of MP John MacDougall. There are eight candidates. The result should be known by the early hours of tomorrow. Michael Crick will have the latest from the count.

Obama Nation

Why are so many British politicians racing to claim President-elect Obama as one of their own? Our Newsnight political panel will try to find the answer for us live.

Here's Liz Gibbons, our output editor in Washington with more details of our two special programmes this evening.

Obama's America

Jeremy is in Washington tonight for two extended programmes reflecting all the excitement, the historic significance and the seismic cultural shift of this most historic of election results.

Join Jeremy at 8pm on ´óÏó´«Ã½2, ´óÏó´«Ã½ World News and the News Channel where an array of fascinating guests will assess what an Obama presidency means for America, with its history of racial strife, and how his election may change perceptions of America around the world.

Join Jeremy at 10.30pm when he and his guests and our team of editors will analyse the huge challenges the Obama presidency will face, and where John McCain's loss leaves the Republican Party.

And tell us what you think on the Newsnight blog.

Liz

Tonight in addition to our usual programme at 10.30pm, there will be an hour-long Newsnight Special at 8pm on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Two, which will also be carried on ´óÏó´«Ã½ World and the ´óÏó´«Ã½ News Channel.

President Obama: A Newsnight Special will look at the global reaction to the election of the first black president of the United States. We look at the cultural changes that helped bring about this historic result and ask how President Obama's election may change the way the rest of the world looks at America.

Then at 10.30pm our second programme will focus on the policy challenges facing the new president.

But meanwhile we'd like to know what you think about the election result.

Do you think the election of Barack Obama shows we've entered a post-racial era?

Here is Dan Kelly, our output editor in London, with more details of tonight's programme.

America Decides

Jeremy is live in Washington for tonight's show as millions of Americans cast their vote in the final act of this extraordinary campaign. Huge lines have formed outside many polling stations, and pundits are already predicting one of the highest turnouts of all time - up to 130 million people are expected to vote.

We'll be live in the key battleground states and we'll discuss the latest exit polls with pollster John Zogby and Hillary Clinton's former Chief Strategist, Mark Penn. Jeremy Vine will analyse the key state contests and we'll look back at previous presidential contests that have shaken America - Hoover vs FDR; Nixon vs JFK; Carter vs Reagan - how will McCain vs Obama be judged by history?

Join Jeremy and the team tonight in DC at 22.30 on ´óÏó´«Ã½ TWO.

Dan

Liz Gibbons is tonight's programme producer. Here's her rundown on what's in store.

US ELECTION COUNTDOWN

Jeremy Paxman is in Washington tonight for a special Newsnight.

With fewer than 24 hours to go before voters in America go to the polls, both presidential candidates are campaigning in states where the result could go either way. are predicting a win for the Democrat, Barack Obama. But his rival, John McCain says support for him is growing.

Jeremy spent last week in Charlotte, North Carolina. In a fascinating feature tonight, he will assess just how it's come to a point where a southern, white state which hasn't been Democrat since 1976 now appears to be on the verge of turning in a majority vote for a northern black liberal. He investigates the role that race, the economy and insecurity have played in the campaign, and speaks to Republican contender Mike Huckabee and the rapper Usher - both out on the stump in Charlotte. You can see .

He'll be joined live from Chicago by civil rights leader and former Democrat presidential nominee, Jesse Jackson. Does he agree with author Toni Morrison, who told Kirsty Wark on Friday's programme that an Obama victory would be a victory, principally, for white America? .

We've sent David Grossman to Pennslyvania - a state the Democrats held in 2004, which John McCain has to win in order to stand a chance of getting into the White House. McCain has been campaigning hard there all week - he's in the industrial town of Pittsburgh today, and so are we.

To round off the show Jeremy will reflect on the key turning points of this fascinating campaign with Democrat pollster, Stan Greenberg, former senior adviser to Hillary Clinton Ann Lewis, John McCain's former campaign manager Terry Nelson, and George Bush's former spokesman Trent Duffy.

Do join Jeremy for what promises to be a great programme.

Liz