News in Picture

Tonight, David Grossman has been examining some of the public service spending commitments that the Prime Minister announced yesterday in his big speech at the Labour Party conference - do the figures really add up?

In the latest installment of Sacred Cows or Prime Cuts, our Political Editor Michael Crick has unleashed his fuzzy felt on Brighton and has been asking conference delegates what areas of government spending should be saved and which should be cut.

An independent report into who started last year's conflict between Russia and Georgia has been seized on by both sides as vindication of their position. Russia said the EU-sponsored report recognised that Georgia had started the war. Georgian officials said it blamed Russia for escalating tensions. Tim Whewell will be bringing us the latest on the story, but before then you can watch his award-winning 2008 film, What really happened in South Ossetia? in which he discovered evidence that Georgia may have committed war crimes in its attack on the breakaway region in August 2008.

And following the announcement that Professor Stephen Hawking is taking up a new post as Director of Research at Cambridge University, we have a short essay by the eminent scientist on the quantum creation of the universe, motor neurone disease, and why his scientific research is better than sex.

Do join Emily in London and Jeremy in Brighton at 10.30pm on BBC Two, and don't forget you can follow Newsnight on Twitter and leave your comments about the programme on the
Newsnight blog.