News in Picture

Hello,

I'm presenting both Newsnight and Newsnight Review tonight, and so we will one way or another manage to encompass everything from the Olympics and Brazil to Barack Obama, to a bit of Henry VIII, the poet John Clare and the inheritance of modernism.

In tonight's programme - as of writing it is not clear which city will win the 2016 Olympics though, despite the campaigning on behalf of Chicago by Barack and Michelle Obama, the smart money appears to be on Rio.

After the Beijing Olympics and the South African World Cup, is Latin America finally coming of age as a world economic and cultural powerhouse?

Plus, Michelle Obama's speech on behalf of the city of Chicago comes after Sarah Brown's speech at the Labour party conference on behalf of her husband, the prime minister.

Which prompts the thought - do political wives, or partners, make a difference? Discuss.

And - when you think Newsnight, you think grime.

If you don't know what I am talking about then perhaps our item on Tinchy Stryder will open your eyes. And if you do, you'll love it anyway.

Plus in Review: I don't get out much these days. I have been reading the Man Booker Prize shortlist.

The Man Booker winner will be chosen next Tuesday, but tonight three book prize aficionados Rosie Boycott, John Carey and last year's Man Booker chair, Michael Portillo, will review an enticing list of titles - including the latest novels from former winners AS Byatt and JM Coetzee, and the hot favourite Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.

Perhaps they will also explain to me why at least two of the books are so fat I almost developed a hernia trying to lift them.

Oh, yes, and they will also perhaps try to figure out why in the 2009 Man Booker prize none of the six finalists were sufficiently interested in the 21st Century to set any of their novels in our own times. One is set in the 16th Century, two in the 19th Century, and three set between the 1920s and the 1990s.

Yesterday? It's the new today.

Gavin