18/12/2014

0650

Alzheimers and other dementias were the third leading cause of death in the UK last year, after heart disease and stroke. A study in the Lancet shows deaths from the condition were up by 50% since 1990. Hilary Evans is from Alzheimers Research UK.

0710

No one knows when the army public school will be able to re-open. Schools in Peshawar will remain closed today with many parents afraid that their children cannot be kept safe. Among the accounts we have been hearing is one from a father who had an agonising wait outside the school for his son who was in the auditorium where most of the children died. He has been speaking to our Pakistan correspondent Shaimaa Khalil.

0715

1.6 million children now receive free school meals as a result of a Liberal Democrat policy that children in the first three years of primary school should not have to pay for lunch. That's a huge take-up in the first term, up from 300,000 in the summer. It has had the effect of stopping people applying for the pupil premium, so schools lose out on money to help disadvantaged families. David Laws is the schools minister.

0720

More than 300 libraries have closed since 2011 and we're on the brink of losing many more according to a report for the government on the country's libraries. It was written by the publisher and philanthropist William Sieghart. He says libraries should become more like coffee shops with Wi-Fi, sofas and hot drinks. We speak to William Sieghart and Mark Taylor, who's from the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.

0730

Barack Obama and Raúl Castro have agreed to begin normalising relations between the United States and Cuba, after 18 months of secret talks over prisoner releases brought a sudden end to decades of cold war hostility. The two presidents spoke simultaneously to confirm the surprise reversal of a long-running US policy of isolating Cuba, detailing a series of White House steps that will relax travel, commercial and diplomatic restrictions in exchange for the release of Americans and dissidents held in Havana. Jose Basulto is founder of Brothers to the Rescue, who fly missions to pick up rafters from Cuba. Tom Hayden is former California state senator and anti-war activist.

0740

An eccentric architectural plan, which is thought to have been drawn by George 111 during his period of madness, has been discovered at the British Library. It's part of a huge personal collection of papers put together by the King during his reign from 1760 to 1820. He was fascinated by geography and his topographical collection includes 60,000 maps, views, watercolours, and some rather more unusual items. The British Library now wants to raise £1m to catalogue the collection for the first time, and digitise it so everyone can see it. Our Arts Correspondent Rebecca Jones reports.

0750

Sony Pictures has said it is cancelling the release of the film which portrays a fictional attempt to assassinate the North Korean leader. Sony has confirmed that the film will get neither a theatrical release nor will it be streamed as a video-on-demand release. It follows a message from hackers implying there could be an attack on cinemas comparable to September 11th, 2001. The film had been due to hit cinemas on Christmas Day. Parmy Olson is a staff writer with Forbes, she also wrote a book about the anonymous hackers called “We Are Anonymous”. Alex Stedman is news editor at Variety.com.

0810

As more disturbing accounts emerge from the survivors of the Peshawar school attack, last night in vigils were held across the city. Mishal Husain speaks to some of those who survived the attack or who were lucky enough to be away from the school that day. 

0820

In February 2013, Robbie Rogers, a former Major League Soccer player who had played in the US and Europe, made headlines after coming out as gay in a post on his personal blog. Rogers' blog post was quickly international news. He has written a book 'Coming out to Play' where he discusses his sexuality and the reaction he got after revealing he was gay. We speak to him today. 

0835

Russians will be paying close attention to what their president Vladimir Putin has to say about the economy in his annual end of year news conference. It's also fifteen years this month since Putin replaced Boris Yeltsin in the Kremlin. Our Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg looks at how Putin has changed Russia. 

0845

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg will rule this morning on a claim by a Danish child-minder dismissed by his local city council in 2010 after reportedly being unable to bend down to tie shoelaces. The ruling could mean result in severely obese people being classified as disabled.

0850

The government is expected to confirm today that we are actually using less electricity than we used to. Analysts are confident that the UK has managed to break the link between economic growth and the use of energy. Our Environment analyst Roger Harrabin reports how combinations of EU rules, government standards and new technology have helped achieve this.

0855

Further update from Peshawar (see 0710 and 0810.) With Pakistan in its’ third day or mourning for the children of Peshawar, will people become horribly accustomed to ever new levels of barbarity? Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid and New York Times bureau chief Declan Walsh.


All subject to change.