Monday, 29th October, 2007
- 29 Oct 07, 06:07 PM
Saudi visit
This afternoon the Saudi monarch King Abdullah arrived in London for the first Saudi State visit in 20 years. The Saudi flag and the Union flag are flying side by side all the way up the Mall. It was always going to be a controversial visit.
Concerns about Saudi Arabia's human rights record have led the acting leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable to announce he will be boycotting the state banquet at Buckingham Palace.
We speak to Vince Cable.
Oil prices
Oil is power, and with the conflict in the world, a powerful weapon. Today oil prices are sky high - $93 a barrel - that's 40% up on the figure at the start of the year, and four times the price five years ago. Oil is pretty close to the prices it hit during the oil shock in the early 1980s. Stephanie Flanders will be looking at why oil is so expensive right now. And we'll be discussing if the answer could be the hydrogen fuel car.
Phone innovation
And somebody's paying for the new 3 Skype-phone but who is it? Paul Mason dials up the communication revolution which allows Skype users to make free Internet calls to each other while on the move. The phone which marries Skype and the mobile phone company 3 is being launched in nine markets including Britain, Australia and Italy. There are already 246 million strong registered users, so where does this fit into the technology arc, what impact will this have on the communications industry, and how quickly will there be yet another innovation?
