Castro: end of a legacy?
Updated on 19 February 2008
Into the morning meeting today and there's only one word on everyone's lips: Castro.
The Cuban leader has resigned after 49 years in power, and everyone has something to say. He's more than an icon of popular culture, he's one of the most important people in world foreign policy for the last 20 years. Will our younger viewers understand the depth of what he stands for, argues one?
But he's not dead, says another. It's not right to do an obituary-styled piece. Cue lengthy debate about how strong a news story this is.
Whatever the view everyone's agreed that he's the man who brought the world closest to nuclear war with the Bay of Pigs standoff in the Cold War.
There's also the romantic side to his story: he's also the man who has famously survived 638 assassination attempts, as well as notching up a personal political victory against his US neighbours.
The questions are many: why has Fidel announced his resignation now? He said in December he was ready to give way to a younger generation, so is it really big news? 18 months with his brother Raul in charge hasn't changed anything, will anything change now? Was the comment on the Granma newspaper's website even written by him?
Castro, hero or villain? Channel 4 News tonight at seven.
It's foreign news agogo today as the other big story is the Pakistan elections. President Musharraf has conceded defeat, but was it all rigged? We've got a team on the ground getting to the bottom of the election results and what they mean.
Is it the end of US ally president Musharraf? And what do the changes in Pakistan actually mean on the world stage? How will they affect us here in the UK? More special coverage tonight.
The nationalisation of Northern Rock continues full steam ahead. Our editors want to know when will details about job losses be made public? How long will the workers in the North East be kept hanging on without knowing their fate?
And what will the European Commission have to say about the whole thing, now that the bank is publicly owned, and has to meet certain requirements.
Then it's back to more foreign news and Kosovo. President Bush has spoken overnight while on a visit to Tanzania. He's given his backing to the fledgling republic, saying independence was the right thing to do. Still, with Spain, Cyprus, Russia and other nations in disagreement, it's opening up one of the biggest diplomatic rifts in recent times. One to watch.
Then there's the issue of tap water. News comes through that the Consumer Council for Water, that's the government's consumer body for water, is asking cafes, bars and restaurants throughout England and Wales to serve their customers tap water as a matter of course. It wants the public to start asking for tap water, instead of paying for the bottled variety.
There are questions over the carbon footprint of transporting bottled water, also the morality of 'mass-medication', by putting fluoride into the nation's drinking water. One for the science unit to look into.
Channel 4 News is on at seven tonight, with Channel 4 News at Noon for those of you who just can't wait!
