Friday, January 31, 2003

Charting a Course
British Prime Minister Tony Blair met with President Bush today to discuss the conflict with Iraq. Kwame Holman reports on Blair's political troubles both abroad and at home. Margaret Warner follows up with guests Reginald Dale, the editor-in-chief of the journal European Affairs; and Robin Niblett, a senior fellow in the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Newsmaker: Mohammed Aldouri
The United Nations Security Council started off the week with a report on the state of weapons inspections in Iraq. Ray Suarez discusses the inspections with Mohammed AlDouri, Iraqi ambassador to the U.N.

Getting Ready
Four thousand soldiers at Fort Carson, Colorado are going into the final stages of deployment to the Middle East. Tom Bearden reports on preparations for the troops and their families.

Shields & Brooks
Jim Lehrer talks with syndicated columnist Mark Shields and David Brooks of The Weekly Standard about the Iraq conflict and President Bush's economic and Medicare plans.

Thursday, January 30, 2003

European Rift
Europe showed signs of a growing division over a possible U.S.-led war with Iraq. Margaret Warner follows up on the conflict with Radek Sikorski, a former deputy foreign minister and deputy defense minister of Poland; Jean-Robert Leguey-Feilleux, a professor of political science at Saint Louis University; Stephan Richter, publisher of The Globalist; and Maurizio Molinari, a columnist for the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

Vanishing Value
The world's largest media company posts an annual loss of $99 billion -- the largest corporate drop in U.S. history. Paul Solman of WGBH Boston looks at how the Internet and media giant has incurred the largest loss of any American company in history.

Fixing Medicare
President Bush asked for Congress to accept his plan to change Medicare yesterday. Ray Suarez discusses the problems and politics of Medicare with Gail Wilensky, a senior fellow at Project Hope, a foundation for international health education; and Gail Shearer, the director of health policy analysis for Consumers Union, a consumer advocacy group.

Essay: War Fever
Essayist Richard Rodriguez examines Americans' attitudes toward war.

Wednesday, January 29, 2003

Words of War
President Bush warned in his State of the Union address that the U.S. will see that Iraq is disarmed, even if that means launching military strikes. Kwame Holman reports with excerpts from the president's speech (). Spencer Michels follows up with a group of Denver voters.

Jim Lehrer then gets reaction from the leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: its chairman Richard Lugar (D-Ind.) and the ranking Democrat, Joe Biden of Delaware.

Bush's Economic Plan
The president also spoke last night about his plan to fix the economy's troubles. Kwame Holman narrates excerpts from the State of the Union address (), and Spencer Michels gets more reaction from the Denver voters.

Ray Suarez then discusses the president's economic proposals with Rep. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md. ) And Rep. Jim McCrery (R-La.).

Tuesday, January 28, 2003

Newsmaker: ElBaradei
Chief U.N. nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei reported to the U.N. Security Council yesterday on the first 60 days of inspections in Iraq. Gwen Ifill speaks with ElBaradei about his findings in Iraq.

New Point Man
Kwame Holman reports with excerpts from today's Senate confirmation hearing for Treasury Secretary nominee John Snow.

The 108th Congress
President Bush will discuss his outlook for the country tonight in his State of the Union address. Ray Suarez followed up on congressional opinions last week in an interview with Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.

He also spoke with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Master Strategist
Karl Rove is the president's chief strategist on matters of politics and policy. Margaret Warner discusses the White House adviser with Lou Dubose, a Texas journalist and co-writer of Boy Genius, a book about Rove; and David Sanger, the White House correspondent for The New York Times.

State of the Union
Jim Lehrer previews tonight's State of the Union address with syndicated columnist Mark Shields and David Brooks of the Weekly Standard.

Monday, January 27, 2003

The Findings
Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and chief nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei reported to the U.N. Security Council today on their inspections in Iraq. Gwen Ifill discusses the inspectors' comments with Raymond Zilinskas, a former U.N. biological weapons inspector who is currently director of the chemical and biological weapons nonproliferation program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies; and David Albright, a former analyst and nuclear inspector who now is president of the Institute for Science and International Security.

The Reaction
World leaders, including U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, responded to Blix and ElBaradei's comments about their weapons inspections. Ray Suarez reports.

The Road Ahead
Jim Lehrer discusses the next step in the confrontation with Iraq with Zbigniew Brzezinski, professor of American foreign policy at the School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and former national security adviser in the Carter administration.