Today - 23/08/2008

Presented by John Humphrys and Edward Stourton. Including: Jonathan Beale reports on Barack Obama's choice for vice-presidential running mate. Bill Barnard, chairman of Democrats Abroad in the UK, gives his view. Grace Ommer, director for Oxfam in Afghanistan, says that humanitarian access is being restricted. Lesley Curwen interviews C Fred Bergsten of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Quentin Sommerville reports on China's success in the Olympics. Major General Athar Abbas and Edward Luttwak discuss the situation in Pakistan. A team of archaeologists, led by Tom Dawson of St Andrews University, has saved a Bronze Age building from the sea on the Shetland island of Bressay. Thought for the Day with Brian Draper, associate lecturer at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. A memory stick containing details of the personal data of thousands of criminals has gone missing. Home Office Minister Tony McNulty explains. Boris Johnson says that he is determined that the 2012 Olympics will be under budget. Historian Adam Hart-Davis and Tim Dowling of the Guardian discuss period costumes and stately homes. The economy was static for the second quarter of 2008. Former Chancellor Norman Lamont and Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable discuss the implications for Gordon Brown and Labour. Stephen Carter, a black law professor at Yale, and David Lammy, black MP and Labour minister, discuss Barack Obama and the black upper-classes. Jon Manel reports on the lack of success in the throwing events in the Olympics. David Liddiment, former director of programmes at ITV and a BBC trustee, and Andrew Newman, head of comedy at Channel Four, discuss whether sitcoms are still commercially viable.