On air: Is Obama’s skin colour harming his presidential campaign?

It’s taken almost seven weeks, but Democratic Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has finally distanced himself from his former pastor after a couple of recent speeches. Rev Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor for 20 years, the man who married him and his wife and baptised his children, claimed back in March that the United States had brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own “terrorism” and the government had invented AIDS to kill black people.

Originally Senator Obama denounced his comments as “incendiary” and “completely inexcusable”, yesterday his tone changed, “They offend me. They rightly offend all Americans and they should be denounced. And that’s what I’m doing very clearly and unequivocally today.” Here are a couple of blogs with their own views.

Talking points for 30 April

Good morning, first up I’ll ask you if now is the time to put our debate about race being good or bad for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign on the radio. The Illinois senator has finally had to put some personal distance between him and his former pastor after a couple of recent speeches – Obama said he was outraged and saddened by Rev Jeremiah Wright’s comments.

On air: Do you live in a look-away society?

It’s been the most read story in the world for the past two days, and the case of the Austrian man who kept his daughter in a cellar for 24 years, and fathered 7 children with her continues to demand our attention. On bbcnews.com alone, 2.5 million people read the story yesterday. And these are the questions that it’s raising.

Cuban Five questions

Hi, I’m Sigrun a producer working on the Newshour programme. Not much notice on this, but around 2000GMT we will talk to the daughter of one of the Cuban Five and we’d like your questions for her. Th Cuban 5 were convicted by a US court in December 2001 on a range of charges, including trying to obtain US military secrets and spying on Cuban exile groups. They argue that they were trying to protect Cuba from attacks by ant-Castro organisations based in the US. The Cuban government has since been campaigning for their release. We will talk to Irma Gonzales about the campaign to free her father. What questions would you like us to put to her? We’d be grateful for your thoughts.

How can we fight Islamist extremism?

UPDATE: Ed Husain has decided he doesn’t want to take part in the show (for reasons I’ll explain in a seperate post). Rashad has kindly offered to find another guest with similar experiences but this may take a day or two to confirm. You’re welcome to keep on responding to Rashad and I’ll keep you posted on when this will get to air.

Is the fashion industry racist?

The next issue of the Italian edition of Vogue is to feature mainly black models. The magazine’s editor-in-chief, Franca Sozzani,  says she is doing it because not enough people in the fashion industry use black models.

Ms Sozzani is the latest person to suggest that the fashion industry is racist.  Is she right? Does it promote a white world?

On air: Israelis and Palestinians

The World Bank says the Palestinian economy won’t grow primarily because of Israeli restrictions on movement. It’s been picked up by hundreds of bloggers because of course it raises far broader issues about the relationship between Israelis and Palestinians and the route they see to a peaceful and prosperous life.

We’ve invited two Israelis, two Palestinians and a representative of an aid organisation into the WHYS studio to talk with us and each other. We’re not going to set a question. We’ll just let them choose which way to take the conversation. Please leave comments or questions for them here.

Talking points for 28 April

Good morning, thanks to Katharina in Belgium and Agostinho in Jamaica for a sterling job in moderating the fourth blank page. We’ll be reading through your ideas for programmes with great interest. Turning to today’s programme, a report by the World Bank says the Israeli blockade on Gaza is having a crippling effect on it’s economy. Not all that surprising you may think, but Palestinian economic recovery is seen as crucial for U.S.-backed Mideast peace efforts.

Women should not ignore their men when they have kids

Hi, I’m Savane in Kenya. I watched an Oprah a couple of years ago that I think would generate an interesting discussion.

Blank Page No.4

Katharina in Belgium and Agostinho in Jamaica are at the control of this weekend’s Blank Page. We only ask you all to keep two things in mind. 1) WHYS is devoted to talking about the news and related issues. 2) Think about how your discussions might lead to a programme. Which issue would you like to hear on air, and which guests would you like to take part? With that said, I’m going to sit back and watch.