valued contribution. torrential rain in south korea has flooded the capital seoul. at least eight people are dead and several are missing. # we re walking in the air. and the author and illustrator raymond briggs best known for the children s book the snowman has died at the age of 88. live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news. it s newsday. hello and welcome to the programme. donald trump has declined to answer questions under oath as part of an investigation into his family s business practices. mr trump described the inquiry by the new york attorney general, letitia james, as a witch hunt. ms james is looking into whether the trump organization tried to acquire loans and avoid taxes by misleading the authorities. the former president s deposition comes just days after the fbi carried out an unprecedented search at his florida home as part of a separate investigation. shortly after his visit to the new york attorney general s office, he released a statement. s
In your home, your Writing Study is just below us, the floor below. Just tell me, does it matter to you when you are writing what is going on in the world outside Yourfront Door . Does it affect your writing . Well, it depends on what you mean. If theres a fire engine screeching in front of my door, it will interrupt my concentration, and i might go out and see whats going on. But if theres a distant war going on in another place and i know about it, im not going to read about it while im doing my work for the day. But i certainly will inform myself about it later. You talk of distant wars. Im thinking of wars much closer to home. You write a lot about your take on american politics. Youve talked about your feelings through the course of four years of donald trump. Youve talked about a country at war with itself. So the war isnt so very far away. Yes, the war that were engaged in here, fortunately, has not become yet a fighting war with guns, to a large degree. But we are divided in wa
are creating the book together. and the two of you, the writer and the reader, are creating the book together. and every reader reads a different book, and this is what s so beautiful about it. we all bring our own lives, our own sufferings, our ownjoys, our past to whatever it is we encounter in the world, and nothing, never more so than when we re encountering art and particularly literature, which requires time. i can look at the paintings on the wall in a glance and see what s there, but if i pick up this 750 page book, no, i can t take it all in at once, i have to give it time, and that time is the beautiful thing about it. let me ask you a somewhat different question, but it taps into your passion for good art, you know, whether it be great writing or great pictures or great movies. you have a thing for beauty, and you appreciate it. does it matter to you if you learn that the people
with the writer and the two of you the writer and the reader are creating the book together. and every reader reads a different book, and this is what is so beautiful about it. we all bring our own lives, our own sufferings, our ownjoys, our past to whatever it is we encounter in the world, and nothing never more so than when we re encountering art, and particularly literature, which requires time. i can look at the paintings on the wall at a glance and see what there, but if i pick up this 750 page book, no, i can t take it all in at once, i have to give it time, and that time is the beautiful thing about it. let me ask you a somewhat different question, but it taps into your passion for good art, you know whether it be great writing or great pictures or great movies. you have a thing for beauty and you appreciate it. does it matter to you if you learn that the people
and the book, in spite of everything, is the only a novel, for example, is the only place, i think, in the human world where two strangers can meet on terms of absolute intimacy. and that space that is created in the book is something very beautiful and precious. and whether ten people read the book or 10,000 people read the book or 10 million people read the book, it doesn t matter. the person reading it is alone with the writer and the two of you the writer and the reader are creating the book together. and every reader reads a different book, and this is what is so beautiful about it. we all bring our own lives, our own sufferings, our ownjoys, our past to whatever it is we encounter in the world, and nothing never more so than when we re encountering art, and particularly literature, which requires time. i can look at the paintings on the wall at a glance and see