From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Will people power bring real change to Egypt?

Hello again, I'm Armin Alney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

A mass of protesters celebrated tonight in Cairo's Tahrir Square after Egyptian officials told

them that all their demands will be met. But they had a long wait till a promised addressed

by President Hosni Mubarak and there were conflicting reports about whether he'd really stepped

down. The military promised support for legitimate demands of the people.

Will the state of emergency law that suspends human rights be repealed?

What are the prospects for the established freedoms required for real democracy?

We'll hear from Egypt, other parts of the Middle East, and from Washington.

Also today, Republicans and the Obama White House draw the battle lines for a political war over domestic spending. First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio International Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation and its campaign for American workers. More at rockfound.org. Hello again, Mormon Alney, back with To The Point. Tonight, the biggest crowd so far in Cairo's Tahrir Square awaited a speech by Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak. We'll update a very fast-moving story.

On reporter's notebook, Republicans and Democrats prepare for a much-awaited showdown over federal spending.

First, this news update, the protesters in Tahrir Square have had a long wait since the announcement

that President Hosni Mubarak would address the nation on TV.

Rasha Abdullah is chair of the journalism and mass communication department at the American

University in Cairo.

She is on the street in Cairo in the square, as she has been for much of the past two weeks.

Rasha Abdullah, welcome to our program.

Thank you.

Tell us, if you will, what you're waiting for in Tahrir Square.

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