anthony shadid, "new york times", in cairo. thank you for staying up late, first of all. >> sure, my pleasure. >> rose: tell me what's happening today and what's going to happen tomorrow, more importantly. >> well, it's a quick succession of events tonight here in cairo. the military made a striking statement this evening that it would not fire on protestors. it also said that it considered the demands of these demonstrations to be legitimate. soon after that, the newly appointed vice president went on state television saying that he was going to open dialogue with opposition. there seems to be a dramatic weakening of president mubarak's home on power and though maybe it's too early to say, it does seem like the coming days may be decisive in determining what has been the ultimate demands with the fall of president hosni mubarak's government. >> rose: but tomorrow, a million people? >> you know, that's their call. there's an imperative i think on the protestors' part to keep the pressure up in the street. their card right now i

joining me to talk about all the events of this tumultuous week anthony shadid of "the new york times abou el magd, egyptian journalist, david muir, abc news, lamia radi also an egyptian journalist and from the bbc, john simpson. john, you've been covering these for so many years. is it tenable, this standoff, this political stalemate? what do you think will happen? >> he's not moving. he's got the pride and stubbornness of an old man. he wants to go out in his terms. i still think it's a fantastic achievement to have got him to agree not to stand up for the election. i think that's the prime achievement of what we've seen. >> anthony, you've been covering this region for so long. is it a fantastic achievement by the people? have they won a victory already? >> i think they have won a victory to some extent and the difficulty facing the opposition is can they translate these demands of the street into real political capital and have someone that represents them pushing for an agenda far more sweeping than the resignation of mubarak. >> you have been in the square as we all have this we