Hello everyone,

We will start the show with a live report from the annual Lord Mayor's Banquet in London where the U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown will once again defend an increasingly unpopular Afghanistan policy.

The Prime Minister is expected to reiterate the notion that Al Qaeda and Islamic extremism remain the biggest threat to national security and that Britain's engagement in Afghanistan is essential.

We have a live report.

We will also report on Barack Obama's first trip to China as President. The American leader took questions from students at a town hall meeting in Shanghai over the week-end. A balancing act for President Obama, whose challenge it to achieve rapprochement with China while raising human rights and political freedom issues.

Today, the American president is in Beijing ahead of a summit and state dinner tomorrow. We will have full coverage.

Then, Marc McKay will join me to talk about a carmaker bucking the trend in Formula One: rather than running in the opposite direction, Mercedes Benz is getting back into the sport. We'll tell you all about the move and whether it will pay off.

And- the ex-Republican vice-presidential Sarah Palin is on a media blitz to sell her new book in which she reveals details of her unsuccessful 2008 ticket with John McCain.

Questions surrounding her political ambitions are surfacing again. Will she run for the Republican nomination in 2012?

On that topic, a new CNN/Opinion Research poll reveals that only 28% of Americans think Palin is qualified to be president, while 70% say she is not.

Also today, we will preview NASA's latest launch and Maradona's two-month ban from the football pitch.

See you at the IDesk!

Hala

Posted by: CNN Anchor, Hala Gorani
Filed under: Today At The I-Desk