Shelling intensifies in Eastern Ukraine

Diplomacy efforts continue to avoid an escalation of the crisis in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin and France’s president Emmanuel Macron having a talk on Sunday. But there has been an intensifying of shelling and multiple explosions have been reported in the separatist-controlled cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Also in the programme: At what age our brain starts to slow down? Contradicting what was thought so far, a new research suggests it only happens in our 60s; and melting glaciers are causing mudslides and floods in mountain villages around the world.

Paul Henley is joined by Celia Szusterman, Director of the Latin American Programme at the Institute for Statecraft, here in London; and by Dimitar Bechev, a lecturer at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies and an author and expert on Russia, Eastern Europe and Turkey.

(Photo: Militants of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People"s Republic (DNR) hang a banner in the rebel-controlled city of Donetsk. Credit: Reuters).