Will Blinken's Middle East diplomacy make any difference?

It's been three months since Israel began its war on Hamas after their attacks on October 7th. Washington has helped with military aid to Israel but has also expressed its concern for the large number of Palestinian civilian deaths.

Also in the programme: Mario Zagallo, the Brazilian World Cup winning manager, has died aged 92; and accounts of Ukrainians who say they are spying on the Russian military in Crimea.

Joining presenter Paul Henley are Ivan Vejvoda, a political scientist at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and a former foreign policy adviser to two Serbian prime ministers, and Arzu Geybullayeva in Istanbul, who is an Azerbaijani columnist and writer with a special focus on human rights and press freedom in her home country.

(Picture: Palestinians walk past the rubble of a house destroyed by an Israeli strike in Rafah. Credit: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/ Reuters)