In Aleppo "the situation, which has been so horrifying for so long, is coming to an apex and possibly a very bloody conclusion," says Daniel Gorevan, Syria crisis policy director with Oxfam.

There are reports of government-allied militias going from house to house shooting civilians, says Daniel, while survivors describe their friends and family being "disappeared".

Daniel calls for a major humanitarian response to help those fleeing the besieged area, and for Western governments to apply pressure on Syria and Russia to assert control over the Syrian armed forces and militias.

Also on the podcast, Simon Carswell reports from Washington where the Donald Trump transition takes new and unexpected turns.

Reports of the appointment as Secretary of Energy of former Texas Governor Rick Perry, who once forgot the name of the Department of Energy while pledging to abolish it, will fuel further criticism of Trump's team.

And Trump's clash with intelligence agencies over suspected Russian interference in elections could complicate his appointment of Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State.

Finally to India, where last month Prime Minister Narendra Modi invalidated 86 per cent of all cash in circulation in an unexpected move targeting the black market.

We hear from our correspondent Rahul Bedhi about the chaos this drastic measure has caused in a country of 1.3 billion people where most business is done in cash. Did Modi fail to anticipate the problems, or does he simply not care?