Alex Thomson , Chief Correspondent

“It was hell”… “We were the living dead” – the words of Syrians emerging from the years of Militant Islamist rebel control and bombardment by Syrian, Russian and Iranian forces. This week for the first time in seven years the Syrian government fully controls its own capital.

Last month, the Home Office said the Windrush generation and their children would be eligible for free citizenship. But what if those children came here as adults?

Terrifying footage has has emerged from northern India, where dozens of people were killed by a combination of torrential rain and a dust storm. Many of those who lost their lives were asleep when their homes were destroyed by lightning.

The new Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, says he’s rejecting the “hostile environment” policy on immigration, but that isn’t much comfort to those who are already caught up in its net. We’ve been following the case of one 64-year-old grandmother who came here from Jamaica – from her nine-month detention in Yarl’s Wood, to her reunion with her family after her release. And she’s still being told she can’t stay.

All plastic packaging should be reusable, recyclable or compostable before 2025. That’s the new aim of a new plastic pact signed by over 40 companies which between them are responsible for over 80% of plastic packaging on products sold in supermarkets. Environmental campaigners say a voluntary agreement is no substitute for new laws clamping down…

The Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina has refused to answer questions about her country’s human rights record. She is in the UK as part of the Commonwealth Summit. This programme has been investigating the many cases of the so-called “missing” in Bangladesh who are political opponents of her government.

Professor Monica McWilliams, who was a founder of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition, and the leader of the Progressive Unionist Party and former paramilitary, Billy Hutchinson, were both signatories of the Good Friday Agreement.

Syrian activists say at least 40 people have been killed in a poison gas attack on Douma – the last rebel-held town in Eastern Ghouta, on the outskirts of Damascus… rescue teams described finding families suffocated in their homes. Relief workers in the town said hundreds more people had been brought into clinics, with symptoms…

The Russian embassy in London has called for a meeting with the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson over the Salisbury poison attack – claiming its dealings with the UK had been “utterly unsatisfactory”. The Foreign Office hit back, saying it was Russia’s response that had been unsatisfactory – accusing them of failing to answer numerous questions…

A huge police operation is underway after three people were killed and 20 injured when a vehicle crashed into a crowd sitting outside a popular bar in the German city of Muenster. Police say the driver then shot himself dead – but warned it was too early to speculate about a motive. The German Chancellor Angela…

A month ago it was thought Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were close to death after the nerve agent attack in Salisbury. Today the doctor responsible for his care says his condition has improved rapidly.

A statement has been issued on behalf of Yulia Skripal by British police which says: “I woke up over a week ago and am glad to say my strength is growing daily.” The statement followed a Russian TV station broadcast of an alleged phone conversation between Ms Skripal and her cousin. The police statement also suggested…

We are expecting reason to prevail, Vladimir Putin declared today – but the war of words between Russia and Britain over the Salisbury poisoning is escalating yet again. Moscow accused the UK of a ‘grotesque provocation’ – while Britain rejected Russia’s call for a joint investigation into the nerve agent attack as “perverse”. Meanwhile Boris…

Protestors blocked the streets in the Californian city of Sacramento last night after the funeral of a young black man who was shot dead by police. 22 year old Stephon Clark, who was unarmed, was killed in his grandmother’s back yard earlier this month – after two officers mistook the mobile phone he was holding…