Actor Sandra Bullock's partner Bryan Randall has died following battle with ALS

In the Indian district of Kishanganj, families have on average five children – the highest fertility rate of any district in India, soon to be the world's most populous nation.

Eighty years ago, the surrender of Nazi Germany's Sixth Army marked the end of the Battle of Stalingrad. Today, Russia uses commemoration events for its campaign against Ukraine and reinterprets history.

Faced with an ageing population and holes in public finances, many European countries are grappling with reform of their pension systems. In this programme, we compare and contrast the situations in two EU member states, Denmark and Romania, and debate what constitutes a fair system of pension contributions.

As the UK sweltered in the heatwave, what better way to cool off than going for a dip, but if one of your favourite past times is playing chess, why not combine the two? That's what players competing in the Dive Chess World Championships in London did on Sunday.

Glen Wood has come to symbolise a growing fight against "paternity harassment" in Japan. In of the of the country's very first cases of its kind, Wood alleged on-the-job harassment and unlawful dismissal from his position at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley after taking parental leave when his son was born prematurely in 2015. Last month, the Tokyo High Court rejected the Canadian native's appeal. In a 21-page ruling, the court defended the company's actions as "inevitable".

If you have been a constant follower of the Nigerian music industry, you would have noticed a constant bitter battle involving artists and record labels. Entertainment lawyer, Akinyemi Ayinoluwa talks to GuardianTV about the issues and how they can be solved. 

They're calling it the battle of Donbas. After nearly two months of mishaps and setbacks, Russia is putting all its might into a bid to capture the entire east of Ukraine. But will it capture it or flatten it? We ask our guests about the Kremlin's endgame.

There are calls from the US and Britain for an investigation after Ukrainian soldiers of the Azov regiment were reportedly injured by a "poisonous substance" during a Russian attack on the port city of Mariupol. No evidence has yet been gathered. The UK foreign secretary says it would be "a callous escalation" of the war. The Pentagon says it's "deeply concerning". Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has already expressed his fears that Russia could deploy chemical weapons in his country.

As France's April presidential election approaches, the campaign is getting under way in earnest. In this edition of our new show, we focus on the French Communist Party attempting a political comeback and discuss at length the battle raging between Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen for leadership of the French far right.

In November, shortly before the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian authorities moved to close down one of the country's oldest and most influential NGOs, Memorial, which was dedicated to preserving the memory of Stalin-era repressions. Despite everything, the group's historians are determined to continue the fight to open up the archives of the Soviet secret services. FRANCE 24's Elena Volochine and Gulliver Cragg report, with illustrations by Sofiya Voznaya.

It's expected to become one of the issues at stake in the ongoing trade war between the US and China. Rare earth elements are crucial to manufacturing phones, computers and wind turbines. China currently controls 90 percent of their production, but the US is also determined to extract these precious minerals and has just reopened a rare earth elements mine in California. Our France 2 colleagues report, with FRANCE 24's James Vasina.