Podcast: Battle for Aleppo, Trump transition, Indian crisis

Today's World View podcast features dispatches on the battle in Aleppo, Donald Trump's transition and a self-inflicted crisis in India.

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

Reports have emerged of government-allied militias going from house to house shooting civilians, says Gorevan, while survivors describe family and friends being “disappeared”.

He calls for a wide-ranging 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.

Top Republicans part with Trump on Russian ‘meddling’ claim

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Trump picks Exxon chief Rex Tillerson as secretary of state

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Kanye West and Donald Trump speak about ‘life’ at meeting

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Pennsylvania judge rejects Stein’s election recount request

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Trump transition

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

Reports of former Texas governor Rick Perry as nominee for secretary of energy will further fuel criticism of Trump's team. It was Perry who once forgot the name of the Department of Energy while pledging to abolish it.

The president-elect's clash with intelligence agencies over suspected Russian interference in the election campaign could complicate his nomination of Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.

Finally to India, where last month prime minister Narendra Modi invalidated 86 per cent of 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?