Erstellt am: 16. 9. 2014 - 15:35 Uhr

Ukraine's pact with the EU

A piece of paper Yanukovych refused to sign. Reality Check looks at Ukraine's pact with the EU, ratified today in Brussels & Kiev.

Ukraine's President Poroshenko has said it is a "historic" day as parliamentarians in Kiev and in Brussels have ratified an EU association agreement. As part of the package there will eventually be a free trade deal. But the deal brings us full circle; it is how the crisis with Moscow all began, when the previous president Yanukovych refused to sign up to closer ties with EU.

There were the Maidan protests, Yanukovych was ousted, Ukraine was forced to cede Crimea and fighting broke out in the East. An unprecendented part of this deal today is the fact that Moscow has been at the negotiating table insisiting that any free trade pact with the EU must be delayed. In fact the implementation of key provisions on free trade has been postponed until the end of next year.

So are Ukrainians happy with their new President for allowing Moscow to have a huge say on their trading future? Afterall this was supposed to be a bilateral agreement. And why is any deal with the EU such a big headache for Russia? We spoke with our correspondent in Kiev, David Stern.

The future of European Airlines

Staff striking because of cost-cutting measures has marked the start of the early Autumn flying season. But what kind of pressure are European airline companies under to balance their budgets? We spoke with travel writer Simon Calder.

100 days of al-Sisi

Prominent Egyptian activists sentenced to 15 years in jail for protesting President Sisi’s Protest Law were surprisingly released from prison yesterday. A prominent Muslim Brotherhood leader was in turn sentenced to life in jail. As the Egyptian president reaches his three-month anniversary in office, how is he faring domestically and internationally? We got the thoughts of Egyptian analyst Sammy Khamis.

Rosetta

Having gone into orbit around comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, a landing site has been chosen for Rosetta's probe. But mathematicians have only weeks now to make sure the probe's decent will be successful. Will the best brains in space science be able to steer the probe for a textbook landing?

Learn a 2nd Language and stimulate your brain

What happens in the brain when you learn a new language? Neuroscience is helping understand what’s going on in the brain when you decide at long last まなびます。We spoke with Alison Mackey, professor of linguistics at Georgetown University and Lancaster University.