5 live News Specials

What can be done to stop young people from being stabbed on our streets? We tried to get some answers to that question by focusing on one particular story, that of Quamari Serenkuma Barnes, who was stabbed to death outside his school gates in London when he was 15. Quamari had never been involved in gangs or violence. His family and friends share their thoughts on how we can combat the growing problem of knife crime in the UK. The Office for National Statistics says almost 41 thousand incidents involving knives or sharp instruments were reported in England and Wales in 2018 - an increase of six per cent on the year before.

Vicky McClure’s grandmother, Iris, lived with dementia. Now Vicky wants to break myths around the condition and she’s been part of an incredible BBC documentary called 'Our Dementia Choir' that looks at how powerful music can be to help people with the condition, and their families. She and Nihal are joined by some experts, Chris, who has dementia, and his wife Jane. It's a condition that already affects 850 thousand people in the UK - and the Alzheimer's Society say that number will rise to more than a million in the next 6 years.

The latest after more than 200 people were killed and 450 injured in co-ordinated Easter day attacks on churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka.

BBC Radio 5 Live made a decision to find a way of hitting home the importance of talking about mental health, because every 90 minutes a life is lost to suicide. It is the biggest killer of men under 50 in the UK. So across one day on the station, we heard listeners’ stories of people affected by suicide. Stories of pain, of hope and the power of talking. If you have been affected by the issues in this programme, please visit bbc.co.uk/actionline for details of organisations that can offer you support and advice. If you would like to speak to someone, please call the Samaritans on 116 123.

Simon King and Clare Nasir look back on the weird weather of 2018 - revisiting the 'Beast from the East' and our unusually scorching summer.