East Africa’s low cost aviation trends

Talking Europe hosts the Croatian prime minister, who steered his country into the eurozone and the Schengen free travel area at the start of this year. Andrej Plenkovic talks about the symbolic and practical aspects of these two moves, and discusses his government's plans to continue helping Ukraine – despite the Croatian parliament's recent rejection of a proposal to join an EU military mission in support of Kyiv.

The EU's Economic Commissioner said the bloc had encouraging economic news and may avoid a much-feared deep recession in 2023.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is heading to Indonesia for the G20 summit. On the way, Scholz made a stop in Hanoi for talks on forging closer economic links with Vietnam.

Africa's pre-COVID-19 top five performing economies are projected to grow by more than 5.5% on average in 2023-2024 and to reclaim their position among the world's 10 fastest-growing economies. These countries are Rwanda (7.9%), Côte d'Ivoire (7.1%), Benin (6.4%), Ethiopia (6.0%) and Tanzania (5.6%).

Captagon is a synthetic drug that has turned Syria into a narco-state. The illicit industry behind this amphetamine is estimated to be worth billions of dollars, with over 400 million tablets seized in the Middle East in 2021.

Pope Francis strongly denounced the "economic colonialism" which "is unleashed" in Africa and in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), on the first day of his visit to the country. "After political colonialism, an equally enslaving economic colonialism was unleashed.

The South Asian nation is facing an acute shortage of gas and electricity, and record inflation has put many basic food items out of citizens' reach. But the country's ruling class is caught in a political tug-of-war.

Sri Lanka is experiencing its worst economic crisis since its independence. The tea industry, one of the most crucial pillars of the island nation's economy, is now facing a double whammy.

The EU has been negotiating an economic partnership agreement with Indonesia for almost 7 years. Talks this week present new opportunity for a breakthrough.

The European Commission has revised its economic forecasts upwards slightly, predicting growth of almost 1% in the bloc for 2023. Inflation is expected to slow but remain high, a little more so outside the eurozone.

Lael Brainard from the Federal Reserve and long-time adviser Jared Bernstein will join the president's team. The move comes as the US continues to battle high inflation.

Manila says it is turning around its human rights image after a brutal drug war by the country's former president. That may be enough for the EU to renew a trade scheme and restart talks over a free trade agreement.