The European Commission has recommended to give Ukraine and Moldova candidate status, moving their application forward in a process that will still take many years to complete. European leaders will meet next week to vote and the approval of all 27-nations is needed for both countries to be officially declared candidates to join the EU. Oleg Chernyak, CEO of CHI Software, tells us about the hopes this brings to a war-torn country.

India is seeing violent protests against a new military recruitment scheme. One person was killed in the southern city of Secunderabad after police opened fire to disperse a mob attacking a railway station. Sushant Kumar Singh from the Centre for Policy Research in India explains why the scheme is controversial while the BBC's Surekha Abburi brings us the latest from the protests.

The director of the World Trade Organisation Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala says marathon talks in Geneva have produced a series of trade deals that will make a difference to the lives of people around the world. We talk to Alan Wolff, former deputy director-general of the WTO, and BBC Africa's Charles Gitonga.

President Vladimir Putin says sanctions against Russia over the invasion of Ukraine are an 'economic blitzkrieg' that backfired on the West. We hear from Shanti Keleman, chief investment officer at M&G Wealth, about this and other developments taking place in the markets.

The Netherlands has invested 100 million euros to start flying hydrogen planes to London by 2028. We talk to Michel Van Ierland, an entrepreneur who participates in the project.