Reuters

BRUSSELS/KYIV (Reuters) - Ukraine and Moldova meet all the criteria needed to formally start negotiations on EU membership, the European Commission said on Friday, as Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal expressed hope that the talks could start later this month.

"We confirm that on the Commission side we consider that all the steps have been met by the two countries," Commission spokeswoman on enlargement Ana Pisonero said.

"The... (continue reading...)

(Reuters) - Israel's chief of staff has said it is nearing a decision on an offensive along the frontier with Lebanon against the Iran-backed Hezbollah after months of cross-border exchanges of fire.

Here is a timeline of decades of conflict involving Israel and Lebanon.

1948

Lebanon fights alongside other Arab countries against the nascent state of Israel. Some 100,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their... (continue reading...)

By Shristi Achar A and Shashwat Chauhan

(Reuters) - European shares extended losses on Friday, dragged down by rate-sensitive sectors such as real estate after a hotter-than-anticipated U.S. jobs report fanned worries the Federal Reserve would not cut interest rates anytime soon.

The continent-wide STOXX 600 was last down 0.5%, hitting session lows after the data, but is poised to clock its first weekly gain in nearly a month.

By Francesco Canepa and Balazs Koranyi

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde wore a necklace with the words "in charge" at Thursday's press conference but her guardedness underlined the difficulty of marshalling consensus when the outlook is murky and policymakers divided.

The ECB had just gone ahead with its first interest rate cut since 2019 despite higher inflation expectations, partly to keep a pledge... (continue reading...)

(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve is far less likely to start cutting interest rates as soon as September, traders bet on Friday, after a U.S. government report showed employers created many more jobs and paid higher wages last month than expected.

Nonfarm payrolls rose 272,000 in May, compared with the 185,000 expected, and average hourly earnings rose 4.1% from a year ago, outpacing the 3.9% rise that economists had anticipated. March wage data was... (continue reading...)