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Added on the 08/07/2022 17:45:07 - Copyright : AFP EN
President of the European Council Donald Tusk declared that the UK will not be allowed to access the EU single market without accepting the freedom of movement of citizens, during a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday. "There will be no single market a la carte," he stressed. The announcement comes after all the EU leaders met for the first time since the British referendum result last Friday.
With the war in Gaza entering its fifth month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warns that if Israel pressed into the southern city of Rafah, as it reportedly plans to do, it "would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences." "It is time for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the unconditional release of all hostages", he adds at the top of a speech to the General Assembly presenting his 2024 priorities. SOUNDBITE
French police has stopped a farmers' convoy of hundreds tractors heading towards the Rungis wholesale food market south of Paris. Some 200 to 300 tractors are now sitting in the town of Sully-sur-Loire, 170 km south of Rungis. Setting off from the south-west of France at the call of union Coordination rurale, the group of angry farmers grew as they drove up the nation, with more and more joining along the way. IMAGES
French farmers are at the gates of the Rungis wholesale market, under the close surveillance of police who has set up a roadblock by the entrance. The President of the largest farmers union FNSEA is calling for "calm and reason" while the government is trying to appease the anger of the farming community. IMAGES
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky warns European leaders that Russia's Vladimir Putin would exploit any failure to agree to launch his country's EU membership talks. "People in Europe won't see any benefit if Moscow receives a pass from Brussels in the form of negativity towards Ukraine. Putin will surely use this against you personally and against all of Europe," Zelensky tells an EU summit by videolink. SOUNDBITE ++ TEXT 347R2JH
Ukraine's foreign minister warns European Union leaders that if they fail to agree to open membership talks with Kyiv at their summit this week it will have "devastating consequences". SOUNDBITE