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US war-gamed with Ukraine ahead of counteroffensive and encouraged more limited mission.In the buildup to the current Ukrainian counteroffensive, the United States urged Kyiv to keep the operation limited in both its objectives and its geography to avoid getting overextended and bogged down on multiple fronts, multiple US and western officials and Ukrainian sources tell CNN. -snip- The Ukrainians were initially considering a broader counteroffensive, but narrowed their mission to the south, in the Kherson region, in recent weeks, US and Ukrainian officials said.

On this date in 1347, the city of Calais yielded to an English siege. Edward III had proceeded to invest Calais directly after the previous year’s staggering win at Crecy. The crippled French leadership could not relieve the city, and after fruitlessly probing for an opening, the relief army marched away at the start of August 1347. By this time reduced to eating vermin and ordure, the starved city had little choice but to capitulate. According to Froissart’s account, the king declared that “the Calesians have done him so much mischief, and have, by their obstinate defence, cost him so...

FRANCE threatened to cut energy supplies to Britain and mocked the nation’s fuel ­crisis as the Brexit fishing row turned nasty. Europe minister Clement Beaune vowed to exploit the supply chaos to try to win more access to UK waters.... ...President Emmanuel Macron is angry that the UK and Jersey denied licences to most French boats that applied... ...No10, meanwhile, said it rejected licence applications only of boat owners with no records to show they fished UK waters before Brexit. Militant French fishermen have threatened to blockade Calais and stop the flow of goods to and from Britain in the...

BRITISH holidaymakers were caught in travel chaos after 100 migrants stormed a ship in Calais in a bid to get to the UK last night. Brits were left stranded on ferries and the port closed for an hour during the incident 46 migrants who climbed abroad a ferry that arrived from Dover were arrested by French police. They entered the hub at around 8:30pm and used ladders to get on the ship. Two of those who stormed the port fell into the water and had to be rescued by fire crews. A number of ferries set to arrive from Britain...

They were the lost brigade, just a few thousand British soldiers, doomed by a mortified Winston Churchill to fight to the last man to hold up the Germans at the French port of Calais. They courageously did as ordered, sacrificing their futures and lives to delay the advance of Hitler’s armies, buying time for the miracle evacuation from the beaches of Dunkirk, just 30 miles up the coast, in May 1940. And at last the heroic stand of the Calais garrison has been widely recognised, figuring prominently in Darkest Hour, the marvellous film starring Gary Oldman that depicts those desperate...

Over a hundred migrants in Calais took part in a series of violent attacks this week leading to several hospitalised from gunshot wounds as Belgian truck companies warn drivers to avoid motorways around the city. On Thursday a series of violent conflicts involving around 100 Eritrean migrants and around thirty Afghan migrants erupted in various parts of the city. The brawl led to 22 of the young men being injured, including five who were victims of gunshot wounds. One was shot in the neck, L’Express reports. Of the five men who were shot, four of them are intensive care in...

A mural in Calais by the British street artist Banksy, whose works can sell for hundreds of thousands of euros, has been painted over by the owner of the building because he said the house was starting to look shabby and needed an upgrade. The stencil was a version of the painting The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault, showing a group of desperate survivors on a raft after a wreck. It was given a modern, refugee-themed twist — a nod to the notorious “Jungle” refugee camp in Calais that housed thousands of refugees hoping to get to Britain...

France’s highest administrative court on Monday rejected the government’s appeal against an order to provide water and sanitation facilities for hundreds of migrants sleeping rough in the northern port of Calais. In a written decision seen by AFP, the Council of State said the state’s failure to provide for the migrants’ basic needs “exposed them to inhuman and degrading treatment, dealing a serious and clearly illegal blow to a basic right.” […] The court upheld a June 26 order by a court in the northern city of Lille for the state to supply the migrants with running water, toilets and...

A van driver has died in an accident at Calais after migrants dragged tree trunks onto the A16 motorway in a bid to slow traffic and break into vehicles bound for Britain. At just before 4am on Tuesday, two trucks were forced to suddenly brake so as to avoid the tree trunks placed by migrants to block the road. A third van, coming up from behind, was unable to stop in time and crashed into the other vehicles. According to Franceinfo the Renault Master — which was registered in Poland — caught fire, and its driver died in the accident....

Self-declared refugees continue to create chaos in France: Hundreds of refugees have returned to live in secret camps in the Calais region in the hope of travelling to the UK, The Independent can reveal, just weeks after the demolition of the 'Jungle' shantytown. There are at least six informal settlements in rural parts of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, each housing scores of refugees and migrants, with numbers growing steadily in recent weeks. Two months ago, the large refugee camp in Calais was closed by the French authorities. That camp was nicknamed 'the Jungle' because it was one big mess of immigrants...

French President François Hollande on Saturday urged Britain to take in 1,500 unaccompanied minors from Calais’ “Jungle” as officials stepped up efforts to finish demolishing the almost-deserted migrant camp. Hailing the evacuation of the sprawling encampment, Hollande vowed that France would not accept the emergence of any more makeshift camps, which have become a glaring symbol of Europe’s worst migration crisis since World War II. […] In Paris, more than 100 left-wing lawmakers sent a letter to British Home Secretary Amber Rudd, calling on her government to “immediately” take in unaccompanied minors from the Jungle who want to rejoin relatives...

Required...to welcome 87 migrants evicted from the sprawling Calais “Jungle” this week, this rustic hilltop community of ancient stone houses and 1,800 people erupted in outrage. Before the migrants even arrived, protesters had scrawled graffiti on its scenic streets, and the mayor had already submitted his resignation in the name of liberty. As authorities sent more than 6,000 migrants from Calais to more than 400 “welcome centers” throughout France, small, quiet towns like Saint-Bauzille-de-Putois have found themselves thrust onto the front lines of Europe’s ongoing migrant crisis. But in these environments, the flash point becomes intensely intimate... ... Across France,...

Construction has begun on a four-metre high concrete barrier aimed at stopping migrants targeting vehicles around Calais. The barrier - dubbed The Great Wall Of Calais - will run for nearly a mile along the main motorway to Calais and is being paid for by British taxpayers. The wall is being built within a few hundred metres of the so-called 'Jungle' migrant camp, which is now thought to house more than 10,000 people. It has been reported that it will cost £1.9m to build, and it is intended to add another layer of protection against attempts to stow away on...

France says it has deported more than 1,000 people who were staying in a makeshift migrant camp known as "the Jungle" this year. The French interior ministry said in a statement Thursday that 1,346 migrants living "illegally" in the camp have been flown out of France aboard 55 collective flights since Jan. 1. Benjamin Menard, the ministry's press adviser, says the most recent flight left France for Albania on Thursday. Menard says French and British authorities chartered the plane carrying 20 Albanian migrant. The camp is located in the northern port town of Calais. The French government has decided to...

The UK is building a wall to keep the denizens of the Calais "Jungle" migrant camp from invading cars and trucks after some 22,000 breaches of the port road. The “Jungle” is a nightmare for the local population which has been terrorized by the mob of migrants aspiring to invade the UK. he French have blamed the British and the British have blamed the French. But the migrant invasion is not the fault of either alone. In a sense it is the fault of everyone in the European Union.

Donald Trump wants to build a "big, beautiful wall" to stop illegal immigrants — but Britain and other European nations are already doing it. The U.K. government has announced plans to begin constructing a 13-foot concrete roadside barrier at the French port of Calais, where truck drivers have been targeted by migrants trying to sneak through the Channel Tunnel.

Not only are Americans listening to Donald Trump's plans for a border wall, but so are other nations.  The United Kingdom is moving forward with plans to build a 1 kilometer wall protecting an underwater entry point from France to Britain, according to reports on Wednesday.Officials said their goal is to stop migrants from using a tunnel in Calais, France from crossing the English Channel.  “We are going to start building this big new wall very soon. We’ve done the fence; now we are doing a wall,” UK Home Office minister Robert Goodwill said.Most of the port is already fenced off from a...

Just two months after voting to leave the European Union (EU), the UK has announced the construction of a “great wall” near its most porous border in Calais, to keep illegal migrants out. The UK’s southern border checks are conducted in northern France and attempted illegal crossing have more than quadrupled in recent years. UK Border Force guards on French soil stopped 84,088 illegal immigrants last year, figures released last month show. The new 13-foot (4 metre) high wall will be built of smooth concrete, making it hard to climb, and will line the roads into the port town of...

Work on building a wall in the northern French port of Calais to try to stop refugees and migrants from jumping aboard trucks bound for Britain will begin this month, according to British officials. Britain's Immigration Minister, Robert Goodwill: " We've done the fence and now we're doing the wall."

French truckers, farmers, shopkeepers and police are united in a major protest. The port of Calais has been blockaded amid calls for local residents to form a human chain, seeking a definite date for the demolition of the notorious ‘Jungle’ migrant camp.