Free Republic

President Volodymyr Zelensky vowed Friday that Ukrainians will fight “for as long as we can” to hold the key eastern city of Bakhmut, as Moscow ramps up pressure in the eastern region of Ukraine. “Nobody will give away Bakhmut,” Zelensky said during a meeting with European Union leaders. “We will fight for as long as we can. We consider Bakhmut our fortress.” “If weapon (supplies) are accelerated, specifically long-range weapons, not only will we not abandon Bakhmut but we will also begin to remove the occupiers from the Donbas, which was occupied since 2014,” he president added. Moscow says its...

For decades, self satisfied PC politicians from Stockholm have refused to listen to local politicians from Malmö (third biggest city in Sweden and part of the Malmö-Lund-Helsingborg-Copenhagen conurbation of appr 4 million inhabitants) who've said the city just can't handle more immigration. Now it seems to backfire, although the Stockholm IT consultant featured in the article below probably is rather innocent in this context. Inner city/downtown Malmö is still a very nice place, I recently visited it. But it would be foolish to think the city can continue to absorb huge numbers of immigrants lacking the qualifications for a decent...

The foundations of Hitler’s bunker were uncovered during the building frenzy in Berlin that followed the reunification of Germany. An anguished debate ensued about what to do with the site, for in Germany both memory and amnesia are dangerous, each with its moral hazards. To mark the bunker’s site might turn it into a place of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis, resurgent in the East; not to mark it might be regarded as an attempt to deny the past. In the end, anonymous burial was deemed the better, which is to say the safer, option. Nowhere in the world (except, perhaps, in...

The Irish public cemented the ring of steel around fortress Europe this weekend, by voting overwhelmingly to change their constitution and limit the rights of citizenship to children born to foreign parents. In a controversial referendum on the same day as Ireland's European and local elections, the electorate voted by four to one to redraw the country's citizenship laws. This prompted soul searching that booming Ireland had forgotten its emigrant past and aligned itself with "fortress" countries like Britain. Ireland was the only country in the EU which gave automatic citizenship to all children born on its soil, no matter...

Annan attacks fortress Europe over migrants United Nations chief pleads for warmer welcome Ian Black in Brussels Friday January 30, 2004 The Guardian Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, has launched a scathing attack on "fortress Europe", warning that its "dehumanising" policies towards immigrants are leading many to their deaths. The UN chief used an appearance before the European parliament to demand a more positive approach that sees immigration as beneficial and not simply something to be curbed. "The public has been fed images of a flood of unwelcome entrants, and of threats to their societies and identities," he told MEPs....

Fresh strains are threatening relations between the US and European Union after a warning from Washington against a "fortress Europe" in which it would be harder for US companies to carry out takeovers. US concerns have been raised by a new compromise version of the EU's takeover directive, which was originally intended to make takeovers easier in Europe but has been changed extensively because of Germany's objections. This comes on top of conflicts between the EU and the US over government subsidies for the US steel industry. The US has made its objections about the takeover directive known to all...