The U.S. government is preparing evacuation plans for American citizens living in Taiwan, three sources told The Messenger.
The planning has been underway for at least six months and “it’s heated up over the past two months or so,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the planning.
The official said a “heightened level of tension” had driven the preparations. “It’s nothing you wouldn’t read in the news,” he told The Messenger. “Forces building up. China aligning with Russia on Ukraine.”
American and European military observers in Ukraine described the Ukraine Army’s efforts of the past two days as a “suicide mission” that violated the basic rules of military tactics. “If you want to conduct an offensive and you have a dozen brigades and a few dozen tanks, you concentrate them and try to break through. The Ukrainians have been running around in five different directions,” complained a senior European officer.
“We tried to tell them to stop these piecemeal tactics, define a main thrust with proper infantry support and then do what they can,” the officer added.
“They were trained by the British and they’re playing Light Brigade,” the officer added, referring to the 1854 disaster at the Battle of Balaclava when misreported orders sent British cavalry into massed cannon fire.
Ukraine’s tanks charged directly into minefields without deploying mine-clearing vehicles first, contributing to the loss of 38 tanks during the night of June 8, including numerous of the newly delivered Leopard II tanks.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, denounced fired Fox News host turned Twitter conspiracy theorist Tucker Carlson on Thursday as an “obvious antisemite” and warned Elon Musk against giving him a “huge megaphone.”
“For years @TuckerCarlson slyly wove anti-Jewish conspiracies into his show on @FoxNews — attacking George Soros, slandering Paul Singer, and making other unfounded claims. Now the mask is fully off,” Greenblatt wrote, referring to the contents of the first episode of Tucker on Twitter, which dropped on Tuesday night.
“He opened his new “show” on @Twitter by describing Zelensky as “sweaty and rat-like” and “a persecutor of Christians.” Complete lie. Even if you disagree with US foreign policy, invoking antisemitic imagery and tropes is a perverse and prejudicial way to build a case,” Greenblatt said.
Most of Ukraine’s remaining forces pulled out before the front-line city’s collapse; Wagner Group key to Russia’s victory
The head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, announced today (May 20) that all of Bakhmut has been taken by the Wagner forces.
He also said that on May 25 the Wagner forces will hand over control to the Russian army and pull back for rest and retraining. Some Wagner forces will be used in defensive positions that are not sent back for training and rest.
Bakhmut is a city of 75,000, at least before the war, in the Donetsk region and is strategically located. It is known as “Salt City,” which refers to the huge underground salt mines that are actually located nearby in Soledar, which fell to the Russians in late January of this year.
Bakhmut was also a major wine producer, but when Crimea was taken by the Russians, the supply of grapes coming from Crimea ended and the wine business in Bakhmut collapsed. The city is a major roadway nexus and also features important rail connections. According to recent reports, the Wagner forces were surprised to find some civilians still living in the devastated city.
American Buddhist Net 