Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk TOKYO ― The overwhelming success of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the latest elections for members of the Japanese “Diet” ― the peculiar word for Japan’s parliament or national assembly ― portends hardening of tensions and priorities in Northeast Asia. Yes, Abe would dearly like to revise Japan’s post-war […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Truth is often stranger than fiction. Indeed elections for new members of the UN’s 47-member Human Rights Council proved yet again that some of the least qualified and most repressive regimes would win coveted seats on the watchdog committee tasked with monitoring human rights and […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk The line-up of warplanes on display beside the runway at Seoul Air Base has got to be intimidating. The sight of the latest American F35s and F22s along with all those South Korean fighters may frighten anyone contemplating war on the Korean Peninsula. They’re parked near spacious exhibition halls […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Jeffrey T. Kuhner Hollywood is a moral cesspool. I’ve always known it. Now, with the Harvey Weinstein scandal, it’s official. But the consequences of Harveygate go way beyond Tinseltown. A nuclear bomb has just been detonated in one of the major centers of liberal, Democratic power. Weinstein is an evil, grotesque pervert. […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — A dangerous and potentially riveting political fault line stretches from Spain across Europe to Ukraine as smoldering separatist movements have gained new strength and standing. From Catalonia in Spain to the eastern regions of Ukraine with Corsica in between, the nationalist rift runs through the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk Donald Trump at times engages in such flights of rhetorical fancy that a lot of people think he’s crazy or anyway unpredictable. How can you be sure of a president who talks about destroying North Korea, who holds out “the military option” ― but professes to want to avoid […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk SEOUL —South Korea’s outspoken radicals and leftists can hardly hide their dismay. To the consternation of organizers of the candlelight crusade that brought down the government of the conservative Park Geun-Hye, ousted and jailed on a wide range of offenses, their one-time hero, Moon Jae-In, elected president as Park’s […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Perhaps it’s the dangerous global threat from North Korean nukes. Maybe it’s political fatigue and crisis overload. Or it could be the escalating ethnic cleansing in Burma. But the long running and brutal Syrian civil war has become largely an afterthought for many delegates at […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk North Korea has been crying wolf so often it’s hard to get too excited by the “declaration of war” North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-Ho made in New York this week. Did not the North Koreans declare war after the release of the film “The Interview” three years ago […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — One of the silent tragedies among the conflicts raging in the Middle East, concerns the fate of the ancient and now persecuted Christian communities. Concerns for the forgotten and once vibrant Christian minorities especially in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon are often politely air brushed out […]
