Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk TOKYO ― Korean and Japanese relations have plunged to their lowest depths since the Korean War, and there’s apparently no reconciliation in sight. The governments in Seoul and Tokyo are engaged in a game of dare and double-dare in which each tries to out-threaten the other with hurtful measures […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler Bondville, VT — For those of us of a certain age, we vividly remember where we were on July 20, 1969 the date of America’s successful Lunar landing. On a cool July southern Vermont evening my parents and I visited friends to watch what was expected to be […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — In a stunningly stark report on the political and economic conditions in Venezuela, the UN’s Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet, outlined a troubling litany of continuing human rights abuses, extrajudicial killings, and economic privations characterizing the besieged Latin American country. The groundbreaking report by the […]
FPI /July 4, 2019 Analysis by Tim Donner, LibertyNation.com It is admittedly sad that we feel compelled to ask the question headlined above. But as a once-unthinkable balkanization of America continues unabated and the nation divides into tribal units living in separate and irreconcilable worlds, reality bites. As Americans celebrate, commemorate, or ignore 243 years […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — In an extraordinary and spontaneous summit, President Donald Trump briefly met with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un inside North Korea. The historic handshake and discussions between two adversaries, who rattled nuclear sabers merely two years ago, offered a highly symbolic but still decisive meeting on […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk SEOUL — Summit fever is upon us. The mere idea of two leaders sitting down and talking suggests the ultimate panacea. Surely they can come to terms once they look each other in the eye and work out all those terrible differences. That’s the fantasy as Donald Trump wraps […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Amid attacks on commercial shipping, threats to close the vital but vulnerable Straits of Hormuz, and the shooting down of an unarmed American reconnaissance drone, the drumbeat of impending conflict builds with Iran. The rhetoric has reached an incendiary crescendo. The opposing militaries are facing […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — In an annual process of diplomatic musical chairs the 193 member UN General Assembly has picked five countries to serve on the Security Council as non-permanent members. Estonia, Niger, Tunisia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Vietnam were elected to two-year terms on the powerful […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk The vision of a brave new world in China three decades ago was captivating, exhilarating proof at last that democracy could prevail in an outpouring of revulsion over Communist dictatorship. Alas, it was not to be. The hypnotic image of reform, of the forces of right defeating evil, yielded […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — We all remember where we were when the Tiananmen Square crackdown occurred. I recall a Friday evening episode of the TV program “Dallas” being interrupted as the news switched live to Beijing. Moments later Chinese police forced their way into the CBS News transmission trailer […]
