by WorldTribune Staff, November 7, 2019 The European Union said it is becoming “increasingly difficult” to preserve the Iran nuclear deal as Teheran continues to scale back its commitments under the deal. The EU on Nov. 5 criticized Iran’s announcement that it would resume uranium enrichment at its underground facility at Fordow. Iranian President Hassan […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk LONDON ― Brexit, Britain’s exit from the European Union, is getting so tiresome, you wish the Brits would just get on with it and get out. That’s a lot easier said than done. Britain’s conservative prime minister, Boris Johnson, would love to do just that, but he’s about 40 […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk LONDON — You’ve got to admire the Brits for one thing. They sure are proud of their ancient heritage as citizens of a “tight little island” that has always stood aloof from Europe. Historically they’ve fought against the Romans (Hadrian’s Wall), the Normans (1066 and all that), Spanish (Sir […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Responding to the Berlin Blockade, the communist coup in Czechoslovakia, and the looming threat from the Soviet Union, the U.S. and Western European states formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). On 4 April 1949, the foreign Ministers of twelve countries including the USA, Britain, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Beijing’s ambitious “Belt and Road” infrastructural initiative has scored its first significant beachhead in the Mediterranean, as Italy has signed on to the expansive Chinese globe-spanning project. China’s President Xi Jinping was feted in Rome with a grandiosity fit for an visiting Emperor as the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Geostrategy-Direct China made official its longstanding rejection of treaties that would control its nuclear weapons on Feb. 16 at the 55th Munich Security Conference. The most senior Chinese Communist Party leader to attend this annual conference, Politburo Member Yang Jiechi, rejected German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s request that China join the 1987 […]
by WorldTribune Staff, January 10, 2019 Italy and Poland are set to spark a “European spring” in which anti-immigration populists will look to take down the “French-German axis” in May’s European Union parliamentary elections, Italy’s interior minister said on Jan. 9. “We are preparing a new equilibrium and new energy in Europe and Poland and […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Elected on a wave of dynamism a mere eighteen months ago, French President Emmanuel Macron has morphed into the figure of derision and disillusion. From a stunning 66 percent landslide win in the May 2017 elections to a perilous political free fall, Emmanuel Macron, France’s […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The Russian Navy has harassed and seized three Ukrainian vessels in the narrow waters linking the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov. The surprise incident in the Kerch Strait off occupied Crimea has reignited tensions between the two neighbors and refocused diplomatic attention on […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — In a week of speeches which swirled from the sublime to the ridiculous or were simply just boring, the recent UN General Assembly debate reached some notable exceptions. Among the sonorous drone of 193 addresses, either restating the obvious or repeating by rote the contemporary […]