Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, June 17, 2023 In one of the more predictable rites of Spring at the United Nations, the General Assembly has elected, or actually selected, five new non-permanent members to serve on the powerful fifteen member Security Council. While this year’s contest lacked the drama, debate and deliberation of […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, June 8, 2023 The world seems to have forgotten about Syria. You could excuse this after a dozen years of bloody conflict, humanitarian catastrophes and a jarring earthquake in February. Equally there’s a global crisis overload from the Middle East to Eastern Europe and looming in East Asia. […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, May 29, 2023 It’s hardly a surprise, but an affirmation of the obvious. Burma’s military regime is being backed, supported and protected by both Russia and China. What’s new is that the specifics of this assistance have come to light in a landmark UN report uncovering the extent […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, May 21, 2023 Another earthquake has jolted Turkey. But contrary to the seismic calamity which devastated large parts of eastern Turkey in February killing more than 50,000 people this was an electoral jolt whose political shockwaves and aftershocks continue to rattle the entire country from Istanbul, through the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, May 14, 2023 The British do pageantry very well. Certainly the history, regalia and sacred symbolism all merged spectacularly for the Coronation of King Charles III, the first such event in seventy years. Westminster Abby, which saw the coronation of forty monarchs starting in 1066, stood proud and […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, May 7, 2023 There’s blood in the Nile. The mighty river separating Sudan’s capital city Khartoum has seen fighting erupt between two rival factions of the Army. What could have been a quick internal flash up between the main military factions which have tenuously ruled this vast land […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, April 28, 2023 Seventy years is a long time, especially for a military alliance even between friends. There are few in the world, notably including the Atlantic Alliance, forming NATO in 1949. But in the case of East Asia, the strategic and economic links which emerged from the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, April 21, 2023 The writing was on the wall. But when Brazil’s leftwing president Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva visited China recently, he flamboyantly underscored economic and security ties between Latin America’s largest democracy and the world’s largest dictatorship. Significantly, he took steps to decouple much of Brazil’s vibrant […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, April 12, 2023 Taiwan’s vibrant but threatened democracy had a good week. After months of facing ominous political threats from the Chinese communists which may eventually culminate in Beijing’s invasion of the self-governing island, Taiwan seemed sure footed diplomatically with a little help from its friends. Taiwan’s President […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, March 22, 2023 As they say, you can’t make this up. In the course of just over a week, China and Russia reaffirmed their friendship and military ties, the Iranian regime proxies lashed out with rockets at U.S. forces in neighboring Syria, North Korea shot off a few […]
