Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, March 22, 2023 Despite a widening war with Russia, shipments of Ukrainian food and grain are still being shipped to global markets under a complex but fragile accord brokered by the United Nations and nearby Turkey. Since the deal was initiated last Summer, The Black Sea Grain Initiative […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, March 13, 2023 The theatrical pomp and circumstance of China’s National People’s Congress presents an annual political ritual on the verge of Spring. Nearly 3,000 delegates assembled in Beijing to participate in the week long sessions and delivered-on-demand results for the ruling Communist Party leadership; formalizing the unprecedented […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, March 7, 2023 LONDON — In the anxious countdown to the Coronation of King Charles III, the United Kingdom is shadowed by a raft of economic and political woes ranging from the soaring cost of living to an uneasy nervousness of what’s next in the Ukraine war. Though […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler Now a year after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the UN General Assembly firmly and sternly rebuked Russia’s brutal war against a sovereign country. With a thumping majority of 141 in favor, only 7 against and 32 abstentions, the Assembly again issued a non-binding resolution demanding Russia’s military […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler The military junta which seized power in Burma, aka Myanmar, two years ago remains in power but is increasingly challenged by both its own citizens and targeted economic sanctions. Now a wave of international political pressures is steadily growing to force the junta from power and presumably create […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler It’s a bird. It’s a plane! No, it’s a Chinese “weather balloon” probing American airspace! The fascinating but bizarre Chinese “weather balloon” incident has raised disturbing and very unsettling questions about Beijing’s high-altitude breach of American airspace and indeed sovereignty. More troubling, the incident was not just a […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, February 5, 2023 The lingering aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, the widening war in Ukraine and the knock-on effects of food and energy shortages, alongside high inflation battered the world economy in 2022. Reflecting these grim realities, the UN has issued its annual World Economic Situation and Prospects […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler It’s seems like a profound contradiction; trying to convince Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities to accept foreign humanitarian help for their own starving population. Thus as beleaguered Afghan civilians endure a brutal winter, the sanctimonious Islamic fundamentalist regime in Kabul has largely restricted international aid agencies because they employ women. […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler There’s a significant sea change affecting Japanese defense policy. Some would say it’s the result of a political tsunami. Others would argue it’s a long overdue wake up call. After years of scrupulously keeping within the limits of its post-war constitution, and maintaining self-imposed norms of keeping military […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler It’s all about the timing. Ana Belen Montes, an American who served a more than twenty years in federal prison for spying for the then-Castro regime while serving as a senior analyst in the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in Washington, has been released. But this case is hardly […]
