Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler It’s that time of year to gaze into the crystal snow globe and try to see the stories on the horizon which will affect the New Year. Our world remains an increasingly tumultuous place and the tragedy of expanding conflicts is only surpassed by the waves of refugees […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler In a hugely symbolic but stinging rebuke, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been expelled from the UN’s Commission on Women’s Rights. The vote in the 54-member Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) came amid growing global outrage at the Iranian regime’s brutal and bloody crackdown on widening demonstrations […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler A powerful wind from the East is blowing across the Arabian desert. During a significant but overlooked three-day visit to Saudi Arabia, China’s leader Xi Jinping has scored a “strategic partnership” with oil rich and strategic Saudi Arabia. For China in its presumably post-COVID era, the focus remains […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler The fix is in. During the Thanksgiving holiday, the Biden Administration announced it was quietly reversing policy and allowing limited petroleum imports from Venezuela. The Treasury Department lifted restrictions permitting a six-month deal to ease sanctions so that Chevron petroleum may buy and then ship Venezuelan crude oil […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Commentary by John J. Metzler North Korea’s petulant and isolated regime wants attention. It’s thirty-something Dictator Kim Jong-Un vies for the noxious notoriety which much of the world has focused on Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine or Xi Jinping’s military threats to Taiwan. Poor Kim had his fire and fury moment back […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler The women’s led uprising against Iran’s Islamic Republic continues. Under the inspiring slogan Woman, Life, Freedom, the movement confronting Teheran’s theocratic regime is widening and now had gained vital political support from key Western countries many of whom long rationalized their political and business links with Iran. Nationwide […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler Some good news from war weary Ukraine! And actually even better news for many developing countries dependent on Ukrainian food and fertilizer shipments which faced Russian naval blockades until mid-Summer. Readers may remember that during July, a combination of United Nations and Turkish diplomacy with Russia led to […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler A high-level UN panel has slammed Beijing’s ongoing and egregious human rights abuses in the western Xinjiang regions of the People’s Republic. China’s human rights violations have been committed through the use of “severe and undue restrictions” that are “characterized by a discriminatory component, as the underlying acts […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler In the grand political choreography that defines China, the recently concluded 20th Chinese Communist Party Congress in Beijing presented a spectacular show but with a very predictable conclusion. Set in Beijing’s huge Great Hall of the People, the trappings, the ritual and the rites of the People’s Republic […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler The UN General Assembly just concluded its election for fourteen new members in the Human Rights Council. Delegates have chosen a conclave of candidates who sit in somber judgement of global freedoms and virtues, though ironically, many of these new members selected are actually among the very abusers […]