Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler NEW YORK — It’s once again time to consult the crystal snow globe and peer ahead into what events 2017 may bring. After a surprising, tumultuous and truly roller-coaster year just past, we certainly can hope for a more stable period. But should we? Despite the unprecedented electoral […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON – The U.S. refusal to veto the UN Security Council resolution attacking Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory as “a flagrant violation” of international law has triggered cries of outrage worthy of full-scale hostilities. You might think, from the responses of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that President Barack […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs staff in Ankara and Washinngton, D.C. Turkish President Reçep Tayyip Erdoğan has moved rapidly to recapture U.S. strategic support by wooing the incoming U.S. Administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump. President Erdoğan is attempting to stem Turkish economic collapse, Turkish expulsion from NATO, and total rejection of Turkey […]
by WorldTribune Staff, December 23, 2016 President-elect Donald Trump “can recognize when he is being scammed” and the Pentagon was doing just that by telling him the U.S. could get F-35s “for two to four times what they originally advertised,” security analyst Winslow T. Wheeler said on Dec. 22. Trump had tweeted on Dec. 12 […]
by WorldTribune Staff, December 22, 2016 Hizbullah fighters in Syria are using American armored personnel carriers originally supplied by the U.S. to the Lebanese army, a senior Israeli military officer said. In an intelligence briefing to foreign reporters in Tel Aviv on Dec. 21, the senior officer showed a photograph of Iran-backed Hizbullah military vehicles, […]
by WorldTribune Staff, December 18, 2016 China has said it will return a U.S. underwater drone it seized in the South China Sea. Not long after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s statement criticizing the incident, China’s Defense Ministry said it would return the drone to the U.S. Navy. The drone, launched by the USNS Bowditch, a […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty The Pentagon says a Chinese warship has seized an unmanned U.S. Navy underwater glider that was collecting unclassified scientific data in the South China Sea. Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis says the United States has issued a formal diplomatic complaint about the incident and is asking for […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, ‘Inside China’, Geostrategy-Direct.com “As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t […]
by WorldTribune Staff, December 15, 2016 The U.S.-led coalition will defer to Russia in retaking Palmyra after Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) regained control of the ancient Syrian city on Dec. 11. “If they don’t, we will do what we need to do to defend ourselves and we’ll de-conflict those actions with the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk The populist revolt against President Park Geun-Hye has grave implications for governance amid economic unease and high youth unemployment. In this uncertain transition period, Korea’s relationship with the United States is sure to undergo strains if not change while foes of her conservative pro-American policies line up in search […]