2024 in preview: Flashpoints, elections, humanitarian crises

2024 in preview: Flashpoints, elections, humanitarian crises

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, December 31, 2023 Looking into the snow globe, it’s that time of year to predict and prognosticate what awaits this tired world in the New Year. There’s a certain trepidation in the air as we view the current and emerging crises, especially during a highly contested election year […]

North Korea is now in a league of its own for missile proliferation

North Korea is now in a league of its own for missile proliferation

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, December 24, 2023 There they go again! North Korea’s reclusive communist regime ended the year with a provocative intercontinental ballistic launch, flying near Japan and splashing down in the Pacific. The ominous firing of a powerful Hwasong-18 rocket came a month after Pyongyang put a spy satellite into […]

‘Not free’ Venezuela targets mineral-rich region in neighboring ‘Free’ Guyana

‘Not free’ Venezuela targets mineral-rich region in neighboring ‘Free’ Guyana

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, December 8, 2023 Venezuela’s ruling Marxists are using some time-honored tricks to give their economically battered regime an edge for next year’s presidential elections. In a classic political mobilization tactic, President Nicolas Maduro held a “referendum” to ask his citizens what the future status should be for a […]

North Korea’s ruling class celebrates launch of spy satellite

North Korea’s ruling class celebrates launch of spy satellite

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, December 1, 2023 North Korea got lucky. After two previous failures earlier this year to launch a spy satellite, the Pyongyang regime successfully sent a satellite into orbit. Using a powerful Chollima rocket, the military satellite was placed into orbit prompting leader Kim Jong-Un to proclaim the launch  […]

Argentines chose freedom over more of the same old political tango

Argentines chose freedom over more of the same old political tango

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, November 23, 2023 Facing a tight and tense Presidential election showdown, Argentines chose Freedom. In a stunning upset, the South American country elected an upstart libertarian candidate Javier Milea, an economist who promised to cut spending, reduce bloated budgets, and use economic shock therapy to save the resource […]

Behind the Mideast wildfire: Iran’s expanding oil sales

Behind the Mideast wildfire: Iran’s expanding oil sales

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, November 16, 2023 As violence explodes throughout the Middle East, from Gaza to Yemen, and Syria to Iraq, the political fingerprints of the Islamic Republic of Iran become increasingly obvious on this regional tableaux of terror. Long deemed a State Sponsor of Terrorism, Iran’s Islamic rulers have funded […]

U.S. Navy stretched thin to cover global contingencies

U.S. Navy stretched thin to cover global contingencies

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, November 10, 2023 In the game of baseball, the defending team must cover all bases; First, Second and Third. No matter how good and fast a player is, one person “Can’t cover all bases,” as the expression goes.  Cover one and the ball would be hit to another. […]

‘Shame on you’; Israel slams UN’s irrelevance as Gaza crisis ‘dangerously’ widens

‘Shame on you’; Israel slams UN’s irrelevance as Gaza crisis ‘dangerously’ widens

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, November 2, 2023 War clouds are swirling in the Middle East as the region steps closer to the precipice. The Second Stage of Israel’s military offensive against Hamas has now begun with all out fighting in the Gaza strip between the terrorists and the State of Israel. But […]

Mugged by economic reality: A political tsunami sweeps southern hemisphere

Mugged by economic reality: A political tsunami sweeps southern hemisphere

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, October 29, 2023 “It’s the last bus stop in the world,” a former New Zealand Prime Minister once told me while he was visiting New York. Indeed, a remote South Pacific island nation of merely 5 million souls known for the Kiwi, its All Blacks Rugby team, and […]

From beautiful Geneva campus, UN Rights Council presides over far-flung, horrific abuses

From beautiful Geneva campus, UN Rights Council presides over far-flung, horrific abuses

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, October 20, 2023 Over the past year human rights abuses in places ranging from Afghanistan to Ukraine, and to Myanmar/Burma, Xinjiang China, the Middle East, to name a few sordid cases, have splashed across the headlines. Just in the past month, ethnic cleansing of Christian Armenians from Muslim […]