Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler Bondville, VT — For those of us of a certain age, we vividly remember where we were on July 20, 1969 the date of America’s successful Lunar landing. On a cool July southern Vermont evening my parents and I visited friends to watch what was expected to be […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — In a stunningly stark report on the political and economic conditions in Venezuela, the UN’s Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet, outlined a troubling litany of continuing human rights abuses, extrajudicial killings, and economic privations characterizing the besieged Latin American country. The groundbreaking report by the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — In an extraordinary and spontaneous summit, President Donald Trump briefly met with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un inside North Korea. The historic handshake and discussions between two adversaries, who rattled nuclear sabers merely two years ago, offered a highly symbolic but still decisive meeting on […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Amid attacks on commercial shipping, threats to close the vital but vulnerable Straits of Hormuz, and the shooting down of an unarmed American reconnaissance drone, the drumbeat of impending conflict builds with Iran. The rhetoric has reached an incendiary crescendo. The opposing militaries are facing […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Subsaharan Africa’s vast but impoverished Sahel region has been largely overlooked amidst the turmoil of Mid-East conflicts and East Asian regional instability. Yet this arid swath of five countries comprising what’s known as the Sahel, remains wracked by poverty, hunger, weak governance, and environmental degradation, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — In an annual process of diplomatic musical chairs the 193 member UN General Assembly has picked five countries to serve on the Security Council as non-permanent members. Estonia, Niger, Tunisia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Vietnam were elected to two-year terms on the powerful […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — We all remember where we were when the Tiananmen Square crackdown occurred. I recall a Friday evening episode of the TV program “Dallas” being interrupted as the news switched live to Beijing. Moments later Chinese police forced their way into the CBS News transmission trailer […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Widening conflict is brewing in Libya, the North African country wracked by civil strife and embroiled in political chaos. Caught in this vortex of warring militias, human traffickers, and a weak internationally-backed government of sorts, remains a beleaguered UN effort to bring a political solution […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Amid the global gallop towards economic protectionism, there’s the political temptation to use tariffs which undeniably produce a feel good factor for politicians and polemists, but whose bottom line is paid by the consumers. The current trade tensions between the United States and China has […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Amid a widening food shortfall affecting up to forty percent of its population, North Korea has resumed testing short-range missiles in a risky bid for humanitarian aid and political attention. The rocket tests, which don’t directly violate UN resolutions or prior diplomatic agreements, are nonetheless […]