Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The political choreography was classic. The staging was epic. But the outcome remains unpredictable. North Korea’s reclusive leader Kim Jong-Un and his entourage secretly rolled into Beijing on a special armored train later to be greeted and then feted by the Supreme Leader of the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — “Migration is not the solution to demographic problems,” warned Katalin Novak, Hungary’s Minister of State for the Family. Though conceding the European continent faces a significant “demographic decline” and the undertow of a falling population, individual states can counter the “inevitability” through focused family […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Tariffs are in a sense like other taxes; easy to impose, hard to roll back, and usually employed for the “greater good.” Thus triggering tariffs creates a feel good solution, a political sugar rush, but often later a bitter backlash to those ordering them. I […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Following the celebratory Lunar New Year holidays, China’s ruling Communist Party announced that Chairman Xi Jinping, the current President, would be allowed to stay in office beyond the constitutionally proscribed two-term limit. A tweaking of the constitution would allow in effect Xi, who assumed power […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Artillery fire and indiscriminate air strikes pound and batter the Damascus suburb of Ghouta. Civilians, mostly children, are being killed and maimed. The Security Council wrings its hands in pleading for a humanitarian respite in a ongoing horror. And the world community politely averts its […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler NEW YORK — Imagine an agency of the United States government directly choosing and appointing the Catholic Bishops of Washington D.C., St. Louis, Denver and Boston. In other American dioceses there’s close coordination between the fictional “American Religious Affairs Council” and the Vatican on choosing a particular prelate. […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — With a spectacular and sparkling opening ceremony of the PyeongChang Olympics, South Korea has predictably excelled in showcasing both sports and setting. Yet, given that security concerns on the divided peninsula dominated the nervous countdown to the Winter Games, the Seoul government at least in […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Back in Ronald Reagan’s time, the underlining philosophical mantra of the extraordinary economic expansion was that “a rising tide lifts all boats.” Namely, as entrepreneurialism and enterprise were encouraged, the results would create the rising tide of progress. But later, in the early 1990’s slowdown, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The landlocked West African state of Mali remains a critical crossroads for both international people smuggling and a nexus of radical Islamic terrorism in the Sahel, the vast arid region on the southern reaches of the Sahara desert. Here amid ancient caravan routes, porous borders, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — In a sweeping and sobering tour of the world crises and trouble spots, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of a dire global situation plagued with “protracted conflicts and the spread of terrorism.” Stressing that, “We face a Gordian knot in the Middle East and […]
