Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, December 5, 2025 Beijing has gone rhetorically ballistic over comments by Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could constitute “a situation threatening Japan’s survival” that thus could trigger a military response. Her statement poses uncharacteristically tough talk from Tokyo at a time […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, November 30, 2025 Ukraine is about to enter the fourth Winter of the Russian war. The fleeting hopes for an American-brokered ceasefire and an end to the hostilities in the grinding conflict seemed to have disappeared as the days grow shorter, the nights grow colder, and the shadows […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, November 21, 2025 The UN Security Council approved a landmark American-sponsored resolution which just may give long suffering Gaza its final chance for peace and reconstruction. The U.S. resolution enshrines Washington’s 20-point plan for Gaza; the current ceasefire, the establishment of a Board of Peace and backs the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, November 13, 2025 On Nov. 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall collapsed. On a very ordinary night thousands of East Germans started crossing the dividing barrier between the communist East and capitalist West Berlin after the East German regime had suddenly opened tightly controlled border crossings. In a matter […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, November 6, 2025 PARIS — France has faced a tumultuous Autumn. The usual strikes, government shuffles, and sensational events from a high profile daylight heist at the world-famous Louvre Museum, to the imprisonment of a former president, have characterized a disquieting period. Indeed, just a year after hosting […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, October 22, 2025 In a ritual of near farcical folly, the UN General Assembly has elected fourteen new members to join the Geneva-based Human Rights Council. The otherwise low-key annual ballot raises political hypocrisy to a heightened level. These new Council members including countries like Angola, Egypt, Iraq, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, October 14, 2025 Many years ago, a senior British diplomat told a few of us UN correspondents outside the Security Council, and I paraphrase, “That no matter what you see transpiring in the Middle East, it’s never wise to base one’s career on predictions of the outcome.” So, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, October 12, 2025 Almost a decade ago, the then new UN Sec. Gen. Antonio Guterres decried the forced expulsion of the minority Rohingya people from Myanmar (Burma) by the military. During a September press conference in 2017, he condemned the Myanmar regime’s actions forcing nearly a million Muslim […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, September 29, 2025 President Donald Trump lambasted the United Nations on opening day for its failure to stop global crises in the midst of major regional wars, humanitarian disasters, looming security threats, never mind costly bureaucratic waste. But like a stern professor, yet as the leader of the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, September 22, 2025 Presidents, prime ministers, kings and potentates are converging on New York for the United Nations General Assembly session. The upcoming General Debate, starting Sept. 23, will bring together a cast of thousands of delegates for ten days of speeches, meetings, and debates. UN Sec. Gen. […]
