Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, January 9, 2025 Everybody, it seems, is suddenly interested in Greenland. Not just the United States, but Canada, Russia, China all are vying for a foothold on the Arctic island. A fantastically beautiful but often foreboding place locked in ice and isolation, Greenland’s remoteness has been both its […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, December 31, 2024 In the swirling whirligig of world events, the past year 2024 was nearly like no other. Extraordinary but often jarring occurrences mixed in a hodgepodge of hope, joy and despair as crucial elections were won and lost, regional conflicts exploded and humanitarian crises boiled over […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, December 24, 2024 The extraordinary and fast-moving events in Syria have gripped the world. What was viewed as a forgotten, forsaken and frozen conflict churning on for nearly fourteen years, has suddenly jumped into the headlines to round out this tumultuous year. Syria at long last has been […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, December 13, 2024 The Assad family dictatorship which has run Syria for 53 years and has withstood 13 years of bitter civil war, has now collapsed in just over a week. A sweeping series of Islamic rebel attacks starting in late November, captured key cities from Aleppo in […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, December 6, 2024 PARIS — We have witnessed a modern-day miracle. The splendid Notre Dame Cathedral, the heart and soul of France which was scarred and damaged by the terrible fire of April 2019, has been rebuilt, renovated and revitalized, through an amazing and painstaking restoration effort encompassing […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, November 29, 2024 PARIS — There’s a strange unease in Europe. Part of it reflects the misplaced nervousness reacting to Donald Trump’s re-election as the American President. Naturally there’s the predictable political nail biting that a new virulent and assertive U.S. administration will be tough on European trade […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, November 19, 2024 Showdowns loom in the new year as New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik has been nominated to serve as United Nations Ambassador by President-elect Donald Trump. Should she be approved by the Senate, Rep. Stefanik who has served in the U.S. Congress for a decade […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, Novemer 10, 2024 Democrat Party candidate Kamala Harris called for an election that would “Turn the Page” on the past decade of division and discord. The vice president won that challenge; American voters overwhelmingly turned the page on the Kamala Harris candidacy and ended it with a decisive […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, November 1, 2024 Vladimir Putin put on a good show. The 16th annual BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia set the stage for the gathering of what’s essentially the “Alternative economic club” to the established Western groups such as the G-7 and the IMF. Thirty-five 35 delegations including 24 […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler, October 25, 2024 The rumors were true. The apparent dispatch of elite North Korean military units to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine appears at first surprising but actually is quite logical given the historic and comradely ties between Pyongyang and Moscow. After all, North Korea’ s isolated […]
