Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler The massive double blast which rocked Beirut harbor brought near cataclysmic damage to the Lebanese capital. Yet as the dust settled on this tragedy, with 200 dead and 5,000 injured, the political and economic reverberations of the explosion have shaken Lebanon to the core and threatened to turn […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler The story comes right out of a Dan Brown mystery thriller in which Vatican secrets are targeted by State sponsored computer hackers. Yet according to cyber security sources, the intrusion into sensitive Vatican diplomatic traffic is not fiction, but a cold hard fact of modern espionage. The Recorded […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler Its very name Hagia Sophia evokes the ancient mysteries of Byzantium. Its setting along the Golden Horn on the majestic Bosphorus joining Europe and Asia in itself serves as a beacon for uniting world religions. Yet this magnificent church which has weathered the march of time and the shift of […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler In a sweeping, scathing and searingly poignant speech, U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr swept back the curtain on China’s communist regime in a tour de force rarely seen. His focus centered not only on China’s rulers menacing their own people and those of East Asia, but also specifically […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler A devastating decade old war, a deteriorating humanitarian situation, and a deplorable inability of the international community to stop the conflict, underscores Syria’s tragic fate. The failure of the UN Security Council to ease the suffering, callously blocked by Russia and China, tragically highlights the shared international shame […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler Beijing’s tightening noose on Hong Kong foretells many things both in the successful city state as much as throughout the opaque vastness of China itself. Clearly, the widening communist political crackdown on Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms was expected given the successful city-state’s thriving democracy. Despite large pro-democracy […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler Seventy years ago, on June 25, 1950, North Korean troops attacked South Korea launching an unexpected military blitz. Kim Il-Sung’s communists had as their aim the forcible reunification of the divided Korean peninsula, itself a recent legacy of Japan’s defeat in WWII. The South was stunned and Seoul, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler It’s one of those rites of late Spring when members of the UN’s General Assembly come together to choose five new non-permanent members of the fifteen-member Security Council. But what’s usually a spirited but pro-forma election of candidates, this year was carried out in the shadow of the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler In a surprisingly understated but inspirational address to the cadets on the historic Parade Field, President Donald Trump spoke to the graduating class of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. But the remarks to 1,100 newly minted second lieutenants in the U.S. Army was not a call […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler Defying all expectations, the U.S. job numbers surged back in early June in a surprise and stunning rebound. While the usual gaggle of “experts” were somberly predicting an additional eight or nine million job losses, the actual numbers showed 2.5 million jobs gained! Despite massive job cuts from […]