Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler Despite their huffing, puffing, and threatening, regarding the short but symbolic visit of U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to what China deems a “renegade province,” Taiwan, the Beijing Dragon blinked. Nancy Pelosi’s landmark if controversial visit to Taiwan went forward, and then it was […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler PORNICHET, France — Visiting a bountiful farmers market on France’s western Brittany coast, you can’t help but be dazzled by the choice and abundance of fresh fruits and food. Even in small towns, the sheer choice and selection is daunting. Now let’s metaphysically transport ourselves to Ukraine’s besieged Black […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler This was a crisis waiting to happen. Europe’s unfolding energy emergency was long in coming but at the same time widely encouraged by Western European states all too eager to embrace Russia’s cheap and available natural gas delivered to the European Union’s doorstep by a spiderweb of pipelines […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler The jolting but not unexpected wake-up call came from London. In a rare and unprecedented joint press conference the chiefs of both the British MI5 domestic intelligence service and their American counterpart the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, presented a riveting account of China’s sweeping intelligence gathering […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler Just a year ago, the political odds of comfortably neutral Sweden and Finland joining NATO were a long shot; Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine changed the military threat and jolted the political calculus. At last week’s NATO Summit in Madrid, both countries were fast-tracked to full membership in […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler How time flies. It’s been 25 years since Hong Kong returned to Chinese control, a quarter century since the prosperous British Crown Colony became a semi-autonomous part of the People’s Republic of China, the world’s largest dictatorship. Nonetheless, the small but feisty islands on the south China coast […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler Is China drawing yet another provocative red line, this time in the narrow but strategic Taiwan Strait? The Beijing regime recently claimed that the Taiwan Strait, the defensive body of water buffering the island democracy from Mainland China, is actually sovereign Chinese territory. Recently the People’s Republic of […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler Foreign investment flows worldwide have rebounded to pre-pandemic levels reaching nearly $1.6 trillion. That’s the good news. Yet as a new report warns, the war in Ukraine and widening global uncertainty make the prospects for expansion appear grim. That’s the verdict from the annual World Investment Report 2022, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler It was time to celebrate! The 70th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s accession to the throne in 1952 makes her the longest serving Monarch in British history. Thus, the grandly named Platinum Jubilee has not only dazzled the country with its Royal Pomp and circumstance, but as importantly invigorated […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler North Korea has been making a lot of noise, but few seemed to notice. Kim Jong-Un’s reclusive communist regime has fired off 23 missiles since the beginning of the year to the yawns of world opinion. So, is another North Korean missile showdown creeping up to surprise the […]