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 […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler “If we do not feed people, we feed conflict,” warned UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres addressing an urgent Summit on Food security in the wake of the ongoing Ukraine war. “Global hunger levels are at a new high. In just two years, the number of severely food insecure […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler Our world is beset by unthinkable tragedy; brash military aggression, widening instability and grinding humanitarian suffering. We know the places ranging from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, yet governments and relief agencies face overwhelming crisis fatigue as we lurch from Kabul to Kyiv in less than six months. Cause, effect, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler It’s often said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a brilliant chess player. Various geopolitical analysts and Think Tank acolytes somberly assert this “truism” with requisite well stocked bookcases behind them. Yet has Putin’s war against Ukraine, started during the Winter, proved a stroke of genius by the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler Many people ask, “What’s the UN been doing to stop the Ukraine war?” That’s a fair question given that the conflict has been raging more than two months creating Europe’s most costly conflict and humanitarian crisis since WWII. So where is the UN or more specifically Secretary General […]
