John Metzler

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 grow longer.

The UN Security Council approved a landmark American-sponsored resolution which just may give long suffering Gaza its final chance for peace and reconstruction.

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 of hours history was made. Throngs of people soon swamped the Wall and then started smashing the hated communist barrier into concrete rubble.

In a ritual of near farcical folly, the UN General Assembly has elected fourteen new members to join the Geneva-based Human Rights Council.

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 most prominent and founding UN member state, he then added that the world organization isn’t living up to its potential, and scathingly challenged, “What’s the purpose of the United Nations?”

Presidents, prime ministers, kings and potentates are converging on New York for the United Nations General Assembly session.

The Chinese communists put on a massive military parade in Beijing to both commemorate the 1945 victory over Japan as well as to reinforce the rule and strategic vision of Supreme Leader Xi Jinping.

President Donald Trump has had it with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Gone are the days where it appeared that the Russians were ready for a negotiated “deal” or “ceasefire’ in the bloody Ukraine war.

Tis’ that time of the year when the BRICS economic Summit comes round to state the obvious; “We are the Rest of the World,” and powerful members of the global developing economies too.

Amid wars, global strife and massive refugee dislocations, the current global scene is overwhelmed with crises ranging from the Middle East to Ukraine and a dozen African conflicts which rarely make the news.

The die has been cast. American stealth B-2 bombers swooped down on Iran’s nuclear weapons enrichment targets and dealt a presumably knock-out blow to the Islamic Republic’s longtime dream of possessing a nuclear weapon.

The stunningly successful Ukrainian drone attacks on multiple airbases across Russia’s deep interior last week by hitting and likely destroying a sizable portion of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet, proved the audacity of the beleaguered Kyiv government not to surrender.

Speaking out to break the information barrier inside the hermetically sealed North Korean dictatorship is in itself nothing new, and usually quickly forgotten.

With the staging and showmanship of a Cecil B. De Mille saga, President Donald Trump’s State visit to three Arabian Kingdoms was uniquely paired with pomp and joint business incentives which focused in transforming the narrative from conflict to commerce and cooperation.

In what was akin to a celebration of global dictators and political rogues, Venezuela’s Marxist dictator Nicholas Maduro visited Moscow to join Vladimir Putin in celebrating Russia’s May 9th Victory Day Parade, the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s triumph over Nazi Germany.