John Metzler

FPI / By John J. Metzler PARIS — It’s never polite to question the deteriorating human rights situation in China but let’s do it anyway. The hidden and systematic repression of ethnic Uighur Muslims in China’s western Xinjiang province and the high profile crackdown on pro-demonstrators in Hong Kong, many of them Christian, are both […]

FPI / By John J. Metzler PARIS — A Summer heatwave has enveloped the French capital in a blanket of dry heat. Following a Winter and Spring of churning discontent from the Yellow Vests, Gilet Jaunes, anti-government demonstrations, the current vacation season should have come as a welcome respite to the protest weary French. And […]

FPI / By John J. Metzler Bondville, VT — For those of us of a certain age, we vividly remember where we were on July 20, 1969 the date of America’s successful Lunar landing. On a cool July southern Vermont evening my parents and I visited friends to watch what was expected to be a […]

FPI / July 12, 2019 By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — In a stunningly stark report on the political and economic conditions in Venezuela, the UN’s Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet, outlined a troubling litany of continuing human rights abuses, extrajudicial killings, and economic privations characterizing the besieged Latin American country. The groundbreaking report […]

FPI / June 26, 2019 By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Amid attacks on commercial shipping, threats to close the vital but vulnerable Straits of Hormuz, and the shooting down of an unarmed American reconnaissance drone, the drumbeat of impending conflict builds with Iran. The rhetoric has reached an incendiary crescendo. The opposing militaries […]

FPI / January 25, 2019 By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — From the appalling murders of 300 Sri Lankan Christians celebrating Easter, to the killings of Coptic Egyptians, Syrian Catholics, and Nigerian faithful, the grisly wave of anti-Christian violence worldwide is rising. Add the formal state repression of Christianity in places like China, North […]

FPI / May 1, 2019 By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Attempting to revive political links with Russia, endeavoring to break the “Big Brother” syndrome with China, and seeking diplomatic standing after its failed summit with the USA, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un met with Vladimir Putin. The meeting in the gritty Far Eastern […]

FPI / January 25, 2019 By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Despite the terrible fire which collapsed the roof and destroyed large parts of the fabled Gothic Cathedral, despite the collapse of its iconic spire in the midst of the inferno, and despite the near apocalyptic pyre which engulfed the medieval church, Notre Dame […]

FPI / April 17, 2019 By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Faced with an entrenched dictatorship, challenged by a deepening political crisis, and undermined by an escalating humanitarian catastrophe, Venezuela is careening towards the edge of the cliff. The once-prosperous Latin American country has entered an explosive political limbo which threatens both Venezuela as […]

FPI / January 25, 2019 By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — For nearly two months, large popular demonstrations have rocked Algeria protesting the candidacy of incumbent President Abdelaziz Bouteflika who planned to run for a fifth five-year term in national elections. The protests evoked the so-called Arab Spring in which demonstrations and later armed […]

FPI / January 25, 2019 By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Responding to the Berlin Blockade, the communist coup in Czechoslovakia, and the looming threat from the Soviet Union, the U.S. and Western European states formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). On 4 April 1949, the foreign Ministers of twelve countries including the […]

FPI / March 26, 2019 By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Beijing’s ambitious “Belt and Road” infrastructural initiative has scored its first significant beachhead in the Mediterranean, as Italy has signed on to the expansive Chinese globe-spanning project. China’s President Xi Jinping was feted in Rome with a grandiosity fit for an visiting Emperor […]

FPI / March 21, 2019 By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Following the failed Hanoi Summit with the USA, North Korea is now sending mixed messages concerning its denuclearization and missile testing intentions. Pyongyang’s deliberately cryptic policy is likely meant to sow confusion and gain a negotiating advantage with the U.S. over Washington’s efforts […]

FPI / March 10, 2019 By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The devastating double veto cast by both Russia and China to derail a U.S Security Council draft resolution providing humanitarian aid for impoverished Venezuelans reflected the latest round in a widening standoff between the socialist Caracas regime and the democratic opposition. And while […]

FPI / March 5, 2019 By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — “Sometimes you have to walk,” was President Donald Trump’s stunning conclusion to the U.S./North Korea Summit in Hanoi, where political great expectations seemed to get ahead of the hard reality that Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program created an impasse to an expected diplomatic agreement […]