John Metzler

Beijing’s communists are good at bullying; look at political crackdowns in prosperous Hong Kong, the suppression of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang, and of course China’s ongoing military harassment of Taiwan, a democratically ruled island which the communists claim as part of the People’s Republic of China.

We all remember where we were on September 11, 2001. We all remember with sheer disbelief watching the unfolding horror and the realization that “it could happen here.”

Sadly, we have seen this movie before. In the Spring of 1975, the collapse of South Vietnam coming to crescendo with the fall of Saigon indelibly marking a generation.

Cuba’s ongoing political and social upheaval has shocked many observers as a sudden and intense summer storm. Across the island in small towns and provincial centers protests erupted like a squall line until reaching the capital Havana.

It’s summertime and the living is easy, as the old song goes. And vacations both domestic and international should be surging despite dark pandemic clouds still shrouding parts of the world.

Amid pomp, pageantry and proletarian parades, China’s President Xi Jinping kicked off festivities celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Communist Party of China (CCP).

Were there great expectations for the summit meeting in Geneva between President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin?

Economic growth is making a long-awaited rebound after the height of the global pandemic; yet the recovery is still shadowed by serious and ongoing concerns overactive Corona virus outbreaks and the danger of flareups on the international scene.

Though Beijing is usually able to control or stifle the narrative inside the United Nations and many of its Committees, the oxygen of free speech on the taboo topic of human rights of China’s Muslim minority was able to seep through and be heard.

This didn’t have to happen. But blame toxic politics, the living legacy of the populist Peronist era, and the tipping point of the Corona pandemic, and you discover what is unraveling Argentina’s socio/economic fabric.

“Your papers Please,” has long been the customary greeting for people crossing borders, visiting many foreign countries, or sometimes even moving about cities under Covid “lockdown.”

Is the Biden administration tone deaf? September 11th? We are out of Afghanistan by the very day global terrorists celebrate as the date they attacked America? That sinister date signals the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks and is not the time to send this message.

A page has turned on the House of Windsor. Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, has died at 99 just short of his hundredth birthday.

Storm clouds are gathering along Mozambique’s northern coast. Islamic State militants launched a coordinated and deadly assault on the town of Palma, nearby a multi-billion dollar natural gas complex being built by France’s Total energy.

Amid the theatrical fanfare and political pomp, China’s annual “National People’s Congress” met in Beijing to dutifully endorse the ruling Communist Party’s (CCP) vision for the future.