Showing 41 - 50 of 141
Here's looking forward to a calmer 2025
News, John J. Metzler, Published on 06/01/2025
» In the swirling whirligig of world events, the past year 2024 was nearly like no other. Extraordinary but often jarring occurrences mixed in a hodgepodge of hope, joy and despair as crucial elections were won and lost, regional conflicts exploded and humanitarian crises boiled over with sickening predictability.
The conflict in Syria is not quite over yet
Oped, John J. Metzler, Published on 26/12/2024
» The extraordinary and fast-moving events in Syria have gripped the world. What was viewed as a forgotten, forsaken and frozen conflict churning on for nearly 14 years, has suddenly jumped into the headlines to round out this tumultuous year.
Rebel win to reshape Syria's fragile future
News, John J. Metzler, Published on 12/12/2024
» The Assad family dictatorship, which ran Syria for 53 years and withstood 13 years of bitter civil war, collapsed in just over a week. A sweeping series of Islamic rebel attacks, starting in late November, captured key cities from Aleppo in the north to Homs and Hama, which fell like dominos, creating an unstoppable military momentum on the road to Damascus.
The missiles of November are too little, too late
Oped, John J. Metzler, Published on 29/11/2024
» There's a strange unease in Europe. Part of it reflects the misplaced nervousness reacting to Donald Trump's re-election as the US President. Naturally there's the predictable political nail biting that a new virulent and assertive US administration will be tough on European trade deficits as well as not instinctively committed to writing blank checks for Ukrainian military aid. The wider issue concerns Ukraine's future and the crescendo of military escalation on both sides to step up, or decisively wind up the war before the end of the lame duck Biden administration.
Vietnam gets ready for a new US-China trade war
News, John Boudreau, Published on 12/11/2024
» The last time Donald Trump was the US president, Vietnam reaped big benefits from the trade war he started with China. This time around, the outcome could be different.
Afghan women's rights draw little attention
News, John J Metzler, Published on 07/11/2024
» Afghanistan's tragedy continues. Since the chaotic end of the Afghan war in August 2021, the country is now again ruled by the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban, which has literally turned the clock back on any hints of modernisation and civil and human rights advancements. The rights of women, and especially girls, have plummeted into a medieval miasma.
Why is the US presidential race even close?
News, John Mark Hansen, Published on 04/11/2024
» I teach a course at the University of Chicago on elections, and I hear the same kind of question from friends on both the right and the left. The GOP cannot understand why Donald Trump is not far ahead in the polls, whereas the Democrats wonder how it can possibly be that Kamala Harris is not running away with the race.
Putin throws Brics at his global critics
News, John J Metzler, Published on 30/10/2024
» Vladimir Putin put on a good show. The 16th annual Brics Summit in Kazan, Russia, set the stage for the gathering of what's essentially the "Alternative economic club" to the established Western groups such as the G-7 and the IMF. Thirty-five 35 delegations, including 24 heads of state and government, journeyed to Kazan for a three-day summit and schmooze session with the otherwise diplomatically isolated Russian president.
NK troops sent to the Ukraine: cannon fodder?
Oped, John J Metzler, Published on 24/10/2024
» The rumours were true. The apparent dispatch of elite North Korean military units to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine appears at first surprising but actually is quite logical given the historic and comradely ties between Pyongyang and Moscow. After all, North Korea's isolated Kim Jong-un regime has forged increasingly close ties with Vladimir Putin's Russia and the cash-strapped North Koreans have shipped more than eight million 122mm and 152mm artillery shells to Russia during in the past year.
Grab Advance Booking: Why wait? Book your trip in advance!
Komsan John Jandamit, Published on 21/10/2024
» How many times have you struggled to hire a taxi to go to a planned important meeting or to go to Suvarnabhumi airport at odd hours? Me, as a Bangkokian, major traffic jams and unpredictable rainfalls are part of my daily city life and going somewhere without proper planning in advance can easily cause me to be late on appointments. But with Grab's new advance booking service these headache-inducing situations can be avoided.