DAVOS, Switzerland: People around the world place much more trust in their companies than their political leaders, according to a major survey that suggests a mood of uncertainty and pessimism on the eve of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
The annual Edelman Trust Barometer shows only one in five people believe the economic, political and social system is working for them, while nearly 60 percent think trade conflicts are hurting their companies and putting their jobs at risk.
The sense of gloom is strongest in developed markets led by Japan, where 84 percent of the general public — excluding the ‘informed public’ who are college-educated, earn above-average incomes and consume news regularly — do not believe they will be better off in five years’ time, followed by France at 79 percent, Germany at 74 percent and Britain at 72 percent. That is far above the average 49 percent of the 27 countries examined in the research.
Amid low confidence that politicians will fix the problems, these people are turning to companies, with 75 percent saying they trust “my employer,” compared to 48 percent for government and 47 percent for the media.
“CEOs now have to be visible, show personal commitment, absolutely step into the void, because we’ve got a leadership void in the world,” Richard Edelman, head of the communications marketing firm that commissioned the research, told Reuters.
Optimism was higher in the United States, where nearly half of the general public believed they would be better off in the next five years. The corresponding figure there was 62 percent for the better-educated, higher-earning “informed public.”
“The stock market was very good, the deregulation and lower taxes for the wealthy — it’s pretty good if you are an elite,” Edelman said of the US findings.
The survey, based on the opinions of over 33,000 people and conducted between Oct. 19 and Nov. 16, is published on the eve of the Davos gathering in the Swiss Alps, which this year brings together some 3,000 business and world leaders amid anxiety over the US-China trade war, Brexit and a slowdown in global growth.
“Violation of trust“
The pessimism in Japan, France, Germany and Britain reflects a variety of factors.
“I think Japan’s never really recovered from Fukushima, there was such a violation of trust when that happened,” said Edelman, referring to the authorities’ botched response to a massive nuclear accident in 2011.
Signs of slowing global demand and a sharp rise in the yen have clouded the outlook for Japan’s export-reliant economy, and the government plans tax hikes to pay for ballooning health care costs for its rapidly aging population.
“The problem for the three (European) countries.... is that given the reality of the potentially diminished economic future, there is deep anger in advance,” Edelman said.
In France, what started as a grassroots rebellion by low-paid workers to protest taxes on diesel fuel and a squeeze on household incomes has morphed into an assault on President Emmanuel Macron and his reforms, seen by the protesters as favoring the wealthy.
And in Britain, the Brexit crisis intensified last week after Prime Minister Theresa May’s two-year attempt to forge an amicable divorce from the European Union was crushed by parliament in the biggest defeat for a British leader in modern history.
The survey found that while only 49 percent of the wider population trusted institutions such as governments, this figure rose to 65 percent among high-income, college-educated and well-informed people — the biggest gap since the research began 19 years ago.
Despite widespread distrust of the media, uncertainty about the future has led to a sharp jump in people’s consumption and sharing of news and information, up 22 percentage points in a year to 72 percent.
But more than 70 percent said they worry about false information or fake news being used as a weapon.
In the United States, where President Donald Trump has repeatedly denounced the media as purveyors of fake news, trust in media varied widely depending on political affiliations.
Those who identified themselves as Republican voters showed only 33 percent trust in media, while 69 percent of Democrats did so.
Eve-of-Davos survey shows people place trust in companies over governments
Eve-of-Davos survey shows people place trust in companies over governments
- Only one in five people believe the economic, political and social system is working for them
- Nearly 60 percent think trade conflicts are hurting their companies and putting their jobs at risk
Germany calls Trump’s vow to take Panama Canal ‘unacceptable’
- ‘Any threat against a NATO member or other states is of course completely unacceptable’
- ‘It’s not about how President Trump says something... but we should look at why he says something’
Baerbock was asked in an interview about Trump’s comments Monday on the waterway and on his desire to control Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.
“Any threat against a NATO member or other states is of course completely unacceptable,” Baerbock told German broadcaster RBB.
Baerbock however said that Germany needed to “play it smart,” when responding to the president’s statements.
“It’s not about how President Trump says something... but we should look at why he says something,” Baerbock said.
The focus should be on “what interests are behind (Trump’s statements) ... and then standing up for our own interests,” she said.
In the case of the Panama Canal, the message was about China “investing massively in ports and other important infrastructure around the world,” Baerbock said.
In his inaugural address on Monday, Trump complained that China was effectively “operating” the key trading route, which the United States transferred to Panamanian control in 1999.
“We didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama. And we’re taking it back,” Trump said.
It was not the first time that Trump has expressed his intention to reestablish US control over the canal, with the president repeatedly refusing to rule out using military means.
Germany has no illusions about Trump as he begins his second term in office, Baerbock said.
“The USA is one of our most important allies. We want to and will continue to work closely together,” she said.
“But we have positioned ourselves more intensively and even more strongly strategically.”
Xi, Putin hold video call: Chinese state media
- State broadcaster did not immediately give details of what was discussed during the call
BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday held a video call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Beijing’s state media reported.
Xi and Putin “held a video meeting at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on the afternoon of January 21,” state broadcaster CCTV said.
The broadcaster did not immediately give details of what was discussed during the call.
China has sought to depict itself as a neutral party since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
But it remains a close political and economic partner of Moscow and has never condemned the war, leading some NATO members to brand Beijing an “enabler” of the conflict.
Both sides have made much of Xi and Putin’s supposedly strong personal bond, with Xi calling the Russian leader his “best friend” and Putin lauding his “reliable partner.”
In a New Year’s message to Putin last month, Xi vowed to promote “world peace and development,” according to a contemporary CCTV report.
“In the face of rapidly evolving changes not seen in a century and the turbulent international situation, China and Russia have consistently moved forward hand-in-hand along the correct path of non-alignment, non-confrontation and not targeting any third party,” the broadcaster reported Xi as saying.
Indian forces kill 14 Maoist rebels, including top commander
- New Delhi has stepped up efforts to end the decades-long conflict
- Tuesday’s clashes follow the killing of 12 Maoists on January 16
RAIPUR, India: Indian security forces shot dead at least 14 Maoist rebels, including a top commander, on Tuesday in what the interior minister said was one of the heaviest bouts of recent fighting.
The interior ministry said the commander killed was a leader known as Jairam or Chalpati, who had a $115,000 bounty on his head.
New Delhi has stepped up efforts to end the decades-long conflict. Tuesday’s clashes follow the killing of 12 Maoists on January 16, also in the guerrillas’ heartlands in the forests of India’s Chhattisgarh state.
More than 10,000 people have been killed in the decades-long insurgency waged by the rebels, who say they are fighting for the rights of marginalized people in India’s resource-rich central regions.
Around 287 rebels were killed in 2024, according to official figures.
The rebels, also known as Naxalites after the district where their armed campaign began in 1967, were inspired by the Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong.
“Another mighty blow to Naxalism,” Interior Minister Amit Shah said in a statement, confirming that 14 rebels had been “neutralized.”
Shah, who has set a deadline of March 2026 to defeat the rebels, said that “Naxalism is breathing its last.”
Police said reinforcements had been sent to the area.
“Forces are still inside the forest,” said Vivekananda Sinha, head of Chhattisgarh’s anti-Maoist operation.
The Maoists demand land, jobs and a share of the region’s immense natural resources for local residents.
They made inroads in a number of remote communities across India’s east and south, and the movement gained in strength and numbers until the early 2000s.
New Delhi then deployed tens of thousands of troops in a stretch of territory known as the “Red Corridor.”
The conflict has also seen a number of deadly attacks on government forces. A roadside bomb killed at least nine Indian troops this month.
Landslide kills 16 in Indonesia’s Central Java, official says
- The landslide was triggered by heavy rains in the area
- The search for those missing has been hampered by rain
JAKARTA: A landslide in Indonesia’s Central Java city of Pekalongan killed 16 people and injured 10, an official at the country’s regional disaster mitigation agency and police said on Tuesday.
The landslide was triggered by heavy rains in the area, Bergas Caturasi, an official at the country’s regional disaster mitigation agency told news channel Kompas TV.
The search for those missing has been hampered by rain, Bergas said.
“The search continues on, because we don’t have a lot of time. We’re in a race with the weather,” he said.
Afghan Taliban announce Qatar-brokered prisoner swap deal with US
- Afghan fighter Khan Mohammad imprisoned in America has been released in exchange for US citizens
- Media named the Americans as William McKenty and Ryan Corbett, the latter in Taliban custody since 2022
KABUL: The Taliban government said Tuesday they had released American citizens from prison in return for an Afghan fighter held in the United States, in a deal brokered by Qatar.
Discussions about the prisoner exchange were confirmed last year, but the swap was announced after outgoing US president Joe Biden handed over to Donald Trump, who was inaugurated on Monday.
“An Afghan fighter Khan Mohammad imprisoned in America has been released in exchange for American citizens and returned to the country,” the Afghan foreign ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said Mohammad had been serving a life sentence in the state of California after being arrested “almost two decades ago” in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar.
Asked by AFP, the foreign ministry declined to provide further details or the number of American prisoners.
However, in July last year, the Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said two American prisoners were being held in custody in Afghanistan and that an exchange had been discussed with the United States.
US media named the Americans as William McKenty and Ryan Corbett, the latter in Taliban custody since 2022.
Biden came under heavy criticism for the chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in 2021, more than a year after Trump presided over a deal with the Taliban insurgents to end US and NATO involvement in the two-decade war.
After Trump’s election win in November, the Taliban government had said it hoped for a “new chapter” in ties with the United States.
Taliban authorities have repeatedly said they want positive relations with every country since sweeping back to power in 2021.
No state has officially recognized their government, with restrictions on women’s rights a key sticking point for many countries, including the United States.
The Taliban government on Tuesday called the exchange “a good example of resolving issues through dialogue, expressing special gratitude for the effective role of the brotherly country of Qatar in this regard.”
“The Islamic Emirate views positively those actions of the United States that contribute to the normalization and expansion of relations between the two countries,” it added, using the Taliban authorities’ name for their government.
Dozens of foreigners have been detained by the Taliban authorities since the group’s return to power.
It is unclear how many Afghan citizens are in US custody.
At least one Afghan prisoner remains in detention at the secretive US prison Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Muhammad Rahim, whose family called for his release in November 2023.
In February last year, two former prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay until 2017 were welcomed home to Afghanistan, more than 20 years after they were arrested.
