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AS IT HAPPENED: Davos 2020 Day One - Thunberg slams elites, Trump hails US economic rebound

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US President Donald Trump reverted to his role as salesman Tuesday, telling a gathering of the world's top businessmen at the WEF in Davos about America's "comeback." (AP)
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The World Economic Forum 2020 started on Tuesday in Davos in Switzerland. (Reuters)
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Deepika Padukone has a very honest and inspiring conversation with World Health Organization's director-general about her own experiences with mental illness. (Screenshot: WEF)
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Musician, producer and entrepreneur will.i.am was looking around Davos today ahead of his session on Wednesday. (WEF)
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Updated 21 January 2020
Arab News
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AS IT HAPPENED: Davos 2020 Day One - Thunberg slams elites, Trump hails US economic rebound

  • Discussion panels featuring a number of high profile figures from the political, business and civil world.
  • Environment and climate issues on agenda, but Iran and Lebanon expected to feature heavily
Updated 21 January 2020
Arab News

The World Economic Forum 2020 started on Tuesday in Davos in Switzerland. Greta Thunberg kicked off the three-day forum in a panel discussion on Sustainable Path towards a Common Future, while Donald Trump was in bullish mood during his special address.

There were the usual array of discussion panels featuring a number of high profile figures from the political, business and civil world, discussing a wide range of subjects including the environment and climate issues, with Iran and Lebanon featuring heavily.

Follow Arab News’ coverage of the opening day below

17:30 - As the opening day winds down, we can start to look ahead toward Wednesday and what's on the agenda. Musician, producer and entrepreneur will.i.am was looking around Davos today ahead of his session on Wednesday. Pakistan's prime minister Imran Khan and the UK's Charles, Prince of Wales will be the highlights of tomorrow's special addresses. Plus all the usual panels, sessions and debates we have come to expect from the World Economic Forum. See you tomorrow...

16:45 - Missed some of today's big Arab stories from Davos? You can read the highlights in the articles below, or check out Arab News' dedicated spotlight here...

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Saudi minister sees tech-savvy youth help the region return to growth

Former Arab League chief: youth driving Middle East change against bad governments

Arab states work with the world but not with each other, Davos hears

Maryam Forum launched at Davos to promote leadership expertise

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16:00 - Don't forget that Arab News will be covering the World Economic Forum right here at arabnews.com throughout the week's events. Arab News will even have a print presence in Davos as well, beautifully displayed here by our intrepid reporter Frank Kane...

15:00 - Andrew Liveris, a member of the board of directors of Saudi Aramco, was speaking on a panel about the growth of green energies this afternoon - saying the transition from fossil fuels to low-carbon sources was essential, but that energy companies had to be allowed to manage their own transitions...

13:45 - Bollywood superstar and mental health ambassador Deepika Padukone has a very honest and inspiring conversation with World Health Organization's director-general about her own experiences with mental illness and how the stigma surrounding it can be ended...

In 2017, Padukone spoke vividly about her struggle with depression and the stigma that surrounded it. She also described how she decided to speak out, so others wouldn't have to suffer in the same way she did. Watch the Crystal Awardee speaking earlier at Davos:

13:00 - Saudi Arabia's Minister for Communications and IT Abdullah Al-Swaha has been speaking on a panel about the strategic outlook for Middle East economies. He makes the salient point that if countries want their economies to grow, they must focus on youth, technology and the empowerment of women...

11:30 - US President Donald Trump reverted to his role as salesman Tuesday, telling a gathering of the world's top businessmen in the Swiss Alps that he's led a “spectacular” turnaround of the US economy and encouraged them to invest in America.

He reminded the audience that when he spoke here two years ago, early in his presidency, “I told you that we had launched the great American comeback."

“Today I’m proud to declare the United States is in the midst of an economic boom, the likes of which the world has never seen before,” the president said.

Read more of the US President's address at Davos here: Trump lauds US economy in Davos, says little on climate woes

11:00 - Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson delivered a special message from Pope Francis. He called on everyone to remember that we are all members of one human family, and that we have a moral obligation to care for one another.

And he asked for a renewed ethical approach in the forthcoming discussions, including in the discipline of economics.

10:30 - The historian Yuval Noah Harari struck a pessimistic note at the opening of this session on the technology arms race. 

"On the most shallow level it could be a repeat of the 19thcentury industrial revolution, when the leaders had the chance to dominate the world economically and politically... I understand the current arms race as an imperial arms race... You don't need to send the soldiers in if you have all the data on a country," says Harari.

10:00 - In one of the first sessions of the WEF, Greta Thunberg said the voices of science and youth need to be at the center of the conversations on environment and future during “Forging a Sustainable Path towards a Common Future” panel discussion. 

Read more on her speech here: Thunberg condemns climate inaction as Trump joins Davos

Topics: Davos 2020 Davos WEF 2020 World Economic Forum (WEF)

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In their final talks, Biden expected to press China’s Xi on North Korea’s ties with Russia

Updated 3 sec ago
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In their final talks, Biden expected to press China’s Xi on North Korea’s ties with Russia

Updated 3 sec ago
LIMA: President Joe Biden is expected to use his final meeting with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, to urge him to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Saturday’s talks on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru come just over two months before Biden leaves office and makes way for Republican President-elect Donald Trump. It will be Biden’s last check-in with Xi — someone the Democrat saw as his most consequential peer on the world stage.
With the final meeting, officials say Biden will be looking for Xi to step up Chinese engagement to prevent an already dangerous moment with North Korea from further escalating.
Biden on Friday, along with South Korean President Yoon Seok Yul and Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, condemned North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s decision to send thousands of troops to help Moscow repel Ukrainian forces who have seized territory in Russia’s Kursk border region.
Biden called it “dangerous and destabilizing cooperation.”
White House officials also have expressed frustration with Beijing, which accounts for the vast majority of North Korea’s trade, for not doing more to rein in Pyongyang.
Biden, Yoon and Ishiba spent most of their 50-minute discussion focused on the issue, agreeing it “should not be in Beijing’s interest to have this destabilizing cooperation in the region,” according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss their private conversations.
The North Koreans also have provided Russia with artillery and other munitions, according to US and South Korean intelligence officials. And the US, Japan and South Korea have expressed alarm over Pyongyang’s stepped-up cadence of ballistic missile tests.
Kim ordered testing exercises in the lead-up to this month’s US election and is claiming progress on efforts to build capability to strike the US mainland.
Biden and Xi have much beyond North Korea to discuss, including China’s indirect support for Russia, human rights issues, technology and Taiwan, the self-ruled democracy that Beijing claims as its own. Both presidents started their day at the leaders’ retreat at the APEC summit.
There’s also much uncertainty about what lies ahead in the US-China relationship under Trump, who campaigned promising to levy 60 percent tariffs on Chinese imports.
Already, many American companies, including Nike and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, have been diversifying their sourcing away from China. Shoe brand Steve Madden says it plans to cut imports from China by as much as 45 percent next year.
“When Xi meets with Biden, part of his audience is not solely the White House or the US government,” said Victor Cha, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “It’s about American CEOs and continued US investment or trying to renew US investment in China and get rid of the perception that there’s a hostile business environment in China.”
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden administration officials will advise the Trump team that managing the intense competition with Beijing will likely be the most significant foreign policy challenge they will face.
Administration officials are concerned that tensions between China and Taiwan could devolve into all-out war if there is a miscalculation by either side, with catastrophic consequences for the world.
Sullivan said the Trump administration will have to deal with the Chinese military’s frequent harassment of its regional neighbors.
Skirmishes between the Philippine and Chinese coast guards in the disputed South China Sea have become a persistent problem. Chinese coast guard ships also regularly approach disputed Japanese-controlled East China Sea islands near Taiwan.
Ishiba met with Xi on Friday. Afterward, the Japanese prime minister said he told Xi he was “extremely concerned about the situation in the East China Sea and escalating activity of the People’s Liberation Army.”
The White House worked for months to arrange Saturday’s meeting between Xi and Biden, something the Democrat badly wanted to do before leaving office in January.
Sullivan traveled to Beijing in late August to meet with his Chinese counterpart and also sat down with Xi. Beijing agreed to the meeting earlier this week.
It’s a big moment for Biden as he wraps up more than 50 years in politics. He saw his relationship with Xi as among the most consequential on the international stage and put much effort into cultivating that relationship.
Biden and Xi first got to know each other on travels across the US and China when both were vice presidents, interactions that both have said left a lasting impression.
But the last four years have presented a steady stream of difficult moments.
The FBI this week offered new details of a federal investigation into Chinese government efforts to hack into US telecommunications networks. The initial findings have revealed a “broad and significant” cyberespionage campaign aimed at stealing information from Americans who work in government and politics.
US intelligence officials also have assessed China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine.
And tensions flared last year after Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States.

Abkhazia leader says ready to resign if protesters vacate parliament

Updated 16 November 2024
AFP
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Abkhazia leader says ready to resign if protesters vacate parliament

  • Rare protests have erupted in recent days in the republic, nestled between the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea, over an economic deal with Moscow
  • “I am ready to call elections, to resign.. and stand in elections. Let the people say who they will support,” the leader of the separatist republic Aslan Bzhania said
Updated 16 November 2024
AFP

MOSCOW: The president of the Moscow-backed breakaway Georgian republic of Abkhazia announced Saturday that he is ready to resign after protesters stormed the regional parliament, opposing an investment deal with Russia.
Rare protests have erupted in recent days in the republic, nestled between the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea, over an economic deal with Moscow.
Abkhazia is recognized by most of the world as Georgian territory, but has been under de-facto Russian control since a brief 2008 war between Moscow and Tbilisi.
“I am ready to call elections, to resign.. and stand in elections. Let the people say who they will support,” the leader of the separatist republic Aslan Bzhania said.
He said his condition was that the protesters who entered parliament and a presidential administration building next door should vacate the premises.
“Those who took over the presidential administration should leave,” he said.
The tiny territory, known for its natural beauty, has been thrown into turmoil over concerns that a proposed investment deal with Moscow could see apartment complexes mushroom in the region.
Protesters have been blocking roads in the main city of Sukhumi for several days this week.
Russia on Friday advised its citizens not to travel to Abkhazia, a traditional holiday destination for Russians.

Topics: Russia Georgia Abkhazia Aslan Bzhania

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Dutch government survives dispute over Amsterdam violence

Updated 16 November 2024
Reuters
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Dutch government survives dispute over Amsterdam violence

  • Junior Finance Minister Nora Achahbar unexpectedly quit the cabinet on Friday to protest claims by some politicians that Dutch youths of Moroccan descent attacked Israeli fans
  • “We have reached the conclusion that we want to remain, as a cabinet for all people in the Netherlands,” Schoof said
Updated 16 November 2024
Reuters

AMSTERDAM: Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof saved his governing coalition on Friday despite threats of an exodus by cabinet members over the right-wing government’s response to violence against Israeli soccer fans last week.
Junior Finance Minister Nora Achahbar unexpectedly quit the cabinet on Friday to protest claims by some politicians that Dutch youths of Moroccan descent attacked Israeli fans in Amsterdam around the Nov. 7 match between Dutch side Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Her resignation triggered a crisis cabinet meeting at which four ministers from her centrist NSC party also threatened to quit. If they had, the coalition would have lost its majority in parliament.
“We have reached the conclusion that we want to remain, as a cabinet for all people in the Netherlands,” Schoof said at a news conference late on Friday in The Hague.
Last week’s violence was roundly condemned by Israeli and Dutch politicians, with Amsterdam’s mayor saying “antisemitic hit-and-run squads” had attacked Israeli fans.
The city’s police department has said Maccabi fans were chased and beaten by gangs on scooters. Police also said the Israeli fans attacked a taxi and burned a Palestinian flag.
Achahbar, a former judge and public prosecutor who was born in Morocco, felt comments by several political figures were hurtful and possibly racist, De Volkskrant daily reported.
“Polarization in the recent weeks has had such an effect on me that I no longer can, nor wish to fulfil my position in this cabinet,” Achahbar said in a statement.
Schoof, a former civil servant who does not have a party affiliation, denied any ministers in the cabinet are racist. Details of the cabinet discussion were not disclosed.
The coalition is led by the anti-Muslim populist party PVV of Geert Wilders, which came top in a general election a year ago. The government was installed in July after months of tense negotiations.
Wilders, who is not a cabinet member, has repeatedly said Dutch youth of Moroccan descent were the main attackers of the Israeli fans, although police have not specified the backgrounds of suspects.
Schoof said on Monday the incidents showed that some youth in the Netherlands with immigrant backgrounds did not share “Dutch core values.”

Topics: War on Gaza Amsterdam Dick Schoof Israeli Maccabi Tel Aviv Moroccan

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North Korean troops in Ukraine war ‘extremely significant’ for east Asia security: Japan minister

Updated 55 min 42 sec ago
AFP
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North Korean troops in Ukraine war ‘extremely significant’ for east Asia security: Japan minister

  • “This will not only deepen the severity of the Ukraine situation, but also have extremely significant implications for east Asia’s security situation,” Iwaya said
  • “We are seriously concerned over this development, and strongly condemn it“
Updated 55 min 42 sec ago
AFP

KYIV: Japan’s foreign minister warned Saturday that North Korean troops entering the Ukraine conflict would have an “extremely significant” effect on east Asian security.
Takeshi Iwaya was in Ukraine after weeks of reports that Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to Russia, with the West and Ukraine saying they were already operating in Russia’s Kursk border region.
Japan has joined Seoul in condemning North Korea for supporting Moscow.
“This will not only deepen the severity of the Ukraine situation, but also have extremely significant implications for east Asia’s security situation,” Iwaya said. “We are seriously concerned over this development, and strongly condemn it.”
The minister visited Bucha, a town outside Kyiv where Russian forces are widely believed to have committed serious atrocities against civilians during a brief occupation early in the war.
He said that “our stance remains unchanged that Japan will stand side by side with Ukraine.”
Iwaya said he had agreed with his Ukrainian counterpart Andriy Sybiga for Tokyo and Kyiv to hold a “bilateral high-level security policy dialogue,” including the strengthening of “our cooperation on intelligence-sharing on security.”
Sybiga said North Korean troops entering the Ukraine conflict is “evidence that the future of not only the European but also the global security architecture is being decided in Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian minister called his Japanese counterpart’s visit an “important sign of solidarity, especially in such a difficult time.
He praised ties with Tokyo:
“And although there are eight thousand kilometers between us, our countries are really close in values.”

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict North Korean Takeshi Iwaya Japan Kyiv

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Iran ‘categorically’ denies envoy’s meeting with Musk

Updated 16 November 2024
AFP
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Iran ‘categorically’ denies envoy’s meeting with Musk

Updated 16 November 2024
AFP

TEHRAN: Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman on Saturday “categorically” denied The New York Times report on Tehran’s ambassador to the United Nations meeting with US tech billionaire Elon Musk, state media reported.
In an interview with state news agency IRNA, spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei was reported as “categorically denying such a meeting” and expressing “surprise at the coverage of the American media in this regard.”
The Times reported on Friday that Musk, who is a close ally of President-elect Donald Trump, met earlier this week with Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani.
It cited anonymous Iranian sources describing the encounter as “positive.”
Iranian newspapers, particularly those aligned with the reformist party that supports President Masoud Pezeshkian, largely described the meeting in positive terms before Baghaei’s statement.
In the weeks leading up to Trump’s re-election, Iranian officials have signalled a willingness to resolve issues with the West.
Iran and the United Stated cut diplomatic ties shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the US-backed shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.
Since then, both countries have communicated through the Swiss embassy in Tehran and the Sultanate of Oman.

Topics: Iran Elon Musk

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