- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
- Visiting UN refugee agency chief decries 'terrible crisis' in Lebanon
- Spinners come to party as England defeat Bangladesh at T20 World Cup
- Search continues for missing in deadly Bosnia floods
- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
- Hezbollah heir apparent Safieddine out of contact after strikes
- Liverpool stay top of Premier League as Arsenal, Man City win
- In dank Tour of Emilia, Pogacar shines in rainbow jersey
- DR Congo launches mpox vaccination drive, hoping to curb outbreak
- Trump returns to site of failed assassination
- Careless Leverkusen held to Bundesliga draw
- O'Brien's 'superstar' Kyprios posts landmark win on Arc weekend
- Liverpool suffer Alisson injury blow
- Habosi helps Racing beat Vannes before Auradou's playing return
- Thousands march in London in support of Palestinians, 1 year after Oct 7
- Israel readying response to Iran missile attack
- Schutt, Mooney help Australia beat Sri Lanka in Women's T20 World Cup
- Liverpool extend Premier League lead with win at Palace
- Djokovic 'shakes rust off' to make third round of Shanghai Masters
- 'Imperfect' PSG fighting on all fronts - Luis Enrique
- Struggling Pakistan look to thwart adaptable England
- Child 'trampled to death' in asylum seekers' Channel crossing: minister
- Gauff fights back to set up Beijing final against Muchova
- Guardiola claims Premier League won't delay season for Man City
- Israel to mark October 7 attack as Gaza war spreads
- Gauff fights back to reach China Open final
- Recovering Stokes ruled out of first Pakistan Test
- Hezbollah battles troops on border as Israel pounds Lebanon
- Alcaraz, Sinner breeze into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Bagnaia wins Japan MotoGP sprint to cut Martin's lead
- Alcaraz breezes into third round of Shanghai Masters
- Gaza cultural heritage brought to light in Geneva
- 'Bullet for democracy': Trump returns to site of rally shooting
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- South Korean cult-horror series 'Hellbound' returns at BIFF
- Nepalis fear more floods as climate change melts glaciers
- Honduras arrests environmentalist's alleged murderer
- Padres pitcher Musgrove needs elbow surgery
- Supreme Court lets stand rules to curb mercury, methane emissions
- Boston beat Denver in NBA exhibition season opener, but Jokic says omens are good
- Chagos diaspora angry at lack of input on islands' fate
- Biden says 'not confident' of peaceful US election
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- Lukaku stars as Napoli beat Como to hold Serie A top spot
- Ohtani set for MLB playoff debut as Dodgers face Padres
From tanks to subsidies: the main topics at Davos
The World Economic Forum in Davos wrapped up Friday after a week that featured feverish discussion of the war in Ukraine, rifts over global trade and Greta Thunberg crashing the party of the global elite.
Here's a summary of the hottest topics and main events:
- Tanks -
Ukraine sent a huge national delegation to Davos to lobby hard for new weapons and financial support to help it push Russian forces out of occupied territories, with the German-made Leopard tanks high on the wish-list.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who made an appearance on Wednesday, was pressured from all sides to greenlight the export of the tanks from Poland and Finland -- to no avail.
When asked why he was hesitating by a Ukrainian in the audience for his speech, Scholz never mentioned the word tank, saying instead that "we are never doing something just by ourselves but together with others, especially the United States".
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in the first of two appearances by video-link in Davos, said pointedly that "the time the Free World uses to think is used by the terrorist state to kill".
Russian ministers and oligarchs, once welcomed with open arms, were absent again for the second year running.
- Subsidies -
International trade and globalisation have been articles of faith for the Davos set since the WEF started 50 years ago, but worries that both are under threat were evident in this year's official theme: "Cooperation in a fragmented world."
One of the biggest concerns is that a race between the United States, China and the European Union to subsidise so-called "clean-tech" -- from renewable energy technology to electric cars and batteries -- could put the international trading system under further strain.
EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen warned on Tuesday that she saw "aggressive attempts to attract our industrial capacities away to China and elsewhere".
She also referred to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a $369-billion package to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which is causing alarm in Europe over its potential impact on European companies.
"Do it, too," US climate envoy John Kerry replied.
The IRA was a "valid concern" for Europeans, Julie Teigland, a managing partner at EY consultancy's Europe, Middle East and Africa region, told AFP.
"We have to be careful not to escalate into a trade war. I don't think anybody wants that. Nobody wants a war on subsidies," she added.
- 'Big lie' -
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivered one of the most noteworthy speeches this year, launching a frontal attack on oil and gas companies over their role in global warming.
Guterres drew a parallel between the actions of oil companies and those of tobacco companies that covered up the adverse effects of cigarettes.
"Some in Big Oil peddled the big lie. And like the tobacco industry, those responsible must be held to account," he said.
He was referring to a study published in the journal Science that said ExxonMobil had dismissed the findings of its own scientists on the role of fossil fuels in climate change.
"We knew nothing -- we read the papers (but) I do not have climate scientists at TotalEnergies," the boss of the French firm Patrick Pouyanne shot back.
- Greta -
Three years after attending as a teenager and facing off with then US president Donald Trump, Greta Thunberg returned, but this time without a visitor's badge.
Speaking at an event with other climate activists, she said it was "absurd" to think that people in Davos were part of the solution to global warming and defended her decision to shun political and business leaders.
"Without massive public pressure from the outside, these people are going to go as far as they possibly can... They will continue to throw people under the bus for their own gain," the 20-year-old said.
She held a small protest in the snow and cold on Friday, this time without getting detained by police -- unlike in Germany earlier in the week where she was protesting against an expanding coal mine.
- ChatGPT -
There were a dozen public sessions devoted to artificial intelligence and nothing was talked about more than ChatGPT, the chatbot capable of producing strikingly quick and cogent texts on almost any topic.
Made by the hottest startup in Silicon Valley, OpenAI, the chatbot is seen as proof of the power of artificial intelligence, but also a source of worry that a whole host of jobs will disappear.
"The applications are going to initially put some people out of jobs," Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said, while expressing confidence that affected people would find new positions. "That adjustment period can be difficult, can be scary, etc. But I think the end state is going to be good."
The computer giant announced on Wednesday it was laying off 10,000 employees in the coming months.
L.Torres--PC