World
Klaus Schwab's World Economic Forum in Davos exposed as place where 'cronyism can flourish'
There are many organizations in the world where business leaders and governments work closely together. But few are said to be as polarizing as the World Economic Forum and its founder, Klaus Schwab.
On the one hand, almost every January a few thousand leading business executives, politicians, journalists and others flock to the miniscule alpine village of Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, for WEF’s exclusive invitation-only annual meeting. TV, radio and print reporters fawn over the so-called good and the great.
The likes of Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, were both there for the event that lasted from Jan. 15-19, and both were seen on TV. On the surface, things might seem benign. But scratch the surface, and you see something quite different.
“What is interesting when you look at how the WEF was started,” says Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, a policy think tank in London, England. “It wasn’t random.”
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World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab speaks at Davos on Jan. 16, 2024. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)
In 1971, with the help of the European Commission (EC), a governmental body, Klaus Schwab, then a business professor at the University of Geneva, founded the European Management Forum and invited 450 business executives to a conference in Davos. The idea was to get European leaders to learn something about how American business works.
“You had institutional backing,” Mendoza says. “That then attracts business leaders and then politicians.” He also thinks one of the most shocking achievements by Schwab the “scale of what he has achieved.”
However, there are worries about the WEF’s future after Schwab, who is 86. So far he hasn’t named a successor and that in turn has the organization’s backers concerned about the future of WEF, according to a 2023 Politico report.
The Alpine resort of Davos ahead of the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, on Dec. 30, 2023. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)
The Politico report cites insiders as saying he’s like a monarch who will stay in the job until death. In a similar way, he also employs family members in high-ranking posts within the not-for-profit organization. The report also states that insiders wouldn’t talk on the record as they feared reprisals such as being banned from WEF events or even being fired just for talking.
Other insiders, both current and former employees, anonymously compare Schwab to Russia’s dictator, according to a Guardian newspaper report last year. “Klaus picks his leaders using the same criteria Putin uses to pick deputies for the state duma: loyalty, guile, sex appeal,” the paper quotes one of the sources as saying. Another source in the report called Schwab’s top team “nobodies.”
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World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab listens as German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addresses the delegates in Davos, Switzerland, May 26, 2022. (Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann)
By 1987, it had morphed into the WEF, and from then, seemingly nothing could stop it. And that’s where critics say the first problem with WEF arrives.
As the WEF has grown in popularity, they say it looks more and more like an exclusive networking club for the mega-rich and super-powerful. “It is nothing more than an official mechanism by which cronyism can flourish,” says Ben Habib, co-deputy leader of British political party Reform UK. “The event legitimizes cronyism.”
Others who have attended Davos, as the annual event is known, see it as a competitive event where the guests play a game of high-stakes social climbing where the winners get cushy high-paid jobs at the top of massive multinational corporations.
Facebook and Blackrock are examples of where former U.K. government ministers have taken on senior roles. Nick Clegg, former leader of Britain’s center left Lib-Dems, is now the president of global affairs at Meta. Similarly, for a while, George Osbourne, former chancellor of the exchequer (finance chief) for the U.K. government, took a role as a senior adviser to the giant U.S.-based fund management company Black Rock.
Private jets are lined up at Zurich Kloten Airport as participants arrive for the World Economic Forum in Davos, on Jan. 18, 2024. (Piero Cruciatti/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Habib says it’s no wonder big business and top politicians are deeply in bed with each other. And it is viewed by many as a powerful yet unaccountable organization that doesn’t reflect the needs or wants of all society. Instead, it has an invitation-only policy to the annual event.
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A logo of the World Economic Forum at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Jan. 9, 2024. (Lian Yi/Xinhua via Getty Images)
Indeed, WEF has the following statement on its website: “Our activities are shaped by a unique institutional culture founded on the stakeholder theory, which asserts that an organization is accountable to all parts of society.”
The WEF didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the seeming discrepancy between its statement about serving everyone and having an invite-only policy.
“The little guy is not represented anywhere in these major international forums,” Mendoza says. The issue with WEF is its huge scale, he says. “If we have problems with [the little guy being silent], it is not a WEF problem, it’s a broader capitalism issue.”
Another issue that has irked its critics revolves around demands at past WEF events calling for a greener global economy and the idea of reducing the world’s use of carbon-based energy. That contrasts with the 1,000 private jets that reportedly ferried in the big shots this year for the annual meeting, which ended Jan. 19. Those private jets emit 10 times more carbon than commercial jetliners and 50 times more than trains.
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Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, second right, with, from left, Steve Schwarzman, Blackstone CEO, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, and Lakshmi Mittal, CEO of ArcelorMittal, during a meeting with business leaders in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2024. (Chiara Albanese/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Mendoza notes that while a couple of decades ago the secretive Bilderberg Group had been the focal point of conspiracy theorists, now WEF has become a lightning rod for similar ideas. Habib concurs, stating, “There are many people who think Schwab controls the world. I’m not one of them.” But he doesn’t like the people who Schwab hangs out with. “He has embedded himself with the ‘great and good,’ but they ain’t so great and ain’t so good.”
Observers say a turning point was in 2021 after the previous year’s COVID-19 pandemic. It was then that the idea of “the Great Reset” took off. “The pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world to create a healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous future,” Schwab said. And he spoke about wealth taxes.
Instead of something new and better happening in the economy, something as old as the hills manifested; The richest people got even richer, and the poor got poorer. Earlier this month, Forbes magazine found that the top five wealthiest people in the world had collectively more than doubled their wealth. These include investing guru Warren Buffett and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Meanwhile, U.K.-based charity Oxfam says five billion people got poorer over the same period, primarily due to surging inflation and war.
Klaus Schwab gestures during a press conference in Cologny, near Geneva, Switzerland, Jan. 10, 2017. (Laurent Gillieron/Keystone via AP)
The WEF didn’t respond immediately to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the huge global wealth shift.
Mendoza wonders why WEF doesn’t fight back on its poor public image. “You have to ask, is there any sense that it continues with this negative image?” he says. “I am not sure it is a sensible place for anyone to want to be.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump had two bags of McDonald’s delivered to the Oval Office on Monday by a DoorDash driver he tipped $100, using his favorite food and a reality TV flourish to promote a tax policy he says has meant big rebates for Americans who earn gratuities.
Sharon Simmons, dressed in a “DoorDash Grandma” T-shirt, walked up to the Oval Office’s exterior door and knocked as media cameras rolled. Trump popped out and said, “Hello. Nice to see you,” before proclaiming, “Look at this!” and then, glancing toward a pack of nearby reporters, offering, “This doesn’t look staged, does it?”
It was, of course. Making it onto the White House grounds alone requires obtaining prior permission and passing through security, while accessing the Oval Office — not to mention getting so close to the president — would have been impossible without additional screenings and background checks.
Still, the White House has attempted to call more attention to a piece of the Trump-backed tax and spend package approved last summer that allows Americans to temporarily deduct some federal taxes from income earned on tips. It lets certain workers deduct up to $25,000, but phases out for those with higher incomes.
Officials are intensifying the publicity effort ahead of Tax Day on Wednesday — even as the issue has been overshadowed for weeks by the war in Iran that has raised gas prices and spooked financial markets, and more immediately by Trump’s feud with Pope Leo XIV.
McDonald’s is a longtime favorite of the president — and fare he’s used to political ends before.
He famously ordered it, along with vast piles of other fast food, to serve the visiting NCAA football champion Clemson Tigers in 2019 during his first term, when a government shutdown had reduced White House kitchen staff. Trump also staged one of the most memorable stops of his successful 2024 reelection campaign by visiting a Pennsylvania McDonald’s restaurant, where he worked the fry station and took reporters’ questions from the drive-thru window.
On Monday, Simmons, who DoorDash said was from Arkansas, recounted how the tax changes had helped reduce the amount of income she had to claim. Simmons subsequently told reporters she had earned more than $11,000 in tips a year. Exact figures on her savings were difficult to verify without Simmons’ tax statement wasn’t provided to reporters.
Trump then asked, “Would you like to do a little news conference with me?” and had her stand awkwardly beside him as he took questions about his threats to blockade the Strait of Hormuz and his refusal to apologize to Pope Leo.
The president eventually asked Simmons: “I think you voted for me. Do you think?” To which she responded, “Um, maybe.” Undaunted, Trump continued: “I heard you’re a great supporter. We appreciate it.”
When a reporter later asked if the White House was a good tipper, Simmons hesitated: “Um … potentially.”
“Wait,” Trump crowed, reaching into his pocket for a $100 bill and handing it to Simmons with a grin. She took the money, laughed and finished, “Yes, very,” as the president patted her on the back and beamed.
Trump also invited Simmons and her husband to a UFC bout he’s helping to stage on the White House lawn to mark his 80th birthday in June. And he turned to Simmons again to press her on if she believes “men should play in women’s sports” — a frequent topic of his as he blasts Democrats for being too supportive of transgender rights.
“I really don’t have an opinion on that,” Simmons replied, prompting Trump to push, “I’ll bet you do.”
“No, no,” she insisted. “I’m here about no tax on tips.”
The White House later said that Trump personally delivered the food — consisting of cheeseburgers and fries — to West Wing staff.
It didn’t say if he got a tip for doing so.
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Western democracies, including the UK, France, Canada and Australia, are facing backlash after allowing Iran and other authoritarian regimes to secure seats on influential United Nations (U.N.) bodies, with the United States standing alone in opposition.
The controversy stems from decisions by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), a 54-member body that plays a central role in shaping U.N. policy and staffing key committees.
Critics warn the outcome could allow governments accused of human rights abuses to influence global policy and control which civil society groups are granted access to the United Nations.
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Members of the United Nations Security Council vote on a resolution to unblock the Strait of Hormuz during a meeting on Iran and the Middle East at U.N. headquarters in New York on April 7, 2026. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)
ECOSOC nominated the Islamic Republic of Iran to the U.N.’s Committee for Program and Coordination Wednesday, a body that helps shape policy on human rights, women’s rights, disarmament and counterterrorism.
The nomination is widely expected to be finalized, as the United Nations General Assembly typically approves such recommendations without a vote.
At the same session, ECOSOC elected China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia and Sudan to the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations, which oversees accreditation and access for thousands of NGOs operating within the U.N. system.
The United States was the only member state to formally break from consensus.
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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting, after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, at U.N. headquarters in New York City, Feb. 28, 2026. (Heather Khalifa/Reuters)
In remarks delivered April 8, U.S. Representative to ECOSOC Ambassador Dan Negrea said the U.S. “disassociates from consensus” on both decisions, calling several of the countries involved unfit for such roles.
“The regime threatens its neighbors and has, for decades, infringed on the Iranian people’s ability to exercise their basic human rights,” Negrea said, adding that “we believe Iran is unfit to serve” on the committee.
The decision drew sharp criticism from UN Watch, a Geneva-based watchdog group.
Hillel Neuer told Fox News Digital: “By their cynical actions at the UN, major Western states have betrayed their own human rights principles, severely undermining the rules-based international order that they claim to support.”
“We note that the EU states clearly had another option. They did take action in recent years to stop Russia from getting elected to similar bodies, and so we deeply regret that they failed to do the same now to stop the election of serial violators such as Iran, China, China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.”
“We salute the United States for their moral clarity and leadership in objecting to the election of the Islamic Republic of Iran and other brutal regimes.”
Neuer warned the composition of the NGO committee could allow authoritarian governments to influence which organizations are accredited, potentially sidelining independent human rights groups.
“This means dictatorships will have a majority on the committee in order to deny United Nations accreditation to independent organizations that call out their human rights violations, and to accredit more fake front groups created by the regimes,” he said.
Israel’s mission to the United Nations also pointed to political tensions surrounding the vote, saying Iran attempted to challenge Israel’s candidacy during the same ECOSOC session.
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Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Amir-Saeid Iravani attends a United Nations Security Council meeting, after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, at U.N. headquarters in New York City, U.S. Feb. 28, 2026. (Heather Khalifa/Reuters)
Israel was elected to several U.N. bodies, according to the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations, including the Commission on the Status of Women and the NGO Committee, despite opposition.
“Iran also tried to turn the elections at the UN into an arena for incitement against Israel and failed,” Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon said. “Those who oppress women and trample on human rights in their own country will not teach us what women’s rights are.”
Ahead of the vote, around 70 civil society groups warned that countries with poor human rights records could secure seats on key oversight bodies, but the elections proceeded without a formal vote, a process known as approval “by acclamation.”
Critics argue that this procedure allows controversial candidates to secure influential roles with limited transparency or accountability.
The developments are likely to intensify scrutiny over how U.N. bodies are staffed and whether political considerations are outweighing human rights concerns.
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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting, after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, at U.N. headquarters in New York City, U.S. Feb. 28, 2026. (Heather Khalifa/Reuters)
Fox News Digital reached out to the UK, France, Canada, Australia and U.S. mission for comment but did not receive responses in time for publication.
The Iranian mission to the United Nations declined to comment.
Panel details incidents of violence by Israeli forces and settlers against displaced Palestinians in Gaza and occupied West Bank.
Published On 13 Apr 2026
United Nations experts have reiterated calls for an end to Israeli attacks on displaced Palestinians in Gaza as well as forced displacement measures in the occupied West Bank.
In a statement issued on Monday by the UN Human Rights Council (OHCHR), the experts detailed several incidents in March in which Israeli air strikes set tents of displaced Palestinians in Gaza on fire, killing many.
“This cycle of displacement, terror, and targeted attacks serves an ultimate purpose: to make life unbearable for Palestinians and permanently force them from their land,” the panel said.
“The vast majority of Gaza’s population has already been displaced multiple times which amounts to forcible transfer,” the panel said, adding that “targeting areas known to shelter displaced civilians is a grave breach of international humanitarian law.”
The experts noted that civilians in tents and makeshift shelters are already experiencing grave health risks, including hunger, freezing, flooding, and a lack of basic services. The panel said that “women and children bear a disproportionate share of deprivation”.
The panel also criticised “the sharp escalation in forced displacement” across the occupied West Bank, driven by the Israeli army and what the experts called “State-backed settler terrorism”. This includes “daily attacks resulting in killing, injury, and harassment of women and children, and the widespread destruction of Palestinian homes, farmland and livelihoods”.
More than 36,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced amid expanding illegal settlement activity in 2025, according to a report by the UN Human Rights Office.
The experts said that “the scale and pattern of these actions shows once again the ongoing broader policy of ethnic cleansing across the occupied Palestinian territory”.
They urged Israel to end all ongoing forced displacement in the West Bank and to facilitate the safe return of displaced Palestinians.
“States must bring Israel’s unlawful occupation to an end,” they said, urging countries to remember their legal obligations, call for investigations, and avoid assisting Israel while its occupation of Palestinian territory continues without accountability.
The panel of 13 experts was made up of UN special rapporteurs, including on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, the rights of internally displaced persons, Paula Gaviria Betancur, the right to food, Michael Fakhri, and on the violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem.
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