Economic conflicts are world’s greatest risk, WEF survey suggests
Economic conflicts between major powers are the greatest risk facing the world over the next two years, according to experts polled ahead of next week’s Davos summit.Among 1,300 business leaders, academics and civil society figures surveyed by the World Economic Forum (WEF), “geoeconomic confrontation” was identified as the most pressing threat.These clashes were cited by 18% of respondents.With war still raging in Ukraine, “state-based armed conflict” was the second most-common risk identified at 14%.Extreme weather events was third, chosen by 8% of respondents.
The warning came after a year marked by Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff policy, and follows US military action in Venezuela, which the president acknowledged was aimed at securing the country’s oil resources.Economic sanctions have become an increasingly common tool in recent years – including the freezing of billions of dollars of Russian assets after the country’s invasion of Ukraine.There are also growing concerns about clashes over access to important economic resources.Finance ministers from the G7 met in Washington on Monday to discuss how to diversify the supply of the rare earth metals crucial to tech products, many of which China has control over.US treasury secretary Scott Bessent, who convened the meeting, warned that supply chains for these critical minerals had become “highly concentrated and vulnerable to disruption and manipulation”.
Over a longer horizon – 10 years – the most severe risks identified in the WEF survey all relate to the climate emergency.“Extreme weather events” topped the list, followed by “biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse” and “critical change to Earth systems”.“Unlike in the two-year outlook, where these have declined in rankings, the existential nature of environmental risks means they remain as the top priorities over the next decade,” the report says.Next week’s annual Davos meeting will see thousands of senior figures from politics, business and civil society, including more than 60 heads of state or government, gather to discuss the state of the global economy at the event in the Swiss Alps.This year’s theme is “a spirit of dialogue” – but its star guest will be US president Donald Trump, who has spent the first year of his second term waging a trade war and ripping up the country’s global obligations, including the Paris climate agreement.
Other senior politicians in attendance will include German chancellor Friedrich Merz, Chinese vice-premier He Lifeng, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Argentine president Javier Milei.In its annual global risks report, published on Wednesday, the WEF warned that “rules and institutions that have long underpinned stability are under siege in a new era in which trade, finance and technology are wielded as weapons of influence”.Most recently, the world’s central bankers issued a statement expressing solidarity with Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, whose independence has come under attack from Trump, who has repeatedly called for faster interest rate cuts.UK chancellor Rachel Reeves and business secretary Peter Kyle will also attend.
LGB+ people in England and Wales ‘much’ more likely to die by suicide than straight people
LGB+ people are much more likely to die by taking their own lives, drug overdoses and alcohol-related disease than their straight counterparts, the first official figures of their kind show.The 2021 census in England and Wales asked people aged 16 and above about their sexual orientation for the first time. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has now analysed differences in causes of mortality from March 2021 to November 2024. The ONS research uses the acronym LGB+ rather than LGBTQ+.It found that people who identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual or “other” sexual orientation had 1
Football fan took his own life after using illegal ‘predatory’ betting sites, inquest told
A football fan took his own life after his love of the sport fuelled a gambling addiction that led him to bet with illegal offshore operators that “prey on” vulnerable people, a coroner has heard.Ollie Long, from Wendover in Buckinghamshire, died in February 2024, aged 36, after struggling with his addiction for eight years.In statements read by Long’s sister, Chloe, East Sussex coroner’s court in Lewes heard the “endlessly kind” Liverpool FC fan had started gambling through his passion for football and won £15,000 through a sign-up offer.She said the gambling websites he went on to use were “highly addictive, predatory systems designed to exploit”.The court heard the sites included illegal offshore operators that target UK consumers who have signed up with the the country’s self-exclusion scheme, GamStop, promoting themselves online as “Not on GamStop”
HMRC admits 71% wrongly targeted in child benefit fraud crackdown
Seven in 10 parents who had child benefit suspended in an HMRC fraud crackdown last year were in fact legitimate beneficiaries who had not emigrated, the tax authority has revealed.The chief executive of HMRC, John-Paul Marks, told the Treasury select committee that 71% of those targeted, higher than the 63% previously admitted, were in error.Marks said that “just under 5%” of the 23,700 parents who lost their child benefit were in fact fraudulent claimants.Meg Hillier, the chair of the committee, accused HMRC of causing unnecessary “pain” to innocent parents and making an “egregious error” in assuming parents who had used Dublin airport to return to Northern Ireland had emigrated.The admission shows a major system failure by HMRC, which had told the government before rolling out the scheme in July that it could save up to £350m in benefit fraud over five years
Women are feral for Heated Rivalry. What does that say about men?
The explosive popularity of the gay hockey TV drama reveals women’s desire for sex and romance without violence or hierarchyThe first time gay hockey romance crossed Mary’s radar, she was warned off it. A 64-year-old non-profit executive from Toronto, Mary recalled mentioning the Canadian author Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series to her son, a twentysomething queer writer and fellow hockey obsessive, a few years ago.“I said: ‘Have you heard of these books?’ and he said: ‘Yeah.’ I said: ‘Should I read these books?’ And he said: ‘No. They’re not for you
‘He tried so hard to get help’: the tragic results of NHS right-to-choose for ADHD patients
When Leigh White remembers her brother Ryan, she thinks of a boy of extraordinary ability who “won five scholarships at 11” including a coveted place at Bancroft’s, a private school in London. He was, she said, “super bright, witty, personable, generous and kind”.Ryan killed himself on 12 May 2024. A report written after his death acknowledged significant shortcomings in the support he received while seeking help for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.Like many people the Guardian spoke to, he followed the “right to choose” pathway, whereby patients can pick a private provider anywhere in England for assessment, diagnosis and initial treatment
Death on the inside: as a prison officer, I saw how the system perpetuates violence
There are hotspots for violence in prison. The exercise yard, the showers. There are peak times, too. Mealtimes and association periods are particularly volatile.But first thing in the morning is not when you expect to hear an alarm bell
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