This year, the likes of Matt Damon, Will.i.am and Shakira will be jostling for pole position against Bill Gates, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Theresa May. Donald Trump's fast-approaching reign as US president, the Brexit vote and climate change are likely to be among the big themes.

As you can imagine, there are lots of meetings, surrounded by varying degrees of secrecy. The public ones - which anyone can attend. The closed ones - which only those participants with a white badge can attend (ie they've paid to attend the conference or have been invited) and then the private ones that you don't even know have happened. Those are where the big deals are discussed, behind closed doors.

The idea behind the gathering is to spark ideas and conversations - it doesn't pretend to solve them there and then. Perhaps the best-known outcome is Turkey not going to war with Greece in the 1980s when tensions escalated. The former Turkish Prime Minister Turgut Ozal had met his Greek counterpart Andreas Papandreou in Davos and felt he could trust him. More recently, the Brics New Development Bank - an alternative to the World Bank and the IMF launched last year - was conceived during a conversation between economists Lord Stern and Joseph Stiglitz in Davos in 2011.

Presenting its findings on the dawn of the annual gathering of the global political and business elites in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, anti-poverty organization Oxfam says the gap between the very rich and poor is far greater than just a year ago. It's urging leaders to do more than pay lip-service to the problem.

If not, it warns, public anger against this kind of inequality will continue to grow and lead to more seismic political changes akin to last year's election of Donald Trump as US president and Britain's vote to leave the European Union.

"It is obscene for so much wealth to be held in the hands of so few when 1 in 10 people survive on less than $2 a day," said Winnie Byanyima, executive director of Oxfam International, who will be attending the meeting in Davos. "Inequality is trapping hundreds of millions in poverty; it is fracturing our societies and undermining democracy."

"There are risks therefore that this conference hardens positions at a time when we need to be encouraging the conditions for peace." Britain had observer status at the conference. It did not back the final communique by 70 countries, which reaffirmed that only a two-state solution could resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and warned they would not recognise any unilateral steps by either side that could prejudge negotiations.

London last month scolded US Secretary of State John Kerry for describing the Israeli government as the most right-wing in Israeli history, a move that aligned Prime Minister Theresa May more closely with President-elect Donald Trump.

His comments followed a row over the inclusion in the service of passages from the Qur’an read in Arabic from the cathedral’s lectern by a local Muslim student. The cathedral said it was part of efforts to build relationships between Christians and Muslims in Glasgow. The student, Madinah Javed, 19, read from the book of Maryam, which tells the story of Jesus’s birth. It includes the Islamic teaching that Jesus was not the son of God. Muslims, however, revere Jesus as a prophet.

A Police Scotland spokesman said last week: “We can confirm we are investigating reports of offensive comments made towards St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow and inquiries are ongoing. Police Scotland will not tolerate any form of hate and encourages all communities to work together to ensure no one feels threatened or marginalised.”

“These little brothers and sisters of ours,” Francis said, “especially those who are unaccompanied, are exposed to numerous perils. I tell you there are many! It is imperative to adopt every possible measure to guarantee protection and defense to underage migrants, as well as their integration.”

Turning to the immigrants present of different ethnic origins, Francis wished them a peaceful existence in their new home, but also encouraged them to respect “local laws and customs” while at the same time holding on to the values of their home cultures.

On other occasions, Pope Francis has insisted that the rule of law be applied faithfully when dealing with immigration issues. The Pope’s words echoed an important passage from the Catholic Catechism, which does not endorse an open borders approach to immigration, but teaches that migration must take place within the rule of law.

The Post’s original report set off a wave of stories across the world, causing raised eyebrows over Trump’s “extremely unusual” decision to fire a general in the middle of the presidential oath of office ceremony, especially during these dangerous times.

But the Post’s early reporting on the “firing” of General Schwartz contains no statements from the Trump transition office and also leaves out key points such as the fact that the general of the DC National Guard traditionally supplies his letter of resignation to every new president who is about to take office.

Subsequent to the publishing of the paper’s story making Trump appear incompetent, news emerged that the incoming Trump administration offered to let General Schwartz keep his position through inauguration day, but it was the general himself who refused the offer, preferring instead to quit at 12 noon on January 20, the hour Trump takes his oath of office.

This is far from the first time the paper made a big splash with a story only to quietly rewrite it the next day when it found its assertions in question. The Washington Post recently courted charges of “fake news” when it published the shocking story that the Russians hacked and infiltrated the computer systems of a Vermont power plant. By the next day, the paper completely rewrote its story, disavowing that any hack took place.

The paper further notes that in the speech, scheduled for Tuesday, the PM will "finally lay her cards on the table", making clear that the UK is set to pull out of the single market and the European customs union in return for the ability to curb immigration, strike commercial deals with other countries, and escape the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, the Sunday Times said without saying how it obtained the information. 

In a separate interview with German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, May's finance chief, Philip Hammond, said Britain would be willing to abandon “mainstream economic and social thinking” if it is unable to craft a favorable post-Brexit EU deal. Hammond said he hoped the UK could remain in the mainstream, but was prepared for the consequences for a hard Brexit.

As Bloomberg concludes, "Tuesday’s speech is likely to be closely watched by the financial markets, with currency traders increasingly seeing May’s pronouncements on Brexit as a trigger to sell the pound. Sterling fell following her speech at the Conservative Party conference in October, which fanned speculation she was eyeing a clean break with the EU, and dropped again following her first television interview of 2017."

It remains to be seen if May's hard line speech will lead to a spike in sterling volatility, which coming in an illiquid session due to the US MLK [Martin Luther King] holiday on Monday, may result in yet another flash crash in the British currency, and if it will also lead to another all time high in the FTSE100 index.

Neither Israel nor the Palestinians are represented at the conference, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed as "rigged" against the Jewish state. Opening the meeting, French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said the international community wanted to "forcefully reiterate that the two-state solution is the only solution possible" to the seven-decade-old conflict.

In a TV interview later, Ayrault warned that moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would have "extremely serious consequences" and predicted Trump would find it impossible to do so. "When you are president of the United States, you cannot take such a stubborn and such a unilateral view on this issue. You have to try to create the conditions for peace," he told France 3 TV.

Both Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas have been invited to meet with President Francois Hollande to discuss the conclusions of the Paris talks. Nathan Thrall, senior Middle East analyst at the International Crisis Group, dismissed the conference as "inconsequential". "If there are no consequences, if nobody is listening, if they are repeating the same thing they said over and over again, it amounts to a charade," he told AFP.

The good news is that this conference did not immediately recognize a Palestinian state, nor does it appear that additional action will be taken at the UN Security Council before Donald Trump is inaugurated on Friday.

It had been feared that this conference may attempt to impose some sort of a solution on the Israelis and the Palestinians, but that didn’t come to pass. Instead, the conference participants agreed to work toward “a negotiated solution with two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security“.

So the global community has clearly reaffirmed their commitment to a Palestinian state, but the outcome of this conference was not nearly as bad for Israel as many had been anticipating.

On Tuesday, the UN Security Council will meet to further discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the Jerusalem Post is reporting that US Secretary of State John Kerry has promised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that there will not be any more UN Security Council resolutions regarding Israel before Trump takes office…

And describing Brexit as “emotional” for her she urged the remaining 27 member states to use Britain’s decision to leave to railroad through ever closer military cooperation. Mrs Merkel made the remarks as she picked up honorary degrees from two Belgian universities which were awarded in recognition of her work towards a 'unified Europe'. 

They come as eurocrats continue to press forward with plans for much closer European cooperation on military matters - a so-called ‘Defence Union’ - which is seen by most observers as the back-door creation of an EU army. EU chiefs were recently forced to drop controversial plans for a joint military headquarters in Brussels after Britain pledged to veto them, but Mrs Merkel hinted they will be back on the table immediately after Brexit. 

Concerns have been raised that an EU army will fatally undermine NATO - the western military alliance which has kept peace on the continent for 50 years - by creating a competing command structure. But Mrs Merkel insisted such a force will need to come into being in part because of the indifference of Mr Trump, who takes office on January 21, towards the entire euro project. 

She said: “Let’s not fool ourselves. From the point of view of some of our traditional partners - and I am thinking here as well about the transatlantic relations - there is no eternal guarantee for a close cooperation with us Europeans. I’m convinced that Europe and the EU will have to learn to take on more responsibility in the world.” The German leader insisted that only Brussels, and not individual member states, can successfully solve global problems, citing defence issues including Russian aggression in Ukraine. 

She said: "Europe is facing the biggest challenges for decades. It would be naive to always rely on others to solve the problems in our neighbourhood." In a speech to delegates in the Belgian capital she also addressed the issue of Brexit, which she said was an “emotional moment” but also presented Europe with the opportunity to press forwards with its military plans. 

Mr Mallach told BBC's Pienaar Politics that Mr Trump would warn against Jean-Claude Juncker's plan for the common European defence. It is believed that an EU army would ratchet up tensions with Russia's Vladimir Putin and accelerate Brussels-led expansion. During the interview, the businessman reiterated that Britain will be at the "front of the queue" during trade talks. 

The Brexiteer, who was recommended to Mr Trump by Nigel Farage, added that Britain will have the world's strongest economic power as a strong ally during Brexit talks in Brussels. Mr Mallach told John Pienaar: "He is committed to NATO - but is concerned about the burden-sharing, about countries paying their fair share. There is big concern about the EU moving towards an EU army, a military of Western Europe."

Earlier this week, Mr Malloch said: "Trump is very pro-European but he is not well disposed towards the European Union or other supranational organisations - particularly one that is encumbered by bureaucracy." He said Mr Trump will undermine the European Commission, which has exclusive responsibility for negotiating trade deals. The President-Elect will scrap the EU-US trade deal being negotiated and focus solely on bilateral-based economic ties.

The report’s findings suggest that the suppression of free speech on college campuses that is making headlines is only the tip of a very large iceberg. What lies beneath the surface is a massive, publicly funded program of indoctrination through a remaking of the curriculum as a vehicle for advancing the political agenda of progressivism.

This is important because it shows the vision and impact of the “civic engagement” and New Civics movement extends far beyond the campus. The aim is to turn the entire curriculum — including technology, engineering, and computer science — into little laboratories for incubating and motivating millions of  progressive activists — not to be good citizens, but to be activists “doing good work for democracy.”

The progressives’ “New Civics” project is not a fad or a by-product of Obama’s radicalism: it has grown over two decades from an acorn to an oak and now a forest. Where are the leaders who will confront this powerful, entrenched establishment dedicated to producing an entire generation of social justice warriors?

According to an organizer, the demonstration was planned to send a message to Donald Trump during inauguration weekend. A Facebook page for the march was published just hours after Trump officially won the presidential election in the early hours of November 9.

“We’re doing it his very first day in office because we are making a statement,” organizer Breanne Butler said in an interview days after the election. Of the marginalized groups she accused Mr Trump of attacking during his campaign, she said, “We are here and we are watching. And, like, ‘Welcome to the White House.’”

Organizers claim that as many as 200,000 people may participate in the march, many of which will be university-affiliated persons. Many university professors and their students from around the country have been raising money so that they can attend the march on January 21. Others have been organizing sister marches that will take place in various cities around the country.