Davos, Switzerland. It’s the kind of gathering that doesn’t happen often. Nearly 3,000 of the world’s most powerful people squeezed into an Alpine resort as temperatures dip below freezing. But inside the convention halls of the World Economic Forum this week, things are heating up fast. The mood? Uneasy. The stakes? Higher than they’ve been in generations.

The numbers tell part of the story. A record 400 top political leaders showed up that’s 65 heads of state and government, more than any Davos before. Eight hundred and fifty CEOs. A hundred young tech founders are worth billions on paper. NATO’s chief, the World Bank boss, and the IMF director. They’re all here. But unlike the usual back-slapping networking you’d expect, there’s a palpable tension running through every corridor and every panel discussion.

“This is the most geopolitically charged and complex time in several generations since 1945,” WEF President Børge Brende said as doors opened on Tuesday. It wasn’t hype. It was a statement of fact.

The Elephant in the Room: Trump is Coming

Donald Trump touches down on Wednesday. That single fact has reordered everyone’s thinking here. His administration’s tariff threats, the Greenland talk, the aggressive posturing toward Europe, it’s all people can talk about. Eight European nations huddled together to back Denmark. The message was clear: Don’t mess with us.

Ursula von der Leyen, the EU’s top executive, is already on stage Tuesday morning with a message for Washington. She barely steps off before China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng takes the microphone. The choreography is unmistakable. The two biggest alternatives to American power are making their case simultaneously. It’s minilateralism in real time, smaller coalitions, harder bargains, and less trust.

“A spirit of dialogue,” the WEF calls this year’s theme. But dialogue between whom? And on what terms?

Ukraine War: The First Real Test

Zelensky’s people are in the halls. They’re not here to network. They’re here to brief. Face-to-face meetings with Trump’s team are being arranged. The Ukrainians are keeping Washington updated on Russian strikes on energy infrastructure, on battlefield realities, on what another year of war might look like. It’s geopolitics at its rawest survival negotiations happening in chalets while the band........

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