The Buddha’s LaughForeign Desk · Letters to the Abbot from the Laughing BuddhaThe World Economic Forum and the summit circuit: the panels, the pledges, the private jets and the communiqués that change everything except the world.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Cybersecurity has issued a leadership agenda for 2027 that aims to make cyber resilience “a foundation of economic stability.” Among its four fixes is a set of measures that let resilience be compared across institutions and economies. The report’s own page offers no figures at all. Every institution is, for now, equally resilient.
The Paris Peace Forum, which opens at the Palais de Chaillot next week, announces “40 projects selected for the 2026 Paris Peace Forum!” Its page then lists them under eight themes, from ocean plastic to AI literacy, and they come to 39. Four sit under information integrity for peace and security. None of them has been assigned to the headline.
Bahrain’s Manama Dialogue, the security summit of London’s IISS, closes on Sunday at the Ritz-Carlton with 600 to 700 senior delegates and, counting aides, up to 4,000 people. Friday’s programme included The Gulf at War, an 80,000-word study of events since 28 February. Iran, which has no diplomatic relations with Bahrain, was not invited. The war got 80,000 words; Iran got no chair.
The UN biodiversity summit, COP17, closed in Yerevan on Friday. Its Cali Fund, which invites companies that profit from genetic data to contribute voluntarily, has received “little more than $10,000” in two years, Climate Home News reports. Zero Carbon Analytics reckons the 15 largest drugmakers alone could have paid $756m in 2025 under the fund’s own guidelines. At the current rate the fund collects that sum in about 150,000 years.
The G20 foreign ministers end two days in Atlanta on Saturday with no joint communique, the Associated Press reports. Marco Rubio will issue a chairman’s statement instead, and on Friday he cancelled the group photo after European diplomats objected to the presence of Sergey Lavrov. Diplomats say the chairman’s statement had been the plan for a long time. It is also, now, the group photo: one man, standing where twenty were meant to be.
Atlanta’s transport department has closed stretches of Juniper, 11th and 12th Streets around the Loews hotel in Midtown from midnight Thursday until noon Sunday, for G20 foreign ministers who meet on Friday and Saturday, Rough Draft Atlanta reports. It is the first summit-level event the city has hosted. Juniper Street will spend longer in session than the ministers.
The UN climate secretariat’s synthesis of new national pledges, from 154 parties to the Paris Agreement, finds they would cut global emissions about 6% below 2019 levels by 2035, ahead of COP31. Most of the pledges are tied to net zero targets, the most common date being 2050. Having taken sixteen years to find the first 6%, the pledges leave the other 94 points for the fifteen years after.
An EU agency, the European Health and Digital Executive Agency, holds a workshop at Web Summit in Lisbon on 11 November titled “Investing in technological sovereignty: EU funding for your project,” and staffs stand E418 in Pavilion 4 all week, on the theme of strategic autonomy. Europe will make the case for depending on nobody from a rented booth, at a conference it does not run, in an arena named after a phone company.
The World Economic Forum and Boston Consulting Group have published a report on regulating digital assets, drawn from regulatory developments in 35 countries and regions, naming nine aspects for policymakers to weigh, from custody to market integrity. It urges common standards and cross-border trust while respecting each country’s choices. Thirty-five jurisdictions, each respecting its own choices, is how a common standard comes out at thirty-five.
Vietnam’s Autumn Economic Forum, its main sessions co-branded with the World Economic Forum, brought more than 1,500 delegates from 60 countries to Ho Chi Minh City this week, VNA reports. The city announced 12 projects worth about 13.58 billion USD and welcomed the first ten members of its new international financial centre, with 33.63 million USD in charter capital between them. Between them, the financial centre’s founders could pay for roughly 0.25% of the projects launched in the next room.
The World Economic Forum, with Tata Consultancy Services, has published a guide for chief executives on decarbonizing manufacturing and supply chains, drawing on more than 50 industry leaders and experts across 13 sectors. It asks whether decarbonization is a competitive advantage or a financial and operational burden, and answers with profitability and growth. The climate has at last reached the boardroom, disguised as revenue.
Saudi Arabia had planned its Future Investment Initiative for 26 to 29 October in Riyadh; it will now take place in 2027. The FII Institute’s website still announces, “In 2026, Future Investment Initiative (FII) marks a defining milestone, our 10th Anniversary,” and asks visitors to stay tuned for more information. The tenth anniversary is now scheduled for the eleventh year.
The State Department hosts G20 foreign ministers in Atlanta on Friday and Saturday, Marco Rubio chairing, and says the city’s global connectivity makes it “an ideal setting for the talks.” The leaders themselves convene later, at the president’s Doral golf resort. The ministers will be doing in Atlanta what most international travellers do there: changing for Miami.
Miami-Dade’s sheriff says 36 countries have been invited to the G20 leaders’ summit at Trump National Doral this December, with Russia’s president among the guests. Security planning began about ten months ago. By the sheriff’s count the Group of Twenty arrives sixteen over its own name, a margin no golf club would allow on a tee sheet.
UNCTAD opens its ninth World Investment Forum in Doha today, under the theme “Investing in the Future.” Its own World Investment Report finds global foreign direct investment rose 6% to $1.6 trillion in 2025, with more than 80% going to the 20 largest host economies. UNCTAD supports 195 member states. The other 175 are welcome in Doha to discuss the remainder.
The tenth Future Investment Initiative, Saudi Arabia’s flagship summit, was due to open in Riyadh on 26 October. It has moved to 2027, after strikes on the capital this month. Organisers said they wanted to ensure “the full scale, extraordinary quality” their community expects, and promised a new date “very soon.” Very soon has not been given a date either.
The World Economic Forum posted rules for blogs at next January’s Annual Meeting in Davos: pitches by 16 November, decisions on 25 November, and one pitch per attending organisation. Pieces should be 800 to 1,000 words, and the Forum will avoid self-promotion, PR, greenwashing and virtue signalling. The blog is therefore open to anyone attending Davos for some other reason.
A new paper from the World Economic Forum on data centres in the Middle East and North Africa warns that electricity demand is outpacing supply, that extreme heat raises cooling needs and that water scarcity forces reliance on energy-hungry desalination. Its answer is a “resource intelligence matrix.” The region is short of power, water and cool air, and has been sent a grid.
Davos will allow at most 125 temporary pavilions and venue conversions during next January’s World Economic Forum, down from 132 approved for 2026, a briefing on the municipality’s rules says, with a further 5% cut planned for 2028. Restaurants rented as event spaces now need a full building permit. “Restaurants can still host private seated dinners for closed groups without a permit.” The exemption covers, broadly, the Forum.
The World Economic Forum’s annual report for 2025 to 2026 says its Global Future Council meeting in Dubai brought together 500 experts from 37 councils. Among other workstreams, the meetings announced four “2030 Future of Jobs” scenarios. Five hundred experts on the future met, and agreed on it four ways.
The World Economic Forum, Davos’s organiser, has published a paper on how smaller economies can build globally competitive industries when they lack the scale to join subsidy races. Its five case studies come from Indonesia, Peru, Costa Rica, Chile and Viet Nam. The paper’s advice on the subsidy race is addressed entirely to the countries not running in it.
Web Summit returns to Lisbon from 9 to 12 November and expects more than 70,000 people from over 160 countries. General tickets start at €630 before VAT and startup packages at €495, while the chairperson tier runs up to €20,285. That is more than thirty-two general tickets, for a chair that still seats one.
The G20 leaders’ summit meets on 14 and 15 December at Trump National Doral, the US president’s golf resort near Miami. Doral’s police chief said, “We recommend to our businesses to have flexible schedules and maybe work remotely,” and asked them to limit deliveries “for those two days.” The world’s major economies arrive for two days, and Doral’s has been asked to stay home.
Fiji’s pre-COP meeting, ahead of next month’s climate summit in Türkiye, drew more than 4,000 attendees to 25 sessions and 135 side events. Its organisers note that of over US$16 billion in climate finance committed to Pacific countries since Paris, over US$5 billion remains undisbursed. Of everything pledged to the Pacific, the side events have the best delivery record.
A new World Economic Forum white paper examines Azerbaijan’s trade technology, drawing from 28 stakeholder consultations, with 10 recommendations phased over 36 months. It was developed with C4IR Azerbaijan, the Forum’s partner centre, which operates under the country’s Ministry of Economy. For once, the consultant’s report and the client’s in-tray share a letterhead.
Riyadh’s Future Investment Initiative, due next week, has told delegates it is “postponed until 2027” after Houthi attacks escalated, Semafor reports, following private lobbying by Wall Street executives. Rooms at the Ritz-Carlton Riyadh, usually blocked for the conference, have been released for public booking. For one October, the Ritz-Carlton is open to people who were not invited to discuss the future.
The US Treasury’s written statement to the IMF committee meeting in Bangkok, filed under Scott Bessent’s name, covers energy, critical minerals and board costs: “Every unnecessary dollar spent on the Boards is a dollar that cannot be used to reduce poverty.” As this wire reported on 15 October, Washington spent the week asking that artificial intelligence be renamed super intelligence. Its own statement settles the question by leaving the machines out.
The Paris Peace Forum meets on 10 and 11 November under the tagline “From sovereignty to cooperation”, with more than 350 speakers across 80 sessions, among them “Rewiring multilateralism” and “From mineral sovereignty to shared value”. The full programme, the forum says, will be published in the coming weeks. Two days is a short trip from sovereignty to cooperation, even with 350 people giving directions.
Saudi Arabia’s Future Investment Initiative holds its tenth edition in Riyadh from 26 to 29 October under the theme “The Power of Legacy,” built on four pillars from “capital that builds” to “leadership that inspires.” The institute’s chief executive says it “invites the global community to reflect on the legacy of our choices.” Ten is an early age to be reading one’s own will.
The FII Institute has unveiled the “global leaders” for its tenth conference in Riyadh, 26 to 29 October: 13 named so far, among them Jamie Dimon, Laurence Fink, Stephen Schwarzman and David Solomon. First on the list is Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Public Investment Fund and chairman of the FII Institute. The organisers secured their headline speaker by appointing him.
Thailand’s Finance Ministry expects the IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok to generate between 1.05 billion and 2.25 billion baht, Khaosod English reports, from more than 15,000 visitors spending 10,000 to 15,000 baht a day. The tourism authority is offering them luxury trips to Phuket and Samui. Handed to the visitors, a forecast that wide would come back with a programme attached.
Nearly half the delegates at the IMF’s steering committee in Bangkok walked out while Russia’s finance minister, Anton Siluanov, spoke, Reuters reports; Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel put it at nearly 50 percent. The chair, Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan, said what mattered was the chair’s statement, which all members agreed to. The statement was unanimous. The room was optional.
The World Bank’s president told the annual meetings’ plenary that private capital it mobilised grew from about $35 billion to $112 billion, while for low-income countries it “stayed near $3 billion.” The bank has cut its scorecard from 153 measures to 22. He closed with “Let. Us. build.” The punctuation was ready; the money for the poorest is still on its way.
Warren Buffett has ended his 20-year pledge to the Gates Foundation, which moved more than $47 billion of Berkshire shares. He now gives through four family foundations with 102 employees between them, against the Gates Foundation’s roughly 2,200. “I tell the three children that it is theirs.” The largest philanthropy of its era now has the staffing of a regional bank branch.
The United States holds the G20 chair, but its Treasury secretary skipped the finance ministers’ meeting in Bangkok, citing “domestic engagements,” and sent two deputies. The meeting ended without a joint communiqué, as had the one before it in Asheville. Washington had invited Russia back; Germany’s finance minister said there would be “no pretending” it was a normal member again. The G20 has found its consensus: say nothing, twice.
A US Treasury undersecretary is negotiating to replace “artificial intelligence” with “super intelligence” in the IMF committee’s draft statement. “President Trump has been really clear on this,” she said. One fallback drops both terms for “new technology”; without consensus, the Saudi chair may issue a statement of his own. The machines have not been promoted. Their title has.
The Forum’s first Annual Meeting of Global Future Leaders, held in Dubai, drew “more than 500” leaders, its release said; the same release’s About section said more than 400, and a local paper reported more than 700. “The decisions we make today will shape the world the next generation inherits,” the chief executive said. The next generation inherits an attendance figure somewhere between 400 and 700.
Reuters reports, citing four people close to the World Economic Forum, that its board could make Christine Lagarde chair “as early as November,” although her term at the European Central Bank runs to October 2027. The board meets on 2 November; nothing is final, the ECB declined to comment and the Forum did not immediately respond. Davos plans its succession the way it plans everything else: early, and through people speaking privately.
The IMF, the World Bank and the Bank of Thailand released the Bangkok Blueprint against cyber-enabled fraud: “12 key considerations” in five pillars, without saying whether any of it is binding. The launch ran from 12:30 to 1:30. A session on implementing the blueprint began at 2:00. “Trust is the foundation of every financial system,” said the IMF’s managing director. Implementation took half an hour to arrive.
The Bloomberg New Economy Forum, invitation only, gathered more than 500 leaders in New Delhi under the theme “A World in Play,” with sessions titled “ROI (Return on India)” and “The Self-Sufficiency Scramble.” India’s prime minister offered “power to empower,” adding, “The real value of power lies in its purpose.” Self-sufficiency was discussed at length, by invitation.
The World Economic Forum has signed a 15-year lease on three floors of 825 Third Avenue in Manhattan, 58,131 square feet at an asking rent of $83 a square foot, and will leave 350 Madison Avenue next year. Its managing director calls the space “a flexible, modern workplace and convening hub.” Fifteen years is the Forum’s idea of flexible.
The host agreement for the COP31 climate conference in Antalya has entered into force. It caps hotel prices at 50 percent of the daily allowance, but only for delegates funded by the UN’s participation trust fund, and obliges Türkiye to inform participants of their consumer rights. It promises “greater clarity and predictability.” Everyone else can predict the prices clearly.
A Forum white paper says global investment in computing infrastructure “reached $459 billion in 2025” and “is expected to grow tenfold by 2027,” roughly $4.6 trillion in two years. Its response is a framework of three pillars, seven dimensions and a scorecard. When spending multiplies by ten, Geneva’s first instinct is to keep score.
Web Summit expects more than 70,000 attendees in Lisbon, with 700-plus founders and executives across 17 tracks, and is promoting its largest Chinese tech delegation yet without saying how large that is. “Adoption of Chinese AI and robotics has no sign of slowing down,” its chief executive said. The delegation is the largest ever, by a margin that remains confidential.
A Forum report notes that only 15 percent of the Sustainable Development Goal targets with enough trend data are on track, and proposes making impact “an ordinary part of economic decision-making.” Fifteen percent is a fair measure of how ordinary it is so far.
A Forum report with the UBS Optimus Foundation values the ocean economy at more than $3 trillion a year, warns that up to $4 trillion of coastal infrastructure is exposed over the next decade, and analyses more than 220 transactions to find the way forward. The sea, meanwhile, needs no case studies.
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