WEF’s Polycrisis: The rhetoric follows the plan

WEF’s Polycrisis: The rhetoric follows the plan

Rhoda Wilson

Former BlackRock fund manager Ed Dowd recently joined the Coffee and a Mike Show... During the discussion, he highlighted that the World Economic Forum has been promoting the idea of a “polycrisis” for years.

The clip in the tweet above is taken from a discussion with Michael Farris and Dave Collum  uploaded on to Rumble on 10 May 2026.  You can watch the full video HERE.  In the clip, Dowd said:

“Well, let’s go back to what the WEF told us two, three years ago in a paper called ‘Polycrisis’. So, you know, first of all, none of us knew who the WEF was before CV. They had a coming out party with like, you know, Bond-like villains, Harari and Schwab.

“So these Bond villains come out and tell us about the Great Reset. Then they start talking about the next problem is the “polycrisis.” And they said cyberattacks, another pandemic and war. What do we have now? We got Bessent talking about AI could steal your money from the bank. You got war, you got a hantavirus, and let’s just toss in aliens as a distraction on top of that.

“Yeah, you need people begging for money printing. So that’s where – so you cannot just print money out – and say we’re going to print a bunch of money. You need an excuse, and covid was a perfect excuse.”

Polycrisis Meets A New Competitive Order

There appears to be no paper titled ‘Polycrisis’ as Dowd had mentioned.  The World Economic Forum (“WEF”) propagated the term “polycrisis” in its 2023 Global Risks Report.

According to the Institute of Development Studies (“IDS”), “the term ‘polycrisis’ was popularised by Columbia University academic Adam Tooze, and in early 2023 the World Economic Forum followed suit by warning in its annual Global Risks Report that the world was on the brink of a polycrisis in relation to ‘shortages in natural resources such as food, water, and metals and minerals’.”

While reading IDS’ article, it’s worth noting that IDS is not as “independent” as it claims.

IDS is located at and has close links with the University of Sussex.  And, “The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the Institute’s largest funder. IDS also receives funds from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the European Union, various UN agencies and a wide range of aid agencies, trusts and foundations,” IDS says.

Related:

• We’re on the brink of a polycrisis. How worried should we be? World Economic Forum, 13 January 2023
• This is why ‘polycrisis’ is a useful way of looking at the world right now, World Economic Forum, 7 March 2023
• Welcome to the age of the polycrisis: the Global Risks Report 2023, World Economic Forum, 11 January 2024

We highlighted WEF’s dystopian Global Risk Report 2023 in an article titled ‘Davos 2023: Referring to The Great Reset is out but censorship, hypocrisy and god complexes are still in’.  We wrote that “the report has the expected alarmism, fear-mongering, hysterical narratives and predictions of chaos and collapse.  The authors even managed to link climate change to terrorism.”

All WEF’s alarmism is summed up in a table of risks ranked by WEF in order of severity priority.  Here is the top 20 from the table for 2023:

Ursula von der Leyen referred to WEF’s table of risks during her speech at WEF’s annual meeting in Davos in 2024.  She referred to the table of 10 risks produced in WEF’s Global Risks Report 2024:

In its 2026 Global Risks Report, WEF boasted, “Three years ago, the 18th edition of the Global Risks Report considered the possibility of a ‘polycrisis’, as risks from multiple domains unfold at the same time. This 21st edition of the Global Risks Report explores how a new competitive order is taking shape and its impact across multiple concurrent risk domains.”

So, it seems they have now combined a ‘polycrisis’ with a “new competitive order.”

Here is the same table, adjusted for WEF’s new severity priority ranking for 2026:

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Saudi Arabia launched secret attacks on Iran during Middle East war

Saudi Arabia launched secret attacks on Iran during Middle East war

REUTERS

Saudi Arabia launched numerous, unpublicized strikes on Iran in retaliation for attacks carried out in the kingdom during the Middle East war, two Western officials briefed on the matter, and two Iranian officials said.

The Saudi attacks, not previously reported, mark the first time that the kingdom is known to have directly carried out military action on Iranian soil and show it is becoming much bolder in defending itself against its main regional rival.

The attacks, launched by the Saudi Air Force, were assessed to have been carried out in late March, the two Western officials said. One said only that they were "tit-for-tat strikes in retaliation for when Saudi [Arabia] was hit."

Reuters was unable to confirm what the specific targets were.

In response to a request for comment, a senior Saudi foreign ministry official did not directly address whether strikes had been carried out.

Uncontrolled escalation carries unacceptable costs

The Iranian foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Saudi Arabia, which has a deep military relationship with the United States, has traditionally relied on the US military for protection, but the 10-week war has left the kingdom vulnerable to attacks that have pierced the US military umbrella.

The Saudi strikes underscore the widening of the conflict - and the extent to which a war that began when the US and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran on February 28 has drawn in the broader Middle East in ways that have not been publicly acknowledged.

Since the US and Israeli strikes, Iran has hit all six Gulf Cooperation Council states with missiles and drones, attacking not only US military bases but also civilian sites, airports, and oil infrastructure, and closed the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting global trade.

The United Arab Emirates also carried out military strikes on Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Together, the Saudi and Emirati actions reveal a conflict whose true shape has remained largely hidden - one in which Gulf monarchies battered by Iranian attacks began hitting back.

But their approach has not been identical. The UAE has taken a more hawkish stance, seeking to impose costs on Iran and engaging in public diplomacy with Tehran only rarely.

More...

Heading to China, Trump says US will ‘finish the job’ against Iran, ‘peacefully or otherwise’

Heading to China, Trump says US will ‘finish the job against Iran, ‘peacefully or otherwise’

TOI STAFF

Times of Israel is liveblogging Tuesday

If Iran doesn’t accept US terms for a deal to end the war and address its nuclear program, the US will “finish the job,” says US President Donald Trump.

“They’ll either do the right thing, or we’ll finish the job,” he says before taking off for a high-stakes trip to China.

He rejects the idea that rising prices in the US pushed him to seek an end to the war.

“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situations,” he says. “I don’t think about anybody.”

“I think about one thing: we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all.”

“The most important thing by far is Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump continues. “Every American understands it. If the stock market goes up or down a little bit, the American people understand it.”

Trump says that the US will “win it one way or the other. We’ll win it peacefully or otherwise.”

“No matter how you cut it, we win.”

Trump claims that Iran agreed that they will never have nuclear weapons “and then that’s not what they sent to me. We don’t play games.”

“We have Iran very much under control,” Trump insists. “We are either gonna make a deal or they will be decimated.”

After reports that Pakistan allowed Iran to stash fighter jets on its territory during the war, Trump says that the Pakistanis “have been great” mediators.

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'Mediator' Pakistan Hosted Iranian Military Aircraft To Insulate Them From US Attacks

'Mediator' Pakistan Hosted Iranian Military Aircraft To Insulate Them From US Attacks

TYLER DURDEN

Summary

• CBS reports Pakistan sheltered Iranian military planes, Sen. Graham outraged, calls for 'reevaluation'.

• US President blasts 'piece of garbage' Iran response, says ceasefire on 'life support', reportedly mulls renewed military action; US Treasury imposes yet more sanctions.

• Trump mulls restarting Project Freedom in Hormuz and says forcibly retrieving 'nuclear dust' is still on the table, oil jumps on headline.

• Iran Foreign Ministry: "Everything we proposed in the text was reasonable and generous." However, US officials insist on their "unreasonable demands."

• Saudi Arabia condemns Iran for its latest drone attacks targeting the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait on Sunday.

• Qatari LNG tanker abruptly U-Turns In Hormuz chokepoint after earlier in weekend an initial one made it through - an unprecedented first for a Qatari tanker of the war.

  
  

  There's been some outrage in D.C. and among the pundit class over a late in the day Monday CBS News report alleging that US-ally Pakistan allowed Iran to park military aircraft at its airfields, and thus outside the US-Israeli strike zone during Operation Epic Fury:

  As Pakistan positioned itself as a diplomatic conduit between Tehran and Washington, it quietly allowed Iranian military aircraft to park on its airfields, potentially shielding them from American airstrikes, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter. 

  Iran also sent civilian aircraft to park in neighboring Afghanistan. It was not clear if military aircraft were among those flights, two of the officials told CBS News. 

  President Trump and admin officials have repeatedly declared the utter and total destruction of Iran's air force and navy, but apparently some planes were missed. According to more from CBS: 

  Together, the movements reflected an apparent effort to insulate some of Iran's remaining military and aviation assets from the expanding conflict, even as officials publicly served as brokers for de-escalation. 

  The U.S. officials, who all spoke only under condition of anonymity to discuss national security issues, told CBS News that days after President Trump announced the ceasefire with Iran in early April, Tehran sent multiple aircraft to Pakistan Air Force Base Nur Khan, a strategically important military installation located just outside the Pakistani garrison city of Rawalpindi. 

  Trump Mulls Military Action As Ceasefire On "Life Support"

  President Trump is meeting with his national security team Monday to discuss the way forward in the Iran war, including possibly resuming military action, after negotiations with the country deadlocked on Sunday, three U.S. officials told Axios.

  U.S. officials say Trump wants a deal to end the war, but Iran's rejection of many of his demands and refusal to make meaningful concessions on its nuclear program puts the military option back on the table.

  This sent oil prices back to the highs of the day...

  President Trump also told Fox, that he sees a 1% chance of an Iran deal materializing and succeeding, as even the ceasefire is one of "the weakest, on life support":

  President Donald Trump called out the "piece of garbage" peace proposal from Iran on Monday from the Oval Office, saying only "stupid people" in Iran are questioning his resolve in guaranteeing Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.

  The latest Iranian proposal reneged on a past vow to give up enriched uranium.

  
  

  None of this bodes well for the prospect of the Strait of Hormuz opening up anytime soon. Oil prices have reflected general pessimism at the start of this week.

  
  

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Jet Fuel Shortage Deepens Pressure On Global Airlines

Jet Fuel Shortage Deepens Pressure On Global Airlines

TYLER DURDEN

Via City AM,

• Heathrow’s April passenger numbers fell 5% to 6.7 million, with Middle East traffic down 50%.

• Transfer traffic rose 10% as travellers rerouted through Heathrow to Asia and Oceania.

• Airlines are facing mounting pressure from jet fuel shortages and higher oil prices.

Fewer passengers were heading to Heathrow Airport in April as the war in the Middle East keeps travellers grounded.

Passenger numbers at Europe’s biggest airport fell by five per cent in April to 6.7m with the blame being attributed to the “ongoing impact of the Middle East conflict”.

For those heading to that particular region, Heathrow saw a whopping 50 per cent drop in volumes.

Still, in the year-to-date (Jan–Apr) traffic maintained modest growth at 1.2 per cent.

Transfer demand grew ten per cent in April, as travellers rerouted through Heathrow to reach Asia and Oceania, helping offset losses in direct Middle Eastern travel.

Travel to Asia remained a major growth driver, with a 5.6 per cent increase in April and a 10.6 per cent increase year-to-date.

“We know passengers want certainty when planning their hard-earned summer holidays, so we are supporting Government and airlines as they work through their plans to get passengers on their journeys,” Thomas Woldbye, Heathrow’s top boss, said. 

Growing anxieties around the jet fuel shortage caused by the Iran war have rocked the travel industry.

Tony Fernandes, chief executive of Air Asia, said last week: “I thought I’d seen it all with Covid […] but having seen jet fuel go up almost three times — this is much worse.”

It comes after supplies for jet fuel have tumbled to their lowest level since records began, as the war blocks crucial shipping lanes for fuel.

Spirit Airlines – a US-based low-cost airline – last week collapsed under mounting pressure caused by surging oil prices. The firm had failed to secure a $500m lifeline from the Trump administration, leaving it to go out of business and cancel all flights.

Researchers at Allianz Trade warned the UK is among the most “structurally exposed” to jet fuel shortages.

Meanwhile, transport secretary Heidi Alexander has loosened “use it or lose it” rules in a bid to soften the pressures facing airlines.

Woldbye said: “While we have seen some short-term disruption linked to the Middle East conflict, demand for travel remains strong with current fuel supplies stable.”