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National

Thousands of Second Amendment activists gathered in Richmond, Va., on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to protest proposed gun restrictions under consideration in the Democratic-controlled legislature. 

Why it matters: The city avoided the chaos that broke out during a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 that left one person dead and around two dozen others injured. The organizers of the 2017 rally said they had planned to attend Monday's gathering.

White supremacists, antigovernment militias and other extremists groups also said they planned to attend Monday's rally. 

The FBI on Thursday arrested three men who have ties to a white supremacist group who said they had planned who attend the rally and were preparing for a possible race war, according to the Wall Street Journal. 

Of note: The rally is part of Lobby Day, an annual event where citizens talk with legislators about upcoming measures. Monday's demonstration against gun control laws was organized by the Virginia Citizens Defense League.

The big picture: Hundreds of the demonstrators carried semi-automatic rifles and wore camouflage clothing and military-style helmets and boots.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) ordered a state of emergency days before and banned weapons from Virginia's Capitol grounds. The state installed a security perimeter around the Capitol with a single entrance, the New York Times reports.

No incidents or arrests on the Capitol grounds were reported. Around 5,482 people had entered the grounds as of 10 a.m., according to the NYT.

What they're saying: President Trump tweeted during the rally, "The Democrat Party in the Great Commonwealth of Virginia are working hard to take away your 2nd Amendment rights. This is just the beginning. Don’t let it happen, VOTE REPUBLICAN in 2020!"

By the numbers: A Washington Post-Schar School poll released a month before the election that flipped both legislative houses in Virginia found that "3 out of 4 voters rated gun policy a very important issue. " 

Editor’s note: This post has been updated with developments.

Go deeper: As Richmond braces for hate, Americans say race relations are getting worse

What we know: Richmond, Va.,  Second Amendment rally

White supremacists and antigovernment militias had said they planned to attend the rally.

Gun rights advocates in Richmond, Va., on Jan. 20. Photo: Zach Gibson/Getty Images

Politics

Second amendment

Macron and Trump call ceasefire on digital taxes and wine tariffs

Macron and Trump agreed to avoid increasing tariffs until the end of 2020.

Macron and Trump on Dec. 3, 2019. Photo: Ludovic Marin/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Business

France

World

Top stories & latest news on the Federal Reserve, real-time data, plus the biggest shifts happening in the U.S. and global economy.

Economy

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

President Trump departs for Davos, Switzerland, on Monday night to attend the World Economic Forum, placing him thousands of miles away from Washington as the Senate hashes out the rules of his impeachment trial.

Why it matters: Senators on Tuesday will determine the rules that dictate the course of the trial, including how much time lawyers will have to make arguments and whether witnesses will be able to testify.

Details: The leaders he will meet include Iraqi President Barham Salih, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Swiss Confederation President Simonetta Sommaruga and Nechirvan Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq. 

Trump will also meet Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, and Klaus Schwab, the World Economic Forum founder, according to Reuters.

The big picture: Trump has been away from Washington at key moments of the impeachment process. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced the impeachment inquiry while he attended the United Nations General Assembly last fall.

The House Judiciary Committee held its first impeachment hearing in December while the president was at NATO summit in the United Kingdom.

Between the lines: The forum will give Trump a platform to tout the "phase one" trade deal the U.S. and China signed last week.

Of note: This is Trump's first return to Davos since 2018, USA Today reports. Trump did not attend the 2019 forum because it occurred during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. 

Go deeper: What's next in the impeachment witness battle

Trump to attend Davos amid impeachment trial

He has been away from Washington at key moments of the impeachment process.

President boarding Air Force One on Jan. 14. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Donald Trump

2024 will be an election year like no other, as President Biden seeks re-election amid economic uncertainty, two wars and questions about his age. His likely foe, former President Trump, faces felony charges and vows revenge on his political enemies. Meanwhile, Americans generally are dissatisfied with those choices and are divided over immigration, race, education and more.

Politics & Policy

Reproduced from PwC’s Annual Global CEO Survey; Chart: Axios Visuals

DAVOS — A parade of billionaires, CEOs, world leaders and hangers-on has now arrived in Davos, Switzerland, bearing skis, packed schedules and deep concerns about the global economy.

PwC's annual Global CEO survey — 1,581 CEOs across 83 territories — was conducted in the fall and released tonight as the World Economic Forum opened. It makes for some pretty alarming reading.

The big picture: 53% of CEOs expect global economic growth to decline in 2020, up from 29% in 2019 and just 5% in 2018. Their views of their own companies’ prospects were the bleakest since 2009.

That sentiment was spread across all regions, though CEOs in the Asia-Pacific are most optimistic and North American CEOs least so.

CEOs in the Asia-Pacific view trade conflicts as the top threat to their organizations’ bottom lines, while geopolitical uncertainty is the top concern in the Middle East, populism ranks first in Latin America, policy uncertainty in Africa and cyber threats in North America.

Over-regulation is the biggest concern among CEOs in Europe, and also finishes top in the global average.

Trade conflicts didn’t even register as a top 10 concern until last year, but are now top-of-mind, particularly in China.

Chinese CEOs who are “extremely concerned” about trade conflicts are far more likely to say they’re shifting production to alternative territories than a year ago (44% then, 63% now). 

Among "extremely concerned" U.S. CEOs, 50% are adjusting supply chains but just 23% are moving production, while 34% aren't making any changes at all (compared to 5% in China).

Worth noting: Chinese CEOs now list Australia, not the U.S., as the most important country for their growth prospects.

CEOs around the world expect massive changes for big tech. By 2022, most anticipate more regulations (71%), including on social media, the break-up of dominant firms (63%), and compensation of individual users for their data (51%).

While companies are eager to stress their climate consciousness while in Davos, just 24% of CEOs are “extremely concerned” about climate change.

In China, though, the percentage of CEOs who see new opportunities for their companies through climate change initiatives has jumped from 2% in 2010 to 47% now — far higher than in Germany (20%) or the U.S. (15%).

15,000 total attendees (3,000 of them with official invitations) including 100 billionaires and 53 heads of state or government, per Politico.

Climate will dominate the official agenda. I eavesdropped on a few attendees tonight discussing whom they most wanted to see, and Greta Thunberg was the consensus pick. Soon after, placard-waving climate protesters chanted their way through the streets

Several panels will also be dedicated to inequality and human rights.

Between the lines: The irony of the uber-rich and super-powerful arriving by private jet to discuss these topics in a proudly exclusive setting (there are at least 10 tiers of access badge) is lost on no one.

But the sheer concentration of power and wealth in one Alpine town makes Davos, now in its 50th year, a hard-to-match destination for deal-making and consensus-building.

Davos opened this evening on the third anniversary of President Trump's inauguration, and on the eve of impeachment proceedings that will likely be watched more closely than his speech on Tuesday morning.

The big picture: Trump’s America First populism and climate skepticism are anathema to the Davos set, but his tax cuts and economic record are not.

Two candidates who scare many CEOs more than Trump — Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — are among the top contenders in the Iowa caucuses, which begin two weeks from today.

Kellyanne Conway told reporters ahead of Trump’s trip that he planned to “take on the perils of socialism right there in Davos,” while heralding his NAFTA replacement deal and partial trade agreement with China. 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

Kurdistan Regional Government President Nechirvan Barzani

World Economic Forum Founder Klaus Schwab

Also heading to Davos: Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, who is defying a travel ban and may struggle to re-enter Venezuela.

What's worrying the Davos crowd

A survey of nearly 1,600 CEOs around the world makes for some alarming reading.

Economic growth

Government leaders need to implement a "decade of change" and invest more in the key health priorities and systems to prevent global health threats over the next decade, the World Health Organization warned last week.

What's new: Climate change, infectious diseases and epidemic threats, socioeconomic inequalities, and conflicts are some of the 13 urgent challenges WHO says will imperil global health — but addressing them is "within reach" if action is taken now.

What they're saying: Eric Toner, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins' Center for Health Security, tells Axios "the threats posed by nearly constant infectious disease outbreaks and the looming threat of another pandemic are very real" and should involve both the private and public sector in crisis preparations.

"As we demonstrated in our Event 201 exercise in October, the world is ill-prepared for a severe pandemic. Such a global disease outbreak would not only cause widespread illness and death but there would be severe societal and economic consequences as well," Toner adds.

Axios attended Event 201, which involved 15 government and business leaders in a simulation of a pandemic based on a fake coronavirus called CAPS. (In real life, coronaviruses SARS and MERS caused devastation, and public health officials are currently monitoring a coronavirus from China called "2019-nCoV" very closely.)

By the end of the Event 201 simulation, CAPS killed 65 million people worldwide as countries argued over drug allocation and transportation logistics, among other issues. The global economy was also wrecked as people refused to go to work or travel, leading to a shutdown of communications, basic sanitation and health care treatments, not to mention the devastation of entire economies dependent on tourism.

 Details: The 13 urgent health threats for this decade, per WHO...

Understanding that "climate change is a health crisis" is key for government policies, WHO writes. Besides health emergencies stemming from extreme weather events, climate change exacerbates malnutrition, spreads infectious diseases, and leads to air pollution that is linked to roughly 7 million deaths globally every year.

Safety for health care workers needs to be assured, as violence against those treating people in conflict regions has risen, with 978 attacks and 193 deaths reported in 11 countries last year.

Inequalities in health care caused by socioeconomic divisions continue, leading to an 18-year gap in life expectancy between rich and poor countries.

Little or no access to medicines, vaccines and diagnostics must be addressed as this endangers patients and builds drug resistance.

Infectious diseases kill about 4 million people globally every year, and call for funding basic health services, eradicating vectors of disease, and boosting vaccination programs.

Preparing for epidemics and a possible pandemic that could bring a devastating death toll requires nations to strengthen their infrastructure and multilateral institutions focused on global preparedness.

Food insecurity, dangerous products like tobacco, and unhealthy diets have been linked to a third of current global disease burden.

Investment in educating more health workers, such as midwives and nurses, is needed to address what's expected to be an 18 million worker shortfall by 2030.

Adolescents must be protected, as more than 1 million kids aged 10–19 die every year, from road injury, HIV, suicide, lower respiratory infections and interpersonal violence.

Public trust must be restored in health institutions, to fight misinformation and build science literacy.

Medical questions and ethical implications from new technologies including genome editing, synthetic biology and the use of artificial intelligence should be addressed.

The threat of antimicrobial resistance, which "threatens to send modern medicine back decades to the pre-antibiotic era, when even routine surgeries were hazardous" needs new antibiotics and better human and animal practices.

Water, sanitation and hygiene at all health care facilities must be improved.

The bottom line: "The cost of doing nothing is one we cannot afford. Governments, communities, and international agencies must work together to achieve these critical goals," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general, said in a statement.

Axios

Monday's top stories

What we know: Richmond, Va., Second Amendment rally

Macron and Trump call ceasefire on digital taxes and wine tariffs

Trump to attend Davos amid impeachment trial

What's worrying the Davos crowd

WHO warns of 13 emerging health threats including possible pandemics

White House: Impeachment articles are "an affront to the Constitution"

Peloton goes to court over "connected fitness"

Exclusive: Rep. Steve King’s same-party opposition ramps up

A global trust crisis

As Richmond braces for hate, Americans say race relations are getting worse

New York Times endorses Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar for president