Who's all here at the World Economic Forum? Touring the Davos Promenade

Our six-person team of journalists has arrived here in Davos, Switzerland, to cover the World Economic Forum. For the past three years, Rebel News has travelled to the Swiss Alps to do accountability journalism, putting difficult questions to some of the most powerful and influential people in the world.

The theme of this year's event is "Rebuilding Trust" — a rare admission that things aren't going well for those who travel to Davos before returning home to parrot the visions and philosophies of WEF chairman Klaus Schwab.

One area where trust between government leaders and regular people has been broken is with the war in Ukraine, where billions of dollars from the West has poured into the country after Russia invaded in February 2022. President Volodomyr Zelensky is even attending this year's summit, perhaps hoping for a chance to plead his case for more funding to world leaders in person, given recent statements by the U.S. military implying that their goal was to get Ukraine into the best possible position for peace negotiations.

That's a major shift in policy; the U.S. has spent the last year saying there would be no negotiations, no ceasefire.

But if the WEF is hoping to regain trust with the public, it certainly doesn't look like anything has changed on the ground here in Davos.

Rebel News boss Ezra Levant and Chief Australian Correspondent Avi Yemini toured the Promenade, the main street in Davos, ahead of the event's kickoff as the small town of 10,000 transforms nearly all of its storefronts into pavilions for prominent businesses, media outlets and even nations.

It seems like it's business as usual, once again here in Davos.

The Rebel reporters stepped into one of the pavilions that had been set up, an organization from India called We Lead.

There, we learned it was set up to speak about women in leadership and the role they're playing in globalization, and that the pavilion was a collaboration between India's Ministry of Women and Child Development, the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As the world's largest democracy, it's concerning to see Bill Gates' involvement, given he isn't too focused on fostering democracy.

India has a strong presence here, along with Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, Colombia and more. Some of the world's most powerful and influential companies, like BlackRock, Amazon, Meta and Deloitte are here.

And of course, mainstream media outlets like CNBC and the Wall Street Journal are here. Not to ask tough questions, of course, but as participants in the summit.

But not everyone is here to support the WEF's agenda. Yesterday, we encountered a large group of Antifa protesters who had gathered for a rally on the Promenade. We also ran into Fernando Morales-de la Cruz, an anti-child labour activist we spoke to last year.

Rebel News will have much more to report over the next week, where we'll be putting tough questions to the powerful people we can find. You can follow all of our coverage and support our independent journalism at WEFreports.com. Bookmark that page and check back often!