This Week in the New Normal #99

Our successor to This Week in the Guardian, This Week in the New Normal is our weekly chart of the progress of autocracy, authoritarianism and economic restructuring around the world.

1. WEF’s Klaus Raus

Klaus Schwab, founder and leader of the World Economic Forum, is “beginning the process” of stepping down from his duties as chairman of the board of trustees. This “process” is apparently going to take until at least January 2027, so right there you have to wonder how real any of this is at all.

But there is precedent, as this announcement follows on from his resignation as Chief Executive in 2023, a role he was succeeded in by Norwegian politician Børge Brende.

Now, while an 87 year old man (allegedly) retiring is not, of itself, newsworthy it does raise interesting questions.

Such as “why now?” and “who is replacing him?”

As to the former, I would guess it’s because Klaus is now tainted. He is too publicly associated with Covid and the “Great Reset”. His presence immediately turns people off, his ideas are instantly suspected.

It’s the same reason you don’t see Bill Gates giving as many interviews as you did during Covid. These are the faces of the New Normal agenda, and as that agenda becomes more covert than overt the people who proudly nailed their colours to its mast need to be pushed aside so the greater work can continue.

That’s not to say they are being actually rejected or their ideas repudiated, of course, just that their public association is damaging.

In the latter case, one early rumor suggested Tony Blair would be taking the job, but (if my reasoning can be trusted) that was never likely. Replacing Schwab with Blair to reduce bad press is like replacing your toaster with a flamethrower so you don’t burn your muffins.

Other potential replacements include the other members of the board – Christine Lagarde of the ECB, Kristalina Georgieva of the IMF, Larry Fink of BlackRock, Marc Benioff of Salesforce and Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries.

But they largely have the same issue as Blair – namely, they are creepy and everyone hates them.

I would suspect that a good portion of the next 18 months of “stepping down process” will be spent holding auditions for some bland-faced Trudeau-like “nice guy” type who can say all the same things Uncle Klaus used to say, without looking and sounding like a Bond villain.

2. Background Bird Flu

Tariffs and Trump and trade are taking up the headlines right now, with online censorship and Adolescence rushing to fill any gaps.

Behind that, the now-familiar strains of music still play on a loop. Digital currency this, Covid that and – among other things – Bird Flu.

Mexico’s Health Ministry recorded its first official human case of Bird Flu this week, according to Reuters

In India, it’s being reported that a two-year-old child died of bird flu after eating raw chicken. The details are unclear, but on the face of it that story makes no sense.

In England, DEFRA have ordered stricter measures be put in place in the north after more cases of H5N1 were allegedly found in wild birds.

The Conversation warns that bird flu “could be on the cusp of transmitting between humans”.

There’s some background noise building. Just in time for an Easter – or post-Easter – scare maybe?

3. Having Children is bad and terrible and really eats into your “me time”

I’m not a monster, screams the headline, but I regret having children:

And you know what, fine. Maybe regretting having children doesn’t make you a monster, but writing an article about it that your children will likely one day see, does.

But that’s just taking the story at face value.

The author is anonymous, the names apparently made up, so maybe the whole thing is just a piece of propaganda attacking the idea of having a family.

BONUS: Red Flag Interview of the week

We’re all more than used to the “free speech is hurting our kids!” argument; there’s always someone somewhere mewling out some variation.

This week that someone is Ian Russell, an “online safety campaigner”, and the somewhere is BBC Newsnight:

“We cannot keep waiting for change to come.”

Online safety campaigner Ian Russell, says there is a “rising anger” amongst bereaved families and calls for Ofcom to be “less timid”.#Newsnight pic.twitter.com/W0B9jgrG6j

— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) April 3, 2025

My favourite bit is the part where he says that OfCom need to be “less timid” about enforcing an act…that only came into force 3 weeks ago.

I also like how vague the term “real change” is. Just a little tip: When pundits get vague it’s for one of two reasons. Either they don’t know what they’re talking about, or they know the specifics will make them sound stupid. I’m guessing, in this instance, it’s the second one.

All told a pretty hectic week for the new normal crowd, and we didn’t even mention the Colorado Bill that classify misgendering your child as “child abuse” or San Francisco’s “equity-based” speeding tickets, which charge you more (or less) depending on your income.

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There’s a lot of change in the air, a lot of agendas in the works, if you see a headline, article, post or interview you think is a sign of the times, post it in the comments, email us or share it on social media and we will add it to the next edition.