17 must-read stories for the weekend

1. Business has a unique role in safeguarding our future. The urgent task now is to define how it can best fulfil this role, writes Professor Klaus Schwab.

2. Nine years of the Global Risks Report. From pandemics to asset bubbles, a look back at what we got right ahead of the 2015 edition next week.

3. “People are trained for jobs that no longer exist.” A video interview with the Nobel Laureate economist Michael Spence on the challenges to the world economy.

4. Why we invite artists to Davos. “Culture is how we see the world. How we see the world influences our decisions.”

5. What can Africa learn from East Asia’s boom? Nearly two billion young people could propel the continent to prosperity, says Babatunde Osotimehin.

6. Happiness at work matters more than you think. The welfare of workers is an overlooked bellwether for a company’s long-term success.

7. Is wearable tech bad for us? Taking the temperature of a Consumer Electronics Show bristling with gadgets to measure movements, moods, sleeping patterns and heart rate.

8. China’s Li to become the first Premier at Davos since 2009. “The gathering offers a platform to reassure international decision-makers the second-largest economy is still open for business.” (Bloomberg Businessweek)

9. World Economic Forum to draw record numbers to Davos this year. (RTE)

10. Davutoğlu to attend Davos. The Turkish Prime Minister ends a 6-year hiatus. (Today’s Zaman)

11. Why Chile and Colombia are startup savvy. Cites the Leveraging Entrepreneurial Ambition and Innovation report. (WSJ)

12. Women’s political participation. Cites research from the Global Gender Gap 2014 report. (Huffington Post)

13. Safest banks’ advantage disappears as oil slumps: Canada credit. “The Geneva-based World Economic Forum named Canada’s banks the world’s soundest lenders for seven straight years after their higher capital requirements helped them sidestep the worst of the 2008 credit crisis.” (Bloomberg Businessweek)

14. In the future, which jobs will survive? “Previous technological innovation has always delivered more long-run employment, not less.But things can change.”

15. Germany does care about a Greek exit. Whatever you hear to the contrary, it isn’t fine with Germany if Greece leaves the euro.

16. Reporting on cyber attacks: the media’s urgent problem. “Cyberwar will be the defining story of our generation, but right now we’re dangerously unequipped to report on it accurately.”

17. Vive la liberté! “By all standards, the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo was an atrocious crime not just against France, and freedom of expression, but against Islam itself.”

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Author: Adrian Monck is Managing Director and head of Public Engagement at the World Economic Forum.

Image: Customers walk into the new Apple Store at Pudong Lujiazui in Shanghai July 10, 2010. REUTERS/Aly Song