Author: DW

What was the Woermann Company?  C. Woermann, a shipping and trading firm from Hamburg, first set up shop in Douala, Cameroon, in 1868. It traded along the West African coast. Adolph Woermann took over the family business of his father, Carl Woermann, in 1874. The ambitious younger Woermann believed Africa was a market in which to sell cheaply made German products like alcohol and a source for cheap labor to produce valuable raw materials for German factories. How colonialism boosted Germany’s merchant fleetsTo play this audio please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 audio Why did Woermann push…

Kabul witnessed a flurry of diplomatic activity at the end of January, with 11 countries accepting the Taliban’s invitation to attend an international conference dubbed “Afghanistan Regional Cooperation Initiative.” The multilateral meeting was aimed at developing regional cooperation and was attended by representatives of countries like India, China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran, among others, according to Taliban authorities. It wasn’t clear whether the gathering produced any concrete results. But the conference seems to underline the will of the Taliban regime to build good relations with neighboring countries. The Islamic fundamentalist group can claim some initial success in its efforts to gain…

A British baby has died after a car crashed into a group of holidaymakers in Lanzarote, according to local media. The driver, a 23-year-old British woman, who lives on the Spanish island, tested positive for drugs and alcohol, according to reports.Two vehicles are said to have collided before a car mounted the pavement near the Aqualava water park in the southern holiday resort of Playa Blanca on Monday evening.Officials said a five-month-old baby died, while two women were seriously injured and four other people were moderately hurt in the crash.The baby’s mother, father and maternal grandparents were among those hurt,…

Germany once euphemistically called its colonies, which it held from 1884 until World War I, “protectorates.” Unlike countries such as France, Britain or the Netherlands, Germany was not one of the great colonial powers. But its colonial rule in Africa, Oceania and Asia was no less brutal. That’s evident in the numerous human remains dating from the colonial era that are still held in the collections of German museums and universities. Colonialists committed horrific crimes Those remains are largely skulls and bones, many from the bodies of people who were executed. They were dismembered, cleaned, and sent back to Germany…

The National Assembly in Vietnam will debate and most likely ratify the UN International Labor Organization’s Convention 87, which mandates the free establishment of labor organizations, in October, according to sources who spoke with DW.  Although Hanoi had vowed to ratify the convention by the end of 2023, European officials are confident it will do so by the end of this year in order to avoid potential sanctions from Western partners who are growing frustrated by Vietnam’s foot-dragging over labor reform. There has been concerted pressure from the European Union and Canada on Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party to realize the promises it…

Felipe Massa has taken legal action against Formula One, racing supremo Bernie Ecclestone and governing body the FIA.The ex-Ferrari driver is chasing recognition as the 2008 world champion, alongside a payout of £64m. The Brazilian has claimed since last year that he is the “rightful” 2008 world champion due to one of the sport’s biggest scandals, dubbed “Crashgate” by some.At the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, fellow Brazilian Nelson Piquet Jr says he purposefully crashed into a wall in an effort to help Renault teammate Fernando Alonso – who went onto win the race.Piquet Jr said he had been ordered to…

COVID, the pro-democracy crackdown and China’s trade war with the United States have dealt a severe blow to Hong Kong’s reputation as an international financial hub. Once seen as the main gateway between the West and China, many investors now believe it is increasingly hard to separate Hong Kong from the authoritarian mainland — a dilemma that has sparked an exodus of foreign firms from the city known as the Pearl of Asia. Since 2019, the number of global companies with regional headquarters in Hong Kong has fallen by 8.4%, according to data from the city’s census and statistics department. The…

The National Assembly in Vietnam will debate and most likely ratify the UN International Labor Organization’s Convention 87, which mandates the free establishment of labor organizations, in October, according to sources who spoke with DW.  Although Hanoi had vowed to ratify the convention by the end of 2023, European officials are confident it will do so by the end of this year in order to avoid potential sanctions from Western partners who are growing frustrated by Vietnam’s foot-dragging over labor reform. There has been concerted pressure from the European Union and Canada on Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party to realize the promises it…

The future of Portuguese politics remained unclear on Monday after polls saw the opposition center-right Democratic Alliance take a marginal lead over the ruling center-left Socialist Party, but fall short of the number of seats needed for a governing majority. With virtually all of the votes from Sunday’s election counted, the two traditional political blocs were far ahead of their rivals. But with European Parliament elections looming in June, the explosive ascent of the far-right, anti-immigration Chega party has received the most attention. According to Monday’s results, the Democratic Alliance (AD) coalition won 79 seats in the 230-seat legislature, followed by the ruling Socialists with 77 — a…

An Italian Michelin-starred chef has been handed a suspended prison sentence and fined after 53 people fell ill after eating clams contaminated with norovirus.The charges related to a wedding banquet at Marco Sacco’s Piccolo Lago restaurant, where he has two Michelin stars. Guests at the restaurant overlooking Lake Mergozzo in northern Italy, were served a risotto during celebrations to mark the nuptials in 2021, La Repubblica reports.However, the food later turned out to be contaminated with norovirus, the highly contagious virus also known as the winter vomiting bug.Sacco said he had served more 3,000 similar dishes and no problems had…