Author: DW

A South Korean court on Monday cleared Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong of financial misconduct charges related to a 2015 merger that prosecutors said was aimed at consolidating his power within the conglomerate. The verdict potentially eases Lee’s legal troubles following the Samsung heir’s pardon for a separate conviction of bribing a former president that toppled the government of Park Geun-hye. What the court said about Lee Jae-yong’s conviction The Seoul Central District Court found insufficient evidence to support the claims that the merger between two Samsung affiliates — Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries — was unlawfully intended to bolster Lee’s grip over Samsung Electronics. The court…

The common perception in Pakistan about the February 8 general elections is that the results have already been decided. The powerful military establishment, many Pakistanis who spoke with DW say, wants to keep former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party out of power at any cost.  “I am not planning to cast my vote. I support Imran Khan, and he is not eligible to contest elections. That is why I am not interested in these polls,” said Aliya Durrani, an Islamabad resident. Khan, possibly the most popular politician in Pakistan, is barred from standing in the polls. He has…

A former Trump administration official has died after he was shot during an attempted carjacking.Mike Gill, who worked as chief of staff at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission under the former president, was shot in Washington DC last Monday as a man tried to get into a car before fleeing the scene, police said. The incident lasted over three minutes and involved a Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV.Later, the attacker failed at an attempt to steal a Mercedes, according to authorities.The attacker then approached a man and woman demanding their car keys and proceeded to shoot and kill 35-year-old Alberto Vasquez…

During Gabriel Attal’s last visit to Germany, this past December, he was already the center of attention. As France’s then-education minister, he spoke in front of delegates at the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly — in the former plenary chamber of the German parliament in Bonn, where chancellors like Helmut Kohl and Gerhard Schröder once held court. The 34-year-old, named as France’s youngest-ever prime minister in early January, spoke with concern about how there was dwinding interest in France and Germany to learn each other’s languages. He pointed out it was still a problem more than five years after both countries signed…

For Maryam abo Atban, it’s hard to believe an entire year has passed since her life was wrecked by a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake. Memories of the early hours of February 6, 2023, remain painfully vivid for the 42-year-old mother. “When the sun rose, half of my family was dead,” she said. “We now live in a tent, only a few meters from the place where two of our children died in the rubble of our house,” she told DW in Jindires, a small town in northwestern Syria . “My husband wanted to leave, but I refused as it doesn’t matter where we go, their…

Red Bull Formula One chief Christian Horner is under investigation by his team after an accusation of “inappropriate behaviour”.It is understood the allegation has been made by another member of staff for the British-based team, the PA news agency reported.The 50-year-old, who is married to former Spice Girls singer Geri Halliwell and has been Red Bull Racing team principal since 2005, strongly refutes the accusation.Horner said: “I completely deny these claims.”A spokesperson for Red Bull – the Austrian energy drinks company which owns the F1 team – told PA: “After being made aware of certain recent allegations, the company launched an independent…

Vietnam hopes the United States will quickly change its rules over alleged export “dumping,” bringing them closer in line with the European Union’s reformed criteria.  Hanoi, said a Vietnamese government official who asked not to be named, is “very keen” for the Biden administration to change its “non-market economy” classification before the US presidential elections in November. The United States continues to classify communist-run Vietnam as a non-market economy, which is loosely defined as a country in which the state has either a monopoly or near-monopoly on trade. China and Russia are also on Washington’s list of 12 non-market economies. Impact on…

On Monday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met Northern Ireland’s new power-sharing executive during a visit to Belfast after an end to a nearly two-year political crisis that saw the region without an executive. First Minister Michelle O’Neill, of the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party, and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, from the pro-UK Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), called on Britain to boost its budget offer for the region. What did Sunak say? Sunak hailed his “very constructive meetings” with the new executive, describing it as “a historic and important day for the country, because Northern Ireland’s politicians are back in…

McDonald’s has reported its first quarterly sales miss in nearly four years amid customer boycotts related to the Israel-Hamas war.The fast food giant said sales growth for the period in its division including the Middle East, China and India was 0.7% – far below market expectations of 5.5%, according to London Stock Exchange Group data. It comes after a row was sparked last October when McDonald’s Israel announced it had donated thousands of free meals to Israel Defence Forces (IDF) troops involved in the conflict.The move sparked a furious backlash from critics of Israel’s military action in Gaza – which…

Protesters gathered on Monday outside Senegal’s parliament in Dakar to decry the presidential election’s postponement, after authorities restricted mobile internet access on Sunday evening ahead of the demos. President Macky Sall announced on Saturday that the vote would be postponed to an unspecified date amid a row over the candidate list, prompting angry protests. The vote had been scheduled for February 25, campaigning was about to begin. Lawmakers are investigating two judges on the country’s Constitutional Court, whose integrity in the election process has been questioned. Why was the internet cut off? Senegal’s Ministry of Communication, Telecommunications and Digital Economy…