The 18th edition of the World Branding Awards honoured the success and achievements of some of the World’s Best Brands as National, Regional, and Global Winners. The 2024-2025 World Branding Awards saw over 927 brands from 66 countries nominated as “Brand of the Year”. Of these, less than 100 were declared Winners.

The prestigious Award Ceremony was held at the Tower of London, United Kingdom. It welcomed over 80 guests worldwide and was hosted by acclaimed British television broadcaster, David Croft.

Global winners who proved excellence and impeccable branding in their industry include Yakult (Japan), Lurpak (Denmark), Sennheiser (Germany),Spotify (Sweden), BYD (China), and Heinz (United Kingdom).

Winners from Kuwait include GIG, KEMS, RIVA, Mabanee, The Avenues, and Boursa Kuwait. Other National tier winners include Absolut (Sweden), Airland (Hong Kong), Aurora (Thailand), Bank of Taiwan (Taiwan), Boots (United Kingdom), Evolene (Indonesia), Fern-D (Philippines), Frank & Co. (Indonesia), Munchy’s (Malaysia), Natural Aqua Gel Cure (Japan), Spritzer (Malaysia), and VISTRA (Thailand), to name a few.

Just 20 brands were selected to receive the Regional tier award this year, including M-150 (Thailand), Tsui Wah (Hong Kong), Nippon Rent-A-Car (Japan), and MR DIY (Malaysia). These brands were voted as consumers’ favourites in 4 or more countries across 3 or more areas in a specific geographic region.

“Winning the Brand of the Year, with 70% of the voting power in the hands of consumers, is a testament to a brand’s ability to resonate with its audience. It’s recognition that a brand has not only met but exceeded its customers’ expectations. It’s a badge of honour that signifies a brand’s commitment to providing exceptional value, building trust, and creating lasting relationships,” said Mr Richard Rowles, Chairman of the World Branding Forum.

More than 100,000 consumers participated in the nomination process globally this year. On average, there are only 5 winning brands in each country, proving that winning a World Branding Award is a remarkable accomplishment.

For more information and the full list of winners, visit awards.brandingforum.org.

source/content: businesswire.com (headline edited)

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KUWAIT

Ankara aims to help the new Syrian administration rebuild its infrastructure after its 13-year civil war.

Turkey will restore parts of the historic Hejaz Railway in Syria, reconnecting Turkish rail lines to Damascus, Turkish Transportation Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said on Tuesday during a meeting with journalists.

The comments by the Turkish official come as Ankara works on helping rebuild its southern neighbour after 13 years of civil war.

“We will quickly assess the situation and take steps to restore the railway connection to Damascus as a first stage,” Uraloglu said during a meeting with the Anatolian Broadcasters Association in Ankara, according to a transcript.

“There are sections of the railway stretching from Turkey to the Hejaz region. We know that these lines have not been operational for a long time as part of a larger network,” Uraloglu added.

“From 2009 to 2010, we sent passenger trains there and even took a journey ourselves.

“There’s existing infrastructure in place… However, in some areas, such as Iraq, we’ve seen railway tracks stolen and sold as raw iron. We may face similar issues in Syria.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a cabinet meeting on Monday that every minister with a specific portfolio will study the shortcomings and problems in Syrian infrastructure and offer help to the new Syrian administration.

A caretaker government has been established in Damascus to maintain state services following the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who fled the country earlier this month in the face of a rebel offensive.

‘Ambitious dream’

The legendary Hejaz Railway was the ambitious dream of Sultan Abdulhamid II of the Ottoman Empire, who, in 1990, envisioned a train line connecting Istanbul to Mecca.

Named after the Hejaz region in the western Arabian Peninsula, home to Islam’s two holiest cities – Mecca and Medina – the railway was constructed with remarkable speed, funded entirely by Muslim donations. While some donations were voluntary, others were coerced.

The line, which was already connected to Istanbul, extended from Damascus to Medina, with a branch line to Haifa in Palestine.

It was primarily intended to facilitate the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and to strengthen Ottoman control over its distant provinces. The railway also served as a military transport route for Ottoman forces.

However, the railway faced frequent sabotage, particularly during the British-backed Arab Revolt, led by the intelligence officer TE Lawrence, famously known as “Lawrence of Arabia”.

The project came to an abrupt halt with the outbreak of World War One.

The Hejaz Railway never reached its ultimate destination of Mecca, ending in Medina – approximately 400km short of the holy city.

source/content: middleeasteye.net (headline edited)

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An old locomotive sits outside the Hejaz railway station in old Damascus on 23 February 2024 (AFP/Louai Beshara / AFP)

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SYRIA

Nimco Mahamud-Hassan is considering moving to Wales, another in a series of dramatic relocations that have shaped her life. The 1900s cast-iron stove and thousand-plus cookbooks in her kitchen complicate things.

First, there is the cast-iron stove, which is enormous, runs on gas and was made in early 20th century England. Beside it is a shelf of ceramic Turkish coffee pots, which climb to the ceiling, their vibrant colors reflecting sunlight. And then, of course, there are the cookbooks – Nimco has more than a thousand.

Nimco’s kitchen is as warm as her smile, her stove as British as her accent and her tools as multicultural as her cooking. From her corner of Tennyson Street in Somerville’s Winter Hill, Nimco can make an entire diaspora out of food, blending her native Somalian recipes with flavors and cooking methods from around the globe. It’s a unique skill set that Nimco brought to classes taught through the City of Somerville and Milk Street Cooking School, and to her catered events. In 2018, she was a Somerville Arts Council artist of the month. This year, she quit everything to start writing a cookbook.

“I often feel that cookbooks that are written of African food in general have a lot of irrelevant pictures,” Nimco said. “You know, a broken car, a hungry child.” Her own cookbook will be different, she said. It will be beautiful.

When Nimco was a child, she would make beautiful Somali pancakes. Her mother taught her how to cook, and by the time Nimco was 8 she would make breakfast over an open fire, as is the Somali tradition. It was around then that a family of missionaries started taking an interest in her, pressuring her family to let them take Nimco out of the country and give her a better education.

Nimco was a curious girl. She wrote consistently in her diary and loved to cook even then, though she couldn’t make much on her own. She laughed easily, and was obedient in school, as every Somali child learned to be.

The missionaries were her neighbors, and as part of their sponsorship of Nimco’s education, they wanted to unofficially adopt her.

Egypt and England

Nimco’s father opposed this; like more than 99 percent of Somalia, Nimco and her family were Muslims, and he was sure the missionaries meant to convert her. On the other hand, Nimco was one of seven daughters among 13 siblings, and Somalia was on the brink of war. Her mother thought that it was a good opportunity for Nimco to leave, and eventually she had her way.

Nimco moved to Egypt when she was just 12, where the missionaries sponsored her schooling. At first, it was difficult. Nimco was living with her brother, who was not much older than her, and neither knew how to speak Arabic. Every day, Nimco would go to school where, week by week, she would pick up the language. The missionaries’ promised education was nowhere to be seen – it was only after two years that they sponsored Nimco to attend three weeks of English lessons. Thus, Nimco and her brother picked up Arabic from their black-and-white television and their Egyptian neighbors. Every evening Nimco would make spaghetti and sauce, the only dish she knew how to cook. This went on until the neighbors started asking Nimco questions.

After three years, the missionaries invited Nimco to visit them in England. She packed a small suitcase, leaving behind her diary, her brother and almost all her belongings. She flew up for what was supposed to be a three week trip; Somalia’s civil war erupted in the middle of it. Suddenly, Nimco’s life was flipped upside down – everyone that she’d known from Somalia was in danger, and the missionaries felt that it would be safest for her to stay in England, sending her to live with a British foster family, the Mitchells.

Nimco was 15, with a funky afro and mismatched clothes, alone in a new country with a language she didn’t speak. It was a familiar sensation, but this time she was utterly bereft of her family. When she stepped into the Mitchells’ front door, she didn’t know what to expect. Would she be welcomed? Would the family be nice?

They were not.

Among the English

Nimco spent her first day in the Mitchells’ family home cleaning, a pastime she quickly understood no one else in the family had ever taken on. Liquids were congealed on the kitchen counter. When she tried to lift some cans up, to organize, she realized they were stuck. She had to pry them off,.

The family quickly fell into a routine, relying on Nimco to clean everything for them. She even had to clean the rooms of the Mitchells sons, who were barely younger than her.

At school – where her grades were better than the Mitchells boys, despite them going to a posh private school – Nimco’s teachers were kind, inviting her to Christmases at their homes and giving her private English lessons for no pay. One teacher was friends with the principal of a private girls school and managed to provide Nimco a year’s education there for free. To do her schoolwork, Nimco would have to hide from Mrs. Mitchell, who would force her to do chores whenever she caught her studying.

One morning, Mrs. Mitchell’s sister, Margaret, came to visit. She had a daughter of similar age to Nimco and like Mrs. Mitchell, wasn’t a kind woman. Nimco was listening idly to the two sisters’ conversation, Margaret effusing over the cleaning that Nimco had done. “Sue,” she finally said, “do you think I could borrow Nimco?” Nimco stood there aghast, then left and walked to a park to cry.

It was as if the woman were talking about borrowing a vacuum cleaner instead of a human child.

Like her father had predicted, Nimco’s life in England was also marked by weekly Sundays in church. The Mitchells were born-again Christians, and so Nimco was required to sit with them, and behave nicely as the pastor would preach, “Let’s crush Islam.” Even the nicer sermons – “Love thy neighbor,” for example – were uncomfortable. Church felt like a too-small dress foisted upon Nimco by an insistent mother: It itched, it was painful, the seams were splitting, and she’d never wanted to wear it in the first place. It didn’t fit. She wasn’t Christian.

Still, without church, Nimco would never have met Jo.

Jo was one of Nimco’s first friends in England, and she would communicate with her through a dictionary, flipping through the pages to translate conversations. They didn’t always need the words.

“It’s like, when you like somebody, I think language is just one part of how you communicate as human beings,” Nimco explained. “You can just look at the person and just know.”

The two would wander London together, stopping in secondhand shops and sift through clothes, giggling together. It was seamless.

America

Shortly afterward, Nimco left the Mitchells. She started to cook again, to work for a paper called The Voice and to volunteer for the human rights organization Africa Watch, where she met Alex, the associate director. They hardly saw each other for almost 10 years, but eventually reconnected, traveling together in East Africa. A few years later, the couple married. Together they moved to Somerville. She took cooking classes – later complemented by lessons in China and Thailand and working alongside friends from India and Pakistan – and around 2010, started to cook professionally.

The first person who hired Nimco to cook for him was an MIT graduate student. After the first meal that she brought him, he told her, “I would like to keep this going, whatever it takes.” A few weeks later his girlfriend begged Nimco to let her learn her recipes, and Nimco began teaching. Today, Nimco is the godmother of their oldest daughter.

Throughout her time in Somerville, Nimco has taken in five young women who needed a place to stay while they got on their feet. It was always by chance: a receptionist Nimco met at Goodwill, a sick student in her husband’s class – Nimco opened her arms first, and asked questions later. She gave these women what the Mitchells never gave her: kindness; love; a home.

Maybe that’s the true secret to Nimco’s cooking, beyond the cultural combinations, the cookbook collection and the beautiful tools – Nimco makes her food so that she can share it with others.

source/content: cambridgeday.com (headline edited)

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Nimco Mahamud-Hassan in her Winter Hill, Somerville, home. (Photo: Alma Barak)

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UNITED KINGDOM / EGYPT / SOMALIA

Dubai-based DP World has commenced work on the $1.2 billion Port of Ndayane, with the aim of transforming Senegal into a major centre for global trade.

The Willem Van Rubroeck vessel is set to dredge a five km-long shipping channel to build a high-capacity port.

The project’s first phase also includes an 840m quay to accommodate the world’s largest container ships.

This phase will build capacity to handle 1.2 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) annually. Phase Two will add a further 410m quay, positioning Ndayane as a logistics hub in West Africa.

The Port of Dakar, a DP World asset in Africa, has expanded significantly to handle 800,000 TEUs in 2023 from 300,000 TEUs in 2008.

However, the Dakar port’s location within a densely urbanised area limits expansion, making Ndayane a strategic port to support Senegal’s long-term trade and economic growth.

DP World group chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said the Port of Ndayane will elevate Senegal and boost trade across the African continent.   

He said the company would also develop an economic zone near the port and Blaise Diagne International Airport.

DP World is working with British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance agency, to fund the project.

BII estimates the port will boost Senegal’s GDP by 3 percent through increased trade flows, potentially adding $15 billion in trade value by 2035.

During construction, the project will create over 1,800 jobs and once operational is expected to support 22,000 jobs in Senegal tied directly to expanded trade.

Last month, Liz Bains wrote in AGBI that the UAE ports operators AD Ports Group and DP World are showing an unquenchable thirst for acquiring new assets in Africa.

DP World’s extensive list of ports and terminals in Africa comprises Djen Djen and Djazair in Algeria; Ain Sokhna in Egypt; Berbera in Somaliland; Bosaso in Somalia; Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania; Maputo in Mozambique; Luanda in Angola; Dakar and Ndayane in Senegal; Banana in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); and inland container terminals at Kigali in Rwanda and Komatipport in South Africa.

source/content: agbi.com (headline edited)

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The Willem Van Rubroeck dredger is starting work on a 5 km-long shipping channel for DP World’s Ndayane port in Senegal

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DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES (U.A.E)

For Mohammad Warrad, olive oil is more than a kitchen staple – it’s a link to 400 years of tradition. The family-run brand preserves heritage while sharing a family’s story and culture.

For Palestinian-American Mohammad Warrad, olive oil isn’t just a kitchen staple – it’s a link to his family’s history and Palestinian heritage. Growing up, the family olive oil was simply “grandma’s thing,” always present but something he never thought much about. That changed as he got older and tasted other oils, realising just how special his family’s product was.

“Everything on the market felt super profit-driven, sacrificing taste through low-quality or unready olives. You could really taste the difference,” Warrad tells CairoScene. “One day, I thought everyone should try our family’s oil. There’s no gatekeeping here – my family’s gate-kept it for long enough.”

That realisation sparked an idea: to present the family legacy to the world while preserving its traditions. “Although tradition is extremely important to the brand – we still hand-harvest and press our oils as we did over 300 years ago – I didn’t want the brand to feel stale,” Warrad explains. “Capturing that thin line of tradition and modernity was something I grew very passionate about.”

This balance is reflected not only in the olive oil itself but also in the brand’s design. Warrad designed everything from the packaging to the website to the bottles, ensuring each element reflected the brand’s values,such as this year’s choice of introducing tins instead of bottles for sustainability. From a design lens, the logo’s handwritten font captures an organic, authentic and relatable feel, with varying thicknesses and proportions for a playful and nostalgic touch. Hand-drawn olives in the product descriptions evoke childhood memories, while the use of yellow – a colour known for its attention-grabbing qualities – perfectly reflects the warmth of the land.

The brand’s olive oil comes from the family’s groves in Deir Dibwan, a small village with a population of under 8,000 in the central West Bank, east of Ramallah. These groves were planted by their family nearly 400 years old, and for Sitti Othmana, Mohammad Warrad’s grandmother and the brand’s namesake, every tree captures a spiritual connection to Palestine, as well as her past, present and future.

“When I was a kid, we took trips to see my grandmother in the grove, but I never quite understood the profound history and culture or what it meant to even be Palestinian,” Warrad reflects. “Starting the business really took me deep into understanding my roots, my family’s roots, and, of course, my grandmother. What she continues to do at 87 years old is so important to me – it’s the preservation of our roots, literally.”

The annual harvest season is a labour-intensive process that could easily be automated, but Sitti insists on maintaining tradition. “She goes in by hand and pulls out every single olive, refusing to let them fall into the bags that eventually go into the press,” Warrad shares. “It’s an act of love, respect and service to the land.”

As with many Palestinian families, maintaining the groves isn’t without its challenges. “There’s always a fear that our groves will be impacted by the political strife in the region. We’ve seen it happen to others in town, but I think our mission is beyond that,” Warrad says. “The brand does not want to be tied solely to war and sadness, nor should the identity of Palestinian people only be tied to war. The brand is our love language to anyone who tries the olive oil. It’s a testament to the preservation of Palestinian culture and heritage – our family’s story and my people’s story all wrapped up in a bottle.”

The family’s brand embodies the history, beauty and resilience that have shaped Palestinian culture. It tells a universal story of connection and the importance of honouring one’s past, even in diaspora. At 25, Mohammad recently returned to Palestine to help his grandmother during the harvest season, a journey that spanned 48 hours of travel and three weeks immersed in the land.

“The land has this mysterious, ancient air there that’s not captured in any modern city. It’s funny that the air radiating from the land is peaceful, given the conflict that humans create, but I see the land separate from the qualms and people. It’s much larger than us. The sheer labour that went into the harvest is something I’ve never experienced,” Warrad shares. “The experience changed my perspective on how I want to lead my life forward.”

source/content: cairoscene.com (headline edited)

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AMERICAN / PALESTINIAN