Hundreds of foreigners were in area to work, take guided treks or make pilgrimages when disaster struck Nepal-Tibet flash flood – latest updates Flash floods at the Nepal-Tibet border have killed at least 543 people and more than 1,500 are missing. Hundreds were foreigners in the area to work, take guided treks or make pilgrimages. Thousands have been rescued, with some of the injured taken to hospitals in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu. The number of missing may vary because of progress in the ongoing rescue efforts and differences in how data…
Tag: Germany
Europe Hurries to Fund More Cutting-Edge Businesses to Compete With China and U.S.
The shiny cylindrical tanks and slant-roofed control panels shoved against a wall in C3 Biotech’s laboratory have essentially been turned into a multimillion-dollar graveyard of high-grade stainless steel equipment. All of this state-of-the art gear was discarded during the company’s quest to discover a cheap way to convert agricultural waste like potato peels or sugar beet pulp into acrylic glass, a material widely used in manufacturing. Nigel Scrutton, a co-founder of C3 Biotech in Stockport, England, makes a point of showing off these expensive failures before explaining that the eureka…
The German Auto Industry, a Pillar of the National Psyche, Is Trembling
The centerpiece of Mercedes-Benz’s 140th birthday party in January was a patent application filed in 1886 by an engineer named Carl Benz for a “vehicle with gas engine.” The way Mercedes executives spoke of the handwritten document, which at one point was projected on a large wall on the company campus in Stuttgart, Germany, it might have been a sacred parchment. It not only certifies that Germany is the birthplace of the automobile but also helps explain why the woes of the country’s automakers — Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW —…
BMW to cut ‘as many as 8,000 jobs’ under pressure from Chinese rivals
BMW is planning to cut as many as 8,000 jobs in Germany, according to reports, in the latest sign of Europe’s largest carmakers reducing costs under pressure from Chinese rivals. The Munich-headquartered company has started a voluntary redundancy programme agreed with employee representatives, a BMW spokesperson said on Wednesday. The company and its works council had agreed a severance programme targeting the administration and development divisions, the spokesperson said. Production operations are excluded. BMW’s total workforce is about 160,000. Germany’s carmakers have come under intense pressure in recent years with…
Mass job cuts loom at VW as profits fall steeply on China sales slump
Carmaker expects to sell 3% fewer vehicles this year as it pushes through a programme that could eliminate 100,000 roles Volkswagen has reported a steep fall in profits and cut its revenue forecast amid a sales slump in China, as the German carmaker pushes through a brutal cost-cutting programme that includes axeing up to 100,000 jobs. VW said it expects sales revenue to fall by up to 3% this year, a reversal of a previous forecast for a 3% increase on last year’s €321.9bn (£275.3bn), because of a sales slump…
The Quest for ‘Technological Sovereignty’ in Europe (and Why It’s So Hard)
The French government said this year that it would replace Zoom and other American videoconference software with a French-developed alternative. Germany is building a homegrown platform for artificial intelligence. Companies in both countries are teaming up to build A.I. chips to rival those of the United States and China. These are modest steps in Europe’s high-stakes race to catch up to America and China in the global sprint for digital independence. Without it, Europe’s political and business leaders worry, they will be vulnerable to sudden losses of access to critical…
The Guardian view on Volkswagen’s crisis: another wake-up call for Germany and the EU | Editorial
According to a recent analysis, China enjoys a surplus in its manufactured goods trade with the European Union that is roughly equivalent to Italy’s national income. That trade disparity, it is estimated, continues to grow by about 30% each year. The stark implication, according to a paper from Centre for European Reform, is that Europe, with Germany in the frontline, risks “deindustrialisation at China’s hand”. The gravity of the threat was grimly evident in the car industry last week, as Volkswagen’s supervisory board met to discuss radical proposals to cut…
How Volkswagen’s Troubles Were Made in China
Volkswagen has problems around the world, spurring it to announce on Thursday that it would slash the number of models it offers by as much as half, but many of its troubles can be traced to China. The German auto giant, the world’s second-largest carmaker after Toyota, led the pack in China, the world’s largest car market, for four decades. For many years, the company’s joint ventures and factories in China provided half or more of the company’s worldwide profits, which helped Volkswagen afford high salaries and generous benefits for…
German car industry warns of job collapse unless ‘bold decisions’ made to address Chinese threat
The German car industry has warned of a potential collapse of employment in the sector in Europe unless society and workers accept that “bold decisions” are needed to address competition from the Chinese and other rivals. Volkswagen is preparing to formally propose up to 100,000 job losses, a move that has triggered a wave of protests. The statement from the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), which appears timed to coincide with this meeting, went as far as to say that handing some of the country’s car plants over…
Inside the Telegram ‘drug rape’ chat group that shocked Germany
Early last year, Ivy*, a Chinese student living in Germany, got a phone call from the police. At first, she thought it was a scam. An officer said they needed her help with an investigation involving someone she once knew. What followed turned her world upside down. The police told her that her former boyfriend, identified in court documents as Tong Z, had been investigated for sexual assault and covert photography. Then came the tougher blow: police showed her a number of nude photos Tong Z had secretly taken of…