Tado, the German smart home startup that specializes in thermostats and more recently moved into flexible “time of use” energy tariffs based on loadshifting technology, is today announcing the next step in its life as a business. It’s going public by way of a SPAC deal. GFJ ESG Acquisition, a German SPAC entity focused specifically […]
China’s robotaxis charged ahead in 2021
Autonomous driving startups in China are in an arms race to put passengers in their machine-driven vehicles. Every few weeks, news arrives that another major player has got the greenlight to launch a new pilot program or a small-scale service. These press releases, often dotted with regulatory jargon and flowery language to aggrandize the companies’ […]
In bad news for US cloud services, Austrian website’s use of Google Analytics found to breach GDPR
A decision by Austria’s data protection watchdog upholding a complaint against a website related to its use of Google Analytics does not bode well for use of US cloud services in Europe. The decision raises a big red flag over routine use of tools that require transferring Europeans’ personal data to the US for processing […]
Fact-checkers write open letter urging YouTube to get serious about COVID misinformation
A group of more than 80 prominent fact-checking organizations around the world is pressing YouTube to take action against COVID misinformation, which still prevails on the platform now two years into the pandemic. “As an international network of fact-checking organizations, we monitor how lies spread online — and every day, we see that YouTube is […]
Retrieved after decades: the painting supposedly ‘bought’ by the Nazis
A new book recounts one woman’s struggle to find looted art – and then convince a major museum to give it backFresh proof that the Nazis set up fake auctions and phoney paperwork to disguise their looting of art and valuable possessions has been uncove…
Loss of school trips to the UK has been a Brexit tragedy | Letters
New visa requirements mean that EU students will go elsewhere, writes Karen Brandes, while Brigid Hoffmann worries about the consequences for language learningThe slump in school trips to the UK described in your article does not surprise me at all (‘A…
Polish deputy PM says Germany wants to turn EU into ‘fourth reich’
Jarosław Kaczyński’s remarks in far-right newspaper are latest episode in Poland’s lengthy standoff with EUThe head of Poland’s ruling party, Jarosław Kaczyński, has said Germany is trying to turn the EU into a federal “German fourth reich”.Speaking to…
Nord Stream 2: how Putin’s pipeline paralysed the west
Gazprom’s $11bn project to deliver gas from Russia to Germany seems impossible to abandon and impossible to carry forwardThe saga of Nord Stream 2, the gas pipeline between Russia and Germany running along the Baltic seabed, has been stuck so long it h…
Delivery Hero calls last orders on Foodpanda in Germany, Japan as it tightens focus on Q-commerce and logistics-as-a-service
German on-demand delivery giant Delivery Hero is pulling its food delivery service out of Germany again. At the same time it has announced it will exit the Japanese market, by divesting Foodpanda Japan, starting in Q1 next year. In a statement accompanying the pre-Christmas exit news, the company’s CEO and co-founder, Niklas Östberg, said: “Scaling […]
European markets rebound, but Omicron fears remain – business live
Rolling live coverage of business, economics and financial marketsThe mood of consumers in Europe’s largest economy is darkening as the Omicron variant spreads across the region. According to the latest consumer sentiment index from Germany’s GfK insti…