Germany

• Munich-based startup Microagi has raised $55 million in a seed funding round, marking the largest seed round ever recorded in Germany. • The company intends to use the capital to scale the deployment of humanoid robots by integrating its proprietary software with Chinese hardware and training data from New York. • This cross-border collaboration highlights the continued global integration of physical AI development despite ongoing geopolitical tensions and calls for tech decoupling.

Agreement combines Uber Eats with food delivery brands in 99 countries and expands taxi service reachBusiness live – latest updatesUber has reached an agreement to take over the German takeaway company Delivery Hero in a $14.8bn (£11bn, or €12.9bn) deal that would create a global food delivery giant.The US tech firm said it had offered to pay €41.50 a share to Delivery Hero’s shareholders, valuing the business at $14.8bn. Uber will pay $13.7bn after accounting for its previous purchases of a quarter of Delivery Hero’s shares, most recently in May. Continue reading...

New state department scheme will provide grants to ‘address sovereignty, migration, censorship and lawfare’Friedrich Merz has warned Donald Trump’s administration against interfering in German elections after the US state department announced a scheme to fund Maga-aligned causes in Europe.The German chancellor was responding to a new US initiative offering grants of up to $3m (£2.2m) for European charities, thinktanks and individuals. Continue reading...

Aid worker flown to Berlin as Trump administration bars Americans from traveling to US on commercial flightsA US national who contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has arrived in Germany for treatment, the health ministry in Berlin said on Monday, weeks after another American infected with Ebola in the DRC was treated in Berlin.Meanwhile, the Trump administration on Monday said it was blocking American citizens in ⁠the DRC from traveling to the US on commercial flights, Reuters reported, citing a White House official. Continue reading...

Authorities confirm worst toll in more than 20 years as new extreme temperatures force early closure of Eiffel TowerNearly 100 people, the largest proportion of whom were young men, died by drowning in Germany last month, authorities have said, as extreme temperatures in western Europe that have been blamed for hundreds of excess deaths geared up again.In Germany’s worst death toll from drowning for more than two decades, 99 people died in June, according to official figures, after temperatures rose as high as 41.7C (107.1F) in some areas. Continue reading...

Measures would make it easier for victims to seek compensation, with companies such as Bolt and Lime held responsible for damageVictims hit by rental e-scooters on German streets will have an easier time gaining compensation from their operators under legislation due to pass parliament that would put the vehicles on a similar legal footing to cars.The draft law by the right-left coalition government, which has been welcomed by consumer rights advocates, says that given the rapid rise in the use of e-scooters in recent years coupled with high accident rates, rental operators such as Lime and Bolt should be held liable. Continue reading...

Demonstrations at 18 sites set up as radical transformation plan put to board of Europe’s biggest carmakerVolkswagen’s proposal to slash up to 100,000 jobs and close factories faces a major test on Thursday as formal proposals are put to the supervisory board at Europe’s biggest carmaker, with protests planned at all plants in Germany.IG Metall, the influential staff union, has organised demonstrations involving shop stewards and union council members at 18 sites, including the company’s headquarters. It warned the chief executive, Oliver Blume, that he cannot “pass the buck for failures of recent years on to the workforce”. Continue reading...