Business

"VitiVoltaic" projects aim to make viticulture fit for climate change. The term is a portmanteau of the Latin genus name for the grapevine, vitis vinifera, and the word for solar power generation, photovoltaics. This new technology makes it possible to harvest two very different things on two levels: Electricity above and wine grapes below. Pilot projects are underway to test which technology works where — and at what price. In Germany's southwestern Rheingau region, known for its picturesque vineyards, the Hochschule Geisenheim University (HGU) specializes in all aspects of the wine industry. Here, researchers have created a test facility to determine how the region's beloved white Riesling might sustainably thrive with the help of photovoltaic (PV) modules despite changes to the climate...

China has again overtaken the US to become Germany's top trading partner, thanks to a rise in imports to Germany in the first three quarters of 2025.  This comes amid tariff tensions with both countries, albeit with Donald Trump's trade policies probably getting the most attention, and as German exports to both the core markets falter. Car sales suffered in particular. What were the core figures?  The government's statistics office, Destatis, published corrected data on Wednesday showing a total trade volume with China of €185.9 billion (roughly $215 billion) between January and September. That's an increase of 0.6% compared to the same period last year. Meanwhile, trade with the US was down 3.9% compared to the first nine months of 2024, standing at €184.7 billion.  China had usurped...

Large language models like ChatGPT infringe on German authors' rights laws if they use song lyrics in their responses without having paid license fees for them, a Munich court ruled on Tuesday.  Judge Elke Schwager at the Munich District Court I said that OpenAI, the US company that owns ChatGPT, would be charged damages for the unauthorized usage. She did not specify a sum.  The claimant and a German journalists' trade union both claimed the case could have far-reaching implications for AI or large language models and intellectual property and copyright laws. The verdict can be appealed. "We do not agree with the verdict and are examining further steps," OpenAI said in response, adding that it respected intellectual property rights and was in negotiations with relevant organizations a...

US aviation giant Boeing posted quarterly losses of $5.4 billion (roughly €4.6 billion) on Wednesday. This was prompted in large part by a $5 billion penalty for pushing back the first delivery of its long-delayed 777X model until 2027. The loss includes compensation payable to customers facing delayed deliveries, Boeing said. Delayed widebody a financial and an opportunity cost Last month, CEO Kelly Ortberg had said the company was behind schedule in certifying the jet and that a "mountain of work" still needed to be done. But he had not announced further delays beyond the 2026 delivery date that was planned at the time. The 777X is losing ground to Airbus' A350, precisely as longer-distance international air travel starts to rebound after COVIDImage: Lewis Joly/AP/dpa/picture allianc...

Oliver Blume is to step down as the CEO of German sports carmaker Porsche, the firm said on Friday. He also serves in the same role in Volkswagen Group, Porsche's parent company, a dual position that has attracted significant criticism amid years of struggles for the German car industry. Blume will remain at the helm of Volkswagen, Porsche's supervisory board said in a statement. He has been CEO of Porsche since 2015 and took over at Volkswagen in 2022 after the resignation of Herbert Diess. Porsche said that Blume's likely replacement is Michael Leiters, who had previously served as the CEO of UK-based sports car company McLaren.Shareholders argued against Blume's dual position at Porsche and its ailing parent company, Volkswagen GroupImage: Arnulf Hettrich/imageBROKER/picture allianc...

Amazon's cloud services unit, AWS, which provides computing power, data storage and other digital services to companies, governments and individuals, experienced an outage Monday. The disruption caused widespread connectivity issues for major online companies around the world. According to the internet services monitoring platform Downdetector, Amazon's own shopping website, Prime Video and Alexa all faced problems. AWS identified the issue as a problem with a regional gateway on the US East Coast. Hours later, it said "underlying DNS issue has been fully mitigated," with services returning to normal operations at 18:00 Eastern Time (00:00 CET). Disruption hits internet services The AWS outage was the most significant internet disruption since last year's CrowdStrike failure, which c...

Factories shut for over a month and suppliers suffered in particular. A report puts the costs at around $2.5 billion, making it the most economically damaging cyber event ever to hit the UK.

The European Commission says the tech giants may have made it hard for researchers to access public data, which could impact research into whether users, including children, are being exposed to harmful content online.

Secondhand is winning two-to-one on my clothing rack. It makes sense. I grew up thrifting. I'll never forget the thrill of digging up the navy-blue plush hoodie of my dreams at one of the countless flea markets I visited with my mom as a kid. But today, I'm on a smaller mission for a basic black t-shirt because I'm over the ones I have. Since I found that hoodie, secondhand has had a serious glow up. Small, chaotic charity shops like Goodwill or Oxfam have given way to minimalistic vintage boutiques where a used shirt can cost more than a new one. And it's big business. In 2024, the global secondhand apparel market was worth $227 billion (€194 billion) — as much as Apple's yearly sales, according to retail analyst Neil Saunders. Younger Gen Z and millennial consumers are driving the thri...

The US Federal Reserve , commonly known as the Fed, lowered its benchmark rate Wednesday by a quarter percentage point, the first such cut since last year. It cut the benchmark lending rate to a range between 4.0% and 4.25%. The Fed paused its easing cycle in January due to uncertainty over how President Donald Trump's import tariffs might affect inflation and the overall economy. It said Wednesday's cut was warranted as, "downside risks to employment have risen" even as inflation has "moved up and remains somewhat elevated." Although inflation remains slightly above the Fed's target rate of 2%, data shows hiring has slowed to a halt in recent months, while the unemployment rate has risen.  Lowering interest rates, and reducing borrowing costs, is tool used by central banks to boost h...