Overview
- A late‑June heatwave is producing record highs above 40°C and forcing widespread event cancellations, early museum and pool closures, and extra emergency calls this weekend.
- Rail operators have suspended or warned against non‑essential travel, with National Express stopping several RRX lines for the hottest hours and Deutsche Bahn advising passengers to avoid unnecessary trips.
- Deutsche Bahn has admitted that routine maintenance knocked out train radio and that a reserve system failed, while chief executive Evelyn Palla has publicly named “grave errors” and pushed the Stuttgart 21 opening back to 2031.
- Volkswagen has drawn up plans to cut up to 100,000 jobs worldwide and consider mid‑term closures of several German plants, a move that unions and works councils say they will resist and that could reshape Germany’s auto sector.
- Industry and politics are under pressure in other ways: Bosch’s CEO Stefan Hartung will step down at month’s end with Christian Fischer named as successor, and Bavaria’s coalition has proposed moving the state’s CO₂‑neutrality target from 2040 to 2045, a shift that health experts warn could raise heat‑related costs and risks.