Economy
Struggling Volkswagen to freeze global wages through 2030
Embattled German carmaker Volkswagen plans to freeze salaries for its staff worldwide at 2026 levels until 2030, the group’s works council said Monday.
Volkswagen’s executive board instructed human resources managers worldwide to suspend pay increases, according to the company’s Global Works Council.
The council said it had received internal information about the executive board’s plans. Volkswagen declined to comment on “speculation.”
A spokesperson added that a new round of talks later this week would be the forum for any proposals on labor costs.
The directive has been in effect since early October, replacing a budgeting approach that allowed compensation for inflation and locally negotiated wage increases, the council said.
It called the management’s approach “absurd” and said it expected strong resistance to what is described as the plan’s “rather unrealistic” implementation.
“At Volkswagen, pay development is decided at the negotiating table, not by decree from the executive boardroom,” a spokesperson for Germany’s trade union IG Metall said
IG Metall is seeking a 5% wage increase over 12 months.
Volkswagen employs more than 660,000 people worldwide, including 275,000 in Germany.
Works Council President Daniela Cavallo asked management Sunday evening to explain the plan to employees.
Relations between Volkswagen and its labor representatives have deteriorated in recent months, as CEO Oliver Blume pushes ahead with the most radical restructuring in the German auto group’s history.
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported the news earlier Monday, citing internal documents.
The absence of pay rises could mean a loss of income of around 10% for those affected, due to inflation, the paper said.
The report said the new global management guidelines, effective from the fourth quarter, also include cuts to variable pay, special payments, benefits and jobs.
Every child in the United States will be given a share in rocket company SpaceX, tech billionaire Elon Musk announced Monday.
“Next year, I will give one of my SpaceX shares to every kid in America,” Musk, the richest man in the world, said on the social media platform X.
“This will be the first of many,” he said, without providing details about how the scheme would work.
There are around 73 million children under the age of 18 in the United States, according to 2024 data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Musk owns 38% of SpaceX, according to Forbes.
His announcement comes after President Donald Trump promised last month to give every American adult $5,000 if his Republican party retains control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.
SpaceX set the record for the largest initial public offering in history, raising $85.7 billion in June.
The company’s Starship megarocket reached orbit for the first time in September, a milestone for the rocket central to Musk’s Mars ambitions.
Türkiye will take some of the diesel Russia is supplying to global markets under its agreement with U.S. President Donald Trump, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Sunday.
Bayraktar said the U.S.-Russia diesel supply deal was important in terms of energy security for Türkiye. Ankara relies on Russia for some of its energy needs, as well as on Iran, Azerbaijan and others. It is trying to diversify through deals with the U.S. and other partners.
“Russia imposed restrictions on diesel exports in recent months when they started experiencing this problem. Now they reached a diesel deal with Trump… Through the talks we held, we will take some of that diesel to Türkiye,” Bayraktar told broadcaster Kanal 7. He did not elaborate.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, European officials and some of Trump’s fellow Republican politicians strongly criticised the deal.
Bayraktar also said that Türkiye plans to bring a second floating gas production platform online in the first quarter of 2028, adding that the platform would bring Türkiye’s daily output in the Black Sea to 45 million cubic metres.
On Saturday, Türkiye sent its first floating gas production platform, the Osman Gazi, to the Black Sea, a move Bayraktar has said is expected to roughly double daily output from its largest domestic gas field, the Sakarya field, to 20 million cubic metres from the current 9.5 million, equivalent to 7.3 billion cubic metres (bcm) annually.
“In the first quarter of 2028, the second floating production platform is coming to Türkiye and we will carry out 25 million cubic metres of production with it. It has a slightly bigger capacity (than Osman Gazi),” he said.
“Therefore, with 45 million cubic metres, we will be using our own gas in three out of four homes in Türkiye.”
He added that Türkiye’s daily production at the field would increase to 550,000 barrels of oil equivalent with the second floating platform.
Türkiye is one of Europe’s largest gas markets, consuming 59 bcm last year. The country relies on imports for almost all its gas needs, with domestic production totalling 3.1 bcm last year, most of it from the Sakarya field.
Bayraktar also said hydrocarbon exploration operations planned off Pakistan had been delayed by about six months due to the Iran war’s impact on the region.
Chinese economy expanded by 4.5% in the third quarter, fueled by robust exports, moving closer to meeting its official annual growth target for the year as its trading partners seek to balance their trade deficits with the country.
The better-than-expected data accelerated from the 4.3% year-over-year growth recorded in the April-June period, which was the slowest expansion in more than three years.
For the whole year, Chinese leaders have set a growth target of 4.5%-5%, down from last year’s 5% expansion. Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) trimmed its forecast for China’s 2026 economic growth to 4.5%, the lower end of Beijing’s goal.
“Domestic demand was weak, while trade grew strongly,” said Dave Chia, an economist at Moody’s Analytics. Exports will likely stay strong, but global trade barriers remain a risk.
The headline official growth figure is becoming “an increasingly poor indicator of how the broader economy is performing,” said Max Zenglein, Asia Pacific senior economist at The Conference Board.
That’s because it masks “widening disparities across industries, regions, and households,” Zenglein said. Beijing faces difficult trade-offs and managing domestic imbalances may prove more challenging than dealing with external pressures, he said.
China’s domestic demand has been weighed down by a yearslong downturn in its property market that has squeezed household wealth and driven up savings.
On Monday, Mao Shengyong, deputy head of China’s National Bureau of Statistics, also cautioned about the economic challenges ahead. “The international environment is complex and volatile, the problem of insufficient domestic demand remains relatively prominent and the foundation for a stable, improving economy still needs consolidation,” he told a news conference.
Still, with strong exports being one of the few bright spots, China is on track to surpass last year’s record $1.2 trillion trade surplus globally, after logging a 36% growth in exports last month and already a $938 billion surplus between January and September.
Elevated U.S. tariffs have hit some U.S.-China bilateral trade and forced China to look elsewhere, including Southeast Asia, Latin America and Europe. High-tech exports such as semiconductors and autos, including hybrid and electric vehicles, are among the areas driving its export growth this year.
As China pursues self-sufficiency to help shield itself from Western export controls and trade uncertainties, it has built up massive domestic manufacturing capacities across industries such as solar and EVs, which are also heavily subsidized by the government. But output was scaled up rapidly at a time of weakened domestic consumption, so many of these goods are shipped to overseas markets at competitive pricing.
An export-reliant growth model that’s highly tech-driven has shown limited job creation and broad income gains while risks of artificial intelligence-driven labor displacements continue to grow, said Ecaterina Bigos, senior market strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management.
For many of its trade partners, they fear their domestic industries and economies are facing growing threats from the surge of lower-cost Chinese manufactured imports.
“It is untenable and unsustainable for the world’s second largest economy to rely on foreign demand to prop up its own growth,” said Eswar Prasad, a professor of economics and trade policy at Cornell University.
Through its persistent and large trade surpluses, China “has become a drag on world growth rather than an engine that pulls the rest of the world along,” Prasad said.
The European Union is among those impatient to reduce its trade imbalance with China. The 27-nation bloc runs a trade deficit with China of more than $1.1 billion a day.
For the first nine months of the year, Chinese exports to the EU were up 16%. EU countries are eyeing more curbs on China after the EU reached an agreement with China this month to roughly halve the number of Chinese hybrid vehicle imports over the next few years.
China can work with other countries on disputes and it wants to keep its market access, said Gary Ng, a senior economist for Asia Pacific at French bank Natixis. With a deal with the EU on hybrid cars, for example, China can likely still sell more made-by-China products to its economies in the longer run while avoiding a broad tariff hike.
But even with agreements made between China and the EU, “trade imbalances will be difficult to resolve quickly,” said Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at Dutch bank ING.
Policymakers are also arguing that an undervalued yuan, China’s currency, against the dollar and the euro has contributed to China’s growing trade surplus, even though China’s central bank has dismissed the claims.
“We are likely to see continued resistance, rising protectionism, and persistent pressure from economies globally to protect their industries, and jobs, notably in high value sectors,” noted Bigos.
Beijing has insisted that China does not seek a large trade surplus. On Friday, China’s central bank governor Pan Gongsheng said countries with trade deficits and those with trade surpluses should work together, and that China, as a responsible country, has been committed to expanding domestic demand.
Türkiye foresees spending amounting to over TL 1 trillion ($20.2 billion) next year on transportation and logistics, according to a report on Sunday.
The spending would be covering different areas including railway transportation, road transportation, information and communications, maritime transportation, combined transport, logistics, and the transportation of dangerous goods.
Technological advances are bringing rapid changes to the transportation sector. To keep pace with these developments, various amounts of funding would be allocated to transportation programs next year, according to information compiled by Anadolu Agency (AA) from the government’s 2027 central budget proposal.
Under this plan, railway transportation is projected to receive the largest share of the transportation budget, amounting to TL 514.9 billion. The budget for this category, which stood at approximately TL 377.2 billion this year, has thus been increased by around 36.5% for 2027.
Road transportation ranks second. Its budget, which was set at TL 365.15 billion would increase by about 32.1% to reach TL 482.45 billion next year.
The budget for information and communications is also seen rising by nearly 39%, from approximately TL 23.3 billion to TL 32.33 billion.
The budget for maritime transportation, which amounted to approximately TL 7 billion would jump by 166% next year to over TL 18 billion.
Meanwhile, the budget for combined transport, logistics, and the transportation of dangerous goods will increase by 21.3% compared with this year to TL 7.3 billion.
As a result, the total budget allocated to transportation programs, which stood at nearly TL 778.5 billion this year is expected to hit over TL 1 trillion, representing an increase of 35.54%.
Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu said that key priorities for transportation investment include making more efficient use of existing infrastructure, increasing railway capacity, developing port and logistics infrastructure, and integrating different modes of transportation.
“A budget of more than TL 1 trillion has been allocated for investments across all modes of transportation next year. Railways have received the largest allocation,” Uraloğlu was quoted as saying.
“We will further expand our railway investments to weave our country together with railway networks,” he added.
He also pointed out that investments have not been limited to railways.
“We have invested in many areas, from roads and railways to aviation and maritime transport. Through its major investments and infrastructure projects in transportation, Türkiye has undergone a significant transformation. Türkiye is a country that has made a major leap forward in transportation,” he noted.
Uraloğlu also stated that, in 2027, investments in road, rail, and air transportation, as well as maritime transport and communications, would continue without interruption, supported by the budget allocated to these sectors.
“As a ministry, our share of investment funding from the national budget in 2026 is approximately TL 525 billion. The total value of the projects we have inaugurated and will inaugurate this year will exceed TL 605 billion,” he added.
He concluded by mentioning that there are “many projects that will be opened to the public before the end of the year.”
Vietnam and four European nations outside the EU bloc inked a free trade agreement (FTA) in Hanoi on Sunday, seeking to diversify their markets and strengthen cooperation as U.S. tariff pressures and tensions continue to disrupt global commerce.
The deal, between Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economy and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), which includes Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, eliminates or reduces customs duties, including on imports of industrial, fish and agricultural products.
The deal was signed in the capital in the presence of Vietnam’s top leader To Lam and representatives of EFTA governments.
Vietnam said the agreement showed the parties’ resolve to “reinforce the rules-based trading system amid continued volatility in the global economy,” according to a government statement.
It was also expected to help Vietnam “diversify its import and export markets” and “integrate more deeply into global value chains,” the government said.
Vietnam and EFTA concluded negotiations in July, more than a decade after the free trade talks officially began in 2012.
The parties relaunched negotiations in September last year, after they had stalled since 2018.
The agreement followed a global trade-disrupting tariff blitz by the U.S. under President Donald Trump, which has left Vietnam with a hefty tax on its U.S. exports amid ongoing negotiations with Washington.
Experts say the new deal reflected a shared initiative to diversify commercial ties and reduce reliance on major trading partners.
“As the U.S. increasingly exerts trade pressure on European countries, the agreement is a joint effort to turn economic integration into greater strategic autonomy and to develop alternative commercial relationships rather than relying exclusively on their largest partners,” history and politics scholar Do Dinh Lam Khang told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
For Vietnam, closer ties with EFTA economies could support its ambition to move into higher-value-added activities, Khang added.
The agreement covers trade in goods and services, intellectual property rights, trade remedies and sustainable development, among other areas, both parties say.
Bilateral trade between the EFTA and Vietnam last year was valued at 4.8 billion euros ($5.4 billion), according to the association.
Electrical and mechanical machinery, fish and pharmaceutical products were the EFTA nations’ top exports to Vietnam last year.
Machinery, footwear and apparel were manufacturing hub Vietnam’s major exports to the EFTA.
The association was created as a counterpart to the European Economic Community (EEC), precursor of the European Union, which its four member states are close to, but have not joined.
Elon Musk is back in the spotlight once again with a car that flips through the air, but his consistent dive into politics and renewed alignment with U.S. President Donald Trump make him a more divisive figure than in the years past.
“All the things that we were promised since the 1950s, of space travel and flying cars … he’s doing all of those things,” said Andrew Selepak, a social media professor at the University of Florida.
“And yet we’re not giving it the attention, we’re not giving it the awe that it probably truly deserves,” he added.
In recent weeks, Musk has seemed to be everywhere at once.
On Sept. 28, SpaceX’s Starship megarocket reached orbit for the first time and deployed 26 Starlink satellites before splashing down in the Pacific, a milestone for the rocket central to Musk’s Mars ambitions.
Musk’s central role in geopolitics has also been on display, with Ukraine complaining of disruptions to the Starshield satellite communications system its military relies on.
Even the platform formerly known as Twitter is enjoying something of a renaissance, with Musk’s X now the go-to social media app for Silicon Valley insiders and the main marketplace for talk about artificial intelligence.
But despite his continued success, Musk’s unrelenting commitment to right-wing politics has taken a toll.
No image captured that shift more than Musk brandishing a chainsaw on stage in February 2025 – a gift from Argentine President Javier Milei – as a symbol of his drive to slash the U.S. government as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the early months of Trump’s second term.
Through DOGE, Musk’s allies fanned out across federal agencies, driving cuts that effectively dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and contributed to a net loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs.
‘National treasure’
That combative imagery has been matched by Musk’s posts on X, where hardline anti-immigration views and right-wing conspiracy theories sit alongside posts about rocket launches and Tesla robotaxis.
Now Musk is back in Trump’s good graces, after a spectacular falling-out that followed his exit from DOGE in May 2025.
Last week, Trump presented Musk with the nation’s top science medal, calling him a “national treasure” and “our modern-day Thomas Edison.”
The renewed relationship comes as Musk has spent at least $276 million on Republican political campaigns ahead of next month’s midterm elections, in which the president’s party is expected to struggle.
Of that, $158 million is funding a massive advertising campaign in Texas, Musk’s home state, where the Republican candidate is trailing in the polls.
For left-leaning pundits, Musk is now increasingly seen as an agent of Trump and the tech billionaires rather than a technology savant working for the good of humanity.
That opposition plays out in “Musk,” a four-hour documentary by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney now in U.S. theaters, which traces the life and career of the South Africa-born billionaire.
“I once described him as somebody who can jump off the edge of a cliff and invent a parachute on the way down. I think he thrives on chaos,” Musk’s first wife, Justine Musk, who features prominently in the film, told podcaster Kara Swisher.
Yet, she added, “I always assume that there’s a method to his madness,” and many of his loudest actions may in fact be deflections and “sleight of hand.”
The same may be true of Musk’s dealings with Washington.
Few entrepreneurs depend as heavily on the federal government as Musk does.
SpaceX – which went public in June in the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history – earns billions of dollars a year from NASA and Pentagon contracts, while Tesla’s bet on robotaxis hinges on how quickly regulators allow driverless cars onto U.S. roads.
Seen in that light, Musk’s millions for Republicans may be less a political conversion than an investment.
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