Volkswagens Oliver Blume unveils sweeping plan to slash model range as Austrias Nationalrat passes dual budget
VW’s Oliver Blume unveils sweeping 2030 plan as Austria’s Nationalrat passes dual budget
Volkswagen Group chief executive Oliver Blume presented a sweeping “future plan” to the company’s supervisory board on Thursday, outlining a radical restructuring that will slash the German automaker’s model range by up to 50 percent and cut customer options by as much as 75 percent by 2030. Speaking after the closed-door meeting in Wolfsburg, Blume said the twelve-point package was designed to restore profitability and accelerate the shift to electric mobility, though he gave no details on potential job cuts or plant closures.
The announcement came as Austria’s lower house, the Nationalrat, approved a dual budget for 2027 and 2028 in a marathon session that ran into the early hours of Friday. Lawmakers concluded three days of line-by-line scrutiny by debating family, youth, mobility, research, defence and finance before final votes on the federal finance laws and the overall financial framework. With the chamber now adjourned for the summer recess, the government can proceed with its legislative agenda ahead of autumn negotiations with the European Union.
Across the Atlantic, the space pioneer Wally Funk has died at her home in Grapevine, Texas. The 82-year-old aviator, who flew aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket in 2021 to become the oldest woman in space, passed away of natural causes surrounded by family, the company said. “We are deeply saddened by Wally’s passing,” Blue Origin said in a statement. “We felt honoured to be part of her journey.” Funk, who in the 1960s trained as a candidate for the Mercury 13 women-in-space programme, later served as the first female air-safety investigator at the US National Transportation Safety Board and the first female flight instructor at the Federal Aviation Administration.
On the sporting front, France secured a comfortable 2-0 victory over Morocco in the World Cup quarter-finals, booking a semi-final berth in Dallas on Tuesday. Kylian Mbappé, who missed a first-half penalty, redeemed himself with an 8th career World Cup goal in the 60th minute to draw level with Lionel Messi as the tournament’s joint top scorer. Ousmane Dembélé added a second six minutes later as the reigning world champions marched on despite the setback. Their opponent will be decided later Friday when Spain and Belgium contest the second quarter-final.
The Nationalrat’s budget approval capped a week in which European capitals also grappled with extreme weather. Wildfires in southern Spain’s Almería province killed at least twelve people and injured six more after a power line collapsed and ignited dry terrain, authorities said. Thousands have been evacuated across southern Europe as heatwaves push temperatures to historic highs, prompting calls for expanded public cooling centres. In an editorial, the *Münchner Merkur* noted that while countries like Greece, Italy and Spain provide widespread air-conditioned refuges, “that is what is missing north of the Alps.”
Meanwhile, Iran buried former supreme leader Ali Khamenei in Mashhad on Friday after a multi-day funeral observed despite active hostilities between Tehran and Washington. Khamenei, who died in an Israeli airstrike on 28 February, was laid to rest at the Imam Reza shrine as US strikes on Iranian soil and Iranian retaliatory attacks on Gulf allies continued. His designated successor, son Mojtaba Khamenei, was conspicuously absent from the ceremonies.
In Berlin, Chancellor Friedrich Merz used a government declaration to hail a major arms deal for Tomahawk cruise missiles while acknowledging the need for domestic defence production. Yet commentators criticised the address for sidelining climate policy amid a fresh European heatwave that has already driven a spike in heat-related fatalities. “The public debate has been remarkably muted given the scale of the silent catastrophe,” the *Münchner Merkur* wrote, urging pragmatic measures to protect vulnerable populations regardless of broader climate disputes.
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