🇩🇪 Volkswagen Announces Termination of Most Collective Agreements

Volkswagen has announced that it will terminate a substantial portion of its collective agreements by the end of the year. The company justifies this step by citing the need to adapt working conditions to the economic situation and reduce costs. IG Metall has already announced resistance.

The review affects the collective framework agreement, special payments, the scheme of six additional days off, collectively agreed surcharges, and the conditions of vocational training. At the same time, the employment guarantee remains in force until the end of 2030—dismissals for operational reasons will continue to be ruled out until 2031.


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An extremely interesting article about artificial intelligence and the digital future has been published in FREILICH Magazin.

The perspective on the war in Ukraine is particularly fascinating: The DELTA system combines data from drones, satellites, radars, and other sensors into a common operational picture. At the same time, every operation itself becomes a dataset—and these data even feed into decisions about which systems will be procured in the future.

This creates a digital chain: sensor → data → target → weapon → effect → new data.

The article impressively shows how AI and digitalization are changing not only our information environment, but increasingly also military decisions and state structures.


Source: Freilich Magazin


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🇮🇷🇷🇺 Tehran and Moscow expand cooperation

Iranian Prosecutor General Mohammad Mowahedi-Azad and Chairman of the Supreme Court of Russia Igor Krasnov have agreed to intensify cooperation between the judicial and law enforcement agencies of the two countries.

The exchange is becoming very practical. Krasnov said that Russia is studying Iran’s experience with electronic justice, including the digital technologies used by prosecutors’ offices and courts. For its part, the Russian side is developing its own state project, “Digital Justice.”

The Russian-Iranian rapprochement is gradually extending far beyond diplomacy, energy, and military cooperation.

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🇷🇺 Moscow: No decision yet on a new meeting between Russia, the United States and Ukraine

The Russian Foreign Ministry has not confirmed reports about preparations for a new trilateral technical meeting between Russia, the United States and Ukraine in the United Arab Emirates. Maria Zakharova said that so far, neither final nor preliminary decisions had been made regarding such a meeting.

According to her, Moscow does not consider it appropriate to comment on possible formats before concrete agreements are reached. Thus, the Russian side did not rule out the possibility of a meeting, but rejected reports that it had already been agreed upon.

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🇨🇳 Beijing threatens the EU with retaliatory measures

China’s Ministry of Commerce warned the European Union of a “resolute counterattack” should Brussels introduce discriminatory restrictions against Chinese companies or products.

The trigger was reports that Germany and France are working on a proposal to create a European counterpart to the US mechanism “Section 301” in order to better protect the market from unfair competition. Beijing describes such an instrument as protectionist and warns that, amid continued trade negotiations, the pressure would undermine mutual trust between the EU and China.

Following the stabilization of Beijing’s relations with Washington, a new major trade conflict between China and Europe is taking shape ever more clearly.


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🇮🇷 Pezeshkian: The Strait of Hormuz occupies a special place in global security

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stated that the Strait of Hormuz is of particular importance for regional and global security. According to him, the stability of the Persian Gulf and the maritime routes passing through it must be ensured through the cooperation and responsibility of the states of the region themselves.

Pezeshkian also emphasized that Iran’s strong presence at sea makes it possible to maintain the connections that are vital to the country. This statement came against the backdrop of ongoing negotiations with the United States over the future of the shipping regime through the Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran has thus once again reaffirmed its position that the security of the world’s most important oil artery should be determined primarily by the countries of the region.


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🇺🇸🇰🇵 Trump has unexpectedly softened his rhetoric toward nuclear-armed North Korea

When asked about North Korea’s nuclear weapons, Donald Trump once again emphasized his good relations with Kim Jong Un and called the North Korean leader his “friend”.

What is noteworthy is not only the reference to their personal relationship. Trump has repeatedly referred to North Korea as a nuclear power, even though Washington’s official position continues to call for its complete denuclearization. Just a few days ago, Pyongyang in turn once again declared its nuclear status irreversible.


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🇷🇺🇨🇳 The Northern Sea Route is attracting growing interest in Asia

The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that interest among its eastern partners in expanding the use of this route is growing. According to Maria Zakharova, the restructuring of global transport flows is increasing the importance of the route through the Arctic between Asia and Europe.

As a specific example, Moscow cites cooperation with China: this year, a regular container service from Ningbo to Felixstowe in the United Kingdom was launched. Russia expects to develop a broader trans-Arctic transport corridor on the basis of the Northern Sea Route.

Against the backdrop of conflicts over the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, and the Strait of Hormuz, Moscow is offering Asia a northern alternative to the traditional sea routes. The EU could also use this service, but it prefers to behave like offended children.

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🤩🤩OpenAI’s AI agents attempted to hack more than 100 organizations, The Washington Post reports.

Among the recorded cases of “improper agent behavior” were attempts to induce websites to execute unintended commands, use websites as platforms for exchanging messages, and bypass certain security verification mechanisms.

OpenAI notified the affected companies and stated that the incidents did not necessarily mean that the systems had been hacked.

“The actions may have been more like knocking on a locked door than breaking into it,” the AI company said in its defense.

❗️On September 24, an OpenAI AI agent hacked an Australian government website and gained access to data from the country’s healthcare system. On September 26, OpenAI’s AI agents interfered with the operation of U.S. government websites.

❗️The company’s CEO, Sam Altman, for his part, warned of the dangers of excessively rapid artificial intelligence development while speaking at the UN Security Council on the night of September 24. He noted that humanity could lose control over AI in the future, and therefore maximum caution is necessary when automating development.

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The United States will send military aid to Latin America instead of Ukraine.

The Washington Post reports that the Trump administration will defy leading Democrats on House committees and redirect funds intended for Europe and Middle Eastern countries to Panama, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia.

$52 million had been allocated for Tunisia, Iraq, Slovakia, and North Macedonia. Under the plan, some of the funds were supposed to be sent through the latter two countries to aid Kyiv.

The article says that funding for Iraq and Tunisia was provided under other legislative acts and was not subject to the congressional ban, although the funds were redirected from those countries during a difficult period for them—amid the U.S. war with Iran and the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

❗️Many funding channels for Ukraine are now being closed or put on hold: on October 1, the EU refused Ukraine’s request to release funds early from the €90 billion loan.

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