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1. VW RETIRING ICONIC BEETLE Volkswagen announced Thursday that it is retiring the Beetle in 2019. The iconic small car, with its rounded lines, was first sold in Germany in 1938, but only

went into mass production after World War II. It made its U.S. debut in 1949. VW introduced new generations of the Beetle in 1998 and 2012, halting production of the original version in

2003. "The loss of the Beetle after three generations, over nearly seven decades, will evoke a host of emotions from the Beetle's many devoted fans," Hinrich Woebcken,

Volkswagen's president, said in a statement. The decision to end the last production in Mexico next year comes as consumers are showing more interest in SUVs and other large vehicles,

although Woebcken said VW could bring back the Beetle some day. CNN 2. CHINA CONFIRMS U.S. HAS ASKED FOR NEW TRADE TALKS China's foreign ministry confirmed Thursday that the Trump

administration had invited Chinese officials to participate in a new round of talks on resolving an escalating trade war between the two countries, which have the world's two largest

economies. "We have indeed received an invitation from the U.S. side. We welcome it," said a ministry spokesman, Geng Shuang. "Now the two sides are in communication on

relevant details." President Trump is due to make a decision any time about whether to go through with a proposal to raise duties on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. The news

followed reports by U.S. and European business groups that the rising tariffs had hurt foreign companies. SUBSCRIBE TO THE WEEK Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus

analysis from multiple perspectives. SUBSCRIBE & SAVE SIGN UP FOR THE WEEK'S FREE NEWSLETTERS From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The

Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. The Associated Press 3.

STUDY: GOP TAX-CUT PLAN WOULD ADD $3.2 TRILLION TO DEBT Tax cuts proposed by the Republican Party would add more than $3.2 trillion to the federal deficit over a decade, the nonpartisan Tax

Policy Center concluded in a report Thursday. The GOP has suggested a second round of tax cuts to cement some of the provisions from the tax reform bill passed last December, and a House

committee began considering the measure ahead of a vote later this month. "The bill would reduce federal revenues by $631 billion" between 2019-2028, the report found, and by $3.2

trillion between 2029-2038. "Taxes would decline on average across all income groups, but higher-income households would generally receive larger average tax cuts," the study

concluded. Republicans say the cuts would save Americans money and boost the economy. The Washington Post Tax Policy Center 4. GLOBAL STOCKS AND U.S. FUTURES RISE Global stocks mostly rose

on Friday following Wall Street's Thursday gains. News of a push for new trade talks between the U.S. and China lifted hopes of relief from a damaging trade war between the world's

two biggest economies. Expectations that President Trump will soon impose tariffs on more Chinese goods have been weighing on global markets. On Thursday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average

rose by 0.6 percent, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite gained 0.5 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively. Futures for the three main U.S. gauges inched higher early Friday. The S&P

500 was up by 0.1 percent, putting it within reach of a record. The Associated Press MarketWatch 5. NORTH KOREA CALLS U.S. HACKING ALLEGATION A SMEAR CAMPAIGN North Korea on Friday strongly

denied U.S. allegations that a computer programmer working for the North Korean government was behind the hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment and the spread of the WannaCry ransomware

virus. A North Korean Foreign Ministry official called the allegations a smear campaign, saying the cybercrimes had "nothing to do" with Pyongyang. "The U.S. should seriously

ponder over the negative consequences of circulating falsehoods and inciting antagonism against the DPRK that may affect the implementation of the joint statement adopted at the [North

Korea]-U.S. summit," Han Yong Song, a researcher at the North Korean Foreign Ministry's Institute for American Studies, said in a statement carried by the Korean Central News

Agency. The Associated Press Explore More Business briefing