
The return of the €200 million superstar to the Real Madrid lineup is a momentous occasion, a symbol of resilience and determination in the face of adversity. And as he leads his team to victory once again, he proves that he is truly a force to be reckoned with. The superstar has returned, and he is here to stay.
It also highlights the need for stronger regulations and enforcement mechanisms to prevent individuals from exploiting loopholes for personal gain at the expense of others' privacy and security. The responsible handling of personal data should be a top priority for both individuals and businesses to ensure the integrity of the digital ecosystem.
The global laptop market is forecast to grow by 4.9 percent during 2025, but commercial upgrade cycles and the looming Windows 10 end of life are driving this rather than demand for AI-capable PCs. Taiwan-based market watcher TrendForce says it expects laptop shipment figures to show a moderate recovery for the end of 2024, then pick up next year – and it isn't due to AI PCs as "the impact of AI-integrated notebooks on the overall market remains limited for now." Looking over the market, the firm says that commercial laptops faced "headwinds" during 2024 because of factors such as economic and political instability, which led to more cautious demand. Despite this, it still expects annual shipments to total 174 million units, marking a 3.9 percent year-on-year increase. Going forward, it believes that political uncertainty following the US presidential election is now subsiding, and that rate cuts by the Federal Reserve back in September are likely to "stimulate capital flow." This will open up the floodgates of deferred replacement demand from corporates, TrendForce forecasts, leading to a stronger recovery for the commercial market in 2025. Combined with the end-of-service date for Windows 10 in October next year, this is set to see shipments grow by 4.9 percent to 183 million units. Other factors behind the sluggish recent demand are pricing and confusion over the newly introduced AI PC category. "Businesses want to move to AI PCs but not pay a premium as there are no compelling business cases," Gartner research director Ranjit Atwal recently told The Register . Currently, AI-capable PCs carry a 10-15 percent price premium over standard PCs, something that will likely need to change in order to loosen the corporate purse strings. The confusion is caused by differing AI PC definitions, with vendors such as Intel simply regarding it as a system with one of its latest processors that includes an embedded neural processing unit (NPU) for accelerating some AI tasks, while Microsoft's CoPilot+ PC branding is for Windows systems with an NPU that performs at 40 TOPS or greater. Businesses are hesitant as they are uncertain over which definition will offer the greater future-proofing should AI algorithms become a key part of everyday workloads in the near future. However, the IT channel is stocking up with AI-capable PCs in anticipation of a wave of fresh sales, with recent reports indicating these made up 20 percent of all shipments to distributors during Q3 2024. Meanwhile, Microsoft is stepping up its own campaign to encourage Windows 10 users to move to Windows 11 by pushing full-screen ads in front of them, which will often mean investing in new PC hardware. TrendForce also warns of the elephant in the room: that the global laptop market remains closely tied to US trade policies, and it is probable that it will feel the impact of any heightened import tariffs that may be brought in by the Trump administration. China remains the dominant manufacturing hub for laptop production, making up about 89 percent of total capacity. While some of the companies involved are expanding production into other countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, India, and Mexico, TrendForce notes that establishing a fully integrated supply chain ecosystem in these regions to avoid the worst tariffs will take time. Consequently, the market intelligence firm concludes that its 2025 shipment forecasts "may be subject to adjustments based on evolving market conditions." A cheery thought to usher in the new year. ®For the third year in a row, Elon Musk’s charitable foundation did not give away enough of its money. And it did not miss the mark by a small amount. New tax filings show that the Musk Foundation fell $421 million short of the amount it was required to give away in 2023. Now, Musk has until the end of the year to distribute that money, or he will be required to pay a sizable penalty to the IRS. Musk, in his new role as a leader of what President-elect Donald Trump is calling the Department of Government Efficiency, is promising to downsize and rearrange the entire federal government — including the IRS. But the tax records show he has struggled to meet a basic IRS rule that is required of all charity leaders, no matter how small or big their foundations. Musk’s is one of the biggest. His foundation has more than $9 billion in assets, including millions of shares in Tesla, his electric vehicle company. By law, all private foundations must give away 5% of those assets every year. The aim is to ensure that wealthy donors like Musk use these organizations to help the public instead of simply benefiting from the tax deductions they are afforded. Musk’s group has fallen further and further behind. In 2021, his foundation was $41 million short, then $234 million the following year. Now, the hole is deeper still. Private foundations do have a way to solve the problem if they do not give away enough money. They can distribute more the following year as a make-good. Musk could choose to do so in 2024. Musk did not respond to requests for comment. His foundation, which is required to make its tax filings public, provided the 2023 document to The New York Times. The IRS appears to be among Musk’s early targets as a leader of Trump’s government efficiency initiative. The tax agency serves as the federal government’s charity regulator and thus oversees Musk’s foundation. Last month, Musk used X, his social media platform, to ask users if the IRS’ budget should be increased, kept the same, decreased or “deleted.” His followers chose “deleted.” Musk, who on Wednesday became the first person with a net worth of over $400 billion, has been an unusual philanthropist. He has been critical of the effectiveness of large charitable gifts, and his foundation maintains a minimal, plain-text website that offers very little about its overarching philosophy. That is different from some other large foundations that seek to have national or even worldwide impact by making large gifts to causes like public health, education or the arts. The Musk Foundation’s largesse primarily stays closer to home. The tax filings show that last year the group gave at least $7 million combined to charities near a launch site in South Texas used by Musk’s company SpaceX. Other large charitable foundations have also failed to distribute the IRS’ minimum required amount in recent years, sometimes by more than $100 million, according to tax filings compiled by the company CauseIQ, which analyzes charity data. But Musk’s foundation is unusual even among those, both for the amount of its shortfall and the speed at which it is increasing. In 2022, the last year for which full data is available, the Musk Foundation had the fourth-largest gap of any private foundation in the country, according to CauseIQ data. Musk’s charity, which he founded in 2002, has never hired paid employees, according to tax filings. Its three directors — Musk and two people who work for his family office — all work for free. The filings show they did not spend very much time on the foundation: just two hours and six minutes per week for the past three years. But the board’s task grew enormously in 2021 and 2022, when Musk tripled the foundation’s assets by giving it billions of dollars’ worth of Tesla stock. Tax experts said if he claimed those donations on his personal taxes in the year given, those gifts would have been very beneficial to him. Because of the deductions allowed for charitable gifts, they potentially saved Musk as much as $2 billion on his tax bills. Because of the skyrocketing growth in assets, the three-person board had to give away hundreds of millions of dollars per year just to meet the minimum. That group entered 2023 needing to pay off the previous year’s $234 million shortfall, or it would have to pay a penalty tax of 30% on whatever was left at the end of the year. The foundation met that, giving away a total of $236 million and avoiding the penalty. But it also had to give away an additional $424 million to meet its obligation for 2023. The filings show it did not come close, leaving an even bigger deficit to make up this year. “The distributions made by the foundation are meeting the bare minimum to avoid penalties,” said Brian Mittendorf, an accounting professor at the Ohio State University who studies nonprofits. “It is clear that the organization is not in a hurry to spend its money.” In 2023, as in other years, many of the foundation’s gifts went to organizations that were closely tied to Musk or his businesses. In 2023, for instance, he gave $25 million to a donor-advised fund, a separate charitable account over which Musk retains effective control. Musk began donating to schools in the Brownsville, Texas, area just after his company’s reputation took a major hit: One of its rockets exploded, showering the area with twisted metal. The foundation’s largest gift for the year — $137 million in cash and stock — went to a nonprofit called The Foundation. That charity, run by Musk’s close associates, has set up a private elementary school in Bastrop, Texas. The school is a short distance from large campuses operated by Musk’s businesses and a 110-home subdivision planned for his employees. Related Articles Business | Australian Senate debates social media ban for under-16s Business | California commission that approves rocket launches is anti-Elon Musk, claims SpaceX lawsuit Business | SpaceX blasts past 100 launches in 2024 with 101st from California Business | Tesla Optimus bots were remotely operated at Cybercab event in Burbank Business | In engineering feat, SpaceX ‘arms’ catch Starship rocket booster back at launch pad Mittendorf noted that Musk gave that school $102 million on Dec. 28 — days before the deadline to give away the unspent millions from the year before. The Musk Foundation’s gifts for 2023 gave little hint of the political transformation that would follow this year, as he spent hundreds of millions of dollars to support Trump’s presidential campaign. Throughout 2023, Musk became increasingly right-wing in his public statements, especially on issues like crime and immigration. But his foundation’s only gift with an apparent political tilt was a small one: The Musk Foundation gave $100,000 to a libertarian think tank in Utah. This article originally appeared in The New York Times .
The case of the female master's degree holder who was taken in for shelter: was she imprisoned? Villagers speak out, sparking controversy over the truth of the incidentWith the new signing set to bolster Chelsea's attacking options, the team's prospects for the upcoming season are looking brighter than ever. Fans can look forward to seeing a dynamic and fearless player take to the pitch in the iconic blue shirt, ready to make his mark on the Premier League and beyond. And who knows, this young talent could soon be mentioned in the same breath as the greats of the game.