Microsoft is apparently shifting its profits to countries with low taxes — and out of countries where they have many more employees and significant sales. Back in 2005 Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer even said that a low corporate tax rate "is part of the overall advantage of doing business in Ireland," remembers long-time Slashdot reader theodp. (Ballmer added "It would be disingenuous to say otherwise.")
But in 2026 the EU now requires a country-by-country compliance report, and the New York Times notes that Microsoft "was most likely the first major U.S. technology company to make a so-called country by country report of its finances to comply..."
Like other big companies, Microsoft uses transactions between subsidiaries to shift profits around to reduce its tax bill. The report revealed a consistent pattern: high returns in low-tax jurisdictions and slim margins in higher-tax ones. The report showed the sometimes absurd results. Microsoft said it had generated almost 40 percent of its pretax income in tax-friendly Ireland, where it employed about 3 percent of its global work force. In higher-tax Germany, the largest economy in Europe, Microsoft earned barely half of 1 percent of its global profits, it said.
Excluding Ireland, the company said, it generated less than 2 percent of its worldwide pretax earnings in Europe... [In Luxembourg Microsoft said it had $283 million in pretax income with only 34 employees.]
[America's] Internal Revenue Service is challenging profit-shifting transactions used by Microsoft, and is seeking back taxes of nearly $29 billion4. The company has said it disagrees with the I.R.S. and said in a securities filing that it "will vigorously contest" the proposed tax bills.
This week a Microsoft blog post offered their own "context," arguing that tax is "one important measure of contribution, but it is not the only one.
"Our investments, partnerships, infrastructure, and long-term presence in countries around the world also reflect a commitment to helping strengthen the economies and communities where we operate, today and for the future."
But in 2026 the EU now requires a country-by-country compliance report, and the New York Times notes that Microsoft "was most likely the first major U.S. technology company to make a so-called country by country report of its finances to comply..."
Like other big companies, Microsoft uses transactions between subsidiaries to shift profits around to reduce its tax bill. The report revealed a consistent pattern: high returns in low-tax jurisdictions and slim margins in higher-tax ones. The report showed the sometimes absurd results. Microsoft said it had generated almost 40 percent of its pretax income in tax-friendly Ireland, where it employed about 3 percent of its global work force. In higher-tax Germany, the largest economy in Europe, Microsoft earned barely half of 1 percent of its global profits, it said.
Excluding Ireland, the company said, it generated less than 2 percent of its worldwide pretax earnings in Europe... [In Luxembourg Microsoft said it had $283 million in pretax income with only 34 employees.]
[America's] Internal Revenue Service is challenging profit-shifting transactions used by Microsoft, and is seeking back taxes of nearly $29 billion4. The company has said it disagrees with the I.R.S. and said in a securities filing that it "will vigorously contest" the proposed tax bills.
This week a Microsoft blog post offered their own "context," arguing that tax is "one important measure of contribution, but it is not the only one.
"Our investments, partnerships, infrastructure, and long-term presence in countries around the world also reflect a commitment to helping strengthen the economies and communities where we operate, today and for the future."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
At the end of 2025, the FSF launched LibrePhone project, which is working to "better understand and reverse-engineer the nonfree blobs used by a great majority of (if not all) system on a chip designs available today." The FSF's summer newsletter shares this update:
We started with researching the proprietary files in Android phones supported by the Lineage project, an Android-based volunteer-led mobile phone operating system with much free software already in it. Our current, primary focus is on the radio blobs that control WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, and cellular communications.
The software freedom issues with mobile computing have been around for a long time, with the most challenging issue being the baseband/modem firmware that relies heavily on proprietary software. This creates a technical and legal maze that is nearly impossible to break free from, but that doesn't mean we should ever stop working to create free systems. It certainly doesn't mean we shouldn't liberate the software that we know can be free software. Now, half a year into this project, lead developer Rob Savoye has extracted firmware from over 200 Lineage install packages, processed 85GB of files, and imported the results of these analyses into a PostgreSQL database for cross-device comparison... [M]uch of the software and blobs we need to work through are shared across multiple devices; this means even greater strides for mobile phone freedom...
As insurmountable as it may seem at times, every blob we manage to free up will be progress. The FSF has proven time and time again that it can bring the free software philosophy to life, not just by advocating for it, but by making it so.
The bulletin also describes how waves of botnets from "aggressive LLM scrapers, vulnerability scanners, poorly optimized CI/CD servers" inspired the FSF to create a new free-as-in-freedom automated monitoring tool:
In our efforts to combat the botnets, we optimized several detection rules to ban abusive behavior. We found the upper limit of fail2ban and replaced it with reaction, an efficient alternative with our configuration that uses ipset. We also split several monolithic machines into many separate machines so that when a web service is overwhelmed the other functions of the service do not go down with it... We found quite a few ways to respond to and prevent botnet attacks, but still faced a significant related challenge: communicating when a website or service is down...
Uptime Kuma is a human-readable, automated monitoring addition to our systems... You can check out our recently-launched self-hosted Uptime Kuma instance at https://status.fsf.org/. When you see the page, you will also likely say, "Wow! The FSF and GNU sure do run a ton of services!" and you would be right... If you maintain websites and services, and are looking for a simple way to communicate publicly with your users, consider using Uptime Kuma or another free software solution instead of choosing a proprietary monitoring solution."
There's also an article on the state of free-as-in-freedom videogame console emulators.
We started with researching the proprietary files in Android phones supported by the Lineage project, an Android-based volunteer-led mobile phone operating system with much free software already in it. Our current, primary focus is on the radio blobs that control WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, and cellular communications.
The software freedom issues with mobile computing have been around for a long time, with the most challenging issue being the baseband/modem firmware that relies heavily on proprietary software. This creates a technical and legal maze that is nearly impossible to break free from, but that doesn't mean we should ever stop working to create free systems. It certainly doesn't mean we shouldn't liberate the software that we know can be free software. Now, half a year into this project, lead developer Rob Savoye has extracted firmware from over 200 Lineage install packages, processed 85GB of files, and imported the results of these analyses into a PostgreSQL database for cross-device comparison... [M]uch of the software and blobs we need to work through are shared across multiple devices; this means even greater strides for mobile phone freedom...
As insurmountable as it may seem at times, every blob we manage to free up will be progress. The FSF has proven time and time again that it can bring the free software philosophy to life, not just by advocating for it, but by making it so.
The bulletin also describes how waves of botnets from "aggressive LLM scrapers, vulnerability scanners, poorly optimized CI/CD servers" inspired the FSF to create a new free-as-in-freedom automated monitoring tool:
In our efforts to combat the botnets, we optimized several detection rules to ban abusive behavior. We found the upper limit of fail2ban and replaced it with reaction, an efficient alternative with our configuration that uses ipset. We also split several monolithic machines into many separate machines so that when a web service is overwhelmed the other functions of the service do not go down with it... We found quite a few ways to respond to and prevent botnet attacks, but still faced a significant related challenge: communicating when a website or service is down...
Uptime Kuma is a human-readable, automated monitoring addition to our systems... You can check out our recently-launched self-hosted Uptime Kuma instance at https://status.fsf.org/. When you see the page, you will also likely say, "Wow! The FSF and GNU sure do run a ton of services!" and you would be right... If you maintain websites and services, and are looking for a simple way to communicate publicly with your users, consider using Uptime Kuma or another free software solution instead of choosing a proprietary monitoring solution."
There's also an article on the state of free-as-in-freedom videogame console emulators.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Lawyers file request days after US supreme court declined to hear an appeal, with payout topping $5.8m with interest
Lawyers for Donald Trump have requested more time to pay a $5m civil judgment to magazine columnist E Jean Carroll from 2023, days after the US supreme court declined to hear an appeal.
In a new filing, the president’s attorney said that since his former lead counsel, Justin Smith, took up a position as a federal judge last month (a post he was nominated to by Trump), his new lead counsel, Josh Halpern, needed more time “to become completely familiar with the facts and procedural circumstances” of the case.
Continue reading...Bulgarian lauds ‘something special in the air’ after thriller
Zverev, Fritz and De Minaur all advance to fourth round
Twelve months ago, when Grigor Dimitrov tore his pectoral muscle as he was closing in on victory over Jannik Sinner, the Bulgarian was distraught. Not only had he been outplaying the now world No 1, but he had been playing some of the best tennis of his career. Clutching his chest on Centre Court, he didn’t know how long he would be out or even if he would ever get back to the same level. When Sinner won the title, well, you can guess his thoughts.
On Saturday, Dimitrov edged out a valiant Matteo Berrettini, who has been beset by injuries ever since he reached the final at Wimbledon in 2021, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3 to earn himself a place in the last 16 and a shot at redemption, and perhaps much more. He’ll meet Arthur Fery, the British wildcard who edged out Zizou Bergs in a deciding-set tie-break.
Continue reading...Update in England expected to reach about 200,000 patients over the next year as part of £10bn package to overhaul NHS systems
The NHS will begin using AI on its app to direct patients to the appropriate services, it has been announced.
The tool will be used to triage patients and to ascertain if they should be allocated a GP appointment. Some may be advised to attend a pharmacy or their local A&E department instead, depending on the severity of their condition.
Continue reading...Kelsey Pfendler set out to become first US woman, youngest woman and fastest woman to solo over 2,400-mile journey
A Grand Canyon river-rafting guide who aimed to become the first US woman to row solo across the mid-Pacific has completed a record-breaking journey from California to Hawaii.
Hundreds of people gathered to cheer on Kelsey Pfendler as she pulled into a Honolulu harbor on Friday night on her 21ft rowboat, Lily, after nearly a month-and-a-half at sea, local media reported.
Guardian staff contributed
Continue reading...Canada coach says his side ‘totally controlled the match’
Ouahbi: ‘It takes some nerve to say when you lose 3-0’
Jesse Marsch spoke of his pride in his Canada side after their last-16 exit to Morocco, claiming they were the better team and challenging his players to keep producing the levels they have reached in this tournament.
“We totally controlled the match,” he said. “We were the ones more likely to win the game, but goals change games so they could sit back. But overall in the match we were better than them. Before we came here if you’d said we’d be last 16 we’d have been satisfied. And if you’d said we were going to play like that … you’d think we were going to win the match.”
Continue reading...EUGENE (ANP) - Wereldkampioene kogelstoten Jessica Schilder is bij de Diamond League in het Amerikaanse Eugene als tweede geëindigd. De Sportvrouw van het Jaar noteerde een afstand van 20,11 meter. Voormalig wereldkampioene Chase Jackson uit de Verenigde Staten werd eerste met een afstand van 20,56 meter.
Schilder (27) won twee weken geleden de FBK Games in Hengelo met een stoot van 20,03 meter. Ze meldde daarna wel dat ze last had van een ontstoken wijsvinger. Vorige week werd ze derde bij de Diamond League in Parijs.
Jorinde van Klinken (26) werd in Eugene zesde. Ze tekende voor een afstand van 19,06 meter.
DEN HAAG (ANP) - De Mobiele Eenheid grijpt in bij de onrust in de Haagse Schilderswijk. Kort na 23.00 uur gaf burgemeester Jan van Zanen een noodbevel uit voor een deel van de wijk, waar het onrustig is geworden na de WK-overwinning van Marokko op Canada.
Om de menigte de wijk uit te drijven, wordt onder meer gebruikgemaakt van een waterwerper met harde straal, ziet een ANP-verslaggever.
De viering op de kruising van de Vaillantlaan en de Hoefkade gebeurde aanvankelijk in feestelijke sfeer, maar in de loop van de avond leek de stemming om te slaan. De politie werd bekogeld met onder meer vuurwerk en eieren. Er zijn zeker twee mannen aangehouden.
MEXICO-STAD (ANP/RTR) - Mexico-Stad neemt maatregelen tegen te grote drukte op plekken waar de WK-wedstrijd Mexico-Engeland vertoond zal worden. Afgelopen week vielen er na de 2-0-winst tegen Ecuador vier doden doordat ze in de verdrukking waren gekomen in het feestgedruis na de wedstrijd. Meer dan 1 miljoen mensen trokken in Mexico-Stad de straat op om de winst op Ecuador te vieren.
Bij het Monument voor de Onafhankelijkheid, ook wel El Ángel genoemd, zijn tijdens de wedstrijd slechts 25.000 mensen welkom, zo maakte de burgemeester van Mexico-Stad bekend. Ook op het belangrijkste plein in de Mexicaanse hoofdstad, Zócalo, worden maatregelen genomen. Ook zal de beveiliging in aanloop naar de wedstrijd worden aangescherpt.
De Amerikaanse ambassade in Mexico roept Amerikanen in heel Mexico op voorzichtig te zijn in de drukte. Ook waarschuwt de diplomatieke missie voor demonstranten die dankbaar gebruikmaken van de drukte en aandacht die het WK met zich meebrengt.
Als Mexico maandag weet te winnen van Engeland, plaatst het zich voor de kwartfinales van het WK dat het medeorganiseert. Het lukte Mexico slechts twee keer eerder om de kwartfinales van een WK te halen: in 1970 en 1986.
Human Figure Drawing Collection ? May to June 2026
on the water photography has added a photo to the pool:
The Ogata Butsudan Main Store (Ogata Butsudan Honten) in Yame Fukushima is a premier workshop specializing in traditional Yame Fukushima Butsudan (Buddhist altars).
Famous for its historic white-walled district, Yame City in Fukuoka Prefecture is celebrated as a major national center for these elaborate, gold-leafed shrines.Located in the heart of the historic district, the main store not only showcases exquisite, handcrafted home altars but also offers immersive experiences where visitors can craft their own souvenirs.
Address: 397-3 Motomachi, Yame City, Fukuoka
Yame Fukushima Buddhist Altars are known for being completely seamless, using bamboo pegs rather than iron nails, which allows them to be completely disassembled for repair.
The main store neighbors a working workshop where you can see artisans applying traditional lacquering and gold-foil techniques.
Gehuld in een rood T-shirt met een Canada-logo loopt Ben Mora-Davison, een voetbalfan uit Montreal, uit een watch party van de achtste finale tussen Canada en Marokko, in een…
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Poppodium Annabel in Rotterdam opende zaterdagavond de deuren exclusief voor vrouwen om de wedstrijd Marokko-Canada te zien. Marokkaans-Nederlandse vriendinnen, moeders met dochter, nichtjes, tantes en collega’s gaan naar binnen. „Zonder mannen voel ik me comfortabeler.”
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Fans van het Marokkaanse elftal zijn in onder meer Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht en Amersfoort de straat op gegaan om feest te vieren na de 3-0 overwinning op Canada…
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After originally qualifying in P12 for the British Grand Prix, Alpine's Pierre Gasly has now been handed a penalty.
Qualifying at the British Grand Prix did not go Max Verstappen's way, with the Red Bull driver admitting that he was dealing with two issues during the session.
Our expert betting writers have picked a four-leg Bet Builder for Silverstone, including podium finish and two points finish selections.