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BERLIN – SEP 11: Lufthansa Boing 747-8 Brandenburg presented on ILA Berlin Air Show 2012 on September 11, 2012, Berlin, Germany.

Boeing has resumed production of all airplane programs halted by a strike by the company’s largest union in the Pacific Northwest, according to a company official.

Resumes production

“We have now resumed production across our 737, 767, and 777/777X airplane programs,” Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stephanie Pope said in a LinkedIn post on Tuesday. 

“Our teammates have worked methodically to warm up our factories in the Pacific Northwest, using Boeing’s Safety Management System to identify and address potential issues and ensure a safe and orderly restart,” she added. 

Last week, the planemaker said that it resumed production of the 737 MAX jetliner, about a month after the end of a seven-week strike by 33,000 factory workers.

Pope said that the company has “taken time to ensure all manufacturing teammates are current on training and certifications while positioning inventory at optimal levels for smooth production.”

“As we move forward, we will closely track our production health performance indicators and focus on delivering safe, high-quality airplanes on time to our customers,” noted Pope. 

Strike hits deliveries

According to a Reuters report, Boeing delivered just 13 commercial jets in November, less than a quarter of the 56 jetliners it handed over to customers for the same period a year earlier.

In October, Boeing delivered 14 commercial jets after a worker’s strike by the company’s machinists union halted most of its aircraft production at two major assembly plants. The planemaker delivered 34 jets for the same period a year ago.

The planemaker had a backlog of 5,499 orders by the end of November, while it delivered 318 planes for the first eleven months of 2024. Since the beginning of the year, Boeing has recorded 427 gross orders and 370 net orders, according to its website.

Mike Whitaker, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), told Reuters earlier this month that Boeing capped production at 38 737 MAX planes per month in January after a door panel missing four key bolts flew off an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 in midair that month. 

In fact, the company is facing heightened scrutiny by the FAA as it resumed production of its 737 MAX jets.

Workers’ agreement

The workers’ strike ended on November 5, after the union approved the company’s revised contract offer, which promised a larger wage increase and bonus payments. 

The contract offer ratified by the workers includes a 38% raise over four years and a combined cash bonus of $12,000, including a $7,000 ratification bonus and a $5,000 contribution to their 401(k) accounts.

Meta Platforms has been fined $263 million (€251 million) by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) for failing to adequately protect users’ data, following a major 2018 security breach that exposed the personal information of millions of Facebook accounts globally.

Data breaches

The Irish regulator said Meta failed to implement sufficient safeguards in its video upload function, which allowed hackers to exploit the vulnerability and gain full access to around 29 million Facebook accounts worldwide, including approximately 3 million based in the European Union.

The compromised personal data included users’ full names, email addresses, phone numbers, locations, workplaces, dates of birth, and group memberships, according to the DPC. Sensitive details such as religious beliefs, gender, and children’s personal information were also exposed.

Meta Ireland, Facebook’s European subsidiary, reported the breach in September 2018 after resolving the issue alongside its US-based parent company.

The DPC’s final decision highlighted four infringements of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which governs data protection standards across the bloc. The findings included violations of Articles 25 and 33 of the GDPR, relating to the failure to build in data protection by design and default, and deficiencies in breach notification and documentation processes.

Hefty fines

The commission imposed a series of administrative fines, including $136.5 million for failing to ensure data protection principles in system design and $115.5 million for not processing only necessary personal data by default. Additional penalties of $11.6 million were issued for inadequacies in breach reporting and documentation.

“This enforcement action highlights how the failure to build in data protection requirements throughout the design and development cycle can expose individuals to very serious risks and harms, including a risk to the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals,” said DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle. 

“By allowing unauthorized exposure of profile information, the vulnerabilities behind this breach caused a grave risk of misuse of these types of data.”

Meta acted swiftly to address the breach and notify affected users and regulators, AFP reported, quoting a company spokesperson.

Recent fines

The decision marks the latest in a series of fines against Meta and other major technology companies under the GDPR. Ireland’s DPC, which oversees many global tech giants headquartered in Dublin, has been at the forefront of enforcement. 

Meta was fined $95.5 million in September for failing to protect users’ passwords, while LinkedIn recently received a $325.5 million penalty for breaches involving targeted advertising.

The European Union introduced the GDPR in 2018 to enhance consumer privacy and hold companies accountable for personal data protection. Tech firms such as Google, Apple, and Meta face increasing scrutiny as regulators across the globe step up enforcement on issues ranging from privacy to competition.

Despite the fines, the penalties remain small relative to the billions of dollars earned annually by tech giants like Meta.

Hacker in a dark red hoody in front of a digital korean flag and binary streams background cybersecurity concept

The Lazarus Group, a crew of North Korean government-backed hackers, have stolen over $3 billion from crypto startups. Now they have a surprising new tactic.

The Lazarus Group, a crew of North Korean government-backed hackers behind the WannaCry ransomware attack, have a new tactic, according to the FBI. After bagging over $3 billion from earlier crypto heists, its hackers are now impersonating venture capitalists to get time and access with crypto executives in order to install malicious code.

North Korea-linked hacking groups have previously posed as recruiters or job-seekers to set up a video call with a staff from crypto companies and use the meeting to push infected files or code on their targets. That’s helped the Pyongyang-linked crews steal over $3 billion since 2017. But impersonating VCs appears to be a new strategy.

The FBI stated in an forfeiture application filed at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in November that North Korea’s Lazarus group had allegedly stolen over $34 million of tokens from a crypto startup by pretending to be a “prominent” Hong Kong-based VC known to invest in crypto. The hackers used a fake Telegram account to contact the startup’s CEO in November 2023. The person being impersonated by the North Korean hackers was not named by the FBI.

“During these communications, the CEO clicked on a link to join a video conference with the individual purporting to be VC but the link did not seem to work. The imposter then sent the CEO a script file to fix the problem, which the CEO executed,” said Justin M. Vallese, FBI Special Agent, in the court filing.

The script installed malware known as CryptoMimic that gave the hackers remote access to one of the startup’s computers. There the hackers allegedly found a text that contained the private keys for 5,000 addresses holding crypto tokens worth over $17 million. “The perpetrators seemingly deleted this file from the employee’s computer, eliminating access by the company,” said Vallese.

The FBI did not identify the name of the startup in its court filing but stated that one of the crypto currencies stolen in the March 2024 heist was a token called NFP launched by a Binance-backed crypto startup NFPrompt, which makes AI-generated NFTs. The company tweeted on March 15 that “a group of hackers compromised some wallets, including those of NFP’s contract administrators,” accompanied by an illustration of a penguin in a trench coat with a sheriff’s badge.

NFPPrompt did not respond to a request for comment. The FBI declined to comment.

The FBI linked the CryptoMimic malware used in the attack back to servers located in North Korea, and traced tokens stolen from the startup to accounts on crypto exchanges Binance and MEXC. The accounts were frozen and now $3.2 million of cryptocurrencies is in the custody of the FBI.

The court filing does not reveal how the remaining $17 million claimed to have been stolen was lost, or what happened to the rest of the missing cryptocurrency.

The FBI issued a warning in September that North Korea was “aggressively targeting” crypto companies using social engineering tactics. “North Korean social engineering schemes are complex and elaborate, often compromising victims with sophisticated technical acumen,” the FBI warned in its update. United Nations sanctions monitors said earlier this year that cyber attacks between 2017 and 2023 focused on crypto companies had netted North Korea over $3 billion, The Guardian reported.

In the past, North Korean hackers have posed as recruiters or job-seekers to gain time, access, and knowledge of targets. Forbes reported earlier this month that $16 million was stolen from Bahrain-based based cryptocurrency exchange Rain.com by Lazarus Group hackers who had reached out to its staff over LinkedIn. Sometimes, North Korean developers even land jobs at companies using fake identities and virtual private networks to disguise their location.

Security researchers from Microsoft and Recorded Future both warned last year that North Korean hackers updated their tactics to include posing as venture capitalists and investment bankers. The FBI’s court filing to recover tokens stolen from NFPPrompt is the first reported incident of a successful hack using the tactic.

US actress Selena Gomez attends The Hollywood Reporter’s Annual Women in Entertainment Gala at The Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, California (Photo by Michael Tran / AFP)

From New Zealand MP Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke to entrepreneurial celebs like Selena Gomez, these are the women entering 2025 with momentum.

Power is not static. A CEO that is among the world’s most ten powerful women one year could be out in the next—like now-former CVS chief Karen Lynch. A politician who dreams of becoming her country’s first female president one year could find herself taking the oath of office the next, like Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum.

Compiling the Forbes list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women always starts with assessing those changes: Who is in and who is out of the world’s most influential leadership positions? Sometimes the answers to those questions happen within our editorial deadlines; other times, the appointments or elections are too new, or wielding of power too unproven, to land a person on the final list.

As we say every year, just because a woman is not in the top 100 does not mean she lacks influence; there are many people whose power is on the rise. And to that end, here are the women going into 2025 with momentum on their side:

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah: In early December, Nandi-Ndaitwah received 57% of the vote in Namibia’s presidential election and became the first woman to be elected to her country’s highest office. Affectionately referred to as “NNN,” Nandi-Ndaitwah is currently Namibia’s vice president and is slated to be inaugurated as president in March 2025. She is facing significant discontent over Namibia’s high unemployment rate and has pledged to, as president, use “economic diplomacy” to bring more investments and create jobs.

Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke: It was the parliamentary protest heard ‘round the world: In November, New Zealand MP Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke ripped up a piece of controversial legislation that would reinterpret the treaty between the government and the Maori people. She then led a haka, a traditional Maori dance, on the Parliament floor. The video of her protest was viewed more than 200 million times in two days. At 22 years old, Maipi-Clarke is the youngest Kiwi MP since 1853 and has become something of a political star; she also performed a ceremonial haka when she was inaugurated in 2023.

Mitsuko Tottori and Joanna Geraghty: Women are taking charge of the air—or at least, the world’s largest airlines. Joanna Geraghty became the first woman to lead a major American airline when she took helm of JetBlue in February 2024. Two months later, Mitsuko Tottori was named the CEO of Japan Airlines (JAL), the flag carrier of Japan. She started her career as a flight attendant and now sits at the top of a company that, in fiscal 2023, recorded more than $10 billion in revenue. Both women are managing consumer demand that has not only rebounded from Covid-era lows, but surpassed 2019 levels of activity.

Selena Gomez: It’s hard to know which title to lead with for Gomez. The North American woman with the most social media followers? (The actor has 610 million followers across Instagram, X, Facebook and YouTube.) A Grammy award-winning artist getting Oscar buzz for her performance in the musical thriller Emilia Perez? The entrepreneur behind cosmetics juggernaut Rare Beauty? Longtime mental health advocate? The answer is, of course, is E: All of the above. Gomez has diversified the way she reaches her audiences, making her growing power all the more potent.

Jay Graber: As CEO of Bluesky, Graber is in charge of what has become the buzziest social media network of 2024. The platform was first conceived by Jack Dorsey in 2019 as a decentralized, independent alternative to Twitter and has experienced modest surges of signups after Elon Musk acquired Twitter (now X) in 2022, but its greatest influx of users has come in the days and weeks after the presidential election. As of early December, Bluesky had 24 million users, and Graber is tasked with managing the growth without making the product worse. “At heart, I’m a digital rights activist,” Graber said during a December tech conference. “People need to be able to control the social networks they communicate on because they’ve become really vital structures.”

Rachel Proffitt: A self-described “accidental lawyer” who wanted to go to business school, Proffitt finds herself at the intersection of both worlds. In January, she became the CEO of Cooley, one of the top 50 law firms in the U.S. and the go-to legal counsel for Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. The firm is the number one advisor for tech and life sciences IPOs and has overseen more than $500 billion worth of M&A deals since 2020. In spite of the great exit slowdown of 2024, Proffitt recently told Forbes that she’s optimistic about founders continuing to build businesses with promising IPO opportunities. “Ideation is not stopping; entrepreneurs will be entrepreneurs regardless of the market,” she said.

Marine Le Pen: France fell into political chaos in early December following a no-confidence vote that ousted Prime Minister Michel Barnier three months into his term. Far right leader Marine Le Pen helped orchestrate his fall, and now, the world is waiting to see if she makes a power grab after putting President Emmanuel Macron on notice too. The answer—and her next move—could depend on the verdict of a trial against Le Pen and two dozen other National Rally party officials. They stand accused of misappropriating European Union funds, and French prosecutors are requesting Le Pen receive prison time and a five-year political ineligibility sentence.

Elise Stefanik: Just days after the U.S. election was called for Donald Trump, the president-elect announced Rep. Elise Stefanik (R, NY-21) as his pick for U.N. Ambassador. Stefanik has been a vocal supporter of Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and her appointment signals a strong pro-Israel stance in the coming Trump administration. The longtime Trump ally and highest-ranking female Republican in the House accepted the Cabinet nomination, but the post requires confirmation by the Senate in the new year.

For the first time, 11 women have surpassed $10 million in earnings, with tennis superstar Coco Gauff trailing only Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams on the all-time list.

Women’s sports are riding a wave of momentum, and the rising tide is—finally—starting to lift players’ pay. Indiana Fever rookie phenom Caitlin Clark, who helped push the WNBA to record highs for attendance and viewership, earned an estimated $8.1 million this year, matching the women’s basketball record set last year by the now-retired Candace Parker. Thai golfer Jeeno Thitikul took home a $4 million check at November’s CME Group Tour Championship—the largest prize in women’s golf history—while her LPGA Tour rival Nelly Korda finished with an estimated $12.5 million in total income, the best mark by a golfer in the 17 years Forbes has ranked female athletes’ earnings.

Meanwhile, 20-year-old tennis star Coco Gauff’s estimated $34.4 million gives her one of the best years ever recorded by a female athlete, behind only Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams, who peaked at $57.3 million and $45.9 million in total earnings, respectively, on Forbes’ list for 2021.

Together, the 20 highest-paid female athletes—a list that includes Korda at No. 8, Thitikul at No. 12 and Clark at No. 13, alongside the top-ranked Gauff—collected more than $258 million in 2024. That figure just edges 2022’s top 20, when Osaka and Williams accounted for more than $92 million between them, and represents a 15% increase over 2023’s $226 million.

The women’s combined total, however, remains less than 12% of the equivalent number for the top 20 male athletes, who hauled in an estimated $2.23 billion on Forbes’ 2024 list of the world’s highest-paid athletes overall, tracking the 12 months ending in May. (No women featured in the top 50 of that ranking.)

Traditionally, female athletes have had fewer and lower-paying endorsement opportunities than men—the top 20 women made an estimated $191 million off the field this year, compared with $624 million for the men—but the big difference is on the field, with playing salaries, bonuses and prize money. The WNBA’s “supermax” salary, for instance, was $241,984 this season. In the NBA, by contrast, 41 players this season will eclipse Gauff’s total earnings with their salaries alone, according to contract database Spotrac.

The gap is less stark in individual sports, but there are still disparities. In golf, Thitikul broke the LPGA Tour’s 17-year-old single-season prize money record in 2024 with $6.1 million, less than what 33 men from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf made this year. And in tennis, while the four Grand Slam tournaments now pay equal prize money to men and women, smaller tournaments don’t make the same guarantee.

In all, only four of the 20 highest-paid female athletes earned more on the field than they did off it, and the top 20’s on-field sum of $68 million represented 26% of their total, the vast majority of it from tennis players. The top 20 male athletes, by comparison, made 72% of their total on the field—almost an exact inversion of the women’s ratio.

The compensation discrepancy starts with revenue—women’s leagues simply have smaller pots to pay out of. But that math may be starting to change. The WNBA will reportedly receive $200 million a year in national TV money as part of the 11-year, $76 billion media agreements the NBA signed over the summer, a sixfold increase from the WNBA’s previous deal with ESPN, according to Sportico. The LPGA Tour is offering $131 million in purses across its 33 tournaments next year—a 90% increase since 2021—and the WTA Tour has pledged to achieve equal pay between male and female tennis players at combined 500- and 1000-level events by 2033.

Meanwhile, the NWSL, which has been drawing investment from big names including Disney CEO Bob Iger, agreed to eliminate its draft and implement a free-agent system as part of a collective bargaining agreement announced in August. And new women’s leagues are sprouting up in hockey (the Professional Women’s Hockey League), softball (the Athletes Unlimited Softball League) and basketball (Unrivaled), among other sports.

In one other promising sign for the growing financial viability of women’s pro sports, while the list of the highest-paid female athletes remains dominated by tennis, the mix of sports is getting more balanced. This year’s ranking includes three golfers, two basketball players, a soccer player, a gymnast, a freestyle skier and a badminton player. (Five years ago, the entire top 10 came from tennis.)

Eleven athletes surpassed $10 million in earnings this year, according to Forbes estimates—the first time there have been more than eight—and 17 members of the ranking’s top 20 are under 30 years old. In fact, the median age is just 26—meaning these athletes’ best years may still be ahead of them.

THE HIGHEST-PAID FEMALE ATHLETES 2024

#1. $34.4 million

Coco Gauff

Sport: Tennis | Nationality: U.S. | Age: 20 | On-Field: $9.4 million • Off-Field: $25 million

Gauff served as Team USA’s co-flag bearer at the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony in July, and while her level of play dipped a bit over the summer, she was back at her best in the fall, winning the China Open and the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. That last victory came with a $4.8 million check, but the 20-year-old star makes even more money off the court, where she recently added hair-care brand Carol’s Daughter, Fanatics and Naked Juice to a list of long-term partners that now goes 11 deep. She also appeared on the cover of Wheaties boxes during the U.S. Open, honoring her title run in Flushing Meadows a year earlier.

#2. $23.8 million

Iga Świątek

Sport: Tennis | Nationality: Poland | Age: 23 | On-Field: $8.8 million • Off-Field: $15 million

Image by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP

Świątek led the 2023 female athletes ranking with an estimated $23.9 million, and she finishes this year within $100,000 of that total, with Lancôme and Lego joining her robust sponsor portfolio. But the 23-year-old also experienced turbulence, splitting with her coach and losing the No. 1 singles ranking after 50 straight weeks in the top spot. Most notably, news broke in November that she had tested positive for a banned substance three months earlier. However, the International Tennis Integrity Agency ruled that the result was unintentional—caused by contamination of melatonin she was taking for sleeping issues—and issued her only a one-month suspension.

#3. $22.1 million

Eileen Gu

Sport: Freestyle skiing | Nationality: China | Age: 21 | On-Field: $0.1 million • Off-Field: $22 million

Image by Sean M. Haffey / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

Gu has lucrative endorsement deals with Western brands including Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co. and new addition Porsche as well as Chinese brands such as Anta sportswear, Bosideng jackets and Mengniu Dairy. With her 16th World Cup victory this month, she moved back into a tie for the career freeskiing lead, but some Chinese social media users have accused Gu, who was born in San Francisco and represents her mother’s native China in competition, of being “unpatriotic” and “two-faced.” “In the past five years, I’ve represented China in 41 international competitions and have won 39 medals for China,” Gu shot back in a post on short-video app Douyin. “What have you done for the country?”

#4. $20.6 million

Qinwen Zheng

Sport: Tennis | Nationality: China | Age: 22 | On-Field: $5.6 million • Off-Field: $15 million

Image by Fayez NURELDINE / AFP

In the past two years, Zheng had won the WTA Tour’s Newcomer of the Year and Most Improved Player Awards, but she raised her game in 2024, reaching the Australian Open final and winning gold in singles at the Paris Olympics. The success has made her a huge star in her native China, with Audi, milk tea chain Chagee, Lancôme and phone maker Vivo among the brands signing her as an ambassador. Her quick rise has already prompted comparisons to her countrywoman Li Na, who won two majors and appeared in the top 10 of the female athletes earnings ranking from 2011 to 2014.

#5. $18.7 million

Aryna Sabalenka

Sport: Tennis | Nationality: Belarus | Age: 26 | On-Field: $9.7 million • Off-Field: $9 million

Image by Fayez NURELDINE / AFP

Sabalenka jumped ahead of her rival Iga Świątek to capture tennis’ No. 1 ranking and claimed the WTA Player of the Year Award after winning the Australian Open and the U.S. Open, along with two other tournaments. She also led the tour with $9.7 million in prize money, edging out Coco Gauff’s $9.4 million. Off the court, she picked up endorsement deals with Audemars Piguet watches, Master & Dynamic headphones and açaí bowl chain Oakberry.

#6 (tie). $12.9 million

Naomi Osaka

Sport: Tennis | Nationality: Japan | Age: 27 | On-Field: $0.9 million • Off-Field: $12 million

Image by WANG Zhao / AFP

Osaka returned to the court on the first day of the year after missing all of 2023 as she gave birth to her first child. It wasn’t easy for the four-time major champion, who wrote in a powerful Instagram post in August, “My biggest issue is that I don’t feel like I’m in my body.” But she managed to play in 19 events after struggling with injuries in recent years and pushed her singles ranking back up to No. 58, from a low of No. 833 during her layoff. Osaka also still has more than a dozen sponsors in her stable and is a cofounder of production company Hana Kuma, which is working with golf’s LPGA Tour to create campaigns around its athletes and is developing an anime series that will include Osaka as a voice actor.

#6 (tie). $12.9 million

Emma Raducanu

Sport: Tennis | Nationality: U.K. | Age: 22 | On-Field: $0.9 million • Off-Field: $12 million

Image by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP

Raducanu still has a slew of lucrative partnerships she signed in the wake of her victory as an 18-year-old at the 2021 U.S. Open, with brands including British Airways, Dior and HSBC, but she has been plagued by injuries, illnesses and inconsistency in the years since her breakout. The world’s 57th-ranked player heads into 2025 with a new fitness coach—the well-regarded Yutaka Nakamura, who previously worked with Maria Sharapova and Naomi Osaka—as she remains on the hunt for her second career WTA tournament win.

#8. $12.5 million

Nelly Korda

Sport: Golf | Nationality: U.S. | Age: 26 | On-Field: $4.5 million • Off-Field: $8 million

Image by Scott Taetsch / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

Korda tied an LPGA Tour record this year with five straight tournament victories and, despite a neck injury, finished 2024 with seven titles, the tour’s best total since 2011. Her $4.4 million in LPGA prize money also surpassed the tour record—although she herself was topped this year by Jeeno Thitikul’s $6.1 million—and she won the LPGA’s Player of the Year Award to go with the No. 1 ranking. Away from the course, Korda added Tumi to the best sponsorship portfolio in women’s golf.

#9. $12.1 million

Venus Williams

Sport: Tennis | Nationality: U.S. | Age: 44 | On-Field: $0.1 million • Off-Field: $12 million

Image by Ilya S. Savenok / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP

Williams played just two competitive events this year—each a first-round loss—as she winds down a legendary career that has included seven Grand Slam singles titles. But while endorsement deals tend to revolve around tennis players’ rankings, the 44-year-old is not your average No. 977 player. She is active on the speaking circuit, making six figures per engagement, and she stays busy as an ambassador and entrepreneur. Palazzo, an AI-powered interior design platform, is among her latest projects, and she was the model for a one-of-a-kind Barbie doll created as part of the toy’s 65th anniversary celebration.

#10. $11.2 million

Simone Biles

Sport: Gymnastics | Nationality: U.S. | Age: 27 | On-Field: $0.2 million • Off-Field: $11 million

Image by Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP

After a case of “the twisties” knocked her out of Olympic competition in Tokyo in 2021, Bilesmade a triumphant return to the Summer Games this year, winning three gold medals and a silver in Paris. Her comeback was chronicled in the Netflix docuseries Simone Biles Rising, and she took a victory lap with a series of exhibitions called the Gold Over America Tour—or GOAT, in recognition of her now-unquestioned status as gymnastics’ greatest of all-time.

Visit forbes.com to view the full World’s Highest-Paid Female Athletes 2024 list. 

METHODOLOGY

The Forbes ranking of the world’s highest-paid female athletes reflects earnings from the calendar year 2024. The on-field earnings figures include base salaries, bonuses, stipends and prize money and are rounded to the nearest $100,000. The off-field earnings estimates, which are rounded to the nearest $500,000, are determined through conversations with industry insiders and reflect annual cash from endorsements, licensing, appearances and memorabilia, as well as cash returns from any businesses in which the athlete has a significant interest. Forbes does not include investment income like interest payments or dividends but does account for payouts from equity stakes athletes have sold. Forbes does not deduct for taxes or agents’ fees. The list includes athletes active at any point during the 12-month period.

US-based Friedkin Group’s arm Roundhouse Capital Holdings Ltd has completed the takeover of Everton Football Club, according to a statement from the Premier League club Thursday.

Takeover of Premier League club

The deal for a 98.8% stake in the Liverpool club was finalized following an agreement between Farhad Moshiri’s Blue Heaven Holdings (BHH) and Roundhouse.

Despite a challenging geopolitical backdrop, Everton has achieved a significant amount over the last couple of years, including the delivery of a new sporting department, the stabilization of its finances, and the delivery of an iconic new stadium, said billionaire Farhad Moshiri, the outgoing majority shareholder.

“I now hand over to new owners confident in the outlook for the club and that our incredible fans will see the success on the pitch that they so thoroughly deserve,” added Moshiri.

Everton has now become the 10th English top-flight outfit under majority American ownership, with the Premier League saying the Friedkin Group (IFG) had purchased a majority stake in the Liverpool club.

Everton said all necessary regulatory approvals from the Premier League, Women’s Professional Leagues Limited, the Football Association, and the Financial Conduct Authority have been received to complete the transaction.

Due to recent changes to the Premier League’s shareholder loan regulations, Everton took proactive steps before the transaction’s completion, including raising the club’s share capital to convert outstanding debt owed to BHH into equity, thereby facilitating additional equity investment from Roundhouse.

Crucial quote

“Providing immediate financial stability to the club has been a key priority, and we are delighted to have achieved this. While restoring Everton to its rightful place in the Premier League table will take time, today is the first step in that journey,” said Marc Watts, the incoming executive chairman of Everton Football Club.

Governing body

Billionaire Dan Friedkin, chairman and CEO of the Friedkin Group is proposed to be chairman of the board. He has appointed Marc Watts to serve as executive chairman, who will be responsible in this role for the management of the club. Ana Dunkel, TFG’s Chief Financial Officer and Colin Chong, the club’s interim CEO will also serve on the board. 

Priorities

The key priorities of Friedkin Group now include strengthening the men’s first-team squad through thoughtful and strategic investment and cultivating home-grown superstars through Everton’s Academy.

Net worths

Friedkin has a real-time net worth of $7.8 billion as of December 19, 2024, while Moshiri has a net wealth $2.8 billion, according to Forbes estimates.

Russia’s economy has shown indications of overheating, leading to high inflation, said President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, adding that the authorities have been tasked with tackling the situation. 

Russian economy

“There are some issues here, namely inflation, a certain overheating of the economy, and the government and the central bank are already tasked with bringing the tempo down,” Putin said during his annual phone-in, reported Reuters.

Putin said he backs the Bank of Russia’s tight monetary policy but suggested that the central bank could have acted more timely. Before the phone call, he talked to the central bank’s governor, Elvira Nabiullina, who said that inflation in the current year will exceed the 8.5% estimate to reach 9.2%-9.3%.

He added that the economic growth rate will fall from 4% in the current year to 2%-2.5% in 2025 due to tight monetary policy and government measures aimed at cooling down the economy. 

The Russian president said the central bank could have used other instruments to cool down the economy while the government could have made efforts to boost supply by working with different sectors. “It would have been necessary to make these timely decisions. This is an unpleasant and bad thing.”

He also blamed Western sanctions and a bad harvest caused by extreme weather for contributing to the high prices. Russia’s consumer price index reached 8.9% in November on a year-on-year basis, rising from 8.5% in the prior month, largely driven by rising food prices.

Situation in Syria

Responding to a question on the situation in Syria, Putin rebuffed the impression that Russia had failed in the country and said that Moscow has made new proposals to the new leadership in Damascus to maintain its military bases. 

In his first public comments on the matter, Putin said that he has not yet met former Syrian President Bashar Al Assad since his arrival in Moscow after his overthrow, adding that he plans to do so. Putin added that Russia has communicated to other countries that they can utilize its air and naval bases in Syria for the flow of humanitarian aid. 

Trump meeting

Putin said that he is ready to hold a conversation or meeting with the US President-elect Donald Trump, if he wants it, reported the state-run TASS news agency. He added that he doesn’t know when it will materialize because Trump hasn’t said anything about it, and he hasn’t talked with the President-elect for more than four years.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zaharova said earlier that Moscow is ready for contacts with Washington for the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis, but no “serious proposals” have yet been received from the Trump team.

What to watch for

The Russian central bank is widely expected to raise its key interest rate by a significant 200 basis points to 23% in its meeting on Friday, its highest level in over two decades.

Emirates NBD’s Sustainability-Linked Loan Financing Bond was issued under the bank’s $20 billion Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) Programme.

Emirates NBD’s $500 million Sustainability-Linked Loan Financing Bond (SLLB) was listed on Nasdaq Dubai Wednesday, bringing the Dubai-based lender’s total bond value on the bourse to nearly $5.8 billion across nine listings.

ESG-linked bond

Emirates NBD’s SLLB, which was issued under the bank’s $20 billion Euro Medium Term Note (EMTN) Programme, is the world’s first under the new International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and Loan Market Association (LMA) framework, according to a statement by Nasdaq Dubai on Wednesday. 

The five-year bond, which is also listed on Euronext Dublin, features a 5.141% fixed coupon rate and matures in 2029. Rating agencies Moody’s and Fitch rated the bond A2/A+.

Proceeds from the bond issue will fund or refinance the lender’s portfolio of Sustainability-Linked Loan (SLL) assets, aligning with its SLLB Framework and meeting the growing demand for ESG-focused financial instruments globally, according to the statement. 

Crucial quote 

“This not only marks an important milestone in our sustainability journey as a Bank but also serves as a testament to our commitment to supporting the evolving needs of capital markets, investors and our customers for ESG-compliant financial instruments,” said Hesham Abdulla Al Qassim, vice chairman and managing director at Emirates NBD Group.

Big number

$30.4 billion. That’s the total value of ESG-focused issuance on Nasdaq Dubai. Meanwhile, the value of listed fixed-income securities on the bourse totaled $139 billion.

Green bond issuance

In 2023, Emirates NBD issued its first green bonds to raise $750 million in the largest green bond issued by a regional bank. It also executed the UAE’s inaugural ESG-linked trade finance transaction in the manufacturing sector, according to its annual report for 2023. 

The global market size of sustainable finance last year reached $5.4 trillion, according to Global Market Insights. Between 2024 and 2032, sustainable finance is expected to post a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 22%, fueled by rising environmental and social issue awareness among governments and people. 

Forbes ranking

Emirates NBD ranks sixth on Forbes Middle East’s list of the region’s 30 Most Valuable Banks 2024 and the Middle East’s Top 100 Listed Companies 2024. 

UniCredit, Italy’s second-largest bank, has increased its stake in Germany’s Commerzbank from 21% to around 28% as speculation grows of an attempted buyout.

Stake increased

UniCredit’s overall position now totals circa 28%, of which 9.5% was increased through a direct stake and circa 18.5% through derivative instruments, the Italian bank said in a statement released Wednesday. It had previously raised its stake in Commerzbank, also with the use of derivatives, to nearly 21%.

UniCredit’s average entry price for the entire position is below current trading levels.

It said it has submitted the necessary regulatory filings to acquire a stake in Commerzbank above 10% up to 29.9%. The authorization process is now activated, and interactions with authorities are ongoing.

The statement confirmed that the position is solely an investment and does not have any impact on the public exchange offer with its rival Banco BPM.

The Italian bank said the increase in its stake reinforces its view that “substantial value exists within Commerzbank that needs to be crystallized.”

BPM bid

UniCredit has been under pressure in Italy to improve its BPM bid, which stands at a 14% discount to the market price.

Announcing the BPM bid, UniCredit CEO Andrea Orcel said his bank could not afford to be side-lined in accelerating consolidation in its home market.

He said he was pausing expansion efforts in Germany until a new government was in place because of a rule that would force UniCredit to pay cash if it launched a full bid for Commerzbank within six months of acquiring at least 5%.

ECB approval

UniCredit has also sought European Central Bank (ECB) approval to reach a 29.9% stake in Commerzbank, just below the level that triggers a mandatory takeover offer. 

The ECB authorization process can take up to 90 working days from when the central bank receives the documents, UnicCredit said, adding that the process is ongoing.

The ECB’s assessment is expected to take close to the entire period the supervisor has due to the complexity of the evaluation, Reuters reported.

The Oman Investment Fund (OIA) announced Wednesday its investment in xAI, an artificial intelligence (AI) company backed by Elon Musk, aligning with the sovereign wealth fund’s strategy to diversify its global portfolio and foster growth across multiple sectors.

Focus on advanced technologies

However, the sovereign fund did not disclose any details, including the size of the investment in the AI company.

The move reflects the fund’s focus on advanced technologies as part of its broader commitment to invest in high-potential sectors, the state-run Oman News Agency (ONA) said Wednesday.

xAI, co-founded by Musk, has already achieved two significant milestones: the establishment of a major data center in the US and the rollout of its enhanced platform, Grok-2, according to the OIA. 

Earlier this month, xAI raised $6 billion in its latest funding round through a stake sale. According to a company filing, as many as 97 investors took part in xAI’s fundraising activity. The latest round raised its total funding to $12 billion, which includes $6 billion in a round in May 2024. 

The investment of the sovereign fund in xAI supports its goals under Oman Vision 2040, which enables the Sultanate to adopt world-class technologies and drive future progress, said OIA Chairman Abdulsalam Mohammed Al Murshidi.

xAI aims to be a pioneer in AI systems, offering the ability to process and analyze real-time data, an essential advantage over many competing AI systems.

Crucial quote

“The partnership between Oman and the Gulf countries with xAI is an excellent idea. These investments will bear fruit as we work together to build a superintelligent AI capable of solving numerous problems,” said Musk.

“We are nearing the completion of training the Grok 3 model, which we believe will be the smartest AI model in the world,” he added.

OIA’s investment in SpaceX

Apart from xAI, the OIA is also a stakeholder in SpaceX, Musk’s private space company known for its Starlink satellite communication system. According to the report, this partnership has been highly successful, with OIA achieving an internal rate of return exceeding 37% on its SpaceX investment.

The strong returns are attributed to SpaceX’s rapid global expansion and the deployment of its satellite communication services in numerous countries worldwide.

Big number

The OIA has $49.9 billion in assets under management (AUM), according to the latest data by the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute (SWFI).

Net worth

Musk, who is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and co-founder of xAI, has a real-time net worth of $464 billion as of December 18, 2024, making him the richest person in the world, according to Forbes estimates.