Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

Birmingham City Council’s SAP-to-Oracle project is set to cost £144.4 million – more than seven times earlier estimates – as it waits for a fully functioning system five years after its planned go-live date. Keen Reg readers will know the sorry saga of the ERP disaster at Europe’s largest local authority. For the uninitiated, highlights include going live with a system unfit to manage the council’s £3 billion in taxpayer revenue and multibillion-pound spending budget; a decision to turn off audits for fraud detection for more than 18 months; allocating £2 billion in transactions to the wrong year; and multiple…

Power doesn’t always announce itself with parades and flyovers. Sometimes it hums quietly in the background, embedded in ports, politics, proxy groups, and production lines. That’s where the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) lives. And if you’ve ever wondered how powerful is the IRGC, you’re asking the right question, but probably the wrong way.Most military power is easy to picture: tanks rolling, jets screaming overhead, neat columns of soldiers.The IRGC doesn’t really do neat. It does layered. Messy. Strategic in a way that feels more like a spiderweb than a battering ram. Tug one strand in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, or…

In just one month, one of the largest and most exciting SENSHI events will officially open the 2026 fight calendar. SENSHI 30 will take place on February 28, starting at 7:00 PM EET /12:00 PM EST/, at the Palace of Culture and Sports in Varna, Bulgaria. Tickets for the professional fight gala are now available through the network of Eventim.bg. SENSHI 30 will present fight sports fans in Bulgaria and around the world with its next highly anticipated Grand Prix tournament—this time for fighters under 75 kg. For the first time in the organization’s history, a Grand Prix event in…

Introduction This has to be one of the best sales I have come across in the last couple of months, and as someone who’s getting into board games, there’s a lot of game in here for just a couple of dollars. In fact, the Steam Board Game Fest 2026 is the perfect opportunity for strategy and board game enthusiasts to discover some of the best digital adaptations of tabletop classics and innovative new releases. From immersive tactical RPGs like Gloomhaven and Frosthaven to charming puzzle experiences like Dorfromantik, and crazy new concepts like Cultist Simulator, the festival showcases great classic…

Ilia Topuria would emphatically emerge victorious over newly minted UFC interim lightweight champ and ex BMF champ Justin Gaethje according to someone else interwoven within that BMF championship lineage. The combatant in question is the inaugural BMF titleholder, Jorge Masvidal. Gamebred’ spoke about Gaethje’s chances against Topuria now that the former has become the first ever two time interim champ in UFC history after besting Paddy Pimblett in the UFC 324 headliner. Jorge Masvidal discussed this on his podcast Death Row MMA, as Masvidal said [via MMA Junkie], “It’s a good thing Paddy didn’t win, because if he did, he…

Chemical weapons remain a persistent threat, but advances in protective clothing are changing the calculus of CBRN warfare. This piece explores how new fabric technologies are making suits lighter, safer, and more effective. Chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) hazards drive the development of defensive countermeasures such as protective masks or medical treatment. In the area of protective clothing, the aspect of the CBRN threat that drives the entire segment is the chemical weapons threat. Generally speaking, gamma rays pass right through CBRN suits anyway, and radioactive particles and biological aerosols are far easier to mitigate than nerve agents and…

Reigning WWE Women’s champion, Jade Cargill, has it all figured out. In the ring, opponents are finding her dominant power to be an insurmountable challenge, while this pro wrestler’s imposing physique is also sending some of her less ripped rivals into a tailspin of embarrassment. Of course, building the best abs in the pro wrestling business requires careful planning and some dedicated macro tracking. They say that abs are built in the kitchen, and there’s no doubt about that, but making them pop requires a passion for exercise, even while on the road touring with the juggernaut that is WWE.…

Terry Gerton We’re going to talk about shipbuilding. But before we get into the particulars, I want to start with kind of an overarching assessment. President Trump has talked about wanting to have a Golden Fleet. Secretary of Defense Hegseth is out selling the “arsenal of freedom.” As we think about all of that, it seems like there might be a conflict between aspirations and capabilities. What is the actual starting point for the U.S. shipbuilding industry today? Seamus Daniels Growing the fleet and bolstering the maritime industrial base is a major priority for the Trump administration. But it’s worth…

The National Transportation Safety Board said “systemic failures” by multiple agencies, including the U.S. Army, led to the mid-air collision last year between an Army UH-60 Blackhawk and an American Airlines regional jet over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Following a year-long investigation into the Jan. 29, 2025, crash, the NTSB said Tuesday that the main cause of the accident was the longstanding use of a helicopter route in the path of a runway approach and failures by the Federal Aviation Administration to act on recommendations to mitigate risk at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. They cited numerous issues…

China didn’t break into America’s telecom networks with futuristic cyber weapons — it walked through unlocked doors.Washington often frames the cyber conflict with Beijing as high-stakes statecraft, a sophisticated great-power chess match characterized by daring spies and zero-day exploits. This narrative is flattering, but false. As the recent Salt Typhoon revelations show, America is not losing a chess match to China’s hackers. It is failing a safety inspection of its own making.Securing U.S. networks requires treating telecom cyber security not as a voluntary partnership, but as a critical safety discipline: enforcing mandatory operational baselines, demanding executive verification of network hygiene,…