Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

Imane Khelif’s gender revelation has caused uproar among combat sports fans.For years, controversy has shadowed Khelif’s achievements in women’s boxing. On her way to international success, the Algerian has emerged as one of the best in her weight class, dominating her peers on the way to Olympic gold, but it hasn’t come without criticism.Ahead of the 2028 Games, in which Imane Khelif wants to compete, many questions are being raised regarding her eligibility. The noise surrounding her true gender is growing louder, and after years of doubt, Khelif has confirmed that she, in fact, has a female phenotype, despite the…

Carter Vail carries a unique musical skill set—not to mention an unassuming, rock-solid six-pack—that sometimes gets lost beneath the lime-green glitz of a head-to-toe bug costume. The singer and content creator describes his work simply as indie rock, but for fans his style ranges from the serious and cinematic—like his 2025 EP Coydog—to the seriously absurd, like his latest insect-infused social media drop, “Ants in My Room.” And his followers love it, as evidenced by the more than 1.4 million who’ve jumped aboard the Vail Instagram bandwagon since his 2024 breakthrough “Dirt Man” went viral, which has pulled in over…

Germany has taken delivery of its 52nd A400M military transport aircraft, Airbus Defence and Space said on Saturday. According to Airbus Defence, the aircraft is the 52nd A400M delivered to Germany as part of the Luftwaffe’s ongoing airlift modernization program. The delivery adds another operational airframe to Germany’s strategic and tactical transport fleet, which is […]

The president recently announced his desire for a $1.5 trillion defense budget in fiscal year 2027, which would represent a substantial increase of $600 billion over current figures. As large a sum as that is, it is money the department could realistically use to address shortfalls in modernization and readiness.  With Congress working out a budget deal, a full year defense continuing resolution looks unlikely for the remainder of 2026. But many experts predict a chance of a split Congress after the mid-term elections.  If that happens, divided control of Congress creates a high probability of another full year defense continuing resolution in…

The IRS, faced with significant staffing shortages, is reassigning back-office employees to cover frontline work during this year’s filing season. According to IRS employees familiar with these decisions, staff from human resources and potentially the agency’s IT department will carry out the work of customer service representatives and tax examiners, who review the accuracy of incoming tax returns. Employees reassigned to frontline filing season work have been instructed to tell their coworkers that they will be on detail through the summer, “due to an alternate assignment in direct support of the IRS mission.” IRS employees said the agency is looking…

BELFAST — Sweden’s Saab appears to be capitalizing on deteriorating political relations between the US and Canada by pushing for Ottawa to fly its Gripen E/F fighter jets along with US-made F-35s, and offering domestic production to sweeten the deal. In a call with investors today Saab CEO Micael Johansson claimed Canada was considering ways “not to be too dependent on the US by having a dual fleet, both F-35 and the Gripens.” “We are providing all [the] detailed information that they need to understand,” he said. Specifically, the Swedish manufacturer has shared details around speed of technology transfer and…

SINGAPORE — The biannual Singapore Airshow is taking place at Singapore’s Changi Exhibition Centre between Feb. 3 and Feb. 8. This year’s show has seen more than 1,000 defense and aviation businesses and organizations from over 50 countries descend onto the show site. You can check out some of the photos from show below. Click here to read our coverage from the show so far, and check back for more as the show continues. Artwork of the US Air Force’s 319th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron seen on the ventral fin of a General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft on the static display.…

Over the past year, waves of federal layoffs have left thousands of government employees and contractor clients suddenly out of work. For foreign intelligence services, that disruption has opened new opportunities. With more former U.S. officials seeking employment or freelance work — often in specialized national security fields — adversaries, namely China, have stepped in, posing as consulting firms, research groups and recruiters.The efforts aren’t tied to traditional signals intelligence or hacking. They’ve instead relied on human contact: conversations that begin over email or job platforms and evolve into targeted efforts to extract sensitive information. It’s a form of classic…

Spotlighting The World Factbook As We Bid A Fond Farewell One of CIA’s oldest and most recognizable intelligence publications, The World Factbook, has sunset. The World Factbook served the Intelligence Community and the general public as a longstanding, one-stop basic reference about countries and communities around the globe. Let’s take a quick look into the history of The World Factbook.   Over many decades, The World Factbook evolved from a classified to unclassified, hardcopy to electronic product that added new categories, and even new global entities. The original classified publication, titled The National Basic Intelligence Factbook, launched in 1962. The…

The fourth edition of the TOKIO Cup 2026 has been officially announced and is set to become the largest Kyokushin karate event on Reunion Island. Organized under the auspices of the Kyokushin World Federation (KWF), the tournament will take place from Friday, July 10, to Sunday, July 12, 2026, at the Gymnase de Champ Fleuri in Saint-Denis, Reunion Island (France). A Major Kyokushin Event The TOKIO Cup 2026 is expected to gather around 300 competitors, competing in kata and kumite, with divisions starting from 4 years of age. Over the years, the TOKIO Cup has established itself as the most…