#Hamas to face 'gates of hell' in Gaza until it accepts Israel’s terms — defense minister
Israel Katz also announced that the authorities had approved the Israel Defense Forces’ operational plan against Hamas in #Gaza.

The "gates of hell" will open for the Palestinian radical movement Hamas in Gaza and will remain open until the radicals accept Israel's conditions and release all hostages, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said.

"Soon, the gates of hell will open over the heads of the murderers and rapists of Hamas in Gaza [and will remain open] until they agree to Israel's terms for ending the war, the main ones being the release of all hostages and disarmament," he wrote on his X page, commenting on the Israeli decision to approve army plans to crush the radical movement in Gaza.

"If they [Hamas] do not comply, Gaza, the capital of Hamas, will become Rafah and Beit Hanoun (cities where Israeli military operations have already been carried out - TASS)," Katz added.

The defense minister also announced that the authorities had approved the Israel Defense Forces’ operational plan against Hamas in Gaza. "We have approved the IDF's plan to defeat Hamas in Gaza with intensive fire, evacuation of residents, and ground maneuvers," Katz stated.
IDF plan for Gaza

On August 21, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in the Gaza Strip, where he recorded a video statement announcing that he was there to approve the army's plan for Gaza. Netanyahu also said that he had instructed his team to begin negotiations immediately on the release of all hostages and the end of the war in Gaza on terms acceptable to Israel. According to Netanyahu, defeating Hamas and freeing all hostages will happen simultaneously.

On August 20, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz approved a plan to capture Gaza City. According to the Kan state broadcaster, the operation was codenamed "Gideon's Chariots II."

#Canada absent in multi-nation call to protect Gaza journalists, allow foreign media. #OTTAWA — Canada has taken the rare step of not signing onto a multi-country statement that demands Israel stop banning foreign journalists from entering Gaza and that local journalists be protected in the Palestinian territories.

Canada co-founded the Media Freedom Coalition in 2020 and has signed dozens of statements on issues in Hong Kong, Sudan and previously the West Bank.

But Ottawa is not among the 27 countries singing a call for Israel to allow “independent foreign media access” into Gaza, and for journalists to be protect across Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The only other time Canada did not sign a multi-country statement from the coalition was during the 2021 election campaign, and Global Affairs Canada did not have an immediate response when asked why it’s not part of today’s letter.

The statement comes after Canada and others condemned Israel for deliberately killing Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif, after claiming he had led a cell of Hamas.

Canada is also condemning Israel’s approval of plans to build settlements that would restrict Palestinian access to Jerusalem and separate the city from the West Bank, in a separate joint statement today.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 21, 2025.

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press

Attack on #Colombian police helicopter leaves at least 8 dead, president says. An attack on a Colombian National Police helicopter Thursday killed at least eight people and injured several others, according to President Gustavo Petro.

It’s still unclear who is behind the attack in the Antioquia department.

In his most recent comments Thursday, Petro attributed it to the 36th Front of the Estado Mayor Central (EMC), dissidents of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a leftist guerrilla group.

However, earlier, he suggested the powerful criminal syndicate Gulf Clan might be involved, noting the attack came after the seizure of 1.5 tons of cocaine in the Urabá region of Antioquia.

“We have the unfortunate news of eight police officers dead and eight injured in the helicopter whose mission was to transport personnel to eradicate coca leaf crops in Amalfi,” Petro wrote on his X account.

National Police Director Carlos Fernando Triana Beltrán described the incident as a “terrorist act” and said police units are in the area treating the wounded.

The helicopter was supporting the manual eradication of illicit crops when it was allegedly attacked by a drone, Antioquia Gov. Andrés Julián Rendón said, adding two uniformed officers were injured.

The governor posted a video that appears to show the helicopter crashing into a hill.

Rendón warned that both the Gulf Clan and dissidents of FARC operate in the area, and noted the national government has been unable to agree on who is responsible for the attack.

“(We) have always known that these are FARC dissidents in charge of Calarcá: that’s their modus operandi, allied with the ELN,” he said, referring to the leftist guerrilla group National Liberation Army. “Coordination within the national government is urgent. This is a matter of life and death.”

Woman arrested after allegedly posting threats against Trump on social media.

A woman from Indiana has been arrested by U.S. federal authorities after allegedly threatening U.S. President Donald Trump with kidnapping and murder through social media.

According to an Aug. 18 press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Nathalie Rose Jones, 50, asked U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in a social media post to “please arrange the arrest and removal ceremony of POTUS Trump as a terrorist on the American People from 10-2pm at the White House on Saturday, August 16th, 2025.”

Jones is alleged to have written on Aug. 6 that “I am willing to sacrificially kill this POTUS by disemboweling him and cutting out his trachea with Liz Cheney and all The Affirmation present.”

According to the press release, the woman submitted to a voluntary interview with the U.S. Secret Service on Aug. 15, where she called Trump a “terrorist” and a “Nazi”.

The D.C. Attorney’s Office also said she had a “bladed object” which would be used to “carry out her mission of killing” Trump, her motive being to “avenge all the lives lost during the COVID-19 pandemic” for which she blamed the presidents’ policies and vaccine stance.

The woman joined a protest in the U.S. capital, which marched around the White House complex on Aug. 16, investigators said.

“Following the march, the U.S. Secret Service interviewed Jones for a second time, during which she admitted that she had made threats towards President Trump during her interview the previous day,” the press release said.

In the second interview, she denied having any present desire to harm Trump. However, law enforcement arrested her and she confirmed to be behind the threatening social media posts.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office identified an account on Instagram and Facebook labelled “Nath.Jones” that was posting threatening messages towards the U.S. president.
Not the first time Trump has been targeted

Trump has faced multiple threats against his life since entering the world of politics. In July 2024 at a rally in Butler, Penn., then-Republican candidate Trump was shot at by Thomas Matthew Crooks, who fired eight shots at the rally in the direction of Trump.

One rally attendee was killed, two others were wounded and Trump’s ear was grazed before the shooter was killed by a Secret Service sniper.

Following the incident in Butler, another potential assassin was intercepted by U.S. authorities, this time in Florida. Ryan Wesley Routh, a 58-year-old from Florida, was apprehended by Secret Service agents after being seen with a rifle at Trump International Golf Club.

“After the agent fired a service weapon in the direction of the rifle, a witness saw a man later identified as Routh fleeing the area of the tree line. Routh was later apprehended by officers from the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, in coordination with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office,” a press release from the U.S. Justice Department wrote.

A British citizen attempted take the firearm from a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officer at a Trump rally in June 2016. He was sentenced to a year and one day in prison.

Michael Steven Sandford, a 20-year-old from England overstayed his tourist visa and took shooting lessons at a Las Vegas gun range with a 9mm Glock pistol. The day after his lessons, Sandford attended a Trump rally and grabbed a Las Vegas police officer’s 9mm Glock handgun and attempted to retrieve it from the officer’s holster.

He was immediately arrested and pleaded guilty to the charges laid against him.

In 2017, a man from North Dakota stole a forklift in order to “harm the president by flipping (his) limo with the forklift”, the Associated Press reported.

Forty-two-year-old Gregory Lee Leingang entered the presidential motorcade with his stolen forklift in Mandan, according to AP. However, “the forklift got stuck in a gated area and Leingang fled on foot.”

Leingang pleaded guilty to attempting to enter a restricted area with a restricted #weapon.

Man put to death for a 1982 killing in record 10th execution this year in #Florida.

STARKE, Fla. — A man convicted of abducting a woman from a Florida Panhandle insurance office and killing her received a lethal injection Tuesday evening in the state’s record 10th execution this year.

Kayle Bates, 67, was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m. following a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke under a death warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. The execution extended Florida’s record for total executions in a single year, and two more are planned in the state within the next month.

Bates was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping, armed robbery and attempted sexual battery in killing of Janet Renee White. It happened on June 14, 1982, in Bay County in the Florida Panhandle. The woman’s husband, Randy White, was one of the witnesses to Tuesday’s execution.

At the scheduled 6 p.m. execution time, the curtain to the death chamber promptly went up. Bates was already strapped to a gurney with his left arm extended and the IV line for the drugs already in place. When asked if he wished to make a last statement, Bates replied ‘no.’

The execution then began at 6:01 pm. Bates began breathing more rapidly about a minute after the drugs began flowing, and then he stopped after about another minute. At 6:05 p.m., the warden touched Bates’ face, shook his shoulders and shouted his name with no response. Several minutes later, he was declared dead.

At a briefing following the execution, Randy White thanked DeSantis for signing the death warrant and also thanked members of law enforcement and prosecutors for working on his wife’s case.

″I am truly humbled by the outpouring of love and support from so many who didn’t know either one of us. I thank you from my heart. It means more than you will ever know," he said.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court restored the death penalty in 1976, the highest previous annual total of Florida executions was eight in 2014. Florida has executed more people than any other state this year, while Texas and South Carolina are tied for second place with four each.

With Tuesday’s execution, a total of 29 men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., and at least nine other people were scheduled to be put to death in seven states during the remainder of 2025.

According to court documents, Bates abducted his victim from the insurance office where she worked, took her into some woods behind the building, attempted to rape her, fatally stabbed her and tore a diamond ring from one of her fingers.

Attorneys for Bates had filed appeals with the Florida Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as a federal lawsuit claiming DeSantis’ process for signing death warrants was discriminatory. The lawsuit was recently dismissed by a judge who found problems with its statistical analysis.

The Florida Supreme Court recently denied Bates’ pending claims, including arguments that evidence of organic brain damage had been inadequately considered during his second penalty phase. The court ruled Bates already had three decades to raise these claims. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Bates’ last appeal Tuesday.

Two more executions are planned in Florida in coming weeks.

Curtis Windom, 59, is scheduled to become the 11th person executed in Florida on Aug. 28. He was convicted of killing three people in the Orlando area in 1992.

David Pittman, 63, would be the 12th person executed in Florida if his death sentence is carried out as scheduled Sept. 17. He was found guilty of fatally stabbing his estranged wife’s sister and parents at their Polk County home before setting it on fire in 1990.

Florida executions are carried out using a three-drug lethal injection: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the state Department of Corrections.

David Fischer, The Associated Press

The U.S. Navy is building a drone fleet to take on China. It’s not going well.

During a U.S. naval test off the California coast last month, which was designed to showcase the Pentagon’s top autonomous drone boats, one vessel stalled unexpectedly.

As officials scrambled to fix a software glitch, another drone vessel smashed into the idling boat’s starboard side, vaulted over the deck, and crashed back into the water – an incident captured in videos obtained by Reuters.

The previously unreported episode, which involved two vessels built by U.S. defense tech rivals Saronic and BlackSea Technologies, is one of a series of recent setbacks in the Pentagon’s push to build a fleet of autonomous vessels, according to a dozen people familiar with the program.

Weeks earlier, during a separate Navy test, the captain of a support boat was thrown into the water after another autonomous BlackSea vessel it was towing suddenly accelerated, capsizing the support boat, according to four people familiar with the matter. The captain was rescued and declined medical attention. The incident was first reported by Defense Scoop.

Both incidents stemmed from a combination of software failures and human error, including breakdowns in communication between onboard systems and external autonomous software, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter, who requested anonymity to share sensitive information.

The Navy, Saronic and BlackSea declined to comment on the incidents.

U.S. military leaders, seeing the outsized impact of maritime drones in the Ukraine war, have repeatedly said they need autonomous swarms of aerial and maritime drones to hinder a potential advance by China across the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan itself has begun acquiring its own maritime drones.

The drones being developed in Ukraine, which often look like speedboats without seats, and are capable of carrying weapons, explosives and surveillance equipment, are primarily remote-controlled and cost close to US$250,000 – making them optimal for kamikaze missions that have effectively neutralized Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

The U.S., meanwhile, is aiming to build an autonomous naval fleet that can move in swarms and without human command – a more ambitious task at a higher price point; as much as a few million dollars per speedboat.

The recent test failures highlight the challenges facing the Navy’s effort to deploy the nascent technologies, said Bryan Clark, an autonomous warfare expert at the Hudson Institute. It will need to adapt its “tactics as it better understands what the systems can do and what they can’t do.”

But the Navy’s problems go beyond getting the boats to work: its autonomous maritime drone acquisition unit has also been rocked by the firing of its top admiral, and a top Pentagon official voiced concerns about the program in a candid meeting with Navy brass last month, Reuters found.

Since the most recent incident, the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), which had acquired technology for the tests, has indefinitely paused a contract – valued close to $20 million – with L3Harris, one of the companies providing autonomous software used to control some of the vessels, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The Pentagon did not respond to questions about the cause of the accidents or the L3Harris contract being paused, which has not been previously reported.

A Pentagon spokesperson said it conducted drone tests as part of a “competitive and iterative approach, between operators and industry.”

L3Harris declined to comment on the contract and directed questions to the DIU. The DIU declined to comment.

“L3Harris stands behind the safety, integrity and capability of our autonomy command-and-control product,” said Toby Magsig, who oversees L3Harris’ autonomous software products.
Rise of sea drones

To accelerate its drone effort, the Pentagon in 2023 launched the $1 billion Replicator program, through which branches like the U.S. Navy and the DIU planned to acquire thousands of aerial and maritime drones, along with the software to control them. The first systems from this program are due to be announced this month.

The Navy has committed at least $160 million to BlackSea, which is producing dozens of its Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft boats a month, according to procurement records.

Saronic, which was recently valued at $4 billion in a funding round backed by Andreessen Horowitz and 8VC, makes the competitive sea drone Corsair, but is yet to announce a major contract. Federal procurement records show the company has generated at least $20 million from prototype agreements.

“These systems will play a critical role in the future of naval warfare by extending fleet reach, improving situational awareness, and increasing combat effectiveness,” acting chief of naval operations Jim Kilby said during a visit to BlackSea’s facility in June.
Navy turmoil

Since returning to office, U.S. President Donald Trump has made fielding swarms of drones a top military priority. Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” passed last month included almost $5 billion for maritime autonomous systems.

But, so far, the Navy’s approach has faced skepticism under the new administration.

In April, the Navy’s key drone boat procurement unit – known as Program Executive Office Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC) – touted a successful demonstration of the software used to control BlackSea’s vessels in a post on LinkedIn, hailing it as “a major step forward in advancing #maritime autonomy.”

In response, Colin Carrol, then-chief of staff to Deputy Secretary of Defense Steven Feinberg, suggested the program was duplicating other efforts within the Pentagon. “I have a feeling that there are changes in this program’s future,” he replied to the LinkedIn post. Carrol, who is no longer with the Pentagon, declined to comment further.

The PEO USC was recently placed under review, according to four people familiar with the matter, due to a series of setbacks, and could be restructured or shut down.

This comes two months after the Navy said it had sacked the unit’s leader, Rear Admiral Kevin Smith, due to a loss of confidence in his leadership after the Naval Inspector General substantiated a complaint against him. Reuters was unable to contact Smith.

During a meeting last month, Feinberg grilled Navy officials about their autonomous vessel capabilities, including those being fielded by the PEO USC, according to three people briefed on the meeting. Feinberg was unimpressed by some of the capabilities being acquired by the Navy and questioned whether they were cost-effective, the people said.

A Pentagon spokesperson said, “we’re not going to comment on private internal meetings” and directed questions about PEO USC to the Navy.

The Navy declined to comment on the meeting or the acquisition unit being put under review. Spokesperson Timothy Hawkins said the PEO USC stands by its mission, including its role as acquisition authority for the maintenance and modernization of unmanned maritime systems.

The turmoil comes as shipbuilders and software providers are angling to secure even larger autonomous maritime projects, such as unmanned submarines and cargo-carrying ships.

Last week, the PEO USC started accepting proposals for the Modular Attack Surface Craft, to acquire medium and large vessels capable of carrying containers, surveillance equipment, and conducting strikes.

T.X. Hammes, an autonomous weapons expert and Atlantic Council fellow, said the Navy is in uncharted waters, trying to overhaul decades of tradition at high speed.

“You’ve got a system that’s used to building big things, taking years to make a decision, and now suddenly you’re asking them to move fast,” he said.

(Reporting by David Jeans; Editing by Joe Brock, Michael Learmonth and Anna Driver)

#Colombian court frees former president Uribe from house arrest until it rules on bribery case.

BOGOTA, Colombia — A Colombian appeals court ruled on Tuesday that the country’s former president, Alvaro Uribe, must be released from house arrest while he challenges his conviction for bribery and witness tampering.

The conservative leader was sentenced on Aug. 1 to 12 years of house arrest for threatening and trying to flip witnesses who had spoken to investigators about his alleged role in the formation of a right-wing paramilitary group in the 1990s.

Uribe denies the charges and has appealed the conviction to the Superior Tribunal in Bogota, the country’s capital. The court has until mid-October to issue a definitive ruling on the case, which has gripped Colombia and also provoked reactions from Uribe’s allies in the United States.

The Superior Tribunal said Tuesday it approved an injunction filed by Uribe’s defense team seeking his release from house arrest. Uribe’s lawyers argued his right to due process was violated by the arrest order against him, as well as his right to a presumption of innocence.

The former president, who governed from 2002 to 2010 with strong support from the U.S., is a polarizing figure in Colombia, where many credit him for saving the country from becoming a failed state, while others associate him with human rights violations and the rise of paramilitary groups in the 1990s.

During Uribe’s term, Colombia’ s military obtained crucial victories against the FARC rebels, which later forced the group into peace negotiations and turned Uribe into an icon of Latin America’s conservative movement.

But thousands of young people were also killed by the military and passed off as rebels by soldiers seeking promotions, as officers were pushed to augment their kill rates.

The case against Uribe dates back to 2012, when he filed a libel suit against Ivan Cepeda, a left-wing legislator who had gathered statements from former members of paramilitary groups accusing Uribe of being one of the founders of Bloque Metro, a paramilitary group that defended cattle ranchers from attacks by rebel groups.

In 2018, Colombia’s Supreme Court dismissed the suit and instead launched an investigation of Uribe, who was accused by prosecutors of trying to obstruct justice by flipping witnesses who had spoken to Cepeda about the former president’s alleged ties to the illegal group.

Judge Sandra Heredia said in July there was enough evidence to determine that Uribe conspired with a lawyer to coax three former members of paramilitary groups who were in prison into changing testimony they had provided to Cepeda, whose father was killed by paramilitaries in the 1980s.

Uribe’s defence said that the evidence was obtained illegally, and that Uribe had only sought meetings with the imprisoned paramilitary figures as part of his preparation for trial and to verify testimonies that were also being used in a murder trial against his brother, Santiago Uribe.

A few days after convicting Uribe, Judge Heredia sentenced the former president to 12 years of house arrest, arguing he should be detained immediately to “preserve the peaceful coexistence of citizens” by demonstrating that even a public figure could not walk free after being convicted.

Uribe is widely admired by conservatives in Latin America and the U.S., and the judge said his connections abroad would make it easy for him to flee the country if he was still free while appealing his case.

However, Bogota’s Superior Tribunal ruled Tuesday that Judge Heredia used “vague reasoning” to order Uribe’s detention and that the arrest warrant against him had violated his right to equal treatment under the law.

The court also dismissed arguments that Uribe would escape Colombia, saying he had left the country multiple times during his trial and had always returned to face justice.

#Macron proposes Switzerland as possible site for Putin-Zelensky talks
The French leader rejected the idea of Paris hosting such a meeting, "as in 2019".

French President Emmanuel Macron suggested Geneva as a possible location for a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky.

In an interview with TF1, the French leader rejected the idea of Paris hosting such a meeting, "as in 2019." The situation is currently "at a different stage," and "a neutral country" should be chosen, he said in response to a TV reporter’s question. "Potentially, Switzerland, I’d favor Geneva. Or that could be a different country. Last time, bilateral meetings were held in Turkey, in Istanbul," he recalled.

The Washington meeting between European leaders, US President Donald Trump, and Zelensky discussed the possibility of holding a Russia-Ukraine summit that could be followed by trilateral talks with the United States and a broader multilateral meeting, the French head of state added. At a news conference last night, Macron said Turkey and other European countries, "whose security depends on the outcome of the conflict," should take part in these talks.

Trump held a multilateral meeting on resolving the Ukraine conflict in Washington on Monday. The talks involved Zelensky, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Ahead of the meeting, Trump emphasized that the White House would host a record-high gathering of European leaders for the first time.

The one-on-one between Trump and Zelensky lasted for about an hour, after which the US leader met with the European leaders and Zelensky. In addition, Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin to brief him on the talks. Their conversation lasted around 40 minutes, Kremlin Aide Yury Ushakov noted.

#Hamas has agreed to a 60-day ceasefire proposal with Israel that includes the return of half the hostages held in Gaza and Israel’s release of some Palestinian prisoners, an Egyptian official source said on Monday.

#Canadian defence firm to make ballistic steel through Swedish partnership.

#OTTAWA — Canadian defence manufacturer Roshel is partnering with a Swedish steel company so it can produce ballistic-protection steel domestically for the first time.

Roshel, which makes armoured vehicles, and will now be able to use Swebor’s intellectual property to produce ballistic steel in Canada.

The agreement comes as Canada is looking to boost domestic steel consumption and build up Canada’s defence sector to be less reliant on the United States amid the ongoing trade war with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Ballistic steel is a special type of lightweight, hardened steel that protects against blasts or bullets.

Roshel CEO Roman Shimonov tells The Canadian Press Canada produces and exports vast quantities of steel and iron but hasn’t been able to fully produce ballistic steel for armoured vehicles or drones domestically.

He says that causes supply chain bottlenecks for domestic defence firms, who have to import the steel armour for their vehicles and ships from the United States, Europe and Australia.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 19, 2025.