Beggared and Battered The Islamic Republic Believes It is In Charge

"[The United States must agree to a list of demands for reopening the strait, including an end to the] war and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, and Iraq]."

Iranian Security Chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr 

 

"[Hormuz’s reopening had] nothing to do with the negotiations between Iran and Oman."

"[The] enemy is forced to accept Iran’s conditions for the opening of the strait."

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps 

 

"[We condemn the] hostile Iranian attack that targeted a tanker belonging to ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) with a missile while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz, [despite that the attack occurred] without causing casualties."

United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry

 

"[We condemn] repeated attacks on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz."

"Ongoing negotiations regarding navigation arrangements in the Strait of Hormuz are proceeding in a positive and constructive atmosphere. [We urge against any actions that might jeopardize the progress]."

Omani Foreign Ministry

 

"We are low-keying it."

"We are only semi-negotiating with them. We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money."

"It will work out. It's like a chess game."

U.S. President Donald J. Trump  

"

A man walks in front of a wall mural in Tehran, Iran, on August 6, 2026. Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images

 

"We currently have no negotiations with the United States. Intermediaries are still making efforts to find ways to resume negotiations. From our perspective, there can be no resumption of talks until the United States ends its violations of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and makes amends for the breaches it has committed."

"Until the violations of the memorandum of understanding by the United States are ended and the United States does not make amends for what it has violated, in our opinion, there is no possibility of resuming negotiations." 

"Of course, this [agreement with Oman] does not mean the opening of the Strait of Hormuz. This agreement may be reached, but the opening of the Strait of Hormuz is subject to a series of conditions." 

"The opening of the Strait is subject to other conditions, including the compensation for the US's violations of the Islamabad Agreement." 

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi  

"I try to remind people that we're really in the middle of the game here."

"[The question is whether Iran will be able] to give the things that are necessary for us to be happy, for us to feel like we've gotten what we need out of this particular engagement."

"What we're really working through now is how you can actually set up a traffic scheme so that the ships that pass can pass through safely."

U.S. Vice-President, J.D. Vance  

Battered and bruised, many of its key government figures, including the Grand Ayatollah, high-placed members of the Iranian military, nuclear scientists, IRGC officials were targeted and eliminated in the February aerial attacks coordinated between the U.S. and Israel. Iranian shipping and military fleets were bombed, its aircraft destroyed, nuclear facilities bombed as well as government offices, communications were hit and the country's munitions stockpiles destroyed. What wasn't destroyed is the arrogant assumptions by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that despite these massive losses, they remain 'in charge'. 

 

They engineered a response, though considered by analysts prior to its implementation as a possibility, that was a stroke of Byzantine economic/military genius; blocking the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping as a critical gateway from the Middle East to the rest of the world dependent for their energy supplies and agricultural fertilizers. Holding the Strait hostage to the world's dependency on this energy lifeline represented a clever move to squeeze the political fortunes of a foreign government that 'won' a war and lost the rewards of its aftermath through sheer economic gangsterism.

 

That 'conquered' nation whose economy is in tatters, whose military infrastructure is in huge upheaval, whose population prays for its downfall still managed to terrorize its neighbours in destructive bombardments of their territories housing U.S. military assets, in targeting their oil depots, in threatening that for every U.S. military move on Iranian assets in reaction to Iran's intransigence for refusing to be defeated, has demonstrated its cunning manoeuvres counteracting the 'victory' of a much more powerful military. 

 

A small boat sails past cargo ships and other commercial vessels anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP) | AP

 

Iran, the defeated, yet actively defiant assailant of its own people, of its neighbours, has delivered an ultimatum to the world's most powerful nation: do as we demand or your victory will turn to the dust of history's recounting of a debacle of unforeseen consequences. Just as the Islamic Republic demands reparations from the very neighbours it has pounded time and again with missiles and drones in retaliation for their having acceded to hosting U.S. military emplacements, to prod its nemesis, the United States, to rethink its flawed efforts to bring down the regime, it now demands the same from the U.S.

 

Iran's Supreme National Security Council secretary Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, a commander in the Revolutionary Guard Corps, has issued a list of new demands, emphasizing that the Strait of Hormuz will not be reopened to international marine traffic until such time as the United States "corrects its behaviour" by adhering to the following:

• The United States must never again threaten Iran;
• The United States must permanently end its war with Iran and its regional armed proxies;
• The U.S. must lift the naval blockade of Iranian ports;
• The U.S. must withdraw its military from the area;
• The U.S. must completely compensate Iran for war damages;
• The U.S. must life sanctions and unconditionally release Iran's frozen assets.

Separately, Iran has been negotiating a stand-alone agreement with Oman to manage the Strait running between the two countries' borders. The waterway's reopening rests on other conditions, including the stalemate resulting from the U.S. violation of the interim deal signed in June to end sanctions and plan on compensation as part of a final agreement, according to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.  

 

Iran's UN envoy demanded full reparations from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, and Jordan, accusing them of facilitating unlawful armed attacks and breaching international obligations that led to significant material and moral damage to the Islamic Republic of Iran.  Tasnim News Agency

More recently, an Abu Dhabi state-owned ADNOC oil and gas company vessel while transiting the Strait was attacked, according to Emirati authorities. A reflection of Iran's tendency to fire missiles on commercial shipping as it seeks to 'privatize' the formerly international waterway by imposing stiff tariffs for passage through the Strait, paid directly to the Islamic Republic. The tentative agreement with Oman would see that country too exacting tariffs for safe passage through its side of the waterway. 

 

According to ADNOC, over a dozen of its vessels have been hit by missiles and drones while  transiting the Strait, since the war on Iran was launched in February. In that time, one crew member was killed and twenty others wounded. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center confirmed that a vessel east of Khasah, Oman, was struck by a projectile causing a fire which the  crew put out. 

 

Iran demands US reparations and Hormuz control in latest peace proposal. (Photo: FILE) / Reuters

 

 

Russian Missile Barrage, Ukraine's Defences Curtailed

Russian Missile attacks on Kyiv, Atlantic Council

  

"The situation in Ukraine is difficult. There was another missile strike last night — ballistic missiles targeting our infrastructure. There were also attack drones."

"Ballistic missile interceptors could have saved the lives of those killed today. It is very important that our partners understand that delays in supplying them, or an unwillingness to provide anti-ballistic systems, lead directly to such horrific casualties and destruction."

"[The number of air defence missiles supplied by partners] has dropped threefold compared with 2025."

"Our partners do have the missiles. It is important that the necessary political decisions on supplies and the acceleration of production processes are ultimately made."

"[More sanctions are required to] prevent the production of these ballistic missiles [along with] anti-ballistic capabilities [and] interceptor missiles."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy  

Patriot missile battery: in simple terms, Ukraine does not have enough of them and their interceptors. TVP World

 

During the latest aerial bombardment of Kyiv and surrounding region, Ukrainian forces were unable to shoot down any of the missiles. A situation attributable to the lack of anti-ballistic systems supplied to Ukraine by its European partners in the conflict that Moscow has imposed against its neighbour. On August 5 as a result of a massive bombardment, 17 people were killed and 44 injured during the Kyiv attack. That Wednesday attack was the third in the space of a single week.

 

This, at a critical time for Ukraine's counteroffensive, when its president cautioned that his country no longer had any air defence interceptors. Overnight Wednesday Russia launched 24 ballistic and four hypersonic cruise missiles, accompanied with 115 attack drones. Constituting yet another war crime, by deliberately targeting civilian areas. A commission of outright criminal intent so normalized by Russian repeat performances that the targeting of civilian infrastructure no longer brings notice of international condemnation.

 

All of the missiles and drones struck targets. On the evidence, Russian forces appear to have expanded their civilian targets to now include Ukraine's major supermarket chains. The Russian Defence Ministry stated the "massive strike" it carried out resulted "in the destruction of transportation, logistics, and distribution centres in the city of Kyiv and the Kyiv region".  

 

Ukraine's reliance on the tried-and-true U.S.-designed Patriot air defence systems as its solution in shooting down Russian ballistic missiles gave it the success it required in intercepting a large number of them. Those very same interceptor missiles are now in short supply, partially as a result of the large numbers used during the war against Iran launched by U.S. and Israeli forces, and being carried on by the U.S. military.  

 

The Franco-Italian SAMP/T system could help fill the Patriot hole but comes at a cost.  TVP World

 

For their part, European governments which have been the chief military backers for Ukraine, are themselves wary of handing over more of their own Patriots in concern that to do so would certainly impact their own defences. Several European countries were prodded by the Trump administration early in the year, to deliver their Patriot missiles to Kyiv; some of whom declined, reflecting their unwillingness to find themselves short on self-defence.

 

Production of the U.S.-made batteries and other air defences, according to NATO officials, lags behind the pace of global conflict, a situation that affects not only the United States but other countries as well. A month earlier, a partial solution seemed in the offing when President Trump agreed to provide Ukraine with licenses to produce their own interceptor missiles, only to have the agreement rescinded, on second thought.

 

Stating that "a significant share" of the components used by Moscow and obtained abroad for its ballistic missile production were not under sanctions, President Zelenskyy called for Ukraine's allies to impose additional sanctions to rectify the situation. This latest attack destroyed commercial civic warehouses and logistics centres of some of the largest retail companies in Ukraine.

  

Police officers and security guard at the site of the building of a supermarket warehouse hit by a Russian missile strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, August 5, 2026. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

 

"Today I was supposed to post about Rozetka turning 21. To thank our customers, partners, and team for this long journey we have travelled together."

"Instead, at night I watched as my life's work burned down after three ballistic missiles hit."

Iryna Chechotkina, co-founder, Rozetka, Ukraine's largest online marketplace  

A distribution warehouse in the Kyiv suburb of Brovary, where more than 100,000 orders were processed daily for Rozetka, Ukraine's largest online marketplace, was completely destroyed, with no hope of restoration possible. On the other hand, in recent weeks Ukrainian drones have bombarded warehouses operated by Russia's largest e-commerce marketplace, Wildberries.

 

Ukrainian drones on Wednesday attacked a facility in Russia's central Tula region, according to local officials and Telegram channels.  "Fire crews are working at the company’s logistics facility in Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk region, where a fire broke out as a result of the attack. The facility was evacuated in advance. Acceptance of current deliveries has been temporarily restricted, and they are being redirected to other facilities", stated Wildberries.

 

Smoke rising from a Russian Wildberries logistics hub in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s Sverdlovsk region, August 7, 2026. (Source: Polkovnik Gsh)

 

 

 

Normalization of Antisemitism in Canada

"[Our] findings indicate that many Jewish students face widespread and persistent antisemitism on Canadian campuses as a defining feature of post-secondary life that shapes their behaviour, their ability to fully participate in campus life, their safety, and their well-being."

"[The Campus Antisemitism and Student Experiences report] provides the most comprehensive national evidence to date on antisemitism in Canadian post-secondary institutions."

"These accounts reveal a university culture that is both not welcoming to Jewish students and actively and systematically trying to exclude and vilify them."

Jack Jedwab, Paul Holley, Association for Canadian Studies and the Metropolis Institute 

 

"What this study has confirmed is that Jewish students are being targeted simply for being Jews, and that is completely and utterly unacceptable."

"[I hope the findings will become a] wake-up call [for college and university administrators across Canada."

Jay Solomon, senior executive, Jewish student network Hillel Ontario 

Pro-Israel demonstrators protest outside a pro-Palestinian encampment set up on McGill University's campus in Montreal in the spring of 2024. A new national report says a vast majority of Jewish students have experienced or witnessed antisemitism on campus. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press)

 

According to a newly-released report commissioned by Heritage Canada, Jewish students in academic institutions throughout Canada face open hostility which has become a "normalized and systemic feature of campus life". Released on Wednesday, the Campus Antisemitism and Student Experiences (CASE) report concludes that over nine in ten Jewish students have experienced or witnessed campus antisemitism over the past year. In actual point of fact, the situation has been ongoing for the past three years, since the invasion from Gaza into southern Israel by Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas which resulted in a horrendous bloodbath. 

 

A survey of 900 Jewish students, along with 755 students from the broader campus population at over two dozen colleges and universities across Canada formed the basis for the survey conclusions. Over one in five Jewish students stated that they had witnessed physical violence targeting Jews, while seventy-one percent reported antisemitic graffiti on campus. Targeted incidents such as mezuzahs torn from Jewish dorm room doors in residence halls were reported. 

 

The survey results point unreservedly to a systemic crisis of antisemitism on the campuses of Canadian post-secondary institutions. "My sense is that, when you see such a high level of reporting of antisemitic incidents, the only way to describe it is systemic", cautioned Mr. Jedwab. Jewish students are not merely facing antisemitism from classmates -- points out a key insight of the report -- but also from professors and other university employees. 

 

 

 

Faculty involvement in harassment and instances of pure antisemitic virulence was cited in 18 percent of incidents reported in the survey.  According to seven in ten Jewish survey respondents their academic institution failed to take antisemitism seriously. Teaching assistants or non-teaching staff were cited as being involved in antisemitic incidents by a further 14 percent of respondents.

 

Of those taking part in the survey, thirty-six percent had encountered antisemitic or biased course content or classroom discussions. Another 34 percent revealed that a professor brought up Jews, Judaism, Israel, or Zionism at times when such references were completely unrelated to the course subject. According to over three in ten students, consideration was given by them to leaving a course or their program as a result of antisemitism expressed by professors or other students.

 

The Hub

 

 In response to the report's findings, federal Heritage Minister Marc Miller characterized the situation as "alarming". "[The findings] echo what we are seeing across Canada. Statistics Canada's most recent data shows that 71 percent of all police-reported religion-motivated hate crimes targeted Jewish Canadians", he pointed out.

 

It is, needless to say, his Liberal government that bears a good deal of responsibility for the situation. The swell of antisemitism arising from the presence of Palestinian student groups on Canadian campuses joined by non-student instigators and prompted and paid for by foreign entities invested in maligning and isolating Jews through the medium of Zionism-slander masking their pure antisemitic hatred has never been addressed by the federal government.

 

The Trudeau, and then the Carney Liberal governments invested heavily in the trifecta of Critical Race Theory, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and 'progressive' left wokeism, to set the stage, filtering down through lower levels of government, businesses, unions; permeating throughout society where Canadians seemed to shrug with the notion that it was only Jews being targeted and they could look after themselves. That the entire society, its culture, laws, values and customs have been eroded when one community among all others becomes a target of hate seems to have eluded the consciousness of conscience.

 

 

If the situation is addressed at all by executive-level politicians, it is to express the formula of 'this isn't Canada', when it clearly is. Declarations of disgust with antisemitism come with no sustained institutional efforts to reverse the trend, even when laws are being broken. Politicians can't seem to be able to resist equating the scourge of antisemitism and its meteoric rise with the tepid rise of 'Islamophobia' which evokes a much stronger response from them. 

 

The most telling reaction, however, is municipal, provincial and federal governments' failure to speak of the obvious, a failure that communicates its message to Canada's police forces -- that it is from among the Muslim communities in Canada that the wave of hateful antisemitism arose and that the fundamentalist Islamists among them organized, perpetrated and perpetuated 'protests' against the Jewish community in Canada alongside disparagement and incitement against the state of Israel responding to a terrorism war of jihad against its very existence.

 

The Hub

 

"At a time when synagogues, Jewish schools, and Jewish-owned businesses are being shot at and firebombed, and when Jews are disproportionately the victims of hate crimes, this report makes clear that antisemitism has also taken root in our public institutions -- including our universities."

"We call on university leaders and governments at every level to carefully consider this report.The drivers of this hatred — including antizionism — are well known, and the time to act is now. We need concrete actions to protect Canadian students."

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

B'nai Brith Canada

Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center 

 

Teaching Islamic Values to Muslim Youth in Canada

"They [Jews] have no problem in lining the pockets of the politicians. They don't need the politicians to believe in their causes. They just need to line their pockets so the politicians will ... advocate for them. And that's what I need you to think about."

"The Zionist lobby does this amazingly well."

Navaid Aziz, director, religious and social services, Islamic Information Society of Calgary 

 

"[Your friends] will either help [you] in life or encourage [you] to go down a path that is wrong and bad for [you] and there will be a point in time where our friends need to stop us from committing haram [sins and help [you] turn to Allah instead]."

"Your friends should be people who, when you look at them they remind you of Allah."

"Sometimes you find a brother who says, 'This is my girlfriend;. OK, that's weird, right. But we live in a society where yes, young brothers and sisters are going to school, going to university, and they have friends, and those friends get a lot closer to them and they become boyfriend and girlfriend, and that we know in Islam is not permissible, right?"

"I encourage youth, and adults as well, to respect the institutions of marriage and its sanctity."

Daod Butt, director of community outreach and education, Islamic Community Centre, Milton, Ontario 

 

"[Rules in western societies come from human legislators instead of Allah. Muslim youth have been] brainwashed [ by the western paradigm]."

"The reason why some individuals start thinking this way [to stand with the LGBT community is] because they have already been brainwashed by this western paradigm, and they are  trying to compare it with the Islamic paradigm, which they have no idea what it is."

"We should not go and join them [and should instead ] de-secularize."

Yasir Nadeem al Wajidi, founder, president, private K12 Islamic school, Illinois  

Segregated seating at the LIT Convention, Laval, QC, July 26, 2026. Photo by Postmedia

 

On July 26 in Quebec, the Montreal suburb of Laval hosted an Islamic convention titled "LIT", at the Embassy Plaza. At the website for the conference it was stated the convention's target audience was youth between the ages of 15 to 30. The purpose of 'Montreal's largest Islamic convention', was to "unify the Muslims", it further explained. That unification was scaffolded on lectures directing Muslim youth to detach themselves from mainstream non-Muslim society in every conceivable way. From understanding that Western societal mores and values were not those of Islam. 

 

The Qibla Foundation was the title sponsor of this event. A grant of over $20,000 was recently given it from the federal government. The event hall was duly reflective of Islamic values to the point of initial delivery when women and men were segregated in their seating accommodation -- with women on one side and their male counterparts on the other -- a curtain discreetly separating them physically. 

 

Speeches were delivered by eleven Islamic worthies for the one-day conference. Three in particular came right to the point. Navaid Aziz began his address by noting how pleased he was to see Halal food featured and available everywhere, although Quebec's laicite laws were "very, very disheartening". That regrettably, despite the robust and growing number of Muslims in the province, Muslims in Quebec "are still unable to protect" themselves. 

 

Sharia Portfolio document which was made available to attendees at the LIT convention in Laval, QC, on July, 26, 2026. Postmedia

 

Political aspirations among Muslim youth are commendable, noted Mr. Aziz but "there's a ceiling that Muslims will reach in the political sphere" which would inevitably lead to a situation where "eventually you will have to compromise on your beliefs". Muslims, he went on, should seek to amass wealth to enable the process of influencing politics; in that sense emulating the "Zionist lobby". A "circular economy", he went on, where Muslims patronize their own community is paramount to create wealth.

 

After all, he commented, for every dollar that Jews spend, 92 to 97 cents remain within the Jewish community. "At a time of rising Islamophobia, Canadian Muslims, like all Canadians, should consider buying Canadian first, and should also support businesses owned by disenfranchised communities", he later clarified when questioned by a skeptical journalist. When asked to explain his assertion about Jewish spending confined to Jewish-owned businesses, there was a flat response.

 

As for the speech delivered by Mr. Butt, the audience was warned that lifestyles and habits of their closest friends would invariably transfer to them; the solution to which would be to confine friendships to members of their own faith. Pressed by that same journalist (Terry Newman, National Post), his response was more equivocal: "I urge Canadians and especially young people to reflect on their friends, and whether their friends, both Muslim and non-Muslim, help them improve as ethical beings or are bad company that take them away from being the highest versions of themselves."

 

Speaker Yasir Nadeem al Wajidi argued that if  youth were struggling to change the framework in a country to an Islamic one, they would be viewed as terrorists, rather than political activists. Western man-made laws, it was emphasized to the Muslim youth attending the convention, are immoral. They would do best to operate in economic and social spheres that would minimize interactions with others among Canadian society, should they become interested in amassing wealth to exert political influence. 

 

Barakah.com promotional material available at LIT convention in Laval, QC, on July 26, 2026.

 

 

 

The Expanding Use of Armed Robots and Unmanned Ground Vehicles in Ukraine

"It is already impossible to imagine defence without drones, and the same applies to UGVs [unmanned ground vehicles]."

"Logistics on the front line, evacuation of the wounded, combat missions -- the use of UGVs is now expanding at the fastest pace."

"The future is already on the front lines and Ukraine is creating it."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 

 

"At least 25 kilometres from the line of contact is effectively a 'kill zone', where the risks of casualties are extremely high due to the density of drones."

"So replacing human involvement with drones significantly reduces losses."

"[Some of these Unmanned Systems Forces are used in the delivery of mines or to conduct] kamikaze [attacks]." 

Robert Brovdi, commander, Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces

 

"Replacing the infantryman is totally impossible."

"We are talking about helping the infantryman."

Taras Ostapchuk, CEO, Ratel Robotics 

The Droid TW 12.7, by DevDroid, is shown here outfitted with a 0.50-caliber M2 Browning machine gun that can be aimed and fired by a remote operator using a tablet and an encrypted communications link.  DevDroid

 

In the early years of the conflict imposed on Ukraine by the full invasion of the country by Russian forces it was tank formations and large-scale troop movements, the conventional mechanisms in the pursuit of offensive dominance and defensive responses that typified the war. Now approaching the second-half of its fourth year, not taking into account Russia's military annexation of the Crimean peninsula, the eastern and southern front line is at a stalemate, monitored by drones set to strike moving targets. 

 

Ukraine's surprise counteroffensive took Russia's Vladimir Putin off guard; despite its much smaller population, military, arms, and economy. Ukraine stopped the Russian military dead in its tracks, even recovering some of its territory. Ukraine steadily advanced from desperately attempting to down Russian missiles and drones to protect its civilian infrastructure targeted by Moscow, to striking back across the border into Russia, first hitting only border targets then moving on to strike as far as Moscow and beyond.

 

Now, Ukrainian infantry units are using robot vehicles on combat missions as Ukraine has out-innovated Russia. The asymmetric technological approach with the use of drones and robots is Ukraine's winning ticket to defeating the Russian military. Like Mykhailo Fedorov the Ukrainian Defence Minister recently removed, Ukraine's new Commander-in-Chief Mykhailo Drapatryi advocates leveraging drone and robotics know-how for advantage on the battlefield. 

 

Recently a battle robot armed with a flame thrower approached a group of Russian assault troops planning to challenge Ukrainian defences on a section of the eastern Donetsk front lines. The robot turned the area where the Russians were positioned near a tree line to into a flaming cauldron, followed up by a machine gun crew to clean up the surviving attackers. A new battlefield technique employed by Ukraine's 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade.

 

A heavy lift drone (top circle) transporting a ground robot (bottom circle) in a combat operation  Russian MoD via X

 

That robot represents an expanding Ukrainian corps of unmanned ground vehicles equipped with such offensive devices as rifles, to rocket-propelled grenade launchers. At least 50,000 of these UGVs are set to be produced for the battlefield to reinforce human troops tasked to confront Russian servicemen. A remote-controlled combat robot was landed using an unmanned naval drone reaching the shore 11 kilometres away at the occupied Kinburn Spit in southern Ukraine. 

 

The  ground robot, a Wolly 7.62, carried an ammunition-loaded machine gun firing on Russian troop positions, who were forced to pull back, then self-destructed.

 

The $11,000 robot was made use of by the 123rd Separate Territorial Defence Brigade with four Ukrainian operators conducting the assault. "We are already fighting with drones in many areas, and we are very polite to our robots in advance", laughingly explained a solder with the call sign "House Goblin" archly referring to the Terminator movie series. According to Ukrainian officials, unmanned systems help manage the manpower gap with Russia, freeing up soldiers, saving lives on tasks with dangerous logistics in supporting front-line troops and evacuating the wounded. 

 

While Ukraine's wish to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization remains endlessly deferred, NATO members are eager to learn from Ukraine's tactical innovations with the use of its advanced technology in the production of drones and robots. Some European states have signed defence production partnerships with Ukraine as Kyiv strives to become central to the security structures of the continent. 

 

Zysko Sergii/Shutterstock

 

"Absolutely incredible,  [Ukraine] fully integrates every single drone every sensor, and every shooting platform into just one single network", the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee was advised by U.S. army secretary Dan Driscoll. "Ours does not." Ukraine has signed drone deals with countries as disparate as Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands, with an increasing number of partnerships being floated, including with the United States.  

"They accomplished something never done in warfare."

"They pushed Russians off a position that was being defended by humans and they pushed them off the position with no humans in the fight."

Former U.S. army vice-chief of staff Jack Keane  

RoverTech’s Zmiy uncrewed ground vehicle moved through a forest during a demonstration. RoverTech  

Hamas Consolidating its Role in Ongoing Rule of Gaza and Threat of Further October 7s

"[A deal to bring peace to Gaza represents a] great breakthrough [despite signs from both Hamas and Israel that significant hurdles remained before a deal can be implemented]."

"It's a big step for the Middle East, and people are really impressed by it, and they're surprised by it."  

"[Israel is] very happy [about the deal]."

"Israel helped us, and they've been very good."

"Will it go through its ups and downs? It's a very complex situation over there."

U.S. President Donald J. Trump 

 

"Israel has conveyed its comments and concerns on the proposed framework to our American counterparts."

"The version that has been made public does not reflect Israel's positions."

Doron Spielman, spokesman, office of Israeli Prime Minister 

President Donald Trump gestures during a family photo during a summit to support ending the more than two-year Israel-Hamas war in Gaza after a breakthrough ceasefire deal, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, as Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani watch. In back are the Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Meshal Al Ahmad Al Sabah, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Netherland’s Prime Minister Dick Schoof (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool)

 

"[Hamas will not change its mentality and] resisting the occupation is its holy mission."

"This is an exceptional phase in Palestinian history. Because of forced necessity, the hard circumstances in Gaza, we accept this agreement."

"But I think that as Hamas, I can confirm that we didn't change our mentality, our goal to end the occupation, to continue to end the occupation with the Palestinian factions, because this is our holy mission."

Hamas's Ghazi Hamad 

Ghazi Hamad, member of Hamas Political Office, speaks during a protest in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Beirut, Lebanon, October 29, 2023; illustrative. (credit: REUTERS/AMR ALFIKY)

 

U.S. President Donald Trump may make his triumphant 'peace' statements to burnish his efforts to be recognized as a global peacemaker, in the process leaving the most affected party to continue to cope with the fallout, but that doesn't mean that the nation whose existential future is impacted by such decisions must accept them. And Israel did not, voicing its objections over the plan promoted by Mr. Trump to bring an end to the Gaza war. 

 

Demanding "verifiable" disarmament by the terrorist group Hamas, which had declared for Western consumption that it was prepared to surrender its weapons under a plan supported by the American president, to a Palestinian governing committee yet to be established, Israel knows what the U.S. president prefers not to acknowledge. Any seeming cooperation on the part of Hamas to appear to be on board with that peace plan simply buys it more time to get on with its goal.

 

That time fruitfully used in restoring what it has lost, post October 7, 2023; weaponry, territory, trust of Palestinians in Gaza, and Hamas operatives lost to the Israel Defense Forces huntdown of Hamas members, hiding behind the civilian population in Gaza. The latest document the Board of Peace released calling for Israel to cease its military operations "without delay", for "phased withdrawal" from Gaza is a losing proposition.

 

In control of 60 percent of Gaza, Israel "will not retreat" -- stated an Israeli politician -- from its position in the Gaza Strip. Which essentially protects Israeli citizens --from a repeat of October 7, promised time and again by members of the Hamas politboro. Yet the Board of Peace insists: "We have provided a pragmatic path forward to transform Gaza by removing Hamas from power and seeing it hand over its weapons" said one of the Board's officials. The plan is meant to result in "improvement of life in Gaza and enhancement of security in Israel".

 

The 20-point plan focused on ending Hamas rule along with its stockpile of weapons to be replaced with a Palestinian government and police to enable reconstruction and reconciliation with Israel. Reconciliation means what...a recognition of Israel's right to exist, a fundamental issue the Palestinian Authority has never agreed to? 

 

Hamas to shed its heavy weaponry as part of a bridging proposal reviving the peace process following months of mediated negotiations in Cairo. Heavy weaponry...rockets and other violent propulsion systems, but arms so beloved by the Hamas rank-and-file, an issue set aside for the present... Pointing out that actions by Hamas since both signed that plan, signify unmistakably that preparations for "further October 7-type massacres", went nowhere.

 

Hamas has agreed to a disarmament plan, according to the Gaza Board of Peace, but only if Israel withdraws from the territory. Former Canadian ambassador to Israel Jon Allen is 'highly skeptical' about the deal announced by U.S. President Donald Trump, saying the president has made many promises, but significant controversy remains over the outcome.  CBC News

 

 

 

 

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Winnipeg

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights has unveiled a controversial exhibit on the Nakba, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Still from video, CBC

 

"My dad [Izzie Asper] always said the most important asset you have is  your reputation."

"I think that this exhibit [Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present] is going to have a lot of people lose faith in the museum's trustworthiness for being an honest purveyor of accurate historical and current-day information."

"[The museum piece] deliberately omits key, relevant facts about the conflict [that are crucial to understanding its full context]."

"It's inaccurate, and in my opinion shows bias on the part of the curators of the museum, and is not at the level of scholarship befitting a federal institution." 

Gail Asper founder, Canadian Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg 

Photo: CMHR, Aaron Cohen

 

"The story of the Nakba is a complex one. It's not reduced to a quick little sound bite. There's a lot of nuance with it, there's a lot of history that preceded it and a lot of history that developed over the years of the Nakba."

"Hamas terrorists launched the greatest large-scale massacre against Jewish civilians since World War II, where over 1,150 or so Jewish babies and children and mothers and young people were brutally murdered in the most horrific fashion."

"The failure to describe that horror, and then simply say, Oh, ya, these people were displaced', is an error in judgment."

Mark Berlin, former CMHR board member

 

"The frame, or the scope, of the exhibit is to centre Palestinian experiences of forced displacement. So it's told through their stories, through their lens, and that's an approach the museum takes in a variety of other places."

"Every word in the exhibit is backed up by credible research. We had our research sources academically reviewed internally, and then we took an additional step to have them reviewed externally." 

CMHR chief Executive Isha Khan

A multimedia gallery on the museum's second floor that introduces visitors to a timeline of human rights acknowledges 'hundreds of thousands of people became refugees' in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, including Palestinian Arabs and Jews from surrounding Arab countries. (Tyson Koschik/CBC)

 

The Canadian Human Rights Museum, established in Winnipeg, was the brainchild of Israel (Izzie) Asper, former Canadian media magnate. The initial $24 million required to move the idea of the museum to its actual presence was donated by the Asper Foundation. There was also a public subscription, and later financial support from the federal government. From conception in 2003 to opening in 2014, the museum set out to inform the public of human rights and the world's most egregious assaults against human rights. There were ten permanent exhibits when the museum opened, the Holocaust among them.

 

Most recently the seven-story museum has mounted a Nakba exhibit that includes a collection of photos, video testimonies family heirlooms and artworks to portray the experience of Palestinian Arabs who fled conflict in the area. Keys to Palestinian homes that had been left are among the exhibits. Beginning at the Arab-Israeli war in 1948 when Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Syria attacked the fledgling Jewish state to destroy it in response to the Partition Plan offered by the United Nations empowering Jews to return to their ancestral home, 750,000 Palestinian Arabs fled.

 

Most left on the promise by the invading Arab armies that when Israel was destroyed they could return to claim the entire territory; others fled to escape the incipient war situation while others still were forced to leave as enemies of the new state. Over a million Palestinians chose to remain, where there are now 2 million Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel. Concurrently with the re-establishment of the Jewish state, surrounding Arab countries forcefully expelled their Jewish residents who had lived there since antiquity, confiscating their properties. 850,000 Jews found themselves homeless, more than balancing the number of Palestinian Arabs who became refugees through an event they named their Nakba (catastrophe).

 

The exhibit makes no mention of the expulsion of 850,000 Jews from the very Arab countries that went to war on Israel, amidst others. In this mass displacement, the Jews found homes for themselves in Israel or elsewhere in the greater diaspora. The Palestinians who settled in refugee camps in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon were there ostensibly on a temporary basis; none of the neighbouring Arab/Muslim countries offered them permanent status, much less citizenship.

Palestine Uprooted at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights Photo: Annie Kierans. Courtesy the Canadian Museum for Human Rights

 

And while there is mention of the infamous October 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel led by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, joined by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Fatah alongside the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, along with ordinary Palestinian/Gaza citizens, it fails to identify the victims of that mass atrocity as Jews, only as 'people'. That 'people', the Jews and their country, Israel, responded to that horrific event as any other country would do to protect its own, by invading the area responsible -- Gaza -- in search of the murderous terrorists.

 

That time and place in more recent history was included as illustrative of ongoing Palestinian suffering at the hands of Israel's military 'occupation'. It is disingenuous for the chief executive of the museum to declare that there was academic scholarship involved in the setting up of this one-sided, dreadfully canted exhibition in its obvious obfuscation of cause-and-effect, showcasing Palestinian victimhood by a heartless, 'genocidal' neighbour.   

"I think that the board clearly didn't understand the risks of doing inaccurate exhibits on volatile subjects."

"They didn't understand the impact it could have on their reputation, or they were indifferent, or they were too deferential to management."

Gail Asper 

Protesters gathered outside the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on June 26 to protest the Nakba exhibit. (Rudi Pawlychyn/CBC)