Organizational and management issues in the Department of Defense are hampering internal collaboration efforts, according to a Government Accountability Office study. Congress has called on the Pentagon to address the issue but the GAO says the DoD is 21 months behind its target dates.

As the U.S. and the Taliban seem closer to a peace agreement which would withdraw NATO forces from Afghanistan, a report cautions that warlords are “dangerously poised” for a new civil war. The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War says that would be like the one which ensued after the Soviet Union pulled out in 1989.

Even as the U.S. administration promises to withdraw 14,000 troops from Afghanistan, President Donald Trump says intelligence assets will remain. “We’ll always have someone there,” he said, calling Afghanistan “the Harvard University of terrorism.”

The U.S. administration has formally cleared the potential sale of F-16 Viper fighters to Taiwan. Posted on the Defense Security Cooperation Agency website, the notice of the US$8 billion sale of 66 aircraft by Lockheed Martin requires congressional approval but there has been broad bipartisan support.

President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela says he has been talking with the U.S. for months even as Washington ramps up economic sanctions against the embattled Maduro, whose leadership is considered illegitimate by more than 50 countries, including Canada.

A trade and investment officer at the British consulate in Hong Kong is being detained in neighbouring Shenzhen, the Chinese foreign ministry confirms. Simon Cheng was detained during a regular cross-border visit for allegedly violating a law which covers offences not considered criminal.

The U.S. says Russia should be reinstated into the main Economic Summit group of nations, which also includes Canada as well as Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. “It's much more appropriate to have Russia in,” President Donald Trump said at the White House ahead of the Aug. 24-26 G7 summit in France. “If somebody would make that motion, I would certainly be disposed to think about it very favourably.”

The rural Manitoba residence of a Canadian Armed Forces reservist has been raided by the RCMP in response to allegations that he had been recruiting for a neo-Nazi organization. No charges have been laid against the member of 38 Canadian Brigade Group.

Supported by Russian forces, the Syrian military has forced its jihadi opponents out of Khan Sheikhoun, in the heart of rebel-held Idlib province. However, the main militant group calls its withdrawal a “redeployment.”

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are being criticized by the first two Muslim congresswomen after Israel, at the behest of the U.S. administration, refused travel permission for one. It subsequently lifted its ban on one but she declined the the opportunity because Israel attached too many conditions.

Canada will permit Venezuelans stranded in Canada without valid passports or other travel documents to remain in Canada for up to five years. Citizenship and Immigration Canada says Venezuela’s administrative meltdown in recent months has made it difficult for its consulates to renew expired documents while other Venezuelan expatriates with permanent resident status are finding their citizenship applications interrupted.

A new ground-based cruise missile with a 500-kilometre range, has been tested by he U.S. only a few weeks after the Trump administration withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear forces Treaty fter alleging that Russia had violated the pact. The Pentagon says test data would “inform” it about development of its intermediate-range capabilities.

A potential sale of “fourth generation” F-16V Viper light multi-role fighters to Taiwan by Lockheed Martin evidently has renewed U.S. administration support after having been put on hold for a while.

Britain has revoked the citizenship of Jack Letts, a British-Canadian national born in Oxford. Nicknamed “Jihadi Jack” because of his alleged involvement with militants in Syria and who has been held by Kurdish authorities for two years. Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says “Canada is disappointed that the United Kingdom has taken this unilateral action to offload their responsibilities.”

A day after it had said it would deny entry to U.S. Congresswomen Rashiba Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, Israel says it will permit Tlaib entry on humanitarian grounds to see her elderly grandmother. Tlaib and Omar were denied entry because of their outspoken stance on Israel.

Western intermediaries reportedly are trying to persuade the U.S. and Iran to cooperate on bolstering security in Afghanistan. Washington has declined comment and Iran has flatly denied that third parties have been relaying messages for months.

The Danish government of Greenland has told the U.S. that the mostly ice-capped territory, which is host to a major U.S. military base, is not for sale. The CNN network says the notion apparently was resurrected by President Donald Trump.

Despite a last-minute appeal by the U.S., Gibraltar has released an Iranian oil tanker which was seized by Royal Marines July 4. In deciding to let the vessel go, the British territory was assured by Iran that its cargo would not be discharged in Syria.

Hundreds of members of China's People's Armed Police (PAP) have been conducting exercises in Shenzhen, which is effectively adjacent to the border with Hong Kong, where demonstrators are protesting a contentious legislative plan. There have been concerns that they could deploy into the former British colony but some diplomats discount the prospect.

South Korea plans to respond to its northern neighbour’s evolving missile capabilities by spending more on a defence shield. Details are set out in a defence ministry’s mid-term US$240-billion budget plan which includes some $85 billion on arms improvements.

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s communications director and official spokesperson, Alyssa Farah, is moving to the Department of Defense as its press secretary. She has worked regularly with the the Department of Defense, the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Former deputy prime minister Anne McLellan has concluded in a report that there is no need to split the cabinet roles of Attorney General and Justice Minister, which traditionally been handled as a single portfolio. She disagreed with suggestions that the structural change was not necessary to protect prosecutorial independence and promote public confidence in the criminal justice system.

Military Ombudsman Gregory Lick has been asked by Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan to investigate racism in the Canadian Armed Forces. Sajjan says he wants a “much more thorough understanding” of the issue with a view to keeping it from happening in the first place.

The U.S. Air Force says Boeing has finished installing new wings on the last of 173 A-10 Thunderbolt II ground-attack aircraft in order to keep them operational into the late 2030s. Popularly known as the Warthog and “the flying gun”, the Fairchild Republic platform, which entered service in 1977, has proven its effectiveness in theatres such as Kosovo and Afghanistan.

Canadian Armed Forces personnel have been warned against getting certain tattoos, including anything deemed discriminatory or sexually explicit. The new rules are set out in an Aug. 12 directive from the Chief of the Defence Staff, Gen. Jonathan Vance.

Russia draws on a mix of mercenaries and public relations in a bid to reassert its influence in Africa. Walls in the Central African Republic are plastered with propaganda posters proclaiming “Russia: hand in hand with your army!” even as army recruits are trained in Russian with Russian weapons. and local radio plays Russian ballads.

Winding up a two-day visit to London, U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton has confirmed President Donald Trump’s support for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s push to quit the European Union. Bolton says the U.S. supports the Brexit movement “enthusiastically.”

Russian authorities’ acknowledgement that there was a “nuclear element” in an explosion which killed five scientists last week is fuelling speculation that they were working on a nuclear-powered cruise missile at the offshore facility. Nearby Dvinsky Bay has been closed to shipping for a month and the city of Severodvinsk, 40 kilometres away, posted and then withdrew a website report of a radiation spike shortly after the explosion.

The Department of National Defence has launched the first phase of a new response and support coordination in a bid to address sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces. The initiative links victims with a coordinator to provide ongoing assistance until it is no longer needed, withdrawn by the complainant or they transition to civilian services.

Five people were killed and three injured in an explosion at an Arctic naval test range last week. The state nuclear company Rosatom said its engineering team was working on a “isotope power source” for the rocket’s liquid-fuel engine at the time.

A Helsinki-based startup company, Iceye, is using suitcase-size radar satellites to return images of objects smaller than a metre in size. That level of detail has until now has required satellites weighing a tonne or more and costing more than €100 million or some 50 times Iceye’s cost.

The U.S. National Security Agency, headquartered at Fort Meade, Md., has been hiring highschool students to work “somewhere in cyber,” as one puts it. Others are equally vague, saying only that they work in language translation as well as cybersecurity.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says his country must intervene against any foreign military presence in the Persian Gulf. Calling their presence a “source of insecurity.” In his media, posted on social media, he calls the Gulf a “vital lifeline.”

North Korea has completed its fifth weapons test in recent weeks, sending what South Korea says were two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, a potential breach of 11 UN Security Council resolutions. The latest test came after U.S.President Donald Trump said he had received a “very beautiful letter” from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.