By Galit Altstein and Dan Williams, Bloomberg News

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the streets on Sunday to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to expand operations in the Gaza Strip, rather than attempt to negotiate an end to the war under which Hamas would free its last hostages.

Organizers said that as many as half a million people attended the main rally at Tel Aviv’s “hostage square” in the evening, a massive turnout by Israeli standards.

Earlier on Sunday, as Netanyahu suggested calls to end the war would embolden Hamas, police scuffled with demonstrators blocking roads across Israel, making at least 30 arrests and turning a water cannon on participants at a sit-down protest at a Jerusalem access tunnel.

Almost two years into an offensive that’s pushed Israel toward global isolation and left much of the Palestinian enclave in ruins, Netanyahu’s government this month gave the army the green light to take control of the de facto capital, Gaza City, and crush Hamas holdouts.

The families of 50 hostages who are still held by Hamas in Gaza — 20 of whom are thought to be alive — designated Sunday as “Israel on Hold” day, calling on all Israelis to strike during the daytime in solidarity with their fight to free their loved ones. In a statement late Sunday evening, they said that “over 1 million people participated in hundreds of actions held across the country.” They vowed to intensify their actions.

The plan to take over Gaza City is deemed to be of high risk to hostage lives, all of whom are thought to be in poor medical and mental condition and suffering from acute malnutrition. They’re also thought to be at risk of execution or being caught up in crossfire.

While the Israeli military’s tanks and troops have yet to get rolling, some members of Netanyahu’s security cabinet have complained that the planned scale of the operation is insufficient. At the same time, his envoys look poised to resume mediated talks on a truce and hostage release if Hamas softens its terms. There’s been no indication so far that the Iran-backed faction will do so.

A once unwavering domestic backing for the war, which was launched in response to Hamas’ killing and kidnapping rampage of Oct. 7, 2023, is long gone. Polls show most Israelis want a deal to bring back the 50 hostages, even if the remnants of Hamas are left intact.

In scenes recalling the kind of anti-government demonstrations that preceded the war, groups organized over social media and flooded several highway intersections on Sunday, the first day of Israel’s workweek. Many held up Israeli flags and photographs of hostages.

Netanyahu has vowed victory against Hamas. His timeline for achieving this has proven elastic, and he hasn’t given details on who might next rule the shattered Gaza Strip, where the Hamas-run health ministry — which doesn’t distinguish between combatant and civilian casualties — says 61,000 Palestinians have died.

“Those calling today for the end of the war without a Hamas defeat are not only hardening the Hamas position and making the freeing of our hostages less likely,” Netanyahu said Sunday, signaling he was not impressed by the protests. “They’re also ensuring that the horrors of Oct. 7 recur time and again, that our sons and daughters will have to fight time and again in a forever war.”

While Israel’s main labor federation declined to join in Sunday’s strike, the protesters found support from the private sector. The local operations of Apple and Microsoft pitched in, as did New York-listed web platform developer Wix.com and online marketplace Fiverr, as well as Qumra Capital and Pitango Ltd. The companies allowed workers to take the day off to attend the demonstrations.

“We are at a fateful moment for the Israeli nation and we do not intend to sit idly by,” the Hi-Tech Forum, a coalition formed in 2023 to protest the government’s proposed judicial overhaul, said in a statement. “This is a moment when every Jew and Israeli should show their support for the (hostage) families and call for an end to the war and the return of all hostages.”

Eli Cohen, a member of Netanyahu’s security cabinet, said the Israel Defense Force would on Sunday finalize orders for the takeover of Gaza City, part of about 25% of the territory previously avoided during military incursions on the belief that hostages are being held there.

The plan targets six to eight weeks for the forced evacuation of as many as 1 million Palestinian civilians before the main assault, Cohen told Channel 14 TV, adding that he would press for its acceleration: “This can be done in two to three weeks.”

Shva, operator of Israel’s national payment processing infrastructure, reported that as of 12 pm local time, the day’s credit card spending was down 5.1% from a week ago, suggesting a moderate impact on businesses from the strike. The Israel Business Forum, a group of 200 of the country’s top business leaders, met with hostage families but stopped short of formally backing the strike.

Hamas, which is considered a terrorist group in much of the West, wants any Gaza truce to guarantee a full Israeli withdrawal. It’s signaled it might cede some power, but refuses Israel’s demand to disarm. On Sunday, Hamas denounced the Gaza City plan as “the beginning of a new wave of brutal genocide” by the Israelis.

Israel lost 1,200 people, most of them civilians, in the Oct. 7 attacks and more than 450 troops in Gaza combat since. Israel’s longest war has spilled onto several fronts, including with Iran, and strained the military.

“Today’s demonstrations show the difference between the Israeli government and its people,” said Noa Tishby, an Israeli-born Los Angeles actress/producer and social media influencer on the conflict. “Israelis are exhausted from more than two years of protesting against this government, and yet are out today resisting the war in Gaza.”

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(With assistance from Ethan Bronner and Fadwa Hodali.)

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©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

After losing in his first start to his former team, Chris Paddack was looking for a little bit of payback when he came to Target Field with his new team the Detroit Tigers.

Instead, theTwins jumped him.

Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Chris Paddack, foreground, stands on the field as Minnesota Twins’ Byron Buxton, back left, runs the bases after hitting a solo home run during the third inning of a baseball game Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

The Twins hit two home runs in a six-run third inning, capped by shortstop Brooks Lee’s first career grand slam as the Twins beat their former teammate for the second time in two weeks, x-x, on Sunday in front of 22,230 at Target Field.

Byron Buxton started the third with a home run off that landed in the second deck in left, and Kody Clemens added a sacrifice fly as the Twins avoided a four-game sweep by the American League Central Division leaders.

Making his first major league start since 2023, Thomas Hatch (2-0) gave the Twins five strong innings. The right-hander was charged with one earned run on three hits and three walks. He struck out four and retired his last six batters in order.

Paddack was tagged for eight earned runs on nine hits and three walks in 5⅔ innings. Traded on July 28 for Class A catching prospect Enrique Jimenez, Paddack (4-11) has made four starts for the Tigers, his only two losses coming against the Twins.

Royce Lewis gave the Twins a 1-0 lead in the second with a two-out solo home run. It was the third baseman’s first home run since July 25, and his ninth RBI in that span.

Outfielder James Outman — acquired in the deal that sent Brock Stewart to the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 31 — had his first hit for the Twins, a one-out, stand-up triple in the sixth inning, but was stranded on third.

Michael Tonkin pitched two 1-2-3 innings for the Twins, and Erasmo Ramirez added a scoreless ninth.

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NEAR PAVLOHRAD, Ukraine — The children’s author had violence in her heart.

Valentyna Shevchenko, 69, recently fled the home where she had lived for 21 years, a home now threatened by a new Russian offensive. And she was angry about the meeting in Alaska that was taking place between President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

“It’s not right that the presidents of two other countries discuss our fate without us,” said Shevchenko, who clasped like talismans two poetry books she had written — one was titled “A Wonderful Adventure” — while sitting on the edge of her bed in a shelter. She added that she would like to beat the two leaders with a wooden stick, or even a shovel.

“This is insane,” she said. “Here there is war, rivers of blood, and they are making some kind of deal.”

While the much-ballyhooed summit appeared to be more a show of amiable backslapping than tough negotiating, by Saturday it had become clear that Putin and Trump had discussed proposals that would be very hard for Ukraine to swallow.

In a post on social media, Trump reversed his support of Ukraine’s position that a ceasefire must precede any peace negotiations. And in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, he said that he and Putin had largely agreed to a territorial swap and security guarantees to end the war. European officials said that Putin was demanding all of the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, including land still held by Ukrainian forces.

Half a world away, people who had recently fled the fighting in that region for a shelter near the city of Pavlohrad said the whole summit felt like an insult. The fact that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine was not invited. The fact that Trump had treated Putin like a friend instead of a man under U.S. sanctions, who is a wanted war criminal in Europe. The fact that the world was now talking about Ukraine permanently giving up land to Russia for peace.

It was all too much.

“I hate Putin,” said Kateryna Chernenko, 65, who has been bedridden since a stroke about four years ago paralyzed her left side. She had been rescued Thursday, carried down from her second-floor apartment in the city of Dobropillia, which had been battered by the new Russian offensive, and brought to the shelter with her son and family friends.

“How can he do this for so long?” she said. “Killing civilians while they sleep. This isn’t war — it’s murder. Trump doesn’t understand — it hasn’t touched him. If he had lived through this, he wouldn’t say what he says.”

Any land swap could involve the homes of both Chernenko and Shevchenko, who, like most people at the shelter, had fled from the Donetsk region, which makes up a large part of the Donbas. Russia now occupies almost 20% of Ukraine, including about three-quarters of Donetsk, almost all of the adjacent Luhansk region and the entire Crimean Peninsula.

Chernenko moved to Dobropillia when she was about 22. She was given an apartment there under the Soviet regime because of her work at a sparkling-water factory. She learned to do basic home repairs and repeatedly revamped her apartment, which stands in the shadow of a large walnut tree, most recently putting up pink wallpaper dotted with blue flowers.

She raised three sons there. Her oldest died of a brain tumor. She rarely talks to her youngest son, who moved to Russia to be near her ex-husband.

Her middle son, Serhii Khalturin, 40, came home to care for his mother after her stroke. He bought her a modern stove, a washing machine, a TV and a refrigerator as tall as the ceiling. Both said they would never give up their land. When asked how it felt to leave home, Khalturin gestured as if tears were rolling down his face.

“That’s where my childhood was, that’s where my school is. I don’t want to leave,” he said. “Everything’s still there — my mother’s photos, my brother’s photos — old ones from the 1980s, with my mother young and beautiful.”

His mother was lying in a small room for disabled, elderly refugees, using her bedpan, one of the few things she had brought from home, in front of strangers. At one point, the whoomp of a Russian missile could be heard hitting about 50 miles away. Neither Khalturin nor his mother reacted.

Most of those at the shelter had fled with a few bags of clothes or even less. They left behind their photo albums, their judo certificates, their winter coats, their lives. Some packed in only 20 minutes. Some prepared for hours. Shevchenko, the children’s poet, and her partner tried to bring 15 bags of clothes and food, but after their bus picked up more people, they had to leave 10 bags near a gas station. Still, she carried her son’s guitar. In the military, his code name was “Maestro,” for his musical talents.

They spoke of their homes in the present tense, as if they would return momentarily.

“We can hear terrible sounds — such awful noises — and I just sit there, scared,” said Halyna Koleshchuk, 70, who lived in the town of Bilozerske in Donetsk for most of her life. “I pray. Then — boom! Everything shakes, everything explodes. Sometimes it’s guided bombs, sometimes missiles flying. The city is destroyed. Everything is in ruins. Banks, the post office, pharmacies — everything is closed.”

On Friday, Koleshchuk and her family decided to come to the shelter. They arrived shortly before Trump and Putin met.

This makeshift shelter was set up in a former Soviet hall of culture. Beds with sheets featuring famous vacation sites and saying “Around the World” and “Full of Tourists” were jammed into all available spaces. Rows of brown chairs sat unoccupied in the back, an empty audience for all the ruined lives.

Almost 2,200 people had come through the shelter in the previous week, since Russia intensified its offensive, trying to capture more of eastern Donetsk before the summit. The people who fled were the holdouts, the ones who had lasted through years of fighting.

The shelter had been intended to move people through quickly, to register them and send them on to other cities. And then, somehow, they were supposed to restart their lives.

Shevchenko had seen her life whittled away. She used to be an accountant, before moving to a village called Oleksandrivka in Donetsk. She lived in the servants’ quarters of a rich professor’s weekend home, taking care of the garden and the house and writing children’s books. Her boyfriend — he refused to marry her, because he said she was too troublesome — owned his own ramshackle house nearby. Often, they stayed together.

The professor died of natural causes. His family moved to France. The main house was bombed. Her boyfriend’s house was split in two. The servants’ house was destroyed. The couple moved into the summer terrace of the ruined main house, basically a covered porch, patching up holes from shrapnel. A missile hit nearby last fall, setting the forest and a nearby village aflame. The village once had 300 people. After she and her boyfriend fled, Shevchenko said, nine people remain.

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If Putin wanted this land so much, and other regions like Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, why did he destroy everything in his path, Shevchenko wondered. Maybe for mineral resources. Maybe to prove a point. Regardless, she said, Putin did not want peace.

“This is our land,” Shevchenko said. “Not an inch of it can be given away. Give him just a slice and he’ll say, ‘I want Kharkiv, I’ll take the Zaporizhzhia region.’ He wants all of Ukraine and won’t stop. We must not agree. We will fight to the end, because we are Ukrainians. That’s the only way. We have no other choice.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

A big transfer rumor connected to Minnesota United surfaced Sunday, but it was not in the direction Loons fans have been pining for since the summer transfer window opened.

Instead of a report to a potential incoming player, Loons forward Tani Oluwaseyi has been linked to a move to Villarreal, according to multiple posts in Europe.

Reporter Matteo Moretto said Oluwaseyi is “very close” to the club in Spain’s La Liga. Fellow journalist Sacha Tavolieri said MNUFC is asking for $5 million “to close the deal.” That sum would be a Minnesota club record for an outgoing transfer fee.

Last week, GiveMeSport said the Loons turned down a bid of more than $4 million for Oluwaseyi. Two weeks ago, the Pioneer Press heard MNUFC was not keen to move on from its 25-year-old Canadian international this summer.

If Oluwaseyi were to depart now, the Loons would lose an integral piece and the club’s prospects for 2025 would suffer as a result. Oluwaseyi has helped United climb to second place in the Western Conference and he’s aided in the run to the U.S. Open Cup semifinals.

Oluwaseyi is having his best season in MLS with 10 goals and seven assists in 1,828 MLS minutes this season and has become a two-way player, with strong defensive actions.

After Minnesota’s 1-0 win over Seattle, Oluwaseyi was hanging out in a jovial Loons’ dressing room, joking with teammates — far from saying somber goodbyes to friends.

Since the window opened in late July, MNUFC has had four players leave during the summer transfer window, but has had no new additions. The deadline drops Thursday.

La Liga’s window doesn’t close until Sept. 1.

Oluwaseyi signed a new contract with the Loons after last season, when he produced eight goals and five assists in 1,084 minutes. He is earning $558,750 in guaranteed compensation this season; his deal runs through the 2027 season, with a club option for 2028.