@@ -187,9 +187,7 @@ def parse_date(string_date: Union[str, datetime]) -> Tuple[int, int]:
             offset = -int(utcoffset.total_seconds())
             return int(string_date.astimezone(utc).timestamp()), offset
         else:
-            # should just return timestamp, 0?
-            return int(string_date.astimezone(utc).timestamp()), 0
-            # raise ValueError(f"string_date datetime object without tzinfo, {string_date}")
+            raise ValueError(f"string_date datetime object without tzinfo, {string_date}")
 
     # git time
     try:
 
@@ -72,12 +72,13 @@ def __str__(self) -> str:
     def __repr__(self) -> str:
         return '<git.%s "%s">' % (self.__class__.__name__, self.path)
 
-    def __eq__(self, other: Any) -> bool:
+    def __eq__(self, other: object) -> bool:
         if hasattr(other, 'path'):
+            other = cast(SymbolicReference, other)
             return self.path == other.path
         return False
 
-    def __ne__(self, other: Any) -> bool:
+    def __ne__(self, other: object) -> bool:
         return not (self == other)
 
     def __hash__(self) -> int:
@@ -364,8 +365,9 @@ def set_reference(self, ref: Union[Commit_ish, 'SymbolicReference', str],
         return self
 
     # aliased reference
+    reference: Union['Head', 'TagReference', 'RemoteReference', 'Reference']
     reference = property(_get_reference, set_reference, doc="Returns the Reference we point to")  # type: ignore
-    ref: Union['Head', 'TagReference', 'RemoteReference', 'Reference'] = reference             # type: ignore
+    ref = reference
 
     def is_valid(self) -> bool:
         """
@@ -699,7 +701,9 @@ def from_path(cls, repo: 'Repo', path: PathLike) -> Union['Head', 'TagReference'
                 instance = ref_type(repo, path)
                 if instance.__class__ == SymbolicReference and instance.is_detached:
                     raise ValueError("SymbolRef was detached, we drop it")
-                return instance
+                else:
+                    assert isinstance(instance, Reference), "instance should be Reference or subtype"
+                    return instance
             except ValueError:
                 pass
             # END exception handling
 
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 """Initialize the Repo package"""
 # flake8: noqa
-from .base import *
+from .base import Repo as Repo
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 #
 # This module is part of GitPython and is released under
 # the BSD License: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php
+from __future__ import annotations
 import logging
 import os
 import re
@@ -384,13 +385,13 @@ def create_submodule(self, *args: Any, **kwargs: Any) -> Submodule:
         :return: created submodules"""
         return Submodule.add(self, *args, **kwargs)
 
-    def iter_submodules(self, *args: Any, **kwargs: Any) -> Iterator:
+    def iter_submodules(self, *args: Any, **kwargs: Any) -> Iterator[Submodule]:
         """An iterator yielding Submodule instances, see Traversable interface
         for a description of args and kwargs
         :return: Iterator"""
         return RootModule(self).traverse(*args, **kwargs)
 
-    def submodule_update(self, *args: Any, **kwargs: Any) -> Iterator:
+    def submodule_update(self, *args: Any, **kwargs: Any) -> Iterator[Submodule]:
         """Update the submodules, keeping the repository consistent as it will
         take the previous state into consideration. For more information, please
         see the documentation of RootModule.update"""
@@ -774,15 +775,15 @@ def _get_untracked_files(self, *args: Any, **kwargs: Any) -> List[str]:
         finalize_process(proc)
         return untracked_files
 
-    def ignored(self, *paths: PathLike) -> List[PathLike]:
+    def ignored(self, *paths: PathLike) -> List[str]:
         """Checks if paths are ignored via .gitignore
         Doing so using the "git check-ignore" method.
 
         :param paths: List of paths to check whether they are ignored or not
         :return: subset of those paths which are ignored
         """
         try:
-            proc = self.git.check_ignore(*paths)
+            proc: str = self.git.check_ignore(*paths)
         except GitCommandError:
             return []
         return proc.replace("\\\\", "\\").replace('"', "").split("\n")
 
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@
 # Most of these are unused here, but are for use by git-python modules so these
 # don't see gitdb all the time. Flake of course doesn't like it.
 __all__ = ["stream_copy", "join_path", "to_native_path_linux",
-           "join_path_native", "Stats", "IndexFileSHA1Writer", "Iterable", "IterableList",
+           "join_path_native", "Stats", "IndexFileSHA1Writer", "IterableObj", "IterableList",
            "BlockingLockFile", "LockFile", 'Actor', 'get_user_id', 'assure_directory_exists',
            'RemoteProgress', 'CallableRemoteProgress', 'rmtree', 'unbare_repo',
            'HIDE_WINDOWS_KNOWN_ERRORS']
 
@@ -22,10 +22,11 @@ filterwarnings = 'ignore::DeprecationWarning'
 disallow_untyped_defs = true
 no_implicit_optional = true
 warn_redundant_casts = true
-implicit_reexport = true
 # warn_unused_ignores = true
 warn_unreachable = true
 show_error_codes = true
+implicit_reexport = true
+# strict = true
 
 # TODO: remove when 'gitdb' is fully annotated
 [[tool.mypy.overrides]]