BLACKWATER USA | DAILY BRIEF - Blackwater Worldwide

Posted by BW Actual on Aug 8th 2025

Israel

Israel's security cabinet approved a plan for its military to gradually take over the remaining 25% of Gaza it doesn't already control - despite objections from top military brass, who fear it's a "trap" that could endanger the ~20 surviving hostages in Hamas captivity.
The takeover would start with Gaza City and later expand to parts of coastal central Gaza where Israel believes Hamas is harboring hostages.

Venezuela

The U.S. doubled its bounty on Pres. Maduro from $25 to $50 million, making it the largest reward the U.S. has ever offered for a single person's arrest - and double the $25 million offered for Osama bin Laden post-9/11.
In a video announcing the increase, Attorney General Bondi called Maduro "one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world and a threat to our national security."
As usual, Maduro's government responded with a series of bizarre and disconnected retorts, saying Bondi's "show is a joke" and calling the announcement a "smokescreen" to distract public attention from swirling Epstein rumors.

Haiti

Haiti's transitional presidential council appointed businessman Laurent Saint-Cyr as its new leader. Saint-Cyr will share power with Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, who also joined the government from the private sector.
They face a tough task trying to restore order to Haiti and Port-au-Prince. Gangs currently control 90% of the capital, and have already threatened to overthrow the new government.

Azerbaijan

Pres. Trump will host Azerbaijan's Pres. Aliyev and Armenia's Prime Minister Pashinyan at the White House today for a surprise "Historic Peace Summit" to sign a new, U.S.-brokered truce ending their decades-long conflict.
The deal provides for a 27-mile (43.5 km) transport corridor through Armenia - to be developed by the U.S. and named the "Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity" (or TRIPP, for short) - linking Azerbaijan with its enclave of Nakhchivan, which borders Turkey.
That would allow the flow of people and goods from Turkey and Azerbaijan to Central Asia without passing through Iran or Russia, greatly simplifying transcontinental trade (and angering Iran and Russia by omission).

Trade

According to new data, the U.S. trade deficit with all trading partners fell 16% from June 2024 to June 2025 to a total of $60.2 billion - the lowest level in two years.
About half the drop came from the decline in the U.S. trade deficit with China - though that gap could expand again after Pres. Trump closes a new trade deal with China that he says is imminent.

European Union

Bloomberg observed an unexpected knock-on effect from new U.S. tariffs. Apparently, some Swiss were so surprised by the high tariff rate Pres. Trump announced on Swiss imports to the U.S. that they're now reconsidering whether joining the EU (which has agreed to 15% tariffs) would be better than continuing to go it alone and face 39% tariffs.

Artificial Intelligence

OpenAI released GPT-5: its first new public model in six years. Unlike OpenAI's prior models - which limit users to front-end access and keep their inner-workings secret - GPT-5 is "open-weight" and "deeply customizable." That's perhaps a response to the transparency that made China's DeepSeek popular.