BLACKWATER USA | DAILY BRIEF - Blackwater Worldwide

Posted by BW Actual on Jul 21st 2025

Coming up this week

China is hosting EU officials for a summit on Thursday celebrating 50 years of bilateral ties. Trade and geopolitical tensions have frayed those ties of late, so this summit will likely be full of niceties but devoid of meaningful breakthroughs.
On Saturday, Taiwan will vote on whether to recall 24 opposition lawmakers. President Lai Ching-te wants his party to regain control of the parliament, which it lost last year in the same poll that delivered Lai the presidency.
The Tour de France ends Sunday in Paris with the iconic Champs-Élysées final stage finish.

Commodity and coin market prices

DRC

DRC and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels signed a declaration of principles for a lasting ceasefire in eastern DRC on Saturday in Qatar.
Saturday's declaration complements a U.S.-backed peace deal that DRC signed with the M23's benefactor, Rwanda, on June 27, and it sets a deadline of Aug. 18 for finalizing a permanent truce in the long-restive region.
One month is a short time to settle a decades-long conflict, and there are already signs that this declaration is an unstable foundation for a lasting peace. For one, DRC says Saturday's declaration orders the M23's "non-negotiable withdrawal" from Congolese territory it seized, but the M23 insists it "will not retreat, not even by one meter."

Venezuela

The NYT reported that Pres. Maduro's regime has been detaining economists for sharing dismal science revealing the failures of Maduro's bad economic policies.
Police have arrested around 25 Venezuelan economists in the past two months, according to a rights group. Their "crimes" include trying to accurately estimate inflation and other economic figures that the government stopped reliably reporting years ago when the numbers became too bleak to divulge.
An International Crisis Group analyst quoted in the NYT called the regime's censorship of bad economic data "kind of like the Tinkerbell theory of economics: If you believe in her, then her light continues to shine."

Gaza

The World Food Program (WFP) reported that Israeli forces fired at a crowd that rushed a humanitarian aid convoy as it crossed the border into northern Gaza yesterday, killing at least 60 Gazans seeking aid.
The story is becoming sadly familiar. Gazan health authorities also reported 32 deaths in a similar incident near an aid distribution site in southern Gaza on Saturday, and a further six aid-seekers killed in Khan Younis yesterday.
The WFP seemed to lay the blame for yesterday's especially deadly incident squarely on Israeli authorities for breaking their promise "that armed forces will not be present nor engage at any stage along humanitarian convoy routes."
Separately, Israeli ground forces entered the southeastern Gazan city of Deir Al Balah for the first time today. The military believes some of the ~20 remaining living hostages are being held in Deir Al Balah, which is why it has stayed away from the city until now.
Qatar and Egypt continue to mediate ceasefire talks in Doha, but Hamas officials are spreading the word that they're losing patience with mounting aid site deaths and rising hunger in Gaza. Israeli officials complain that Hamas has been stonewalling the whole time.

Ukraine

The UK and Germany led a virtual meeting of NATO leaders today to discuss plans for a "50-day drive" to send more military aid to Ukraine - including perhaps two more Patriot air defense systems.
Just before the NATO meeting, Russia showed its displeasure with the NATO proposal by launching another massive aerial barrage on Kyiv.
Separately, the European Union agreed to its toughest-yet sanctions on Russia. The new measures would lower the price cap for Russian oil from $60 to $47.60 per barrel, penalize third-country banks for facilitating oil sales, sanction more shadow fleet tankers, and scrap proposals for reviving the Nord Stream gas pipeline.

Syria

Last week's ceasefire in the southern Syrian city of Sweida seems to be holding up. Syrian government forces have withdrawn, and the Bedouin forces they'd (more or less) backed in Sweida then followed suit.
That left an opening for Israel to send humanitarian and medical aid to Sweida's Druze, whom Israel had intervened to protect.
Reuters reported that Syria's central government misinterpreted signals from the U.S. and Israel when it sent troops to quell Druze-Bedouin skirmishes in Sweida: Damascus thought it had a green light to assert control over the somewhat autonomous Druze area, and did not expect Israel to object with strikes on southbound Syrian tanks.
Damascus now seems to accept Sweida's quasi-autonomy - though Pres. Al Sharaa would certainly prefer to bring all of Syria under his central authority.