BLACKWATER USA | DAILY BRIEF - Blackwater Worldwide

Posted by BW Actual on Sep 25th 2025

Russia

Russia's finance ministry proposed raising VAT from 20% to 22% to fund rising defense and social spending.
That violates Pres. Putin's pledge from a year ago not to raise taxes again before 2030 - though Putin has lately been walking back on that pledge. It corroborates Pres. Trump's statement at UNGA yesterday that Russia is in "big economic trouble" as the war weighs on its economy.
The tax hike is unlikely to face much backlash, since persistent Kremlin propaganda has convinced the vast majority of Russians - 60-80%, per recent polls - that theirs is the just and winning side of a war that's worth fighting at any cost.

China

Pres. Xi video dialed into a UN climate summit yesterday to announce China's first-ever specific target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
In the past, Beijing had merely said it would try to keep its emissions flat or down after 2030 - a target it met five years early. Now, Xi says China will commit to reducing its emissions of carbon dioxide and other polluting gases by 7-10% by 2035.
Cynics criticized the new target as insufficient, given that China is currently responsible for 27% of global greenhouse emissions and would need to reduce its output by about 30% for the world to meet the goals set in the Paris accords. But 7-10% is still a firmer target than China has ever aimed for before.
Xi also vowed that non-fossil fuel sources of energy will comprise at least 30% of China's energy by 2035. Beijing already has ambitious plans in the works to build massive new hydro, solar, and wind plants to replace the coal-fired sources it currently relies on.

Syria

Syria's interim president, Ahmed al Sharaa, addressed the UN General Assembly (UNGA) yesterday with a fairly modest speech befitting the statesman image he's been carefully cultivating since his band of jihadists overthrew Bashar al Assad's government in late 2024.
In his address - which was the shortest of all given at this year's UNGA - Sharaa cautiously criticized Israeli strikes on his country and its war in Gaza, but optimistically reaffirmed his commitment to dialogue with Israel to settle their differences.
Talks between Israel and Syria are already underway, but Israel is reportedly making some rigid demands that Syria may not be able to agree to: Tel Aviv apparently wants Damascus to guarantee protection for Syria's minority Druze and to fully demilitarize the southwestern border region.

Iran

Iran's Pres. Pezeshkian also addressed UNGA yesterday, using harsher rhetoric than Syria's Ahmed al Sharaa had used to condemn Israeli strikes on his country.
Pezeshkian also maintained that "Iran has never sought and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb" - though Iran hawks insist that's a lie, and Iran's repeated efforts to obstruct UN nuclear inspections certainly don't help prove Pezeshkian's case.

Venezuela

The US Geological Survey observed four earthquakes in northern Venezuela overnight last night and early today.
The quakes were fairly shallow - between 7-14 km (4-9 mi) deep - and moderately strong - with magnitudes of 4.9 to 6.3 - but no casualties have been reported yet.