BLACKWATER USA | DAILY BRIEF - Blackwater Worldwide

Posted by BW Actual on Oct 15th 2025

Madagascar

Madagascar's Parliament sided with Gen Z protesters to overwhelmingly approve a measure impeaching President Andry Rajoelina, and the military then completed the popular coup by taking over Rajoelina's presidential palace and dissolving most of the country's major institutions (except its lower house of Parliament, the National Assembly).
Colonel Michael Randrianirina - who commands the military's elite CAPSAT unit - said the military will now co-rule with a transitional government for up to two years before organizing fresh elections and handing power back to the civilian winners.
The Constitutional Court still needs to approve Rajoelina's impeachment, but that seems like a formality since the same court already confirmed Col. Randrianirina as Madagascar's new leader.
Meanwhile, Rajoelina confirmed rumors that he'd fled abroad (he's rumored to be in UAE), but remained defiantly in denial about his ouster, insisting that he's still "fully in power" by virtue of a questionable loophole he sought to exploit by dissolving the National Assembly as it prepared to impeach him.
Rajoelina seems to be the only person who thinks he's still in charge - or wants him to be. Even the general he hastily appointed as Prime Minister last week mounted no resistance as his fellow soldiers took over. Much of the population - whose average age is under 20 - celebrated the coup as an opportunity for change.

Gaza

Hamas angered Israeli officials by handing back the remains of only four deceased hostages instead of more of the roughly 30 who died in captivity.
Hamas has long warned that it will take time to locate all hostage remains in Gaza's post-war rubble and insists it's not deliberately delaying the return of remains, but Israeli hawks weren't convinced and demanded quicker action.
Israel was reportedly considering new restrictions on aid flows into Gaza to penalize Hamas for dragging its feet. That may have accelerated Hamas's announcement that Red Cross personnel were already on their way to retrieve several more bodies (four more have since been transferred to Israel). That seemed to soften Israeli calls for new penalties.
Importantly, even hardline Israeli officials like Defense Minister Israel Katz have stopped short of threatening to tear up the nascent ceasefire deal and revert to military action because of the delays.
Meanwhile, Hamas moved quickly to reassert its control of Gaza upon Israel's retreat - and with Pres. Trump's "approval for a period of time" to reinstill order and avoid a security vacuum. Some rival militant groups are challenging Hamas's return to power, but Hamas appears to be resorting to heavy-handed tactics like public executions to effectively (if brutally) reassert its authority.

Venezuela

Pres. Trump announced in a social media post that the U.S. Navy had struck another alleged drug boat "just off the coast of Venezuela," killing six aboard.
It was the fifth known U.S. strike on a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the Caribbean since Trump's regional anti-cartel operation began in early September.

Syria

Reuters published an investigative report alleging that Syria's deposed dictator, Bashar al Assad, moved the bodies of tens of thousands of his regime's victims from a known mass grave in Qutayfah to a hidden one east of Damascus, in an effort to conceal evidence of the extent of his atrocities.
The mass relocation - bluntly codenamed "Operation Move Earth" - reportedly took place from 2019 to 2021, when Assad had effectively won his civil war against the opposition (in part by disappearing an estimated 100,000 of them) and was trying to remake his image and secure sanctions relief. Alas, it's hard to hide 100,000 murders, and Assad largely remained a pariah until he was ousted late last year.
Syria's new government - led by rebels who deposed Assad - hasn't commented on the new report yet, and may have only learned about the relocated graves from a pre-publication Reuters briefing earlier this week.

Russia

Russia's Federal Security Services (FSB) launched a bold new "anti-terrorism" investigation into 23 members of the Council of Europe, an anti-war group.
The FSB accused the group's members - many of whom live in exile - of mounting an "alternative to power structures" and plotting to "seize power by force and change the constitutional order in Russia," although none of them have ever publicly called for violence or declared any political ambitions.
The NYT noted that the FSB's investigation "signals how closely President Vladimir V. Putin is watching anti-Kremlin activity abroad as Russia pursues its perceived enemies across international borders."

Afghanistan

Last night saw more deadly clashes between Afghan and Pakistani forces on the border between Afghanistan’s Spin Boldak district and Pakistan’s Chaman district.
As after last week's clashes, both sides blamed the other for firing first and claimed to have inflicted worse casualties than they suffered.
The skirmishes subsided as quickly as they'd flared up, and - while there may be further exchanges of fire - both Afghanistan and Pakistan seem keen to avoid full-blown war.

DRC

DRC and the Rwanda-backed M23 agreed yesterday to establish a mechanism for international observers - from Qatar, the U.S., and the African Union - to monitor whether they're adhering to their ceasefire.
For now, the monitors have an easy job because the answer is a resounding no: DRC and the M23 continue to engage in hostilities, and there isn't even a ceasefire for them to adhere to in the first place, since they failed to meet their self-imposed August 18 deadline to finalize one.