BLACKWATER USA | DAILY BRIEF - Blackwater Worldwide

Posted by BW Actual on Jul 28th 2025

Coming up this week

The U.S. Federal Reserve meets tomorrow and Wednesday. Most analysts expect the Fed to leave its target interest rate unchanged - despite pressure from Pres. Trump to lower rates now. The Fed likely prefers to wait for the next release of Consumer Price Index (CPI) data on Aug. 12 to see how tariffs are affecting inflation.
The Fed's decision will be quickly followed by two more key U.S. economic updates: preliminary second-quarter GDP figures come out Thursday, and nonfarm payrolls (jobs) data come out Friday.

Commodity and coin market prices

Trade

Pres. Trump met European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen yesterday in Scotland. They agreed to a vast new trade deal that resolves months of uncertainty over the future of trade between the U.S. and EU.
The EU accepted U.S. tariffs of 15% on most goods - which is an improvement over the 30% tariffs Pres. Trump had threatened absent a deal - and both sides committed to eliminating tariffs on key products like aircraft, generic drugs, and chipmaking equipment.
The EU also agreed to invest an additional $600 billion in the U.S. and buy $750 billion of U.S. energy products over three years.

Ukraine

Pres. Zelensky heeded the message from last week's demonstrations against a new law weakening the independence of Ukraine's anti-corruption bodies.
He promised to replace the unpopular and ill-advised law with new legislation guaranteeing that "all the norms for the independence of anti-corruption institutions will be in place," and said he plans to consult EU allies - who expressed concern with the controversial first law - before finalizing the new proposal.

Gaza

Israel announced new daily 10-hour "tactical pauses" in its military operations in three areas of Gaza - Al-Mawasi, Deir al-Balah, and Gaza City - to facilitate aid deliveries between 10 am and 8 pm.
It also said it had started airdropping aid into Gaza.
Both moves are a response to criticism that Israeli military operations have choked Gazans off from much-needed food and humanitarian aid.

DRC

The Islamic State-linked Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) attacked a Catholic church in Komanda in DRC's northeastern Ituri province, killing at least 43, including women and children.
DRC's army spokesman in Ituri accused the ADF of targeting defenseless civilians to divert attention from ongoing joint DRC-Ugandan military operations against the militants.

Sudan

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its coalition partners announced a new parallel government for the country yesterday. RSF leader Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (aka Hemedti) will lead a 15-man government council, while longtime politician Mohamed Hassan Othman al-Ta’ayshi will be its prime minister.
The coalition said its announcement reaffirmed its "commitment to building an inclusive homeland and a new, secular, democratic, decentralized, and voluntarily unified Sudan," but that's exactly the opposite of what declaring a rival government accomplishes.

Southeast Asia

Thailand and Cambodia agreed to start peace talks in Malaysia today - even as Thai and Cambodian troops continue to skirmish along their disputed border. At least 35 have died since the long-simmering dispute flared back up last week. Nonetheless, both sides are optimistic that this week's talks will end the latest bout of fighting.