BLACKWATER USA | DAILY BRIEF - Blackwater Worldwide

Posted by BW Actual on Oct 1st 2025

U.S.

The U.S. government shut down at midnight this morning after Congressional Republicans and Democrats were unable to agree on a stopgap spending bill.
An estimated 750,000 federal employees will be furloughed until Congress resolves its self-induced crisis, while essential workers like military and TSA personnel will continue to work without pay (or rather, with deferred pay: whether furloughed or working, all federal employees are guaranteed full back pay once the shutdown ends).

Gaza

Pres. Trump said Hamas would have "three or four days" to respond to his proposal for a Gaza truce.
Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu has already given the proposal his blessing after he secured some key changes to it.
Hamas says it's evaluating the proposal but will probably reject it: Hamas is loathe to concede its remaining hostages and commit to disarming without securing Israel's agreement to fully withdraw from Gaza.

DRC

A Congolese military court sentenced former president Joseph Kabila to death in absentia for war crimes and treason over his alleged support for Rwanda-backed M23 rebels who captured and still control eastern DRC's main population and mining centers.
The investigation and trial were rushed - except for the verdict, which took over four hours to read. Kabila refused to appear in court and lacked legal representation to defend his case. His current whereabouts are unknown, but the most credible recent reports suggest he returned to exile in South Africa after briefly popping up in eastern DRC this spring.
Kabila rejected the sentence as "arbitrary" and accused his political rivals - including his reluctantly-chosen successor, Pres. Tshisekedi - of using the courts as an "instrument of repression."
This court also seems to be an instrument of fundraising: in addition to sentencing Kabila to death, it ordered him to pay restitution of $33 billion - including $29 billion to Tshisekedi's government in Kinshasa - for alleged moral, defense, infrastructural, and ecological damages arising from the still-simmering eastern conflict.

Iran

The U.S. deported a planeload of 120 Iranian illegal immigrants back to Iran yesterday, after striking a deal with Tehran to take them - and 280 more future deportees - back.
The episode was a rare example of constructive cooperation between Washington and Tehran, but some rights groups complained about the ethics of deporting migrants back to a crisis-ridden country with a shoddy human rights record.

Haiti

The UN Security Council authorized a new U.S.- and Panama-led plan to expand the current ~1,000-strong, Kenya-led police mission in Haiti into a 5,550-person multinational "Gang Suppression Force."
The expanded force will enjoy expanded powers that the current force doesn't have - like the authority to arrest suspected gang members - that should help it better accomplish its mission of quelling gang violence.
However, it's unclear whether the new force will overcome the most significant obstacle constraining the current force: a lack of promised funding. The current Haiti force is limited to ~40% of its intended size because of funding constraints, and China - which abstained from the authorization vote - gleefully blamed the U.S. for withholding its UN contributions and questioned why funding for the new Haiti force will be any more forthcoming.

Gen Z protests

The latest wave of "Gen Z" protests is now springing up in Morocco, where youth are dissatisfied with their country's education and healthcare systems.
The NYT pointed out a common thread in recent youth-led protest movements in Nepal, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Madagascar - and now Morocco: protesters are flying a flag with a smiling Jolly Roger donning a straw hat.
The symbol is a reference to a long-running Japanese cartoon called "One Piece," in which a motley crew of scrappy pirate protagonists stand up to a stodgy corrupt government. Seems apt.