Friday☕️

Earth Intelligence

16 May 2025 — 5 min read

Economics & Markets:

Today’s U.S. stock market:

Today’s commodity market:

Today’s crypto market:

Geopolitics & Military Activity:

Over the past 24 hours, the Israeli Air Force carried out airstrikes on Hodeidah and Al-Salif ports in Houthi-controlled western Yemen, targeting infrastructure linked to weapons transfers. Named Operation "Red Sunsets," the operation involved 15 fighter jets deploying over 35 munitions, monitored by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir. The strikes followed recent Houthi missile and drone attacks on Israel, aiming to disrupt the group’s logistical and military operations, with estimates suggesting port functionality could be impaired for a month.

Hodeidah and Al-Salif ports have faced multiple Israeli and U.S. strikes since November 2023, when the Houthis began targeting international shipping and Israel, citing solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza conflict. These ports are vital for humanitarian aid and commercial goods entering Yemen but are also used for smuggling Iranian-supplied weapons to the Houthis.

Environment & Weather:

On the evening of May 15, 2025, a severe flood struck Kadirli, Osmaniye, Türkiye, caused by heavy rainfall that led to the overflow of three local streams. The floodwaters inundated streets, homes, and businesses, sweeping away vehicles—eight were reported carried into streambeds—and trapping residents in flooded areas or their cars.

Osmaniye Governor Dr. Erdinç Yılmaz oversaw rescue operations, deploying 200 personnel from AFAD, fire services, and other agencies. While social media initially suggested possible fatalities, authorities reported no confirmed deaths as of May 16, focusing instead on ongoing rescue efforts to assist those affected.

Space:

Today, May 16, 2025, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 9:43 AM EDT (1343 UTC). The mission, named Starlink 15-3, placed 26 Starlink V2 Mini satellites into low Earth orbit to expand SpaceX’s internet constellation, which now has around 7,500 satellites. The reusable first-stage booster, B1081, completed its 14th flight and landed on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You in the Pacific Ocean about eight minutes after liftoff.

This launch marks another step in SpaceX’s 2025 goal of up to 170 Falcon missions, adjusted from an earlier estimate of 180. The rocket followed a south-easterly path, visible in parts of the Southwest U.S., and reflects SpaceX’s increased activity at Vandenberg, where it is now authorized for up to 50 launches per year. The mission demonstrated the Falcon 9’s reliability and SpaceX’s focus on reusable rocket technology.

Science & Technology:

Today, May 16, 2025, OpenAI introduced a research preview of Codex, a cloud-based software engineering tool integrated into ChatGPT. Codex, built on codex-1—a version of OpenAI’s o3 model tailored for coding—enables developers to assign tasks like writing code, debugging, or creating pull requests. Available initially to ChatGPT Pro, Enterprise, and Team users, with plans to include Plus and Edu users, it operates in secure cloud sandboxes containing a user’s codebase. OpenAI presented Codex as a tool to assist developers by handling multiple tasks simultaneously, while stressing the need for human review to ensure code quality.

Codex allows users to interact through ChatGPT’s sidebar, using prompts to generate code or query codebases. Tasks, which take 1 to 30 minutes, run in isolated environments without external access, ensuring security and providing detailed logs. Codex achieves up to 80% accuracy on real-world coding tasks, producing clear, standards-compliant code. Aimed at professional developers and product managers, it supports tasks like feature development and testing. OpenAI plans to add rate limits and pricing after the free preview, alongside features like issue tracker integration and an open-source Codex CLI for local use, to enhance development workflows.

Statistic:

Largest assets on Earth by market capitalization:

Gold: $21.485T
🇺🇸 Microsoft: $3.376T
🇺🇸 NVIDIA: $3.302T
🇺🇸 Apple: $3.155T
🇺🇸 Amazon: $2.182T
Bitcoin: $2.061T
🇺🇸 Alphabet (Google): $2.021T
Silver: $1.824T
🇸🇦 Saudi Aramco: $1.686T
🇺🇸 Meta Platforms: $1.610T
🇺🇸 Tesla: $1.127T
🇺🇸 Berkshire Hathaway: $1.108T
🇺🇸 Broadcom: $1.074T
🇹🇼 TSMC: $1.007T
🇺🇸 Walmart: $786.00B
🇺🇸 JPMorgan Chase: $743.57B
🇺🇸 Visa: $699.44B
🇺🇸 Eli Lilly: $679.93B
🇨🇳 Tencent: $600.35B
SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust: $545.34B
🇺🇸 Mastercard: $529.66B
🇺🇸 Netflix: $507.08B
🇺🇸 Exxon Mobil: $466.25B
🇺🇸 Costco: $455.14B
🇺🇸 Oracle: $450.05B

History:

Vandenberg Space Force Base, located in Santa Barbara County, California, began as Camp Cooke in 1941, a U.S. Army training site for armored and infantry units. In 1957, it was transferred to the Air Force, renamed Cooke Air Force Base, and then Vandenberg Air Force Base in 1958, honoring General Hoyt Vandenberg. Its coastal location enabled safe launches into polar orbits, starting with the world’s first polar-orbiting satellite, Discoverer 1, on February 28, 1959, via a Thor-Agena rocket. The Discoverer program, a cover for the classified CORONA reconnaissance satellites, saw key successes like the 1960 recovery of Discoverer XIII’s capsule, the first object retrieved from orbit, and Discoverer XIV’s mid-air capsule recovery, cementing Vandenberg’s role in Cold War space efforts.
Over the decades, Vandenberg has supported over 1,980 launches by 2025, including military, NASA, and commercial missions. Its Space Launch Complexes (SLCs), such as SLC-4 (now used by SpaceX) and the historic SLC-10, a National Historic Landmark, have hosted rockets like Thor, Atlas, Titan, Delta, and Falcon 9. Milestones include the 1963 KH-7 Gambit satellite launch and the 1994 Titan 23G launch of the Clementine lunar probe. Although Space Shuttle launches planned for SLC-6 were canceled after the 1986 Challenger disaster, Vandenberg adapted to modern spaceflight, notably with SpaceX’s first West Coast booster landing at SLC-4W in 2018. Managed by Space Launch Delta 30, the base remains a critical site for polar orbit launches, missile tests, and commercial operations, with up to 50 launches permitted annually.

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