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EARTH INTELLIGENCE

10 Nov 2025 — 6 min read

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On Sunday, November 9, 2025, China's Ministry of Commerce announced a temporary suspension of its export ban on critical minerals like gallium, germanium, and antimony to the United States, effective immediately through November 27, 2026. This move also removes the stricter requirements for verifying end-users and end-uses of these dual-purpose items, which serve both civilian and military needs. The initial controls were put in place in December 2024 as a response to U.S. limits on advanced semiconductor tech and equipment, intended to protect China's security amid rising trade disputes.
The suspension is seen as a step to ease tensions in U.S.-China trade relations after the recent U.S. presidential election, though officials did not directly link the two. These minerals are key for sectors like electronics, semiconductors, and defense, where China controls over 90 percent of global supply for gallium and germanium, which could help relieve short-term supply issues for U.S. companies.

Economics & Markets:

Yesterday’s commodity market:

Yesterday’s crypto market:

Environment & Weather:

On Sunday, November 9, 2025, Super Typhoon Fung-wong, locally named Uwan, made landfall in Dinalungan, Aurora Province, on the northeastern coast of the Philippines, packing maximum sustained winds of 185 kilometers per hour and gusts up to 230 kilometers per hour, classifying it as a Category 3 equivalent storm. As the 21st tropical cyclone to impact the country in 2025, it delivered torrential rainfall exceeding 200 millimeters in affected areas, along with destructive winds and storm surges reaching three meters, resulting in widespread power outages, communication disruptions, and the halt of air travel and initial rescue efforts. Authorities conducted preemptive evacuations of over one million residents from vulnerable zones across Luzon and nearby islands to minimize loss of life.

Current assessments indicate at least two confirmed fatalities—one from drowning in Catanduanes and another from a structural collapse in Catbalogan City—amid reports of flooded communities, uprooted trees, damaged residences, and isolated localities due to obstructed roads and fallen infrastructure. This event compounds recovery challenges from the prior Typhoon Kalmaegi, which caused over 200 deaths and heightened vulnerabilities in regions like Cebu. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has declared a national state of emergency, with the typhoon projected to cross Luzon overnight, gradually weaken, and proceed northward toward Taiwan by mid-week, potentially extending heavy rains and landslide risks across a wider area of the archipelago.

Science & Technology:

On Wednesday, November 6, 2025, the Beijing startup Moonshot AI, supported by Alibaba, launched its new open-source AI model called Kimi K2 Thinking. This is an improved version of the earlier Kimi K2 model released in July. It's built as a "thinking agent" using a mixture-of-experts system with one trillion parameters, where 32 experts activate for each input token. The model focuses on better reasoning, coding, and handling complex tasks. Moonshot AI claims it beats top closed-source models like OpenAI's GPT-5 and Anthropic's Claude 4.5 Sonnet in various tests, aiming to make powerful AI more accessible to everyone.

Tests show Kimi K2 Thinking scored 44.9 percent on Humanity's Last Exam, a tough reasoning benchmark, outperforming GPT-5 at 42.3 percent and Claude 4.5 Sonnet at 41.8 percent. It also did well in coding benchmarks like HumanEval and agent tasks like SWE-Bench. The launch has started talks in the AI world about faster open-source progress, especially from Chinese teams, during global AI races. However, experts note that actual results can differ based on real uses and data. Moonshot AI offers the model for free download and use, with future updates planned for better language support and ethical features.

Space:

On Sunday, November 9, 2025, SpaceX conducted a successful Falcon 9 launch from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, deploying 29 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit as part of the Starlink 10-51 mission. The rocket lifted off at 3:10 a.m. EST (0810 UTC) after a one-day delay due to technical issues, marking the 93rd orbital launch from Florida's Space Coast this year and tying a regional record for annual missions. The reusable first-stage booster, on its 14th flight, achieved a precise landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean approximately eight minutes post-liftoff, while the satellites aim to expand broadband internet coverage in underserved areas.

Statistic:

Largest assets on Earth by market capitalization:

Gold: $27.903T
🇺🇸 NVIDIA: $4.580T
🇺🇸 Apple: $3.967T
🇺🇸 Microsoft: $3.692T
🇺🇸 Alphabet (Google): $3.369T
Silver: $2.722T
🇺🇸 Amazon: $2.612T
Bitcoin: $2.086T
🇸🇦 Saudi Aramco: $1.661T
🇺🇸 Broadcom: $1.650T
🇺🇸 Meta Platforms: $1.567T
🇹🇼 TSMC: $1.485T
🇺🇸 Tesla: $1.428T
🇺🇸 Berkshire Hathaway: $1.076T
🇺🇸 JPMorgan Chase: $855.36B
🇺🇸 Eli Lilly: $828.65B
🇺🇸 Walmart: $817.93B
🇺🇸 Vanguard S&P 500 ETF: $787.37B
🇨🇳 Tencent: $738.66B
🇺🇸 iShares Core S&P 500 ETF: $709.37B
🇺🇸 SPDR S&P 500 ETF: $692.83B
🇺🇸 Oracle: $682.08B
🇺🇸 Visa: $648.48B
🇺🇸 Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF: $554.17B
🇺🇸 Mastercard: $495.66B

History:

Chipotle Mexican Grill was founded in 1993 by Steve Ells in Denver, Colorado, with the goal of serving high-quality Mexican-inspired food quickly without sacrificing freshness or flavor. Ells, a Culinary Institute of America graduate, was inspired by San Francisco’s Mission-style burritos and aimed to bring that concept to a broader market. The first Chipotle was built inside a former ice cream shop, and it quickly gained popularity for its simple menu, open kitchen, and emphasis on naturally raised ingredients. The brand’s early success caught the attention of McDonald’s, which invested heavily in Chipotle during its expansion phase in the late 1990s and early 2000s, helping it grow from a regional favorite into a national chain before McDonald’s divested in 2006.
After going public in 2006, Chipotle became a pioneer of the “fast-casual” dining model, emphasizing sustainability, transparency, and food integrity through its “Food with Integrity” campaign. The company’s commitment to non-GMO ingredients and ethical sourcing helped it stand out, though it also faced major challenges, including food safety incidents in 2015 that temporarily damaged its reputation. Since then, Chipotle has rebuilt consumer trust through improved safety standards, digital innovation, and menu diversification with items like lifestyle bowls and plant-based options. Today, Chipotle stands as a leader in the fast-casual sector, known for blending convenience with conscious eating, and continues to expand globally while maintaining its focus on fresh, responsibly sourced food.

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EARTH INTELLIGENCE builds private intelligence systems for organizations — connecting their internal and external data with AI to create one interactive command center for real-time awareness, decision making, and predictions.

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