Thursday☕️

Earth Intelligence

31 Jul 2025 — 5 min read

Economics & Markets:

Yesterday, July 30, 2025, the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC)—a 12-member body of governors and regional bank presidents that meets eight times a year to set rates for economic stability—announced it would hold the federal funds rate at 4.25%-4.50%, the fifth straight hold since December 2024, citing slowed growth, strong jobs, and inflation above 2%. The FOMC continued balance sheet reduction, allowing Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities to mature without reinvestment, while keeping reserve and repo rates steady to maintain tight policy amid trade risks.
The 9-2 vote included dissent from Governors Waller and Bowman for a 0.25% cut—the first such split since 1993—over growth concerns. President Trump urged cuts up to 3%, citing solid GDP, but Chair Powell's hawkish press conference stressed data-driven independence and no immediate easing, despite markets expecting the hold (97% odds) and a possible September cut (61% chance) if unemployment rises 0.3%.
Yesterday’s U.S. stock market:

Yesterday’s commodity market:

Yesterday’s crypto market:

Environment & Weather:

Yesterday, July 30, 2025, Typhoon Gaemi made landfall in eastern Zhejiang Province, China, bringing severe havoc to Ningbo with intense rainfall exceeding 370 mm in 24 hours, strong winds up to 83 km/h, and widespread flooding that submerged streets and disrupted daily life. As one of the stronger typhoons to hit the region this year, it has caused record-breaking precipitation in areas like Cixi, raising risks of flash floods, landslides, and infrastructure damage, though no major casualties have been reported yet.

In response, authorities evacuated 283,000 residents from vulnerable areas in Ningbo and surrounding regions to over 1,900 emergency shelters, prioritizing safety amid ongoing alerts for heavy rain and potential disruptions. The storm's effects extend to neighboring Shanghai, with hundreds of flight cancellations and closures of businesses and schools, while forecasts predict further inland impacts across multiple provinces, highlighting the need for continued preparedness and relief efforts.

Space:

On July 30, 2025, China's Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation successfully launched the SatNet LEO Group 06 mission aboard a Long March 8A rocket from the newly inaugurated Commercial Launch Complex-1 at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan Province, achieving the nation's 40th orbital launch of the year. The rocket ascended at 07:49 UTC, deploying nine communication satellites into low Earth orbit to expand the Guowang broadband constellation. Official reports confirmed the flawless execution, with all satellites reaching their intended orbits to bolster China's expanding presence in satellite-based internet amid global rivalry in the sector.
On July 30, 2025, the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite was successfully launched from India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre using a GSLV-F16 rocket, representing a key achievement in the collaborative U.S.-India effort to observe Earth's changing land and ice surfaces with high precision. This advanced satellite features dual L-band and S-band synthetic aperture radars—the first such combination in orbit—designed to map elevations of Earth's land and ice masses four to six times per month at resolutions of 5 to 10 meters, allowing for detailed monitoring of natural processes including ecosystem disruptions, ice-sheet dynamics, and hazards like earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and landslides.

As per the agreement, NASA supplied the L-band radar, high-rate communication system for scientific data, GPS receivers, solid-state recorder, and payload data subsystem, while ISRO contributed the S-band radar, satellite bus, launch vehicle, and related services. Valued at approximately $1.5 billion, the satellite has reached orbit and will enter a 90-day commissioning phase before providing open-access data to support global research on environmental changes, resource management, and disaster response.

Statistic:

Largest public companies by market capitalization:

🇺🇸 NVIDIA: $4.371T
🇺🇸 Microsoft: $3.814T
🇺🇸 Apple: $3.122T
🇺🇸 Amazon: $2.443T
🇺🇸 Alphabet (Google): $2.383T
🇺🇸 Meta Platforms: $1.747T
🇸🇦 Saudi Aramco: $1.562T
🇺🇸 Broadcom: $1.423T
🇹🇼 TSMC: $1.259T
🇺🇸 Tesla: $1.029T
🇺🇸 Berkshire Hathaway: $1.026T
🇺🇸 JPMorgan Chase: $823.88B
🇺🇸 Walmart: $778.80B
🇺🇸 Oracle: $703.89B
🇺🇸 Visa: $685.50B
🇺🇸 Eli Lilly: $682.35B
🇨🇳 Tencent: $634.86B
🇺🇸 Mastercard: $507.71B
🇺🇸 Netflix: $503.19B
🇺🇸 Exxon Mobil: $482.24B
🇺🇸 Costco: $411.32B
🇺🇸 Johnson & Johnson: $402.81B
🇺🇸 Palantir: $374.30B
🇺🇸 Home Depot: $370.19B
🇺🇸 Procter & Gamble: $358.04B

History:

The history of software applications begins long before the term “software” even existed. In the 1800s, mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote what is now considered the first algorithm intended for a machine—Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, a mechanical general-purpose computer that was never fully built. Her notes in 1843 described how the machine could be instructed to compute Bernoulli numbers, laying the conceptual foundation for programmable machines. In the 1930s, Alan Turing proposed the idea of a “universal machine”—a theoretical device that could simulate any computation—providing the formal framework for all future software. During World War II, devices like the German Z3 (1941) and the British Colossus (1943) executed sequences of operations via punched tape and plugboards. These early systems were not programmed in the modern sense, but they performed logic-based tasks using electrical or mechanical instructions encoded manually.
By the 1940s and 50s, electronic computers like ENIAC and EDVAC brought the idea of stored programs—where instructions were held in memory rather than physically wired into the machine. This gave birth to programming languages, starting with assembly and moving to higher-level ones like FORTRAN and COBOL by the late 1950s. In the 1960s and 70s, operating systems emerged to manage resources and allow multiple applications to run, culminating in systems like UNIX. The 1980s saw the rise of consumer software on personal computers, with graphical interfaces and popular programs like spreadsheets and word processors. In the 1990s, the internet enabled web applications, while the 2000s introduced mobile apps and cloud platforms. Today, AI-powered applications dominate the landscape—from chatbots and recommendation systems to intelligent OS features—transforming software from passive tools into adaptive, context-aware assistants.

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