Wednesday☕️

Earth Intelligence

27 Aug 2025 — 6 min read

Economics & Markets:

Yesterday’s U.S. stock market:

Yesterday’s commodity market:

Yesterday’s crypto market:

Geopolitics & Military Activity:

On August 26, 2025, Ukraine reportedly launched a significant drone and ballistic missile offensive targeting the Kerch Bridge connecting Russia to Crimea and various sites in southern Russia, including areas in the Rostov region, as documented in social media videos showing explosions and fires in residential complexes. Early accounts from Russian military bloggers and observers indicate that Ukrainian loitering drones struck a building in Rostov-on-Don, with speculation that the structure may have been the residence of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who has lived in exile in Russia since 2014 following his ouster amid pro-European protests.

While no official confirmations from Ukrainian or Russian authorities were immediately available, the reported strikes align with ongoing escalations in the conflict, where Ukraine has increasingly used drones for deep strikes into Russian territory to disrupt logistics and infrastructure, though details on damage to the Kerch Bridge or casualties remain unverified amid conflicting claims from both sides.

Environment & Weather:

On August 26, 2025, flash floods and rockslides struck the villages of Al-Buriha and Al-Maratebah in Jabal Habashi District, Taiz Governorate, Yemen, during the evening hours amid heavy rainfall associated with the ongoing monsoon season, causing rapid inundation and debris flows that devastated the area as captured in videos showing muddy torrents sweeping through residential zones. Casualties included the death of Fouad Bajash Ali, with his daughter reported missing and several others sustaining injuries, prompting local search and rescue efforts.

The disaster resulted in significant damage to homes, farmland, and personal property, exacerbating the humanitarian challenges in the region where recent widespread flooding across Yemen has already led to multiple fatalities, displacements, and infrastructure issues, with authorities issuing warnings for continued heavy rains and urging residents to avoid vulnerable areas.

Space:

On August 26, 2025, SpaceX successfully launched the NAOS mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, using a Falcon 9 rocket at 11:53 a.m. PDT (18:53 UTC). The primary payload was the NAOS (National Advanced Optical System) satellite, a 645 kg high-resolution reconnaissance spacecraft built by OHB Italia for Luxembourg's governmental and military purposes, designed to provide global coverage with the capability to capture more than 100 images per day to enhance participation in European and NATO defense efforts, featuring an operational lifetime of 7 years. The mission also carried seven additional rideshare satellites for various customers, with all payloads successfully separated and deployed following a nominal ascent and booster landing on a droneship in the Pacific Ocean.

On August 26, 2025, SpaceX conducted the tenth integrated flight test of its Starship system from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, with liftoff occurring at approximately 6:36 p.m. CDT (23:36 UTC) after two prior launch attempts were scrubbed due to technical and weather issues. The test involved the fully stacked Starship upper stage (Ship 37) and Super Heavy booster (Booster 16), which together form the largest flying object ever created, standing about 121 meters tall and capable of generating over 16 million pounds of thrust from its 33 Raptor engines, surpassing previous rockets like the Saturn V in both height and power.

The flight achieved all major objectives, including a nominal ascent with full engine ignition, hot-stage separation, booster splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico without a catch attempt, deployment of eight dummy Starlink satellites from the upper stage to demonstrate payload capabilities, an in-flight Raptor engine relight, and a controlled reentry of the Starship upper stage ending in a splashdown in the Indian Ocean, providing data to support future developments for reusable space transportation, including potential roles in NASA's Artemis program and Mars missions.

Science & Technology:

Yesterday, August 26, 2025, Google launched Gemini 2.5 Flash Image, a state-of-the-art AI model for native image generation and editing integrated into the Gemini platform, rolling it out for free to all users worldwide. Ranked as the world's leading tool in its category, it allows for creating detailed images from text prompts, merging and editing photos with natural language instructions, preserving styles and visual accuracy, and supporting advanced features like real-time refinements and interactive web integrations.

The update aims to enhance creative capabilities, with Google encouraging users to experiment freely through provided ideas and inspiration, such as generating custom artwork, transforming personal images into various styles, or combining elements for unique compositions.

Statistic:

Largest public software companies by market capitalization:

🇺🇸 Microsoft: $3.731T
🇺🇸 Apple: $3.403T
🇺🇸 Alphabet (Google): $2.510T
🇺🇸 Oracle: $657.85B
🇺🇸 Palantir: $381.63B
🇩🇪 SAP: $314.27B
🇺🇸 Salesforce: $233.01B
🇺🇸 IBM: $226.01B
🇺🇸 Intuit: $183.97B
🇨🇦 Shopify: $183.54B
🇺🇸 ServiceNow: $179.43B
🇺🇸 AppLovin: $158.75B
🇺🇸 Adobe: $150.55B
🇫🇷 Schneider Electric: $139.54B
🇺🇸 Palo Alto Networks: $123.05B
🇺🇸 Automatic Data Processing: $122.91B
🇺🇸 Synopsys: $110.28B
🇺🇸 CrowdStrike: $104.08B
🇺🇸 Strategy (MicroStrategy): $99.62B
🇺🇸 Cadence Design Systems: $93.74B
🇺🇸 Cloudflare: $69.19B
🇨🇦 Constellation Software: $67.29B
🇺🇸 Snowflake: $64.84B
🇺🇸 Autodesk: $60.42B
🇺🇸 Workday: $59.50B

History:

The history of software development dates back to the mid-19th century, when Ada Lovelace wrote the first algorithm intended for processing by Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, a mechanical general-purpose computer. However, software truly emerged in the 1940s during World War II with the development of electronic computing machines like the ENIAC. In these early days, software was written in raw machine code and later evolved into assembly language to simplify programming. The 1950s and 60s introduced higher-level languages like Fortran, Lisp, and COBOL, marking the beginning of structured programming. As computing power grew, operating systems were developed to manage hardware, giving rise to multi-user systems and more complex applications.
The personal computing revolution of the 1970s and 80s, led by companies like Apple and Microsoft, brought software to the masses. This era introduced user-friendly interfaces, productivity software like spreadsheets and word processors, and eventually the Internet, which exploded in the 1990s, catalyzing the rise of web-based software. In the 2000s and beyond, software development has become faster, more collaborative, and more globalized with the rise of open-source projects, cloud computing, agile methodologies, and AI. Today, software powers nearly every aspect of modern life, from smartphones and self-driving cars to global financial systems and artificial intelligence platforms, making it one of the most dynamic and critical forces shaping human progress.

Image of the day: