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EARTH INTELLIGENCE

29 Oct 2025 — 6 min read

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On October 28, 2025, Brazilian authorities began a major operation with about 2,500 police officers and soldiers against the Comando Vermelho drug gang in Rio de Janeiro's favelas. This raid, noted as the deadliest in the city's history, led to at least 90 deaths, including suspects, civilians, and four police officers. Clashes involved gunfire, burning vehicles, barricades, and the gang's use of drone-dropped explosives. The goal was to limit the gang's growth and break up its activities before international climate conferences, with 81 suspects arrested. Fires and disorder spread through the city, creating a smoky skyline, and the governor stated that Rio was effectively at war.

Evaluations show extensive damage to infrastructure, continued interruptions to normal activities, and possible risks to regional safety, including for U.S. citizens due to the gang's advanced weapons. Aid and recovery work is in progress, but the situation is ongoing with no quick resolution, highlighting larger issues in fighting organized crime in Brazil's cities.

Economics & Markets:

Yesterday’s U.S. stock market:

Yesterday’s commodity market:

Yesterday’s crypto market:

Geopolitics & Military Activity:

On October 28, 2025, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced the lifting of all remaining restrictions on communities near the Gaza border, ending a two-year emergency status that had been in place since October 2023. This means residents in southern Israel can now resume normal activities without limitations on movement, gatherings, schools, or workplaces, based on a security assessment that deemed the immediate threats reduced.

Later that day, Israel conducted multiple airstrikes in Gaza following accusations of violations by Hamas, including the return of misidentified remains—which Israel claims were staged or manipulated—and reports of Hamas firing on IDF troops near Rafah.

For the region, this signals potential fragility in ceasefires, heightened risks of broader conflict involving multiple fronts, worsened humanitarian conditions with aid disruptions and civilian casualties, and challenges to diplomatic stability in the Middle East, though the exact long-term outcomes depend on further responses and negotiations.

Environment & Weather:

On October 28, 2025, Hurricane Melissa made landfall near New Hope in southwestern Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph. The storm led to flooding, landslides, and structural damage across the area. By evening, it had weakened to a Category 3 as it moved toward Cuba, but still produced strong winds, storm surges up to 13 feet, and rainfall amounts of 20 to 30 inches in some locations. These conditions caused flash floods, fallen trees, and blocked roads. More than 530,000 customers, accounting for about 77% of Jamaica Public Service Company's accounts, lost power.

The storm's effects have placed around 15,000 people in shelters and left approximately 25,000 tourists unable to leave. Damage assessments are in progress but slowed by impassable roads and persistent winds. Relief efforts, supported by international aid organizations and satellite internet providers, are being organized. Recovery is expected to require significant time, given the storm's intensity and its slow movement over the island.

Science & Technology:

On October 28, 2025, 1X Technologies announced the launch of NEO, described as the world's first consumer-ready humanoid robot designed for home use. The robot is intended to assist with household tasks such as cleaning, organizing, and personal support, featuring tendon-driven motors for natural movement, soft materials for safe interaction, and advanced AI capabilities. Pre-orders are now available through the company's website, with initial deployments planned for a limited number of homes by late 2025 or early 2026. This follows 1X's previous developments in robotics, backed by investors including OpenAI, and marks a significant step in making humanoid robots accessible to everyday consumers.

NEO's design emphasizes human-like versatility, allowing it to navigate home environments, handle objects delicately, and respond to voice commands, though early units may involve partial remote human control for complex tasks to ensure reliability. As adoption grows, such robots could transform daily life by automating chores and providing companionship, potentially expanding to broader applications in elder care or hospitality.

Statistic:

Largest public companies on Earth by market capitalization:

🇺🇸 NVIDIA: $4.894T
🇺🇸 Microsoft: $4.029T
🇺🇸 Apple: $3.992T
🇺🇸 Alphabet (Google): $3.242T
🇺🇸 Amazon: $2.444T
🇺🇸 Meta Platforms: $1.887T
🇺🇸 Broadcom: $1.761T
🇸🇦 Saudi Aramco: $1.669T
🇹🇼 TSMC: $1.563T
🇺🇸 Tesla: $1.531T
🇺🇸 Berkshire Hathaway: $1.038T
🇺🇸 JPMorgan Chase: $831.25B
🇺🇸 Walmart: $822.55B
🇺🇸 Oracle: $800.58B
🇨🇳 Tencent: $759.44B
🇺🇸 Eli Lilly: $735.18B
🇺🇸 Visa: $673.31B
🇺🇸 Mastercard: $511.60B
🇺🇸 Exxon Mobil: $490.40B
🇺🇸 Netflix: $467.16B
🇰🇷 Samsung: $452.96B
🇺🇸 Johnson & Johnson: $450.36B
🇺🇸 Palantir: $449.79B
🇺🇸 AMD: $421.40B
🇨🇳 Alibaba: $409.81B

History:

Palantir Technologies was founded in 2003 by Peter Thiel, Alex Karp, Stephen Cohen, Joe Lonsdale, and Nathan Gettings, born from an idea to apply PayPal’s anti-fraud data analysis methods to counterterrorism and intelligence operations after 9/11. Early in its life, Palantir struggled to attract traditional Silicon Valley investors, since its software targeted the opaque world of government intelligence rather than mass-market applications. That changed when In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm, invested an estimated $2-5 million around 2005. This early partnership gave Palantir both credibility and access to the U.S. intelligence community. To this day, the exact extent of the CIA’s ownership or influence in Palantir remains undisclosed, fueling speculation about how deep the relationship goes. During its formative years, Palantir developed Gotham, a platform designed for intelligence analysts to merge and analyze fragmented datasets—ranging from surveillance logs and human intelligence to financial transactions—through a unified, intuitive interface. By the late 2000s, Gotham began to see real-world adoption across the U.S. military and intelligence agencies, where it was praised for its ability to uncover patterns and connections that traditional systems missed.
After establishing itself as a critical supplier to defense and intelligence organizations, Palantir began pivoting toward the private sector in the early 2010s. Its commercial platform, Foundry, was launched to bring the same principles of data integration and analysis to corporations, allowing companies to organize, visualize, and act upon their data in a single, operational environment. Despite its expansion, the company’s government contracts through Gotham have remained a primary source of income, ensuring its continued presence in defense and intelligence networks. Palantir went public in 2020, revealing a business deeply intertwined with national security but increasingly diversified into corporate markets. Today, the company’s suite of products—Gotham for government, Foundry for enterprise, and newer tools like Apollo and AIP—reflects its evolution into a global data analytics powerhouse. Yet its DNA remains rooted in the intelligence world, operating at the intersection of secrecy and strategy, where data is both weapon and currency.

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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.

Earth is complicated, we make it simple.