Top 5 US news stories

China's Sets 2026-2030 5-Year Plan

Since 2013, US Struggles with 2 Reactors $17B Over Budget; China Builds 13, Plans 33 More

'Donroe Doctrine': Trump Deploys Military, CIA to Treat Western Hemisphere as US’ Backyard

AI Race Fuels 100-Hour 'War'-Time Work Weeks at Top Silicon Valley Labs

Trump Administration in Talks to Take Equity Stakes in Quantum Computing Firms

…US GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN ENTERS 23rd DAY…

China's Sets 2026-2030 5-Year Plan

Beijing has pledged to make “notable progress in pursuing high-quality development” and “substantially improve” its capacity for technological self-reliance and innovation in the next five years, as the fourth plenum of the Communist Party’s Central Committee – where the country's political leadership deliberated on the next five-year plan – came to a close. China will make new breakthroughs in “further deepening reforms across the board” while continuing to improve people’s living standards, according to a Thursday communique outlining decisions from the plenum, which affirmed the government's medium- and long-term blueprints for social and economic development. It highlighted the “solid foundation, numerous strengths, strong resilience and vast potential” of China’s economy while acknowledging heightened uncertainties in the external environment. “We must have the courage to face major tests amid high winds, rough waves and even raging storms, and tackle difficulties, risks and challenges with a spirit of historical initiative – focusing on doing our own work well to write a new chapter in sustaining China’s economic growth and long-term social stability,” according to the communique, published by state news agency Xinhua. The 15th five-year plan, which will guide China’s development from 2026 to 2030, takes on increased significance as the country confronts mounting obstacles to its long-term ambitions – particularly amid fragile and volatile relations with the United States. Beijing has faced external headwinds in recent years, notably from its trade war with Washington. Domestically, it has grappled with a series of economic challenges, including sluggish demand, a property crisis, a rapidly ageing population and a reluctance among young adults to have children. The party has set a number of medium-term and long-term goals as benchmarks for the country’s economic and social progress, with a major long-range target being a per capita gross domestic product equivalent to that of a “moderately” developed country by 2035 – generally understood to mean doubling the figure recorded in 2020. Should that be achieved, it would set the stage for the “centenary goal” of becoming a fully fledged “modern socialist country” by 2049 – the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

SCMP

Since 2013, US Struggles with 2 Nuclear Reactors $17B Over Budget; China Builds 13, Plans 33 More

In 2013, construction began on the first two new U.S. nuclear reactors in a generation. Atomic energy was back. Or was it? Seven years late and $17 billion over budget, the reactors became two of the costliest ever built. Once again, nuclear power seemed hopeless, at least in the U.S. Yet over the same period, China built 13 similar reactors, with 33 more underway. And Beijing's nuclear ambitions are global. China is quickly becoming the global leader in nuclear power, with nearly as many reactors under construction as the rest of the world combined. While its dominance of solar panels and electric vehicles is well known, China is also building nuclear plants at an extraordinary pace. By 2030, China’s nuclear capacity is set to surpass that of the United States, the first country to split atoms to make electricity. Many of China’s reactors are derived from American and French designs, yet China has overcome the construction delays and cost overruns that have bogged down Western efforts to expand nuclear power. At the same time, China is pushing the envelope, making breakthroughs in next-generation nuclear technologies that have eluded the West. The country is also investing heavily in fusion, a potentially limitless source of clean power if anyone can figure out how to tame it. Beijing’s ultimate objective is to become a supplier of nuclear power to the world, joining the rare few nations — including the United States, Russia, France and South Korea — that can design and export some of the most sophisticated machines ever invented.

NYT

'Donroe Doctrine': Trump Deploys Military, CIA to Treat Western Hemisphere as US’ Backyard

Once a relic of 19th-century U.S. diplomacy, the Monroe Doctrine is back. Two centuries after President James Monroe warned foreign powers to stay out of the Americas, his namesake doctrine is surfacing on influencer TikToks and podcasts, in corporate pitch decks and White House hallways, as President Trump recasts it as a blueprint for U.S. dominance in the region. Since returning to the Oval Office in January vowing to “take back” the Panama Canal and make Canada the 51st state, Trump has applied extraordinary pressure on countries across the region to fall in line with his security agenda. In what some Trump officials have dubbed the “Donroe Doctrine,” a centuries-old warning has become a battle plan. The president has deployed sweeping counterterrorism authorities against Latin American cartels and criminal gangs, launched airstrikes against alleged drug boats that have killed dozens, approved covert CIA operations and mounted the largest military buildup the region has seen in decades. Where Monroe sought to keep European powers out of the region, Trump has turned the doctrine inward—treating the hemisphere as an extension of the U.S. homeland, where Washington will act unilaterally to root out perceived enemies.

WSJ

AI Race Fuels 100-Hour 'War'-Time Work Weeks at Top Silicon Valley Labs

Inside Silicon Valley’s biggest AI labs, top researchers and executives are regularly working 80 to 100 hours a week. Several top researchers compared the circumstances to war. “We’re basically trying to speedrun 20 years of scientific progress in two years,” said Batson, a research scientist at Anthropic. Extraordinary advances in AI systems are happening “every few months,” he said. “It’s the most interesting scientific question in the world right now.” Executives and researchers at Microsoft, Anthropic, Alphabet’s Google, Meta Platforms, Apple and OpenAI have said they see their work as critical to a seminal moment in history as they duel with rivals and seek new ways to bring AI to the masses. Some of them are now millionaires many times over, but several said they haven’t had time to spend their new fortunes.

WSJ

Trump Administration in Talks to Take Equity Stakes in Quantum Computing Firms

WASHINGTON—Several quantum-computing companies are in talks to give the Commerce Department equity stakes in exchange for federal funding, a signal that the Trump administration is expanding its interventions in what it sees as critical segments of the economy. Companies including IonQ, Rigetti Computing and D-Wave Quantum are discussing the government becoming a shareholder as part of agreements to get funding earmarked for promising technology companies, according to people familiar with the matter. Other companies such as Quantum Computing Inc. and Atom Computing are considering similar arrangements. The companies are discussing minimum funding awards from Washington of $10 million each, some of the people said. Other technology companies are also expected to vie for the funding.

WSJ

October 23 1983: Beirut barracks blown up

A suicide bomber drives a truck packed with explosives into the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. military personnel. That same morning, 58 French soldiers were killed in their barracks two miles away in a separate suicide terrorist attack. The U.S. Marines were part of a multinational force sent to Lebanon in August 1982 to oversee the Palestinian withdrawal from Lebanon. From its inception, the mission was plagued with problems–and a mounting body count.

The 1983 Beirut barracks bombing marked a turning point in U.S. involvement in the Middle East and foreshadowed decades of conflict shaped by the rise of Islamist terrorism. The attack, carried out by a suicide bomber targeting U.S. Marines on a peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, was one of the earliest large-scale assaults on American forces by militants inspired by radical Islamist ideology. It demonstrated the vulnerability of U.S. interests in the region and previewed the tactics—suicide bombings, asymmetric warfare, and religiously motivated extremism—that would later define confrontations with groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS. In many ways, Beirut was the beginning of a through line that connects the U.S. intervention in Lebanon to later involvements in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, as Washington grappled with how to respond to nonstate actors using terrorism to challenge American power and Western influence in the Muslim world.

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Sources

1. https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3330062/china-pledges-notable-progress-fourth-plenum-concludes-5-year-road-map?share=nFmv7Iq%2FiYtZH5jyHhw4yvkp2uxvkMHTRU2wlAEjTPheqCmtE%2FbMUP7z%2BJ5OwLupEk0X949s4WxGkr554%2FGGXfDKuDryBCS0AM7%2BnsikJHw%3D&utm_campaign=social_share
2. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/10/22/climate/china-us-nuclear-energy-race.html?unlocked_article_code=1.vk8.kvGt.dfC1E4t5GIU1&smid=url-share
3. https://www.wsj.com/world/americas/trumps-donroe-doctrine-aims-to-dominate-the-americas-b31208dd?mod=hp_lead_pos8
4. https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/ai-race-tech-workers-schedule-1ea9a116?mod=hp_lead_pos1
5. https://www.wsj.com/business/entrepreneurship/trump-administration-in-talks-to-take-equity-stakes-in-quantum-computing-firms-60ee5143?mod=hp_lead_pos6