Top 5 US news stories
November 17 2025
AI Infrastructure Boom Creates New Trillion-Dollar Target for Private Equity
L.A. Policy Fast-Tracking Affordable Housing Sparks Building Boom, Offers Model for Cities
Immigration Raid at Popular Ohio Taco Shop Divides Small Red-State Community
New International Student Enrollment at US Colleges Plummets 17%
As Trump Asserts 'American Dominance' in Latin America, President Says He May Hold Talks with Venezuela
The stakes of the U.S.–China AI race
Power, politics, and the new great divergence
Greg Loving
AI Infrastructure Boom Creates New Trillion-Dollar Target for Private Equity
Not long ago, Blue Owl Capital was an upstart investment firm that lent money to midsize U.S. companies such as Sara Lee Frozen Bakery. These days, the firm is financing massive data centers costing tens of billions of dollars for the likes of Meta and Oracle—a sign of just how quickly Wall Street has become the enabler of America’s artificial-intelligence boom. Fund managers such as Blue Owl amassed trillions of dollars of investing firepower and have been hunting for big deals where they can put that money to work. They found slim pickings for years until a perfect match appeared in AI, which has provided a bigger target than anything in history due to the vast sums tech companies need to ramp up computing power. “We’re talking about numbers that are so large, even in the low cases,” said Blue Owl co-founder Marc Lipschultz. “Does it even matter if you keep counting after you get to $1 trillion of capital expenditure in the next couple of years?” Silicon Valley’s biggest players are flush with cash and were able to fund much of the initial AI build-out from their own coffers. As the dollar figures climb ever higher, they are turning to debt and private equity—spreading the risks and potential rewards more broadly across the economy. Some of the financing is coming from plain-vanilla corporate bond sales, but financiers are making far bigger fees off giant private deals. Virtually every Wall Street player is angling to get a piece of the action, from banks such as JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley to traditional asset managers such as BlackRock.
WSJ
L.A. Policy Fast-Tracking Affordable Housing Sparks Building Boom, Offers Model for Cities
Developers say building all-affordable housing complexes rarely makes financial sense. Now in Los Angeles, it is the hottest game in town. Apartment developers across the city are lining up to submit proposals for 100%-affordable apartment buildings. The rush is thanks to a policy that promises to streamline the approval process by cutting the previous wait time from about a year to 60 days. Since the city implemented the policy in December 2022, plans for about 42,300 units of affordable housing have been submitted to the city under what is known as Executive Directive 1, or ED1, according to the mayor’s office. While some developers say they are still encountering issues, about 31,700—or 75% of those units—have received approval so far. That is more than double the total affordable-housing units getting the green light during the three years before ED1, according to city planning data. The new process cuts out public-hearing periods and City Council votes on housing projects in which on balance all the units are for tenants who make no more than 80% of the city’s median income. The policy is even attracting developers who specialize in market-rate apartments and have never built affordable housing before. “Efforts like ED1 show that there’s plenty of appetite to build nonluxury apartments by market-rate developers,” said Jason Ward, co-director of the RAND Center on Housing and Homelessness. “You just have to create the circumstances to do that.” More places across the U.S. are experimenting with similar policies to cut red tape for affordable housing in an effort to ease their yawning housing shortages. Gov. Gavin Newsom this year rolled back California’s signature environmental-review law that often drags out housing development. Most recently, New York City voters passed several ballot measures to expedite the approval process for affordable projects.
WSJ
Immigration Raid at Popular Ohio Taco Shop Divides Small Red-State Community
MOUNT VERNON, Ohio—At noon on Oct. 9, Panchos Tacos posted to Facebook: “Stop in today and try our fall drink menu!!” A colorful photo showed a caramel apple martini. Eight minutes later came a second post: “Sorry, WE ARE CLOSED.” Federal immigration agents had descended on Panchos, a family-owned institution that sponsored girls’ softball teams, hosted Rotary Club meetings, and drew locals for “Ladies Night” and Ohio State football watch parties. In the parking lot, authorities arrested at least five allegedly undocumented workers as they arrived for their shifts. The agents drove unmarked cars and drew guns, witnesses said. Witness and social-media accounts described the detained workers being roughed up. A bystander tried to intervene. One of those arrested resisted, causing two agents to suffer lacerations and bruises, according to Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. Three of those arrested, she said, “had been removed previously and chose to illegally re-enter the U.S.—a felony.” The incident, beside a bowling alley and near Mount Vernon High School’s football stadium, took less than half an hour. Its impact continues to reverberate through this quiet corner of deep-red Trump country. Rumors swirl through coffee shops, churches and social media. The raid has sparked heated public meetings and rallies that drew crowds to the town square. Divisions have sharpened—in ways that don’t fit neatly into partisan boxes.
WSJ
New International Student Enrollment at US Colleges Plummets 17%
The number of international college students enrolling in their American schools for the first time decreased by 17 percent this fall, according to data published on Monday. The Trump administration has explicitly sought to curb the enrollment of college students from abroad, and its broader quest to remake the American higher education system has unnerved prospective pupils and led universities to limit graduate school admissions. In a report on Monday, the Institute of International Education said that the overall number of international students on American campuses — including students who started in prior years — was nearly steady, declining about 1 percent from the last academic year. Although information about international students can be murky and caveat-laden, the slight change roughly aligns with separate Department of Homeland Security data about students on visas. But the downturn in new enrollments suggests that the United States could see steeper decreases in the coming years, as current students finish their studies or leave their campuses for other reasons.
NYT
As Trump Asserts 'American Dominance' in Latin America, President Says He May Hold Talks with Venezuela
A. President Trump opened the year with pledges to seize the Panama Canal, take control of Greenland and rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. He is ending it by bombing boats from South America, stationing the world’s largest aircraft carrier in the Caribbean and exploring military options against Venezuela’s autocratic leader. In a sharp shift of decades of U.S. foreign policy, the Western Hemisphere has become the United States’ central theater abroad. In addition to military threats and action, the White House this year has carried out punishing tariffs, severe sanctions, pressure campaigns and economic bailouts across the Americas. Mr. Trump has said he is seeking to stop drugs and migrants from entering the United States. But, in other moments, top administration officials have been explicit that their overarching goal is to assert American dominance over its half of the planet.
B. WASHINGTON—President Trump said his administration may hold talks with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as the U.S. military buildup near the South American country grows. “We may be having some discussions with Maduro and we’ll see how that turns out,” Trump told reporters Sunday evening. “They would like to talk.”
NYT, WSJ
November 17 2003: “The Terminator” becomes Republican “Governator” of California
On November 17, 2003, the actor and former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger is sworn in as the 38th governor of California at the State Capitol in Sacramento. Schwarzenegger, who became a major Hollywood star in the 1980s with such action movies as Conan the Barbarian and The Terminator, defeated Democrat Governor Gray Davis in a special recall election on October 7, 2003. Prior to Schwarzenegger, another famous actor, Ronald Reagan, served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975 before going on to become the nation’s 40th president in 1980.
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Sources
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/wall-street-ai-spending-bubble-810d270e?mod=hp_lead_pos7
https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/los-angeles-california-affordable-housing-7203324b?mod=hp_lead_pos4
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/us/international-students-enrollment-decrease.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/17/world/americas/trump-latin-america-monroe-doctrine.html
