The draft proposals for China’s 15th Five-Year Plan were approved during the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in October 2025. The final plan is expected to be adopted by the National People’s Congress (NPC) in March 2026.
China’s Five-Year Plans have been key strengths of China’s medium- to long-term economic and social development framework since the 1950s. Specifically, it has demonstrated strategic foresight, coordinated planning, and consistent implementation. The key strengths of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan are its focus on high-quality development, particularly by achieving stringent climate targets such as peaking carbon emissions before 2030, while relying on strict monitoring mechanisms and advanced technologies. The plan also promotes innovation and digital transformation, focuses on integrated economic and military development, and leverages investment in research and development.
The strengths of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, compared to previous five-year plans, are:
1) Focus on quality development:
Compared to previous plans that focused on quantitative growth, the 15th Five-Year Plan focuses on quality, innovation, and sustainability rather than simply increasing productivity.
2) Integrated economic and military development:
The new plan systematically integrates scientific and technological innovations across the military and civilian sectors, enhancing national capabilities in a comprehensive manner.
3) Shifting towards a green economy:
The plan features new mechanisms for monitoring and managing carbon emissions, representing a significant shift from previous plans that were less focused on environmental issues.
4) Investment in Research and Development:
The plan continues to boost investment in research, development, and innovation, a core strength that has enabled China to achieve significant technological advancements.
5) Balanced Development:
The plan seeks to achieve balanced development by supporting resource-rich regions, helping to reduce development gaps between different regions.
6) Investment Opportunities:
The plan opens new horizons for investors in areas such as carbon trading, offsets, and carbon asset management services, boosting national economic development.
Based on our understanding of the previous analysis, China’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) includes goals for economic and social development, focusing on technological self-reliance, high-quality development, and a real economy. The plan aims to be a crucial link towards achieving socialist modernization by 2035.
Commercial flights between the countries to restart as diplomatic thaw eases tensions over border clashes.
Published On 18 Oct 202518 Oct 2025
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State-backed China Eastern Airlines will resume Shanghai-Delhi flights from November 9, the airline’s website shows, as China and India resume direct air links amid a diplomatic thaw, largely triggered by aggressive United States trade policies, after a five-year freeze.
The flights will operate three times a week on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, the airline’s online ticket sales platform showed on Saturday.
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China Eastern Airlines did not immediately respond to the Reuters news agency’s emailed request for comment.
India’s foreign ministry said earlier this month that commercial flights between the two neighbouring countries would restart after a five-year freeze.
The announcement followed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to China in more than seven years, for a summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation regional security bloc. The two sides discussed ways to improve trade ties, while Modi raised concerns about India’s burgeoning bilateral trade deficit.
India and China’s foreign ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Shanghai-Delhi flights.
India’s largest carrier, IndiGo, previously announced it would start daily nonstop flights between Kolkata and Guangzhou.
State-backed Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport said at the time of the IndiGo announcement that it would encourage airlines to open more direct routes, such as between Guangzhou and Delhi.
Direct flights between the two countries were suspended during the COVID pandemic in 2020 and did not resume after deadly clashes along their Himalayan border led to a prolonged military stand-off later that year.
Four Chinese soldiers and 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the worst violence between the neighbours in decades.
India and China’s diplomatic thaw comes amid US President Donald Trump’s increasingly belligerent trade polices.
The US president raised the tariff rate on Indian imports to a stiff 50 percent in September, citing the nation’s continuing purchases of Russian oil.
He also urged the European Union to impose 100 percent tariffs on China and India, ostensibly as part of his efforts to pressure Moscow to end its war in Ukraine.
A PENSIONER is having to sell her home to cover a £113,000 legal bill after losing a five-year dispute over a 1ft strip of land.
Jenny Field, 76, was told to pay £14,000 after her initial court defeat to Pauline Clark, 64, but her repeated challenges saw the total rocket.
A judge has now told her she must pay the resultant £113,126 in three months or flog her £600,000 bungalow in Hamworthy, Dorset, so the cash can be recouped.
The divorcee told a court: “I am selling it because I have to and I’m fed up with living here but I will offer to pay her £1 per week.”
Their feud began in 2020 after Mrs Clark replaced a fence between the properties.
Ms Field claimed it had encroached on her garden and had it demolished, but Mrs Clark sued for damages and won the first case in 2022.
Several appeals followed and Ms Field was accused of wasting time by bombarding the court with papers.
A bid by her to sue for £500,000 in damages was also dismissed as “totally without merit”.
District Judge Ross Fentem said Mrs Clark had been kept from money owed to her for a long time and told Bournemouth county court the order for sale was “a last resort and draconian remedy”.
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Jenny Field is having to sell her home to cover a £113,000 legal bill after losing a five-year dispute over a 1ft strip of landCredit: BNPS
Sesko, 22, was also a target for Newcastle United but has chosen to join Ruben Amorim’s side.
“The history of Manchester United is obviously very special but what really excites me is the future,” said Sesko.
“When we discussed the project, it was clear that everything is in place for this team to continue to grow and compete for the biggest trophies again soon.
“From the moment that I arrived, I could feel the positive energy and family environment that the club has created. It is clearly the perfect place to reach my maximum level and fulfil all of my ambitions.
“I cannot wait to start learning from Ruben and connecting with my team-mates to achieve the success that we all know we are capable of together.”
“I want to be in my Sasha Fierce era, the top of my game with still a long way to go – but I want to reach my prime and never leave it.”
Back then, it felt like a bold claim.
The Florida-born rapper and singer had scored a couple of viral hits – most notably Persuasive, an ode to marijuana that ended up on Barack Obama’s summer playlist – but nothing that had crossed over to the mainstream charts.
But jump-cut to 2025 and Doechii is a Grammy Award-winning “woman of the year“, who’s about to play one of the most hotly-anticipated sets at Glastonbury Festival.
With her hair carefully braided to her backing dancers, she delivered a meticulously-choreographed performance of Boiled Peanuts and Denial Is a River – a cartoonish character piece, in which she confides to her therapist that her boyfriend’s been cheating on her with another man.
CBS
Doechii’s performance on late night US TV lit a rocket under her career
Others pinpoint her Tiny Desk Concert, released on YouTube two days later. The 15-minute set bursts with joie de vivre, simultaneously soulful and fiery, as the star rattles through jazzy, full-band recreations of her mixtape, Alligator Bites Never Heal.
She won even more fans at the Grammys in March, where she won best rap album, making her just the third female artist to win in the category.
In her speech, she spoke directly to young, black, queer women like her: “Don’t allow anybody to project any stereotypes on you, to tell you that you can’t be here, that you’re too dark or that you’re not smart enough or that you’re too dramatic or you’re too loud.”
She capped off her win with an ultra-physical performance that referenced Michael Jackson, Missy Elliott and Bob Fosse – and ended with her pulling the splits while being held aloft by five male dancers.
With three “star-is-born” performances in just four months, Doechii became the most talked-about new rapper of her generation… just like she planned.
So where did it all start?
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The star’s Grammy Award performance was named the best of the night by USA Today and Rolling Stone magazine
Doechii was born Jaylah Ji’mya Hickmon in Tampa, Florida and raised in a “heavily Christian” single-parent household by her mother, Celesia Moore.
A studious kid who loved writing poetry, she invented her alter-ego at the age of 11, after being viciously bullied in school.
Doechii was raised by her mother, alongside her twin sisters
As a teenager, she spent four years at Tampa’s Howard W. Blake School of the Arts, after winning a place on the choral programme by performing Etta James’ At Last.
The school unlocked her creativity, allowing her to take classes in everything from nail design and hair, to ballet, tap, cheerleading and stage production. However, it was gymnastics that left the biggest impression.
“The way that gymnasts train is really, really tough. It’s brutal and hard and difficult,” she told Gay Times.
“But at some point in my gymnastic career I learnt how to embrace and really love pain. To view pain as me getting stronger and better. That caused a deep discipline that has never left me.”
The school also helped the teenager accept her sexuality.
“Even though I was aware [that I was queer], I didn’t feel as comfortable until I started surrounding myself with more gay friends at my school.
“Once I had gay friends it was like, ‘OK, I can be myself, I’m good, I can feel safe, this is normal, I’m fine.’ I have those same friends today and will have them for life.”
That’s not all they gave her: Those same friends convinced Doechii to give up her ambitions of becoming a chorister, and start writing and releasing her own music.
Doechii
The artwork to Doechii’s debut single, Girls, highlighted her irreverent sense of humour
Initially called iamdoechii, she uploaded her first song to Soundcloud in 2016, and released her debut single Girls two years later.
It already bore the hallmarks of her best work: Rhythmically and lyrically dextrous, and chock full of personality.
“Taking nudes / None of them for you,” she chided over a mellow electric piano, before the beat switched up and her rapping became more frenetic. By the closing bars, she barely had time catch breath as she listed her accomplishments.
“Making money from my phone, huh / Doechii finally in her zone.”
The lines were more prophecy than reality. Doechii had a solid following on YouTube, but she was still working at Zara to make ends meet.
In 2019, she was booked for a showcase in New York City and hopped on a bus – without the money for her return trip.
“And then I had to call one of my mom’s friends… and, like, beg her to let me sleep at her house. And I ended up living there until I got back on my feet.”
‘Drowning in vices’
Things started to turn around with the release of 2020’s Yucky Blucky Fruitcake, named after Junie B. Jones’s children’s book, in which Doechii sketched out her own childhood.
According to the lyrics, she was precocious (“I try to act smart ’cause I want a lot of friends“), competitive (“I get a little violent when I play the game of tag“) and frequently broke (“My momma used stamps ’cause she need a little help“).
The song marked a breakthrough in her writing.
“I was lacking this sense of vulnerability and honesty in my music,” she told Billboard, until “I learned accuracy and just saying exactly what it is, like on Lucky Blucky Fruitcake”.
The song went viral, winning her a record deal with Top Dawg Entertainment – the label that launched Kendrick Lamar and SZA.
She followed it up with the effortlessly hooky Persuasive, earning praise from SZA (who jumped on a remix) and former President Barack Obama.
“I can’t imagine Obama just jamming my song,” she exclaimed. “I just don’t believe it, but if he really does – that’s crazy.”
Reuters
The singer won her first Grammy Award at this year’s ceremony
Doechii next collaborated with Kodak Black on the 2023 single What It Is (Block Boy), earning her first Top 40 hit.
Then, everything stalled.
Subsequent singles flopped, and Doechii was, as she later wrote on social media, “drowning in my own vices, battling differences with my label and a creative numbness that broke me”.
Initially, her Alligator Bites Never Heal mixtape looked set to repeat the pattern. Released last August, it entered the US charts at number 117 and vanished a week later.
But reviews were ecstatic.
Critics loved the acerbic, funny lyrics, that saw Doechii unpack the trials and tribulations of the last two years; and heaped praise on bars that recalled greats such as Q-Tip, Lauryn Hill and Slick Rick, while keeping pace with contemporaries like Kendrick Lamar.
After a period dominated by the mumbled bars of Souncloud rap, her precision was a breath of fresh air.
“One of the year’s most fully-realized breakout albums,” wrote Rolling Stone. “If this is the sound of Doechii pushing against constraints, a little friction might not be the worst thing,” added Pitchfork.
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The singer turned heads with her dramatic and theatrical outfits at Paris Fashion Week and the Met Gala (pictured) this Spring.
As word spread, she was booked to play the Colbert show and Tiny Desk. Those performances lit a rocket under her career. By April, Alligator had chomped into the US Top 10, and the UK Top 40.
Around the same time, she bowed to fan pressure by releasing her 2019 YouTube song, Anxiety, a pop-rap crossover based on a sample of Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know.
With an eye-catching video that recreated a full-on panic attack, it hit number three in the UK, and even earned Doechii a citation in medical journal Psychology Today.
“The song and accompanying video work so well in showing exactly how anxiety feels in our bodies and minds,” wrote Professor Sandra Chafouleas.
“Think about quick and short breaths, racing thoughts, and worrying about things that haven’t happened yet. Anxiety feels like ‘Anxiety’ sounds, with brilliant mirroring of how the experience can hijack us.”
Since then, Doechii’s been hard at work on her debut album. There’d been rumours she’d release it in time for her Glastonbury slot on Saturday night, but perfectionists have got to perfect. At the time of writing, she’s still in the studio.
Speaking to Dazed, she dropped a few hints of what’s in store.
“In Alligator Bites Never Heals, the archetype was a student of hip-hop. For this next project, I’m thinking about how this student develops.
“Who does she develop into? What has she learned? I’m still unpacking how that character develops into this next project.”
Despite the delay, Doechii’s headline set remains one of Glastonbury’s biggest draws.
She might only be performing for 45 minutes, but she’ll make every one of them count.
As the star boasted on her single Nosebleeds: “Will she ever lose? Man, I guess we’ll never know.“
“I want to win trophies on the biggest stages whilst being a person that’s always learning and stays grounded, which is so important.”
Lewis-Skelly was a central midfielder in Arsenal’s academy but has excelled at left-back, with licence to step into midfield, since making his Premier League debut as a substitute against Manchester City in September.
He was dribbled past only once in the Premier League, the best record of any player to have made at least 15 starts.
He also won the most duels (six) per 90 minutes and ranked third for fouls won (3.1).
