Category World News

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, claims that if Canada remains a distinct, but unequal, nation, it will have to pay $61 billion as part of his proposed Gold Dome missile defense system.

Trump claimed in a TruthSocial post that he “very much wants to be a part of our fabulous Golden Dome System” and that he would be able to access it for free if it joined the US.

Trump said, “They are considering the offer, and participating in the proposed defence system would cost Canada “ZERO DOLLARS” if they were to become our beloved 51st State.”

Trump’s appointment comes just hours after Canada’s parliament hosted King Charles III, the monarch’s lone royal prince, for a rare royal speech highlighting Canada’s sovereignty in “dangerous and uncertain” times and amid the president’s call for the nation to join the US.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney stated on CBC that he hopes Canada will join ReArm Europe by July 1 in an effort to reduce its dependence on the US for weapons following the king’s speech.

Trump’s most recent comment was not immediately addressed by Canada, but Carney has already confirmed that his nation and the US have engaged in “high-level” discussions regarding the defense system.

Financing and a uncertain timeline

Trump has stated that the Golden Dome system will cost about $175 billion and be finished by the end of his current term in 2029, despite the objections of experts from the defense sector regarding the timeline and budget.

Trump hopes to pass the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which will be up for a vote in the Senate when it passes the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives last week, to secure an initial $25 billion in funding for the system.

The bill lowers funding for social programs like Medicaid and food assistance, which helped tens of millions of low-income Americans, while increasing spending on the military and border enforcement.

The Golden Dome is modeled after Israel’s Iron Dome, which also receives significant US funding, including $500,000 annually for its upkeep.

Given that Israel, one of the smaller states in the US, is only about the size of New Jersey, it is unclear how Trump plans to expand the Iron Dome to include the entire country.

The Iron Dome’s range of 1, 000 kilometers (roughly 620 miles) would likely be a result of long-range ballistic and hypersonic missiles, which is also intended to target short-range missiles.

The “space arms race” will be led by Golden Dome.

Trump’s space program, which the US president first detailed in detail last week, has received criticism from China, North Korea, and Russia.

The plan “highly increases the risk of space becoming a battlefield, fuels an arms race, and undermines international security,” according to spokeswoman Mao Ning of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to Mao Ning, “the United States places its own interests first and is obsessed with achieving its own unwavering security.” This is against the tenet that “no country’s security should come at the expense of others.”

The US is “hell-bent on the moves to militarise space,” according to the North Korean ministry of foreign affairs.

The creation of a global missile defense system is a violation of “strategic stability,” according to Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.

Zakharova claimed that developing the Golden Dome would also lead to the development of “the means of pre-launch missile destruction and infrastructure that ensures their use,” according to Russian state news agency TASS.

Federal prosecutors in Chicago issued a one-sentence notice on May 23 to say they would not seek the death penalty for Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the feared Sinaloa Cartel leader who is currently serving a life sentence in a US prison.

The notice did not provide any additional information or justification for the federal prosecutor’s decision.

After assuming control of their father’s drug cartel when “El Chapo” was extradited to the US in 2017, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, 38, and three of his brothers, known as the “Chapitos,” or little Chapos, were indicted in 2023 on charges of drug trafficking and money laundering.

The attorney for Joaquin Guzman Lopez stated in an email to The Associated Press on Tuesday that he was pleased with the federal prosecutor’s decision because it was “the correct one.”

According to Lichtman, “Joaquin and I are looking forward to resolving the charges against him.”

One of the five drug trafficking, conspiracy, and money laundering charges against Joaquin Guzman Lopez, who allegedly carried out the alleged operation on US soil, resulted in the maximum death sentence.

On a New Mexico airport, he was detained alongside alleged Sinaloa Cartel cofounder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada in a dramatic arrest in July of 2024.

Zambada also entered a not-guilty plea. However, his attorney informed the Reuters news agency that if the prosecution decided to spare him the death penalty, he would agree to plead guilty.

Ovidio Guzman, another of the brothers, is scheduled to enter a plea deal with drug trafficking charges against him on July 9 in a court hearing in Chicago, according to court records.

In a response to Trump, who had earlier posted a message to Putin on social media saying “really bad things would have already happened in Russia” without his intervention, Dmitry Medvedev said World War III was the only “REALLY BAD thing.”

Vladimir Putin is unaware that, if it weren’t for me, there would have been a lot of terrible things going on in Russia, and I mean REALLY bad things. Trump stated in a post on his platform Truth Social that he is “playing with fire.”

Regarding Trump’s comments about Putin “playing with fire” and “really bad things happening to Russia,” Medvedev responded on the platform X. WWIII is the only thing I am aware of that is genuinely bad.

Trump should be aware of this, I hope so!

Regarding Trump’s comments about Putin “playing with fire” and “really bad things” happening in Russia. WWIII is the only thing I am aware of that is genuinely bad.
Trump should be aware of this!

Medvedev, who is a key ally of Putin and deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, is known for his sabre-rattling remarks. He was a key Russian ally between 2008 and 2012.

He has repeatedly warned that Moscow might use its nuclear arsenal throughout Russia’s conflict with Ukraine.

In a state-of-the-world address in March 2024, Putin also warned of the possibility of nuclear conflict and that Russia’s nuclear arsenal would be affected if it were to decide to send troops to Ukraine.

With the use of nuclear weapons and thus the destruction of civilization, Putin said at the time, “everything that the West comes up with creates the real threat of a conflict.”

In addition to the US president’s repeated repeated threats to launch aerial attacks on Ukraine in response to Medvedev’s public rebuke of Trump, which comes after the US president claimed in a post on Sunday that Putin had “gone absolutely crazy” despite Washington’s unsuccessful attempts to broker a peace deal.

Vladimir Putin and I’ve always had a good relationship, but something happened to him, Trump wrote on Sunday.

Trump also stated to reporters that, given the ceasefire talks’ impasse, he was considering imposing new sanctions on Russia.

As a result of the word war on social media, Russian ally Russia’s conflict with its neighbor is at an all-time low. On Tuesday, Russian forces seized four villages in the northeastern Sumy region of Ukraine, causing yet another setback on the battlefield.

Although residents had been evicted for a while, Sumy Governor Oleh Hryhorov claimed that Russia had occupied the villages of Novenke, Basivka, Veselivka, and Zhuravka.

As the more than three-year conflict rages on, Russia’s Ministry of Defense announced on Monday that it had also taken the nearby village of Bilovody, implying a further advance into Ukrainian territory.

Officials in Ukraine have been reporting for weeks that Russian troops are attempting to invade the Sumy region, whose main city is located less than 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Russia’s border.

According to a spokesman for Ukraine’s border guard service, Russian forces have been widening the area where they have been carrying out assaults on the front line while attacking in small groups on motorcycles and using aerial drones.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

After an onboard leak caused uncontrollable spinning in space, the Starship then re-enttered the atmosphere on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

The test flight lost control after going beyond previous failures, according to Reuters.

SpaceX claimed that the Starship went into “rapid unscheduled disassembly” in a social media post.

According to the company, “Success comes from what we learn, and today’s test will help us improve Starship’s reliability as SpaceX tries to make life multiplanetary.”

Musk has spent billions of dollars on the creation of Starship. The billionaire, who was born in South Africa, claims that the initiative is a part of his business space flight company’s Mars colonization strategy.

A SpaceX Starship detonated shortly after takeoff on March 6 for the most recent test launch.