Latest news with #US-first
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Russia and North Korea Freak Out Over Trump's ‘Golden Dome'
Russia and North Korea have both criticized President Donald Trump's plan to build a 'Golden Dome' missile defense shield, calling it a threat to global peace and security. The North Korean foreign ministry said the U.S. was operating at 'the height of self-righteousness [and] arrogance' with a plan which is 'a typical product of 'America first'' and could trigger 'an outer space nuclear war scenario.' The Russian foreign ministry also went on the attack, with spokesperson Maria Zakharova warning the missile shield would undermine 'strategic stability.' The statements, following similar criticism from China, came as Russian President Vladimir Putin—increasingly reliant on his North Korean ally Kim Jong Un for missiles and soldiers—resists Trump's calls to end the conflict in Ukraine and instead steps up attacks on civilian targets. Modeled on Israel's Iron Dome, Trump's Golden Dome project was unveiled on May 20 and, according to the administration, is expected to cost $175 billion and take only three years to complete. The Golden Dome system is designed to act as a shield for the U.S. by harnessing satellites around the world to identify and knock out incoming intercontinental missiles before they make landfall. The Associated Press said it was aimed at stopping missiles from countries such as China, Iran, Russia, and Kim Jong Un's North Korea. The ambitious project has also triggered fears in China. Last week, Beijing called for Washington to ditch the project, saying it was 'seriously concerned' about the plan, which has 'strong offensive implications.' 'The United States, in pursuing a 'US-first' policy, is obsessed with seeking absolute security for itself. This violates the principle that the security of all countries should not be compromised and undermines global strategic balance and stability,' China's foreign ministry said. Trump has admitted that nobody has asked him to build the anti-missile defense system, but is ready to plow ahead anyway, with Elon Musk emerging as the frontrunner to help make the project a reality.
Metro
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Metro
North Korea says Trump's 'Golden Dome' is the height of self-righteousness'
North Korea has said Donald Trump's new dystopian 'Golden Dome' could turn outer space into a 'nuclear war field'. Last week, the US president announced his new defensive measures for America – a $175 billion 'Golden Dome'. Despite looking like something out of a Simpsons episode, Trump said the Golden Dome will have ground and space-based capabilities that are able to detect and stop missiles at all four major stages of a potential attack. The project announcement hasn't gone down so well with US adversaries. North Korea's foreign ministry slammed the plan, calling it 'the height of self-righteousness and arrogance'. They went on to accuse the US of being 'hell-bent on militarising outer space'. North Korea has been attempting to build up its nuclear arsenal for decades, in violation of international bans. Recently, Kim warned that North Korea was ready to use nuclear weapons 'anytime and anywhere' as he unveiled smaller tactical warheads. The country has routinely launched nuclear-capable missiles in tests, which have left other Pacific nations worried for their safety. North Korea's scathing remarks followed condemnation from China's foreign ministry, which said: 'The United States, in pursuing a 'US-first' policy, is obsessed with seeking absolute security for itself. 'This violates the principle that the security of all countries should not be compromised and undermines global strategic balance and stability.' But Trump has claimed the new 'Golden Dome', which would operate like a much larger 'Iron Dome', as seen in Israel, is necessary for American defence. But Trump's will be much larger – and likely include many more surveillance satellites. There will also be a fleet of satellites that will shoot down offensive missiles soon after lift-off. If the Golden Dome is to work in the same way that the Iron Dome does, it would likely be made of It is made up of dozens of batteries, carrying multiple movable missile launchers. More Trending The system would identify incoming missiles within a certain radius, before putting a path to the rocket into its command-and-control centre. Once they receive this information, the control centre calculates the location of the rocket's impact and whether it is going to strike areas inhabited by people. The race to build hypersonic missiles accelerated in the last decade, which seems to be a major factor in Trump's announcement. He hopes it will be up and running before the end of his second term. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Putin threats to 'throttle' US firms like Microsoft and Zoom in words war with Trump MORE: Donald Trump will soon learn the EU is no pushover MORE: Kremlin says Trump's 'absolutely crazy' jab at Putin was 'emotional overload'
Daily Mirror
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
North Korea warns US Golden Dome missile shield risks 'space nuclear war'
North Korea has criticised the US' plan for a futuristic 'Golden Dome' missile shield, saying it could 'turn outer space into a potential nuclear war field' North Korea has issued a sharp attack on Donald Trump's proposed "Golden Dome" missile defence system, warning it could transform space into a battleground for nuclear war. The cutting-edge defence shield - intended to protect the US from 'next-generation' threats such as hypersonic, ballistic, and cruise missiles - was unveiled last week. Though still in development, the Golden Dome is designed as a network of radar, interceptors, and space-based weapons that will neutralise airborne and spaceborne attacks with unprecedented speed and precision. But North Korea sees it as a provocation. Pyongyang's foreign ministry, as reported by state media, called the plan 'the height of self-righteousness [and] arrogance,' accusing Washington of being 'hell-bent... to militarise outer space.' They warned the plan could 'turn outer space into a potential nuclear war field' and ignite 'a global nuclear and space arms race.' The attack marks a striking contrast to the brief diplomatic thaw between Pyongyang and Washington during Trump's first presidency. In 2018, the US leader became the first sitting president to meet a North Korean leader when he held a historic summit with Kim Jong-un in Singapore. The unprecedented encounter led to a flurry of personal correspondence between the two leaders, with Trump famously describing Kim's letters as 'love letters' and calling their relationship a 'very good one.' But despite the high-profile diplomacy, denuclearisation talks collapsed in 2019, and tensions have steadily returned. North Korea has since doubled down on weapons development and declared itself a nuclear weapons state under a 2022 law. Earlier this year, it claimed to have test-fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile equipped with a hypersonic warhead capable of reaching US military targets in the Pacific. Analysts say Pyongyang likely views the Golden Dome as a strategic threat. 'If the US completes its new missile defence programme, the North will be forced to develop alternative means to counter or penetrate it,' said Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification. He noted that the system could 'significantly weaken' North Korea's nuclear deterrent. North Korea isn't alone in its objections. China has also condemned the Golden Dome project. Beijing last week said it was 'seriously concerned' about the US plan, describing it as having 'strong offensive implications.' China's foreign ministry accused Washington of pursuing a ''US-first' policy' and said the effort 'violates the principle that the security of all countries should not be compromised and undermines global strategic balance and stability.' While US defence officials argue that an upgraded missile shield is essential in the face of new threats, critics warn that the Golden Dome could spark further instability. The project's scale and ambition have raised questions not just about geopolitical fallout, but also about cost and feasibility. An initial £18.5 billion has been earmarked for the programme in a new defence budget bill. However, government estimates suggest the full cost could soar to £375 billion over several decades, potentially straining the Pentagon's budget and drawing political resistance at home.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's foreign policy is not so unusual for the US – he just drops the facade of moral leadership
JD Vance is an Iraq war veteran and the US vice-president. On Friday, he declared the doctrine that underpinned Washington's approach to international relations for a generation is now dead. 'We had a long experiment in our foreign policy that traded national defence and the maintenance of our alliances for nation building and meddling in foreign countries' affairs, even when those foreign countries had very little to do with core American interests,' Vance told Naval Academy graduates in Annapolis, Maryland. His boss Donald Trump's recent trip to the Middle East signified an end to all that, Vance said: 'What we're seeing from President Trump is a generational shift in policy with profound implications for the job that each and every one of you will be asked to do.' US foreign policy has previously zigged and zagged from isolation to imperialism. Woodrow Wilson entered the first world war with the the goal of 'making the world safe for democracy'. Washington retreated from the world again during the 1920s and 1930s only to fight the second world war and emerge as a military and economic superpower. Related: Trump's West Point graduation address veers from US-first doctrine to politics Foreign policy during the cold war centered on countering the Soviet Union through alliances, military interventions and proxy wars. The 11 September 2001 attacks shifted focus to counterterrorism, leading to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq under George W Bush with justifications that included spreading democracy. Barack Obama emphasized diplomacy and reducing troop commitments, though drone strikes and counterterrorism operations persisted. Trump's first term pushed economic nationalism, pressuring allies to pay their way. Joe Biden restored multilateralism, focusing on climate, alliances and countering China's influence. As in many other political arenas, Trump's second term is bolder and louder on the world stage. Trump and Vance have sought to portray the 'America first' policy as a clean break from the recent past. Human rights, democracy, foreign aid and military intervention are out. Economic deals, regional stability and pragmatic self-interest are in. But former government officials interviewed by the Guardian paint a more nuanced picture, suggesting that Trump's quid pro quo approach has more in common with his predecessors than it first appears. Where he does differ, they argue, is in his shameless abandonment of moral leadership and use of the US presidency for personal gain. On a recent four-day swing through Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, Trump was feted by autocratic rulers with a trio of lavish state visits where there was heavy emphasis on economic and security partnerships. Saudi Arabia pledged $600bn in investments in the US across industries such as energy, defence, technology and infrastructure, although how much of that will actually be new investment – or come to fruition – remains to be seen. A $142bn defence cooperation agreement was described by the White House as the biggest in US history. Qatar and the US inked agreements worth $1.2tn, including a $96bn purchase of Boeing jets. The UAE secured more than $200bn in commercial agreements and a deal to establish the biggest artificial intelligence campus outside the US. Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of the Atlantic magazine, said Trump had shown 'the outlines of America's newest foreign policy doctrine: extreme transactionalism'. He had prioritized quick deals over long-term stability, ideological principles or established alliances. But, Goldberg noted, the president had also advanced the cause of his family's businesses. The president said he will accept a $400m luxury plane from Qatar and use it as Air Force One. Abu Dhabi is using a Trump family-aligned stablecoin for a $2bn investment in the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. And the Trump Organization, run by the president's two oldest sons, is developing major property projects including a high-rise tower in Jeddah, a luxury hotel in Dubai, and a golf course and villa complex in Qatar. Analysts say no US president has received overseas gifts on such a scale. Aaron David Miller, who served for two decades as a state department analyst, negotiator and adviser on Middle East issues for both Democratic and Republican administrations, said: 'He gives transactionalism a bad name. The concept of an American national interest that transcends party politics and partisanship has gone the way of the dodo Former state department analyst Aaron David Miller 'The level of self-dealing in this administration means the notion that the national interest is now seamlessly blended with Donald Trump's personal interests and financial interests. The concept of an American national interest that transcends party politics and partisanship has gone the way of the dodo.' Ned Price, a former US state department spokesperson during the Biden administration, said: 'I actually think calling this 'transactional' is far too charitable, because so much of this is predicated not on the national interest but on the president's own personal interest, including his economic interests and the economic interests of his family and those around him.' Presidential trips to the Middle East usually feature at least some public calls for authoritarian governments to improve their human rights efforts. But not from Trump as he toured the marble and gilded palaces of Gulf rulers and deemed them 'perfecto' and 'very hard to buy' while barely mentioning the war in Gaza. In his remarks at a VIP business conference in Riyadh, the president went out of his way to distance himself from the actions of past administrations, the days when he said US officials would fly in 'in beautiful planes, giving you lectures on how to live and how to govern your own affairs'. Trump said: 'The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called nation-builders, neocons or liberal non-profits like those who spent trillions and trillions of dollars failing to develop Kabul, Baghdad, so many other cities. Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought by the people of the region themselves, the people that are right here.' But Price challenges the notion that Trump's aversion to interventionism represents revolution rather than evolution. 'It is fair to say that presidents have successively been moving in that direction,' he said. 'The sort of military adventurism that characterised the George W Bush presidency is not something that President Obama had an appetite for. It's not something that President Biden had an appetite for. President Obama's version of 'Don't do stupid shit' has echoes of what President Trump said. Of course, as he often does, President Trump took it one step further.' Price added: 'Most people who worked under President Biden or President Obama would tell you it doesn't have to be either/or: you don't have to be a nation builder or an isolationist. You can engage on the basis of interest and values at the same time and it's about calibrating the mix rather than declaring the age of nation building is entirely over and from now on we're not going to lecture, we're just going to come in and be feted with your goods.' In his address in Riyadh, Trump made no reference to the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul which, the CIA found, had been sanctioned by the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. The president's willingness to turn a blind eye to human rights violations was condemned by Democrats. Ro Khanna, who serves on the House of Representatives' armed services committee, said: 'I was opposed to the Iraq war and I'm opposed to this idea that we can just go in and build nations. But I'm not opposed to the idea of human rights and international law. 'To see an American president basically embrace cultural relativism was a rejection of any notion that American values about freedom and rule of law are not just our cultural constructs but are universal values.' Khanna added: 'The past century of development in global governance structures has pointed us towards human rights and dignity. He wants to go back to a a world where we just have nation-states and that was the world that had wars and colonialism and conflict.' Trump is hardly the first president to court oil-rich nations in the Middle East and tread lightly on human rights issues. Nor is he the first to be accused of putting interests before values. The public was deceived to justify wars in Vietnam and Iraq. Democratically elected leaders have been ousted and brutal dictators propped up when it suited US policy goals. John Bolton, a former national security adviser to Trump, said: 'Different presidencies say they have different priorities but I would be willing to go down the list and all of their record is mixed and somewhat hypocritical in terms of exactly what they do on the values side of things. Just take Biden as the most recent example. He started off by calling Saudi Arabia a pariah but by the end of it he was going to visit the crown prince as well.' In that sense, Trump's lack of pretension to an ethical foreign policy might strike some as refreshingly honest. His supporters have long praised him for 'telling it like it is' and refusing to indulge the moral platitudes of career politicians. Miller, the former state department official who is now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace thinktank in Washington, said: 'He's made explicit what is implicit in Republican and Democratic administrations. I'm not saying presidents don't care about values; Joe Biden cared a lot about American values. But the reality is, when it comes time to make choices, where or what do we choose?' Miller added: 'No administration I ever worked for made human rights or the promotion of democracy the centerpiece of our foreign policy. There are any number of reasons for that. But Donald Trump, it seems to me, is not even pretending there are values. He's emptied the ethical and moral frame of American foreign policy.' Trump's lifelong aversion to war is seen by many as a positive, including by some on the left. But it comes with an apparent desire to achieve significant and flashy diplomatic breakthroughs that might win him the Nobel peace prize. The president also displays an obvious comfort and preference for dealing with strongmen who flatter him, often siding with Russia's Vladimir Putin against Ukraine. Miller commented: 'Trump has no clear conception of the national interest. It's subordinated to his grievances, his pet projects – tariffs – his political interests, his vanity, his financial interests. I worked for half a dozen secretaries of state of both political parties. That he is so far out of the norm with respect to foreign policy frankly is less of a concern to me than what's happening here at home.'
Straits Times
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
China 'seriously concerned' over US Golden Dome defence system
US President Donald Trump said on May 20 he had selected a design for the US$175-billion project. PHOTO: REUTERS BEIJING - China is "seriously concerned" about the US Golden Dome missile defence shield project and urged Washington to abandon its development, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on May 21. US President Donald Trump said on May 20 he had selected a design for the US$175-billion project and named a Space Force general to head the ambitious program aimed at blocking threats from China and Russia. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, when asked about the project at a regular press conference, said it carries "strong offensive implications" and heightens the risks of the militarisation of outer space and an arms race. "The United States, in pursuing a 'US-first' policy, is obsessed with seeking absolute security for itself. This violates the principle that the security of all countries should not be compromised and undermines global strategic balance and stability. China is seriously concerned about this," Ms Mao said. She urged Washington to abandon the development of the system as soon as possible and take actions to enhance trust among major powers. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
