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Two Israeli embassy staffers, one of them an American, were shot dead outside a Jewish museum in Washington by a gunman who shouted “free Palestine” as he was arrested.US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led global condemnation of the attack, both of them blaming anti-Semitism.”Blood libels against Israel are paid in blood — and they must be fought relentlessly,” Netanyahu said in a statement, ordering a boost in security at Israeli embassies around the world.Shots rang out on the sidewalk outside the Capital Jewish Museum, a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the White House, late Wednesday as it held an event for young professionals and diplomatic staff.Emergency vehicles remained at the scene in the early hours of Thursday after police taped off the area in the heart of the US capital.Israel identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, a US employee of the embassy, and said they were a couple who may have been planning to marry. Lischinsky was a research assistant at the Israeli embassy, while Milgrim worked for its public diplomacy department, according to their LinkedIn profiles. Lischinsky was Christian, according to The Times of Israel, for whom he had previously worked as a blogger. Germany’s foreign minister said he also held a German passport. Washington’s police chief identified the shooter as a 30-year-old from Chicago,  Elias Rodriguez, and said he was in custody. Video of his arrest by police showed the bearded man in a jacket and white shirt shouting “free, free Palestine” as he was led away.The attack came days after the museum was awarded a grant to boost security, as anti-Semitism surges worldwide since Israel’s devastating invasion of Gaza, prompted by the October 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian militants Hamas.- ‘What happened? -Witnesses reportedly said that security personnel appeared to mistake the man for a victim of the shooting and allowed him into the museum, where he was comforted by bystanders before claiming responsibility for the attack.”Some of the people at the event brought him water. They sat him down. ‘Are you OK? Were you shot? What happened?’ And he’s like ‘somebody call the cops’,” Yoni Kalin, who was in the museum, told US media.Washington Police Chief Pamela Smith told reporters that the suspect was observed pacing back and forth outside of the museum before the shooting around 9:00 pm on Wednesday (0100 GMT Thursday). “He approached a group of four people, produced a handgun and opened fire,” she said.First responders found a man and a woman unconscious and not breathing. Despite life-saving efforts, both were pronounced dead.”After the shooting, the suspect then entered the museum and was detained by event security,” Smith said.She said the man told them where he discarded the gun.- ‘Despicable’ -“These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.”We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and the wild incitement against the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said in his statement.”My heart aches for the families of the beloved young man and woman, whose lives were abruptly cut short by a despicable antisemitic murderer.”Britain and France — who have stepped up their condemnation in recent days of Israel’s actions in Gaza — as well as Germany were among those condemning the shooting. Israel’s foreign minister accused European governments of “incitement.””There is a direct line connecting anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli incitement to this murder,” Gideon Saar told a press conference.”This incitement is also done by leaders and officials of many countries and international organizations, especially from Europe.”The targeted event was an annual reception hosted by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) for young Jewish professionals and the Washington diplomatic community.AJC CEO Ted Deutch said in a statement that the organization was “devastated” by the shooting.Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter, who said he spoke with Trump by telephone, told reporters the young staffers were a couple about to get engaged. “The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem,” Leiter said.”They were a beautiful couple.”

A gunman who killed two people outside a Jewish museum in Washington on Wednesday was initially mistaken for a victim of the shooting and allowed into the building, witnesses said.”We heard gunshots and then a man comes in and he looks really distressed. People are talking to him and trying to calm him down,” Katie Kalisher, who said she was inside the Capital Jewish Museum when the attack happened, told US media.”Eventually, he comes over to where I was seated, and I was literally like ‘do you need any water? Are you OK?'”Witness Yoni Kalin said that a security guard “happened to let this guy in” the building.”I guess they were thinking that he was a victim,” he said.”He was in shock, and you know, some of the people at the event brought him water. They sat him down. ‘Are you OK? Were you shot? What happened?’ And he’s like ‘somebody call the cops’.”The man was then detained after he produced a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf from his bag and claimed responsibility for the shooting, the witnesses said.”‘I did it. I did this for Gaza’,” Kalisher quoted him as saying.  Police identified the suspected shooter as Elias Rodriguez, 30, from Chicago.Israel’s foreign ministry named the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, who both worked at the Israeli embassy in Washington.Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter told reporters the young staffers were a couple and that Lischinsky was planning to propose to Milgrim.

As Google races to lead in artificial intelligence, it faces the challenge of making sure the technology doesn’t slow its profit-pumping advertising engine.The internet giant is dabbling with ads in its new AI Mode for online search, a strategic move to fend off competition from ChatGPT while adapting its advertising business for an AI age.”There’s no question that AI is becoming more commonplace as a source for answers,” IDC advertising and marketing technology research director Roger Beharry Lall told AFP.”That will inevitably result in a shift in terms of search and the opportunities to promote a brand.”The integration of advertising has been a key question accompanying the rise of generative AI chatbots, which have largely avoided interrupting the user experience with marketing messages.However, advertising remains Google’s financial bedrock, accounting for more than two-thirds of its revenue.”Google certainly needs to find a way to monetize AI search in the way that it has monetized its past versions of search,” Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart told AFP at the tech giant’s annual developers conference this week.- AI-fueled ads -A new AI Mode enables conversational interaction with Google during search queries, providing answers in diverse formats, such as video, audio or graphs.The internet giant said it is testing integrating ads into AI Mode responses, building on insights gained from AI-generated summaries, or “Overviews,” introduced to search results a year ago.These Overviews display comprehensive AI-generated summaries of results above traditional website links and ads.”The future of advertising fueled by AI isn’t coming — it’s already here,” stated Vidhya Srinivasan, Google’s vice president of Ads & Commerce. “We’re reimagining the future of ads and shopping: Ads that don’t interrupt, but help customers discover a product or service.”Google is extending ads in AI Overviews to desktop in the US, following successful mobile implementations.More than 1.5 billion users see AI Overviews monthly, according to the company.”Google’s doing very good job of adapting,” Beharry Lall said.”The move right now is to experiment and to gain traction, just as they have.”Google’s aggressive push into generative AI intensifies its competition with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which added search engine capabilities to its popular chatbot.- AI ad tools too -Google announced it is making AI tools available to streamline the creation of online ads, mirroring similar initiatives by Facebook-owner Meta, Google’s primary rival in online advertising.New features, available in the United States, will enable merchants to leverage AI for effective marketing campaigns and to “power an algorithm capable of targeting new searches and generating additional conversions,” Google said.”AI helps a lot in advertising as far as targeting customers more precisely,” Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi told AFP.Google should have opportunities to charge for AI tools for ad campaigns, and even for insights from data the tech firm has about its users’ lives.”When you have AI agents doing things for you, those agents are going to need data,” Milanesi said.”To get access to that data, you’re going to have to pay.”For example, Google knowing the kinds of restaurants or places someone has searched for online would have value for targeting ads, she said.Making money from AI tools and data could help Google diversify revenue sources at a time when its ad business is under pressure from regulators, according to Milanesi.”There could be entirely new business models around how a brand connects into those AI results,” said Beharry Lall.”In the long run, it’s going to be additive and beneficial to Google.”How Google and other platforms make clear the difference between paid messaging and organic results generated by AI “is going to be the $64 million question,” Beharry Lall said.”It’ll be incumbent on regulatory bodies to develop guidelines,” the analyst said.

Donald Trump on Thursday will host a private event for hundreds of top investors in his crypto memecoin, in an unprecedented melding of US presidential power and personal business.The gala will take place at Trump’s Virginia golf club near Washington, where the 220 biggest purchasers of the $TRUMP memecoin he launched in January will have dinner with the president.The top 25 investors, according to an event website, will get a private session with Trump before dinner, and a White House tour.Critics argue this arrangement creates a concerning loophole in political influence rules.Foreign actors, legally barred from contributing to Trump’s political causes through official channels, can now potentially buy access and influence through the cryptocurrency.Data analytics firm Inca Digital has confirmed that many transactions occurred through international exchanges unavailable in the United States, suggesting foreign buyers.Chinese-born crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun claims the top investor position, having committed $20 million to the memecoin as part of his $93 million total investment in Trump-linked crypto ventures. Sun, founder of top 10 cryptocurrency TRON, was under investigation by US authorities for market manipulation, but regulators, now controlled by Trump appointees, agreed in February to a 60-day pause to seek a settlement.According to the website Popular Information, a few weeks before that decision, Sun purchased $30 million in digital assets from a venture backed by Trump and his family.”Honored to support @POTUS and grateful for the invitation to attend President Trump’s Gala Dinner as his TOP fan!” Sun wrote Tuesday on X, adding he was eager to “discuss the future of our industry.”fe- More regulation? -Some Republicans have raised red flags about the dinner, but most criticism has come from Democrats.Senator Chris Murphy on Wednesday blasted the exclusive dinner as an opportunity for the world’s wealthy including “foreign oligarchs” to get a “secret meeting” with the US president as they seek favors and influence.”It’s fundamentally corrupt — a way to buy access to the President,” Murphy posted on X.The White House ripped into those who have made insinuations of impropriety.”I think it’s frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week.”He left a life of luxury and a life of running a very successful real estate empire for public service.”The dinner comes as the Senate is pushing through legislation to more clearly regulate cryptocurrencies, a long-sought request of the industry.Senators on Monday advanced a landmark bill known as the GENIUS Act that proposes a regulatory framework for stablecoins — a type of crypto token seen as more predictable for investors as its value is pegged to hard currencies like the dollar.That legislation had faced roadblocks in part because of Trump’s dabbling in cryptocurrencies — a rising sector he once dismissed as a scam.His stance reversed during the 2024 presidential campaign when crypto tycoons, frustrated by perceived unfair treatment under the Biden administration, became major contributors to his campaign.The cryptocurrency industry struggled with significant scandals during Biden’s presidency, most notably the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange and the 25-year fraud sentence for founder Sam Bankman-Fried.As the stablecoin bill gains momentum in the Senate, Bitcoin reached a record high Wednesday of nearly $109,500.- Expanding empire -Trump’s newfound enthusiasm for digital currencies has expanded into multiple ventures led primarily by his eldest sons.Their growing portfolio includes investments in Binance, a major crypto exchange whose founder seeks a presidential pardon to re-enter the US market.This investment flows through World Liberty Financial, a Trump family-backed venture launched last September with significant Mideast deals. The company’s founding team includes Donald Jr. and Eric Trump alongside Zach Witkoff, son of Trump’s diplomatic adviser.President Trump has taken concrete steps to reduce regulatory barriers, including an executive order establishing a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” for government holdings of the leading digital currency.

Two Israeli embassy staffers were shot dead late Wednesday outside a Jewish museum in Washington by a gunman who shouted “free Palestine,” authorities said, with US officials and Israeli diplomats expressing shock and outrage over the killings.President Donald Trump quickly condemned the attack, saying “These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!””Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA,” he posted on social media.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said “this was a brazen act of cowardly, antisemitic violence. Make no mistake: we will track down those responsible and bring them to justice.”Gunfire broke out on the sidewalk outside the Capital Jewish Museum and Washington police confirmed the suspected shooter then walked into the museum after the shooting and had been detained.”We believe the shooting was committed by a single suspect who is now in custody,” Washington Police Chief Pamela Smith told reporters.”Prior to the shooting the suspect was observed pacing back and forth outside of the museum. He approached a group of four people, produced a handgun and opened fire.”After the shooting the suspect then entered the museum and was detained by event security.”She said that the handcuffed suspect identified where he had discarded the weapon and chanted “Free, free Palestine.”Police identified him as Elias Rodriguez, 30, from Chicago.”The fatal shooting that took place outside the event that took place at the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C… is a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism,” Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said.”Harming diplomats and the Jewish community is crossing a red line.”We are confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act. Israel will continue to act resolutely to protect its citizens and representatives — everywhere in the world.”Police Chief Smith said during a news conference that officers responded to multiple calls of a shooting near the museum at around 9:00 pm on Wednesday evening (0100 GMT Thursday). When authorities arrived at the scene, a man and a woman were found unconscious and not breathing. Despite life-saving efforts from first responders, both were pronounced dead.Emergency response vehicles remained at the scene into Thursday morning after police taped off the area.”We’re going to stand together as a community in the coming days and weeks to send the clear message that we will not tolerate anti-Semitism,” Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters.”There is no active threat in our community. What I do know is that the horrific incident is going to frighten a lot of people in our city, and in our country. I want to be clear that we will not tolerate this violence or hate.”

Republicans announced Wednesday they will vote early Thursday on US President Donald Trump’s sprawling domestic policy mega-bill pairing tax relief with spending cuts that critics say would decimate health care while ballooning the debt.The “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act” would usher into law Trump’s vision for a new “Golden Age,” achieved through cuts to public services to pay for a 10-year extension of his 2017 tax cuts.But it is dangling by a thread, with independent analysts warning it will increase the deficit by as much as $4 trillion over a decade, rattling fiscal hawks who say the country is careening toward bankruptcy.The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted it would boost the incomes of the richest 10 percent while making the bottom 10 percent poorer, through hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to health care and food aid.House Speaker Mike Johnson set a May 26 — Memorial Day — deadline for passing the package but is anticipating attendance problems at the back end of the week and set a rare overnight vote, expected around 4:30am (0830 GMT).The White House Council of Economic Advisors has made hugely ambitious projections, well outside the mainstream consensus, that the package will spur growth of up to 5.2 percent.And Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed the bill “does not add to the deficit,” and would actually save $1.6 trillion through spending cuts.But investors were unconvinced as the yield on the 10-year US Treasury note surged to its highest level since February on Wednesday amid worries over the budget-busting bill’s bottom line. Major US markets tumbled well over one percent. “My concern about the deficit and the debt is tremendous,” Texas congressman Keith Self, a Republican, told CNN.”This bill in its entirety, the way it was written: we would go from $36 trillion now in debt to $56 trillion minimum in 10 years.”- ‘Devastating’ -Democrats have called the bill “devastating” for the US middle class, needling Republicans on multiple aspects of the giant package.Its fate in the House of Representatives could reveal the limits of Trump’s sway over the party’s quarrelsome and deeply polarized lawmakers.The president pressured the party to back the package in a rare Capitol Hill visit Tuesday after it hit a series of roadblocks pitting conservative fiscal hawks against moderate coastal Republicans. Speaker Johnson can lose just three members in a vote of the full House. Initially multiple conservatives appeared ready to reject the bill but a follow-up meeting with Trump on Wednesday — this time at the White House — appeared to have persuaded some of the holdouts to fall into line.Its fate remains uncertain, however, with fiscal hawks unhappy that proposed cuts to the Medicaid health insurance program were not deeper — a red line for moderates and possibly for Trump, who told the party in coarse terms not to touch the social safety net.To appease his right flank, Johnson moved up the enforcement of work requirements for Medicaid recipients by two years to the end of 2026 and offered to phase out clean energy tax credits earlier.Meanwhile a group of moderate northeastern Republicans pushing for huge increases in the state and local tax (SALT) write-off secured a compromise of a four-fold hike, from $10,000 to $40,000.If Johnson can pull off passing the mega-bill through the House, it is likely to undergo significant rewrites in the Senate, which plans to get the package to Trump’s desk by July 4. “It’s no secret how awful the Republican tax bill is,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech.”For weeks, we’ve said their bill shows that billionaires win, American families lose.”

There was one notable — and loudly noted — absence on  Wednesday at Columbia University’s graduation ceremony: detained pro-Palestinian student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil.”Boo… Shame on you!” students chanted when Clare Shipman, interim president of the prestigious New York City school, took the podium.Columbia has been the site of demonstrations calling for an end to violence in Gaza for the past 18 months, and more recently, has seen student protesters arrested by the Trump administration. Khalil, one of the most visible leaders of nationwide campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, has been detained by US authorities for more than two months following his campus activism.Even though he is a permanent US resident, he has been marked for deportation.Before Wednesday’s graduation ceremony, attendees were warned over loudspeakers that any interruption was prohibited and those who didn’t follow the rules could be asked to leave. That didn’t prevent chants of “Free Mahmoud.”Some students wore keffiyehs as scarves or in lieu of graduation caps, donning a symbol of the Palestinian cause.As light rain fell and a damp chill set in, Shipman congratulated 16,000 new graduates as they depart a school that remains in the crosshairs of the Trump administration. “We firmly believe that our international students have the same rights to freedom of speech as everyone else, and they should not be targeted by the government for exercising that right,” Shipman said. “And let me also say that I know many in our community today are mourning the absence of our graduate, Mahmoud Khalil,” she added before launching into a plea to defend democracy, which she described as “the essential work of your generation.”- ‘Embarrassed’ graduates – Without directly naming US President Donald Trump, Shipman defended academic institutions as “pillars of a healthy, functioning, democratic nation.” The White House has cut $400 million in federal aid to Columbia alone, taking aim at schools that don’t fall into line with its demands while arresting students involved in pro-Palestinian causes. Earlier in May, 80 pro-Palestinian students were arrested on Columbia’s campus after attempting to occupy the main library. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said officials would review the visa status of the “vandals” involved for possible deportations.Recent Columbia graduate Khalil is being held in a detention center in Louisiana and faces possible deportation after his March arrest amid accusations of supporting Palestinian militant group Hamas. His lawyers said Wednesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials barred Khalil from holding his newborn son, after his wife Noor Abdalla flew with the baby to Louisiana.”It is deliberate violence, the calculated cruelty of a government that tears families apart without remorse,” Abdalla said in a statement.Columbia students have reported a chill to campus free speech and a sense of shame that their university did not do more to support freedom of expression.”With the behavior of the university over the last few years — oh, it’s been horrific. I feel embarrassed every single day that my degree is attached to this university,” said Olivia Blythe, a 30-year-old masters graduate in social work who wore a keffiyeh over her pale blue gown. Blythe said tension was palpable during a ceremony Tuesday for students in her department, with audience members yelling “arrest them, get them out, kick them out” at pro-Palestinian students like herself.Sociology graduate Alfred Young said he appreciated his social justice-focused education at Columbia, but felt that was disconnected from the school’s administration.”I was honestly surprised that President Shipman referenced Mahmoud, and honestly, I do believe it was a bit tone deaf, given how the administration handled everything,” Young said.At the end of the ceremony, students tossed their caps as speakers blared Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind,” a hip-hop ode to New York City.With that, Columbia’s tense year ended with hugs and selfies. Outside campus, as hundreds of police kept watch, a few dozen pro-Palestinian demonstrators stood their ground. One held a sign that read: “There is no graduation in Gaza today.” 

President Donald Trump ambushed South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday by playing him a video that he claimed proved genocide is being committed against white people, driving farmers to flee to the United States.The extraordinary stunt turned the usually staid diplomatic setting of the Oval Office into a stage for Trump’s contention that white South African farmers are being forced off their land and killed.With reporters present, Trump had staff put the four-minute video on a large screen, saying it showed black South African politicians calling for the persecution of white people.”You do allow them to take land, and then when they take the land, they kill the white farmer, and when they kill the white farmer, nothing happens to them,” Trump said.Trump also showed news clippings that he said backed up his claims — although one actually featured a photo from the Democratic Republic of Congo.”Death, death, death. Horrible death,” said Trump.Trump’s administration earlier this month granted refugee status to more than 50 white Afrikaners, despite the fact that it has effectively stopped taking asylum seekers from the rest of the world.But the South African president disputed Trump’s claims. And after initially appearing stunned by the move he stayed calm, avoiding the kind of row Trump had with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in February.- Awkward exchanges -Ramaphosa denied that his country confiscates land from white farmers under a land expropriation law signed in January that aims to redress the historical inequalities of apartheid rule.”No, no, no, no,” Ramaphosa responded. “Nobody can take land.”He also insisted that most victims of South Africa’s notoriously high crime rate are black and said the politicians in the video were from the opposition.The visit by the South African leader had been billed as a chance to repair relations following unfounded genocide claims by Trump and his billionaire, South African-born ally Elon Musk.Musk, who was also in the Oval Office, has been a key driver of the “white genocide” claims.Ramaphosa had arrived at the White House with two of South Africa’s top golfers, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen in a bid to woo the golf-loving US president.”We are essentially here to reset the relationship between the United States and South Africa,” Ramaphosa said.But Ramaphosa was left repeatedly trying to speak as the video played, even as Trump drowned him out. “Where is this?” added the South African president as he shuffled awkwardly in his seat.In the video, firebrand far-left opposition lawmaker Julius Malema was shown singing “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer” — an infamous chant dating back to the apartheid-era fight against white-minority rule.The video finished with images of a protest in South Africa where white crosses were placed along a rural roadside to represent murdered farmers — but which Trump falsely said showed their graves.- Golf diplomacy -At one point, Ramaphosa pleaded that they “talk about it very calmly.””We were taught by Nelson Mandela that whenever there are problems, people need to sit down around the table and talk about them,” he said.The two champion golfers also sought to calm the waters when Trump asked them to speak. “We want to see things get better in our home country. That’s the bottom line,” said four-time major winner Els.The South African leader later tried to put a brave face on the meeting, saying it was a “great success” and that he still expected Trump to attend a G20 summit in Johannesburg in November.He also said he did not think Trump fully believes there’s a genocide against whites despite the video.”In the end, I mean, I do believe that there is this doubt and disbelief in his head about all this,” Ramaphosa told reporters. Trump’s administration has torn into South Africa since the US president began his second term in office.It has slammed South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice, cut foreign aid, announced 31 percent tariffs, and expelled Pretoria’s ambassador after he criticized Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.

US President Donald Trump’s plan for a nationwide missile defense system — dubbed “Golden Dome” — faces significant technical and political challenges, and it could cost far more than he has estimated to achieve its goals.Trump wants a system that can defend against a wide array of enemy weapons — from intercontinental ballistic missiles to hypersonic and cruise missiles to drones — and he wants it ready in about three years, or as he nears the end of his second term in office. Four months after Trump initially ordered the Pentagon to develop options for the system, however, little in the way of further details has emerged.”The main challenges will be cost, the defense industrial base, and political will. They can all be overcome, but it will take focus and prioritization,” said Melanie Marlowe, a nonresident senior associate in the Missile Defense Project at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.”The White House and Congress are going to have to agree on how much to spend and where the money will come from,” Marlowe said, noting that “our defense industrial base has atrophied,” though “we have begun to revive it.”She also cited the need for more progress on sensors, interceptors and other components of the project.Trump on Tuesday announced an initial $25 billion in funding for Golden Dome, saying its eventual cost would be about $175 billion.That figure is likely far lower than the actual price of such a system.Thomas Roberts, assistant professor of international affairs and aerospace engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said the price estimate was “not realistic.””The challenge with the statements from yesterday is that they lack the details needed to develop a model of what this constellation would really look like,” he said.- ‘Not holding my breath’ -Earlier this month, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated the cost of space-based interceptors to defeat a limited number of intercontinental ballistic missiles at between $161 billion and $542 billion over 20 years.A system such as that envisaged by Trump “could require a more expansive SBI (space-based interceptor) capability than the systems examined in the previous studies. Quantifying those recent changes will require further analysis,” the CBO said.The Golden Dome concept — and name — stem from Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system. But the United States’ missile threats differ significantly from the short-range weapons that Iron Dome is designed to counter.Beijing is closing the gap with Washington when it comes to ballistic and hypersonic missile technology, while Moscow is modernizing its intercontinental-range missile systems and developing advanced precision strike missiles, according to the Pentagon’s 2022 Missile Defense Review.The document also said the threat of drones — which have played a key role in the Ukraine war — is likely to grow, and warned of the danger of ballistic missiles from North Korea and Iran, as well as rocket and missile threats from non-state actors.Chad Ohlandt, a senior engineer at the RAND Corporation, said “the threat is clearly getting worse,” but the “key question is how to most cost effectively counter” it.”Any questions of realism or feasibility” for Golden Dome “depend on where we set the bar. Defend against how many threats? Threats of what capability? What is to be defended? As you raise the bar, it becomes more expensive,” Ohlandt said.Thomas Withington, associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, said “there are a number of bureaucratic, political, science and technological milestones that will need to be achieved if Golden Dome is ever going to enter service in any meaningful capacity.””It is an incredibly expensive undertaking, even for the US defense budget. This is serious, serious money,” Withington said.”I’m not holding my breath as to whether we will actually ever see this capability.”

For world leaders an invitation to the Oval Office used to be a coveted prize. Under Donald Trump it’s become a ticket to a brutal political ambush.South African President Cyril Ramaphosa became the latest victim in a long line that started with Trump’s notorious row with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky in February.Trump has turned what were staid diplomatic “photo sprays” under his predecessor Joe Biden into punishing, hour-long tests of nerve in the heart of the US presidency, played out on live television.The sight has become all too familiar — a world leader perched nervously on the edge of their gold-upholstered chair in front of the famed fireplace, waiting to see what happens.Will the 78-year-old Republican lay on the charm? Will he show off the new gold-plated decor he has been proudly installing in the Oval? Will he challenge his guest on tariffs or trade or US military assistance?Or will he simply tear into them? Nobody knows before they get there. All they know is that when the cameras are allowed into the most exclusive room in the White House, they will be treading the most perilous of political tightropes.And the hot, confined space of the Oval Office adds to the pressure-cooker environment as the unpredictable billionaire seeks to wrongfoot his guests and gain the upper hand.- ‘Turn the lights down’ -Trump set the benchmark when he hosted Zelensky on February 28.Tensions over Trump’s sudden pivot towards Russia spilled into the open as a red-faced US president berated the Ukrainian leader and accused him of being ungrateful for US military aid against Russia.Many wondered if it was a deliberate ambush — especially as Vice President JD Vance appeared to step in to trigger the row.Whether or not it was on purpose, the goal in foreign capitals ever since has been to “avoid a Zelensky.”But Ramaphosa’s visit to the Oval on Wednesday was the closest yet to a repeat — and this time it was clearly planned.Ramaphosa arrived with top South African golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen in tow, hoping to take the edge off the golf-mad Trump’s unfounded claims of a “genocide” against white South African farmers.But his face was a picture of bemusement when after a question on the issue, Trump suddenly said to aides and said: “Turn the lights down, and just put this on.” A video of South African politicians chanting “kill the farmer” began to play on a screen set up at the side of the room. A stunned Ramaphosa looked at the screen, then at Trump, and then back at the screen.Yet unlike Zelensky, who argued back with an increasingly enraged Trump, the South African president largely stayed calm as he argued his case. Nor was he asked to leave the White House as Zelensky was, causing the Ukrainian to miss lunch.- ‘Ratings GOLD!’ -Other leaders have also done their homework. Some have emerged mostly unscathed, or even with some credit.Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, despite some nervous body language, stood his ground against Trump’s calls for his country to become the 51st US state and insisted that his country was “never for sale.”British Prime Minister Keir Starmer won over Trump with a letter from King Charles III, while French President Emmanuel Macron kept up his touch-feely bromance with the US president.Trump’s ideological allies have often fared even better. El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele had a major Oval Office love-fest after agreeing to take migrants at a mega-prison in the Central American country.But even some close allies have been wrongfooted. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a warm welcome as the first foreign guest of Trump’s second term, but it was a different story when he returned in April. Cameras in the Oval Office caught his stunned face when Trump announced that Washington was starting direct talks with Iran.For Trump, though, it’s all part of a presidency that he increasingly treats like a reality show.Trump himself quipped after the Zelensky meeting that it was “going to be great television”, and one of his advisers was just as explicit after the Ramaphosa meeting.”This is literally being watched globally right now,” Jason Miller said on X, along with a picture of the encounter on multiple screens. “Ratings GOLD!”