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Donald Trump revives ideas of a Star Wars-like missile shield 

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IN THE LATE 1980s Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb, and Lowell Wood, an astrophysicist, proposed a seemingly bizarre scheme to defend America against missile attack. The “Brilliant Pebbles” system envisaged thousands of small satellites in low-Earth orbit, each housing heat-seeking missiles to take out incoming Soviet nukes long before they released their warheads. The idea faded, not least because the technology seemed distant. Now Donald Trump is resuscitating it.

On the campaign trail Mr Trump promised to build an “Iron Dome” for America, referring to an Israeli missile-defence system. The name is a misnomer. The Israeli system is designed to take out short-range rockets. What Mr Trump meant, and spelt out in an executive order published on January 27th, was a more ambitious effort to detect and counter intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and the like. America already has a system designed to do that, known as Ground-Based Midcourse Defence (GMD), which relies on interceptors in Alaska and California.

Mr Trump’s proposal differs in important respects. One is its scope. GMD was intended to parry limited attacks involving a small number of ballistic missiles, such as might occur in an attack by North Korea. Mr Trump’s shield is supposed to block “any foreign aerial attack”, which would imply not only both cruise and ballistic missiles, but also a full-scale strategic attack by Russia or China involving many hundreds of missiles at once.

Critics of missile defence say this is folly, because it is generally cheaper to build additional offensive systems than interceptors to stop them. Russia and China—which are building missile shields of their own—have also argued that American defences risk undermining nuclear deterrence, because they might one day allow America to strike enemies without fearing retaliation. Advocates retort that the missile threat has changed: long-range non-nuclear missiles could now paralyse military facilities in the continental United States, allowing enemies to coerce America into staying out of a distant war.

In any case, Mr Trump’s favoured design is also noteworthy. GMD targets incoming missiles when they are in mid-flight. In theory it is easier to take out a missile in its “boost phase” (as it is taking off), when it is moving more slowly. The problem is that this is a fleeting moment—three to five minutes for ICBMs.  The new order calls for “proliferated space-based interceptors capable of boost-phase intercept”. That amounts to a Brilliant Pebbles-like system: a lot of small, armed satellites, some of which would be above Russia, China and other foes at all times.

The cost of building tiny computers and putting thousands of them into orbit is far lower than it was in Mr Teller’s days—partly thanks to Elon Musk. But it is still eye-wateringly expensive, and liable to hoover up a good chunk of the defence budget. America would require 500 satellites in total to have just three to four interceptors in range of North Korean launchpads, estimates Bleddyn Bowen of Durham University; hundreds more than that would probably be needed, he says.

A key technical challenge will be building space sensors with “fire-control-quality tracking”—good enough at spotting and tracking enemy missiles to guide interceptors to them—says Tom Karako of CSIS, a think-tank. But if the technology proves mature, the implications could go beyond missile defence. “We will see the emergence, gradual understanding, and eventually acceptance of ‘space fires’,” says Mr Karako, which could include satellites capable of targeting, with both explosive and electronic means, targets on the ground, those in the air and other satellites in orbit.

There are many doubters. Mr Trump aired similar ideas in his first term but failed to back them with hard cash. Spending for an American Iron Dome will compete with a string of other priorities, from a bigger navy to more nuclear weapons. “It’s always a budget question,” says Mr Karako. “Show me your budget for missile defence, and I’ll tell you what your ‘Iron Dome for America’ is.”

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Elon Musk says Trump’s spending bill undermines the work DOGE has been doing

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 13, 2025.

Hamad I Mohammed | Reuters

Elon Musk criticized the Republican spending bill that recently made it through a House vote, saying it counters the work he’s been doing to reduce wasteful government spending.

In an interview to be aired June 1 on “CBS Sunday Morning,” the richest man in the world and the head of the Department of Government Efficiency advisory board said the “big, beautiful bill” will not help the nation’s finances.

“I was, like, disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decrease it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk said in a clip the program shared on social media platform X.

DOGE says it has saved $170 billion in taxpayer money since it began in January, targeting areas of government waste and redundancy in sometimes-controversial ways.

For instance, it has gutted the U.S. Agency for International Development and reduced staff elsewhere. DOGE-related moves have been responsible for some 275,000 government layoffs, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a consultancy firm.

The sweeping One Big Beautiful Bill Act by contrast, is projected to raise the federal budget deficit by $3.8 trillion over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The deficit is on track in 2025 to run close to $2 trillion, with the national debt now at $36.2 trillion.

“I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful, but I don’t know if it could be both,” Musk said in the clip.

Trump and congressional Republicans counter that the bill reduces spending in key areas and will generate enough growth to compensate for the tax reductions. The legislation, though, is expected to face strong resistance in the Senate.

For his part, Musk has pulled back his DOGE work, saying he plans to focus on running his companies, which include X, Tesla and SpaceX. Musk had been a frequent presence in the White House since Trump’s election.

In an interview with The Washington Post published Tuesday, Musk said the federal bureaucracy is “much worse than I realized” and that DOGE became “the whipping boy for everything.”

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How young voters helped to put Trump in the White House

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THE 2024 election unfolded like a political thriller, replete with a last-minute candidate change, backroom deals, a cover-up, assassination attempts and ultimately the triumphant return of a convicted felon. But amidst the spectacle, a quieter transformation unfolded. For the first time, millennials and Gen Z, people born between 1981 and 2006, comprised a plurality of the electorate, and their drift towards Donald Trump shaped the outcome.

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Economics

Trump hails ‘positive’ step in U.S.-EU trade talks as markets await deal

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U.S. President Donald Trump gestures at the annual National Memorial Day Observance in the Memorial Amphitheater, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., May 26, 2025.

Ken Cedeno | Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he welcomed the European Union, after he agreed to delay a 50% tariff on goods from the bloc until July 9.

“I have just been informed that the E.U. has called to quickly establish meeting dates,” Trump wrote in a post on the Truth Social platform.

“This is a positive event, and I hope that they will, FINALLY, like my same demand to China, open up the European Nations for Trade with the United States of America.”

Trump also said Tuesday that the EU had been “slow walking” in negotiations with the White House over a trade deal.

The sudden prospect of even greater tariffs on one of the U.S.’ biggest trade partners rattled markets when it was threatened by Trump last Friday. In a post last week, Trump said discussions with the EU were “going nowhere.”

However, sentiment turned positive on Tuesday amid hopes of a breakthrough. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X over the weekend that the EU was “ready to advance talks swiftly and decisively,” while European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said Monday that he had “good calls” with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Europe’s regional Stoxx 600 index slightly extended gains after Trump’s comments on Tuesday, last trading up 0.55% on the previous session, while U.S. markets opened broadly higher.

The 27-member alliance was hit with a 20% tariff on the EU on April 2 as part of Trump’s “reciprocal” tariff strategy, which was then cut for almost all trading partners to 10% for 90 days. Concurrent U.S. duties on autos, steel and aluminum are also hitting the bloc’s exporters.

EU officials have repeatedly stressed that they want to reach a deal with the White House, but that this will not come at any cost. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, earlier this month launched a consultation on tariff countermeasures targeting U.S. imports worth 95 billion euros ($107.4 billion) if a deal is not reached.

CNBC has contacted the European Commission for comment.

On May 8, the U.S. unveiled the outline of a trade deal with the U.K., the first such agreement under the latest Trump administration, although businesses say they are awaiting further details. The deal maintains a 10% baseline tariff on U.K. imports to the U.S., suggesting other countries will face a similar rate at a minimum.

Trump has generally struck a favorable tone toward the U.K. due to its more balanced trade relationship in goods with the U.S. He has accused the EU, however — with which it has a deficit in goods — of treating the U.S. unfairly. EU-U.S. trade is roughly balanced when accounting for both goods and services, according to EU figures.

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