Donald Trump has announced the concept for his Golden Dome missile defence system – which includes plans for the US put weapons in space for the first time.

The “cutting-edge missile defence system” will include “space-based sensors and interceptors”, Mr Trump said, adding the Golden Dome “should be fully operational by the end of my term”.

The system – styled on Israel’s Iron Dome – will be able to detect and stop missiles at all points of attack, from before launch to when they are descending towards a target, the Trump administration has said.

Making the announcement in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Mr Trump told reporters the Golden Dome will be “capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from the other side of the world”.

The US president also said Canada “has called us and they want to be part of it”. “As usual, we help Canada as best we can,” he said.

He has also pledged that the entire system to be built within the United States. Manufacturers in Georgia, Alaska, Florida and Indiana will all be heavily involved in the project, Mr Trump said.

General Michael Guetlein, who currently serves as the vice chief of space operations, will oversee the Golden Dome’s progress.

The space weapons “represent new and emerging requirements for missions that have never before been accomplished by military space organizations,” General Chance Saltzman, the head of the US Space Force, said at a hearing Tuesday.

How much will the Golden Dome cost?

Mr Trump said he has allocated $25bn “to help get construction under way,” which he described as an initial down payment.

The total cost will be “about $175bn”, the US president added – but the Congressional Budget Office has put the price much higher.

The space-based components alone could cost as much as $542bn (£405bn) over the next 20 years, it estimated earlier this month.

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Mr Trump’s announcement came shortly after the newly confirmed US Air Force secretary said there’s currently no money allocated for the Golden Dome.

The programme is “still in the conceptual stage,” Troy Meink told senators today.

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The Pentagon has for years warned that the newest missiles developed by Russia and China are so advanced counter measures are needed.

Both Russia and China have already put offensive weapons, such as satellites capable of disabling those of other countries, in space.

In a simple breezeblock and cement building, cholera patients are attached to drips as they lie sprawled on hard, wooden beds.

In one section, two young boys stare into the distance through listless eyes. They are very poorly, the staff tell us, but now they are here, they will survive.

Medical staff check on their patients in the relatively cool interior of the wards, while outside the sun beats down on the grounds of the rough and ready interconnected buildings of the Fontaine Hospital in Port-au-Prince.

The hospital is built amid the slums in an area of Haiti’s capital known as Cite Soleil – or Sun City.

This suburb is widely regarded to be the birthplace of the gangs of Port-au-Prince, and this section of the city has been violent and dangerous for decades.

Civil society doesn’t function here. Indeed, the Fontaine Hospital is the only medical facility still operating in the gang-controlled areas of Cite Soleil.

Without it, the people who live here would have no access to doctors or medical care.

How did gangs take over Haiti? Watch Q&A with Stuart Ramsay

I’m standing in the cholera ward with Jose Ulysse, the hospital’s founder. He opened the hospital 32 years ago. It’s a charity, run purely on donations.

Mr Ulysse explained that the increasing gang violence across the whole of Port-au-Prince, and the chaos it is causing, means people are herded into displacement camps, which in turn means that cholera outbreaks are getting worse.

“Cholera is always present, but there’s a time when it’s more,” he told me.

“Lately because of all the displacement camps there is a great deal of promiscuity and rape, and we have an increase in cases.”

As we spoke, I asked him about the two young boys, and a small group of women on drips in the ward.

“Now they are here, they will be okay, but if they weren’t here and this hospital wasn’t here, they would be dead by now,” he replied when I asked him about their condition.

We left the cholera ward, cleaning our hands and shoes with disinfectant, before moving on to the next part of the hospital under pressure – the malnutrition ward.

“Malnutrition and cholera go hand-in-hand,” Mr Ulysse explained as we walked.

In the clinic, we meet parents and their little ones – all the infants are malnourished.

The mothers – and important to note – one father, are given food to feed their babies.

Read more of Stuart Ramsey’s reporting in Haiti:
Children going to school in Haiti dodge gunfire
Listen: Reporting from Haiti’s urban war zone
Soldiers face ‘raining bullets’ from Haiti’s gangs

Those who are in the worst condition are also fed by a drip. One of the giveaway signs of malnutrition is a distended tummy, and most of these babies have that.

Poverty and insecurity combine to cause this, Mr Ulysse tells me. And like cholera, malnutrition is getting worse.

He explained that when the violence increases, parents can’t go to work because it is too dangerous, so they end up not being able to make a living, which means that they can’t feed their children properly.

The medics and hospital workers risk their lives every day, crossing gang lines and territories to get to the hospital and care for their patients.

The reason why this hospital is so popular is because staff show up, even when the fighting is at its worst.

Despite their meagre resources, the Fontaine Hospital’s intensive care unit for premature babies is busy – it is widely regarded as one of the best facilities of its kind in the country.

A team of nurses, masked and in scrubs, tenderly care for these tiny children, some of whom are only hours old.

They are some of the most incredibly vulnerable.

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I asked Mr Ulysse what would happen if his hospital wasn’t there.

“Just imagine, there isn’t a place where they can go, everyone comes here, normally the poorest people in the country”, he told me.

But he stressed that the only way the hospital can keep going is through donations, and the cuts to the US government’s USAID programme has had a direct impact on the hospital’s donors.

Attacks on hospitals and staff working in the toughest areas across Port-au-Prince have become common.

We filmed outside one of the two Médecins Sans Frontières facilities in the centre of the capital, where work has been suspended because their staff were threatened or attacked.

Medical personnel from the health ministry in Port-au-Prince tell us over 70 per cent of all medical facilities in Port-au-Prince have been shut. Only one major public hospital, the Le Paix Hospital, is open.

The Le Paix Hospital’s executive director, Dr Paul Junior Fontilus, says he is perplexed by the gang’s targeting of medical facilities.

“It makes no sense, it’s crazy, we don’t know what it is they want,” he said as we walked through the hospital.

The hospital is orderly and functioning well, considering the pressure it is under. They are dealing with more and more cases of cholera, an increase in gunshot wounds and sexual violence.

“We are overrun with demand, and this surpasses our capacity to respond,” he explained to me.

“But we are obliged to meet the challenge and offer services to the population.”

Gang violence is crushing the life out of Port-au-Prince, affecting all of society. And, as is often the case, the most vulnerable in society suffer the most.

Stuart Ramsay reports from Haiti with camera operator Toby Nash, senior foreign producer Dominique Van Heerden, and producers Brunelie Joseph and David Montgomery.

Sex offenders could face chemical castration and thousands of offenders will be released after serving a third of their jail term, under plans proposed in a sentencing policy review set to be accepted by ministers.

The independent review, led by the former justice secretary David Gauke, was commissioned by the government amid an overcrowding crisis in prisons in England and Wales.

It has made a series of recommendations with the aim of reducing the prison population by 9,800 people by 2028.

The key proposal, which it is understood the government will implement, is a “progression model” – which would see offenders who behave well in jail only serve a third of their term in custody, before being released.

The measure will apply to people serving standard determinate sentences, which is the most common type of jail term, being served by the majority of offenders.

It will be based on sentence length, rather than offence type. That means sex offenders and domestic abusers serving sentences of under four years, could all be eligible for early release.

The policy will mean inmates serve only a third of their sentence in prison, a third on licence in the community, with the remaining portion under no probation supervision at all.

If the offender committed further offences in the “at risk” – or final – stages of their sentence, once out of prison, they would be sent back to jail to serve the remainder of the original sentence, plus time inside jail for the new offence.

Chemical castration trial could be extended

The government will also further the use of medication to suppress the sexual drive of sex offenders, which is currently being piloted in southwest England.

The review recommended that chemical castration “may assist in management of suitable sex offenders both in prison and in the community”.

Ministers are to announce plans for a nationwide rollout, and will first expand the use of the medication to 20 prisons across England.

The justice secretary is also considering whether to make castration mandatory. It’s currently voluntary.

Violent offenders who are serving sentences of four years or more could be released on licence after spending half of their sentence behind bars. This could be extended if they do not comply with prison rules. These prisoners would then be supervised in the community until 80% of their sentence.

Domestic abuse commissioner criticises plans

In response to the review, the police have warned: “Out of prison should not mean out of control.”

“If we are going to have fewer people in prison, we need to ensure that we collectively have the resources and powers to manage the risk offenders pose outside of prison,” said Chief Constable Sacha Hatchett at the National Police Chiefs Council.

The domestic abuse commissioner for England and Wales, Nicole Jacobs, said adopting the measures would amount to “watering down” the criminal justice system.

“By adopting these measures the government will be sending a clear message to domestic abusers that they can now offend with little consequence,” she said.

In a set of proposals considered to be the biggest overhaul of sentencing power laws since the 1990s, judges could be given more flexibility to punish lower level offenders with bans on football or driving.

The review has also recommended that short sentences should only be used in “exceptional circumstances”, suggesting they are “associated with higher proven reoffending” and “fall short in providing meaningful rehabilitation to offenders”.

The Howard League for Penal Reform has welcomed the proposals as a “good start”.

“This is a vital review that makes the case for change by focusing on the evidence on what will reduce reoffending and prevent more people becoming victims of crime,” said chief executive Andrea Coomber.

David Gauke’s review has called on the government to “invest” in a probation service that is “under significant strain”, as its proposals recommend a larger number of offenders should be punished and supervised in the community.

“Tagging can be a useful way to monitor offenders and identify escalating risks,” it said.

The government is set to invest a further £700m in the probation service and introduce a mass expansion of tagging technology, where tens of thousands of criminals will be monitored at any one time, creating a “prison outside of a prison”, with the help of US tech companies.

‘Overriding concerns’

The Victims Commissioner, Baroness Newlove, has expressed an “overriding concern” about the ability of an “already stretched probation service” to “withstand the additional pressure” of managing a larger number of people outside of prison.

The policy review also makes recommendations around offenders that are recalled to prison after breaching their licence conditions.

Currently, around 15% of those behind bars are there because they have been recalled. Mostly, it’s for breaching of licence conditions, rather than further offences.

The review recommends a “tighter threshold” for recall so that it is “only used to address consistent non-compliance”, with licence conditions – which can include missing a probation appointment.

Read more:
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Victim watchdog questions offenders’ early release

Last week the government announced plans that will see offenders serving one to four-year sentences held for a fixed 28-day period if they are returned to jail.

The review suggests increasing that limit to 56 days, in order to “allow sufficient time for planning around appropriate conditions for safe re-release into community supervision”.

The government is expected to accept the review’s key measures, and implement them with a sentencing bill before parliament.

The plans will likely require legislation and only be before the courts by the spring of 2026.