(0:00 - 1:03) Good evening, I'm Will Dove and these are the top stories for Monday, June 2nd. In today's news, President Trump announced a doubling of steel tariffs on Canada and other nations. An Egyptian man attacked and injured eight people in Boulder, Colorado while shouting free Palestine and the agenda of this week's annual BRICS summit. President Donald Trump announced a dramatic escalation of steel tariffs during a Friday visit to a United States steel corporate plant in Pittsburgh, pledging to raise import duties from 25% to 50%. The move aims to bolster domestic industry amid a contested $14.1 billion partnership between U.S. Steel and Japan's Nippon Steel, a deal Trump opposed during his 2024 campaign but now claims will create 70,000 jobs and inject $14 billion into the U.S. economy. Speaking at the Allegheny County facility, Trump framed the tariff hike as critical to deter foreign competition. (1:04 - 1:57) So soon after initially taking office, I imposed powerful 25% tariffs on all foreign steel and ended each and every one of the Biden exceptions and exclusions. And today I have a major announcement. We are going to be imposing a 25% increase. We're going to bring it from 25% to 50% the tariffs on steel into the United States of America, which will even further secure the steel industry. The five largest steel exporters to the U.S. Canada, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, and Vietnam will face intensified trade barriers. Critics, including bipartisan lawmakers and economists, warn of consumer price spikes mirroring concerns from Trump's earlier 25% tariff policy. (1:58 - 2:40) The event doubled as a victory lap for the Nippon Steel deal, which Trump initially rejected over fears of foreign ownership. He now asserts the revised agreement includes safeguards for American workers, including a Pittsburgh headquarters and $2.2 billion for modernizing Mon Valley Works facilities. However, specifics remain unclear, with the United Steelworkers Union opposing the deal over job security concerns. U.S. steel shares surged post-announcement, alongside gains for Nucor Corp. and Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. Trump's reversal aligns with Pennsylvania's electoral significance, a swing state he carried narrowly in 2024. (2:41 - 3:15) The World Steel Association ranks the U.S. fourth globally in production, but first in imports, excluding the EU. Decades of Washington betrayal cost this region over 100,000 steel jobs, Trump declared, dismissing previous administrations' trade policies. Eight people aged 52 to 88 were injured in a suspected terror attack at Colorado's Pearl Street Mall after Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45, allegedly hurled Molotov cocktails and wielded a makeshift flamethrower at a pro-Israel rally. (3:15 - 3:44) The Egyptian national, who entered the U.S. on a visa expiring in February 2023, targeted a Run for Their Lives event advocating for Israeli hostages in Gaza, shouting, "'Free Palestine!' during the assault. Older police responded to 911 calls at 1.26 p.m. local time, finding victims with severe burns. FBI Denver Chief Mark Michalek confirmed Soliman's use of incendiary devices and labeled the attack domestic terrorism. (3:45 - 4:07) Witnesses stated that Soliman advanced on fleeing attendees as flames engulfed the scene. One victim required urgent dousing with water to extinguish burns. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser condemned the violence as a hate crime, while Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar accused media blood libels of fueling anti-Semitism. (4:08 - 4:45) The attack follows a May 22 shooting outside a Washington, D.C., Jewish museum where another assailant invoked, "'Free Palestine!' before killing two Israeli embassy staffers. Soliman, residing in Colorado Springs post-visa expiry, remains hospitalized under police guard. The BRICS+ alliance, now comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Indonesia, will convene its annual Leaders' Summit in Rio de Janeiro on July 6-7, hosted by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. (4:46 - 6:20) The expanded bloc, representing 3.3 billion people and 39.7 million square kilometers of land, continues to challenge Western economic dominance through systematic institution building. While not yet surpassing the G7's $45.3 trillion nominal GDP, BRICS+ overtakes the West in purchasing power parity $51.6 trillion versus $48 trillion and sustains a 5% annual GDP growth rate compared to the G7's 2%. Since 2009, BRICS nations have systematically constructed alternatives to Bretton Woods' systems, establishing three key institutions—the Shanghai-based New Development Bank, modeled on the World Bank to finance infrastructure projects, a $100 billion contingent reserve arrangement, functioning as an IMF-style liquidity backstop during balance-of-payments crises, and the BRICS Pay cross-border payment network, designed to bypass SWIFT and Western financial clearinghouses vulnerable to geopolitical pressure. These parallel structures aim to reduce reliance on U.S.-dominated systems, with BRICS Pay processing 22% of intra-bloc transactions since its 2023 launch compared to 8% in 2021. These tools aim to reduce vulnerability to U.S.-led sanctions, exemplified by the freezing of $300 billion in Russian reserves after the Kiev conflict. The bloc's gold-accumulation strategy further undermines dollar dependence. (6:21 - 7:39) Russia tripled its reserves to 2,333 metric tons since 2009, while China and India now hold 2,293 metric tons and 880 metric tons, respectively. Contrary to speculative claims circulating in Western media, BRICS+ leadership has confirmed three key announcements will not emerge from the July summit. A unified bloc currency faces persistent technical challenges comparable to the euro's 20-year formation process. No formal reinstatement of a gold-backed monetary standard, despite members' bullion-accumulation strategies. And immediate abandonment of U.S. dollar transactions remains impractical given its current dominance in 80% of global energy contracts. These disclosures quash rumors of imminent systemic overhauls while reinforcing the bloc's gradualist approach to financial autonomy. Instead, the summit will focus on expanding membership, with Turkey, Algeria, and Saudi Arabia on the waiting list, and refining financial infrastructure. Partner nations like Belarus and Malaysia may gain full membership, broadening the bloc's trade settlement capabilities. While rejecting formal currency unification, BRICS+ nations increasingly treat gold as a sanctions-proof reserve. (7:40 - 8:34) China's unreported holdings and India's estimated 5,000 metric tons in private bullion suggest deeper metallic grounding than official figures reveal. This strategy allows surplus recycling without dollar intermediation—Russian yuan reserves from Chinese trade, for instance—convert directly to physical gold bars stored in Eurasian vaults. The Rio summit underscores BRICS+'s patient decoupling from Western systems. As James Rickards notes in The Daily Reckoning, while no global reset looms, the bloc's 16-year institution building mirrors the euro's incremental rise. With 10 members and 9 partner states already on board, BRICS+ positions itself as the nucleus of a multipolar economic era resistant to NATO-aligned financial coercion. I'm Will Dove, and those are the top stories for today, Monday, June 2nd. (8:35 - 8:57) Also, today, there was a high volume of news stories. As we do not currently have the resources to create more than three video news stories per day, I invite you to listen to today's audio news for the rest, including the United Nations slashing 20% of its workforce, Ukraine launches a major drone strike on Russia, and flu vaccines are also now shown to shorten lifespans.