Philanthropy group ripped for bankrolling ‘radical’ defund the police, anti-ICE groups: ‘Less safe’
A philanthropic organization known as Coefficient Giving, which is mainly funded by liberal billionaire Dustin Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna, is being knocked for quietly funding a slate of “radical projects” and donating millions to defund the police groups, anti-ICE initiatives and other progressive causes over the course of several years. Before changing its name from Open Philanthropy to Coefficient Giving and divesting from its “criminal justice reform” initiatives to a split-off group called “Just Impact,” Open Philanthropy awarded hundreds of grants to primarily far-left groups in that category over six years. Among the groups that Open Philanthropy donated to were JustLeadershipUSA, a group that compares the criminal justice system to slavery, Color of Change, a staunch defund the police advocate, People’s Action, which has claimed law enforcement was waging a “war against Black people,” and Fair and Just Prosecution, an advocate for eliminating cash bail. CCP-CONNECTED MILLIONAIRE ALLEGEDLY BANKROLLS MINNEAPOLIS AGITATOR GROUPS THROUGH DARK MONEY NETWORK The group also made donations to the Free Migration Project, which has called for the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the National Bail Fund Network, a coalition of groups that helped bail participants of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. After Minnesota activist Renee Good was killed by an ICE agent earlier this year, Free Migration Project posted on their Instagram that “ICE and Border Patrol cannot be reformed. They must be abolished.” Remarking on the donations, Curtis Schube, director of research and policy at the Center to Advance Security in America, slammed Open Philanthropy, saying the group “quietly funds all kinds of radical projects, including those that eliminate bail demands for criminals and that seek to defund the police.” “These aims are the opposite of social welfare,” said Schube. “They make society less safe and harm the very communities they claim to be concerned about.” The group that Open Philanthropy awarded the highest amount of money to was the Alliance for Safety and Justice, a progressive organization that advocates for replacing incarceration with community-led safety strategies and trauma recovery services. The group received a total of $11,750,000.00 from Open Philanthropy through just three donations between 2016 and 2018. Open Philanthropy gave $4,440,000.00 to JustLeadershipUSA, whose president, DeAnna Hoskins, previously emphasized the need to defund the police, framing it as a “divestment from law and order to an investment in protection in thriving communities.” A spokesperson for Coefficient Giving clarified that the group’s donations “supported a variety of projects designed to improve public safety, reduce government spending, and keep families together.” The spokesperson said the group ceased these types of donations in 2021. The group’s website states that the criminal legal system is “part of a much larger system of oppression that disproportionately plagues Black, Brown, and poor communities.” Further, JustLeadershipUSA’s website states that the carceral system “is in fact a dumping ground for the country’s other failed systems” and “contains strong remnants of slavery.” FOREIGN BILLIONAIRES FUNNEL $2.6B TO US ADVOCACY GROUPS TO INFLUENCE POLICY, WATCHDOG REPORT CLAIMS The website states the group is committed to “disrupting” the carceral system that it says, “like slavery, is based on the subjugation of those under its control.” Open Philanthropy gave $3,259,100 to Color of Change and its affiliated entities. In 2021, a Color of Change campaign director advocated for “no more police and no more mass incarceration,” and pressed New York City to cut $1 billion from the police. The group has advocated to “defund the police,” also supporting diverting police funds in Minneapolis. In 2021, the Color of Change also released a statement urging Facebook to “permanently ban” President Donald Trump from the platform and to “take action against his enablers.” People’s Action, meanwhile, received $1,927,640 from Open Philanthropy. In 2020, People’s Action declared its endorsement of the Movement for Black Lives, a self-proclaimed “anti-capitalist” group. In its statement announcing the endorsement, People’s Action called for “an end to the war against Black people” and demanded schools, colleges, universities and “all public institutions cut ties with the police.” The group wrote that “police do not keep us safe, and incremental reforms cannot change a pervasive culture of police violence against Black people.” In Jan. 2026, the People’s Action sent out a press release urging “immediate action to defund ICE & border patrol and get ICE & border patrol out of Minnesota, Maine, and communities across the country.” Open Philanthropy donated $3 million to Fair And Just Prosecution, a criminal justice reform group that in 2018 co-developed a training model geared towards the offices of newly elected prosecutors that is said was “committed to a justice system that moves away from past incarceration-driven practices and towards principles of equity, fairness, and compassion.” The group has praised state legislation ending cash bail. In 2021, the group lauded an Illinois bill ending cash bail as a “necessary and long overdue” change. A spokesperson for Fair and Just Prosecution told Fox News Digital that the group “supports a peer-driven community of local elected prosecutors working toward a justice system that prioritizes public safety grounded in fairness, equity, fiscal responsibility, and humanity.” Open Philanthropy also seeded the National Bail Fund Network with a $404,800 grant. The network went on to raise millions after the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported in 2023 that some of the defendants helped by bail funds from the group went on to commit violent crimes. FAR-LEFT AGITATOR WHO ORGANIZED MN CHURCH STORMING RAKED IN OVER $1 MILLION FROM ANTI-POVERTY NONPROFIT Open Philanthropy donated $24,000 to the Free Migration Project, a group whose executive director, David Bennion, has previously stated that “ICE should not only be abolished, but its core function of imprisoning and deporting non-citizens must also be eliminated.” Bennion has argued that deportation is “not just cruel and economically counterproductive,” but also claimed it is “inconsistent with basic justice and has no place in a legal system predicated on coherent moral principles.” Though the $130 million donated by Open Philanthropy for criminal justice
Rubio holding secret talks with Raul Castro’s grandson over Cuba’s future: report
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reportedly been holding secret talks with the grandson of Raul Castro, the former President of Cuba. The talks between Rubio and Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro are bypassing official Cuban government channels, Axios reported. “Our position — the U.S. government’s position — is the regime has to go,” a senior official told the news outlet. “But what exactly that looks like is up to [President Trump] and he has yet to decide. Rubio is still in talks with the grandson.” TRUMP SAYS CUBA IS ‘READY TO FALL’ AFTER CAPTURE OF VENEZUELA’S MADURO “I wouldn’t call these ‘negotiations’ as much as ‘discussions’ about the future,” the official added. Earlier this month, Cuban despot Miguel Díaz-Canel warned his country is “close to failing” as the U.S. shuts off commercial valves vital to its survival, such as fuel and food, followed by nearly 70 years of one-party communist rule. Cuba’s power grid is failing, hospitals are short of necessary supplies and garbage has piled up on the streets. MADURO AND ‘LADY MACBETH’ CILIA FLORES MARRIAGE SPELLS ‘WORST CASE’ CUSTODY SCENARIO The Trump administration has ratcheted up pressure on the communist-run island in recent weeks, following the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a Cuban ally. The administration has accused Havana of cozying up to U.S. adversaries and terrorist groups. Fox News Digital has reached out to the State Department. The White House referred Fox News Digital to press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s remarks on Tuesday, in which she said Havana needs to make serious changes. “They are a regime that is falling,” she said. “Their country is collapsing, and that’s why we believe it’s in their best interest to make very dramatic changes very soon. And we’ll see what they decide to do.”
Trump lauds ‘piece of work’ Jesse Jackson at ‘sold-out’ Black History Month event
President Donald Trump praised civil rights activist Jesse Jackson as a “real hero” during a White House Black History Month event Wednesday, just a day after Jackson’s death. “I wanted to begin by expressing a sadness that the passing of a person who was. I knew very well Jesse was a piece of work. He was a piece of work. But he was a good man. He was a real hero,” Trump said Wednesday, earning cheers from the audience. Trump hosted leaders from the Black community at the White House Wednesday to honor Black History Month. He remarked as the event kicked off that there was a “sold-out crowd” and that the White House ballroom under construction would accommodate far more people. VANCE, HARRIS, OBAMA ISSUE TRIBUTES TO REV JESSE JACKSON Trump had lamented Jackson’s death in a prior Truth Social post Tuesday, elaborating on Wednesday that their relationship got “better and better all the time.” “A lot of people you get to know, they get worse and worse. Jesse got better and better. But I knew him well long before becoming president, and he really was special with lots of personality, grit and street smarts,” Trump continued. Jackson, 84, died Tuesday. His cause of death has not been publicly released, but he had suffered from health issues, including living with a rare neurological condition. RICHARD FOWLER: I RAN INTO JESSE JACKSON — AND INTO HISTORY: THE MAN WHO SHAPED A NATION Jackson was a two-time Democratic presidential candidate and longtime civil rights leader who joined Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s before King’s assassination and was the founder of civil rights group Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER REV JESSE JACKSON DEAD AT 84 AND MORE TOP HEADLINES “I will tell you, he was gregarious and someone who truly loved people and a force of nature who is somebody that we’re going to greatly miss. And on behalf of everyone here today, I know you join me in sending our condolences to the entire family,” Trump continued. Wednesday’s event included celebrating the legacy of Black Americans and economic wins under the Trump administration and Trump reigniting his 2025 announcement that former Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, who served during Trump’s first term, would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “Ben’s getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It’s the highest award you can have outside of the Congressional Medal of Honor,” Trump said.
Former Rep MTG asserts that Americans don’t want US war against Iran
As the possibility of U.S. military action against Iran looms, former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene asserted in a post on X that Americans do not want the U.S. to wage war against the Islamic Republic. “Americans do not want to go to war with Iran!!!” Greene exclaimed in the post. “They want to be able to afford their lives and get ahead. They want to be happy and enjoy life. They want their government to put elite pedos in jail. And they voted for NO MORE FOREIGN WARS AND NO MORE REGIME CHANGE,” she added. IRAN SIGNALS NUCLEAR PROGRESS IN GENEVA AS TRUMP CALLS FOR FULL DISMANTLEMENT Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment. Greene, who had previously been a longtime, staunch supporter of President Donald Trump’s, had a major falling out with the president last year and left office early last month in the middle of her House term. TRUMP MAKES ENDORSEMENT IN CONTEST TO FILL HOUSE SEAT VACATED BY EX-ALLY MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE Trump has been pressuring Iran to make a deal to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions. After meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, Trump said in a Truth Social post that he “insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a Deal can be consummated.” “If it can, I let the Prime Minister know that will be a preference,” he wrote. MTG CALLS TRUMP’S ENDORSEMENT OF SALAZAR ‘AN INSULT TO HIS BASE’ CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “If it cannot, we will just have to see what the outcome will be. Last time Iran decided that they were better off not making a Deal, and they were hit with Midnight Hammer — That did not work well for them. Hopefully this time they will be more reasonable and responsible,” Trump declared in the post.
Democrats’ DHS shutdown halts ICE oversight they demanded
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) internal watchdog has been forced to pause a significant chunk of its oversight of immigration enforcement as Democrats continue to withhold support for funding the Cabinet-level agency. A spokesperson for the DHS office of the inspector general (OIG) told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that most of its audits and inspections have had to be paused during the partial government shutdown, including many dealing with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Democrats have called for stricter oversight of ICE since President Donald Trump surged federal law enforcement agents to blue cities across the country in a bid to crack down on illegal immigration. But at least seven of the internal DHS probes into ICE conduct have been suspended after Democrats walked away from a bipartisan deal to fund the department, plunging it into a shutdown. REPUBLICANS WARN DEMOCRATS’ ICE REFORM PUSH IS COVER TO DEFUND BORDER ENFORCEMENT “Most of OIG’s audits, inspections, and similar reviews … are paused during the lapse in appropriations. A small number of OIG audits related to disaster relief continue because they are supported by an extant appropriation,” the spokesperson said. “OIG’s Criminal Investigators are excepted from furlough and are continuing their work during the lapse. OIG does not publicly confirm or deny the existence of any particular criminal investigation.” Probes that have been paused include determining “whether ICE investigates allegations of use of excessive force and holds personnel accountable” and conducting “unannounced inspections to assess compliance with ICE detention standards and ensure safe, secure, and humane conditions of confinement,” according to the spokesperson. GOVERNMENT TO SHUT DOWN AT MIDNIGHT AFTER DEMS, WHITE HOUSE FAIL TO STRIKE DHS DEAL An investigation into whether Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents are conducting domestic U.S. operations in accordance with DHS policies and federal law has also been halted. The CBP probe is notable given it was CBP agents who shot and killed nurse Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen, during an anti-ICE demonstration in Minneapolis last month. Democrats had called for investigations and stricter guardrails after the incident took place. FEDERAL JUDGE TEMPORARILY LIFTS DHS RESTRICTIONS ON LAWMAKER VISITS TO DETENTION FACILITIES But Pretti’s killing, along with the ICE-involved killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, were two of the main catalysts that Democrats said drove them away from an earlier bipartisan deal struck on funding DHS for the remainder of the fiscal year. The original DHS funding bill, which passed the House but failed in the Senate, included new mandatory training requirements for ICE and a mandate for body cameras for federal law enforcement. Democratic leaders have said that was not enough, however, and have rejected another compromise offer sent by the White House in recent days. Democrats reportedly sent back their own counteroffer to Republicans this week, but there appears to be little movement on either side toward an agreement. Two of Democrats’ biggest demands, requiring judicial warrants to execute ICE enforcement action and banning masks for ICE agents while requiring clearly accessible identification, have been panned as non-starters by Republicans. In addition to affecting ICE oversight, a lengthy DHS shutdown also threatens funding for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), among other offices within DHS.
How to watch President Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address to Congress live
President Donald Trump will deliver his 2026 State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, Feb. 24, beginning at 9 p.m. ET. Viewers hoping to watch the speech live will have no shortage of options. All major news networks, including Fox News, will feature live coverage of Trump’s address. Fox News coverage is slated to begin shortly before Trump’s remarks begin, at 8:50 p.m. ET, and will end shortly after the conclusion of the annual address at 11 p.m. Follow Fox’s coverage on Fox News Channel, FoxNews.com, the Fox News App, Fox Nation and the Fox One app. RNC MOCKS ‘FORGOT SOMEONE AGAIN’ AFTER DEMS’ PRESIDENTS DAY POST LEAVES OUT BIG NAME Most networks, including Fox, have links to livestream the State of the Union, and the event will be streamed live on the White House’s website and YouTube page as well. Start your State of the Union afternoon with Martha MacCallum on “The Story” at 3 p.m. ET, featuring the latest preview of Trump’s address. TRUMP RALLIES HOUSE GOP AT KENNEDY CENTER DAYS AFTER MADURO CAPTURE Then at 4 p.m., Will Cain will offer a fresh perspective on the issues at hand in this year’s address on “The Will Cain Show.” At 5 p.m., don’t miss “The Five,” where Greg Gutfeld, Jesse Watters and Dana Perino offer their take on the news of the day and what might happen when Trump takes the dais at the Capitol. Afterward, Fox News chief political anchor Bret Baier offers America’s favorite nightly newscast on “Special Report,” where he and his panel will preview the State of the Union. Laura Ingraham picks up preview coverage at 7 p.m. with “The Ingraham Angle.” Expect Jesse Watters to continue that trend at 8 p.m. on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” where he will preview what to expect. Then, at 8:50 p.m. ET, Bret and Martha return to introduce Trump’s address to the Fox News audience and will host up-to-the-second reaction afterward with Fox analysts, including Perino and Brit Hume.
Climate groups sue Trump administration over EPA’s bombshell deregulation decision
Climate activist groups sued President Donald Trump‘s administration on Wednesday in an effort to block officials from undercutting environmental regulations. The lawsuit targets the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to revoke an Obama-era “endangerment finding” that serves as the underpinning for sweeping climate regulations. The finding, which the administration announced plans to revoke last week, asserted that pollution and climate change constitute harm to the American people. The lawsuit names the EPA and its administrator, Lee Zeldin, as plaintiffs. “EPA’s repeal of the endangerment finding and safeguards to limit vehicle emissions marks a complete dereliction of the agency’s mission to protect people’s health and its legal obligation under the Clean Air Act,” said Gretchen Goldman, president and CEO at the Union of Concerned Scientists, one of the groups behind the lawsuit. “This shameful and dangerous action by the Trump administration and EPA Administrator Zeldin is rooted in falsehoods not facts and is at complete odds with the public interest and the best available science,” Goldman added. TRUMP ADMIN EYES OVERTURNING BIDEN’S GREEN ENERGY LEGACY TO TUNE OF $7B Nearly 20 groups signed on to the lawsuit, including the American Public Health Association, American Lung Association, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and others. The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. The 2009 “endangerment finding” identified six greenhouse gases that the Obama administration said pose “a threat to public health and welfare.” That harm finding was used to justify climate regulations from the EPA such as raising fuel economy standards and limiting power plant emissions. TEXAS CHALLENGES NEWSOM’S GAS CAR CRACKDOWN, WARNING CALIFORNIA CAN’T DICTATE US AUTO MARKET Zeldin hailed the move as cutting through government red tape in an interview with the Wall Street Journal last week. “This amounts to the largest act of deregulation in the history of the United States,” Zeldin said. Trump held an event at the White House last week with Zeldin and Energy Secretary Chris Wright. There they announced a new initiative for the Department of War to purchase electricity from coal-powered plants. The Washington Coal Club also named Trump the “Undisputed Champion of Coal” during the event. Trump has been consistently critical of global warming claims and climate regulation throughout both of his terms in office, famously withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement when he first took office in 2017.
Strategy session: Trump’s team huddles on midterm messaging with spotlight on economy
It’s all about the economy. That was the message from top members of President Donald Trump’s political team, as they huddled in a closed-door strategy session with Trump administration Cabinet members and their top aides on how best to sell the president’s agenda to voters in this year’s midterm elections. The meeting, which was confirmed to Fox News by sources familiar with the gathering, was hosted by White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and deputy chief of staff James Blair, who is steering Trump’s political strategy. According to sources, the message during a slide presentation by chief pollster and strategist Tony Fabrizio was that the economy will be the top issue on the minds of voters, and that the White House needs to spotlight its efforts on easing affordability. TRUMP HITS THE ROAD TO SELL ECONOMIC WINS, AS REPUBLICANS BRACE FOR HIGH-STAKES MIDTERM SHOWDOWN The meeting was held as the GOP works to defend their control of the Senate and their razor-thin House majority in November’s midterms. Republicans are facing traditional political headwinds in the midterms, when the party in power usually loses House and Senate seats. Republicans are also dealing with the president’s continued underwater approval ratings, and a slew of surveys, including the latest Fox News polling, that indicates Americans are pessimistic about the economy and say things have not improved in the year since Trump returned to the White House. CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING Meanwhile, Democrats have scored a series of ballot box victories and overperformances in off-year elections and special elections during Trump’s second administration, thanks to their laser focus on affordability amid persistent inflation. Trump wasn’t at the meeting, according to sources. But he’s expected to spotlight the economy and his administration’s achievements when he holds a political event Thursday in battleground Georgia, which is holding key elections for the Senate and governor this year. IMMIGRATION ONCE FUELED TRUMP’S 2024 WIN — NOW SAGGING APPROVAL TESTS GOP GRIP ON CONGRESS And the president will have an even bigger spotlight next week, when he delivers the annual State of the Union address. Vice President JD Vance offered a taste of the messaging in an interview Tuesday on Fox News’ “The Story.” Pointing to former President Joe Biden‘s administration, Vance argued, “We’re still digging out of the hole the Democrats put us in. And I think the question we’re going to put to the American people is, do you want to give the government back over to the people who, frankly, burned down the house and made most Americans much less wealthy and much less safe? Or do you want to double down on the president’s leadership?” The Tuesday evening meeting took place at the Capitol Hill Club, a private venue popular among political insiders that’s located next to the Republican National Committee’s headquarters, a few blocks from the U.S. Capitol. Besides messaging, sources say the meeting also focused on polling and the 2026 electoral map, with top Trump political aides walking those attending the gathering through new data on key midterm battlegrounds. And they also emphasized the importance of Cabinet officials hitting the trail as key surrogates to sell the president’s agenda.
House GOP moves to cement Trump energy agenda by taking sledgehammer to Biden-era regulations
FIRST ON FOX: A newly proposed bill by House Republicans would cement President Donald Trump’s energy agenda by taking a sledgehammer to a vast array of his Democratic predecessor’s regulations. Rep. Craig Goldman, R-Texas, is introducing legislation that would give all future energy-related regulations a five-year sunset window, while requiring many existing rules to be amended with a one-year expiry pending a review process. It comes after Trump levied a similar executive order that would target energy red tape imposed by former President Joe Biden during his first year in office. But if Goldman’s bill becomes law, it would significantly hamstring the ability of future Democratic administrations to impose new long-term energy policies like Biden’s, many of which Republicans have panned as burdensome and unnecessary. TRUMP ADMIN TO REPEAL OBAMA-ERA GREENHOUSE GAS FINDING IN LARGE-SCALE DEREGULATION He argued to Fox News Digital that those regulations were compounding the rising costs Americans have seen in their daily lives. “It is going through and looking at every single cost, basically from start to finish, of energy costs, and how it affects every single American taxpayer,” Goldman said of his legislation. “All anyone has to do is look at where they were a year and a half ago with costs of certain things. It was all based on regulations passed by the Biden administration, and that’s exactly what we hope to cut and codify.” The Texas Republican pointed out that increased energy costs, including prices at the gas pump, bled into other facets of Americans’ daily lives. “My dad and I owned a wine and food store and, yeah, when gas prices went up, the guy who drove the 18-wheeler full of cheese from Chicago, Illinois, charged us an extra $2,000 for that delivery because his gas prices were up tremendously. And so we couldn’t afford to eat that cost, so the cheese prices went up,” he said as an example. “Everything that every single American taxpayer touches — whether they know it or not, when energy prices are high, their cost of living is in turn going to be high.” TRUMP ADMIN’S ENERGY AGENDA HAILED FOR CRUCIAL ‘WINS’ AS GREEN ACTIVISTS LASH OUT His legislation would primarily target regulations issued under major energy and land laws overseen by the Departments of Energy and Interior. The House has already voted to roll back a number of Biden-era regulatory policies so far this term and with bipartisan support. Last month, 11 Democrats voted with Republicans to overturn Biden administration regulations on showerhead pressure. Both the House and Senate passed resolutions early last year to overturn Biden-era regulations targeting water heaters, with six Democrats joining Republicans in the House on that measure. Rising energy costs have been targeted by both parties as they make competing arguments ahead of the November 2026 midterms. But Goldman is arguing that Democrats have less of a footing to talk about affordability with select goods like gas seeing a decrease in prices this year. “We pushed back, and we made people realize, ‘No, wait a minute. Let’s talk about affordability. Let’s talk about where the cost of things were just over a year and two months ago, before Donald Trump came into office and before Republicans could push through good legislation that President Trump signed,” Goldman said. “I kind of find it quite interesting that all of a sudden the buzzword affordability isn’t much talked about anymore.” Co-sponsors of Goldman’s bill include Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, and Reps. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, Randy Weber, R-Texas, Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., and Barry Moore, R-Ala. A Senate counterpart was introduced by Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho.
Mysterious 2020 explosion in China had hallmarks of nuclear test, US official alleges
A senior U.S. official offered new details Tuesday night about an alleged nuclear bomb test conducted by China in June 2020. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Yeaw spoke at a Hudson Institute event in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, and said evidence of the explosion came from a seismic station in Kazakhstan. The station detected a magnitude 2.75 explosion located at China’s Lop Nur test grounds on June 22, 2020. “I’ve looked at additional data since then. There is very little possibility I would say that it is anything but an explosion, a singular explosion,” Yeaw said, adding that data was not consistent with mining detonations. “It’s also entirely not consistent with an earthquake,” he added. “It is… what you would expect with a nuclear explosive test.” DEMOCRATS FIGHT TO BLOCK TRUMP’S ‘RECKLESS AND UNNECESSARY’ CALL TO RESTART NUCLEAR TESTING China’s embassy in Washington has rejected the Trump administration’s claim, telling NBC News that the report is “political manipulation,” and the U.S. is “evading its own nuclear disarmament responsibilities.” “China urges the U.S. to reaffirm the five nuclear-weapon states’ commitment on refraining from nuclear tests, uphold the global consensus against nuclear tests, and take concrete steps to safeguard the international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime,” spokesperson Liu Pengyu told the outlet. U.S. officials warned that Beijing may be preparing tests in the “hundreds of tons” range — a scale that underscores China’s accelerating nuclear modernization and complicates efforts to draw Beijing into arms control talks. WORLD ENTERS UNCHARTED ERA AS US-RUSSIA NUCLEAR TREATY EXPIRES, OPENING DOOR TO FASTEST ARMS RACE IN DECADES Thomas DiNanno, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, said recently that the United States has evidence China conducted an explosive nuclear test at its Lop Nur site. “I can reveal that the U.S. government is aware that China has conducted nuclear explosive tests, including preparing for tests with designated yields in the hundreds of tons,” DiNanno said during remarks at the United Nations Conference on Disarmament. He added, “China conducted one such yield-producing nuclear test on June 22 of 2020.” DiNanno also accused Beijing of using “decoupling” — detonating devices in ways that dampen seismic signals — to “hide its activities from the world.” China’s foreign ministry has denied the allegations, accusing Washington of politicizing nuclear issues and reiterating that Beijing maintains a voluntary moratorium on nuclear testing. The accusation has sharpened questions about verification, deterrence and whether the U.S. stockpile stewardship program — which relies on advanced simulations rather than live detonations — remains sufficient in an era of renewed great-power nuclear competition.