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The United States on Friday accused China of carrying out a secret nuclear test in 2020 as the Trump administration calls for a broader nuclear weapons agreement including both China and Russia.

The allegation comes a day after thelast remaining nuclear arms control treatybetween the US and Russia lapsed, leaving the world's largest nuclear superpowers without limits on their arsenals for the first time in decades.

President Donald Trump and other top officials in his administration have made clear they will no longer abide by the limitations of the New START Treaty and instead have argued they need a new deal to address threats from Moscow and Beijing. And Trump last year called for the resumption of US nuclear weapons tests.

"Today, 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," Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Thomas DiNanno said in remarks at a global Disarmament Conference in Vienna Friday.

"China conducted one such yield producing nuclear test on June 22 of 2020," he said, without providing further details. A former senior US official told CNN that information about China's 2020 test had been declassified.

DiNanno accused the Chinese military of seeking "to conceal testing by obfuscating the nuclear explosions because it recognized these tests violate test ban commitments."

"China has used decoupling – a method to decrease the effectiveness of seismic monitoring – to hide their activities from the world," he said. According to experts, decoupling happens when a large cavern is dug to lessen the seismic activity from a nuclear explosion, making it harder to detect.

A top official from an organization that works to monitor for nuclear weapons tests worldwide said in a statement Friday that their system "did not detect any event consistent with the characteristics of a nuclear weapon test explosion" on June 22, 2020.

"Subsequent, more detailed analyses have not altered that determination," said Rob Floyd, the executive secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO).

Floyd said the organization's International Monitoring System (IMS) "is capable of detecting nuclear test explosions with a yield equivalent to or greater than approximately 500 tonnes of TNT." He noted it had detected "all six tests conducted and declared by" North Korea.

The alleged Chinese test had a yield "in the hundreds of tons," DiNanno said without providing a specific number, so it's unclear if it would have met the threshold to be be detected the monitoring system.

"If this was a very, very low yield test explosion…it is possible that it could be hidden from the CBTBO monitoring stations," explained Daryl Kimball, the Executive Director of the Arms Control Association.

Floyd noted that there are mechanisms "which could address smaller explosions" provided by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). That treaty prohibits "any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion." However, those mechanisms can only be used when the treaty enters into force.

Most of the world has signed onto and ratified the treaty. Although both the US and China signed, they have not ratified it and Russia withdrew its ratification in 2023. As such, the Treaty cannot enter into force.

The US and China in the past had said they adhere to a moratorium on nuclear testing, but last year, Trump called for US nuclear weapons testing to resume "on an equal basis."

In his remarks on Friday, DiNanno suggested that the alleged Chinese testing had motivated Trump's decree. He also said that "the annual US compliance report has previously assessed that Russia has failed to maintain its testing moratorium by conducting supercritical nuclear weapons tests."

Asked about the allegation of secret nuclear testing, the spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC, said China "follows a policy of 'no first use' of nuclear weapons and a nuclear strategy that focuses on self-defense, and adheres to its nuclear testing moratorium."

"We stand ready to work with all parties to jointly uphold the authority of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty and safeguard the international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime," said Liu Pengyu.

"It's hoped that the US will earnestly abide by its obligations under the Treaty and its commitment to a moratorium on nuclear testing and take concrete actions to uphold the international nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime, as well as global strategic balance and stability," he told CNN.

'The end of an era'

In his remarks Friday, DiNanno said that "February 5, 2026, indeed marks the end of an era: the end of US unilateral restraint," referencing the end of the New START Treaty. Although he did not explicitly say the US would upload additional nuclear weapons now that it was no longer bound by the agreement, he indicated it was likely.

"We will complete our ongoing nuclear modernization programs that were initiated while New START entered into force. The United States also retains non-deployed nuclear capacity that can be used to address the emerging security environment, if directed by the president," he said.

The US "will maintain a robust, credible, and modernized nuclear deterrent to ensure our security preserves peace and stability, and negotiate from a position of strength," he added.

"The next era of arms control can and should continue with clear focus, but it will require the participation of more than just Russia at the negotiating table," DiNanno said.

It is unclear how the US intends to get China to that negotiating table. Beijing has consistently rebuffed trilateral arms control negotiations, arguing that their stockpiles are not on par with Moscow and Washington.

Matthew Kroenig, vice president and senior director of the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, noted that if this is truly China's concern, "shouldn't they want arms control?"

"If they can get us to limit our weapons, that should be better for them," he argued. He said he believes Beijing doesn't want to negotiate because "they want a superpower nuclear force."

"They've invested a lot in building this force. They didn't spend all this money and bend all this metal to trade it away," he said.

Some US officials believe that the expiration of New START paves the way for the expansion of the US arsenal which could prompt enough Chinese concern to bring the expanding nuclear power the table, according to a US official.

Daryl Kimball, the Executive Director of the Arms Control Association, noted that "if there is any true violation of the test ban treaty, that's a big problem, but simply complaining about it doesn't solve the problem."

He called on the US to propose a "sensible approach" like bilateral talks over arms control.

"In the meantime, there is no reason why the United States and Russia should not and cannot continue to respect the central limits of New START," he said.

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CHICAGO — The text messages a Border Patrol agent sent to colleagues and family members after he repeatedly shot a Chicago woman in October can be released to the public, a federal judge ruled Friday. In messages previously made public,the agent braggedabout his marksmanship.

U.S. District Judge Georgia Alexakis stated in court that the text messages provide insight into the agent's and theDepartment of Homeland Security's credibility, as well as into how DHS leadership perceived the shooting.

The agent, Charles Exum, shot Marimar Martinez five times on Oct. 4, after she allegedly rammed her car into agents' vehicles. Martinez denies ramming them andsaid agents were the aggressors. Exum did not have his body camera turned on during the incident.

In one text message previously released,he bragged about his shooting skills,writing: "I fired 5 rounds and she had 7 holes. Put that in your book boys."

Government lawyers argued that the release of Exum's text messages would further sully the agent and his family.

The judge pushed back. "I don't know why the United States government has expressed zero concern for the sullying of Ms. Martinez's reputation," Alexakis said.

Martinez's attorney, Chris Parente, said his team would work over the weekend with government lawyers on redactions, and Martinez's legal team would be releasing the evidence no earlier than Monday.

Martinez pleaded not guilty in October to Justice Department charges that she used her vehicle "to assault, impede, and interfere with the work of federal agents in Chicago." The governmentdropped its case against Martinez, but her lawyers say officials have refused to correct the record afterbranding her a "domestic terrorist."

The judge ruled Friday that more evidence in Martinez's case could be made public, including emails, text messages, investigative reports and statements by higher ranking DHS officials. Martinez's lawyer said these will shine a light on their thinking and how they are instructing their officers. As part of this ruling, body camera footage from an agent who was in the vicinity of the shooting can also be released, as well as photos and reports from after the crash and audio from Martinez's 911 call.

Alexakis noted that DHS has not publicly addressed that they dropped the case with prejudice — meaning they cannot seek to charge her in the case in the future.

In court filings, Parente wrote that recent fatal shootings in Minnesota show why the evidence in Martinez's case is important to the public interest.

"Based on recent events in Minneapolis, Minnesota, involving the execution of two U.S. citizens who were engaged in similar peaceful protests as Ms. Martinez at the time of their killings, Ms. Martinez believes certain information disclosed in her case, and currently subject to the Protective Order, would be useful for both the public and elected officials to know regarding how DHS responds in cases where their agents use deadly force against U.S. citizens," he wrote.

Parente also laid out a series of high-ranking officials in the Trump administration who had made misstatements about Martinez.

That included an Oct. 6 post FBI Director Kash Patel shared from a different account that included a video on X that read: "This is the video where Marimar Martinez, aka La Maggie, rammed a white DHS vehicle who had their emergency lights on. Another DHS black SUV then attempts to ram Marimar's SUV from behind. One DHS agent is on the passenger side firing shots. Democrats are insane."

As of early Friday,Patel had not taken downthat post.

Martinez's attorneys also asked for the release of Flock surveillance camera footage from 30 days before the shooting — arguing that it would show her engaged in everyday activities and rebut DHS' statements that she has a history of doxxing federal agents and ambushing them.

The judge ruled in favor of releasing that footage but not license plate reader camera data, saying it would have "little value" to clear Martinez's name.

At one point during the court hearing, Parente said there would be no need to release any of the footage if the U.S. government publicly said that Martinez is not a domestic terrorist. The judge said the court wasn't expected to handle negotiations such as that.

After the hearing, lawyers for Martinez said they will continue to fight to clear her reputation.

"You can't call a U.S. citizen with no criminal history who's a Montessori school teacher a domestic terrorist, which is such a loaded word in this country, and repeat it over and over as late as yesterday," Parente said.

By Nate Raymond

Feb 6 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a challenge to a move by President Donald Trump's administration to ban diversity, equity and ​inclusion programs at federal agencies and businesses with government contracts.

A three-judge panel of the ‌Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned an injunction that would have blocked Trump's administration from implementing executive ‌orders he signed shortly after taking office last year aimed at eliminating DEI programming in the government and private sector.

The court in March 2025 at the administration's urging put on hold that preliminary injunction, which had been issued by Baltimore-based U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson, while it weighed the government's appeal.

Democracy ⁠Forward, a liberal legal group that ‌represented the plaintiffs, said it is reviewing the ruling. The White House had no immediate comment.

Abelson's ruling came in a lawsuit by the city of ‍Baltimore, the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education and the American Association of University Professors.

They challenged provisions of Trump's executive orders that directed federal agencies to eliminate DEI programs, certify government contractors and grant ​recipients do not operate them, and work with the Justice Department to take measures to ‌deter DEI programs and investigate companies with such policies.

Abelson had concluded Trump's directives likely violate the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment free speech protections and impose vague standards that fail to comply with the Fifth Amendment's due process requirements.

But U.S. Circuit Judge Albert Diaz, writing for Friday's panel, said Trump's directives could not be challenged head-on, saying they could instead be challenged based on how agencies ⁠apply them to specific grant recipients.

"President Trump has decided ​that equity isn't a priority in his administration and ​so has directed his subordinates to terminate funding that supports equity-related projects to the maximum extent allowed by law," Diaz wrote. "Whether that's sound policy or not isn't ‍our call."

Diaz, an appointee of ⁠Democratic President Barack Obama, in a separate concurring opinion said he had reached his conclusion "reluctantly," saying the evidence suggested a "sinister story" that resulted in important programs being terminated by ⁠keyword.

"For those disappointed by the outcome, I say this: Follow the law," Diaz wrote. "Continue your critical work. Keep the ‌faith. And depend on the Constitution, which remains a beacon amid the tumult."

(Reporting by ‌Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Alistair Bell)

A Russian general serving as deputy head of Russian military intelligence was shot and seriously wounded in Moscow on Friday, officials said – the latest in a series of attacks on top military figures.

An unknown attacker fired several shots at Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev in a residential building on Volokolamskoye Highway in Moscow and fled the scene, a Russian Investigative Committee spokesperson said in a statement.

The Russian Investigative Committee said its officers are at the scene and investigators are searching for the shooter. The committee has opened a criminal case into what it called the attempted murder of a high-ranking defense ministry official.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused the Ukrainian government of being behind the attempted murder of Alekseyev, without citing evidence.

Ukrainian authorities have not commented on the shooting.

Alekseyev has been transferred to a city hospital, the Investigative Committee statement said. He is in intensive care and in a serious condition following the shooting, according to Russian state media.

Alekseyev, 64, is the first deputy head of Russia's Main Intelligence Directorate, the GRU. The Russian general was one of several GRU officials sanctioned by the United States in 2016 for wide-ranging malicious cyber activity directed at undermining US democratic processes.

He was also sanctioned by the European Union in January 2019 following anerve agent attackin Salisbury, England, which the British government said was carried out by GRU agents to poison a former Russian spy. The EU sanctions describe Alekseyev as "responsible for the possession, transport and use in Salisbury… of the toxic nerve agent 'Novichok' by officers from the GRU," along with sanctioned Russian military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov.

Alexseyev has had significant involvement in the war in Ukraine, serving as one of Russia's negotiators in thesecret talkswith a member of the Ukrainian parliament to end Russia's 2022 siege of the strategic city of Mariupol, Ukraine.

A Ukrainian intelligence report on Alexseyev claims he has been responsible for "the organization of the preparation of initial data for launching missile and air strikes on Ukrainian territory," including on civilian targets, as well as being responsible for theillegal referendain the occupied Ukrainian territories. Ukraine has also accused him of war crimes in Syria.

In 2023, Alekseyev was sent by the Russian military to negotiate withYevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner private mercenary group, during the Wagner group's mutiny. At the time, he called Prigozhin's actions a coup as well as "a stab in the back of the country and the president."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a Friday press briefing that the intelligence services were investigating the attack and would report any findings to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He added: "We wish the general survival and recovery."

"It is clear that such military leaders and highly qualified specialists are at risk during a war," Peskov said when asked about the security of military officials' residences. "That's a matter for the intelligence services."

A neighbor of Alekseyev told Reuters that she heard several shots around 6:30 a.m. local time Friday. The woman, who only gave her first name as Alexandra, said she "woke up because of shots" and rushed outside the residential building alongside other neighbors. Another resident had already called police, who arrived by 7 a.m., she said.

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Several prominent Russians have been killed by explosive devices or shot dead in Moscow inattacksblamed on the Ukrainian security services since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Russian strikes continue

Friday's shooting in Moscow comes one day after Russian, Ukrainian and US negotiators met for trilateral talks in the United Arab Emirates, where the Russian delegation was led by their military intelligence chief Kostyukov.

The Kremlin on Friday described the trilateral talks as "both constructive and challenging."

Ukraine's negotiation team also said the talks were "truly constructive" in a comment to news agency RBC-Ukraine, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said they'd "agreed that the next meeting will be held in the near future."

But beyond a prisoner swap that took place on Thursday, which saw 314 POWs exchanged, no major breakthroughs were announced by either side.

Despite the diplomatic engagement, Russia's attacks on Ukraine have continued this week.

At least three Ukrainian people were killed and 15 people injured in Russian attacks within the last day, Ukrainian authorities said on Friday. Russia launched two ballistic missiles, five cruise missiles and hundreds of drones overnight into Friday, hitting the Ukrainian regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Kharkiv.

In Zaporizhzhia, a Russian attack on Friday heavily damaged an animal shelter, according to the city council, which released video showing several animals injured or killed.

Throughout the winter – the coldest one Ukraine has experienced in 20 years – Russia's military has also intensified itsassault on the country's energy sector.

In the capital Kyiv, where temperatures are below freezing on Friday, 1,100 high-rise residential buildings remain without power, according to local authorities. In the two districts of Kyiv that have been hit hard by attacks on energy infrastructure, about half the schools are operating without heat.

"The Kremlin is doubling down on war crimes, deliberately striking homes and civilian infrastructure," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday, as she announced the EU is tabling its 20th package of sanctions against Russia.

"This is not the conduct of a state seeking peace. It is the behaviour of a nation waging a war of attrition against a civilian innocent population," von der Leyen said.

This is story has been updated with developments.

CNN's Victoria Butenko and Svitlana Vlasova contributed to this report.

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BANI WALID, Libya (AP) — Thousands converged on Friday in northwestern Libya for the funeral ofSeif al-Islam Gadhafi, the son and one-time heir apparent ofLibya'slate leader Moammar Gadhafi, who waskilled earlier this weekwhen four masked assailants stormed into his home and fatally shot him.

Mourners carried his coffin in the town of Bani Walid, 146 kilometers (91 miles) southeast of the capital, Tripoli, as well as large photographs of both Seif al-Islam, who was known mostly by his first name, and his father.

The crowd also waved plain green flags, Libya's official flag from 1977 to 2011 under Gadhafi, who ruled the country for more than 40 years before being toppled in a NATO-backedpopular uprisingin 2011. Gadhafi was killed later that yearin his hometown of Sirteas fighting in Libya escalated into a full-blown civil war.

As the funeral procession got underway and the crowds swelled, a small group of supporters took Seif al-Islam's coffin away and later performed the funeral prayers and buried him.

Attackers at his home

Seif al-Islam, 53, was killed on Tuesday inside his home in the town of Zintan, 136 kilometers (85 miles) southwest of the capital, Tripoli, according to Libyan's chief prosecutor's office.

Authorities said an initial investigation found that he was shot to death but did not provide further details. Seif al-Islam's political team later released a statement saying "four masked men" had stormed his house and killed him in a "cowardly and treacherous assassination," after disabling security cameras.

Seif al-Islam was captured by fighters in Zintan late in 2011 while trying to flee to neighboring Niger. The fighters released him in June 2017, after one of Libya's rival governments granted him amnesty.

"The pain of loss weighs heavily on my heart, and it intensifies because I can't bid him farewell from within my homeland — a pain that words can't ease," Seif al-Islam's brother Mohamed Gadhafi, who lives in exile outside Libya though his current whereabouts are unknown, wrote on Facebook on Friday.

"But my solace lies in the fact that the loyal sons of the nation are fulfilling their duty and will give him a farewell befitting his stature," the brother wrote.

Since the uprising that toppled Gadhafi, Libya plunged into chaos during which the oil-rich North African country split, with rival administrations now in the east and west, backed by various armed groups and foreign governments.

Gadhafi's heir-apparent

Seif al-Islam was Gadhafi's second-born son and was seen as the reformist face of the Gadhafi regime — someone with diplomatic outreach who had worked to improve Libya's relations with Western countries up until the 2011 uprising.

The United Nations imposed sanctions on Seif al-Islam that included a travel ban and an assets freeze for his inflammatory public statements encouraging violence against anti-Gadhafi protesters during the 2011 uprising. The International Criminal Court later charged him with crimes against humanity related to the2011 uprising.

In July 2021, Seif al-Islam told the New York Times that he's considering returning to Libya's political scene after a decade of absence during which he observed Middle East politics and reportedly reorganized his father's political supporters.

He condemned the country's new leaders. "There's no life here. Go to the gas station — there's no diesel,″ Seif al-Islam told the Times.

In November 2021, he announced his candidacy in the country's presidential election in a controversial move that was met with outcry from anti-Gadhafi political forces in western and eastern Libya.

The country's High National Elections Committeedisqualified him, but the election wasn't held over disputes between rival administrations and armed groups.

Associated Press writer Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.