Beijing Blasts Trump After US Releases New Details On Alleged 2020 Chinese Nuclear Test
Beijing Blasts Trump After US Releases New Details On Alleged 2020 Chinese Nuclear Test
Update: Despite the Lunar New Year holiday, Beijing has made it known it is not best pleased with Washington digging up Nuke blasts from the past.
Issuing a statement via state mouthpiece (@HuXijin_GT), the CCP suggested an ulterior motive for the timing of this announcement:
"Trump is eager to resume nuclear testing and needs a plausible reason, and accusing China of conducting nuclear tests is the perfect pretext.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Yeaw stated on Tuesday that the US is prepared to conduct low-yield nuclear tests in response to alleged secret nuclear tests by China and Russia.
The US is being far too hasty; having just fabricated rumors that China conducted an explosive nuclear test nearly six years ago, they are already announcing their own low-yield nuclear test.
Washington's motives for spreading these rumors are too clear; they can't even be bothered to feign it."
Hard to disagree with the latter point.
* * *
a senior State Department official released additional evidence Tuesday in support of U.S. allegations that China conducted an underground nuclear test in June 2020, as global arms control frameworks unravel.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Yeaw, while
to a Hudson Institute meeting, discussed data from a remote seismic station in Kazakhstan that recorded a magnitude 2.75 “explosion” approximately 450 miles from 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, underscoring that the data were not consistent with blasts from mining.
“It’s also entirely not consistent with an earthquake,” said Yeaw, a former intelligence analyst and defense official who holds a doctorate in nuclear engineering. “It is ... what you would expect with a nuclear explosive test.”
Yeaw argued that China tried to hide the event through decoupling, detonating the device in a spacious underground cavity to diminish seismic waves.
Under Secretary of State for Arms Control Thomas DiNanno earlier this month 
China of performing such secretive nuclear arms tests and implementing measures to restrict seismic evidence.
“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,” DiNanno said.
These claims back up Yeaw’s assertions of concealment tactics.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, which monitors global explosions, noted that available data do not allow for firm conclusions.
Executive Secretary Robert Floyd said in a statement that the seismic monitoring station in Kazakhstan captured “two very small seismic events” 12 seconds apart on June 22, 2020.
The organization’s network detects events equivalent to 551 tons (500 metric tons) of TNT or more, according to Floyd.
“These two events were far below that level,” Floyd said. “As a result, with this data alone, it is not possible to assess the cause of these events with confidence.”
China, a signatory to the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty but not a ratifier, rejected the initial U.S. accusation at an international conference this month. Beijing’s last acknowledged underground test occurred in 1996.
The United States, which also signed but did not ratify the treaty, is legally bound to its terms under international norms. America’s final underground test was in 1992, with subsequent reliance on sophisticated simulations and supercomputers for warhead maintenance.
President Donald Trump recently 
Feb. 5.
China refused the invitation, arguing that its arsenal is far smaller than those of the United States and Russia. The Pentagon estimates China’s current operational warheads at more than 600. The stockpile is expected to exceed 1,000 by 2030.
The
of American Scientists, an organization working to minimize the risks of nuclear threats, tracks Russia as currently having 5,459 warheads, while the United States has 5,177.
The New START accord expiration removes caps on deployed strategic warheads and delivery vehicles, potentially accelerating buildups. Russia and the United States said they would informally observe limits.
Thu, 02/19/2026 - 04:15
The Epoch Times
US Releases New Details on Alleged 2020 Chinese Nuclear Test
The blast is not consistent with an earthquake, said one expert: ‘It is ... what you would expect with a nuclear explosive test.’
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Yeaw, while
to a Hudson Institute meeting, discussed data from a remote seismic station in Kazakhstan that recorded a magnitude 2.75 “explosion” approximately 450 miles from 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, underscoring that the data were not consistent with blasts from mining.
“It’s also entirely not consistent with an earthquake,” said Yeaw, a former intelligence analyst and defense official who holds a doctorate in nuclear engineering. “It is ... what you would expect with a nuclear explosive test.”
Yeaw argued that China tried to hide the event through decoupling, detonating the device in a spacious underground cavity to diminish seismic waves.
Under Secretary of State for Arms Control Thomas DiNanno earlier this month The Epoch Times
US Accuses China of Conducting Secretive Nuclear Arms Tests
A U.S. diplomat said one nuclear test occurred in June 2020. He also accused China of taking measures to limit the seismic evidence of its tests.
The Epoch Times
US Calls for China to Enter Nuclear Arms Treaty
U.S. under secretary for arms control states that China is on track to have 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030.
The Epoch Times
US Calls for China to Enter Nuclear Arms Treaty
U.S. under secretary for arms control states that China is on track to have 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030.
Tyler Durden | Zero Hedge
Zero Hedge
Beijing Blasts Trump After US Releases New Details On Alleged 2020 Chinese Nuclear Test | ZeroHedge
ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
Descalzi told the FT that Eni was in preliminary talks with a number of commodity trading houses, including Mercuria.
“It is not in our DNA. We are not very commercial,” Descalzi explained.
“So I thought to become commercial, we have to have a partnership to understand the business.”
“If we can offer physical hedging, that is a big advantage for them. We can complement each other,” the chief executive of the supermajor added, noting the amount of oil and gas that Eni produces should make it an attractive partner.
Despite oil trading being a major profit source for Big Oil, Shell, for one, 
"Heading into 2026, we expect Chinese OEMs to further intensify their European expansion plans, e.g., BYD offering c.30% price discounts while aiming to double its volume in Germany this year," Frenes said.
Here's the demand of Chinese and local car companies for January.
Where these Chinese car brands are invading Europe.
Frenes highlights several key developments of Chinese brand expansion across the bloc:
Chery & Jaguar Land Rover (JLR): Chery is reportedly exploring a manufacturing partnership with JLR that would leverage spare capacity at JLR's Halewood plant in the UK (link). The plant, which has an annual capacity of c.200,000 units, was significantly underutilized in the past few years. We estimate the average utilization rate at c.60%. This initiative would build on the existing Chery–JLR relationship, as the two companies have operated a manufacturing joint venture in China since 2012. Discussions reportedly involve the UK government and JLR leadership, and Chery has publicly highlighted the UK as a potential production base as part of its localization strategy. No definitive agreement has been announced.
Geely & Ford: Both companies are reportedly in advanced discussions for a partnership under which Geely would utilize Ford's manufacturing facilities in Valencia, Spain (link). We estimate the average ulilization rate of this factory to be at c.70% over the last 5 years. This approach is consistent with Geely's established strategy of partnering with other automakers, such as its existing deal with Renault to leverage their factories in South Korea and Brazil. No definitive agreement has been announced.
Uncertainty over reported suspension of BYD's Turkey plant: BYD has reportedly halted plans for its USD 1bn EV factory in Manisa, Turkey. Media cites that a dispute over core technology transfer requirements, along with parliamentary scrutiny, may have contributed to the investment being paused. The statement was rejected by the Turkish Trade Minister while the company has not issued any official confirmation.
BYD is planning for explosive demand across the bloc this year.
Our assessment here is much deeper than just market share; the fact that Brussels is allowing this invasion to occur in the first place puts severe pressure on European OEMs and suppliers.
Anduril Industries founder Palmer Luckey outlined exactly this threat in a recent Joe Rogan podcast.
"If you let them (US car manufacturers) freely compete, like if you let them go toe to toe, China would be thrilled if they could subsidise their way into destroying the American automotive apparatus, partly for economic reasons. But there's another reason," Luckey said.
He continued, "How did the United States win World War II … Manufacturing – some of it was new factories, but most of it was taking over old factories."
"We took all of our farm implement factories, like John Deere and Caterpillar. They were building tanks and guns. We took all our automotive factories. We had them building aircraft, we had them building weapons, we had them building missiles," he said.
He said, "In fact, we even designed those weapons so they could be manufactured by those plants … We won because we had all of this automotive and other industrial capacity."
Luckey warned, "China would love to wipe out the American automotive industry, partly for economic reasons, because it also means we will never be able to fight a war against them. Imagine in America with like, we've lost a lot of manufacturing … If China could wipe out our industrial capacity entirely, they never need to worry about fighting a war with the US again because they know that we wouldn't be able to get back in the game fast enough to matter."
It's as if Brussels is allowing its own decline, whether by letting a flood of Chinese EVs pour onto European streets or by pursuing climate policies that have weakened reliable power generation and eroded core industrial capacity.
However, we do think the bloc is starting to recognize where this trajectory ends and, as the world fractures and the war in Eastern Europe grinds on. That reality was reflected last week, when industrial leaders 
The centerpiece of the Green manifesto is a commitment to provide refuge for those fleeing environmental degradation. Following the vote, the regional association signaled its intent to make Berlin a primary destination for these individuals. Notably, the city has a long-term housing crisis, with the government spending now 
Du Bin, 54, was formally arrested in November last year, according to people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisal. His case has been transferred to the procuratorate for examination and prosecution as of late January, the sources told The Epoch Times.
Du has been held at Shunyi Detention Center in Beijing since October, when he was taken by police from his residence, according to his sister and rights groups.
Authorities told his sister at the time that Du was detained under suspension for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” The vaguely worded charge is often used by the regime to target 
In December 2020, days before his historical book “Red Terror: Lenin’s Communist Experiment” was set to be published in Taiwan, Du was 
Du is also a photographer who once contributed to international media outlets, including The New York Times. But he was forced to stop after authorities denied him a work permit over his books.
His work includes “Tiananmen Massacre,” which compiles firsthand accounts of the night of June 3–4, 1989, when CCP leaders 
Under the old system, foreign drivers holding only work permits could obtain commercial trucking licenses because Employment Authorization Documents don't indicate prior traffic violations, accidents, or license suspensions in other countries. States had no way to know whether an applicant had a clean record or a history of reckless driving before allowing them to operate an 80,000-pound vehicle.
The new rule formally codifies Duffy's emergency action from last September that ended the issuance of non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses to truckers with unverified driving histories. EADs will no longer be accepted as proof of eligibility. Applicants must instead present an unexpired foreign passport along with the appropriate Form I-94, which tracks a noncitizen's entry to and exit from the United States.
“Under the provisions, only foreign nationals holding temporary work visas, such as H‑2B, H‑1B, or temporary investor visas from treaty countries, known as E‑2 visas, may be eligible,”
Water rights exceed water supply across much of the western United States. With many watersheds failing to deliver enough water for local needs, the suit is being watched by attorneys, state water managers, and federal agencies. It could potentially set a precedent in revising how states across the West regulate access to water.
The Nevada case, filed by the Walker River Paiute Tribe and Mineral County, may also present an opportunity for a win-win solution, in which nonprofits and government entities purchase private water rights from willing upstream sellers and dedicate them to downstream public benefit.
Without public-private intervention and the changes in state water law that the suit seeks, geologists and environmental experts agree the future is bleak for Walker Lake, a 13-mile long terminal lake about 75 miles southeast of Reno near the California state line in rural, sparsely populated Mineral County.
The lake is completely dependent on diminishing Sierra Nevada snowmelt runoff into the Walker River—runoff that, for decades now, has been almost entirely diverted for irrigation by upstream farmers and ranchers.
As a result, a desert oasis that once generated more than half of Mineral County’s economic activity through recreational pursuits such as fishing, migratory bird-watching, boating, and camping is now a lifeless “sludge pond,” while the town of Walker Lake faces an accelerating prospect of extinction.
“The last fish was caught in 2013 or 2015, I believe. When the fish died, the fishing died; boating, recreation, that all just disappeared,” Mineral County Commissioner Tony Ruse said.
“There were restaurants here. There were hotels here. There were businesses here. Now? All gone, just 300 residents struggling.”
A Mineral County native, Ruse returned in 2020 after working 34 years as a Switzerland-trained chef in Europe and Asia, including 20 years in South Korea, to open The Big Horn Crossing, a restaurant and convenience store in a shuttered bait shop. It’s now Walker Lake’s only remaining retail business.
“It was dead. There was nothing,” he told The Epoch Times. “We should be selling bait here. We should be selling fishing supplies. There should be boats parked in our driveway right now.”
(Top) Walker Lake has receded well beyond the sign on U.S. Route 95, in Mineral County, Nev., in January 2026. Decades ago, anglers could shorecast for fish that can no longer survive in the shrinking lake. (Bottom) Nevada’s Walker Lake, a 13-mile-long lake about 75 miles southeast of Reno near the California state line in rural Mineral County, was once more than 30 miles long and 160 feet higher than it is now, in Mineral County, Nev., in January 2026. John Haughey/The Epoch Times
But with mountain runoff unreliable for decades now, when upstream users divert their share, little to no water makes it to Walker Lake, leaving once-bustling waterfront businesses marooned as hulking shells far from a distant, receding shore.
The case, United States and Walker River Paiute Tribe v. Walker River Irrigation District, is not a new case, but ongoing litigation arising from a lawsuit filed in 1924.
It’s part of a flood of litigation stemming from Walker River allocations, going back to 1902, when rancher Henry Miller sued Thomas Rickey over water rights on the river.
A 1936 Walker River Decree 
The Supreme Court of Nevada building in Carson City, Nev., in this file photo. In 2020, the court determined that all Nevada waters will now be allocated under the public trust doctrine. Steven Frame/Shutterstock
The court directed Mineral County to recommend ways to restore the lake without reallocating water rights, and to work with the Walker Basin Conservancy, a nonprofit created in 2014 with federal funding initially secured by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Walker Basin Restoration Program.
In 2021, Mineral County amended its 2015 complaint to intervene in the decades’-long parallel suit by the Walker River Paiute Tribe seeking to boost Walker River flows into a reservation reservoir and secure water rights for 167,460 acres added to the reservation since 1936.
The county’s complaint includes 24 “actions … necessary to restore and maintain Walker Lake’s public trust values.”
After years of procedural delays, including a requirement to individually serve more than 1,000 watershed landowners across the country, the case is set to proceed into discovery. A potential trial looms.
But an alternate “win-win” solution orchestrated by the Walker Basin Conservancy is gaining traction and could, perhaps, mitigate the need for a court-ordered resolution.
‘The Only Solution’
Since its creation, the conservancy has restored public access to 33 miles along the Walker River and purchased more than 13,700 acres of water rights, enough to restore about 60 percent of the river inflow biologists maintain is needed to restore the lake’s fishery.
Conservancy CEO Peter Stanton and Water Program Director Carlie Henneman did not return emails and repeated phone requests for comment about the program from The Epoch Times. Nor did the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, Walker River Irrigation District attorney Gordon DePaoli, or Walker Basin Working Group’s Oregon-based legal advisers, Jamie Saul of the Wild & Scenic Law Center and Kevin Cassidy of Lewis & Clark Law School’s Earthrise Law Center.
Several attorneys representing different parties would only speak off-the-record, underscoring the contentious complexities of the case.
A sign of the Walker River Paiute Tribe in Shurz, Nev., on Oct. 16, 2024. Walker Lake retains water flowing east 100 miles from California’s Bridgeport and Topaz reservoirs through Nevada’s Smith and Mason valleys and the Walker River Paiute Tribe's reservation. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
Roderick E. Walston, an attorney with Best Best & Krieger in Walnut Creek, Calif., told The Epoch Times his clients above the Bridgeport Reservoir in California are apprehensive about Mineral County’s suit, which he said essentially demands the federal court to reallocate existing water rights under the public trust doctrine.
“Our response is basically that the Nevada Supreme Court resolved that issue four years ago,” he said.
Walston was a California deputy attorney general in 1983 and argued the Mono Lake case before the California Supreme Court. In that case, the state’s public trust doctrine was used to thwart Los Angeles from purchasing Mono Lake water rights that would have devastated the lake’s ecology and Sierra Nevada economies.
“So I argued both the case in California Supreme Court 40-something years ago and then also argued the case in the Nevada Supreme Court about four years ago,” he said.
Walston said the case could have “great impact” on water disputes in states that uphold the prior allocation doctrine. “This is an absolutely large case,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mineral County District Attorney Ryan McCormick, who assumed his post seven weeks ago, told The Epoch Times he’s playing catch-up in reading filings “from decades and decades of litigation.”
A sign is pictured at Walker Lake in Hawthorne, Nev., on Oct. 16, 2024. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Walker Lake’s water levels have declined more than 160 feet since 1882. Nearly 30 miles long in 1850, the lake is only 12 miles long today. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
“In a perfect world, if we get some specific performance and find a way to divert water back into the lake and have the levels rising again, that would be absolutely ideal,” he said, adding he isn’t privy to the reasoning behind all of the 24 actions assembled by the Walker Lake Working Group.
It’s a complicated case in a long-litigated watershed but the best resolution is simple, McCormick said. “With the best interests of Mineral County, Hawthorne, and Walker Lake in mind here, we would like the lake to be receiving fresh water again. It would be nice to see some economic development right now, right?”
But Walston said odds are slim the court will cast aside the state’s Supreme Court determination that existing water rights cannot be reallocated.
Working with the conservancy and other groups to purchase water rights from willing landowners at $3,000 to $4,000 per acre foot—an acre of one-foot deep water—is a win-win for all involved, he said.
“It’s the only solution, really. The Nevada Supreme Court has said you can’t just take water rights that have been adjudicated and take that water and put it into Walker Lake,” Walston said.
“But you can go to various water users and negotiate with them and buy their water rights. In that case, then you could reallocate.”
The Today Show sports presenter appeared to slur and stumble her way through her segment amid snowstorm, rambling incoherently before dramatically throwing herself to the ground to make snow angels.
Social media has lit up with speculation after popular Channel 9 sports and rugby league host Danika Mason appeared on morning television struggling to get her words out while covering the Winter Olympics in Italy.
📌 READ MORE: 
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said Colbert could have aired his interview with Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate, if the late-night TV show he hosts complied with federal equal time rules by airing interviews with other Democrats vying for the seat.
“There was no censorship here at all,” Carr told reporters.
“Every single broadcaster in this country has an obligation to be responsible for the programming that they choose to air, and they’re responsible whether it complies with FCC rules or not, and it doesn’t, and those individual broadcasters are also going to have a potential liability.”
Talarico has alleged in posts on his X account that the FCC and the Trump administration had tried to censor the interview and barred him from appearing on Colbert’s program, although the interview was published online.
“The reason the Trump administration and their billionaire friends are trying to silence me and this movement is because they’re worried that we are going to flip Texas in November,” he said in a video, which was posted on X.
Aside from Talarico’s allegations of censorship, Colbert, who is set to leave “The Late Show” in May, also criticized CBS and the Trump administration during his program.
“Then I was told, in some uncertain terms, that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on,” the “The Late Show” host said on Tuesday, adding that “because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.”
The interview with Talarico was uploaded to Colbert’s YouTube channel on Tuesday evening.
In statements to media outlets in response to Colbert’s claims, CBS denied that “The Late Show” was barred by the network from airing the Talarico interview and instead said that its lawyers advised the company that the broadcast could trigger the equal time rule.
“The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled,” CBS said in the statement.
It noted that the interview was published on the show’s YouTube channel instead.
The issue came just hours before early voting opened Tuesday in Texas’s primary elections, which feature hotly contested Senate nomination races in both parties.
Talarico’s main opponent in the primary is Crockett (D-Texas) and both have built national profiles through viral social media clips.
On the Republican side, four-term incumbent Sen. John Cornyn is facing the political fight of his career against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas).
In a notice last month, the FCC said that it is changing the rules exempting certain late-night and daytime talk shows from being mandated to provide equal airtime to opposing candidates.
“Importantly, the FCC has not been presented with any evidence that the interview portion of any late night or daytime television talk show program on air presently would qualify for the bona fide news exemption,” the FCC said on Jan. 21.
“Moreover, a program that is motivated by partisan purposes, for example, would not be entitled to an exemption under longstanding FCC precedent.”
The Epoch Times contacted the FCC for comment Wednesday.
Four rising humanoid robot startups - Unitree Robotics, Galbot, Noetix, and MagicLab - demonstrated their robots on state TV. In one show, a dozen Unitree humanoids performed sophisticated fight scenes.
China's humanoid robot industry is preparing for two major initial public offerings this year: AgiBot and Unitree.
As we've previously reported, these bots are beginning to push beyond scripted video stunts - such as shown in the video above - into real-world applications. The factory floors are now being invaded, then these bots will be battlefield-ready.
Related research and roadmap of what's ahead:
Yet, as we document in a new report for the Chapman Center for Demographics and Policy, there are signs that religion is enjoying more than a nascent revival. Data emerging from the 2020s suggest that we are witnessing a complex spiritual restructuring that intersects with economic mobility, demographic resilience, and a profound intellectual realignment.
For the first time in decades, Pew Research notes, in the U.S. at least, Christianity has 
There are ways to lower your monthly mortgage by using recasting or refinancing. Each option works differently, so it’s important to understand how they compare.
Recasting a Mortgage
Mortgage recasting is when you make a lump-sum payment to your principal balance. Once done, your lender then calculates a new, lower monthly payment. Your interest rate stays the same.
For example, suppose you owe $250,000 on your mortgage and receive a $50,000 inheritance. If you use all of it to recast your mortgage, your lender will recalculate your monthly payments based on a $250,000 balance, lowering your monthly payment.
Refinancing a Mortgage
With refinancing a mortgage, you take out a new home loan and use it to pay off the outstanding balance of your existing mortgage. This is often done to secure a lower rate. Typically, the new rate results in a lower monthly payment and less overall cost.
Refinancing doesn’t require a lump sum payment toward the principal.
Costs of Recasting and Refinancing a Mortgage
According to Experian, both recasting and refinancing come with costs. For example, you will be charged an administrative fee for a mortgage recast. This typically runs a few hundred dollars, depending on the lender.
Mortgage refinancing has a different cost structure. Closing costs can total two to five percent of the loan amount.
Can All Types of Mortgages Be Recast or Refinanced?
Conventional loans can be recast, but according to PNC Insights, not all mortgage types are eligible. Government-backed loans, including those from the Federal Housing Administration, Veterans Affairs, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, are not eligible for recast.
Conventional and government-backed mortgages are eligible for refinancing.
When Do Borrowers Refinance or Recast a Mortgage?
Refinancing, technically, gives you a new mortgage with new interest and terms. For example, if you have a 30-year mortgage, you can refinance to a 15-year mortgage or vice versa.
Most borrowers refinance to obtain a better interest rate or switch from an adjustable-rate to a fixed mortgage. They also may use it to switch equity to cash.
A mortgage recast uses cash to pay down some of the loan’s principal. It is often used when a borrower receives a large sum of money, such as a bonus or an inheritance.
According to PNC Insights, it can be used when a borrower purchases a house before selling the current one. When the previous home sells, the proceeds can be used to recast the new home’s mortgage.
However, the lender may require two months of on-time payments before authorizing a recast.
Advantages of a Mortgage Recast
There are several benefits of a mortgage recast. By reducing your principal, you lower your monthly payment without extending your loan term.
A recast mortgage is not a new loan. So, you will not need a credit check or home appraisal to apply.
If you’re already locked into a low interest rate, it’s a way to keep your current rate while lowering your monthly payment.
There usually are lower administrative fees associated with a recast mortgage. According to Alcova Mortgage, they typically fall between $150 and $500.
According to SoFi Learn, if you make a lump-sum payment to bring your loan down to 80 percent of the home’s value, you can request to stop paying the private mortgage insurance or have it automatically dropped when the value reaches 78 percent.
Disadvantages of a Mortgage Recast
According to Rocket Mortgage, there are cons to a mortgage recast. One disadvantage is that your lender may not allow a recast. You are also limited to a conventional loan, because government-backed loans don’t allow a mortgage recast.
The loan-repayment term is not shortened, either. Your payment goes down, but if you have a 30-year loan, you can’t change it to a 15-year or other-year loan.
Losing access to equity is a problem. Your contributed cash will be tied up in your home equity. This means you’ll need to refinance or apply for a home equity loan or home equity line of credit if you need access to your home’s equity.
Refinancing Mortgage Advantages
You have options when refinancing. The loan conditions can be changed. For example, you can shorten or lengthen your term, take a lower interest rate or refinance to a new loan.
Almost any loan qualifies for a refinance. It may be your only option if you want a lower payment and you have a government-backed loan.
You also have the option to choose a new lender if you’re not satisfied with the current one.
Refinancing Mortgage Disadvantages
Refinancing is a new loan and usually has more costs than a recast. Refinanced loans include origination fees, appraisal fees, and other closing costs.
The clock turns back with a refinanced loan. This means if you’re 15 years into a 30-year loan, if you finance for another 30-year loan, it starts over. You lost the 15 years you already paid for.
With refinancing, since it’s technically a new loan, you pay more in interest at the beginning of your loan. You don’t start paying on the principal until later in the term. This means you could end up paying more interest throughout the life of the loan.
Mortgage Recasting and Refinancing
A mortgage recast lowers your monthly payments and saves you money on long-term interest. But you tie up equity.
However, not everyone qualifies for a recast. If you have a government-backed loan, for example, you’ll need to refinance.
The Epoch Times copyright © 2026. The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors. They are meant for general informational purposes only and should not be construed or interpreted as a recommendation or solicitation. The Epoch Times does not provide investment, tax, legal, financial planning, estate planning, or any other personal finance advice. The Epoch Times and ZeroHedge hold no liability for the accuracy or timeliness of the information provided.
After a flood of more than 10.8 million illegal immigrants (official figure) entered the United States under Biden, net immigration - both legal and illegal - has gone from roughly one million people per year in the 2010s to around 500,000 in 2025, with a further drop to just 200,000 projected by Goldman for 2026. This has sharply reduced labor-force growth and lowered the economy's "breakeven" pace of job creation, the bank opines.
Here's Goldman vs. Brookings vs. the Congressional Budget Office on net immigration:
Now, the US will only need around 50,000 new jobs per month by the end of this year to keep the unemployment rate from rising, down from roughly 70,000 today.
At the same time, Goldman says labor demand still looks "shaky" because job growth is narrow and job openings are trending lower - with the main downside risk being a faster, more disruptive AI-driven adjustment that could tamp down hiring or raise job losses beyond current estimates.
Elevated deportations, tighter visa / green-card policies, a pause in immigrant visa processing that affects dozens of countries, and the loss of Temporary Protected Status for some groups, Goldman suggests there is additional downside risk to the workforce.
A shakier demand picture
Of course, new math on the labor supply doesn't mean the labor market is strong (duh)... In fact, Goldman describes demand as “shaky,” writing that job growth has become increasingly narrow - dominated by healthcare - and that job openings have continued to fall. Openings are now around seven million, below pre-pandemic levels and still declining.
Because fewer new workers are entering the economy, hiring no longer needs to run as hot to prevent unemployment from drifting higher. “A small pickup is all that should be needed to sustain job growth at the breakeven pace,” according to the report, arguing that weaker-looking payroll numbers may increasingly mask a labor market that is merely treading water rather than deteriorating.
Official data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show a similar trend, with job openings drifting toward the mid-six-million range late last year. A continued slide in openings, Goldman warns, would increase the risk that unemployment rises more meaningfully, even with slower labor-force growth.
There is also a risk that tighter immigration enforcement is pushing more workers into informal or off-the-books employment. If so, official payroll data could understate the true level of labor-market activity, complicating the Federal Reserve’s task of gauging economic momentum.
AI looms as the wildcard
Goldman sees artificial intelligence (AI) as the largest downside risk to the labor outlook - not because it has already triggered mass layoffs, but because it may restrain hiring at the margin. So far, the firm estimates that AI-related substitution has shaved only 5,000 to 10,000 jobs from monthly growth in the most exposed industries. But a faster or more disruptive deployment could weigh more heavily on demand.
...the main reason that we worry about downside risk to our baseline forecast that the labor market will stabilize going forward is the possibility of a faster and more disruptive deployment of artificial intelligence (AI). While plenty of recent anecdotes point to a potentially faster rate of adoption and corresponding job losses, it is hard to know how these will translate to macroeconomic outcomes. -Goldman
The bank shows that job growth has slowed and turned slightly negative in several subindustries where AI is most ready to deploy, while company-level anecdotes indicate that AI is already reducing the need for workers. The impact, while visible, remains 'moderate' so far.
For now, the bank expects the unemployment rate to drift only modestly higher, toward 4.5%, while Goldman chief economist Jan Hatzius said in a 
In the face of increased pressure from U.S. sanctions, Iran and Russia have boosted their bilateral relations to strategic cooperation and Russian companies help develop oilfields in Iran.
“Within the framework of four contracts and in the field of development of oil and gas fields, we are jointly implementing the development of seven oil fields with Russian companies, and fortunately some of these projects have led to production, which is considered a valuable achievement,” Paknejad said on Wednesday, as 
One question is whether this is connected to the Pentagon's Iran-related build-up a little further to the east. WSJ notes on this, "The officials said the withdrawal was unrelated to the current U.S. deployment of naval and air forces in the Middle East for potential strikes against Iran if talks about that country’s nuclear program fail."
Another issue is the Kurds. The US for a decade trained and armed the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), but now is cutting them lose. Kurdish leaders have warned of attacks by hardline Sunni militants under the new Damascus government.
"The Trump administration has decided that a U.S. military presence in Syria is no longer necessary, two U.S. officials said, because of the near-total disbandment of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the main U.S. partner in countering Islamic State in Syria for the past decade," WSJ continues.
And yet US officials previously admitted to 
Sibblies reimbursed himself a total of $35,519 from 2021 to 2024 using cash meant for a school club, without approval or supervision from anyone besides his own secretary, according to an audit obtained by 
Larry Aronstein, the district’s former interim superintendent, told Newsday that Sibblies was paying himself back for expenses he had laid out on behalf of the school. Sibblies told Newsday the steak and lobster meal was “school-related” but declined to answer other questions.
The school board appears unsatisfied with that explanation. They appointed legal counsel in November 2025 to investigate the audit’s findings, according to Newsday.
“We know what is personal and what is for the sake of students,” board trustee Jarod Morris told Newsday. “A steak and lobster dinner in Delaware is personal.”
Separately, auditors flagged other questionable expenses at the Wyandanch Free Union School District, including a jet ski rental in Bermuda. The school district was also missing records showing how much was spent on field trips and donated to clubs.
The audit was completed in early 2025 and made public last month.
Background: Sibblies likely could have afforded his luxury meal himself. He made $192,479 in 2024, according to payroll 
The UK-based fund sent a letter to Toto's board asking for more disclosure over its advanced ceramics segment, which produces electrostatic chucks used in NAND manufacturing - specifically for a process called cryogenic etching. Toto's chuck technology uses ceramics designed to remain stable at very low temperatures, which can help firmly secure silicon wafers during chip production.
According to Palliser, Toto is "the most undervalued and overlooked AI memory beneficiary," and says that the Japanese company has a five-year competitive "moat" before other companies can catch up, adding that the advanced ceramics segment could deliver 30% or more revenue growth over the next few years, "driven by Nand upgrade cycle and stable replacement demand."
Palliser also says that Toto is doing a terrible job of explaining the importance of electrostatic chucks to shareholders, and too little of the company's planned investment was devoted to growing the highly profitable segment.
The activist investor began its involvement with Toto roughly six months ago and is a top-20 shareholder in the business, according to the Financial Times. The fund's other investments include holdings in property company Tokyo Tatemono, Keisei Electric Railway, which runs trains in Tokyo, and Japan Post Holdings.
Palliser thinks Toto shares could rise over 55% if it expands its advanced ceramics business, sold cross-shareholdings, and used its $496 million (¥76bn) in net cash better.
Toto is best known for its heated toilet seats and "Washlet" bidet features, however Palliser says they've "quietly evolved from a traditional domestic sanitary ware champion into a rising powerhouse in advanced ceramics for semiconductor manufacturing."
Shares in the company have already risen over 60% in the past year.
In late January, Goldman 
Yeaw went on to say President Trump was considering testing a nuclear weapon. The Assistant Secretary asserted the US was confident China had conducted nuclear weapons tests in recent years. Yeaw argued that the US was at an "intolerable disadvantage" if it was maintaining a nuclear test ban while other countries were testing weapons [hint, hint: 
GLP-1 starter dose NBRx trends (up to 2/6/2026)
GLP-1 starter dose NBRx market share (up to 2/6/2026)
Obesity GLP-1 all doses Total Prescriptions (TRx, up to 2/6/2026)
Weston concluded:
NBRx trends for Wegovy continue to look strong with an encouraging start to the Wegovy pill launch. The uptick in NBRx at the start of the year for Wegovy pen is also going in the right direction. Importantly, the high proportion of Wegovy NBRx pill to TRx and high proportion of Wegovy pill starter dose NBRx to total NBRx suggest that there is very little cannibalisation of Wegovy pen volumes through the pill launch. Further focus points later in the year will be Medicare coverage from July, high dose Wegovy (7.2mg) launch and competitive dynamics from LLY's orforglipron launch (UBSe April).
The latest GLP-1 headline came from Europe earlier on Tuesday, when the European Commission cleared Novo to use a higher 7.2 mg maintenance dose of Wegovy. This approval reinforces that even greater demand for semaglutide is inbound.
In markets, Novo shares in Copenhagen have been pummeled by market share losses to rival GLP-1 drugs, a public feud with Hims & Hers over copycat GLP-1 offerings, and a recently 
Meanwhile, Goldman analyst Faris Mourad previously told clients that "obesity drug narrative sentiment is on the rise" and "