Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in France on Friday to attend the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting where he will deliver a clear message on U.S. priorities for the ongoing war with Iran.

In the days leading up to the meeting, other members have taken markedly different approaches to the war. Nearly all of Washington’s partners — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — have reacted cautiously to the U.S.-Israeli military campaign and declined to participate in offensive operations, even as they condemn Iranian actions.

Before departing on Thursday, Rubio signaled a defiant approach to the talks: “I don’t work for France or Germany or Japan … the people I’m interested in making happy are the people of the United States. I work for them,” he said in a video posted on X.

The divergence has drawn frustration from President Donald Trump, who has pressed allies to contribute more, particularly in securing key maritime routes such as the Strait of Hormuz. While some countries have signaled a willingness to support defensive or maritime security efforts, they have stopped short of joining direct military strikes.

TRUMP PRESSES NATO PARTNERS ON SUPPORT AS HEGSETH BLASTS HESITATION

“The U.S. is constantly asked to help in wars, and we have. But when we had a need, it didn’t get positive responses from NATO. A couple leaders said that Iran was not Europe’s war. Well, Ukraine isn’t our war, yet we’ve contributed more to that fight than anyone,” Rubio added.

“The Strait of Hormuz could be open tomorrow if Iran stops threatening global shipping, which is an outrage and a violation of international law. For all these countries that care about international law, they should be doing something about it,” he said before boarding his plane to France.

The remarks set the tone for a summit already marked by growing friction between Washington and some of its closest allies over how to handle the Iran conflict. Rubio has framed the stakes in stark terms. “Iran has been at war with the United States for 47 years . . . Iran has been killing Americans and attacking Americans across this planet,” he said during a White House cabinet meeting, adding that allowing Tehran to obtain nuclear weapons would be “an unacceptable risk for the world.”

But even before Rubio arrived at the meeting, European officials were signaling a markedly different approach.

“We need to exit from the war, not escalate this further, because the consequences for everybody around the world are quite severe,” Vice President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas said during a briefing on the sidelines of the G7 on Thursday.

JACK KEANE CALLS OUT NATO’S WEAKNESS AS SHIPPING CRISIS GRIPS STRAIT OF HORMUZ

“It can only be a diplomatic solution … sit down and negotiate to have a way out,” she added.

The contrast between Rubio’s framing and Kallas’s message captures the core tension shaping the meeting.

U.S. officials say Rubio is heading into the talks with a broader agenda that goes beyond Iran.

According to a State Department spokesperson, who spoke to Fox News Digital on background, Rubio will use the meeting to “advance key U.S. interests” and push discussions on the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as “international burden sharing” and the overall effectiveness of the G7.

The U.S. is also expected to emphasize maritime security, including freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea, while urging allies to take on a greater share of responsibilities in conflict zones and international organizations, the spokesperson said.

RUBIO, RATCLIFFE TO DELIVER CLASSIFIED IRAN BRIEFING TO ‘GANG OF EIGHT’ AHEAD OF TRUMP’S STATE OF THE UNION

European officials have instead emphasized the broader risks of the conflict.

France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said discussions at the G7 would build on a recent joint statement condemning Iran’s actions while also addressing maritime security concerns.

He said the “discussions will provide an opportunity to revisit positions already agreed at the G7 level… including the unjustifiable attacks carried out by Iran against Gulf countries … which we condemned in the strongest possible terms.”

Barrot added that ministers would also focus on securing global shipping routes.

“We will also have the opportunity to address maritime security and freedom of navigation … including an international mission … to ensure the smooth flow of maritime traffic in a strictly defensive posture, thereby helping to ease pressure on energy prices,” he said.

Kallas echoed that global framing. “All the countries in the world are one way or another affected by this war … it is in the interest of everybody that this war stops,” she said.

IRAN SIGNALS NUCLEAR PROGRESS IN GENEVA AS TRUMP CALLS FOR FULL DISMANTLEMENT

Her remarks also pointed to the interconnected nature of the crisis. “Russia is helping Iran with intelligence … and also supporting Iran now with drones,” she said, linking the Iran conflict to the war in Ukraine.

That uncertainty is already affecting the structure of the summit, with officials dropping plans for a unified final communiqué to avoid exposing divisions, Reuters reported.

Analysts say those differences reflect deeper structural tensions in the alliance. “Europe has criticized Donald Trump’s ‘maximum pressure’ strategy towards Iran while pursuing a failed diplomatic approach that has enabled the regime to expand its terrorist networks and edge closer to nuclear threshold status,” Barak Seener, senior research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital.

“This reflects a lack of European capability to project power in the region, particularly in safeguarding the Strait of Hormuz.”

Seener added that years of reliance on Washington have left Europe increasingly exposed as the U.S. shifts its strategic priorities. “Years of underinvestment in defense and reliance on the United States have created a dependency that Washington increasingly views as a betrayal of the peace it has guaranteed Europe since the Second World War,” he said.

“With the U.S. placing greater value on its relationship with Israel than NATO, the result may be further erosion of the alliance, reduced support for Ukraine and rising economic pressure on Europe.”

He warned that the immediate test will come at the G7 itself. “Divisions over how to respond to Iran and to any U.S. request for support are likely to expose a deeper transatlantic split,” Seener said.

“Operation Epic Fury has showcased President Trump’s ability to assemble a coalition of allies to eliminate a common threat — in this case the Iranian regime — and stabilize international trade,” Jacob Olidort, chief research officer and director of American security at the America First Policy Institute, told Fox News Digital.

“The failure of Western Europe to participate in securing the Strait of Hormuz is particularly egregious because those countries depend on it more than we do,” he added.

“At the same time, the historic successes of Operation Epic Fury have awakened a new confidence in our Middle East partners to eradicate the threats from the Iranian regime and to work together to shape a more peaceful and prosperous region.”

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman is facing escalating backlash from within his own party, with one House Democrat saying this week she has more success working with a Republican senator and another calling for him to step down.

The criticism reflects growing friction between Fetterman and his progressive political base as he breaks with Democrats on key issues, including his support for Israel, backing of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and openness to voter ID. Once a darling of the political left who exchanged endorsements with socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Fetterman now finds himself a target of attacks from his own party.

“I have more success in working with the one on the R side of the aisle than I do with the D side of the aisle,” Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., said at a recent event, contrasting Fetterman with Sen. David McCormick, R-Pa.

DAVID MARCUS: CAN JOHN FETTERMAN SAVE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY FROM ITSELF?

The remark drew jeers from the audience at the event, where Houlahan spoke in opposition to the SAVE America Act, GOP-led legislation that includes voter ID requirements and other changes to election rules.

Houlahan urged voters to call “the office of your choice in the Senate” to voice opposition to the bill, adding that requiring “some form of ID is not an unreasonable ask,” but that “this bill is not that.”

Fetterman did not respond to a request for comment but said in a March 17 statement that he would vote against beginning debate on the bill while underlining his support for Voter ID.

“Stop turning this into a Christmas list and attacking vote-by-mail,” he said.

Houlahan declined further comment.

Last week, Rep. Brendan Boyle of Northeast Philadelphia took intraparty tensions with Fetterman to the next level by demanding his ouster.

Boyle, who did not respond to a request for comment, lambasted Fetterman for helping Mullin get confirmed.

“Once again Senator Fetterman shows why he is Trump’s favorite Democrat,” Boyle said in a statement. “He needs to go.”

‘THE VIEW’ CO-HOST JOY BEHAR UNLOADS ON FETTERMAN FOR BACKING TRUMP’S DHS PICK

Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., a combat veteran and political moderate who has vocally opposed Mullin’s candidacy, echoed Boyle and blasted Fetterman for effectively getting the secretary confirmed.

“If you needed any more proof that Fetterman has completely abandoned his constituents, here it is. Pennsylvanians deserve a Senator that actually fights for them,” Ryan said in a statement.

Fetterman was not always a political maverick, having once been a progressive favorite praised for his blunt and unfiltered style. As lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, he championed the legalization of marijuana and pushed aggressively for criminal justice reforms supported by Democrats. He aligned with the democratic-socialist Sanders wing of the party and hung pride and weed flags from his balcony at the State Capitol.

In 2020, Harrisburg Republicans inserted language in a budget bill to ban flags other than the national, commonwealth and POW/MIA banners from being posted at the Capitol, to which Fetterman quipped, “it’s kind of flattering that they changed Pennsylvania law just for me.”

Now, Fetterman recently claimed his party is “governed by TDS” — Trump Derangement Syndrome — and that he will always refuse to label Republican opponents “fascist” or make references to the Third Reich.

Fetterman also told “Hang Out with Sean Hannity” that he has encountered his former 2022 Republican foe Dr. Mehmet Oz — the current federal Medicaid administrator — and that the two maintain a civil relationship with no ill will.

He also issued a statement defending his support for Mullin.

“In January, I called on the president to fire [Kristi] Noem — and he did. I truly approached the confirmation of my colleague and friend, Senator Mullin, with an open mind,” Fetterman said.

“We need a leader at DHS. We must reopen DHS. My ‘aye’ is rooted in a strong committed, constructive working relationship with Senator Mullin for our nation’s security.”

A Democratic House candidate running in a battleground seat in southwestern Iowa linked faith to political violence while warning against religion in public life, according to unearthed audio reviewed by Fox News Digital.

“We have seen religion and political violence showing up more and more in our public spaces,” Democratic candidate Sarah Trone Garriott said in a 2023 speech at a Methodist church. “It’s something that is just very in our faces and something that we’re very concerned about, and something that feels very threatening right now at this time.” 

Trone Garriott, a state legislator and Lutheran minister, is running to defeat Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa, in November’s midterm elections. Prior to launching a House bid, Trone Garriott fashioned herself as a fierce opponent of Christian nationalism — a term some conservatives have argued that critics use to paint some Christians as prone to violence and hostile toward democracy.

In the speech, Trone Garriott said it was “a good thing to talk about religion and politics together” and spoke positively about living out one’s faith in their community. However, she repeatedly voiced discomfort about seeing public Christian displays and suggested it was something to be rooted out.

AMERICA’S CHURCHES UNDER SIEGE AS VIOLENCE INCREASINGLY INVADES SACRED GROUND

An image of a woman holding a sign with the phrase “one nation under God, indivisible” found in the Pledge of Allegiance, according to Trone Garriott, was one of several “pretty uncomfortable ways that faith and political power have collided.” The Iowa Democrat also called attention to Christian displays at one of President Donald Trump’s rallies and during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

“This is not a Christian nation. It’s a nation for all of us,” Trone Garriott told the church congregants. “Spaces and proceedings need to be for all people, and we need to work on reminding folks of that.”

As a state senator, Trone Garriott said she intentionally sought out opening prayers that were not from the “White American Christian variety,” but from atheist, secular and other non-Christian perspectives.

Trone Garriott also spoke critically of parental rights in education and private Christian schools. She charged that both stemmed from racist opposition to the integration of public schools when parents desired to create a “White enclave” for their children.

“So maybe some of these things sound familiar today,” Trone Garriott said in her remarks. “It’s nothing new.”

The Iowa Democrat then proceeded to tie White men to her criticism of legislation barring biological males from women’s sports or preventing children from reading sexually explicit material. She notably opposed a bill keeping men out of women’s sports while serving in the state Senate.

“It’s really couched in the language of there’s a threat against women and White men are responsible to protect women from threats,” Trone Garriott said. 

Trone Garriott’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

DEMOCRAT RISING STAR CALLED OUT FOR ‘CREEPY’ COMMENT ABOUT TRANSGENDER CHILDREN

Nunn, who is seeking a third term in November, slammed Trone Garriott’s comments in the resurfaced video in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“I was raised around Iowans who go to church every week and show up for their neighbors,” Nunn said. “Sarah Trone Garriott can’t walk into a church without delivering a lecture about how their faith is threatening and their schools are racist.”

“She’s made it clear that the values Iowa families live by every single day are the ones she’s running against,” he added.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), House Democrats’ campaign arm, said Trone Garriott is working to unify Iowans in the 3rd Congressional District and condemns political violence.

“Sarah is a mom and minister who has served her community as a hospital chaplain and a parish pastor — public display of her faith has been a guiding force in Sarah’s life and continues to be to this day,” DCCC spokesperson Katie Smith said. “Sarah has always condemned political violence however it rears its ugly head and will always work to bring Iowans together.”

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the contest for the Republican-held seat as a “toss-up.”

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is moving to block new foreign-made internet routers from entering the U.S. market, citing mounting concerns that overseas supply chains could expose American networks to cyber threats inside their own homes. 

The move expands the agency’s “covered list,” which bars equipment deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to national security and will effectively prevent new foreign-manufactured routers from being authorized for sale in the U.S. 

The order means new routers must be built in the United States or clear a national security review that scrutinizes ownership, supply chains and software control to be sold domestically.

“Effectively, the FCC would ban all new routers, because there are no domestic routers that meet that standard today,” Matt Wyckhouse, founder and CEO of cybersecurity firm Finite State, told Fox News Digital Wednesday. “There’s no one who can clear the bar right now.”

LAWSUIT CLAIMS SECURITY CAMERAS SOLD IN THE US CARRIED UNDISCLOSED SURVEILLANCE RISKS

The list includes communications equipment and services considered “to pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the safety and security of United States persons,” the FCC said.

The agency warned that “malicious actors have exploited security gaps in foreign-made routers to attack American households, disrupt networks, enable espionage, and facilitate intellectual property theft,” citing multiple cases in which such devices were used in cyberattacks targeting U.S. infrastructure.

The rule applies broadly to devices produced outside the country but largely targets routers with Chinese origins. The world’s networking hardware supply is largely dependent on China for manufacturing and engineering.

Estimates in recent years indicate that devices with significant Chinese supply chain ties account for the majority of home routers used in the U.S.

TP-Link, a China-founded router manufacturer and one of the top-selling brands on Amazon, has faced growing scrutiny in Washington amid cyber incidents and broader concerns about foreign-linked networking equipment.

“Because nearly every manufacturer in this sector produces hardware abroad or relies on a global supply chain, this new requirement will set a bar for the entire industry,” a TP-Link spokesperson told Fox News Digital, calling the rule a “positive step” toward making the router industry more secure. “TP-Link has been committed to making further investments in America and has already been planning to establish U.S.-based manufacturing to complement our existing company-owned facilities in Vietnam.”

GOOGLE DISMANTLES 9M-DEVICE ANDROID HIJACK NETWORK

A review of router manufacturing and supply chains by Fox News Digital indicates that nearly all major router brands sold in the United States depend extensively on Chinese manufacturing, engineering talent or components, even when marketed as American or allied products.

Companies that have shifted production to countries like Vietnam often still rely on Chinese-owned manufacturers and engineering teams, meaning the supply chain footprint remains largely unchanged.

Core elements of router development — including firmware and hardware design — are frequently supported by engineering teams based in China, raising concerns about vulnerabilities within widely used networking equipment.

“The country where a device is manufactured does not necessarily determine the security of that product,” said Wyckhouse. “There’s a pretty large global supply chain involved — from chipsets to software to final assembly.”

FCC ANNOUNCES BAN ON NEW CHINESE-MADE DRONES OVER NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS

Those risks have already surfaced in real-world cyber operations.

In 2023, the Justice Department disrupted a network of hundreds of compromised U.S. home and small-business routers that had been hijacked by Chinese state-backed hackers known as “Volt Typhoon.” The infected devices were used to conceal the origin of cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure, allowing malicious traffic to appear as if it came from inside the U.S.

By routing activity through compromised devices, hackers can make attacks harder to trace and maintain access inside targeted networks.

A single router often connects dozens of devices inside a home or small business, including phones, laptops, security cameras, smart TVs and baby monitors. A compromised device can give attackers visibility into network traffic and provide a foothold to move across connected systems or launch additional attacks.

U.S. officials say the broader campaign targeted sectors including energy, water, telecommunications and transportation, part of an effort to establish access that could be used to disrupt systems during a future conflict.

The FCC’s move is the latest step in a broader push in Washington to reduce reliance on foreign — and particularly China-linked — technology across critical sectors, including telecommunications equipment, semiconductors and consumer applications.

Supporters of the policy say it addresses long-standing supply chain risks and reduces the chances of foreign adversaries gaining access to U.S. networks. But the rule could strain supply chains and push up prices, given that most routers sold in the U.S. are manufactured overseas.

Wyckhouse said there are no domestic suppliers for all products involved in router manufacturing.

 “This will definitely increase prices,” he said. “Companies will have to invest in U.S. manufacturing or retool existing operations, and that’s a major cost shift.”

The policy does not apply to routers already legally purchased or currently in use. Companies can continue selling routers that are already in the U.S. and previously approved, but once that inventory runs out, new foreign-made models would be effectively blocked unless they pass a national security review.

The rule does not mean routers already in American homes are known to be compromised. But cybersecurity officials have long warned that outdated or unpatched devices can be vulnerable, and in some cases have been used as part of larger botnet networks that support cyberattacks.

“The primary problem with routers is not where they’re made, it’s that consumers don’t update them,” said Wyckhouse. “It’s far more important to choose a router that updates automatically than one marketed as a U.S. product.”

The Chinese Embassy and relevant router companies could not immediately be reached for comment. 

Part 3 of a five-part Fox News Digital series investigating the House of Singham documents the “Propaganda Work” that Mao Zedong taught as critical to winning the People’s War. This reporting includes analysis using cutting-edge technology, including large-language modeling.

Early Tuesday, CodePink professional activist Olivia DiNucci raised her fist as she stood on the deck of a boat renamed “Granma 2.0,” in a tribute to the yacht Fidel Castro’s guerrillas used to launch the Cuban Revolution in 1956.

Standing behind a banner reading “LET CUBA LIVE” as the boat arrived at the port of Havana, DiNucci, who normally organizes protests in Washington, D.C., mugged for the cameras with her fellow revolutionaries, chanting and pumping their fists in the air, as camera crews rolled.

Luis De Jesús, who writes for a site called BreakThrough News, recorded the arrival, part of days of coverage promoting the cause of pro-communism activists, including the Irish hip-hop trio Kneecap, and packaging the week’s activities not just as activism, but as revolutionary political “resistance” against the U.S. “empire.”

By afternoon, BreakThrough News posted a video of De Jesús’ report on the boat’s arrival, with a beaming DiNucci on board. Other pro-communist media platforms turned the staged event into a media moment, from the Cuban News Agency to Brazil de Fato.

The scene offered a real-time glimpse of how a network built by an American-born, China-based tech tycoon, Neville Roy Singham, turns activism into propaganda and then propaganda into political and psychological weapons. In this case, the story of the Granma 2.0 framed Cuba as a victim of the imperialist U.S., and Cuba’s communist benefactor and trading partner – China – as a liberator, providing rice to a hungry citizenry.

As he fought the People’s War in the late 1930s in China, infamous communist leader Mao Zedong emphasized the importance of “Propaganda Work” and “the practice of changing reality.”

Decades later, Chinese Premier Xi Jinping announced a strategy of “telling China’s story well.”

POWER COUPLE OF CHAOS: HOW A TYCOON AND ACTIVIST BUILT A ‘REVOLUTIONARY BASE’ AT THE HOUSE OF SINGHAM

Last fall, pro-China academics, like Vijay Prashad, a trusted communist in Singham’s inner circle, spoke at a conference of the Global South Academic Forum about creating a “New World Information and Communication Order,” an idea popularized in the 1980s by Third World countries now called the “Global South.” 

The conference was co-sponsored by Singham, Prashad’s Tricontinental Ltd. think tank and the Shanghai-based East China Normal University, and administered by the Chinese Communist Party. The university features a School of Marxism and teaches “Marxist journalism.” Singham, Prashad and conference attendees closed the conference, standing at attention as “The Internationale,” a communist anthem played, attendees pumping their fists in the air in solidarity.

A Fox News Digital investigation found that the “new information” strategy operates through a network of organizations that produce, fund and amplify messaging across borders. 

Fox News Digital has identified at least 200 organizations in Singham’s network of about 2,000 organizations that directly work on propaganda that parrots the anti-American messaging of the Chinese Communist Party but is dramatically homegrown in digital shops from New York City to Los Angeles.

The investigation found that three Singham-linked U.S. nonprofits sent a total of $9.1 million in seven payments to a pro-China propaganda firm, Shanghai Maku Cultural Communications Co. Ltd. The payments haven’t been reported before.

Using large-language models, Fox News Digital analyzed 223 transactions that moved $591 million in total across five continents from 2017 through 2025, the latest year for which figures are available, in the Singham network and found the money flows through five concentric rings of an ideological pipeline that spreads pro-China propaganda.

Eleven U.S. nonprofit organizations form a core hub of the work that pumps pro-China, anti-America propaganda into the world, with a total of about $401 million flowing from Singham and his network into these organizations. The organizations didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Fox News Digital previously documented $278 million that flowed directly from Singham into organizations that “sow discord” in the U.S., as House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith put it recently at a hearing on foreign malign influence in the nonprofit industry. The rest went through layers of funding.

The 11 nonprofits and their total revenue from within the Singham network, including direct contributions from Singham himself, make most of these organizations well-funded: 

• BreakThrough BT Media: $3.5 million, with $1.1 million directly from Singham
• CodePink Women for Peace: $1.8 million, with $1.3 million from SIngham
• Inter-Religious Foundation for Community Organization Inc.: $420,000
• Justice and Education Fund Inc.: $74.2 million, with $68.7 million from Singham
• People’s Dispatch: $1.9 million
• People’s Forum Inc.: $28 million, with $22.4 million from Singham
• People’s Support Foundation: $181.8 million, with $167.5 from Singham
• People’s Welfare Association: $70 million
• Progress Unity Fund: $442,524, with additional revenues from other sources
• Tricontinental Ltd.: $16.8 million from Singham
• United Community Fund: $21.8 million

Mao’s strategy relied on embedding revolutionary actors within social, cultural, labor and educational organizations to shape public consciousness, normalize radical narratives and gradually erode the legitimacy of the state from within. 

Similarly, experts say, Singham’s network cultivates activist ecosystems, using nonprofits and advocacy groups as force multipliers and framing local political and social conflicts as part of a broader systemic struggle. 

That same dynamic is visible in real time, as protests, trips and political events are filmed, packaged and circulated as part of a broader narrative. DiNucci is a key figure, for example, regularly getting filmed and then broadcast on Singham network social media channels, interrupting the dinners, hearings and events of Trump administration officials.

In this model, disruption and polarization aren’t incidental but strategic, designed to weaken societal cohesion and authority over time, precisely the conditions Mao argued are necessary for victory against a stronger adversary.

“There is a war waging for the brains of Americans. It’s critical that America shore up its defenses before the nation is hijacked by confusion, manipulation and malign narratives,” psychologist Orli Peter told Fox News Digital.

RED WEALTH, DARK MONEY: HOW AN AMERICAN TYCOON DEPLOYS MAO’S PLAYBOOK AGAINST THE WEST

‘Information Laundering Operation’

A Fox News Digital investigation, scouring scores of financial filings, writings and social media posts, shows not only money moving from Singham-funded entities into U.S. nonprofits, but these nonprofits in turn funding media production, political education and organizing campaigns that promote the narrative of the Chinese Communist Party. The U.S. nonprofits pushing the anti-America agenda benefit from tax-exempt status and tax-deductible donations.

What begins as content — videos, livestreams and commentary — often feeds directly into organizing and protest activity, creating a feedback loop between messaging and action.

“Neville Roy Singham and Jodie Evans are running an information laundering operation,” said Adam Sohn, co-founder of the Network Contagion Research Institute, a multidisciplinary lab in Princeton, N.J. “It’s a narrative laundering operation that is selling China’s story to the world and sowing discord in America.”

“Neville Roy Singham and Jodie Evans are running an information laundering operation. It’s a narrative laundering operation that is selling China’s story to the world and sowing discord in America.” – Adam Sohn, co-founder of the Network Contagion Research Institute, a multidisciplinary lab in Princeton, N.J.

A wedding in Jamaica in February 2017 between Singham and Jodie Evans, co-founder of CodePink Women for Peace, brought together ideologues who would later appear on the boards, funding streams and public messaging of this network. Tax filings document the transfers. The emergence of a network of “Liberation Centers” document the physical infrastructure.

That network has matured into a transnational protest and media machine. Nearly a decade later, its infrastructure is visible on American streets, coordinated, funded and amplified by groups built quietly, deliberately and in plain sight. Singham and Evans didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Last week, BreakThrough News broadcast DiNucci outside the White House protesting to support the regime that the U.S. and Israel are targeting with missile strikes in the Islamic Republic of Iran.

FAR-LEFT ACTIVIST GROUP FACES BACKLASH OVER ‘TONE-DEAF’ PROTESTS AT CUBA LUXURY HOTEL

Shanghai Maku Cultural Communications Co.

Part of that system operates overseas, where funding supports media production aligned with Chinese Communist Party narratives. Significantly, there are a series of two line items that reveal just how closely this supposed charitable network works with organizations tied to the Chinese Communist Party.

Buried inside the tax filings are the receipts on how three U.S. nonprofits from the Singham network sent seven payments totaling $9.1 million in money back to Shanghai to pay a pro-China propaganda firm, Shanghai Maku Cultural Communications Co. Ltd., housed in the same luxury building as Singham’s operation. It’s not far from the university where Singham’s sister holds an academic position.

Guo Xiao, a former executive at Thoughtworks, the tech company founded by Singham and sold in 2017 for nearly $800 million, sits on the board of Shanghai Maku Cultural Communications, according to company records. Xiao didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Shanghai Maku Cultural Communications Co. identifies itself as producing content aligned with Chinese Communist Party narratives. 

Beginning in 2021, according to Fox News Digital analysis, three organizations from Singham’s network sent over $9 million directly to Shanghai Maku Cultural Communications Co. in seven payments for “production of online news program,” according to its tax filing.

BreakThrough BT Media Inc. 

One of the key organizations inside the broader transnational media apparatus in the Singham network is BreakThrough News, whose reporter met the Granma 2.0 at the port in Havana.

In a letter he sent to BreakThrough News last month, Smith said the House Ways and Means Committee is concerned that BreakThrough News is “part of a larger multipronged effort from the CCP to sow discord in our country” and that it has been “funded and influenced by Mr. Singham’s CCP affiliations.”

In early December 2019, BreakThroughNews.org was registered online. Early the next year, in early March 2020, “Breakthrough / BT Media Inc.” was registered in Delaware as a new company. It got IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in June 2020 as Breakthrough BT Media Inc. 

Singham gave a total of $1.1 million to BreakThrough BT Media Inc. over two years with the purpose of the tax-deductible donations written simply as “public service” and “medical / public services” in IRS Form 990 filings.

In its first IRS filing, documenting its 2020 work, Breakthrough BT Media Inc. listed familiar names among its three-person board of directors. Ben Becker, the son of another trusted Singham adviser, Brian Becker, was the chairman of the board. Today, Becker is on the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s “Central Committee.” Becker was also in Cuba this week to support the communist regime.

Another director was Claudia De La Cruz, a leader at the Party for Socialism and Liberation with Becker and a wedding guest.

Finally, a socialist leader named Karla Reyes was on the board. She is the daughter of immigrants from El Salvador and rose in the ranks from joining Occupy Wall Street protests to landing a spot on the Central Committee of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. She is today an active member of “ICE Out of New York,” started by the People’s Forum, its protests filmed regularly by BreakThrough News.

In his letter to Reyes, Smith demanded records related to the organization’s ties to Singham and the Chinese Communist Party. He requested that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remove the nonprofit status of organizations in the Singham network. 

While BreakThrough News doesn’t usually name the Chinese Communist Party directly, it regularly lauds Xi’s regime. In 2021, BreakThrough News’ host Rania Khalek promoted the “Chinese government” and its “eradication of extreme poverty within its border.” She co-hosted the session with Tings Chak, a researcher at Tricontinental, the arm of the House of Singham that pumps out pro-China academic work.

The Singham network functions like a coordinated unit. In 2022, People’s Forum gave BreakThrough a “non-cash” lease worth $318,596 for studio space at its W. 37th Street address. 

BreakThrough’s mission statement claims to be “unbiased towards any political candidates,” but the far-left outlet even created videos during the 2024 presidential election highly critical of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris as wanting to “out-Trump Trump.”

What began as a small, ideologically driven news platform became a broad multimedia machine producing documentaries, podcasts and social media content that amplified protest movements, international solidarity campaigns, especially around Palestinian issues and “anti-imperialist,” anti-America narratives. 

It’s a member of the International People’s Media Network, another part of the global House of Singham and a coalition of media platforms often publishing anti-America, pro-China content and sharing personnel with Tricontinental.

In 2023, BreakThrough News sent representatives to a conference hosted by the School of Communications at the East China Normal University, the public institution funded by the Chinese Communist Party’s Ministry of Education. Singham’s sister, Shanti Singham, and his friend, Prashad, work closely with those institutions. 

Following the arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, groups in Singham’s network organized protests within hours. BreakThrough News posted videos from the demonstrations. It did the same with protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

NewsClick

Fox News Digital has also tracked $10.5 million the Justice and Education Fund sent to New Delhi-based PPK NewsClick Studio Pvt. Ltd. in five payments from 2019 through 2023 when the government of India shut the operation down for allegedly using donations improperly to run an anti-India, pro-China propaganda media outlet.

The government of India has sent Singham a criminal summons for alleged election interference, money laundering and terrorism, alleging he engaged in schemes to sow discord in India. The NewsClick case is still awaiting a trial date.

National security experts say it is critical to understand the big picture to fully value the command control of this global propaganda war with a tech tycoon as the motherlode.

Back in Havana, as DiNucci stepped onto the dock and cameras rolled, the moment reflected more than a single act of activism.

It showed how the Singham network’s messaging system works in real time, capturing events, shaping narratives and distributing them to audiences far beyond the street or, in this case, the dock.

In Mao’s terms, it is “Propaganda Work,” not just reporting on the news, but helping define it.

From the dock in Havana, DiNucci played her role, shouting, “Viva la Cuba.”

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Caruto, Nikolas Lanum and Kyle Schmidbauer contributed to this report.

Venezuelan political leader María Corina Machado is pitching her country as a top U.S. oil partner and “beacon of hope and wealth creation for this hemisphere” after she said the Trump administration’s arrest of former dictator Nicolás Maduro has opened up a “new era” of free markets.

Addressing several thousand oil and energy executives at the CERAWeek conference in Houston, Machado, who until recently lived in the U.S. as a political exile, predicted that Venezuela will soon be a critical contributor to U.S. prosperity.

She thanked President Donald Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright for laying the groundwork for a “new chapter” in Venezuela, which she said will greatly benefit the U.S. She touted Venezuela’s energy potential, calling its reserves the “largest proven oil reserve in the world” and its natural gas supply the seventh-largest globally.

“For decades, all this was locked away by ideology and corruption; that time is ending,” she said, adding, “A new era has already begun with an upside of a completely different order of magnitude.”

TRUMP ENERGY CZAR SAYS IRAN CONFLICT GAS SPIKE IS ‘TEMPORARY BLIP’ AS DRILLING PUSH RAMPS UP

Machado said that since the Trump administration’s covert operation to topple the socialist Venezuelan dictator, “important steps have been taken to re-engage Venezuela’s oil and gas sector and begin addressing years of institutional decline and corruption.” She predicted that Venezuela would soon “turn from the criminal hub of the Americas” and instead become a “driving force in the global energy sector.”

“After Jan. 3, we finally feel that freedom is at the threshold; we are there,” she said.

ENERGY SEC CHRIS WRIGHT TO HEADLINE CERAWEEK 2026 AMID UNPRECEDENTED ENERGY STRAIN

Though current Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez is a lieutenant of Maduro, Machado predicted that the next election, which she said will likely be at least nine months away, will show “overwhelming” support for democratic free-market capitalism. She vowed that the government would “get out of the way,” saying, “We have learned the cost of socialism… We want open markets.”

“It takes at least nine months, or 40 weeks, from a technical perspective to have perfect, free and fair elections. But they will take place. And when they do, you will see the awakening of a country that will turn into the beacon of hope and wealth creation for this hemisphere.”

TRUMP TURBOCHARGES US ECONOMIC COMEBACK AS SOCIALISM KEEPS FAILING WORLDWIDE

After her address, Machado received a standing ovation from the auditorium full of oil and energy leaders. On a panel discussing her speech, S&P Global Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin said Machado “answered a lot of the questions” that energy executives had.

However, another panelist, Luisa Palacios, a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy, said Venezuela still has a “long way” to go before enough confidence builds in the country to attract significant oil investment.

Congressional Democrats are pressing the Republican-controlled House to subpoena Corey Lewandowski — former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s top advisor — over his alleged role in a controversial border security ad campaign that prompted bipartisan criticism.

House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Co., sent a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, on Wednesday demanding the committee launch an investigation and require Lewandowski to sit for a deposition.

The lawmakers argue the matter is an urgent taxpayer oversight issue and want Jordan to compel witness testimony and documents related to Lewandowski’s influence over the ad campaign.

“We urge you to use the Committee’s subpoena power to compel production of documents and communications regarding Mr. Lewandowski’s role in awarding these contracts and require Mr. Lewandowski to appear before the Committee for a deposition,” the Democratic lawmakers wrote. “Mr. Lewandowski was at the center of the Department’s advertising spending and is the person best positioned to explain how a quarter of a billion dollars in taxpayer money was spent.”

DHS DEFENDS MCLAUGHLIN AFTER ALLEGATIONS HUSBAND’S COMPANY PROFITED MILLIONS FROM AD CONTRACTS: ‘BASELESS’

The DHS ad campaign that prominently featured Noem — including a scene of the former secretary on horseback at Mount Rushmore — upset some GOP lawmakers, who voiced concerns about whether there was a competitive bidding process and whether the infomercials were a smart use of taxpayer dollars.

Lawmakers in both chambers grilled Noem on the topic during back-to-back hearings earlier in March, during which she testified under oath that the ad campaign had been approved through the standard competitive bid process and disputed that its purpose was to boost her public profile. 

Noem also told members of Congress that Lewandowski had “no” role in signing off on DHS contracts, but Raskin and Neguse point to reporting that appears to show the top advisor approving numerous contracts at the department.

WATCH THE MOST VIRAL MOMENTS AS KRISTI NOEM’S HEARING GOES OFF THE RAILS

In the letter, the Democratic lawmakers singled out three businesses that received the $220 million ad contract, which multiple reports have found bypassed the traditional competitive bidding process.

Noem also claimed under oath that the ad campaign had President Donald Trump’s approval only for him to contradict her testimony in an interview with Reuters.

Raskin has accused Noem of perjury and has recommended that criminal charges be brought against the secretary for lying to Congress.

The Democrat-authored letter comes as Jordan has expressed concern about the ad campaign’s $220 million price tag. The lawmakers reference Jordan telling the New York Post earlier in March that “we’ll take a look at it.”

The House Homeland Security Committee has also said it is probing the controversial ad blitz.

Noem has since started a new role as special envoy to the Shield of the Americas, where she is expected to focus on immigration and border security issues.

Fox News Digital reached out to Jordan for comment.