Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is continuing his efforts to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, and he wants answers from Dr. Anthony Fauci.   

In his new position as chairman of the Senate’s Homeland Security committee, Paul issued subpoenas to 14 agencies from the outgoing Biden administration aimed at building on past congressional investigations into the COVID-19 virus and risky taxpayer-funded gain-of-function research. It is unclear who exactly from each agency will ultimately be deposed, but a Fauci deposition is possible. 

‘In the wake of Anthony Fauci’s preemptive pardon, there are still questions to be answered,’ Paul said in a statement after announcing the issuance of his subpoenas. ‘Subpoenas were sent from the Committee to NIH [National Institutes of Health] and 13 other agencies regarding their involvement in risky gain-of-function research. The goal of the investigation will be to critique the process that allowed this dangerous research, that may have led to the pandemic, to occur in a foreign country under unsafe protocols and to ensure that there is sufficient oversight and review going forward, making sure a mistake of this magnitude never happens again.’

While former President Joe Biden preemptively pardoned Fauci to protect him from political retribution under the new Trump administration, legal experts have questioned the validity of such a pardon. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Baily suggested to Fox News that since Biden’s own Justice Department indicated he lacked the mental faculties to be held criminally liable for improper handling of classified documents, it could be argued he also lacked the mens rea to issue pardons to people like Fauci. Additionally, the pardon Fauci received only covers his actions from January 2014 to the date of his pardon. As a result, a refusal to comply with a congressional subpoena could also potentially result in criminal charges.

Paul’s investigation will build on a previous bipartisan probe launched by the Senate’s Homeland Security committee last year looking into the national security threats posed by ‘high-risk biological research and technology in the U.S. and abroad.’ 

A second investigation being launched by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the chairman of the Permanent Select Subcommittee on Investigations, will similarly probe concerns in the new Congress surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and will include a review of email communications from Fauci.  

Since the pandemic began, Paul has sent dozens of requests for information related to the origins of the COVID-19 virus and gain-of-function research. Last year, his efforts revealed documents that he said show that government officials from at least 15 federal agencies knew in 2018 that China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) was working on creating a coronavirus similar to COVID-19.

The WIV has been a centerpiece in the debate over the origins of COVID-19, as it was eventually discovered that American scientist Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance was using taxpayer dollars to conduct risky research on the novel bat virus out of the WIV prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. Earlier this month, the Department of Health and Human Services barred Daszak and EcoHealth Alliance from receiving federal funding for five years. 

Meanwhile, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), told Congress in May 2021 that the NIH ‘has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.’

The Trump administration is reportedly preparing an executive order to halt all U.S. funding going towards gain-of-function research. 

Federal officials remain split on where the COVID-19 virus originated from. Three agencies — the Department of Energy, the FBI and the CIA — have determined that the most likely origin narrative is the lab leak theory, but others in the intelligence community and throughout the federal government say they can either not conclude that a lab leak was the most likely scenario, or they say that a natural origin scenario is most likely. A declassified intelligence report from 2021, published by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, posited that if a lab leak did turn out to be the catalyst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was likely the result of an accident.

Representatives for Paul declined to comment for this report, while Fauci did not respond to a request for comment. 

Yarden Bibas is back in Israel more than 480 days after Hamas terrorists ripped him from his home in Kibbutz Nir Oz and dragged him to the Gaza Strip. Bibas’ return, however, is bittersweet as his wife, Shiri, and their two young children, Ariel and Kfir, remain in Gaza. Their fate is unknown, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has made it clear that there are ‘grave concerns about their wellbeing.’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated Yarden Bibas’ return, while saying the nation’s thoughts are with Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas.

‘Our thoughts are now with Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas, and all of our abductees. We will continue to work to bring them home,’ Netanyahu wrote on X.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog also commented on Yarden’s release, calling it ‘heartbreaking.’

‘Yarden’s reunion with his family is simply heartbreaking. We all remain deeply concerned for the fate of our beloved Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas – as an entire nation we hold them in our hearts. The people of Israel stand by Yarden and the whole family, with great concern and in heartfelt prayer,’ Herzog wrote in a post on X.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum also celebrated Yarden Bibas’ return, and vowed to continue demanding that his wife and two sons be released.

Early Saturday, Bibas was freed alongside American-Israeli Keith Siegel and French-Israeli Ofer Kalderon in the fourth round of hostage releases as part of phase one of Israel and Hamas’ ongoing ceasefire deal.

‘From the moment Hamas launched its barbaric attack on October 7th, we have remained committed to one mission—bringing every hostage home,’ IDF International Spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani wrote on Substack. ‘We cannot and will not forget for a moment, the 79 hostages that remain in Hamas captivity.’

The release of Bibas, Siegel and Kalderon looked different from previous hostages’ releases, which saw shocking scenes of crowds mobbing the captives as they were transferred to the Red Cross. This change is likely due to Netanyahu’s demand that mediators guarantee the hostages safe exits following the chaotic scenes.

While in captivity, Bibas was forced to make a hostage film in which he was seen breaking down as Hamas claimed his wife and children had been killed. Hamas often uses these types of videos as part of what the IDF calls ‘psychological terror.’ However, the terror organization included Shiri, Kfir and Ariel on the list of 33 hostages set to be released in the first phase of the ceasefire deal.

Upon his release, Yarden’s family said that ‘a quarter of our heart has returned to us after 15 long months… Yarden has returned home, but the home remains incomplete.’

As images and videos of Hamas’ brutal attacks on Oct. 7 began to spread, the Bibas family quickly became a symbol of the terror group’s cruelty. A video of Shiri Bibas holding her two red-headed children in her arms was spread across the globe. Those calling for the Bibas’ family’s release often used the color orange to symbolize the infant and toddler’s bright red hair.

At the time of their kidnapping, Kfir was 9 months old and Ariel was 4 years old. They are the only child hostages remaining in Gaza. Ariel is now 5 years old and Kfir marked his second birthday in Hamas captivity, where he has spent his two and only birthdays.

As of Saturday, 79 hostages remain in Gaza, 35 of whom have been declared dead and whose bodies remain in the hands of Hamas. Keith Siegel, who was freed on Saturday, is the first Israeli-American to be released. There are still six American citizens in Gaza, only two of whom are believed to be alive.  

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Saturday elected Minnesota party leader Ken Martin, who once called for President Donald Trump to be tried for treason, as its next national chair in the wake of the party’s disastrous performance in the November elections.

The election of Martin is the party’s first formal step to try and rebound from the November elections, in which President Donald Trump recaptured the White House, and Republicans flipped the Senate, held on to their fragile majority in the House and made major gains with working-class, minority and younger voters.

‘We have one team, one team, the Democratic Party,’ Martin said following his victory. ‘The fight is for our values. The fight is for working people. The fight right now is against Donald Trump and the billionaires who bought this country.’

Martin, over the past eight years, has served as a DNC vice chair and has led the association of state Democratic Party chairs.

In 2020, Martin called Trump a ‘traitor’ who should be tried for treason.

‘[Donald Trump] should be immediately impeached and then put on trial for treason,’ Martin wrote on June 29, 2020, citing an anonymously sourced news story. ‘His actions led to the deaths of American soldiers. He is a traitor to our nation and all those who have served.’

He topped Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler by over 100 votes among the 428 DNC members who cast ballots as they gathered for the party’s annual winter meeting, which this year was held at National Harbor in Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C.

Martin O’Malley, the former two-term Maryland governor and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate who served as commissioner of the Social Security Administration during former President Biden’s last year in office, was a distant third in the voting.

Among the longshot candidates were Faiz Shakir, who ran the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Marianne Williamson, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2020 and 2024 Democratic presidential nominations. Williamson endorsed Martin on Saturday, ahead of the vote.

The eight candidates in the race were vying to succeed DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, who decided against seeking a second straight four-year term steering the national party committee.

With no clear leader in the party, the next DNC chair could become the de facto face of Democrats from coast to coast and will make major decisions on messaging, strategy, infrastructure and where to spend millions in political contributions.

‘It’s an important opportunity for us to not only refocus the party and what we present to voters, but also an opportunity for us to look at how we internally govern ourselves,’ longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley told Fox News Digital.

Buckley, a former DNC vice chair who backed Martin, said he’s ‘very excited about the potential of great reform within the party.’ He emphasized that he hoped for ‘significantly more support for the state parties. That’s going to be a critical step towards our return to majority status.’

In his victory speech, Martin stressed unity and that the party needed ‘to rebuild our coalition.’

‘We need to go on offense,’ Martin said. ‘We’re going to go out there and take this fight to Donald Trump and the Republicans.’

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who succeeded President Biden last July as the party’s 2024 standard-bearer, spoke with Martin, Wikler and O’Malley in the days ahead of Saturday’s election, Fox News confirmed. But Harris stayed neutral in the vote for party chair.

In a video message to the audience as the vote for chair was being tabulated, Harris said that the DNC has some ‘hard work ahead.’

But she pledged to be with the party ‘every step of the way,’ which could be a signal of her future political ambitions.

The debate during the three-month DNC campaign sprint mostly focused on the logistics of modern political campaigns, such as media strategy and messaging, fundraising and grassroots organizing and get-out-the-vote efforts. On those nuts-and-bolts issues, the candidates were mostly in agreement that changes are needed to win back blue-collar voters who now support Republicans.

But the final forum included a heavy focus on race and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, issues that appeared to hurt Democrats at the ballot box in November.

The forum, moderated and carried live on MSNBC and held at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., devolved into chaos early on as a wave of left-wing protesters repeatedly interrupted the primetime event, heckling over concerns of climate change and billionaires’ influence in America’s elections before they were forcibly removed by security.

The chair election took place as a new national poll spelled more trouble for the Democrats.

Only 31% of respondents in a Quinnipiac University survey conducted over the past week had a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party, with 57% seeing the party in an unfavorable light.

‘This is the highest percentage of voters having an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party since the Quinnipiac University Poll began asking this question,’ the survey’s release noted. 

Meanwhile, 43% of those questioned had a favorable view of the GOP, with 45% holding an unfavorable opinion, which was the highest favorable opinion for the Republican Party ever in Quinnipiac polling.

LGBT activists and groups are already mobilizing to block gender-related executive orders President Donald Trump signed since taking office to fulfill one of his key campaign promises to crack down on ‘gender ideology extremism.’ And more legal challenges are expected in the coming weeks.

The executive orders, signed in late January, include a reinstatement of the ban on transgender troops in the military, a ban on federal funding for sex changes for minors and a directive requiring federal agencies to recognize only ‘two sexes,’ male and female, in official standard of conduct.

‘This ban betrays fundamental American values of equal opportunity and judging people on their merit,’ Jennifer Levi, director of Transgender and Queer Rights at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law), said in a statement about the trans military ban 

‘It slams the door on qualified patriots who meet every standard and want nothing more than to serve their country, simply to appease a political agenda.’

GLAD Law and the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), were among the first groups to file a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration for its military ban. The lawsuit, Talbott v. Trump, was brought forward on equal protection grounds by six active-duty service members and two individuals attempting to enlist, according to the groups’ announcement.

The plaintiffs include a Sailor of the Year honoree, a Bronze Star recipient and several who were awarded meritorious service medals. They were identified as U.S. Army Reservist Lt. Nicolas Talbott, Army Maj. Erica Vandal, Army Sgt. First Class Kate Cole, Army Capt. Gordon Herrero, Navy Ensign Dany Danridge, Air Force Master Sgt. Jamie Hash, Koda Nature and Cael Neary. The latter two are civilians who are seeking to enlist in the military.

Another lawsuit, filed by a transgender inmate receiving taxpayer-funded medical treatments, is challenging Trump’s executive order that ends medical transgender treatments – such as hormones, sex changes and grooming accommodations – for federal prisoners.

The unnamed inmate, who goes by ‘Maria Moe’ in court documents and is represented by GLAD Law, NCLR and Lowenstein Sandler LLP, is claiming Trump and the Bureau of Prisons are violating the Fifth and Eighth amendments and claims to be ‘at imminent risk of losing access to the medical care she needs to treat her gender dysphoria.’

U.S. District Judge George O’Toole in Boston temporarily blocked BOP officials from transferring ‘Maria Moe’ to a men’s prison, according to a ruling released by the inmate’s attorney Thursday. The temporary restraining order was issued Sunday, the same day the suit was filed.

Prison officials are expected to keep the inmate in the women’s prison general population and maintain her transgender medical treatments, NBC first reported. 

Multiple lawsuits have been filed against Trump’s other executive orders, too, especially Trump’s immigration-related policies. More are expected in the coming weeks. 

A memo released Wednesday by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management provided guidance on directing federal agencies to acknowledge that women are biologically female and men are biologically male, Reuters reported. Trump said last week federal funds would not be used to promote ‘gender ideology.’ 

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on the litigation but did not hear back before publication.

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report. 

DORAL, Fla. — The lawmaker in charge of House Republicans’ elections arm is feeling confident that the GOP can buck historical precedent and hold onto their majority for the entirety of President Donald Trump’s term.

The 2024 elections saw Republicans make significant inroads with Hispanic and Black voters.

National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chairman Richard Hudson, R-N.C., said progress would continue heading into the 2026 midterm elections.

‘We’ve done well with African Americans, comparatively,’ Hudson told Fox News Digital, referring to years prior. ‘We’ve put a lot more effort in reaching out to that community as well and letting them know that we want your votes, and we want to represent you, and we care about the issues that matter to you and your family.’

‘I think we can do better, and we’ll continue to attempt to do better. But, look, our message, our values, our principles are all universal.’

He said Republicans’ values also lined up with Hispanic and Latino voters, 42% of whom supported Trump, according to the Associated Press.

‘We are focused on the issues you care about,’ Hudson said the pitch was. ‘It’s crime in your neighborhoods. It’s education for your children. It’s securing the borders. It’s the price of things for your family. I mean, these are all things we campaigned on. But we deliberately went out into the Hispanic community and said, ‘We want your vote.’ And they responded.’

Earlier in the interview, he credited Trump with delivering on those values in 2024, and argued that Trump’s policies would get Republicans over the line again next year.

Historically, the first midterm after a new presidential term serves as a rebuke of the party in power.

Democrats won the House of Representatives in a ‘blue wave’ in 2018 during Trump’s first term. Four years later, Republicans wrestled it back under former President Joe Biden.

But the circumstances are somewhat different this time, something Hudson noted.

‘We’re in a unique time in history, where you had a president serve four years with all his policies, and then he was replaced by another president who had completely different policies. . . . And then the two ran against each other,’ Hudson said. ‘So the American people sort of had a referendum on which president they wanted, which policies they chose, and they overwhelmingly selected Donald Trump.’

Trump is in his second term, and Hudson argued that the 2024 presidential race was a referendum between two clear White House records.

‘He has a mandate that I think is unique in history. And so this isn’t a first-term president going into his first midterm. I mean, this is someone the American people know, and they’ve chosen,’ Hudson said.

Hudson also pointed out that Democrats will be defending 13 lawmakers whose districts Trump won, while Republicans only had to hold onto three seats that voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024.

‘The battlefield out there for us going into 2026 favors Republicans,’ Hudson said. 

He spoke with Fox News Digital at Trump National Doral golf course and resort in South Florida, where Republicans held their three-day retreat to strategize their agenda.

Hudson was one of the senior Republicans who gave a presentation to fellow lawmakers during the event, where his message was: ‘We’re on offense this cycle.’

‘We’re going to lean in. We have a lot of opportunity in those Donald Trump seats,’ Hudson said he told colleagues. ‘We’re going to hold Democrats accountable for their voting against the policies the American people want.’