The House passed legislation sanctioning the International Criminal Court on Thursday in protest of its arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

In one of the new Congress’ first acts, the bill passed 243-140, with 45 Democrats joining Republicans in support of it. 

The bill now heads to the Senate, where Republican Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has promised a swift vote to have it on President-elect Donald Trump’s desk by the time he takes office. 

Libertarian-minded Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who has not been afraid to break with his colleagues on Israel-related bills, questioned why the legislation was a week-one priority for the new congressional term. Massie was the only Republican ‘present’ vote – none opposed the legislation. 

‘The United States is a sovereign country, so I don’t assign any credibility to decisions of the International Criminal Court. But how did a bill to protect Netanyahu make it into the House rules package to be voted on immediately after the Speaker vote? Where are our priorities?!’ he wrote on X last week. 

The legislation was reintroduced by Texas Reps. Chip Roy, and Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast, both Republicans. 

On May 20, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif. All three Hamas leaders were killed in the past year. 

Netanyahu fired Gallant shortly after the U.S. presidential election. 

Khan’s application was unprecedented – the first time the criminal court had sought arrests for Western-allied officials. 

The judges on the ICC panel in November granted the warrants, finding that Netanyahu and Gallant had ‘committed the war crime of using starvation as a method of warfare and crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts, as a direct perpetrator, acting jointly with others. The Chamber also found reasonable grounds to believe that they are each responsible for the war crime of intentionally directing attacks against civilians as a superior.’ 

‘The ICC is an illegitimate body that has no business interfering with our sovereignty or that of our allies,’ said Roy. 

‘The ICC’s attempt to obstruct Israel’s right to defend itself has only prolonged the war and prevented the release of American hostages by boosting Hamas’ morale,’ Mast said in a statement. 

Israel has carried out a vicious campaign to eliminate Hamas in Gaza since Hamas’ bloody attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Trump has warned both sides to wrap up the conflict, and Hamas to return the hostages by the time he takes office on Jan. 20. 

The Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act would sanction any foreigner working to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute U.S. citizens or those of an allied country. 

It spans the 32-member NATO security alliance and 19 major non-NATO countries, including Israel. 

It would also claw back any funds the U.S. has designated for the ICC and prohibit any future money from going to the court. 

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has introduced companion legislation in the Senate. When the legislation passed the House last during the Congress, then-Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., did not take it up for a vote in the upper chamber. With Republicans in charge, Thune is intent on passing the legislation and getting it to the president’s desk by the time he is inaugurated. 

The funeral service of the late President Carter on Thursday at Washington, D.C.’s National Cathedral brought together all five living presidents together in one location.

The service comes as President Biden declared Thursday a National Day of Mourning for the 39th president, who died Dec. 29 at the age of 100. 

All five living men who once occupied the White House — the so-called presidents’ club — President Biden and former presidents Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama and President-elect Trump came together for the first time since the 2018 funeral of former President George H.W. Bush.

Biden delivered a eulogy. 

‘Throughout his life, he showed us what it means to be a practitioner of good works and a good and faithful servant of God, and of the people,’ Biden said. ‘And today, many think he was from a bygone era, but in reality he saw well into the future. A White Southern Baptist, who led the civil rights, a decorated Navy veteran who brokered peace, was a brilliant nuclear engineer who led a nuclear nonproliferation, a hard-working farmer who championed conservation and clean energy, and the president who redefined the relationship with a vice president.’

Biden praised the strength of character with which Carter lived his life, saying he showed the strength to understand ‘that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect.’

‘That’s the definition of a good life, a life Jimmy Carter lived during his 100 years. To young people, to anyone in search of meaning and purpose, study the power of Jimmy Carter’s example. I miss him, but I take solace in knowing that his beloved Rosalynn are reunited again. To the entire Carter family. Thank you, and I mean this sincerely, for sharing them both with America and the world.’

Ahead of the service, Trump was seen shaking hands with his former vice president, Mike Pence. Obama was seated next to Trump and the pair were seen shaking hands and chatting cordially.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., also attended, along with their Democratic counterparts, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Also in attendance were Sen. Dave McCormick, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Vice President-elect JD Vance, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, former first son Hunter Biden and former Vice President Al Gore.

In addition to Biden, other speakers included Carter’s grandsons, Joshua Carter and Jason Carter; Steven Ford, who read a eulogy written by his father, former President Gerald Ford; and Ted Mondale, the son of former Vice President Walter F. Mondale, who also read his father’s tribute to Carter.

Jason Carter remembered his grandparents’ humble lifestyle, though added that he knows ‘we are not here because he was just a regular guy.’

‘As you’ve heard from the other speakers, his political life and his presidency, for me, was not just ahead of its time. It was prophetic. He had the courage and strength to stick to his principles even when they were politically unpopular,’ the grandson said.

Tributes began Jan. 4, when a motorcade carried Carter’s body through his hometown of Plains, Georgia, before heading to Atlanta and the Carter Presidential Center, where family and loved ones paid tribute.

Carter then lay in repose at the Carter Center and then the Capitol.

Carter, the former governor of Georgia, won the presidency in 1976. He was guided by his devout Christian faith and determined to restore faith in government after Watergate and Vietnam. But after four years in office and impaired by stubborn, double-digit inflation and high unemployment, he was roundly defeated for re-election by Ronald Reagan. 

While in the White House, Carter established full diplomatic relations with China and led the negotiation of a nuclear limitation treaty with the Soviet Union. Domestically, he led several conservation efforts, showing the same love of nature as president as he did as a young farmer in Plains.

Carter lived out the rest of his years in the unassuming ranch house he’d built with his wife in 1961, building homes with Habitat for Humanity and making forays back into foreign policy when he felt it was needed, a tendency that made his relationship with the presidents’ club, at times, tense.

He earned a living in large part by writing books — 32 in all — but didn’t cash in on seven-figure checks for giving speeches or take any cushy board jobs as other presidents have. 

In his spare time, Carter, a deeply religious man who served as a deacon for the Maranatha Baptist Church of Plains, enjoyed fishing, running and woodworking. 

Carter is survived by his four children, 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

The CEO of the Panama Canal has denied President-elect Donald Trump’s allegation that the waterway built by the United States over a century ago is now under the control of China. 

‘The accusations that China is running the Canal are unfounded,’ Panama Canal Authority leaderRicaurte Vásquez Morales told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. ‘China has no involvement whatsoever in our operations.’

‘Rules are rules and there are no exceptions,’ Vásquez Morales reportedly added. ‘We cannot discriminate for the Chinese, or the Americans, or anyone else. This will violate the neutrality treaty, international law, and it will lead to chaos.’

In the 1970s, then-President Jimmy Carter negotiated what became known as the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, which agreed the United States could use military force to defend the waterway against any threat to its ‘neutrality.’ That aspect was considered crucial for the U.S. at the time amid the threat of Soviet-aligned states. Carter also agreed that the Panama Canal itself would be turned over to Panama on Dec. 31, 1999.

On Tuesday, a reporter asked Trump at Mar-a-Lago if he would assure the world he would not use ‘military or economic coercion’ to gain control of the Panama Canal, as well as Greenland. 

‘No, I can’t assure you on either of those two. But, I can say this. We need them for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for our military,’ Trump said. ‘Look, the Panama Canal is vital to our country. It’s being operated by China. China. And we gave the Panama Canal to Panama. We didn’t give it to China. And they’ve abused it. They’ve abused that gift. It should have never been made.’ 

While former President Carter was lying in state at the Capitol, Trump said he liked the man but disagreed with the deal he struck regarding the canal.

‘Giving the Panama Canal is why Jimmy Carter lost the election, in my opinion, more so maybe than the hostages. The hostages were a big deal. But if you remember, nobody wants to talk about the Panama Canal because, you know, it’s inappropriate, I guess. But, because it’s a bad part of the Carter legacy,’ Trump added later. ‘But, he was a good man. Look, he was a good man. I know him a little bit, and he was a very fine person. But that was a big mistake.’ 

This is not the first time the Panamanian government has denied China’s influence. 

Last month, Trump posted on TRUTH Social, ‘Merry Christmas to all, including to the wonderful soldiers of China, who are lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal.’

In response, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino dismissed the claim as ‘nonsense,’ saying at a press conference, ‘There is not a single Chinese soldier in the canal.’ 

‘The canal is Panamanian and belongs to Panamanians. There’s no possibility of opening any kind of conversation around this reality,’ he added, according to the BBC. 

Trump’s concerns echo those from the U.S. Department of Defense over growing Chinese investments in shipping ports around the world. 

Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee last March, Gen. Laura J. Richardson, the head of U.S. Southern Command, told lawmakers that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) ‘messages its investments as peaceful, but in fact, many serve as points of future multi-domain access for the PLA and strategic naval chokepoints.’ 

‘These investments include critical infrastructure such as deep-water ports, cyber facilities, and space facilities,’ Richardson warned. ‘In Panama, PRC-controlled State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) continue to bid on projects related to the Panama Canal – a global strategic chokepoint.’ 

Five percent of world commerce passes through the Panama Canal, Richardson said. 

Two seaports on either side of the Panama Canal have been run for decades by the Hong-Kong-based company Hutchison Ports PPC, the New York Times reported, noting how the Chinese government has increasingly implemented its national security laws on the island of Hong Kong that can force companies to comply with intelligence-gathering and military operations. 

Roughly 40% of U.S. container traffic runs through the Panama Canal, according to the newspaper. 

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra warned against the impact of a preemptive presidential pardon for people like Dr. Anthony Fauci just hours after President Biden said in an interview that he was still considering it.

‘It sinks my heart to think that we’re going to use the pardon process in a way that will follow the whims of whoever’s in the White House,’ Becerra, who previously served as California’s attorney general before taking his post at HHS, said in an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday. Becerra noted that he was speaking from his legal background as opposed to his position in Biden’s Cabinet.

‘I think we should hold that power, that only a president has, in very high regard,’ he continued. ‘Because otherwise it becomes pedestrian, and it’s used anywhere, and I don’t think that should be the case.’

When the HHS secretary was asked directly if he meant that the president should not pardon Fauci, who was Biden’s former chief medical adviser during the pandemic and served as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for several decades, Becerra declined to clarify.

‘I won’t try to interpret what you’re hearing; I just told you what I think,’ he replied. 

Becerra’s comments came hours after Biden’s final interview as president with a print publication, during which he said preemptive pardons for Trump’s political targets were still under consideration.

President-elect Trump’s nominees for director of the FBI and attorney general, Kash Patel and Pam Bondi, respectively, have previously indicated they are in favor of using the Justice Department to go after people they believe unfairly targeted Trump. 

Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress and some of Trump’s top transition advisers, such as Elon Musk, have argued that Fauci should be prosecuted over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Trump’s nominee to be the successor to Becerra, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., said while he was running for president – before joining Trump’s team – that he would prosecute Fauci if he won the November election and his attorney general determined that crimes had been committed in Fauci’s handling of the coronavirus. During the pandemic, Fauci was accused of working to evade public records laws and lying to Congress in apparent efforts to conceal the origins of the virus.  

Democrats are split on whether Biden should offer preemptive pardons to public officials who may be politically targeted by Trump.

‘If we’re serious about stopping Trump’s authoritarian ambitions, we need to act decisively and use every tool at our disposal. Norms and traditions alone won’t stop – Trump has shown time and again that he’s willing to ignore them to consolidate power and punish his opponents,’ Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., said in a statement last month calling on Biden to issue a blanket pardon for Trump’s political foes. ‘The time for cautious restraint is over. We must act with urgency to push back against these threats and prevent Trump from abusing his power.’

Legal experts have said that Biden has the authority to issue premptive pardons, citing precedent set by former President Gerald Ford when he granted a blanket pardon to Richard Nixon for any crimes committed while in office, even though Nixon had not been charged with anything after resigning following the Watergate scandal.

Fox News Digital reached out to HHS for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.

The House is expected to pass legislation sanctioning the International Criminal Court on Thursday in protest of its arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This would be one of the first acts of the new Congress. 

The bill will then head to the Senate, where Republican Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has promised a swift vote to have it on President-elect Donald Trump’s desk by the time he takes office. 

Last time the House voted on the bill in June, 42 Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the legislation, despite opposition to it from President Joe Biden. 

Libertarian-minded Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who has not been afraid to break with his colleagues on Israel-related bills, questioned why the legislation was a week-one priority for the new congressional term. 

‘The United States is a sovereign country, so I don’t assign any credibility to decisions of the International Criminal Court. But how did a bill to protect Netanyahu make it into the House rules package to be voted on immediately after the Speaker vote? Where are our priorities?!’ he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, last week. 

The legislation was reintroduced by Texas Reps. Chip Roy, and Foreign Affairs Chairman Brian Mast, both Republicans. 

On May 20, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammed Deif. All three Hamas leaders were killed in the past year. 

Netanyahu fired Gallant shortly after the U.S. presidential election. 

Khan’s application was unprecedented – the first time the criminal court had sought arrests for Western-allied officials. 

The judges on the ICC panel in November granted the warrants, finding that Netanyahu and Gallant ‘committed the war crime of using starvation as a method of warfare and crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts, as a direct perpetrator, acting jointly with others. The Chamber also found reasonable grounds to believe that they are each responsible for the war crime of intentionally directing attacks against civilians as a superior.’ 

‘The ICC is an illegitimate body that has no business interfering with our sovereignty or that of our allies,’ said Roy. 

‘The ICC’s attempt to obstruct Israel’s right to defend itself has only prolonged the war and prevented the release of American hostages by boosting Hamas’ morale,’ Mast said in a statement. 

Israel has carried out a vicious campaign to eliminate Hamas in Gaza since Hamas’ bloody attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Trump has warned both sides to wrap up the conflict and Hamas to return the hostages by the time he takes office on Jan. 20. 

The Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act would sanction any foreigner working to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute U.S. citizens or those of an allied country. 

It spans the 32-member NATO security alliance and 19 major non-NATO countries, including Israel. 

It would also claw back any funds the U.S. has designated for the ICC and prohibit any future money from going to the court. 

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has introduced companion legislation in the Senate. When the legislation passed the House last Congress, then-Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., did not take it up for a vote in the upper chamber. With Republicans in charge, Thune is intent on passing the legislation and getting it to the president’s desk by the time he is inaugurated.