The International Criminal Court (ICC) rejected challenges from Israel and issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday.

The ICC charged Netanyahu and Gallant with ‘crimes against humanity and war crimes,’ including using starvation as a method of warfare and targeting civilians. Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned the move in a statement on Thursday.

‘Taken in bad faith, the outrageous decision at the ICC has turned universal justice into a universal laughingstock. It makes a mockery of the sacrifice of all those who fight for justice – from the Allied victory over the Nazis till today,’ Herzog wrote.

Herzog argued that the ICC’s decision ignores Hamas’ use of human shields and its Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks that started the war, as well as the Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza.

‘Indeed, the decision has chosen the side of terror and evil over democracy and freedom, and turned the very system of justice into a human shield for Hamas’ crimes against humanity,’ he added. ‘This cynical exploitation of the international legal institutions reminds us once again of the need for true moral clarity in the face of an Iranian empire of evil that seeks to destabilize our region and the world, and destroy the very institutions of the free world.’

Israel made several efforts to block the ICC from approving the arrest warrants. They first argued that the ICC has no jurisdiction over Israel, but the court said it could issue the arrest warrants as part of the ‘territorial jurisdication of Palestine.’

Israel also made other procedural challenges, but they were rejected.

The ICC’s move comes just days after Senate Majority Leader-elect John Thune threatened to hit the court with sanctions if it moved forward with the arrest warrants.

Thune – who was selected last week to be the next Senate majority leader once the GOP takes the upper chamber come January 2025 – warned that if the current Democratic leader does not take on the international court, he will.

‘If the ICC and its prosecutor do not reverse their outrageous and unlawful actions to pursue arrest warrants against Israeli officials, the Senate should immediately pass sanctions legislation, as the House has already done on a bipartisan basis,’ Thune wrote on X. ‘If Majority Leader Schumer does not act, the Senate Republican majority will stand with our key ally Israel and make this – and other supportive legislation – a top priority in the next Congress.’

The U.S. does not officially recognize the ICC’s authority, but it is not the first time Washington has looked to halt the court’s actions.

In 2020, the Trump administration opposed attempts by the ICC to investigate U.S. soldiers and the CIA involved in alleged war crimes between 2003-2004 ‘in secret detention facilities in Afghanistan,’ and issued sanctions against ICC prosecutors.

President Biden’s administration undid those sanctions shortly after entering office.

As President-elect Donald Trump has aggressively set to work on building his new administration, some have noticed that many of those being selected as his closest advisors are parents with families well above the national average.

The current national average for a family in the U.S. is 1.94, which is below the minimum 2.1 required to replace the population. Meanwhile, some of Trump’s Cabinet members and advisers are well above the replacement level.

Trump is a father of five adult children. Though he has divorced two times, he is said to be a devoted grandfather to his 10 grandchildren, even reportedly spending the morning after election night golfing with his granddaughter, Kai Trump.

Secretary of the Interior nominee Doug Burgum and Deputy Chief of Policy Stephen Miller each have three children. Trump’s picks for the CIA, John Ratcliffe, and Secretary of State pick Marco Rubio have four kids each. Though from several marriages, Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Department of Defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth both have seven kids.

The grand prize goes to Sean Duffy, Trump’s pick for transportation secretary, who with wife Rachel Campos-Duffy has nine children. In 2019, Duffy stepped down from his role as a Wisconsin congressperson ahead of his ninth child’s birth to spend more time with his family.

‘Raising a family is hard work,’ he said in a social media post explaining his decision. ‘I have always been open to signs from God when it comes to balancing my desire to serve both my family and my country.’

By comparison, with four children, President Biden is more of an exception in his administration, which is mainly staffed by people with two or fewer children.

During the campaign, Vice President-elect JD Vance voiced his belief that the government needs to place a greater emphasis on being ‘pro-family’ and make it easier for Americans to have larger families and more kids.

At 40 years old, Vance and his wife, Usha, have three children, and he has voiced his desire to have more.

In his first big speech on the national stage at the Republican National Convention, Vance said ‘the American Dream that always counted most [to me] was not starting a business or becoming a senator or even being here with you fine people, it was becoming a good husband and a good dad and of giving my family the things I never had as a kid. And that’s the accomplishment I’m proudest of.’

He was hit repeatedly by the Kamala Harris campaign and the media over his 2021 criticism of the country being run by who he called ‘childless cat ladies.’ But the underlying problem of low birth rates in the U.S. poses an increasingly big worry to those paying attention.

Catherine Pakaluk, a social researcher and author, told Fox News Digital that the country’s low birth rate has gotten to a point where it is presenting real problems and dangers for the future.

‘We Americans are not having enough children to replace the population,’ she said. ‘What we’re seeing is an inversion of the normal population pyramid where we would think about the normal population pyramid would be a greater number of younger workers supporting a smaller number of older, retired workers.’

Though not yet at the level of countries like Japan and China, which are now facing shrinking populations, Pakaluk said the result is that there are ‘fewer and fewer workers,’ fewer people paying into the tax base, and government programs such as social security and Medicare are becoming increasingly unviable.

Because of this reality, Pakaluk said she appreciates people like Vance pushing for larger families.

‘I really value that Vice President-elect Vance is speaking positively about families and talking a lot about how much he would like to have a larger family. … I think a lot of what is very helpful to us today is to have role models talking about how having kids isn’t really all that bad and, in fact, might be better than you expected.’

Most crucial to Pakaluk, however, is advancing values that lead to people choosing to have bigger families. She recently published a book called ‘Hannah’s Children’ in which she did extensive interviews with mothers who decided to have five or more kids. The common denominator among these women, who came from a wide array of faith backgrounds, was a strong religious belief in children as blessings from God.

This led Pakaluk to believe that the solution to what she calls the ‘birth dearth’ is a return to religious convictions on the individual and societal level.

She pointed to Duffy, who is a practicing Catholic, as an example.

‘What I like to say is, I don’t know that you can get more children out of being pro-child. … But I think you can get more children if you’re pro-church or pro-religious community,’ she said. ‘If people encounter strong religious communities on a more regular basis, this can change in a generation.’

MARCO ISLAND, FL – – Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, the new chair of the Republican Governors Association, says a top mission for GOP governors going forward will be helping President-elect Trump.

Kemp highlighted in a Fox News Digital interview that Republican governors spent the past four years ‘pushing back’ on President Biden’s administration.

And speaking to the media for the first time after being elected RGA chair at the group’s annual winter meeting – held this year at a waterfront resort in southwest Florida – the popular conservative two-term governor said on Wednesday that ‘we need to focus on making sure that we’re getting the Trump administration off to a strong start.’

For two years following his 2020 election loss to President Biden, Trump heavily criticized Kemp for refusing to help overturn his razor-thin defeat in Georgia.

Trump urged, and then supported, a 2022 GOP gubernatorial primary challenge against Kemp by former Sen. David Perdue. But the former president toned down his criticism of the governor after Kemp crushed Perdue to easily win renomination on his way to re-election.

But Trump, at a rally in Atlanta in August, unexpectedly went on a tirade against the Georgia governor – only to publicly praise Kemp just a few weeks later in a major about-face for the former president. And the two politicians teamed up in October – for the first time in four years – to survey hurricane damage in Georgia.

Kemp, looking forward to working again with a Republican White House administration, said that ‘from the governors’ perspective, we’ve got two years to make them successful and help them be successful up there, and to undo what the Biden-Harris administration has done.’

Republicans held onto the 27-23 gubernatorial advantage in this month’s elections, thanks in part to the efforts of the RGA.

‘We’re ready to keep working as we move into what will be a tough cycle for us in Virginia, in New Jersey [the only two states to hold elections for governor in 2025] and then having 36 races in 2026.’

Kemp emphasized that ‘my goal is for us to continue to raise enough money to be competitive. The Democrats are out spending us because they have big check writers, but we have a lot of really dedicated donors. We’ll try to continue to build the tent, make sure that we have good candidates and win because our policies are better.’

Kemp said his comfortable re-election in 2022 and Trump’s victory in Georgia earlier this month in the presidential election ‘gives us a lot of confidence, a lot of hope, but we also know that the ’26 midterm is going to be tough.’ 

Kemp is term-limited and can’t seek another term in office in 2026. The contest to succeed him will be a top gubernatorial election in two years.

‘I’m gonna be very engaged, you can rest assured, to making sure that my [successors] are Republican. I have a vested interest in doing that,’ Kemp said. ‘We’ll be working with the Trump administration and a lot of other people to make sure that that’s happening not only in Georgia, but in other states around the country, in places like Kansas, where we have a Democratic governor right now, in places like Arizona, where we have a really good shot at winning the governor’s races. So we’re going to be on offense.’

Georgia will also have a high-profile Senate showdown, as Republicans aim to defeat Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff in 2026.

Asked if he’ll be courted by national Republicans to take on Ossoff, Kemp responded ‘well, I may.’

But he quickly pivoted, stressing that ‘my focus right now, being just elected the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, is on raising money for us to be competitive in 2025 and 2026. I’ve made the commitment to do that, and I’m gonna fulfill that commitment. We’ll see what happens down the road with anything else.’

Asked if he’s not ruling out a possible 2026 Senate bid or even a 2028 White House run, the governor diplomatically said ‘I try to keep all doors open in politics.’

: House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer is expected to establish a subcommittee that will work with the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to eliminate government waste, Fox News Digital has learned. 

A source familiar told Fox News Digital that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., will chair the Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee, which will focus on rooting out waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government. 

The subcommittee is expected to investigate wasteful spending, examine ways to reorganize federal agencies to improve efficiency and identify solutions to eliminate bureaucratic red tape.

A source familiar told Fox News Digital that Comer had a meeting with Ramaswamy and his incoming DOGE team.

The source said Ramaswamy is ‘supportive of the Oversight Committee’s endeavor and are already working together.’ 

Comer told Fox News Digital that President Trump’s ‘landslide victory reflects a clear mandate to address inflationary spending that’s driving up the cost of living for hardworking Americans.’ 

‘Wasteful government spending must end, and taxpayers deserve to see their money used effectively and efficiently,’ he said. 

Comer told Fox News Digital that the new Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency ‘will align with the Trump administration’s priorities to eliminate government waste, streamline the federal government’s operations and cut red tape that’s stifling jobs and increasing costs for the American people.’ 

‘I look forward to working with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to deliver on these goals to Make America Great Again,’ Comer said.

Greene told Fox News Digital that the House Oversight Committee ‘is the perfect place to support the DOGE mission.’

‘I’m excited to chair this new subcommittee designed to work hand in hand with President Trump, Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy and the entire DOGE team,’ Greene said. ‘We will identify and investigate the waste, corruption and absolutely useless parts of our federal government.’

Greene said the subcommittee will provide ‘transparency and truth to the American people through hearings.’

‘No topic will be off the table,’ she said. ‘The goal of DOGE is to bring accountability and GUT useless government agencies.’ 

Greene said she expects the subcommittee’s work ‘will expose people who need to be fired.’

‘The bureaucrats who don’t do their job, fail audits like in the Pentagon and don’t know where billions of dollars are going, will be getting a pink slip,’ Greene said. ‘Chairman Comer and I are focused on delivering the mandate voters sent on Nov. 5th, and I can’t wait to get to work.’

Trump this month tapped Musk and Ramaswamy to lead DOGE, which Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, has widely touted. DOGE has already started soliciting civilian help in the agency.

Trump said last week he hopes DOGE will become the ‘Manhattan Project of our time,’ in reference to J. Robert Oppenheimer’s secretive atom bomb endeavor during World War II.

‘Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of DOGE for a very long time,’ Trump said.