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Anthony Fauci will not testify before Congress Wednesday.The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was subpoenaed to testify before a Republican-led Senate committee regarding his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. But he won’t—instead, Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment in his opening statements.Fauci remarked that Kentucky Senator Rand Paul—who issued the subpoena and has repeatedly called for Fauci’s arrest—has an “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution.” Paul posted hundreds of pages from Fauci’s pandemic-era diary to his website over the weekend, summarizing the unredacted collection through a conspiratorial slant and with a pink pen, which Fauci said was “aimed at embarrassing and intimidating” him.“The only conclusion I can reach is that the sole reason he is calling me before this Committee is to prompt me to say something, anything, that could vindicate his repeated public pledges that I end up, in his words, ‘behind bars,’” Fauci said, adding that he is following his attorney’s advice by pleading the Fifth.Mere moments into the hearing, Paul had one of Fauci’s attorneys, David Schertler, thrown out of the room after he attempted to speak on behalf of his client.“Let the record state that Dr. Fauci will still have the advice of the other half a dozen attorneys that he brought along today,” Paul remarked after Schertler was removed.In a written statement shared ahead of the hearing, Schertler argued that Paul displayed an “intense and seemingly pathological” obsession with Fauci that began during a July 2021 Senate HELP Committee hearing. At the time, Paul claimed that Fauci was responsible for the deaths of millions of people and had orchestrated a cover-up. Fauci, in turn, said that Paul “had no idea what he was talking about, and if anyone was lying it was him.”“Chairman Paul’s public crusade against Dr. Fauci can only be described as an obsessive vendetta,” Schertler continued. “It triggers what the Supreme Court has called a ‘basic function’ of the Fifth Amendment—‘to protect innocent men … who otherwise might be ensnared by ambiguous circumstances.’”Fauci has testified before Congress countless times over the course of his 38-year career atop the health agency. He advised seven U.S. presidents over that time, and oversaw research on a range of issues including HIV/AIDS, ebola, influenza, zika, and finally, the coronavirus.Paul charged Fauci with lying to Congress during a July 2023 hearing on Covid, though the issue was eventually wiped away via a pardon issued by former President Joe Biden.But Republicans haven’t paid any heed to that pardon. On Tuesday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer warned Fauci that the pardon would not cover his latest congressional hearing.“Americans are still reaping the consequences of Dr. Fauci’s actions,” Comer told Fox News. “Biden’s pardon doesn’t cover Dr. Fauci’s testimony this week and if he continues to lie, he must be held accountable.”This story has been updated.

President Donald Trump sees Senate Majority Leader John Thune as one of his “biggest headaches,” despite insisting that their relationship is “fine” publicly, according to reporting from The Atlantic. The president’s displeasure with Thune has been brewing for some time, as the senator stands squarely in the way of Trump’s voting rights–suppressing SAVE America Act. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters last week that Trump’s patience with Thune was “running out,” and Trump himself told a Georgia rally crowd to call Thune directly regarding the SAVE America Act that same day. And on Monday, Trump strangely demanded that Thune pass a “full and deep throated” SAVE America Act.“John Thune should not allow the United States Senate to ‘leave town’ until it passes The Save America Act or, far better still, TERMINATES THE FILIBUSTER, where Republicans can then quickly pass everything they ever dreamed of, including a full and deep throated SAVE AMERICA ACT, the Budget, and the ever looming Debt Ceiling disaster, 1929!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The Dumocrats will do it on day one, and can’t believe how lucky they got with this Senate leadership. Remember, stupidity always brings LOSING & DEATH!”Thune has yet to flinch, making Trump’s private comments even more believable. “If somebody can show me how we get an outcome, how we get a result, how we get an answer to this, I’m all for it.… But if we are going to be sitting here in endless quorum calls, I don’t know if that’s in anybody’s best interest,” Thune said to reporters on Monday. “We could stay here until Christmas, Democrats aren’t voting for this. I’m just telling you.… And Republicans are not getting rid of the legislative filibuster.”It’s unclear how long Thune’s resistance can last. Trump is absolutely desperate to get the SAVE America Act through, and he’ll be even more so as he approaches the end of his second (and hopefully final) term. Thune’s moderate Senate allies, such as Thom Tillis and John Cornyn, are outgoing, while the majority of the party willingly capitulates to whatever Trump demands, and will likely continue doing so.

President Donald Trump personally intervened to block disaster aid to four Democratic-led states, overriding his own government agencies. Politico reported Wednesday that Trump blocked aid to New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York after regional Federal Emergency Management Agency offices and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration determined that all four states met the requirements for receiving aid due to a record-breaking blizzard in February. The news outlet viewed emails between federal and state officials in addition to more than 150 pages of documents sent to FEMA by state officials. Presidents have the final say on granting federal disaster aid, but it’s rare to deny requests from state governors after FEMA determines that the estimated damage goes beyond preestablished levels.“I can’t think of a time a declaration was denied” for a state that met FEMA and NOAA standards, a former FEMA official anonymously told Politico. There have been 69 snow-assistance requests that met FEMA standards since President George W. Bush, and all but one have received presidential approval—including during Trump’s first term. The lone exception was a New Mexico request in 2016 that was under investigation for mishandling FEMA funds. The four states that requested aid this year were seeking a total of $227 million in assistance to take on unexpected snow removal costs. The Trump administration has denied any wrongdoing, claiming the aid denials were not political. In a statement, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said that “there is no politicization to the president’s decisions on disaster relief.”Trump handles disaster requests “with great care” to ensure state aid is used “to supplement—not substitute, their obligation to respond to and recover from disasters,” Jackson added. But earlier this month, Trump administration officials admitted in court that the White House has deliberately canceled clean energy funding to states that didn’t vote for him in the 2024 presidential election. The president has also withheld childcare funding to blue states. Trump doesn’t seem to believe he has an obligation to help citizens of the U.S. under his charge if he perceives a slight against him.

We go to New Delhi for an update on India’s youth-led, anti-government “Cockroach” movement. After weeks of street protests against Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the ruling BJP party, Pradhan tendered his resignation on Saturday. Now, however, protest leaders are accusing right-wing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of reneging on his promise to not take punitive action against demonstrators. “Because this government and its policy is, and has always been, that of vengeance, … we are witnessing a massive crackdown on student activists across the country,” says Neha Bora, a doctoral student at Jawaharlal Nehru University and the national president of the All India Students Association. Bora spent 23 days on hunger strike during the protests. Indian writer and artist Shuddhabrata Sengupta points out that the movement is not the first major “Gen Z”-led protest in the country. Six years ago, India’s streets exploded in protest of the Citizenship Amendment Act, which purported to provide asylum seekers from religious minority groups a path to citizenship, but excluded Muslims, who face severe levels of persecution under the BJP’s Hindu nationalist government. “There’s clearly a restlessness for change and an unwillingness to accept the lies and the slander that the regime produces on a daily and a nightly basis,” says Sengupta.

We go to New Delhi for an update on India’s youth-led, anti-government “Cockroach” movement. After weeks of street protests against Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the ruling BJP party, Pradhan tendered his resignation on Saturday. Now, however, protest leaders are accusing right-wing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of reneging on his promise to not take punitive action against demonstrators. “Because this government and its policy is, and has always been, that of vengeance, … we are witnessing a massive crackdown on student activists across the country,” says Neha Bora, a doctoral student at Jawaharlal Nehru University and the national president of the All India Students Association. Bora spent 23 days on hunger strike during the protests. Indian writer and artist Shuddhabrata Sengupta points out that the movement is not the first major “Gen Z”-led protest in the country. Six years ago, India’s streets exploded in protest of the Citizenship Amendment Act, which purported to provide asylum seekers from religious minority groups a path to citizenship, but excluded Muslims, who face severe levels of persecution under the BJP’s Hindu nationalist government. “There’s clearly a restlessness for change and an unwillingness to accept the lies and the slander that the regime produces on a daily and a nightly basis,” says Sengupta.

The United States is facing a number of major disease outbreaks, from foodborne cyclosporiasis to vaccine-preventable measles. We speak to the former chief medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Debra Houry. She resigned from her post one year ago in protest over political interference at the agency and the leadership of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist who has overseen the slashing of billions of dollars in public health funding during the second Trump administration. “The U.S. is really at a tipping point, when you look at measles, whooping cough, all these vaccine-preventable diseases, as well, and the secretary is responsible for this,” says Houry. “Public health matters. When it works, you often don’t know, because you’re saving lives. But when you take it away, we see those consequences today.”

We speak to Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, about Israel’s continued impunity from international law. Despite an International Criminal Court warrant out for his arrest, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently visited the White House to meet with President Donald Trump. While the United States is not a member state to the ICC, “It doesn’t mean that they have to extend protection to a fugitive from international law,” says Albanese, who joins widespread international calls for Netanyahu’s arrest. “The United States is actively contributing to make the international criminal law architecture that it has been building, from the Nuremberg trials up until now, crumble on our head.” Albanese also comments on settler- and soldier-led “pogroms” in the occupied West Bank and calls out the complicity of the governments of Greece, Italy and France, which, despite being party to the ICC, authorized Netanyahu’s travel through their airspaces. “It looks small in the context of a genocide, but every action matters, as every crime matters and will be accounted for,” she says.

We speak to Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, about Israel’s continued impunity from international law. Despite an International Criminal Court warrant out for his arrest, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently visited the White House to meet with President Donald Trump. While the United States is not a member state to the ICC, “It doesn’t mean that they have to extend protection to a fugitive from international law,” says Albanese, who joins widespread international calls for Netanyahu’s arrest. “The United States is actively contributing to make the international criminal law architecture that it has been building, from the Nuremberg trials up until now, crumble on our head.” Albanese also comments on settler- and soldier-led “pogroms” in the occupied West Bank and calls out the complicity of the governments of Greece, Italy and France, which, despite being party to the ICC, authorized Netanyahu’s travel through their airspaces. “It looks small in the context of a genocide, but every action matters, as every crime matters and will be accounted for,” she says.

France and Spain Race to Contain Wildfires Amid Heat Wave, Death Toll Rises to 18 People in Japan Earthquake, Uganda Declares End to the Latest Outbreak of Ebola, Netanyahu and Zelensky Attend Sen. Graham’s Funeral in Washington, Senate Votes to Confirm Jay Clayton as Director of National Intelligence, U.S.-Iran Negotiations Stall as Iran Attacks U.S. Base in Jordan, U.S. Walks Out of UNSC Meeting During French Ambassador’s Remarks, Human Rights Groups Say Iranian Authorities Hanged Two Anti-Gov’t Protesters, Israeli Jets Strike Mosque in Gaza City, Killing One Person and Wounding Dozens, Palestinians Released from Israeli Prisons Show Signs of Torture, Israeli Activists Protesting Settler Violence in the Occupied West Bank Clash with Police, Federal Judge Orders Release of Key Witness in ICE’s Fatal Shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Wired: Longtime DHS Officials Resigns over Trump’s “War on Immigrants”, WSJ: Trump Pressuring RFK Jr. to Slash Childhood Vaccination Recommendations, Right-Wing Leader Keiko Fujimori Sworn In as President of Peru