The Houthis launched a reign of terror in the Red Sea on former president Joe Biden’s watch, attacking commercial ships and disrupting the global supply chain. Biden helped their cause when he removed their designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Well, there’s a new sheriff in town. Donald Trump’s White House began readying an executive order Wednesday afternoon that redesignates the Iran-backed Houthis as an FTO, our Adam Kredo scooped. The order “fully restores tough American sanctions on the Yemen-based terror group” and directs the United States Agency for International Development “to reassess all of its funding priorities in Yemen to ensure that no American taxpayer cash is benefiting the Houthis or its enablers.” It’s about time.
Trump signed the order around 5 p.m. and issued an accompanying fact sheet. “As a result of the Biden administration’s weak policy, the Houthis have fired at U.S. Navy warships dozens of times, launched numerous attacks on civilian infrastructure in partner nations, and attacked commercial vessels transiting Bab al-Mandeb more than 100 times,” it stated. “Under President Trump, it is now the policy of the United States to cooperate with its regional partners to eliminate the Houthis’ capabilities and operations, deprive them of resources, and thereby end their attacks on U.S. personnel and civilians, U.S. partners, and maritime shipping in the Red Sea.”
The Senate will soon consider a bill that would cement another priority for Republicans: slapping sanctions on the International Criminal Court, a move that enjoys broad support from the American public, according to a poll obtained exclusively by the Free Beacon.
Over on the West Coast, another 20,000 people were ordered to evacuate the Los Angeles area on Wednesday due to a new wildfire that exploded just north of the city. Jeffrey Magram, a former brigadier general in the California National Guard, would have been tasked with fighting the flames. He was the state guard’s top wildfire response expert and led the force’s response to some of the most catastrophic blazes in Golden State history. Magram’s officer performance reports credit him with “lives saved.”
But as the city battles historic wildfires, Magram is on the sidelines. And he says that’s because he’s Jewish.
Magram, the Free Beacon‘s Andrew Kerr reports, “is suing the state of California, Governor Gavin Newsom (D.), and Adjutant General Matthew Beevers, a Newsom appointee who has been accused of referring to his Jewish subordinates as ‘kike lawyers.’ Magram claims his dismissal was driven by anti-Semitic animus.”
Magram’s ouster just over two years ago came after an inquiry found he used military personnel for personal tasks, among other infractions that the inquiry claimed compromised his leadership. He was one of five generals who were fired or retired under pressure amid ballooning scandals at the guard in the last few years. But in his lawsuit, Magram—who was not implicated in the more lurid scandals that dogged the guard—argues he was targeted in a smear campaign that overlooked a sterling record because he is Jewish.
Magram claims that Beevers, who orchestrated his firing, was retaliating against him for defending a fellow Jew from Beevers’s anti-Semitic rants. Beevers discriminated against Magram, his lawsuit alleges, because of “Magram’s Jewish heritage” and his “complaints about Beevers’ anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment.”
“Beevers never considered any of the significant contributions I made to the Air National Guard, the Military Department, and to California’s public safety,” Magram told the Washington Free Beacon. “I believe he saw me as another ‘kike,’ and I should not be part of running the department. His actions certainly show that.”
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Most Canadian leaders have responded to Donald Trump’s quips about making Canada the “51st state” with contempt. But Danielle Smith, the premier of oil-rich Alberta, isn’t running from the Don—she’s reaching out to him.
Smith isn’t pledging to sign over her province to Uncle Sam. She is prepared, however, “to restart conversations with Trump administration officials about approving the Keystone XL oil pipeline,” according to our Thomas Catenacci, who spoke to the Alberta premier about the effort.
Under Smith’s guidance, Alberta “is seeking to double its oil and gas production,” writes Catenacci, “which means the province will need additional pipeline infrastructure to transport that product to its destination.” Enter Trump, who pledged not just to “drill, baby, drill,” but also to expand America’s energy infrastructure. The Keystone pipeline, which the Biden administration canceled shortly after coming to power in 2021, would do just that by providing safe passage for the flow of oil from Alberta all the way to Nebraska. And Smith is itching to get it built.
“We are stronger together,” she told Catenacci. “I think we can help Americans achieve their goal of energy dominance and ensure that American citizens continue to have low cost energy.”
Away from the Beacon:
- The long-rumored job cuts at CNN are set to begin as the left-wing network prepares to announce “layoffs targeting *hundreds* of employees,” according to Puck News. The move comes just days after CNN lost a bombshell defamation suit that put it on the hook for millions of dollars in damages.
- As fires ravage Los Angeles, liberal members of the California state assembly and senate gathered near the capitol building in Sacramento “to hold what they describe as a healing circle in response to President Donald Trump and his immigration policies.” Does the circle heal burn wounds?
- Longtime Biden allies are mad at the former president for preemptively pardoning his family members. “It’s disgusting,” said Obama White House chief of staff Bill Daley, who added that Biden will never wipe the “stain” from his legacy. Welcome to the party!
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