WIDER WAR: An American guided-missile destroyer in the northern Red Sea yesterday shot down three cruise missiles and several attack drones launched toward Israel by Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, illustrating the potential for wider war in the Middle East.

  It’s been a long time since an American ship has had to do a thing like that and it’s the first military action the US has taken to defend Israel in the current crisis. 

  Hours later President Biden delivered a rare speech from the Oval Office urging Americans to stand firm in their military support of Israel and Ukraine. He said that defending both countries is vital to global stability and security. “History has taught us that when terrorists don’t pay a price for their terror, when dictators don’t pay a price for their aggression, they cause more chaos and death and more destruction,” Biden said at the Resolute Desk. “They keep going. And the cost and the threats to America and the world keep rising.”

  The President plans to ask Congress for $74 billion in assistance for the two countries, a big ask in the case of Ukraine with flagging support among House extremists while they are in leadership meltdown. Biden wants $60 billion for Ukraine.

  David Firestone writes in The NY Times that, “An increasingly isolationist Republican Party is nursing old ideological grievances and trying to disengage from the world, pulling back on our commitment to protect Ukraine from Russian aggression while Donald Trump calls Hezbollah “very smart” and refers to Vladimir Putin as a “genius.”

  But last night Biden said aid for Israel and Ukraine would “a smart investment that’s going to pay dividends for American security for generations.”

  Protests against Israel’s siege of Gaza are expected across the Middle East today. The US State Department issued a worldwide warning to all US citizens to “exercise increased caution.”

THE CHAOS CONGRESS: Although he knows he doesn’t have the votes, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan pushed for a third vote today in his quest to become speaker of the House. 

  Jordan at first said he would suspend his candidacy and endorse a plan to support elevating interim speaker Patrick McHenry of North Carolina to powers allowing him to temporarily lead the House. Not today, though. Opponents of that plan said it would hand power to the Democrats.

  Mainstream Republicans are still holding their ground, saying they will not vote for Jordan. But after a day of heated meetings amongst the Republicans, Jordan said, “I’m still running for speaker. I plan to go to the floor and get the votes and win this race.”

THE KRAKEN PLEADS: Former Donald Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, who was active in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, has pleaded guilty to charges in the Georgia election interference case and agreed to testify against others among the 17 remaining defendants. It is publicly unknown how damaging Powell could be to Trump in particular.

  Powell, who once said she would “release the Kraken” to support Trump, is the second defendant to plead out of the case. Powell admitted her role in the January 2021 breach of election systems in rural Coffee County, Georgia in which Trump supporters accessed and copied information from the county’s election systems, hoping to prove the election was rigged against Trump.

  The voting machines in question belonged to Dominion Voting Systems, which Powell repeatedly claimed was party to rigging the election. She said the programming in Dominion machines was created at the direction of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, who’s been dead for 10 years. Dominion, of course, is suing her.

  Fulton County prosecutors are recommending a sentence of six years on probation. Powell also will be required write an apology to the citizens of Georgia, pay nearly $9,000 in restitution and fines, and turn over relevant documents.

ORANGE ALERT: Lawyers for Special Counsel Jack Smith presented arguments to a federal court yesterday that the judge in Donald Trump’s election tampering case should dismiss the former president’s claim that he’s immune from prosecution because he was president.

  “No court has ever alluded to the existence of absolute criminal immunity for former presidents,” assistant special counsel James Pearce wrote in a 54-page filing.

  Trump’s lawyers have said that hundreds of years of history and tradition have established that a president’s motivations were not for prosecutors or courts to decide, and that where “the President’s actions are within the ambit of his office, he is absolutely immune from prosecution.” 

  The prosecutors say Trump was not acting as president when he tried to overturn the election, but as a candidate for president, and that’s what makes the criminal difference.

THE SPIN RACK: Army Pvt. Travis King, who sprinted across the border into North Korea three months ago and has since been returned to the US, has been charged with desertion. — Alaska’s snow crab season has been cancelled for the second year in a row because billions of crabs have disappeared. Scientists say warming ocean temperatures are causing the crabs to starve to death.  — A federal judge in San Diego has ruled for a second time that California’s ban on the sale of assault rifles is unconstitutional. US District Judge Roger Benitez of San Diego said that the ban “promotes an important public interest of disarming some mass shooters even though it makes criminals of law-abiding residents who insist on acquiring these firearms for self-defense.” 

BELOW THE FOLD: In the interest of cutting boarding time by two minutes, United airlines says it is changing its boarding procedure for coach passengers … window seats first, then middle, and aisle. That gives you more time to sit on the runway and listen to United commercials.

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