Trump revoking security clearances of numerous antagonists including NY AG Letitia James, DA Alvin Bragg, Antony Blinken

President Trump has ordered security clearances stripped from a new hit list of antagonists.

Just days after revoking Joe Biden’s access to classified information and secure federal buildings — “because I don’t trust him” — Trump said his new top target is ex-Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who orchestrated the “Dirty 51” letter from former intelligence officials on the eve of the 2020 election.

The infamous missive falsely claimed that Hunter Biden’s laptop, the contents of which The Post revealed, was Russian disinformation.

Blinken’s security clearances will be revoked, following the same presidential directive aimed at Biden and the 51 ex-spooks last week, Trump told The Post in an exclusive interview.

“Bad guy. Take away his passes,” he said of Blinken.

“This is to take away every right they have [revoking security clearances] including they can’t go into [federal] buildings.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg join the new group of eight Democrat foes Trump plans to punish by revoking any access to classified information and barring their entry to federal facilities.

The president said they all will be given “exactly the same” punishment as Biden and the Dirty 51 as part of his administration’s vow to hold government officials accountable for actions he regards as election interference or the mishandling of classified information.

Bragg prosecuted Trump last year in the so-called “hush money” case and James brought a civil fraud case against the president for supposedly exaggerating his wealth when applying for bank loans.

The move is regarded as more symbolic than consequential for the New York lawfare duo.

But it could hamper them in carrying out their official duties by prohibiting them from entering courthouses, prisons, and law enforcement facilities in Foley Square in lower Manhattan, including the Thurgood Marshall and Daniel Patrick Moynihan courthouses, the Metropolitan Correctional Center, and the Jacob Javits Federal Building which houses the FBI’s New York field office.

They also will not be able to set foot in the US Attorney’s offices for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

“It’s more an insult and a slap in the face than a real deterrent,” said attorney Bob Costello, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor who testified as a defense witness in Trump’s hush-money trial in Manhattan.

The other targets Trump disclosed to The Post include Biden’s former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who also was chief foreign policy adviser to Hillary Clinton during her failed 2016 presidential bid when he notoriously helped foment the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.

Also in Trump’s sights are Biden’s Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who was involved in overseeing lawfare investigations against Trump and coordinating the DOJ response to the Jan. 6 riot.

She also helped orchestrate the Russia hoax while working as an aide to President Obama.

Next in line are anti-Trumpers Andrew Weissman, the lead prosecutor in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russiagate investigation of Trump, who frequently maligns the former president in his role as an MNBC contributor; lawyer Mark Zaid, who represented Eric Ciaramella, the CIA analyst identified as the whistleblower in Trump’s impeachment in 2019 over a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; and Norm Eisen, special counsel to the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment.

Former Trump attorney Tim Parlatore says Trump’s action is largely symbolic and hard to enforce, especially on New York officials.

But it will have a “major impact” on Zaid’s legal practice “because he fashions himself as a national security lawyer.”

“He’s a whacky partisan guy [who] tweeted after Trump was inaugurated that it was time for a coup. He makes his money during Republican [presidencies] by going against the administration.”

Trump last week cut off Biden’s access to the daily intelligence briefings normally afforded former presidents, before stripping his security clearances, telling The Post he doesn’t “trust” his predecessor with such sensitive information.

“I don’t trust him. He’s not worthy of trust … To safeguard national security,”

He told the Post his administration had no plans to investigate his predecessor, while noting that Biden did not pardon himself when he pardoned his son Hunter and six other family members.

“I wouldn’t do it specifically. If something comes up, he’s certainly prime time for investigation. … It’s not good what he did to our country. I mean, all of this work we’re doing now with getting [illegal aliens] out, finding murderers on the street. … all of this that we’re doing is because of him allowing people to come into our country.”

https://nypost.com/2025/02/08/us-news/trump-stripping-the-security-clearances-from-a-new-hit-list-of-antagonists-including-ny-ag-letitia-james-da-alvin-bragg/

NIH announces it's slashing funding for indirect research costs

The agency estimated that it could save $4 billion by capping indirect costs at 15%.

The National Institutes of Health announced Friday that the agency is making cuts to grants that support research institutions by limiting the amount of indirect funding for research projects to just 15%.

In the agency’s announcement, the NIH’s Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration, or OPERA, wrote that $9 billion of the $35 billion total spent on research grants in fiscal year 2023 was allocated from the agency for indirect costs, which cover things like equipment, operations, maintenance, accounting and personnel.

When a scientist receives a federal NIH grant for a project — say $500,000 per year — the institution that houses that scientist’s work receives an additional percentage for those indirect costs. Those rates are negotiated between the grantor and the university or research institution.

“The indirect system makes sense on a certain level. You have to support the infrastructure of a place. I can’t erect a new building every time I get a research grant,” said Michael Eisen, a University of California, Berkeley, biologist. “I’m not paying for electricity in my lab, I’m not paying for HVAC, I’m not paying for janitors.”

The memo noted that the average indirect costs rate for organizations receiving NIH grants was between 27% and 28%, but could sometimes be even higher.

OPERA noted in the memo that it arrived at the 15% standard indirect rate by looking at the indirect cost rates at several private foundations that fund research grants, like the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John Templeton Foundation, all of which have maximum indirect cost rates of between 10% and 15%.

“The United States should have the best medical research in the world. It is accordingly vital to ensure that as many funds as possible go towards direct scientific research costs rather than administrative overhead,” OPERA wrote in its guidance.

The agency also estimated that it could save $4 billion by capping indirect costs at 15%.

But scientists at various institutions of research and higher education were quick to point out that cutting indirect costs could be detrimental to research studies because it would mean slashing funding for lab space, researchers and supplies — all considered essential for scientific research.

“A sane government would never do this,” Jeffrey Flier, the former dean of Harvard Medical School, wrote in a post on X.

Eisen said he viewed the indirect funding system as byzantine, opaque and worthy of re-examination.

“I understand the sentiment to look at universities and say, ‘The administrations have grown massively, there’s deans all over the place and there’s money going into this nebulous void. Why should taxpayers being paying for that stuff?’” Eisen said. “I would welcome a real careful rethink of how grants are structured and where money goes in a grant and who is in charge of allocating it, with more transparency and clarity on where the money is going.”

But Eisen said the new guidance from NIH was a “crude” and “poorly thought out” approach that would shift the weight of supporting research to universities rather than the federal government.

“It’s basically saying: ‘You’ve got all this money, universities, you spend it on research, why should the government spend it on research?’” Eisen said. “Most universities don’t have the funds to step in and cover this. It’s not viable.”

Eisen said he thought the effect of the policy, if it remains in its current form, would be less biomedical research, overall.

“This is going to have a bad effect on research. If you don’t want to research to happen, you can accomplish it this way,” Eisen said.

Katie Miller, one of President Donald Trump’s appointees to the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, celebrated the move in a post on X, writing, “President Trump is doing away with Liberal DEI Deans’ slush fund. This cuts just Harvard’s outrageous price gouging by ~$250M/ year,” accusing researchers at Harvard who accept NIH grants of having high indirect cost rates.

The Senate has not confirmed a new NIH director. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor, was nominated for the position by Trump. His confirmation hearings have not been scheduled yet.

“Certainly, this is going to come up,” Eisen said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/nih-announces-slashing-funding-indirect-research-costs-rcna191337

Trump freezes aid to South Africa over racist land law

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday formalizing his announcement earlier this week that he’ll freeze assistance to South Africa for a law aiming to address some of the wrongs of South Africa’s racist apartheid era — a law the White House says amounts to discrimination against the country’s white minority.

“As long as South Africa continues to support bad actors on the world stage and allows violent attacks on innocent disfavored minority farmers, the United States will stop aid and assistance to the country,” the White House said in a summary of the order. The White House said Trump is also going to announce a program to resettle white South African farmers and their families as refugees.

Trump was responding to a new law in South Africa that gives the government powers in some instances to expropriate land from people. The White House said the law “blatantly discriminates against ethnic minority Afrikaners.”

The Expropriation Act was signed into law by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last month and allows the government to take land in specific instances where it is not being used, or where it would be in the public interest if it is redistributed.

It aims to address some of the wrongs of South Africa’s racist apartheid era, when Black people had land taken away from them and were forced to live in areas designated for non-whites.

Elon Musk, a close Trump ally and head of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency, has highlighted that law in recent social media posts and cast it as a threat to South Africa’s white minority.

The order also references South Africa’s role in bringing accusations of genocide against Israel before the International Court of Justice.

The halt in foreign aid to South Africa comes amid a broader pause to most U.S. overseas assistance under Trump, as he looks to shift to what he calls an “America First” foreign policy.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/trump-orders-freeze-of-aid-to-south-africa-over-post-apartheid-land-expropriation-law

Exhibit A: Noora Shalash, Director of Government Affairs for CAIR-Kentucky, Calling for Jihad (Holy War)

Baltic states cut ties to Russian power grid in historic switch away from Moscow

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania disconnected their electricity systems from Russia's power grid on Saturday, the region's operators said, part of a plan designed to integrate the countries more closely with the EU and boost security.

Three Baltic states on Saturday cut ties with Russia's power grid to join the European Union's network, the culmination of a years-long process that gained urgency with Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania all former Soviet republics now in the European Union and NATO had wanted to block Russia's ability to geopolitically blackmail them via the electricity system.

"We have removed any theoretical possibility of Russia using energy (grid) control as a weapon," Lithuania's Energy Minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas told AFP on Saturday.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas Estonia's former prime minister had on Friday hailed the grid switch as "a victory for freedom and European unity".

Vaiciunas said the Baltic states had completed the disconnection process at 9:09 local time (0709 GMT) on Saturday.

"We have been waiting for this moment for a long time," he told reporters, after speaking with his Estonian and Latvian counterparts.

"The energy system of the Baltic states is finally in our own hands. We are in control," he added of the "historic" moment.

He said the Baltics were now operating in so-called "isolated mode", before they integrate with the European grid on Sunday.

Official celebrations are planned across the Baltics, and authorities were on guard for any potential cyber-attacks linked to the grid switch.

Latvia will physically cut a power line to Russia later Saturday and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is to attend a ceremony with Baltic leaders in Vilnius on Sunday.

The Baltics have long prepared to integrate with the European grid but faced technological and financial issues.

The switch became more urgent after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, spooking the Baltic states into thinking they could be targeted.

They stopped purchasing Russian gas and electricity after the invasion but their power grids remained connected to Russia and Belarus, controlled from Moscow.

This left them dependent on Moscow for a stable electricity flow, which is crucial for factories and facilities requiring a reliable power supply.

'Possible provocations'

The Baltic states will operate in "isolated mode" for about 24 hours to test their frequency, or power levels, according to Lithuania's state-run grid operator Litgrid.

"We need to carry out some tests to assure Europe that we are a stable energy system," Litgrid head Rokas Masiulis had said last month.

"We'll switch power stations on and off, observe how the frequency fluctuates and assess our ability to control it."

The states will then integrate into the European power grid via Poland.

Authorities have warned of potential risks linked to the change.

"Various short-term risks are possible, such as kinetic operations against critical infrastructure, cyber-attacks and disinformation campaigns," Lithuania's state security department told AFP.

Poland's power grid operator PSE had said it would use helicopters and drones to patrol the connection with Lithuania.

Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics told LTV1 the countries could not "rule out possible provocations".

In Estonia, police and volunteer defence corps will man critical electrical infrastructure until next weekend because of the risk of sabotage.

Several undersea telecom and power cables have been severed in the Baltic Sea in recent months. Some experts and politicians have accused Russia of waging a hybrid war, an allegation Moscow denies.

'People won't feel it'

A total of 1.6 billion euros ($1.7 billion) mostly EU funds have been invested in the synchronisation project across the Baltic states and Poland.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda was sure the switch would go smoothly, telling reporters: "People won't feel it, either in terms of their bills or any inconvenience."

Estonia's climate ministry urged everyone to carry on as usual as "the more regular and predictable the behaviour… the easier it is to manage the power grid".

But some consumers worried about power cuts and home improvement stores in Estonia had noted a sharp increase in sales of generators.

After the Baltic decoupling, the energy system in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad will lose its grid connection to mainland Russia.

Kaliningrad has been building up power generation capacity for years and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed all concerns.

Asked about the cut-off last week, he said: "We have taken all measures to ensure the uninterrupted reliable operation of our unified energy system."

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250208-baltics-begin-decoupling-from-russian-power-grid

Kanye is still on a manic episode.