CLABELA

Trump revokes security clearances for Biden, Harris, Clinton, more

President Donald Trump issued a memo late Friday rescinding security clearances and access to classified information for a slew of erstwhile opponents, including former Vice President Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, former President Joe Biden and “any other member of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s family.”

Trump had said in February he planned to remove his predecessor’s access to classified intelligence briefings. It was payback — Biden had done the same to him after he left office in the days after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

A variety of figures who have tangled with Trump were named in Friday’s memo. Some had been mentioned by Trump officials as people who would soon have their security clearances revoked, so their inclusion did not come as a shock. Harris and Clinton, however, were seemingly new to the list. Taken together, the catalog of names read like an enemies list.

There were New York’s top two law enforcement officials, Letitia James (the New York attorney general) and Alvin Bragg (Manhattan’s district attorney).

There were prominent characters from the first impeachment brought against Trump in 2019, when he was shown to have tried to strong-arm Ukraine into helping him dig up dirt on Biden. Names included in Friday’s memo: Fiona Hill, a top foreign policy expert who testified during the impeachment hearings; Alexander Vindman, a lieutenant colonel who also testified; and Norman Eisen, a lawyer who oversaw that impeachment.

And there were the two Republicans who served on the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.

DOGE

Experts say U.S. weather forecasts will worsen as balloon launches cut

WASHINGTON>> With massive job cuts, the National Weather Service is eliminating or reducing vital weather balloon launches in eight northern locations, which meteorologists and former agency leaders said will degrade the accuracy of forecasts just as severe weather season kicks in.

The normally twice-daily launches of weather balloons in about 100 locations provide information that forecasters and computer models use to figure out what the weather will be and how dangerous it can get, so cutting back is a mistake, said eight scientists, meteorologists and former top officials at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — the weather service’s parent agency.

The balloons soar 100,000 feet in the air with sensors called radiosondes hanging about 20 feet below them that measure temperature, dew point, humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction.

“The thing about weather balloons is that they give you information you can’t get any other way,” said D. James Baker, a former NOAA chief. He had to cut spending during his tenure but refused to cut observations such as weather balloons. “It’s an absolutely essential piece of the forecasting system.”

University of Oklahoma environment professor Renee McPherson said, “This frankly is just dangerous.”

CARIBBEAN, LATIN AMERICA

Administration moves to end program for migrants from four nations

The Trump administration said Friday that it was ending a Biden-era program that allowed hundreds of thousands of people from four troubled countries to enter the United States lawfully and work for up to two years.

The program offered applicants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela the opportunity to fly to the United States and quickly secure work authorization, provided they passed security checks and had a financial sponsor. They were allowed to stay for up to two years, which could be renewed.

Billed “legal pathways” by the Biden administration, the program was first introduced for Venezuelans in 2022 and was expanded to the other three countries the next year.

— Denver Post wire services