Trump pushes forward on mass layoffs at Voice of America
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump's administration on Friday ordered mass layoffs at Voice of America and other government-funded media, moving ahead with gutting the outlets despite legal disputes and criticism that US adversaries will benefit.
Kari Lake, a fervent Trump supporter named to a senior role at the US Agency for Global Media, said the notices were a 'long-overdue effort to dismantle a bloated, unaccountable bureaucracy.'
Lake said in a statement that she would work with the State Department and Congress to 'make sure the telling of America's story is modernized, effective and aligned with America's foreign policy.'
Trump issued an order in March that froze Voice of America (VOA) for the first time since it was founded in 1942.
Termination notices were sent to 639 employees on Friday, after previous offers of voluntary departures and dismissals of contractors.
Some 1,400 positions have been eliminated, with only 250 remaining, Lake said.
Voice of America layoffs included journalists from its Persian service who had briefly been brought back to work after Israel attacked Iran a week ago.
Employees have filed a lawsuit challenging Lake's actions, which come even though Congress had already appropriated funding.
The mass firing decision 'spells the death of 83 years of independent journalism that upholds the US ideals of democracy and freedom around the world,' the three plaintiffs wrote in a statement.
'Moscow, Beijing, Tehran and extremist groups are flooding the information space with anti-American propaganda. Do not cede this ground by silencing America's voice,' said the three complainants, Patsy Widakuswara, Jessica Jerreat and Kate Neeper.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the 'decimation of US broadcasting leaves authoritarian propaganda unchecked by US backed independent media and is a perversion of the law and congressional intent.'
'It is a dark day for the truth,' she wrote on X.
Trump frequently attacks media outlets and has scoffed at the so-called editorial firewall at VOA which prevents the government from intervening in its coverage, something he at times has considered too critical of his administration.
One outlet preserved by the mass cuts has been Radio Marti, which broadcasts into Cuba and enjoys support from anti-communist Cuban-American Republican lawmakers.
Other outlets funded by the US government have included Radio Free Asia, which was set up to provide news to Asian countries without a free press and is now operating in a limited capacity.
Radio Free Europe, formed with a similar mission for Soviet bloc nations during the Cold War, has survived thanks to support from the Czech government.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New Straits Times
2 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Trump threatens to fire Fed chair Powell, calls him 'numbskull'
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump escalated his criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday – publicly mulling whether to fire the official and appoint himself to the central bank. The Republican leader, who regularly berates Powell over the bank's decisions not to lower interest rates, took to Truth Social to smear the banker as a "numbskull," "moron" and "obvious Trump Hater." "I fully understand that my strong criticism of him makes it more difficult for him to do what he should be doing, lowering Rates, but I've tried it all different ways," said Trump, who appointed Powell during his first term. "I've been nice, I've been neutral, and I've been nasty, and nice and neutral didn't work!" Powell's term does not conclude until next year. He has said his dismissal would be unlawful, and that he has no intention of stepping down voluntary if Trump asks. "I don't know why the Board doesn't override this Total and Complete Moron!" Trump posted. "Maybe, just maybe, I'll have to change my mind about firing him? But regardless, his Term ends shortly!" Trump lashed out after the Fed held interest rates steady for a fourth consecutive meeting on Wednesday, forecasting higher inflation and cooler growth as Trump's tariffs take hold. The projections were its first since Trump unleashed sweeping 10 per cent tariffs on almost all trading partners in April.--AFP
New Straits Times
3 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Pro-Palestinian protest leader Mahmoud Khalil released from US custody
NEW YORK: Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student who was one of the most visible leaders of nationwide pro-Palestinian campus protests, was released Friday from a federal detention centre. Khalil, a legal permanent resident in the United States who is married to a US citizen and has a US-born son, has been in custody since March facing potential deportation. "This shouldn't have taken three months," Khalil, wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf, told US media outside an immigration detention centre in Jena, Louisiana hours after a federal judge ordered his release. "(President Donald) Trump and his administration, they chose the wrong person for this," he said. "There's no right person who should be detained for actually protesting a genocide." The Department of Homeland Security criticised District Judge Michael Farbiarz's ruling Friday as an example of how "out of control members of the judicial branch are undermining our national security." Under the terms of his release, Khalil will not be allowed to leave the United States except for "self-deportation," and faces restrictions on where he can travel within the country. Khalil's wife, Michigan-born dentist Noor Abdalla, said her family could now "finally breathe a sigh of relief and know that Maumoud is on his way home." "We know this ruling does not begin to address the injustices the Trump administration has brought upon our family and so many others the government is trying to silence for speaking out against Israel's ongoing genocide against Palestinians," added Abdalla, who gave birth to the couple's first child while her husband was in detention. Since his March 8 arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Khalil has become a symbol of Trump's campaign to stifle pro-Palestinian student activism against the Gaza war, in the name of curbing anti-Semitism. At the time a graduate student at Columbia University in New York, Khalil was a prominent leader of nationwide campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza. Following his arrest, US authorities transferred Khalil, who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents, nearly 2,000 kilometres from his home in New York to the detention centre in Louisiana, pending deportation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has invoked a law approved during the 1950s Red Scare that allows the United States to remove foreigners seen as adverse to US foreign policy. Rubio argues that US constitutional protections of free speech do not apply to foreigners and that he alone can make decisions without judicial review. Hundreds of students have seen their visas revoked, with some saying they were targeted for everything from writing opinion articles to minor arrest records. Farbiarz ruled last week that the government could not detain or deport Khalil based on Rubio's assertions that his presence on US soil poses a national security threat. The government has also alleged as grounds to detain and deport Khalil that there were inaccuracies in his application for permanent residency. Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, which is among the groups representing Khalil, welcomed the release order.
New Straits Times
3 hours ago
- New Straits Times
Trump's immigration enforcers spark fury and fear in US
LOS ANGELES: After night fell on the outskirts of Los Angeles on Thursday, around 50 people clanged metal pots and blasted air horns outside a hotel in a noisy bedtime protest targeting US immigration agents. The "No Sleep For ICE" rally underscored growing anger at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a once obscure agency that has become the focal point of President Donald Trump's migrant crackdown. "They terrorise our community the entire day. Why do they get a good night's sleep?" said Nathanael Landaverde, 23, who banged a dismantled frying pan at the protest. Dramatic images have shown federal agents, often masked and sometimes armed with assault rifles, chasing down migrants and handcuffing them at courthouses, farms and on the streets. ICE officials have also detained some US citizens for allegedly intervening in arrests, including a mayoral candidate in New York this week. The heavy-handed approach has sparked fear among immigrants and infuriated many Americans, particularly in liberal cities such as Los Angeles, where large-scale street protests erupted this month over ICE raids. "If they don't sleep they're not gonna do their job effectively. They're gonna get less people," added Landaverde, as passing vehicles honked in apparent support for the late-night rally. It was not certain whether ICE agents were staying at the three-star hotel, but protest organisers claimed to have photo evidence. Dozens of people danced to a deafening cacophony as they waved signs reading "No rest for ICE" and "ICE out of LA" towards the hotel, where some guests peered through the curtains. One woman simply screamed into a megaphone. Another man wore earmuffs as he blasted distorted white noise through a speaker. "They're ripping families apart, and it's horrifying to watch in my community. They can't sleep if they're gonna do that here," said Juliet Austin, 22, who was playing a small blue accordion. Trump was elected to a second term in large part for his promise to deport thousands of migrants. But alongside their aggressive tactics, critics have denounced federal immigration agents for wearing face masks to hide their identities – a highly unusual but legal practice in US law enforcement. "At what point will we as a nation find ourselves with a secret police?" Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute think tank, wrote last month. "For the Trump administration, turning masked raids into standard practice fits into a wider effort to dodge accountability for potentially illegal and unconstitutional actions," he added. In California, lawmakers have introduced the "No Secret Police Act" that would restrict federal agents from wearing masks. Federal officials have rejected this criticism by claiming that agents wear masks to protect them from potential reprisals. Meanwhile, ICE has frequently boasted about its activities and posted pictures of detained migrants on social media. And it crucially still enjoys Trump's support, who last weekend praised ICE agents' "incredible strength, determination, and courage." Still, anger over ICE looks unlikely to go away as long as immigration arrests continue, and protesters Thursday were adamant they would not back down. "I think it's a modern Gestapo here in America," said Austin, a dance teacher.
