US President Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday began making deep cuts to Voice of America (VOA) and other government-run, pro-democracy programming, with the organization’s director saying all VOA employees have been put on leave.
On Friday night, shortly after the US Congress passed its latest funding bill, Trump directed his administration to reduce the functions of several agencies to the minimum required by law.
That included the US Agency for Global Media, which houses Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Asia and Radio Marti, which beams Spanish-language news into Cuba.
Photo: Bloomberg
On Saturday morning, Kari Lake, a former Arizona gubernatorial and US Senate candidate whom Trump named a senior adviser to the agency, wrote on X that employees should check their e-mail. That coincided with notices going out placing VOA staff on paid administrative leave.
“For the first time in 83 years, the storied Voice of America is being silenced,” VOA director Michael Abramowitz said in a statement. He added that “virtually” the entire 1,300-person staff was placed on leave.
“VOA promotes freedom and democracy around the world by telling America’s story and by providing objective and balanced news and information, especially for those living under tyranny,” Abramowitz said.
One reporter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press, said: “We expected something like this to happen, and it just happened to be today.”
The press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said it “condemns this decision as a departure from the US’ historic role as a defender of free information and calls on the US government to restore VOA and urges Congress and the international community to take action against this unprecedented move.”
The Agency for Global Media also sent notices terminating grants to Radio Free Asia and other programming run by the agency. Voice of America transmits US domestic news to other countries, often translated into local languages. Radio Free Asia, Europe and Marti beam news into countries with authoritarian regimes in regions such as China, North Korea and Russia.
“The cancellation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s grant agreement would be a massive gift to America’s enemies,” the network’s president and chief executive officer Stephen Capus said in a statement.
Combined, the networks reach an estimated 427 million people. They date back to the Cold War and are part of a network of US government-funded organizations trying to extend US influence and combat authoritarianism that includes US Agency for International Development, another agency targeted by Trump.
The reduction is a dramatic blow at a staple of post-Cold War order that has long had bipartisan support. Voice of America’s directors have included Dick Carlson, the father of conservative commentator Tucker Carlson.
Thomas Kent, former president and chief executive officer of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, said that Trump’s intentions for the agencies are still foggy.
Without these news sources, it would be that much harder for the country to get its messages to the world, he said.
“Without the international broadcasting, the image of the United States and the Trump administration will be in the hands of others, including the administration’s opponents, [and] countries and people who consider the United States an enemy,” said Kent, an international consultant on media ethics.
A video posted on X by Lake on Saturday talked about cost-cutting measures, not mentioning the employees and the mission of VOA. Her video was made at a building leased by VOA that Lake described as a waste of money. She said she would try to break the agency’s 15-year lease on the building.
“We’re doing everything we can to cancel contracts that can be cancelled, save more, downsize and make sure there’s no misuse of your dollars,” she said.
The letter places employees on administrative leave and says staff would continue to receive pay and benefits “until otherwise notified.” It ordered employees not to use Agency for Global Media facilities and to return equipment such as phones and computers.
The Trump administration has already made other steps to assert its authority over VOA, and this week canceled contracts that allowed VOA to use material from independent news organizations, such as The Associated Press.
The administration has also banned the AP from press pools that cover the president and moved to take charge of what news organizations are members of the pools, and the Federal Communications Commission is investigating news organizations such as CBS.
Trump’s order requiring reductions also includes several other, lesser-known government agencies such as the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a nonpartisan think tank, the US Interagency Council on Homelessness and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of