Embattled Voice of America to use newsfeed from hard-right network
Kari Lake, a special adviser to the body that oversees the government-funded VoA, announced on X that One America News (OAN), which was sued by voting machine companies for promoting claims of election fraud, will provide 'newsfeed and video service'.
'Every day I look for ways to save American taxpayers money. Bringing in OAN as a video/news source does both,' Lake said. 'OAN is one of the few family-owned American media networks left in the United States. We are grateful for their generosity.'
The news that OAN, which many see as a pro-Trump propaganda outfit, will provide content for VoA, which has traditionally been a more politically neutral news source, is a move that will spur further fears about Donald Trump's crackdown on the press.
OAN, which spread conspiracy theories about the coronavirus epidemic, almost exclusively interviews Republican politicians and rightwing voices, including this week the founder of an organization that denies the existence of the climate crisis.
A look at OAN's recent output gives a taste of what listeners would be in for.
Dan Ball, a primetime OAN host, introduced his show last week by telling viewers: 'God help us, cackling Kamala comes out of hiding, rearing her ugly head for the first time since her devastating loss to Trump.'
On Tuesday's show, Ball discussed Trump meeting with Canada's prime minister, Mark Carney, adding that the meeting comes 'as the global trade war continues – and yes we are winning'.
Lake, a Republican who unsuccessfully ran for Arizona governor, serves as a special adviser to the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), VoA's parent company. Trump signed an executive order on 15 March which aimed to dismantle that agency, and VoA has not produced any content since then. As many as 1,300 VoA employees have been placed on leave. skip past newsletter promotion
Sign up to This Week in Trumpland
A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
after newsletter promotion
VoA was founded during the second world war to combat Nazi propaganda, and became a pro-democracy voice heard by millions around the world. In April, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration's order to shutter VoA, but the ruling has been caught up in a government appeal.
In March, Lake announced that VoA would no longer use news reports from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
'We should not be paying outside news organizations to tell us what the news is,' Lake said. 'With a nearly billion-dollar budget, we should be producing news ourselves.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
3 minutes ago
- The Guardian
ChatGPT firm OpenAI could be valued at $500bn in share sale
Update: Date: 2025-08-06T06:53:11.000Z Title: Introduction: OpenAI in talks for share sale at $500bn valuation Content: Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy. The artificial intelligence boom is continuing to excite investors, creating the possibility of huge earnings for the companies and individuals at the heart of the AI race. Overnight, news has broken that OpenAI, the group behind the ChatGPT chatbot, is in talks about a share sale that would value the company at $500bn. That would be a serious jump on OpenAI's previous valuation of $300bn, set in a financing round in March, and underline its status as one of the largest privately held companies in the world. The talks centre on a potential sale of stock for current and former employees, Bloomberg reports, adding that existing investors including Thrive Capital have approached OpenAI about buying some of these shares. As OpenAI isn't listed on the stock market, such a secondary stock sale would allow present and ex-staff to cash in. The mooted share sale comes as companies race to test, and roll out, artificial intelligence systems, which has sent the value of chipmaker Nvidia surging over $4trn last month Shares in Palantir, the software analytics and AI company, jumped almost 8% yesterday after it beat Wall Street estimates and hiked its full-year guidance due to the artificial intelligence boom. OpenAI is riding this wave too. The Financial Times reports that OpenAI's annual recurring revenue — a measure of expected revenue from subscriptions commonly used by start-ups — has surged to $12bn, and the company is apparently expecting $20bn or more in ARR by the end of 2025. Yesterday, OpenAI launched new freely available artificial intelligence models, in a challenge to rivals including Mark Zuckerberg's Meta and Chinese rival DeepSeek. The ChatGPT developer has announced two 'open weight' large language models, which are free to download and can be customised by developers Sam Altman, OpenAI's chief executive, said the company was excited to add to a stack of freely available AI models 'based on democratic values … and for wide benefit', adding: 'We're excited to make this model, the result of billions of dollars of research, available to the world to get AI into the hands of the most people possible.' 7am German factory orders for June 8.30am BST: eurozone construction PMI report for July 9.30am BST: UK construction PMI report for July
Daily Mail
5 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Trump threatens to hike tariffs on Aussie necessity to 250 per cent - as final decision looms
Donald Trump has threatened to increase tariffs on Australian pharmaceuticals to 250 per cent, in a major blow to the country. The US President initially proposed 200 per cent tariffs on foreign pharmaceutical imports last month, claiming they would be phased in over a year or more. In comments to a US business news channel, he has since hinted that the tariff could be as high as 250 per cent. Pharmaceuticals are Australia's third-biggest export to the US, behind gold and meat. About $2.1billion of pharmaceuticals were exported to the US in 2024, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. They include blood products, vaccines, packaged medicines, and bandages. 'We'll be putting initially (a) small tariff on pharmaceuticals, but in one year, one-and-a-half years maximum, it's going to go to 150 per cent,' Trump told CNBC on Tuesday. 'And then it's going to go to 250 per cent because we want pharmaceuticals made in our country.' Trump added he would make a final decision on foreign pharmaceutical imports 'within the next week or so.' The update comes after he issued an ultimatum to 17 pharmaceutical companies to lower medication prices for US consumers in line with many other countries. He also ordered them to return excess overseas revenue from raising prices in other countries to offset the reduced US prices. Americans pay almost four times more for medicines than Australians, who access subsided prescriptions through the government's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. 'Make no mistake: a collaborative effort towards achieving global pricing parity would be the most effective path for companies, the government and American patients,' Trump said. 'If you refuse to step up, we will deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect Americans from abusive drug pricing practices.' Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers recently revealed that the Albanese government was 'urgently seeking' details from the US about the pharmaceutical tariff, which could strip billions from the economy. 'Our pharmaceuticals industry is much more exposed to the US market, and that's why we're seeking some more detail on what's been announced,' he told ABC Radio National. 'But I want to make it really clear once again, as we have on a number of occasions before, our Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is not something we are willing to trade away. 'They're obviously very concerning developments. We are talking about billions of dollars of exports to the US when it comes to pharmaceuticals.' Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has already announced that the PBS was 'not up for negotiation'. Former federal trade minister Simon Birmingham, who held the portfolio during the first Trump administration, said successive US governments regarded the PBS as an obstacle to American drug company profits. 'American pharmaceutical companies have long argued they see the PBS as having unfair rules that are overly generous when it comes to things such as generic drugs,' he previously told Daily Mail Australia. 'And in doing so limit the ability of those companies to be able to fulfil the full economic potential of their investment in new drugs.'
Reuters
5 minutes ago
- Reuters
Most Asian share indexes edge up, dollar struggles for direction
SYDNEY, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Most share indexes edged up in Asia on Wednesday as investors looked through weak U.S. data and corporate warnings about the hit from tariffs, while the dollar struggled to gain ground amid growing Federal Reserve rate cut expectations. European stocks are bracing for a higher open, with EUROSTOXX 50 futures up 0.5%. Wegovy-maker Novo Nordisk ( opens new tab reported second-quarter sales growth of 18%, below initial analyst expectations. Wall Street futures recovered from an earlier dip, with Nasdaq futures up 0.3% and S&P 500 futures rising 0.4%. Shares of AI chip stock Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O), opens new tab slid 6.6% after the bell on disappointing data centre revenue. "We see risk assets in a tug-of-war between solid U.S. corporate earnings, powered by the artificial intelligence (AI) theme, and tariffs hurting growth while lifting inflation," said analysts at BlackRock Investment Institute. "We stay overweight U.S. stocks but get granular while assessing the tariff fallout." Overnight, U.S. stocks finished lower after the services sector activity unexpectedly flatlined in July. Employment further weakened and input costs climbed by the most in nearly three years, underscoring the impact from President Donald Trump's tariff policy. While U.S. earnings have been generally upbeat in the second quarter, they are starting to show the impact of tariffs. Taco Bell parent Yum Brands (YUM.N), opens new tab missed expectations as steep trade duties dented consumer spending, while Caterpillar (CAT.N), opens new tab warned that U.S. tariffs would cost it up to $1.5 billion this year. In Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS), opens new tab slipped 0.1%, while Japan's Nikkei (.N225), opens new tab gained 0.6%. Australia's resource-heavy shares (.AXJO), opens new tab rose 0.8%. Both Chinese blue chips (.CSI300), opens new tab and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index (.HSI), opens new tab were up 0.1%. Trump on Tuesday said it would announce tariffs on semiconductors and chips in the next week or so, while the U.S. would initially impose a "small tariff" on pharmaceutical imports before increasing it substantially in a year or two. He also said the U.S. was close to a trade deal with China and that he would meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping before the end of the year if an agreement was struck. However, he threatened to further raise tariffs on goods from India over its Russian oil purchases. The Reserve Bank of India kept its key interest rate steady at 5.50% on Wednesday, in line with expectations, but the odds of another cut have risen after the steep U.S. tariffs on Indian exports last week. In currency markets, the dollar consolidated after sliding from two-month highs last Friday on a weak jobs report that had markets price in a near-certain chance of a Fed interest rate cut in September. The dollar index , which measures the U.S. currency against six counterparts, was flat at 98.73 and little changed this week after Friday's 1.4% fall. Fed funds futures imply a 94% chance of a rate cut next month, with at least two cuts priced in for this year, according to the CME's FedWatch. Investors are waiting for Trump's pick to fill a coming vacancy on the Fed Board of Governors. Trump said the decision will be made soon, while ruling out Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent as a contender to replace current chief Jerome Powell, whose term ends in May 2026. Treasury yields edged up after a $58 billion auction of three-year notes went poorly, but still hovered near multi-month lows. More supply will hit the market this week with $42 billion in 10-year notes on Wednesday and $25 billion in 30-year bonds on Thursday. Two-year Treasury yields rose 2 basis points to 3.7323%, having risen 3.5 bps overnight, while benchmark 10-year yields ticked up 3 bps to 4.2217%, after holding steady overnight. In commodity markets, oil prices rose after four straight sessions of declines. U.S. crude rose 0.6% to $65.57 per barrel, while Brent was at $68.07 per barrel, up 0.6%. Trump said on Tuesday he will decide on whether to sanction countries that purchase Russian oil after a meeting with Russian officials scheduled for Wednesday. Spot gold prices slipped 0.3% to $3,370 an ounce.
