Voice of America aired Trump's message to Iranian people during US bombings
Kari Lake, Trump's handpicked choice to oversee the US Agency for Global Media, told the House foreign affairs committee that VOA crews worked on Saturday to deliver Trump's message as bombing operations were under way.
'I'm very proud to say that when President Trump, when the bombings happened over the weekend, on Saturday, when President Trump started to speak, we had a crew in on Saturday delivering President Trump's message to the people of Iran in Farsi,' Lake testified.
While VOA has historically served US interests globally, the comments from Lake, a former longtime television anchor who unsuccessfully ran as the Trump-endorsed Republican candidate for Arizona's governorship then its Senate seat, suggest a more immediate, personal form of presidential communication than the service's traditional role of providing broader US policy context and news.
Lake's testimony also came just days after the White House authorized the termination of 639 employees at VOA on Friday. The layoffs represent the final phase of Trump's assault on the broadcasting service, which has eliminated 1,400 positions since March and reduced the agency to just 250 employees across the entire US Agency for Global Media.
VOA, founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda, reportedly reached 360 million people weekly across dozens of languages as a major part of the US cold war broadcasting strategy to push American-centric ideas to populations under authoritarian rule.
During Wednesday's hearing, Lake argued that Trump wants to completely eliminate VOA as an independent agency, claiming it 'does not know how to manage' and is disrespectful to American taxpayers.
'They shouldn't believe it. And I think this is why President Trump wants to eliminate the agency. The agency itself is not needed,' Lake said when asked why Congress should trust VOA.
Lake made unsubstantiated claims that the agency had allowed 'dangerous people into our country' through allegedly improper security screenings of 1,500 employees, telling the House foreign affairs committee that intelligence officials had warned the agency was 'freelancing on your security screenings'.
Sign up to This Week in Trumpland
A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration
after newsletter promotion
She suggested folding VOA's remaining functions back into the state department, where it operated in the 1940s and early 1950s during what she called its 'glory days' when there were 'guardrails on what the story of America was being told' and it wasn't 'anti-American'.
The agency's demolition began in March when Trump signed an executive order targeting federal agencies he branded as bloated bureaucracy. In March, the White House issued a statement calling VOA 'propaganda' and 'leftist' and dubbed it 'the Voice of Radical America'.
Three VOA journalists leading legal challenges against its near-shuttering said the cuts 'spell the death of 83 years of independent journalism that upholds US ideals of democracy and freedom around the world'.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
8 minutes ago
- Reuters
Israel calls up tens of thousands of reservists before new Gaza offensive
TEL AVIV/JERUSALEM/CAIRO, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Israel's military called up tens of thousands of reservists on Wednesday in preparation for an expected assault on Gaza City, as the Israeli government considered a new proposal for a ceasefire after nearly two years of war. The call-up signals Israel is pressing ahead with its plan to take control of Gaza's biggest urban hub despite international criticism of an operation likely to force the displacement of many more Palestinians. But a military official briefing reporters said reserve soldiers would not report for duty until September, a move that gives mediators some time to bridge gaps between the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel over ceasefire terms. The official said that as part of planning for a new offensive in Gaza there would be five divisions operating in the enclave but most reservists were not expected to serve in combat in Gaza City. "We will be moving into a new phase of combat, a gradual, precise and targeted operation in and around Gaza City, which currently serves as Hamas' main military and governing stronghold," the official said. Israel's security cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, approved a plan this month to expand the campaign in Gaza, with the aim of seizing Gaza City. Many of Israel's closest allies have urged the government to reconsider but Netanyahu is under pressure from some far-right members of his coalition to reject a temporary ceasefire, continue the war and pursue the annexation of Gaza. The war began on October 7, 2023 when gunmen led by Hamas attacked southern Israeli communities, killing some 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and taking 251 hostages including children into Gaza. Over 62,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's campaign, according to Gaza health officials, who do not say how many were militants but have said most of those killed have been women and children. Hamas has accepted a proposal put forward by Arab mediators for a 60-day ceasefire that would involve releasing some of the hostages and freeing Palestinian prisoners in Israel. The Israeli government, which has said all the 50 remaining hostages must be released at once, is studying the proposal. Israeli authorities believe that 20 hostages are still alive. Many Gazans and foreign leaders fear an assault on Gaza City would cause significant casualties. Israel says it will help civilians leave battle zones before any assault begins. Israel's military, which is continuing its campaign in Gaza, struck Gaza City's eastern suburbs overnight in a bombardment which Gaza health authorities said killed at least 19 people. "This time if there is no deal, I am afraid we will all die," Samir Abu Basel, 45, a father of four, told Reuters by telephone from Gaza. "To die here or die wherever they would push us to, all the same. We have lost faith in this world, in our leaders too." Israel's military campaign has caused widespread devastation across the Gaza Strip, which before the war was home to about 2.3 million Palestinians. Many buildings, including homes, schools and mosques have been destroyed, while the military has accused Hamas of operating from within civilian infrastructure. Most Gazans have been displaced multiple times and forced into densely packed areas along the Mediterranean coast, including in Gaza City. Israeli officials have said evacuation orders would be issued to Gaza City residents before any force move in. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which oversees Gaza's only Catholic Church, located in Gaza City, said it had received reports that neighbourhoods near the small parish had started to receive evacuation notices. Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for almost two decades, has been severely weakened by the war. The Israeli military says it now controls about 75% of Gaza and that Hamas has been reduced to a guerrilla force. The Israeli military official who briefed reporters on Wednesday said Hamas had been trying to regroup and reform in Gaza City in a more organised manner, but gave no evidence to support the assertion. Polls show strong Israeli public support for ending the war if it ensures the release of the hostages, and a rally in Tel Aviv urging the government to pursue such a deal drew a huge crowd on Saturday. Hamas has said it would release all remaining hostages in exchange for an end to war. Israel says it will not end the war before the Islamist militant group disarms.
Spectator
19 minutes ago
- Spectator
Putin hasn't made any real concessions yet
After the jaw-dropping spectacle of the Putin-Trump summit in Alaska, there was another full day of theatre on Monday as Trump hosted European leaders and President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. Yet the results of this three-day diplomatic pageant are embarrassingly modest. One of Trump's trumpeted achievements is Russia's alleged agreement to western security guarantees for Ukraine. It was President Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff who first announced this breakthrough, with some fanfare, in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper. 'We sort of were able to… get an agreement,' Witkoff said, 'that the United States could offer Article 5 protection [for Ukraine], which was the first time we had ever heard… the Russians agree to that.' The word 'sort of' does a lot of heavy lifting here because Russia's unprecedented concession is not a concession at all, or certainly not Russia's concession. It is the United States that, ignoring Zelensky's pleas, has refused to provide tangible security guarantees to Ukraine for fear that doing so could lead to a direct conflict with Russia. But, ever the salesman, Trump has managed to sell a US concession to Ukraine as Russia's major concession and an indication that Putin is willing to talk peace. As for Putin, it remains to be seen what he has actually agreed to. During his joint press conference with Trump, the Russian President referred vaguely to the importance of assuring Ukraine's security. 'Of course, we are willing to work on this,' he offered. But it is important to remember that already in the spring of 2022, during the ill-fated talks in Istanbul, the Russians provisionally agreed to a security mechanism for Ukraine that would involve the United States and other western powers. However, Putin made it clear then that he expected to have the right to veto any collective action to help Ukraine. It is unclear whether this expectation was brought up during his brief interaction with Trump in Anchorage. Thus constrained, any US security guarantee would not be worth the paper it's written on. The other major uncertainty pertains to Russia's willingness (or not) to permit Western contingents in Ukraine as part of a peace settlement. Moscow has repeatedly rejected the idea of troops on the ground in Ukraine if these troops are from Nato member states. The latest rebuttal came even as Trump was meeting European leaders in Washington in the form of a scornful comment by the eccentric spokesperson of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova who criticised Great Britain – which, along with France, has been one of the leaders of the so called 'coalition of the willing' and has broached the subject of sending contingents to Ukraine – for 'risky and ill-thought-through geopolitical gambits' and for trying to 'obstruct the careful work of the Russian and American negotiators.' Helping Maria Zakharova's case, President Trump has not been very forthcoming with concrete details of US participation. His message – as he put it in a joint press conference with President Zelensky – is that Europe would be 'the first line of defence… but we're gonna help them out also.' What that 'help' may amount to remains to be seen. For now, at least, Trump's security promise sounds rather hollow. So, the big question – what kind of security guarantees Russia has agreed to, and what kind of security guarantees the United States might be willing to offer – remains completely obscure. In the absence of a breakthrough on this important question, Trump's diplomacy is little more than a fireworks show: it offers a momentary distraction from the gruelling reality of war. Trump has now kicked the ball back over to the Russians and the Ukrainians. He expects Putin and Zelensky to meet in person and just work it out among themselves. In a middle-of-the-night phone call with Trump, Putin promised – per Russian readout – to 'consider the possibility of raising the level of representatives of Ukrainian and Russian sides… participating in direct negotiations.' In the meantime, Russian forces continued pummelling targets across Ukraine. Putin has offered no concrete evidence that he is willing to make a deal on terms that would fall short of Ukraine's capitulation. 'If there aren't concessions, if one side gets everything they want, that's called surrender,' Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared on August 17, shortly after Alaska. But he has failed to show what concessions Putin has made. By all indications, Putin has promised nothing in the way of substance, yet just enough for Trump to drop all talk of 'severe consequences' for Russia if he continued to drag his feet. Shortly before his meeting with European leaders, Trump was caught in hot mic moment: 'I think he wants to make a deal for me,' he said. 'Do you understand? As crazy as it sounds.' Trump may be crazy to believe Putin's good intentions, but he has had us all glued to TV screens in the hope that somehow, against all evidence to the contrary, he will in the end pull a rabbit out of the hat and finally deliver peace. There has been nothing in the hat so far.
BBC News
38 minutes ago
- BBC News
Israel calls up 60,000 reservists ahead of Gaza City offensive
The Israeli military says it is calling up about 60,000 reservists ahead of a planned ground offensive to capture and occupy all of Gaza City.A military official said the reservists would report for duty in September and that most of the troops mobilised for the offensive would be active-duty added that troops were already operating in the Zeitoun and Jabalia areas as part of the preparations for the plan, which Defence Minister Israel Katz approved on Tuesday and will be put to the security cabinet later this of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza City are expected to be ordered to evacuate and head to shelters in southern Gaza. Many of Israel's allies have condemned the plan, while the UN and other non-governmental organisations have warned that another offensive and further mass displacement will have a "horrific humanitarian impact" after 22 months of government announced its intention to conquer the entire Gaza Strip after indirect talks with Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal broke down last mediators are trying to secure an agreement before the offensive begins and have presented a new proposal for a 60-day truce and the release of around half of the 50 hostages still held in Gaza, which Hamas said it had accepted on has not yet submitted a formal response, but Israeli officials insisted on Tuesday that they would no longer accept a partial deal and demanded a comprehensive one that would see all the hostages released. Only 20 of the hostages are believed to be alive. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that orders calling up 60,000 reservists were issued on Wednesday as part of the preparations for "the next phase of Operation Gideon's Chariots" - the offensive that it launched in addition, 20,000 reservists who had already been called up would receive a notice extending their current orders, it Israeli military official said senior commanders had approved the plan for a "gradual" and "precise" operation in and around Gaza City, and that the chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, was expected to finalise them in the coming divisions are expected to take part in the offensive, according to the Haaretz newspaper quoted Defence Minister Katz as saying on Tuesday: "Once the operation is completed, Gaza will change its face and will no longer look as it did in the past."He also reportedly approved a plan to "accommodate" Gaza City residents in the south of the territory, including the coastal al-Mawasi area, where the military has begun establishing additional food distribution points and field Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the military's objectives are to secure the release of all the hostages held by Hamas and "complete the defeat" of the Palestinian armed IDF also announced on Wednesday that the Givati Brigade had resumed operations in the northern town of Jabalia and on the outskirts of Gaza City, where it said they were "are dismantling military infrastructures above and below ground, eliminating terrorists, and consolidating operational control".It said civilians were being told to move south for their safety "to mitigate the risk of harm".A spokesman for Gaza's Hamas-run Civil Defence agency, Mahmoud Bassal, told AFP news agency on Tuesday that the situation was "very dangerous and unbearable" in the city's Zeitoun and Sabra neighbourhoods, where he said "shelling continues intermittently".The agency said Israeli strikes and fire had killed 21 people across Gaza on news agency Wafa reported that three children and their parents were killed when a house in the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, was bombed. UN agencies and NGOs have warned of the humanitarian impact of a new offensive."The Israeli plan to intensify military operations in Gaza City will have a horrific humanitarian impact on people already exhausted, malnourished, bereaved, displaced, and deprived of basics needed for survival," they said in a joint statement on Monday."Forcing hundreds of thousands to move south is a recipe for further disaster and could amount to forcible transfer."They also said the areas of the south where displaced residents were expected to move were "overcrowded and ill-equipped to sustain human survival at scale"."Southern hospitals are operating at several times their capacity, and taking on patients from the north would have life-threatening consequences."The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken least 62,122 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health of Gaza's population has also been displaced multiple times; more than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and UN-backed global food security experts have warned that the "worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out" due to food shortages.
