Judge orders Trump administration to explain why order to restore Voice of America wasn't followed
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth of the District of Columbia gave the administration until Aug. 13 to explain how it will get VOA working again. The outlet that dates back to World War II has been largely dark since March.
Lamberth said the administration needs to show what it is doing with the $260 million Congress appropriated for VOA's operations this year.
Kari Lake, the adviser appointed by Trump to run the government news agencies, said in June that 85% of employees at VOA and its overseers at the U.S. Agency for Global Media had lost their jobs. She called it a 'long overdue effort to dismantle a bloated, unaccountable bureaucracy.'
Lamberth said there's a process for eliminating funding that had previously been appropriated — Congress must vote on it, as it recently did for NPR and PBS funding. But that hasn't happened here, he said.
He scolded the administration for providing 'cagey answers' and omitting key information when asked for it in previous court orders.
'Without more explanation, the court is left to conclude that the defendants are simply trying to run out the clock on the fiscal year, without putting the money Congress appropriated toward the purposes Congress intended,' Lamberth wrote. 'The legal term for that is 'waste.''
There was no immediate comment from the White House.
Monday Mornings
The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week.
___
David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Trump is creating a task force for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is establishing a task force on the 2028 Olympic Games being held in Los Angeles. Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday to make the task force official, the White House said. Trump has said that the Los Angeles Summer Games are among the events he's most looking forward to in his second term. The 2028 Games will be the first Olympics to be hosted by the U.S. since the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Trump 'considers it a great honor to oversee this global sporting spectacle,' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, calling sports one of the president's 'greatest passions.' LA28 president and chair Casey Wasserman said the task force 'marks an important step forward in our planning efforts and reflects our shared commitment to delivering not just the biggest, but the greatest Games the world has ever seen in the summer of 2028.'
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Former foreign affairs minister on why the ‘elbows up' tariff retaliation ‘backfired'
Watch Former foreign affairs minister Peter MacKay comments on Canadian officials participating in trade talks in Mexico and how Trump may react to the visit.
Global News
2 hours ago
- Global News
NATO to coordinate deliveries of arms bought from U.S. to Ukraine
NATO has started coordinating regular deliveries of large weapons packages to Ukraine after the Netherlands said it would provide air defense equipment, ammunition and other military aid worth 500 million euros ($578 million). Sweden also announced Tuesday it would contribute $275 million to a joint effort along with its Nordic neighbors Denmark and Norway to provide $500 million worth of air defenses, anti-tank weapons, ammunition and spare parts. Two deliveries of equipment, most of it bought in the United States, are expected this month, although the Nordic package is expected to arrive in September. The equipment is supplied based on Ukraine's priority needs on the battlefield. NATO allies then locate the weapons and ammunition and send them on. 'Packages will be prepared rapidly and issued on a regular basis,' NATO said Monday. Air defense systems are in greatest need. The United Nations has said that Russia's relentless pounding of urban areas behind the front line has killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians. Story continues below advertisement Russia's bigger army is also making slow but costly progress along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. Currently, it is waging an operation to take the eastern city of Pokrovsk, a logistical hub whose fall could allow it to drive deeper into Ukraine. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy European allies and Canada are buying most of the equipment they plan to send from the United States, which has greater stocks of ready military materiel, as well as more effective weapons. The Trump administration is not giving any arms to Ukraine. The new deliveries will come on top of other pledges of military equipment. 1:54 Trump gives Putin ultimatum for ending Ukraine war The Kiel Institute, which tracks support to Ukraine, estimates that as of June, European countries had provided 72 billion euros ($83 billion) worth of military aid since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, compared to $65 billion in U.S. aid. Story continues below advertisement Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said that 'American air defense systems and munitions, in particular, are crucial for Ukraine to defend itself.' Announcing the deliveries Monday, he said Russia's attacks are 'pure terror, intended to break Ukraine.' President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude to the Netherlands, posting on social media that 'Ukraine, and thus the whole of Europe, will be better protected from Russian terror.' He said the deliveries are coming 'at a time when Russia is trying to scale up its strikes. This will definitely help protect the lives of our people!' Germany said Friday it will deliver two more Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine in the coming days. It agreed to the move after securing assurances that the U.S. will prioritize the delivery of new Patriots to Germany to backfill its stocks. These weapon systems are only made in the U.S. As an organization, NATO provides only non-lethal assistance to Ukraine like uniforms, tents, medical supplies and logistics support. The 32-nation military alliance has mostly sought to protect NATO territory from possible Russian attack and avoid being dragged into a war against a nuclear power. But its support role has expanded since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, even as his administration insists European allies must now take care of their own security and that of their war-ravaged neighbor. Trump has made no public promise of weapons or economic support for Ukraine. Story continues below advertisement Trump said on July 28 that the U.S. is 'going to be sending now military equipment and other equipment to NATO, and they'll be doing what they want, but I guess it's for the most part working with Ukraine.' —Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Kirsten Grieshaber and David Keyton in Berlin contributed to this report.
