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Washington Post
5 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Kari Lake defends VOA cuts in court after warnings from Capitol Hill
Kari Lake, the Republican firebrand installed by President Donald Trump to reduce the Voice of America and its parent agency to what he called a 'minimum presence,' sought Wednesday to justify her hardball approach to a federal judge who has alleged that she is overstepping her statutory authority. Her legal challenges have expanded beyond the courtroom, however, with the Government Accountability Office launching an investigation into potential executive overreach at the U.S. Agency for Global Media after congressional staffers from both parties warned that Lake was breaking the law by improperly using appropriated funds. The GAO investigation, confirmed by the agency to The Washington Post, will take months to resolve. Lake's immediate legal focus lies with U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who has demanded answers about how she is running the once-vibrant international broadcasting agency with a shoestring staff while keeping hundreds on paid leave. Lake, an Arizonan who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate last year and styles herself the acting CEO of USAGM, put most of the agency's 1,300 employees and contractors on administrative leave in March after Trump's executive order. VOA's sidelined director, Michael Abramowitz, and a group of VOA journalists sued her, arguing that the president lacks the authority to unilaterally dismantle the agency with a mandate and budget set by Congress. Since then, Lake has been running a ghost ship with about 200 active staffers while 600 remain on paid leave and another 500 contractors were fired. Lamberth ordered the government on July 30 to justify its actions, having earlier issued a preliminary injunction instructing the agency to abide by its statutory authority. A circuit court panel reversed a separate part of the injunction ordering staffers back to work. '[W]hen Congress appropriated $260 million to VOA for FY 2025, it did not anticipate that such a significant sum of taxpayer funds would be used to pay employees to sit at home for months on end,' wrote Lamberth, a Reagan appointee. 'The legal term for that is 'waste,' and it is precisely what federal appropriation law aims to avoid.' The judge asked the government to detail how USAGM is restoring VOA programming, whether it has told Congress about a 'significant reduction in broadcast hours,' how it's following federal appropriations, and its plan to conduct a reduction in force at the agency, after a previous RIF was rescinded due to improper data collection. In a declaration to the court filed Wednesday, Lake said Trump had 'expressed strong interest in … closing USAGM,' saying she intends to help him do so 'within the bounds of current and future federal law.' She denied acting outside Congress's intentions. 'Until such time as Congress deems it appropriate to pass legislation to either close or reform USAGM, USAGM has no present plans to wind down USAGM's operations,' she wrote. She added that the agency's previous broadcast offerings in more than 40 languages far exceeded its original mandate, justifying her reduction to services in just four, spoken mostly in China, Afghanistan and Iran. Lake said she wants to 'supplement content' with right-wing One America News programming through a deal struck in May and disclosed that the agency is 'engaged in ongoing discussions with Newsmax in pursuit of a similar agreement.' She also said she wants the agency to move out of its Washington headquarters building before the end of the year and to use artificial intelligence tools to produce graphics. VOA journalists Patsy Widakuswara, Jessica Jerreat and Kate Neeper, plaintiffs in one of the cases, said Lake's filing 'offers nothing new of substance' other than 'a plan to partner with another partisan media outlet, Newsmax. That is contrary to the law and VOA's mandate to serve as a reliable and authoritative source of news. We will continue to seek VOA's full restoration to its congressionally-mandated role.' Lake has also received messages from Capitol Hill urging her to follow the law. Congressional appropriations staffers for Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) warned Lake in June that she was breaking the law by improperly using congressionally appropriated funds to fire staffers at the government broadcaster. The bipartisan finger-wagging came in a series of emails from the Senate Appropriations Committee's State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs subcommittee to officials at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, obtained by The Washington Post through freedom of information requests to USAGM. On June 11, the Democratic subcommittee clerk Alex Carnes sent an email to Lake and then-acting CEO Victor Morales saying the RIF notices sent to Voice of America staffers violated the Anti-Deficiency Act, which holds officials to the congressional appropriations for their agencies. Carnes declined to comment. The law attributes personal liability and carries criminal penalties, thought it is unlikely Trump's Justice Department would indict Lake, Morales or any USAGM staffer carrying out the president's executive order. Paul Grove, the longtime Republican subcommittee clerk working for Graham, followed up with a stern message. 'Please respond to [Carnes's] suggestion,' he wrote. 'You have not followed legal requirements.' Grove did not respond to a request for comment. (While Freedom of Information Act personnel redacted names in some of the emails, multiple people who saw the original emails have confirmed the senders and recipients to The Post.) On June 13, Schatz, the subcommittee's ranking Democrat, sent Lake a letter — previously reported by The Post — saying she was breaking the law. 'According to email exchanges between my staff and you and your agency, you are not denying you have these legal obligations, you are simply choosing to ignore them,' he wrote. In response, Lake wrote, 'Your assertion and accusations are completely false and without merit, but I expect nothing less from a far-left Senator with an agenda who doesn't have a grasp of the law, the grave national security concerns or the realities of this agency.' Schatz sent a letter on June 26 to top GAO official Gene Dodaro, the comptroller of the United States. In the letter, obtained by The Post, Schatz said agencies had violated two provisions of last year's foreign operations spending bill, which Trump carried forward through a continuing resolution on March 15, that prohibit agency reorganizations without Congress's permission. Schatz asked the GAO to conduct an 'expedited review' of Anti-Deficiency Act violations at both USAGM and the U.S. Agency for International Development concerning their respective reorganizations. Sarah Kaczmarek, managing director of public affairs for the Government Accountability Office, the independent, nonpartisan body that audits the federal government, told The Post that the GAO accepted the request and that a review is underway but will take months to complete. 'The Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Democrats are angry that President Trump is rightsizing the bloated federal government, so they are teaming up to try to stop him,' Lake wrote in an email to The Washington Post. 'U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) is an American-taxpayer-funded agency that is highly corrupt and wastes hundreds-of-millions of dollars broadcasting 90s-style news around the globe — often spreading an anti-American message. The President's March 14 Executive Order calls for reducing USAGM to what is statutorily required by law — nothing more; that is my mission at USAGM.' Charles Kieffer, a former longtime staff director for Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said 'there is no question' that Lake's actions violate the Anti-Deficiency Act. 'The RIF is just one manifestation of a reorganization and they're spending money to reorganize,' he said. But the GAO has limited enforcement power. 'There's never been anybody that's ever been convicted or indicted for violation of the act,' said G. William Hoagland, senior vice president of the Bipartisan Policy Center and a former director of the Senate Budget Committee. USAGM staffers put what hope they have for getting their jobs back in Lamberth's courtroom. The judge is expected to respond to the government's filing in the coming week, though the case will likely be appealed to a three-judge panel on the federal appeals court.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Report: Kari Lake attempting to deport VOA foreign journalists
Voice of America's foreign journalists are grappling with unprecedented deportation efforts by their new boss. Kari Lake was tapped in February to serve as senior advisor of the United States Agency for Global Media and ultimately shut down the government-funded international broadcaster that employs a trifecta of ire for President Donald Trump – federal workers, immigrants, and journalists. After firing hundreds and decimating international broadcasters, Lake is now on a mission to force these former J-1 visa holders out of the country, according to a new report by The Atlantic. She claims they are as much of a threat as criminal illegal aliens and gang members. Going onto conservative media outlets in recent weeks, Lake noted how those who lost their jobs at Voice of America (VOA) in recent months but remain in the U.S. with an expired work visa will be targeted by Trump's mass deportation efforts. 'Their time here is up,' Lake told Real America's Voice host Eric Bolling when speaking of anyone living in the U.S. without documentation. 'And I said before, if I have to go to the airport with them, and accompany them to the airport and get them on the flight, I will do that.' Lake warned: 'If you overstay your visa, ICE is going to find you. And they will find you in this case as well.' Even with the endorsement of Trump, Lake failed in her Arizona gubernatorial and U.S. Senate campaigns in 2021 and 2024, respectively. Trump tapped the former broadcast journalist to run the federal parent of VOA as he sought to shut it down. J-1 visas are a nonimmigrant visa for foreign individuals approved to work and study in the U.S. on exchange visitor programs. The visa holders are usually sponsored by educational or non-profit organizations. The Trump administration has included foreign workers on visas in its wider immigration crackdown. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem threatened to revoke Harvard's ability to host international students if they did not turn over a list of foreign student visa holders. VOA was one of the government-funded agencies to face widespread cuts once Trump got back into office. As a condition of their J-1 visas, foreign workers for the broadcaster needed to remain employed by the U.S. Agency for Global Media or else depart the U.S. within 30 days. Dozens of J-1 visa holders who worked as translators and foreign-language broadcasters lost their jobs in the gutting of VOA this year, leaving their ability to stay in the U.S. up-in-the-air. Since landing at the U.S. Agency for Global Media Lake moved to eliminate the agency's independent broadcasters that receive government funding, including Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. Only a few dozen people work at VOA today, down from more than 1,300 before Trump retook office in January. It has downsized from broadcasting in 50 languages to just a handful. While some VOA workers have already left the country, others are claiming asylum and a few quickly married or enrolled in school to avoid being deported to countries where they may no longer be welcome, The Atlantic reported. Some of these reporters, who now have the U.S. government as an employer on their resumés, could face persecution or even imprisonment if they are deported to their home nations. Publicly, Lake described VOA as 'rotten to the core' and 'a serious threat to our national security.' VOA was founded in 1942 as a counterpoint to Nazi propaganda during World War II. Of Lake's recent comments about deporting her former employees, Steve Herman, a VOA retiree said: 'That sort of rhetoric—it's utter nonsense.' 'To perceive these people as a national-security threat is just ridiculous,' the former VOA White House bureau chief added. 'In fact, it can be argued that those responsible for dismantling the Voice of America have harmed America's national security by taking away one of our most powerful instruments of public diplomacy and soft power.' The significance of VOA's mission became clear during this summer's escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, when dozens of staffers were recalled to restore the Persian news division's critical broadcasts.
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
BBC rolls out paid subscriptions for US users
LONDON (Reuters) -The BBC is rolling out paid subscriptions in the United States, it said on Thursday, as the publicly-funded broadcaster explores new revenue streams amid negotiations with the British government over its funding. The BBC has in recent years seen a fall in the number of people paying the licence fee, a charge of 174.50 pounds ($239.76) a year levied on all households who watch live TV, as viewers have turned to more content online. From Thursday, frequent U.S. visitors to the BBC's news website will have to pay $49.99 per year or $8.99 per month for unlimited access to news articles, feature stories, and a 24-hour livestream of its news programmes. While its services will remain free to British users as part of its public service remit, its news website operates commercially and reaches 139 million users worldwide, including nearly 60 million in the U.S. The new pay model uses an engagement-based system, the corporation said in a statement, allowing casual readers to access free content. "Over the next few months, as we test and learn more about audience needs and habits, additional long-form factual content will be added to the offer for paying users," said Rebecca Glashow, CEO of BBC Global Media & Streaming. The British government said last November it would review the BBC's Royal Charter, which sets out the broadcaster's terms and funding model, with the aim of ensuring a sustainable and fair system beyond 2027. To give the corporation financial certainty up to then, the government said it was committed to keeping the licence in its current form and would lift the fee in line with inflation. ($1 = 0.7278 pounds)
New York Times
25-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump Urges Congress to ‘Kill' Voice of America as Its Leader Defends Gutting It
Kari Lake, the close Trump ally and senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, urged Congress on Wednesday to gut the Voice of America and other federally funded news organizations she oversees, as lawmakers of both parties expressed concern about the move. In a hearing on Capitol Hill that grew testy at times, Ms. Lake defended proposed cuts to the global news organizations, while Democrats and some Republicans warned that they could make it impossible for the United States to disseminate information to countries with limited press freedoms, such as Iran, China and Russia. 'What is going out on V.O.A. airwaves — it's outrageous, and it has to stop,' she told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. She called independent reporting from international news agencies funded by the government 'corrupt' and 'biased,' and made clear that President Trump's goal was not to overhaul but to shut down the global media agency, which she called 'a rotten piece of fish.' Mr. Trump himself chimed in on Wednesday with a social media post, urging Congress to 'kill' the Voice of America. 'Why would a Republican want Democrat 'mouthpiece,' Voice of America (VOA), to continue?' he wrote. 'It's a TOTAL, LEFTWING DISASTER — No Republican should vote for its survival. KILL IT!' Mr. Trump has accused the news group of spreading 'anti-American' and partisan 'propaganda,' calling it 'the voice of radical America.' In March, he signed an executive order that effectively called for the dismantling of the news agency, and put nearly all Voice of America reporters on paid leave, ceasing its operations for the first time since its founding in 1942. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Time of India
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
The upcoming Bengali film Daater Lorai, produced by 7 Horses Production and Global Media, recently released its teaser
The teaser of the upcoming Bengali film Daater Lorai , produced by 7 Horses Production and Global Media, has been officially released, offering a glimpse into a heart-touching rural narrative centered around a child protagonist. Producer Sonali Bhattacharya shared her thoughts on the film, saying: ' Daater Lorai has been created with a special purpose—to bring attention to the everyday lives and struggles of impoverished rural families. At its heart is a child character, whose innocence and strength drive the story. While the film is made for children, it carries powerful messages for adults and society as a whole. I am especially proud of writer-director Biplab Kayal , whose vision and hard work have given this film the form we had hoped for. We've also paid close attention to the music, as it reflects the emotional journey of the story. Our three debut music composers—Parijat Chakraborty, Arijit Kishore Roy, and Subir Chatterjee—have done a wonderful job. I truly believe Daater Lorai will connect with audiences across all age groups.' Biplab Kayal Shonali Bhattacharya The film's cinematography is handled by Bidyut Halder, with Dipankar Ghosh serving as creative director and lyricist. The music, woven into the narrative, enhances the film's emotional depth and storytelling. Director Biplab Kayal, known for his previous works like AK47 and Kanta Tarer Bera , brings a new perspective in Daater Lorai. He explained: 'My last film was an action drama, and before that, I explored the lives of homeless children in urban slums. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Trade Bitcoin & Ethereum – No Wallet Needed! IC Markets Start Now Undo This time, we've taken the story to the rural heartland of Bishnupur in Bankura district. The film portrays the reality of a poor village family, and we travelled extensively across rural Bengal to capture its true essence. Special thanks go to Bidyut Halder for his dedication as both cinematographer and editor, and to Dipankar Ghosh, who has been deeply involved from day one, curating the music and overall creative direction. ' The cast includes Abhilash Chakraborty, Swastika Das, and Akhangsha, who breathe life into this emotional tale. Daater Lorai is set for a theatrical release in the coming days. The team is hopeful that the film will resonate with Bengali audiences, encouraging families—especially parents and children—to experience it together. Check out our list of the latest Hindi , English , Tamil , Telugu , Malayalam , and Kannada movies . Don't miss our picks for the best Hindi movies , best Tamil movies, and best Telugu films .
