INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
More than 1,300 Voice of America employees were placed on leave on Saturday and funding for two U.S
news services that broadcast to authoritarian regimes was terminated, one day after President Donald Trump ordered the gutting of the
government-funded media outlet&s parent and six other federal agencies, Reuters reported.Michael Abramowitz, Voice of America&s director,
said nearly his entire staff of 1,300 journalists, producers and assistants had been put on administrative leave, crippling a media
broadcaster that operates in almost 50 languages.The order represents the latest step by Trump to remake the federal bureaucracy, a task he
has largely put in the hands of tech billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency
So far, the DOGE effort has produced potential cuts of more than 100,000 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian workforce, the
freezing of foreign aid, and the cancellation of thousands of programs and contracts.Some Republicans have accused VOA and other
publicly-funded media outlets of being biased against conservatives
Last month, Musk called for VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to be shut down in a post to his X social media platform.The post Voice
of America staff put on leave, Trump ally says agency ‘not salvageable& first appeared on Ariana News.
