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More than 500 workers at Voice of America and other broadcasters to be laid off | Trump administration
The agency that oversees Voice of America and other government-funded international broadcasters is eliminating jobs for more than 500 employees, a Trump administration official said. The move could ratchet up a months-long legal challenge over the news outlets’ fate.
Kari Lake, acting CEO of the US Agency for Global Media, announced the latest round of job cuts late Friday, one day after a federal judge blocked her from removing Michael Abramowitz as VOA director.
US district judge Royce Lamberth had ruled separately that the Republican administration had failed to show how it was complying with his orders to restore VOA’s operations. His order Monday gave the administration “one final opportunity, short of a contempt trial” to demonstrate its compliance. He ordered Lake to sit for a deposition by lawyers for agency employees by 15 September.
On Thursday, Lamberth said Abramowitz could not be removed without the approval of the majority of the International Broadcasting Advisory Board. Firing Abramowitz would be “plainly contrary to law”, according to Lamberth, who was nominated to the bench by Ronald Reagan.
Lake posted a statement on social media that said her agency had initiated a reduction in force, or RIF, eliminating 532 jobs for full-time government employees. She said the agency “will continue to fulfill its statutory mission after this RIF– and will likely improve its ability to function”.
“I look forward to taking additional steps in the coming months to improve the functioning of a very broken agency and make sure America’s voice is heard abroad where it matters most,” she wrote.
A group of agency employees who sued to block VOA’s elimination said Lake’s move would give their colleagues 30 days until their pay and benefits end.
“We find Lake’s continued attacks on our agency abhorrent,” they said in a statement. “We are looking forward to her deposition to hear whether her plan to dismantle VOA was done with the rigorous review process that Congress requires. So far we have not seen any evidence of that.”
They added: “We will continue to fight for what we believe to be our rights under the law.”
In June, layoff notices were sent to more than 600 agency employees. Abramowitz was placed on administrative leave along with almost the entire VOA staff. He was told he would be fired effective 31 August.
The administration said in a court filing Thursday that it planned to send RIF notices to 486 employees of VOA and 46 other agency employees but intended to retain 158 agency employees and 108 VOA employees. The filing said the global media agency had 137 “active employees” and 62 other employees on administrative leave while VOA had 86 active employees and 512 others on administrative leave.
The agency also houses Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Middle East Broadcasting Networks and Radio Martí, which beams Spanish-language news into Cuba. The networks, which together reach an estimated 427 million people, date to the cold war and are part of a network of government-funded organizations trying to extend US influence and combat authoritarianism.
In March, Abramowitz warned that Trump’s attempts to dismantle the VOA would be a “self-inflicted blow” to American national security, saying: “If America pulls off the playing field and cedes it to our adversaries, then they’re going to be telling the narratives that people around the world are going to be hearing, and that can’t be good for America … They’re going to be hearing an anti-America narrative. We need to fight that with truth.”
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He added: “The major challenge for the United States in general is this global information war in which countries like China and Russia are essentially really having our lunch. … So, I really feel that we need an organization that is accurate, unbiased, objective, and that tells the truth about America to the rest of the world in the languages that they understand.”
This week, Trump also moved to remove union protections from a handful of federal employees, including those from the VOA.
In response, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the nation’s largest trade union of public employees, said: “AFSCME members who fulfill the Congressionally mandated mission to broadcast Voice of America around the globe shine the beacon of freedom on the most oppressive of regimes. Now, because they have been fighting to keep Voice of America’s mission alive, their own voice on the job has been stripped from them. AFSCME will fight this illegal action in court.”
Earlier this year, foreign staff at US-backed media outlets voiced concerns over their safety following Trump’s shuttering of the global media agencies.
Speaking to the Guardian in March, Jaewoo Park, a journalist for Radio Free Asia, said: “We have many co-workers in different services, several of whom came here and sought asylum visas. If their own government knew they worked for RFA [Radio Free Asia] and they went back to their own country, their lives would be at risk.”
“Authoritarian governments have praised what Trump is doing right now … In Burma, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, there were people who fought for freedom and democracy, and they came to work at RFA. It’s very risky for them. Their lives are in danger if Radio Free Asia doesn’t exist,” he added.
When we think of AI, we often picture Silicon Valley giants or futuristic sci-fi movies. But in the arena of global trade and e-commerce, AI is no longer a futuristic concept — it’s rewriting the rules of global trade and reshaping competition. Across Alibaba.com’s findings from over 20,000 submissions to its CoCreate Pitch entrepreneurship competition, over 60% of U.S. small businesses plan to adopt AI tools in 2025.
Why? Because AI isn’t a trend—it’s a tsunami, and ignoring it could be the end for many.
New globalization runs light
Globalization no longer requires armies of specialists or decades of supply chain buildup. Today, a lean team with AI-powered tools can tap into global markets faster than ever.
These tools, like real-time translation APIs and predictive analytics, enable a two-person startup to sell across continents overnight, dismantling persistent barriers such as language differences, gaps in foreign market knowledge, and the difficulty of establishing cross-border trust.
This heralds the era of “micro-multinationals”: A two-person design studio startup could sell products across 20 countries by leveraging AI-generated market insights. Tasks that once required entire departments can now be done with the push of a button — and this is just the beginning.
Meet your co-founder: the autonomous AI agent
The rise of autonomous AI agents is further taking the game to the next level. Imagine a 24/7 co-founder who never sleeps, tirelessly sorting suppliers, negotiating deals, handling orders, and managing logistics.
For global trade, AI agents do not just find products but also evaluate suppliers, facilitate communication, process orders and even manage logistics. Think of it as having a powerful search engine like Chat GPT but for B2B trade, capable of sourcing across the entire digital landscape, combined with the talents of a team of professionals to handle the end-to-end process of sourcing and delivery. And it’s not a fantasy, Alibaba’s own Accio agent is already automating 70% of traditionally manual workflows for B2B buyers across the world, compressing fragmented processes including product ideation, prototyping, compliance checks and supplier sourcing into a seamless, AI-powered cycle.
AI is real. It’s here.
Why the $30 trillion B2B industry is leading the AI charge
While consumers are still warming up to AI, B2B decision makers are already racing ahead for three reasons:
1. Scale: Large scales of production and consumption invoke economies of scale, especially in a $30 trillion B2B industry. For instance, a mid-sized manufacturer can use AI to reduce supply chain costs by 15% through predictive maintenance, which is revolutionary to a business when millions of dollars are at stake.
2. Speed: For many small businesses, AI can drastically shrink a request for proposal process from weeks to hours by automating vendor comparisons and contract drafting.
3. Search transformation: B2B buyers will expect platforms in the future to understand extremely specific queries like “show me 3-D printed parts for aerospace that meet FAA specs,” and produce results that take them directly to a right supplier’s page. The future of B2B search is no longer about search engine optimization (SEO), but about generative AI engine optimization.
Small businesses: start small but start now
Yes, it can be daunting for a small business owner to embrace AI, but you don’t have a choice, you either adapt or risk vanishing in the dust of competitors who do.
Good news is, you don’t need a full AI incorporation overnight. Start small – perhaps implementing a customer service chatbot or AI data analysis tool – and scale up from there.
The future belongs to those who treat AI not as a luxury, but as essential infrastructure.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
AI is now a central pillar of business transformation, driving competitiveness, efficiency, and innovation, says CII-Protiviti report.
The “Vision AI: Trends and Strategic Insights 2025” report, released on Thursday, highlighted AI’s pervasive impact across various sectors.
“The question of whether AI will change our world is no longer hypothetical — we are seeing the impact everyday. From transforming industries to reshaping how we work, AI has moved from opportunity to impact. AI literacy and fluency are no longer optional; they are mission-critical for every industry, every leader, and every enterprise. The opportunity to build with AI is immense,” Microsoft India & South Asia President Puneet Chandok said.
In the financial services industry, AI is redefining trust, regulation, and fraud detection.
By incorporating intelligence into risk assessment, compliance functions, fraud detection, and customer engagement, financial institutions are achieving precision and flexibility in a sector where reliability is paramount, the report said.
Manufacturing and industrial domains, which are primarily driven by volume and scale, are optimising production and supply chains through predictive intelligence.
Retail and e-commerce are witnessing unprecedented changes with AI-driven personalisation and demand forecasting.
“Through transaction data, businesses now personalise customer journeys, enabling enterprises to forecast demand, optimise pricing and deliver seamless, unified commerce experiences,” the report noted.
Healthcare is seeing breakthroughs in diagnostics, treatments, and accessibility with AI.
Enterprise technologies and IT services are leveraging AI for digital transformation, cybersecurity, and cloud cost optimisation.
Real estate and hospitality are adopting intelligent automation for efficiency and enhanced guest experiences.
The automobile sector is incorporating AI-powered safety features and autonomous engineering, while energy, chemicals, and utilities are utilising AI to manage demand, optimise production, and reduce environmental impact.
For India, AI is not merely a technology shift but a national priority to enhance competitiveness, inclusive growth, and long-term resilience, CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said.
New Delhi, India – i.AI, a pioneering social media platform from India, is revolutionizing the digital economy by embodying the Prime Minister’s vision of self-reliance. The platform is more than a social channel, establishing a robust ecosystem that engages creators, businesses, and users with AI while safeguarding and monetizing Indian data domestically.
Founder and CEO Kapil Agarwal asserted that i.AI responds to the call for creating homegrown digital solutions. With a target revenue of over Rs.500 crore in the next 24-30 months, the platform aspires to achieve breakeven operationally by the third year. Supported by cultural relevance and AI innovations, i.AI aims to emerge as the nation’s first global social media export.
The platform continues to engage users by promoting regional content and empowering creators, marking it as a formidable competitor to global players like Facebook and Instagram. Future expansion across Asia, the Middle East, and Western markets seeks to enhance India’s position in the global digital landscape, merging technology and culture.
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