Friday, May 23, 2025. Annette’s Roundup for Democracy.
Fighting back.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas attends the EU-Ukraine Association Council at the European Council building in Brussels April 9, 2025.
The European Union has stepped in to provide Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty an infusion of millions of dollars to keep functioning as the international broadcaster battles the Trump administration to release funds Congress has already designated for it.
"We are grateful for the emergency funding to help keep Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty afloat," the network's president, Steve Capus, said in a statement from Brussels, where he has been meeting with European officials.
"Radio Liberty's survival remains at risk as long as these funds are withheld," Capus said, referring to $75 million held back by the Trump administration.
Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were founded in the early 1950s as part of Cold War initiatives to combat Soviet propaganda and influence. They later merged. The news network seeks to provide non-ideological news coverage and programming to countries in Eastern Europe and neighboring states where the press is not able to operate freely.
Last year, more than 47 million unique users relied on its coverage each week in 23 countries, according to the network, including in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic states, Hungary, Iran and other countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus. The Trump administration initially sought to dismantle Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and its sister networks, including Voice of America. His senior adviser, Kari Lake, has called them biased and claimed they served up anti-American fare.
Lake said the Trump administration welcomed the EU funding for the network.
"If Radio Free Europe is important for Europe, they can pay for it," she said.
While President Trump has cited a need to identify major budget cuts throughout government, his actions fit neatly into a larger strategy to undermine the news media's finances and independence.
Actions include executive orders purporting to eliminate federal funding for public broadcasting and purporting to fire board members of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Trump's appointee atop the Federal Communications Commission launched investigations of all major broadcast networks save Fox (owned by Trump's ally, Rupert Murdoch). And Trump and his allies have filed private civil lawsuits against major news outlets.
Lake oversaw the termination of contracts for more than 500 people at Voice of America and its parent agency last week. An appellate court is considering a lawsuit from a coalition of journalists, employees, unions and press advocates who say her actions violate federal law and free speech protections.
The U.S. government withheld monthly payments from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty until a federal judge ordered $12 million released. The parent outfit, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, belatedly sent the funds for April. The network is still awaiting its federal payment for May.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty President Stephen Capus speaks about the status of Alsu Kurmasheva, a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist who was detained in Russia, during a forum at the National Press Club on May 3, 2024 in Washington, DC.
Radio Free Europe CEO expects 'pretty drastic actions' following federal budget slash.
On Monday, RFE/RL filed a request for a new temporary restraining order with the court to compel payments for this month. It has also asked for a preliminary injunction requiring the agency to send the network the full $75 million appropriated for the rest of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
So far, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has put scores of employees on furloughs, canceled contracts with freelancers, and cut back programming.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told reporters that it would give $6.2 million to "support the vital work of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty."
"It's short-term emergency funding designed as a safety net for the [network's] independent journalism," she added.
Sweden previously pledged to give $2 million to support RFE/RL's reporting but those funds have yet to arrive.
"The first thing it says is how much the Europeans value the work that RFE does, and how important they think it is in their news diet and their news ecosystem," says Rick Stengel, a former U.S. Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy under former President Barack Obama.
He points particularly to the network's reporting on Russia and Hungary and the influence they wield on other European nations. Stengel also tells NPR that this emergency funding crisis suggests a model that could prove more stable moving forward.
"In so many ways, it was a post-World War II and Cold War initiative, which sought to help the European countries which came under the shadow of Soviet domination," Stengel said. "Now that they're out from under that, why wouldn't you even have a consortium of funding for RFE that is a combination of European and American funding?"
Such a solution might make it less reliant on the whim of an unpredictable U.S. administration, he says. (NPR).
Why would an American President hurt an American institution?
Become a spokesperson for education. Ask this 👆 of your elected officials.
Trump admin bars Harvard from enrolling international students.
The Trump administration has revoked Harvard University's ability to enroll international students, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The details were sent in a letter to the school, and the changes impact currently enrolled international students.
"This administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus," Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, wrote in a statement. "It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments."
In a statement, Harvard said the action was "unlawful."
"This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard's academic and research mission," the statement said. "We are fully committed to maintaining Harvard's ability to host international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the University – and this nation – immeasurably."
Harvard has nearly 7,000 international students, which make up about 27% of their entire student body. More than 1.1 million international students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities in the 2023-'24 school year. They do not qualify for federal financial aid, and so for many colleges represent a crucial financial lifeline.
Last academic year, international students contributed more than $43 billion to the U.S. economy, according to NAFSA: Association of International Educators. (NPR)
Judge blocks Trump administration from attempting to dismantle Department of Education
A federal judge in Boston has blocked the Trump administration from attempting to dismantle the Department of Education.
U.S. District Judge Myong Joun issued a preliminary injunction Thursday that bars the Trump administration from firing half the Department of Education's workforce.
The order from Judge Joun -- a Biden appointee -- also prohibits the Department of Education from transferring the management of federal student loans to the Small Business Administration.
The decision marks the first time a federal judge has determined the Trump administration's sweeping changes to the Department of Education are unlawful.
For now, the order puts a stop to the Trump administration's effort to fire more than 2,000 Department of Education employees, transfer federal student loan obligations, and otherwise implement the president's March 20 executive order to "take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education."
Madi Biedermann, Department of Education deputy assistant secretary for communications, said the agency’s reduction-in-force was lawful and called Joun a far-left judge who “overstepped” his authority.
“President Trump and the Senate-confirmed Secretary of Education clearly have the authority to make decisions about agency reorganization efforts, not an unelected Judge with a political axe to grind,” Biedermann wrote in a statement to ABC News. “This ruling is not in the best interest of American students or families. We will immediately challenge this on an emergency basis.”
A group that includes several state attorneys general, schools, and nonprofits challenged Trump's efforts to reduce the size of the Department of Education last month, arguing the president cannot unilaterally shut down a federal department created by Congress.
Lawyers for the Trump administration argued that the efforts to reduce the Department of Education would make it more efficient, and were separate from Trump's vow to abolish the department.
Judge Joun was unconvinced. His decision offered a blistering assessment of the Trump administration's claim that recent changes to the Department of Education are to improve efficiency, rather than carry out Trump's vow to abolish the Department outright.
"The idea that Defendants' actions are merely a 'reorganization' is plainly not true," he wrote.
The changes imposed by Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Judge Joun wrote, "effectively impossible for the Department to carry out its statutorily mandated functions."
Though Trump has the authority to remove executive officers, the president does not have the power to dismantle entire federal departments outright, he wrote. He also cast doubt on the claim that the legislative effort to abolish the Department of Education was separate from his executive actions.
"Not only is there no evidence that Defendants are pursuing a 'legislative goal' or otherwise working with Congress to reach a resolution, but there is also no evidence that the RIF has actually made the Department more efficient. Rather, the record is replete with evidence of the opposite," the judge wrote, referring to the "reduction in force" firings.
"Consolidated Plaintiffs have demonstrated that the Department will not be able to carry out its statutory functions -- and in some cases, is already unable to do so -- and Defendants have proffered no evidence to the contrary," he wrote.
"Today's order means that the Trump administration's disastrous mass firings of career civil servants are blocked while this wildly disruptive and unlawful agency action is litigated," said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which represented several of the plaintiffs. "Instead of taking a wrecking ball to our nation's best values and our chance at a better future, this administration should be focused on how to improve education and opportunities for all."
"Today, the court rightly rejected one of the administration's very first illegal, and consequential, acts: abolishing the federal role in education," American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said of the ruling. "The vast majority of Americans and states like Massachusetts, with the highest NAEP scores, want to keep the education department because it ensures all kids, not just some, can get a shot at a better life. (ABC News)
The View’ Goes Hard at Trump After Execs Say Tone It Down
The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday that Disney executives had demanded the show veer away from politics.
The View slammed President Donald Trump for his meeting with South Africa’s president a day after a Daily Beast report revealed Disney executives wanted the panel to curb its criticism.
The opinion show’s co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Sara Haines, Sunny Hostin, and Alyssa Farah Griffin tore into the Wednesday meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, where Trump repeatedly claimed there was a “genocide” of white farmers in the nation with unverified videos.
Goldberg shot down Trump’s claims about a “genocide,” highlighting her visits to the nation as an actor—before appearing to let out an bleeped-out expletive.
“There’s no white genocide, OK?” she said. “There’s not a genocide happening. There is crime, as there is all over the world, but it’s not about killing off white people. This is just straight [expletive].”
Goldberg then laughed off the silenced remark as “gas.”
The decision to devote The View’s first 10 minutes on Thursday to politics comes a day after the Daily Beast reported that Disney CEO Bob Iger and ABC News President Almin Karamehmedovic have asked the hosts of The View in recent weeks to tone down their political focus.
Karamehmedovic met with the hosts and executive producer Brian Teta in recent weeks and suggested it needed to broaden its focus beyond politics and lean into more culture topics, including celebrity guests.
The suggestion—which was not presented as an edict—angered the hosts, who pushed back forcefully and bristled at the suggestion that their audience doesn’t want them to talk about politics.
The women found the request “silly,” one source said, and were “just going to keep doing their thing.”
Ana Navarro and Iger later had a conversation during Disney’s Upfront presentation day last week, where she thanked him for allowing the hosts to do their jobs in a politically fraught environment. Iger affirmed his support—but also said the hosts needed to tone down their political rhetoric, multiple sources told the Daily Beast.
ABC News did not comment. A source familiar with the situation said the network will “constantly have conversations with talent based on viewer feedback, and this instance was no different.”
The political talk continued throughout the show’s first block on Thursday, as the hosts ripped Trump’s suggestion that he would also accept a free plane from South Africa after his administration received a $400 million jet from Qatar for use as Air Force One.
After Behar acknowledged the U.S.’ official acceptance of the plane on Wednesday, Goldberg jumped in to clarify: “He has accepted the plane. The United States has not accepted the plane.”
“He may be the government, but my government says you can’t do that!” Goldberg added.
“It’s unconstitutional,” Hostin said. (The Daily Beast).
My Favorite Commencement Speaker 2025.
Other than Jonquel Jones, center of the New York Liberty, at her Alma Mater, George Washington.
Kermit stood in for Jim Henson, who died in 1990, was a graduate of University of Maryland, where he majored in Home Economics.