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#softpower

7 posts2 participants0 posts today

The #State Dept began firing >1,350 #US based employees Friday as the #Trump admin goes ahead with an unprecedented overhaul of its #DiplomaticCorps, undermining US ability to defend & promote interests abroad.

The #layoffs, which affect 1,107 #CivilService & 246 #ForeignService officers in the US, come as the US faces multiple global #crises: #Russia's war in #Ukraine, the #Gaza conflict, & the #MiddleEast on edge due to tensions between #Israel & #Iran.

#SoftPower
reuters.com/legal/litigation/s

"America’s New Anti-Vaccine Foreign Policy — The trump administration is ending U.S. support for immunizations abroad because of its opposition not only to foreign aid, but to vaccination itself."
theatlantic.com/health/archive
#RFKjr #Gavi #vaccines #PublicHealth #antivax #antiscience #SoftPower #dystopia

The Atlantic · RFK Jr. Is Globalizing the Anti-Vaccine AgendaBy Hana Kiros
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Noncitizens cannot obtain security clearances for viewing #classified info, & NO reporters at the global media agency have such security clearances, said Kate Neeper, a director of strategy who received a layoff notice last week. Some executives may have security clearances to receive #intelligence that would help them protect #reporters who work in war-zones or in countries w/repressive governments, Neeper said.
#law #FreePress #SoftPower #journalism #independence #censorship #AmericanAutocracy

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On Wednesday, Lake asked members of #Congress to amend the #laws requiring the existence of #VoiceOfAmerica & its aligned newsrooms, which have sought to fight the #Trump admin’s push to shutter them. She argued that her agency was “unsalvageable” & “a threat to America’s national security,”[?] asserting falsely that its reporters, including foreign nationals, had obtained security clearances, & that it had ties to the Chinese Communist Party.🤦🏼‍♀️

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“What is going out on #VOA airwaves—it’s outrageous, & it has to stop,” Lake told the #House #ForeignAffairs Cmte. She called #independent reporting from international #news agencies funded by the govt “corrupt” & “biased,” & made clear that Trump’s goal was not to overhaul but to shut down the global media agency, which she called “a rotten piece of fish.”

#Trump himself chimed in with a social media post, urging #Congress to “kill” the #VoiceOfAmerica.

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…Shuttering #USAID so quickly “likely violated the United States #Constitution in multiple ways,” a federal judge ruled less than two months into the new admin. (That ruling is on hold while an appeals court completes a review.)

By that point, it didn’t matter. The agency was effectively gone.

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Few #Republicans had been as vocal in their support for #USAID as #MarcoRubio, who, as a senator, once said that “in every region of the world, we should always search for ways to use USAID & #humanitarian assistance to strengthen our #influence.” But as the agency collapsed, its remnants placed under his control as Secretary of #State, Rubio was largely a bystander while #Musk & others shaped decisions on foreign #aid.

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The result was a real-time decision to take down an institution created almost 65 years ago as a linchpin of US #ForeignPolicy, intended to advance the country’s #NationalSecurity interests by establishing new markets for American goods, reducing conflicts that risked entangling US #troops, & countering efforts by communist & autocratic regimes to expand their power.