The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the conduit for federal funds to NPR and PBS, announced on Friday that it is beginning to wind down its operations given President Trump has signed a law clawing back $1.1 billion in funding for public broadcasting through fiscal year 2027.

The announcement follows a largely party-line vote last month that approved the cuts to public broadcasting as part of a $9 billion rescissions package that also included cuts to foreign aid that was sent by the White House earlier this year. While public media officials had held a glimmer of hope that lawmakers would restore some of the money in the following year, the Senate Appropriations Committee declined to do that on Thursday.

      • BaroqueInMindEnglish
        -16•2 days ago

        Israel is sending a message to its enemies in the region that they aren’t pushovers and will retaliate with unreasonable disproportionate aggression so pervasive that they will be willing to destroy another entire culture to near non-existence if they are attacked.

        • @wampus@lemmy.caEnglish
          2•2 days ago

          I think there’s a bit more to it. US support and ability to get other countries to go along with that support, is what has provided Israel with its arms and ability to intimidate regional neighbours. If the US’s global influence wanes, it’s an existential threat for Israel. The US’s global influence is waning. The damage done by Trump, so far, will take decades/generations to correct in a best case scenario. Israel is desperate to re-orient power dynamics in the region while they still can.

          Eg. If BRICS, and specifically China/India become more dominant / insulated from US ‘sanction’ coersion, as they generally are trending, then China and others may take a more active role in providing trade and support to countries like Iran – China already buys like 90% of the oil from Iran, so it isn’t unbelievable that they’d have an interest in preventing Israel from randomly blowing shit up there and destabilizing their cheap, largely uncontested oil supply. Similar story for Russia, who are buying/using Iranian drones in their war in Ukraine, and will likely integrate their use more thoroughly in their military going forward given the efficacy of the tech. Either Russia or China could supply Iran with Enriched Uranium, and other tech. Especially as there’s less reason to participate in any sort of Nuclear non-proliferation treaty these days, given how things have played out.

          China/India have long been thought to be ‘rising’ super powers, with many articles/models previously forecasting their ‘ascent’ in the latter half of the 21st century. Israel’s actions are basically accelerating the negative trends for traditional powers, as a gamble where they hope they’ll come out ahead once the dust settles.