America's news TV channel for the Mideast fires its staff after funding cuts

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America's news TV channel for the Mideast fires its staff after funding cuts

2025-04-13 05:55 Last Updated At：06:00

CAIRO (AP) — The head of a U.S.-funded Arabic-language television and online news outlet that claims a 30 million-strong audience in the Middle East and North Africa terminated most staff and curtailed TV programming Saturday, accusing the Trump administration and Elon Musk of having “irresponsibly and unlawfully” cut off funding.

In notices to Al Hurra news staffers about their dismissals, chief Jeffrey Gedmin said he had given up on the U.S. administration's freeze lifting anytime soon for the congressionally approved money for Al Hurra and its U.S.-funded Arabic language sister organizations.

Gedmin accused Kari Lake, President Donald Trump's appointee to the American government agency overseeing Al Hurra, Voice of America and other U.S.-funded news programming abroad, of dodging his efforts to speak with her about the funding cutoff.

“I'm left to conclude that she is deliberately starving us of the money we need to pay you, our dedicated and hard-working staff,” Gedmin said in severance letters obtained by The Associated Press and excerpted on the website of Al Hurra's parent company, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.

Mohamed al-Sabagh, an Egyptian journalist working at the Al Hurra news website in Dubai, told the AP that all the staff in the website and the television channel received emails terminating their contracts.

Al-Hurra is the latest U.S. government-funded news outlet — after Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and others — to cut staff and services amid what the outlets say is the move by the Trump administration and Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to withhold their congressional appropriations.

Lake, appointed to oversee the U.S. Agency for Global Media, describes her agency as being consumed by a “giant rot” that requires the agency's destruction and rebuilding.

The U.S.-backed news organizations were set up starting in the Cold War between the West and Soviet Union. Their designated goal was to provide objective news about the United States and other subjects overseas, often to people under authoritarian governments without access to a free press.

The George W. Bush administration created Al Hurra in 2003, the same year his administration's invasion of Iraq overthrew that country's leader. Al Hurra's journalists covered the U.S. occupation and sectarian and extremist violence that followed, with some them dying on the job during the 2011 Arab Spring, and other political changes across the Middle East.

While Al Hurra over the years faced charges of bias from both conservatives and liberals in the United States, it was one of the few outlets in its region providing space for freedom of the press and speech.

In his note to staffers, Getmin said his organization would retain a couple of dozen staffers and a “presence” online as court battles over the cuts play out in U.S. courts.

“It makes no sense," Gedmin wrote, “to silence America’s voice in the Middle East.”

Knickmeyer reported from Washington.

This story has been corrected to show that the news outlet is not off the air entirely. An earlier version said it was.

Paolo Banchero comes up big for the Magic despite small numbers in a play-in win over Hawks

2025-04-17 01:08 Last Updated At：01:11

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Orlando's Paolo Banchero did not have a good game statistically in his first Play-In Tournament. Yet in the first quarter Tuesday night, the Magic's 22-year-old power forward showed he can dominate a game without making a shot.

“It was a fun game, a big-time game, a unique type of challenge,” said Banchero after Orlando beat the Atlanta Hawks 120-95. “I was interested to see how they were going to try to guard me. You could tell in the first quarter I was trying to get my teammates involved, moving the ball, and those guys got going. They carried us throughout the game.”

With the victory, the Magic earned the Eastern Conference’s seventh seed and will start their first-round playoff series at Boston on Sunday.

The statistical honors in Tuesday's win over Atlanta went to the Magic's Cole Anthony, who scored 26 points, and Anthony Black, who added 16. Anthony and Black finished with plus-minus differentials of 32 and 34, respectively.

'When I saw that they were doubling up and trapping, I knew that guys were going to get open looks," said Banchero, who finished with 17 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and a plus-18.

Orlando coach Jamahl Mosley saw Banchero contribute in other ways.

“They were loading up on him, and he was trying to find the right passes, and trying to get after it defensively,” Mosley said. “I think there’s little pieces of the game that go unseen, but because of how teams were playing him, he was able to make the right plays at the right time.”

Especially in the first quarter. Banchero led the Magic to a 32-17 advantage without making a shot. In the first 12 minutes, he had five rebounds and five assists and made 7 of 8 free throws.

“What carried me tonight was getting to the free throw line," Banchero said. "I was able to knock down most of my free throws, which kept me in rhythm even though I didn’t have a good night shooting.”

Banchero's first field goal came with 3:19 left in the first half and it gave the Magic their biggest lead of the game at 57-35. He finished 4 for 13 from the floor, missed all three of his 3-point shots, and was 9 for 11 from the line.

In three regular-season games against Atlanta, Banchero scored more than 30 points in each and shot 46%. The Hawks took the ball out of his hands Tuesday night, but Banchero knew where to send it.

“Anthony Black, Cole (Anthony) obviously ... everyone came in and made plays and made my job easier,” he said.

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