Governing by subtraction

Recently: Why do Europe’s leaders finally seem willing to seize Russia’s frozen bank assets? Sir William Browder on a potential turning point in the Ukraine war.

Today: What does it mean when the U.S. cedes the global information space to autocrats? For the first time since 1942, Voice of America stopped broadcasting on Wednesday—furloughing more than 1,000 journalists who delivered news in 49 languages to 360 million people weekly … while China and Russia continue transmitting.

For members: Where is Ukraine?

+ New music from Ganser ...

Developments

• The votes fail again. The U.S. Senate rejected competing funding proposals for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, with the Republican bill to extend government operations through November failing 55-45 and the Democratic bill linking funding to healthcare subsidies failing 53-47. Neither party appears willing to compromise—with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accusing President Donald Trump of using Americans as “pawns” and Vice President J.D. Vance warning the administration would implement mass layoffs if the shutdown extends beyond a few days.
• Democratic, states frozen out. The Trump administration suspended $26 billion in previously allocated funding on Wednesday, targeting states that voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. The White House’s budget director, Russell Vought, announced the government would hold $18 billion for New York City transit projects—including the Hudson Tunnel and Second Avenue Subway—pending review for what he called “unconstitutional DEI principles.” It would also cancel outright $8 billion in climate-related funding for 16 states, including California and Illinois.
• Voice of America, quieted. The administration has meanwhile suspended all Voice of America broadcasts during the government shutdown, furloughing the outlet’s more than 1,000 journalists and halting operations for the first time since the broadcaster’s 1942 founding. VoA had reached approximately 360 million people weekly in 49 languages across countries where independent journalism faces censorship or doesn’t exist. The suspension follows months of Trump administration efforts to dismantle the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VoA, with senior adviser Kari Lake previously announcing plans to reduce staff by 85 percent.
• A flotilla intercepted in Gaza. Israeli naval forces stopped 43 vessels carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza on Wednesday and Thursday, detaining around 443 activists from 47 countries—including the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and the South African politician Mandla Mandela—in international waters north of Egypt. The Global Sumud Flotilla had departed Spain in late August carrying symbolic aid and attempting to challenge Israel’s 18-year maritime blockade. The interceptions have prompted international condemnation and protests in cities including Istanbul, Athens, Rome, Berlin, and Buenos Aires, with Italian unions calling a general strike for Friday and Colombian President Gustavo Petro announcing the expulsion of Israeli diplomats.
• Demonstrations continue in Madagascar. There were more youth-led protests across Madagascar on Wednesday, despite President Andry Rajoelina dissolving his government earlier in the week—with demonstrators in Antananarivo and the northern city of Antsiranana demanding the president’s resignation and calling for a general strike. The protests, which began on September 25 over chronic water shortages and power outages, have killed at least 22 people according to the United Nations—a figure Madagascar’s government disputes. Inspired by Gen Z movements in Kenya and Nepal, organizers are demanding not just utility improvements but the dissolution of the Senate, the Constitutional Court, and electoral commission.

Governing by subtraction

Voice of America transmitted its first broadcast in February 1942, two months after Pearl Harbor, opening with a statement of purpose: “The news may be good or bad. We shall tell you the truth.” For 83 years, through world war, Cold War confrontation, and now the digital age, VoA maintained that mission—delivering news in dozens of languages to audiences living under censorship, from Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union to contemporary China. Wednesday marked the first day since that founding broadcast that VoA went silent.

The suspension is part of the U.S. government shutdown, with the administration furloughing VoA’s entire staff of more than 1,000 journalists, producers, and technical personnel. The broadcaster’s website froze mid-update. Foreign language services that had continued through previous shutdowns—broadcasts into North Korea, China, Iran, Afghanistan—replaced scheduled programming with silence or, in some cases, music.

The administration has characterized VoA as “radical propaganda” and questioned whether the broadcaster serves American interests. Yet VoA’s statutory mandate—established by the 1976 International Broadcasting Act—requires it to present “accurate, objective, and comprehensive" news while serving as “a consistently reliable and authoritative source.” The firewall separating editorial decisions from political interference is there precisely because VoA’s credibility depends on independence: Audiences in authoritarian states don’t trust obvious government mouthpieces.

What’s going to fill the void VoA is leaving? China’s state media apparatus broadcasts in more than 60 languages. Russia Today and Sputnik maintain extensive operations despite being banned in multiple countries. Both powers invest heavily in the information space VoA has operated in—neither, of course, under statutory requirements for accuracy or editorial independence. They don’t need to; their purpose is propaganda, not journalism.

The suspension might be temporary, resolved when the U.S. Congress reaches a funding agreement. But the signal it sends will carry, either way: The U.S. administration has decided, at least for now, that America’s voice in regions where its adversaries control information isn’t important enough to maintain during a budget dispute.

It may be hard to imagine what this new silence means in those parts of the world—but whether it ends up being provisional or turns into policy, adversaries are already broadcasting into it.

For members

Where is Ukraine?

And why is the idea of “Central Europe” so important to so many political leaders east of the West? Luka Ivan Jukic, Central Europe: The Death of a Civilization and the Life of an Idea.

—Gustav Jönsson

The philosopher J.R. Lucas used to make a point of emphasizing that “Prague is west of Vienna.” Which was to say, Prague might have been subsumed into the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc, but it really belonged to the same Central European civilization as Vienna. Making political reality of that idea, Czechia has since gone on to participate in a number of organizations with names like the Central European Defense Cooperation or the Central European Initiative. After the Eastern Bloc fell in 1989, the Central European University held its first classes in Prague.

But Czechs aren’t the only Europeans keen to stress their “Central European” identity. Many Ukrainians do, too, even though Ukraine is usually thought of as belonging to Eastern Europe. Back in 2021, for instance, Ukraine’s foreign minister at the time, Dmytro Kuleba, said his country “is and always has been a Central European state.” A year later, the former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger said, “Ukraine has become a major state in Central Europe for the first time in modern history.” The European Union even sponsors a Ukrainian conference series called “Ukrainian Central European Forum,” which has as its slogan, “Ukraine in the heart of Central Europe.”

New music

‘Stripe’

Chicago’s Ganser is a four piece that makes post-punk music—not so far from what the Scroggins sisters did in ESG back in the early 1980s, if you happened to be familiar. Dance punk, you might call it. But less LCD Soundsystem and more atmospheric—though they do like a good groove.