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Trump claws back $1B
for immigrants, diversity
WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump is canceling nearly $1 billion in spending approved by Congress. The White House announced the move on Friday, using a rare and contested power to axe funding for immigrant services and diversity-focused initiatives.
The Office of Management and Budget described the funding cut as focused on "the most harmful government spending." Most of the cuts affect services for immigrants, including nonprofits serving refugees and asylum seekers.
Also affected are programs for migrant students and minority entrepreneurs.
Sen. Susan Collins, the Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement that the action came without warning or consultation.
White House bars CNN staff to board Air Force One
WASHINGTON -- The White House signaled Friday night that CNN would be left off Air Force One for President Donald Trump's Saturday trip, the latest media restriction from the administration in an ongoing dispute with First Amendment implications.
The news organization was replaced by Real America's Voice News, a conservative outlet.
The news came just after journalists from three news outlets that Trump banned last week from the White House grounds returned to the executive complex with TV cameras, laptops and microphones in hand.
Supreme Court rejects
Trump-backed voting map
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The Supreme Court has turned away an attempt to use a new Missouri congressional map backed by President Donald Trump. Friday's decision puts an end to a long-running legal dispute as absentee voting is underway in the midterm elections.
The justices halted a last-minute revival of the Republican-friendly map by lower-court judges. The decision leaves in place a Missouri Supreme Court ruling requiring the state to hold the November election using a map adopted in 2022.
A new map passed last year was aimed at helping Republicans gain an additional U.S. House seat. It was used in the August primary.
Trump, Xi plan 2 more
meetings later this year
WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump has confirmed he'll have two more meetings with China's Xi Jinping later this year. Xi wrapped up his state visit to the U.S. on Friday with a trip to the National Archives, where Trump showed him the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Xi's three-day visit has been criticized for being heavy on pomp and light on substance, though Trump says they talked about the Iran war. Xi invited Trump to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China, in November. The leaders will meet again a month later at the G20 summit at the Trump National Doral Miami golf club in Florida.
Iran proposes reopening
strait with its conditions
UNITED NATIONS -- Iran has offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume talks on its nuclear program in seven days if the United States lifts its naval blockade, waives sanctions on Iranian oil sales and observes a ceasefire that would include Lebanon.
Iran's foreign minister detailed the proposal to reporters outside the U.N. Security Council on Friday.
The deal mirrors the so-called Memorandum of Understanding reached in June, but with an accelerated timetable and would also set a start date for the resumption of nuclear talks with the United States.
The earlier agreement quickly collapsed as Iran resumed attacks on shipping in the strait.
Nor'easter to lash the East
with strong winds, flooding
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A powerful nor'easter has intensified, generating storm-force winds and massive waves along the East Coast.
Millions are under warnings, with dangerous conditions expected through the weekend.
The National Weather Service warns of flooding along the Mid-Atlantic coast, especially near New Jersey and Delaware. Wind gusts could reach 65 mph on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and nearby islands.
The storm has already led to concert cancellations and changes to the Boston Red Sox schedule. Ferry services to Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard are disrupted. Residents are bracing for power outages and debris as the storm approaches.
Hurricanes in the Pacific
threaten Hawaii, Mexico
HILO, Hawaii -- Residents on Hawaii's Big Island are bracing for potentially life-threatening and catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Nolo.
The U.S. National Weather Service said Nolo was about 185 miles south of the Big Island on Friday and headed to the northeast. Tropical storm conditions are expected to begin on land by early Saturday. Forecasters are warning the island could see 10 to 15 inches of rain and 50-mph wind gusts. Meanwhile, Hurricane Polo is churning
off Mexico's western coast as a Category 5 hurricane. It is expected to turn toward the Baja California peninsula. Storm conditions there are expected to begin late Sunday into Monday.
Trump to begin his stump
in two Republican states
MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- President Donald Trump has vowed to campaign in 35 of the most competitive battleground races in the final sprint to November's midterm elections. Instead, he will begin October by stumping in Alabama and Oklahoma, two of the most Republican states in the nation.
Trump is sure to draw crowds to the venues. Trump is trying to shore up candidates facing an unhappy electorate that has soured on some of his administration's policies.
Police detective calls
Miss. lynching 'staged'
JACKSON, Miss. -- A police detective says Tasia Fortune was apparently killed in a drug dispute before her body was hung in a tree in a "staged" lynching behind an abandoned home in the Mississippi capital this summer.
Police Detective Samuel Dukes, citing the medical examiner's opinion, offered the testimony Friday during a hearing for the first of two men who have been arrested in the killing.
Like Fortune, both defendants are Black. A third man turned himself in Friday. Fortune's hanging body was discovered on Aug. 3. The case has attracted widespread attention because it has recalled actual lynchings in the Southern state.
New Jersey's lieutenant governor resigns after sexual harassment and ethics complaints
TRENTON, N.J. -- New Jersey's Democratic lieutenant governor has resigned after being pushed out by the governor over accusations of ethics lapses and inappropriate behavior with women. Gov. Mikie Sherrill had given Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell an ultimatum to resign by Friday, a day after a law firm she hired issued a report on the alleged misconduct. Caldwell denies the accusations and says he suspects he's being scrutinized because he's a single Black man. Republicans have hammered Sherrill for weeks on the investigation into Caldwell, who served as acting governor in her absence. He is a Methodist pastor and former university president.
The Associated Press