White House cancels health, education funds approved by Congress

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced plans Friday night to cancel $810 million in funding for health, education and other programs just days before the end of the current fiscal year, triggering another fight with Congress over the power of the purse.

The so-called pocket rescission claws back money already appropriated by Congress, with little time for lawmakers to respond before the new fiscal year begins next week. The House is already out of town and not scheduled to return until after the November midterm elections.

Top appropriators of both parties immediately denounced the move and accused the Trump administration of acting illegally by holding up and then canceling funds without congressional approval.

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said the White House budget office “intentionally withheld these funds for months to execute this unlawful cancellation of appropriations that were approved on a bipartisan basis and signed into law.”

—CQ-Roll Call

Pro-Trump pastor says don't vote absentee because of 'cheating'

LANSING, Mich. — A Michigan-based pastor who led a prayer at Donald Trump's second inauguration is advising people not to cast absentee ballots in the November election and is calling on the Republican president to declare a national emergency to allow for only a single day of voting.

Pastor Lorenzo Sewell made the comments while speaking at a church in Mississippi on Sept. 26. He then shared a video of his remarks on social media on Sept. 27, three days after absentee ballots for the Nov. 3 election became available to Michigan voters.

"Do not vote absentee," Sewell said at Evangel Temple Church in Meridian, Mississippi. "They are cheating. Do not vote absentee. If you vote absentee, they’re going to switch your vote.”

No such allegation of systemic vote switching has been proven in Michigan. And a Republican-led state Senate committee investigated similar voter fraud claims focused on the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden by 154,000 votes, and upheld the result.

—The Detroit News

Attorney for holdout juror calls Lindsay Clancy ‘demonic’

BOSTON — In a new interview, the attorney for the lone holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy case called the defendant “demonic,” and said her attorney Kevin Reddington has “lost his mind.”

Edward Paltzik slammed Reddington and defended his client Michael Peguy Desronvil during an interview with Fox New’s Kayleigh McEnany that aired Monday morning. Desronvil was the only juror who wouldn’t find Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity, according to other panelists who have come out publicly since a mistrial was declared in the case Sept. 4.

Clancy is accused of murdering her three children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months, in January 2023.

During her trial, Reddington put up an insanity defense, saying that Clancy couldn’t be held criminally responsible for killing her children because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time.

—Boston Herald

Ukraine expects no Black Sea ceasefire in coming months

Ukraine sees no positive signs that there could be a ceasefire covering grain exports via the Black Sea in the coming months, as strikes in the region have drastically cut the country’s ability to export products vital to global supplies.

“Unfortunately, it’s hard to imagine any possible solutions in the nearest months on this issue,” Ukraine Agriculture Minister Taras Vysotskyi said in an interview in Brussels. “We have to really prepare that the situation remains as critical as it is now.”

Vysotskyi said Ukraine had been informed by countries facilitating talks that Russia has so far rejected all proposals from Kyiv’s partners, adding that “all of the possible rounds have been tried, and so far none of the results” have been achieved. He was scheduled to update European Union peers on the situation later on Monday.

Escalating strikes between Russia and Ukraine, responsible for more than a quarter of the world’s wheat shipments, have pushed up global grain prices at a time when European farmers have also grappled with extreme weather. The possibility of talks around allowing grain exports via a limited ceasefire or moratorium on strikes helped ease prices this month.

—Bloomberg News