AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

Sending a THAAD air defense system to Israel adds to strain on US Army forces

WASHINGTON (AP) — The deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery to Israel and roughly 100 soldiers to operate it will add to already difficult strains on the Army’s air defense forces and potential delays in modernizing its missile defense systems, Army leaders said Monday.

The service’s top two leaders declined to provide details on the deployment ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin over the weekend. But they spoke broadly about their concerns as the demand for THAAD and Patriot missile batteries grows because of the war in Ukraine and the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah and Hamas militants.

“The air defense, artillery community is the most stressed. They have the highest ‘optempo’ really of any part of the Army,” Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said, using a phrase meaning the pace of operations. “We’re just constantly trying to be as disciplined as we can, and give Secretary Austin the information he needs to accurately assess the strain on the force when he’s considering future operational deployments.”

Wormuth said the Army has to be careful about “what we take on. But of course, in a world this volatile, you know, sometimes we have to do what we have to do.”

The Pentagon announced the THAAD deployment Sunday, saying it was authorized at the direction of President Joe Biden. U.S. officials said the system will be moved from a location in the continental United States to Israel and that it will take a number of days for it and the soldiers to arrive. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of troop movements.

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UN Security Council voices ‘strong concern’ for UN peacekeepers after Israeli attacks

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council expressed “strong concern” Monday as Israel has fired on and wounded U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon during intensified fighting, reiterating its support for their role in supporting security in the region.

It’s the first statement by the U.N.’s most powerful body since Israel’s attacks on the positions of the peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL began last week, drawing international condemnation.

U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix told reporters that Secretary-General António Guterres confirmed Monday that peacekeepers will remain in all their positions even as Israel has urged the peacekeepers to move 5 kilometers (3 miles) north during its ground invasion in Lebanon.

Israel has been escalating its campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon across a U.N.-drawn boundary between the two countries. The sides have been clashing since the Iranian-backed militant group started firing rockets a year ago in solidarity with its ally Hamas in Gaza. Hamas’ deadly attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, launched the war.

The Security Council statement, issued after emergency closed consultations on Lebanon, did not name either Israel, Lebanon or Hezbollah. Read by Swiss U.N. Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl, the council’s current president, it urges all parties “to respect the safety and security of UNIFIL personnel and U.N. premises.”

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Israeli strike in northern Lebanon kills at least 21 people

AITO, Lebanon (AP) — An Israeli airstrike hit an apartment building in northern Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 21 people, according to the Lebanese Red Cross.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment and the target was not clear. The strike hit a small apartment building in the village of Aito, which is part of the country’s Christian heartland in the north and far from the Hezbollah militant group’s main areas of influence in the south and east.

Rescue workers in Aito searched through the rubble of the building as ambulances stood by to receive the bodies of victims. Nearby buildings and cars were damaged in the strike.

The strike came a day after a Hezbollah drone attack on an army base in northern Israel killed four soldiers — all of them 19 years old — and severely wounded seven others in the deadliest strike by the militant group since Israel launched its ground invasion of Lebanon nearly two weeks ago.

On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the army base and soldiers wounded in the attack, vowing “we will continue to strike Hezbollah without compassion in every part of Lebanon, including in Beirut.”

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FEMA workers change some hurricane-recovery efforts in North Carolina after receiving threats

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Federal disaster workers paused and then changed some of their hurricane-recovery efforts in North Carolina, including abandoning door-to-door visits, after receiving threats that they could be targeted by a militia, officials said, as the government response to Helene is targeted by runaway disinformation.

The threats emerged over the weekend. The Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Monday that it received a call Saturday about a man with an assault rifle who made a comment “about possibly harming” employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency working in the hard-hit areas of Lake Lure and Chimney Rock, in the North Carolina mountains.

Authorities got a description of a suspect’s vehicle and license plate and later identified him as William Jacob Parsons, 44, of Bostic, a small community about 60 miles west of Charlotte. Sheriff’s officials said in a statement that Parsons — who was armed with a handgun and a rifle — was charged with “going armed to the terror of the public,” a misdemeanor. He was released after posting bond.

The sheriff’s office said initial reports indicated that a “truckload of militia” was involved in making the threat, but further investigation determined that Parsons acted alone.

Messages left seeking comment at phone listings for Parsons and a possible relative were not immediately returned.

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Harris slams Trump for suggesting military handle ‘enemy from within’ as they vie for Pennsylvania

ERIE, Pa. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris zeroed in on former President Donald Trump ‘s comments suggesting the U.S. military could be used to deal with “the enemy from within” as the two presidential nominees took the fight for battleground Pennsylvania to opposite ends of the state on Monday.

Harris, at her rally in northwestern Pennsylvania, called Trump a serious threat to American democracy who is “out for unchecked power.”

“He considers anyone who doesn’t support him or who will not bend to his will an enemy of our country,” Harris said after playing a clip of the comment on the jumbo screen at her rally at an Erie arena. “This is among the reasons I believe so strongly that a second Trump term would be a huge risk for America, and dangerous.”

Democrat Harris and Republican Trump have been become fixtures in the country’s largest 2024 battleground state. It was Harris’ 10th visit to Pennsylvania this campaign season, and Trump’s Monday town hall in suburban Philadelphia came after visits last week to Scranton and Reading.

Harris is highlighting what she says are examples of Trump’s increasingly “unstable and unhinged” behavior. It’s part of her effort to win over a small universe of undecided voters and tear away even a small slice of traditionally Republican voters in the fight for Pennsylvania and six other closely contested states that are expected to determine who wins next month’s election.

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Trump’s Pennsylvania town hall turns into impromptu concert after medical incidents

OAKS, Pa. (AP) — Donald Trump ‘s town hall in the Philadelphia suburbs turned into an impromptu concert Monday after the former president was twice interrupted by medical emergencies in the room.

The Republican presidential nominee paused during a question-and-answer session as a doctor in the room attended to the first person to have a medical issue. After a second emergency halted the discusion moderated by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Trump stopped taking questions. He and Noem mentioned it was hot in the venue, and Trump asked about air conditioning.

“They probably can’t afford it, sir, in this economy,” Noem quipped.

During the first interruption, Trump requested “Ave Maria” be played and was answered with an instrumental version of the song. During the second incident, he said he meant Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotti’s version of the song. It was promptly tuned up.

Once Noem announced the second person was up and moving, Trump spoke for a few more minutes before calling for music to be played, as many in the crowd lingered, unsure whether he was done speaking.

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Who am I? A South Korean adoptee finds answers about the past — just not the ones she wants

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Rebecca Kimmel sat in a small room, stunned and speechless, staring at the baby photo she had just unearthed from her adoption file.

It was a black-and-white shot of an infant, possibly taken at an orphanage in Gwangju, the South Korean city where Kimmel had heard all her life that she’d been abandoned. But something about the photo — the eyes, the ears, an uneasy feeling deep in her gut — confirmed what she’d long suspected: This baby was not her.

Overcome, she started howling like a strange, wounded animal. This photo meant that the stories she had been told about herself were a lie. So who was she? Who IS she?

Thousands of South Korean adoptees are looking to satisfy a raw, compelling urge that much of the world takes for granted: the search for identity. Like many of them, Kimmel has stumbled into a web of switched photos, made-up stories and false documents, all designed to erase the very identity she desperately wants to find.

These adoptees live with the consequences of a tacit partnership by the South Korean government, Western nations and adoption agencies that has supplied some 200,000 children to parents overseas, despite warnings of widespread fraud.

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What to know about shaken baby syndrome as a Texas man could be first in US executed over it

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas man this week could become the first person executed in the U.S. for a murder conviction tied to the diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome.

Robert Roberson, 57, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on Thursday for the 2002 killing of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis. Roberson has long proclaimed his innocence. His lawyers as well as a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers, medical experts and others don’t deny that head and other injuries from child abuse are real. But they argue his conviction was based on faulty and now outdated scientific evidence and say new evidence has shown Curtis died from complications related to severe pneumonia.

But prosecutors maintain Roberson’s new evidence does not disprove their case that Curtis died from injuries inflicted by her father.

Roberson’s scheduled execution renewed debate over shaken baby syndrome. On one side of the debate are lawyers and some in the medical and scientific communities who argue the shaken baby diagnosis is flawed and has led to wrongful convictions. On the other side are prosecutors and medical societies from the U.S. and around the world who say the diagnosis is valid, has been scientifically proven and is the leading cause of fatal head injuries in children younger than 2 years of age.

Here’s what to know about the highly scrutinized diagnosis ahead of Robertson’s scheduled execution:

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Canada expels India’s top diplomat and alleges wider diplomatic involvement in crimes

TORONTO (AP) — Canada said it has identified India’s top diplomat in the country as a person of interest in the assassination of a Sikh activist there and expelled him and five other diplomats Monday, in an escalating dispute over the June 2023 killing and allegations of other crimes.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada was expelling the Indian high commissioner and the others — all persons of interest, as Canada’s foreign minister said police had uncovered evidence of a worsening campaign against Canadian citizens by agents of the Indian government.

“We will never tolerate the involvement of a foreign government threatening and killing Canadian citizens on Canadian soil,” Trudeau said. He alleged that diplomats were collecting information about Canadians and passing it on to organized crime to attack Canadians, and said “India has made a monumental mistake.”

India has rejected the accusations as absurd.

India’s foreign ministry in turn said it was expelling Canada’s acting high commissioner and five other diplomats, adding that they were told to leave by the end of Saturday.

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6 people accuse Diddy of sexual assault in new lawsuits, including man who was 16 at the time

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs was hit Monday with a new wave of lawsuits accusing him of raping women, sexually assaulting men and molesting a 16-year-old boy. It is the first time he’s been sued by a person alleging they were abused as a minor.

At least six lawsuits were filed against Combs in federal court in Manhattan, adding to a growing list of legal claims against the indicted hip-hop mogul, all of which he has denied. The lawsuits were filed anonymously to protect the identities of the accusers, two by women identified as Jane Does and four by men identified as John Does.

Some of the Does, echoing others who’ve accused Combs in recent months, allege that he used his fame and the promise of potential stardom to entice victims to lavish parties or drug-fueled hangouts where he then assaulted them. Some allege that he beat or drugged them. Others say he threatened to kill them if they didn’t do as he pleased or if they spoke out against him.

The lawsuits describe alleged assaults dating to the mid-1990s, including at Combs’ celebrity-studded white parties in Long Island’s Hamptons, at a party in Brooklyn celebrating Combs’ then-collaborator Biggie Smalls, and even in the storeroom at Macy’s flagship department store in midtown Manhattan.

The plaintiffs in Monday’s lawsuits are part of what their lawyers say is a group of more than 100 accusers who are in the process of taking legal action against Combs following his Sept. 16 federal sex trafficking arrest. Plaintiffs’ lawyer Tony Buzbee announced the planned litigation at an Oct. 1 news conference and posted a 1-800 number for accusers to call.

The Associated Press