AP News in Brief at 12:04 a.m. EDT

Harris says Trump ‘is a fascist’ after John Kelly says he wanted generals like Hitler’s

ASTON, Pa. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday that she believes that Donald Trump “is a fascist” after his longest-serving chief of staff said the former president praised Adolf Hitler while in office and put personal loyalty above the Constitution.

Harris seized on comments by former chief of staff John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, about his former boss in interviews with The New York Times and The Atlantic published Tuesday warning that the Republican nominee meets the definition of a fascist and that while in office he suggested that the Nazi leader “did some good things.”

Speaking at a CNN town hall, Harris said they offer a window into who the former president “really is” and the kind of commander in chief he would be.

When asked if she believed that Trump is a fascist, Harris replied twice, “Yes, I do.” Later, she brought it up herself, saying Trump would, if elected again, be “a president who admires dictators and is a fascist.”

The Democratic presidential nominee said Kelly’s comments, less than two weeks before voters will decide whether to send Trump back to the Oval Office, were a “911 call to the American people” by the former chief of staff. They were quickly seized by Harris as part of her closing message to voters as she works to sharpen the choice at the ballot box for Americans.

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Donald Trump tells supporters to ‘just vote’ at lively Georgia rally organized by Charlie Kirk

DULUTH, Ga. (AP) — Donald Trump pushed supporters at a rollicking rally Wednesday in Georgia to vote for him — with an early ballot or in-person on Election Day — in a state that will be crucial in the presidential election.

“Just vote — whichever way you want to do it,” Trump told the capacity crowd at an event organized by conservative provocateur Charlie Kirk and the group he founded.

But the rest of former president’s speech and the hours-long lineup that preceded him framed the 2024 presidential election in the starkest terms: Trump, the Republican nominee, lobbed hyperbolic insults at his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, while a parade of other speakers, Kirk included, invoked unapologetically religious tones and described Harris and her Democratic Party as evil.

Democrats “stand for everything God hates,” Kirk said, calling the Trump vs. Harris choice “a spiritual battle.”

“This is a Christian state. I’d like to see it stay that way,” Kirk told the 10,000 or so Georgians, who at one point joined Kirk in a defeaning chant of “Christ is King! Christ is King!”

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Election officials are fighting a tsunami of voting conspiracy theories

ATLANTA (AP) — Voting machines reversing votes. More voters registered than people eligible. Large numbers of noncitizens voting.

With less than two weeks before Election Day, a resurgence in conspiracy theories and misinformation about voting is forcing state and local election officials to spend their time debunking rumors and explaining how elections are run at the same time they’re overseeing early voting and preparing for Nov. 5.

“Truth is boring, facts are boring, and outrage is really interesting,” says Utah’s Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican who oversees elections in her state. “It’s like playing whack-a-mole with truth. But what we try to do is just get as much information out there as possible.”

This year’s election is the first presidential contest since former President Donald Trump began spreading lies about widespread voter fraud costing him reelection in 2020. The false claims, which he continues to repeat, have undermined public confidence in elections and in the people who oversee them among a broad swath of Republican voters . Investigations have found no widespread fraud or manipulation of voting machines four years ago, and each of the battlegrounds states where Trump disputed his loss has affirmed Democrat J oe Biden’s win.

In the past week, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed a voting machine had changed a voter’s ballot in her Georgia district during early voting, and Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of the social media platform X, has promoted various conspiracy theories about voting machines and voter fraud both online and at a rally for Trump in Pennsylvania.

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Boeing factory workers vote to reject contract and continue 6-week strike

SEATTLE (AP) — Boeing factory workers voted Wednesday to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a six-week strike that has halted production of the aerospace giant’s bestselling jetliners.

Local union leaders in Seattle said 64% of members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers who cast ballots voted against accepting the proposal.

“After 10 years of sacrifices, we still have ground to make up, and we’re hopeful to do so by resuming negotiations promptly,” Jon Holden, the head of the IAM District 751 union, said in a statement Wednesday evening. “This is workplace democracy — and also clear evidence that there are consequences when a company mistreats its workers year after year.”

A spokesperson for Boeing said officials didn’t have a comment on the vote.

The labor standoff comes during an already challenging year for Boeing, which became the focus of multiple federal investigations after a door panel blew off a 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight in January.

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North Carolina government calculates Hurricane Helene damages, needs at least $53B

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The catastrophic flooding and destruction caused by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina likely caused at least a record $53 billion in damages and recovery needs, Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration said Wednesday.

The state budget office generated the preliminary figure for direct or indirect damages and potential investments to prevent similar destruction in future storms.

Cooper told reporters the state’s previous record for storm damage was $17 billion from Hurricane Florence, which struck eastern North Carolina in 2018.

“It is no exaggeration to describe Helene as the deadliest and most damaging storm ever to hit North Carolina,” Cooper said while unveiling his request to the General Assembly for $3.9 billion to help pay for repairs and revitalization. He called it a “down payment on western North Carolina’s future.”

North Carolina state officials have reported 96 deaths from Helene, which brought historic levels of rain and flooding to the mountains in late September.

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What to know about E. coli and the McDonald’s outbreak

A food poisoning outbreak tied to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders was caused by a common type of E. coli bacteria that can cause serious illness and death.

Particularly vulnerable are young children, older people or those with weakened immune systems.

About 50 people have fallen ill in the McDonald’s outbreak, and one has died, with ages ranging from 13 to 88, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A preliminary investigation suggests raw slivered onions served on Quarter Pounders are a likely source of the outbreak.

Here’s what to know about the dangerous germ:

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US confirms North Korea has sent 3,000 troops to Russia for training and possible Ukraine combat

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. said Wednesday that 3,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia and are training at several locations, calling the move very serious and warning that those forces will be “fair game” if they go into combat in Ukraine.

The deployment raises the potential for the North Koreans to join Russian forces in Ukraine and suggests expanded military ties between the two nations as Moscow seeks weapons and troops to gain ground in a grinding war that has stalemated after more than two years.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called it a “next step” after the North has provided Russia with arms, and said Pyongyang could face consequences for aiding Russia directly. His comments were the first public U.S. confirmation of North Korea sending troops to Russia — a development South Korean officials disclosed but was denied by Pyongyang and Moscow.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. believes that at least 3,000 North Korean soldiers traveled by ship to Vladivostok, Russia’s largest Pacific port, in early to mid-October.

“These soldiers then traveled onward to multiple Russian military training sites in eastern Russia, where they are currently undergoing training,” Kirby said. “We do not yet know whether these soldiers will enter into combat alongside the Russian military, but this is certainly a highly concerning probability.”

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Israeli strikes pound Lebanese coastal city after residents evacuate

TYRE, Lebanon (AP) — Israeli jets struck multiple buildings in Lebanon’s southern coastal city of Tyre on Wednesday, sending up large clouds of black smoke, while Hezbollah confirmed that a top official widely expected to be the militant group’s next leader had been killed in an Israeli strike.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported that an Israeli strike on the nearby town of Maarakeh killed three people. There were no reports of casualties in Tyre, where the Israeli military had issued evacuation warnings prior to the strikes.

Hezbollah meanwhile fired more rockets into Israel, including two that set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv before being intercepted. A cloud of smoke could be seen in the sky from the hotel where U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was staying on his latest visit to the region to try to renew cease-fire talks.

On Wednesday night, the Israeli military said another four “projectiles” crossed from Lebanon into Israel, with two intercepted and one falling in open land. There were no immediate reports of injuries, the military said.

Hezbollah confirmed that top official Hashem Safieddine had been killed in an announcement one day after Israel said it had killed him in a strike earlier this month in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

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Trash carried by a North Korean balloon again falls on the presidential compound in Seoul

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Trash carried by a North Korean balloon fell on the presidential compound in central Seoul on Thursday, officials said, the second such case in recent months that raise concerns about the vulnerability of key South Korean sites during potential North Korean aggression.

The incident comes after the rival Koreas ramped up threats and rhetoric against each other over North Korea’s claims that South Korea flew drones over its capital Pyongyang to scatter propaganda leaflets this month.

South Korea’s presidential security service said in a statement that one of the balloons floated by North Korea burst over the South Korean presidential compound on Thursday morning, dropping rubbish on the ground. No dangerous items were found.

North Korea has sent trash-carrying balloons into South Korea since late May in a resumption of a Cold War-style psychological campaign. The trash that fell on the South Korean presidential compound in July contained no dangerous material and no one was hurt.

It wasn’t immediately known whether South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was at the compound during the latest incident. His schedule showed he was due to meet with visiting Polish President Andrzej Duda at his office later Thursday.

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Angelenos mourn Mexican-born pitcher Fernando Valenzuela, who starred for the Dodgers in the 1980s

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Julia Mendez carefully positioned three candles in a row under a sign welcoming fans to Dodger Stadium. Then she pulled out a foil-wrapped burrito and rested it against the post.

“I know he ate a burrito all his life,” said the 70-year-old fan from North Hollywood who had stuffed the flour tortilla with nopales and scrambled eggs in her kitchen.

The city of Los Angeles was mourning Wednesday for Mexican-born Fernando Valenzuela, the Dodgers pitcher who inspired “Fernandomania” with his unique delivery and dominant pitching performances in the early 1980s.

He died Tuesday night at age 63.

“I came here to the United States in 1976. He came in 1979. That’s when all my pride and joy began,” said Mendez, from the same Mexican state of Sonora as Valenzuela. “He put our names so high around the world, all the community became fans. My love for so many years.”

The Associated Press