The men formerly known as the Central Park Five before they were exonerated filed a defamation lawsuit on Monday against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

With Election Day two weeks away, the group accused the former president of making “false and defamatory statements” about them during last month’s presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. The group is asking for a jury trial to determine compensatory and punitive damages.

“Defendant Trump falsely stated that plaintiffs killed an individual and pled guilty to the crime. These statements are demonstrably false,” the group wrote in the federal complaint.

The men are upset because Trump essentially “defamed them in front of 67 million people, which has caused them to seek to clear their names all over again,” co-lead counsel Shanin Specter told The Associated Press in an email.

Specter had no comment when asked if there were concerns some see the lawsuit as purely political because of the group’s support for Harris. “We are seeking redress in the courts,” Specter said.

McDonald’s: Trump event not endorsement

McDonald’s Corp. agreed to host former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania store over the weekend but said it isn’t endorsing a candidate in the U.S. presidential race.

Trump staffed the fry station at a McDonald’s in suburban Philadelphia on Sunday before answering questions through the drive-through window. The restaurant was closed to the public for the Republican nominee’s visit.

In a message to employees obtained Monday by the Associated Press, McDonald’s said the owner-operator of the location, Derek Giacomantonio, reached out after he learned of Trump’s desire to visit a Pennsylvania restaurant. McDonald’s agreed to the event.

“Upon learning of the former president’s request, we approached it through the lens of one of our core values: we open our doors to everyone,” the company said. “McDonald’s does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race for the next president. We are not red or blue — we are golden.”

4 dead as helicopter hits Houston radio mast

Four people aboard a helicopter were killed when it crashed into a radio tower in Houston and burst into flames, officials said.

The helicopter went down just before 8 p.m. Sunday in a neighborhood east of downtown after taking off from Ellington Field, about 15 miles away, Mayor John Whitmire said at a news conference. He didn’t know the flight’s destination.

Officials said no one on the ground was injured, and no nearby homes were damaged, though some vehicles were. The crash sparked a fire that burned about 100 to 200 yards of grass, officials said.

Election-denying Ariz. clerk pleads guilty

One of two rural Arizona county supervisors who faced criminal charges for refusing to certify the 2022 midterm results by a state deadline pleaded guilty Monday to a misdemeanor of failing to perform her duty as an election officer.

Coming two weeks before the Nov. 5 general election, the acknowledgment of guilt by Cochise County Supervisor Peggy Judd was seen by some as a warning to other Arizona county officials who might once again be pressured by election conspiracists not to certify the results.

“Judd’s official guilty plea represents an important development in securing election integrity in Arizona,” said Thomas Volgy, a former Tucson, Ariz., mayor and professor at the University of Arizona, where he specializes in democratic processes. “It should be a loud wake-up call to county elected officials that they cannot fiddle with the vote intentions of Arizonans for cheap partisan gain.”

Roswell drying out after deadly flooding

A southeastern New Mexico community began to dry out Monday after historic rainfall over the weekend produced severe flooding that left at least two people dead and hundreds stranded on rooftops.

Waterlogged vehicles were still submerged along some city streets in Roswell, while others were seen smashed along bridge supports and tossed up against trees and power poles after being swept away by the floodwaters on Saturday and Sunday.

All the standing water and mangled masses of twisted guardrails and splintered wood were scenes unfamiliar for the community. Surrounded by usually dusty plains and dairy farms, Roswell isn’t famous for any notable rainfall but rather for being the spot where a spacecraft purportedly crashed in 1947.

Moldova voters end up siding with EU

A referendum in Moldova intended to put an end to decades of swerving between East and West yielded a microscopic win Monday for voters who favor amending the constitution to lock in alignment with Europe rather than Russia.

The result of the referendum held Sunday was so tight, and the mandate for an irreversible path to Europe so thin, that Moldova, a former Soviet Republic and one of Europe’s poorest countries, looked stuck in a mire of uncertainty over its direction.

The referendum has been closely watched by Russia, the European Union and the United States. The results highlighted the deep divisions found in many formerly Soviet lands — divisions that Russia has labored to widen and, in the case of Ukraine, Moldova’s neighbor to the east, exploited to set the stage for its full-scale military invasion in February 2022.

Ark. justices throw out marijuana measure

Arkansas voters won’t get to weigh in on a ballot initiative to expand medical marijuana after the state Supreme Court ruled the measure didn’t fully explain what it would do, tossing out the initiative just two weeks before the election.

It’s too late to remove the measure from the ballot — early voting began Monday — so the court has ordered election officials not to count any votes cast on it. The proposed constitutional amendment would have broadened the definition of medical professionals who can certify patients for medical cannabis, expanded qualifying conditions and made medical cannabis cards valid for three years.

In Monday’s 4-3 decision, the justices ruled the measure did not fully inform voters that it would have stripped the Legislature’s ability to change the 2016 constitutional amendment that legalized medical marijuana in the state.

Australian lawmaker heckles King Charles

An Indigenous senator told King Charles III that Australia is not his land as the British royal visited Australia’s parliament on Monday.

Sen. Lidia Thorpe was escorted out of a parliamentary reception for the royal couple after shouting that British colonizers have taken Indigenous land and bones.

“You committed genocide against our people,” she shouted. “Give us what you stole from us — our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You destroyed our land. Give us a treaty. We want a treaty.”

No treaty was ever struck between between British colonizers and Australia’s Indigenous peoples.

Charles spoke quietly with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese while security officials stopped Thorpe from approaching.

Navajo Code Talker dies at age 107

John Kinsel Sr., one of the last remaining Navajo Code Talkers who transmitted messages during World War II based on the tribe’s native language, has died. He was 107.

Navajo Nation officials in Window Rock announced Kinsel’s death on Saturday.

Tribal President Buu Nygren has ordered all flags on the reservation to be flown at half-staff until Oct. 27 at sunset to honor Kinsel.

With Kinsel’s death, only two Navajo Code Talkers are still alive: Former Navajo Chairman Peter MacDonald and Thomas H. Begay.

— News service reports