ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Federal disaster personnel have resumed door-to-door visits as part of their hurricane-recovery work in North Carolina, an effort temporarily suspended amid threats that prompted officials to condemn the spread of disinformation.

Over the weekend, reports emerged that workers with the Federal Emergency Management Agency could be targeted by militia as the government responds to Hurricane Helene. A sheriff’s office said Monday that one man was arrested during an investigation, but that the suspect acted alone.

FEMA made operational changes to keep personnel safe “out of an abundance of caution,” agency Administrator Deanne Criswell said Tuesday. FEMA workers were back in the field Monday, accompanied by Criswell, and she said disaster-assistance teams helping survivors apply for FEMA aid as well as state and local assistance will continue.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said he directed the state’s Department of Public Safety to coordinate law enforcement assistance for FEMA and other responders. He stressed the damage that internet rumors and falsehoods were causing and said officials may never know how many people won’t apply for assistance because of bad information.

FEMA has faced rampant disinformation about its response to Helene, which hit Florida on Sept. 26 before heading north and leaving a trail of destruction across six states.

Asked what might be fueling disinformation, Cooper said social media has become more extreme, but he also pointed to politics.

Former President Donald Trump and his allies have seized on the storm’s aftermath to spread false information about the Biden administration’s response in the final weeks before the election. Their debunked claims include false statements that victims can only receive $750 in aid, that emergency response funds were diverted to immigrants, that people accepting federal relief money could see their land seized and that FEMA is halting trucks full of supplies.

Helene decimated remote towns throughout Appalachia, left millions without power, knocked out cellular service and killed at least 246 people.

Pandas arrive in DC: The National Zoo’s long dark panda drought has come to an end.

Eleven months after the zoo in Washington sent its three wildly popular pandas — Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji — back to China, a new pair of bears arrived Tuesday morning.

The 3-year old giant pandas, named Bao Li and Qing Bao, were flown from China to Dulles International Airport in suburban Virginia, with a refueling stop in Alaska. They were loaded into special FedEx trucks and arrived at the zoo just before noon.

The zoo was closed Tuesday to facilitate the arrivals. The bears will be quarantined from the public for at least 30 days. A statement from the zoo set the date for the bears’ official public debut and the reopening of the renovated panda house as Jan. 24.

US fines Lufthansa: The United States fined German airline Lufthansa $4 million for its treatment of a group of Jewish passengers who were denied boarding on a 2022 flight in Frankfurt after they had flown to Germany from New York.

The U.S. Transportation Department said Tuesday that the fine is the largest the agency has issued against an airline for civil rights violations, although Lufthansa was given credit for $2 million for compensation it gave the passengers, cutting the fine in half.

The department said most of the 128 passengers who were denied boarding “wore distinctive garb typically worn by Orthodox Jewish men.” Although many did not know each other and were not traveling together, they told investigators that Lufthansa treated them as if they were a group and denied boarding to all over alleged misbehavior by a few passengers.

They were among 131 passengers who were flying from New York through Frankfurt to Budapest to attend an annual memorial event to honor an Orthodox rabbi.

Qatar referendum: Qatar’s ruling emir said Tuesday his small, energy-rich nation will hold a referendum on ending a short-lived experiment in electing members of the country’s advisory Shura Council.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani offered no immediate timeline for the referendum in an annual address to the Shura Council, which drafts laws, approves state budgets, debates major issues and provides advice to the ruler. The body does not have sway over matters of defense, security and the economy.

However, it marks yet another rollback in the hereditarily ruled Gulf Arab states in its halting steps to embrace representational rule, however tentative, following efforts by the United States to push harder for democratic reforms in the Middle East after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. and hopes for democracy in the region rose after the 2011 Arab Spring.