WASHINGTON — The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk on Thursday, saying he lied to investors when he claimed he had secured the funding to take the automaker private.

In a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, federal regulators said “Musk’s false and misleading public statements and omissions caused significant confusion and disruption in the market for Tesla’s stock and resulting harm to investors.”

The charges are a dramatic setback for one of the tech industry’s most prominent and polarizing executives. The stock plunged more than 10 percent in after-hours trading. The company did not immediately respond.

The SEC said it is seeking to ban Musk from acting as an “officer or director” of any public company, a devastating punishment that would radically change Tesla, Musk’s rocket company SpaceX and his other business interests in solar energy and underground supertrains.

Musk tweeted on Aug. 7 that he had “funding secured” for a massive deal that would take the automaker private, sending its stock soaring that day by nearly 11 percent.

After 17 days, however, Musk announced he would not pursue the deal, leading the stock to plunge amid growing skepticism over Tesla’s long-term prospects. Neither Musk nor Tesla ever specified what funding Musk was referring to.

The Justice Department is separately investigating Musk’s statements to determine whether they were meant to mislead investors, according to a person familiar with the probe.

Russian paper: Villagers ID suspect in U.K. poisoning case

MOSCOW — Residents in a small Russian village have identified one of the two suspects in the nerve agent poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain as a senior intelligence agent, Russia’s respected Kommersant daily said Thursday.

British-based investigative group Bellingcat on Wednesday had named one of the men suspected in the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter as Col. Anatoly Chepiga, an agent with the Russian military intelligence agency GRU.

The suspect had been named by British authorities as Ruslan Boshirov, and also appeared on Russian TV under that name denying any involvement in the poison attack.

Kommersant interviewed residents of the small village where Chepiga’s family lived, and they confirmed that Chepiga is one of the suspects identified by British authorities.

China urges U.S. to stop slander after Trump’s meddling claim

BEIJING — Beijing urged the United States on Thursday to stop slandering China after President Donald Trump accused the Asian giant of trying to interfere in upcoming U.S. congressional elections.

Geng Shuang, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said at a briefing in Beijing that the Chinese government does not interfere in other countries’ internal affairs.

Trump said on Wednesday that China was meddling in the elections because it opposes his tough trade policies. The White House provided scant evidence of anything akin to the level of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Geng said China urged the U.S. to “stop making unwarranted accusations and slanders ... and stop the words and deeds that harm bilateral ties and the fundamental interest of the two peoples.”

Stealthy F-35 fighter sees first combat action in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON — The stealthy F-35 fighter jet has conducted a combat airstrike for the first time, culminating years of development and anticipation for the aircraft’s move to the battlefield.

A Marine F-35B Lightning took off from the USS Essex amphibious assault ship and launched an airstrike Thursday against Taliban targets in Afghanistan. The aircraft is assigned to the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit.

There are multiple versions of the F-35 for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. The supersonic Marine version, which is meant to replace the AV-8B Harrier, can take off over a short distance and land vertically.

Each plane costs about $100 million. The F-35 program has been criticized over testing problems, delays and cost overruns.

Dutch police: 7 arrested were plotting attack

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Seven men were arrested Thursday in the Netherlands on suspicion of plotting a large-scale extremist attack that Dutch prosecutors said they think was foiled after a months-long investigation.

The national prosecutor’s office said police arrested the men in Arnhem, about 60 miles south of Amsterdam, and Weert in the southern Netherlands near the German and Belgium borders.

The investigation was launched by intelligence suggesting the alleged ring leader, a 34-year-old man of Iraqi heritage, wanted to attack a large public event, according to the statement.

The men were attempting to obtain assault rifles, handguns, bomb vests, grenades and raw materials for bombs and were looking for opportunities to train with such weapons, according to the statement.

Top court in India decrees adultery is no longer a crime

NEW DELHI — India’s top court on Thursday struck down a 158-year law that punished people for having extramarital affairs, effectively decriminalizing adultery.

The verdict is latest of a string of progressive judgments from India’s top court.

Until Thursday, Section 497 of the Indian Penal Code gave a maximum sentence of five years to anyone who had sex with a married woman, “without the consent or connivance” of her husband. The married woman was exempt from punishment, but her partner was not.

The partners of adulterous married men, meanwhile, did not face equal consequences under the law.

The law was used as a blackmail tool to keep women in unhappy marriages or prevent them from claiming alimony in divorce proceedings.

Document hunt: The GOP-led House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed the Justice Department for memos written by former FBI acting Director Andrew McCabe. The panel also wants documents related to the FBI’s application to monitor the communications of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

In Japan: Hideki Moronuki, a senior Japanese whaling negotiator, said Thursday that Tokyo will continue to push for a resumption of commercial whaling despite the recent defeat of its proposal by the International Whaling Commission, which imposed a ban on commercial whaling in the 1980s.