AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EDT

President Joe Biden signed legislation last year calling for China’s ByteDance to sell TikTok’s assets to an American company by early this year or face a ban, but Trump has repeatedly signed orders that have allowed TikTok to keep operating in the U.S. as his administration tries to reach an agreement for the sale of the company.

Much is still unknown about the actual deal in the works, but Trump said Thursday that Chinese leader Xi Jinping has agreed to move forward with it. However, the Chinese embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to an AP inquiry seeking confirmation that China has formally signed off on the proposed framework deal.

The executive order itself is a declaration by the president that the proposed deal meets the security concerns laid out in the law. And it gives all parties involved in negotiations an additional 120 day reprieve from the effects of the law in order to finalize a deal.

Young people especially “really wanted this to happen,” Trump said during the signing ceremony.

Trump says he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will not allow Israel to annex the occupied West Bank, offering an unequivocal promise to block such a move that Arab leaders in the Middle East have also staunchly opposed.

Asked about Israel officials suggesting in recent weeks that their government could move to seize control of at least some parts of the West Bank, a move that has been floated in response to a number of countries — including key U.S. allies like the United Kingdom and Canada, to recognize a Palestinian state, Trump's response was blunt.

“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. I will not allow it. It's not going to happen,” he told reporters during an unrelated signing of executive orders in the Oval Office.

Trump said he'd spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but said he'd be firm in not allowing annexation, adding, “It's been enough. It's time to stop now.”

Trump has long bragged about his close relationship with Netanyahu, but the president has faced pressure from Arab leaders, who have publicly expressed concerns about Israeli annexation. The United Arab Emirates has warned that any Israeli move to annex would be a “red line.”

Man who fired on ICE facility hated US government, sought to kill federal agents, officials say

DALLAS (AP) — The gunman who opened fire on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas hated the U.S. government and wanted to incite terror by killing federal agents, officials said Thursday, offering the first hint of a motive in the attack.

Citing handwritten notes found at his suburban home, authorities said 29-year-old Joshua Jahn set out to ambush the agency and then fatally shot himself following the assault.

The shooting at daybreak Wednesday targeted the ICE office building, including a van in a gated entryway that held detainees. One detainee was killed, and two others were critically wounded. No ICE personnel were hurt.

Jahn “specifically intended to kill ICE agents," firing at vehicles carrying ICE personnel, federal agents and detainees. "He also fired multiple shots in the windows of the office building where numerous ICE employees do their jobs every day,” said Joseph Rothrock, agent in charge of the FBI's Dallas field office.”

Jahn's notes indicated "that he did not expect to survive this event,” Rothrock said. “He wanted to cause terror.”

Hegseth abruptly summons top military commanders to a meeting in Virginia next week

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has summoned the military's top officers — hundreds of generals and admirals — to a base in northern Virginia for a sudden meeting next week, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The directive did not offer a reason for the gathering next Tuesday of senior commanders of the one-star rank or higher and their top advisers at the Marine Corps base in Quantico. The people, who described the move as unusual, were not authorized to publicly discuss the sensitive plans and spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity.

The Pentagon's top spokesman, Sean Parnell, confirmed that Hegseth "will be addressing his senior military leaders early next week.”

Across the military, there are 800 generals and admirals of all ranks. Many command thousands of service members and are stationed across the world in more than a dozen countries and time zones.

President Donald Trump didn’t seem to know about the meeting when he was asked about it by reporters during an Oval Office appearance later Thursday.

Amazon to pay $2.5 billion to settle FTC allegations it duped customers into enrolling in Prime

SEATTLE (AP) — Amazon has reached a historic $2.5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, which said the online retail giant tricked customers into signing up for its Prime memberships and made it difficult for them to cancel after doing so.

The Seattle company will pay $1 billion in civil penalties — the largest such fine in the agency’s history for a rule violation — and $1.5 billion will be paid back to consumers who were unintentionally enrolled in Prime, or were deterred from canceling their subscriptions, the agency said Thursday.

The surprise settlement comes just days after the trial began in U.S. District Court in Seattle this week. At the heart of the case is the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, a 2010 law designed to ensure that people know what they’re being charged for online.

FTC officials said Amazon had its back against the wall and the consumer refund amount exceeded even the agency’s expert projections.

“I think it just took a few days for them to see that they were going to lose. And they came to us and they paid out,” said Chris Mufarrige, director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, on the settlement negotiations.

Greenspan, Bernanke and Yellen urge Supreme Court to let Lisa Cook keep her job as a Fed governor

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Janet Yellen and other former top economic officials appointed by presidents of both parties urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to preserve the Federal Reserve's political independence and allow Lisa Cook to remain as a central bank governor for now.

The justices are weighing an emergency appeal from the administration to remove Cook while her lawsuit challenging her firing by Republican President Donald Trump proceeds through the courts.

The White House campaign to unseat Cook marks an unprecedented bid to reshape the Fed board, which was designed to be largely independent from day-to-day politics. No president has fired a sitting Fed governor in the agency’s 112-year history.

Earlier in September, a judge determined that Trump's move to fire Cook probably was illegal. An appeals court rejected an emergency plea to oust Cook before the Fed's meeting last week when Cook joined in a vote to cut a key interest rate by one-quarter of a percentage point.

A day after that meeting, the administration turned to the Supreme Court and again asked for her prompt removal.

Paris court sentences Nicolas Sarkozy to 5 years in prison for criminal conspiracy in Libya case

PARIS (AP) — A Paris court on Thursday sentenced former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison after finding him guilty of criminal conspiracy in a scheme to finance his 2007 campaign with funds from Libya, a verdict that the still-influential conservative leader denounced as “a scandal.”

The historic ruling made Sarkozy the first former president of modern France sentenced to actual time behind bars. In a major surprise, the court ruled that the 70-year-old will be incarcerated despite his intention to appeal. It said his imprisonment would start at a date yet to be fixed, sparing the former head of state the humiliation of being led out of the packed courtroom by police, bound for a cell.

The court found Sarkozy guilty of criminal association in a plot from 2005 to 2007, when he served as interior minister, to finance his winning presidential campaign with funds from Libya in exchange for diplomatic favors. It cleared him of three other charges including passive corruption, illegal campaign financing and concealing the embezzlement of public funds.

Sarkozy denounced the ruling as a humiliation for the country.

“If they absolutely want me to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison. But with my head held high. I am innocent. This injustice is a scandal," he said with his wife, the singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, at his side.

LA County response to deadly fires slowed by lack of resources, outdated alert process, report says

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A lack of resources and outdated policies for sending emergency alerts led to delayed evacuation warnings as flames began consuming neighborhoods during deadly Los Angeles-area wildfires in January, according to an outside review.

The Independent After-Action Report produced by the consulting firm McChrystal Group was commissioned by Los Angeles county supervisors just weeks after the Eaton and Palisades fires killed more than 30 people and destroyed thousands of homes in and around Pacific Palisades and Altadena.

The report released Thursday says a series of weaknesses, including “outdated policies, inconsistent practices and communications vulnerabilities,” hampered the county’s response.

Interviews with survivors and an Associated Press analysis of available data found evacuation orders for some neighborhoods of Altadena where the Eaton Fire swept through came long after houses burned down. AP reporting also showed similar delays for the Palisades Fire, though the Los Angeles Police Department initially handled evacuation management. The report sheds more light on flaws in the county alert system.

The report cites critical staffing shortages including a high number of sheriff’s deputy vacancies and an under-resourced Office of Emergency Management. In addition, first responders and incident commanders were unable to consistently share information due to unreliable cellular connectivity, inconsistent field reporting methods, and the use of various unconnected communication platforms.

Arizona jury convicts man in string of shootings that killed 8 in metro Phoenix

Phoenix (AP) — An Arizona jury convicted a man Thursday on eight murder charges for a string of fatal shootings in metro Phoenix that targeted random victims and the defendant's mother and stepfather over a three-week span in 2017.

The jury in Phoenix also found Cleophus Cooksey Jr., 43, guilty of crimes including kidnapping, sexual assault and armed robbery. The sentencing portion of the trial begins Monday. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

The victims in Phoenix and nearby Glendale included Cooksey’s mother and stepfather, a security guard walking to his girlfriend’s apartment and a woman whose body was found in an alley after she was sexually assaulted. Cooksey, an aspiring musician, knew some of the victims but wasn’t acquainted with others, police said. Authorities never offered a motive.

Cooksey looked down at the defense table as the verdict was read. He'd maintained his innocence throughout the trial that began in May.

Adriana Rodriguez, the daughter of victim Maria Villanueva, broke into tears after the verdict.

Ryder Cup matchups for the opening session at Bethpage Black

FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (AP) — U.S. captain Keegan Bradley made sure a most anticipated Ryder Cup would get off to a most explosive start Friday at Bethpage Black. Bryson DeChambeau with all his power and energy will be leading off in foursomes for the Americans.

Europe counters with the equally fiery Jon Rahm, who has never lost a foursomes match.

DeChambeau will have Justin Thomas, perhaps the most outwardly passionate American, as his partner in the opening match. Rahm is with Tyrrell Hatton again. They also were sent off first two years ago at Marco Simone and delivered the first point for Europe.

Here's a brief look at the foursomes matches in the opening session:

Talk about the Ryder Cup starting off with a bang. DeChambeau brings the muscle and the energy, and Thomas was viewed as the player Europe most wanted to beat in Rome because of his passion. Europe counters with Rahm and Hatton. They also were the lead match in Rome and cruised to a 4-and-3 to give Europe in its first point of 2023.