AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EDT

A landslide blocked the main roads of Santa Cruz in Jamaica's St. Elizabeth parish, where the streets were reduced to mud pits. Residents swept water from homes as they tried to salvage belongings. Wind ripped off part of the roof at a high school that serves as a public shelter.

“I never see anything like this before in all my years living here,” resident Jennifer Small said.

The extent of the damage from the deadly hurricane was unclear Wednesday as widespread power outages and dangerous conditions persisted in the region.

“It is too early for us to say definitively,” said Dana Morris Dixon, Jamaica’s education minister.

Federal Reserve cuts key rate yet Powell says future reductions are not locked in

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Wednesday for a second time this year as it seeks to shore up economic growth and hiring, even as inflation stays elevated.

But Fed Chair Jerome Powell also cautioned that further rate cuts weren’t guaranteed, citing the government shutdown’s interruption of economic reports and sharp divisions among 19 Fed officials who participate in the central bank's interest-rate deliberations.

Speaking to reporters after the Fed announced its rate decision, Powell said there were “strongly differing views about how to proceed in December” at its next meeting and a further reduction in the benchmark rate is not “a foregone conclusion — far from it.”

The rate cut — a quarter of a point — brings the Fed's key rate down to about 3.9%, from about 4.1%. The central bank had cranked its rate to roughly 5.3% in 2023 and 2024 to combat the biggest inflation spike in four decades before implementing three cuts last year. Lower rates could, over time, reduce borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards, as well as for business loans.

The move comes amid a fraught time for the central bank, with hiring sluggish and yet inflation stuck above the Fed’s 2% target. Compounding its challenges, the central bank is navigating without the economic signposts it typically relies on from the government, including monthly reports on jobs, inflation, and consumer spending, which have been suspended because of the government shutdown.

Trump and China's Xi are meeting in South Korea to try to roll back months of trade tensions

BUSAN, South Korea (AP) — President Donald Trump is meeting face-to-face with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday, a chance for the leaders of the world's two largest economies to stabilize relations after months of turmoil over trade issues.

Trump's aggressive use of tariffs since returning to the White House for a second term combined with China's retaliatory limits on exports of rare earth elements have given the meeting newfound urgency. There is a mutual recognition that neither side wants to risk blowing up the world economy in ways that could jeopardize their own country's fortunes.

“We’re going to have a very successful meeting, I have no doubt,” Trump said as they shook hands. The U.S. president added Xi is a “very tough negotiator,” with Trump saying they “could” sign a deal but they have a “great understanding” of each other.

When the two were seated, Xi read prepared remarks that stressed a willingness to work together despite differences.

“Given our different national conditions, we do not always see eye to eye with each other,” he said through a translator. “It is normal for the two leading economies of the world to have frictions now and then.”

US determined to prevent the collapse of the Gaza ceasefire after overnight airstrikes

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s intense bombardment of the Gaza Strip this week marked the most serious challenge yet for a fragile, U.S.-brokered ceasefire.

Over 100 Palestinians were killed, including dozens of civilians, according to Gaza health officials. One Israeli soldier was killed in an attack that helped prompt the fierce Israeli strikes.

But by early Wednesday, the ceasefire had been restored almost as quickly as it had unraveled. President Donald Trump defended Israel’s actions but also made it clear that the U.S. expects the broader ceasefire, which began Oct. 10, to hold.

The chain of events underscored the fragility of the truce between Israel and Hamas after two years of war, but also showed how intent the U.S. is on keeping it going.

Here are some takeaways from the tense two-day standoff.

Appeals court blocks order requiring Bovino to brief judge on Chicago immigration sweeps

CHICAGO (AP) — An appeals court intervened Wednesday and suddenly blocked an order that required a senior Border Patrol official to give unprecedented daily briefings to a judge about immigration sweeps in Chicago.

The one-page suspension by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came before Greg Bovino’s first late-afternoon meeting with U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis at the courthouse in downtown Chicago.

Ellis ordered the meetings Tuesday after weeks of tense encounters and increasingly aggressive tactics by government agents working Operation Midway Blitz, which has resulted in more than 1,800 arrests and complaints of excessive force.

Bovino told Fox News that he was eager to talk to Ellis. But government lawyers were appealing her decision at the same time, calling it “extraordinarily disruptive.”

“The order significantly interferes with the quintessentially executive function of ensuring the Nation’s immigration laws are properly enforced by waylaying a senior executive official critical to that mission on a daily basis,” the Justice Department argued.

Jurors convict Illinois deputy of killing Sonya Massey but can't agree on first-degree murder charge

PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — A jury on Wednesday convicted an Illinois sheriff’s deputy of second-degree murder, a lesser charge, in the shooting death of Sonya Massey, a Black woman who called 911 to report a suspected prowler.

Sean Grayson could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison or even probation. The jury did not convict him of first-degree murder, a crime that carries a sentence of 45 years to life.

Massey's supporters were angered by the result.

“I’m fueled by rage right now," said Massey's cousin, Sontae Massey. “You get an officer that says he’s going to shoot you in the face, and then he shoots you in the face, and you only get second-degree? The justice system did exactly what it’s designed to do today. It’s not meant for us.”

Massey’s killing raised new questions about U.S. law enforcement shootings of Black people in their homes, and prompted a change in Illinois law requiring fuller transparency on the background of candidates for law enforcement jobs.

Jury convicts California activist who took chickens from Perdue Farms plant

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A California animal rights activist who took four chickens from a major Perdue Farms poultry plant was found guilty Wednesday of felony conspiracy, trespassing and other charges and faces several years in jail.

Zoe Rosenberg, 23, did not deny taking the animals from Petaluma Poultry but argued she wasn't breaking the law because she was rescuing the birds from a cruel situation. The trial lasted about seven weeks in Sonoma County, an agricultural area of Northern California.

The Santa Rosa jury took less than a day to find Rosenberg guilty on all counts. The activist with Direct Action Everywhere, or DxE, a Berkeley-based animal rights group, was on trial for two misdemeanor counts of trespassing, a misdemeanor count of tampering with a vehicle and a felony conspiracy charge.

Rosenberg said she does not regret what she did.

“I will not apologize for taking sick, neglected animals to get medical care,” Rosenberg said following her conviction. “When we see cruelty and violence, we can choose to ignore it or to intervene and try to make the world a better place. I chose to intervene, and because I did, Poppy, Ivy, Aster, and Azalea are alive today. For that, I will never be sorry.”

Protests erupt after police raid in Brazil leaves 119 dead and draws accusations of excessive force

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A massive police raid on a drug gang embedded in low-income neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro that left at least 119 people dead drew protests for excessive force Wednesday and calls for the Rio’s governor to resign.

Dozens of favelas residents gathered in front of the state’s government headquarters shouting “assassins!” and waving Brazilian flags stained with red paint, a day after Rio's deadliest raid and hours after families and residents laid dozens of dead bodies on a street in one of the targeted communities to show the magnitude of the operation.

Questions quickly arose about the death count and the state of the bodies, with reports of disfigurement and knife wounds. Brazil's Supreme Court, prosecutors and lawmakers asked Rio state Gov. Claudio Castro to provide detailed information about the operation.

“This was a massacre,” said Barbara Barbosa, a domestic worker from the Penha complex of favelas, one of the two huge communities targeted in the police operation. She said her son was killed in a prior operation in Penha.

“Do we have a death sentence? Stop killing us,” said activist Rute Sales, 56. Many residents came Penha in Rio's poor, northern zone to the imposing Guanabara Palace on motorbikes.

Paris prosecutor says 2 suspects in the Louvre jewel heist acknowledge their involvement

PARIS (AP) — Two suspects in the Louvre jewel heist on Wednesday were handed preliminary charges of criminal conspiracy and theft committed by an organized gang, according to the Paris prosecutor's office. The prosecutor said they admitted their involvement.

Prosecutor Laure Beccuau told a news conference that the two are believed to be the men who forced their way into the world’s most visited museum Oct. 19, and that at least two other accomplices are at large. The jewels remain missing.

The two were given preliminary charges and ordered held in custody pending further investigation, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

They have “partially” admitted their participation in the robbery, Beccuau said. She declined to provide details about the suspects' statements to investigators because she said accomplices may listen.

It took thieves less than eight minutes to steal the jewels valued at 88 million euros ($102 million) on Oct. 19, shocking the world. The robbers forced open a window, cut into cases with power tools and fled with eight pieces of the French crown jewels.

Rozier and Billups will not receive NBA salaries while on leave in gambling cases, AP sources say

NBA guard Terry Rozier and coach Chauncey Billups will not receive their salaries while on leave for their arrests on federal gambling-related charges, two people with knowledge of the matters told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Rozier had been due to receive the first installment of a $26.6 million annual salary with the Miami Heat later this week. That, and future installments, will be held pending resolution of his legal case, said the people, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the details were not released publicly.

If Rozier is cleared and allowed to return to the NBA, which placed him on leave hours after his Oct. 23 arrest, he could receive the held payments in full, one of the sources said.

The Heat will not receive any immediate salary cap relief by the NBA's decision, one of the sources said.

There are provisions in the NBA's collective bargaining agreement that allow the league, in certain situations, to place salary withheld from a player in an interest-bearing account.