First Thing: Record-breaking Hurricane Melissa hits Jamaica and heads for Cuba | US news

Good morning.

Hurricane Melissa is heading towards Cuba after the “storm of the century” made landfall in Jamaica as a category 5 storm; It is hitting the country with high winds, floods and landslides.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Melissa, which it described as an “extremely dangerous hurricane”, weakened to a category 3 storm before reaching the province of Santiago de Cuba on the island’s south coast.

Jamaican Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie said more than 530,000 people were without power and close to 15,000 were in storm shelters. He said the southwestern area of ​​St Elizabeth was “under water” and at least three families were trapped in their homes in the Black River, west of Jamaica, with emergency services trying to reach them.

• Is this the worst hurricane to ever hit Jamaica? This is the busiest since records began in 1851.

• Have losses been recorded? When asked, McKenzie declined to confirm if there were any deaths.

• Follow our live blog to stay up to date.

Israeli attacks in Gaza killed at least 104 people overnight as ceasefire approaches fragile

Israel’s air strikes on Gaza overnight led to the death of at least 104 Palestinians, including children. This appears to be the most serious challenge yet to the US-brokered ceasefire and the deadliest day since the ceasefire began.

Gaza’s civil defense agency said at least 35 children were killed and 200 people were injured in the attacks, one of the bloodiest attacks of the two-year war. These events took place hours after Donald Trump said nothing could jeopardize the ceasefire agreement he brokered.

Director of humanitarian support and international cooperation in civil defense in Gaza, Dr. “Among these attacks was the targeting of the Man camp, a camp for cancer patients,” Mohammed al-Mughir told the Guardian.

• What happened before the coups? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the attack on Tuesday evening following a clash between Palestinian militants and Israeli soldiers. The attacks also followed anger over Hamas’s surrender of body parts of a hostage that Israeli soldiers found two years ago.

Trump and Xi’s talks could end months of global economic chaos

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping will meet on Thursday for the first time since the US president’s return to the White House, as officials try to map out what a trade deal between Washington and Beijing might include.

The two will meet on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Seoul on Thursday, six years after their last meeting. One of the important topics on the agenda will be rare earth elements; China controls 70% of the world’s rare earth mining, which is vital to U.S. industry.

In preliminary talks in Kuala Lumpur over the weekend, Beijing appeared to agree to delay by a year the export controls on rare earths it introduced this month, possibly in exchange for Washington freezing its latest ban on exports of advanced semiconductor technology to China.

• What about Taiwan? The US president stated that the sensitive issue may not be discussed and said: “I don’t even know if we will talk about Taiwan. I’m not sure. He may want to ask. There is not much to ask. Taiwan is Taiwan.”

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