A federal judge on Monday ruled Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide must continue to be reimbursed for Medicaid funding as the nation’s largest abortion provider fights President Donald Trump’s administration over efforts to defund the organization in his signature tax legislation.

The new order replaces a previous edict handed down by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston last week. Talwani initially granted a preliminary injunction specifically blocking the government from cutting Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood members that didn’t provide abortion care or didn’t meet a threshold of at least $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in a given year.

“Patients are likely to suffer adverse health consequences where care is disrupted or unavailable,” Talwani wrote in her Monday order. “In particular, restricting Members’ ability to provide healthcare services threatens an increase in unintended pregnancies and attendant complications because of reduced access to effective contraceptives, and an increase in undiagnosed and untreated STIs.”

A provision in Trump’s tax bill instructed the federal government to end Medicaid payments for one year to abortion providers that received more than $800,000 from Medicaid in 2023, even to those like Planned Parenthood that also offer medical services like contraception, pregnancy tests and STD testing.

Although Planned Parenthood is not specifically named in the statute, which went into effect July 4, the organization’s leaders say it was meant to affect their nearly 600 centers in 48 states. However, a major medical provider in Maine and likely others have also been hit.

In its lawsuit, Planned Parenthood had argued that they would be at risk of closing nearly 200 clinics in 24 states if they are cut off from Medicaid funds. They estimated this would result in more than 1 million patients losing care.

“We’re suing the Trump administration over this targeted attack on Planned Parenthood health centers and the patients who rely on them for care,” said Planned Parenthood’s president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson in a statement on Monday. “This case is about making sure that patients who use Medicaid as their insurance to get birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing and treatment can continue to do so at their local Planned Parenthood health center, and we will make that clear in court.”

The lawsuit was filed earlier this month against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its member organizations in Massachusetts and Utah.

The federal department of health did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Previously, the department said it strongly disagreed with the judge’s initial order that allowed some Planned Parenthood members to receive Medicaid funding.

“States should not be forced to fund organizations that have chosen political advocacy over patient care,” said the department’s communication director, Andrew Nixon. Doing so, he said, “undermines state flexibility” and “concerns about accountability.”

Medicaid is a government health care program that serves millions of low-income and disabled Americans. Nearly half of Planned Parenthood’s patients rely on Medicaid.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday expressed concern over the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza and urged Israel to get people food, seemingly recalibrating his stance on Gaza as images of emaciated children have sparked renewed worries about hunger in the war-torn territory.

Trump, speaking in Scotland on Monday, said the U.S. and other nations are giving money and food to Gaza but that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “got to sort of like run it.”

“I want him to make sure they get the food,” Trump said. “I want to make sure they get the food.”

Trump’s comments seemed to result from the images in recent days of the worsening hunger crisis in Gaza and were more urgent than the resigned message he had about the 21-month Israel-Hamas war last week, when ceasefire talks derailed. His remarks Monday also marked a new divergence from Netanyahu after the two leaders had become closer following their nations’ join strikes in Iran.

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

The U.S. president was asked if he agreed with Netanyahu’s comments on Sunday in which the Israeli leader said, “There is no policy of starvation in Gaza and there is no starvation in Gaza.”

“I don’t know,” Trump replied Monday. “I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry.”

In the face of mounting international criticism, the Israeli military over the weekend began airdrops of aid, along with limited pauses in fighting in three populated areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day to help with the distribution.

Trump on Friday had expressed some resignation about the situation in Gaza after the U.S. and Israel pulled their negotiating teams out of talks in Qatar to try to reach a ceasefire. Trump said last week that Hamas was likely “going to be hunted down” and said of Israel, “They’re going to have to fight and they’re going to have to clean it up.”

But Trump seemed more inclined to action on Monday after reports of starvation-related deaths and images of people, especially young children and infants, struggling to get food continued to emerge over the weekend, drew international outcry.

The U.S. president, speaking as he visited with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at his Trump’s Turnberry golf course, said that the U.S. was “going to set up food centers,” but he didn’t offer specifics.

The White House did not immediately have more information about the food centers.

Trump said Hamas has stolen food and aid trying to reach people in Gaza, but when asked by a reporter about what responsibility Israel has for limiting aid to the area, he said, “Israel has a lot of responsibility.”

But he quickly said Israel was also hampered in its actions as it seeks to keep the remaining 20 hostages kept in Gaza alive.

When asked by what more can Israel do, Trump said, “I think Israel can do a lot.” But he didn’t offer more details and changed the subject to Iran.

“We have to help on a humanitarian basis before we do anything. We have to get the kids fed.”

Starmer was more adamant than Trump, calling it “a desperate situation” in Gaza.

“I think people in Britain are revolted at seeing what they are seeing on their screens,” he said.

Starmer, who faces pressure from his Labour Party to recognize a Palestinian state as France did last week, said the U.K. supports statehood for the Palestinians but it must be part of a plan for a two-state solution.

Trump said last week that France’s recognition of a Palestinian state “doesn’t carry any weight.”

“I’m not going to take a position,” Trump said Monday of recognizing a Palestinian state. He added of Starmer, “I don’t mind him taking a position.”

The comments came as the U.N. General Assembly on Monday brought together high-level officials to promote a two-state solution to the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Israel and the U.S. are boycotting the two-day meeting.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A chief architect of Project 2025, Paul Dans, is launching a Republican primary challenge to Sen. Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, joining a crowded field that will test the loyalties of President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement in next year’s midterm election.

Dans told The Associated Press the Trump administration’s federal workforce reductions and cuts to federal programs are what he had hoped for in drafting Project 2025. But he said there’s “more work to do,” particularly in the Senate.

“What we’ve done with Project 2025 is really change the game in terms of closing the door on the progressive era,” Dans said in an AP interview. ”If you look at where the chokepoint is, it’s the United States Senate. That’s the headwaters of the swamp.”

Dans, who is set to formally announce his campaign at an event Wednesday in Charleston, said Graham has spent most of his career in Washington and “it’s time to show him the door.”

Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to Graham’s campaign who co-managed Trump’s 2024 bid, predicted in a statement to the AP that Dans’ campaign would “end prematurely.”

“After being unceremoniously dumped in 2024 while trying to torpedo Donald Trump’s historic campaign, Paul Dans has parachuted himself into the state of South Carolina in direct opposition to President Trump’s longtime friend and ally in the Senate, Lindsey Graham,” LaCivita said.

Challenging the long-serving Graham, who has routinely batted back contenders over the years, is something of a political long shot in what is fast becoming a crowded field ahead of the November 2026 midterm election that will determine control of Congress.

Trump early on gave his endorsement of Graham, a political confidant and regular golfing partner of the president, despite their on-again-off-again relationship. Graham, in announcing he would seek a fifth term in the Senate, also secured the state’s leading Republicans, Sen. Tim Scott and Gov. Henry McMaster, to chair his 2026 run. He has amassed millions of dollars in his campaign account.

Other candidates, including Republican former South Carolina Lt. Gov. André Bauer, a wealthy developer, and Democratic challenger Dr. Annie Andrews, have announced their campaigns for the Senate seat in an early start to the election season, more than a year away.

Graham, in an appearance Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” did not discuss his reelection campaign but fielded questions on topics including his push to release “as much as you can” from the case files on Jeffrey Epstein, something many of Trump’s supporters want the government to do.

Dans, an attorney who worked in the first Trump administration as White House liaison to the office of personnel management, said he expects to have support from Project 2025 allies, as well as the ranks of Trump’s supporters in the state who have publicly tired of Graham.

After Trump left the White House, Dans, now a father of four, went to work at the Heritage Foundation, often commuting on weekdays to Washington as he organized Project 2025. The nearly 1,000-page policy blueprint, with chapters written by leading conservative thinkers, calls for dismantling the federal government and downsizing the federal workforce, among other right-wing proposals for the next White House.

“To be clear, I believe that there is a ‘deep state’ out there, and I’m the single one who stepped forward at the end of the first term of Trump and really started to drain the swamp,” Dans said, noting he compiled much of the book from his kitchen table in Charleston.

Among the goals, he said, was to “deconstruct the administrative state,” which he said is what the Trump administration has been doing, pointing in particular to former Trump adviser Elon Musk’s work at the Department of Government Efficiency shuttering federal offices.

Dans and Heritage parted ways in July 2024 amid blowback over Project 2025. It catapulted into political culture that summer during the presidential campaign season, as Democrats and their allies showcased the hard-right policy proposals — from mass firings to budget cuts — as a dire warning of what could come in a second Trump term.

Trump distanced himself from Project 2025, and his campaign insisted it had nothing to do with his own “Agenda 47.”

Dans is launching his campaign with a prayer breakfast followed by a kick-off event at a historic venue in Charleston.

Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina, and can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have announced a sweeping trade deal that imposes 15% tariffs on most European goods, warding off Trump’s threat of a 30% rate if no deal had been reached by Aug. 1.

The tariffs, or import taxes, paid when Americans buy European products could raise prices for U.S. consumers and dent profits for European companies and their partners who bring goods into the country.

Here are some things to know about the deal:

Unresolved details

Trump and von der Leyen’s announcement, made during Trump’s visit to one of his golf courses in Scotland, leaves many crucial details to be filled in.

The headline figure is a 15% tariff rate on about 70% of European goods brought into the U.S., including cars, computer chips and pharmaceuticals. It’s lower than the 20% that Trump initially proposed, and lower than his threats of 50% and then 30%.

The remaining 30% is still open to further decisions and negotiations.

Von der Leyen said that the two sides agreed on zero tariffs on both sides for a range of “strategic” goods: Aircraft and aircraft parts, certain chemicals, semiconductor equipment, certain agricultural products and some natural resources and critical raw materials. Specifics were lacking.

She said that the two sides “would keep working” to add more products to the list.

Additionally, EU companies would purchase what Trump said was $750 billion (638 billion euros) worth of natural gas, oil and nuclear fuel over three years to replace Russian energy supplies that Europe is seeking to exit in any case.

Meanwhile, European companies would invest an additional $600 billion (511 billion euros) in the U.S. under a political commitment that isn’t legally binding, officials said.

Not yet in writing

Brussels and Washington will shortly issue a joint statement that frames the deal but isn’t yet legally binding, according to senior officials who weren’t authorized to be publicly named according to European Commission policy.

The joint statement will have “some very precise commitments and others which will need to be spelled out in different ways,” a senior European Commission official said.

EU officials said that the zero tariff list would include nuts, pet food, dairy products and seafood.

Steel tariff remains

Trump said that the 50% U.S. tariff on imported steel would remain. Von der Leyen said that the two sides agreed to further negotiations to fight a global steel glut, reduce tariffs and establish import quotas — that is, set amounts that can be imported, often at a lower rate or tariff-free.

Trump said that pharmaceuticals, a major import from the EU to the US, weren’t included in the deal. Von der Leyen said that the pharmaceuticals issue was “on a separate sheet of paper” from Sunday’s deal.

And von der Leyen said that when it came to farm products, the EU side made clear that “there were tariffs that could not be lowered,” without specifying which products.

‘Best we could do’

The 15% rate removes Trump’s threat of a 30% tariff. But it effectively raises the tariff on EU goods from 1.2% last year to 17% and would reduce the 27-nation’s gross domestic product by 0.5%, said Jack Allen-Reynolds, deputy chief eurozone economist at Capital Economics.

Higher tariffs, or import taxes, on European goods mean sellers in the U.S. would have to either increase prices for consumers — risking loss of market share — or swallow the added cost in terms of lower profits. The higher tariffs are expected to hurt export earnings for European firms and slow the economy.

Von der Leyen said that the 15% rate was “the best we could do” and credited the deal with maintaining access to the U.S. market, and providing “stability and predictability for companies on both sides.”

Mixed reaction

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed the deal which avoided “an unnecessary escalation in trans-Atlantic trade relations” and said that “we were able to preserve our core interests,” while adding that “I would have very much wished for further relief in trans-Atlantic trade.”

Senior French officials on Monday criticized the accord. Strategy Commissioner Clément Beaune said that the deal failed to reflect the bloc’s economic strength.

“This is an unequal and unbalanced agreement,” he said. “Europe didn’t wield its strength. We are the world’s leading trading power.”

While the rate is lower than threatened, “the big caveat to today’s deal is that there is nothing on paper, yet,” said Carsten Brzeski, global chief of macro at ING bank.

“With this disclaimer in mind and at face value, the agreement would clearly bring an end to the uncertainty of recent months. An escalation of the U.S.-EU trade tensions would have been a severe risk for the global economy,” Brzeski said.

“This risk seems to have been avoided.”

Car prices

Asked if European carmakers could still profitably sell cars at 15%, von der Leyen said the rate was much lower than the current 27.5%. That has been the rate under Trump’s 25% tariff on cars from all countries, plus the preexisting U.S. car tariff of 2.5%.

The impact is likely to be substantial on some companies, given that automaker Volkswagen said that it suffered a 1.3 billion-euro ($1.5 billion) hit to profits in the first half of the year from the higher tariffs.

Mercedes-Benz dealers in the U.S. have said they were holding the line on 2025 model year prices “until further notice.” The German automaker has a partial tariff shield, because it makes 35% of the Mercedes-Benz vehicles sold in the U.S. in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, but the company said that it expects prices to undergo “significant increases” in coming years.

Trade gap

Before Trump returned to office, the U.S. and the EU maintained generally low tariff levels in what is the largest bilateral trading relationship in the world, with around 1.7 trillion euros ($2 trillion) in annual trade.

Together the U.S. and the EU have 44% of the global economy. The U.S. rate averaged 1.47% for European goods, while the EU has averaged 1.35% for American products, according to the Bruegel think tank in Brussels.

Trump has complained about the EU’s 198 billion-euro ($232.5 billion) trade surplus in goods, which shows Americans buy more from European businesses than the other way around, and has said that the European market isn’t open enough for U.S.-made cars.

However, American companies fill some of the trade gap by outselling the EU when it comes to services such as cloud computing, travel bookings and legal and financial services. And about 30% of European imports are from American-owned companies, according to the European Central Bank.

Sam McNeil and Samuel Petrequin reported from Brussels. Thomas Adamson in Paris, and Geir Moulson in Berlin, contributed to this report.

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday he is giving Russian President Vladimir Putin 10 to 12 days to stop the killing in Ukraine, shortening a 50-day deadline he had given the Russian leader two weeks ago.

Russia fired an overnight barrage of more than 300 drones, four cruise missiles and three ballistic missiles, the Ukrainian air force said, as the Russian bombardment of Ukrainian cities continued despite Trump’s pressure for it to end. U.S.-led peace efforts have also failed to gain momentum.

Trump had said on July 14 that he would implement “severe tariffs” on Russia unless a peace deal is reached by early September. On Monday, Trump said he would now give Putin 10 to 12 days, meaning he wants peace efforts to make progress by Aug. 7-9.

The plan includes possible sanctions and secondary tariffs targeting Russia’s trading partners. The formal announcement would come later Monday or on Tuesday, Trump said.

“No reason in waiting,” Trump said of the shorter timeline. “We just don’t see any progress being made.”

Putin has “got to make a deal. Too many people are dying,” Trump said during a visit to Scotland.

There was no immediate response from Russia.

Trump repeated his criticism of Putin for talking about ending the war but continuing to bombard Ukrainian civilians.

“And I say, that’s not the way to do it,” Trump said. He added, “I’m disappointed in President Putin.”

Asked at a news conference about a potential meeting with the Russian leader, Trump said: “I’m not so interested in talking anymore.”

Still, he voiced some reluctance about imposing penalties on the Kremlin, saying that he loves the Russian people. “I don’t want to do that to Russia,” he said, but he noted how many Russians, along with Ukrainians, are dying in the war.

Ukraine has urged Western countries to take a tougher line with Putin. Andrii Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, thanked Trump for shortening the deadline.

“Putin understands only strength — and that has been conveyed clearly and loudly,” Yermak said on Telegram, adding that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared the sentiment.

Latest attacks in Ukraine

A Russian drone blew out the windows of a 25-story residential building in the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv, the head of the city’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, wrote on Telegram. Eight people were injured, including a 4-year-old girl, he said.

The attack also started a fire in Kropyvnytskyi, in central Ukraine, local officials said, but no injuries were reported.

The main target of the Russian attack was Starokostiantyniv, in the Khmelnytskyi region of western Ukraine, the air force said. Regional authorities reported no damage or casualties.

Western Ukraine is on the other side of the country from the front line, and the Ukrainian military is believed to have significant airfields as well as arsenals and depots there.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces carried out an overnight strike with long-range, air-launched weapons, hitting a Ukrainian air base along with an ammunition depot containing stockpiles of missiles and components for drone production.

Associated Press journalist Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Top trade officials from China and the United States arrived for a new round of talks in Stockholm on Monday in a bid to ease tensions over tariffs between the world’s two biggest national economies.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng were meeting at the offices of Sweden’s prime minister for two days of talks that Bessent has said will likely to lead to an extension of current tariff levels.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson greeted He, followed by Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, as the two teams arrived in separate motorcades.

Analysts say the talks led by Bessent and He could set the stage for a possible meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year to cement a recent thaw in trade tensions.

The talks are the third of their kind this year — nearly four months after Trump upended global trade with his sweeping tariff proposals, including an import tax that shot up to 145% on Chinese goods. China retaliated, sending global financial markets into a temporary tailspin.

The Stockholm meeting — following similar talks in Geneva and London in recent months — is set to extend a 90-day pause on those tariffs. During the pause, U.S. tariffs have been lowered to 30% on Chinese goods, and China set a 10% tariff on U.S. products.

The Trump administration, fresh off a deal on tariffs with the European Union, wants to reduce a trade deficit that came in at $904 billion overall last year — including a nearly $300 billion trade deficit with China alone.

China’s Commerce Ministry said last week that the “consultations” would raise shared concerns through the principles of “mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation.”

On Friday, Trump told reporters “we have the confines of a deal with China” — just two days after Bessent told MSNBC that a “status quo” had been reached between the two sides. Without an extension of the pause, the respective tariff levels could snap back to punishingly high rates.

While the Chinese side has offered little guidance about the specifics of its aims in Stockholm, Bessent has suggested that the situation has stabilized to the point that China and the U.S. can start looking toward longer-term balance between their two economies.

For years, since China vaulted into the global trading system about two decades ago, the United States has sought to press various leaders in Beijing to encourage more consumption in China and wrest greater market access to foreign-made — including American — goods.

Other sticking points in the relationship include overcapacity in China — by far the world’s largest manufacturer — and concerns about whether Beijing is doing enough to control chemicals used to make fentanyl, analysts say.

Sean Stein, president of the U.S.-China Business Council, said Stockholm could be the first real opportunity for the two governments to address structural reform issues, including market access in China for U.S. companies.

What businesses will be seeking coming out of Stockholm would largely be “the atmosphere” — how the two sides characterize the discussions. They will also look for clues about a possible leaders’ summit, because any real deal will hinge on the two presidents meeting each other, he said.

In Stockholm, Beijing will likely demand the removal of the 20% fentanyl-related tariff that Trump imposed earlier this year, said Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Washington-based Stimson Center.

Bessent has also said the Stockholm talks could address Chinese purchases of Russian and Iranian oil.

Didi Tang and Josh Boak in Washington and Ken Moritsugu in Beijing contributed to this report.

CANTON, Ohio (AP) — Vice President JD Vance is hitting his home state on Monday to continue promoting the GOP’s sweeping tax-and-border bill.

A crowd in neon green, orange, yellow and red hardhats and safety glasses gathered at the steel company Metallus Inc. in Canton, about 60 miles (96.56 kilometers) from Cleveland, to await his visit.

The visit marks Vance’s second trip this month to sell the package, filled with a hodgepodge of conservative priorities that Republicans have dubbed the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” as the vice president becomes its chief promoter on the road.

In West Pittston, Pennsylvania, Vance told attendees at an industrial machine shop that they should be able to keep more of their pay in their pockets, highlighting the law’s new tax deductions on overtime.

Vance also discussed a new children’s savings program called Trump Accounts and how the new law promotes energy extraction, while decrying Democrats for opposing the bill that keeps the current tax rates, which would have otherwise expired later this year.

The legislation cleared the GOP-controlled Congress by the narrowest of margins, with Vance breaking a tie vote in the Senate for the package that also sets aside hundreds of billions of dollars for Trump’s immigration agenda while slashing Medicaid and food stamps.

The vice president is also stepping up his public relations blitz on the bill as the White House tries to deflect attention away from the growing controversy over Jeffrey Epstein.

The disgraced financier killed himself, authorities say, in a New York jail cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. Trump and his top allies stoked conspiracy theories about Epstein’s death before Trump returned to the White House and are now reckoning with the consequences of a Justice Department announcement earlier this month that Epstein did indeed die by suicide and that no further documents about the case would be released.

A small group of protesters assembled outside the Metallus plant brandishing signs that spelled out “JD Protects Pedophiles” and indicating that “GOP” stands for “Guardians Of Pedophiles.” Signs also called the Big Beautiful Bill “ugly” and “bulls(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk)t.”

Questions about the case continued to dog Trump in Scotland, where he on Sunday announced a framework trade deal with the European Union.

Asked about the timing of the trade announcement and the Epstein case and whether it was correlated, Trump responded: “You got to be kidding with that.”

“No, had nothing to do with it,” Trump told the reporter. “Only you would think that.”

The White House sees the new law as a clear political boon, sending Vance to promote it in swing congressional districts that will determine whether Republicans retain their House majority next year.

The northeastern Pennsylvania stop is in the district represented by Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan, a first-term lawmaker who knocked off a six-time Democratic incumbent last fall.

On Monday, Vance will be in the district of Democratic Rep. Emilia Sykes, who is a top target for the National Republican Congressional Committee this cycle.

A spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called it “another desperate attempt to lie to Ohioans about the devastating impact the Big, Ugly Law will have on working families.” in a statement.

In the statement, Katie Smith said Sykes “fought tooth and nail against this disastrous law.”

Polls before the bill’s passage showed that it largely remained unpopular, although the public approves of some individual provisions such as increasing the child tax credit and allowing workers to deduct more of their tips on taxes.

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — The United States and the European Union agreed on Sunday to a trade framework setting a 15% tariff on most goods, staving off — at least for now — far higher import duties on both sides that might have sent shock waves through economies around the globe.

The sweeping announcement came after President Donald Trump and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen met briefly at Trump’s Turnberry golf course in Scotland. Their private sit-down culminated months of bargaining, with the White House deadline Friday nearing for imposing punishing tariffs on the EU’s 27 member countries.

“It was a very interesting negotiation. I think it’s going to be great for both parties,” Trump said. The agreement, he said, was “a good deal for everybody” and “a giant deal with lots of countries.”

Von der Leyen said the deal “will bring stability, it will bring predictability, that’s very important for our businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Many facets will require more work

As with other, recent tariff agreements that Trump announced with countries including Japan and the United Kingdom, some major details remain pending in this one.

Trump said the EU had agreed to buy some $750 billion worth of U.S. energy and invest $600 billion more than it already is in America — as well as make a major military equipment purchase. He said tariffs “for automobiles and everything else will be a straight across tariff of 15%” and meant that U.S. exporters ”have the opening up of all of the European countries.”

Von der Leyen said the 15% tariffs were “across the board, all inclusive” and that “indeed, basically the European market is open.”

At a later news conference away from Turnberry, she said the $750 billion in additional U.S. energy purchases was actually over the next three years — and would help ease the dependence on natural gas from Russia among the bloc’s countries.

“When the European Union and the United States work together as partners, the benefits are tangible,” Von der Leyen said, noting that the agreement “stabilized on a single, 15% tariff rate for the vast majority of EU exports” including cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.

“15% is a clear ceiling,” she said.

But von der Leyen also clarified that such a rate wouldn’t apply to everything, saying that both sides agreed on “zero for zero tariffs on a number of strategic products,” like all aircraft and component parts, certain chemicals, certain generic drugs, semiconductor equipment, some agricultural products, natural resources and critical raw materials.

It is unclear if alcohol will be included in that list.

“And we will keep working to add more products to this list,” she said, while also stressing that the “framework means the figures we have just explained to the public, but, of course, details have to be sorted out. And that will happen over the next weeks.”

Further EU approval needed

In the meantime, there will be work to do on other fronts. Von der Leyen had a mandate to negotiate because the European Commission handles trade for member countries. But the Commission must now present the deal to member states and EU lawmakers, who will ultimately decide whether or not to approve it.

Before their meeting began, Trump pledged to change what he characterized as “a very one-sided transaction, very unfair to the United States.”

“I think both sides want to see fairness,” the Republican president told reporters.

Von der Leyen said the U.S. and EU combined have the world’s largest trade volume, encompassing hundreds of millions of people and trillions of dollars and added that Trump was “known as a tough negotiator and dealmaker.”

“But fair,” Trump said.

Trump has spent months threatening most of the world with large tariffs in hopes of shrinking major U.S. trade deficits with many key trading partners. More recently, he had hinted that any deal with the EU would have to “buy down” a tariff rate of 30% that had been set to take effect.

But during his comments before the agreement was announced, the president was asked if he’d be willing to accept tariff rates lower than 15%, and he said “no.”

First golf, then trade talk

Their meeting came after Trump played golf for the second straight day at Turnberry, this time with a group that included sons Eric and Donald Jr. In addition to negotiating deals, Trump’s five-day visit to Scotland is built around golf and promoting properties bearing his name.

A small group of demonstrators at the course waved American flags and raised a sign criticizing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who plans his own Turnberry meeting with Trump on Monday.

Other voices could be heard cheering and chanting “Trump! Trump!” as he played nearby.

On Tuesday, Trump will be in Aberdeen, in northeastern Scotland, where his family has another golf course and is opening a third next month. The president and his sons plan to help cut the ribbon on the new course.

The U.S. and EU seemed close to a deal earlier this month, but Trump instead threatened the 30% tariff rate. The deadline for the Trump administration to begin imposing tariffs has shifted in recent weeks but is now firm and coming Friday, the administration insists.

“No extensions, no more grace periods. Aug. 1, the tariffs are set, they’ll go into place, Customs will start collecting the money and off we go,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told “Fox News Sunday” before the EU deal was announced. He added, however, that even after that “people can still talk to President Trump. I mean, he’s always willing to listen.”

Without an agreement, the EU said it was prepared to retaliate with tariffs on hundreds of American products, ranging from beef and auto parts to beer and Boeing airplanes.

If Trump eventually followed through on his threat of tariffs against Europe, meanwhile, it could have made everything from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals more expensive in the United States.

“I think it’s great that we made a deal today, instead of playing games and maybe not making a deal at all,” Trump said. “I think it’s the biggest deal ever made.”

Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim in Cincinnati and Samuel Petrequin in London contributed to this report.

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — U.S. President Trump met on Monday at one of his Scottish golf courses with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who pressed him on the U.S. taking a larger role in helping quell a growing food crisis in Gaza amid Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas in the territory.

Starmer and his wife, Victoria, arrived at Trump’s Turnberry course on the southern coast, and the Republican president spent several minutes chatting with them and proudly pointing out key aspects of the property. But the prime minister didn’t wait until they were inside to insist that Gaza would be a key topic in their meeting, calling what’s occurring there “a desperate situation.”

Trump expressed concern about the humanitarian situation and urged Israel’s leader to take action as images of emaciated children have emerged.

Trump was asked if he agreed with Netanyahu’s remarks about concerns of mass starvation in Gaza being overstated and replied, “I don’t know. I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry.”

Starmer was far more forceful: “I think people in Britain are revolted at seeing what they are seeing on their screens.”

Trump said Israel “has a lot of responsibility” for what’s happening but said the country is hampered by considerations of the remaining hostages it wants to see kept alive and freed.

“I think Israel can do a lot,” Trump said, without offering more information.

Trump has multiple Scottish golf courses

The prime minister is meeting with Trump at Turnberry but also plans to travel north, to outside Aberdeen, where the president’s family has a second golf course and is holding a ribbon-cutting for a third one on Tuesday.

The events allow Trump to try and make good on a post from his first term in 2019, when he wrote of his Turnberry property, “Very proud of perhaps the greatest golf course anywhere in the world. Also, furthers U.K. relationship!”

Starmer is famously not a golfer, but toggling between Trump’s Scottish courses shows the outsized influence the president puts on properties bearing his name — and on golf’s ability to shape geopolitics.

Still, Monday’s talks also covered far more serious issues.

The prime minister wants Washington’s help in convincing Israel to allow more aid into Gaza and attempting to end what Downing Street called “the unspeakable suffering and starvation” while pushing for a ceasefire.

Britain, along with France and Germany, has criticized Israel for “withholding essential humanitarian assistance” as hunger spreads in Gaza. Over the weekend, Starmer said Britain will take part in efforts led by Jordan to airdrop aid after Israel temporarily eased restrictions.

But British Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds acknowledged Monday that only the U.S. has “the leverage” to make a real difference in the conflict. Trump spoke before the meeting with Starmer about wanting to help starving children, but he has also repeatedly complained about the U.S. not getting enough credit for organizing past food aid into Gaza.

“Nobody said even thank you,” he said. “Somebody should say thank you.”

Palestinian state questions and Ukraine also being discussed

Starmer is under pressure from his Labour Party lawmakers to follow France in recognizing a Palestinian state, a move both Israel and the U.S. have condemned. The British leader says the U.K. supports statehood for the Palestinians but it must be “part of a wider plan” for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Trump, however, said Monday of Starmer doing so, “I don’t mind him taking a position.”

Also on Monday’s agenda are efforts to promote a possible peace deal to end fighting in Russia’s war with Ukraine, particularly trying to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table within a 50-day window Trump set earlier this month.

Trump said before the meeting with Starmer that he’d work to reduce the “50 days to a lesser number” and urged Russia to agree to a deal.

Trump in the past sharply criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for also failing to express enough public gratitude toward U.S. support for his country, taking a similar tack he’s now adopting when it comes to aid for Gaza. The president, though, has shifted away from that tone and more sharply criticized Putin and Russia in recent weeks.

Trump’s new golf course near Aberdeen opens to the public on Aug. 13 and tee times are already for sale — with the course betting that a presidential visit can help boost sales. Protesters have planned a demonstration in Balmedie, near Trump’s existing Aberdeen golf course. That follows protests across Scotland on Saturday decrying the president’s visit as he was out golfing.

Refining past trade agreements

While China initially responded to Trump’s tariff threats by retaliating with high import taxes of its own on U.S. goods, it has since begun negotiating to ease trade tensions. Starmer and his country have taken a far softer approach.

He’s gone out of his way to work with Trump, flattering the president repeatedly during a February visit to the White House, and teaming up to announce a joint trade framework on tariffs for some key products in May.

Starmer and Trump then signed a trade agreement during the G7 summit in Canada that freed the U.K.’s aerospace sector from U.S. tariffs and used quotas to reduce them on auto-related industries from 25% to 10% while increasing the amount of U.S. beef it pledged to import.

“The U.K. is very well-protected. You know why? Because I like them — that’s their ultimate protection,” Trump said of U.S. tariff policy during the G7.

Discussions with Starmer follow a Trump meeting Sunday with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen at his Turnberry course. They announced a trade framework that will put 15% tariffs on most goods from both countries, though many major details remain pending.

The president has for months railed against yawning U.S. trade deficits around the globe and sees tariffs as a way to try and close them in a hurry. But the U.S. ran an $11.4 billion trade surplus with Britain last year, meaning it exported more to the U.K. than it imported. Census Bureau figures this year indicate that the surplus could grow.

There are still lingering U.S.-Britain trade issues that need fine-tuning. The deal framework from May said British steel would enter the U.S. duty-free, but it continues to face a 25% levy.

U.K. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Monday that “negotiations have been going on on a daily basis” and “there’s a few issues to push a little bit further today,” though he downplayed expectations of a resolution.

The leader of Scotland, meanwhile, has urged Trump to lift the current 10% tariff on Scotch whisky. First Minister John Swinney said the spirit’s “uniqueness” justified an exemption.

Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London and Michelle L. Price and Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.

One side says the move will put low-income people at risk of losing their housing in an already tough market. While another says capping the program will actually improve the rental market for everyone, incentivizing landlords to lower rent.

Carol Ott is the tenant advocacy director of the Economic Action Maryland Fund, a nonprofit organization that advocates for economic and housing justice for lower-income communities. She predicted this policy would be “disastrous” for their clients, around 10% of whom receive some kind of housing assistance. In her opinion, cost-cutting measures weren’t the point of this new policy, she said.

“It’s not about saving money; it’s not about taxpayer dollars — none of that,” she said. “It’s about being cruel.”

But Norbert Michel, vice president and director for the Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives, which is part of the Libertarian think tank Cato Institute, said the proposed limit would help decrease the cost of rent overall.

“If the government says, ‘Hey, don’t worry about it, we’ll pay for all of your housing,’ and it always does that, then that’s taking a big chunk of market incentives out, and it becomes less affordable in the end,” he said.

More than 50,000 Maryland households utilize the federal housing voucher program, also known as Section 8. The program, funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, provides rental subsidies to people with disabilities or low incomes. Participants pay at least 30% of their adjusted monthly income, and the housing agency covers the difference.

The cap is part of President Donald Trump’s 2026 fiscal year budget, which has not been voted upon yet by Congress, and is still being worked on in committee. If passed, the cap, as part of the budget, will go into effect Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year.

Housing prices in Maryland, while less costly than in states like New York, California or Florida, hasn’t been static. In Maryland, the average rental price rose 20.5% between 2019 to 2024, according to a Sun analysis of the Apartment List rent estimates monthly report.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development responded to a request for comment by The Baltimore Sun by sending links to previous X posts from Sec. Scott Turner and a recent New York Times opinion essay.

“Compassionate common sense says those who are able to work, should work,” wrote Sec. Turner in a post. “Allowing generations of able-bodied Americans to remain on welfare is not compassionate to them, nor is it fair to the American taxpayer.”

“We can’t disincentivize work and allow able-bodied Americans to settle for welfare benefits,” read one post. “One Big Beautiful Bill work requirements that lift Americans out of dependency and toward a life of self-sustainability,” read another.

Pros and cons of housing vouchers

The majority of those eligible for these services are already unable to receive help because there isn’t enough funding on the federal level, said Daniel Teles, a principal research associate in the housing and communities division at the nonpartisan Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.,-based think tank that conducts social and economic policy research.

Only one in every four low-income households eligible for federal housing services actually gets benefits because the demand is larger than the supply, according to a 2021 report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington, D.C. -based nonpartisan research and policy institute.

Yet a 2015 study published in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy found that there wasn’t any significant effect on market rents after the last voucher expansion in the early 2000s.

Still, Teles said he saw some pros and cons to the proposed time limit. On one hand, it would allow housing agencies to cycle through their years-long waitlists more quickly and provide momentary relief in the short term for more individuals, he said.

However, those exiting the voucher program would still not be able to afford their current rental because their income would not be able to match the unsubsidized price, he said.

Landlords must meet the long list of eligibility criteria before they receive tenants, but the benefit they can receive is the guaranteed payments from the housing authority. With the time limits, they could experience higher turnover costs and missed payments from tenants that can discourage them from renting to voucher holders in the future, Teles said.

The time limit could help improve the nation’s rental market, said Cato Institute’s Michel, as landlords enjoying the subsidies will now have to compete with the rest of the market. These landlords would have to lower the prices to attract tenants, dropping rental prices overall, he said.

When the government steps in to cover the rent, it takes away the competitive pressure that landlords would feel to lower prices, Michel said, and as a result, these subsidies artificially inflate rental costs.

“If somebody had rental assistance and now they don’t have rental assistance, that is going to make it more difficult for them,” Michel said. “But the flip side is that the landlord can’t charge as much anymore, so you have to take your pick.”

Bottom line, he said: “If you want to make housing more affordable, you can’t keep subsidizing.”

Daraius Irani is the chief economist for the Regional Economic Studies Institute at Towson University. While he agreed that the federal housing subsidies do lead to higher rents, he said that the housing supply shortage in Maryland plays a larger role within the state. Ultimately, he said, he believes that the vouchers do more good than harm.

“Many individuals who are in these programs are working adults, but the housing costs in some places mean that if they didn’t have Section 8, they’d have to pay fifty percent or more of their income towards housing,” Irani said.

More administrative burdens for housing agencies

In Maryland, the cap could have a significant impact on the population, some of the state’s housing experts said.

The Howard County Housing Commission reopened its waitlist for its federal voucher program after 12 years in 2023 for a month, said its Executive Director Peter Engel. But of the 16,000 applications received, only 3,500 randomly selected received vouchers, he said, before they had to close the waitlist.

“It makes me feel extremely sad for the thousands of people in our county, much less millions of people in the country, who will be hurt by this,” Engel said. “It makes me feel a little hopeless for the future of the country, because we know that that sort of instability hurts kids, makes them do worse in school, makes their prospects for the future worse, and therefore hurts us all as a country going forward.”

In Prince George’s and Howard counties, officials said the voucher time limits will create a burden on the administrative level for housing agencies around the state.

The Housing Authority of Prince George’s County would have increased costs and logistical challenges in enforcing rental time limits and identifying new eligible homes to rent on the program, said Alexis Revis-Yeoman, public information officer for the Prince George’s Department of Housing and Community Development.

The time limit also could force evictions for households that could still be financially struggling — which could have a major impact on the budget resources of all county services, Revis-Yeoman said.

Several of Maryland’s elected leaders spoke out against the two-year cap, urging the Trump administration to rethink its decision, citing rising rental costs and an uncertain economy.

Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, a Democrat, called the cap an example of the White House’s lack of connection with the middle class.

“It is clear this Administration does not care about working class Americans and is more focused on giving tax breaks to billionaires,” Alsobrooks said in a statement provided to The Sun.

“Now is not the time to impose arbitrary restrictions on critical resources that help families afford their homes,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, in a statement to The Sun. “Instead, we should work to increase access to affordable housing and good-paying jobs in order to help more Americans achieve financial stability.”

Have a news tip? Email Stella Canino-Quinones at scanino-quinones@baltsun.com