By YURI KAGEYAMA

TOKYO (AP) — Toyota’s profit plunged 37% in the April-June quarter, the company said Thursday, cutting its full year earnings forecasts largely because of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

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The Japanese automaker said it based its report on the assumption that Trump’s tariffs on exports from Japan, including autos, would be 12.5% starting this month. As of now they stand at 15%.

The world’s top automaker also makes vehicles in Mexico and Canada. Toyota’s profit in the last quarter totaled 841 billion yen, or $5.7 billion, down from 1.33 trillion yen in the same period the year before. Its quarterly sales rose 3%.

The status of those exports is unclear since Mexico and Canada are beneficiaries of the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement, renegotiated from a 1990s pact during Trump’s first term in office, that eliminated most tariffs and trade barriers between the three countries.

Toyota Motor Corp.’s April-June profit totaled 841 billion yen ($5.7 billion), down from 1.33 trillion yen in the same period of 2024. Quarterly sales rose 3% to 12 trillion yen ($82 billion).

Toyota said the tariffs cost its quarterly operating profit 450 billion yen ($3 billion). Cost reduction efforts and the negative impact of an unfavorable exchange rate also hurt its bottom line.

The company, which makes the Camry sedan and Lexus luxury models, forecast a 2.66 trillion yen ($18 billion) profit for the full fiscal year ending in March 2026, down from an earlier forecast for a 3.1 trillion yen ($21 billion) profit. Toyota earned nearly 4.8 trillion yen in the previous fiscal year.

“Despite a challenging external environment, we have continued to make comprehensive investments, as well as improvements such as increased unit sales, cost reductions and expanded value chain profits,” Toyota said in a statement that outlined its efforts to minimize the impact of the tariffs.

At the retail level, Toyota sold 2.4 million vehicles globally, with sales growing in Japan, North America and Europe from the previous year, when global retail totaled 2.2 million vehicles.

Analysts say Toyota is likely among the worst hit by the tariffs among global companies, even compared with other Japanese automakers.

Also Thursday, Toyota announced it was building a new car assembly plant in Japan that it expects to have up and running in the early 2030s. It is acquiring a site in Toyota city, Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, where the automaker is headquartered.

The models to be produced there are still undecided, but the plant will be part of the company’s plan to maintain a production capacity of 3 million vehicles in Japan, according to Toyota. Billed as “a plant of the future,” it will also feature new technology tailored for what Toyota said will be a diverse work force.

Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage has fallen to its lowest level in four months, welcome news for prospective homebuyers who have been held back by stubbornly high home financing costs.

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The long-term rate fell to 6.63% from 6.72% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.47%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also fell. The average rate dropped to 5.75% from 5.85% last week. A year ago, it was 5.63%, Freddie Mac said.

Elevated mortgage rates have helped keep the U.S. housing market in a sales slump that began in early 2022, when rates started to climb from the rock-bottom lows they reached during the pandemic. Home sales sank last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years.

For much of 2025, the average long-term mortgage rate has remained relatively close to the 7.04% high for this year that it reached in mid-January.

This is the third week in a row that rates have come down. The latest average rate on a 30-year mortgage is now just shy of 6.62%, the low point for this year set April 10.

Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, from the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy decisions to bond market investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation.

The main barometer is the 10-year Treasury yield, which lenders use as a guide to pricing home loans. The yield was at 4.23% at midday Thursday, up slightly from 4.22% late Wednesday.

The yield is well below where it was last week, before Friday’s weaker-than-expected report on the U.S. job market ignited worries that the Trump administration’s tariffs are stalling hiring plans by employers.

Last Wednesday, the central bank’s policymaking committee voted to hold its main interest rate steady. And Fed Chair Jerome Powell pushed back on expectations that the Fed could cut rates at its next meeting in September, noting that inflation remained above the Fed’s 2% target and the job market was “in balance.”

But the latest jobs report may shift that stance. Traders on Wall Street are now betting heavily that the Fed will need to cut interest rates next month, something President Donald Trump has been demanding the Fed, and Powell specifically, to do.

A cut in rates could give the job market and overall economy a boost, but it could also fuel inflation just as Trump’s tariff policies risk raising prices for U.S. consumers.

“While both buyers and sellers welcome lower mortgage rates, it’s not clear whether rates will continue to fall,” said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS. “A weaker economy could lead to lower mortgage rates, but the risks of higher inflation could keep rates elevated.”

For anyone who lived through the tabloid years of the aughts, Lindsay Lohan’s joyful return to the big screen isn’t just cause for celebration, it’s something that once seemed highly implausible. Lohan, the preeminent teen screen icon of the Y2K era, was subjected to a brutally judgmental media landscape in her young adulthood, which picked apart her partying, appearance, love life, erratic behavior, career choices and general mischief-making before she eventually slipped off the radar. In the past few years, she’s mounted a comeback via Netflix originals and a cameo in last year’s “Mean Girls” reboot, but seeing her star in a fun, fresh revival of one of her signature early 2000s hits feels nothing short of miraculous.

It’s also a miracle that “Freakier Friday” is as funny and entertaining as it is, because reboots and sequels bear a heavy burden of comparison to their beloved originals. Mark Waters’ 2003 film “Freaky Friday” (a remake of the 1976 film based on the book by Mary Rodgers) was a bona fide hit, and what’s clear — and crucial — in “Freakier Friday” is that writer Jordan Weiss and director Nisha Ganatra (Elyse Hollander has a story credit) have a true love and appreciation not just for the original film, but for Lohan’s filmography, and the entire subgenre of Disney Channel Original Movies. They throw the concept of a “guilty pleasure” to the wind and craft a comedy that’s giddily liberating in its celebration of every corny trope.

Somehow, “Freakier Friday” is self-aware but not sarcastic, knowing but not ironic, slapstick while remaining sincere, clever without being glib. It’s not a teardown or parody of the teen girly genre but a reaffirmation of it with a modern lens. It’s the kind of movie that an elder millennial mom and her Gen Alpha daughter can both enjoy on their own levels.

While “Freaky Friday” is a love letter to moms and daughters who learn to walk in each other’s shoes, “Freakier” is a sister story, and what it means to fold new family members in with the old. Our former teen rocker Anna (Lohan) is now a successful music manager in Los Angeles and a single mom to surfer girl Harper (Julia Butters). Her mother Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis), a therapist with a podcast, has assigned herself as grand-co-parent, and Anna chafes against her mother’s overbearing insertion of herself into her parenting.

That storyline quickly fades when Anna falls for another single parent, Eric (Manny Jacinto), who happens to be the father of Harper’s lab partner, Lily (Sophie Hammons). Too bad the girls can’t stand each other, and Lily wants to return to her native London while Harper can’t bear to be far from the beach. With Anna and Eric’s wedding looming (their courtship is depicted in a rapid-fire montage of snapshots and love notes), a peace accord must be forged. There’s only one thing that can resolve this battle of wills: body swap!

A visit with kooky psychic/spiritual grifter Madame Jen (Vanessa Bayer) leaves the teen girls with a mantra, “change the hearts that are wrong, and you will find where you belong.” A mysterious earthquake, a full moon, and boom: it’s a double swap. Mother and daughter Harper and Anna wake up in each other’s bodies, while Lily ends up in the body of her future step-grandmother Tess. Does that track? Not really. But if it gets Curtis into a bunch of wacky costumes, we’ll take it, and the excellent costume design by Natalie O’Brien does a lot of heavy lifting, story-wise.

Curtis is the hands-down superstar of “Freakier Friday.” While this may be Lohan’s big comeback, with the love story and the big climactic rock star moment, the movie belongs to Curtis. She gets the biggest material to play with, as the whiny fashionista teen princess Lily, and jumps at the opportunity to play the physical comedy to the max.

It’s nice to see Lohan having fun again, even if the spunk that made her a teen star feels slightly sanded down. Ganatra and Weiss throw a ton of high jinks, jokes, references and comedy heavy-hitters into the film so that it never slows down — even if it’s stuffed to bursting with bits. Almost every supporting actor from the original is back, and “Freakier Friday” manages to hit a sweet spot of nostalgia without being an outright period piece.

It’s easy to question the necessity of reboots and legacyquels in this IP-obsessed movie landscape. But “Freakier Friday” feels genuinely restorative, not just for Lohan’s reputation, but for the inner child who once loved movies like this, delighting in silly tropes like food fights, hunks tossing their hair in slow-motion and makeover montages. Ganatra has delivered us a love letter to that movie, and it’s a true joy to revel in that playground once again.

‘Freakier Friday’

3 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG (for thematic elements, rude humor, language and some suggestive references)

Running time: 1:51

How to watch: In theaters on Friday, Aug. 8

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By ISABELLA VOLMERT, Associated Press

Vice President JD Vance visits Indiana on Thursday to discuss redistricting with Republican leaders as President Donald Trump ramps up pressure on GOP states to redraw congressional boundaries and give the party more winnable seats in the 2026 midterm elections.

Vance is scheduled to hold private meetings with Gov. Mike Braun and others before attending a GOP fundraiser Thursday night in the solidly Republican state. Braun told reporters Tuesday he expects to discuss several matters with the vice president — including redistricting — but said no commitments have been made.

“It looks like it’s going to happen across many Republican states,” Braun said.

Vance’s visit comes after Texas Democrats successfully stalled a vote there this week on a redrawn congressional map, part of a bid to secure five more GOP-leaning congressional seats at the expense of Democrats before the midterms. The White House’s goal is to give Republicans an easier path to maintaining control of the House.

Indiana is staunchly Republican, but opponents of any redistricting attempt are planning to make their objections known Thursday with protests and a news conference by the two Democratic members of the state’s congressional delegation.

Protestors, including Linda Lynn, Cent, of Indianapolis, cheer during a really against redistricting at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Braun would have to call a special session if he chooses to start the redistricting process, but lawmakers have the sole power to draw up new maps.

Braun’s office has not responded to multiple emailed requests seeking more details about Vance’s visit.

Republican U.S. representatives outnumber Democrats in Indiana 7-2, limiting the possibilities of squeezing out another seat. The constitutionality of the move would also almost certainly be challenged in court.

Indiana lawmakers have been wary of the national spotlight in recent years, especially after a special session in 2022 resulted in lawmakers enacting a strict ban on abortions. Braun is a staunch ally of Trump in a state with a strong base of loyalists to the president.

But Indiana is also home to Mike Pence, the former vice president and a past governor whose more measured approach to partisan politics still holds sway among many state lawmakers.

The GOP would likely target Indiana’s 1st Congressional District, a longtime Democratic stronghold that encompasses Gary and other cities near Chicago in the state’s northwest corner. The seat held by third-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan has been seen as a possible pickup in recent years as manufacturing union jobs have left the area, said Laura Merrifield Wilson, a professor of political science at the University of Indianapolis.

Lawmakers in Indiana redrew the borders of the district to be slightly more favorable towards Republicans in the 2022 election, but did not entirely split it up. The new maps were not challenged in court after they were approved in 2021, not even by Democrats and allies who had opposed the changes that also gave a boost to the GOP in the suburbs north of Indianapolis.

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Mrvan won reelection in 2022 by a respectable margin and easily retained his seat again in 2024. In a statement Tuesday, Mrvan said the Trump administration knows its policies are “wildly unpopular.”

“They know that their only hope to maintain control is to pressure the Indiana General Assembly to violate the Indiana Constitution and redistrict U.S. House of Representative(s) seats mid-decade,” he added.

The more dramatic option would be to zero in on Indiana’s 7th Congressional District, composed entirely of Marion County and the Democratic stronghold of Indianapolis.

Indiana’s legislative leaders, House Speaker Todd Huston and Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray, held their same positions four years ago when the Legislature finalized the new maps. Both expressed approval of the final product and said the borders fairly reflected the makeup of the state.

“I believe these maps reflect feedback from the public and will serve Hoosiers well for the next decade,” Bray said at the time.

Both leaders have been quiet on the possibility of a special session. Bray and Huston’s offices did not respond to multiple messages left over the phone and email Wednesday.

Republicans hold a supermajority in the Indiana House and Senate, meaning Democrats could not stop a special session by refusing to attend.

Julia Vaughn, director of Common Cause Indiana, said a costly redistricting process will not look good for Republicans who tightened the belt on the state budget this past legislative session due to revenue forecasts. Common Cause is one of the leading groups nationally opposing Trump’s push to redistrict.

“I don’t think there is any way they could rationalize spending taxpayer dollars to come back to Indianapolis to redraw maps that were just drawn four years ago for purely partisan purposes,” Vaughn said.