By DAVID McHUGH, SAM McNEIL and SAMUEL PETREQUIN, Associated Press

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.

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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 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 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 $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 $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.

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday he intends to shorten the 50-day deadline he gave Russian President Vladimir Putin to reach a deal that ends the three-year war in Ukraine.

His announcement came as Russia fired an overnight barrage at Ukraine of more than 300 drones, four cruise missiles and three ballistic missiles, the Ukrainian air force said.

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire in a fire department school following a Russian air attack in Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine, Monday, July 28, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Trump said two weeks ago he would implement “severe tariffs” on Russia unless a peace deal is reached by early September, as he expressed exasperation with Putin over the bombardment of Ukrainian cities amid the Republican president’s attempts to stop the fighting.

Trump said he would give Putin 10 to 12 days from Monday, 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, he 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.

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.”

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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.

The western part of 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.

By SAM MEDNICK, Associated Press

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Two prominent Israeli rights groups on Monday said their country is committing genocide in Gaza, the first time that local Jewish-led organizations have made such accusations against Israel during nearly 22 months of war.

The claims by B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel add to an explosive debate over whether Israel’s military offensive in Gaza — launched in response to Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack — amounts to genocide.

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The Palestinians, their supporters and international human rights groups make that claim, and the International Court of Justice is hearing a genocide case filed by South Africa against Israel.

But in Israel, founded in the wake of the Holocaust, even the government’s strongest critics have largely refrained from making such accusations.

That’s because of the deep sensitivities and strong memories of the Nazi genocide of Europe’s Jews, and because many in Israel view the war in Gaza as a justified response to the deadliest attack in the country’s history and not an attempt at extermination.

Shattering a taboo in Israel

The rights groups, while prominent and respected internationally, are considered in Israel to be on the political fringe, and their views are not representative of the vast majority of Israelis. But having the allegation of genocide come from Israeli voices shatters a taboo in a society that has been reticent to criticize Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

Guy Shalev, director of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, said the Jewish-Israeli public often dismisses accusations of genocide as antisemitic or biased against Israel.

“Perhaps human rights groups based in Israel, and coming to this conclusion, is a way to confront that accusation and get people to acknowledge the reality,” he said.

Israel asserts that it is fighting an existential war and abides by international law. It has rejected genocide allegations as antisemitic.

It is challenging such allegations at the International Court of Justice, and it has rejected the International Criminal Court’s allegations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant committed war crimes in Gaza. Both face international arrest warrants.

Israel’s government on Monday didn’t immediately comment on the reports by B’Tselem and PHRI. Israeli officials largely blame civilian deaths in Gaza on Hamas, saying it uses civilians as shields by embedding militants in residential areas.

The reports echo international claims

The rights groups, in separate reports released jointly, said Israel’s policies in Gaza, statements by senior officials about its goals there and the systematic dismantling of the territory’s health system contributed to their conclusion of genocide.

Their claims echoed those of previous reports from international rights groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

Like other rights groups, B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel have not been allowed into Gaza during the war. Their reports are based on testimonies, documents, eyewitnesses and consultations with legal experts.

Hamas’ attack on Israel that started the war sparked a shift in the country’s policy toward Palestinians in Gaza from “repression and control to destruction and annihilation,” B’Tselem said.

The group has long been outspoken about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians. It halted cooperation with the military nearly a decade ago, saying the army’s investigations into wrongdoing weren’t serious, and it has accused Israel of being an apartheid state.

The PHRI report was a detailed, legal-medical analysis focusing on what it called the step-by-step dismantling of Gaza’s health and life-sustaining systems including electricity, clean water and access to food.

Its report says Israel has committed three of the acts of genocide defined by international law, including “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

The Israeli rights groups said repeated statements by Israeli officials and the military endorsing the total destruction, starvation and permanent displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, combined with policies on the ground, have demonstrated that Israel is intentionally trying to destroy Palestinian society.

A ‘painful’ conclusion

The term “genocide” strikes a chord in Israel, where Israelis grow up learning about the Holocaust and hearing survivors’ harrowing stories, while promising it would never happen again.

The 1948 Convention of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was drawn up in the aftermath of World War II and the murder by Nazi Germany of 6 million Jews. It defines genocide as acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”

“As the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, it’s very painful for me to be reaching this conclusion,” said Shalev from PHRI. But after growing up in a society where the Holocaust was so important, it demands some kind of responsibility, he said.

Until now, Israeli criticism of the war in Gaza has been focused on Netanyahu and whether his wartime decision-making has been politically motivated and delayed the return of hostages — 50 of them still in Gaza.

Broader scrutiny of Israel’s conduct in Gaza has been limited for multiple reasons. Despite the vast destruction and death in the territory and Israel’s growing international isolation, most Israelis have believed for much of the war in its righteousness.

And with most Jewish Israelis serving in the army, it’s difficult for most people to fathom that their relatives in uniform could be carrying out genocide. Some soldiers, however, have refused to fight in the war.

Jeffrey Herf, a historian who has published much on antisemitism, said the allegation of genocide doesn’t take into account that there is a war between two parties. He said it ignores Hamas as a military force and Israel’s right to defend itself.

Israelis’ focus is on the hostages, not Palestinians

After groups like B’Tselem in recent years accused Israel of apartheid, more mainstream voices in Israel also picked up the claim, although in less sweeping ways.

Israeli historian Tom Segev said he’s not sure the new reports and their allegations will have an impact on the public.

“The major thing for Israelis is a question of the hostages, not necessarily the fate of the population in Gaza,” he said. But he said what’s happening in Gaza is undermining the ideological and moral justification for the existence of Israel.

The rights groups said the international community hasn’t done enough to protect Palestinians and are calling on the world, including Israelis who have stayed silent, to speak up.

“We have an obligation to do everything we can to speak the truth about this, to stand by the victims,” said Sarit Michaeli, the international director for B’Tselem.

By JAMEY KEATEN, Associated Press

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 trade 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 talks that Bessent has said will likely to lead to an extension of current tariff levels.

Chinese vice prime minister He Lifeng, center, waves as he arrives at Rosenbad before trade talks between the US and China in Stockholm, Sweden, July 28, 2025. (Fredrik Sandberg/TT News Agency via AP)

Analysts say the two envoys 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.

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The talks are the third this year between He and Bessent — 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 quickly 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 were 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, for its part, said last week that Beijing wants “more consensus and cooperation and less misperception” from the Stockholm talks.

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