Today in history:

On August 1, 1981, MTV began its American broadcast; the first music video aired on the new cable TV network was “Video Killed the Radio Star,” by The Buggles.

Also on this date:

In 1876, Colorado was admitted as the 38th state in the Union, less than a month after the US Centennial (earning it the nickname “the Centennial State”).

In 1907, a week-long boys’ camping event began on Brownsea Island in southern England, organized by Robert Baden-Powell; the event is now marked as the beginning of the Scout Movement.

In 1936, Adolf Hitler presided over the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics in Berlin .

In 1944, an uprising broke out in Warsaw, Poland, against Nazi occupation; the revolt lasted two months before collapsing.

In 1957, the United States and Canada announced they had agreed to create the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD).

In 1966, Charles Joseph Whitman, 25, went on an armed rampage at the University of Texas in Austin that killed 14 people, most of whom were shot by Whitman while he was perched in the clock tower of the main campus building.

In 1971, The Concert for Bangladesh, an all-star benefit organized by George Harrison of The Beatles and sitar player Ravi Shankar, was held at Madison Square Garden in New York.

In 2001, Pro Bowl tackle Korey Stringer, 27, died of heat stroke, a day after collapsing at the Minnesota Vikings’ training camp on the hottest day of the year.

In 2004, the Ycuá Bolaños supermarket fire in Asuncion, Paraguay killed more than 400 people.

In 2007, the eight-lane Interstate 35W bridge, a major Minneapolis artery, collapsed into the Mississippi River during evening rush hour, killing 13 people.

In 2014, a medical examiner ruled that a New York City police officer’s chokehold caused the death of Eric Garner, whose videotaped arrest and final pleas of “I can’t breathe!” had sparked outrage.

In 2023, former President Donald Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury on conspiracy and obstruction charges related to his alleged attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor Giancarlo Giannini is 83.
• Basketball Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams is 75.
• Blues musician Robert Cray is 72.
• Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum is 69.
• Rock singer Joe Elliott (Def Leppard) is 66.
• Rapper Chuck D (Public Enemy) is 65.
• Actor John Carroll Lynch is 62.
• Rock singer Adam Duritz (Counting Crows) is 61.
• Film director Sam Mendes is 60.
• Actor Tempestt Bledsoe is 52.
• Football Hall of Famer Edgerrin James is 47.
• Actor Jason Momoa is 46.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Thursday announced that construction on a new $200 million ballroom will begin in September and be ready before President Donald Trump ‘s term ends in early 2029.

It will be the latest change introduced to what’s known as “The People’s House” since the Republican president returned to office in January. It also will be the first structural change to the Executive Mansion since the addition of the Truman balcony in 1948.

Trump has substantially redecorated the Oval Office through the addition of golden flourishes and cherubs, presidential portraits and other items and installed massive flagpoles to fly the American flag on the north and south lawns. Workers are currently finishing a project to replace the lawn in the Rose Garden with stone.

Trump for months has been promising to build a ballroom, saying the White House doesn’t have space big enough to hold large events and scoffing at the notion of hosting heads of state and other guests in tents on the lawn as past administrations have done for state dinners attended by hundreds of guests.

The East Room, the largest room in the the White House, can accommodate about 200 people.

As he and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen held talks in the ballroom of the hotel on his golf course in Turnberry, Scotland, on Sunday, Trump praised the space and said it was what he envisioned adding to the White House.

“The White House has wanted a ballroom for 150 years, but they never had a real estate person. You know, nobody, no president knew how to build a ballroom,” he said, harkening back to his early career in real estate and construction.

He said the Turnberry ballroom had been “quite the success” since it opened a short time ago. That ballroom “boasts a generous capacity of up to 500 guests,” according to the hotel’s website.

“I was just saying I could take this one, drop it right down there and it would be beautiful,” Trump said. “This is exactly what they’ve wanted.”

The 90,000-square-foot ballroom, announced on Thursday, will be built where the East Wing currently sits and will have a seated capacity of 650 people. The East Wing is home to several offices, including the first lady’s. Those offices will be temporarily relocated during construction while that wing of the building is modernized and renovated, said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

“Nothing will be torn down,” she said.

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said the president and his White House are “fully committed” to working with the appropriate organizations to preserve the mansion’s “special history.”

“President Trump is a builder at heart and has an extraordinary eye for detail,” Wiles said in a statement.

Leavitt said at her briefing Thursday that Trump and other donors have committed to raising the approximately $200 million in construction costs. She did not name any of the other donors.

Renderings of what the future ballroom will look like were posted on the White House website.

Trump has chosen McCrery Architects, based in Washington, as lead architect on the project. The construction team will be led by Clark Construction. Engineering will be provided by AECOM.

In 2020, a disgruntled litigant posing as a deliveryman opened fire at the New Jersey home of District Judge Esther Salas, killing her 20-year-old son Daniel Anderl. Five years later, as President Donald Trump steps up his criticism of federal judges who have blocked some of his agenda, dozens of judges have had unsolicited pizzas delivered to their homes, often in Daniel Anderl’s name.

District Judge John J. McConnell, Jr. of Rhode Island, who stalled Trump’s initial round of across-the-board spending cuts, is among those who received pizzas in Anderl’s name. His courtroom also has been flooded by threatening calls, including one profanity-laced one that called for his assassination.

McConnell, Jr. played a recording of the call during an unusual discussion Thursday where multiple federal judges discussed threats they have received — a notable conversation because judges usually only speak publicly from the bench and through their rulings, and rarely if ever, about personal threats and attacks. Salas and others said the number of attacks has escalated in recent months.

Without using his name, Salas called on Trump and his allies to tone down the rhetoric and stop demonizing the judiciary, for fear of what more could happen.

“We’re used to being appealed. But keep it on the merits, stop demonizing us,” Salas said. “They’re inviting people to do us harm.”

Thursday’s event was sponsored by Speak up for Justice, a nonpartisan group supporting an independent judiciary. District Judge John C. Coughenour of Washington recalled having a police SWAT team called to his home to respond to a false report of an attack after Coughenour in January halted Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for children of people in the country illegally.

District Judge Robert S. Lasnik of Washington also had pizzas delivered in Anderl’s name to both his home and those of his two adult children, each in different cities, after an article in which he was quoted as being critical of attacks on judges was picked up by a television station in the Pacific Northwest, where he hears cases.

“The message to me was ‘we know where you live, we know where your kids live, and they could end up dead like Daniel Anderl did,’” Lasnik said in an interview.

Salas says U.S. Marshals have told her of more than 100 cases of so-called “pizza doxings,” unwanted deliveries to the homes of federal judges and their families, since 2024, with most occurring this year. Salas added that she’s heard of additional cases targeting state judges in states ranging from Colorado to Florida, incidents that wouldn’t be tracked by Marshals, who protect federal judges.

“This is not some random, silly act, this is a targeted, concentrated, coordinated attack on judges,” Salas said in an interview, “and yet we don’t hear any condemnation from Washington.”

Salas, nominated by Democratic President Barack Obama, in 2022 was critical of protests at the homes of Republican-nominated Supreme Court justices who revoked women’s right to have an abortion, which were followed by the arrest of a man at the home of Justice Brett Kavanaugh who said he was there to assassinate the justice. Salas said both sides of the political aisle have used worrying rhetoric about judges, but it’s reached a new peak since Trump took office.

“I’ve often referred to it as a bonfire that I believe the current administration is throwing accelerants on,” Salas said.

Trump himself has led the charge against judges, often going after them by name on social media. He’s said judges who’ve ruled against his administration are “sick,” “very dangerous” and “lunatic.” Trump’s allies have amplified his rhetoric and called for impeaching judges who rule against the president or simply disobeying their rulings. Earlier this year, several judges at the panel noted, Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee had a “wanted” poster of judges who’d crossed the president hanging outside his congressional office.

Lasnik said many judges appointed by presidents of both parties have told him of concerns but are nervous about discussing the issue openly.

“A lot of them don’t know how to speak up and are afraid of crossing a line somewhere where they would get a judicial complaint like judge Boasberg did,” Lasnik said, referring to District Judge James E. Boasberg of D.C., who infuriated the Trump administration by finding they likely committed criminal contempt by disobeying his order to turn around a deportation flight to El Salvador.

Though Chief Justice John Roberts has come to Boasberg’s defense, Trump’s Department of Justice this week filed a complaint against Boasberg over comments he made at a judicial conference that other judges worry the Trump administration won’t obey their orders. Last month, Trump’s Justice Department took the extraordinary step of suing every federal judge in Maryland over rules governing how they handle immigration cases.

More than five dozen judges who’ve ruled against Trump are receiving enhanced online protection, including scrubbing their identifying information from websites, according to two Trump-appointed judges who wrote Congress urging more funding for judicial security. In 2022, Congress passed a law named after Daniel Anderl allowing judges to sue internet sites to take down identifying information.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. kindergarten vaccination rates inched down again last year and the share of children with exemptions rose to an all-time high, according to federal data posted Thursday.

The fraction of kids exempted from vaccine requirements rose to 4.1%, up from 3.7% the year before. It’s the third record-breaking year in a row for the exemption rate, and the vast majority are parents withholding shots for nonmedical reasons.

Meanwhile, 92.5% of 2024-25 kindergartners got their required measles-mumps-rubella shots, down slightly from the previous year. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the vaccination rate was 95% — the level that makes it unlikely that a single infection will spark a disease cluster or outbreak.

The vaccination numbers were posted as the U.S. experiences its worst year for measles spread in more than three decades, with more than 1,300 cases so far.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention traditionally releases the vaccination coverage data in its flagship publication, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. CDC officials usually speak to the trends and possible explanations, and stress the importance of vaccinations. This year, the agency quietly posted the data online and — when asked about it — emailed a statement.

“The decision to vaccinate is a personal one. Parents should consult their health care providers on options for their families,” the statement said, adding; “Vaccination remains the most effective way to protect children from serious diseases like measles and whooping cough, which can lead to hospitalization and long-term health complications.”

Public health officials focus on vaccination rates for kindergartners because schools can be cauldrons for germs and launching pads for community outbreaks.

For years, those rates were high, thanks largely to school attendance mandates that required key vaccinations. All U.S. states and territories require that children attending child care centers and schools be vaccinated against a number of diseases, including, measles, mumps, polio, tetanus, whooping cough and chickenpox.

All states allow exemptions for children with medical conditions that prevent them from receiving certain vaccines. And most also permit exemptions for religious or other nonmedical reasons.

In the last decade, the percentage of kindergartners with medical exemptions has held steady, at about 0.2%. But the percentage with nonmedical exemptions has risen.

The rates can be influenced by policies that make it harder or easier to obtain exemptions, and by local attitudes among families and doctors about the need to get children vaccinated. Online misinformation and the political divide that emerged around COVID-19 vaccines have led more parents to question routine childhood vaccinations, experts say.

According to the CDC data, 15.4% of kindergartners had an exemption to one or more vaccines in Idaho in the last school year. But fewer than 0.5% did in Connecticut.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. fashion retailer American Eagle Outfitters wanted to make a splash with its new advertising campaign starring 27-year-old actor Sydney Sweeney. The ad blitz included “clever, even provocative language” and was “definitely going to push buttons,” the company’s chief marketing officer told trade media outlets.

It has. The question now is whether some of the public reactions the fall denim campaign produced is what American Eagle intended.

Titled “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans,” the campaign sparked a debate about race, Western beauty standards, and the backlash to “woke” American politics and culture. Most of the negative reception focused on videos that used the word “genes” instead of “jeans” when discussing the blonde-haired, blue-eyed actor known for the HBO series “Euphoria” and “White Lotus.”

Some critics saw the wordplay as a nod, either unintentional or deliberate, to eugenics, a discredited theory that held humanity could be improved through selective breeding for certain traits.

Marcus Collins, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, said the criticism could have been avoided if the ads showed models of various races making the “genes” pun.

“You can either say this was ignorance, or this was laziness, or say that this is intentional,” Collins said. “Either one of the three aren’t good.”

Other commenters accused detractors of reading too much into the campaign’s message.

“I love how the leftist meltdown over the Sydney Sweeney ad has only resulted in a beautiful white blonde girl with blue eyes getting 1000x the exposure for her ‘good genes,’” former Fox News host Megyn Kelly wrote Tuesday on X.

American Eagle didn’t respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

A snapshot of American Eagle

The ad blitz comes as the teen retailer, like many merchants, wrestles with sluggish consumer spending and higher costs from tariffs. American Eagle reported that total sales were down 5% for its February-April quarter compared to a year earlier.

A day after Sweeney was announced as the company’s latest celebrity collaborator, American Eagle’s stock closed more than 4% up. Shares were volatile this week and trading nearly 2% down Wednesday.

Like many trendy clothing brands, American Eagle has to differentiate itself from other mid-priced chains with a famous face or by saying something edgy, according to Alan Adamson, co-founder of marketing consultancy Metaforce.

Adamson said the Sweeney campaign shares a lineage with Calvin Klein jeans ads from 1980 that featured a 15-year-old Brooke Shields saying, “You want to know what comes in between me and my Calvins? Nothing.” Some TV networks declined to air the spots because of its suggestive double entendre and Shields’ age.

“It’s the same playbook: a very hot model saying provocative things shot in an interesting way,” Adamson said.

Billboards, Instagram and Snapchat

Chief Marketing Officer Craig Brommers told industry news website Retail Brew last week that “Sydney is the biggest get in the history of American Eagle,” and the company would promote the partnership in a way that matched.

The campaign features videos of Sweeney wearing slouchy jeans in various settings. She will appear on 3-D billboards in Times Square and elsewhere, speaking to users on Snapchat and Instagram, and in an AI-enabled try-on feature.

American Eagle also plans to launch a limited edition Sydney jean to raise awareness of domestic violence, with sales proceeds going to a nonprofit crisis counseling service.

In a news release, the company noted “Sweeney’s girl next door charm and main character energy – paired with her ability to not take herself too seriously – is the hallmark of this bold, playful campaign.”

Jeans, genes and their many meanings

In one video, Sweeney walks toward an American Eagle billboard of her and the tagline “Sydney Sweeney has great genes.” She crosses out “genes” and replaces it with “jeans.”

But what critics found the most troubling was a teaser video in which Sweeney says, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue.”

The video appeared on American Eagle’s Facebook page and other social media channels but is not part of the campaign.

While remarking that someone has good genes is sometimes used as a compliment, the phrase also has sinister connotations. Eugenics gained popularity in early 20th century America, and Nazi Germany embraced it to carry out Adolf Hitler’s plan for an Aryan master race.

Civil rights activists have noted signs of eugenics regaining a foothold through the far right’s promotion of the “great replacement theory,” a racist ideology that alleges a conspiracy to diminish the influence of white people.

Shalini Shankar, a cultural and linguistic anthropologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said she had problems with American Eagle’s “genes” versus “jeans” because it exacerbates a limited concept of beauty.

“American Eagle, I guess, wants to rebrand itself for a particular kind of white privileged American,” Shankar said. “And that is the kind of aspirational image they want to circulate for people who want to wear their denim.”

A cultural shift in advertising

Many critics compared the American Eagle ad to a misstep by Pepsi in 2017, when it released a TV ad that showed model Kendall Jenner offer a can of soda to a police officer while ostensibly stepping away from a photo shoot to join a crowd of protesters.

Viewers mocked the spot for appearing to trivialize protests of police killings of Black people. Pepsi apologized and pulled the ad.

The demonstrations that followed the 2020 killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis pushed many U.S. companies to make their advertising better reflect consumers of all races.

Some marketers say they’ve observed another shift since President Donald Trump returned to office and moved to abolish all federal DEI programs and policies.

Jazmin Burrell, founder of brand consulting agency Lizzie Della Creative Strategies, said she’s noticed while shopping with her cousin more ads and signs that prominently feature white models.

“I can see us going back to a world where diversity is not really the standard expectation in advertising,” Burrell said.

American Eagle’s past and future

American Eagle has been praised for diverse marketing in the past, including creating a denim hijab in 2017 and offering its Aerie lingerie brand in a wide range of sizes. A year ago, the company released a limited edition denim collection with tennis star Coco Gauff.

The retailer has an ongoing diversity, equity and inclusion program that is primarily geared toward employees. Two days before announcing the Sweeney campaign, American Eagle named the latest recipients of its scholarship award for employees who are driving anti-racism, equality and social justice initiatives.

Marketing experts offer mixed opinions on whether the attention surrounding “good jeans” will be good for business.

“They were probably thinking that this is going to be their moment,” Myles Worthington, the founder and CEO of marketing and creative agency WORTHI. “But this is doing the opposite and deeply distorting their brand.”

Melissa Murphy, a marketing professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, said she liked certain parts of the campaign but hoped it would be expanded to showcase people besides Sweeney for the “sake of the brand.”

Other experts say the buzz is good even if it’s not uniformly positive.

“If you try to follow all the rules, you’ll make lots of people happy, but you’ll fail,” Adamson said. “The rocket won’t take off. ”

The average rate on a 30-year U.S. mortgage eased to where it was three weeks ago, modest relief for prospective homebuyers challenged by rising home prices and stubbornly high borrowing costs.

The long-term rate slipped to 6.72% from 6.74% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. A year ago, the rate averaged 6.73%.

Borrowing costs on 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, popular with homeowners refinancing their home loans, also eased. The average rate dropped to 5.85% from 5.87% last week. A year ago, it was 5.99%, Freddie Mac said.

Elevated mortgage rates continue to weigh on the U.S. housing market, which has been in a sales slump going back to 2022, when rates started to climb from the rock-bottom lows they reached during the pandemic.

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 4.34% at midday Thursday, down from 4.37% late Wednesday.

Yields moved higher most of July as traders bet that the Fed would keep its key short-term interest rate unchanged at its meeting this month.

On 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, pointing to how inflation remains above the Fed’s 2% target, while the job market still looks to be “in balance.”

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

“If a September rate cut starts to be more likely, it is possible that we could see mortgage rates edge downward at the end of the summer, similar to what we saw last year at this time,” said Lisa Sturtevant, chief economist at Bright MLS. “If inflation expectations continue to be high, mortgage rates could also remain higher.”

The average rate on a 30-year mortgage has remained relatively close to its high so far this year of just above 7%, set in mid-January. The 30-year rate’s low point this year was in early April when it briefly dipped to 6.62%.

Economists generally expect the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to remain above 6% this year. Recent forecasts by Realtor.com and Fannie Mae project the average rate will ease to around 6.4% by the end of this year.

That may not be enough to spur a turnaround in home sales, which remain sluggish so far this year.

New data on contract signings this week suggest home sales could soften further in the near term. A seasonally adjusted index of pending U.S. home sales fell 0.8% in June from the previous month and was down 2.8% from June last year, according to the National Association of Realtors.

There’s usually a month or two lag between a contract signing and when the sale is finalized, which makes pending home sales a bellwether for future completed home sales.

The housing market doldrums are helping to keep the U.S. homeownership rate stuck at around 65%, as of the second quarter, according to the U.S. Census. The homeownership rate is now at its lowest level since 2019, when it was 64.2%. It has averaged 66.3% going back to 2000.

Despite rates easing in recent weeks, mortgage applications fell 3.8% last week from a week earlier to their lowest level since May, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Applications were still up 21.8% versus the same period last year.

“There is still plenty of uncertainty surrounding the economy and job market, which is weighing on prospective homebuyers’ decisions,” said Joel Kan, deputy chief economist.

The family of Virginia Giuffre, who was among Jeffrey Epstein’s most well-known sex trafficking accusers, said that it was shocking to hear President Donald Trump say the disgraced financier “stole” Giuffre from him and urged that Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell remain in prison.

Giuffre, who had accused Britain’s Prince Andrew and other influential men of sexually exploiting her as a teenager trafficked by Epstein, has been a central figure in conspiracy theories tied to the case. She died by suicide this year.

Her family’s statement is the latest development involving Epstein, who took his own life in a New York jail in 2019 while facing federal sex trafficking charges, and the Republican president, who was his one-time friend. Trump denied prior knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and said he cut off their relationship years ago, but he still faces questions about the case.

Trump, responding to a reporter’s question on Tuesday, said that he got upset with Epstein over his poaching of workers and that Epstein had stolen Giuffre from his Palm Beach, Florida, club.

“It was shocking to hear President Trump invoke our sister and say that he was aware that Virginia had been ‘stolen’ from Mar-a-Lago,” the family’s statement said.

“We and the public are asking for answers; survivors deserve this,” it continued.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt noted the president was responding to a reporter’s question and didn’t bring up Giuffre himself.

“The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club for being a creep to his female employees,” she said.

The family’s statement comes shortly after the Justice Department interviewed Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 on sex trafficking and other charges and is serving a 20-year sentence in Tallahassee, Florida. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche interviewed Maxwell in a Florida courthouse, though details about what she said haven’t become public.

Maxwell’s lawyers have said she testified truthfully and answered questions “about 100 different people.” They have said she’s willing to answer more questions from Congress if she is granted immunity from future prosecution for her testimony and if lawmakers agree to satisfy other conditions.

A message seeking comment about the Giuffre family’s statement was sent to Maxwell’s attorney Thursday.

A Trump administration official said the president is not currently considering clemency action for Maxwell.

Giuffre said she was approached by Maxwell in 2000 and eventually was hired by her as a masseuse for Epstein. But the couple effectively made her a sexual servant, she said, pressuring her into gratifying not only Epstein but his friends and associates.

Giuffre said she was flown around the world for appointments with men including Prince Andrew while she was 17 and 18 years old.

The men, including Andrew, denied it and assailed Giuffre’s credibility. She acknowledged changing some key details of her account.

The prince settled with Giuffre in 2022 for an undisclosed sum, agreeing to make a “substantial donation” to her survivors’ organization.

The American-born Giuffre lived in Australia for years and became an advocate for sex trafficking survivors after emerging as a central figure in Epstein’s prolonged downfall.

Her family’s statement said she endured death threats and financial ruin over her cooperation with authorities against Epstein and Maxwell.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that set new tariffs on a wide swath of U.S. trading partners to go into effect on Aug. 7 — the next step in his trade agenda that will test the global economy and sturdiness of American alliances built up over decades.

The order was issued shortly after 7 p.m. on Thursday evening. It came after a flurry of tariff-related activity in the last several days, as the White House announced agreements with various nations and blocs ahead of the president’s self-imposed Friday deadline. The tariffs are being implemented at a later date in order for the rates schedule to be harmonized, according to a senior administration official who spoke to reporters on a call on the condition of anonymity.

The order capped off a hectic Thursday as nations sought to continue negotiating with Trump. It set the rates for 68 countries and the 27-member European Union, with a baseline 10% rate to be charged on countries not listed in the order. The senior administration official said the rates were based on trade imbalance with the U.S. and regional economic profiles.

On Thursday morning, Trump engaged in a phone conversation with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on trade. As a result of the conversation, the U.S. president said he would enter into a 90-day negotiating period with Mexico, one of the nation’s largest trading partners, with the current 25% tariff rates staying in place, down from the 30% he had threatened earlier.

“We avoided the tariff increase announced for tomorrow and we got 90 days to build a long-term agreement through dialogue,” Mexican leader Claudia Sheinbaum wrote on X after a call with Trump that he referred to as “very successful” in terms of the leaders getting to know each other better.

The unknowns created a sense of drama that has defined Trump’s rollout of tariffs over several months, with the one consistency being his desire to levy the import taxes that most economists say will ultimately be borne to some degree by U.S. consumers and businesses.

“We have made a few deals today that are excellent deals for the country,” Trump told reporters on Thursday afternoon without detailing the terms of those agreements or nations involved. The senior administration official declined to reveal the nations that have new deals during the call with reporters.

Trump said that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had called ahead of 35% tariffs being imposed on many of his nation’s goods, but “we haven’t spoken to Canada today.”

Trump imposed the Friday deadline after his previous “Liberation Day” tariffs in April resulted in a stock market panic. His unusually high tariff rates unveiled in April led to recession fears, prompting Trump to impose a 90-day negotiating period. When he was unable to create enough trade deals with other countries, he extended the timeline and sent out letters to world leaders that simply listed rates, prompting a slew of hasty deals.

Trump reached a deal with South Korea on Wednesday, and earlier with the European Union, Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines. His commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” that there were agreements with Cambodia and Thailand after they had agreed to a ceasefire to their border conflict.

Going into Thursday, wealthy Switzerland and Norway were still uncertain about their tariff rates. EU officials were waiting to complete a crucial document outlining how the framework to tax imported autos and other goods from the 27-member state bloc would operate. Trump had announced a deal Sunday while he was in Scotland.

Trump said as part of the agreement with Mexico that goods imported into the U.S. would continue to face a 25% tariff that he has ostensibly linked to fentanyl trafficking. He said autos would face a 25% tariff, while copper, aluminum and steel would be taxed at 50% during the negotiating period.

He said Mexico would end its “Non Tariff Trade Barriers,” but he didn’t provide specifics.

Some goods continue to be protected from the tariffs by the 2020 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, which Trump negotiated during his first term.

But Trump appeared to have soured on that deal, which is up for renegotiation next year. One of his first significant moves as president was to impose tariffs on goods from both Mexico and Canada earlier this year.

U.S. Census Bureau figures show that the U.S. ran a $171.5 billion trade imbalance with Mexico last year. That means the U.S. bought more goods from Mexico than it sold to the country.

The imbalance with Mexico has grown in the aftermath of the USMCA, as it was only $63.3 billion in 2016, the year before Trump started his first term in office.

Associated Press writers Lorne Cook in Brussels and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A teacher admitted he fatally stabbed a couple he didn’t know who were hiking with two of their children in an Arkansas state park, authorities said Thursday, after a five-day search and hundreds of tips led to his arrest.

State Police arrested 28-year-old Andrew James McGann on Wednesday at a barbershop in Springdale, approximately 30 miles north of Devil’s Den State Park, said Maj. Stacie Rhoads, commander of the department’s criminal investigation division.

McGann is charged with two counts of capital murder in the killing Saturday of Clinton David Brink, 43, and his 41-year-old wife Cristen Amanda Brink. McGann is being held without bond.

“He did indicate that he committed the murders,” Rhoads said during a news conference Thursday. When asked to elaborate, she said: “I would call it an admission.”

Arkansas State Police Col. Mike Hagar said authorities are trying to determine a motive for the attack and have no reason to believe McGann knew the couple or their children.

Officials said the husband was stabbed first, approximately half a mile into the park, then the mother ushered her children to safety before returning to help her husband. She was also stabbed to death.

Authorities have not said if the girls witnessed both their parents being killed.

McGann was cooperative during the arrest and admitted to killing the couple soon after, Rhoads said. Police also matched his DNA to blood found at the crime scene. The case is distressing even to the police.

“In my 27 years that I’ve been with the State Police, this is probably one of the most heinous that we’ve had, especially the aspect of just how random it was,” Rhoads said.

But officials emphasized at the news conference that McGann, who has no criminal record, is innocent until proven guilty.

Washington County prosecutor Brandon Carter said he did not know if McGann has a lawyer or will need a public defender. The Associated Press has left messages at a number listed for McGann.

Police flooded with tips

Two of the Brinks’ three daughters — ages 7 and 9 — were with them on the hiking trail Saturday, but they were not hurt and are being cared for by family members, authorities said.

Authorities said the investigation was set in motion when they reported the killings to another hiker on the trail.

The State Police collected photos and videos from other hikers who didn’t witness the attack but were on the trails at around the same time. Police also released a composite sketch and a photo that showed a person of interest from behind.

The police then narrowed down the suspect’s vehicle, which had tape over the license plate, using surveillance footage from homes and businesses near Devil’s Den.

Within an hour of McGann being identified as a suspect, he was caught at the barber shop.

“Everyone speculates that there was a lot of thought that went into this to conceal his identity, but on the other side of that, he was very sloppy,” Rhoads said.

Carter indicated the state would give a jury the option to sentence McGann to the death penalty.

Suspect taught in other states before Arkansas job

McGann has active teaching licenses in Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma, according to each respective government certification website. There are no infractions or suspensions noted on his public state licensures in any of those states. The Associated Press reached out to all three state education agencies on Thursday.

McGann was placed on administrative leave in spring 2023 while he was employed at Donald Elementary School in Flower Mound, Texas, “following concerns related to classroom management, professional judgment, and student favoritism,” according to a spokesperson for the Lewisville Independent School District.

Sierra Marcum, whose son was in McGann’s fourth grade class, said the teacher came across as “pretty cold” and “disinterested in his students.” Marcum said her son had come home from school upset about some of McGann’s behavior, which she reported to the school’s principal.

McGann resigned from the Lewisville posting in May 2023, the district said in a statement.

He also taught at a small Oklahoma school district from the summer of 2024 until May this year. He resigned to take a job in another state, according to a statement from Sand Springs Public Schools, near Tulsa. The district said McGann passed all background checks.

Law enforcement hasn’t contacted Sand Springs Public Schools regarding the investigation, according to district spokesperson Lissa Chidester.

McGann had not yet started his new job in Arkansas at Springdale Public Schools, said Jared Cleveland, the district superintendent. He said the district could not provide more information, citing the investigation.

The victims had just arrived in Arkansas

The Brinks had recently moved from South Dakota to the small city of Prairie Grove in northwest Arkansas. Their water was connected less than two weeks ago, Mayor David Faulk said.

Clinton Brink was supposed to start working as a milk delivery driver on Monday in the Fayetteville area, according to Hiland Dairy, his employer. Cristen Brink had been licensed as a nurse in Montana and South Dakota before moving to Arkansas.

The Brink family said the couple died “heroes protecting their little girls.”

Devil’s Den is a 2,500-acre state park near West Fork, about 140 miles northwest of Little Rock, the state capital. Its trails have been closed to the public since Saturday.

Officials on Thursday assured the public that there is not a pattern of violence at state parks.

“Someday they’re going to reopen Devil’s Den State Park and I’ll be on the trail once that happens,” Carter said.

Riddle reported from Montgomery, Alabama. Associated Press reporter Hallie Golden in Seattle and Corey Williams in Detroit contributed.

Correction: This story has been corrected to show Stacie Rhoads, the commander of the State Police criminal investigation division, is a major not colonel.

Today in history:

On July 31, 2012, at the Summer Olympics in London, swimmer Michael Phelps won his 19th Olympic medal, becoming the most decorated Olympian of all time. (He would finish his career with 28 total Olympic medals, 23 of them gold.)

Also on this date:

In 1715, a fleet of Spanish ships carrying gold, silver and jewelry sank during a hurricane off the east Florida coast; of some 2,500 crew members, more than 1,000 died.

In 1777, the 19-year-old Marquis de Lafayette received a commission as major general in the Continental Army by the Second Continental Congress.

In 1919, Germany’s Weimar Constitution was adopted by the republic’s National Assembly.

In 1945, Pierre Laval, premier of the pro-Nazi Vichy government in France, surrendered to U.S. authorities in Austria; he was turned over to France, which later tried and executed him.

In 1957, the Distant Early Warning Line, a system of radar stations designed to detect Soviet bombers approaching North America, went into operation.

In 1964, the U.S. lunar probe Ranger 7 took the first close-up images of the moon’s surface.

In 1971, Apollo 15 crew members David Scott and James Irwin became the first astronauts to use a lunar rover on the surface of the moon.

In 1972, vice-presidential candidate Thomas Eagleton withdrew from the Democratic ticket with George McGovern following disclosures that Eagleton had received electroshock therapy to treat clinical depression.

In 1991, President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) in Moscow.

In 2020, a federal appeals court overturned the death sentence of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, saying the judge who oversaw the case didn’t adequately screen jurors for potential biases. (The Supreme Court reimposed the sentence in 2022.)

Today’s Birthdays:

• Jazz composer-musician Kenny Burrell is 94.
• Actor Geraldine Chaplin is 81.
• Former movie studio executive Sherry Lansing is 81.
• Singer Gary Lewis is 79.
• International Tennis Hall of Famer Evonne Goolagong Cawley is 74.
• Actor Michael Biehn is 69.
• Rock singer-musician Daniel Ash (Love and Rockets) is 68.
• Entrepreneur Mark Cuban is 67.
• Rock musician Bill Berry (R.E.M.) is 67.
• Jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan is 66.
• Actor Wesley Snipes is 63.
• Musician Fatboy Slim is 62.
• Author J.K. Rowling is 60.
• Actor Dean Cain is 59.
• Actor Jim True-Frost is 59.
• Actor Ben Chaplin is 56.
• Actor Eve Best is 54.
• Football Hall of Famer Jonathan Ogden is 51.
• Country singer-musician Zac Brown is 47.
• Actor-producer-writer B.J. Novak is 46.
• Football Hall of Famer DeMarcus Ware is 43.
• NHL center Evgeni Malkin is 39.
• NASCAR driver Kyle Larson is 33.
• Hip-hop artist Lil Uzi Vert is 30.
• Actor Rico Rodriguez (TV: “Modern Family”) is 27.