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US-EU deal sets a 15% tariff on most goods and averts the threat of a trade war with a global shock

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.”

ISU trying to find ways to improve lithium-ion battery safety

By Dar Danielson (Radio Iowa)

An Iowa State University researcher is using a special tool to test the limits of lithium-ion batteries. Todd Kingston says the device called the accelerating rate calorimeter or ARC.

“It enables us to do various types of electrochemical, thermal, mechanical and electrical abuse testing in a very safe manner. It’s specifically designed to contain a thermal runaway event, explosions of the battery,” Kingston says.

Kingston purchased the ARC with a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of Naval Research. He says they can use it to push the batteries beyond their charging limits, or submit them to mechanical abuse. “Mechanical abuse could be like a crush test. So if you apply pressure to a battery, some batteries are designed, they have a kind of a rigid can and can withstand some pressure. But after enough pressure is applied, you can start to have mechanical deformation and start to actually mechanically deform the active materials inside of the battery,” he says.

Kingston is an associate professor of mechanical engineering and says they want to learn how to prevent issues with the batteries. “Ultimately we are interested in improving the safety and the performance of batteries. That being said, I don’t design batteries myself, but we can provide lots of information that would inform the design or the guidelines or the use of battery in various applications,” Kingston says

Waste haulers say lithium-ion batteries have increasingly caused problems with fires in garbage trucks and landfills, and are encouraging everyone to recycle batteries. Kingston says his research could also help in the recycling process.  “Recycling them, even the collection and transport of batteries, you know, ones that are reached their end of life and are looking to be recycled, there’s a lot of safety concerns associated with just, you know, that process the recycling process and how do we safely transport them, how do we safely recycle them. So there’s a lot to learn and a lot that we need to still improve on,” Kingston says.

He says the are testing a range of batteries used for various applications from smaller ones to larger ones used in electric vehicles.

Extreme Heat Warning to Go into Effect Today

DES MOINES – An Extreme Heat Warning will be in effect for our area today.

The National Weather Service in Des Moines issued the warning for portions of central and southern Iowa, and it will be in effect from noon today till 8pm this evening. The National Weather Service in the Quad Cities likewise issued a warning for portions of southeastern Iowa for the same time frame.

Dangerously hot conditions are in the forecast for this afternoon and evening, with heat index values of 110-115F expected. The risk of heat-related illness increases significantly during extreme heat and high humidity events, so officials urge caution for those who must be outside for extended periods. The NWS advises those in the area to drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors.

Oskaloosa City Council Special Election to be Held One Week from Tomorrow

OSKALOOSA – The city of Oskaloosa’s special election for its vacant at-large city council seat is happening one week from tomorrow.

Former councilmember Charlie Comfort held the seat until he announced his resignation in May. The Oskaloosa City Council temporarily filled the seat via appointment, but a petition was received requesting a special election to fill the vacancy. 

There are three candidates on the ballot for next week’s election:

  • Manny Garcia
  • Nicholas Ryan
  • Andy Holmberg

Oskaloosa residents will be able to vote at one of four polling locations around the city, depending on their home address.

Oskaloosa – Ward 1

  • Ag Extension Office: 212 North I Street

Oskaloosa – Ward 2

  • Gateway Church of the Nazarene: 140 Gateway Drive

Oskaloosa – Ward 3

  • Assembly of God Church Gym: 716 S. 17th Street

Oskaloosa – Ward 4

  • Old YMCA: 414 North 3rd Street

More information on the election is available here.

Jazz legend Chuck Mangione, known for ‘Feels So Good,’ dies at 84

NEW YORK (AP) — Two-time Grammy Award-winning musician Chuck Mangione, who achieved international success in 1977 with his jazz-flavored single “Feels So Good” and later became a voice actor on the animated TV comedy “King of the Hill,” has died. He was 84.

Mangione died at his home in Rochester, New York, on Tuesday in his sleep, said his attorney, Peter S. Matorin of Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP. The musician had been retired since 2015.

Perhaps his biggest hit — “Feels So Good” — is a staple on most smooth-jazz radio stations and has been called one of the most recognized melodies since “Michelle” by the Beatles. It hit No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the top of the Billboard adult contemporary chart.

“It identified for a lot of people a song with an artist, even though I had a pretty strong base audience that kept us out there touring as often as we wanted to, that song just topped out there and took it to a whole other level,” Mangione told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2008.

He followed that hit with “Give It All You Got,” commissioned for the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, and he performed it at the closing ceremony.

Mangione, a flugelhorn and trumpet player and jazz composer, released more than 30 albums during a career in which he built a sizable following after recording several albums, doing all the writing.

He won his first Grammy Award in 1977 for his album “Bellavia,” which was named in honor of his mother. Another album, “Friends and Love,” was also Grammy-nominated, and he earned a best original score Golden Globe nomination and a second Grammy for the movie “The Children of Sanchez.”

Mangione introduced himself to a new audience when he appeared on the first several seasons of “King of the Hill,” appearing as a commercial spokesman for Mega Lo Mart, where “shopping feels so good.”

Mangione, brother of jazz pianist Gap Mangione, with whom he partnered in The Jazz Brothers, started his career as a bebop jazz musician heavily inspired by Dizzy Gillespie.

“He also was one of the first musicians I saw who had a rapport with the audience by just telling the audience what he was going to play and who was in his band,” Mangione told the Post-Gazette.

Mangione earned a bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music — where he would eventually return as director of the school’s jazz ensemble — and left home to play with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

He donated his signature brown felt hat and the score of his Grammy-winning single “Feels So Good,” as well as albums, songbooks and other ephemera from his long and illustrious career to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in 2009.

Iowa boy awarded Guinness World Record for most premature baby

By James Kelley (Radio Iowa)

An Iowa baby now holds the Guinness World Record for the most premature baby.

Nash Keen was born last year at just 21 weeks — so early that most hospitals couldn’t deliver him, but doctors at University of Iowa Health Care resituated the baby at birth and supported him using advanced ultrasound technology to measure the blood supply to his heart and lungs.

“We don’t really know…We don’t have any research on babies this young and so we just held on to hope,” said Mollie Keen, Nash’s mother. “That was kind of what we did for the first month until Nash started to show us that he was really fighting.”

In the beginning, doctors told the family the baby boy had a zero percent chance of survival. Dr. Patrick McNamara, the UIHC’s director of neonatology, said this case opens a new frontier in his field.

“Nash is resilient,” he said. “What we have learned, and not just necessarily with Nash, is that survival is possible at 21 weeks gestation, but not just survival — meaningful survival.”

Nash, who lives with his parents in Ankeny, turned one on July 5. He was born at 21 weeks and weighed 10 ounces. The previous Guinness World Record for most premature baby was a boy born in Alabama five years ago — at 21 weeks and one day.

Ottumwa Woman Arrested for Forgery, Theft

OTTUMWA – An Ottumwa woman was arrested this week after allegedly using counterfeit money to make purchases at a gas station.

Court records show that 56-year-old Tammatha Lea Brown made two separate purchases at the Hy-Vee Gas Station in north Ottumwa in June using fake $100 bills. Both were described as smaller transactions, allowing Brown to receive large amounts of real cash in change.

Authorities say that Brown was aware she was using counterfeit money when making the purchases. She has two prior theft convictions on her record, one of which occurred in 2010, and the other of which occurred last month.

Brown was arrested on a warrant on Wednesday and charged with 3rd Degree Theft, an aggravated misdemeanor, and Forgery, a Class D felony.

Oskaloosa’s Sweet Corn Serenade Held Yesterday

By Sam Parsons

Oskaloosa Main Street Hosted their 38th Annual Sweet Corn Serenade yesterday. Plans were changed early, as rain had been forecasted for the afternoon, resulting in many of the festivities being held indoors at Penn Central Mall.

Vendors were set up inside Penn Central Mall at noon, and food trucks lined the downtown Osky square at the same time. Delicious hamburgers and sweet corn were served later in the afternoon, and a performance from Thunderkatz took place indoors for much of the evening. The Oskaloosa City Band concert at 8pm was still held in the city bandstand.

Oskaloosa Main Street’s next flagship event is their annual Lighted Christmas Parade, which is scheduled for December 6.

Close call between a B-52 bomber and a commercial jet over North Dakota puts focus on small airports

MINOT (AP) — The evasive action an airline pilot took to avoid a B-52 bomber in the skies over North Dakota has focused attention on the way small airport towers are often run by private companies without their own radars.

Neither one of the pilots of the bomber or of the Delta Air Lines jet seemed to know the other plane was there before the airline pilot saw the B-52 looming in its path. The incident last Friday is still under investigation. But the Air Force has said the controller at the Minot airport didn’t let the bomber’s crew know about the airliner, and the SkyWest pilot flying the Delta flight told passengers he was surprised.

Passengers were alarmed by the sharp turn and dive the pilot of Delta Flight 3788 executed to avoid the bomber that had just completed a flyover at the State Fair in Minot, and a video shot aboard the plane captured the pilot’s explanation afterward.

“Sorry about the aggressive maneuver. It caught me by surprise,” the pilot can be heard saying on the video posted on social media. “This is not normal at all. I don’t know why they didn’t give us a heads-up.”

This close call is just the latest incident to raise questions about aviation safety in the wake of January’s midair collision over Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people. Here’s more about the way small airports like Minot operate:

Many small airports lack radar

It is common for small airports across the country to operate without their own radar systems because it would be too costly to install them at every airport. But there generally aren’t many problems with that.

The controllers at small airports are able to guide planes in to land visually with binoculars and radios as long as the weather is clear. Aviation safety consultant Jeff Guzzetti, who used to investigate crashes for both the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration, said if the weather is bad, a regional FAA radar facility may be able to help, but ultimately planes simply won’t land if the weather is too bad.

Sometimes small airport towers do have a video feed that gives controllers a view of a radar screen at an FAA facility miles away. Because the radar is so far away the display may not be as detailed about planes flying close to the ground, but the system does give controllers more information. It’s not clear if the Minot tower has one of those systems because the company that runs it, Midwest Air Traffic Control Inc., hasn’t responded to questions since the incident.

The overlapping network of FAA radar facilities across the country also keeps track of planes flying between airports, and an approach control radar center in Minneapolis helps direct planes in and out of Minot before controllers at the airport take over once they see the planes. The Minot airport typically handles between 18 and 24 flights a day. That’s how it works at many small airports.

“Most times it works just fine,” Guzzetti said.

Some of these small airports could gain radar as part of a massive overhaul of the air traffic control system, but that will depend on how busy the airports are and how much funding Congress ultimately approves for the multibillion-dollar project. So far, $12.5 billion was included in President Trump’s overall budget bill.

Private companies operate the towers

The FAA says that 265 airport towers nationwide are operated by companies as part of the contract system. The Transportation Department’s Inspector General has said the contract towers that handle more than one quarter of the nation’s flights are more cost effective than comparable FAA towers and have similar safety records. In some cases, local governments help pay the costs of contract towers.

The program began in 1982 at five less busy towers that had closed because of the air traffic controller strike the previous year, and it has expanded significantly over the years because it has been so successful. Most of the airports with contract towers would have no controllers without the program.

“Common sense would tell you that having an extra set of eyes controlling the local traffic — especially in good weather — would be safer than having no controller and just having the pilots talking to each other,” Guzzetti said.

That’s exactly how it works at the vast majority of the 5,100 public airports nationwide that are smaller than Minot. Pilots at those uncontrolled airports use their radios to coordinate takeoffs and landings with other planes in the area. Only about 10% of all airports have towers.

The FAA says it works closely with the companies that run contract towers to ensure their controllers are properly trained. It is easier to get certified at a contract tower because they handle fewer flights than FAA towers even though controllers are held to the same standard.

More controllers are needed nationwide

The ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers has persisted for years partly because it takes so long to train and certify new controllers. The FAA has said that it is roughly 3,000 short of the number of controllers it should have at its facilities.

The staffing situation at private towers is similar because they hire from the same pool of candidates. All the roughly 1,400 controllers at these smaller airports have to meet the same qualification and training requirements. But contract towers also have the ability to hire controllers who retired from an FAA tower before the mandatory retirement age of 56. The contract towers don’t have a retirement age.

The FAA has been working for a long time to hire more air traffic controllers to replace retiring workers and handle growing air traffic. But it can be hard to find good candidates for the stressful positions who can complete the rigorous training.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has announced several efforts to hire and retain more controllers. The FAA is trying to shorten the time it takes between when someone applies to the air traffic controller academy in Oklahoma City and when they start training, and the agency is also trying to improve the graduation rate there by offering more support to the students. The candidates with the highest scores on the entrance exam are also getting top priority.

The FAA is also offering bonuses to experienced controllers if they opt not to retire early and continue working to help ease the shortage.

Weekly Fuel Report

DES MOINES — The price of regular unleaded gasoline rose 2 cents from last week’s price and is currently averaging $2.95 across Iowa according to AAA.

Crude Oil Summary

  • The price of global crude oil fell this week on the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) by $1.48 per barrel over last week, currently priced at $65.07.
  • Brent crude oil fell by $0.34 and is currently priced at $68.33.
  • One year ago, WTI crude sold for $78.24 and Brent crude was $82.20.

Motor Fuels

  • As of Wednesday, the price of regular unleaded gasoline averaged $2.95 across Iowa according to AAA.
    • Prices rose 2 cents from last week’s price and are down 34 cents from a year ago.
    • The national average on Wednesday was $3.16, remaining unchanged from last week’s price.
  • Retail diesel prices in Iowa rose 5 cents this week with a statewide average of $3.58.
    • One year ago, diesel prices averaged $3.53 in Iowa.
    • The current Iowa diesel price is 16 cents lower than the national average of $3.74.
  • The current Des Moines Terminal/Rack Prices are $1.97 for U87-E10, $2.30 for Unleaded 87 (clear), $2.57 for ULSD#2, $2.82 for ULSD#1, and $1.93 per gallon for E-70 prices.

Heating Fuels

  • Natural gas prices were down 44 cents at the Henry Hub reporting site and are currently priced at $3.09 MMbtu.
  • We will continue reporting retail heating oil and propane prices in Iowa in October.

Tips for saving energy on the road or at home are available at energy.gov and fueleconomy.gov.

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