By Kit Maher and Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump announced a long-awaited trade agreement with Japan on Tuesday night, a framework between allies and major trading partners that appeared elusive just weeks ago.

“I just signed the largest trade deal in history; I think maybe the largest deal in history with Japan,” Trump said during a reception with Republican members of Congress Tuesday night.

“They had their top people here, and we worked on it long and hard. And it’s a great deal for everybody.”

The deal will see US importers pay 15% “reciprocal” tariffs on Japanese goods exported to the United States. But importantly for Japan, the 15% rate will also extend to automobiles and car parts – putting it at an advantage over other major vehicle exporters, which have faced a 25% levy on automotive sector exports since April.

Japan will also invest $550 billion dollars into the United States, Trump said, adding that the US “will receive 90% of the profits.”

“This Deal will create Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs — There has never been anything like it. Perhaps most importantly, Japan will open their Country to Trade including Cars and Trucks, Rice and certain other Agricultural Products, and other things. Japan will pay Reciprocal Tariffs to the United States of 15%,” Trump had posted earlier on Truth Social.

The news saw Japanese markets hit a one-year high on Wednesday, with a surge in the price of automaker shares pushing the Nikkei 3.7% higher.

“Mission accomplished,” proclaimed Japan’s tariff negotiation Ryosei Akazawa in a post on X, accompanied with a photo of himself in the White House pointing to an image of Trump and Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in prior talks.

Japan is “the first in the world to be able to reduce tariffs on automobiles and auto parts without volume restrictions,” Akazawa told reporters in Washington DC Tuesday night.

In Tokyo, Ishiba hailed the deal as “the lowest figure to date for a country that has a trade surplus with the United States,” adding that the government will examine the details of the deal “carefully.”

“We believe that this will contribute to the creation of jobs, the production of good products, and the fulfillment of various roles in the world through the mutual cooperation of Japan and the US,” he told reporters at his office on Wednesday.

Akazawa explained that the Japanese injection of $550 billion into the US would be in the form of equity and loan to support Japanese businesses’ investments in key fields such as pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.

The share of American rice imports may increase under the current agricultural trade framework, Akazawa said, while stressing that the agreement would “not sacrifice Japanese agriculture.”

Japan will also continue discussions with the US on other tariff measures not covered in Tuesday’s deal, including steel and aluminum, which remain subject to a 50% levy, Akazawa said.

The Japan agreement was the third piece of trade-related news Trump announced on Tuesday. This comes after months of negotiations with key trading partners like the European Union, South Korea, India and dozens of others at a standstill as Trump’s latest August 1 deadline for higher tariffs looms.

Tough negotiations

Both sides previously described the negotiations as tense. Asked about the chance of a trade deal with Japan in June, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, “They’re tough. The Japanese are tough.”

But on Tuesday Trump said the deal marked a “very exciting time for the United States of America, and especially for the fact that we will continue to always have a great relationship with the Country of Japan.”

Late last month, Trump highlighted rice sales as one point of contention between the two nations.

“They won’t take our RICE, and yet they have a massive rice shortage,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

The country bought $298 million worth of rice from the US last year, according to US Census Bureau trade data. Between January and April of this year, Japan bought $114 million worth of rice.

But a 2021 report published by the Office of the United States Trade Representative under former President Joe Biden stated that “Japan’s highly regulated and nontransparent system of importation and distribution for rice limits the ability of US exporters to have meaningful access to Japan’s consumers.”

Cars – a pillar of the Japanese economy – have also been an issue in the negotiations. Trump has said Japan does not import US cars. “We didn’t give them one car in 10 years,” he said earlier this month.

Last year, Japan imported 16,707 units of American automobiles, according to the Japan Automobile Importers Association.

Despite sticking points like rice and cars, the tensions in negotiations showed signs of easing last week after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with Ishiba in Tokyo and posted on X that he was optimistic about reaching a deal.

“A good deal is more important than a rushed deal, and a mutually beneficial trade agreement between the United States and Japan remains within the realm of possibility,” Bessent said.

Mary Lovely at the Peterson Institute said the agreement eased the threat of even higher tariffs on Japan.

“The ‘deal’ relieves Japan of the 25% tariff threat and puts it potentially in a competitive position vis a vis similar US suppliers,” she wrote in an email to CNN. “The US is unlikely to sell many cars and trucks… from the US. Agricultural liberalization (is) a win for Japanese consumers, assuming they are willing to try excellent California rice.”

A major trading partner

Unlike some of the agreements Trump has announced recently, including with Indonesia and the Philippines, Japan is a significant trading partner with the United States.

Japan is the United States’ fifth-largest source of imports. Last year, it shipped $148 billion worth of goods to the US, according to Commerce Department data. Cars, car parts and agricultural and construction machinery were among the top goods Americans bought from there.

Goods from Japan briefly faced a 24% “reciprocal” tariff before Trump enacted a 90-day pause in April. Since then goods have faced a 10% minimum tariff.

In early July, Trump sent a letter to Japan’s prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, threatening to enact a 25% tariff on August 1.

Meanwhile, the US exported $80 billion worth of goods to Japan last year. Oil and gas, pharmaceuticals and aerospace products were the top exports.

Beyond the trade deal, Trump told lawmakers at the White House Tuesday that Tokyo and Washington are close to forming a joint venture for a gas pipeline project in Alaska. The Trump Administration has long sought to encourage its Asian allies, from Japan, South Korea, to Taiwan, to invest in the Alaska venture.

“They’re all set to make that deal now,” Trump said, without providing more details.

Japan has been in an uncomfortable position, since China is its top trading partner and the Trump administration had been looking to pressure allies to reduce their levels of trade with China to get a trade deal with the US, according to multiple reports.

The latest agreement between the US and Japan follows an expanded trade agreement the two countries signed in 2019, which went into effect the subsequent year and allowed for more goods to be shipped duty-free.

Japan held some leverage over the United States in its trade agreement: The nation is America’s biggest foreign creditor. Japan holds $1.1 trillion of US Treasuries, used to finance America’s massive and mounting debt.

This story has been updated with additional context and developments.

CNN’s John Liu, Yumi Asada and Matt Egan contributed reporting.

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By Tami Luhby, CNN

(CNN) — The US Department of Education has halted the cancellation of student loans in Income-Based Repayment plans, prompting concern among borrowers that their loans will not be forgiven anytime soon.

The department posted a notice of the pause in an FAQ on its Federal Student Aid website earlier this month, saying that it needs to address a federal court order that affects income-driven repayment plans.

“Currently, IBR forgiveness is paused while our systems are updated to accurately count months not affected by the court’s injunction. IBR forgiveness will resume once those updates are completed,” the department wrote.

The department noted that forgiveness in other income-driven repayment plans are paused, but it will continue to “process loan forgiveness for the IBR Plan, which was separately enacted by Congress” in the future.

The pause comes at a time of major change for the nation’s student loan system that has rattled some borrowers. Interest will start accruing on August 1 for millions of borrowers in Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plans, a Biden-era income-driven repayment option that has been blocked by the federal court order, even as payment remain halted. And President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” contains a major overhaul of student loan repayment plans and borrowing rules.

The roughly 2 million borrowers in IBR plans are eligible to have their loans forgiven after either 20 or 25 years of payments, depending on when the loans were taken out. But calculating whether borrowers have made enough payments to qualify for forgiveness has been an issue for several years.

Also, the Biden administration made several changes to the IBR plan forgiveness program, including counting the months that loan payments were deferred for economic hardship reasons or paused in forbearance toward payment requirement.

The court’s order affected certain of the Biden administration’s regulatory changes that pertain to the IBR plans, including the expanded set of deferments and forbearances that count toward forgiveness, said Mark Kantrowitz, a longtime student loan expert.

Borrowers, however, are worried that the Trump administration — which has not been supportive of loan forgiveness programs in the past — may “slow walk” the loan discharges, Kantrowitz said. They must continue repaying their loans until the Department of Education determines they have met the criteria to have their loans discharged.

“Borrowers who qualify for forgiveness want to receive their forgiveness,” he said.

The department says that it needs to temporarily suspend the IBR plan forgiveness program to implement the court ruling.

“Legal IBR discharges will resume as soon as the Department is able to establish the correct payment count,” Ellen Keast, the agency’s deputy press secretary, said in a statement to CNN. “For any borrower that makes a payment after the date of borrower eligibility, the Department will refund overpayments when the discharges resume.”

While the department did not respond to CNN’s question about when IBR plan forgiveness will resume, Scott Buchanan, executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, said he doesn’t think the pause will last long.

Still, another reason eligible borrowers are concerned about the pause is that loans canceled after January 1 are set to be counted as income for tax purposes, said Aissa Canchola Banez, policy director at the Student Borrower Protection Center, an advocacy group. That’s because the Republican-led Congress did not extend a Biden-era provision that made such cancellations tax exempt and is scheduled to expire at year’s end.

“This delay can force folks to ultimately get to that date in which they could potentially see a tax bill,” she said.

The department, which has laid off a sizable number of its staff, is already contending with a large backlog of roughly 1.5 million applications from borrowers seeking to switch into different income-driven repayment plans, Kantrowitz said.

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In a dimly lit hallway of a battered field hospital in central Gaza, Abu Fadi sits slouched against a wall, his body barely able to hold itself upright. At 60 years old, he appears older, with sunken cheeks, vacant eyes, and a frame that is little more than skin stretched tight over bones.

“I didn’t ask for much, just bread for the children. But even that became impossible,” he murmured.

Abu Fadi’s story is not unique in Gaza. Once a farmer from a small village in Beit Lahia town in the northern Gaza Strip, he was displaced months ago when Israeli airstrikes flattened his neighbourhood.

He carried what little he could to central Gaza, clinging to hope that hunger would be temporary. But over the weeks, the pangs in his stomach sharpened into something darker: dizziness, weight loss, confusion.

He has shed more than 40 kilograms. Eventually, when he could barely walk, his neighbours helped him reach Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp. What he found there wasn’t relief. It was a mirror.

The hungry doctor

Mahmoud Saidam, a doctor at al-Awda hospital who greeted Abu Fadi, is in his early 30s. He appears healthy at first glance until he stands. His posture is stooped, his eyes are ringed with exhaustion, and his hands tremble when he tries to grip a pen.

“You’re about to faint, but so am I. I haven’t eaten in two days, just some tea and a biscuit,” he told Abu Fadi gently.

Saidam volunteers at Al-Awda, one of the few remaining partially operational hospitals in the central Gaza Strip.

His own home in Nuseirat was destroyed in an airstrike, and he now sleeps in a tent near the hospital compound. He has not received a salary in months. Like nearly all medical professionals in Gaza, he stays out of moral duty.

“But duty doesn’t feed you,” he says. “When your body gives out, there’s nothing left to give.”

To steady his shaking hands during examinations, he now leans against walls or tables. “I can’t inject an intravenous solution without support,” he says. “My muscles are too weak.”

Mohammed Odwan, a journalist who arrived at Al-Awda to report on Gaza’s growing hunger crisis, was documenting these scenes when he realised he had become a part of the story.

“I asked Abu Fadi how he was feeling. He looked at me, then asked if I had anything to eat,” Owan recalled to The New Arab.

Odwan hesitated. “I didn’t have anything. I hadn’t eaten since the day before. My own children are crying in our tent every night, and I have no way to feed them,” he told Abu Fadi.

That moment, a doctor too weak to heal, a patient too frail to survive, and a journalist too hungry to write, felt like a snapshot of something much larger: the collapse of Gaza’s human infrastructure. Not just buildings and roads, but people, bodies, and dignity.

The three men, Abu Fadi, the doctor and the journalist, are among 2.3 million Palestinians now facing famine-like conditions in Gaza.

Once a densely populated territory known for its resilience and culture, Gaza is now gripped by mass starvation. Families that once shared bread now fight over scraps. Children that once played in alleyways now lie on makeshift mats, their limbs limp from malnutrition.

Toll of starvation

Doctors across Gaza report a growing list of medical symptoms tied to starvation: severe wasting, muscle atrophy, weakened immune systems, hair loss, and dangerously low blood sugar levels.

According to local doctors, children are particularly vulnerable. Some suffer from swollen limbs and faces, a sign of protein deficiency. Others enter states of delirium or lose consciousness entirely.

Pregnant women report fainting regularly. In shelters, hundreds of cases of collapse have been recorded, mostly among women and children, due to a lack of food, clean water, and basic medical care.

The health ministry in Gaza announced on Tuesday that at least 101 people, including 80 children, have died from starvation since March.

“We are seeing children with brittle bones […] They can’t walk or cry any more. The sound of hunger has become silence,” Mohammed Abu Selmeia, the director of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, told TNA.

Hunger is no longer an emergency. It is the new status quo.

Israel imposed a full blockade on Gaza on 2 March, following the breakdown of the first phase of the fragile ceasefire agreement with Hamas.

Since then, all border crossings have been closed or severely restricted, preventing the entry of food, medicine, and fuel.

International aid organisations, once Gaza’s only lifeline, are unable to deliver supplies. Even the controversial US-run humanitarian zones have become scenes of death and despair.

According to the health ministry in Gaza, Israeli forces killed over 1,020 Palestinians while they were attempting to collect aid in these “zones” over the past four months.

“People are dying with ration cards in their hands […] the people are told to go to aid points, but when they do, they get bombed,” Odwan said.

He said that he witnessed two children—ages five and eight—digging through hospital garbage for food. Their mother had sent them in hope.

He added that it was a catastrophic situation and “I cannot stand more tragedies around me.”

So, he wrote later in his notebook: “We are beyond danger. This isn’t survival. This is the death of humanity. Gaza is not dying from bombs alone; it is dying from hunger. And what’s worse than hunger is the theft of dignity. To search for food in the rubbish, to beg for bread with your children crying beside you, that is the ultimate collapse.”

He stopped writing. “There’s nothing left to report. The story now lives in every empty stomach, every unanswered cry,” he lamented.

International indifference

On Monday, the Agence France-Presse Journalists Syndicate (SDJ) issued a rare and urgent warning. Reporters working with the agency in Gaza, it said, are themselves starving.

“We have lost journalists in wars,” the statement read. “We have seen them injured, kidnapped, and killed. But never before have we faced the risk of watching our colleagues die from starvation.”

This statement came after reports that multiple media workers in Gaza have been hospitalised for malnutrition, with at least two collapsing during field assignments.

In many neighbourhoods, flour is now more expensive than gold. A single kilogram of wheat flour [if found] can sell for over $50, more than many families make in a month.

“There are no vegetables, no meat, no milk, even stale bread is a luxury now,” Areej Emad, a mother of three in Deir al-Balah, told TNA.

“No one is spared. Not the elderly, not the children, not even the journalists,” the 39-year-old mother of four said.

“We don’t just want aid. We want the siege lifted. We want to live with dignity. We want to eat and be human again. That’s all,” the woman added.

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY AND SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY, Calif. – There is a county-wide phone outage impacting 911 and emergency ten-digit lines in both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties Tuesday.

Details on how to reach emergency services in both counties are shared below.

Santa Barbara County

Anyone with an emergency in Santa Barbara County is asked to call 805-896-5181 or 805-451-5639, text 911, or email info@sbsheriff.org shared the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office asks that the public not call to test those numbers to leave them open for emergencies and even if your call is dropped, dispatchers and deputies will try to call you back at the number you called from.

If you have an emergency is Santa Maria, you are advised to call 805-928-3781 ext. 2277 and the Santa Barbara Police Department has encouraged those in need of help to call 805-882-8900 or approach any public safety personnel currently on an internal tactical alert for maximum responsiveness while emergency lines are down.

“What we want the public to know is that the telephone lines in Santa Barbara County are impacted,” said Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Public Information Officer Raquel Zick.

Zick said they are cellular customers, too.

They pivoted around 10 a.m. and shared the numbers of cell phones that look like old flip phones.

“We do have two non-emergency lines that are available, they are just temporary cell phones that we activated for use in this incident., ” said Zick,”We do also encourage people to text to 911, it is very useful, it is probably the quickest way to get a hold of us right now.”

Thanks to a grant that paid for RapidSOS’s safety platform, (https://rapidsos.com,) dispatchers tracked the numbers of people trying to reach them this morning.

“That was a useful tool,” said Zick, “It is an additional platform that captures information when you call 911, whether or not that call was completed, it captures your attempt to call and it does capture a call back number. Our dispatchers were very diligent, they quickly went to RapidSOS and started looking at those calls for service, looking at those incompleted calls and they did complete around 50 call backs from the RapidSOS system, which resulted in about 15 calls for service, including some medical emergencies that were in progress.”

Zick said dispatchers are looking out for the public.

“I just want to reinforce that you know text to 911 it is a fantastic tool, not only for this emergency but if there is every anything where you can’t talk on the phone, but you can text because you don’t want anyone to hear you or your cell service isn’t very good with call, that happens a lot, where you can’t necessarily complete a call, but you can sent a text, that is another way to get a hold of us,” said ZIck.

But don’t text emojis, she said they are not an effective way to communicate.

According to the City of Santa Barbara, there is no estimated time for restoration of emergency lines.

But crews that contract with Frontier are working along De La Vina and Vernon in Santa Barbara where it appears a line was severed.

The area is full of crews doing bridgework.

As the sun was setting, authorized contractors were still at work trying to repair the problem.

For more information about the outage from the County of Santa Barbara, visit here.

San Luis Obispo County

According to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office, the outage is impacting 911 for both landlines and cellular devices.

If you need help in San Luis Obispo County, call the Sheriff’s Office’s non-emergency dispatch line at 805-781-4550, option 3.

The outage is believed to be part of a larger regional issue, also impacting Santa Barbara County,” shared the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office in a press release about the outage Tuesday. “We are closely monitoring the situation and actively working with local and state partners, as well as the affected service providers, to identify the source of the disruption and determine an estimated time of restoration.”

This is an evolving situation and more information will be added to this article when it is available.

Santa Cruz RTC held an informational meeting on Tuesday night to tell the community about plans for the train stations coming with the zero emission rail project. The RTC has plans for 9 stations in Santa Cruz county, and revealed 3 design concepts for them.

Those designs include a woody concept evoking a connection to the redwoods, a beachy concept that puts Santa Cruz’s coastal connection front and center, and an industrial rail concept with brickwork. With so much variety in Santa Cruz county, some locals asked if different stations could have different themes that match their landscape, but RTC officials say that a keeping stations consistent is more important for the project.

Officials add that while the themes won’t change, there can still be some variety between different stations. An idea was floated where the RTC asks the communities around the new stations for how best to represent their portion of the county while keeping the designs consistent and readable for riders.

The RTC is accepting feedback on station designs and anything else related to the zero emission rail project at zeprt.com. The next in person hearing on the project is set for august 7th, ahead of the full project report set to be presented later this fall.