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TORONTO (AP) — Two Canadian Cabinet ministers left a meeting at Mar-a-Lago on Friday without assurances President-elect Donald Trump will back away from threatened tariffs on all products from the major American trading partner.

The Canadians called the talks “productive” and said there would be further discussions but one official said the Americans remain fixated on the U.S. trade deficit with Canada.

Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly met with Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, as well as North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department.

Trump has threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian products if Canada does not stem what he calls a flow of migrants and fentanyl into the United States — even though far fewer of each cross into the U.S. from Canada than from Mexico, which Trump has also threatened.

“Minister LeBlanc and Minister Joly had a positive, productive meeting at Mar-a-Lago with Howard Lutnick and Doug Burgum, as a follow-up to the dinner between the Prime Minister and President Trump last month,” said Jean-Sébastien Comeau, a spokesman for LeBlanc.

Comeau said both ministers outlined the measures in Canada’s billion-dollar plan to increase security at the border and reiterated “the shared commitment to strengthen border security as well as combat the harm caused by fentanyl to save Canadian and American lives.”

Comeau said Lutnick and Burgum agreed to relay the information to Trump.

A senior Canadian official, however, said the Americans remain preoccupied on the U.S. trade deficit with Canada and want it to shrink. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Trump has made an issue of the U.S. trade deficit, erroneously calling it a subsidy.

Canada’s ambassador to Washington, Kirsten Hillman, has said the U.S. had a $75 billion trade deficit with Canada last year. But she noted a third of what Canada sells into the U.S. are energy exports and said there is a deficit when oil prices are high.

About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports and 85% of U.S. electricity imports are from Canada. Alberta alone sends 4.3 million barrel s of oil per day to the U.S which tends to consume about 20 million barrels a day.

The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Further discussions are expected in the coming weeks. Joly will also have dinner with U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham on Friday.

Trump has been trolling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on social media in recent weeks by calling him the Governor of the 51st state.

Trudeau has not directly responded, but did post a link Thursday to a six-minute video on YouTube from 2010 in which American NBC journalist Tom Brokaw “explains Canada to Americans.”

“Some information about Canada for Americans” Trudeau wrote in the post on X.

The video, which originally aired during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, explains similarities between the two countries, the massive trading relationship and the actions of the Canadian military in World War 2 and Afghanistan.

“In our darkest hours Canada has been with us,” Brokaw says in the video. “In the long history of sovereign neighbors there has never been a relationship as close, productive and peaceful as the U.S. and Canada.”

Trudeau has told Trump that Americans would also suffer if the president-elect follows through on a plan to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products.

Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian dollars ($2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day. Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states.

Flows of migrants and seizures of drugs are vastly different at the U.S.’s two land borders. U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border during the last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.

Most of the fentanyl reaching the U.S. — where it causes about 70,000 overdose deaths annually — is made by Mexican drug cartels using precursor chemicals smuggled from Asia.

On immigration, the U.S. Border Patrol reported 1.53 million encounters with migrants at the southwest border with Mexico between October 2023 and September 2024. That compares to 23,721 encounters at the Canadian border during that time.

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In the thick of holiday travel, another unticketed passenger attempted to stow away on a Delta Air Lines flight.

The stowaway, who has not been identified by name, boarded a flight from Seattle to Honolulu on Christmas Eve. Atlanta-based Delta said that the unticketed passenger was discovered while the plane was taxing for departure.

Per protocol, the aircraft returned to the gate to remove the unticketed passenger — and law enforcement later apprehended them, the airline added. According to the Port of Seattle, which operates Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, all other passengers were also deplaned and returned to a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint for rescreening “out an abundance of caution.”

Delta flight 487 later left the Seattle airport and continued on to Honolulu — but the trip was delayed by 2 hours and 15 minutes as a result, according to Delta.

“As there are no matters more important than safety and security, Delta people followed procedures to have an unticketed passenger removed from the flight and then apprehended,” an airline spokesperson said in a statement sent to The Associated Press Friday, while thanking customers for their paitence and cooperation.

According to an incident description from the Port of Seattle, the stowaway went through a TSA security checkpoint the evening before the flight, “without a boarding pass but was properly screened.” The individual also gained access to the Tuesday flight’s loading bridge without a scanned ticket at the gate, the port said.

The Port of Seattle Police were dispatched shortly after 1 p.m. Tuesday, after a report of “a suspicious circumstance,” the port said. The individual had ran out of the aircraft by the time police arrived, airport media relations manager Perry Cooper told the AP — but authorites were able to locate the individual in a terminal restroom with the help of video surveillance. The unticketed passenger was later arrested for criminal trespass.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the TSA confirmed that the individual went through standard screening and didn’t have any prohibited items. The agency maintained that it “takes any incidents that occur at any of our checkpoints nationwide seriously” and would continue an independent review.

Tuesday’s incident comes less than a month after another stowaway boarded a Delta flight last month, during the week of Thanksgiving. Authorities said Svetlana Dali, a Russian woman with permanent U.S. residency, evaded security at John F. Kennedy International Airport and managed to fly to Paris as a stowaway on a Nov. 26 Delta flight. She was arrested when the plane landed and later flown back to the U.S.

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At least one Mega Millions player has plenty of dough to ring in the New Year after drawing the winning number. After three months without anyone winning the top prize in the lottery, a ticket worth an estimated $1.22 billion was sold in California for the drawing Friday night, according to the Mega Millions website.

The California Lottery said the winning ticket was sold at Circle K (Sunshine Food and Gas) on Rhonda Road in Cottonwood. The winning ticket matched the white balls 3, 7, 37, 49, 55 and the gold Mega Ball 6. The identity of the winner or winners was not immediately known.

The total amount of the Mega Millions jackpot would only be distributed to a winner who chooses an annuity paid over 29 years. Nearly all grand prize winners opt to take a cash payout, which for Friday night’s drawing is an estimated $549.7 million.

Despite the game’s long odds of 1 in 302.6 million, players continued to purchase tickets as the size of the grand prize grew. Until Friday, the last time a Mega Millions player hit the top prize was Sept. 10.

The largest-ever Mega Millions jackpot ticket worth $1.6 billion was sold in Florida in August 2023. Two prizes for its compatriot Powerball lottery have been larger.

Mega Millions and Powerball are sold in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Powerball also is sold in Puerto Rico.

Mega Millions ticket prices are set to rise from $2 to $5 in April. The increase will be one of many changes that officials say will result in improved jackpot odds, more frequent giant prizes and even larger payouts.

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President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause the potential TikTok ban from going into effect until his administration can pursue a “political resolution” to the issue.

The request came as TikTok and the Biden administration filed opposing briefs to the court, in which the company argued the court should strike down a law that could ban the platform by Jan. 19 while the government emphasized its position that the statute is needed to eliminate a national security risk.

“President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute. Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case,” said Trump’s amicus brief, which supported neither party in the case and was written by D. John Sauer, Trump’s choice for solicitor general.

The argument submitted to the court is the latest example of Trump inserting himself in national issues before he takes office. The Republican president-elect has already begun negotiating with other countries over his plans to impose tariffs, and he intervened earlier this month in a plan to fund the federal government, calling for a bipartisan plan to be rejected and sending Republicans back to the negotiating table.

He has been holding meetings with foreign leaders and business officials at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida while he assembles his administration, including a meeting last week with TikTok CEO Shou Chew.

Trump has reversed his position on the popular app, having tried to ban it during his first term in office over national security concerns. He joined the TikTok during his 2024 presidential campaign and his team used it to connect with younger voters, especially male voters, by pushing content that was often macho and aimed at going viral.

He said earlier this year that he still believed there were national security risks with TikTok, but that he opposed banning it.

The filings Friday come ahead of oral arguments scheduled for Jan. 10 on whether the law, which requires TikTok to divest from its China-based parent company or face a ban, unlawfully restricts speech in violation of the First Amendment. The law was was signed by President Joe Biden in April after it passed Congress with broad bipartisan support. TikTok and ByteDance filed a legal challenge afterwards.

Earlier this month, a panel of three federal judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld the statute, leading TikTok to appeal the case to the Supreme Court.

The brief from Trump said he opposes banning TikTok at this junction and “seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office.”

In their brief to the Supreme Court on Friday, attorneys for TikTok and its parent company ByteDance argued the federal appeals court erred in its ruling and based its decision on “alleged ‘risks’ that China could exercise control” over TikTok’s U.S. platform by pressuring its foreign affiliates.

The Biden administration has argued in court that TikTok poses a national security risk due to its connections to China. Officials say Chinese authorities can compel ByteDance to hand over information on TikTok’s U.S. patrons or use the platform to spread or suppress information.

But the government “concedes that it has no evidence China has ever attempted to do so,” TikTok’s legal filing said, adding that the U.S. fears are predicated on future risks.

In its filing Friday, the Biden administration said because TikTok “is integrated with ByteDance and relies on its propriety engine developed and maintained in China,” its corporate structure carries with it risk.

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(Reuters) – The Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday that it has issued a commercial space launch license for Blue Origin’s — Jeff Bezos’ rocket company — New Glenn launch.

Blue Origin entered into a highly competitive area it has long sought to join, as the U.S. Department of Defense picked the company, along with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance, to compete for national security space missions.

The Pentagon had made initial selections under a $5.6 billion program in June.

The five-year license allows Blue Origin to conduct orbital missions from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida with the reusable New Glenn first stage landing on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean, the FAA said in a statement.

The New Glenn debut will be a certification mission required by the U.S. Space Force before the company can begin launching national security satellites.

The debut mission was previously meant to launch a pair of NASA spacecraft to Mars before late October, but New Glenn had not completed its development by then, prompting NASA to move the spacecraft off the rocket.

Instead, New Glenn will launch technology related to its Blue Ring program, a line of business that will offer maneuverable spacecraft to the Pentagon.

SpaceX has dominated the launch industry with its partially reusable Falcon 9 rocket and is in the process of testing its next-generation rocket, Starship, which is designed to be fully reusable.

During a flight test in October, Starship’s towering first-stage booster was able to return from the edge of space to its Texas launch pad for the first time.

Blue Origin, on the other hand, has struggled to bring its giant New Glenn rocket to market. In December last year, it tapped Amazon veteran Dave Limp to expedite development of its New Glenn rocket.

(Reporting by Rishi Kant in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)

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(Reuters) -The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has reached a deal with Vanguard that will strengthen the rules under which the investment management giant can take big stakes in large U.S. financial institutions, according to an agreement published by the watchdog on Friday.

The agreement gives the FDIC more ability to monitor Vanguard’s investment activities and spells out what is allowed as a passive investor in FDIC-supervised banks. Its goal was to ensure the largest asset management firms, including Vanguard and BlackRock, do not influence the business decisions of the biggest U.S. banks even when they acquire large stakes via indexed, or passive, investment funds.

In a press release announcing the agreement with Vanguard, Jonathan McKernan, a director of the FDIC, said academic critics have raised concerns about competitive risks of concentrated ownership and the concentration of power in a handful of institutional investors.

McKernan said the agreement should allow banking regulators to address those concerns.

According to the deal, Vanguard is strictly prohibited from engaging in activities that influence the management or policies of institutions regulated by the FDIC, or their subsidiaries. Vanguard said this is in accordance with its current practices.

“Vanguard is built around passive investing and has long been committed to working constructively with policymakers to ensure that passive means passive,” a Vanguard spokesperson said.

Through “passivity agreements,” investors commit to regulators that they will not exert influence on the banks in which they have a stake.

FDIC will monitor Vanguard’s investment activities, especially any informal interactions Vanguard has with the management of FDIC-regulated banks.

There was no disclosure of a similar agreement having been reached with BlackRock. BlackRock could not immediately be reached for comment. The FDIC did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

(Reporting by Prakhar Srivastava in Bengaluru and Suzanne McGee; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Megan Davies)

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ATLANTA (AP) — A woman died and two other people were hospitalized with injuries after an overnight fire at a Tyson Foods plant in southwest Georgia, state officials said Friday.

A wall fell on the cab of an 18-wheel truck parked outside the plant, Mitchell County Coroner Robby Willis told The Associated Press, killing the wife of a truck driver who was asleep inside. He identified the victim as Bajarma Batozhapov, 61, of Las Vegas.

The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which represents 1,600 workers at the plant, said Friday that a boiler had exploded. Tyson said it was working with local authorities to determine the cause of the fire. Officials said a fire burned for about three hours.

Heavy equipment was required to remove debris from the truck and Willis said that the woman’s body wasn’t recovered until about 2 p.m. Friday. The woman’s husband wasn’t in the truck and wasn’t injured, he said. Willis declined to state a cause of death for the woman, and said an autopsy would be performed by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation on Monday.

“We extend our deepest condolences to their family and friends during this difficult time. Right now we are still gathering the facts, but ensuring the safety of our team members is our top priority, and we are conducting a full investigation into the cause of the fire,” Tyson said in a statement.

Bryce Rawson, a spokesperson for the Georgia State Fire Marshal’s Office, confirmed the death and injuries but said he couldn’t share anything further Friday afternoon since the investigation was ongoing.

The plant in Camilla, which has a population of about 5,000 people, is the largest employer in Mitchell County. Tyson bought it in 2018 as part of its $2.16 billion purchase of Keystone Foods. The union said the plant primarily produces chicken nuggets and chicken fillets for restaurants.

“Agriculture is the backbone of our economy down here and Tyson is a major part of that,” Camilla Mayor Kelvin Owens said.

Owens said Tyson is more than just an employer to the city.

“Not only are they important to the economy, they’re important to us as people,” Owens said. “We consider them family and we’re going to do everything we can to support them during this time.”

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Durbin reported from Detroit. Charlotte Kramon in Los Angeles contributed.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said her agency will need to start taking “extraordinary measures,” or special accounting maneuvers intended to prevent the nation from hitting the debt ceiling, as early as January 14, in a letter sent to congressional leaders Friday afternoon.

“Treasury expects to hit the statutory debt ceiling between January 14 and January 23,” Yellen wrote in a letter addressed to House and Senate leadership, at which point extraordinary measures would be used to prevent the government from breaching the nation’s debt ceiling — which has been suspended until Jan. 1, 2025.

The department has in the past deployed what are known as “extraordinary measures” or accounting maneuvers to keep the government operating. But once those measures run out the government risks defaulting on its debt unless lawmakers and the president agree to lift the limit on the U.S. government’s ability to borrow.

“I respectfully urge Congress to act to protect the full faith and credit of the United States,” she said.

The news comes after President Joe Biden signed a bill into law last week that averted a government shutdown but did not include President-elect Donald Trump’s core debt demand to raise or suspend the nation’s debt limit. The bill was approved by Congress only after fierce internal debate among Republicans over how to handle Trump’s demand. “Anything else is a betrayal of our country,” Trump said in a statement.

After a protracted debate in the summer of 2023 over how to fund the government, policymakers crafted the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which included suspending the nation’s $31.4 trillion borrowing authority until Jan. 1, 2025.

Notably however, Yellen said, on Jan. 2 the debt is projected to temporarily decrease due to a scheduled redemption of nonmarketable securities held by a federal trust fund associated with Medicare payments. As a result, “Treasury does not expect that it will be necessary to start taking extraordinary measures on January 2 to prevent the United States from defaulting on its obligations,” she said.

The federal debt currently stands at roughly $36 trillion — which ballooned across both Republican and Democratic administrations. And the spike in inflation after the coronavirus pandemic pushed up government borrowing costs such that debt service next year will exceed spending on national security.

Republicans, who will have full control of the White House, House and Senate in the new year, have big plans to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and other priorities but debate over how to pay for them.

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529 college savings plans  are powerful tools to help pay for the mounting costs of an education. Why are some people hesitant to use them?

One common concern is oversaving. You can use 529 funds to cover only  qualified education expenses  without incurring a tax penalty, but it can be hard to pinpoint how much money you actually need.

Many parents open 529s for their children when they are born; they have no way of knowing whether their kids will earn a scholarship or even go to college at all. Fortunately, parents of multiple children can change the beneficiary of a 529 plan.

But what do you do if you still have money left over after covering education expenses?

Thanks to  Secure 2.0, college savers won’t have to worry about overfunding their 529s. Starting this year, you can now  roll over unused 529 funds to a Roth IRA. But don’t think the 529 rollover is a loophole to save extra for retirement; there are rules that limit the conversions.

Here’s what you should consider when converting your 529 funds to a Roth IRA.

The Roth IRA receiving the funds must be in the name of the 529 plan beneficiary.

The 529 plan must be open for at least 15 years.

You cannot convert 529 contributions made within the past five years (or the earnings on those contributions).

The 529 funds you roll over count toward your IRA annual contribution limit.

You can move a maximum of $35,000 from a 529 plan to a Roth IRA during your lifetime.

529 funds must be converted by paying the amount directly to a Roth IRA—you can’t pay yourself and then deposit the money into the Roth IRA later.

You can contribute to a Roth IRA only if you have earnings from a job, so the 529 beneficiary must have eligible earnings when the 529-to-IRA conversions occur.

Roth IRA income limits do not apply to 529 rollovers.

While avoiding the  Roth IRA  income limits is a retirement-saving perk for those with higher income, the rest of the rules around rolling over your excess 529 funds are designed to ensure that people are using 529 plans for their intended purpose: education. The annual contribution limits as well as the lifetime cap on conversions mean that you can’tdouble up on your retirement funding.

So, what’s the bottom line?

The ability to convert unused 529 funds to a Roth IRA can help alleviate potential concerns about oversaving for education. Still, don’t count on your 529 as a means to save for retirement. Instead, consider funding your Roth IRA separately.

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This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more personal finance content, go to  https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance

Margaret Giles is a content development editor at Morningstar.

Related links:

Understand your 529 state tax benefits https://www.morningstar.com/personal-finance/how-do-your-states-529-tax-benefits-stack-up

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans believe health insurance profits and coverage denials share responsibility for the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO — although not as much as the person who pulled the trigger, according to a new poll.

In the survey from NORC at the University of Chicago, about 8 in 10 U.S. adults said the person who committed the killing has “a great deal” or “a moderate amount” of responsibility for the Dec. 4 shooting of Brian Thompson.

Despite that, some have cast Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old suspect charged with Thompson’s murder, as a heroic figure in the aftermath of his arrest, which gave rise to an outpouring of grievances about insurance companies. Police say the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose” were scrawled on the ammunition investigators found at the scene, echoing a phrase commonly used to describe insurer tactics to avoid paying claims.

UnitedHealthcare has said Mangione was not a client.

About 7 in 10 adults say that denials for health care coverage by insurance companies, or the profits made by health insurance companies, also bear at least “a moderate amount” of responsibility for Thompson’s death. Younger Americans are particularly likely to see the murder as the result of a confluence of forces rather than just one person’s action.

The poll finds hat the story of the slaying is being followed widely. About 7 in 10 said they had heard or read “a lot” or “some” about Thompson’s death.

Multiple factors were seen as responsible. About half in the poll believe that at least “a moderate amount” of blame is rooted in wealth or income inequality, although they did not think other factors like political divisions in the U.S. held the same level of responsibility.

Patients and doctors often complain about coverage denials and other complications interfering with care, especially for serious illnesses like cancer and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Insurance industry critics frequently point to company profits in questioning whether the interests of patients are their top focus.

UnitedHealthcare made more than $16 billion in profit last year, before interest and taxes, on $281 billion in revenue. Insurers frequently note that most of the revenue they bring in goes back out the door to pay for care. UnitedHealthcare said this month that it pays about 90% of medical claims when they are submitted. The insurer has not provided details about how many claims that involves.

Americans under 30 are especially likely to think a mix of factors is to blame for Thompson’s death. They say that insurance company denials and profits are about as responsible as Thompson’s killer for his death. About 7 in 10 U.S. adults between 18 and 29 say “a great deal” or “a moderate amount” of responsibility falls on profits made by health insurance companies, denials for health care coverage by health insurance companies or the person who committed the killing.

Young people are also the least likely age group to say “a great deal” of responsibility falls on the person who committed the killing. Only about 4 in 10 say that, compared with about 6 in 10 between 30 and 59. Roughly 8 in 10 adults over 60 say that person deserves “a great deal” of responsibility.

About two-thirds of young people place at least a moderate level of blame on wealth or income inequality, in general.

People under 30 are more likely to place blame on the media, with 54% saying that compared with about one-third of older adults.

Frustrations with health insurers, coverage and the complicated U.S. health care system have been simmering for years among patients.

About 3 in 10 Americans say they have had a problem getting coverage from their health insurer in the last year, whether those involved problems finding a suitable provider in-network, a claim getting denied or issues getting prior authorization or insurer approval before care happens. These struggles are more prevalent among Americans under 60.

Insurers say prior authorizations help eliminate waste in the system and let people know whether care will be covered before it is delivered.

Roughly 3 in 10 in the poll say immediate family or close friends have experienced problems getting coverage from their health insurer in the last year. Americans under 30 are among the most likely to say they don’t have health insurance.

Most Americans get health coverage through their job or by purchasing individual policies. Separate, government-funded programs provide coverage for people with low incomes or those who are age 65 and over or have severe illnesses or disabilities.

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The poll of 1,001 adults was conducted Dec. 12-16, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

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Associated Press writer Tom Murphy reported from Indianapolis.

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