By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will visit U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House next week, it was announced on Friday.

The meeting comes ahead of a review of a free trade agreement and as Trump is engaging in 51st state talk again as Canada asks to be included in Trump’s future Golden Dome missile defense program.

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In a statement, Carney’s office said the prime minister will travel to Washington on Monday before meeting Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

Carney won Canada’s election earlier this year fueled by Trump’s annexation threats and trade war, but he has tried to improve relations ahead of a review of the free trade deal next year.

More than 75% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S. and Canada recently dropped many of its retaliatory tariffs to match U.S. tariff exemptions for goods covered under the United States-Mexico-Canada trade pact, or USMCA.

“Canada and the U.S. each launched consultations last month that will inform preparations for the first joint review” of the trade pact, the statement said. “The Prime Minister’s working visit will focus on shared priorities in a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the U.S.”

Canada popped back into Trump’s head earlier this week when he brought up the Golden Dome missile defense program he wants to build to protect the United States. Trump said Canada called him recently asking to be covered by the proposed missile shield.

“They want to be a part of it,” he said. “I said, ’Why don’t you just join our country, become the 51st state and you get it for free.’”

Earlier this year, Trump has been pressuring Canada to join the United States as he threatened it with steep tariffs. Canada said it will never join the U.S.

“Trump is back on the 51st state theme. And he is somebody whose modus operandi is extortion,” said Robert Bothwell, a professor of Canadian history and international relations at the University of Toronto

Carney said that he privately asked Trump to stop calling Canada the 51st state during their last meeting in the White House last May.

“A key political risk is that President Trump raises the 51st state issue again and seeks to publicly embarrass Prime Minister Carney during his visit,” said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.

“Another risk is that no apparent progress on trade is made, which would be bad news for the prime minister domestically, as the Conservatives accuse them of failing to successfully address the ongoing trade war with the United States,” he added.

Carney has said the USMCA, which is up for review in 2026, a unique advantage for Canada at a time when it is clear that the U.S. is charging for access to its market. Carney has said the commitment of the U.S. to the core of USMCA means that over 85% of Canada-U.S. trade continues to be free of tariffs. He said the U.S. average tariff rate on Canadian goods is 5.6% and remains the lowest among all its trading partners.

But Trump has some sector specific tariffs on Canada, known as 232 tariffs, that are having an impact. There are steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports for example.

Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day. About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports are from Canada.

Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national security.

Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, has expressed frustration over the anti-American sentiment he sees in Canada. Travel by Canadians to the U.S. has plunged.

The Twins answered their first big question of the offseason on Monday — would they retain their manager? — when they made the decision to fire Rocco Baldelli.

The search for Baldelli’s replacement will dominate much of the early offseason for the Twins’ front office. But after a second straight disappointing season, one in which the Twins shipped away a large portion of the roster at the trade deadline, many more questions remain beyond who will be coaching the team.

Perhaps most pressing among them: What direction will the Twins take now?

The answer is tied to what their payroll — slashed again at the trade deadline — will amount to. And, at this point, it seems like not even Derek Falvey, who heads the Twins’ baseball and business operations, is fully sure what that will be.

“As I sit here today, I’ll shoot you super straight: I don’t have that direction yet,” Falvey said Tuesday. “I think that’s a conversation that we’ll continue to have, certainly with the (team-owning) Pohlads and whatever conversation they’d like me to have with the limited partners.”

Nearly a year ago, the Pohlad family announced it was exploring a sale of the team. That ended in August, when the family agreed to add two limited partnership groups, neither of whom have been identified publicly, while maintaining the controlling stake in the team.

Asked in August if the limited partners would allow the family to invest more money in the team, executive chair Joe Pohlad responded by saying it would allow the Twins to pay down their debt and “reset our financial picture in order to move forward.”

As the offseason begins, there’s little clarity on what effect the limited partner groups will have once fully in place and if the payroll will go up, go down or stay the same. The Twins shed a significant amount from their payroll at the deadline, sending their highest-paid player, Carlos Correa, to Houston, along with money to cover a portion of his salary over the next few seasons. They also shipped off nearly every impending free agent on the roster, as well as some players who were due raises via the arbitration process this offseason.

But it remains to be seen whether that money will be reinvested in other players or if the Twins will continue to cut their payroll, as has been the case past couple of years. The payroll was cut significantly from a team-record high after the 2023 season, following a season in which the Twins exhibited their first taste of postseason success in nearly two decades.

Starting pitcher Pablo López is due a team-high salary of north of $21 million next season, which could lead to the Twins shopping him if payroll is to decrease or if they decide to reallocate those resources.

Byron Buxton will earn $15 million, but he has a no-trade clause and has stated his intention to remain a Twin.

Joe Ryan, who earned $3 million last year, is arbitration-eligible and is due a healthy raise. The Twins received calls on Ryan at the deadline, but opted not to move him. Asked if he expected López and Ryan to be on the team next season, Falvey said that was his current “expectation.”

“It still requires some ongoing conversations with ownership and what that looks like,” Falvey said. “Ultimately, my hope is that we could build around that group. … That would be my hope.”

The Twins opened this past season with a payroll in the bottom half of the league. With few financial commitments beyond López, Buxton and the money owed to Houston for Correa’s salary, it’s very possible that they dip even further.

What that looks like will be played out over the course of this offseason.

“There continue to be ongoing conversations with ownership … in terms of exactly  what we’ll do going through the course of the offseason,” Falvey said. “It’s a very unique offseason for us.”

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By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — From Wall Street trading floors to the Federal Reserve to economists sipping coffee in their home offices, the first Friday morning of the month typically brings a quiet hush around 8:30 a.m. eastern as everyone awaits the Labor Department’s crucial monthly jobs report.

But with the government shut down, no information was released Friday about hiring in September.

It’s the first time since a government shutdown in 2013 that the jobs report has been delayed. During the 2018-2019 partial government closure, the Labor Department was one of several agencies that remained open because Congress had agreed to fund them. September’s jobs figures will be released eventually, once the shutdown ends.

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The interruption in the data has occurred at a particularly uncertain time, when policymakers at the Federal Reserve and Wall Street investors would need more data on the economy, rather than less. Hiring has ground nearly to a halt, threatening to drag down the broader economy. Yet at the same time, consumers — particularly higher-income earners — are still spending and some businesses are ramping up investments in data centers developing artificial intelligence models. Whether that is enough to revive hiring remains to be seen.

For now, economists are turning to alternative measures of the job market provided by nonprofits and private-sector companies. Those measures mostly show a job market with little hiring, but not many layoffs, either. Those who have jobs appear to be mostly secure, while those looking for work are having a tougher time.

Payroll processor ADP, for example, said Wednesday that its estimate showed the economy had lost a surprising 32,000 private-sector jobs last month. Companies in the construction, manufacturing, and financial services industries all cut jobs, ADP found. Restaurants and hotels, and professional services such as accounting and engineering, also shed workers.

Businesses in health care, private education, and information technology were the only sectors to add workers, ADP said.

“We’ve seen a significant decline in hiring momentum throughout the year,” said Nela Richardson, ADP’s chief economist. “This is consistent with a low hire — even a no-hire — and low fire economy.”

The shutdown has also meant the government isn’t releasing the weekly count of how many Americans have filed for unemployment benefits, a proxy for layoffs, which is published each Thursday.

But Goldman Sachs used data provided by most states to produce their own estimates of unemployment claims. In a report late Thursday, they calculated that weekly claims ticked up to 224,000, up from 218,000 the previous week. Those are historically low figures, which suggest companies are still holding onto most of their workers.

By MARK LEWIS, Associated Press

STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump’s bid to win the Nobel Peace Prize has drawn added attention to the annual guessing game over who its next laureate will be.

Longtime Nobel watchers say Trump’s prospects remain remote despite a flurry of high-profile nominations and some notable foreign policy interventions for which he has taken personal credit.

Experts say the Norwegian Nobel Committee typically focuses on the durability of peace, the promotion of international fraternity and the quiet work of institutions that strengthen those goals. Trump’s own record might even work against him, they said, citing his apparent disdain for multilateral institutions and his disregard for global climate change concerns.

Still, the U.S. leader has repeatedly sought the Nobel spotlight since his first term, most recently telling United Nations delegates late last month “everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize.”

A person cannot nominate themselves.

Public lobbying campaigns but a private committee decision

Trump’s boasts and previous high-profile nominations make him the blockbuster name on the list of bookmakers’ favorites. But it’s unclear whether his name comes up in conversation when the five-member Nobel committee, appointed by Norway’s parliament, meets behind closed doors.

FILE – Activists carry signs during a protest against President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of policing of the District of Columbia, Saturday, Aug. 16, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Trump has been nominated several times by people within the U.S. as well as politicians abroad since 2018. His name also was put forth in December by U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), her office said in a statement, for his brokering of the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab states in 2020.

Nominations made this year from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Pakistan’s government occurred after the Feb. 1 deadline for the 2025 award.

Trump has said repeatedly that he “deserves” the prize and claims to have “ended seven wars.” On Tuesday, he teased the possibility of ending an eighth war if Israel and Hamas agree to his peace plan aimed at concluding the nearly two-year war in Gaza.

“Nobody’s ever done that,” he told a gathering of military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. “Will you get the Nobel Prize? Absolutely not. They’ll give it to some guy that didn’t do a damn thing.”

Sustained peace efforts prioritized over quick wins

Nobel veterans say the committee prioritizes sustained, multilateral efforts over quick diplomatic wins. Theo Zenou, a historian and research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, said Trump’s efforts have not yet been proven to be long-lasting.

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“There’s a huge difference between getting fighting to stop in the short-term and resolving the root causes of the conflict,” Zenou said.

Zenou also highlighted Trump’s dismissive stance on climate change as out-of-step with what many, including the Nobel committee, see as the planet’s greatest long-term peace challenge.

“I don’t think they would award the most prestigious prize in the world to someone who does not believe in climate change,” Zenou said. “When you look at previous winners who have been bridge-builders, embodied international cooperation and reconciliation: These are not words we associate with Donald Trump.”

Avoiding political pressure

The Nobel committee was met with fierce criticism in 2009 for giving then-U.S. President Barack Obama the prize barely nine months into his first term. Many argued Obama had not been in office long enough to have an impact worthy of the Nobel.

And Trump’s own outspokenness about possibly winning the award might work against him: The committee won’t want to be seen as caving in to political pressure, said Nina Græger, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo.

Trump’s prospects for the prize this year are “a long shot,” she said. “His rhetoric does not point in a peaceful perspective.”

The Nobel announcements begin Monday with the medicine prize. They continue with the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Oct. 13.

Stefanie Dazio in Berlin and Darlene Superville in Quantico, Virginia, contributed.