OpenAI delays latest model over security concerns, as industry faces new safety pressures

• September 29, 2026

By THOMAS BEAUMONT

OpenAI said Monday it was delaying the release of a new artificial intelligence model out of security concerns voiced by its researchers, the latest in the company’s effort to decelerate the pace of the technology’s advance.

OpenAI’s decision to hold back the model, called GPT-6.1 Astra, comes amid a broader push within the industry to slow the development of increasingly autonomous systems until safety measures can catch up. The announcement comes a day before AI executives are set to huddle with President Donald Trump in Washington as technology companies face new pressure to be accountable for how their models can be abused.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report the delay of OpenAI’s model release.

In a statement from OpenAI’s head of safety systems Saachi Jain, the version “didn’t quite meet the bar.” It had become more persistent in completing tasks, but OpenAI needed to balance that capability against unauthorized behavior.

Jain insisted the company was committed to ensuring the model was safe whether in the company’s testing or is in the hands of users. “We have an extremely high bar in terms of safety and alignment,” she said.

OpenAI paused training of its most advanced models last week, saying training would resume “only when we are confident that we have additional safeguards.”

That was after it disclosed instances in which AI agents exceeded their instructions, including by accessing government websites without authorization.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has joined other industry leaders in calling for a slowdown, warning that companies do not yet have adequate safeguards to control the most capable systems. Altman was scheduled to deliver the keynote address for OpenAI’s annual conference for software developers on Tuesday in San Francisco. OpenAI President Greg Brockman is expected to attend the White House’s event Tuesday.

​ Orange County Register 

We’re in this together, Earth’s leaders told each other at the UN. But how does that work, exactly?

• September 29, 2026

By TED ANTHONY, AP National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — There is doom. There is gloom. There is mistrust. There is insistence upon shared power and the prevention of political and military bullying. And there is a growing cry for permanent seats at the table of power — for island nations threatened by climate change and, more than anything, for Africa.

These things have often been true in recent years when world leaders orate at one another during their annual meeting at the U.N. General Assembly, which concluded Monday. This year, though, the discourse seemed even more urgent than usual. Across the words of more than 150 speeches, two things emerged as clear: Many leaders deeply want the world body to work. And many have concluded that it isn’t.

“Where are the United Nations?” Alexandra Hill Tinoco, the foreign minister of El Salvador, asked Monday. “Do we have an organization that is still relevant?”

That was the question that hung over the weeklong gathering as leader after world leader — in different words, with different details — probed at the very heart of the organization that was founded eight decades ago to prevent a conflict like World War II from ever happening again.

At the heart of the U.N. ethos sits a word that most regular people never use: “multilateralism.” The optimistic principle — that problems that cross borders, regions and oceans can be solved by cooperation and shared power — is a potent one, advocated by almost everyone (the United States under Donald Trump being a notable exception).

But that flavor of multilateralism was conceived and built in a different era, when globalized challenges like pandemics, climate change and artificial intelligence did not sit quite so front and center. Even today, those that hold the true power — the ability to veto anything that comes before the U.N. Security Council without giving a reason — are the same five nations given it at the end of World War II.

“Multilateralism is under siege,” said Mulipola Anarosa Ale-Molioʻo, Samoa’s deputy prime minister.

It’s not surprising, then, that the theme of this year’s leaders’ meeting at the General Assembly was “restoring trust.” From the barrage of remarks about it being broken, it seemed obvious that something needs to give in order to, as Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf put it, create “a shared home rather than an organization held hostage to the dominance of power politics.”

“There are problems,” said the foreign minister of Sri Lanka, Vijitha Herath, “which no country can solve alone.”

There’s a close relationship between multilateralism and trust

One sticking point that the scores of speeches revealed was the scratchiness between two vital notions — multilateralism and sovereignty. Nations from North Korea to the Marshall Islands invoked high principles to say that all must work together while simultaneously underscoring that they will never allow their sovereign rights to be violated. This produces contradictions that remain unsolved.

“We have never been so connected, yet we are increasingly unable to trust one another,” said Grand Duke Guillaume, Luxembourg’s head of state.

The tradition of American individualism plays a role here, as embodied by Trump’s consistently aggressive tone toward the U.N. To many in the United States, multilateralism hints at dark echoes of “one world government” and the notion of giving up power — and thus liberty — to other stakeholders. This trait, while often recessive in U.N. meetings, is true of many nations that fear incursion, war and domination.

In reality, though, multilateralism is the way the world works today — economically and, arguably, politically. From AI to rising temperatures, many nations just aren’t equipped to go it alone. And while cooperation on AI was a centerpiece this year, so too was the outlook that nations such as China offered — that each country must make its own decisions about the emerging technology.

“States alone cannot make progress,” said Christophe Mirmand, Monaco’s minister of state.

The hue and cry for multilateralism, always present when smaller nations meet larger ones, has been growing since the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-21, when most of the meetings were held remotely. It has been amplified further as members — particularly island nations, whose very existence is threatened by warming oceans — increasingly assert that the world is happening at them rather than with them.

If bigger countries with different interests can make all the major decisions on problems and opportunities that transcend map borders, these smaller nations say, then they will be left in the dust. The only answer, they say, is a United Nations that truly equalizes voices and has the fortitude to make that principle stick.

“The message to small nations is clear: Be as sovereign as we allow you to be,” said Philip Edward Davis, prime minister of the Bahamas. “A sovereignty that requires permission is not a sovereignty.”

Fixing the imbalance of political oomph is difficult

Whenever the United Nations gathers, its origin story is always lurking in the background: World War II. Nowhere is that more evident than when talk of expanding the Security Council and its permanent members comes up.

The 15-member Security Council, which holds the U.N.’s only real authority, has five permanent members — the United States, Russia, Britain, China and France — that hold veto power. While other nations rotate in and out, their power is limited; they can neither veto nor prevent vetoes. Those five nations have held the power since the beginning (in Russia’s case, as the Soviet Union). For so many other nations, that’s not OK.

“The veto is a relic,” said Matthew Wale, prime minister of the Solomon Islands, whose existence is threatened by climate change. Many island nations want permanent representation on the council. José Antonio Kast, Chile’s president, put it more forcefully: “We simply cannot continue to play by the same rules of an order that was established in 1945 in 2026.”

The notion of permanent representation for Africa, which currently holds three rotating seats, has long been a goal of African leaders, who speak about it every year. They’re getting louder, and they’re getting more adamant.

“Africa can no longer remain on the sidelines of situations that shape its destiny,” said Constant-Serge Bounda, the Republic of Congo’s foreign minister. He and others want two permanent Security Council seats for Africa — with veto power. “Africa is not asking for a favor,” he said. “It is claiming its rightful place.”

Taken together, these various outcries point back to the theme of the meeting. Everyone respects the United Nations. Everyone sees potential in its optimistic, egalitarian vision of a fraternity of nations. But even as they praise the possibilities, the fact that so many leaders denounce the reality left an echo after this week that is hard to ignore: Stop talking. Start doing. Yes, let all voices be heard. But then act.

Or, as Beate Meinl-Reisinger, Austria’s minister for European and International Affairs, framed it: “The United Nations was not created to discuss international problems. It was created to solve them.” To many who ascended to the rostrum this past week, that simply is not happening.

Ted Anthony has overseen Associated Press coverage of the U.N. General Assembly’s annual meeting of leaders since 2018 and has been covering international affairs since 1994.

​ Orange County Register 

Democrats eye Wisconsin Republican incumbent as congressional map expands in hopes of a blue wave

• September 29, 2026

By SCOTT BAUER

RACINE, Wis. (AP) — Mitchell Berman knows voters are angry. It’s the Democrat’s best hope of defeating Rep. Bryan Steil in a Wisconsin district that Republicans have held for more than 30 years.

“I know what it’s like to struggle,” Berman, a nurse and first-time candidate, told The Associated Press. “Folks are really looking for someone that they can turn to and say, ‘That guy’s walked a mile in my shoes.’”

Democrats see his race as one that could break their way if the blue wave they’re working toward turns into a tsunami. And while there are signs that Republicans may be getting nervous, officials from both parties said it will be difficult for the newcomer to upset the better-known incumbent.

Berman, like other Democratic challengers across the country, is trying to capitalize on President Donald Trump’s sagging approval rating fueled by anger over the economy, increases in healthcare costs and high gas prices caused by the war in Iran.

“Everybody’s ready for a change,” said John Pintar, a 68-year-old retired heavy-machine operator from Caledonia who went to a Racine coffee shop to hear Berman make his pitch last week. “I certainly am.”

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced in September that it was adding Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District to its “red to blue” program that targets Republican incumbents viewed as vulnerable. The designation frees up resources and fundraising for Berman in a boost to his underdog chances.

Steil, who worked as an attorney for a plastics manufacturer before being elected to Congress, downplayed being targeted as he seeks a fifth term.

“We’ve shown time and again our ability to go out, get out above the noise, speak directly to voters,” he told the AP. “And in the end, we’ve been successful.”

No Going Back PAC, a Trump-aligned group, has spent about $90,000 on mailings in Steil’s district.

Nationwide, No Going Back PAC and another Trump-aligned group, Safety and Affordability PAC, have spent more than $84 million on advertising in House races since Sept. 1, according to an AP analysis of data from AdImpact, which tracks media spending and ad buys. A third group, MAGA Inc., did not spend on House races.

The vast majority of the groups’ ad spending, 96%, has been in House districts Trump carried in 2024, which the AP determined by using precinct-level results to map to the new district boundaries some states have adopted. Only $3.5 million was spent on districts won by Democrat Kamala Harris.

The cash flow shows how Republicans have been on defense this year, but the party’s deep pockets could help insulate its members.

Steil and groups supporting him have outspent Berman and his backers by a 2-1 ratio, according to AdImpact data. He had $6.3 million cash on hand entering August, compared with just under $152,000 for Berman, based on federal filings.

Peter Barca was the last Democrat to hold the seat, from 1993 to 1995, and he lost a comeback attempt against Steil in 2024. He said Berman may still succeed despite being outspent.

“When the wave’s big enough, that will save you,” Barca said.

Wisconsin district once served by Paul Ryan has deep manufacturing ties

Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District borders Illinois to the south and Lake Michigan to the east. It includes the cities of Kenosha, Janesville and Racine, where Berman was greeting voters at a downtown coffee shop this week.

The district grew more competitive under new congressional maps enacted in 2022, but it still leans Republican. Former House Speaker Paul Ryan held the seat for 20 years before Steil, his former aide, replaced him in 2019.

The area suffered thousands of manufacturing job losses as the automobile industry collapsed and jobs were sent overseas. The General Motors plant in Janesville, which had operated for 90 years and employed 7,000 people at its height, shut down in early 2009. Other manufacturers in the area, including a vehicle assembly plant in Kenosha, also shuttered around the same time.

Berman has gone after Steil for supporting Trump’s tariffs, saying despite the president’s claims that they will bring U.S. factories “roaring back,” voters in southeast Wisconsin have yet to see any evidence of it.

Steil said he’s heard frustration from voters.

“We need to continue our work to make life more affordable,” Steil said, citing his votes in support of eliminating taxes on tips and overtime and other tax reforms.

“There’s also more work to be done,” Steil said.

Democrat tapping into voter anger and working-class background

Berman, 40, leans into his working-class background when talking to voters. He describes how he grew up in rural Wisconsin, attended public schools and was the first in his family to graduate from college.

He talks about holding his first union job and how cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs affecting the VA hospital where he worked as a nurse motivated him to run for Congress.

“We’re up against folks, like my opponent, who are too far removed from what you and I are up against every day,” Berman said to a cheering room of supporters at a coffee house this week.

In his first television ad released earlier this month, Berman is shown fishing with a holstered gun as he highlights his working-class roots and dings Steil for getting “millions from special interests.”

“I’m not looking to get rich,” Berman says. “I just want to hunt, take my daughters to Packers games and make life easier for families like mine.”

Retired probation agent Dave Carlson, 71, of Racine, said he wants Berman to pull off an upset, but he’s keeping his hopes in check.

“We’ve had other decent candidates on the Democratic side,” Carlson said, “but Steil pulls it out in the end.”

Steil has a nearly 100% voting record in line with Trump and has won all four of his races by at least 9 percentage points. Steil is also seen as a potential 2028 Senate candidate, if Republican Sen. Ron Johnson retires.

Steil demurred when asked if he thought it was an asset or a liability to be so closely tied to Trump.

“This is a contrast election between myself and my opponent, and I think my values align with southeast Wisconsin,” Steil said.

Robin Vos, the Republican speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly, who lives in the district, said he doesn’t think Berman can overcome Steil’s name recognition built over eight years in Congress.

“Starting from zero, building up against a popular incumbent congressman, is a really hard hill to climb no matter what the environment is like,” Vos said.

Associated Press writers Aaron Kessler and Ashlyn Still contributed to this report in Washington.

​ Orange County Register 

Lindsay Clancy set to return to court for first time since murder trial ended with deadlocked jury

• September 29, 2026

By MICHAEL CASEY

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.

PLYMOUTH, Mass. (AP) — Lindsay Clancy is set to return to court Tuesday for a hearing that could help decide whether she will face a second trial for killing her three young children.

It will be Clancy’s first return to the courthouse since her first trial ended Sept. 4 with a deadlocked jury. A judge declared a mistrial with the jury split 11 to 1 in favor of acquitting Clancy of murder charges.

Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, never disputed that she killed the children, but her attorney said she had a rare condition called postpartum psychosis and was delusional and not responsible for her actions.

Prosecutors acknowledged that Clancy, 36, had mental health problems that included months of treatment and a stay in a psychiatric hospital, but argued that she knew what she was doing when she strangled the children then tried to kill herself in 2023.

Clancy’s attorneys have filed several motions that could be addressed Tuesday.

They have asked the judge to take the unusual step of dismissing the criminal case, rather than putting on a new trial. Among other things, they have argued that the judge should have ousted the one juror who favored a murder conviction after the jury foreperson complained he was refusing to listen to the law on reasonable doubt.

The juror, Michael Desronvil, has said through his lawyer that he had no doubts about his stance. Desronvil told Fox News’ “Hannity” in a brief video statement on Monday that “the whole focus has been on me, but we want to reel everything back and put the focus on the three angels,” meaning the children.

The defense has also asked the judge to investigate the juror’s truthfulness on a questionnaire that prospective jurors filled out before the trial began, his truthfulness when jurors were questioned by the judge a day before the trial ended and also whether he broke court rules by using a cellphone during deliberations.

Tuesday’s hearing could also reveal whether prosecutors will move to put Clancy on trial for a second time. Prosecutors can choose to retry her on first-degree murder charges or seek to try her only on lesser charges, including second-degree murder or manslaughter, or drop the case entirely.

After the mistrial was declared, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz told reporters his goal was always “getting justice for those three little babies.”

Prosecutors said Clancy acted deliberately when she strangled 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan Clancy with exercise bands. They said she contrived to get her husband out of the house on Jan. 24, 2023, by sending him to pick up medicine for one of their children and dinner for the family.

The livestreamed trial generated intense public interest and drew attention to maternal mental health after childbirth. About a dozen Clancy supporters, most dressed in pink, stood outside court Tuesday waiting for her to arrive.

Clancy’s lawyer said she should not be held criminally responsible because of her postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth.

Clancy remains charged with murder and is expected to stay at a psychiatric hospital until her case is resolved. She has been paralyzed from the waist down since jumping from a second-story window after strangling her children.

Clancy could have been sentenced to life in prison if convicted of murder. If acquitted, the judge could have ordered her confined to a mental health facility.

​ Orange County Register 

You can’t scare Min Jin Lee: The author on how she wrote ‘American Hagwon’

• September 29, 2026

Min Jin Lee’s third novel has been a long time coming.

It’s been 19 years since the publication of her debut novel, “Free Food for Millionaires,” which received rave reviews from critics. Ten years later, she had a breakout hit with “Pachinko,” which was a New York Times bestseller and National Book Award finalist, and adapted into an Apple TV+ series that ran for two seasons.

“I’m writing social novels, and that always requires a deep analysis of economics and sociology,” Lee says via telephone from her home in New York City. “I have to teach this to myself and then try to put it into fiction, because after I learn all the things, I need to make it into drama and imagine where the feelings are. Well, at least that’s what I tell myself as to why it takes such a long time to write books.”

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Her latest book, “American Hagwon,” is very much a social novel. It follows John and Helen Koh and their three children, Bo, DH and Mido, whose lives are turned upside down after the 2017 Asian financial crisis; the family moves to Australia and then Southern California. A running theme in the novel is hagwons — schools where students intensively study particular subjects.

“A hagwon is any for-profit tutoring center, and it doesn’t just have to be for SATs or for college,” Jin explains. “It can also be for tap dancing, K-pop idols, police academy exams, Model UN. The whole idea that you go take a class and figure it out; that’s really a very Korean idea.”

Lee says she wanted her new novel to focus on education after talking to Koreans in their home country and across the globe while writing her previous two novels.

“The thing that kept on coming up over and over and over again was the obsession with believing that education would somehow save them and their children,” she says. “Then it turned out that I wasn’t just writing about education. It turned out that I was writing about wisdom, because for one person, education is just a certification. Another person, it’s about status. Another person, it’s about being elite. Another person, it’s about how much money they will make or how much money they owe.

“Then I tried to figure out, ‘How do you live a wise life?’ And that’s what ‘American Hagwon’ became.”

Another recurring subject with the people she interviewed was the financial crisis, which did severe damage to the economies of South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand.

“They kept talking about the [International Monetary Fund] crisis, which Americans really never paid any attention to. They didn’t need to,” Jin says. “Whereas in Korea, it was very damaging for people who didn’t have generational wealth. If you actually came from money and were able to purchase assets cheaply, you ended up making a lot of money during the crisis. But most people did not. Most people ended up losing their jobs, and they couldn’t retool again. Depending upon where it caught you, if you didn’t have money and connections, you were really out of luck and you had to start all over again.”

22 new books coming in October 2026 to add to your reading list

Writing the book required deep research into several areas, including the financial crisis and hagwons not just in South Korea, but across the world. Lee, who was a history major in college and worked as a lawyer for two years, says that her background has allowed her to not be intimidated by subjects.

“You can’t really scare me,” she says. “I know I can figure it out eventually. That’s definitely been my approach to everything: I’m not going to be the smartest person in the room and I’m not going to be the fastest person in the room, but I have a kind of stubbornness in terms of trying to figure things out.”

The characters in “American Hagwon,” Lee says, are “based on composites of many people that I met.”

“If you meet a Korean person, you can probably find them in one of my books,” she says. “I wanted us to have this universe in which we’re legible to others and to ourselves. When I read Tolstoy, I’m Russian. When I read Japanese or British novels, I become part of that world, and I wanted that for my non-Korean readers too, as well as my diasporic Korean readers.”

Lee is already at work on the fourth installment of what she calls the Diaspora Quartet, titled “Marshall Plan.” When can her readers expect to see it?

“I just started, which means I’ll call you in 10 years if you’re free,” she says with a laugh.

Min Jin Lee in Conversation with Jenn Tanaka

When: 6:30 p.m., Oct. 12

Where: La Habra City Hall, 110 E. La Habra Blvd, La Habra

Information: www.ocpl.org/page/slice-literary-orange; (714) 566-3072; email ocpl.programs@occr.oc.gov

Min Jin Lee in Conversation with Lee Isaac Chung and Jamie Chung

When: 7 p.m. Oct. 13

Where: ​First Congregational Church, 540 S Commonwealth Ave., Los Angeles

Information: https://dieselbookstore.com/event/2026-10-13/min-jin-lee-american-hagwon

Map: 100 Southern California independent bookstores to visit in 2026

​ Orange County Register 

Niles: Fixing X2 isn’t worth the risk for Six Flags and its fans

• September 29, 2026

Six Flags and Cedar Fair merged more than two years ago. But the problems that forced these companies together have not gone away.

The combined company, which owns Knott’s Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain in Southern California, is struggling to pay off its nearly $5 billion in debt. Interest payments on that debt wiped out all its theme parks’ operating profits in the past quarter. The new Six Flags company has sold several parks across the country to raise cash and reduce expenses. But debt is no longer the only financial problem facing Six Flags.

A law firm recently announced that it has reports of serious injury from more than 100 people who rode Magic Mountain’s X2 roller coaster. The park recently settled a wrongful death suit over the coaster, which has been closed since July following another injury incident. When attorneys send out press releases citing hundreds of alleged victims and asking for others to come forward, it’s pretty clear that they are working toward filing a class action suit.

It’s too early to tell how much money Six Flags and Magic Mountain may end up being liable for due to X2. If there is any proof that park or corporate management did anything that could expose the company to punitive damages, the cost of settling claims could overshadow the company’s current interest expenses.

Three years ago, Magic Mountain’s X2 problem would have been of no concern to Knott’s or its fans. Now, what threatens Magic Mountain now puts Knott’s and all the other legacy Cedar Fair parks that remain in the new Six Flags chain at risk. That’s yet another problem with corporate mergers. The new company shares its components’ liabilities as well as their assets.

What’s worse is that there are probably other X2s out there, still running and hurting riders.

The whole point of thrill rides is to deliver a physically and emotionally intense experience. No fans want a high-speed roller coaster that feels like riding in the back of a cushioned limo on a smooth highway. A thrill ride can elicit many feelings. Boredom should not be one of them. Yet the discomfort of an intense thrill ride never should rise to the level of inflicting pain or injury.

Too many parks continue to operate rough and painful rides that should have been closed and demolished years ago. At Magic Mountain, Viper, Apocalypse and Goliath have earned plenty of criticism from coaster fans for going over the line from thrilling to painful. “Safe” is too low a standard for a theme park attraction. If a ride is not both safe and rewarding for guests, it needs to go away.

Sometimes, a retrack or redesign can salvage a rough ride and extend its life and popularity. It’s the “Moneyball” of theme park management. When do you invest in a refurbishment, or when do you give up on a ride and order a replacement?

X2 should push the numbers on those calculations toward more aggressive elimination and replacement of the rough rides in the theme park industry. Theme park fans deserve to know that thrill rides will not endanger them — or the parks that they visit and love.

​ Orange County Register 

From motorcycles to booze, US ban on $1 billion worth of Canadian imports goes into effect

• September 29, 2026

By PAUL WISEMAN, AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S.-Canada relations, already tense, are likely to deteriorate further after the United States went ahead early Tuesday with a decision to ban nearly $1 billion worth of Canadian imports, including alcoholic beverages, dairy products and motorcycles.

The ban amounts to barely a ripple in $880 billion worth of annual two-way trade between the two northern neighbors. But it marks another ratcheting up of President Donald Trump’s second-term trade war with America’s longtime ally and trading partner.

The import ban “certainly won’t do anything to help the trade tensions between the United States and Canada,” said trade attorney Patrick Childress, a partner at Holland & Knight and a former U.S. trade official.

The latest sparring began over the summer when Trump reached back to a Great Depression law to impose 50% tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian imports, charging that Canada discriminates against U.S. dairy, auto and alcoholic beverage producers. Canada promptly counterpunched with tariffs of 15%, 25% or 50%, matching U.S. imports dollar for dollar.

To punish Canada for retaliating against his tariffs, Trump decided to ban a list of Canadian products, effective 12:01 a.m. Eastern time Tuesday.

Economic impact likely to be modest

The economic impact is likely to be minimal. Childress noted that the products on the banned list were already facing Trump’s tariffs. ”For a lot of these goods, the 50% was already acting as a de facto ban by making importation from Canada into the United States uneconomical,″ he said.

Jacob Jensen, director of trade policy at the center-right American Action Forum think tank, calculates that the ban would cover $967 million worth of Canadian imports, based on 2025 numbers. Of that, 87% would be alcoholic beverages that the U.S. targeted because of some Canadian provinces responding to Trump’s provocations by banning U.S. booze from store shelves.

Also banned are some dairy products — including the milk byproduct whey. The two countries have long clashed over Canada’s attempts to protect its dairy industry from foreign competition by imposing hefty tariffs once dairy imports have exceeded a quota.

The ban also covers motorcycles. Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP) in Quebec confirmed that its three-wheel Can-Am Spyder and Canyon motorcycles “will be excluded from importation into the U.S.’’ But BRP said the impact likely won’t be felt until next year because it has completed most production and shipments for the current season.

“This marks yet another escalation in the trade war that may result in further retaliation on the Canadian side,” Jensen said. He expects Canadian exporters and U.S. importers “impacted by these bans will be highly motivated’’ to demand that trade officials on both sides find some way to reach a “resolution of this whole ordeal.’’

A threat to US goal of a powerful North American trade pact

The impasse imperils efforts to renew the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a North American trade pact Trump pressured America’s neighbors into accepting in his first term and which he once declared “the most modern, up-to-date, and balanced trade agreement in the history of our country.’’

The deal allowed most goods to cross North American borders duty free. But since returning to the White House last year, Trump has announced a series of tariffs that have clouded the future of trade in the region.

Longtime ally Canada moves rapidly to find new trading partners

Trump has directed most of his ire at Canada. He is openly seeking to pull Canadian manufacturing south. And he has inflamed public opinion in Canada by repeatedly suggesting that the country become America’s 51st state.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney came to power last year on a promise to stand up to Trump. In addition to retaliating against Trump tariffs — China is the only other country to do so, with very different results — Carney has sought to reduce Canada’s reliance on the United States, which last year accounted for more than 70% of Canadian exports.

“There is now a price to be paid for access to the United States market,” Carney said earlier this month. The Canadian prime minister wants to double Canada’s non-U.S. trade over the next decade.

Carney has embraced the prospect of Canada becoming the European Union’s first associate member.

And he said last week that trade negotiations with India are making “good progress” and that the two countries are aiming to conclude talks by the G20 summit in mid-December.

Carney also broke with the U.S. earlier this year, striking a deal with China to allow a limited number of Chinese electric vehicles into Canada at a sharply reduced tariff in exchange for China lowering tariffs on Canadian canola.

“We take note of the coming into force of the Administration’s previously announced trade measures,” said Gabriel Brunet, a spokesman for Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc. “Our first priority remains on protecting and supporting Canadian workers, farmers, families, and businesses from these unjustified actions. Our core focus is on what we can control: building strength at home, diversifying our partnerships abroad, and building Canada strong for all Canadians.”

Trump expressed confidence that the Canadians would cave in.

“They’re gonna come in and they’re gonna say, ‘Sir, we are sorry,’” he told reporters Monday. “They’ve treated the United States very, very badly. I think a deal will be made but it’s gonna be fair.”

Trade attorney Childress said the standoff is likely to continue for months, not weeks. The import bans and the tariffs so far “probably won’t cause enough economic upheaval to force either party back to the negotiating table,’’ he said.

AP Writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this story.

​ Orange County Register 

2 US Navy aviators eject while landing plane on carrier off Virginia, 4 sailors injured

• September 29, 2026

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two U.S. Navy aviators ejected as they were landing their plane on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier off the coast of Virginia on Monday and four sailors aboard the vessel were injured in what the Navy characterized as a “mishap.”

The two aviators, assigned to Carrier Air Wing 3, successfully ejected as “a mishap occurred during aircraft recovery operations” and were rescued by search and rescue personnel, the Navy said in a short statement.

Both were returned to the ship and were being evaluated by medical personnel, the Navy said. The four shipboard personnel also were receiving medical care, including one who was transported to a hospital in the Norfolk, Virginia, area for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

The Navy did not say which type of two-seater plane was involved in the accident, nor what happened to the plane or what might have caused the accident. The Navy did not immediately answer a request for further details.

The nuclear-powered Nimitz-class USS Dwight D. Eisenhower was commissioned in 1977.

​ Orange County Register