'A new era'

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'A new era'

November 18, 2021

Stephen Collinson and Caitlin Hu

'A new era'

The three long-lost amigos are getting the band back together.

The Presidents of the United States and Mexico and the Prime Minister of Canada will meet in Washington on Thursday to renew what was once a regular tradition but has recently been more honored in the breach than the observance.

A great deal has happened since the last North American leaders' summit — dubbed the Three Amigos gathering, probably because it sounds a lot more fun than the drab reality of talks on border issues, trucking and trade. Events of recent years would have been considered impossible when then-Presidents Barack Obama, Enrique Peña Nieto and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last got together in 2016.

The summits abruptly ended after that since Obama's successor, President Donald Trump, had no interest in being anybody's amigo, as his campaign based on insulting Mexicans and an outrageous sulk at the G7 summit in Canada made quite clear. Trump also made a huge show of dumping the North America Free Trade Agreement which he claimed ripped the US off. Then he made a massive fanfare about his renegotiated version that wasn't much different. And he never did get Mexico to pay for that wall.

But the North American estrangement long outlasted Trump. US and Mexican relations are still plagued by the border issue and record flows of undocumented migrants. The 19-month pandemic closure of the US border to Canadians also frustrated Ottawa (and many border state US lawmakers) since the US ended up with a far worse Covid problem than Canada.

While Biden's revival of the summit will renew bonds of friendship, it doesn't mean that there are not real irritants to overcome. Trudeau for example is irked over tax credits that Biden is creating for US electronic vehicles, which could cost jobs on the Canadian side of a deeply-integrated auto industry. Mexico is also concerned about US protectionism. And though Vice President Kamala Harris talked a big game about a new era of relations with Mexico when she visited President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in August, both of America's neighbors know that while Trump is gone for now, remnants of "American First" endure.

'A new era'

Vice President Kamala Harris visited Mexico over the summer, promising that the US and Mexico were "embarking on a new era" -- but failed to thaw cross-border relations troubled by increased migration and a spat over the US arrest of a former Mexican defense minister.

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Chinese state media released an alleged letter from tennis star Peng Shuai.

Western Canada was inundated by a month's worth of rain in just two days.

And a Cuban opposition leader turned up in Spain after protest plans went south.

Meanwhile in America, two men convicted of killing Malcolm X will be exonerated.

Trump guru Steve Bannon plans to plead not guilty to contempt of Congress.

And a Florida school board member filed a criminal complaint over a Black queer memoir.

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'What Gandhi would do'

Jacob Chansley now regrets donning a horned headdress and marching half naked through the US Capitol during Trump's insurrection.

The so-called "QAnon Shaman" received a harsh 41-month jail sentence on Wednesday -- after prosecutors argued that he had made himself the most visible emblem of the worst attack on the building in 200 years. Before learning his fate, Chansley made an impassioned and at times bizarre speech to the court, admitting he had messed up but that he was not an insurrectionist, simply a "good man who broke the law."

"I was in solitary confinement because of me. Because of my decision. I broke the law ... I should do what Gandhi would do and take responsibility," he said. "There's no ifs, ands or buts about it, that's what men of honor do."

Judge Royce Lamberth told Chansley his speech was "the most remarkable I've heard in 34 years," saying it was "akin to the kind of thing Martin Luther King would have said." But the Judge also said that what Chansley did was "horrific" and he could not justify a shorter sentence. As he put it to defense counsel: "He made himself the image of the riot, didn't he? For good or bad, he made himself the very image of this whole event."

The sentence is probably a bad news benchmark for other rioters awaiting trial. Unlike Trump himself, who incited the riot, his fans have no protection from pliant Republican lawmakers.

Mexico has its famed Azteca stadium. But Canada has the "Iceteca."

The True North's improbable quest to reach the 2022 World Cup finals took a dramatic, frigid twist on Tuesday night with 2-1 win against Mexico in Edmonton. The Canucks now top their qualifying group, ahead of the US and the Mexicans who have a much stronger footballing pedigree.

Talk about home field advantage. The Canadians scheduled the game for the Alberta capital on a typically Arctic night in November. Kickoff temperature was 16 degrees Fahrenheit (-9 Celcius). With six games to go, the Canadians are now in a strong position to qualify for their first World Cup finals since 1986. Things will feel a little different if they make it, though -- temperatures in host-nation Qatar will be the 80s.

Thanks for reading.

On Thursday, Biden hosts Trudeau and López Obrador at the White House. Bannon will be arraigned in Washington. The 31st annual Committee to Protect Journalists Press Freedom Awards take place.