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iPhone 17 Air may ditch these 5 Pro features to achieve its ultra-thin designOTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly welcomed president-elect Donald Trump's pick for the next U.S. ambassador in Ottawa, a former longtime Michigan congressional representative who voted for NAFTA and later wavered on new free trade deals. Joly said at a news conference on Thursday at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D.C., that she takes it as a good sign that Trump endorsed the Canada-U.S.-Mexico free-trade deal when he announced Pete Hoekstra as his next envoy to Canada. She also posted on social media Thursday that Canada looks forward to working with Hoekstra to strengthen bilateral ties and advance shared priorities "as close allies and neighbours." The minister was in Washington to talk trade and security with U.S. senators from both parties. Her meeting schedule included top Republican senators Lindsey Graham, Rick Scott and Lisa Murkowski. Following this trip, Joly is headed to the Halifax International Security Forum, where she said she will be meeting with more U.S. lawmakers, including Sen. James Risch from Idaho. Hoekstra will still have to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, but his early nomination is being taken as a good sign by several former diplomats. Former Canadian diplomat Colin Robertson, who has met with Hoekstra before, said he's someone Canada can work with. "He's not from the (WWE) or Fox News. He's an ambassador in the Netherlands previously ... and he's from Michigan, so somebody who understands Canada," Robertson said. "He's well suited to the posting and I think it'll be easier to do business with somebody who has his depth of experience." Canada's ambassador in Washington, Kirsten Hillman, also congratulated Hoekstra on the nomination, posting on social media she looks forward to working with him to make the bilateral relationship "even stronger." Hoekstra was a nine-term border-state lawmaker and holds high esteem in Trump's world. His long career in politics left a wake of stunning headlines, including for a 2012 Super Bowl ad critics and even some Republicans slammed as blatantly racist. He was Trump's chosen chairman for the Michigan GOP during a power struggle between two pro-Trump camps. He spoke at Trump rallies in the swing state during the campaign and earned high praise from the president-elect. "This guy, Hoekstra — he's unbelievable," Trump said at a February rally in Waterford Township, Mich. "Everything he did in Congress, he was incredible, and then he was an unbelievable ambassador." In his first term as president, Trump tapped Hoekstra to serve as U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, where he was at one point embroiled in a political interference scandal for hosting a fundraiser at the U.S. Embassy with members of the far-right party Forum for Democracy. In a 2019 public talk organized by a Dutch news magazine, he said it's "not an unrealistic ask" that every member of NATO meets the target of spending the equivalent of two per cent of GDP on defence by 2024 — something Trump has railed about, and something Canada will not do until at least 2032. At an event in Ottawa last month, Trump's former ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft said his administration would expect Canada to meet that target much sooner than 2032. Hoekstra was a representative for Michigan from 1993 until 2011 and chaired the powerful House Intelligence Committee. In 2019, Trump floated him as a possible pick for national intelligence director. Not long after he was first elected, he voted in favour of the NAFTA trade deal in 1993 — something he called at the time a simple choice yet also the "toughest decision I have had to face in my first 11 months in office," according to Michigan newspaper reports from the time. By 2003, he was opposed to inking free-trade deals, including two proposed with Singapore and Chile, saying that NAFTA led to manufacturers in Michigan to "shift production to Canada and Mexico." Nearly a decade later, in 2011, he singled out NAFTA as something that had "come to symbolize what Americans believe is unfair trade." In the early 2000s, he was one of a number of Michigan lawmakers from both parties raising ire over Toronto shipping its trash into his state. "Michigan is better than taking Canadian trash," he was quoted saying in 2004 in the local Michigan newspaper the Ludington Daily News. The next year he co-signed a letter advocating for a bill that would clamp down on "foreign municipal solid waste" entering his state, according to an Associated Press report from the time. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2024. Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press
John Parker Romo made a 29-yard field goal to lift the Minnesota Vikings to a 30-27 overtime win against the host Chicago Bears on Sunday afternoon. Romo buried the game-winning kick in his third career game for Minnesota (9-2), which won its fourth game in a row. The score capped a 10-play, 68-yard drive for the Vikings after the Bears went three-and-out on the first overtime possession. Sam Darnold completed 22 of 34 passes for 330 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Vikings. Wideout Jordan Addison finished with eight catches for a career-high 162 yards and a touchdown. The overtime defeat spoiled an impressive performance from rookie quarterback Caleb Williams, who completed 32 of 47 passes for 340 yards and two touchdowns for Chicago (4-7). D.J. Moore had seven catches for 106 yards and a touchdown, and Keenan Allen finished with nine catches for 86 yards and a score. Chicago erased an 11-point deficit in the final 22 seconds of regulation to send the game to overtime. Romo had put Minnesota on top 27-16 when he made a 26-yard field goal with 1:56 remaining in the fourth quarter. Williams trimmed the Bears' deficit to 27-24 with 22 seconds to go. He rolled right and found Allen wide open in the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown, and moments later he fired a strike to Moore for a two-point conversion. The Bears recovered an onside kick on the next play to regain possession at their 43-yard line with 21 seconds left. Cairo Santos' onside kick bounced off the foot of Vikings tight end Johnny Mundt, and Tarvarius Moore recovered it. D.J. Moore put the Bears in field-goal position with a 27-yard reception across the middle of the field, and Santos made a 48-yarder as time expired to even the score at 27-all. Minnesota led 24-10 after three quarters. Romo made a 40-yard field goal early in the third quarter, and Aaron Jones punched in a 2-yard run with 1:22 left in the period to put the Vikings on top by two touchdowns. Addison and Jalen Nailor each had receiving touchdowns in the first half for Minnesota. Roschon Johnson scored on a 1-yard run for the Bears' only touchdown of the first half. Chicago trailed 14-10 at the break. --Field Level Media