Last week, Trump threatened he would impose a blanket 25% tariff on both countries when he takes office in January unless they secured their shared borders with the US.

Canadian officials were quick to distance their country’s border issues from those of Mexico, arguing that drug smuggling and unlawful crossings at the southern border were much higher, and that Mexico was serving as a “back door” in North America for Chinese investment.

Those remarks have not gone unnoticed in Mexico.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told the Associated Press this week that “Mexico must be respected, especially by its trading partners”.

She added that Canada had its own social problems with fentanyl use, adding the country “could only wish they had the cultural riches Mexico has”.

Sheinbaum’s remarks came after Canada’s US ambassador, Kirsten Hillman, told the news agency that during a recent dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida residence, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the president-elect that the northern border was “vastly different than the Mexican border”.

Doug Ford, leader of Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, said last week that lumping Canada and Mexico together on border security – given the differences between the two boundaries – was “the most insulting thing” he has heard from the US, a long-time close ally of Canada.

Canadian officials have also tried to position the US and Canada as a united front against China, while saying they share concerns that China was using Mexico as a backdoor to flood the North American market with cheap imports.

In October, Canada imposed a 100% tariff on imports of Chinese-made electric vehicles (EV) after similar announcements by the US and European Union.

The country also plans to impose a 25% duty on Chinese steel and aluminium.Mexico has not levied a similarly steep tariff.

At the moment, all three countries are under a North American trade agreement that was renegotiated during Trump’s first term. It is up for renegotiation again in 2026.

But tensions with China prompted Ford to repeatedly call for separate bilateral trade deals between Canada, the US and Mexico – a proposal that has been backed by Danielle Smith, leader of Canada’s oil-rich province of Alberta.

“They’ve had an opportunity to fix these concerns for years and they just don’t want to,” Ford said in late November.

Trudeau has said that while Canada preferred Mexico remain a united North American trade partner, “we may have to look at other options” if the country doesn’t address China trade.

Marta Leardi-Anderson, the executive director of the Cross-Border Institute at the University of Windsor – an Ontario city connected by a bridge to Detroit, Michigan – said Ford’s comments are likely a reflection of Ontario’s deep reliance on its US trade relationship.

The province is at the heart of the highly integrated auto industry in Canada, and trade between Ontario and the US totalled more than C$493bn ($350bn) in 2023.

“That’s a huge amount of economic energy from just one region of the country,” Ms Leardi-Anderson said.

She added that Trump’s views on tariffs and border security have forced Mexico and Canada – also long-time allies – to dissect the shortcomings in their relationship in ways they have not done before.

These comments were seen as a betrayal by Mexico’s lead trade negotiator, Gutierrez Romano, who told Canadian newspaper the Globe and Mail last week that “it is not rational to be divided against the United States”.

Ford’s comments and Trudeau’s perceived silence about them were also seen as offensive by some of the Mexican public, says Oliver Santín Peña, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

“Ultimately, it is not a good time in the bilateral relationship [between Canada and Mexico],” Mr Peña said that noting the nations have enjoyed a steady relationship for 85 years.

He said Sheinbaum’s response signals that she will stand up for Mexico when needed, but she is likely not seeking to open a two-front trade war with Trump and Trudeau.

“She would not fall for provocations,” Mr Peña said, but also wants to communicate “that her country should be respected”.

Sheinbaum, who took office in October, is still establishing herself in the role and the country’s first woman president and has taken the position that Mexico is to be respected as a full and equal partner, particularly by its North American neighbours.

“I always will defend Mexico and Mexicans’ rights, including those based in the United States,” she said on the campaign trail when asked her about the possibility of working with a second Trump administration.

While both the northern and southern US borders have reported unlawful crossings and drug seizures, the numbers at the border with Canada are considerably lower than those at the Mexico border, according to official data.

US border agents have seized 43lbs (19.5kg) of fentanyl at the northern border between October 2023 and this September, compared to more than 21,000lbs at the southern border.

Over the same period, there were just under 200,000 migrant encounters at the northern border, and more than two million at the southern border.

Canada has promised to beef up border security since Trump’s surprise tariff threat.Meanwhile, Sheinbaum has shared her country’s immigration strategy with Trump while emphasising her view of “respecting human rights”.

“We reiterate that Mexico’s position is not to close borders but to build bridges between governments and between peoples,” she has said.

Crossings at the US-Mexico border dropped sharply this summer after reaching record highs earlier under the Biden administration, in part due to efforts by Mexico to implement measures like setting up new checkpoints and increasing patrols.

Since Trump and Sheinbaum spoke on the phone following the tariff threats, Mexico has also made what it says is a record seizure of fentanyl – some 1,500 tablets with an estimated value of around $400m.

Mexico, China and Canada together account for more than a third of the goods and services both imported and exported by the US, supporting tens of millions of American jobs.

About 75% of Canada’s exports go to the US, and Canadian imports to the US are valued at $430bn, according to the United Nations Comtrade database on international trade.

Mexico is the top trading partner of the US with imports valued at $480bn.

Jamie Lee Komoroski was sentenced to 25 years in prison over the crash in South Carolina last year that killed Samantha Miller while she was still wearing her wedding dress.

The victim’s husband, Aric Hutchinson, was among three others who were hurt, along with two of his family members who were also in the vehicle.

He wept as he told the court his new wife had “wanted the night to never end”, Associated Press reported.

The collision occurred in the city of Folly Beach in April 2023 as the newlyweds were being taken back to their accommodation just hours after their ceremony.

Komoroski was accused by prosecutors of drinking at several bars and then driving at 65mph (104km/h) in a 25 mph zone. Her car hit the golf cart carrying the couple, driven by Mr Hutchinson’s brother-in-law.

A blood test showed that she was three times over the drinking limit, according to a report released by state officials after the crash. She had earlier refused to provide officers with breath samples, a police incident report said.

At Charleston County Courthouse on Monday, Komoroski admitted charges including felony DUI resulting in death. She received multiple sentences that will run at the same time.

Addressing the court before being sentenced, she spoke of her regret and said she took full responsibility.

Mr Hutchinson, who sustained a brain injury and broken bones in the crash, also spoke. Although he has said he has no memory of the incident itself, he was able to recount his final conversation with his wife.

“On the golf cart, she told me she didn’t want the night to end and I kissed her on the forehead and then the next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital,” he said.

After the sentencing, he said he felt “the punishment fit the crime”, according to CBS News affiliate WCSC.

“I do think she’s sorry,” Mr Hutchinson said. “However, that doesn’t change the fact that Sam’s not here, my wife’s not here, the family we planned, all of our injuries. So that’ll take some time for sure.”

The decision in the Delaware court comes after months of legal wrangling and despite it being approved by shareholders and directors in the summer.

Judge Kathaleen McCormick upheld her previous decision from January, in which she argued that board members were too heavily influenced by Mr Musk.

Reacting to the ruling, Mr Musk wrote on X: “Shareholders should control company votes, not judges.”

Tesla vowed to appeal against the ruling, saying the decision was “wrong”.

“This ruling, if not overturned, means that judges and plaintiffs’ lawyers run Delaware companies rather than their rightful owners – the shareholders,” the electric car company said in a post on X.

Judge McCormick said the pay package would have been the largest ever for the boss of a listed company.

She said Tesla had failed to prove the fairness of the pay package, which dated to 2018.

Mr Musk, the boss of X (formerly Twitter) and SpaceX as well as Tesla, is the world’s richest person. His current net worth is estimated at around $350bn, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

He has used his platform to make his views known on a vast array of topics, and his status seems set to climb higher still following Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 US presidential election. The president-elect has picked Mr Musk to lead a newly created Department of Government Efficiency (or Doge – like the dog-related meme).

Trump has said Doge will help the administration “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal Agencies”.

A Tesla shareholder vote on the payment passed by 75% in June, but the judge did not agree the pay should be so large despite what she called Tesla’s lawyers’ “creative” arguments.

“Even if a stockholder vote could have a ratifying effect, it could not do so here,” she wrote in her opinion.

The judge also ruled the Tesla shareholder who brought the case against the company and Mr Musk should receive $345m in fees but not the $5.6bn in Tesla shares they had asked for.

Some observers said a ruling in favour of Mr Musk and Tesla would have dealt a blow to conflict of interest laws in Delaware.

The idea of conflict rules is to protect all investors, not just minority investors, said Charles Elson of the University of Delaware’s Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance.

Mr Elson said Judge McCormick’s opinion was well-reasoned.

“You had a board that wasn’t independent, a process that was dominated by the chief executive, and a package that was way out of any sort of reasonable bounds,” he said. “It’s quite a combo.”

Mr Elson said he expects Tesla might try to reconstitute a similar pay package in Texas where the company moved its legal base earlier this year after the pay ruling.

Addressing ICC members in The Hague at an annual conference on Monday, ICC President Tomoko Akane said the court faced “coercive measures, threats, pressure and acts of sabotage” without naming the United States and Russia.

The court has been facing rebukes from the two countries after issuing arrest warrants for Israeli and Russian officials over wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

“The court is being threatened with draconian economic sanctions by another permanent member of the Security Council as if it was a terrorist organisation,” Akane said in her address.

US politicians have been threatening to impose sanctions on ICC officials after the tribunal issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over suspected war crimes in Gaza.

Last month, US Senator Lindsey Graham, whose Republican Party will be in control of both houses of Congress and the White House starting in January, called the ICC a “dangerous joke” and threatened penalties against the court and any country that cooperates with it.

“To any ally – Canada, Britain, Germany, France – if you try to help the ICC, we’re going to sanction you,” Graham said on Fox News.

In June, the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives passed a bill to sanction the court in response to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for the arrest warrants against Israeli officials.

The measure has so far not been considered by the Senate, which at this point is controlled by Democrats.

After the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Gallant and a Hamas leader last month, US Senator Tom Cotton suggested using military force against The Hague-based tribunal.

The US and Israel are not members of the ICC, and they have rejected the court’s investigations of alleged abuses in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

However, the court has ruled that it has jurisdiction in those areas because the State of Palestine is a signatory to the Rome Statute, which established the tribunal.

“The court has been subjected to attacks seeking to undermine its legitimacy and ability to administer justice and realise international law and fundamental rights – coercive measures, threats, pressure and acts of sabotage,” Akane said.

She called the efforts “appalling”.Last week, the court decried the “recent issuance of arrest warrants aimed at threatening the liberty and integrity of two judges”. Russia had issued an arrest warrant for ICC Judge Haykel Ben Mahfoudh in November.

Moscow also previously indicted Khan and other court officials after the ICC issued arrest warrants for President Vladimir Putin and Russian military leaders last year over alleged war crimes committed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Akane warned on Monday that the fall of the court through these threats would “imply the fall of the rule of law in the international community”.

“Victims would no longer be able to obtain justice. For many of them, a world without the ICC is inconceivable,” the ICC president said.

“We firmly reject any attempt to influence the independence and the impartiality of the court,” she added.

The ICC was established in 2002 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression when member states are unwilling or unable to do so themselves.

Its warrant against the Israeli leaders marked the first time the court issued an order for a staunchly close Western ally.

In a statement, the president said his son had been “singled out” and called his cases “a miscarriage of justice”.

Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to tax charges earlier in September, and was found guilty of being an illegal drug user in possession of a gun in June – becoming the first child of a sitting president to be a convicted of a crime.

Reacting to the pardon, President-elect Donald Trump said: “Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the [6 January] Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!”

Trump was referring to his supporters who stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 in a bid to overturn Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election.

Joe Biden’s full and unconditional pardon for his son comes after the president had previously said he would not give him clemency.

Just a couple of months ago, in September, the White House press secretary said that Biden would not issue a pardon for his son.

But on Sunday evening, President Biden said although he believed in the justice system, “politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice”.

“From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” he said.

Biden said he wrestled with the decision, and added: “once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further.”

“I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision,” he said.

In a reaction statement, Hunter Biden said mistakes he made during the darkest days of his addiction had been “exploited to publicly humiliate and shame” his family for political sport.

“I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted and will devote the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are still sick and suffering,” the 54-year-old added.

The younger Biden has been sober for five-and-a-half years, his father said.

This is not the first time a US president has pardoned a member of their family.Bill Clinton pardoned his younger half-brother, Roger Clinton, for a 1985 cocaine-related offence in 2001.

In 2020, Donald Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father-in-law of his daughter Ivanka. President-elect Trump has recently announced that Kushner will be the new ambassador to France.

Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to nine counts of federal tax fraud in September, for which he had been facing up to 17 years in prison.

He was also convicted of three felonies in connection with a gun purchase in June, for which he had been facing up to 25 years in prison.

Sentencing for these cases had been scheduled for 12 and 16 December.

His legal troubles had been a dark cloud over his father’s presidential campaign, which came to an end in July after Biden pulled out of the election race.

Biden endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris to succeed him as the Democratic candidate, who lost the election to Republican Donald Trump in November.

Trump is set to take over the Oval Office from Biden on 20 January 2025 – Inauguration Day.

In a statement, the president said his son had been “singled out”, and called his cases “a miscarriage of justice.”

“From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” he added.

Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to tax charges earlier in September, and was found guilty of being an illegal drug user in possession of a gun in June – becoming the first child of a sitting president to be a convicted of a crime.

There has been an effort to break Hunter – who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House.

“In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”

Biden’s decision comes weeks before Hunter Biden was set to face sentencing for a string of felonies related to making a false statement about his drug use during a gun background check and failing to pay at least $1.4m in taxes.

The younger Biden had faced a maximum of 25 years in prison in the tax case and 17 years in the firearms case, though he would have almost certainly received much less severe punishment under sentencing guidelines.

In justifying his decision, Biden said that people are “almost never” brought to trial for wrongly filling out a gun purchase form and that those who pay their taxes late usually receive “non-criminal resolutions”.

“For my entire career I have followed a simple principle: just tell the American people the truth. They’ll be fair-minded. Here’s the truth: I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further,” Biden said.

“I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.

”In June, Biden had flatly ruled out the possibility of granting his son a pardon or commuting his sentence.

“I said I will abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him,” Biden had said.

The White House had reiterated Biden’s intention not to pardon his son as recently as November 8, when press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters: “Our answer stands, which is no.”