Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday they had total control of the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for global energy transit, as Israel launched a new wave of strikes on the Iranian capital. Read More

First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here. Read More

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — Prime Minister Mark Carney says it isn't easy dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump, but that the president is more direct in private than he is in public. Read More

Let’s begin with a blunt question: Does Donald Trump hate Canada? Read More

Stop right now and erase everything you thought you knew about Iran. Read More

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — Prime Minister Mark Carney is taking his message that middle power countries must form new coalitions to counter the United States' power to Australian lawmakers today. Read More

There appears to be a dark storm gathering over not only Jewish communities in Canada, but Iranian-Canadians who oppose the Islamic regime. Read More

I was a little torn reading in the Hamilton Spectator about the latest blow to “Christopher’s Law,” the Ontario statute from 2000 that created a provincial sex-offender registry. The law was named for Christopher Stevenson, an 11-year-old boy who was abducted and murdered by a man just released from prison for an earlier sex crime against an 11-year-old. Laws named after individual crime victims are usually lousy ones, but Justice Davin Garg’s ruling has a slightly fantastical quality. Compelled by a recent Supreme Court ruling against lifetime mandatory registration for sex offenders in a parallel federal database, Garg found he had no choice but to strike down the analogous mandatory-registration requirement in the Ontario law. Read More

President Donald Trump said the U.S. would provide insurance guarantees and naval escorts to ensure safe passage for oil tankers and other vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, intending to head off a potential energy crisis caused by the war with Iran. Read More

MacDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski is being widely mocked online for a video he shared promoting the fast food chain's newest burger, the Big Arch. Read More

Good news from the hockey world: Plans for the 2028 World Cup are proceeding apace. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman was in Calgary on Tuesday, where Mayor Jeromy Farkas made his pitch for the city to play host in its brand-new arena, Scotia Place, which is set to open at the beginning of the 2027–28 NHL season. But it doesn’t really matter where they hold the tournament; the vast majority of us will watch on television. And it should be terrific. Read More

Ontario’s sex offender registry law will need to be overhauled by the legislature after it was ruled unconstitutional by the Ontario Court of Justice in a January 29 ruling. Read More

Back at the end of November when Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Danielle Smith signed their memorandum of understanding (MOU), it was presented as the best of all possible worlds: Canada would get a new oil pipeline and reduced carbon emissions. Read More

As if navigating landlord-tenant relationships isn't tricky enough, the mayor of Hamilton, Ont., is suing her own city and her former common-law partner in an attempt to empty the dilapidated home where her ex now lives that she owns and aims to demolish. Read More

If enduring harsh conditions while fishing the ruthless waters of the Atlantic doesn’t dry out your hands, nothing will. Annapolis Valley’s Les Falconer and his uncle Perley Beairsto founded Nova Scotia Fisherman with these Maritimers in mind. One of their go-to products is Deck Hand Cream, a concoction of Nova Scotia sea kelp, cacao, aloe, shea, castor oil, bayberry and sunflower to relieve calluses, cracks and sores. Lightly scented with lime, grapefruit, bergamot, lemon grass, patchouli, cedarwood and juniper, it’s “so rich you just need a smidgen” according to their website. Read More

The Pentagon's policy chief on Tuesday distanced the United States from the death of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying he was killed by an Israeli strike. Read More

RIP Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, we hardly knew you. As Prime Minister Mark Carney alights in Australia this week, fresh from a trade mission to India, the basic premise of the strategy — “to seize opportunities in the national interest of Canadians, while defending the values they hold dear” — has been junked in favour of realpolitik: doing business with countries other than the United States, even if their values don’t quite align with ours. Read More

U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran, and Tehran's retaliation, are set to trigger a surge in U.S. gas prices with a potential knock-on inflationary hit that could pile pressure on President Donald Trump domestically as midterm elections approach. Read More

Auston Matthews, captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs and a recent gold medal winner for the U.S. men's Olympic hockey team, got a round of boos from fans when he was introduced at the Leafs' first home game since the conclusion of the Milano-Cortina Games. Read More

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday lashed out at Britain and Spain for not fully backing his attack on Iran, as he threatened to end "all trade" with Spain. Read More

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday boasted of wide damage on Iran inflicted by the US-Israel attack, while denying that Israel had forced his hand into launching the war. Read More

A man whose teenage son shot dead four people at a U.S. high school was found guilty of murder and manslaughter on Tuesday in a rare case of a parent charged over a shooting carried out by their child. Read More

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA — Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to take questions from reporters for the first time since embarking on a 10-day trip to India, Australia and Japan last week. Read More

LONDON, U.K. — Pierre Poilievre will deliver his first keynote speech abroad as Conservative leader on Tuesday in London during which he is expected to advocate for closer ties and fewer trade barriers between Canada and the U.K. in the face of U.S. tariffs. Read More