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

From the October 7 massacre by Hamas to the slaughter at Bondi Beach in Sydney on Sunday, Islamists would have the world believe that the cause of all the mayhem is the existence of Israel. For Islamists and their apologists, the problem is simple: are you with the oppressor or the oppressed? Read More

When permanent resident Navinder Singh was caught with child pornography on his phone in 2018, he didn’t understand what was so wrong about it. He thought that his 19 videos of sexual abuse were “funny” and told a forensic psychologist afterward that things “were different in India.” Read More

A female nurse did not want to undress in front of a biologically male doctor. The nurse complained, and then the doctor complained about her. The nurse was suspended. An ongoing legal battle ensued. Unfortunately, this is a true story. Read More

OTTAWA — If the road to Canadian prosperity is to now be built on growing exports to markets other than the United States, as Prime Minister Mark Carney has vowed, a major new pothole may need attention. Read More

MONTREAL — Montreal for Palestine stopped by the city's downtown Christmas market on Sunday to harass and intimidate its patrons — on the same day that an antisemitic terrorist attack took place in Australia. Read More

Doug Ford has a plan. Yes, another one. The Ontario premier wants Niagara Falls to be the “Vegas of the north.” And he doesn’t mean a wasteland of cheap-and-dirty hotel rooms, all-you-can-eat buffets that used to be a great bargain but aren’t anymore, increasingly house-friendly blackjack odds and redlining customer dissatisfaction across the board, which is pretty much the story of modern Las Vegas. No, Ford wants some old-school razzle-dazzle. Read More

The surprise defection of former Conservative MP Michael Ma to the Liberals has prompted allegations of an overly close orientation to Chinese-government views, as well as protests outside his office and a petition urging him to resign. Read More

“And everybody hates the Jews.” In his satirical 1965 song “National Brotherhood Week,” after listing a host of specific ethnic, economic and religious hostilities, Tom Lehrer hit on a vital truth. Most bigotry is petty, localized and transient, though the human capacity for cruelty endures. But antisemitism is different and it matters. Including that when Islamists massacred Jews on Bondi Beach in Australia on Hanukkah, there was rage against … Jews. Read More

The surviving gunman from the father-son duo that killed 15 people on Sydney’s Bondi Beach during a Hanukkah celebration has regained consciousness after being in a coma. Read More

Nick Reiner faces two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of his parents, actor-director Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner. Read More

Hundreds of metres of dinosaur tracks with toes and claws have been found in the Italian Alps in a region that will host the 2026 Winter Olympics, authorities said Tuesday. Read More

The B.C. Court of Appeal has granted interim release to a medical aesthetics spa owner convicted of seven counts of sexual assault, pending the hearing of his appeal. Read More

There’s baking and then there’s Christmas baking. The elevated latter version involves sprinkles. It involves candy cane flavour infusions. It involves a bit more time and energy — but it also involves family or friends bonding in the kitchen. Up the festive fun factor with these five Canadian-made finds. Read More

Donald Trump said Tuesday he stood by his chief of staff Susie Wiles after she said the U.S. president had an "alcoholic's personality" in an astonishing interview with Vanity Fair. Read More

Australian Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is not the most astute of politicians. But in the immediate aftermath of Sunday’s two-man jihad massacre at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach, she made a cutting observation. Read More

There may not be enough hyphens in the world to enlist in summarizing Kier-La Janisse’s multi-hyphenate identity. Read More

The notion of ghosts at Christmas time inevitably compels us to think of Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol but the Yuletime ghost story has a rich past that goes well beyond Dickens, certainly in Britain. The tradition of telling “scary ghost stories” — to quote the perennial song It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year — was revived with the BBC series A Ghost Story for Christmas, which had an annual run between 1971-78, and a sporadic revival beginning in 2005. The films are mostly based on the works of English scholar M.R. James and run between 30 to 50 minutes. Read More

A Jewish couple in their 60s tried to stop one of the alleged Bondi Beach attackers by grabbing his gun, dramatic dashcam footage shows. Read More

Is Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre a dead man walking? Perhaps not yet, but after MP Michael Ma’s shock floor crossing last week, he is certainly limping. The defection reignited the conversation about Poilievre’s leadership that started at budget time, when Conservative MP Chris d’Entremont defected to the Liberals and fellow MP Matt Jeneroux announced his intention to resign next year, bringing the Liberals within sight of a majority government. Read More

OTTAWA — The federal government is implementing stricter methane regulations on both the oil and gas and landfill sectors in an initial batch of more severe environmental policies to be implemented by the Carney government.  Read More

There is no joy in Hogtown. Public transit has struck out. Again. After many years of construction and $3.7 billion spent, there is a new light-rail line on Finch Avenue West, in the city’s north end. It is 10.3 kilometres long, and almost entirely at grade. (For $360 million per kilometre, many places in the world can build fully underground heavy-rail subways. But the mystery of the North American infrastructure surcharge is a subject for another day.) Read More

The Liberal government concealed a deal with alleged "raging antisemite" Laith Marouf, two Conservative MPs say after they learned about it through a written inquiry. Read More