Reza Pahlavi, a leader of the Iranian opposition in exile, on Saturday called the joint Israeli-U.S. military strikes in Iran a “humanitarian intervention” that offered Iranians a chance to “reclaim” their country. Read More

It’s an April Fool’s Day tradition. MPs give themselves pay raises every year on April 1 under the Parliament of Canada Act. Read More

Alleged Serbian war criminal Goran Pavic has failed to derail the federal government's attempt to prove he obtained Canadian citizenship by fraudulent means and that he should be deemed inadmissible to this country. Read More

In Toronto on Thursday, Pierre Poilievre gave a speech at the Economic Club of Canada that was billed as “a vision for Canada-U.S. relations.” Since last year’s election, Poilievre has faced consistent criticism over his inability to offer a serious response to President Donald Trump’s tariff and 51st state threats (even though this is unfair and much of what he said in yesterday’s speech he has been saying for over a year). The speech was full of substantive and new policy ideas, but perhaps most interestingly, Poilievre sketched out in the speech a philosophical worldview that would serve as a basis and strategy for handling Trump and an increasingly unstable world, a worldview we can call “national stoicism.” Read More

Curling is having its quadrennial moment, the Winter Olympics introducing viewers to how much fun it is. The winter games are comprised mostly of odd pursuits that require astonishing physical skill — ski jumping, luge, biathlon — cross-country skiing with guns, why not? Only hockey, figure skating and curling are things ordinary people might encounter, and of those, curling is the most viewer-friendly. Read More

TEL AVIV — Should war erupt between the United States and Iran — a prospect that now seems probable, even imminent — Israel will undoubtedly be pummelled with missiles. Yet, in Tel Aviv at least, many Israelis feel nothing but affection for the Iranian people themselves, who are widely perceived as co-victims of Tehran’s Islamic regime. Read More

Now that the immigration system — in particular, as it relates to refugees — has come under the harsh light of public scrutiny, Justice Minister Sean Fraser is lashing out at its critics: “We are dealing with, in some instances, some of the most vulnerable people in the world,” he said Wednesday, implying that anyone who touches the issue is a bully. Read More

The premier defector from, and debunker of, the "Green Terror," which holds that climate change is an existential challenge to the continuation of life on earth, is probably Bjorn Lomborg, president of the Copenhagen Consensus Centre and former director of the Danish government’s Environmental Assessment Institute. He has been a prominent climate change skeptic for years, and has roiled the waters by pointing out the mistaken warnings of climate alarmists. Many of them predicted the onset of unlivable circumstances in much of the world long before now, as a result of unrestrained carbon use. Read More

President Donald Trump made his case for the latest US attack on Iran in an extraordinary eight-minute video posted early Saturday morning on his Truth Social platform. Read More

The US and Israel began striking targets across Iran, with President Donald Trump urging Iranians to take over the government. Read More

The U.S. Justice Department said it won’t appeal the decision of a New York federal judge to throw out a murder charge against Luigi Mangione, which means he won’t face the death penalty if he’s convicted of killing UnitedHealth Group Inc. executive Brian Thompson. Read More

Denmark’s intelligence services warned that foreign powers may seek to interfere in the country’s March 24 general election, singling out Russia as the primary threat but also flagging the U.S. and China as potential sources of influence. Read More

WestJet customers stranded in Mexico after the recent spate of drug-cartel violence are frustrated with the airline’s handling of their return trips to Canada. Read More

A man has been arrested after the statue of Winston Churchill in London, England, was defaced with anti-Israeli graffiti. Read More

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will travel to London and Berlin next week to meet with officials and talk about trade. Read More

OTTAWA — China's second most powerful politician gifted Prime Minister Mark Carney a high-end "action camera" with a selfie stick during his visit last month. Security experts recommend Carney dump it immediately. Read More

During this past week and half, Canada’s two most western provinces presented budgets with yawning deficits. Slow-growth British Columbia is forecasting a deficit for the 2026/27 fiscal year of $13.3 billion (2.9 per cent of GDP), up from $9.6 billion for this current year. With better growth, Alberta hit the $9.4-billion mark, more than double the 2025/26 deficit of $4.1 billion and the biggest since the pandemic. Read More

The dean of the University of Toronto's school of dentistry has stepped aside after using two antisemitic cartoons in a student lecture. Read More

Former President Bill Clinton delivered a sweeping denial of any knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes as he began closed-door testimony Friday before a House committee investigating the disgraced financier’s political connections. Read More

Iran is conducting regular and unexplained activity at bombed uranium-enrichment sites, United Nations atomic inspectors said, potentially complicating talks with the US over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Read More

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Talks between Iran and the U.S. ended Thursday amid President Donald Trump’s 10-15 day “deal or bad things” ultimatum. In his State of the Union speech this week, Trump vowed never to let “the world’s number one sponsor of terror” get nukes — after promising protesters in Iran that “help is on the way.” Read More

(Bloomberg) — Countries including the US, UK and China evacuated embassy staff in the Middle East and issued travel advisories amid concerns about a regional conflict, as President Donald Trump on Friday sounded downbeat about diplomatic talks meant to avert airstrikes on Iran. Read More

Brady Tkachuk, a member of the gold-medal-winning U.S. men's Olympic hockey team this year, has denied that he insulted Canada after a TikTok video posted by the White House made it look like he very much did. 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