OTTAWA — Quebec Premier François Legault unexpectedly announced on Wednesday he would soon be resigning as leader just as his party, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), is expected to face a crushing defeat in an election year. Read More

Steve Witkoff, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, announced the start of Phase 2 of the Trump administration’s 20-point Gaza peace plan on Wednesday. Read More

It was an iconic image: A photogenic young Iranian woman filmed herself lighting a cigarette with a picture of Iran's leader, an evocative protest against the misogynistic clerics who run Iran. Read More

François Legault announced yesterday that he will step down as premier of Quebec once his party selects a new leader. His departure marks the end of an era dominated by premiers born during the baby boom or earlier, as most of the contenders for the job at next October’s election are in their 40s or 50s. Other Canadians should harbour no illusions, however: the question of Quebec’s place within the Canadian federation will remain at the heart of political debate in the province. Read More

Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei, a pillar of its theocratic system since the inception of the Islamic revolution, has seen off a succession of crises throughout his rule with a mixture of repression and strategic manoeuvring, but now could be facing his biggest challenge. Read More

Iran plans to execute Erfan Soltani, 26, for participating in anti-government protests. The death sentence was issued amid threats of strong action by U.S. president Donald Trump against Iran's ruling regime if protesters are executed. Read More

A Nova Scotia man who served 35 years for the violent slaying of a 12-year-old Ontario girl he had raped had his day parole extended last month and continues to live in the Halifax area, according to the Parole Board of Canada. Read More

After nearly 47 years of subjecting the people of Iran to tyrannical cruelty and destroying the Iranian economy while serving as the financier and armourer of at least a dozen terrorist groups throughout the Greater Middle East, the Islamic Republic of Iran appears to be finally at the point of collapse. Read More

In the fall, Prime Minister Mark Carney laid out a plan to double Canada's non-U.S. exports by 2035. What he failed to make explicit was that in order to do so, he would be cozying up to some of the world's most reprehensible dictators. Read More

NDP leadership candidate Rob Ashton apologized Tuesday for using AI to respond to constituents on social media platform Reddit, saying it was due to an "overwhelming number of questions." Read More

Last summer’s 28 Years Later, set decades after the events of the 2002 horror movie 28 Days Later, was that cinematic rarity, the good sequel. This one, sequel to a sequel, pulls off an even less common feat. It’s better. Read More

BEIJING — Within hours of landing in Beijing with Prime Minister Mark Carney, Foreign Minister Anita Anand appeared to be stepping back from the Liberal government's 2024 assessment that China is an "increasingly disruptive" global force. Read More

U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his assertion that the U.S. needs Greenland for national security, urging NATO to back his efforts to gain control of the Arctic territory before a meeting of diplomats in Washington. Read More

Los Angeles — Actor Kiefer Sutherland, who starred in the television series 24 and the vampire flick The Lost Boys, was arrested Monday on suspicion of assaulting a ride-share driver, according to Los Angeles police. 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

Dawn had not yet broken in Jerusalem on October 7, 2023, when Baruch Apisdorf received a text message from his best friend. David Newman, 25, had borrowed Apisdorf's car to go to a music festival in southern Israel. Read More

A transgender woman convicted of first-degree murder in the killing of a 13-year-old Edmonton girl who was lured to a golf course, sexually assaulted, strangled, stabbed, then bludgeoned to death with a hammer, has lost her bid to stay in a women's prison. Read More

People like Kory Teneycke and Anthony Koch do not relocate from Ontario and Quebec to direct politics on the West Coast for fun. They do so because they understand the importance of what is happening in British Columbia. Read More

Suppose — just suppose — that in 2026 Canada’s federal-provincial relations continue to deteriorate under the mismanagement of the Carney government, that a clear majority of the citizens of Quebec or Alberta actually threaten to vote Yes on a clear secession question, and that the reactionary anti-development positions of several provincial and First Nations governments (like those of B.C.) continue to cripple the ability of the Canadian economy to support the health, education and social services required to adequately sustain the well-being of 40 million people. Read More

Solicitor General Michael Kerzner is right: Toronto’s response to chronic intimidation and harassment by masked mobs has been grossly inadequate for two years. Frequent vitriol and social disorder are causing real damage to Toronto’s livability and reputation. But the fault does not lay with our police, who are doing everything they can. Police don’t make the rules, political leaders do. Read More

Every gay man has felt that shame. It settles early, long before we have language for who we are or the courage to name it. It’s learned in locker rooms and hallways, in jokes not meant for us, but always about us. It’s reinforced by silence, by the constant calculation of what can be said, and what must never be revealed. Shame is enforced subtly — through exclusion, fear, and the knowledge that visibility comes at a cost. Read More

One oil spill would destroy a way of life, is what Marilyn Slett said she told Mark Carney when he visited Prince Rupert, B.C. to discuss conservation and economic opportunities in the region. Read More