Freedom of speech is under attack in the West, the Pope has warned.
Pope Leo XIV claimed an “Orwellian-style language” had taken root in the West and that democracies were becoming increasingly authoritarian by clamping down on “freedom of conscience”.
It marks one of the pontiff’s first interventions on the issue, which had also been taken up by his predecessor, Pope Francis.
Iran: Woman publicly removes her burqa to reveal a T-shirt carrying an explicit message against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Such an act is punishable by death under Iranian law… but protestors willing to take that risk and challenge the regime.
– @nabilajamal_ pic.twitter.com/6pOKDwnHSI
— Imtiaz Mahmood (@ImtiazMadmood) January 12, 2026
VANCOUVER—At a critical time of upheaval in global politics, Prime Minister Mark Carney is trying to court the attention of one great power and avoid the ire of another, all while holding his political ground at home.
Carney was to leave Canada Tuesday afternoon. En route to Beijing, the prime minister detoured to do the thing he’s accused of not doing enough: listen to the political leaders who could make or break a key part of his ambitious trade agenda.
🇳🇿 Meanwhile in New Zealand
New Government Police Ai Surveillance & facial recognition tech is deployed to catch Motororists & Pedestrians doing anything the Government doesn’t agree we have said they can prosecute them.
Coming to a Western country near you. pic.twitter.com/UqYxLZqahd
— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) January 13, 2026
A big complaint of western businesses when Beijing first opened up its economy was that the Chinese never seemed to understand the concept of a deal. There would be a handshake and a document signing but then, when the investment money arrived or the first order from a factory was dispatched, the Chinese side would seek to renegotiate terms all over again.
That must be how President Xi is feeling now, only with the boot firmly on the other foot — in this case that of President Trump, who has his own unique approach to dealmaking.
Court docs reveal that Derek Carl Kirven, who attacked and injured multiple senior citizens, was racially motivated.
Kirven reportedly called detectives names such as "confederate, hillybilly, and white trash" while saying he hoped to kiII people.
Story to disappear in… pic.twitter.com/QANIEzgZRZ
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 13, 2026
A B.C. Supreme Court trial starting this week is challenging the constitutionality of faith-based hospitals in the province opting not to provide medically assisted death for terminally ill patients.
The case stems from the death of a terminally ill woman, Sam O’Neill, who sought medical assistance in dying (MAiD) while receiving care at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver.
How does an authoritarian regime die? As Ernest Hemingway famously said about going broke – gradually then suddenly.
The protesters in Iran and their supporters abroad were hoping that the Islamic regime in Tehran was at the suddenly stage. The signs are, if it is dying, it is still at gradual.
The last two weeks of unrest add up to a big crisis for the regime. Iranian anger and frustration have exploded into the streets before, but the latest explosion comes on top of all the military blows inflicted on Iran in the last two years by the US and Israel.
Huh?
New footage
shows rioters attacking rescue & police forces in #Mashhad, #Iran — these are not peaceful protesters, but violent elements undermining public safety. pic.twitter.com/6Xfik794cj— ☫ Iran Embassy in The Hague, The Netherlands (@IRAN_in_NL) January 13, 2026
As Prime Minister Mark Carney heads to China for talks aimed at boosting trade, Premier Doug Ford is imploring him to keep Canadian tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.
The Star reported Monday that Carney’s officials are in “active discussions” with Beijing about lowering or dropping the 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese EVs that Canada imposed in 2024.
That’s because the prime minister — who has brought Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe with him on the trade mission — hopes that, in exchange, China will remove its punitive counter-tariffs on Canadian canola and seafood.
Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to arrive in China on Wednesday as Beijing signalled interest in encouraging Canada to pursue a foreign policy less aligned with the United States, amid ongoing trade tensions and shifting global alliances.
Chinese state media have urged Ottawa to adopt what they describe as “strategic autonomy,” arguing Canada should chart a path independent of Washington, The Canadian Press reported.
Exclusive: Some scientists say many detections are most likely error, with one high-profile study called a ‘joke’
High-profile studies reporting the presence of microplastics throughout the human body have been thrown into doubt by scientists who say the discoveries are probably the result of contamination and false positives. One chemist called the concerns “a bombshell”.
Studies claiming to have revealed micro and nanoplastics in the brain, testes, placentas, arteries and elsewhere were reported by media across the world, including the Guardian. There is no doubt that plastic pollution of the natural world is ubiquitous, and present in the food and drink we consume and the air we breathe. But the health damage potentially caused by microplastics and the chemicals they contain is unclear, and an explosion of research has taken off in this area in recent years.
Berlin’s horrendous four-day blackout, which plunged over 45,000 households in the city’s south-west into darkness, is finally over. Beginning last Saturday and lasting for four nights, the blackouts left homes, shops and care facilities without light, heating and communications access – just as a particularly nasty cold spell sent temperatures plummeting to minus-10 degrees Celsius. The far-left ‘Volcano Group’ (Vulkangruppe) has claimed responsibility for the blackout, which it reportedly achieved by setting fire to electricity cables connected to Berlin’s largest gas power plant.
Less than 40 per cent of CBC’s reporting on the Israel-Hamas conflict was “balanced or neutral,” finds a new study by a Jewish advocacy group.
B’nai Brith Canada also found that more than 50 per cent of CBC’s news articles and videos included in the study met its threshold for pro-Palestinian bias, while less than seven per cent met the threshold for pro-Israel bias. This was based on a sample of 299 items published between Oct. 1, 2024 to April 30, 2025.
Antifa is feeling underappreciated, and if I were House or Senate Democrats, I’d think about upping my security. That’s not to suggest that we on the Right don’t have legitimate concerns about them. We do. But we haven’t pricked their egos, and that’s a different kind of dangerous.
According to a piece in New Statesman by the pollster and strategy and communications expert Scarlett Maguire, the world isn’t facing an onslaught of dangerously disenfranchised and radicalised young men…
