#BREAKING: Canada, allies ready to ‘contribute to appropriate efforts’ on Strait of Hormuz blockage.

Canada is ready to “contribute to appropriate efforts” to resume safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, a significant artery in international shipping undergoing a “de facto closure” amid the war in Iran.

That’s according to a joint statement released Thursday, co-signed by Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan. The countries demanded that Iran halt its “threats, laying of mines, drone and missile attacks and other attempts to block the strait to commercial shipping.”

#BREAKING: Fighter jets escort two Montreal-bound flights after ‘security incident’: Norad.

Norad said fighter jets, including CF-18s, escorted two international flights bound for Montreal on Wednesday due to a “security incident” that prompted a police response at the Trudeau International airport.

The binational organization that monitors and defends airspace in North America told CTV News that CF-18 and F-16 fighter jets, as well as KC-135s aerial refuelling tankers, “monitored the situation until the involved commercial aircraft landed safely at destination.”

When the planes landed, Quebec provincial police arrested two male passengers in their 20s and 30s. The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) said the men are being questioned by investigators and “could face charges related to fraud,” according to SQ spokesperson Béatrice Dorsainville.

No further details about the men were released by police.

Meanwhile, Norad did not provide any further details.

“Norad employs a layered defence network of radars, satellites, and fighter aircraft to determine appropriate responses to air security incidents and ultimately to keep Canada and the United States safe each and every day,” a spokesperson said in an email.

FAA grounded all flights to Montreal

As the incident unfolded, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) grounded all flights to the Montreal international airport “due to bomb threat,” a notice on its website stated on Wednesday.

The ground stop was issued at 3:02 p.m. but was lifted shortly before 5 p.m., when the mention of the alleged bomb threat was removed.

Montreal police say they responded to the airport and assisted Quebec provincial police, which has taken the lead on the investigation.

The airport said passengers are urged to check their flight schedules before heading to Trudeau airport due to possible delays.

US President Donald Trump said Israel will not attack Iran’s South Pars Gas Field from now on.

"The United States knew nothing about this particular attack, and the country of Qatar was in no way, shape, or form, involved with it, nor did it have any idea that it was going to happen," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The US leader believes that the Jewish state delivered the strike "out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East." In his words, "a relatively small section of the whole has been hit."

"No more attacks will be made by Israel pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar," Trump added.

On Wednesday, the head of the Assaluyeh District administration in Iran's Bushehr Province reported that a fire had broken out at several facilities in the South Pars gas field following an attack by Israel and the United States. In this regard, Iran’s elite military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (#IRGC) said it would attack oil and gas sites in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar.

#Iran EXECUTED MOSSAD SPY, Kourosh Keyvani, today...

He provided images & information about sensitive locations to Mossad. He was arrested with 30,000 euros in cash, a pickup truck, a motorcycle, various complex espionage, intelligence & satellite communication devices

#Moscow is currently considering whether it should proactively stop supplying energy resources to the European market, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"As far as the order from the President [of Russia Vladimir Putin] to consider the possibility of an early withdrawal from European gas markets is concerned, this issue is under consideration, requiring a fairly in-depth analysis," he told a briefing.

The energy market is currently experiencing serious turmoil due to the war around Iran, Peskov noted. "And, of course, these upheavals make it difficult for everyone to predict market trends. Therefore, an in-depth analysis is currently underway, considering all the specifics of the current situation," he added.

Putin said earlier that the Russian government had been tasked with assessing the feasibility and advisability of halting energy supplies to the European market, adding that starting April 25, EU countries planned to impose additional restrictions on the purchase of Russian hydrocarbons, including LNG, up to a complete ban on such supplies in 2027.

In this regard, it may be more advantageous for Russia not to wait until the door is ostentatiously slammed in its face, but to redirect supplies to more interesting destinations now, Putin noted.

#UNICEF says it's investigating Israel’s allegations of smuggled tobacco in a #Gaza aid shipment

Luigi Mangione's lawyers seek to delay his state and federal trials.

NEW YORK — Luigi Mangione’s lawyers asked a judge on Wednesday to postpone his federal trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson until early next year and said they will seek to have his state murder trial delayed until September.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett, Mangione’s lawyers said that the current schedule -- the state trial in June and the federal trial in September -- would put him “in the position of needing to prepare for two complicated and serious trials at the same time.”

They asked Garnett to delay the federal trial until January 2027 so that they can have an opportunity to ask the state trial judge, Gregory Carro, to reschedule the start of that case from June 8 to Sept. 8. Mangione has pleaded not guilty in both cases.

Carro previously raised the possibility of moving the state trial to September -- but only if federal prosecutors appealed Garnett’s decision barring them from seeking the death penalty. They declined to do so, leaving the June state trial and September federal trial dates intact.

Keeping the current schedule would violate Mangione’s constitutional rights, his lawyers argued.

Among other concerns, they said, preparations for jury selection in the federal case would overlap with the state trial, limiting Mangione’s ability to review questionnaires filled out by hundreds of potential jurors -- infringing on his right to participate in his own defence.

Back-to-back trials would also rob Mangione of his right to effective assistance of counsel, his lawyers said, because they would be forced to prepare for the federal trial while simultaneously defending him in court at the state trial.

Former Snowbird pilot's career 'destroyed' by cancelled passport over work in #China.

A former captain with Canada’s Snowbirds claims his passport was wrongfully cancelled after working for a pilot training company that has been targeted by the U.S. government as a “significant enabler of the Chinese air and naval forces.”

Jayson Miles-Ingram says in a notice of appeal filed in the Federal Court that he “proudly and honourably” served as a pilot with the Canadian Armed Forces for nearly 21 years.

Miles-Ingram says he worked in Dubai as a flight instructor for more than a decade after retiring from the Forces, and moved to China in 2022 to work as an instructor for the parent company of the Test Flying Academy of South Africa.

The appeal notice says the flight company offers pilot training and other services, but he began looking for work elsewhere in 2024.

The notice says he tried travelling from Beijing to New Zealand in December 2024, but was denied boarding after New Zealand immigration officers claimed that his passport was “reported as lost or stolen with Interpol.”

The appeal says his passport was actually cancelled, and the Canadian government refused to reinstate due to his “knowledge of sensitive Canadian, U.S., and NATO information, cancelling his passport was necessary to protect national security, as returning it could enable activities harmful to Canada and its allies.”

He claims a letter from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada sent to his former home in Dubai that month stated his passport was cancelled by the public safety minister.

Miles-Ingram’s appeal says he sought reconsideration of the cancellation, which was refused on Jan. 16, 2026.

“The cancellation of the appellant’s Canadian passport has effectively destroyed the appellant’s career and ability to earn a livelihood as a pilot,” the appeal says.

The U.S. Justice Department said in a news release on Jan. 15. 2026 that it had filed a forfeiture complaint over flight simulators being shipped to China by the Test Flying Academy of South Africa.

“TFASA masquerades as a civilian flight-training academy when in fact it is a significant enabler of the Chinese air and naval forces and a pipeline for transferring NATO aviation expertise, operational knowledge, and restricted technology directly to the People’s Liberation Army,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg said.

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said the seizure demonstrated “the ongoing threat that China and its enablers pose to the national security of the United States through the unlawful procurement of U.S. military technology.”

The company said in a statement posted on its website that it “strenuously rejects the allegations and implications made in that release as factually incorrect and misleading.”

“In particular, the company rejects any suggestion that NATO expertise was transferred, or that any U.S. military technology, defence technical data, or other restricted information was exported in breach of applicable laws,” the statement said.

The company and Miles-Ingram’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

He claims in the appeal that there’s no evidence that he has committed a criminal or terrorism offence to justify the cancellation, or that he poses a national security risk to Canada.

“There is no law in Canada that prevents any Canadian citizen from working for (Test Flying Academy of South Africa) or its subsidiaries,” the appeal says. “Similarly, there is no Canadian law which limits or restricts the employment of retired CAF members domestically or internationally or which prevents them from using their transferable skills for future employment.”

Miles-Ingram says he never trained anyone about sensitive Canadian, U.S. and NATO information, and refusing to reinstate his passport unreasonably and unfairly “failed to consider the severe economic and personal consequences of passport cancellation on the appellant’s ability to work and support himself and his family.”

He also alleges the refusal to give his passport back breaches his Charter rights.

The Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Miles-Ingram’s case.

#UN body investigating fatal strike on Iranian girls’ school, The attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh School consisted of two missile strikes in quick ​succession that ​killed 168 children, mostly girls, ‌Iranian officials said ⁠in Geneva on Monday.

Reuters reported on March 5 that U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible but have not yet reached ⁠a final conclusion or completed their investigation. The Pentagon has since elevated the probe.

“We’re at an early stage of ⁠that investigation,” Max du Plessis, a member of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, told a Geneva press conference, saying that it had ​credible reports backing Iran’s death toll.

“It’s clear ‌to us that whatever ⁠happens in ⁠respect of such an event, given the innocent lives that have been lost, there ⁠is a critical need for such an investigation to be done and for an independent ‌outcome to follow," he said.

If U.S. fault is confirmed, ⁠it would ‌rank among the worst incidents of civilian deaths in decades of U.S. military strikes in the Middle ‌East.

Reporting by Emma Farge; ‌Additional reporting by ​Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Miranda Murray

#BREAKING: Chinese firm claims it intercepted B-2 radio signal during #US strike on #Iran.