Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press

With less than a year to go until the 2026 World Cup, political tensions and U.S. policy threaten to pose problems as Canada, the United States and Mexico prepare to co-host the tournament.

Next year’s FIFA World Cup will be the biggest ever, with the three countries hosting a record 48 teams. Between June 11 and July 19, they will play 104 matches, most of them in the U.S.

The Supreme Court of Canada on Friday upheld the sentence handed to one youth offender but overturned another, in parallel judgments that clarify the standard courts should use when determining whether a youth should be sentenced as an adult.

In the two separate cases, the youth, who were 16 and 17 years old at the time of their offences, were convicted of first degree murder and sentenced as adults to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.

Justice Minister Sean Fraser says the federal government plans to take a "fresh" look at its online harms legislation over the summer but it's not clear yet exactly what the bill will look like when it is reintroduced.

It would be the Liberals' third attempt to pass legislation to address harmful behaviour online.

Fraser told The Canadian Press in an interview that the government hasn't decided whether to rewrite or simply reintroduce the Online Harms Act, which was introduced in 2024 but did not pass.

The Liberal government will table a bill this fall introducing stricter bail conditions and sentencing for some crimes, particularly those involving organized crime, human trafficking, home invasion and car theft, Justice Minister Sean Fraser said in an interview.

"It's perhaps obvious, given the tenor around the criminal justice system, that reforms are in order," Fraser told The Canadian Press.

In 2023, as Canada suffered through its worst-ever wildfire season, the federal government was looking at creating a national disaster response agency.

Two years later, the country is again facing another summer of wildfires. There is still no sign of such an agency, though governments are tapping the private sector to help with evacuations.

Ali Asgary, a York University professor of disaster and emergency management, said the work to establish a national agency is "unfortunately … not going as fast as our crises are going."

Some Conservative MPs are expressing support for party leader Pierre Poilievre after he lost both the federal election and his own seat on Monday.

In his concession speech early Tuesday morning, Poilievre indicated he would stay on as leader. The Conservative party did not respond when asked Wednesday whether he has officially decided to stay.

"My view is he's not going anywhere," said Kory Teneycke, Ontario Premier Doug Ford's former campaign manager and a former director of communications for former prime minister Stephen Harper.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney said Thursday he would pass tougher laws to stop people from being harassed at their places of worship, part of a suite of crime and justice measures he unveiled at a campaign stop in southern Ontario.

The promise comes after more than a year of reports of rising hate targeting Jews and Muslims in Canada following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel in 2023, and the war in Gaza.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney took his promise of making Canada an "energy superpower" to the heart of Canada's oil industry Wednesday, becoming the second party leader in three days to promise to speed up the review process to greenlight major national energy projects.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre made a one-project, one-review promise at a campaign stop in northwest British Columbia on Monday. Both parties are trying to convince Canadians they can ditch Canada's reputation as a place where big projects take far too long to get built.

The Liberal and Conservative leaders both started the third week of the federal election campaign in British Columbia — a battleground province with 43 seats up for grabs when Canadians go to the polls.

The Liberals pledged environmental conservation measures and support for seniors, while the Tories offered more efficient approvals for resource projects.

The battle between AI companies and copyright holders notched an early win for publishers in the U.S. in mid-February when a court ruled that a legal research firm didn't have the right to use a rival's content.

But even as the number of legal cases grows, a definite answer to the question of whether artificial intelligence companies can use copyrighted content to train their AI products is still a long way off.