Canada's drug regulator announced Tuesday it will temporarily decriminalize illegal drugs for personal use in British Columbia for three years starting Jan. 31, 2023.
Why it matters: The exemption is the first of its kind in Canadian history and is in response to an unprecedented and growing overdose crisis in the province.
Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny said Tuesday that he was charged with founding an extremist group as part of a new criminal case against him.
Why it matters: If convicted, he could face up to 15 an additional years in prison — on top of the nine-year sentence, widely seen as politically motivated, he received in March for fraud and contempt of court.
Driving the news: Though Canadahas a strong hunting culture and rifles used for hunting are not heavily regulated, handguns are heavily restricted. The new legislation would ban the sale or importation of handguns and force owners of "military-style rifles" to turn in their weapons through a buyback program.
The legislation is expected to pass, with the left-leaning New Democratic Party and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party overcoming any potential opposition from the Conservative Party, according to the New York Times.
The embattled monarch butterfly appears to have had somewhat of a royal revival in Mexico.
Why it matters: The butterfly endemic to North America has been at risk for years. Climate change, deforestation, pesticide use and the loss of the milkweed they feed on has made the monarchs' survival much harder.
George P. Bush, grandson and nephew of two former U.S. presidents and once heir apparent of a GOP dynasty, lost badly last week in his bid to become Texas attorney general.
Driving the news: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who faces criminal securities charges and an FBI investigation over separate corruption accusations, crushed Bush by more than 35 percentage points in a run-off despite the Bush family's long connection to Texas politics.
Texas authorities dealing with the Uvalde school shooting’s aftermath have so far provided public updates only in English, prompting criticism that the many Spanish speakers in the largely Latino community are being excluded.
The big picture: Over 81% of residents in Uvalde, where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at a school last week, are Latino, and many speak Spanish at home.
At a summit in Fiji last week, Beijing proposed a sweeping security and economic agreement for 10 Pacific island nations. None signed it.
The big picture: The countries don't want their region to become the locus of a superpower showdown. But some may still choose to deepen partnerships with Beijing in the future.
Genocide scholars and rights advocates are calling for the resignation of a top United Nations human rights official after her visit to Xinjiang ended with her repeating, rather than denouncing, Chinese government propaganda about an ongoing genocide there.
Why it matters: The visit illustrates how the UN is caught between China and the West, and it suggests Beijing increasingly holds sway over the organization.
A Ukrainian court on Tuesday sentenced two Russian soldiers to 11 and a half years in prison in the second war crimes trial of the war, Reuters reports.
Driving the news: Alexander Bobikin and Alexander Ivanov pleaded guilty last week. "The guilt of Bobikin and Ivanov has been proved in full," Judge Evhen Bolybok said during the sentencing.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said Tuesday that the U.S. National Guard is planning on "cooperation" with the island's military, Reuters reports.
Driving the news: "As a result, the U.S. Department of Defense is now proactively planning cooperation between the U.S. National Guard and Taiwan's defense forces," Tsai said, without giving details.
A U.S. delegation led by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) is in Taipei, meeting with Taiwan officials on a previously unannounced visit.
Driving the news: Duckworth, who also visited Taiwan's capital last year as part of a COVID-19 vaccine doses donation announcement, arrived in Taipei for the three-day visit on Monday, per a Taiwan Foreign Ministry tweet.
Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered the "largest cache of 150 bronze statues" and 250 coffins containing mummies that date back 2,500 years, officials announced Monday.
The big picture: Officials hope the sarcophagi and other treasures at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara, south of Cairo, will create jobs and boost Egypt's tourism industry, which has been hit by the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, per the Washington Post. Both countries are usually significant sources of tourism for Egypt.
European Union leaders agreed Monday to block most Russian oil imports due to the invasion of Ukraine.
Why it matters: "This immediately covers more than 2/3 of oil imports from Russia, cutting a huge source of financing for its war machine," European Council president Charles Michel tweeted. "Maximum pressure on Russia to end the war," he added.
Hurricane Agatha — the first 2022 hurricane in either the Atlantic or the eastern Pacific — came ashore in southern Mexico on Monday as a high-end Category 2 storm, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Threat level: "Although Agatha is weakening, life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides from heavy rains are still possible through Tuesday," said the National Hurricane Center in a forecast discussion Monday night, after it became a tropical storm.
