Isolated by flooding and running critically low on feed, a hog farm in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley may soon receive emergency supplies by air.

B.C. Agriculture Minister Lana Popham said the strategy was used during the catastrophic flooding of 2021 and is an example of important partnerships between the province and local industries in times of need.

After days of heavy flooding, drier conditions allowed the City of Abbotsford to reopen a major highway and lift evacuation alerts for more than 1,000 properties over the weekend, even as warnings were issued ahead of another round of rain.

Flood waters in Abbotsford were receding gradually Sunday, with some areas seeing notable improvements, according to an update from the city. Water from the Nooksack River, which topped its banks just south of the U.S. border on Thursday, continues to flow north but at a decreasing rate.

Hundreds of people and countless livestock in British Columbia’s agricultural heartland were displaced Thursday after torrential rainfall and historic flooding that forced mass evacuations in Washington State and swept north across the border.

For those in B.C.’s Fraser Valley, the scenes of swollen rivers, washed-out highways and flooded farmland stirred uncomfortable memories of the catastrophic flood of November, 2021, the province’s costliest natural disaster.

They began collapsing late in the afternoon: four, five people at once – an alarming number of suspected drug overdoses at a Vancouver Island shelter where such incidents are infrequent.

As staff scrambled to respond, people rushed in from the street to grab kits of naloxone, the medication used to reverse opioid overdoses. People were going down outside, they said. The nearby overdose-prevention site was also unusually busy.

Mohammad Abdou’s phone began buzzing the moment FIFA announced the full 2026 World Cup schedule, revealing that Egypt will have one match in Vancouver and two in nearby Seattle.

As director of the Association of Egyptians in Vancouver, Mr. Abdou is in many group chats connecting hundreds of members of the country’s diaspora. Throughout Saturday, they exchanged screenshots about the news, as they discussed which opponents Egypt will be facing and whether it would be possible to get tickets.

Moments after Canada learned - well, sort of - who their first opponent will be at the 2026 World Cup, a loud groan rippled across a FIFA draw watch party in downtown Toronto. Across town in Little Italy, Rocco Mastrangelo Jr. felt something stirring deep within his chest.

Friday’s draw revealed that Italy is the presumptive favourite to face Canada when Toronto plays host to Canada’s first World Cup game on home soil next June, provided Italy − the four-time world champions − can win its playoff bracket against lower-ranked European teams in March.

The B.C. government has provided the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations with $18-million to support their role in hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup on their shared traditional territories.

BC Place, which is on the nations’ land, will host seven of the games, which are expected to cost up to $624-million and generate $1-billion in spending, according to the province.

British Columbia will require anyone receiving prescribed alternatives to illicit drugs to ingest them under the supervision of a health care provider, tightening the reins on a program that has faced considerable barriers to expansion and sustained political pushback.

The B.C. government is expected to announce this week that, beginning Dec. 30, anyone with a prescription for a regulated illicit drug alternative, also called safer supply, will need to take the medication in front of a pharmacist or nurse when that medication is dispensed at a pharmacy, according to a document obtained by The Globe and Mail.

The new policy builds off interim guidance issued earlier this year that required witnessed consumption for new prescribed-alternative patients, and directed prescribers to discuss with existing patients a transition to witnessed dosing, or other care options, as soon as possible.

After political backlash forced B.C. health authorities to pull funding and the Vancouver storefront they had provided to the two operators of an illicit-drug compassion club, Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx convened a meeting with club members and representatives from the local health authority.

The program, which for more than a year provided 43 members with access to lab-checked heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, would no longer be able to operate, Mr. Kalicum told the group in October, 2023, as he recounted in a B.C. courtroom on Tuesday.

A Vancouver man convicted of drug trafficking for his role in operating an illicit-drug distribution program provided a window into his motivations Monday, telling a B.C. court about his brother’s struggle with substance use and the effects of witnessing “hundreds” of overdoses but seeing no meaningful government response.

Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx are in B.C. Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of Canada’s drug laws, saying they deprive drug users of safer options, increasing their risk of harm or death.

The two organizers of an illicit-drug compassion club in Vancouver, convicted this month of trafficking for providing members with heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, are back in court challenging Canada’s drug laws as unconstitutional for depriving users of safer options.

Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx operated for more than a year as the Drug User Liberation Front, buying illicit drugs from the dark web, testing them at university labs for fentanyl and other impurities, and selling them at cost to their 43 members.

Palestinian flags rose over several Canadian city halls and a provincial legislature for the first time, prompting celebration, condemnation, and a vow from one mayor to end all foreign flag-raisings.

Various civilian groups requested the flag-raising to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the Palestinian Declaration of Independence on Saturday. The proclamation, issued by Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat, intended to establish Palestinian sovereignty through a two-state solution grounded in international law. Canada, along with Britain, Australia and other allies, officially recognized Palestinian statehood in September.

Residents of some B.C. long-term care homes are missing showers, eating meals alone and reporting missed medications after the province ended pandemic-era pay supplements to cover overtime and contract workers.

Operators warn that, without intervention, hundreds of beds could close over the next year, leaving seniors stuck in hospitals or unsafe situations at home as wait lists for care homes balloon.