Author: DW

After months, if not years, of debate, German legislators took the first step to legalize cannabis on February 23. If the law passes final scrutiny in Germany’s upper house, it will take effect on April 1. There will be a legal limit for THC — the psychoactive element in cannabis — for users in road traffic, similar to Germany’s blood alcohol limit of 0.5 mg/ml, or a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05%. But unlike alcohol, the proposed legal limits of cannabis will vary based on the user’s typical level of consumption. For occasional users, the limit is 1 nanogram (ng) of THC per milliliter of…

The auditorium of the only cinema in Benin’s capital, Cotonou, is filled to capacity. Anyone who arrives late has to sit on the floor. On this evening, one woman takes center stage: Cornelia Glele. This is the third time since 2019 that the 26-year-old has organized the Cotonou International Women’s Film Festival (FIFF), which runs until Saturday. Glele is a journalist, filmmaker and blogger. She has succeeded in inviting female filmmakers, directors, and actors from all over Africa, organizing a competition with 18 films, and initiating debates about African productions and therole of women in cinema. What is remarkable is that women directed all…

The death toll from a devastating apartment fire in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia has risen to 10, officials said Friday. Initially, the death toll stood at four with up to 15 people missing. “We can confirm that following a first inspection, forensic police have found 10 fatalities,” regional administrator Pilar Bernabe told reporters. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday traveled to Valencia to see the damage firsthand and to meet with local officials.  Speaking with reporters, Sanchez said residents had, “lost everything in a matter of minutes in this terrible fire.”Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited the 14-story building that…

A Vienna court has found former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz guilty of perjury and handed him an eight-month suspended jail sentence.   A young and charismatic hardliner, Kurz was once hailed as a “wunderkind” of Europe’s conservatives. The verdict followed a four-month trial and the case marked the first time in more than 30 years that a former Austrian chancellor had stood trial.   Kurz left politics in 2021 amid allegations of financial impropriety against his office. What were the allegations against Kurz? The case related to statements made by Kurz to an investigative committee of the Austrian parliament in 2020. As part of the inquiry, he was…

Lord David Cameron has warned the UN about the consequences of withdrawing support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.The foreign secretary was speaking to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on the eve of the second anniversary of the invasion. War latest: Navalny’s mother given three-hour ultimatum over secret funeralLord Cameron said: “Two years on, I recognise some want to rethink. There is a sense of fatigue, there are other problems, a compromise might seem attractive.”But this is wrong. “We must recognise the cost of giving up.”Putin has said there will be no peace until Russia’s goals…

Lisa, a Scottish woman living in Abu Dhabi, was in the middle of what seemed like a normal pregnancy. Her blood pressure was normal. And at her regular checkups, everything else seemed to be progressing normally as well. But at around 20 weeks in, Lisa received a single sign that something could be awry: The fetus was smaller than it should have been at that stage. Lisa’s doctor said they would keep an eye on it, but that it was nothing to worry about. Four weeks later, Lisa started feeling what she thought was heartburn. A few days later, the…

American media personality Wendy Williams has been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), her care team announced in a press release Thursday.   “Over the past few years, questions have been raised at times about Wendy’s ability to process information and many have speculated about Wendy’s condition, particularly when she began to lose words, act erratically at times, and have difficulty understanding financial transactions,” her team wrote.   Williams, the former host of “The Wendy Williams Show,” received her diagnosis last year, according to the statement.   Her care team explained they chose to share the news to “to…

With a hundredth of a second left in extra time, veteran Ihar Bryshtsel scored the goal to send  Belarus into the beach soccer World Cup semifinals for the first time ever. “My buzzer-beater was cosmic! I really like [basketball player] Steph Curry. I watched him score a buzzer-beater. I’m thrilled to have scored one myself,” Bryshtsel told FIFA afterwards. Indeed, even before Belarus swept past two-time champions Portugal, many of the players at the tournament believed Belarus had a chance to win it all. The team’s participation in Dubai is not without controversy, though. Belarus, who have never made it past the group stage…

Since taking office in mid-2022, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has moved the Philippines closer to the US, even risking ire from Beijing by signing a new defense agreement with Washington. Marcos Jr. also pushed to normalize ties with the EU that had been badly damaged by his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, whose brutal “war on drugs” prompted criticism from Europe. Duterte responded with expletive-laden tirades, telling European leaders to stay out of his country’s affairs and threatening to expel all European ambassadors. But in 2023, Ursula von der Leyen became the first sitting European Commission president to visit the Philippines, where she…

There has been an ongoing debate in the West about whether and when to send more funds and arms to Ukraine. “Strategically, the West is still standing by Ukraine, but this year will be an important turning point, said Julia Smirnova from the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). A specialist in disinformation, she told DW that Russia was doing its best to undermine solidarity with Ukraine with fake news and propaganda. She explained that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was one of the main targets. “Zelensky is the symbol of Ukraine, the symbol of Ukrainian resistance, which is why many…