In a large grey facility just outside the East German city of Dresden, security is tight.
The large metal door which bars the bright white corridors is the same type used to protect Germany’s gold reserves.
Behind it, Demecan grows cannabis for medical use, something that became legal in 2017.
The strict security is due to the fact the drug is classed as a narcotic under German law.
But from 1 April that will change, with a new law decriminalising possession and home cultivation, a change managing director Dr Philipp Goebel hopes to capitalise on.
“For us, it was very good news when this law was passed,” he said.
“Now we are allowed to grow more cannabis, which we can then also sell directly to the pharmacies.
“And the second part, which is very important to the patients, is that cannabis now is declassified.
“It’s not a narcotic product anymore, which means that any doctor can now prescribe it.”
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Under the new law, adults will be allowed to possess up to 25g of the drug in public, hold 50g at home and grow a maximum of three plants.
From July, private “cannabis clubs” can supply 500 members on a limited basis.
“It’s not the law we expected,” said Steffen Geyer, a long-time cannabis activist and head of the association of Cannabis Social Clubs, “but it’s a good law because we will have 180,000 less prosecutions in the next year”.
He added: “That will be a big relief for cannabis consumers.
“You can have 25g of cannabis with you without being in fear of arrest and fear of problems with the police.
“Cannabis consumers will have a new place within our society.
“We will no longer be the black sheep of the recreational community.
“We will be just like the people who use alcohol, or use chocolate, or coffee or tea.”
But there are restrictions.
For example, a person has to be over 18 and smoking around areas such as playgrounds and sports centres is not allowed.
The potency of the THC, the psychoactive substance that makes you high, will also be limited, especially for under 21s.
To avoid “drug tourism” the only way to obtain recreational cannabis will be to grow it at home or via “cannabis clubs.”
In both cases, people have to have been resident in Germany for at least six months.
Getting the new law across the line has been quite a battle.
The government has claimed it will help curb the black market, tackle drug crime and ensure a safe, quality product but opponents say it ignores health risks, especially for young people.
“At the moment, the justice system, the police and local government are voicing a lot of criticism because the new law cannot be enforced properly,” said Erwin Rüddel, opposition Christian Democratic Union politician and head of the parliamentary health committee.
“There are worries over the effect that the consumption of cannabis has on the mental health of people under the age of 25, and the fact that it is impossible to control if someone has 25 grams or 30 grams in their possession.
“Then there is the issue of controlling the ‘cannabis clubs’ and controlling if someone is really only growing three plants at home.”
His party has pledged to repeal the law if it gets back into power next year.
A recent poll showed the public is also divided, with a slim majority against it.
In a YouGov poll, 42% of respondents said they were somewhat or completely in favour of legalisation, while 47% said they were somewhat or completely against it.
Another 11% had no answer.
“I think it’s bad because of the youth. It’s dangerous,” one male shopper in Berlin told us.
But a woman we spoke to said: “I think it’s a good thing. Now they can ensure it’s good quality and now the state can get the tax from it.”
Supporters of the new law plan to welcome it with a “smoke in” at the Brandenburg Gate.
From 11:30 pm (10.30pm UK time) on Sunday evening, people have been invited to gather to smoke marijuana in public – but only when the law comes into force, according to German press agency DPA.
Despite some concerns, this is just the first step in a two-part plan.
If successful, it could pave the way for pilot projects allowing state-controlled cannabis to be sold in some licensed shops.
Representatives of dozens of climate vulnerable islands and African nations have stormed out of high-stakes negotiations over a climate funding goal.
Patience is wearing thin and negotiations have boiled over at the COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan, which were due to finish yesterday but are now well into overtime.
After two weeks of talks, the more than 190 countries gathered in the capital Baku are still trying to agree a new financial settlement to channel money to poorer countries to both curb and adapt to climate change.
Talks have now run well into overtime at COP29, but a deal now feels much more precarious.
The least developed countries like Mozambique and low-lying island nations like Samoa say their calls for a portion of the fund to be allocated to them have been ignored.
Samoa’s minister of natural resources and environment Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster is one of the representatives who walked out.
“We are here to negotiate but we have walked out… at the moment we don’t feel we are being heard in there,” he said on behalf of more than 40 small island and developing states, whose shorelines are being lost to rising sea levels.
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Shortly after he made a veiled threat of leaving COP29 altogether, saying: “We want nothing more than to continue to engage, but the process must be INCLUSIVE.
“If this cannot be the case, it becomes very difficult for us to continue our involvement here at COP29.”
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Evans Njewa, who chairs a group of more than 40 least developed countries, said the current deal is “unacceptable for us. We need to speak to other developing countries and decide what to do.”
The last official draft on Friday pledged $250bn a year annually by 2035.
This is more than double the previous goal of $100bn set 15 years ago, but nowhere near the annual $1.3trn that experts say is needed.
Sky News understands some developed countries like the UK were this morning willing to bump up the goal to $300bn.
Developing countries are angry not just about the finance negotiations, but also on how to make progress on a pledge from last year to “transition away from fossil fuels”.
A group of oil and producing countries, spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, have tried to dilute that language, while the UK and island state are among those that have fought to keep it in.
Mr Schuster said all things being negotiated contain a “deplorable lack of substance”.
He added: “We need to see progress and follow up on the transition away from fossil fuels that we agreed last year. We have been asked to forget all about that at this COP, as though we are not in a critical decade and as though the 1.5C limit is not in peril.”
“We need to be shown the regard which our dire circumstances necessitate.”
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.
At least 11 people have been killed and 63 injured in an Israeli strike on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.
Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dug through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.
State-run National News Agency (NNA) said the attack “completely destroyed” an eight-storey residential building in the Basta neighbourhood early on Saturday.
Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Jadeed station also showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.
The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack – the fourth targeting the centre this week.
At least four bombs were dropped in the attack, security sources told Reuters news agency.
The blasts happened at about 4am (2am UK time).
A seperate drone strike in the southern port cuty of Tyre this morning killed one person and injured another, according to the NNA.
The blasts came after a day of bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs and Tyre. The Israeli military had issued evacuation notices prior to those strikes.
Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.
Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.
US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.
Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.
According to the Lebanese health ministry, Israel has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 15,000.
It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.
President Vladimir Putin has said Russia will ramp up the production of a new, hypersonic ballistic missile.
In a nationally-televised speech, Mr Putin said the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was used in an attack on Ukrainian city Dnipro in retaliation for Ukraine’s use of US and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.
Referring to the Oreshnik, the Russian president said: “No one in the world has such weapons.
“Sooner or later other leading countries will also get them. We are aware that they are under development.”
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He added: “We have this system now. And this is important.”
Detailing the missile’s alleged capabilities, Mr Putin claimed it is so powerful that using several fitted with conventional warheads in one attack could be as devastating as a strike with nuclear weapons.
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General Sergei Karakayev, head of Russia’s strategic missile forces, said the Oreshnik could reach targets across Europe and be fitted with either nuclear or conventional warheads – while Mr Putin alleged Western air defence systems will not be able to stop the missiles.
Mr Putin said of the Oreshnik: “There is no countermeasure to such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world today. And I will emphasise once again that we will continue testing this newest system. It is necessary to establish serial production.”
Testing the Oreshnik will happen “in combat, depending on the situation and the character of security threats created for Russia“, the president added, stating there is “a stockpile of such systems ready for use”.
NATO and Ukraine are expected to hold emergency talks on Tuesday.
Meanwhile Ukraine’s parliament cancelled a session as security was tightened following the strike on Dnipro, a central city with a population of around one million. No fatalities were reported.
EU leaders condemn Russia’s ‘heinous attacks’
Numerous EU leaders have addressed Russia’s escalation of the conflict with Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying the war is “entering a decisive phase [and] taking on very dramatic dimensions”.
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Russia’s new missile – what does it mean?
Speaking in Kyiv, Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky called Moscow’s strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe”.
At a news conference, Mr Lipavsky gave his full support for delivering the additional air defence systems needed to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks”.