Sexism and harassment ‘prevalent’ in European parliaments, and a dating site for Trump supporters launches on a sour note.
Canada makes marijuana legal for all uses
Canada is all set to legalise marijuana for all uses, including recreational, Wednesday, reports The New York Times, making it only the second country in the world to do so after Uruguay.
The same day the drug becomes legal, the government will also make it easier for those convicted of possession in small amounts to obtain a pardon, the paper quoted a source as saying.
The legalisation, however, comes with heavy restrictions on advertisements, and is laden with powerful bureaucratic mechanisms, “including licensing and inspection requirements for producers”, the report added. The law also limits the use of the substance in edibles, which will not be permissible until next year.
However, the government’s move has created a frenzy as companies clamour to join the the new market. “The top 12 Canadian marijuana companies are now worth nearly 55 billion Canadian dollars, or $42 billion, and investors are snapping up the stock,” the report added.
Jamal Khashoggi was killed and his body cut to pieces, Turkish source claims
Jamal Khashoggi’s mysterious disappearance may have been part of a Saudi mission to abduct and interrogate the journalist, with the plan organised by a high-ranking officer of the general intelligence presidency, the kingdom’s main intelligence service, CNN quoted three sources as saying.
One source said the officer was close to the crown prince Mohammad bin Salman, with other officials telling CNN that the alleged killing could not have happened without the latter’s knowledge. Another source said the officer sent his own team to interrogate the journalist, a known critic of the country’s leadership. According to the third source, the organiser of the mission was not “transparent about what he told Riyadh”.
Meanwhile, a Turkish official reportedly told the news portal Tuesday that Khashoggi’s body was dismembered after he was allegedly killed at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two weeks ago. The claim came after Turkish officials searched the consulate for nine hours Monday.
CNN had earlier reported that Turkish authorities claimed to have audio and visual evidence that showed Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi consulate, having recorded an assault and struggle inside the consulate office.
These details emerge at a time when Saudi Arabia faces pressure from the West for a thorough investigation into the matter.
Harassment of women in European parliaments widespread, says study
A study published Tuesday claims that sexism, harassment and violence against women are prevalent in European parliaments, reports CNN.
Conducted by the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the study is based on interviews with 81 MPs and 42 parliamentary staff members from 45 European countries.
Some 85 per cent of female MPs surveyed said they had suffered psychological violence in parliament, the report said, with a Reuters dispatch stating that one in four women parliamentarians and 40 per cent of female parliamentary staff said they had been subjected to sexual harassment or assault, mostly by male parliamentarians.
The study also found that female MPs and parliamentary staff aged below 40 were more vulnerable to abuse.
“The #MeToo movement has not spared the world of politics,” said Liliane Maury Pasquier, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. “As long as inequality between women and men persists, no woman will be safe from violence and harassment.”
On launch day, user data leaks from dating app for Trump supporters
A new dating mobile application for US President Donald Trump’s supporters leaked the entire database of users on the day of its launch, reports Tech Crunch.
‘Donald Daters’, which aims to “make America date again”, had received rave reviews and coverage pn Fox News, Daily Mail and The Hill. The app had around 1,600 users on the day of its launch.
Talking about the data breach, Emily Moreno, the app’s founder, said that the company had taken “swift and decisive action” to remedy the mistake.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we have temporarily suspended the chat service on the app while we implement new security protocols,” she added.
This floating pipe will take on oceans’ plastic epidemic
A floating pipe 2,000 feet long is all set to take on the ‘Great Pacific Garbage patch’, a giant floating pile of rubbish located between San Francisco and Hawaii in the US, reports CNN.
The pipe nicknamed Wilson is world’s first ocean cleanup system, and was launched by the Ocean Cleanup foundation last month. Its mission is to collect all the plastic that has made its way to the Pacific Ocean.
The pipe, which is U-shaped, has a three-metre-deep net below it to pull the floating plastic under the water’s surface. It was supposed to reach its target destination in the ocean Tuesday.
“That plastic is still going to be there in one year. It’s still going to be there in 10 years,” said 24-year-old Ocean Cleanup founder and CEO Boyan Slat. “It’s probably still going to be there in 100 years, so really only if we go out there and clean it up this amount of plastic is going to go down.”