exciting sport stories about people passion and their dr. sports wife. every weekend on d w. ah ah, this is d, w. news live from berlin, the u. s. and germany announced plans to deliver armored personnel carriers to ukraine, german mazda and us, bradley, infantry fighting vehicles, may soon be heading to the front lines. this, as russia says, it's unilaterally declared 36 our ceasefire has come into effect. also on the

program a 3rd day of paralysis in the united states congress republican kevin mccarthy loses an 11th vote in his bid to become speaker of the house of representatives, despite making concessions to fall right and will make as in his own policy. and we'll look at growing fears in the netherlands, but drugs gangs could be influencing the rule of law there. ah, and how many cubes? mckennan, welcome to the program. russia says the unilateral order by president vladimir putin for a 36 hour cease fire came into effect at this hour, but it has been dismissed by ukraine as a trick. the russian announcement coincides with the orthodox christmas holiday, and ukrainian president vladimir lensky has accused to sin of using christmas as an

attempt to stop the advance of ukrainian forces in the dumbass region and to consolidate russian positions. in another development, germany and the usa, they are now prepared to send armored vehicles to ukraine. the 2 countries elite is announced that ukraine would receive german, made marta and u. s. built bradley fighting vehicles. the decision follows a similar move by france. this is the emx t n r c. it's a french light battle tank. that's highly mo bile and fitted with a powerful gun. now to ukraine's delight frances donating some of these ahmed combat vehicles. to cave france, if a will, did you or france brings a new level of european defense support to ukraine. and i thank president my call for this leadership. we'll get more armored vehicles, including french made wheeled tanks, which sends

a clear signal to all our other partners as there is no rational reason why western style tanks have not yet been supplied to ukraine. it's important in order to restore security for all ukrainians and peace for all europeans. you will please zalinski has clearly been frustrated by the west's reluctance to give his country the tanks. he says it's so desperately needs. joe biden has now sent the us. we'll send bradley fighting vehicles to help key if they've been used by the u. s. military to carry troops around the battle fields since the mid 19 eighties. military experts say the bradley would give ukraine more firepower and strengthen its ability entrench warfare. but violence move falls short ascending in heavy tanks like the abram, which is what key if really wants. berlin was reluctant to agree to donate models, which are armored personnel carriers. but the schoultz government gave way to

increasing pressure to change its mind. the thought that we have discussed supporting ukraine in its right to self defense, even with heavy weapons. and because fulton believes that he can hold out longer and that if at some point you, crean ran out of happens and international support, he would win this warner duster to all skins, oregon he had. isn't he given good and asked the devastation and ukraine mounts the pressure on all kids allies will only increase. and for more on these announcements, we can speak to military expert up to vita fighting. i welcome to d. w. can i ask you, how do you see these german marta fighting vehicles? actually changing the situation on the ukranian frontline i would say in general, yes or not immediately because it takes time to bring the system into the country

and train bed soldiers and stars. so the key point to me, you said these are challenges haitian to the labor tank maintenance. will you trade in your point? okay, now ahmed vehicles and light tanks are one thing, but berlin, like the western allies, is still under pressure to send heavy, more modern battle tanks. do you think the berlin is likely to shift further in this direction? excuse me, but i do not see an indicator at the moment because germany is not the only come in these points standing. hey, the main battle tanks. so i would say it is really a challenging time where they ukraine to get all the different types of tank. family is the military encoded because you need not only a single element, a main tank is not everything. and, and then i'm

a carrier also you have to see you have, i'm a very good for the mobility on the ground. you need protective artillery also i'm a and so we are talking about the family and it is the challenge for ukrainian side to get all the elements will be and now is the main battle pangs are restricted by i'm a carriers are on the way. so i think the question would be we have to get their main battle tanks. okay. and does ukraine need these heavy battle tanks to be able to win this war? of course you cannot, you cannot move for, you cannot have high mobility. you cannot hold fire without taking main things, especially when you go into offensive operations. defensive matter, i would say it could be manageable, but if you're thinking of in fancy to regain to reconquer territory in ukraine,

your main battle paths don't have. i'd. ukraine is asking, please go ahead. you're asking about 300 main buildings. all right, does i have? hi tina. thank you so much for your time. you're welcome. okay, let's take a look at some of the other stories making headlines around the world. mexican security forces have captured cartel leader. oh, video guzman, son of drug lord wakeham guzman, known as al chapo. the pre dawn operation, set off gunfights and road blocks across the western state of sinaloa video. guzman was briefly arrested in 2019, but he was released after a deadly gun fight between government forces and cartel members. a powerful storm has unleashed heavy rains, snow, and high winds across california. for a 2nd day forecasters have warned of more flooding and mud flights. the massive

storm known as bomb sy clone has killed at least 2 people, including a child. thousands of homes are without power. b, u. s. house of representatives is still without it because front runner, kevin mccarthy from the republican party failed to gather the necessary votes in 11 successive rounds. the speaker of the house is considered the most powerful role in the u. s. congress. owing to convince my now a string of mafia style murders in the netherlands has led to questions about where the drug gangs are threatening the rule of law in the country. the high profile killings include that of investigative journalist, peter de freece, d. w correspondent jack parrot has been exploring how attempts to shed light on criminal forces behind the countries that liberal trade and drugs are coming under pressure from mafia intimidation. his, his report from the hague. a dutch coffee shop where it's permitted to buy small

amounts of marijuana. you can even pay with your banker. but businesses like this one could spend up to $3000000.00 euros buying stock without receipts is technically illegal for them to purchase so much, but it's never prosecuted. that legal gray area here is coming under increasing scrutiny. following the 2021 murder of dutch investigative journalist, peter r. devries. he was part of a team supporting a witness in a case against a drug kingpin. these lawyers have spent more than 2 years under round the clock protection for defending a key witness in a trial against riddle ontology. he's accused of ordering a string of murders, including the former lawyer and the brother of the main witness against him. lawyer peter shout and says the trial against 2 other men accused of the related murder of de vries has descended into a mess. it's now headed to re trial after a judge left the proceedings and a deluge of new evidence was submitted. but i,

she is, we should just legally men up against she to asians like dish, learn from what is going on here and make changes in the law so that even lesh become shaprall with the port of rotterdam thought to be the main entry point. the cocaine into europe, the netherlands is under pressure from other e u countries. the multitude of court cases around these criminal gangs rumbles on, but there's also a national discussion about what's being done politically. and many of those questions are being directed here to the ministry of justice, asking exactly what is changing to prevent these kinds of crimes in the future. the dutch government sandy w a statement saying it's taking unprecedented action and is investing an additional $700000000.00 euros in the coming years to fight organized crime. i personally think this country is not a riddle with gang violence or anything like that. not like a italian mafia or something, but it is starting to get

a big problem. everyone turned to the netherlands as the prime example of equalization of drugs and how we should, you know, push forward to, for example, you guys, marianna and other than the drugs. and, and i don't know, it's really opens your eyes of the whole reality behind it and how the netherlands has become an artist. the mafia gang has also been threatening people in belgium and germany routing out their influence is significant, not just for the netherlands, but for the whole of europe. monique, well as a journalist who covers international law for the court house, nice edison, she joins me now from the hague. thanks for joining us. molina, we've seen how drugs gangs appear to be killing people disrupting trials. can you tell us how else this threat from drug cartels is playing out in the netherlands? yeah, this discussion,

as jack mentioned about the dutch hollow front door back door policy, which means it's legal to sell canada marijuana from the front door of the coffee shop. and it's illegal for the growers to be selling it to the coffee shop to themselves. has been discussed since this process was, was put into place decades ago. it has really come under fire in the last 10 or 15 years, particularly by mayor's mayor's in the netherlands. have a lot of power mostly around like security and protection and they have been calling for changes to be made to that because they say that this policy leads to a lot of other problems including you know, the issues that we were discussing with degrees trial. but also a whole host of other issues, fascination bombings, and the like say, could one say that the dutch authorities have been too naive about the level of organized crime in the country? yeah, i think that is one criticism that sort of lobbied at the government and some discussions

about whether or not permitting the legalization of soft drugs, your at all has, has created these problems. on the other hand, you know, the rotterdam is largest port in europe. belgian also has these issues because entrepreneurs, the 2nd largest port in europe, i mean there is no cocaine growing in this country. and these drugs are being imported from other places and sort of any country i think with a, with a c border and a large port is going to kind of run into a substantial number of these issues. though i think it's pretty widely accepted that the way the status of, of legalization cannabis here has sort of contributed. and i kind of worse and the problems that would exist, or any, the netherlands is often perceived from the outside as a country with very liberal even lacks drug policies. is this perception part of the problem to a degree? i think so. i mean, it's a bit of a misperception these days because the ducks lag behind some other countries. portugal for example,

has now much more liberal drug legalization policies. and then another one does. but, you know, the netherlands is kind of 1st and sort of has this reputation of having a very lax sort of system. and, you know, a lot of the, the big cities find the sort of tourists that got attracted to this kinds of stuff . right. frustrating, i mean amsterdam in particular as long complains that it spends a lot of money on dealing with kind of torres to basically just to sit on the coffee shop and caused one problems. so i mean, i do think that like, yeah, this has been an ongoing issue and you do see it in other places in society. all right, we'll have to leave it the journalist molly call in the hey, thanks so much for speaking to us. thank you. thank now the world's largest ice and snow carnival is underway in china right now. this giant ice block tower is the centerpiece of the winter wonderland in hobbin for the next 2 months. the north west and ceci will celebrate the cold with

theme parks skating banks. and more than 300 ice and snow sculptures under the thousands of tourists are expected to visit the festival scaled back in previous years because of co bid 19 restrictions. and that is all for me for now. robots has your business news coming up next. i minute groups. mccadden. thank you so much for watching d. w. i . every journey is full of surprises. we've gone all out to give you some tips with all who recruitment i'm.