the, the, this is the, the news coming to live from berlin. china opens its national people's congress with a bound to transform its struggling growth model. the highly choreographed event offers glimpses into how the communist party plans to get the world's 2nd largest economy. back on track. also coming out the un state agency for palestinian refugees pipes for its revival. it's head says israel is out to dismantle on roll. 2000000 gallons have been displaced from their homes. many of them are now facing time in the tendency and france guarantees the right to abortion in its

constitution, worried 1st intended to prevent any roll back of reproductive rights in the future . the law. i'm terry lawrence and thanks for joining us. can trying to find the answers to is pressing economic and demographic challenges. that's just one of the questions facing thousands of delegates says they gather for the countries highly choreograph national people's congress in beijing. leaders have announced the target of 5 percent. you can on the growth in 2024, far below the double digit growth, the ones power, the chinese economy. they also planned to increase defense spending, my 7.2 percent, same rate of increase as last year. the annual we call and gathering is mostly ceremonial in nature. all key decisions have already been made behind closed doors

by the communist party. a journalist bobby and chris bob is in beijing. i asked him earlier how the chinese government is planning to keep the economy moving. yeah, that's the big question, but uh, let me just give you a little bit of context um, around 5 percent to to the p target for this. yeah. might so not too high. um, given that china has its cheap as you mentioned, higher growth targets before. but for this year actually this is a really a business growth target. um, because the economy is facing a lot of pet vince, you having a real estate crisis, you have a really very sluggish domestic demand and so on. so economists of wondering how is china going to achieve it? and also the average chinese is wondering can the national people's congress, can the government deliver any response to the, the, the really sluggish grove. and i would say almost a crisis in terms of economic and growth. and i would say, based on what we've heard today of from the prime minister who gave the long work

report that is basically the giving the paradigm giving the direction of the future economy. i would say we don't see any bold plan of both reform vision um it's bought the same and more of the old, you can say maybe some many steps. for example, it was quite remarkable that leach young, the prime minister, acknowledge that um, china has to transform its growth model, but how it will, it's cheaper that, that is really quite left in the open. that could be the option of making a big stimulus package. but just based on what we heard today, i don't see it defense spending fabia is set to grow faster than the economy as a whole. why is defense such a priority for beijing right now? so yeah, that is actually quite extraordinary. already for 3 decades, the defense of the increase of this defense spending in china has never gotten

below 6.6 percent and this year will be 7.2 percent. on the one hand it was to be expected. we already knew it would be in this range, but it is um, most significant given the economic situation, that's a lot of type belt and then um and you know, reduction in costs, but the military obviously enjoys the priority. and i think it's obvious that when you look at this, a speech has of seats in ping or also the tongue, the prime minister, then there's a lot of mention of the ex trying to environment. and the crisis has into the, um, you know, um, potential threats. so you can guess that, you know, china place a lot of emphasis on national security. but of course this is also not um, it was quite concerning. for example, when you look at it from a perspective from taiwan, for example, um, because uh, recently the tensions, according to across the, across the taiwan strait has been increasing. so i think this is something that the intent and international community really so to pay attention to was speaking and

tell. i want a basing claims the democratically ruled territory as its own is repeatedly say to plans to reunify the island with the mainland, but is now using tougher language on that. tell us more about that 5 you of the. yeah, so what we thought today um the speech by the prime minister, it was mostly about the economy just to give you context. but in the end there was one paragraph about taiwan and usually in the us before they would always be the mention of a peaceful reunification. this time the peaceful, the word was dropped and it was only the mention of unification. so in, in a, given that, the national people's congress is highly choreographed and, you know, every um, so it'd be, as, you know, capital the weight on there is no co incidence. it has to have a meeting. and i think from a to have a nice perspective, this is quite a vari, some it could for example, mean that the vision of a piece where we are an education seems less unlikely because uh,

just look at the uh, so based uh into one um, just a very, very small minority once uh, unification with china. so maybe um, now, uh, china, uh, putting more emphasis on. yeah, pressuring uh or maybe even using military force against 15 year. thank you very much. that was, journal is probably and crushed by invasion. a new report by the united nation says that there are quote, reasonable grounds to believe the rape and gang rape occurred during the october 7th terrorist attacks led by him us against israel. the un mission interviewed survivors and witnesses and examined hours of video footage and thousands of photographs to arrive. at this conclusion, the special representative on sexual violence said she and a team of experts had found clear and convincing information about rape and sexual lives, torture. the report also said that some incidents of rape could not be verified, but there was convincing information that hostage is taken from israel,

were subjected to sexual violence during their captivity of october. and in the meanwhile, the head of the un palestinian refugee agency unreal has warned of a deliberate campaign to destroy the following a funding fries by donors. speaking of the un general assembly philly laza, renae stressed that the agency was vital to support what he called a c of displaced palestinians report to see uh it's the voices of to a people a to a m for use of audra as they say that the link directly to um, taking hostages uh at least one of them on october, a 7 snow the head of uh, people that says he is he heard him now speaking last night. said they have received no clear evidence of it's valid for the claims. and that's why it has

stress time and time again that they are submitting the list of employees of a to israel, and that over the there were no, no, no complaints received about when you're over these a employees. of course this has direct but precautions as we heard a for a pa, the students in gauze. the is the biggest, a provider in garza and obviously uh, a lot of donor countries have suspended the 8th. so this has a direct impact now on the people in gaza view and had also face criticism for reacting to slowly to reports. the. i'm us use actual bylaws during its attacks on october 7th, tanya, are you in report as now come out? it's been published saying on that very topic. tell us more. well, the reactions are coming in now from israel and we heard of from the,

for an ministry that they welcomed, as they put at the definite, is a recognition. that's how most committed a sexual crimes. nat calling for convening due and security council. we also just go to statement by president, it's a catch or calling the report of men's importance showing that the there was systematic, an ongoing sexual crimes committed by how much snow this comes. as you said, there was a lot of criticism leveled at the united nations, especially also at you and a women agency that there were not acting a false enough know, taking it serious enough. and now we have uh, the un special representative on sex or violence and conflict from the pots. and as you said, there were in israel, a gathering the information. and she has said that they've found clear and convincing information that hostages have been subjected to a sex of violence that this could be potentially be ongoing. and also that there

were a reasonable grounds to believe that sexual violence, rape and gang raped, happened during the terror attacks on october 7th. the oldest comes tanya. as negotiators meeting cairo for talks on a truce and on real the getting of the release of those of those hostages from, from gaza. what's the latest there briefly if you can yeah. diplomatic efforts that are ongoing as we understand and it would be a start day where a negotiate has come together from egypt, cutout homos and also from the u. s. in car with the expected to continue those of negotiations. but it seems that this one of the problems is right, it's not part of the moment that haven't been, the delegation is not in cairo yet. they have said that they want to see

a list of how most of those hostages that are still alive. a $130.00 hostages are believed to be in gaza. 30 of them are presumably have been killed, but they want to see this before those negotiations are further going to thank you very much. that was our correspond attorney kramer in jerusalem. it's catch you up on a few other stories making headlines around the world today. the philippines is accused, china is coast guard of carrying out dangerous maneuvers that lead to a collision between his coast guard ship and a chinese vessel in the south china sea. beijing claims sovereignty in the region, despite view and permanent court of harbour tracing. finding those claims to have no legal basis. argentina is government suspended the country state and it was agency tele workers protested to move outside taylor as well as our offices,

calling in a tack on press freedom. the suspension comes after rifling populace present from the malay and l. c was shutting down. the agency which he accuses of spreading left wing propaganda. heavy rains have caused a river in bolivia, diverse its bank submitted, devastating weather pattern that is killed at least 43 people. defense civil defense ministry says the region will remain on red alert for another week. nato is staging his biggest military exercise since the cold or cold, steadfast, defend, or several military scenarios will be played out until may of this year. $90000.00 soldiers from all $31.00 nato allies and sweden will be participating. poland is one of the countries where the drills are taking place. on the vista la river, a troops are testing their ability to move military equipment in difficult conditions. are brussels bureau chief,

alexandra for non reports now from poland. are moving nato forces towards an imaginary funds line 300 meters across the vista lot river. this exercise commanders here tell us it's meant to tests nato, a strategic planning and logistics. river crossing operations like the one we are witnessing here, are only undertaking this absolutely necessary. and that is because there are so difficult to plan and execute. you have to consider many different sectors, like the characteristics of the terrain, and river current. and of course in case of where we'll war, all of these challenges would be negative 5 by enemy fire. so they wants to be ready in case bridges are destroyed and they needs to get across the river. and important exercise, especially for countries such as poland and the baltic states, which across by numerous rivers,

british and german combat engineers are among those in charge of transporting federal tanks and other equipment across the dish to the river. they said it to them just a few minutes to put together a fairy like this one. but every day has its own challenges. the river is quite high at the moment is quite hungry. a few weeks ago, the areas where we don't show where be phoned up with the troops across. how does that sound and equal to? so i see the part of the shipping outstanding. the bank preparation to ground works as simple as an end date to further what to maintain that with some 20000 soldiers from 9 nato countries. participating. this exercise led to by poland is also a demonstration that the alliance is ready to deploy its pure had forces wherever there are needed. i would argue it's the right exercise at the right time, because it sends a unified message, unified message to potential enemies like russia and force pertains letting me slide dresser. you know, nato is preparing itself against, choose fritz,

it's russia and it's terrorist threats. but i would argue that this may success, those are going to own audiences. we need to prepare ourselves. we need to be better and to spend more on drills like this one and on defense in general, need to officers say. but apart from these more general concerns, they are happy which day one of the training it was crossover now to our brussels bureau chief, alexandra phenomena. she's in the poland, where one of the scenarios of this military excise is being played out. alexandra, this is the biggest h o exercise since the cold war. it's intended to discourage potential enemies, but those are not risk exacerbating tensions with russia, which is already launched a war against ukraine framed

. we're having trouble establishing a line there to alexander perhaps we'll come back to that a little later. now, france has become the 1st country to enshrine the right to an abortion in its constitution. that's after lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of an amendment public support for the change follow the us spring court ruling and 2022 over turning the right to an abortion in the country. the, i think dollar was looked up in celebration with the message. my buddy, my twice, i as friends, made a boss and a constitutional right. it is very moving to see such a fundamental liberty written into the constitution. it will make us feel more recognized and protected. it's historical and we are all as you see, very happy and for us it's from them on so right. and then he has to be in the constitution because you can always change the law to adults. you said sound good

because on the also do but and see the french parliament been the result of the vote was announced by a mountain of 78272. no make goods from across the political spectrum made from the only country in the world to explicitly and try and access to abortion. and it splits a fusion to be with our vote today, we recognize the fundamental human right of abortion. because the threat of regression is waiting heavy on women, because the right to abortion always reappears on the list of things the extreme right wants to attack. and what abortion has been legal in front since 1975 some critics say the revision was there for

unnecessary. the accused president, him under the macro of using it to boost his popularity. the level of them with these all it's, it's a so a visual emotion is already legally and friends. and i don't understand why we need to put it into the constitution because it's already allowed. and i don't want this to encourage even more women to take the lives of the unborn baby. so i thought the like to do to put to vivian this woman's rights activists. it started the push to get into the right to abortion last year, after it was rooted back in the united states. and finally, they have achieved their goal and hope other countries will follow from slade. we spoke earlier with our correspond elisa louis in paris. she told us more about what it took for transfer cheapest constitutional change. so this is the end of an 18 months legal process at that started in summer 2022. and there were

in the, in the beginning several initiative spies, opposition parties from the left are 1st to for, to, to do such a move and the 1st readings of these initiative. so the rights to barshan abortion writer object to it by the senate, the lower house of parliament where you have a writing majority. and then over the months of this topic really changed and no more people more more petitions were talking about. until finally, it was clear that the needed to be another, right. and the government came into the bank to and said, and i, okay, let's negotiate on the exact reading off of this new. right. and now as i said, the new what is and try and will be signed in the constitution, is the guaranteed right for women to have an abortion. and so finally, there is in the senate to fall to it like they could, they may be in favor. so when a completely against about it and training they sent into the constitution,

they've agent in favor of this initiative. and now we have this overwhelming majority today in the congress invest side, where you bring where the government brought together at the national assembly and the senate in favor of this initiative as a group of ukrainian children have been visiting the us to help raise awareness of mass abductions by russia, ukrainian authorities estimate that at least 19000 children have been forcibly relocated from ukraine to russia since russia's full scale invasion 2 years ago. the w's in is pull reports from washington, dc. so i saw your young kia are victims. so 1st i swore in ukraine, the 3 children were abducted by russian soldiers during the brutal siege of mario pool 2 years ago. often, most of the parents were killed in d, a tech. they travel to washington to share their stories and seek support from

lawmakers to continue funding ukraine. why we're working very hard with wondrous and the white house and everyone on the additional supplementary budget. this issue kids and especially having their voice as a having brave 11 year old, 13 year old saying i wanted to go back home. i am ukrainian, i didn't want to be turned into russian and they, they were holding me again my, my will, this is such a powerful message. the organizers hall trying to avoid re traumatizing the children by having them repeat their stories multiple times. they have provided pre taped interviews for an event at the ukraine house, or say on the what to say i'm one minute but a but so, so the to pretty almost, and she will hear me too. when in the indigo, in when you prefer shuttles. mom was nice is the in the bushes in the one was the

mama played on the police are going to play is on the glues available separately. you hello, you have what? a 021. and here's a girl with a few moments of the latest. we talked with a certain year old sauce off, and the 14 year old kiera outside too young to be sure, and i've done it, but it my hopeful victory, and for my mazda to return your money. i dream of becoming a firefighter, somebody i dream of helping people and the most difficult situation for me at the shop. i mean, i remember lying in the hospital with injuries. uh they told me i might be taken to an orphanage, but i of them to a grandfather managed to rescue her. but i was very relieved because i was afraid it wouldn't be possible for them to bring me back to me. as of right,

the grandfather traveled with her to washington. you too at the should have listed i need to do to the children of the future of any country. children of the future of our ukrainian, and my opinion by taking away children from our country. there is simply trying to do private, our country over the future with issue. so i am seeking help to assist and bring back our children longer. there was a shit and i shall be to at least $20000.00 ukrainian children are still being held hostage. these 3 are among the $300.00 which was being rescued. they are using their voices to help free those who weren't as fortunate. and finally, there a joke in western movies and have inspired popular songs about the need to keep moving. tumble. weeds are well known for rolling through the deserts of texas, but take

a look at this. strong winds have been pushing thousands of tumbleweeds into towns across the us west. the thorny bushes have blocked roads and surrounded homes, reaching as high as the roofs. some built, the watching dw is just reminded of the top stories for following for you at this hour . china is national people's congress has announced a target of 5 percent economic growth in 2024, far below the double digit expansion. beijing once enjoyed the rubber stamp assembly also plans to hike defense spending by 7.2 percent. second year in a row. and in the world 1st, francis made abortion the guaranteed constitutional rights. there was ever welding

public support for the initiative. the constitutional change was prompted by the united states supreme court, removing the right to abortion in 2022. you can always get the, the result of the go. just download our app from google play or from the store that will give you access to all the latest news from around the world as well as push notifications for any breaking there. and of course, you can always get all the latest news information and tell everyone on our website at www dot com. i am terry martin from me and all of us here at c, w. thank the the

ice cold at the end of plastic, underneath an expedition ventures on 2 places that no one has to explore

the page. while he is the ice melting more rapidly than trees in the ice fields unknown. past the next dw, respect its own about a walk in waves and fixing nature. that's right, sandra, respecting nature, studying aids. i mean it's about being up to date with karen tardy is technologies . training for the e co way of life, the environment magazine to speak to africa. in 60 minutes on the w, the

increasing and recent medium john watching online services, the only work that is holiday destination is a drowning cost. at the cost every year of the exports over $1000000.00 tons of plastic. why is there another way officer ruled, the environment is not responsible. make up your own mind. dw, made for mines the the, the ice fields in the past to go in on these, unknown valley discovered terrain. a team of mounts and e, as in scientists,

tend to explore these almost a miserable regions where global climate change is more tangible than almost anywhere else in the world. the gym and scientist is leading the expedition in the hospital against wind and ice. the go to collect data for climate beside.