the, the, this is the, the, the news coming to live from berlin, germany's defense minister in the hot seat morris. the story is, blames human error for the leak. that puts secret military conversations about the german weapons where you crane into russian hands. also coming up, nato conducts his biggest military exercise in europe since the cold war. 31 allies as well as nature partners. we are participating. the china opens is national people's congress with a focus on tackling gross. the events offers glimpses into health. the communist party plans to get it to economy back on track and un state agency for palestinian

refugees fights for the survival. it's head says israel is out to dismantle on rock . 2000000 jobs have been displaced from their homes. many of them are now facing time and enters the hello. i'm terry martin. good to help you with those days after the damaging admission that a taped conversation between high level military german military personnel was leaked into russian hands. germany's defense minister says, blame for the incident lies with a simple human error. 4 days after the revelation started making headlines, sports historian stepped before cameras to explain in full the further detail exactly what had gone wrong. the defense minister says a single story in color dialed in to join the discussion about the use of taurus

missiles and ukraine without taking the necessary and the security measures of the story. as was unable. however, to explain how the recording of the call made it into russian habits of time, you can be feel to be. let's go straight over to our chief political lab, jeremy kaylor cook, who's been following the story, became a what more have we learned about the leak and its security implications as well? we've learned that one thing didn't happen is that the russians didn't hack into a cool or into german systems or german service. that's what's being ruled out by the defense ministry behind me. when the defense is spoke that he said, he believes that this was more kind of a catch that happened by accident through one of the members of this. and coal being in single pull on an unrelated event,

it was an ass so that he was taking the part and as participant a defense meeting. and he dialed into a coal. and the defense industry believes that that was an insecure line. and that, that's where the recording happened. so there was a theory that was being presented by an opposition politician who had indicated it could be that there was someone who managed to pull it down into that particular cool. that is now being ruled out at this moment in time, in response to the ministry is now looking once again into the security of the channels. the minister would not go into details on hi, how classified the information actually was that that was being exchanged, the, that they are saying is still being investigated. and the also ruled out for now that that would be any personnel, con, consequences to put in minister for stories is what he said he was unwilling to sacrifice any of his best offices to the games. vladimir putin once again pointed

to the fact that, yes, this is an information. well, that's also going on even if this occurred, just through negligence, it does amount to something of a security breach. what does this tell us about germany's military spending and the way it does business as well? this is the question i actually put to the minister. what is this doing to the credibility of a germany as a defense pot? not a he insist that his particular and a 2 part, those didn't signal that they. so any reason a to a c, germany's credibility undermined in any way. but this does come in the context of the german town. so last week, having at least let slip or openly communicate, it depends on your interpretation of that. the brits and the friends were actually sending people on the ground in ukraine. this was an open secret in military

circles, this mold and rustled a few feathers in london. with the brits being pretty dismayed at the fact that the german salanza was open to communicating this. so this comes in a context. it 1000 said a good light on germany at this moment time. but once again, the german defense minister is pointing from the most go in saying that the timing of this was also not a co incidence. that russia is using communication as a weapon of who the kid was. thank you very much. that was our chief political editor, mckayla chris, now little nato is staging his biggest military exercise since the cold war called stead. past defender several military scenarios will be played out until may of this year. $90000.00 soldiers from all $31.00 nato allies in sweden will be participating. poland is one of the countries where the drills are taking place on the pistol river. troops are testing their ability to move military

equipment and difficult conditions. are brussels beer chief alexander phenomena reports now from poland. are moving nato forces towards an imaginary funds line 300 meters across the list to learn 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 undertaken is 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 real war, all these challenges would be negative 5 by enemy fire. so the ones 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 come. but engineers are among those in charge of transporting federal tanks and other equipment across the dish to the river. they said it took 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 loan shown where be phoned up with the troops across. how does that sound and they fall to? so i see the part of the shipping outstanding. the bank preparation to ground works as simple as an ending date to further what to maintain that with some 20000 soldiers from 9 nato countries. participating. this exercise led 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. as far as potential enemies lie,

dresser, you know, nato is preparing it. so if it gets tooth rates, it's russia and its terrorist threats. but i would argue that this may 6 is also 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 i asked alexander for knob and who filed that report whether these exercises could exacerbate tensions with russia. well, terry, you writes that russia has been criticizing this exercise, the steadfast defender as yet another proof of nato's aggressive behavior. and i confronted nature commanders here with this accusation, and they told me they're only goal is to improve nato's defense. and the turns push to so they want their troops to train to be able to defense need to us territory.

it's not about attacking russia, it's not developed provoking anyone. however, they also say that, of course, the fact that a decision was made to have a such a large scale exercise is due to russia's war in ukraine. because of course, this war raging on europe, stores step is saying that russia is behaving aggressively, and according to the assessment of some intelligence agencies in europe in 3 to 5 years, russia codes attack nato territories. so their goal here is to make sure that nato forces are ready to defend its territory if it is needed, which germany is role in this military simulation. alexandra. so

germany is contributing to many of those exercises in the reports. we've heard from one of the generals who are in charge of organizing, of planning those exercises instead for us to send, or it's not just one big exercise. it's a serious of many exercises that are taking place across a need to territory. and that will be one of them starting soon that will be led by the german windows there. and the main goal of this exercise will be to be able to train deploying troops through nato's eastern slang. so we have to understand this, the steps for us to find this, and this is like a big umbrella for many different exercises led by different nato countries. build these exercises, have 2 main phases, i understand, and they're going to end in may. what else can we expect between now and then?

well that will be a lot more to come. there will be access sizes in the high nor in norway. we will be also having some exercises in italy and remain. yeah. with, with the different focuses. but i think it's fair to say that the main goal here is to have the ability to train the ability to deploy natal forces very quickly from all over europe to nato's eastern slang. and this is showing you once again, that the alliance is viewing russia as the main threat. and that is why there are training in europe, and that is why they, they want to make sure that they are ready if there is any miscalculation from russia. alexandria thank you very much for your reporting. that was dw alexander phenomena in can. yep. poland. thank you. so

to china where delegates to the national people's congress are trying to come up with solutions to the countries pressing economic demographic challenges. the honey choreographed event is just kicked off in beijing. leaders have announced a target of 5 percent economic growth for 2024 or far below the double digit growth and once power the chinese economy. they also planned to increase defense spending by 7.2 percent. same rate of increase as last year. the annual week long gathering is mostly ceremonial in nature. all key decisions have already been made behind closed doors by the communist party journalist probably and transpose envisioning i asked them earlier about the government's plans to keep the economy moving. so 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 sound 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 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 the economists of wondering how is china going to achieve it? and also, the average chinese is wondering can the national people's congress, can't 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, they just basically the giving the paradigm, giving the direction of the future economy. i would say um, we don't see any bold plan of both reform of reason. 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 then with more all the defense aspect of the people's congress. let's bring in my analysis here. she's a senior fellow for chinese security and defense policy at the international institute for strategic studies in london. thanks for being with us. male, a china is continuing to pro to boost is spending on defense. what sort of capability is? is it focusing on as well? the short answer is that start to short and medium term goals, and it's working towards by 2027 at once to develop capabilities. uh and to master them that would allow for a tie. one contingency, and by 2035, it's aiming for full military modernization by which means parity with the united states military. but to be frank and the chinese defense budget will go towards 3

things that all of us spend on our military spending. and that is, equipment personnel and training. we have to remember the appeal is the world's largest item for us. so in that sense, they have to spend a lot on personnel and on training, but they're very focused on equipment development and building and mastering advanced capabilities and equipment, since about the 19 ninety's in order to catch up technologically with united states as well. so china is catching up, but it does have considerable resources and know how is there a particular military capability we're trying to is maybe getting an edge over as rivals so i think there's 2 elements to this. one is that it's cousins trying to catch up with the united states in advance conventional capabilities. but whilst it's doing that, it's also spending a lot of effort and resources in areas like emerging and destructive technologies that are relevant to defense. so think for example, as quantum and a i and certainly certainly in quantum china is one of the leading countries. and

it's our research and development achievements to date and other areas where china is leading is for example, in the diversification of advanced missile capabilities. i think for example of hypersonic capabilities or air to air longer range in the cells. how our trend is neighbors reacting to this military build up as well. um, countries in the region are increasing their own defense budgets and pushing forward their own military modernization goals. and efforts, i think, for example, here of japan, taiwan and the philippines, countries who are facing a great her assertiveness by the people, separation army, and by chinese, uh, auxiliary or a paramilitary forces are certainly feeling the print of some of this is sort of behavior and as such, are increasing their own defense budgets in recent years as well. no trying to

appears to be using tougher language over its plan to reunify, the self governing territory of taiwan wits. the mainland is its military strategy towards taiwan changing. i don't think it's military strategy towards taiwan is changing, but what we do see in the meantime, well military modernization progress is ongoing and not yet complete that the p. o a uh and the p r c. you are focused instead on what we term gray zone strategies in green zone capability. so think for example of using the military or a legal work fair or psychological operations through just information or narrative bottles in order to put pressure on a tie. one on the time when use government or, or on the folders to change their behavior or a change their policy or preferences. and i think as we see military modernization,

progress of that will remain a cornerstone of pure sees actions towards taiwan. you mentioned that china is trying to catch up with united states militarily. that would be it's, it's biggest geopolitical rival, it's main rival. how do you see that contest evolving in the coming years? could china perhaps overtake the u. s. in terms of overtaking i mean, you can think about this in cost of terms or quantitative terms. and in quantitative terms, the p l. a, a certainly building a very large naval or maritime fleet. that comprises of the p o, a navy, the purely coast guard, or even a maritime ballistic, comprising of fishing vessels, of using things like civilian capabilities. so it just varies to transport military, other military capabilities. our troops across the taiwan strait in the event of a taiwan contingency. so in terms of numbers, the police certainly catching up,

as i said before, in qualitative terms and capabilities and equipment, it's also catching up. but what i think the real drawback here, or rather the, the read the obstacle at the moment for the p l a remains the fact that it hasn't talked to or since 1979 when it faced reporter skirmish with vietnam. and so for the purely, it's currently trying to train its military and realistic combat conditions without actually having that combat experience. furthermore, there are efforts and signals within china at the moment that the p. o, late in certain branches like the navy is facing some struggles and being able to recruit the highly skilled talents in sufficient numbers that it needs. so i think in terms of the personnel in the training side, there are some liking, man, thank you very much for taking time. talk with us today. that was man nouns from the international institute for some cedric studies in london. or

take a look at a few other stories making headlines today. the philippines, as accuse china is coast guard of carrying out dangerous maneuvers that led to a collision between this coast guard ship and a chinese vessel in the south china sea. beijing claims sovereignty in the region, despite the us permanent court of arbitration finding. those claims have no legal basis. us supreme court has unanimously rejected the state of colorado has been blocked. donald trump from the 2024 presidential ballot. the ruling applies. nationwide is the former president will contest 15 state primaries as part of the super tuesday building seen as key to confirming his republican candidacy. the ukraine military intelligence claims it has destroyed a russian naval patrol boat and on the black sea, near the crimea and peninsula. these bar file shots of the troll ship surrogate control which ukraine says has been destroyed by maritime drugs. russia has not confirmed the validity of the claims and the report by the united nation says that

there are quote, reasonable grounds to believe that rape and gang rape occurred during the october 7th terror attacks led by how mosse against israel, the un mission interviewed survivors. and witnesses and put exam with ours the video footage and thousands of photographs to arrive. at this conclusion, the special representative on sexual bottom said she and a team of experts had found clear and convincing information about rape and centralized torture report also said that some incidents of rape could not be verified, but there was convincing information that hostages taken from israel were subjected to sexual bylaws during their captivity tuba and in the meanwhile, the head of events, palestinian refugee agency, under all has a warranty of a deliberate campaign to destroy the agency following a funding fries by donors speaking at the un general assembly felipe last. so we

need to stress that the agency was bible to support what he called a c of displace palestinians in gaza. the latch, these really government was trying to undermine the agency for political ends. israel has repeatedly accused on role of employing staff linked to from us and other militant groups that's led many countries to suspend funding was really warrant that the agency was being pushed to the break. we are functioning hung to mouse results, additional funding we will be in on top of the territory. are we serious implications for global peace unset creating the faith of the agency and the millions of people who depend on it hung in the balance. excellence is only one is facing the deliberate and concept as compared to undermine its operations. and ultimately, and does that need to be, of course,

by attorney kramer's interest when i asked her about israel's response to the claims that there is a deliberate and concerted campaign aimed at ending on real operations in gaza. what i think is what has made it clear repeatedly that they don't see any roll any more. put one row in garza, but potentially also in the region that one was also taking care of palestinian refugees. and these where the military released last night, an audio file allegedly a linking to employees, a to the october 7th attacks. and they also said that a $450.00 employees of rough um would be uh, have links to militant groups in garza without providing any further evidence to that not what do i have said. i mean, heard also people that's a really last night that they have not been presented with clear evidence but that

they're investigating those claims. there's also an audit with regards to the screening process of recruiting employees. but at the end of the day, um, what is the biggest a provider in gauze uh and with age organizations? no also warning of a separation in time. and especially in northern garza, it does tempo. of course not just the the organization itself. but the laws of palestinians right now, they are the recipients and those health care of food packages from and other health. so it impacts of course, directly on garza and on palestinians in garza del to sydney australia where women of the bundy beach surf bathers, life saving club or training the next generation of rescue words. they also race rescue boats to hone their skills and the head of international women's day on

march. 8th, volunteers of the pink petrol, are raising awareness about how women contribute to safety on the water. it's. it's a sunday morning on sydney's iconic bondai beach veteran life savers. next he cried, and christy smith, sprint through the surf and leap into their inflatable rescue boat, or i r b as quick as they can. and they were passing on their experience to the next generation of women, rescuers. in the case of christie and her daughter shar, quite literally it's a really lovely experience. so what she keeps, what she and mental you'll keep and then add them upholstered during that she just wanted to do it. so she said to me one day, oh and i want to do it and i love it. and she recently told me that the feeling of like no, of that. i mean, it means everything really establish

a relationship with her. and i feel really women were excluded from australia serve rescue force until 1980. now they make up almost half of the volunteers. after 12 years old patrol nixie cried, says the only difference between her and her male colleagues is that she can cut corners when it comes to her craft. we have to work a lot more on out checked in a little bit. if something that the women have to get that took me were technically in the lead up to women's day, the bondai beach crew ran its annual pink patrol to highlight their brave work on the choppy waters and to inspire more women to follow in their sandy foot steps, or you are watching the news from berlin, coming up next. we've got our science magazine for you. tomorrow today takes

a closer look at how music supports development. in premature babies. don't forget, you can always get all the latest news information anytime you want on a website that says dw, don't call. i'm terry martin for me and all of us here at the w news. and thanks for watching the

significance step for cancer treatment cops, ease, cell therapy, mystically to use the phone. sometimes the hunters find i'm detached to myself, a very promising message for advance cases. tomorrow. today, the next on dw, the ending in the shuttle racing until the

destroying the parasites can be maddening. when do they become dangerous? and how do you protect yourself? in good shape. in 60 minutes and dw the loading away when it's 40 degrees celsius and the shade can be deadly. during times of climate change, i asked whoever's what was the most difficult part of their job. uniformly. they spoke about sheet being the most difficult part of their jobs. men described it as a feeling of drowning feats. sky was melting and you couldn't breathe. how do

rising temperatures change from different parts of the world? in federal, march 15th on dw, the baby's born prematurely, that's been weeks on the needle. words are exposed to a lot of hospital stimuli during a time when they should ideally have been protected in the blue dress factors linked to being born too soon can have serious consequences. one research team is looking at whether music can help mitigate the risk that topic and much more this week on dw science. you welcome to tomorrow today

that to, to.