the the, this is dw news live from berlin, germany's defense minister in the hot seat. for us, the story is blames human error for the leak. that's put secret and military conversation about german weapons for ukraine into a russian have also coming up, china opens up its national people's congress with a focus on tackling growth. the event offers glimpses into how the chinese communist party plans to get its economy back on track. the

sarah kelly walked into the program. days after the damaging admission that a taped conversation between high level german military personnel was leaked into russian hands. germany's defense minister says blaine for the incident lies with simple human error. 4 days after the revelation started making headlines for us, the story has stepped before the cameras to explain in further detail exactly what wind got wrong. he said that an officer who was visiting single port dialed in to join the discussion about the use of tourist missiles, a new crane, without taking the necessary security measures with lump calling the leak a hybrid. this information attack story is expanded on russia's attempts to influence the narrative in germany. it will slant type, russia is constantly trying to drive a wedge between us, between the domestic political forces in germany, between the policies, between those 12, for or against, for more or less support for ukraine. it's all about 50 is getting the tennis king

. henry must not fall before it. the most often lime game. he'd be his chief political editor and the customer has been following the story and told us more about the leak and it's security implications. well, the details of the leak um that we heard about today and so that there was one member of the cool who was at the time in a single pull at a conference and the drum in defense. when the sub stories said this to them and member of the military, a piece of used a, an insecure line. and there's the police here in berlin that the russian intelligence was signing off communication, free flowing communication during that particular conference. knowing that there are lots of military personnel in town. so the durham inside seems to believe that this was pretty much a lucky find on the russian side. having said that,

and the german going to said the military is now also reassessing. it's the security of its own lines, but does stress that there was no hacking into any system and the, or into any server at the same time, everything is now being reassessed. for now, the for people involved are under investigation, but we also heard from boys the story as the german defense minister saying that he was unwilling to sacrifice any of his top offices for watching gold putin's game so that we are in this game of communication in what is described as a hybrid wall here in germany. but you know, it still doesn't put germany's military in a very good light. what has been the reaction or absolutely, and it also comes at a time of a very heated debates here in germany over whether or not the weapon that was being discussed, the towers and missile system is supposed to be sent to ukraine or not. the german

concept is completely against that. he says that this could be read by the russian side as a german involvement in this conflict. and this is soon to really been confirmed now by moscow that it would be seen that a particular way, despite the fact that the french and the brits are deploying or have already sent similar a weapon systems. so, and this was quite something that the opposition picked up on here on the damages, the credibility of the german chancellor in a very heated debate over this weapon which reading runs even within his own party and his own governing coalition. so moscow clearly minus to hit a press a point both in relation to ukraine was desperately needs more weapons in gem and domestic politics. where the germans, hans, that is already on the defensive to political editor and we have the customer.

thank you. here's some other stories making headlines. ukraine's military intelligence says that it has destroyed a russian naval patrol boat on the black sea near the crimea and peninsula. the patrol ship is called the sergei cut off. ukraine says that it destroyed the vessel with maritime drones. russia has not confirmed the claim. a new report by the u, as envoy for sexual violence says that there are 4 reasonable grounds to believe rape and gang rape occurred during mazda is october 7th terror attacks. we report also said there was pro convincing information that hostages were subjected to sexual violence during their captivity, including sex. a mouse has rejected the record. so talk to us supreme court has unanimously rejected the state of colorado's bed to block donald trump from the 2024 presidential ballot moving applies nationwide. the former presidential contest

15 st primaries as part of super tuesday voting, seen as a key to confirming his republican candidacy. the philippines has accused china's coast guard of carrying out dangerous maneuvers that led to a collision between its coast guard ship and a chinese vessel in the south. china sea vision claimed sovereignty in the region. despite the un permanent court of arbitration finding these claims to have no legal basis. now we have to china where delegates to the national people's congress are trying to come up with solutions for the countries pressing, economic and demographic challenges. the highly choreographed and national people's congress event has just kicked off in beijing meters have announced a target of 5 percent economic growth in 2024, far below the double digit growth at once, power the chinese economy. they also plan to increase defense spending by 7.2

percent. the same rate of increase as last year. the annual big, long gathering is mostly ceremonial in nature. all key decisions have already been made behind closed doors by the communist party. for the in customer and beijing explained how the government says that it plans to meet the 5 percent growth target . it's yeah, that is really the big question. uh, 5 percent growth, as you mentioned, is actually much lower than what a china is. the chief just let's say 10 years ago when the economy was to basically, i'm growing double digits every year. now 5 percent is actually quite ambitious. when you look at the predictions of the big investment banks, they would predict that china would grow roughly around 4 percent. so, and the government has to deliver something to a cheapest growth of 5 percent. and uh, what are some economists are expecting? is that, um, that could be a stimulus package, but i would be cautious because of the signal it's that we have been getting today

was that, you know, there's not really a bold vision for reforms. there's not really um, anything, no, live a reservation, no big stimulus package into making. so we don't really know yet because of the book report today like the those critic code details. and i would say we have to wait to see how the government will implement demetrius to achieve this growth. so that was fabbing patch man. and taking a closer look at china's plans to continue increasing military spending. i spoke with steven nog, you earlier. he's a senior associate professor at the international christian university in tokyo. i begin by asking him how modern and competitive time is military forces are right now. let me think about the chinese military. we can think about it in terms of its maritime capabilities. is this information capabilities as cyber security capabilities? and i think importantly in the context of the end of a civic is grace on hybrid topics. it's invested heavily in the capabilities to reunify with taiwan by force is necessary. but at the same time,

invest and the kinds of resources, coast guard vessels and merchant vessels to be used in the south, tennessee. we also see investment heavily in a, in, in this information and cyber security. and these are key areas that i think china is investing in to try and we're there a way or a road away. the tourette's capabilities, the time when these are trying to develop. but also influenced our society in elections. so that the time these themselves make the decision to return to a was a chinese understands the motherland without a fight. and i think this is an important way to be thinking about china strategy. it doesn't want to go into a kinetic conflict with taiwan, and that would mean the united states and other partners, but it would like to call her as control and stress the time. nice. so they make the choice naturally to return back to the mainland. according to the chinese government, you mentioned the united states there. there's been

a lot of focus on the military competition. we have to say between china and the united states. when might we see china catch up with the united states militarily? when we talk about capabilities or do you see that even happening? as i think most analysts believe that i'm catching up with united states is, is that at a global level is decades away. but you know, a very narrow context in terms of thinking about china's capabilities across the taiwan strait. this is much more complicated. thailand, china has the capability to really cost to trade in enormous amount of resources in his efforts to reunify with, with taiwan. and this will be difficult to combat from the american standpoint, but also thinking about america's partners within the region where this japanese, these trillions or others. so the trick with the, the key to the turing, the chinese and ensuring peace and stability across the taiwan straits is really conveying to the chinese that the united states security commitments in the broader

region and towards taiwan. as long as taiwan does not declare independence g a laterally, really our rock solid and that of the united states will be there to defend taiwan or other allies within the region. dr. steven maggie senior associate professor at the international christian university. tokyo, thank you so much. i thank you. now we had to sit they australia where women of the bond i beat serve be there is life saving club bar training. the next generation of rescue words. they also race rescue boats to hone their skills at the head of international women's day on march. 8th, the 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 sidney'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. 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 to watch and keep what you meant to keep and then doing it. she just wanted to do it. so she said to me, one day, i want to do it and i love it. and she recently told me that the feeling apply is like no. i mean, it means everything really established your relationship with her. and i feel really women were excluded from australia surf rescue force until 1980. now they make up almost half of the volunteers. after 12 years on patrol nixie cried says the only difference between her and her male colleagues is that she

can't cut corners when it comes to her craft. we have to work a lot more on our techniques the women have to get that technique. 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. a quick reminder of our top story. germany's defense minister has blamed human error for the leak of a secret military conversation. for us, the story is set that one color joins the discussion about the use of tourist missiles and ukraine without taking the necessary security measures. now to beat the stuff in the wake of the for each step. next, it is the show choices, following the struggles of an artist to overcome

a brain tumor and battle depression. stay with us. if you can. i'm sarah kelly in for life. thanks for watching the stage innovation, green the green revolution global. so listen to a whole lot of crime would probably be secure assignments all subscribe to those channels to subscribe to plan. it's a lot of the life i want. i don't like the copier.