it is under way. donald trump is in court in manhattan, accused of covering up harsh money payments to a porn star. we will take you through the opening statements that have set the stage 4 weeks of unsavory testimony. expected to pro trumps legal troubles and personal life into the spotlight. the people understand what's going on the 2016 well everybody knows it. we don't like what's going on. it's not going to be on here. lots of other places. also, once a day,

after months of frustration, the passage of a $61000000000.00 a package in the us house of representatives brings relief for ukraine. but how much will it help you have firing positions here with so the soldiers can observe on fire on the enemy. they going to see the next line of defense that's closer to the front line. there's a shelter for vehicles and the dugout, but the crew and the league accused of a criminal conspiracy and a cover of on day one of donald trump's trial in a manhattan court room, prosecutors alleged a long running scheme to influence the 2016 election for legal payments, they say trump paid harsh money to the porn star known as stormy daniels to cover up a sexual encounter. she claims he had with her in 2006. so after opening arguments and start of testimony in the 1st ever criminal trial of a former us president trump repeated his claim that the charges against him are

politically motivated. this is what the major out because there should be georgia. now, i should see a lot of different places right now, and i'm sitting here additional going for a long time. it's very unfair and the judge has been selected, as you know, it's very next year what's going on and i should be allowed to jim, hey, this is a big trailer and a very pleased to welcome harvard law professor ronald sullivan and the director of the criminal justice institute there as well. thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today. i'd like to start with those opening statements. what they will tell us about what we can expect to see from this trial. what do you think they have done to set the stage here? it will open the statements are designed to give the listener, in this case the jury. a road map as to what the evidence will show. even more,

these opening statements are tended to finding the evidence in a certain way such that the jury will view the evidence through the prism of whatever theory each side articulates. so for example, you heard the prosecution a use. the phrase is like a pure and simple right. this case is about election, interferes pure and simple. it's a joy believes that then they'll start understanding the evidence through that theory. on the other hand, the defense of tried to put trade this case as a big nothing burger. in other words, this case, nothing in it is criminal at all. it's about it to the extent it's about election interference. that's what democracy is all about. now if the jury believes that, then they will understand all the evidence of through that groups through the prism of that theory. now if i understand this correctly, the district attorney is using

a novel legal theory to turn what might normally be a misdemeanor into a felony bi, alleging that from falsified business records in order to cover up another crime, violating campaign finance was. can you tell us about this strategy and what you think it's chances of success are? it was a great question. so the theory itself is not novel that is baked in a new york law the what's normally a misdemeanor mis misdemeanor can be elevated to a felony. if it's in furtherance of some other crime. what's novel about it is this other crime is violation of state election laws. and what makes that novel is that mr. trump did not participate in any election in the state of new york. as such, it was a federal elections that he was part of. but the allegation is that he's violated state components of this federal election. there's

a secondary theory that will come out and evidence and that's mr. trump violated tax laws as well. and that to with calibrate the misdemeanor to a felony. what i think the defense is baking on is that the jury will kind of shrugged its collective shoulders and say, is this really a case that the criminal law should deal with? it is the criminal law to blunt instrument for what amounts to a record keeping error. that's what the defense is hoping that the jury will conclude at if convicted it. trump would then be sentenced by, by the judge. what options would potentially be on the table if he is found guilty or well, options on the table would be anything from a probationary sentence to prison time. it is highly, highly, highly unlikely that if he is convicted, he will be sentenced to prison. this is

a classic, a felony in new york, which means that it is the lowest level of all felonies. mr. trump doesn't have a record. so he wouldn't be an ideal candidate for a non custodial probationary terms. so if he is convicted, i anticipate that the judge will sit and sent to probations, and mr. trump can go about his business. i want to ask you about trans comments. we heard just there about this being a witch hunt. what would you say to him if, if you could reply well, i think what the prosecution would say to him is that we live in a country where no person is above the law. this is not a website. this is the chief legal enforcement officer in the state enforcing the laws of the state. uh these laws are on the books there on the books for a reason. he violated them and he has to be held to account. that's what i think that

the district attorney alvin brag would say to him. and just give us a little bit of context. how big of a deal do you think this case is compared to the other 3 indictments trump faces or well of the other 3. this is probably the least consequential case at some level. uh, it is about how a particular payment was classified on ledgers. the other cases have to do more directly with the us democratic regime. they are much more weighty in terms of the issues at stake. so many are upset, may be too strong the word, but many are concerned that this happens to be the 1st case that is tried because it seems to be the one that is least consequential. but you know,

the calendar is worked out in the way they worked out and then here we are. but this case doesn't sort of touch and concerns big matters of state in the way that some of the other cases do. professor sullivan. i want to thank you so much for your insights and time today that is a professor at ron sullivan from hartford law. thank you. ukraine's foreign minister to mutual clay, but has called on his european union calendar parts to step up their commitments to kids, war effort to prevent what he described as the worst case scenarios. many you for and, and defense ministers meeting and lots of express relief over the us house of representatives approving a massive a for an a package for ukraine over the weekends. or the e. u ministers shot stopped short of fledging, more patriot air defense systems, as has been urgently requested by keys to i'd like to bring in william courtney a senior fellow at the ranch think tank in washington dc. before that,

he served as us ambassador to cause exxon and georgia, and was also special assistant to the president for russia, ukraine, and your range of very warm welcome. thank you for taking the time. now you have written on x, not since the failure of russian forces 2 years ago to seize care of and capture or kill zalinski. has russia suffered a failure as dramatic as today's house vote for ukraine age? could you please tell us a little bit more about that? what makes this round of funding? so significant this is really interesting of discussion in the house of representatives because the republican party for the time of president reagan has seen that software trade itself as the parties national security for united states. southern way in the house has been a debate. we're apologize,

so what is she must seem to be wanting to walk back from that. but as it turned out, the speaker, mike johnson, the democrats now the other half of the republican. so silver is the security. as an important issue for the public part. they bringing it together so the vote was almost 3 to was in favor of providing that you're crated. this the feet won't be tough for the isolation of they may not be able to come back in the future. so that is one way that this is probably the most significant or most dramatic change since the russian law since the beginning of the war and from ukraine's perspective how we useful to think this will be they've, they've been demanding asking for this 84 months and i think there was a lot of relief and key of to hear that it is now cleared. the house of representatives to the air conditioning will be the most immediate. and perhaps the most important part of this. because as we've seen in recent weeks,

it great as left and munition to deal with some of the cruise vessels, ballistic missiles and drugs that have destroyed, for example, power plants and destroyed expensive power plants and ukraine. so every addition to help deal with their different and so the quite important as exchange will be coming to our in a few of us. and they also can play an important role encountering the drawings and uh, cruise. no. so, so they're not ballistic missiles for that, you're pretty much the patriots. the 2nd aspect of this is the fighting on the lives ukrainians have been digging ditches and putting other barriers to prevent a regression for the regression by russian forces up and down. they will also have an munition to back up those fixed obstacles. so that will be important. the possibility of a rush of lunge. now the successful is going way down. and just using your, your long experience working in the region,

how might the kremlin react to seeing this latest aid package past? do you think they will be concerned about seeing this continued funding for ukraine? the close perspectives. now what they've seen in less couple of us is if you has fully funded as pledge for assistance to your credit. and now the us is fully funded guess, but there's no increasing fatigue that is ever in the west. they have long sought after was strategic of western decadence, western inability to work together would cause west to lose heart and supporting ukraine. shut up. that is not the case. so from the criminals perspective, but are correlational forces now may be changing significantly and ukraine saver. so what do you think this is the end, the end of ukraine fatigue? as you've mentioned, how long can this a to last at some points give will require additional assistance. and of course,

there's the lumen prospect that the election of donald trump, as us president could mean a very drastic change in us policy. but this assistance will likely last or close to the end of the year. and then new assistance will be required. but because of the political impact of a vote, almost 3 to one in favor of aid. now it's not likely that opponents of a or going to account be able to come back and prevent in the future. so the prospects for the future and are probably pretty good. and certainly in europe we see europe becoming more and more committed to the defense of the plan is important because russia is causing a direct threat to european secured. so on either side, are we likely to see the crane fatigue in the next year or 2 anyway? here we expect the senior uptake on a bigger and leading role in that sense. in the years ahead. i get some friends

with already as a person who has been providing more overall assistance to ukraine down to us as significant. but we're now seeing the europeans talk about expanding defense production, ada pulling more equipment out of their own arsenals to provide to ukraine. i'm not sure i think we're going to see europe, but a very positive and stronger role. and just for some closing thought, i'd like to get a sense of, of the bigger picture here. do you think that your opinions can also still be confidence that the transatlantic relationship with the us remains and will remain a pillar of its peace and security as the europeans are right to be concerned about the potential election of uh in november which could change the way the us goes with this, but we have seen in the past with no presence dropped to the been in your office before, but yeah, most us policy is continue as i have been. in fact it was under president trump

that us 1st provided legal arm. so of travel and you take muscles to your crate then because of the size of the vote in the house and the same voters likely to be so much similar. there's going to be a lot of my bathrooms in the legislative branch to continue to support your trend. but thank you very much for that perspective that is william courtney, a senior fellow at the brand think tank in washington. we very much appreciate your time today. welcome. now, part of what president is, a lensky says he will use american funds for is for to fine ukraine's orders. drone technology has dramatically changed the bottle for the skies and the scenes, but on ukraine's land border with russia. the countries armed forces are focused on a farm or traditional form of defense against a looming russian offensive of the modern rules and may be high tech. but trenches

are still proving vital in ukraine. kit is hoping all this will allow ukraine's army to hold back. russian forces presidency. lensky says, ukraine is building 2000 kilometers of 40 vacations in 3 lines. this is part of the enemy's line of defense on it's located in the sunni region, which is a 560 kilometer long border with russia. work on defense structures begun here last year, but intensified in february. the regional capital of see me is also in circled with defense lines. local sources say the confidence that any surprise russian attack would no longer break through these fortifications. we start with the new we have the firing position was here, so the soldiers can observe on fire on the enemy. they going to see the next line of defense. it's closer to the front line. there's a shelter for vehicles and the dog out of the crew in the league,

but it's made of wood and reinforced concrete. what continues around the clock time is of the essence as a new russian offensive is expected. soon. fortifications are also being built in the neighboring county have region know, fall off, and the battery see in boulder. in february 2022 restroom shapes, pause through this area to much on key of these structures. and this dragon's t, that design to slow the progress of tungsten um with vehicles getting the ukraine, you know me more time to destroy them on to tongue that jews have been dug behind them on the area around his mind. the 2nd line of defense is less elaborate these images. so of course, if occasions in eastern you came here to the on to ton bitches. but no concrete. the outermost line of defense is built by infantry brigades. they have to build on

the fire. it consists of trenches and dugouts with wooden floors and is the weakest defense. the government insists that even if the army is digging in behind the cover the front lines you claim isn't abandoning its intention to re touch its have a tree from the russians. but the war is in its 3rd year, often months of stalemate. russia has laid a number of games right now. defensive, like these, maybe ukraine's best hopes of keeping russian forces up. a 3 german citizens have been arrested on suspicion of spying for china, prosecutors say the 2 men and one woman established runs companies to obtain research and technology that could be used to help the chinese navy. so for more on this story, let's bring indeed of use political correspondent assignment young silent china now

of rejecting accusations it carried out spying activities after 3 germans were arrested. what more can you tell us about this case? it's right. the visa, a 3 gym and citizens, as you've mentioned, there a keys of fact gathering details about military technology and pulsing that to a chinese client, the stein agency. so this was one married couple who was said to of set off a company here in germany. that was basically move making contacts with jim and the experts and academics and also setting up corporations with the gem and universities. a for instance. and one case they were doing a study on the high performance marine engines that could have a military application. uh, but that data was, in fact uh,

going back to that showing uh, through the secret services there. uh and the they were financing this uh, operation. uh and uh, you know, the gym and also always said, well, no problem. we were aware of it at a pretty early stage. the german government at a is cooling. there's a big success for that. so the defense mechanisms against espionage, as you say, the china is authorities say that they have got nothing to do with it. they've denied these allegations. give us a little bit of context here. is there a precedent for something like this in germany? so i would say that they sees a new level for a chinese sourced espionage attempt into military technology. this was a concrete plan with a fairly clear sort of narrative of how the thing was structured and how the information was getting back to china. what sort of information was being targeted?

and we've got these 3 arrests. i think that in the past shot. and there's been cosette, of course about china's industrial espionage activity is against jem, and is called makers and engineering firms and so on. and there's also been a lot of concern about the telecoms, from hallway, and where the data might flow through it, back to china. but this is a new kind of case, i think was simon stay with us for just a moment. i'd like to play a clip from our correspondent thomas, a sparrow who was able to speak to germany's domestic intelligence chief almost housing vaughan about this case. it hasn't shown on file for this case has a particular significant screen. we are dealing with a case of proliferation, which also involves weapons new. how does no haul from, from this case shows that china is also active in gemini, on that there are cases of proliferation here. see a police officer was for the federal office. i was involved in the investigation at

the very early stage of tied to visit me blooming once the investigation was clear, we were able to handle this case over to the police on the public prosecutor. somebody show further information pertaining to the case will be released by the federal public prosecutor. so these, and 5 become, can came in on desktop and what they call mazda. just a few days after 2 people were arrested here in germany on suspicion of spying for russia. how great is the threat of, from russia to domestic security in germany? i he, and document to have your names. i, few and young. yes, we've been aware for many years that russia is fueling major penalties here in germany, except on floating, even before the warranty. queen i was talking about a threat similar to that. so the cold war era is gone. so i think naturally submit this is of course intensified even further with russia's attack on ukraine. yeah, i'm gonna have to realize that russia is engaging an espionage of a type. so cyber espionage, i influenced operations on this information month. and this tool box,

as we call it, well not fully, also includes sabotaged an extreme case. and then the 2 of each. oh yeah, it makes same for this team. i will have to reckon with the fact that rush, i'm the headlines of sabotaged cutty dodson gemini bush. and i'm just those few of them. less than go to simon. tell us more about that. what kinds of acts of sabotage are the germans worried about from the russians as well, just last week we sold the rest of to the agents here in germany, accused of not just spying for russia. they were accused of spying on us military bases here. but of planning actual attacks, possibly acts of sabotage in order to undermine germany support for ukraine in particular. but of course, russia is also have been implicated in many other incidents from contract killings on the streets of the lane to attempt to infiltrate political policies,

to hacked government computer systems. and indeed to disrupt the sort of infrastructure such is the power. great. so it's a really different, a lot of activity, i think, from the russian side, compared to what we've seen from the chinese in pause. and interestingly, thomas housing vials i said today that either as he sees it, the chinese prefer to be more low t, as smooth as he described it. there has to be a nice activities, but he still owns that, as he sees it, china is determined to become the global number one by 2049 politically and militarily and economically. and he says that he, that ready to use illegal means to do that. simon, thank you for that, but his date of these political correspondence, simon young, are now people around the world have been

marking earth day today since it was 1st observed in 1970 earth. today has been used to call attention to environmental problems. this year's theme, plastic versus the planets in hong kong, a new law came into effect today aimed at phasing out a single use plastics and businesses such as restaurants. and in south africa, volunteers picked up plastic waste and other fresh from some of the country's most popular features in cape town. and that is our show for today. you can follow our team on social media at dw means, or for always online to d, w dot com. i'm clear. richardson, thanks for watching. the

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