sarah: this is "dw news," live from berlin. anti-semitic crimes on the rise in germany. new statistics show that hate crimes against jews are at their highest level in a decade, sparking alarm among the country's jewish communities. also coming up, spain's government in crisis as prime minister pedro sanchez considers calling a snap election after parliament voted down his budget. and the chinese film "one second" was in the running at the beberlin film m festival, ad ththen withdrawn under mysteters

circumstances. we will findnd out more frfrom r correspondent on the red carpet. ♪ sarah: i'm sarah kelly. thank you so much for joining us. the number of anti-semitic crimes committed in germany has risen by almost 10% over the past year. the highest level in a decade. figures released today are causing alarm in the jewish community. violent attacks are up by more than 60%. this has prompted germany's central council of jews to call for a stronger action from police and politicians. reporter: the signboards of a jewish restaurant, smashed. a pig head marked with a star of david dumped by a door. swastikas and stars of david dorbed on a wall. this was the aftermath of an

anti-semitic attack in the eastern german city of chemnitz in august, 2018. it was one of more than 1600 anti-semitic crimes committed in germany last year. that's an increase of 10% on 2017. particularly worrying, the number of violent incidents like this one in berlin has increased by two thirds. >> i am concerned, but not really surprised. it fits with whahat i hear from jewish organizations and representatives when i talk to them. it should give us the impetus to take preventative action soon, and to make sure that anti-semitism does not arise in the first place. reporter: much of this hatred comes from far right supporters, but experts say some of it derives from opposition to israel, including from migrants from the muslim world. and germany is not alone. anti-semitic incidents are becoming more common in other countries, too.

france this week reported a rise of more than 70% in 2018 compared with the previous year. unfortunately, anti-semitism is on the advance everywhere in europe. we need to find european solutions. i support the idea of making the fight against anti-semitism a priority for the german, eu presidency next year. reporter: another part of the picture in germany is that the jewish community is growing, and demonstrations of solidarity with them by non-jews are common. while most germans recognize that from the holocaust comes a speciaial responsibibility to protect jews, there is sadly still a minority ready to turn violent aggression against them. sarah: and staying in germany, police have arrested two syrian citizens thought to be former members of the syrian regime's secret police. federal prosecutors here say that they are suspected of having committed crimes against humanity, including torturing

prisoners at a facility in damascus. let's get the latest now on this story. we're joined by dw political correspondent maximiliane koschyk who is standing by for us. what is believed to have been done by these men? maximiliane: so, the accused are strongly suspected to have committed crimes against humanity. according to german authorities, both men of syrian citizenship have been members of the syrian secret service between 2011 and 2012 and then left the country. that far as known. and according to german authorities, one of the two men has been responsible for running a prison in the outskirts of damascus, where torture has been taking place. the other man who has been working together with the other was working on signposts on roads where arrests have been taking place and the arrested have then been taken to said prison. sarah: so what reaction has been

given from the german government, from politicians? maximiliane: the german justice minister of the social democrats has welcomed the arrest, saying that of course crimes against humanity can and should be prosecuted here in germany. that has so far been the only comment. all of the spokesperson have referred to the chief prosecutor currently investigating the matter. we also heard from independent observers who have been saying it is no surprise such arrests are taking place in germany because we have had an influx of refugees coming from syria to germany, and of course there are also people who have been allegedly part of the syrian regime who could come to germany as well. and one of the commentators has been from the european center for constitutional and human rights who has been commenting on that t today. let's have a listeten. >> it was s for us always a question of titime that t someos identified and will be accused

and made t to run, arrested, and most probably indicted and put on trial in germany or in another european country. any of those trials allolow allf us t to point to what has happed and is happenining in syria. and that's the important thing.. i mean, it seems that assad and his pepeople have wowon the ward that they want peace. and what we claim is thahat thee cannot be any kind of peace without justice. maximiliane: this is quite interesting because the efforts have taken place towards the arrest that was taking place yesterday have been done by both german and french authorities, and there have been in the past and with this arrest, they will certainly come forward again, claims or requests that the international community will prosecute the assad regime for crimes against humanity.

even former members of the international criminal court have been asking the united nations security council to prosecute these crimes. and with germany being currently a nonpermanent member of the security council, the united nations, and taking the lead in april, it will be interesting to see how germany will be reacting on these arrests further on the international scene. sarah: maximiliane koschyk, thank you. let's get a quick check now of some other stories making news around the world. according to iranian media, , least 2020 members of the country's revolutionaryry guard has been killeled in a suicide attack in southeastern iran. the suicide bomber reportedly struck a bus carrying the elite troops on the road between two cities. the head of the philippines news site critical of the country's president has been arrested. maria ressa says that the accusation of cyber libel

against her is the latest attempt by rodrigo duterte's government to silence her social news network. the veteran journalist is one of several people named person of the year by "time magazine" for her political reporting. u.s. president donald trump says that venezuelan authorities are making, quote, a terrible mistake by refusing to allow u.s. humanitarian aid into the country, and warned that washington had options. his comments came during a visit by the colombian president, ivan duque. their talks are expected to focus on the crisis in venezuela. and a rare black panther has been caught on camera in kenya. the wildlife photographer will lucas took pictures of the creature in n a wilderness campn january. researcherers from sanan diego o haveveonfirmedhehe sighting with camera t traps.

ththey say that ththese are thte first verifiabable recorords ofe animal in nearly a century. spain's center-left government is facing an uncertain future after parliament rejected its budget. prime minister pedro sanchez is expected to announce on friday whether he will call an early general election. the socialist premier had been depending on the support of two catalan pro-independence parties to get his budget through. but both voted against it after he ruled out talks on self-determination for catalonia, saying that spain's constitution does not allow this. for more on this, let's cross to journalist martin roberts who is joining us from madrid. now that we know that parliament has voted against the prime minister's budget, where does this leave his government right now? martin: it's a long-standing spanish parliamentary procedure. losising a bududget vote is tantamount to losing a motion of

confidence, so he has no option but to go to the country and call fresh elections. he is expected to on friday afafr a weeklyly cabinetet meet, and speculation currently suggests that this will be held from the last sunday in april, suggesting that parliament will be dissolved in early march. sarah: the prime minister, if we just look at thehe back storyy here, , he faced a a lot of criticism over his efforts to establish a dialogue with these catalan separatists. why have they now turned against him? martrtin: we, ththe stickiking t for this government, as with several previous governments, has s been the request to holdla rereferendum on independence. as you say, this wouould requira constititutional amendment.. that in turn would require a two thirds majority of parliament, then dissolve parliament to call fresh elections. under the current circumstances that is impossible. they would need 10% in favor of it. also, it would set a precedence, a very uncomfortable one for

other parts s of spain and other regions around europe, which is sanchez and his european partners will be keen to avoid. sarah: amid that uncertainty, what is the opposition saying? how is it positioning itself right now? martinin: the three e main opposition parties to the right right of sanchez'ss goverernment are rather happy. on sunday, they jointltly held a rally attetended by 5050,000 pee here in downtown madrid calling on sanchezez to resign and c cal for frfresh electionons. within minutes of the vote, the leader of the main opposition party appealed to voters of his party, the conservatative peop's party, too come back to them. he also o used the opporortunitt accusese sanchez of being anti-patriotic. so, basically the election campaigns are already underway. sarah: take us through that election campaign and the possible results. i mean, who stands to gain the most here, and what could the next government potentially look

like? martinin: well, what it looks le we're going to haveve is the thd parliament in about t as manyy years. ththe reason for this s basicals that the l last three or four years, spain's s two traditional parties on the left and right now have rivals. in fact, polls suggest that we have somomething like fifive pas who can expect to poll between 10% and 25% of the vote. polls suggest pedro sanchez's socialist party will increase their share of the vote, despite the fact they have been in government. so, that would be a victory of sorts. however, no one will have a clear mamajority.. and realally, it is very much up in the air who will actually end up running things. sarah: martin roberts joining us from madrid. thank you. you're watching "dw news." still to come this half hour, when your employer is also your abuser. we have a special report on the plight facing many domestic workers in the philippines.

but first, nato defense ministers are meeting in brussels to discuss steps needed to protect europe if a u.s.-russian nuclear disarmament pact falls apart. nato secretary-g-general jens ststoltenberg ururged russia t o return to o complian w with th inf treaeaty. but said the alliance was making plans for a scenario without the deal, which bans the development and possession of intermediate range nuclear missiles. the pact is under threat after washington announced its withdrawal earlier this month, accusing russia of violating it. dw's teri schultz is following the nato meeting in brussels. she sent us this analysis. teri: nato allies met for the first time since the u.s. announced it would withdraw from the inf treaty if moscow does not agree to destroy the missile system that breaches the treaty's limits. all 28 other allies have come to back the u.s. on this because they agree a one-sided treaty is not effective arms control.

that does not mean it does not make them nervous, because any future battleground between the u.s. and russia would be european territory. u.s. acting defense secretary patrick shanahan sought to reassure nato counterparts by saying the u.s. has no plans to deploy nuclear weapons in europe. at the same time, no one knows exactly what the u.s. plans will look like because washington says it has been abiding by the treaty, so it has not further developed its thinking on this. germany is one of the countries most uncomfortable with talks of nuclear weapons, and the defense minister was asked if she could rule out this possibility. she said it is too early to do that. she said is also too early to speculate on what any future arms control or defense systems would look like until we are truly in a post-inf world, and that will not happen until august at the very earliest. germany may have benefited from all the focus on inf, because dinner was to focus on defense spending, and of course germany's is quite a bit below where nato would like its allies to be. sarah: germany's interior minister says that he wants to change legislation to tighten

restrictions on foreign telecoms providers. horst seehofer's proposals would require companies to obtain security verification in germany and to sign no spying agreements. berlin is considering the changes as it decides whether to allow china's huawei to take part in the development of its 5g network. the telecoms manufacturer is accused of being too close to the chinese government and the militatary. reporter: connecting the world at high speed. it is all in 5 5g, and chinese companies are dominating the market for the latest telecom technologies. two of them, zte and competitor huawei, are banned in the u.s., but still hopeful to get into the eu market. >> the r release of our 5g5g products is just waiting for telecom carriers to annonounce their commercial network and verification standards for their terminals.

reporter: but it's become didifficult for huawawei to se goods these days. the company's close relationship to the chinese government and military has brought up accusationons of spyining. china strongly denies these accusations. >> neither the united states nor any of its allies have brought up any solid evidence that can prove huawei poses a threat to the national security. their reason is nothing more than the issue of china's national intelligence law. reporter: indeed, there is no proof. but governments have become cautious. germany is discussing tightening telecommunication laws and making huawei sign a no spy agreement. poland is on the fence and under direct pressure from the u.s. to ban huawei, too. >> we have also made clear that if they make a certain set of decisions that it will be more difficult for the united states department of defense to work

alongside them. reporter: pompeo made the same threat in hungary and slovakia. it could block huawei from important markets and make it difficult for eu countries to bring their networks up to speed. sarah: the european parliament has ratified a free trade deal between the eu and singapore, an agreement that the bloc hopes will serve as a blueprint for future deals. it aims to remove virtually all trade barriers between the two economies over the next five years. trade amounted to 90 billion euros in goods and services last year. individual member states must still approve the measure. now we are heading to the berlin international film festival, which is underway just across town from here. and dw correspondent maya shwayder is on the red carpet for us reporting this evening. we have to start, maya, with some controversy, because the chinese film "one second" has been withdrawn from its world premiere and from the competition. what happened?

maya: we were all extremely surprised yesterday when we looked at our schedules and saw that this film, which had been somewhat highly anticipated, was suddenly canceled. the press screenings were canceled, it was pulling out of the competition. and the explanation that we were given was that there were technicacal problems preventingt from being screened. but the thing is the director, zhang yimou, is rather beloved at the berlin international film festival. he was thehe first-ever r chinee direrector to win n the golden r back in 1988. his films have had good runs here, he is always well received. he is also the man who directed the 2000 opening ceremony for the bejing olympics, which was something so many people remember, it was so memorable. one thing that our correspondent, my colleague scott roxborough has found through his reporting and his connections, is that this may actually be a case of censorship. this film that he was about to premiere dealt with the time of

cultural revolution, which is still a very sensitive topic and china. even though the director is very highly regarded inin china, it looks like not even he could get the cultural revolution passed the sensors. if this is a case of censorship, that is extremely worrying for international film and international free speech. sarah: and that was not the only controversy, right? there is also another film in competition, "elisa and marcela." tell us about that case. maya: absolutely. just a few hours ago we had the red carpet premiere of that film. and protesters actually crashed the red carpet holding signs that said in german, cinema's not a streamig festival, which is in reference to the controversy around this film which is that netflix was the one who gave money to produce this film. this caused a huge uproar resulting in an open letter,

demanding they withdraw the film from cononsideration. he basically shrugged his soldiers and said no, it is staying in. we have to adapt to the times. netflix and other streaming services are going to continue taking over, so it is staying in. sarah: the berlin film festival, it is renowned for obscure, arthouse films, too. and i understand you have actually seen one. maya: funny you should mention. so, the big film this morning was a documentary by the legendary french filmmaker agnes varda called "varda by agnes." agnes varda, if you do not know her, she was one of the original feminists in the filmmaking scene, one of the original female directors. she is now 90 years old. she is spry, funny and very charming. we should all be very lucky to be like her when we are that age. the film is kind of this smashup of an autobiography, documentary, ted talk about her process and the way that she

approaches the themes that she works with, the way that she approaches her art and her films. i will say, though, if you're not familiar with her work or you are not familiar with her, maybe skip this one. it is not for the uninitiated. sarah: maya shwayder on the red carpet, thank you. now we are heading to the philippines, where a comment by president rodrigo duterte last december prompted us to look at the issue of domestic worker abuse in the country. during a speech, dutere admitted to sexually assaulting his maid when he was a teenager. he drew widespread criticism from filipinos and women's rights groups. and we wanted to know what this means for the nearly two million domestic workers employed in the country. our correspondent ana santos filed this report. ana: lucy was only 15 when a relative hired her as their domestic worker. her parents thought she would be safe with them. she was not. >> [speaking foreign language] at

job for many filipinos, but it can also be dangerous. the president of the philippines even weighed in recently on the abuse of domestic help, in what nyny saw as s a shocking confession on whatat he did decades ago. >> i went to the room of the maid. i lifted the blanket.

and i tried to touch what was inside. anna: when philippine president rodrdrigo duterte recently confessed to molesting his domestic worker as a teen, he revealed a dirty little secret. many domestic workers in the philippines are sexually assaulted by their employers. novelilita palisoc rununs a unin for domestic workers and was also shocked by the presidenen's admission. >> it's sasad and degrading. just bececause workekers have aw status. does it mean they can be treated this way? ana: novelita palilisoc says tht while rape is the worst thatat n happen, domeststic workers face sexual harassment on a near-daily basis. palisoc's s employer once groped r r while she e was changing

lightbulb. she did not t complain, ththinkg his wife would n not believe he. claire pililla is a a lawyer who has been at the forefront of women's s rights for ovever a decade. >> sexual abuse e among domestic workers here in the philippines is very prevalent. unfortunately, we do not have statistics on that. and this is probabably because f the sisilence of the victim, silence of the families, because it happens in their families. ana: there is a law to protect the estimated 1.9 million domestic workers in the philippines, but activists say it is flawed. domestic workers can be as young as 15, an age when people are too young to know their rights and fight baback against abuse d viololence, like t the kind lucy experienced over 20 years ago. >> [speaking foreign language]e]

ana: lucy endured a lifetime of shame and suffering. she hopes that with the president's admission, more domestic workers will break the silence on their past so that other women do not have to suffer. sarah: in haiti, at least six people have died amid a week of protests calling for the country's president jovenel moise to resign. the demonstrations have paralyzed the capital port-au-prince. across the impoverished caribbean nation, anger is mounting. peoplele are accusing g the govevernment of econonomic mismanagement and corruption. reporter: thousands take to the streets of port-au-prince to show their rage against the president. lawlessness is rampant, and transportation has ground to a halt. protesters in the haitian capital have been venting their frustration for nearly a week. several people have died, some from police gunfire.

the demonstrators want the president to resign. >> he has done nothing but lie to the people. he does not say anything honest. he has ruined the economy. and today we have nothing. reporter: haiti was already reeling from a series of crises. it is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, with unemployment, corruption, and violence plaguing society. the country is still recovering from a devastatating earthquaken 2010 that killed 300,000 people. the e oppositionayays presidenet moise has stolen aid money meant to rebuildld the country, and several ministers were tied up in scandals over billions with missing funds from an oil alliance scheme. the president, on the right in this video, has offered talks. he says he wants to solve the economic crisis anand ease hungr in haiti. but the opposition says people will stay in the streets until moise steps down. sarah: dresden has commemorated

the 74th anniversary of the allied firebombing of the german city during world war ii. people laid white roses to remember the roughly 25,000 inhabitants killed in the carpet bombing attacks by british and u.s. forces. the campaign remains controversial because of its ferocity a and the fact that dresden was not of military importance in nazi germany. you're watching "dw news," live from berlin. i'm sarah kelly. thank you so much for joining us. have a great day. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

a vote on this year's budget . we begin this hour in iran where at least twenty seven members of the elite revolutionary guards have been killed in a suicide attack in the southeast of the country. the iranian sunni militant group jaish antel has claimed responsibility iran says its border guards do you regularly come under attack in this volatile area near the border with pakistan for the very latest we can get up to tehran. and our correspondent raises say yeah at raising what will can you tell us about this attack and about the