the, the, you're watching the, the, it was coming to live from berlin moore arrest here in germany over a ledger, spying for china. the latest suspect to be detained, works for a far right member of the european parliament. 3 others are being held on similar charges. also coming up on our show today, several us universities close campuses over pro palestinian protests. camps. administrators appear criticism of israel could. your is the anti semitism. students say they're exercising their rights to free speech. and britain plans a soft rise in defense spending. prime minister wishes to not meet nato cheats in warsaw as the increase is necessary to protect democracy.

the . i'm quite richardson welcome. we begin with a series of arrests here in germany on the suspicion of spying for china. the latest suspect to be detained is a long standing aid to a member of the european parliament, who represents the far right alternative for germany party. to man and a woman have also been arrested. the german government says the espionage accusations are serious. beijing, however, it denies any wrong doing. jim and prosecutors say gen g e can, we can fully name repeatedly post on information to china, about confidential discussions with the european parliament. jim and media report say this involve debates on security and defense. implications of china has influence on the use critical infrastructure. and he's also accused of spying on

people in germany who are opposed to the chinese government. the german citizen has been working as an aid to maximilian crime. he sits in the european parliament for the fall of rights, a f d party crossed said he had no prior knowledge of the rest of his staff member. he promised, if the allegations proved true, genji would be fine on the european parliament to mediately suspended the leg. spy sounds a tough images. i need it. it's really time that we have a thorough investigation and information. what is going on there that the so called petri, what's are you know, showing how weak they are in terms of taking money from autocrats from all over the world. we come to gym and chance little up show and visited china. gemini has seen several arrests over suspected espionage, but yeah, i'm an interior minister says the latest case is significant. the father for dash b and the accusations of espionage for china are very serious. and if it turns out

to be true that this espionage took place from within the european parliament, would it be an attack on the internal constitution of democracy in europe passed the types of democrats, he in the old process. china has so far officially denied any involvement in espionage, but as the e u prepares for elections to its parliament in june, this incident will add to growing fee is the democratic institutions across europe, being targeted by foreign intelligence agencies. i asked our political correspondent, simon young to tell us more about the accusations against this a f, the staff member. it's yeah, it's already been an extraordinary week. yeah. in terms of you know, allegations of chinese espionage. as you said, uh, just on monday, the 83 german citizens were arrested. the accused of a trying to obtain military information about military technologies and passing

that back to chinese intelligence. um, so you arrest perhaps a rare because it's said that the chinese, the approach has been relatively cautious in the past. uh, but i think uh, domestic intelligence services here in germany at any rate have been warning for quite a while. that the chinese are willing to use illegal methods to, to promote their ambitions politically, militarily and economically to the united states. now where several universities have closed off campuses and switch to remote learning, as more students joined, protest counts against the war and gaza. hundreds have been arrested since last week. administrators for the citizens could stroke anti semitism, but the students say they're defending free speech. the new york university warned students to leave before they called in police to arrest them. they had been living

in 10 camps, setup on campus to protest israel's war in gaza. it's a movement that has been growing at universities across the us. now some institutions including this one in boston or restricting access to campus to deal with what is happening inside. we are following what was going on at columbia university and were very upset when 100 west columbia put out a call to action versus across the country to set up and cabins at their schools. so more than 100 students were arrested last week at new york's columbia university for setting up what they called pro palestinian encampments. they were established just as the university's president faced law makers and the us congress big realtor about claims of growing anti semitism on campus. the university has

now closed its stores and shifted to online learning. but some lawmakers say this isn't enough. every single one of these college and university presidents will refuse to take action should immediately resign in this phrase. i have never seen a more disgraceful act than what we are seeing on college campuses right now. the confrontation between students and administrators comes as pass over one of the jewish religions, most important holidays that underway. well, some students will take their classes online. many at the campus are staying put, as they say for them. it's a matter of justice and free speech. university administrators are in the spotlight here with some decided to call in police to detain protesters or

washington correspondent benjamin offers group or has more that's tried. some universities like columbia or n y u, new york university has taken that decision. schools are told to send communications if they want n y p d a new york police department to come in. that's what the major eric adams, the mayor of. uh, new york said earlier today at a press conference, the stress that that's the procedure full private property, and that is different a, with a what and what to do does on the streets for those who are protesting outside of the universities. and that's something that we have been seeing because they're not just protest within the universities, but also supportive who gather outside of the gates of the university to support the students that are setting up. this encampments at columbia university, the students that protested it. and they said that they will keep the so called it guides us all the guardian compet until the university divest from companies with it ties to israel. last weekend on sunday. i was there a cover to this and compliment theory. it's a small if timeframe that we've done,

let's get to also get it to campus grounds and that will fly as it were, handed out, stating that they would remain until the universe instead. that's all i find interest. so we have to see how that develops and what the steps and university president and the oldest on management will take now a will, it looks like and then the next couple of days. and benjamin gives us a little context here. how do these protests against the war and gaza play into long running debates on us campuses about free speech? of the long running debates indeed, and they debate over free speech is ongoing. as we see more universities joining, the approach is not just at columbia with faculty members even going to students for a walk code yesterday, but also in other schools that are seeing their own protests, the world and conference now. and while you, the university of michigan, mit the massachusetts institute of technology yale to give you just a few examples on the president of columbia university, sachi was deeply saddened by the situation on campus. and she said that we cannot

allow one group to dictate the terms and it tends to disrupt important milestones like of a duration. and that's something that support has the protest as of also set that they will continue it pushing and those and comments and even the white house way data on this discussions, dressing, if there is a right to peaceful protest into us. but the cold, if full violence and physical intimidation, targeting jewish students in the jewish community are anti semitic and dangerous, and has absolutely no place on any college campuses or anywhere in this country. benjamin, thank you for that update that is the w. benjamin alvarez group here in washington, dc found the head of the un agency helping palestinians has welcomed an independent review that concluded that israel failed to provide evidence for its claims that the agencies staff have links to how much terrorist. and so it was a release of the attacks on, on wrong, were politically motivated. you have here, here's the israel of wanting to dismantle the agency to script palestinians of

their refugee status as well as accusations lead some donor countries to freeze funds for unreal. many have now resumed funding, but united states continues to hold out to w, asked germany's development minister, how she viewed the reports. conclusions that report shows very clear that on the right is able to do the job here, that it's not part of our mazda to separate the phone, them us. and i think these reports of we will lose these analyses. a lot of these reports and data, but the 1st uh, what we see is that this isn't very important for me for to, to show that otherwise doing a very good job here. turning now to some other news for it as prime minister wishes to knock has announced plans for a mass of increase and u. k. defense spending to counter what he calls a growing threat to global democracy. so knock my of the announcements during

a visit to warsaw, alongside nato secretary general. yet in spoken berg, he also unveiled details of a new 580000000 euro military age package for ukraine to include boats, ammunition, and air defense missiles. so next of the increase to britain's own defense budget was necessary, as the world is the most dangerous. it has been since the end of the cold war. so today only announcing the biggest strengthening about national defense for a generation. we will put the case on defense industry on a whole for to one of the essential lessons of the war in ukraine is that we need deepest stop pauses of munitions and for industry to be able to replenish them more quickly. we will send you create an additional offers 1000000 pounds, hitting $3000000000.00 pounds of support this year. and we'll provide them with the largest ever package. if you came in the tree equipment. this will include more than 400 vehicles, full 1000000 rounds of ammunition, 60 votes,

and will show rating crossed, vital air defenses, and long range. precision guided stone shot and missiles correspondent christine mood was following the story for us from brussels. i have for her what stood out for her during this meeting, as i saw on the middle east right now, but rashid, so next a prime minister alpha, the u. k. was it paints the state that europeans could not afford to take their eyes in their sights or false. what was happening in ukraine? ukraine is of course, spicing well fed russian invasion as we speak. and we know that ukraine is coming short in terms of ammunition, and it's also desperately needing a defense capabilities that it has lost its allies for the bridge. prime minister did highlight the fact that weston efforts to help you frame had been stopped in scots and that at times had been piecemeal. he said by today's, with today's announcement he was hoping that britain would be taking the lead in and rallying up allies to once again come around to make strong commitments. not

just in the way of supporting and supplying ukraine was made of trade, but increasing defense spending as low as 2 volts figure p. a european security. one of the key things was in the, to an a when a june and this to us, the question about the cost at which this was coming. this, the context of this class is that people in europe are increasingly counting the costs. now these growing public disquiet about the war, if it's about the huge sums of money that will being committed to the war. if it's in ukraine, this, at a time with european public services are seeing, they stand, it's declining. i'm talking about people not getting edited access to health care, for example, people really asking the question about whether or not these sums of money are better off having an impact be used in, in domestic a policies and, and to, to, to, to increase public spending in their countries, the message from the 2 leaders, the nato secretary general and the bridge prime minister was to say,

it comes out of cost to have a neighbor, an aggressive neighbor like russian that europeans had to pay the price. but this is something that they all had to ready around to do that the higher price, the higher cost would be letting me put in guessing a win and ukraine. that would be the greatest cost and everything that is being done to help you create now is essentially making an investment in therapy and security. christine will invite reporting from brussels, christine, thank you. this. now, before we go check this out, the greek capital, athens has been covered in dust blown and from the sahara that has colored the sky over landmarks, including the acropolis, giving the city a martian like appearance. and that might be a treat for photographers out about, but officials also say that the haze could reduce visibility and even trigger breathing problems. luckily, the skies are predicted to clear on wednesday as wins shift. this a heart release has between 60 and 200000000 tons of mineral dust every year.

and that is your news update f as our and all from the for now. thank you so much for watching these big companies play a role in the destruction of the rain forest. the letter for luxury cars often comes from illegal capital funds in the m, as in yet the supply chains does matter to the view industry. the illegal of the stats may said on dw, the .