this is. from berlin tonight the u.k. answer to a chemical weapons attack on its soil the u.k. expels twenty three russian diplomats in the fallout from the poisoning of a former prime minister to resume a gives those diplomats a week to leave the country russia says it will retaliate calling the move unprecedented and crude provocation also coming up a new german government finally takes office nearly six months after the election chancellor americal is sworn in for

a fourth term. i'm burnt off it's good to have you with us tonight britain is imposing fresh sanctions on russia after it failed to meet a deadline to explain the poisoning of a former russian spy and his daughter in the u.k. twenty three diplomats will be expelled as well moscow has vowed to retaliate calling maize move unprecedented and a crude provocation by here in germany the chance that i'm going to go says that the european union will support the u.k.'s position and in new york the u.n. security council is about to debate the situation. may announce the measures after russia nor the deadline to provide an explanation for the attack she said moscow's failure to cooperate showed what she called a disdain for the gravity of the events her conclusion when it came was an

ambiguous so mr speaker there is no alternative conclusion other than that the russian state was culpable for the attempted murder of mr script file and his daughter and for threatening the lives of other british citizens in salzburg including detective sergeant nick daly she said the steps against moscow would include the freezing of some russian assets and this is special of high level contacts be the headline move though was what will be the largest expulsion of russian diplomats from the u.k. in more than thirty years under the vienna convention the united kingdom will now expel twenty three russian diplomats who have been identified as undeclared intelligence officers they have just one week to leave the russian embassy in london described the measures as unacceptable unjustified and shortsighted the ambassador said moscow wanted to see samples of the nerve agent used in the attack and accused london of failing to stick to international rules on such matters first

we want to see the symbols full stop without the samples the official procedure of the organization all be provision of the chemical weapons we're not going to for i think that britain should follow the international law as ties with russia now look set to enter a new deep freeze in the u.k. is looking to its allies possible that the e.u. is donald to this says he believes the attack was inspired by moscow and promised to discuss it at an east summit next week. for some analysis now we want to bring in anthony glees he's director of the center for security and intelligence studies at the university of miami joins us from august good evening to you so we've got these twenty three diplomats that the prime minister is kicking alpes do we know who they are and why were they selected. i think we can very safely assume they were selected by britain security service the m i five they were selected because

of that titles people need to know they have basically two sorts of intelligence offices who operate in foreign countries those who are attached to an embassy legally and those who are independent of the embassy so called illegals now all of the illegals the embassy some of those people in the embassy will be normal diplomats doing that open source diplomatic activity but some will be secret intelligence offices so an m i five our security service will have a good idea of who they are so mr glees are you saying that these twenty three people they may be listening diplomats but they're actually doing espionage in the u.k. yes i think that's absolutely right because before they leave the united kingdom in a week we will have to be satisfied that none of them was in seoul street and involved in the attempted assassination of mrs grey fox and his daughter you know

because it is possible that some of them may have been what if if we know so quickly that twenty three people are suspected spies in the u.k. why are why weren't they kicked out a long time ago why are they in the country right now. ok it's a very good question in the real world of international politics every single country houses intelligence offices in its embassy we do it in the united kingdom you do it in the federal public and the russians do it in russia the question really is if they cross the line and do things that seriously damaging to the national security of the country any moment now so what we've got tonight then is we but the u.k. expelling diplomats who are really spies and we've also got a royal boycott of the summer world cup in russia this summer would you say that this punishment fits the crime. well i think it i mean them

that other things to reason may have said i think there is exposure in there is a seizure of russian acids in the u.k. which is a very important measure that checks on acra flight into the united kingdom from russia and there is a suggestion that the royal family will not go and look at the world cup of course it's up to fifty to decide whether the england team should go and play in the well and indeed whether any european team should go in the well should play in the world cup in russia or in june and july my own feeling is that this is such a serious matter. a prime minister the british prime minister has said with a probability that borders on the russian state is to blame for this attack two people fighting for their lives british police officers seriously injured five hundred people in seoul's bery woke up yesterday morning they too may have been

contaminated by this vile nerve agent this is in effect. an invasion through chemical means of british soil and that has to have very serious consequence you say it is an invasion with a chemical weapon on british soil britain is a member of nato nato today said that this is the our first offensive use of a nerve agent on a nato member since one thousand nine hundred forty nine we didn't hear anything. to that extent today from theresa may do you think the situation has the potential to become a nato incident. i think it could become a nato incident yes because i think it deserves to be a nato incident less of a strike against some of those including myself in the united kingdom is how quickly germany and other european union countries latvia lithuania estonia but

also fronts came out to support and the european parliament came out to support its may very normally and to say that the blame for this ultimately rests with russia the response from the white house was not to meet it and was very any meek and by no means a straw man that's a problem for mrs may british people have voted to get out of the european union and they voted at all to get closer to america. let out you know that's that's a very good point especially the day after the secretary of state was fired by the u.s. president's not a good situation for the british prime minister tonight that is for sure i think least thank you very much we appreciate your insights tonight we're here in germany months of political gridlock came to an end as i'm going to america was sworn in as head of a new coalition government today michael took the oath of office from the in this talk president both on shore but as you see right here she did it in front of

lawmakers who had earlier narrowly voted to reelect her as their chancellor are now gratian comes after a near six month struggle to form a government americal secured her fourth term after finally convincing her conservatives and the center left social democrats to come together for yet another so-called grand coalition government. the bundestag vote was tighter than expected. dr i'm actually has the necessary majority of at least three hundred fifty five votes and has been elected chancellor according to article sixty three paragraph two of the constitution if. you examine the result. yes mr president i deal. with that merkel was officially elected to a fourth term as chancellor and it's her third time in a grand coalition the social democrats. it took

a while for america to win over the s.p.d. but in the end the junior partners offered their congratulations. the chancellor remains the chancellor and that's cause for happiness and i think this is good news for the citizens of our country and good news for europe. who do not. but at least thirty five members of merkel's coalition failed to support her in the end her margin of victory was nine votes including her own in a parliament of seven hundred nine deputies that's hardly a dream start to the latest medical government. husband. put in a first appearance at such an election and merkel's next cabinet is also new in many respects the numerical government is noticeably younger and includes more women than previous ones its main priorities in the in the we need to ensure domestic security and the welfare of society we need to figure out how to positively tackle the challenges of global competition. after the bring the stuff

forward merkel was sworn in by german president. one hundred seventy one days after germany's national election last september the country finally has a new government. you know we've got to go to the new government it's my colleague christopher brigades is covering the beginning of yet another grand coalition force today let's talk about uncle americal she took that oath of office for a fourth time it seems like everyone is saying that this is going to be her last chance there but has she said that she has said that she will the full term she's always asked whether she's going to the full term but i don't know any politician any leader with any experience who'd give you a different answer because if they say well i'll step down after two years in the immediately a lame duck leader so she almost has to say that she was off that question. excuse me again today and said to that she basically pushed that question away by saying

listen i always on questions when they become relevant and before that i don't give any spoken like a true politician there. we know that there was only six months of haggling negotiating before we got a new government we've never seen that before in germany so we're going one of the priorities the first to do list for this new government well has been sending a few signals today the first thing she's going to be in paris on friday talking to in one of them i call her french counterpart he's been waiting for months now for a response from germany on his proposals to reform the e.u. so that's an area of great priority and she's also got a fire to put out in terms of relations trade relations with the u.s. she's talking about having talks with washington no doubt with you to getting an exemption on those trade tariffs that president trump has imposed and i think we're

also going to see want to have a new ministers kick into into action very quickly hall see who for the new interior minister he's made it very clear that he's going to put in place a much tougher immigration regime faster repatriation on. the judge to decide and see because in the background to that apart from the fact that germans are concerned about immigration is party political he wants to take the wind out of the sails of the far right alternative to germany the and to immigration what would you say would be the very first thing that the government is going to attack is going to be a domestic issue or you know this was the foreign policy issues or the problem well i think it's a man who is going to you know she's still come on such a lot of respect abroad she's going to tackle the foreign policy issues she's already sent her foreign minister to paris he's already having preliminary talks with his counterpart while the domestic side of things is going to leave to

ministers. there are a whole host of challenges you know germany needs to catch up for instance on digitise ation. within the chancellor there is a special minister who's going to be looking at that. all sorts of other things nursing care child care that there are a lot of fires to put out and we've had one hundred seventy one days since the federal elections it's time to get to work as a very good point chris does bring great thank you very much welcome. and here is a recap of our top story for you in the u.k. the british prime minister has told parliament that she will expel twenty three russian diplomats in a row over the poisoned ex russian spy russia says it will retaliate calling the move unprecedented and a crude provocation. has been sworn in for her fourth term as german chancellor she won reelection by

a slim margin in the german parliament just nine votes today. i'll be back at the top of the hour with more world news followed by the day i have to see that. freedom of expression. of value that always has to be defended and new. all over the world. of freedom freedom of art. a multimedia of project about artists and their right to express their views freely. d.w. don't come part of freedom.