this is news live from berlin and she has made history now the 1st woman to become the e.u. commission president sets her sights on europe's future. it's necessary that we have to take bold action. first look underline tell d.w. what is at the top of her agenda as she takes over the interviews tough job also coming up a rare congressional review the u.s. house of representatives a vote to denounce president donald trump for racist comments show for minority

congresswoman on twitter again trump denies he's a racist and u.s. senator slammed facebook's plan to introduce its own cryptocurrency. call the company delusional and say that it can't be trusted after scandals over privacy and data protection. i'm sorry kelly welcome to the program members of the european parliament have made history by electing the 1st woman as commission president germany's outgoing defense minister ursula found alive one lawmakers backing to take the role she's promised to quote united and strong europe saying that she would work constructively and pragmatically to achieve it she will succeed in the top job after being voted by a narrow majority. uncertainty until the very last minute.

the members of the european parliament knew the vote on the next commission president was going to be close but not even the candidate herself. on the line thought it was going to be that close. vote the 5 votes in favor of the sure 383. things are on the line secured the majority but just 9 books a week results in the end still enough to celebrate. my message so all of you is let us work together constructively because the endevor is a united a strong year old. the former german defense minister spent the last 2 weeks building a majority trying to convince the political groups in the european parliament to support her bid should this be her final address to parliament which some called the speech of her lifetime seem to have tilt of the scale in her favor and of

course having the backing of her conservative p.p.p. group she could afford moving towards the left and resonating with other groups on issues such as climates. this is the greatest responsibility and opportunity of our times. i want europe to become the 1st climate neutral continent in the world by 2050. on the night now to fight for a greener camera and more based. on the real line of the problem and so fragmented building majorities around any of these issues is likely to prove difficult. for more on that let's bring in w.'s chief political correspondent melinda crane here in the studio and you have really followed her career here in germany what is she going to bring to the role and how do you see the challenges that she faces let's start with that question of building majorities i think she definitely has some traits that will help her to do that and in fact it will be more difficult now

because we have a more splintered parliament we have a stronger green faction a stronger liberal free market friendly fraction so that's going to make it a bit more complicated than it used to be in the past but she is known as someone who is non not doctrinaire at all we heard that quote from her about taking bold action she certainly has shown herself to be willing to do so as defense minister she went into a ministry beset with problems with a determination to reform it there were some difficulties by no means is that work completed nor was it without its bumps but she certainly was willing to take bold action she's also somebody who's good i think it reaching across the aisle you could see that in the speech yesterday you could say well she just threw something in there for everybody because she needed to win their votes but frankly she is not someone who sticks with one ideology she certainly is willing to to play a kind of a moderating role and we've seen that in the fact that she's also reached out to

eastern european countries which backed her bid so i think for a number of different reasons she might be the right person for this moment in time for leading the commission and shortly after her election are brussels bureau chief actually was able to speak with her just like to play what she said and then get your reaction there after. also live on the line is with us today and i have a very simple question the start of the interview you feeling. relieved and happy because it was a tough ride over 13 days now i had to. formulate the guidelines the political guidelines and to convince the parliamentarians this was not a lot of time and i made it and i'm happy right now does the majority bother you that it was only 9 votes ahead majority's majority and 2 weeks ago i didn't have at all a majority of course i understand that because the parliamentarian said we want to know more of you we want to know what your program is we want to know the details

in the topics we're dealing with so it was a tough time a very intensive the most intensive in my political korea i've ever had but now i'm happy and you happy with the speech or deliver the feedback you got yes because it showed my conviction and it's worth to fight for this europe and it's best to tell the story of our europe united and strong how i see it for the future and so this was a important moment you made a lot of promises today you do realize it'll be very tough to keep all of those right but it's right it's not promises it's politics and policy we want to bring forward if we're talking about the climate neutral continent in 2050 it's necessary that we act we have to take bold action who achieve those goals and we need it for our planet and fall lives so these all these topics are extremely important and we have to be ambitious and what would you say of all those topics you talked about

which is your absolute top priority i think top priority is. climate mutuality 2050 with a goal for 2013 and digitalization those are the 2 biggest concerns or opportunities. we have to tackle you're going to work with a divided parliament where it's harder than ever to get a majority and also you could say with a divided council because you have a rift between eastern europe and the other european countries for example on migration how will you handle this i think we absolutely have to overcome the division of east and west between east and west i know that people in the eastern countries central european countries often think they are not accepted as they should be and as i have been working as a defense minister very much in those countries i have a lot of friends and they trust me so i know how to work together that we can

improve the relationship and there is a division between north and south has to do with questions of competitiveness and flexibility and we have to solve that too why that because europe has to be united there are many many big questions we have to tackle and europe has to play a role and we only can do that when we are united ok so what are you doing over the summer. i'll spend it in brussels getting my cabinet the commissioners on board and to work on my work programme that i have to lay down and lay out in october for the president elect of the european commission thank you very much for talking to us. it's going to be a busy summer and dave and i just can't just say one other thing that really suits her for this new role she has nerves of steel and a constitution of iron she's a mother of 7 children and she once told a small group of women i was part of that no matter what is happening during the day she goes to bed she goes right to sleep she sleeps like

a baby no matter what's going on it's like any of the rest because she is has certainly lined out quite an agenda for herself she also happens to coast. the german chancellor angela merkel her 65th birthday today does she have something to celebrate now a very strong ally she does european front she does have something to celebrate and absolutely for. the chancellor but this does not mean that she is going to be doing germany's bidding and that's very important to remember if you look at that speech if you look at her program there are a lot of elements in there that are definitely not exactly what german conservatives would wish for everything from those higher climate targets they're going to make it they're going to put some pressure on germany to switch out of coal perhaps faster than has been planned as well as some of the emphasis on unemployment insurance on minimum wage those are not part of the party program of the german conservatives chancellor merkel herself has been very happy to borrow from the programs of other parties she's

a moderate conservative but i think we are already seeing funda lie and start to take steps in a very independent direction she won by a relatively narrow majority we have to say and it really kind of you know was on all sides including far right what do you think that all of that means for her presidency all this talk about will she be beholden to euro skeptics and the far right and eastern european autocrats i don't think so we heard very strong talk from her yesterday about the rule of law that's all about eastern europe that's all about her saying to them you are on notice we are going to really enforce the european union provisions on rule of law meeting. fear courts needing proper voting procedures and so on so i think i would not emphasize too much the fact that some of her votes may have come from that direction before she was elected she resigned her position as defense minister here in germany we now know who will fill that position as the head of the christian democrats. are

surprised by that move oh yes a couple of weeks ago on a great country. qanbar who is chancellor merkel's designated successor as the head of the party and also hoped for next chancellor from the conservatives she rolled this out 2 weeks ago she said absolutely not i need to concentrate on running the party why did she decide to do this now well i think because her star has been waning she has taken some real missteps in the last few months and this is a post that is very very important it could offer her the opportunity to show what she can do in governing she has never held a federal ministry on the other hand this is one of the probably the toughest portfolio in the german government it is fraught with pitfalls there are a lot of problems in this ministry so she could wind up with a very big challenge here nonetheless this is another victory for the chancellor she has put one of her favorites into this very key role so she does have

a lot still great to do a lot to look forward to melinda crane our chief political correspondent thank you . let's get a quick check now some other stories making news around the world scientists in canada say that they have observed record temperatures in the world's northernmost settlement a high of just over 20 degrees celsius was measured on sunday and monday in alert a military facility near the north pole the average july high there is just 7 degrees. in sudan protesters and ruling generals have signed a political document part of a power sharing deal paving the way for a civilian government this has been one of the key demands of demonstrators since president omar al bashir was deposed in april a 2nd constitutional document is likely to be signed within days and at least 13 people have died after a 3 storey residential building collapsed in central area it happened after days of torrential rains in the city of jobs locals say that the building was to laugh

a jaded and dangerous it's a common problem in the west african country where building regulations are frequently ignored. in the united states the u.s. house of representatives has passed a motion condemning president donald trump for making racist comments it follows a series of tweets in which trump said that 4 democratic lawmakers should quote go back to their countries although they are u.s. citizens and the 3 were born there all 235 democrats voted to condemn trump although the move has no legal weight. it was a symbolic vote and one easily approved by the democrat held house of representatives but for republicans and one independent also supported the motion to condemn donald trump for making xenophobic statements. we condemn the hurtful and offensive comments that demean immigrants and people of color these comments from the white house are disgraceful and disgusting and the experiments are racist

how shameful to hear him continue to defend those offensive words words that we have all heard him repeat not only about our members but about countless others we are america america is a nation of immigrants we are not going anywhere america is our home and many of us will still be standing here long after the occupant over office leaves earlier this week trump released a series of tweets attacking progressive female democratic politicians saying they should go back to their countries his unnamed but understood targets for outspoken nonwhites lawmaker is all u.s. citizens. trump is standing by his comments. it's up to them with the i'm thinking they can stay they should lower ground and they should work for the good of our country senior republicans are supporting

their leader. the president not to rush them breaking all races and i think the tone of all of this is not good for the country following the verge of condemnation texas democrat al green introduced articles of impeachment against trump saying the president was unfit for office another symbolic move on likely to succeed. you're watching news live from berlin still to come on the program she's the boss this afghan politician is fighting to get basics like water and electricity for her people want to find death threats on the taliban. u.s. lawmakers have grilled facebook over its plans to create a digital currency with one congressman calling the company quote delusional for thinking that users would trust it with their money appearing before the senate banking committee facebook executive david marcus who's leading the libor currency project said that the company needed time to address concerns about privacy

potential money laundering and fraud the hearing comes amid growing concerns about the market dominance and influence of major tech company. let's get more we are joined by. who is joining us from business so i mean it's not the 1st cryptocurrency on the market so why is face facebook specifically getting all this pushback well i mean it kind of boils down to 2 different aspects on the one hand there's some real questions of trust surrounding facebook and its proposal to create this libra digital currency it goes beyond the fact that it's just a simple crypto currency we've seen lots of those come on the market was several years what really is a lot of the senators and a lot of the skepticism is focusing on is the fact that facebook wants to create this whole ecosystem. around it basically they're hoping to create a trans national currency that its users will be able to use to kind of bypass some of the more traditional financial networks out there and you know given facebook's track record in recent years with things like the cambridge analytical scandal and

also the allegations that its services are helping in. helping. foreign powers engage election meddling it's really raise questions of whether or not facebook is ready to take on this kind of responsibility in this kind of power and you know facebook it seems to be cognizant of that issue i mean they are for their part have introduced a lot of suggestions in the proposal which go to help increasing the amount of trust people would have in it one example of that is you know back in the currency with a real basket of real world currency to help stabilize its value and also creating a supervisory board which would make sure that the the that the currency was being used in a responsible fashion but at the end of the day a lot of the senators and a lot of the congressman speaking of them said you know facebook has made a lot of money with the mantra of move fast and break things and they're not sure that facebook is really ready to not break things with this currency so it's more than just a question of chess it goes it goes well beyond that. it's

a question of power as well i mean facebook is one of the most powerful companies on the planet i mean everybody knows that they have 2400000000 active users just with their main service and by introducing this currency you know they say that they want to give their users the ability to engage in banking in a much easier and cheaper fashion also people can't get access traditional banking systems would give them a way to engage in to work with financial market and financial transactions but with so many users i mean 2400000000 users that's more that's more people than a lot of major world religions have you know that's a huge huge market for this currency that is kind of going beyond trans national regulation i mean if you look at it really down at the core of the issue efface book rates a currency that bypasses tradition. financial markets the question is how will national governments be able to regulate that if you look at the taxing authorities they can't even manage to tax facebook so if they can't regulate the currency who's

really going to control it i mean that's the issue that this could represent a loss of power for a lot of national governments congress is also looking into some serious allegations as well abuse of market position oh yes yes it is in this really goes to like the same issue i mean we're seeing hearings as well focus you know on many of the tech giants but also specifically on facebook saying at this point there's so much integration they control so many small companies so many different services they really are almost akin to some of the you know the massive corporations like oil corporations railroad corporations we saw back during the gilded age you know from 1920 it's a long time ago but basically we're talking about companies that power goes beyond a specific individual branch that goes into every every aspect of our daily life you know from communication to our political expression to even now with this proposal how we could do. banking in the future how we can get in financial transactions and because these companies have so many people and so many industry critical positions it really is a question of how governments will deal with the moving forward and i think this is

only the start of a lot more attention directed towards the tech industries from regulating bodies and from governments and i think this is a conversation we're going to be having over and over again in the coming years to be honest erin thank you thank you. the 7th round of talks between the united states and the taliban over a possible p.c.l. in afghanistan ended last week in doha in qatar u.s. representatives call them the most productive session to date but what that means for women's rights in the country remains unclear the taliban banned woman from working and restricted education for girls during its 5 year rule but one woman politician is determined to stand her ground. selima zaki is the governor of chalk and district in the troubled north of afghanistan she's one of only a few female district chiefs in the country but that doesn't faze her the taliban poses a constant threat here but ms arias says that doesn't really bother her either. i'm

not afraid. not of losing everything to the taliban. we don't have time to worry about such things. until recently her district was considered relatively safe then the taliban attacked and occupied a village. founded a militia to stop them it includes farmers and unemployed young people not old battle tested. actually i was studying but now i have to fight because the taliban attacked my village. and we will fight as long as it takes to drive the taliban out of area the men are fighting for their homeland but also for their governor she's promised that they will be paid for their service but so far there's been no signs of support from kabul. so far the government hasn't paid us anything at. all the weapons ourselves. sometimes we

even sold our positions always sold our land so that we could get the money to buy the weapons. saleman mazhar a governance by all means necessary negotiating mediating and making promises it's not an easy task in male dominated afghanistan it's rare for women to be in leadership positions and they have a difficult time in spite of a high position as district administrator salema mazhar he cannot go out in public alone her husband has to accompany her to every appointment he's not paid for this and he has had to give up his own job to do so. and i got him and without the support of my family i couldn't do this. quarter our community is a very traditional one as a woman you can't just go out on your own you know so my husband always comes with me then when we come home in the evenings we cook together.

mazhar is been district governor for about a year now she studied in iran has a masters degree in management and is also an artist she works with tiles that work is on display in the provincial capital masai shop if she does city and landscapes often depicting reformers and famous figures in afghan history. she and her husband have 3 children her parents and other relatives take care of them during the day when i'm out of the one of man comes home he finds it a quiet place for him to relax women have a harder when they get home their next job begins cooking taking care of the children and so on so. now should all be shot. in the 1st few months of a 10 year saleman odds are he worked on improving her district's water supply she organized new water purification machines you roads and improved to electricity supply but it's not easy work she always has the same problem

a lack of funding and security for her constituents and for herself this will just go to a few weeks ago the taliban decided that i should be sentenced to death so. they think that because i'm such a prominent opponent they should get rid of me they will probably try more attacks and give me a moment to get him out of me get. so nell the militia mazari founded to protect their constituents also has the job of protecting her life. in golf the final major of the year takes place this week with the british open teeing off on thursday the sport's. returning to northern ireland for the 1st time in 16 years but for one top player in particular inside knowledge could come in very handy. a way to drift not since 1951 has the open going hosted in northern ireland slipped off the venue rotation of the conflict known as the troubles but gold was like rory

mcilroy have been flying the flag for northern ireland to put it back on the map and the local hero has an edge over his rivals it's going to take a while for them to adjust and to get used to there's a few. shots so they're going to have to really busy focus on where their lines are . so i feel like it is an advantage to know the golf course a little bit practice sessions have given star players a 1st taste of what's to come the ones injury plagued tiger woods maybe a bit rusty going into the tournament since winning the masters in april he has only played 10 competitive rounds of golf this year i made a conscious effort to cut back on my schedule to make sure that i don't play too much i want to i want to play as long as i possibly can and yet on the stand if i play a lot i won't be out here that long. is the secret to winning this year's open load management or a home advantage last year's winner francesco molinari is also in the mix and has

reluctantly returned his trophy surely welcome back. quick reminder now to the top stories we're following for you here and he. has said that she will fight for a strong and united europe as the next president of the european commission she is from germany and she is the 1st woman to the commission. the u.s. house of representatives has passed a motion. making racist comments follows a series of tweets in which trump told 4 democratic lawmakers to go back to their countries trump has denied the tweets were racist. coming up next on the w turkey is clearly pursuing a policy of kidnapping stay tuned for that on close up the current affairs documentary don't forget we have more news coming up at the top of the hour and you can always get all the latest news and information around the clock on our web site

that to do you w dot com i'm sorry kelly in berlin thanks for watching have a great day. mob. boy oh boy. oh boy.

haitians are syrians. is turkey's intelligence agency carrying out of junctions across the globe. the. 2 men tell their stories of. jail and torture. are the kidnappings if they're the ones beating. up dr. house up next d.w. . the

finest girl a local tourist guide for germany's booming i love berlin. 50 nations 50 stories and 15 very personal tips from berlin's very best features. look no planet unless our hero max series every week on d w. a forest area equivalent to the soccer pitch is cleared every. hour consumerism is causing a radical depletion of forests. for 25.

forests and money. tragic reality behind. the exploitation starts july 24th. july 15th 2016 tanks occupy the bosphorus bridge in istanbul. military jets find a parliamentary buildings in ankara. president obama calls on the turkish population to resist the tanks. didn't miss him a don't look assemble on the squares and at the airport just.