brent: this is "dw news," live from berlin. tonight, venezuela holding its breath as rival demonstrations get underway in the capital caracas. so far, supporters of president maduro and of the opposition leader juan guaido have remained stayed calm, but there are fears of violence as there was on tuesday. we will go to caracas to get the latest. also coming up, did he lie to congress and the public? u.s. attorney general william barr rejects accusations he misrepresented the conclusions

of the mueller report when he wrote that the report did not support criminal charges against president trump. and may day clashes in the streets of paris as police try to disperse demonstrators. trade unions and yellow vests protesters are rallying against president macron's economic policies. and is the problem in her blood? the court of arbitration for sport rules against south african olympic gold medalist caster semenya after she challenges rules forcing female athletes to suppress their natural levels of testosterone. i'm brent goff. to all our viewers on pbs in the united states and around the world, welcome. violence has hit the streets of venezuela for a second day as demonstrators clash with the armed forces over president nicolas maduro's rule. the people marks the biggest

challenge to maduro's rule yet. protesters fled to the capital caracas with opposition leader juan guaido making an impassioned speech, sing that quote, change will come. guaido is a 35-year-old lawmaker who is recognized by more than 50 nations as venezuela's rightftful intnterim president. we want to go now to dw's oscar schlenker. he was out on the streets of caracas earlier today. good evening to you, oscar. talk to me about the atmosphere on the streets this morning compared to yesterday's violence. oscar: the atmosphere is much more tense but calm, although we have seen disturbances, some dear gas bombs being thrown at protesters in other areas of caracas and venezuela. people went out to protest as planned.

as every may day here in venezuela. but today's demonstrations have more to do with politics. trade workers were called to march in favor of the government and opposition was called to fill the streets and rejection of maduro. from the opposition side there is worry of an outburst of violence directed from the government. there is also a sense of duty that it is necessary to show the world how much people reject this government. their claim on may 1 is to remain in power and uphold eagle chavez's legacy. brent: it is amazing we have this legacy today when we think back 24 hours that there was real talk and even hope on one side of a quick transition of power in the country. today that is not the case. you have been speaking with people on the streets. what are they telling you? oscar: there is a lot of confusion on the streets.

people want to believe in guaido and they believe he is the only chance they have to rebuild venezuela's democracy. with every day that passes people become even more impatient and even more so with a crippling crisis in venezuela. it all becomes more complicated. there is a sense of frustration in the streets. that only gets worse with every day. brent: juan guaido, he addressed his supporters earlier today. is that going to give him more support today? is he a leader in need of more followers? oscar: his message of those -- is of resilience. you can see on images that his support is very good. there e are large numbers of people gathered for him. time is money, so people in the

opposition applauded yesterday's actions because they are moving forward to the goal, although military is key. at this time the fracture in the armed forces is not enough to break their support of nicolas maduro. brent: dw's oscar schlenker reporting from caracas. the german foreign minister heiko maas has been in the colombian capital bogota. he commented o on the situationn venezuela. >> for us, juan guaido is the transitional president tasked with organizing new elections.. that is the goal we are pursuing. we want free and f fair electios in v venezuela a and the electif a new president. we are going t to talk to membes of the o oosition ababout what n help them, whether additional sanctions could be a way to speed up those processes in venezuela. but we will also clearly tell them that what we want is for this to be a peaceful process

withth no escalationon of viole. brent: that was the german foreign minister speaking earlier today. in the united states, the head of the justice department, attorney general william barr, is defended his handling of the mueller report into russian interference to the 2016 presidential election. speaking at a hearing of the senate judiciary committee, barr rejected accusations that he misrepresented its conclusions when he declared in a summary that the report did not support criminal charges against trump. that prompted trump to tweet that the report quote, totally exonerated him. before the senate hearing today it emerged that special counsel robert mueller had complained to barr at the way that barr had characacterized the reporting's findings saying that the summary did not fully capture the context of a nature, or the substance of the report. reporter: page after page after page. the mueller report unveils

unflattering material about president trump's conduct. trump himself has his own summary. >> we have no collusion, no collusion, no no obstruction. reporter: however democrats and the house of representatives still believe the president obstructed justice and are demanding the report in full, including redacted material. >> this is perhaps the best-kept secret in washington. what is behind these rejections and what they deliver -- will they deliver any incriminating evidence against president trump. that is what the democratic-led house vows to find out by subpoenaing the repeport itself and having everyone testifying who could help to solve it. reporter: attorney general william barr refuses to hand over the full report. democrats say he cannot be trusted and that he pre=spun the mueller report mueller report in a positive direction for president trump. the big questions now, would

lifting the reactions shed new light on donald trump's conduct, or is the most important evidence on obstruction of justice already public. and could any of this eventually lead to impeachmenent? of the presidential candidates, ononly fourr openly support impeachment at this point. but democrats say that could change with more evidence becoming public. and the u.s. president insists -- >> this is a pure political witchhunt. reporter: either way, the question of what is behind the black outlines is the best-kept secret in washington. brent: joining me now is oliver sallet. good evening to you oliver. bring us up-to-date. this is a saga, if you will. what are the stakes at the moment for donald trump? oliver: donald trump has been wildly defending himself in the

last weeks and days, and especially today in the last hours. he has been writing countless tweets over and over repeating his stance that is that he is exonerated, he is free from all charges, if you will, that the investigations are over, the report is out, and he is even questioning the legitimacy of the mueller report. but the democrats say this is basically just the beginning, that this report, some of them say this could be a roadmap to impeachment in fact. and that is a debate which has been more openly discussed every day right now within the democratic party. four of the presidential candidates are already openly calling for the president to be imimpeached. we have to take into consideration here that we still have not seen the underlying documents of the report, all the blacked out material is still held secretly. and it is a political fight

right now between the department of justice and congress, and a fight that has only just begun. brent: i am sure like all of us you have read the letter robert mueller wrote to william barr which was just released not long ago. in that letter, basically mueller is saying to barr, hey, you lied about my report. are there now calls for william barr to be fired? his added possibility? could --is that a possibility? could he lose his job? oliver: some democrats are callining for him to resign. william barr, to understand this, we all remember the four page summary he wrote about the mueller report before the report was published. in this report, he summarized and concluded that donald trump is exonerated from all accusations. and that is something that the mueller team reportedly was very frustrated about. and now the letter you mentioned actually summarizes that and

puts it into the amounts of these -- into the mouths of special counsel robert mueller as well. the accusations is that the president obstructed justice, but it is unlikely william barr will resign for this at this point. brent: our correspondent on the story for us tonight in washington. thank you. here are some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world. the uk's defense secretary gavin williamson has been fired. prime minister theresa may said he was responsible for leaked details relating to the chinese tech firm huawei. williamson has denied his department had anything to do with the leak. the government of mozambique says 41 people have died as a result of cyclone kenneth, the second major storm to hit the coununtry in six weeks. aerial footage shows the damage done on the island in the north. the death toll could rise as aid agencies reach more areaeas. as protests continue ensued in,

they have given -- or face suspension from the organization. the army promised to hand over power after they toppled the president three weeks ago. police in turkey have detained demonstrators taking part in may day protests in istanbul after they tried to march towards the main square. authorities had declared the square off-limits siding security turns. it holds symbolic value for the country's labor movement. there were demonstrations today in paris as well. the annual may day rally turned violent as police used tear gas to disperse hooded and masked demonstrators. more than 200 people were arrested. yellow vests protesters and trade unionists took part in the marches, many of them protesting agagainst president emmanuel macron's economic policy. rereporter: it w was supposed te a peacefulul demonstratition but

quicickly devolved into violenc. trade unionists and yellow vest protesters made common cause, but they were joined by the so-called black block,k, violent protesters who often show up at demonstrations across the continent. >> with the violence the government has inflicted on us and everything that follows, what little violence we can inflict is absolutely nothing. and it is just a warning sign. if we have to get to that level it is because there is a real problem and we do not have any other solution. >> we have been trying to make ourselves heard for six months and nobody cares. it is pretty simple. we just want to live normally. reporter: may 1 usually sees mass demonstrations by french unions. this year, the traditional holiday honoring labor movements comes months after so-called yellow vests protests, large-scale demos which have seen crowds trash public spaces and upscale stores.

the government has often seemed unable to stop them. >> there is a real discontent in this country, and it will be expressed today in the coming days and it has been expressed for five months. those who said that protests do not make any difference, that there is not been any anger any country, have been forced to realize there is unhappiness in the country. >> i think it is a pity that in france it is a country that evolves only by revolutions, by violence. it is a pity, but that is the french character, it seems. reporter: the authorities have adopted what they call a zero-tolerance approach after a particularly violent demo earlier this year. that is being put to the test yet again today. brent: dw's lisa louis is covering the paris demonstrations for us. she reports the police have

adopted a much tougher stance than in previous may day rallies. lisa: police deployed more than 7000 police officers in the streets today. they were using drones, they were using 190 mobile teams on motorbikes, actually, that were trying to, when something happened, be there really quickly and intervene. the police have also changed strategy. because beforehand they would stay away from the demonstrators but these five months of demonstrations, sometimes very violent yellow vests demonstrations over the past five months, that actually has the effect that the police have now changed its strategy because this day today was announced as a day of hell here in france. brent: that was lisa louis reporting from paris. lawyers for the wikileaks founder julian assange say they will now focus on -- it comes after a london court jailed him for 50 weeks for

skipping bail. assange reached his bail terms when he saw refuge in the ecuadorian embassy in 2012. he did that to avoid extradition to sweden over rape allegations. he was arrested last month after ecuador withdrew his asylum. reporter: julian assange was whisked from the courthouse back to prison to begin his sentence. the wikileaks founder has cleaned himself up since british police dragged him from the ecuadorian embassy last month. in court, his lawyer read a letter in which assange apologized quote, unreservedly. the judge appeared unmoved. she said assange abused his privilege to evade justice and his years in the embassy cost taxpayers 16,000,000 pounds. outside the court, supporters were vocal in their anger at the sentence. many see assange as a hero for exposing abuses of power and championing free-speech.

>> it is my view that the sentencing here today is an outrage, and it is vindictive in nature, and it does not give us a lot of faith in the u.k. justice system for the fight ahead. reporter: the case against assange in britain arose when two swedish women accused him of sexual assault and rape in 2010. assange saw refuge in the ecuadorian embassy, afraid sweden could extradite him to the u.s. he fears prosecution there over wikileaks release of millions of classified documents. assange's are now turning their attention to a u.s. extradition request. authorities have charged him with conspiring to break into a pentagon computer system. the first hearing is on thursday.

>> this case is and has always been about the risk of extradition to the united states. we have bebeen saying since 2 20 that that risk is real, a a we now have a provisional extraditition requesfrfrom the unitited states. the focus of our energies will now be on fighting that extradition request, and that fight starts tomorrow. reporter: it is a battle assange will be fighting from prison, at least for the next 50 weeks. about the legal hustle over extradition is likely to last much longer than that. brent: you're watching "dw news." still to come, there is no denying his artistic genius, but was leonardo da vinci really a talented inventor? we will meet a german author who is disputing some aspects of da vinci's legacy. that story coming up in just a moment. now to athletics. the olympic champion caster

semenya today lost a landmark legal challenge against the international athletics federations regulations on female athletes and their testosterone levels. the court of arbitration for sport dismissed her appeal, meaning she will have to take drugs to lower her testosterone levels if she wants to compete again. what the court also expressed its concerns about the regulations that it upheld today. reporter: caster semenya became a sensation after the athletics world championships in berlin in 2009. she was only a teenager when she won the 800 meters. the new world champion had been a virtual unknown. she was hailed as our golden girl back in south africa. even meeting then-president jacob zuma. >> i don't know what to say.

reporter: but a storm was brewing in the sporting world. the athletics governing body ordered her to take a gender test. observers worldwide speculated about whether caster semenya was intersects. she was allowed to keep her gold medal and returned to women's races. but the debate about her gender rumbled on. in 2011, the iaaf introduced a testosterone limit. it wanted athletes like semenya to take drugs to lower their natural level of testosterone. in 2015 the court ordered it to suspend the practice unless it could prove higher levels created an unfair advantage. in 2018, citing a study commissioned, the iaaf introduced even stricter testosterone limits. >> the core value is the

empowerment of women through athletics. what we are introducing is there to protect the sanctity of fair and open competition. reporter: semenya appealed, arguing a sports federation should not have the right to force athletes to control their home on levels -- their home on levels -- their hormone levels. it was suggested delaying the implementation of the rules to allow time to gather more evidence. >> they found the regulations are discriminatory, but the panel found that on the basis of the evidence submitted by the parties in the procedure, such discrimination is unnecessary -- is a necessary and proportionate means of achieving the iaaf's objective of preserving the integrity of female athletics. reporter: semenya responded

saying sometimes it is better to react with no reaction. the outcome of the case will have major repercussions on the future of sports and on society's understanding and interpretation of what defines gender. brent: where does it go from here? earlier we spoke with caster semenya's mentor. we asked him whether we should endure people who argue that semenya's higheher testosteroroe levelsls give her an advantage. guest: i don't think you should. just the same way you should not ignonore anynyone who said he ha -- just t the samame thahat some basketballll plars a arelose t o 7'5" compared to o those that ae 6'6". if you are b born that way and u have certain g genes, the way yu are born i is the way you are born. in the way you grow up is thee

way yoyou grow up. you cannot c change that. and we p proved i in 2009 that e was s a woman, that t she basicy was boborn a woman, and is stila woman. so, look,k, i can undererstand e compmpetitor's moaning, but peoe moaned - -- as i said, thehe original interview i i conducted wiwith , caster still hasas not broken te world 800 meter record. what has happened to that lady? so for me, the playing field is certainly unlevel. brent: that was toby speaking with us earlier. leonardo da vinci is probably best known for his paintings. you see the most famous one right there, the mona lisa. but the italian artist was a

true renaissance man with interests ranging from architecture, mathematics, engineering, natural sciences, and even music. now with the 500th anniversary of da vinci's death this thursday, a german scholar is challenging some aspects of the master's legacy. reporter: leonardo da vinci was not not just an artist and architecect, but also a philosopher and engineer. he is credited with some 80 inventions, including submarines and flying machines. but according to this german author, he did not really invent them all. >> it is widelely asserted t tht leleonardo really did build the flying machine himself and thaht an employeyee of his tried out this flying machine, and that leonardo accorded the flight in his codex. i have read the codex, and there is nothing in it about the

flight. reporter: the florence workshop ofof the medici's court painter became leonardo's master school. he achieved mastery of perspective better than anyone else. and he sketched everything he saw, whether in books or his surroundings, in the pages of his notebooks. unable to make a living as a freelance artist, he applied to work as a specialist for military equipment at the age of 25. > the equipment he p promises either unfeasible, totally impractical, or simply did not work. for instance, if you look at the tank he proposed, it is constructed to be driven by a hand crank. and that handcrank is attached to a kind of dear, a cage -- a gear, a cage gear, so the front wheel goes backwards and the rear wheel goes forward.

reporter: he takes a skeptical view of the da vinci code, basing his research in the artist's own notebooks. it was not until the 20th century that the image of leonardo inventor, which he himselelf never claimed to be, first emerged, driven by benito mussolini. to s support his fasascist i id, the dictator recast da vinci as a universal genius, and a leading figure of italian creative strength. >> mussolini initiated an exhibition. not just initiated, he ordered it. and it was done. models were created from da vinci's sketches for the first time. reporter: models that simply ignored errors in the original sketches. the exhibition traveled from milan to the u.s. and then japan where it was destroyed in an air raid. >> amazingly, the exhibitionon s gone, mussolini is g gone, fascm is gone, but the leonardo c cul,

the cult of leonardo the inventor, has remained. reporter: leonardo was a visionary, but he was not a jack of all trades. his book does not question the boldness of da vinci's ideas, but rather a worshipful view that distorts what he really was -- a person endlessly driven by curiosity. brent: after a short break i'll be back to take you through "the day." stick around for that. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

telecoms giant by way . one played always keeeeping up - -- hopingg to keep u up the pressurere ainst nicolas maduro the oppositition leader hasalled for the lalargest marginn venezuela's history this meetin. on tuesday scenes of chaos erupted in caracas after quite - appeared in a videdeo alongside members off the natational guard anand o opposition politicians you'llll pull the lopez. h. was the most significant show of forcece against nicolas maduo to datee he has quite a a addressing