brent: this is "dw news," live from berlin. in britain, boris johnson takes over as prime minister and promises to deliver brexit. >> we will come out of the eu on october the 31st, no ifs or bu ts. brent: but with his country deeply divided, can johnson succeed where theresa may did not? we will go live to london for more. also coming up tonight, in the

united states, a contentious day on capitol hill. all eyes on robert mueller. >> did yououotally exonerate the prpresident? >> n no. brent:t: the f former special coununsel delivers his long-awaited testimony on a russian probe. he says his findings did not clear president trump of obstructing justice. and here in germany, annegret kramp-karrenbauer, the woman known as akk, sworn in as germany's new defense minister. it is the first cabinet position for the woman many people believe is being groomed to succeed chancellor angela merkel. ♪ brent: i'm brent goff. to our viewers on pbs in the united states and around the world, welcome. today, boris johnson's rise to power became complete. today he officially became

british prime minister, and has now begun naming ministers to form his cabinet. he is now immediately confronted with a host of challenges. chief among them, delivering brexit. more than any other issue, johnson's insistence on leaving the european union has powered his path leading him to number 10 downing street. now he has to deliver on the promises he has made. reporter: a triumphant boris johnson walking down the street to his new residence. standing outside number 10 downing street, johnson made his first address as british prime minister. >> the doubters, the doomsters, the gloomsters, they arere going to get it wrong again. the people who bet against britain are going to lose their shirts. because we are going to restore trust in our democracy. and we are going to fulfill the repeated promises of parliament to the people and come out of the eu on october the 31st, no ifs or buts.

reporter: and johnson got straight down to work, looking to brussels, suggesting that if it came to a no deal brexit, it would be because of the eu. >> and it is of course vital at the same time that we prepare for the remote possibility that brussels refuses any further to negotiate. and we are forced to come out with no deal. not because we want that outcome. reporter: but to get the 10 downing street, johnson first had to visit the queen, to get the traditional nod of approval from the reigning monarch. the queen also had to say farewell to the outgoing prime minister. before leaving for buckingham palace to officially resign her post, theresa may also had a few words for the press. >> i repeat my warm congratulations to boris on winning the conservative leadership election.

i wish him and the government he will lead every good fortune in the months and years ahead. their successes will be our country's successes and i hope that they will be many. reporter: and she had a special message directed at the country's next-generation. >> this is a country of aspiration and opppportunity. and i hope that every young girl who has seen a woman prime minister now knows for sure that there are no limits to what they can achieve. reporter: as theresa may hands over the keys to boris johnson, she also hands over immense responsibility. and it is up to him to decide now happens next. brent: we want to take the story now to our correspondent barbara wesel. she is standing by in front of number 10 downing street in london, the new hormone of boris johnson beginning tonight. it was a big day for boris

johnson and for british politics in general. what was his main message in his first speech today? barbara:a: there were maybe two main messages. one is all we need is optimism. all we have to do is just believe that the future is going to be great and then it will be. the boys johnson seem to bit drunk off enthusiasm off his own success. so, he was like walking on air. the speech was bigig and ramblb. he promised to fix all the ills britain has been suffering for decades, from the ailing health system, social care, underfunded school. he has a magic money street in the backyard of 10 downing street. it shows he is going to turn array from years of austerity, and he just wants to spend money now. the other main message of course was brexit. it will take place on the 31st of october, no ifs or buts, he

said. and also of course we heard it. he immediately pointed the finger at brussels. if they will not give him what he wants, if they will not renegotiate the withdrawal agreement, it will be their fault and then britain have to go out with a hard brexit and crash out of the european union. brent: you have covered politics in britain but also european politics for a long time. today when boris johnson basically put the blame for a possible no deal brexit at the foot of europe, how do you think that is going to go down with european union leaders? barbara: everybody of course has been expecting this. the blame game has been going on throughout knows negotiations, those last 2.5 years. still it is going to go down like a big cold glass of nasty sludge. because everybody knows it will be back to zero with boris johnson.

we will have to revisit as european union all the places we have been out before. it will be the withdrawal agreement, he will see that the european union will not reopen it, so we will look for compromises. is there anything that he could possibly accept? in the end, a hard brexit has become so much more likely after we heard today's speech because he seems dead set on we win it, or we are just going to go out with a bang and slammed the door after us. brent: boris johnson has been busy today. he is now making his cabinet picks. what do we know so far? doesn't look like brexiteers will be in charge -- does it look like brexiteers will be in charge? barbara: there will be a strong brexiteer faction. this was not a cabinet reshuffle. this was the most brutal and bloody cabinet rebuilding london has seen for decades, more or less.

it was the night of the long knives during the daytime. because almost everybody of theresa may's cabinet, particularly the remainders, were sent out to grass. just very few were handpicked to return, so boris johnson keep up the pretense he wants to reunite the party. however, he will find on the back benches of parliament now i rebel army full of frustrated and angry tory members who feel they have been cheated out of their offices. so that does not mean -- it does not show well for the future if he has to come to parliament with a brexit deal or without it. brent: dw's barbara wesel at number 10 downing street in london. barbara, thank you. across the atlantic, it has been a contentious day on capitol hill in washington dc. former special counsel robert mueller has been testifying

before a congressional committee about his probe into russian interference in the 2016 election, and whether the trump campaign colluded with moscow. he told lawmakers the investigation found inadequate evidence to prove that there was a conspiracy, but he said once again, his investigation did not clear president trump of obstructing justice. many are viewing mueller's testimony today as a last chance for democrats to build a case for impeaching the president. >> mr. mueller, are you looking forward to this? reporter: robert mueller, who spent two years leading an investigation determining if president trump had colluded with russia, did not look like he wanted to be there. but for democrats and republicans in congress, this was an opportunity to get their points across live on tv. >> the report did not conclude that he did not commit obstruction of justice. is that correct? > that is correct..

>> and what about total exoneration? did you actually totally exonerate the president? >> no. >> in fact, yoyour report expressly states it t does not exonerate the presidident. >> it does. reporter: democrats were disappointed that the mueller report found no smoking gun, but hoped that enough of the dirt will stick to dampen trump's prospects in the 2020 electitio. republicans used the hearing to hammer home their view of the prpresident's innocence e in thr questions to a frail-looking and distracted mueller. >> is it true the evidence gathered during your investigation did not establish that the president was involved in the underlying crime related to russian election interference as stated in volume one, page seven? >> we found insufficient evidence of the president's culpability. >> so that would be a yes? >> pardon? >> that would be a yes? >> yeah. >> thank you. reporter: mumueller was s reluct

to give informative answers and repeatedly deflected questions by referring to his report. trump, whose reputation is att stake, claimed to have little interestst in the hearing. >> no, i am not going to be watching. probably, maybe i will see a little bit of it. i am not going to be watching mueller, because you cannot take all those bites out of the apple. we had no collusion, no obstruction. we had no nothing. we had a total no collusion finding. reporter: but a series of tweets fired off by trump as the hearing was underway made clear that the president was watching. he saw a specicial cnsel detetermined not to o take ses n a divided cocongress. brent: joining us now from miami is a former u.s. federal prosecutor, david weinstein. mr. weinstein, it is good to have you on the program. you are a former prosecutor yourself. there are several former prosecutors on that house judiciary committee today.

they were tasked with basically trying to interrogogate robert mueller. did you think a proper interrogation took place today? david: i think there was an interrogatation. the problem s s that mr. m muelr is used to asking the questions and not answering them. and many of his ananswers simply referred back to the report ititself. so, i do not think that any of the people who were asking the questions got the answers they wanted to get today. brent: let's talk about the answers that they wanted. a lot of critics have said that this was just plain partisan politics on display for the world to see. do you think that the members of this committee were just trying to draw a soundbite from robert mueller that they could play for their constituency back hohome d say, see, i told y s so? david: that is absololutely what took place today. the democrats were looking for the soundbites that said there is sufficient evidence here to

support impeachment proceedings. there was obstruction by the president, but for the rules of the department of justice concerning the indictment of a sitting president, mueller would have moved forward. republicans on the other hand wanted nothing more than to show that this was a partisan investigatation, outside the sce of the investigation as it was created, and there w was undue influence eitherer by bias or prejudice of the people involved, or there was something at fault with the way it started. so it absolutely broke down across party lines. and for those who were looking for soundbites to play for their constituents, they have a playlist full of them. brent: do you get the feeling that anything in terms of legal -- political opinion changed today because of what robert mueller said? david: i d don't think it has. cecertainly nonot in my opinion. and analyzing it as a prosecutoror, or a former prosececutor, i ke t to see whether or not one s side's case

became any stronger. and it did not.. none of the answers thatat muelr gave tododay put a dent in what each side has been portraying this case as being about on both sides of the aisle. brent: i am interested in what you thought of the appearance and the performance of robert mueller. i was watching it, especially when he started speaking earlier today. and i was struck, he seemed to be almost feeble or fragile, and he had difficulty following the questions of some members of the committee. and it just seemed like there was a very tired person who was speaeaking there. what impressions did he leave with you? david: the impressions he left with me was someone who was very uncomfortable being on the rereceiving end d of the quests. he is sosomeone who is used to makingng a presentatioion, to bg the person who is asking the question. and when you ask the question, you dodon't have to think ababot what the a answer is going to b.

he is also s someone to me who looks lilike he was s balancinga couple of didifferent balls in e air. he has a concern about not creatingng undue influence on cacases that are o open and pen. he w was given direction by the department of justice about what he could and could n not say. and then he e is trying toto kep within his answers, words that are written in a 500 page dodocument. hehe has an understanding g of l the words ththat are in there, t heoesnsn't knknow exactly w whee they are located.. so i t tnk when n you put that l totogeer, thatat is why the perception he e gave is that ofn indidividual who did n not havet quite together today. that is the exact opposite of hohow he is in r real life. and i think itit is just a function of a person who is not used to being under the bright lights. brent: mr. weinstein, what about the department of justice instructing robert mueller about what he can and cannot say? i mean, for our audience around the world watching this, is that legal, and was it necessary? david: w well, it is nececessary cacause askeded.

he asked t the department of justice to give him some guidancece. wewe all knonow that he would he nevever talked abobout anythingt was going to impact either an ongoing investigation or one of the cases that is still pending, because there are orders in ththose cases thatat say w we 't want any public comments about those. in terms of it being legal or illegal, or proper or improper, he asked for this guidance. and so they gagave it to him, ,d then he used that as a guideline to determine what he would or would not be able to talk about. and quite frankly, that gave him the ability to say, i cannot really answer that question. if you want the answer, look at my report, or that is beyond what i was tasked to do here. brent: former u.s. federal prosecutor david weinstein joining us tonight from miami with some valuable insights into these hearings. mr. weinstein, we appreciate your time tonight. thank you. here are some of the other stories now that are making headlines around the world. iranian president hassan rouhani has suggested hihis country migt

release a u.k. flagshihip if britaiain takes similar steps to release an iranian oil tanker which was seized d by the britih navyvy off gibraltar earlier ths month. iranan's revovolutionary guard seized the shihip in the straiaf hormuz friday, claiming it violated international maritime law. police in thailand say four people have been kililled in an attack on a milita o outpost. known assailants on motororcycls througugh explosiveses before opening fire. attacks s are frequent in the region where a muslim separatist insurgency has been raging for 15 years. the dutch movie after actor rutger hauer has died at 75. the hollywood star's agent confirmed he passed away last week after a short illness. hauer made his name playing menacing characters. he was best known for his role in the 1982 sci-fi cult classic "blade runner."

prosecutors here in germany say that the shooting of an eritrean man near frankfurt was motivated by racism. the man, in his 20's, was shot in a drive-by late monday. the suspect, a 55-year-old german man, later shot himself to death. residents of the town of waechtersbach have held a vigil to raise awareness about racist violence. reporter: a show of solidarity against racism and xenophobia. hundreds gathered in the central german town of waechtersbach. >> i was horrified because i thought something like that could not happen here in waechtersbach. >> this is destroying our democracy. >> it could happen to my daughter, who has a different skin color. reporter: on monday at 26-year-old eritrean man was shot here. he was a young father, described as shy, on his way home from an integration course. >> we have done great refugee and integration work here. we have worked with many different cultures here. for decades.

things are harmonious. there was no indication of an attack. reporter: even so, the crime was likely motivated by xenophobia. >> indicators for this are the choice of this person, targeted as a victim, at random, but specifically because of his skin color. reporter: the victim was brought to a hospital and his condition is now stable following emergency surgery. employees of a nearby business witnessed the attack. >> we saw how the young man, an eritrean, somehow fled in panic from the shots. the car then stopped in front of the eritrean, and then it turned and fired more shots. reporter: the suspect was found dead in his car hours after the attack. he is believed to have committed suicide. police found several weapons in the suspect's home, all of them legal. neighbors say he was a member of a gun club, but he lived alone and was very withdrawn. so far there are no indications of him having been in contact with the far-right scene.

a letter left behind by the suspect, statements from people who sold him weapons, and tips from other witnesses. investigators must now sort through the clues to find out why this crime happened. brent: staying here in germany, the country's new defense minister, annegret kramp-karrenbauer, the woman known as akk, she has taken her oath of office in parliament. her appointment as defense minister came as a surprise after her predecessor was appointed president of the european commission last week. akk is seen as a likely successor to german chancellor angela merkel. reporter: with her oath, annegret kramp-karrenbauer became the head of around 180,000 german soldiers as germany's new defense minister. she swore to lead her ministry for the good of the german people.. >> i will diligently fulfill my duties and practice fairness towards everyone, so help me god. reporter: kramp-karrenbauer has demanded respect for soldiers

and promised more money. the long-term objective, 2% of germany's gdp for defense. >> i am striving for the german government's goal of 2%, a goal that all of our allies have once again agreed, so i am holding fast to it. reporter: kramp-karrenbauer is a close confidant of angela merkel. she has long been treated as merkel's likely successor as a candidate for the chancellery. she already has an important position as head of merkel's conservative party. until now, she had maintained that she did not want a ministerial post. germany's opposition have now accused her of using this new position as a steppingstone on her way to power. >> the defense ministry will be a springboard to the chancellorship. so, mrs. kramp-karrenbauer, you want to use the defense ministry. didn't you say you wanted to dedicate yourself completely to the cdu?

reporter: cdu party chief and defense minister, two stressful jobs. soon she may also become her party's candidate for chancellor. annegret kramp-karrenbauer has taken on a tremendous amount of responsibility. brent: earlier, our chief political editor michaela kufner explained how annegret kramp-karrenbauer's new position fits in with her ambition to be the next german chancellor. michaela: we have seen a lot of ladies protesting too much. angela merkel says that she does not want to have any influence over who succeeds her, although that was up to the party to decide. now annegret kramp-karrenbauer, her heir apparent and successor as party leader, is closer to the chancellery y ou see behind me by having joined the cabinet. annegret kramp-karrenbauer herself of course in recent months protesting that that was not the plan. so, now we have seen her replace somebody whose political star was clearly sinking here in

germany, ursula von der leyen became eu commission chief, and annegret kramp-karrenbauer stepping into her shoes quoting ursula von der leyen today saying we need more europe and vowing once again that germany would stick to its spending plan of getting closer to that 2% spending goal. 1.5% by 2024. that of course is in doubt because of the governing coalition here. the coalition partner does not really want to see that. brent: that was michaela kufner speaking earlier. in sports news now, the fastest today claimed victory in stage 17 in the tour de france. he rode to the front after an early broke away in the stage and powered to finish strongly. as for the overall leader, he did not finish in the top five still retains the yellow jersey with four stages remaining.

one year from today, tokyo will welcome the world to the summer olympics. organizers are heading into the final phase of preparations with ticket sales already said to be unprecedented. but there have been problems. from accusations of corruption in the bidding process, to concerns about safety at construction sites. reporter: asas interest bubuildn tokyo 2020, the aim now is to keep preparations on schedule. and organizers seem to be hitting the target. >> one year to go. all of the excitement is growing here. you have seen the unprecedented level of interest in ticket sales with 3.2 million sales having been -- tickets sold in the first phase. reporter: the venues also appear toto be coming alolong. only three remain incomplete, including the olympic stadium, which is just missing its track and field.

>> about 90% of the construction work has been completed. and as you can see, almost all the building work is done. we are now just working on the facilities inside the stadium. reporter: but preparations for these olympics have not always been smooth sailing. a report released in may found that the construction workers for the venues were working long hours and in dangerous conditions. suspicions of corruption have also hung over the tokyo 2020 bid. earlier this year, the head of japan's olympic committee stepped down amid allegations of vote buying. and costs are another headache. the original budget for the olympics was set a at aroundeven billion eueuros. that is now expected to skyrocket to more than four times that amount. and taxpayers will have to foot most of the bill. >> the whole budget now is about

$30 billion, and huge amounts of public funds flow into huge corporations while the poor are evicted, excluded, and mamarginalized.. repoporter: the heat is alsoso a major concern. countermeasures, however, will be put in place. organizers are encououging the use of u umbrellas. they w will also offer air-conditioning lounges, access to water, and jet sprays. but all these concerns have not dampened excitement ahead of tokyo 2020. perhaps a year from now, just like at previous olympics, concerns will fade once national fever grips the country. brent: here is a reminder of the top stories we are following for you. boriss johnson has officially taken office as britain's new prime minister and begun filling out his cabinet. in his first speech in front of number 10 downing street today, he promised to take the u.k. out of the eu on october 31, no ifs

or buts. in the u.s., robert mueller has wrapped up his testimony to congress over his probe into russian interference in the 2016 election. he said there was insufficient evidence that trump and the campaign conspired with moscow, but he did not exonerate trump of obstructing the investigation. you're watching "dw news." after a short break i will 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]

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