Single biggest expulsion of over thirty years it is essential that we now come together with our allies and to send a clear message to those who would seek to undermine them. Also coming up a fourth term as german chancellor Angela Merkel the worlds most powerful woman made a promise today that she will probably never make again ishmael i swear that i will tell you kate my efforts to the well being of the german people have a full my duty as conscientiously and to justice tool. Yvonne help me count ah. We begin the day with the First Response to the first ever chemical weapons attack inside a member of nato the country attacked britain the country behind the attack russia now that is the conclusion of British Intelligence following last weeks poisoning of a former russian spy and his daughter more than one hundred people are still feared to be in danger due to exposure from the nerve agent that was used yet Prime Minister to resign may she has yet to describe the incident in such stark terms the Un Security Council and the European Union will hold meetings on the attack but so far the retaliation remains a british affair today may told parliament that she is expelling twenty three Russian Diplomats suspected of being spies and there will be a royal boycott no member of the royal family will attend the soccer world cup in russia this summer does this punishment fit the crime we have more in this report. May announce the measures after russia nor the deadline to provide an explanation for the attack she said moscows failure to cooperate showed what she called a disdain for the gravity of the events her conclusion when it came was unambiguous so mr speaker there is no alternative conclusion other than that the russian state was culpable for the attempted murder of mr script pile and his daughter and for threatening the lives of other british citizens in salzburg including detective Sergeant Nick beatty she said the steps against moscow would include freezing up some russian accents 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 samples full stop without the samples the official procedure all the realization all be provisional the chemical weapons were not going to for i think that britain should for the International Law as ties with russia now look set to enter a new deep freeze the u. K. Is looking to its allies possible that the e. U. Is donald to scale 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 hes director of the center for security and Intelligence Studies at the university of miami joins us from august good evening to you so weve 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 britains Security Service the m i five and 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 in 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 and senate m i five our Security Service will have a good idea of who they are so mr graves are you saying that these twenty three people they may be listening diplomats but theyre actually doing espionage in the u. K. Yes i think thats absolutely right because before they leave the United Kingdom in a week we will have to be satisfied that none of them was in seouls three and involved in the attempted assassination of mrs grey fox and his daughter yulia 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 werent they kicked out a long time ago why are they in the country right now. Ok its 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 republic 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 that they are in and when that happens a decision as to be taken to expel them i think we can expect the russians to stop expelling british diplomats any moment now so what weve got tonight then is we but the u. K. Expelling diplomats who are really spies and weve also got a royal boycott of the summer world cup in russia this summer would you say that this punishment fits the crime which is a very important measure that checks on acra flight into the United Kingdom from russia and there is i suggest that the royal family will not go and look at the wellcome of course its 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 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 certainty the russian state is to blame for this attack him people fighting for their lives British Police officers seriously injured five hundred people in seouls bery woke up yesterday morning saying 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 a first offensive use of a nerve agent on a nato member since one thousand nine hundred forty nine we didnt hear anything. To that extent today from theresa may do you think this 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 his including myself in the United Kingdom is how quickly germany and other European Union countries latvia lithuania estonia but also from this came out to support and the European Parliament came out to support this may very well in the end to say that the blame for this ultimately rests with russia the response from the white house was not immediate and was very any make and by no means a straw man thats a problem for mrs may british people have voted to get out of the European Union and they voted that call to get closer to america. You know thats thats a very good point especially the day after the secretary of state was fired by the u. S. President is not a good situation for the british Prime Minister tonight that is for sure anthony glees thank you very much we appreciate your insights tonight. Well today in berlin those of us who follow politics found ourselves in gulf with a sense of deja vu competing with the feeling that this is it today im going to became germanys chancellor for the fourth time taking the oath of office just as she has done three times before and of course with her Famous Holding of the hands there now merkel took office back in two thousand and five a lot of leaders have come and gone since then take a look at who was in power or had just been elected when merkel first took that oath as chancellor if you look at france for example it was ceroc who was president then there was the Prime Minister tony blair in the u. K. George w. Bush was the u. S. President turkeys president at the time was richard type editor one Ellen Johnson sirleaf was africas first elected leader she was president elect at the time in the vatican Pope Benedict the sixteenth was still there and in russia there was wagner putin is president and in iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad most of them are history now today thirteen years later merkel is still leading she has outlasted almost every head of state except for two noticeable min Vladimir Putin and turkeys rector tell you better what merkel has never said that this is her last term she has hinted that a fourth term could easily become a final term time will tell we have this report on the long road that led to todays swearing in. After a nearly six months long wait germanys new government has finally been sworn in a new cabinet with a well known chancellor. On wednesday morning until americal took her oath on the german constitution the official start of her fourth term. I swear that i will dedicate my efforts to the welfare of the german people promote their benefits protect them from home and do justice to all so help me go out. To. Her election as chancellor was closer than expected merkels coalition of conservatives and social democrats actually has a clear majority but her margin of victory was only nine votes. If i ask you do you accept the result yes mr president i do. The conservative c. D. U. C. S. U. Bloc has now begun its third grand coalition with the social democrats who had long struggle to saying yes to this coalition but in the end the junior partners offered. Chancellor remains the chancellor and thats cause for happiness and relief i think this is good news for the citizens of our country and good news for europe. Really for some in spite of a close election result the months of tough negotiations to form a new government are over the far right left the opposition in voicing criticism as to do it this means that two loser parties struggles to join forces in order to somehow govern the country. Got a real scandalous the contents of the Coalition Agreement with this the government has turned to bumpy start. Picking start. After the election german president funk a hand at the chancellor her letter of appointment and then the same for her fifteen cabinet ministers. Praise for the new government. Come and welcome federal government its about time. The president called for more than just a repeat from enter new ministers. But a mere reissue of the old will not be enough to win back lost trust this government must prove it is new and different view. A gentle reminder that the chancellor chose not to take his criticism because supported the formation of a government within his mandates framework and he has told us what is necessary i believe that is also reflected in what we have worked out. At the top. One hundred seventy one days after the general election last september germany finally has a new government and. Is once again back in charge. Well im joined now here at the big table by jack james hes the executive director of the American Institute for contemporary german studies at Johns Hopkins university he knows the inside the outsides of german politics and u. S. Politics its good to have you back on the show you were at the swearing in today what was it like well i think it was less enthusiastic than dissipated i mean i think the vote was a foregone conclusion and i think what now is the question is how does she make this time different i mean they were all told that today werent they you guys have the challenge of you look a lot like what we just had which are supposed to be new and improved but where does this come from and where does it go from here and i think that shes still got to come up the Coalition Agreement is there but has she operationalize it is she has been called the most powerful woman in the world what do you think her title is tonight well i think she is still a person that is capable of Holding Europe together but obviously with less power than she had before and i think that thats something that the rest of europe has to understand because you know twelve years in office she was extremely important to keep a year of going through one crisis after another and the question is is there somebody whos going to take that crown from her and then who is that maybe somebody on the other side of the rhine yeah i mean we dont know. There are some changes that are taking place one is that we were talking about this earlier if you look at the picture she is wearing a white blazer today and all of the commentators were talking about that never did that before every other time i think they said she had a black blazer so thats one change shes known as muti here in germany which is german for mommy in a way youve written that now and she is grandma moved. So how close would you say we are then to the post miracle era. I think it started quite quickly after the election was won in september people started conjecturing about that all the way along doesnt mean that shes going to step out doesnt mean that shes not going to be there for a long time how long depends on the cohesion of the coalition but you cant get around that problem she says in effect in a situation where a second term president is although shes in her fourth term so shes a lame duck and i would i wouldnt use that expression of what i would say that shes in a position where she can avoid that question i mean shes also never said i said this earlier shes never said that shes not going to run for another term after this or shes hinted that this will probably be it i mean what do you think i think it will be it i think the question is now she does two things where is the successor how does she build that person up and what legacy does she really want to leave and i think its going to be europe do you think that we already know who the successor is going to be no i mean i think theres a lot of play in the system the parliamentary system could depend on who the coalition will be and we dont know who that might be things are changing volcanically under all of the parties undertow so i think theres a its guessing game the you say all of this shows that the Political Parties here in germany have never been so disconnected with the voters and the level of discontent has never been so high. What do you do that. Can change that i mean are we asking miracle and this new government to do to give us something that superman would be able to deliver we know these things that just are possibly going to depend on events thats around here and to some extent what goes on in the rest of europe its not just whats going on in germany but i think that there has to be a sense of enthusiasm really lit in this in this context of this new coalition white jacket or black jacket shes got a fine thats why she put some new people in the cabinet and sort of symbolize that not quite frankly i might be the reason shes wearing white today but i think the basic premise is how do you get people to become more enthusiastic stakeholders in the future not only of germany but of europe in general is a good question the answer is out there i suppose lets talk about. Merkel interop but we know that she spoke with mr trump a couple of weeks ago and that was the first time that they had had any contact for five months and that is unprecedented i dont think its happened just since kennedy was president that more than four weeks have gone by the president and the chancellor have not spoken now weve got Rex Tillerson the secretary of state he was fired yesterday how in the world can miracle build a relationship with president wrong well i dont think she has a choice i think she has to build a relationship with the United States of america whether or not she likes the style of the president or not the question is what does she want from the u. S. And to some extent how can she balance that with what he thinks he wants from her and this is where we then to the tariff discussions is where we get the two percent in nato my sense is she can remember this is a woman whos dealt with three very different president s and i think in that respect shes equipped with some experience to make that happen the problem is does she have the backing of the coalition to do just that in terms of these Real Relationships with the United States. In the us america is popular and i was looking at the latest data her level of popularity has gone up every year over these past twelve or thirteen years there she is shes in a very good position to try to get his ear. China it has made it possible for me to be president for life you have the Trump White House<