please. make it out frequency. once they start there's no stopping them. starting april seventh on d w. around the globe russian diplomats called out for being spies and told to get out explosions like the world has never seen before tonight the u.k. prime minister she gets the support that she needs will vladimir putin ever give her the answers she wants i'm bringing off in berlin this is the day.

to day eighteen countries have announced their intention to expel more than one hundred russian intelligence officers from that this is the largest expulsion of russian intelligence officers in the united states history you of silica greet with the united kingdom with the side to recall the e.u. and to russia i have found great solidarity from all friends and partners in the e.u. north america nato and beyond russia did not and does not have anything to do with this case the united states along with its allies and partners make clear to russia they have its actions have consequences so you have to call the responsibility. for ruining russian american relations is on the united states of america and together we have sent a message that we will not tolerate russia's continued attempts to finance

international norms undermine our. also coming up tonight germany's government and facebook executives face to face here in berlin in washington u.s. lawmakers are still waiting for mr zuckerberg to show his face mr second burger needs to come and testify he says he will do it if he's the right person wasn't he is the face and you would go to. we begin the day with theresa may and her powers of persuasion now we do not know why. what the british prime minister said or showed to her counterparts at a european union summit last week but the results are crystal clear and i'm president today in a coordinated response for the poisoning of a former russian spy in the u.k. countries on both sides of the atlantic expelled russian diplomats the largest ever collective expulsion of russian officials registered as diplomats are suspected of

being spies for the kremlin now on this side of the atlantic a long list of u.k. allies taking part in today's expulsions from sweden to italy to germany to france fourteen members of the european union are sending twenty six russian diplomats home here's what poland's foreign minister said after his country announced that it's expelling four diplomats. the unchallenged and i don't believe that in this difficult time for britain showing solidarity in the form of the expulsion of diplomats is the right answer to the unfriendly and the aggressive actions taken by russia. and on the doorsteps of both the e.u. and russia ukraine it's announcing that it will expel thirteen diplomats it's been four years of hostilities between kiev and moscow following moscow's an examination of crimea ukraine's president mr poroshenko saying that the poisoning incident is

more proof of the crims disdain for national sovereignty and disregard for human life let's take this story across the atlantic both canada and the united states expelling russians one decision from washington today is also unprecedented for the current administration in a joint statement from the white house in the u.s. state department the u.s. said that it's ordering sixty russian diplomats to leave the country and that it's closing the russian consulate in seattle no this is the strongest and one of the few moves by president trump against russia and its president vladimir putin but we learned about it and this is important we learned about it in a statement no one from the state department is offering comment and nothing from president trump on his decision not even a tweet well discuss this silence in just a moment here is more on the history making expulsions today starting right here with berlin at the russian embassy in berlin there's little sign off what's going

on inside but behind the close curtains for diplomats are clearing their desks berlin says it's responding not just to the attack on former russian double agent sergey screen pahl in the u.k. but also to the cyber attack on the german government's computer network. it wasn't an easy decision for us to expel the russian diplomats but the facts and evidence point to russia. investigators believe that x. intelligence officer said paul and his daughter you leo were poisoned with nobby chalk a soviet era nerve agent the two were found unconscious on a park bank in the southern english city of saulsbury on march fourth they remain critically ill in hospital bed in the u. summit in brussels last week all twenty eight member states condemned the attack the expulsion of russian diplomats by many e.u. countries is a coordinated action they say all the evidence points to russia. back in

london the british prime minister welcome the joint move and this is the largest collective expulsion of russian intelligence offices in history. i have found great solidarity from our friends and partners in the e.u. north america and nato and beyond over the past three weeks as we have confronted the author mouth of the soulsby incident but moscow continues to insist its in a sense it has vowed to respond in kind and warn western governments that the expulsion of russian diplomats was a mistake. all right there's a lot to unpack in this story and to do that tonight i'm joined by our berlin correspondent simon young and in washington clare richardson burns on the story for us tonight good evening to you both clare let's start with you this is the most severe move against russia that we have seen in the trump administration yet trump himself noticeably silence about this not even a tweet should we read anything into that. well that's right brant this

expulsion of sixty diplomats is the toughest action the trump administration has taken against russia and it's a major turn from what we've seen and told this point trump of course has long faced criticism from both sides of the aisle that he hasn't been tough enough on russia for its alleged meddling in us in the u.s. elections and in fact just last week trump called vladimir putin to congratulate him on his election victory despite widespread claims of fraud so not only that but there was also no mention of this poisoning on that call to putin now the u.s. though is trying to send a strong message to say that this poisoning was not acceptable and that it standing together with its nato allies on punishing russia. so i mean germany started to do things like that. but it is only expelling four russian diplomats that will certainly not do damage to russia and the level would certainly not fully it's weird if you will is the expulsion here is it just symbolic solidarity.

well but i think a lot of people would say that sola darity is an end in itself it sends that message that across the board governments have looked at this the least heads of government as you say persuaded by the british prime minister looked at this and they said you know we want to come together issue a joint statement and it pretty clearly would add one pointing the finger at moscow this as you say is only for diplomats out of about one hundred or so that russia has here in germany so it won't affect intelligence operations here i don't think but the europeans are all sort of saying that you know there could be more measures to come more expulsions or a lot of people are focused of course on the idea of economic sanctions against russia and it'll be interesting to see whether jim when he gets behind that but because of course it is the big economic player in europe and perhaps germany being

lenient on russia is simply because until america remains the really the only western leader who can still talk with putin and understand him i mean that's one take there's another take on this today this tweet from the leader of germany's biggest opposition party d.f.t. i want to pull that up for you there it is a german ellis translated it. here's what's beatrix and stuart said are we really that stupid why don't we expel turkish diplomats but no instead of that we reward dictator ever one with his own e.u. turkey's ahmet and we escalate further towards russia ok that's the language we expect to hear from the saw i mean but. does she have a point there. yeah and incidentally it's not just the politicians on the far right who have been calling this an escalation left wing politicians have been saying the same thing today along the lines that you know these expulsions just ramp up the

atmosphere and they are that make the situation more confrontational and more dangerous with russia so that is of course one way of looking at it but i think what the government here in berlin has been saying to itself is look all the evidence points to moscow behind this bloody may have putin would have done the math on the strategic full out that was likely he would know that diplomatic measures were probably going to come his way even if there is no absolutely refutable evidence of russia's involvement and he would know that there were going to be some sort of tit for tat measures in that sense this isn't an escalation it's merely the expected response and as you've already said it won't doesn't deal a sort of body blow to russia's relations with the outside world i think what's happened in the u.s. is much stronger and that could affect russian intelligence gathering over there

yeah and it's a good point you make in a little bit later on in the show i'm going to be asking a russian analyst if he thinks that whether mir putin was caught off guard at all by all of these explosions that we saw all today clear trump as we said earlier not tweeting about this but all of these explosions i mean they're real so does this mean at the end of the day that trump is finally getting in line with the rest of nato when it comes to viewing russia as an adversary. well that's the message they're trying to send today by as i've mentioned previously his past relationship with russia would suggest that this is not necessarily going to be such a drastic turning point and look the reason that they have shot the consulate in seattle for example where there were concerns that this conflict could be a hunger for spying against the u.s. navy and submarines in the area also home of the plane maker boeing so they were

worried about strategic targets for russian intelligence gathering but it's also worth remembering that in august from close other russian diplomatic facilities including the san francisco consulate that means that aside from the embassy in d.c. russia has been left with just two consulates in the u.s. and houston in new york. our rights are clear richardson in washington on the story for us tonight and our very own simon young here in berlin to both of you thank you very much show widely to respond the board here in the studio by one is a mind he is a specialist in russian and european affairs and the nonresident fellow at the university of kewl institute for security policy mr everyone is good to have you on the show britain's prime minister says that this is the biggest expulsion of. our purge of russian agents that the world has ever seen is it going to hurt russia well not really very much because what really what hurt them that would be is

a neuro and of economic sanctions but these are not at all in the pipeline system but we've been seeing that right there are there are there are several layers of sanctions that have already been slapped against russia and that is for getting the country as it well up to a point that is true those the economic sanctions which were from the go to after the annexation of the crimea and the military intervention by russia in eastern europe in the is a new crime story these of course the do hurt but what has been now been taken this is not to go into more than a machinist of what was in the russians back to we're also hearing that there's going to be more tit for tat reactions to this with. with putin it seems like now being against the world to see this in care well not not against the world because he has fairly good relations with china directions with turkey have been mended he is cooperating here with turkey and iran in syria so you can three make

the point that they thought there was that it is a really a question of having a ready to ratchet up the relations with. the european union and with united states and in this to do you think he was caught off guard by these explosions today because we've never seen one at this level against russia before well i don't think he expected something to happen but when you look at it to repeat the point when you look at of course these are sixty so-called diplomats of course the actually intelligence operatives that made curtail a bit to their operations in the united states but those are for people who are being chucked out of germany and the one person that's the checked out out of denmark is a symbolic well yes israel again but what what actually is there is an effect of

though. some consequence which is not to be in the connected it is actually by raising the level of tension between russia and the west meaning europe and united states this will discourage people from investing in russia so they're in direct. yeah exactly and he could be should it shooting himself in the foot in the pursuing this policy. russia's top diplomat in the u.s. today saying that what we're seeing today is a major blow to us russian relations just take a listen to part of what he unsaid. she would need a surgeon you english that i mean to keep what the united states of america is doing today. that destroying what little remained of us russian ties. the burial if. it's there i would add that all the responsibility for ruining russian american relations is on the united states of america and i say you know in

a father i'm a dick i mean there's lots of extremes there are destroying relations all the blame is on the u.s. we can we talk about this really now being the new coal who well in rhetoric yes this is true but what is actually quite noticeable an interesting is that the responsibility for the serious deterioration of relations between russia and the united states but also you know russia and europe is really put to the united states into the west in general this isn't. a correct portrayal of what has happened because one has to go back to two thousand and twelve to the beginning of the third term by putting us president who has played clear that day he launched a vicious anti western a campaign with the nationalist underpinnings this is really the basis lies for the

deterioration of relations and not what you claim but obvious but obviously we will be hard pressed if we ever get him to admit that mr honest i don't might we appreciate you coming on the seven sharing a concise thank you. well it has been a little over a week since a whistleblower went public with stunning claims linking facebook cambridge analytic and the twenty sixteen us presidential election illegal data harvesting from fifty million facebook profiles that may have been used to engineer the outcome of the race for the white house facebook shares plummeted last week as the data scandal went from bad to worse or today the f.t.c. the u.s. his main consumer protection regulator said that it is investigating how facebook allowed data to get into the hands of a political consultancy or that sent shares falling again and then there's the german justice minister who came out of

a meeting with facebook executives here in berlin the take away that she gave facebook your promises are not good enough anymore. the promise is on to now for us we will have to monitor companies like facebook much more strictly in future and have hot have a more effective punishment for breach of sedation no. we need more independent inspection for that. facebook has to fundamentally change the way the quiet permission from its he uses. entities or should only be constanta fed parties with express permission. things individually. privacy by design partners like about that and a whole lot more i'm joined here at the big table by david mayer he is a journalist for fortune and author of the book control shift how technology affects you and your rights dave it's good to have you on the day good to be on the german justice minister talking about privacy by design that we should be able to

adjust our privacy levels or can we do that already we can but it's not immediately clear subpoena people what's the settings mean there are certain settings that's classified in facebook settings as privacy settings when they are for instance there's a whole lot of stuff buried in apps which tells you what third party apps you're sharing your data with and that is pretty much what's the heart of the scandal right now yeah i mean don't you think a lot of the business model here that we're dealing with is a business model that thrives on consumers i hate to use the word ignorance but it's that they just don't they just don't know i would say consumers come first which would be a good way of looking at that and found of the concept of privacy by design which has become very popular with regulations recently particularly in europe is really about building a service from the ground up to be respectful of people's privacy and that's not

the case with facebook facebook has always been about harvesting dyson from its uses and then selling that information. and on to advertise and to us we not found a lot of other people as well as it so it's a conceptual thing it's a bit late for facebook to come to the game but they're going to have to make some big changes as well today the justice minister she told the facebook executives she said you know you've said i'm sorry too many times your promises are not good enough and more oversight and or regulation are on the way but. are we getting that anyway here in europe because in many you know we've got the general data protection regulation this big data protection law that comes into effect so isn't that regulation already in the works that's right so when katherina body talks about things like privacy by design that is one of the cold concepts in the gym the g.d.p. the general data protection regulation and europe is going to be very much at the

forefront of dealing with such issues in international level on the other hand some things that she mentioned in particular something algorithmic transparency a concept that she mentioned what is that so that basically means that well facebook's systems are built up of algorithms all these programs that make decisions about space and what they know about us but we don't really have a good idea of how they making those decisions what the results and that is what she's talking about she's saying right we need to be able to go to a company like facebook and say explain yourself explain how you do what you do but that's like asking coca-cola to give us the recipe for coca-cola absolutely and it's something that tech companies have fought against a very strongly it's something that will continue to fight against no doubt we saw this with google and its antitrust case with the european union when the european commission said right you've got to re order how you present your search

results or you don't have to reorder how you present to search results what you've got to be fair and value fair value you show people what is sponsored advertising and why. and you know they stopped just short of saying you've got to let us see how how you change anything because that that would have caused too much of an awful germany's justice minister she met with facebook europe's executives today right here in berlin yet lawmakers in washington you know they're still waiting for mr zuckerberg just to just leave california and come to washington why do you think we have that situation in the u.s. where not even the congress can get the c.e.o. to move well that's going to have to change rarely it's certainly been the case and pos that when facebook has sent executives to go and explain the companies in front of congressional committees and so on such as with the fake news they give those those were attorneys that face book all of the big six and they divisional experts

and so on and so on and i said right well if it must be me then ok i will show up but you know it needs to be the person who knows the most about the subject and that's not going to wash and the more he's the c.e.o. the compliment mounted as he's got a lot of us saying rights he is the one who's going to have to show up what does it what does it tell us though that he has been so reluctant to come forward is it is he afraid of the reality that is out there or does he just not realize the reality is the fact that this scandal goes to the heart of a lot more than just a business model well i think the company has been caught off guard by how strong the reaction has been to this particular scandal and as somebody who's been following this for a very long time i've been caught off guard but why do you follow this how did it get you off guard and i would say it's. looking back at it now i understand

why it's has become such a big issue is because people are already paying a lot of attention to facebook they were paying attention. it's a fake news day there's been a loss of talk and treat former executives going on about how dangerous it's addictive qualities and so on and this is one more thing that's getting added on to that pile but the fall of the last people have taken a fairly less a facet to towards the sort of thing that's going well we know that on days there is going to advertise as it helps us see more appropriate adverts it's not something with that of the with with edward snowden there was a bit of an opera when people thought ok that's information's going to governments as well but now it's becoming clearer how this sort of information how the dice bounce us can be used to manipulate us and to help those who want to manipulate to that of the people as well who last three i saw an interview with one of the original venture capitalist investors in facebook who was no longer on

speaking terms with mark zuckerberg or sheryl sandberg for that matter and but he was still talking about how he sees this crisis and he said that if zuckerberg does not step up to the plate and be honest and accept responsibility in change things that facebook he says taste book will go out of business do you believe that it could happen or is it too big to fail it does feel too big to fail certainly at the moment if that does happen it will take place over a long while i think the issue is that facebook is today the natural place for people to go the whole thing with hash tag delete facebook you know i've spoken to you know so many people and everybody says that's not going to have we're not going to delete facebook because it's where everybody has the power of inertia but that may change over time well we'll be talking with you hopefully if and when that happens david may have that very much coming on the show we appreciate your

insights lesson all right that's going to wrap up this edition of the day and then don't forget the conversation continues online and remember no matter. what happens between now and then tomorrow is another day we'll see you going to the be a. few. of. the but.

the but. you. his friends used to live out on the street. now they're going to use those to influence has big plans for their future how do you think you. did. a story of trust activism boundless up to. the big thirty minutes comedy w. .

bush tax cuts. obviously. the most traditional find it all to any time. check in with a web special. take a tour of germany state by state on d w talk calm. how to cover more than just one reality. where i come from we have a transatlantic way of looking at things that's because my father is from germany my mother is from the united states of america and so i realized really early that it made sense to explain different realities. and now here at the heart of the european union in brussels we have twenty eight different realities and so i think people are really looking for a new journalist they can trust for them to make sense of this. but it

is back off i work a double. me when i was young i dreamed about changing the world. but i was a woman in egypt things turned out differently. forced marriage genital mutilation humiliation. no one else and our we rebelled i used the written word to stand up for women's rights. as i travel to the places where i lived as a child i'm filled with anger at the past. you know while saddam the free voice of egypt starting april eighth on t w.

this is the. president with britain as nations russian diplomats suspected of being spotted three weeks after the attack on former russian spies. the united states and fifteen european union members are telling russian diplomats to leave. will respond. also coming up.