al jazeera. every your. we disagreed on what you look at the iran deal i think it's terrible i guess it was ok. tillerson our. president trump replaces a secretary of state after months of strained relations.

i'm richelle carey this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up russia defies an ultimatum from the u.k. over the poisoning of a former spy. the palestinian authority blames rival group hamas for an attack on prime minister rami honda last convoy and. what the latest from the u.s. on its hotly contested special election that could impact president trump's agenda . to begin though with breaking news on the world's greatest scientist even hawking has died at the age of seventy six in a statement his children paid tribute to their father saying he was an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years and the hayward looks back at his life and achievements. this was a life of the pools and. stephen hawking was often treated like

a rock star scientist millions prepared him for his gift of communicating complex matters to the masses the common man's genius. we're alive we're intelligent coded some of the most anik magic mysteries of the universe its origins structure and and from big bang to black hole his life was also an enigma nine hundred sixty three hawking was almost twenty born in a student at cambridge university when he was diagnosed with a degenerative condition he was given just two and a half but went on to live for more than half a century. like . you know their emotion which. is serious.

as the disease progressed talking last mobility and had to rely on a wheelchair his speech then began to slow an emergency operation rope to move his voice but not for long space zero come turn to a speech synthesizer which allowed him to select was by moving the muscles of his cheek he was a tedious process but warm that gave him the ability to express his pining airing ideas it also gave the british cosmologist his trademark american accent there have been a few setbacks like the dark who king was respected early on in scientific circles for helping prove the big bang theory when the universe burst into existence fourteen billion years ago global acclaim came in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight with the release of his book a brief history of time the introduction to cosmology was a runaway hit standing more than ten million copies and eventually translated into

dozens of languages hawking's only magnified with time a pop culture figure he gets starred on shows such as the simpsons and star trak. again. the french. public class a nation with culminated in the blockbuster hollywood film of his remarkable life the theory of everything the universe is expanding that he was last time and university stephen hawking devoted his life to seeking answers to the questions of our existence and in doing so he helped us to pay deeper into how our universe was . outgoing u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson is urging a smooth transition after his dismissal law donald trump it's twitter on this topic has released a statement saying tillerson was unaware of why he was forced out and then that official was later fired as well the democrats say it said another sign of chaos in the white house trump and says policy differences are to blame the two had

disagreed over a number of issues including the iran deal and the blockade of qatar tillerson will be replaced by cia director mike pompei oh he advocates a more aggressive stance on north korea and also iran and then his job will go to china haspiel who is set to become the first female leader of the cia well get more on that shortly first though roslyn jordan looks back at the friction between tillerson and trump. it's not every day you lose your job the social media but an emotional rex tillerson deliberately ignored that detail when he addressed reporters on tuesday received a call today from the president i'd states that a little after noon time from air force one my commission as secretary of state will terminate at midnight borscht thirty first tillerson served as u.s. secretary of state for a little more than a year he spent much of that time pushing back against reports that the president donald trump wanted to fire him on tuesday morning on twitter trump did just that

mike pompei a will become our new secretary of state thank you to rex tillerson for his service . trump then told reporters this we disagreed on what you look at the iran deal i think it's terrible i guess it was ok i wanted to break it or something he felt a little bit differently so we were not really thinking the same looking back it's clear trump and tillerson disagreed on the big problems of the day whether or not to engage directly with north korea how far to hold russia accountable brits meddling in u.s. political and civic affairs something tillerson made a point of stressing the u.s. must do ultimately former u.s. diplomats say taylor since firing is no surprise and neither is the choice of his replacement the cia director mike pompei oh he's well known for his support of trumps policy trump is impulsive trump is temperamental

trump wants once and neighbors and validators more than he wants advisors tillerson didn't have many fans at state because of his plans to cut staffing by nearly thirty percent some senior diplomats quit in protest but the firings of state didn't end there at lunchtime the white house dismissed under secretary of state steve goldstein after he released this statement suggesting tillerson thought his job was safe the secretary did not speak to the president this morning and is unaware of the reason for his dismissal in any case tillerson said he had no regrets rex tillerson didn't lose his job because he didn't agree with the president analysts say he lost his job because he refused to pretend that he agreed if confirmed my pump ale will face a very high standard of agreeing with the president all the time especially because the president believes he already does rosalynn jordan al-jazeera the state

department. ok let's get more now on the woman who is set to take over the cia chain a hassle she could face a tough confirmation hearing in the senate getting past allegations she oversaw the torture of detainees had a hand has more from washington. jim has spent most of her career at the cia undercover so there isn't much video of her but issue prepares to try and take the top job we're going to see a lot more of her and hear much more about her past she was in charge of the facility in thailand codenamed detention site green the senate has detailed what happened to captors there like abu zubaida he was water boarded eighty three times beaten by having his head slammed into a wall deprived of sleep for days he was kept in a coffin sized box possibly with insects for more than eleven days and held in a small box less than a meter tall for twenty nine hours the report also says that. he was held and

tortured at the same site according to reports she was clearly in charge according to one cia cable quote only the detention site green chief of base would be allowed to interrupt or stop an interrogation in process and that the chief of base would be the final decision making authority as to whether the cia's interrogation techniques applied to zubeida would be discontinued. zubaida had to be revived once after waterboarding torture didn't stop human rights groups are outraged by her nomination the idea that she would be put in charge of the cia should send. trimmers terrorists are most people who care about international law this is a woman who was complicit directly in the torture of two detainees in thailand and then the chief of staff of the counterterrorism center back lushington as they rendered dozens and dozens of other detainees some of them merely innocent people

who were swept up shall have to answer for more than that there were videos of some of that torture has reportedly signed the directive to have them destroyed all of this will be a big debate when she comes before this is to try and get confirms democrats will be under pressure not to vote for her and if that's the case you can only afford to lose one republican vote and still get the job still president donald trump is sending a message with this nomination just like he said on the campaign trail he's fine with torture and also apparently fine with promoting those involved with it. al jazeera washington russia has defied an ultimatum from the u.k. over the poisoning of a former spy prime minister theresa may had given moscow till the end of tuesday to explain how a silvia era nerve agent was used in the attack against her and his daughter but the kremlin has refused to cooperate with the investigation party philips reports. is this the level before the storm the british government says it's looking at ways of responding to what it believes is not re just backed by russia this is part of

a pattern of behavior by that new putin and his regime and you'll seeing this reckless support for the use of chemical weapons all the way from syria to the streets of which are not in our country and being encouraged by the determination of our friends to stand with us except that friends aren't so predictable these days the american president shortly off to sacking a secretary of state who was highly regarded by the british government says it sounds to him as if russia were. was involved in the nerve agent attack but in moscow the russian foreign minister said britain was being obstructive refusing to give russia samples of the nerve agent so that it could carry out its own investigation. its russia is not guilty but russia is ready to cooperate in the framework of the chemical weapons convention only the united kingdom takes pains to

fulfill their legal obligations and cling to the same document. london's luxury properties luxury shops could britain target russians who spend money here an anti corruption group estimates more than a billion dollars of suspicious russian wealth is invested in u.k. property well it's certainly the case that some of the individuals that we've identified in this research well known to the kremlin so if they were to find themselves subjected to police investigations by unexplained well for days for example then that would send a very clear message to the kremlin the corrupt individuals and their illicit cash no longer welcome here british politicians want to send a message to russia that they won't tolerate what they see as a brazen attack on british soil but they also hope to cooperate with russia on issues like containing iran and north korea's nuclear ambitions in other words russia's international significance presents britain with

a diplomatic dilemma britain says it's ready to act but if this crisis escalates western unity could come under great strain to be phillips al jazeera. british counterterrorism police are investigating the death of a high profile russian businessman. was found in his home in london on tuesday given granted political asylum in the u.k. and was a close ally of late for us air is asking a prominent critic of president vladimir putin. right now there is no evidence to suggest a link to the coarsening of severus cripple and his daughter. former south korean president lee myung has been questioned in court over a string of corruption charges speaking before the hearing he apologized for causing concern to the public the charges include embezzlement and abuse of power he's also suspected of taking more than ten billion dollars in bribes from the states he denies any wrongdoing he served as president for five years from two

thousand and eight. palestinian prime minister has escaped unhurt after a bomb exploded hitting his convoy at the palestinian authority has accused hamas of trying to assassinate him best and i had any involvement very faucet has more from. the palestinian prime minister had come to gaza to demonstrate progress by attending the opening of a new water treatment plant. instead just a few hundred meters into gaza territory. visit became a demonstration of the level of insecurity here a powerful bomb buried by the road blasted the end of his convoy vehicles were damaged seven people were lightly injured. and his delegation pressed on to the water project where he said the attack would only make him more determined to return. they blew up three of our cars while entering the gaza strip this proves to you one hundred percent that it will not prevent us from continuing our path

putting an end to this division. to come to. that but that division between the palestinian authority dominated by fatah and its political rival hamas in gaza was once again on full display the palestinian president's office accused hamas of responsibility for the attack given its continued control of security in the strip hamas condemned both the explosion and the p.a.'s accusation. these three written accusations can only achieve the goals of the criminals that targeted the convoy of. the bank suspects who want to destroy the palestinian. occupation. some analysts suggest salafist groups aiming to cause political chaos were behind the attack on the crater itself shows you just what a sizable device this was the immediate impact obviously substantial the question now is how far the shock waves of what happened here will carry over into the

political process between fatah and hamas. reconciliation efforts have been stalled for months since hamas dissolved its administration last year so far there's been no full resumption of p.a. control in gaza with talks pandering on issues such as jobs for tens of thousands of hamas members and control of its military wings weapons we are living in by a lawyer asked to ation between the responsibility of hamas or that defacto government and that a new government that's indeed not a walk in are still. have it said it's possible that get out the palestinian prime minister arrived back in ramallah in the occupied west bank his spokesman accusing hamas leaders of declining an invitation to meet for gaza's people desperate for some kind of government to address a worsening humanitarian and now security situation the wait goes on perry for sit out his era gaza still ahead on al-jazeera. i'm

a quote reporting on the increase in krill fishing and arctic waters in a bid to try to restrict it. by the springtime flowers of a mountain lake. to the first snowfall on a winter's day. however settled and sunny across much of the middle east over the next few days not too many surprises him little more clear to the east and south of the region afghanistan took minister pushing up into his back a stand seeing some wintry flowers over the next more cloud to into the far north of pakistan fifteen celsius the in kabul fire and dry over the western side of the race a little more clout though as we go on into thursday thames is not faring too badly though so still getting up to around one thousand nine hundred in sixteen celsius for couple come further south this worboys it warm across the regen but it's the

thirty one celsius here in doha but to bad with. winds forty light less of that with the dust and sand it's warm a sterile as we go on into with day more that sunshine coming through of course so much sunshine is a madagascar at the moment though we are looking at a topical sarto possible to brookside i'm just developing here bringing some very heavy rain into the eastern side of madagascar flooding rain possibility and the damaging winds a few showers too into the eastern side of south africa marty even see some welcome showers into the western cape over the next day or so not too much but a little bit damp weather but some very heavy rain into northern zimbabwe and also tents in the. the way the sponsored body counts on the use. of the scene for us when they're online what is american sign in yemen that peace is possible but not what happens not because the situation is complicated but because no one cares or if you join us on sat there people the little choosing

between buying medication eating base is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who's an activist who's close to the story join the global conversation at this time on al-jazeera. watching al-jazeera let's recap the top stories this hour one of the world's greatest scientist stephen hawking has died at the age of seventy six as we're focused on the evolution of the universe and his book a brief history of time was an international bestseller those children say hawking was an extraordinary man whose legacy will live on for many years ago and u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson is urging a smooth transition after he was dismissed by donald trump via twitter the

president says policy differences force to blame tillerson will be replaced by cia director mike pompei oh. russia has defied it all to maiden from the u.k. over the poisoning of a former spy i'm sure theresa may have given moscow till the end of tuesday to explain how a soviet or a nerve agent was shoes in the attack against service cripple and his daughter. a special election in the u.s. state of pennsylvania is too close to call at all but just a few votes counted democrats were hoping to win the seat despite this being a heavily republican district carried it by nearly twenty points in two thousand and sixteen and the democrat didn't even field a candidate there. during the last two congressional elections the seat opened up after its want time republican congressman resign because of a sex scandal hit him at the is a political analyst and a professor of political science at cypress college she joins us via skype from los angeles thank you so much for your time so why in the world is this so close it

really shouldn't be you can soon go from one of about twenty points last time and it's been in the last several seven or eight elections there and been won by the republican by huge margins of fifteen percent or more and it's quite remarkable i think the reason it's close is because there's been a real backlash against president trump's policies and so it's a referendum on president from not so much about the candidates themselves and this has to do with his controversial issue of tax cuts for big corporations and the rich and connellan as the democrat is capitalizing on that he's talking about you know that wasn't fair to get such big tax cuts for the wealthiest people corporation the middle class didn't get much and that's a big effective message a blue collar area the solute collar district area and it resonated although he's also conservative on social issues on limits pro life on abortion but he said he will go ahead and keep choice policies in place you know he's personally pro-life and he's also for more gun ownership so that kind of thing was socially

conservative and economically progressive exactly for the you needed and he's the one of the best candidates on the lam so it's going to go to him ok so if you're a republican and another district who you know usually when saying maybe you're polling five six seven points ahead of the democrat going forward will you want to trying to come campaign for you. that. depends on the district exactly but i think in general you'd be very skeptical and concern about whether the president coming to destroy you but actually would help you or hurt you it's very possibly could hurt you more that would help but these days with from did so many controversial policies and issues for example him getting rid of tillerson such a sect of state to listen in such an off handed manner well you can do it courteously improperly that's going to have a backlash and many republicans may want to say that we've been trying to some extent the district actually when it really had backlash though because actually the way that that played out is pretty on brand for donald trump and people that voted for him know that that's who he is. that's correct that's why he's holding on

to his secure base of about thirty five percent of the electorate but that's not enough and some of these districts the human mind these districts actually forty one percent registered republicans and forty six percent registered democrats which makes it a pretty safe republican district because republicans vote far more often than democrats democrats and to stay home in midterm elections and they stay home in special elections this is that's why i saw remarkable they actually were running the democrats can actually win this thing because they're fired up fired up against president trump's policies mainly and met some republicans are despondent about it and some of the democrats who voted for president trump in this district voted for president obama actually in the last two election obama it's quite interesting that happened in michigan as well some of the from some of the trunk voters came from obama they voted for obama previous two elections and they were disillusioned with the lack of opportunity job exports outsourcing of their jobs like bosnia for their children that's why they switched over to truck thinking he might be able to save them but there's a lot of disillusionment right there in my ok at peter matthews thank you so much for joining us we appreciate it remarkable like thank you so much. ok let's return

to our breaking news now the death of renowned physicist stephen hawking at the age of seventy six i'm joined on the line from sydney by morris jones he's a space analyst so morris let's talk about the legacy of stephen hawking his it's not very often that a scientist name is such a helpful name such as his was how did that come to be i think that there are probably two sponsors of the past one hundred years that we've achieved that level but brains not discovered and the first one was with albert einstein the second one was to the whole thing and it's not just simply because they were good at physics i think you have to have a degree of charisma and a connection with the public and i think there's also a degree of mystery and intrigue around you that that captivated an estimated people not just the spies but there were these very exceptional women and what made

the film usually exceptional and it just that we held a lot of intrigue just the man that he saw a compelling life story really. well guess where we live is where he's. dramatized in the movie and the fact that he had to overcome most in your own dizzy and could try and sort of beyond. most people despite his disability was i think possibly what made him so inspirational to everybody so what is what is his legacy what will it even be remembered for in addition to just being an inspirational person in the field of astrophysics this being after his is what will he be remembered for. i think you know he was very good at getting the general public interest but i believe the nice television appearances but i don't i think that he like to challenge us with questions about humanity's place in the universe

and whether or not we can survive and i think these question. how much of the very very close can we know we're living when i don't have a world in a potentially chaotic universe is there any obsession with wondering if between race can survive and it's true i want to do just because i. want to please my encounters in his twilight years and i think that's something that got him a lot of headlines and probably wanted people to think about it. right and getting us to think that's an important legacy for sure morris jones joining us from from sydney thank you very much. presidential election is heading to a runoff and two weeks opposition leader julia. narrowly won the first rob of fell short of an outright majority he's up against the ruling all peoples party people's congress party that is. the vote will decide who replaces president ernest bai

koroma who's sort of the maximum ten years in office google is launching a network of free wi-fi hotspots across mexico as the first of its kind in latin america the tech giant is aiming to improve connectivity and emerging markets the number of people accessing the internet in mexico has risen by over twenty million but that's in the past five years but it's still lags behind many other countries. conservationists have warned industrial fishing a cruel and an arctic waters is threatening the future of the region's ecosystem the tiny crustaceans are a key source of food for whales penguins and seals and the final part of a series from antarctica nick clarke found out more. the arctic sunrise sails down the west coast of the antarctic peninsula in the hope of observing krill fishing boats in the main focus of the crow fishery across the entire area is in this peninsula and into the region the expedition helicopter takes off and the red view of krill boats with their nets out spotted fishing close to shore they are

operating within their rights feeding the growing demand for krill based health products like a really good three fish oil and they want to expand that fishery. the krill are obviously densely packed into this area up against the island because the basin just circling round and round is bring them out of the monks and over whales the fee to see them growing in whale tails disappearing flippers showing it's really about the krill companies say they're tapping into a resort that is sustainable with a few here on board is that that is what they said about other species like the bison in north america called stops you founded for both with decimated the areas closest to the shore almost always where penguin foraging grounds are while feeding grounds. westsail foraging grounds are exactly where these plants are choosing to

come in. the nets and take the crown. directly competing with these animals for food by radio the campaign team suggests that company bosses should consider fishing in less ecologically sensitive areas and with that the arctic sunrise moves on for the team this is just the beginning of the battle against krill fishing. time to batten down the hatches the ship is returning to. porton chile there's still a major opes to kill in the way the drake passage between the and talk to continent to the cape pull in and the weather quickly to tear. the cool the arctic sunrise the washing machine you can see why. i think with the wind you'll be probably around three in the morning it's a crease so if it gets too bad what we'll do is put the nose of the ship into it and slow down and then just ride the swell. next morning as predicted it's blowing hard. drive over the rim of the great passage things major ways right now seventeen

kilometers an hour winds right they tell me that this is quite mild i think but it's going to be landing very with the first i think is over the this is where growth is going since well. and the weather just came to rolling in. bad after five days of stormy seas we finally pass into the magellan strait our expedition over the antarctic continent behind us and south america dead ahead nicholas al-jazeera chile. this is al jazeera and these are the top stories one of the world's most renowned scientists stephen hawking has died at the age of seventy six as we're focused on the evolution of the universe and his book a brief history of time as an international bestseller as children say hawking was an extraordinary man whose legacy will live on for many years. outgoing u.s.

secretary of state rex tillerson is urging a smooth transition after he was dismissed by donald trump via twitter a president says policy differences were to blame tillerson will be replaced by cia director mike pompei oh please. work with by now for quite some time. prevent this energy from ended in the last we are always on the same wavelength. the relationship has been very good that's what i. stay with mike mike from player we have a very similar thought process i think it's going to go very well special election in the u.s. state of pennsylvania is too close to call with all but just a few of the votes counted democrats are hoping to win the seat despite the district being heavily republican seat opened up after its longtime republican congressman resigned because of a sex scandal. russia has defied an ultimatum from the u.k. over the poisoning of a former spy prime minister theresa may had given moscow till the end of tuesday to

explain how a sylvia era nerve agent was used in the attack against circus cripple and his daughter at the kremlin house refused to cooperate with that investigation. palestinian prime minister rami handel has escaped unharmed after a bomb explosion hit his convoy in gaza palestinian authority has accused rival group hamas of trying to assassinate him a mosque has condemned the attack and tonight any involvement the blast complicates reconciliation efforts have been hamas and the palestinian authority. at the u.n. says nearly one hundred fifty civilians have managed to leave rebel held eastern ghouta in syria the government's ally russia and rebels agreed to evacuate injured people from the area which has been under heavy bombardment for the past three weeks. former south korean president lee myung bak has been questioned in court over a string of corruption charges he's accused of taking more than ten billion dollars in bribes from the states by agency he denies any wrongdoing he served as president

for five years from two thousand and eight keep it here on al-jazeera the stream is next and then or news. breaks candidates don't like the winner but he may putin's tight grip on the kremlin is very easy to use now when russian people. there is every indication that they will return him to the boards presidential to. follow the russian elections here to zero. hi emily could be and you're in the stream you're joining us for our second show this week covering the south by southwest festival in the u.s. city of austin texas so they will look at how musicians are expressing political activism through their work at a time when politics is becoming ever more polarized but me is at the festival and will be talking to three barry different artists.