welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: donald trump's top economic advisor resigns, in a dispute with the president over his threats of steep import tariffs and a trade war. the state department confirms that north korea used the nerve agent, vx, to kill the half—brother of kimjong—un, in malaysia last year. british chemical experts are working to identify the substance blamed for poisoning a former russian spy and his daughter. the kremlin is denying any involvement. the british foreign secretary says has called russia "a malign and disruptive force. " and the muse behind the masterpieces. a new exhibition in london takes a close look, at the woman who inspired some of picasso's greatest work. hello.

the top white house economic advisor, gary cohn, is to resign. his decision to leave comes just days after president trump said he could trigger a trade war by imposing tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. mr cohn‘s resignation follows a series of high—profile departures from mr trump's team. our correspondent peter bowes was following this story from los angeles. he said he had come close to quitting before. last time it was over the charlottesville march in virginia over donald trump saying there were some good people in that march when there were ku klux klan members in it. the timing is significant and it is about economics. after the announcement that donald trump wants impose tariffs on the import of aluminium and steel, mr cohn, known to be in favour of free trade as opposed to protectionism, means there is a difference of opinion here. although he is not saying that

in his short statement. from outside, it appears to be because of differences with the president and his inability to dissuade the president from taking this form of action. mr trump seems to be saying he is going ahead with the tariffs and saying a trade war is not such a bad thing. some in his party and the industry are worried. people are worried about it, and some close to the president. senior republicans have expressed grave doubts. bear in mind that this is not an election year and according to many analysts could backfire and result in job losses from affected industries. industries requiring those resources, job losses would hit hard. donald trump campaigned

to create blue—collarjobs — they could be affected. if it happens in the next 6—8 months, perhaps people would retaliate at the ballot box. looking at the list of people who left the white house, it is unprecedented? it is only a week since the communications chief resigned and other seniorfigures have gone and there are question marks over the future of others remaining. this is a white house in chaos but bizarrely it seems the kind of atmosphere that the president favours. he said just a few hours ago said that he likes people who disagree and clashing within his environment, within the oval office and the white house. the president has accused the european union of making it impossible to do business with it.

at a news conference with the swedish pm, he said if the eu retaliated against his proposed tariffs, his government would impose a 25% tax on european cars. in just the past few hours, the us state department has formally confirmed that it believes the north korean government used the nerve agent, vx, to assassinate the half brother of the country's leader, kim jong—un. kim jong—nam was attacked at kuala lumpur‘s main international airport in february last year by two women who rubbed a cloth in his face. our correspondent laura bicker is in seoul. when it comes to the nerve agent vx, malaysian authorities have already said they believed that was the agent used to kill kim jong—nam. the state department have decided to impose further sanctions on north korea stopped the timing could not be worse. we are also hearing the north korean leader kim jong—un gave the south korean delegates a letter for donald trump and it will be

delivered to the trump white house in just a few days time by the south korean delegates. we are not being told what is inside the latter. it could signal a huge response from here in the peninsula. the british foreign secretary has said the government will take whatever measures necessary if it's found the suspected poisoning of a russian former spy in salisbury was ordered by moscow. sergei skirpal and his daughter yulia are in a critical condition in hospital, whilst the uk's weapons research facility is working to identify the substance used. tom symonds reports. a father and a daughter apparently struck down in public on a sunday afternoon in salisbury. the bbc revealed today that yulia skripal had been visiting her father sergei from russia when it happened. they were left fighting for their lives. her eyes were just completely white, they were wide open butjust white and frothing at the mouth. and the man went stiff, his arms stopped moving, but he was still looking dead straight. cctv images obtained by the bbc appeared to show mr skripal and his daughter walking together at 15:47 on sunday afternoon.

they were heading for a small park surrounded by shops in the centre of salisbury called the maltings. the camera which captured these pictures is yards from where they were found. police were called at 4:15pm when people reported the pair were unconscious on a park bench. last night zizzi, an italian restaurant nearby, was sealed by police, followed today by a local pub, bishop's mill. did someone slip something into theirfood or drink? for the police this is a highly sensitive and potentially hazardous investigation, not least for the officers involved. the key question of course is what was the substance that left a father and his daughter in such a terrible condition on the park bench covered by the tent behind me? there will be toxicology reports prepared but we understand that several police officers were admitted to hospital, one has been kept in.

symptoms include breathing difficulties and itchy eyes. experts at the research facility porton down are now involved, testing for a wide range of substances. from things that are chemically toxic to things that are radiological such as was used against litvinenko. i think people will have an open mind, they will be looking at what is in the environment, what is on the clothing, on the skin of the people and also what is in blood and urine and any other samples. so far the tiny wiltshire police force has led the investigation but that changed today in a significant department. this afternoon the metropolitan police have confirmed that, due to the unusual circumstances, the counterterrorism network will be leading this investigation as it has the specialist capability and expertise to do so. after all, as the foreign secretary made clear in parliament this afternoon, this incident could have implications for britain's relationship with russia.

should evidence emerge that implies state responsibility, then her majesty's government will respond appropriately and robustly. sergei skripal was arrested in 2004, accused of spying for mi6, convicted, but in 2010 handed over to britain as part of a spy swap. sergei skripal‘s wife, older brother and son have died in recent years — the family believe in suspicious circumstances. he has been living quietly here, vigilant and fearful of russian intelligence, his relatives said, but under his own name. he would not have been hard to find. tom symonds, bbc news, salisbury. the russian government has vehemently denied any suggestion of involvement and promised to cooperate with the inquiry if asked. a foreign ministry spokesman accused borisjohnson of making "wild" and "preposterous" statements and the russian ambassador in london accused the british media of trying to demonise russia. 0ur correspondent steve rosenberg

reports from moscow. it sounds chillingly familiar. russia under suspicion of planning and executing an attack, 2,000 miles away, in britain. in 2006, the target was former russian agent alexander litvinenko, murdered in london. the man britain believes poisoned him is andrei lugovoy. today, he dismissed claims that moscow had attacked sergei skripal as propaganda. translation: why do they say he was poisoned? perhaps he poisoned himself or had a heart attack. you talk about propaganda, but what about alexander litvinenko? the inquiry in britain into his death found that you had poisoned him, probably on the orders of vladimir putin. translation: there was no official investigation into litvinenko‘s death.

there was an attempt to accuse russia and a russian citizen, me, of poisoning him in britain with polonium. as for the kremlin, well, it's been saying very little today about sergei skripal. president putin's spokesman told me earlier, "we have no information about what happened. we cannot comment." although he did add, it was a "tragic situation". but catching spies has become one of vladimir putin's priorities. yesterday, the former kgb officer praised russia's security service for uncovering 397 spies last year. the kremlin leader has never hidden his contempt for those who betray the motherland for money. translatiopn: traitors will kick the bucket, trust me. these people betrayed their friends, their brothers in arms. whatever they got in exchange for it, those 30 pieces of silver they were given, they will choke on them. yet sergei skripal wasn't an obvious

target for the kremlin. translation: there are certain rules that the secret services keep to. when there's an exchange of spies, the matter is considered closed. skripal had been exchanged, russia had no problem with him. moscow denies any connection, but a former double agent, collapsing in britain, it can only add to the chill in relations between the uk and russia. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: taking home oscar — we catch up with the small star whose movie won big at the academy awards. first, the plates slipped gently off the restaurant tables,

then suddenly the tables, the chairs and people crashed sideways and downwards, and it was just a matter of seconds as the ferry lurched on to her side. the hydrogen bomb. on a remote pacific atoll, the americans have successfully tested a weapon whose explosive force dwarfed that of the bomb dropped on hiroshima. i had heard the news earlier and so my heart went bang, bang, bang! and are sent to hospital. this religious controversy, i know you don't want to say too much about it, but does it worry you that it's going to boil up when you get to the states? it worries me, yes, but i hope everything will be alright in the end, as they say.

this is bbc news. the latest headlines — donald trump's top economic advisor has resigned in a dispute with the president over his threats of steep import tariffs and a trade war. the us state department has confirmed that north korea used the nerve agent vx to kill the half—brother of kim jong—un in malaysia last year. let's get more on our top story now. mark bloomfield is president of the american council for capital formation and he joins us now from our washington bureau. what are you hearing about the resignation? 14 letter word. numb. i have a meeting once a month and it is the congress and the business vote, and the 14 letter word was

numb. we were wondering what you are going to come up with. in what sense? just in terms of what happens next. that's the best way to describe it is what the president said about him. he was a raw talent, and one of the chief economic adviser in the campaign said a steady hand. we have lost a raw talent and we have lost a steady hand. so stay tuned. as i am sure you have been hearing, the president says what happens now if he goes ahead with those tariffs even those he says many countries are threatening retaliation. he says trade wars are not too bad. there are quitea trade wars are not too bad. there are quite a few people in this own party concerned about this, and i gather the aluminium industry as well. i think david ricardo is damp, comparative advantage is alive. the irony is there are some prominent democrat who are supporting the

president. at the same time, the republican party, which is the party of free trade, is going to work at what to do next. i do republicans have seen this tax cuts so far playing pretty well with taxpayers, but there is concern that tariffs could make it harderfor some businesses in the us and causejob losses. no question. there are two fundamental positive things that happened under the administration, and that is reforming our tax system so we are and that is reforming our tax system so we are comparative. one thing that may not have been mentioned is tremendous regulatory reform. vat and tax reform could be brushed aside with the impact of another smooth folly. i hope not.|j aside with the impact of another smooth folly. i hope not. i know you have just been on a hill in the past hour or so. president servers there will be no trouble filling these jobs. loads of people want to work in the white house. to look at the list of people who have left, two

deputy chief of staff, the communications direct has been replaced three times, the press secretary, and the chief economic adviser. he says this is not chaos, it is energy. how do you read it? if you look at statistics, there has been more turnover in this administration in terms of the whiter than there has been in prior ones. having said that, he is on unusual person. i lived through the watergate scandal, i lived through the saturday night massacre and richard nixon was all so strange. this is unsettling, no doubt about it. good to talk to you. thank you very much. the courts have blocked president trump's deadline to decide the fate of the young undocumented immigrants known as dreamers, but the 700,000 in the us still face an uncertain future. francisco cantu witnessed firsthand the realities of immigration to the us. he was a border patrol agent before he quit. now, he's written a book called, the line becomes a river: dispatches from the border.

the job of being a border patrol agent, there were certain aspects of it that appealed to me, that i enjoyed — being outdoors, learning to sort of read the landscape. but of course, there was always this knowledge in the back of my mind that all of these things that i was learning to do, you know, were really to hunt down and to catch other people. in theirjourney. those are the voices that have more to tell us about border policy than any border agent, like me, than any policy maker, than any politician. there's people who've been brought here, dreamers, who are now living in fear, and so i think we need to recognise that fear as something real

and visceral and something that we are creating through policy. there were all these parts of myself and my identity that i had to sort of give over to this institution, and that's the question that is sort of at the centre of the book. coming to terms with participating in a violent system, enforcing policies that when i looked at them now, feel inherently flawed and violent, and trying to come to terms with that. picasso's young lover, marie—therese walter, inspired some of his most celebrated works of art. a new exhibition at london's tate modern focuses on picasso's work from the year 1932 and includes the dream, and nude in a black armchair.

one of picasso's portraits of walter sold recently for nearly £50 million as our arts correspondent david sillito reports from tate modern. there's a lot of emotion in this exhibition. it's kind of into lust and into life. there's also drama. normally, a tate show would be a retrospective of a life's work, but this is just one year of picasso's. and that year is 1932. this is picasso and this is his wife, olga. but when you look at the paintings, it's another face. wherever you look, you see the same shock of blonde hair, the same profile. and here she is again —

the same hair, the same profile. we're not looking at picasso's wife here, though. this is marie—therese walter. and this is marie—therese's granddaughter, diana. two generations may have passed, but i think you can probably see a certain family likeness. what i think of it, as a granddaughter, when i walk in an exhibition like this, is that it's not a testimony of a great artist. it's a great testimony of an accounter. she is everywhere, an obsession. picasso was approaching 50 when the affair began and marie—therese was a teenager. she was very young when she met picasso. 17? she was 17.5! and she's accepting the idea to see him again the following day. so she was young, but she was also adventurous. if a relationship can bring

you to an extraordinary level of life experience, i could neverjudge that. london's tate gallery honours picasso... these days, we've grown used to this new way of seeing. indeed, a marie—therese picasso can go now for more than £100 million. but that's the art market. this is the story of the man and the women behind the paintings. david sillito, bbc news. she was one of the youngest stars in an oscar winning movie on sunday night. 6—year—old maisie sly, who is deaf, played the lead in the silent child, which took home the statue for best live action short. the film is about a young girl who lived in silence until a social worker taught her sign language. now, there are plans to make the story into a full—length feature as the bbc‘s colin patterson reports. a star is born. six years old and profoundly deaf, maisie sly has now played the main role in an oscar—winning film,

and seems to be pretty unfazed by all the attention. just tell me about your day at the oscars. i feel happy, i felt really happy. i want her to speak... the silent child is about a deaf girl struggling to communicate as her family don't want her to learn sign language. it was made by two former stars of the show, hollyoaks. the silent child, chris overton and rachel shenton. it won best live action short. maisie was up on the balcony at the oscars with her mum, while her dad watched nearby with family and friends, and this was their reaction. the silent child... screaming. after midnight, the winner made her entrance. and as for what's next, well, maisie could return to the role, there are plans to adapt the silent child into a full—length feature. absolutely extending the film's

what we would like to do next. we asked maisie what she wants to do next and she said she wants to do some colouring. which i think is a much better answer. yeah. gold, gold colouring? probably. she'll be drawing a lot of pictures of oscars, i think. i bet she will. colin patterson, bbc news, los angeles. now before we go, we had to show you this. 2—year—old parker curry took over the internet recently when this photo was posted of her staring in awe at the new portrait of michelle obama at the national portrait gallery in washington, dc. the picture was captured by a bystander also waiting to see the painting. well, if things couldn't get any more exciting for the toddler, today, the two met in person and even had a dance party. michelle obama posted the video on twitter and told parker: "keep on dreaming big for yourself, and maybe one day, i'll proudly look up at a portrait of you." that is it for now. thanks for watching. hello again.

it felt like we had two different seasons across the uk yesterday, north to south. across northern areas in scotland, we had heavy snow causing transport disruption again. and temperatures struggled to get much above freezing. whereas further south, 11 degrees celsius and, indeed, we had some cloud breaks. and with the light winds around, it didn't feel too bad at all where the sunshine bothered breaking through. further north in scotland, though, it was another snow day, particularly over the high ground, and that snow again caused problems through those higher central belt motorways. now, looking at the weather picture at the moment, the last of the snow clearing away from the north highlands, but aside from that, we've got some clearer slots around. so a colder start to the day with a few frost patches around. a little bit of ice is a possibility first thing in the morning. certainly, a chilly start to the day for most of us. and then all eyes down towards the south—east, really. you've got a little area of low pressure that's moving in. now, there's a bit of uncertainty with this rain.

but it could end up being much more extensive across south—east england and east anglia, and slower to move away as well. so that's a possibility. but either way, by the time we get to the afternoon, the cloud should be breaking up. further north and west, we've got a few showers, they'll be wintry over the high ground, but the weather not causing too many problems. a few showers later in the day, arriving across the south—west, but for many areas, cloud will break at times to give some sunny spells. temperatures coming up in scotland. we're looking at highs of 6 in edinburgh and aberdeen. further south, temperatures again just about reaching double figures in the afternoon brightness. you might remember thursday was going to be a dry day, but there's been a big jump in the weather forecast, and now, we've got a band of rain and perhaps even a bit of hill snow working across wales and england first thing in the morning. if the precipitation is heavy, might even get something wintry for a time over the midlands. but that is uncertain kind of detailjust at the moment. there will be some further wintry showers coming in across the north—west of the uk and temperatures ranging from 6 to 10 degrees, many areas brightening up as we go

on through the afternoon. for friday, a fairly quiet weather day coming up. north—westerly breeze for many areas and after a cold start to the day, we should see some sunny spells coming through. it will cloud over towards the south—west as a band of rain approaches here, and clouding over in london as well. temperatures, though, not doing too badly — highs of 11 or so. looking ahead to the weekend weather prospects, this area of low pressure is going to push a band of rain northwards across england and wales, and the cold air is still there, so we could just about see a spell of snow over some of the higher hills, the northern pennines and perhaps into parts of scotland as well. but it will be turning milder all the while. that's your weather. this is bbc news, the headlines: donald trump's top economic advisor has resigned — it's understood gary cohn disagrees with the president about his plan to impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminium imports. mr trump has also welcomed the possibility of a global trade war. it is the latest in a series of high—profile departures

from the white house. the us state department has formally confirmed that it believes the north korean government used the nerve agent, vx, to assassinate the half brother of north korea's leader, kim jong—un. kim jong—nam was attacked at malaysia's main international airport in february last year. british chemical experts are working to identify the substance blamed for poisoning a former russian spy and his daughter. the kremlin has denied any involvement and accused the media of trying to demonise russians. the british foreign secretary has called russia "a malign and disruptive force." now on bbc news, hardtalk.