us secretary of state rex tillerson has bowed out of public life — after his shock sacking — on twitter — by president trump. he's being replaced by cia director, mike pompeo. britains prime minister theresa may is expected to make an announcement about retaliation against russia later today, that could potentially cover a range of business interests. now it is time look at the stories that are making the headlines in media across the world. we begin with the arab news which has given much of its front page over to the sacking of rex tillerson as us secretary of it's headline "you're fired" playing on donald trump's former job on the apprentice. the daily mail among many covering a new twist to the russian spy story. it says another critic of moscow has been found dead in the uk — counter—terrorism police are investigating. the daily telegraph reports on the british chancellor's spring statement. it's an optimistic growth forecast, with the paper saying there's light

at the end of the tunnel. if you're always checking your phone for news you might like this feature in the new york times. its columnist went two months just reading printed newspapers — we'll look at what he learned. and finally, buzzfeed among many paying tribute to professor stephen hawking who they say mastered both cosmology and celebrity. so let's begin. back with me is lawrence gosling — editor of investment week. we have arab news but every paper in the world is looking at this sacking of the us secretary of state. this one just says," is you're fayed".

of the us secretary of state. this onejust says," is you're fayed". —— lucrative. not often that the editor of cheese put their name to a very strident opinion piece. —— fired. basically, they say that rex tillerson was the wrong person for thejob since day tillerson was the wrong person for the job since day one. he used to lock himself in his office and didn't really engage. there has been reports that he has upset many of the diplomats he needs to work with. put into that context, you know, trump's firing of him yesterday doesn't seem like quite surprising. the middle east is an area where the us wanted to make ground under rex tillerson and they haven't. the president's first foreign trip was to saudi arabia. arab news is a saudi backed paper and it's interesting they say that they

should discuss the fact that rex tillerson wasn't good at his job on many levels. that is the viewpoint of their editor—in—chief. also, of course, many would argue that the focus has been very much on his difficult relationship with the president, as it were. even to the point where he said he was a moron, supposedly. there were headlines around that just at the wrong supposedly. there were headlines around thatjust at the wrong moment where he was looking for other headlines and there was a discussion about whether rex tillerson said that not stop it was clear these two didn't get on. take away the insults, they have openly disagreed on key issues. the us‘s relationship with a run, for example, where rex tillerson wanted to stick with the president system and trump was opposed to it. —— iran. we also had north korea, rex tillerson was more hardline. they are completely at loggerheads. like any administration, you can't have that.

the chief executive of exxon mobil of one of the biggest companies in the world, from boardroom to the white house, wed is he going next? it will be interesting to see whether he goes back into business. we have this new man in charge mike pompeo, the cia director. many are quite concerned about what that means when you have got to men on the same page with quite strong views. quite strident. we saw the reaction in the asian markets, the fear of more protectionism. we have already seen one large acquisition ofa us already seen one large acquisition of a us company blocked by the trump administration ‘s apotex —— potentially there is more protectionism coming from pompeo. many newspapers have this story, this has been the discovery of the body of nikolai glushkov, 69—year—old russian who was living

in london, found in his home in south london by his daughter. counterterrorism police are looking into the unexplained death. at the moment, they are saying there is no link between the attack on the former spy in salisbury but amber rudd, the home secretary, talking about the fact they are now looking into many cases, many deaths. in the uk. in recent years. one of the things to point out, when you look at the stream of deaths that are unexplained or mysterious, however you want to describe them, over the last decade, it looks too much like... suspicious? jono yes, suspicious. —— yes. like... suspicious? jono yes, suspicious. -- yes. you have the strangulation, and also the former soviet businessmen. it slightly plays to all of our desire for these

conspiracies but given the whole diplomatic situation, there seems to be more than a coincidence going on. it will be interesting to see what conclusions are drawn and it adds fuel to the fire of this expected response from the uk. what will the british government do now in response to all of this going on? let's look at the spring statement. in terms of its dominance, it's been com pletely in terms of its dominance, it's been completely overridden by all of the events going on in the last 2a hours a day you have the chancellor philip hammond delivering what he calls a very positive statement. a 15 minute speech, an update on how we are doing, probably better than he thought, he would be delivering a few months ago. a referred to him as spreadsheet fills. —— spreadsheet phil. to put it into context, the

deficit he talked about wanting to eradicate still won't be eradicated for more than a decade. the numbers are quite good and if you look at the politics of it, he has got potentially enough money up his sleeve going into an election cycle ina sleeve going into an election cycle in a couple of years' time to spend a little bit. the pressure is on him to do that. i would imagine notjust from the opposition but also the prime minister. put more money in the nhs. he talked about it as well, the nhs. he talked about it as well, the fact they need to do that and the fact they need to do that and the options will stop so much talk about. let's move on. that's talk about. let's move on. that's talk about the journalist who spent two months just about the journalist who spent two monthsjust reading good old—fashioned newspapers. these things. it's fascinating. he talked about how these newspapers landed on his doormat and he started reading them and got engrossed. it almost talks about we are talking about a previous generation and century ago. we all spend so much time on our phones, social media. we love it,

though, don't we? we love reading and ——a real newspaper at it is a bit of a pain on the train. yellow mac i love the ink on my handslj don't, if i am honest. ——i love the ink on my hands. it seems ironic that there is a depth of material that there is a depth of material that you can perhaps understand and get a different perspective on. buzzfeed looks at the life of the stephen hawking. all the media outlets instead that —— news broke just before liam, we heard the news from the family. an extraordinary life will stop absolutely. absolutely. it is a trial for mind and the body. you said at the outset he was given two years to live at the age of 21 and lived for another 50 odd. that must be because he used his brainpower which to discover all of these things which we now talk about black holes as though we are experts. i know all of the research

into motor neuron disease and the scientists looking into that and how it develops, have been studying him very closely to see what it is about the way he lived his life that meant he had such a long life, 76 years which is quite incredible. what our brains are able to do for us is greater than what our bodies can do, in many cases. that is stephen hawking. thank you for your comments, tributes. "he was a brave man, his vision, foresight and knowledge of the unknown cannot be equalled by other mortals". take a look at our hash tag the reefing, for all of the comments coming in. —— briefing. plenty to talk about in the weather story for the remainder of this week. we closed out yesterday in the south—west with a beautiful sunset. however, u nfortu nately, that's the place today where we will see some of the wettest and windiest weather courtesy of an area of low pressure moving in from the atlantic. it is bringing quite

a lot of heavy rain and gale force winds to parts of portugal and spain. this low will sit out in the atlantic and influence the story for the next few days to come. good news, a southerly wind will bring milder air across the country so if you managed to escape the rain and get sunshine, it will feel quite pleasant. quite a west—east divide with our weather today. central and eastern areas seeing the best of the sunshine and further west will see increasing and strengthening winds and rain, some turning heavy as we move through the middle of the day. gale force gusts through the isles of scilly, up into cornwall and affecting south wales as well. eventually, we will see the rain pushing steadily northwards into lunchtime into northern ireland and western fringes of scotland. there is a level of uncertainty as to how far inland that frontal system will turn as we go through wednesday but central and eastern areas should state dry, bright and sunny. we should see highs peaking at 1a which will feel quite pleasant with the sun. moving into thursday,

we still keep the winds across the south—west noticeably and a weather front making slow progress north and east. behind it, sunny spells and scattered showers. some could be heavy and possibly thundery. we keep the mild air down to the south but things are starting to change into the north—east. as we move into friday, more of an easterly breeze driving in a few showers and these will turn wintry to higher ground chiefly on friday but milder air still sits over england and wales for one more day at least. as we move out of friday and into saturday, under the influence of high pressure yet again, into scandinavia, and circulating around that high, we will continue to see that easterly wind returning. not quite as extreme as last time but nevertheless it will be noticeably colder as we head into the weekend and there is a risk of snow showers falling at lower levels across eastern parts of england through the day. it is worth bearing in mind as we head into the weekend, there is the potential to see the return of some snow

which could cause some issues. keep watching the weather forecast. we will firm up on those details. take care. hello, this is breakfast, with dan walker and louise minchin. stephen hawking, one of the world's most acclaimed physicists and authors, has died aged 76. he lived with a form of motor new rain disease for much of his life but became one of the most talked about scientists since einstein. —— motor neurone disease. in a statement his children said his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world. i don't have much positive to say about motor neurone disease, but it taught me not to pity myself and instead get on with what i could do.