this is d.w. news live from berlin you're fired u.s. president donald trump sachs says secretary of state rex tillerson had just completed a tour of africa a tour that was apparently cut short sources suggest he hasn't been told why he's out of a job will be live in washington to find out more. i'm soon be so much going to get to have you with us hugh s.

president donald trump has sacked his secretary of state rex tillerson the president initially broke the surprise news on twitter thanking tillerson for his service and trump has just finished giving a statement about the sacking let's hear what he had to say. i've worked with mike bomb failed now for quite some time. from mendis energy tremendous in the last year always on the same wavelength. the relationship has been very good that's what i did as secretary of state. i wish rex tillerson well gina by the way i know very well who i work very closely will be the first woman director of the cia she is an outstanding personal also i have got to know her well so i've gotten to know a lot of people very well over the last year and i'm really at a point where we're getting very close to having the capital and other things that

i want but i think mike pump aoe will be a truly great secretary of state i have total confidence in him and as far as rex tillerson is concerned i very much appreciate his commitment that his service and i wish him well and good bad. record and i've been talking about this for a long time we we got a long actually quite well but we disagreed on things when you look at the iran deal i think it's terrible i guess but it was ok i wanted to see the brake it or do something and he felt a little bit differently so we were not really thinking the same with my my company and we have a very similar thought process i think it's going to go very well rex is a very good man i like rex a lot i really appreciate his commitment to this service and i'll be speaking

directly over a long period of time. you know i really didn't just. yes that's very much honestly i made that decision by myself breakfast wasn't as you know in our in this country i made the north korea decision with consultation from many people but i made that decision by myself. i actually got along well with rex but really it was a different mindset it was a different thank you. i. say it again. i respect his intellect i respect the process that we've all gone through together we have a very good relationship for whatever reason chemistry whatever it is why do people

get along i've always right been beginning from day one i got along well with bike bum fail and frankly i get along well with rex do and you know i wish rex a lot of good things i think he's going to do i think he's going to be very happy i think rex will be much happier now but i really appreciate his service but with mike we've had a very good chemistry right from the beginning. well it sounds to me i'm making three to make today it sounds to me like it would be right based on all of the evidence they have i don't know if they've come to a conclusion but she's calling me today as you know now we're going to the wall we're going out to the wall we're going to be looking at the protocol which is very important for our country but the reason may is going to be speaking to me today it sounds to me like they believe it was right and i would certainly take that finding

is that. yes soon as we get the facts straight and we're going to be speaking with the british today we're speaking with kerry to make today and as. soon as we get the facts straight if we agree with that we will condemn russia or whatever it may be but i have not spoken to us because sometime today. we're very happy with the decision by the house intelligence committee saying there was absolutely no collusion with respect to russia had it was a very powerful decision a very strong decision backed up i understand they're going to be releasing hundreds of pages of proof and evidence but we are very very happy with that decision it was a powerful decision that left no doubt so i want to thank the house intelligence

committee and all of the people that are. i'm looking at larry kudlow very strongly i don't i'm a long time we don't agree on everything but in this case i think that's good i want to have a divergence of opinion we agree on most. he now has come around to believing in paris as also when we got here i didn't quite get i'm renegotiating great deal and without power we wouldn't do nearly as well but larry is that a friend of mine for a long time he backed me very early in the campaign i think the earliest i think it was one of my original backers he's a very very talented man a good man and i think larry kudlow has a good jazz i'm also speaking to many others but i think larry has a very good thank you all out to you i'll see you at the wall i'll see you at the wall. all right that was u.s.

president donald trump speaking just a short while ago about his decision to sack his secretary of state rex tillerson let's go right to washington d. davies carson phenomenon standing by for us carson the president saying there that there were clear differences on policy with rex tillerson calling him a good man saying they get along how surprising is this decision. it is surprising in the sense that the timing is all it's to fire the secretary of state just off to his trip to africa where his mission was to mend fences after the president himself reportedly called african countries shipped home countries rex tillerson was there to you know reestablish the alliances with important partners in the fight against terrorism also to make sure that trade opportunities for american companies in africa remain and so that

definitely undercut this diplomatic efforts there has been talk about rex tillerson being on the way all of four months actually at beginning of the year a lot of people here in washington expected him to go and then the president said no he would stay i guess just to. make it clear that he's the one calling the shots and not the media and so now the timing was a surprise but not necessarily the decision to fire rex tillerson because and we understand also from what the president was saying that he didn't actually speak to rex tillerson before firing him tell us and apparently he's unaware for the reasons of his firing is that right. there's at least what we hear from the state department also a number of reporters who went with rex tillerson. to africa and back they said there was no indication when they were on the plane that this was going to happen

though the white house as rex tillerson was told already on friday. he would be relieved from his post but. apparently not from the president himself and so rex tillerson this sort of wondering why this happened i found it also quite remarkable that donald trump once again sent out a tweet announcing this and in his coleman so far has not said a lot about rex tillerson just that he's a good man and he appreciates his service but these are the things that you say when you get rid of unwanted employees carson an unwanted employee they've had a rocky relationship since the beginning of trump's presidency has this been then really a long time coming. in a way yes donald trump said himself that he shows rex tillerson. because he looked the part of secretary of state had a number of options he chose the formal or the c.e.o.

because he doesn't trump it he would cut a good figure in this job but then he undercuts rex tillerson time and again when so many issues don't trump himself mentions a few in his statement that we saw a few minutes ago. on iran on north korea they clearly had different opinions again now while he was in africa and rex tillerson condemned the russian role in the poisoning of performance by the u.k. in much stronger words on the trump himself on the white house so there were definitely disagreements rex tillerson reportedly called on the trump more on after discussion over afghanistan strategy and he never really didn't he said that so we can assume he probably did say that donald trump doesn't forget such things and so he was probably just waiting for

a good time from his perspective to get rid of to listen now in contrast to that difficult relationship cost and donald trump speaking in a statement earlier a lot about the person he's bringing into this job mike pompei oh let's listen to what he said about my campaign. we're always on the same wavelength. the relationship has been very good that's what i. say. so we're always on the same wavelength carson is that why he's been floated for this job. you know this is i guess by far the most important qualification for any member of the trump team at least if you want to stay in that position in the long run the president really likes to pick people that he gets along with where he. he and the other person click. clearly rex tillerson and on and we're a mismatch apparently mike compare who has

a much better relationship personal relationship with the president so that would probably help him to be seen also as a really spokes person in the way in the world as secretary of state a role that rex tillerson never have because people knew that he and the president had different opinions on many issues but once again donald trump is the absolute of a male in this administration so i doubt that mike pompei a will have the room to develop himself as an independent. personality in this white house it will always be the president calling the shots so we know that he sees eye to eye with the president on a lot of issues but what do you think we can expect from him in terms of foreign policy what experience has he had there what record has they have there. well he doesn't have too much foreign policy experience neither had rex tillerson

by the way even though of course as. c.e.o. he was traveling the world might bump a you has traveled much less as cia director he went to saudi arabia and turkey and earlier as a member of congress he went to the east room among other countries but he doesn't have a real foreign policy profile he was always more interested in the military homeland security and terrorism and also energy so doing these were the areas he was dealing with when he was a member of congress but ok as i said. in this white house this administration the one who calls the show is the president anyway and my phone peo has to basically deal with that has to do with some learning by doing him in carson the president talking earlier about how early how important it was rather for him to have another ally in his cabinet let's listen to what he said there about that.

i'm really at a point where we're getting very close to having the capital and other things that i want. ok he's getting close to the cabinet that he wants a year and there's been a long list of people have been fired from the administration who have left the administration last week it was his top economic adviser gary cohn if he's getting close to having the cabinet that he wants are we finally going to see some continuity. as you said there has been a long list of people that have been replaced most in the white house one also in his cabinet and i guess if he could he would also get rid of a few people there tony general jeff sessions comes to mind on the trump is still angry that sessions recused himself from the russian investigation and in the white house there's also some speculation that his already second to national

security security adviser general. might be leaving soon there is speculation that his second chief of staff john kelly to a certain extent for a few months that this administration this white tells will ever be a normal white house in the traditional sense. is correspondent cost and it fundament saying there is more turbulence ahead likely at the white house catherine thank you very much and let's get some reactions now from here in europe better brussels studio we have a correspondent garrick not to standing by for us hi carol have there been no reactions official reaction there yet. what i've heard from nato so far is that they declined to comment on domestic affairs of nato member states and the same thing basically for for the e.u. so far no reaction i think you will be very careful of the wording they will have to find to welcome the new secretary of state careful of not poor ink more oil into

the an already difficult relationship the transatlantic relations of the current he has with with the u.s. but you can be sure that behind the scenes this is unsettling news the big problem when i talk to diplomats who travel to the u.s. to politicians who travel to us the response was always the same we don't know who really speaks for this administration other than donald trump so i think coston got it bang on when he says the president is the one who's calling the shots and there's always this insecurity who else can we trust who can we rely on when it comes to the u.s. administration's point a few of certain issues now this adds to the engine insecurity on the european site especially garrett because they built a relationship with rex tillerson what kind of partner was he for the european union. absolutely look he came to brussels to meet nato to meet the e.u. institutions in d.c.

in december last year and he came at a time when donald trump not only questioned the iran nuclear deal where the us key bringing it about he also questions article five of nature the mutual defense mechanism the core that the transatlantic alliance is all about and it was also the time when he suggested for the first time that the embassy in israel could be moved to jerusalem so all very difficult topics and at that time and let me quote to rex tillerson what he said at the time when he came here basically assuring european partners that the u.s. will stand by their size he said the partnership between america and the european union is based on shared values shared objectives for security and prosperity on both sides of the atlantic and the u.s. remains fully committed to that relationship and that was the sort of language that went down very well with european partner that is the the core idea of a multilateral relationship something the e.u. was seeking to half with

a key partner on the other side of the atlantic and that is something that donald trump did not stand for at all and that's it comes at a time carrick now with rex tillerson sacking where we've seen relations between the e.u. and the u.s. struggling especially with donald trump announcing a tariff economic tariffs on steel and aluminum what does this mean for the future of this relationship. you name it we're we're on the verge of a trade war is what diplomats have told me yesterday i talked to the the for the economy minister of france for instance he said he's very much concerned about how things can move forward this week we're we're bound to have a key talks with the u.s. on how things can move forward in order to avoid an outright trade war with the u.s. and of course this adds to the insecurity to the concerns that there is a hardening of positions and if you look at his successor now mike pompei you know he's known to be a hard liner here in brussels not only when it comes to the iran nuclear deal is

something the you very much cares about but also two other positions as carson is said to you is on the same wavelength. as donald trump and that is the key concern here that this will lead to a hardening a bit of positions particularly also now when it comes to this key issue of tariffs on aluminum and steel and he's also been an outspoken critic of the iran deal must be said there is an argument that could be made to carry that until now the e.u. had a partner and rex tillerson who was at odds with the president and they didn't know if you was really speaking for the trumpet ministration could we possibly see an improvement in relations if now that you has essentially a door to the white house that is in lockstep with the president. what of course that's one way of looking at it and potentially if anything that adds to clarity will help him potentially go she ations whether it's be in the in the on the

economic side or it's on political issues one of the key aspects of politicians i've told you of travel to the u.s. is this sort of insecurity they don't know what the white house really wants and that makes of course any sort of negotiations like with threats that for instance very difficult if you don't know what the other side really wants other than. a tweet here and there and suddenly a statement then an official who comes and says oh no don't worry things will be fine that makes things difficult so yes i mean in a sense that could help the relationship on the other hand some here in brussels say it was always people like rex tillerson who pulled the american president back brought him to reason children the real facts the real concerns of the issue and made clear that multilateralism having close partners having close ties is absolutely key in international relations trying to scare us with the view from brussels thank you garrick and more reaction now this time from

moscow we have a correspondent mia dragon so rich standing by for us there hi neal what reactions have you heard there from the kremlin so far. well there is no official reaction yet the spokesperson of the russian foreign ministry. out of i just joked tillers and is gone blame russia for that as well but my guess is that the russians won't shed a tear for mr tell us if they want to shed a tear how was he seen in moscow well he was a disappointment to the kremlin from the very beginning president putin hand and administration expected the improvement of the russian american relationship after president. jump became of the trump became president and mr rex tillerson his secretary of state well tell us it was c.e.o. of exxon mobil he was in russia many times he also met putin several times so

the russians thought he was really a friend of this country but alternately as you know the relationship between russia and america got worse and worse and to some extent the russians blame also for mr towser for that. now my pump aoe who has been the director of the cia until this point he's actually agreed with his own agency's assessment that russia interfered in the us elections in two thousand and sixteen any the kitchen of how he might be seen there it might not be much of a change in policy after all. that's true but bill said just a couple of days ago that russian russia's president putin claim that russians government did not meddle in the two thousand and sixteen election is sold so he said the russians attempted to interfere in the u.s. election but pale said this to fox news i think last sunday he also said that the russians at times at subversion and america and europe have not to diminish so.

from a russian perspective is some kind of cold warrior i don't think that they think that the relationship between america and russia will not prove the opposite is probably true they will be i think his perspective on russia is this is really the enemy it's not the partner to solve problems in syria in afghanistan or elsewhere get of use me as our good source for us in moscow neal thank you very much well we heard donald trump earlier saying to reporters we'll see you at the wall that's because he's on his way to california he's due to inspect prototypes of the wall he wants to build along the border with mexico before setting off he held that impromptu briefing with reporters to speak about tillerson and his replacement michael pompei a let's listen in again to what he had to say. i've worked

with mike bomb failed now for quite some time. from mendis energy tremendous in the last year always on the same wavelength. the relationship has been very good that's what i did as secretary of state i wish rex tillerson well gina by the way why i know very well why i work very closely well be the first woman director of the cia she is an outstanding personal also i have gotten over well so i've gotten to know a lot of people very well over the last year and i'm really at a point where we're getting very close to having the capital and other things that i want but i think mike pump aoe will be a truly great secretary of state i have total confidence in him and as far as rex tillerson is concerned i very much appreciate his commitment that his service and i wish him well and good down.

rex and i've been talking about this for a long time we we've got a long actually quite well but we disagreed on things when you look at the iran deal i think it's terrible i guess but it was ok i wanted to see the brake it or do something and he felt a little bit differently so we were not really thinking the same with my my company a we have a very similar thought process i think it's going to go very well rex is a very good man and i like rex a lot i really appreciate his commitment to this service and i'll be speaking directly over a long period of time. you know i really didn't just. yes it's very much for them honestly i made that decision by myself rex was just as you know in our is this country i made the north

korea decision with consultation from many people but i made that decision by myself. i actually got along well with rex but really it was a different mindset it was a different thank you. i'd. say it again. i respect his intellect i respect the process that we've all gone through together we have a very good relationship for whatever reason time is whatever it is why do people get along i've always right from the beginning from day one i got along well with by phone i frankly i get along well with rex too and you know i we record a lot of good things i think he's going to do i think he's going to be very happy i think rex will be much happier now but i really appreciate his service but with

mike we've had a very good chemistry right from the beginning. that was donald trump a speaking in washington a little bit earlier during that statement he also said that he will speak with his british counterpart theresa may today that's because the sacking of rex tillerson comes as the u.k. is demanding that russia must explain why a deadly nerve agent developed by the soviet era military was used in an assassination attempt to resign may says she wants an explanation from the kremlin by midnight today and she's gotten backing from her european allies to a from here in germany a conservative ally of a chancellor merkel has said there should be a joint western response if russia doesn't come up with answers the former russian spy sergei script all and his daughter remain in critical condition more than a week after being found unconscious in the city of salzburg. this is where as the prime minister puts it somebody attacked the u.k. authorities say the nerve agent was made in russia the question is who deployed it

a rogue element for the russian state. mr speaker this attempted murder using a weapons grade nerve agent in a british town was not just a crime against the script files it was an indiscriminate and reckless act against the united kingdom putting the lives of innocent civilians at risk officially moscow says it has nothing to do with the incident a russian foreign ministry spokeswoman said made a statement was a circus show put on for parliament russian state t.v. went even further if the problem was crushing if you think about it the only ones who would benefit from the poisoning other british in order to feed the russophobia that's why you are all software. people in salzburg who are near where the attack took place have been told to wash their clothes russia's ambassador to the u.k. has been asked to say whether his government was responsible for the russians if moscow fails to lay suspicions that the kremlin was behind the attack to recent may

has promised a robust response although she did not say what that would be. thank you mr speaker we have our correspondent alex forrest waiting with us she's been following this story hi alex why is it the britain is so sure that russia is behind this because this nerve agent novacek scientists have proved was developed in the seventy's and eighty's for the soviet military as part of the cold war strategy now scientists porton down that they for government's own scientific area have been examining and testing this they've said that it's highly toxic they don't believe it's ever been used before and so it has come as a big shock to them now russia has continued to deny any involvement in this because the prime minister has self has said they either use. it intentionally rushed on the use it intentionally or it had lost control of the nerve agent which was equally equally worrying why do you think that theresa may has issued

a deadline here to say we want answers by midnight but i believe that she was really hoping to go on a support and she was doing really well up until rex tillerson was she had the support from nato from rex tillerson so from the u.s. from the e.u. germany france now obviously it's become a little bit. more difficult to say exactly where we're going with this we know that as we heard donald trump is expecting a call from theresa may this choose day he has said that he thinks that it will that it sounds like the work of russia and that if you agrees with the british findings he will condemn russia or who ever it may be so this is not to strong as rex tillerson who gave a very adamant statement this morning so given that bit of backtracking perhaps from washington where does this leave theresa may if russia does not give her the answer she wants by this deadline what kind of options are she have on the table to

strike back sort of thing well i must say that the e.u. have kind of come to her rescue this afternoon and they have said that it was that they were ready to support the u.k. if asked now obviously. they can expel diplomats they can revoke visas they can freeze bank accounts these are russians in the u.k. who may have links to the kremlin if any of this is proved so she can do that that has been done before but i think they want to go much further there is talk about the u.k. consulting allies in nato about invoking article five of the principle of common defense you one of our members you heard all of us but again that does depend on where the u.s. is with this because you definitely need the u.s. support when it comes to nato so i think it's very fluid at the mo. and the u.k. will just be hoping that they can persuade donald trump to support whatever action they dean is necessary so teresa mayes got

a lot of support from her allies what about at home coming down so tough on russia it's proved very popular she was in parliament yesterday giving this statement and she it went very well with actually all sides of the house of commons the any slightly dissenting voice was jeremy corbyn who's the leader of the labor party he made a comment about the fact that the conservative party have had a lot of donations from russian link on the guards but that didn't go down well in the house of commons even on his own side he was criticised for that but i think all in all trees amazed looking strongly here it's not been an easy time for her particularly of the brics it so she wants to come out on top and to prove that she can keep people in the u.k. say all right our correspondent alex forrest whiting of bringing us the very latest on that story thank you alex. or if you're just joining us of the top story that we're following for you is that u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson has been fired after completing a tour of africa that was apparently cut short sources say he hasn't been told why

he's out of the job a cia director mike pompei on what has been nominated to succeed him. all right more on the story now we have our correspondent a political correspondent here in the studio with us robert vito bald and we have crossing phenomena again with us from washington good to have you both on this story robert let's start with you what has there been any reaction here and berlin to this story yes the state minister in the foreign office which is some sort of a deputy minister of tweeted about the. budget interesting actually because he said the dismissal of rex tillerson does not make anything better which in the end means that the german government doesn't really think that. that the success of rex tillerson is going to improve the already bad relations between the u.s.

and germany why what have those relations been i mean what was the relationship between rex tillerson and germany to this point well rex tillerson is not really known as a big friend of germany he doesn't really have very many contacts he had to germany he was not as critical towards germany president trombones but to many here in germany when rex tillerson came into office it was somewhat of a piece of white paper nobody really knew what rex tillerson really stood full. many here in germany think that rex listened was someone who tried to. calm down the policies of president trump a bit that he was the one that made it possible that deals like the iran nuclear deal or that that's a. smooth approach to the north korean crisis that this made this at least possible calmed down the approach of the president from on

that's i guess the reason why the deputy minister in the foreign office reacted not way is it fair after seeing that reaction to say that there's been a deal frustration here in berlin with what's essentially been a revolving door in the white house i don't know if it's frustration with the revolving door but there's quite a lot of frustration with the policies of the united. states in a hole if we look at what donald trump has been saying on the not only german american relations but at the relations the united states both while that the classical west western europe the nature states everything was very critical everything was put under a question mark there and people like to listen here was seen as people were like the last from should the last border before things would go really bunkers and to put it in a very frank way so that now that the us now is relieving i think the frustration level in the german construction is going to rise there you know and that's the

view here in berlin carson let's come to you in washington now what are some of the reactions bear been there this morning you said this didn't come and tiredly a surprise but still the timing wasn't what was expected. exactly and that timing also is void has been met with some criticism to fire your secretary of state basically just after a critical trip to africa a trip where rex tillerson the secretary of state was trying to mend fences with a lot of important allies in the fight against terrorism on the african continent after president trump reportedly called african nations shithole countries that didn't go down well because it once again undercuts the efforts of the diplomatic service and the top diplomats to do something good for america in the world and also that apparently rex tillerson wasn't informed by the president

personally allegedly he was informed on friday already other reports say that he learned this from the tweet of the president only in any case he apparently didn't want to leave because one of his under-secretaries at the state department says that to listen had every intention to leave so once again this is a no new low when it comes to how to deal with hiring king person in the u.s. administration and has been criticized by many here in washington question we've been talking about the fact that they had a very you know and battled well ation ship bed during trance presidency what was the biggest point of contention between these two. well president trump himself mentioned a few in particular i think the iran nuclear deal president trump is set against that deal he wants to get rid of it he wants to end it or at least change

it in a major way of course something that is not acceptable for the iranians and also for the other partners in that agreement including germany and other european countries so that is one issue where the two clearly clashed another one was the strategy for afghanistan apparently after one such meeting there were reports that rex tillerson called president trump a moron and rex tillerson never explicitly deny it's he said that and also on north korea clearly rex tillerson wanted to have dialogue much earlier than donald trump and donald trump in another tweet said save your energy rex we've go another way and these are only a few issues but i think the most important point is that the two never really got along on a person the level of the never clicked and there have been reports here for

a long time that rex tillerson was kept out of the loop of trumps in a circle so question are we going to see a change in foreign policy coming from the white house now. well yes and no and my point here would probably leave much closer in many ways to the on the trumpet i think he sees eye to eye with the president on iran and also korea. when it comes to russia's involvement in the american elections in two thousand and sixteen there also michael pale with all its explicit denouncing the findings of the intelligence community and the cia. has been the boss for more than a year now he always made sure also that he didn't tread too far away from the white house not of donald trump on that we don't know for sure yet and so i think there will be a new approach in the sense that people might have more comfort talking to my

co-pay with that was my complaint was say as is indeed what president trump things but america's foreign policy will remain as current sake and unpredictable as donald trump is all right well that brings me to you what does this mean for germany looking at american foreign policy going forward i mean my compare doesn't necessarily have a proven record in foreign policy what can for lynn expect well that's the big question here and what we have already heard from several foreign policy experts here especially within that they will make is that they will say well the kaos is going on monday of course is not really an answer we really would like to hear but . in the end it's b. have the same situation as we had when donald trump came into office and everybody was well there were many question marks on how the foreign policy of the united states is going to wolf and now again we have these these big question marks is in the end what we're looking at is

a blank piece of paper but someone needs right on what are the biggest priorities now to establish with my cum pail as he takes this position i think the most of the foreign policy experts here in germany want to know is of course what's. going to hop into the aria iran nuclear deal with deal how is your north korea policy what are you going to do with russia these are the three key problems your policies germany just wants to know how trump wants to go there all right a lot of questions that will be. that germany will be asking there are a political correspondent richard veto evolved and we have some phenomena with us in washington thank you both we'll be talking to you both of course during the course of the day let us go back to brussels though for more reaction from europe to say i believe is still standing by for us there garrick if you can hear me what does this mean for the e.u. and also nato to institutions that have really been looking for some stability from

washington. of this announcement to me comes at a time when the e.u. is practically on the board of a trade war the e.u. institutions currently very keen in order to avoid such a scenario i've been told by the french finance minister for instance that key talks are to be held this week on the issue of how such a trade war could be. it all started with president trump clearly announcing that he would slap tariffs on steel imports and on the minimum imports and the new announcing counter measures so in turn slapping tariffs on u.s. products coming to europe that again meant that donald trump has said look then i will in turn demand that you reduce tariffs that you already have in place so it's a difficult situation economically but also politically a number of issues the that rupert but also carson here in the u.s.

just mentioned on the political agenda the iran deal we have key differences we have in general a relationship currently between the e.u. and its key ally the united states that is to be sacked with contradictions as something that is completely new to the brussels political set up here. and so clearly this adds now to the insecurity the unstability of that relationship with rex tillerson being someone who is least was considered to be sort of a solid. address someone who at least acknowledged that values and that that there is a commitment on the u.s. part there is a strong relationship and that is something that that counts so what do representatives there in brussels have to do to now and. basically reestablish this relationship going forward. very difficult to predict i mean of course they'll be. very careful about the wording of welcoming his successor which they

know is a hard liner when it comes to the iran deal which they know is someone who is very much on the same page on a lot of issues also regarding trade relations someone who believes that the current import tariffs on such things as cars are awkward cultural products from the u.s. are are quite quite high that the europeans here are protecting their markets something the u.s. would like to change and so you know it's the the anti e.u. views that donald trump holds and that is the real key concern here on the european side that this this successor might pump aoe will be someone who will not calm down things but who will excess or bait and who will strengthen donald trump is critical few of the e.u. . with the exit of the e.u. is partner in the white house do you think that we can say that the in the u.s.

will continue to drift further apart. that's hard hard to predict i mean there is clearly behind the scenes you have that concern at the same time we should also not accept the role of rex tillerson here there was always the concern does he really represent the few of the administration and then also it's also bear in mind he recently gave a speech on europe his only speech on europe and he practically mentioned in the entire speech the ward e.u. the key political club representing european states twenty eight of those european states in fact as you mentioned the e.u. once in that speech so he has he has been more careful about treading on the political ground here with europe he was. key that he emphasized that that we there is fundamental values that should be cherished with the e.u. partner but he was no big friend of the e.u.

either that should also be mentioned all right might not be much of a change going forward garrett not just for us in brussels thank you garrick was we mention a little while ago a donald trump has also said that he will speak with his british counterpart theresa may today and that's because this all comes as britain has told moscow it has until the end of the day to explain why a deadly nerve agent produced only in russia was used in an apparent assassination attempt against a former spy prime minister may has threatened extensive fratelli atory measures if no explanation is given a moscow insists it will only cooperate with the british investigation if it receives samples of this nerve agent in question and meanwhile british authorities are continuing their probe into the poisoning of the russian ex-pirate his daughter the substance use has been identified as the military grade nerve agent know the chalk. and to tell us more about that since we have good ideas derek williams from

our science desk with us hi derek what is know what kind of nerve agent is this well what's interesting about it actually is that is how little we really know about it it was designed by the soviets back in the one nine hundred seventy s. and the one nine hundred eighty s. in sort of secret bases and we only found out about it actually originally in the one nine hundred ninety s. know we talk as if it's. it's a liquid it can also be a powder it's an entire series of different substances and it's an extremely powerful nerve agent it's estimated that it's five to eight times more powerful than other nerve agents like for example star and or the nerve agent which was used to kill conjunctions brother in malaysia last year and maybe we're not getting into too many details how does that work well it's the way that it works fundamentally your entire body works with electrical signals which the less electricity which is the signals from your brain or carry the electricity to your muscles and they tell

you what to do to raise my hand or to lower it but the whole time there are all of these signals going on in the background of what's called the vegetative system so the muscles for example that expand and contract as you're breathing or the muscle of your heart that beats and pumps the blood basically what this nerve agent does is it interferes with that electrical signal and so when those signals aren't arriving properly then you can begin to actually suffocate you're not you're not breathing the air that you need in order to live and you stuff it's a really really horrendous terrific thing that causes major brain damage along the way sort of a really potent substance here how is it that it was transported to this town in salisbury. one of the interesting aspects of this that is that it's a substance that works on what's what's called a binary with binary components which means that it's made of some precursor materials that you mix together in the right ratios and that's what actually ends up producing this incredibly deadly nerve agent so but the precursor substances in and of themselves are not toxic which makes it easy or would make it easy

theoretically to transport them across international borders so how is it actually used in this case how was that administered on sergei script on his daughter yulia it's not really completely clear actually the timeline of and looking at this all day long and it's very interesting police seem to be focusing on his car and the there might be a possibility there that it was introduced into the ventilation system of the car but that doesn't seem. if it with a timeline afterwards they went to the couple the father and his daughter went to to a restaurant in the visited the pub generally it was and healed as a power it should have acted very very quickly and should have acted swiftly within a couple of minutes to kill them and that if they appear to have visited a restaurant in a pub along the way so it's not really exactly clear exactly how it was missed i thought he's issuing some safety precautions to people who live in the area is this a major public health danger well it i think that the up and no we're about a week alone and the authorities are saying if people haven't begun to show

symptoms gente then it's but most of the people are probably going to be out of the woods the good thing about this particular substance is that it seems to be degraded by water so by spraying down the street southwards that they walked along by wiping down all of the surface as it's also degraded by water actually in the atmosphere and so it will break down and actually fairly quickly at least that's the hope of british authorities racing to find out more about how this agent was used derrick williams from our science desk thank you very much for you ok back now to our top story here at g.w.s. secretary of state rex tillerson has been fired after completing a tour of africa that was apparently cut short a sources suggest he hasn't been told why he's out of a job cia director my pump a.o.'s been nominated to succeed him. back to use carson fundament in washington carson have we heard anything from rex tillerson yet. no not from rex tillerson but there was

a statement by one of his under secretaries in the state department steve goldstein who said. rex tillerson wanted to stay on and has not been told at least not by the president apparently why he was fired i mean there are a number of reasons there were disagreements on a number of policy issues on iran on north korea and afghanistan and so on also there were disagreements on style and i think rex tillerson never really. got accustomed to with the very inflammatory style of donald trump speaking he said at one stage that the president speaks for him self that was the donald trump's commons regarding racist attacks in charlottesville against the fascist or and he racist demonstrators so the two really didn't get

along that well and all of that of course contributed to the firing of rex tillerson but it looks like rex tillerson has not been told by the president himself that he was fired and why he was fired because and as you've been saying you know he had business to being pushed out for months really vow to hold on to his job so why does this come now. well the white house. this is now because donald trump wants to reassemble restructure his foreign policy and national security team had of a potential summit with north korean dictator kim jong un and in that way dead would make sense then it's of course interesting to see whether there will be more changes the national security adviser general mouse is one candidate that has been in the spotlight for some time now the speculation that he might be on the

way out because also like moused on the president don't get along very well on a personal level and they also have a number of disagreements on policy so this might be just the beginning of a major reshuffle and once again the president probably wants to bring together people that he can relate to and that he thinks of him in preparation for his meeting with north korea's leader yet carson the president actually indicated that earlier when he was speaking at the white house let's listen to what he had to say about my pump ale. we are always on the same wavelength. the relationship is very good that's what i see as secretary of state. ok carson so you think that we're always on the same wavelength how have these two might pump aoe the director of the cia until now and donald trump worked together until now.

well mike pump a.o. is a member of the or former member of the tea party faction within the republican party so he's a conservative. clearly to the riots of the old republican establishment and he has been a hard liner on security issues and also on counterterrorism issues for some time so i think there is a connection to the instincts of the on the trump and then apparently the two have clicked on like trump to listen and they got along and also was quite interesting to see. mike from peo as director of the cia always tread a very fine thread a very fine line when it came to the question if and how russia interfered in the u.s. election in two thousand and sixteen didn't really contradict the findings of the intelligence community and his own agency russia was involved but he also made sure

that he didn't stray too far away from the line said by the on the trump who always insists that well in the end we don't really know what happened right because he's course unaccustomed to reporting from washington past and thank you will be speaking to you know a little bit. and if you're just joining us are reminder of this top story u.s. secretary of state fired after completing a tour of africa that was apparently should cut short so this isn't just he hasn't been told why he's out of a job cia director mike pompei you know as we said has now been nominated to six feet have a. star you're watching t.v. you news still go we'll have more full coverage of the story for you coming up in just a few minutes. the

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president donald trump sachs who secretary of state tell us that have just completed a tour of africa a total was apparently cut short so suggests he has not been told why he's out of a job. president trump meanwhile has been heaping praise on the man he wants to replace rex tell us a cia director mike pump.