this. president as. commissioner secretary of state. related midnight thirty first. cia director. saying. quote. the spine of the. quiet english city will.

explain. now police are investigating the unexplained death of yet. it's good to have you with us even in the chaos of the trump administration today's exit has shocked and stunned much of the world u.s. president. his secretary of state rex tillerson the president broke the surprise news on twitter announcing cia director mike as his new choice to be america's top diplomat a short while ago made a statement in which he warned of the challenges that his successor will face around the world especially from russia. and much work remains to respond of the troubling behavior and actions of on the part of the russian government russia must

assess carefully as to how its actions are in the best interest of the russian people and of the world more broadly. continuing on their current trajectory is likely to lead to greater isolation on their part of the situation which is not it in one's interest. taylor said was reportedly on a tour of africa when it's said that he first heard the news of his sacking so that too of course was cut short the world may have been shocked but to washington insiders tillerson is departure came as no big surprise they've known about friction between trump and his secretary of state for some time. rex tillerson initially seemed an unusual pick for secretary of state. the former head of exxon mobil was an oil man from texas with no foreign policy experience but as a washington outsider he also fit in with the unconventional nature of the new

trump administration at the start of trump appear to have great confidence in him. retro be a fierce advocate for america's interests around the world and has the insights and talents necessary to help reverse years of foreign policy blunders and disaster i barely six months into the job reports started to circulate that to listen to relationship with the president had soured on. a very very luckily i was told. wasn't right. but the two men were known to be at odds over a number of people i guess it was ok i wanted to use a break it would be something he felt a little bit differently. trying was also accused of publicly undermining tillerson

on several occasions went to listen talks about the possibility of direct dialogue with north korea last december trump said he was quote wasting his time to listen also appeared to be caught off guard about the recent offer of talks to pyongyang on his trip to africa last week or perhaps the lowest point was when to listen failed to deny outright reports that he had called trump a moron even so he said he was not expecting to be fired and had wanted to stay in the job. you know washington insiders saying this was definitely not a bromance let's go now to our correspondent in washington carson phenomena good evening to you karsten there had been rumblings of differences between the president and his secretary of state the question seemed to be not whether mr tillerson would go but rather when that is absolutely true this speculation that was on his way all it's have been

around for many months now having said that the timing of the firing. is all votes surprising even to many observers of the political scene here in washington apparently it had been in the making for a few weeks and we heard today from some insiders with said well we saw it coming but it was a bombshell when it became public today and it was also not the best timing when you look at it to listens trip to africa because he was on a mission to mend fences with important allies such as nigeria kenya and ethiopia after the president himself had been sunsets and african countries and it looks like that the all the branch that rex tillerson had been holding to the african leaders now has been burned by trump i don't think that he cares

a lot but definitely this is an all it's timing to fire your secretary of state just hours after he returns from an important foreign trip you know the very important point to make and we know that mr tillotson it seems was blindsided by this announcement today the u.s. president however he was rather candid we need discussed why he let tillerson take a list. correction i've been talking about this for a long time we we got along actually quite well but we disagreed on thing when you look at the iran deal i think it's terrible i guess but it was ok i wanted he's a break it or something and he felt a little bit differently so we were not really taking this. so it sounds like there karsten you know he's does the president describing oil in water i mean these men apparently did not mix well at all. even though donald

trump insisted they got along well i don't think that's true and at the beginning as we've also seen in the reports there was a kind of honeymoon period but the relationship soured pretty quickly and the two men just have very different character sperry different approaches rex tillerson himself said at one point that he stood he was still learning how to communicate with the president and apparently it just didn't work out and so of course that decision you might say is make sense at some point and who pops ways once again the timing was clearly odds. and now that we know television is leaving in about a month or so what can we expect from the incoming secretary of state pump a. well we can expect is a foreign policy chief who is more aligned with the president that is on hope at

the state department where many civil servants saw with concern that their influence on. the government and its foreign policy was diminished under to listen simply because he didn't click with the president so that might be different and we might see to put it in a positive way a more coherent american foreign policy and no longer one where the secretary of state is a repeatedly contradicted by his boss so i think when people talk to my compay with they can be much more assured that what he says also reflects the views of donald trump our washington correspondent carsten phenomenon the story for us tonight carson thank you very much. police in britain are investigating a mysterious death the death of a russian exile in london now counterterrorism police are looking into his death

but they do not believe that it's linked to last week's nerve agent attack on a russian spy the body was found in a suburb of southwest london british media have identified the man as nikolai. but he he was a former associate we understand of russian oligarchs boars bears also who himself died in mysterious circumstances at his home near london five years ago. are joining us now is correspondent just give it in london good evening to you. what do we know so far about the investigation into blueish call death. well he was found as you said yesterday night by his stop there and there are at the five three points that he had traces of strangulation on his neck. and it was god has for thirty eight years been

a friend of his because. they were who of ration aches and sleeping in london and this circumstances of sever of death death has been quite suspicious so we can definitely say that they connected at the moment as more experience dealing with have profound s.s.e. nations russians and it would like the police on linking this to the poisoning of the eggs spy who fell ill insults bury me what more can you tell us they are. well and they don't link it aunt but we also don't know a lot about the death of your scoffing at the moment said skinny balinese start they really are remain critically ill at hospital and two recently has given russia to night to explain how the nerve agent.

could was able to reach this country because. that the british government is very clearly pointing at russia and so if if there is no clear explanation really probably we'll see some measures taken tomorrow but to use a man being announced during the day against russia and as we had said earlier bush called as been leaked to the russian oligarch boris verizon's scheme i mean who is he. when he was working in the ninety's we had a soft ski in russia that and he has remained friends with him he went to prison at the beginning of two thousand in russia for fraud at the battlefield not left the country and was seeking a political asylum here in london and so this whole group

has made a lot of enemies in russia it has had dealings in real estate. with four man f.s.b. agents in bold there's a lot of maffia. going around so if any of these enemies now are on every bench because. scott has actually said that he didn't believe it was as a. natural as committed suicide so maybe this every truly asen from format i think would be a chance that we don't know that yet lots of unanswered questions tonight that is for sure of course want to test this just give its influence as a thank you. and in the case of the poisoned russian spy and his dollar britain has told moscow that it has until the end of today to explain why a deadly nerve agent produced only in russia was used in the apparent attempted murder on british soil of the prime minister as

a threat extensive retaliatory measures but moscow is insisting that it will only cooperate with the british investigation if it receives a sample of the nerve agent in question which is known as no vigil. the kremlin has escalated a standoff with the u.k. over the poisoned ex by the foreign minister said britain isn't complying with moscow's requests to see some plates of the nav agent which he called a violation of the convention to ban chemical weapons. but you can the russia is not guilty russia is ready to cooperate in accordance with the chemical weapons convention only if the united kingdom will deign to fulfill its legal obligations to the same convention that was the part of the caribbean. but keep british allies have caused doubt on claims that russia wasn't involved. but it sounds to me like

they believe this is russia and i would certainly say that finding is that. british police say they're not ready yet to name a specific suspect in the crime or even a person of interest. hundreds of office says continuing their investigation in the english town of saulsbury the british government has vowed to retaliate for a measure as if russia fails to allay suspicions that the kremlin was behind the attack. it's very important that people understand the gravity of what has happened and the outrage that the british government feels about the use of nerve agents use of chemical weapons or against innocent members of the public against innocent police officer on the case or. british prime minister to resign may is set to outline the government's further response on wednesday. i'll be back at the top of the hour with more world news followed by the day

tonight extensive coverage of that stunning decision by the u.s. president to fire the u.s. secretary of state what will it mean for the rest of the war. stories that the world over information a profile of the pentagon's want to express t.w. on facebook and twitter today and in touch.