>> and tv shows, here on "france 24." >>, slow, one of the france 24 correspondence -- thomas lowe, one of the france 24 correspondents around the world. rochelle: these are the top stories we are following this hour. the world-round physicist stephen hawkins has passed away. the 76-year-old was best known for his work on black holes and relativity. we speak to an expert in quantum physics about his scientific contributions. britain calls for an urgent meeting of the human security

council to update members on an investigation into a nerve agent attack on a former russian spy and his daughter. we cross to london for the latest, with benedicte. angela merkel is sworn in for her fourth term as germany's chancellor, putting an end to six months of political drift in europe's biggest economy. ♪ ♪ rochelle: first, our top story. stephen hawking, one of the sharpest minds in modern physics, has died peacefully at his home in cambridge, england, wednesday.is the world-renowned physicist was

best known for his insights on black holes and relativity. history of brief time" an international bestseller. gavin is an expert in quantum physics at the university of warwick. him, icross left to believe. thanks very much for speaking to "france 24." big question, but outline if you can -- what did stephen hawking do for science? gavin: stephen hawking was an inspirational physicist. einstein's time -- one of the things einstein was trying to do was show how gravity and quantum physics can work together. hawking's great legacycy was to make progress onon that problem, because these are the greatest theories we have -- gravity and quantum physics. the fact that they do not work together is probably still the most important foundational problem in physics at the moment. rochelle: reactions of been

pouring in -- have been pouring death.t mr. hawking's some talk about an intellectual vacuum. tell us what this does for the scientific communityty. gavin: so, the scientific community is greatly saddened indeed, and he was a giant of physics, that also, equally, i think he was an inspiration for nonscientists as well, particularly the way he clearly overcame such difficulties with his disability. his to think through such fascinating, complex problems is part of why he was such an inspirational figure. rochelle: an inspiration to millions, you said. if we come back to the heentific advances he did, managed, despite his body being paralyzed, to come up with

theories or help people understand stuff which is sometimes not that accessible. gavin: exactly. in addition to his ground breaking physics, he was really important in terms of popularizing science. i think when i was a kid, really he was probably the only physicist that everybody knew. he was the only person who was really trying to take his workout to the man on n the street, and to help us all to understand the richness and the wonder of physics. he had this comment, this quote, about advising us all to look up at the stars. i think that expresses something about howmportant science is exciting when it is driven by curiosity and driven by a desire to understand the universe around us. rochelle: an expert in quantum physics speaking us to the -- to

us from the university of warwick. thank you. russians go to the polls on sunday to elect a new president, with a poll showing vladimir putin on track to be comfortably reelected. president putin is headed to crimea for a highly symbolic visit. charlie james has more. charlie: for his final day of election campaigning, russian president vladimir putin is headed to crimea. his timing is not accident. march marks the fourth anniversary of russia's annexation of the region from ukrainine, and the p presidentil election was moved from march 11 two march 18, the day moscow describes as the formal ascension of crimea into the russian federation. >> after a difficult, , lengthy, tiriring voyagag crimemeans and sevaststopol are reteturning toe port, to russia. isosolatede annexation

russssia internatitionally, tt american a and european n union sanctions sent putin's popularity skyhigh domestically. efforts to persuade mososcow to pull out of crimea have yielded little to no progress. monday, the european union foreign-policy chief reiterated the bloc's stance. >> we do not recognize the annexation, the so-called elections there, and remain committed to implementing our nonrecognition policy, including through sanctions related to this. charlie: this visit to crimea is one piece of putin's strawman showing ahead of russia's presidential election, the first for cremeans since the 2014 referendum. during his visit, putin will hold a rally expected to be attended by thousands, allowing him to highlight one of his biggest victories to voters just ahead of sunday's vote. britain has called for an urgent meeting of the human security council to update members on the investigation into a nerve agent attack on the

former russian spy and his daughter. the news coming through foreign office. prime minister theresa may said it is highly likely that russia was responsible for the attack , whorgey and yulia skripal remain in critical condition and hospital. it comes after a deadline set by the u.k. for russia to state its possible role in the poisoning expired. an addict -- benedicte is standing by. no mistake, russia has missed that deadline. what is the next step is for as the u.k. is concerned? veryicte: well, at this moment, theresa may, the british prime minister, is at her weekly p.m. q, prime ministers questions. after that, she will make a statement we will carry, and we will be watching very carefully what she announces. we expect her to announce a raft of measures, a raft of measures

that could include travel bans for russian citizens, freezing of assets of russian oligarchs, freezing of bank accounts, expulsion of diplomats -- we expect a great number of the 75 russian diplomats accredited to the court of st. james to be expelled, possibly all the way up to the ambassador. possible not allowing any more -- forbidding "russia today," the state rochester, broadcasting from the u.k., here in london. a raft of measures that she will announce at what is a very serious time. this all because, as the british government says, russia missed the deadline of midnight last night, explaining why and how novichok, a nerve agent, was administered, and poisoned a former russian turned british spy, sergei skripal, 66 years

old, and his daughter who was visiting him, 33 years old. they are both fighting for their lives and in critical condition, in a hospital in the city where ,hey were poisoned, salisbury back on sunday, march 4. rochelle: theresa may unveiling some of those measures there as we speak. are we expecting all measures to be unveiled today, or will there be a trickling down of what is to come in the coming days? i think the announcement and the statement the prime minister will make in about half an hour or so will be a first phase. i think it will be the unilateral rest of measures the united kingdom will take here on british soil. i think we can expect in the coming days a ratcheting up of cooperation and support for other allies. the prime miminister hasas spokn alreready to president macacronf

france. also to the german chancellor, angela merkel. also to donald trump, the u.s. president. really, what she will be seeking is pressure from the e.u., from possible, a wide as raft of measures against russia, as this is the first use, it would seem, of a nerve agent on european soil. one of the other sanctions i have not yet mentioned is a possible boycott by british teams of the football world cup, starting in three months exactly today, in russia. rochelle: benedicte is outside parliament in london for us. thank you. next, angela merkel has been elected -- has been chosen to begin her fourth term as chancellor, ending six months of deadlock since inconclusive elections last september. angela merkel and the centerleft get ready to govern together again.

we look at the challenges that merkel would be facing. reporter: as angela merkel embarks on a fourth term, the first challenge she faces will be to restore discipline within her own party, the christian democratic union. following its poor result in federal elections last september, the cdu found itself weekend, struggling to form a government. when initial talks collapsed, months of deadlock ensued. the social democrats were left as the only possible partner. but to get the spd to sign on to another coalition, the chancellor had to make concessions, seeding key ministerial roles, including the cost of miniature of finance -- minister of finance. >> the fourth grand coalition in germany did not start as a marriage of love. [laughter] csu, and spd, are

despite their differences in a position to work constructively together, and govern decently. that is the job we have, and we will fulfill it. reporter: the cdu will also have to battle the rise of the extreme right. frustration with angela merkel's liberal migration policy propels the alternative for germany and parliament for the first time. the chancellor will have to reestablish herself on the international stage where she has been distracted with domestic issues. emmanuel macron has stepped into her shoes, steering europe. soon be a trip by the minister of finance to paris, and i will go to paris to see emmanuel macron. we will prepare the european council for ththis. week's e.u.next summit is an opportunity for germany and france to relaunch the european project, in the face of rising nationalism across the block.

but some detail stomata to be is keenut, while france to introduce a common budget across the eurozone, germany is reluctant to sign on, concerned it will end up paying the debt of its european partners. u.s., thousands of students plan to stage walkouts this wednesday to protest gun violence one month on from a deadly high school shooting in florida. organizers say 3000 walkouts are set to take place in what is shaping up to be the biggest and menstruation yet, following the massacre of 17 people at marjory stoneman douglas high school. gun-control activists put together a makeshift memorial made up of mallpairs of shoes on them of the u.s. capitol, in a bid to denounce the country's current gun legislation. staying in the u.s., president trump has been checking out potential candidates to build an enormous border wall along the is one ofrdeder that

his key election campaign promises. there are large protests in california and mexico. >> i am upset that trump is coming here for a fundraiser for his reelection. he is very close to a very stunning report from bob mueller, which at some point is going to mean impeachment. i do not know if we will see this or not, but you must come out and join together with everyone else, and show how we for a city, but as a state, the whole country. rochelle: nearly 1:15 in the french capital. let's remind you of the stories. world-renowned physicist stephen hawking has passed away. the 76er on was best known for his work on black holes and relativity. britain called for an urgent meeting of the u.s. security council to update members on the investigation into a nerve agent attack on a former russian spy and his daughter.

angela merkel is sworn in for her fourth term as germany's chancellor, putting an end to nearly six months of political drift in europe's biggest economy. let's switch up the pace. stephen carroll joins me now. we are starting in france. the government is taking both google and apple to court. stephen: the french finance minister says the government will sue the tech giants for abusive commercial practices over the way they sell apps on their online stores. the contract and tariffs apple developersapplies to are unfair. the finance ministry is seeking to impose a fine of up to 2 million euros. brian finn reports. brian: france's economy ministry taking action against google and apple. the finance minister accuses the american firms of abusive busineness practiceses. >> when our dedevelopers make

apapplications and sell themem o google or apple, prices are imimposed on them. googlele and apple take dadata d have the power to modify contracts unilateralally. it is unacceptable. that is not the economy we want. brian: le maire's complaint is based on investigation alleging violations of a section of french law that forbids countries from using unfair contracts to expose counterparties to a severe imbalance in their rights or obligations. at issue, the power of apple through its ios app stotore and through the google place store, the only major distributors of apps. developers must agree to boilerplate contracts under californrnia state law. changes can only be made by google or apple, and must be accepted by developers, or their apps is appear from distribution. another point of contention -- developers are obliged to price

according to a fixed scale, with apple or google taking a cut of sales and subscriptions. france wants the contracts changed, and is seeking a a million euro finine against the tech firms. rochelle: staying in france, ministers have been discussing reform of a state owned trade company. stephen: it is facing big changes as the government prepares to open french railways to competition. the government wants to change the mission, organization, governance, and legal form of the rail operator. changes would also be made to house staff are recruited and managed. details are expected to include an a and two specicial status fr railway workers, which allows them to retire early, among other benefits. unions have threatened a strike for next week over thehe plan. let's take a look at more of today's headlines. researchers have discovered weaknesses in microchips made by amd. they couldi firm says

put organizations at significantly increased risks of cyberattack. amd is one of the biggest microchip makers, specializing in tv's and servers. they say they are investigating the claims. the world's biggest fashion retailer, which owns brands , saw profits rise last year. the spanish group saw the biggest boost in online sales, which now account for 1/10 of its revenunue. a stronger euro weighed on profit margins. faces increased competition from mainland chinese and gulf-based airlines. carrier'song-based losses more than doubled in 2017. , with demand by 5% for cargo services.

europe is climbibing back into e green after starting the day in negative territory. mostly company earnings driving those changes. adidas shares in germany trading of over 9% after the company announced plans to buy back 3 billion euros of its shares. rochelle: finally from you, google is going to ban ads for cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. explain,difficult to but this is part of a broader crackdown we are seeing on these high-risk financial products. from june of this year, google said it will not accept ads for cryptocurrencies or related content. also banningant is advertising for investments known as binary options, which have an all or nothing pay off. facebook took a similar step in january. googles announcement comes as it published its annual bad ads report. in 2017, the company removed 3.2 billion malicious or deceptive advertisements from its network,

almost double the factor for 2016. rochelle: thank you for our business roundup. time for our press review. time for a look through the woworld headlines with dheepthia laurent. start with numerous reactions to rex tillerson being given the elbow by twitter, of all things, by donald trump. dheepthika: let's start with a cheeky cover from the u.s. tabloid "new york post." let's say they have updated a previous color. this is a previous color, a completely unrelated subject, "best sex i've ever had." this reads, "worst rex i've ever had." , perhapsonist rufus this illustrates how tillerson is feeling. inm no longer with moron," reference to comments tillerson allegedly made about donald

allegedly year, calling him a more run. it does reflect on the chaotic nature in which trump is running the white house. forget fire and fury. in washington, it is fear he and fired, as you see in this cartoon. tillerson is unfortunately the latest in what has become a revolving door of the white house's employment, and now unemployment. rochelle: take us through what some of the press is saying about this rexit or decision by donald trump. dheepthika: the general message is good riddance to tillerson. the british daily, "the guardian," called him hapless, hopeless, and tragic. new york times editors say he will be remembered as one of the country's weakest and least effective secretaries, who eviscerated the state department. and yet we may end up missing tillerson is what "the new york times" is saying, because he was one of the few realist voices in

the trump administration. "usa today" say it is the right move but for the wrong reasons. like "the new york times," the paper feels mike pompeo is more likely to indulge donald trump, offering an opportunity for the risk of a foreign policy going even further off the rails. rochelle: it is fair to say when it comes to trump and tillerson, they had a rocky relationship at times. dheepthika: fractious and even awkward relationship, according to "the wall street journal." tillerson was used to calling the shots as the head of exxon mobil. he had trouble being told what to do. the wall street journal refers to an incident in china, when they were at a banquet dinner hosted by chinese officials. tillerson was not eating his "wilted caesar salad." a prompted trunk to say, ">>, eat the salad -- it prompted trump to say "rex, it the salad." shows the tension that led to

the awkward breakup via twitter. speaking of breakup on twitter, " has nowllersoned become a thing. it now means to dump someone on social media without giving them prior notice. it was certainly the case for one user on twitter, who confessed to changing her status on facebook from "in a onationship" to "single" valentine's day, and not letting the guy know beforehand. that is what getting tillersoned means. i hope it has not happened to you. [laughter] -- and more us serious note, if on reactions to the attempted assassination of the palestinian prime minister. freezeika: this will national palestinian reconciliation efforts, according to a london-based pan arab paper. the publication did not talk about who they think might be

behind this attack, but they point the finger at israel, saying it might have been feeding the divisions. tz" israeli daily "haare calls it a mortal blow to efforts for reconciliation between hamas and its secular counterparts in the west bank. it is unlikely the palestinian authority prime minister will come to gaza for another visit, given what has happened. for this writer, it shows hamas does not have total control over the gaza strip and is not doing enough to combat extreme as elements within its group. -- extremist elements within its group. geographic"atural is making headlines for its cover. decades, ourour coverage was racist. that is how this article begins from their 10th editor, and first female editor. she has offered a mea culpa for

the way minorities have been portrayed by the magazine and the past. she talks about the voyeuristic gazes toward island women, the shocking caption about aboriginal australians in 1916, calling them black fellows and , and the choice to delay reporting on things like the massacre of black south africans in the 1960's and 1970's. this whole edition is based on observing how the magazine portrayed race, and what it could do better, starting with this picture you saw on the front page of national geographic, of these girls who went viral because many thought they were best friends when they are biracial twins. rochelle: powerful stuff from the "national geographic" magazine. finally, a tribute to the astrophysicist stephen hawking, who passed away today. dheepthika: he was a brilliant man. he shaped science. he was a darling and the public. he was also a pop-culture icon. he appeared on shows like "star theory,"he big bang

and was the subject of any red mane's oscar in "the theory of everything," he was also a fixture on "the simpson's." homer simpson that his theory of the universe being shaped like a doughnut is intriguing, and "i may have to steal it." rochelle: do not forget that way if you want to see more, there is always more on our website at france24.com. stay with us. we are going to take a short break. we will be back with more international headlines.

narrator: yet anotother hurricae pounds cuba. waves as tall as five story buildings. streets flooded. many forced from their homes. in an era of climate change, ather around the world is becoming more extreme. hurricanes are getting worse. if this is the future for our coastal cities, how will they survive the storm?