Trump ousts Tillerson

President Trump has ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and plans to nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him as the nation’s top diplomat, orchestrating a major change to his national security team amid delicate outreach such as possible talks with North Korea, White House officials said Tuesday. Tension between Trump and Tillerson has simmered for many months, but apparently the president and his top diplomat reached a breaking point over the past week. The reason for the latest rift was unclear, but Trump and Tillerson have often appeared at odds over policies such as the nuclear deal with Iran and the tone of U.S. diplomacy. A spokesman for Tillerson said the secretary of state “had every intention of staying” in his job and was “unaware of the reason” for his firing. At the White House on Tuesday, Trump said the move had been considered for “a long time.” Trump selected Gina Haspel — the deputy director at the CIA — to succeed Pompeo at the CIA. She would become the first woman to run the spy agency. Both will still need to be confirmed by the Senate. A spokesman for Tillerson said the secretary of state has not spoken directly with Trump about the move. Trump felt it was important to make the change now, as he prepares for possible high-stakes talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

In Other News Stephen Hawking, the brilliant British theoretical physicist who overcame a debilitating disease to publish wildly popular books probing the mysteries of the universe, has died, according to a family spokesman. He was 76. Considered by many to be the world's greatest living scientist, Hawking was also a cosmologist, astronomer, mathematician and author of numerous books including the landmark "A Brief History of Time," which has sold more than 10 million copies. With fellow physicist Roger Penrose, Hawking merged Einstein's theory of relativity with quantum theory to suggest that space and time would begin with the Big Bang and end in black holes. Hawking also discovered that black holes were not completely black but emit radiation and would likely eventually evaporate and disappear. Hawking suffered from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a neurodegenerative disease commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, which is usually fatal within a few years. He was diagnosed in 1963, when he was 21, and doctors initially only gave him a few years to live. The disease left Hawking wheelchair-bound and paralyzed. He was able to move only a few fingers on one hand and was completely dependent on others or on technology for virtually everything -- bathing, dressing, eating, even speech. Hawking used a speech synthesizer that allowed him to speak in a computerized voice with an American accent. Democrat Conor Lamb and Republican Rick Saccone are locked in a neck and neck battle to decide who will represent Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District. After a long night of drama, the race is still too close to call. Lamb holds a slight lead over Saccone with 100% of the Election Day vote tallied, but absentee and provisional ballots are still being counted. It would be an significant uphill climb for Saccone to overtake Lamb. It's a bad sign for Republicans that the 18th District race is razor-tight. President Donald Trump won there by 20 percentage points in 2016, and GOP groups pumped $10.7 million into a months-long effort to stave off an embarrassing loss there. Lamb's performance is ominous for the GOP as it heads into November's midterm elections.