announcer: this week on q&a, author simon sebag montefiore. he discusses his book, the romanovs. about the dynasty that ruled russia for over 300 years. brian: simon sebag montefiore, the book is called the romanovs: 1613-1918. i want to read your headline in the london daily mail. you wrote this back in january. simon: [chuckles] i did not actually wrote that. that s the headline by the daily mail headline writer. would say, it is the most outrageous and most explicit correspondence ever written by a head of state. i have to say the correspondence is so outrageous that they edited the daily mail. they rang me up. they said, we re a tabloid newspaper. we can t print this stuff. we re a family newspaper. brian: who was it? who was the head of state? simon: the head of state was tsar emperor alexander the ii. the emperor who liberated the serbs the slaves of russia. at exactly at the same time 1861 as your president lincoln was about to liberate the slaves of amer
i want to read you a headline in the daily mail, the london daily mail, you wrote this back in january, the romance, the marrieds are and the 16-year-old mistress was about love letters of the head of state. i did not actually write that, that is the headline written by the daily mail, headline writer. buds, i would say that the correspondent is referring to the most outrageous to most explicit correspondent ever written by the head of state. i ve to say the correspondent is outrageous that they edited the daily mail and they said we are a tabloid newspaper in england but we cannot print all of this stuff, we are a family newspaper. who was it? who is head of the state? it was the czar emperor, alexander the second, the emperor who liberated first the slaves of russia at exactly the same time as your president lincoln was about to liberate the slaves of america. the two men were correspondent and were assassinated an interesting relationship of that first start. alexander
is it friday already? this has been the shortest week ever. we ll see rainfall moving in as we head to the weekend and start as we push to your friday night. keep that in mind as you re making friday night plans and saturday evening plans. we ll go over all the details. let s look at our current temperatures. 37 degrees in atlantic city and 37 in philadelphia and 27 in pottstown and passing clouds there. temperatures in the poconos starting off on the cold side at 25 degrees as we head into the rest of today, expect by noon, 42 degrees. cold conditions. a chance of showers starting earlier today closer to 4:00 and temperatures at 43 degrees. by 9:00 p.m., still dealing with scattered showers and the rain showers will pick up and, once again, saturday evening. i ll go over your weekend planner but for now check in with first alert traffic reporter, jillian mele. good morning to you. there is an accident on girard avenue right now right near the entrance ramps of 76. blocki
at nine miles per hour. that batch of moisture heading our way pushing into saturday night. that is where our rain will come from, but we ll see scattered showers moving in before then tonight. here s how your day is going to break down. by noon 42 degrees and heading into your 6:00 hour, 43 degrees and the brunt of the moisture will get here as we head into the rest of the evening. i ll go over all the details in my first forecast coming pup first alert traffic reporter jillian mele. if you re leaving the house in the next few minutes and plan to travel, the tacony palmyra bridge no traffic can get by for roughly the next 10 to 15 minutes. 95 right at philadelphia international. looking great in both directions. no accidents or delays to report on 95 and same situation on 76. however, in west philadelphia, we re still following an accident on girard avenue between 37th and 38. it s a vehicle that hit a pole, wires came down. as a result, that part of girard avenue is block
picking up in intensity to our overnight hours. tonight we ll see a lull for your saturday morning, and then another round saturday evening. i ll go over all the details and the timing and help you plan your weekend and my full forecast coming up. right now we ll check in with jillian mele. good morning. good morning to you. if you re heading out the door and traveling 422. this is what it is looking like near trooper road. no big delays just yet and no accidents on 422. drive time is pretty average, seven minutes each way between oaks and route 202. hatfield still have an accident and koppel road out near 40-foot road and this is a serious accident that has been with us and it s still out there right now. in upper hanover gerryville pike. you can take 29 as your alternate and continue to follow fire activity between market and ludlow. to the latest on breaking news we re following. a row home fire in west philadelphia one person was injured. monique braxton is live on th