welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: president trump fires the director of the fbi, james comey, the man leading the investigation into possible collusion between his election campaign and russia. leading democrats say the sacking reeks of a cover—up, and call for the appointment of an independent special prosecutor. the american people need to have faith that an investigation as serious as this one is being conducted impartially, without a shred of bias. south korea's new president says he favours more dialogue with the north. he will be sworn into office shortly. and fine—tuning one of the world's iconic buildings. renovation gets under way to improve the acoustics inside sydney's opera house. hello.

president trump's decision to fire the director of the fbi has been met with widespread shock and a mass of questions. james comey was the man in charge of investigating russian interference in the us presidential election, and whether or not the trump campaign colluded with the russians. the white house says mr comey has been dismissed on the recommendation of the attorney general, jeff sessions, and his deputy. their letters to him have been made public. president trump told the fbi director he was not able to effectively lead the bureau, and went on to say he was hereby terminated and removed from office, effective immediately, and that it was essential to find new leadership. the democratic leader of the senate, chuck schumer, told president trump he was making a big mistake. the first question the administration has to answer is why now?

if the administration had objections to the way director comey handled the clinton investigation, they had those objections the minute the president got into office, but they didn't fire him then. why did it happen today? we know the house is investigating russian interference in our elections, that benefited the trump campaign. we know the senate is investigating. we know the fbi has been looking into whether the trump campaign colluded with the russians, a very serious offence. were these investigations getting too close to home for the president? it is troubling that attorney general sessions, who had recused himself from the russian investigation, played a role in firing the man leading it. so what happens now? deputy attorney general rosenstein

sat in the judiciary committee and promised to appoint a special prosecutor at the appropriate time. that time is right now. the american people's trust in our criminaljustice system is in rosenstein‘s hands. mr rosenstein, america depends on you to restore faith in our criminaljustice system, which is going to be badly shattered after the administration's actions today. this is part of a deeply troubling pattern from the trump administration. they fired sally yates. they fired preet bharara. and now they fired director comey, the very man leading the investigation. this does not seem to be a coincidence.

this investigation must be run as far away as possible from this white house, and as far away as possible from anyone that president trump has appointed. given the way the president fired director comey, any person who he appoints to lead the russia investigation will be concerned that he or she will meet the same fate as director comey if they run afoul of the administration. the american people need to have faith that an investigation as serious as this one is being conducted impartially, without a shred of bias. the only way the american people can have faith in this investigation is for it to be led by a fearless, independent special prosecutor. if deputy attorney general

rosenstein does not appoint an independent special prosecutor, every american will rightly suspect that the decision to fire director comey was part of a cover—up. the white house has rejected the democrats‘ charge that the fbi director was fired for political reasons. the bbc‘s north america editor jon sopel has been absorbing events in washington. surprised is a word that is rather mild for the tectonic shift of the political plates that has unfolded this evening in washington. as i understand it, james comey, the director of the fbi, was addressing agents in los angeles. an aid goes up to him and hands him a note, and says you'd better read this.

and he reads it, looks down, addresses the audience and says, i've just been fired. he knew nothing about it. no—one else knew anything about it. it was a bolt out of the blue from the white house. they didn't see it coming. and james comey had been determined to carry on with his work, to carry on the investigation. and you talked about the white house saying, look, this is nothing to do with the inquiry into russia. as we all know, in politics, perceptions matter, and it looks like the person who was conducting the investigation has been fired by people who didn't want him to carry on with it. and it is going to take an awful, uphill struggle for the white house to convince the public that it was more innocent than that. i think it's a rather fraught relationship, and it always has been,

and in particular over this particular issue, and russia in the narrowest sense, and russia in the widest sense. you remember that, when donald trump first became president, he refused to accept the assessment of the intelligence services that russia had intervened in the election by hacking the democrats‘ e—mails, by affecting the outcome in that way. then it was confirmed byjames comey, the head of the fbi, that there was an ongoing inquiry by the agency into whether there were links between russia and the trump campaign. donald trump was absolutely insistent, and remains absolutely insistent, there is nothing there, there is nothing to be seen. but the person who was leading the investigation has now been fired, and the reason being given is because of something that happened a year ago, when he was looking into the use of hillary clinton's e—mails, which didn't result in a prosecution. and so you had those words from donald trump, the kind of brutalfiring

of the head of the fbi. you are hereby terminated, removed from office, effective immediately. i think what it says is that he doesn't want much dissent. he wants to have his own people in, and that is, you know, fair enough. you know, if you're the chairman of the board, you quite like appointing your own chief executive officer. dare i say it, in broadcasting, if you want to change the way a news station looks, you fire your presenters and bring in some people that you like. but this has a different resonance, because it looks like, and the word that is being used tonight in the us is nixonian, it looks like this is a throwback to richard nixon's second term in office, when he fired the special prosecutor who was called to investigate him. and people are using that phrase, and we heard it from chuck schumer a moment ago — cover—up.

that is deeply damaging, and i have heard it being reported that there is some surprise in the white house that this is causing the ructions that it is. i am astonished that anyone thought the reaction would be anything other than what it is. it is the start of a new political era in south korea, as a new president takes the helm. a short while ago, the national election commission formally confirmed the victory of moonjae—in. the election had the highest turnout in 20 years, and mr moon won with just over 40% of the vote, almost double his nearest competitor. the new president is expected to be inaugurated shortly. his victory ends almost a decade of conservative rule, and could also herald a more conciliatory approach toward north korea. the bbc‘s stephen mcdonell is in seoul. well, here in the south korean capital, people are waking up to a completely new political landscape, and there'll be ramifications throughout asia and beyond. former human rights lawyer and advocate of greater engagement with north korea moonjae—in has been voted in comfortably

as this country's new president. and this is also a drastic rejection of the conservative side of politics, under the former president, park, who is now injail waiting corruption charges. an end to ten years of conservative rule, as you say. i know north korea policy is one of the sharpest disagreements between liberals and conservatives in south korea. how do you expect that the policies to change? absolutely, people are waiting now for change to happen almost immediately, because this is not the way power normally changes in south korea. this election was called on because the previous leader ended up injail, and so now he is the president from today. now, moonjae—in, he'll go along to the national assembly, then he'll go to the national cemetery, and then there'll be some

sort of small inauguration ceremony, and then basically he'll start running the country. already people are wondering, for example, what will be the ramifications in terms of south korea—us relations. he's been very critical of the placement of the thaad anti—missile system, for example, saying that the caretaker government should never put that in, and they should have waited for the elections. how will relations pan out with china? beijing has also been very unhappy with the placement of that as a result. so it's all to happen, really, and i think we'll probably start seeing what sort of leader he's going to be almost immediately. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: following the treacherous journey by sea from libya to europe. we speak to some of the migrants being brought ashore in italy, to face an uncertain future. i, nelson rolihlahla mandela, do hereby swear to be faithful to the republic of south africa.

after six years of construction and numerous delays, the channel tunnel has been formally opened by the queen and president mitterrand. the tunnel is still not yet ready for passengers and freight services to begin. for centuries, christianity and islam struggled for supremacy. now the pope's visit symbolises their willingness to coexist. roger bannister became the first man in the world to run a mile in under four minutes. memories of victory as the ve celebrations reach their climax. this night is dedicated to everyone who believes in a future of peace and freedom. this is bbc news.

the main headline: president trump has fired the director of the fbi, james comey, the man leading the investigation into possible collusion between his election campaign and russia. life now —— a live cross now. the e—mails were quite possibly what cost hillary clinton the election. what the beef with james comey now? really politics at this point has very little to do with it. this is about the integrity of law enforcement. this is a massive all—out assault on ourjustice system and the rule of law by the president of the united states. whatever your politics, this is

extraordinarily troubling. although white james comey did in the past was improper in terms of his handling of the outcome of the investigation, everybody knew that he was independent, he was his own man, he wasn't going to roll over. so the prospect of the president of the united states firing the only person who is actively investigating him in law enforcement is appalling. ican him in law enforcement is appalling. i can see it looks bad, that the man in charge of an investigation is being removed from it by the people who have most to lose from the investigation. on the other had everybody agrees he made serious m ista kes everybody agrees he made serious mistakes and i am sure bill clinton fired a director of the fbi back in july of 1993, didn't he? that's true. he did. but that was a fundamentally different case. there was evidence that he misappropriated fbi aircraft and funds and there is a pretty unanimous view that there was misconduct, possibly rising to

the criminal level. this is a matter of the fbi director certainly violating justice department policies injuly violating justice department policies in july and violating justice department policies injuly and october. he set the table perhaps by putting the fbi at front and centre, at the climactic moment of the campaign. he set the table but the president flipped it over. this is crossing a bright line. even the republican richard burge is leading the enquiry into the russia links and says he is troubled by the timing and reasoning of the termination. it further con users an already difficult investigation —— confuses. there is almost zero chance of an independent prosecuted to be appointed, isn't there a? it would have to be appointed by the deputy attorney general because the attorney general

has reduced himself. from any hillary clinton or russian related investigations. there have been a lot of hope that the deputy, who is a widely respected prosecutor, everybody sort of felt that he was a steady hand at the tiller. i think the fact that he was so willing to provide this very transparent context, i think it really calls it into question. you've been inside the administration. would you be more nervous inside the trump administration about potentially damaging leaks coming from the fbi and intelligence agencies? the president already has a troubled relationship with them. this is the same man who stood in front of the wall, honouring agents who died in duty and talked about the size of

the crowd at his inauguration. from everything i am hearing and from everything i am hearing and from everything that's been reported about the relationship that had been extraordinarily strained, the white house had really been leaning on the fbi in these investigations. now the presidentjust fbi in these investigations. now the president just absolutely blew fbi in these investigations. now the presidentjust absolutely blew up that entire relationship. i saw one reporter tweaked a short time ago that senior fbi and senior officials have been reaching out to this reporter, asking if it is true that james comey is gone. so what you are getting is a picture of chaos, confusion and a huge amount of mistrust for the president. this really crosses a bright line. thanks very much indeed. thanks very much. a court in turkey has convicted a british man of terrorism offences. aine davies, who's 33, was suspected of belonging

to a kidnap gang that beheaded western hostages. he was found guilty of being a member of the islamic state group and was jailed for 7.5 years. the bbc understands he was one of four british men, including the fighter known asjihadijohn, who guarded prisoners. our home affairs correspondent daniel sandford reports from turkey. aine davis posing with a fighter in syria. today, he became the first of the suspected beatles — the infamous islamic state gang from britain — to be sent to prison. at this turkish courthouse, three judges found him guilty of being a member of is and sentenced him to seven—and—a—half years in jail. as he was led from court, flanked by prison guards, i asked for his reaction — he just swore at me. he's the second alleged member of the gang to be taken out of action. his friend, mohammed emwazi, jihadijohn, was killed in a drone strike two years ago after beheading two british hostages and three americans. aine davis was captured 18 months ago at this luxury seaside villa complex,

a0 miles outside istanbul. he had risked secretly crossing the borderfrom is—controlled parts of syria and travelling hundreds of miles to meet up with fellow is supporters here, but the turkish intelligence services were watching, they moved in, and at last one of the suspected so—called beatles, had been captured in this, the most unlikely of locations. the well—known spanish newspaper journalist, javier espinosa, was one of the hostages held and tortured by the british men in 2014. he was released before the beheadings began, but today was hugely relieved that aine davis was finally, safely behind bars. i think he should face justice, whatever it is, it doesn't matter if it's in england or turkey or whatever, he should be injailforever. aine davis is suspected to be one of the four branded the beatles,

because of their english accents, by the captives they held and beheaded. the most infamous was the killer, mohammed emwazi, orjihadi john. the others have been named by the us state department as alexanda kotey and el shafee elsheikh, both alive and still in syria. javier espinosa remembers how one of the men, nicknamed george, always talked about how much he despised the west. he used to say, "i hate you." i mean, it was a very common phrase that he used. "we hate you. you don't know how i hate you." that hatred developed when all four men were radicalised in west london. davis, a small time drug dealer, was once jailed for having an illegal gun, now he's serving seven—and—a—half years in a turkish prison for being a member of islamic state. daniel sandford, bbc news, istanbul. there's been a sharp rise in the number of migrants making the dangerous journey by sea from libya to europe, as we reported yesterday. the numbers attempting the crossing

are already 50% higher than last year. reeta chakrabarti was with some of the migrants being brought ashore in italy to face an uncertain future. a new day and perhaps a new life. after days on the deck of this rescue ship, it's the first glimpse of europe for people who left the shores of libya unsure they'd survive to see this. trying to cross continents in these dinghies felt like their only hope, said several. like this young nigerian man, who said he'd been working in libya as a welder until his foot was blown off by an explosive. he preferred not to give his name. everybody don't have a choice, nobody have a choice. even me i think this water, i'm going to cross, if i am dead, it's gotten away. he said he couldn't return home because of boko haram. now, first off the ship, he's helped to safety. on shore, there's chocolate

and panettone for breakfast and, as people are checked and processed, a warm welcome italian style. where are you from? gambia! many look dazed. the contrast with what they've come from is stark. this is the end of the long sea journey. the injured came out first, then women and children and now the rest. but they're arriving in a europe where attitudes are hardening against them, the future for many is uncertain. all humanity is present on these treacherous crossings and the rescuers make no distinction between the persecuted and the poor. but europe does, existing fears about migration and the fact that over 43,000 people have arrived this way this year, mean the reception they can expect will be very mixed. for those who have arrived, anotherjourney has started. they may have reached their longed for goal, but admission here in europe and acceptance might still elude them. it's one of the most iconic buildings in the world,

but did you know that the sydney opera house has bad acoustics? a four—year renovation project is now under way to address this and other issues. hywel griffiths has the story. it's the building that defines notjust sydney, but australia's place in the world. bold and bathed in sunshine, the opera house's tall sails are iconic. but inside, the sound is not so stunning. for the resident symphony orchestra, it's a source of frustration. the shape of the concert hall makes it hard to hear themselves and each other play. it is a bit like playing ball on a pitch that's surrounded in fog. you know your teammates are out there somewhere, but they're a bit hard to see and for us the issue is they're a bit hard to hear. often i don't feel like we're really always playing together and then, with some of the other

sections of the orchestra, we can have time delays at times as we are following the conductor. the problem dates back to the very beginning. changes were made to the original design. the architect fell out with the engineers and never saw the finished building. after decades of trying out different fixes, a new system of reflectors and risers has been tested and it is claimed will finally deliver crystal clear sound. it was honestly like someone had just lifted a perspex box off the top of the orchestra and you could hear them so much better. the sound sounds a lot closer to you. you feel as if you're actually hearing the bow hit the string. the famous tall sails that form the outside of this building have always placed a limit on what can happen inside. this concert hall is too big for orchestral concerts, for example. the real challenge over the next few years is making sure what happens inside here matches the quality of what people see out there. but there's a mountain to climb.

the building with hundreds of steps doesn't offer easy access. special tunnels will be drilled inside to help wheelchair users. but many of the changes will be behind the scenes. it's quite fantastic. it's very doctor who. much of the equipment used here was ordered 50 years ago and was built into the structure. with 2000 shows a year, there's been a lot of wear and tear since. there's literally someone pulling up and down as you're watching? yep, someone standing in the dark, tugging on a rope is how it's still done for some of the scenery here. this will be the first time the opera house will close any of its main theatres, but there will still be music within these walls, as they try to fine tune one of the world's best loved buildings. thanks very much for watching. hi there.

we had some glorious sunshine yesterday across western parts of the country once again. these were the clear skies in abersock, north—west wales. we have had a lot of sunshine over the last few days across western parts of the country. but if i run through the last few days in the east, you can see rather cloudier weather in from the north sea, with pesky winds bringing cloud across much of central and eastern england in particular. it hasn't felt warm either under the cloudy skies. however, the weather is going to change because the wind is changing direction. we're not bringing cloud from the north sea. the pressure is relatively higher on wednesday. the winds will be a little bit lighter. it will be sunny and warm day for many parts of the country. yes, warmth on the way but it will be a chilly start to the morning. temperatures start around two or three degrees in the countryside. there will be a few spots see temperatures below freezing in the coldest areas. cloudy in scotland.

a bit of rain for the northern isles. otherwise, mainly dry. we should see sunshine from the central belt southwards across scotland, northern ireland, england and wales, mostly starting fine and sunny with a few patches of cloud to start the day for east anglia. i think for most of us temperatures come up quickly with light winds and blue skies overhead. and that's really the way the weather will stay through the rest of the day. again, prone to a few spits and spots of rain across the far north of scotland but otherwise essentially it is a dry picture with sunshine. and temperatures across parts of central england towards the south—west, eastern wales, could reach the 20s, so it's going to be warm and pleasant in the sunshine. heading through wednesday evening and overnight, we keep cloudy weather for scotland. and late in the night we might see just a few showers pushing in from the near continent. signs of a change in the weather on the way. temperatures overnight around 7—9 degrees, so thursday morning starts off something like this —

most of us start off on a sunny note and then showers move up from the continent, some of those could turn thundery through the day. still, for many areas it is a decent day with dry weather, warm sunshine, temperatures rising, 19 degrees or so in london. but then through thursday night and on into friday it looks like we will see some thunderstorms pushing in from the near continent. hit and miss in nature. but some of the downpours might be intense. there might be some hail mixed in. the wind will start to get stronger and then it will be cooler for eastern scotland with cloud and rain here. for the weekend we will have some relatively warm conditions. some bright spells intermingled with one or two showers. that's your weather. now on bbc news, panorama. tonight on panorama, we investigate one of the most popular companies on the planet. i think the relationship of users to facebook is of that of a drug addict with a drug, in many ways. facebook may know more about us than any organisation in history. what i care about is giving

people the power to share, giving every person a voice, so we can make the world more open and connected. it makes a fortune from advertising, using our personal information. it's scary, we are all walking barcodes. and politicians are now using our data to target us, too. the way we bought media on facebook was like no—one else in politics had ever done. if it's influencing elections, is it now time to control facebook? with facebook, you have a media which is increasingly seen as the most valuable media that campaigns invest in, in the election period, but which is totally unregulated. 32 million of us in the uk share our lives on facebook. you may have high privacy settings, but anything you share with friends

can become public if they don't have high privacy settings, too. i'm trying to get a look at how private your settings really are.