hello, i'm philippa thomas, this is outside source. president trump has defended his shock decision to fire the fbi directorjames comey. defended his shock decision to fire the fbi directorjames comey. he wasn't doing a good job, very simply, he was not doing a good job. outraged democrats say there must now be an independent investigation into ties between the trump campaign and russia. nothing less is at stake than the american people's faith in oui’ than the american people's faith in ourcriminal than the american people's faith in our criminaljustice than the american people's faith in our criminal justice system than the american people's faith in our criminaljustice system and the integrity of the executive branch of oui’ integrity of the executive branch of our government. the sacking also surprised the russian foreign minister who met donald trump today at the white house. was he fired? yes. you're kidding, you're kidding! syria was top of their agenda. we'll look at what came out of that meeting. turkey slams and american plan to armed kurdish fighters there. president erdogan calls for there. president erdogan calls for the decision to be immediately reversed. we'll speak to bbc turkish

about that and we have stories from france, the netherlands and the uk. all coming up an outside source. all coming up on outside source. hello and welcome to outside source. donald trump needs a new fbi director after his sudden sacking of james comey as head of america's domestic intelligence agency. let's show you the letter he sent to mr comey. you can see his signature. its brief and brutal. this is what mrtrump its brief and brutal. this is what mr trump says. you're not able to effectively lead the beer row. he goes on to say it's essential we find new leadership in the fbi that restores public trust and confidence. let's show you how the white house has been defending this decision that sent shock waves

around washington and beyond. first donald trump himself and in the last couple of hours his official spokeswoman. why did you fire director comey? because he wasn't doing a good job, very simple, he wasn't doing a good job. did it affect your meeting with the russians today? will the new fbi director be in charge of the russian investigation? thank you everybody. the basic atrocities and circumventing the chain of command in the department ofjustice. any person of legal mind and authority knows what a big deal that is. so why did mrtrump knows what a big deal that is. so why did mr trump do it? the white house has linked the sacking to mr comey‘s treatment of hillary clinton back when the fbi was investigating her e—mail use as secretary of state. many democrats think it's about something else. anger at the

current fbi inquiry into alleged links between the trump campaign and russia. this is the view of the leading democratic senator, chuck schumer. i have said from the get go i think schumer. i have said from the get go ithinka schumer. i have said from the get go i think a special prosecutor is the way to go, but now with what's happened it is the only way to go, only way to go, to restore the american people's faith. are people going to suspect cover—up? absolutely. if an independent special prosecutor is appointment there still can be some faith we can get to the bottom of this. if not, eve ryo ne get to the bottom of this. if not, everyone will suspect cover—up. chuck schumer isn't the only senator urging the appointment of an independent special prosecutor to delve into any trump— kremlin connections. other democratic politicians are also piling on, like senator elizabeth warren, a possible presidential contender. she says we need a real independent prosecutor who donald trump can't fire. jeff sessions can't intimidate, and congress can't muzzle. another

democrat, richard blumenthal, the firing of comey come from ices the investigation of white house ties to the russians. no doubt a special prosecutor is necessary. it means the man for you to watch now is this man, the deputy us attorney general, rod rosenstein. recent watching, not only he write the argument for removing mr comey, he's involved in finding a replacement, and he's the only person with the power to appoint a special prosecutor. let's go to washington and correspondent anthony zurcher. on this question of whether it is a cover—up, it depends whether it is a cover—up, it depends whether there is collusion to be found between the russians and the trump campaign. exactly. and whether the trump administration had any indications of where that investigation was headed. if there is any evidence the reason they fired comey was because he was

getting too close to something, it would be a serious matter and i think you would hear republicans and democrats raise uproar about it. right now, the trump administration says this all goes back to the campaign in 2016. comey‘s handling of the hillary clinton investigation, her e—mail servers. i don't think a lot of democrats are buying that right now, they think it's much more likely it has to do with what is being brought out right 110w. with what is being brought out right now. the russian investigations.” reckon we're hearing from everybody except james comey. when reckon we're hearing from everybody excethames comey. when is it likely to change? he's been invited to testify next week before a closed senate committee. it wouldn't be a public testimony. there hasn't been word on whether he'll show up or not. he was supposed to testify tomorrow, but since he's been sacked, it'll be the acting fbi director filling sacked, it'll be the acting fbi directorfilling in for him. mccabe.

he hasn't made any public comment. we've heard some rumours and things, the press defending his actions, saying he asked the trump administration for more money to investigate the russian ties. it's been hinted that being a reason why he was fired. all of that is floating around in the atmosphere and nothing hard directly from comey. stay with us, we want to add what may matter most to president trump is whether top republicans back his decision to sack the fbi director. many do, among them senator lindsay graham, an independent minded politician who has repeatedly accused russia of involvement in the us presidential election. we need new leadership of the fbi. it's kind of what we're wondering about firing a guy when both parties wanted him removed. let me ask you this, did russia have a pa rt me ask you this, did russia have a part to play in president trump's decision, in your view? but according to the letter but let me tell you about russia: russia

interfered in our election, i want to punish russia. i'm100% convinced they interfered in trying to undermine the 2016 election, that it was russia intelligence services that hack into the dnc and podesta, that hack into the dnc and podesta, that they didn't change the outcome but created a lot of discord. i want to punish russia. i have yet to see evidence of collusion between the trump campaign and the russians, but we need to keep looking until we can find out one way or the other. anthony, i suppose the next question is, who next to head the fbi? it'll tell us a lot about how independent are. absolutely, that's what eve ryo ne are. absolutely, that's what everyone is looking at now. there is concern certainly among democrats that donald trump might name a partisan, someone closely tied to him. if that happens, the outcry this was an attempt to avoid a russian investigation will reach deafening pitch. some of the indication so far is donald trump is looking for people within the law

enforcement community within the fbi. if that is the case, if it's someone fbi. if that is the case, if it's someone both sides trust and both sides know, then i think maybe this will start to die down. there is a big question right now, we haven't heard any names floated. we await that. thanks very much. at this point it's relevant to ask what russia's reaction is to the sacking of the fbi chief. let's see what we have a spokesman at the kremlin. we heard from them that this is an internal affair of the united states, a sovereign decision by the us president, which has nothing to do, or should have nothing to do, with the russian federation. all this is happening as the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov is in washington. he said talks with the us secretary of state rex tillerson and president trump himself. here is mr lava off‘s tongue in cheek reply when asked about the fbi director's sacking. but he fired? you are

kidding, you are kidding! yes, he was fired. joking and distractions aside, donald trump and sergey lavrov have had deadly serious things to discuss, like syria, where moscow has set out its plans to establish safe zones, four. you can see the plans to de—escalates fighting. mr lover is looking for us support for that proposal. here is sergey lavrov speaking after his meeting with president trump. translation: we discussed syria in great detail in the context of the ideas that have been put forward regarding the setting up of the escalation areas. we've got a common understanding regarding the fact that there should be a step that would contribute to the cessation of violence through the territory of syria. let's go to the us state department where we can speak to barbara plett usher in washington. this russian plan for new safe zones

over syria, are the americans signing up to this, do we know? they are signing up to this, do we know? they a re interested signing up to this, do we know? they are interested in the concept because both mr trump and mr tillerson have talked about zones of some kind. the secretary of state has talked about stabilisation zones. not much detail to it but what he has in mind in areas that could be secured, where refugees could be secured, where refugees could return, this would create fa cts o n could return, this would create facts on the ground that would prevent islamic state militants from setting up shop again. sergey lavrov said he got the idea, moscow got the idea from speaking with mr trump and mr tillerson. and they wanted the us to have input. he said they talked about specific ways they could be jointly implemented. in terms of the americans, they'd be much more circumspect about this particular proposal, they broadly welcomed anything that would lower the violence, set the stage for a political resolution. they've had reservations about the plan, not

least because iran is one of the guarantors for it, which makes them worried. mr trump called on the russians to rein in iran and iranians militias after his meeting with mr lover. they are sceptical a ceasefire could hold because it hasn't held until now. —— with sergey lavrov. the secretary of defence says he is studying the proposal closely but they need to know who would secure an patrol these areas, how this would all work. so much of the political drama in washington revolves around the us- in washington revolves around the us— russian relationship and the meetings today were pretty significant from that point of view. they were very good apparently, according to mrtrump, they were very good apparently, according to mr trump, that is how he referred to them. the protocol was interesting because the foreign minister visited the white house, he was at a meeting with the president in the oval office and that doesn't usually happen. their president putin did invite mr tillerson to the kremlin, so it may have been a factor. you did get this image of

comedy from the white house. neither side have been at all holding back in terms of how they view the relations, they both admitted relations, they both admitted relations not good, are things are tense. mr said today they were not encouraging. though he again mostly blames the obama administration for creating the circumstances because mrobama imposed creating the circumstances because mr obama imposed sanctions after the russians annexed crimea and relations deteriorated from that point on. mr lover of call this an ideological approach. —— mr lavrov called this. he seemed to feel the businesslike approach of mr trump help more promise for a pragmatic working relationship though the state department said after the meeting he had with mr tillerson sanctions would not be lifted unless and until russia reversed the reactions that triggered them. after weeks of fighting a kurdish led militia has recaptured the

strategically important syrian town from the so—called islamic state group. we draw you the news last night of the us decision to start arming kurdish fighters in syria. it got quite a reaction from the turkish president recep tayyip erdogan, who said, i hope very much this mistake will be reversed immediately. no room for doubt there. who will be usb providing these weapons to? i asked bbc turkish service. they are why pge, a wing of the turkish democratic union party, ypg claims to have 50,000 fighters and controls the enclaves. in northern syria. along the turkish border. they are also the backbone of syrian democratic forces, who are ready to assault on raqqa to take the city back from so—called islamic state. potentially significant players in the fight and taking the

fight to so—called islamic state. why is turkey so opposed to the americans helping them? turkey is furious with the latest decision. ankara considers ypg as a terrorist organisation like pkk. turkey has long asked the united states to stop its support for the ypg. however, the us makes a distinction between pkk and ypg. and doesn't consider ypg a terrorist organisation. the washington administration considers them a very useful ally against the fight in syria. you have a real problem, washington thinks the kurdish fighters are an ally but they want to keep president erdogan onside. the only you can feel from the turkish leader, there could be a backlash. as we watched earlier, doing your report, recep tayyip

erdogan sharply criticised the us administration and calls mr trump's latest decision a mistake. both leaders will meet on monday, for the first time, as heads of state, and definitely discuss this issue. certainly it's going to be top of the agenda. is that meeting going ahead as far as we know? yes, they can meet again during the nato summit in brussels. after all these developments we have been witnessing since the last 48 hours, this issue, the american support for the kurds is going to be key. stay with us and outside stores. a snub for manuel valls, the former french prime minister, as he's turned down by the movement president—elect emmanuel macron. we ask party spokesman wife. the family of 11—year—old who died

yesterday after falling from a water ride at a theme park say their world has been torn apart. a safety investigation is underway at drayton manor in staffordshire which was closed today and will remain so tomorrow. our correspondent simon ward has been to the girls school in leicester, which was also closed for the day. special councillors were brought in to help the students. we know that she was on a school trip with this cool when she died at drayton manor yesterday. but today here in leicester we had a written statement released by her family. they said yesterday our world was torn apart by the news that our daughter and sister had lost her life in tragic circumstances. she was a beautiful girl, they say, full of love and always smiling. words cannot describe the pain and loss we feel, we will not see our beautiful little girl again. you're watching outside source from

the bbc newsroom. president trump has defended his decision to sack the head of the fbi. the white house said the president had been considering firing mr comey since taking office. elsewhere around the bbc in hong kong, the organisers of the wea kest bbc in hong kong, the organisers of the weakest pro—democracy march say their application to protest this year has been rejected. that is an bbc chinese. brazil's former president lula has arrived at a courthouse to give testimony before the top anti—corruption judge, he says the trial is politically motivated and denies any wrongdoing. among the most read on our website is the story senator larissa waters has become the first politician to

breast—feed in the australian parliament. this is embarrassing, the former french prime minister and socialist manuel valls has been turned down as parliamentary candidate for president—elect emmanuel macron‘s movement. this was him speaking confidently on tuesday. translation: the socialist party is dead, behind us, not its history and values, but it has to move on. times like this one must be capable of moving on, forget the bitterness and personal issues, there is something that interests me above everything else, france, the republican success of this parliament. i don't forget the fight against the far right will continue and everyone needs to be vigilant in the parliamentary elections. speaking to the bbc, an adviser to president macron said manuel valls didn't meet their criteria. we've already said we will not give in, we will not endorse his candidacy, because i come back to my

point, we had some public criteria on the renewal and procedure. created an independent commission. people looking at the candidates, the applications we receive, we received more than 14,000 applications for more or less 300 seats. you can see that interview in full on hard talk on bbc news on wednesday and thursday this week. let's get you to os business. the company behind snapchat has unveiled its first earnings since launching on the stock exchange in the united states. in the last few minutes it has recorded a loss of $2.2 billion in the first quarter of the year. we can go to dave lee and san francisco's covering this. a loss was expected, why? a loss was

expected because snapchat‘s never made a profit. that wasn't surprising, the size of the loss, though, is staggering. $2.2 billion in the last three months, the previous three months since this year. the only had revenues of 150 million. that gap was enormous. other worrying thing is for the company, they grew their user base 596, company, they grew their user base 5%, something particularly worrying for snapchat or their investors. facebook as we know is one of its main rivals and they've been doing everything they can to stop snapchat from growing. adding many of snapchat‘s popular features to instagram and facebook. it seems the tactic is working, snapchat has barely added any new users in the last three months and as a result their shares are down about 20%.m their shares are down about 20%.m the us politicians, not least the

president, want to talk about immigration, undocumented workers and border walls. the real concern of many businesses is they need more, not less migration. businesses, particularly farming and tourism, want to hire seasonal staff tourism, want to hire seasonal staff to plant seeds for example and pick produce, at samira hussain has been finding out in chester, newjersey. this farmer doesn't get to spend as much time in the field as used, as he'd like. his first generation farmer, for him agriculture was according, to do god's work. as we to his 600 acre property he admits his business would not be thriving without outside help. agriculture as we know it would not be able to survive if the people who were working today as undocumented workers were not in the workforce. during peak season farmer kurt has more than 200 people working for

him. 50 are here today on temporary visas. like ivan, he leaves his wife and two daughters in costa rica eight months of the year and has been doing so for the last six yea rs. been doing so for the last six years. for him, the reason is simple. little money. you can't find sufficient labour and you don't know from year to year if you're going to be able to find the workers illegally, so you wonder why people turn to doing things under the table and why they turned to an undocumented worker, because we don't even have the resources in place to allow legitimate employers the legal means to hire people properly. this farm depends on guest workers but the application process for temporary visas is expensive and cumbersome. farmer kurt needs more workers underneath them faster. it would seem so does the us economy.

we have close to full employment. that's great, we want there to be a tight labour market but we also want the economy to be able to expand beyond the current labour force. you need immigrants to be able to come in and help that to expand. i think it's a good thing. the rhetoric surrounding immigration has become harsher and focused on more and more constraints. but the fact is that a huge number of american businesses in different industries are dependent on the labour of overseas workers. and what these businesses wa nt workers. and what these businesses want is for the president and for congress to focus on the reality. samira hussain, bbc news, chester, newjersey. the forbes rich list for hip—hop is out. let's show you who came at the top. in third place doctor dre with a net worth of 740 million dollars. then came jay—z with $810 a net worth of 740 million dollars. then camejay—z with $810 million. at the very top, we have diddy, it

ten and $20 million is his fortune. in common with many on the list the vast majority of his income is in fa ct vast majority of his income is in fact not from music. when you look at diddy one and annual earnings basis and net worth basis, probably only ten, 20% as anything to do with music. it started with the music but is is the businesses he built off the music that are pushing him into that near billionaire territory. it's not just that near billionaire territory. it's notjust endorsements, it's getting this piece of the pie, whether profit share or equity stake in the company from something like the deal ypg has fought so roquefort, it's been one of the biggest deals of his career. —— the deal diddy has with a brand of vodka. he's investing in a deal, he puts not just vodka. he's investing in a deal, he puts notjust that, but his own

money into it, it's boosting his bottom line in terms of net worth. do stay with us, lots more to come on our top story about the sacking of the fbi director. i've been looking at the bbc news app. if you go to that, while i have been on air they have filed their latest story, saying donald trump has considered firing james comey since taking office. lots of tweets from donald trump today saying for example james comey lost the confidence of almost eve ryo ne comey lost the confidence of almost everyone in washington. he says when things calm down they'll be thanking me. it's safe to say things are not calm in washington and in the next edition of outside source i'll talk to daniel lipman from politico about how feverish things are. thanks for being with us here on outside source. welcome to a little journey around the world as we look at some of the

big global weather stories happening. to the pacific in the northeast pacific offshore from tamara, el salvador and mexico. this clump of cloud is tropical storm. it's significant because it's the earliest recorded named storm to happen in this part of the world and its strengthening, it could reach hurricane status as it stays over open waters by the time it gets to the weekend. it's going to stay offshore through the weekend and into next week. while we've got the worst of the rain offshore, will start to see lively thunderstorms and tropical storm force winds piling into the coast. the opposite side of the pacific down towards new caledonia. cyclone donna is clearing away. tropical storm a la forming. donna will combine forces with this cloud across new zealand. which produced very heavy rain on thursday. with the remnants of cyclone donna we will see the risk of flooding through the north island

and gales, if not severe gale force winds. friday into saturday across pg, end of the wet season, thoroughly wet. more heavy rain to come. with the theme of flooding, we had to eastern canada, quebec, these images coming out of the state at the moment. some images as well around the mississippi valley where we seen around the mississippi valley where we seen widespread flooding. more storms to come through into thursday. by friday and saturday if combine to quite a nasty area of low pressure. boston, new york, washington will see heavy rain, strong winds, cold feel. quebec and ontario will see more rain. from remy to dry, this is one of the driest places on earth, the atacama desert. even here we could see rain. this is the zone of cloud responsible pushing into central chile. santiago will see heavy rain, mountain snow, too, and it'll slide into parts of the atacama desert as well. staying with a dry theme we

had to ireland, the west of ireland. galway in particular, one of ireland's biggest wildfires at the moment is destroyed thousands of hectares of bogland and forest. houses under threat. in the uk command a high pressure, it's been dry for some time. it could be about to change. low pressure toward spain and portugal, producing cloud and showers. those will become more abundant as we go through the next 24 hours. we finish wednesday with thunderstorms across spain and portugal. into thursday they will work from all across much of france, the worst of the storms across southern areas, but noticed they will blossom through thursday, through northern france, eventually to the uk and ireland. more in half an hour. hello, i'm philippa thomas and this is outside source. president trump has defended his shock decision to fire the fbi director, james comey. because he wasn't doing a good job, very simply, he was not doing a good

job. the white house deputy press secretary later explained the decision at a press briefing. the basicjust decision at a press briefing. the basic just atrocities and circumventing the chain of command in the department ofjustice. but outraged democrats say there must now be an independent investigation between —— into ties between the dump administration and russia. nothing less is at stake than the american people's faith in