hello, i'm ros atkins, this is outside source. the pressure is mounting on donald trump as he faces the most serious allegations of his presidency. he's accused of trying to stop an fbi investigation into links between his former national security advisor and russia. but the president has come out fighting. no politician in history — and i say this with great surety — has been treated worse or more unfairly. leading democrats are now demanding an independent commission into the trump team's links with russia. and that's not all. translation: we are prepared to provide the senate and the us congress with a transcipt of the conversation between our foreign minister and president trump. it is reasonable to say vladimir putin enjoyed making that offer. that offer comes on the back of claims that donald trump leaked classified information to the russians last week. we'll be live in washington for more on all those developments.

any questions you've got, the hashtag is #bbcos. us soldier chelsea manning has been freed from jail. we'll report from the military prison where she was held for seven years for passing thousands confidential documents to wikileaks. and emmanuel macron has unveiled his new gender—balanced cabinet chosen from across the political spectrum. we'll find out who's in his top team. welcome to outside source it is not a statement to —— an overstatement to say there is next essential threat to the trump per 70. that is not to say that mr trump has done anything wrong, but there are profound and pressing about his conduct. let's start by considering

the last eight days. last tuesday donald trump fired fbi directorjames comey. mr trump said he was doing a bad job. he was also in charge of the fbi investigation into collusion between the trump campaign team and russia. the next day mr trump met russia's foreign minister and the russian ambassador to the us. fast forward to monday and the washington post published this article. it alleged donald trump shared classified information in that meeting. and that intelligence officials were shocked and concerned at what the president had done. the next morning, donald trump confirmed information had been shared — but said it was appropriate. while that political maelstrom played out, the new york times entered the fray yesterday. its story claimed a memo written byjames comey after a meeting with the president details mr trump saying, "i hope you can let this go". that is referring to the

investigation into michael flynn. that is with reference to these flynn investigation. allegedly asking for an investigation to be let go. the white house refutes that claim. even for a man for whom controversy is a constant companion, this is unprecedented. this week is different. here's his assessment. look at the way i have been treated lately. especially by the media. no politician in history, and i say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly. you can't let them get you down. you can't let them get you down. you can't let the critics and the naysayers get in the way of your dreams.

jane o'brien is in washington. we have spoken to you about any number of pressures on the president in recent months, am i right in saying this is different? it is very different, i have been here on the hill all day speaking to senators. republicans and democrats have both told me this is the most serious allegation against the president yet because it does not involve just an error ofjudgment, it could stray into the realms of obstruction of justice. that, of course, is a criminal accusation. we have not got there yet and it is very difficult to prove because you have to prove intent. certainly it is increasing calls from the democrats for possible impeachment if it is proved true. there is a real sea change, there has been a lot of embarrassment for the republicans, lots of i wish he had not said that

in that way from the republicans, but this is very, very different. jane, we would like to explore that a bit more in a moment. as she was to, until now president trump has had a political firewall around to, until now president trump has had a politicalfirewall around him, the republicans control both houses of congress but cracks are beginning to show. some republicans are calling for an independent prosecutor to be appointed at one has suggested mr trump should be impeached if the allegations are true, a democrat has already called for him to be impeached. there is a feverish atmosphere in washington. before we go back there, here are some of the main statements. before we go back there, here are some of the main statementsm before we go back there, here are some of the main statements. it is not too late that the administration needs to take stock of what it is doing and the president needs to listen to his advisers and better appreciate the nuances of government and the different roles that the

three branches of government play. we need the facts. it is obvious people out there want to harm the president, but we have an obligation to carry out our oversight regardless of which party is in the white house, meaning that before rushing to judgment we white house, meaning that before rushing tojudgment we get white house, meaning that before rushing to judgment we get all the pertinent information. it seems like we are learning disturbing new allegations about president trump, not just everyday but, ladies and gentlemen, every hour. in the house, republicans have shown repeatedly that they refuse to conduct credible, robust oversight over this president. a us senate panel is investigating both the alleged russian —— u.s. senate panel is requesting that james komi testifies before its members. now look at this, a

republican member of congress saying that the part of the congress that he represents also wants to speak to the former director. so both houses of congress want to speak to him. jane, i guess this means we will get a lot closer to understanding what was said or what is in the memo if it exists? that is the idea but i think there is a real irony that fbi directorjames comey was sacked by donald trump in parts because he considered him a showboat. he is out of thejob but considered him a showboat. he is out of the job but republicans and democrats, lawmakers, still want to speak to democrats, lawmakers, still want to speakto him. democrats, lawmakers, still want to speak to him. he is the man of the moment who holds the answers to lots of these questions swirling around washington, the biggest one is what's did the president say? a couple of other things going on, we have heard in the last hour or so that a couple of candidates for the

newjob of director of the fbi will be in the white house in the next hour. of course, getting a replacement forjames comey will be tough, democrats say it is just not going to happen because there is so much contention about the whole thing. interesting movements. and demands for members, e—mails, anything documenting conversations that mr comey had with mr trump at any moment, congressmen want to hear about that. a lot going on and a lot of fa ct about that. a lot going on and a lot of fact gathering at the moment. thank you, jane. jane mentioned he might take over from james comey. sean spicer, the press secretary for the white house, saying the president will meet andrew mccabe, the current acting fbi director, former oklahoma governor frank keating, former connecticut senatorjoe lieberman

and former senior fbi official richard mccready. anthony zurcher is in the washington news you. those four candidates, are you surprised at them? i am. frank keating was a former fbi agent and governor of oklahoma but he has been out of the political scene for quite some time, i believe he was on the board of regents at university of oklahoma, so regents at university of oklahoma, so that is plugging a name from nowhere. joe lieberman was on everyone's rips back in the early 20005, he was al gore's vice president shall nominee when al gore had democratic nomination. he became persona non grata in the democratic party over his support for the iraq war, he lost a primary and had to run as an independent and he has been a think tank guy and law firm board. the others are current or past fbi agents. mccabe is the

acting fbi director since comey was fired. i think there will be a lot of resistance to use and former politicians like lieberman, i'd have heard from some democrats saying those names are non—starters. democrats particularly seasonably from the law—enforcement community, someone with a real independent strea k someone with a real independent streak that has grounding within the agency. i will be curious to see if they are really the finalists or if one of the earlier names pops up again. another thing i wanted to ask you about, this is an online magazine called the federalist, one of its headlines is tips for reading washington post articles about trump with tip of strong anonymous sources. it says do not trust anonymous sources. unless someone is willing to put his or her name with

the league, beyond god. lots of these stories have been based anonymous sources. “— these stories have been based anonymous sources. —— unless someone is willing to put his or her name with the leak, be on guard. many people are saying why trust this league, we do not know where it comes from? it is journalism 101, if you can get a named source that is much better than an anonymous source, if you are going to cite someone anonymously you'd have a good reason, whether it is because they are afraid of repercussions from superiors or some other reason, fallout from what they are sharing. sometimes all you can get is anonymous sources, if you have further information to back them up then you run with them, if you have multiple sources from different areas saying the same thing, that is areas saying the same thing, that is a way to flesh out the reporting. it isa a way to flesh out the reporting. it is a question of trust in the media, the reason that lots of conservatives doubt this is they think the mainstream media, the new

york times and washington post, they have an agenda so they are using anonymous sources to advance that agenda. once again i think it goes back to the partisan divide. thank you, anthony. the washington post story alleged the information had been shared, mr trump agrees that it had. the disagreement was not about whether it happened but whether it was appropriate. with reference to the new york times story, based on an anonymous source, both houses of congress want to speak to james comey, the man who allegedly wrote that memo and allegedly said the president asked him to deal with the michael flynn inquiry. we shall find out from him whether he agrees with the new york times report. don't for a moment think that is it. to make things murkier, russia is denying that any confidential information was shared in that meeting in the oval office. and president putin commented earlier. translation: we are prepared to

provide the senate and the us congress with a transcript of the conversation between foreign minister and president trump, but only if the american administration wanted. yes, that's right — he's saying he can provide a transcript. the russian president saying he can provide that for the us congress about a discussion which took place in the oval office of the white house. no wonder there was a twinkle in his eye! he is quite right, we do not know if there is a recording. it is not clear what mr putin's comments meta, you can be certain he was causing mischief. here is steve rosenberg in moscow. you cannot help feeling that the criminal absorbers. as the us administration staggers from one

crisis to another, all seemingly linked to moscow, russia is sitting back and watching a political rival terror itself apart. president putin's comments were full ofjokes, sarcasm and the downs. among the jokes he said he would have to reprimand his foreign minister sergei lavrov, who met donald trump earlier this month, because he said mr lavrov had not passed on the secrets he was allegedly given to mr putin or the russian secret services, hejoked, putin or the russian secret services, he joked, and putin or the russian secret services, hejoked, and that putin or the russian secret services, he joked, and that was very bad of mr lavrov, said putin. there were many put—downs. he said there was political schizophrenia in there was political schizophrenia in the united states, he said those people in america spreading anti—russian sentiments were either stupid or dangerous and dishonest. he talked about the internal political struggle in america. as for his offer to provide a transcript of the meeting, to provide that to the congress and the

senate, i don't think you see risley believes that if russia was to provide a transcript on kremlin headed notepaper that it would make the crisis go away. i think it was another attempt to have a dig at america while the scandals were swirling around the lighthouse. —— the white house. stay with us on outside source — still to come... there has been documentation of how the damage to a liberal‘s electric system has affected the light available to the people who live there. lloyds bank, which was bailed out by the taxpayer at the height of the financial crisis, has returned to full private ownership. it was confirmed to the stock exchange this morning that the government has sold its last remaining shares in the company. the bank says taxpayers made a profit out of the deal. we gave taxpayers money back, around

£900 million more which is, i think, a big moment of pride. what changes for the bank as a result of today? what do you do differently?m for the bank as a result of today? what do you do differently? it is a big moment of pride but then we go back to our process, to help the country prosper. six years ago we designed a strategy which i thought was the right one which was to refocus this bank back to the united kingdom, helped the real economy, so families and small and medium—size companies, focus our resources, which were very scarce at the time, in helping britain to recover. we are live from the bbc newsroom live. president trump has been

responding to reports that he is the fbi to end the inquiry into michael flynn. he says he is being treated worse than any political leader in history by the press. some of the main stories from bbc world service... nine people were injured in two arrested outside the turkish embassy in washington. a fight broke out between enemies and supporters of president erdogan. he had been meeting with president trump. that is from bbc turkish. the tornado in western oklahoma has destroyed hundreds toe dozens of homes and killed at least one person. police have told residents to stay home until power is restored. now the uk election campaign. just over two years ago, the liberal democrats were the junior partner

in the british coalition government. then came the 2015 vote, and electoral meltdown — leaving them just eight parliamentary seats and a long way from power. on wednesday, their leader tim farron launched the manifesto which he hopes will bring voters back. here's his unique selling point .at . at the heart it is that we do not just have to accept whichever deal we get back from the brexit negotiations were due, the british people should have the final say, if you do not like what theresa may comes back with, you should have the right to votes tremain. three quarters of younger people in this country quarters of younger people in this cou ntry voted quarters of younger people in this country voted to remain, they are a reminder of why there is so much dismay at what theresa may plans to do, the most extreme version of brexit thatjeremy corbyn and ukip backed as well. the lib dems are the

only people offering hope that britain's future could be brighter and better. yes, you heard that right — he expects theresa may's conservatives to win, and he wants the british people to have another referendum on brexit. as with all of the main parties in this election, you can find the whole lib dem manifesto online. but let's take a quick look at some of the other headline promises. cannabis would be legalised and subject to taxation. they have said that could generate to £1 billion a year. the current voting age is 18 in britain. young people would be able to vote from the age of 16, and be offered state help to get on the housing ladder. and a large part of the funding would come from tax increases — including a penny in the pound on income tax. tom symonds is in westminster. tom, good to have you on the programme. lots of policies that might attract younger voters, but it isa might attract younger voters, but it is a bit ofa might attract younger voters, but it is a bit of a gamble given that younger voters tend to turn up less

than others? the lib dems have dispatched with the idea of doing a coalition deal with any other party, which is the thing that got them into power in 2010. they have to find a new place for themselves, this referendum deal where they are simply saying if you don't like the deal that the british government does, you can votes against it and, in effect, i think they hope there will be a big number of leave voters who suddenly decides they are not interested in leaving. i think tim farron also hopes that the youth vote like that idea, lots of young people did not votes in the referendum, they might not like the idea of leaving the eu no, there this benefits and that it might cause. the hope is that that will bring them on side. but when the lib dems weren't government they agreed to increase radically the cost of going to university in the uk, the tuition fees, which was deeply unpopular. i covered the rioting

that happened in central london when that happened in central london when that was voted through parliament. there was enormous anger. the concern, i think, there was enormous anger. the concern, ithink, among lib dems there was enormous anger. the concern, i think, among lib dems is that some of those young people who went through that period and now have big debts, they have been to university, will not be interested in voting liberal democrat. another problem is that the lib dems is pushing away, potentially, voters who did vote to leave the eu, they may well move to the conservatives, who currently have a big lead in the polls. with the labour party moving to the left, the conservatives moving to the right, you look at france and the success of the centrist candidate like a emmanuel macron, it is interesting that the lib dems are not making more ground in the centre? tim farron gave a speech in london tonight to launch the manifesto and said that if you look at the french elections, the previous two main parties in france

came third and fifth, leaving the voters of france with a choice between macron and the national front. he said that was not something the lib dems were prepared to stand for in the uk, they will continue the fight. looking at the ma nifesto, continue the fight. looking at the manifesto, it is very similar in some ways to the labour manifesto, we will reverse the cuts to tax and spending that the conservatives saw through in 2010 onwards. interestingly, with the help of the lib dems, we will spend more on schools, hospitals, caring forthe elderly. it is fair to say the liberal democrat format is likely less radical than labour, which will doa less radical than labour, which will do a lot more tax—and—spend than has been popular or stunted in british politics in the last 20 years, but it is quite similar. a couple of policies stand out. they are planning to directly invest, the government doing this, in

house—building. housing problems are enormous, a lack of housing, especially for young people. in general it is similar to labour. they are building the manifesto on the offer of a referendum, trying to make in themselves a home for people who want to remain in the eu, saying votes followers of that is what you want. thank you, tom. let's take a closer look at the fallout from the contorversy surrounding donald trump in washington. bbc business tell us that the wall street stock markets fall as political uncertainty intensifies. you can see the reflection of this concern. this graph is bloomberg's dollar spot index which measures how the us currency is doing against ten leading global currencies. see how the dollar peaks in line with donald trump's victory and inauguration and has been going gently down ever since. samira hussain is in new york. explain the correlation between

confidence in donald trump and a strong dollar? generally people go to the us dollar because it is seen asa to the us dollar because it is seen as a very to the us dollar because it is seen as a very strong and stable place. if you have money and want to keep it safe, keep it in the us dollar. that confidence is eroding because of what has happened in washington. there are even words of possible impeachment being thrown around in washington with regards to what is happening with donald trump and the reports that he may have suggested that he and the federal investigation into the former national security adviser michael flynn and his ties to russia. what is really worrying wall street with regards to that is that it all acts asa regards to that is that it all acts as a distraction from the kinds of things wall street wants to see, and thatis things wall street wants to see, and that is tax reform and that big spending for infrastructure. if he is paroled in all these other sagas, lawmakers will not be able to put the attention to some of the regulatory matters that wall street

wa nts to regulatory matters that wall street wants to see happen. it is notjust about the us currency falling, the markets have come back a bit from the peaks we saw earlier in the year? absolutely, us markets have closed and we are seeing nothing but red across—the—board, closed and we are seeing nothing but red across—the—boa rd, the closed and we are seeing nothing but red across—the—board, the dowjones and the other indexes have fallen by about1.71.8%, the and the other indexes have fallen by about 1.7 1.8%, the nasdaq is down by 2.5%. that said, we have not seen what we call a correction, pull back from the markets, in a very long time. some people say we are due this sort of correction and this may be the impetus for that to happen. thank you for taking us through that. i will be back in a couple of minutes with more global news from the bbc newsroom live. welcome to the mike lealava'a the

big weather story is taking place the world. —— welcome to the nightly big weather stories. in the usa the weather has been particularly violent over the last couple of days. warm air to the south, cold airto the days. warm air to the south, cold air to the north. we have developed some violent thunderstorms. chewing cheese denied these storms move eastwards from texas and oklahoma in the south all the way to the permit west, pa rt of the south all the way to the permit west, part of wisconsin. there were storms and lightning, hail, winds from the west essentially colliding with the southerly winds, giving the airthe with the southerly winds, giving the air the pretend city to spin, which is spin up some tornadoes. not particularly unusual across this pa rt particularly unusual across this part of the uk at this time of year but look at the damage and oklahoma. damage to homes and properties,

damage to livelihoods and, u nfortu nately, damage to livelihoods and, unfortunately, reports of some loss of life as well. through the next few days, if your travel plans take you to the central swathes of the usa, bearing mind there is more stormy weather on the way, more heavy downpours and thunderstorms, even snow over the rockies, it is really that cold. a pretty unsettled look to the weather over the next couple of days, denser looking chouly, kansas city and oklahoma city much warmer, but still with heavy, thundery downpours. across the caribbean, lots of cloud of late, that has been producing some very of late, that has been producing some very heavy bursts of rain. you might think of the caribbean as a holiday hotspots but areas of rain like this are not better than usual at this time of year and when you get heavy rain across parts of jamaica, haiti, the dominican republic, for example, it could cause issues with flooding, which

could be concerning. there could be flooding concerns closer to home, this front has brought in brain through parts of the uk today, affecting iberia into france, the low countries and scandinavia. only slowly edging eastwards tomorrow, where it gets hung up about south—eastern spain of france, there could be some travel delays with thunder, lightning and hail. further east, looking largely dry, plenty of warmth in the forecast the berlin and vienna, temperatures in the mid to high 205, further west, cooler fresher conditions return, paris stripping down to 17, some of the thunderstorms hanging around in madrid. back home we get into the fresher feel, with a madrid. back home we get into the fresherfeel, with a mixture madrid. back home we get into the fresher feel, with a mixture of sunshine and showers. more details in halfan sunshine and showers. more details in half an hour. hello, i'm ros atkins, this is outside source. donald trump in under increasing pressure as he faces the most serious allegations of his presidency. he's accused of trying to stop

an fbi investigation into links between his former national security advisor and russia. but the president has come out fighting. no politician in history — and i say this with great surety — has been treated worse or more unfairly. leading democrats are on the attack. they're demanding an independent commission into the trump team's links with russia. but the people who voted for the president in take a different view. the media is left—wing, democrats, they