days before the first round of french elections. marseillerested in with guns and explosives and an isis flag were found. venezuela's government accuses meddling after the leaders of 11 latin american countries called on the president to guarantee

the right of peaceful protest. laura: we begin with another important election on the horizon for your. the british prime minister theresa may has announced plans to call a snap election on june 8. she says she wants a country and parliament behind her as she continues to negotiate uk's exit from the european union. >> it's a dramatic new turn from the leader who had said she would not hold a general election until 2020. dividedrofoundly opposition and galvanized by the momentum of grexit, theresa may decided to hold a snap general election in just over seven weeks time. britain is entering a time of

great uncertainty ahead of the brexit negotiations, and announcing the surprise general election, the prime minister tried to position both her conservative party and stability. >> britain is leaving the european union, and there can be no turning back. and as we look to the future, the government has the right plan for negotiating our new relationship with europe. termser the fix parliament act, the prime minister needs a two third majority in the house of commons to call in early election. head tosday, may will parliament seeking precisely that. it's believe she's heading for a landslide victory. a poll on sunday gave the tories a 21 point lead over labor. the embattled opposition leader faces widespread

discontent within his own party. labor has struggled to offer a clear message on brexit with its supporters split over membership in the european union. nonetheless, corbyn said he was looking forward to getting back out on the campaign trail. >> i welcome the opportunity for the people of britain to stand up against this government and its failed economic agenda. >> the general election will be held on june 8 and its brexit as well as the threat to national health service and immigration that will likely dominate the campaign. laura: just recovering from the shocked result of grexit year ago, britain is preparing for what is likely to be another bitter campaign. we've been finding out the word on the streets of london. >> tuesday snap election announcement came as a surprise to many. politicians and westminster have just six weeks to convince the public to vote for their candidate. in london's business district, the reaction was very. the reaction is a

second vote for brexit. in one place all the arguments are around brexit and whether it's good for parliament and the country. >> some say the prime minister is certain to be confirmed. some felt theresa may had put her parties interest for the nation. i don't think it's going to do any favors for the country at all. we will have to wait and see. weak and weition is think it's very bad news for the country. opposition has rejected claims by the prime minister that the country coming together while westminster remains divided. on june 8, the nation will settle the argument once and for

all. in france, police say they foiled the major terror attack design to stop the third round of the french presidential election. two men have been arrested in marseilles where police seized guns, explosives, and an isis flag. .he men have been named police say they were planning to strike imminently. >> the documents we have collected so far indicate these two men were getting ready to carry out an imminent attack on french soil. but if this point, we are still unable to say when, where, and how exactly they intended to at. >> investigators have interrogated the family members and they were able to attest that he turned to radical islam and he was very careful ever

since his flat was searched by security officers. always covering up his tracks with aing his links person according to his family who influenced him and convinced him to turn to radical islam. ever since they met in 2015. laura: but the last few days of campaigning under way ahead of sunday's vote, polls show the difference between the four leading candidates is on a knife edge. emmanuelle macron remains the front runner but marine le pen is not far behind. leader is still running third in popularity and chris moore is with his camp tonight. chris, mã©lenchon is there but -- >> it's a slightly surreal experience of his hologram

leading the french national anthem as this meeting wraps up. hologram as a live [indiscernible] about 4000 are so turning out. [indiscernible] talking about moving out of and for those --

,e has defeated his competitor he needs toe crowd make it through to round through. -- round two. >> he's been called an extremist, a communist. no one thought he would be in the top four at this stage. can he really make it to the second round of this election? polls show between the four major players [indiscernible] back in 2012 he was doing similar things. he was polling very high and kind of imploded at the last minute. [indiscernible] younger voters are not always the most reliable.

it's very different to back in 2012. [indiscernible] there are certainly reasons to said,imistic, but as you he does remain a little behind the two front runners. laura: chris, thank you very much indeed. pen may well been driving home her anti-europe and anti-immigrant message in the northern region of the country. also suggesting she's been losing some or in recent days. reporter: walking out into a sea

of red, white, and blue, far right presidential candidate marine le pen knew what her thousands of supporters in paris wanted to hear, that france is under threat from mass migration and she alone is the person who can restore the country's borders. >> i will restore our national borders. door of francee those who understand the advantages they can get from our incredible power. they sent their soldiers of hate among the flow of migrants to hit our country in the heart. days to got five before polls open, her speech at the intended effect. >> i think marine le pen has managed to convince the large majority of french people, including myself, that her program is genuinely inclusive.

she wants us to regain our freedom and national sovereignty. le pen looks likely to make it through to the second round of voting. while her leave a significant, with polls suggesting she's around 27.5% of votes, she's now expect it to secure around 22%. tolysts attribute the slot lackluster performances in live tv debates. an investigation into allegations she illegally used eu funds to pay for party assistance in her refusal -- judges,to appear before turkey's opposition has filed a petition for a recount. the turkeys bar association said last-minute decision by the electrical board to allow

unstaffed balances -- understand ballots was clearly against the law. accusing the party of changing the rules mid-game, hundreds of opposition demanded the annulment of sunday's landmark referendum amid claims of vote rigging. a most important issue to which we object is the issue of irregularities. there were a lot of problems in the east and southeast of the country. we will lodge a complaint about prosecuting officers. >> opposition parties were incensed by the commission's last-minute decision to accept and stamped alex, a move they say could've swung the votes. international observers echoed the objection but fell short of electoral fraud. the monitoring group also criticized a lopsided campaign which media coverage was

dominated by the yes camp and raise concerns about the arrest and replacement of thousands of public officials under turkeys state of emergency. the prime minister slammed the allegations and called on the opposition to accept sunday's results. >> the nation has expressed its free will. it is over. everyone, especially the opposition, has to respect it. >> the outcome of sunday's hotly contested referendum which grants sweeping powers to president erdogan is likely to deepen divisions in an already fractured country. it could also strain relations with the eu. on tuesday the european commission called on turkey to launch a transparent investigation into the alleged irregularity. laura: venezuela has accused his neighbors of meddling after the leaders of 11 latin american countries signed a letter calling on the government to guarantee the right of peaceful protest.

have died inople antigovernment action in the last few weeks and a major rally is planned for tomorrow. reporter: they are calling it the mother of all protests. venezuelan authorities are bracing themselves for massive demonstrations. organized by opponents of embattled president nicolas maduro. they say will be the largest rally yet against the leader who's faced a spiraling crisis in recent weeks after the supreme court tried to consolidate its control by slashing the authority of the opposition led national assembly. thousands have taken to the streets, protesting not just the attempt to tighten his grip on it's led to riots and looting throughout the country. five people have been killed in clashes with police. on monday, would euro announced plans to up the number of civilian armed militias. there are currently 100,000

members of the militia created by hugo chavez. he wants to defend the presidency against what he called as the right wing. news ofu wake up to betrayal trail and that the ultra-right has tried to impose a sort of coup, head outside. i'll take total power of the republic. there needs to be insurgency throughout the military forces across the homeland. >> opposition had called on the military to turn against him, but the defense minister has declared the army loyal to the president. falls on therotest anniversary of the start of the country's independence struggle in 1810 and the opposition is hoping they can capitalize on that public holiday to draw thousands out in protest against

maduro. laura: i'm joined by a venezuela whoriter and the author of killed simon bolivar. that the president is boosting a number of armed fighters in the so-called civilian militias to protect the government. he shows no sign of backing down whatsoever. where you feel this is heading? be madehing needs to clear from the get-go. illegal.itias are referendum that hugo chavez tried to pass and it was refused. now you have this body of paramilitary actions in place. where theyult to see

will go with is. seemed to be trying to bait the opposition into some sort of violence where they can then retaliate. it's difficult to see where all this will head since we don't have any institutions at this moment that can broker a deal between the parties and the various different factions that all have a different way of approaching how the issue will be resolved. laura: what about the attempt at intervention by venezuela's neighbors from 11 countries sayingng columbia, remember people's rights to protest. do you think that will have any sway at all? >> i don't think that's a

possibility. their heart -- there's a high level of propaganda, colombia has been denounced by the government is playing a part in some sort of international scheme. what is important is the , it putsion of states the government in a bit of a bind because it means that any asd of deal they could find far as getting money from international organizations would be void. so the opposition might be very interested in being able to refer to that. i don't know of any country in the world where international pressure has been able to force change or even call elections in cuba, iran, north korea. it's difficult through international means to solve the crisis. it's something they need to figure out. ultimately it comes down to the people of venezuela being able

-- the majority of people, --r 50% don't really hold have a say on anything that happens in the country right now. with: this is a country the world's biggest proven resources of oil. it has vast resources, yet people there are suffering shortages of the most basic goods. how have things gotten so bad under nicolas maduro? they were not that bad under hugo chavez. >> between 2002-2 thousand eight, there was an immense amount of money that was injected into the country and it was put through a series of black boxes that was spearheaded by mr. hugo chavez himself. we don't know where that money went, but yes, the country is running out of money. i believe it's part of my theory a gambit ons from

the part of the government to be a will to sign deals with the russians. the nationall if assembly -- you can sign the the government's heart strapped for cash. they did make a payment of $3 billion last week to tackle their debt, so they seem to be muddling through 2017. we don't know how long it's going to last or how much they can pressure the people and forced the shortages on them but the government is having a lot of trouble raising cash. laura: thank you very much indeed. that's get some business news for you now. starting with the market reaction to the british prime minister's announcement that she wants to call a snap election in

june. it sent the footsie tumbling this tuesday, ending the session with declines of 2.5%, it biggest one-day drop since the immediate aftermath of the brexit vote last june. elsewhere in europe we saw steve drop in the wake of the prime minister's announcement. the worst performance since the start of the year. the british pound reacted positively to the news of the snap elections. sterling jumped to a 2.5 month high against the u.s. dollar. over in the u.s., geopolitics is front and center. ue june snap elections in the k and round one of the presidential elections in france are weighing on investor sentiment. 's worse than expected results dragging the dow jones lower this session. the company stock itself is

trading down over four -- 4.5% this hour. some of the 25 nobel prize-winning economist denounced the economic platform of france's far right candidate marine le pen. the group cosigning a letter that appeared on french tv, talking about the benefits of isolationistnd policies and protectionist. by american, hire american has been donald trump's credo and now he wants to do just that. apparently he's going to sign an executive order in wisconsin. its aim will be to in fraud and program, the hib visa sought by indian outsourcing firms and silicon valley. esther trump will commission the department of homeland security

-- is expected to suggest reforms to ensure each one goes to highly paid, and skilled applicants and not foreign workers who may be paid less americanr counterparts. despite the uncertain following last year's brexit vote, donald trump presidency and the upcoming french elections, things are looking up for the global economy. the imf forecasting a growth rate of 3.5% for 2017, but the body is cautioning it's not sure the world is out of the woods just yet. next the global economy is slowly picking up steam. the imf forecast predicts modest growth for 2017. >> momentum in the global economy has been building since the middle of last year, allowing us to reaffirm our earlier forecast of higher global growth this year and next. >> the growth rate of 3.5% is forecast for this year, up from 3.1% in 2016. it's a rare upward revision, the

first in two years. rising commodity prices and started financial markets contributed to the upswing. but the outlook is in all sunny. in the wake of the brexit vote and following donald trump's election on america first platform, the imf warned political leaders against inward looking policies. threatsistinct set of comes from the growth in advanced economies of political movements skeptical of economic integration. a broad withdrawal from multilateralism could lead to such self-inflicted wounds as widespread protectionism. concerns, the imf including restrictive trade and immigration policies and all caps economic programs. of the moste divisive issues in the upcoming presidential election in france.

>> cost controls and a stronger contribution from its core brand pushed up earnings at volkswagen. the german carmaker reported first-quarter results this tuesday, operating earnings coming in at 4.4 billion euros, up from a year earlier, despite the candle over scar -- cars rigged to cheat emissions, car sales have continued to rise. a french cosmetics giant, l'oreal, has posted stronger than expected first-quarter sales. reporting an increase year on year, boosted by stronger demand for its luxury products in asia. the company's chief executive is confident sales and profits will continue to grow in 2017. street food ins bangkok is under threat. city authorities are planning a capital.leanup of the all food stores will be banned from the city's main street, a .ecision that provoked outcry

>> a nighttime snack prepared before your very eyes. for many, bangkok is synonymous with street food. so let's so that the thai capital was named best street food destination two years running. chowing down outside may soon be a thing of the past. officials are cracking down on vendors. announcing plans to ban stalls across the city by the end of the year. >> vendors make the streets dirty. they leave food and garbage on the ground and throw left over food in the trains. they also get in the way of pedestrians. up 10-20 meters of space, causing problems for people who are walking down the sidewalk. ban saynents of the they will clean up the streets, but the move has vendors up in arms. authorities won't listen to us. they only want the city to be beautiful.

they don't think about how it will affect poor people. >> street food is cheap. people can save a lot of money. people who don't have much money have to eat food like this. food and big restaurants is expensive. a part offood is daily life in bangkok. some residents worry it will do away with the city's charm while others say it will boost the tourism industry. with annual growth in tourism of nearly 8%, bangkok is one of the most visited cities in the world. last year, nearly 33 million people travel to thailand. the question is, how many made the trip to grab a salad in the street? >> it will truly be the end of an error if they leave the streets. .aura: a big change were taken a

04/18/17 04/18/17 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> it is time to say the president is never going to release his tax returns? >> we will have to get back to you on that. amy: as millions of americans race to file their taxes today, the white house confirms president trump has no plans to make his tax returns public. this comes as the trump administstration is also refusug to release t theamames of visiss to the white house. we will look at transparency in the age of trump. i