"franceou are watching 24." these are the headlines. francois hollande holds his final cabinet meeting and gives his last tweet as french president today at a ceremony marking the end of slavery. he is there alongside incoming french president emmanuel macron. fired fbi director james comey. the white house defending the -- defending the shock move as a

way to restore public trust. democrats say it is more proof of president trump's alleged ties to russia. south korea's new president is inaugurated a day after his election victory. to liberal puts in a end executive conservative rule, process -- promising a new year of negotiations with the north. also coming up this hour, we will hear from the coal mining community in west virginia, who say they are already seeing a revival, thanks to president donald trump. locks are back. they are up for auction. more on that on the way. first, our top story live from paris.

outgoing french president francois hollande gave his final speech today in a ceremony to mark the end of slavery. he was standing there alongside the newly elected incoming president, emmanuel macron. here is more from president hollande and what he had to say. crime canis terrible we make a population and a new simulation -- a new civilization emerged. it gave rise to new forms of art and culture that are rich and diverse. abject racism, a form of universalism was born, a phenomenon a poet once called the -- genie: james andre is at the luxembourg tartans in paris or talk us through the importance of the ceremony marking the end of slavery. s: it is an important

ceremony, created in 2006, and it was after a vote was held for a law in parliament making france a country that recognizes the crimes it had committed. it is important because symbolically it marks france as an important country as far as human rights are concerned. it was the first country to wr abolition ofthe slavery -- it was the third country to write into law the abolition of slavery. this is why it is important. it is also important, why france while hollande -- why francois manynde -- he also had words for emmanuel macron during the speech. genie: james, i imagine for many people watching the ceremony earlier, they were intrigued to

see the outgoing president, francois hollande, standing side by side with incoming president emmanuel macron, given the two men's history. tell us about that. james: indeed, it was interesting to see them side-by-side. francois hollande invited emmanuel macron and said he insisted on him being there him as proof that he would carry on francois hollande's work, as far as the abolition of slavery is concerned. it was interesting to see what happened right after the ceremony. the men stood next to each other. emmanuel macron took the time to have a session with the people, a lot of people taking selfies with him, shaking hands, spending time with children, talking to everyone, and you could tell there was a lot of enthusiasm here for emmanuel macron. as for francois hollande, he

left quite rapidly and quite menreetly, the two side-by-side, who worked together. emmanuel macron was francois hollande's foreign minister. today, he is his successor. genie: just a quick word on the political front. the big thing now are the parliamentary elections coming up just one month from now. francois hollande, a socialist. the outgoing president with a party that is imploding. tell us about what is going wrong with the socialists. james: for the socialists, it is a very difficult time, collecting only 6.3% of the presidential vote. macron's on marsh -- en marche! movement, is moving the lines now for the socialist

party is very difficult. the big question now is, who is emmanuel macron going to choose for his prime minister? that ceremony also came after president hollande held his final cabinet meeting before handing over the reins to emmanuel macron. the transfer of power is set to happen this sunday. francois hollande's popularity ratings are among the lowest of any president in recent history, but his prime minister was quick to defend the socialist administration's record. >> as for the results we have obtained, increased productivity in the economy, and industrial investment was higher in growth in five years ago. for the first time last year, the net creation of 260,000 jobs , and for the first time in two years, a decrease in unemployment. genie: the next challenge for

the president-elect, emmanuel macron, as we were saying, are the parliamentary elections and getting a majority in the parliament in the vote next month. that will be no easy task for emmanuel macron. his political movement is just one year old, and he now has to come up with 577 candidates, one for each jurisdiction in play. promised at least half of those candidates will not be already established politicians. our correspondent told us more about who the new faces could be. >> a school principal from southwestern france, a 40-year-old farmer. a young lawyer from nice, or a banking consultant turned politician. these are among the hundreds of people being asked to run for parliament in next month's elections. among them, a lawyer trying to be elected in paris. until now, she was an unknown

face in her neighborhood. your experience does not seem to be a problem. not? look let -- why at macron to he was an unknown, too. why not her as well? >> the candidate says her task is to stick to her guns. >> bar are lots of violent political -- there are lots of violent political attacks. the most important thing is to have convictions. >> for the parliamentary elections coming each of the 577 republican candidates will have to show integrity. the party also wanted an equal number of men and women, as well as just as many from the private sector as the political sphere. many of them coming from different parties. that macron'ses candidates will now have to go up against. >> the candidates will be up against these political monuments and established parties. >> a challenge that did not

deter everyone. of the 577 spots to fill, emmanuel macron's team received some 1500 applications. the united, to states, and the shock move from the trump administration to fire fbi director james comey. that came from out of nowhere, right as the fbi was investigating whether trump's campaign team had ties to russia 's meddling in the election that central to the white house. the white house is defending the move as a way to restore of the trust in the fbi, following --ey's investigation into following comey's handling of the investigation into hillary clinton's emails. gallagher, talk about the timing of the firing. if those willing -- if that was linked to hillary clinton's emails, why is it happening now?

gallagher: it is difficult to answer that question, simply because the administration has no further comment other than the statements have -- other than the statements that have been issued. asked onion is being both sides of the isle, and people have yet to come up with a clear and convincing answer, simply because the allegations, the accusations being brought up against james comey, the former director of the fbi, were well-known when president-elect donald trump came into office back in january. these are facts that go back so the question, of course, remains -- why now? that is something which the white house spokesperson will definitely have to address, his given thating, pretty much everybody is asking

that question without being able to come up with a clear answer. are saying democrats this is the tip of the iceberg, comparing this firing to the watergate scandal of the 1970's. is that going too far? gallagher: there are parallels that can definitely be drawn between what is being referred to as the saturday night thencre back in 1973 when sitting president, republican richard nixon, fired the special prosecutor in charge of investigating the watergate scandal and key members of the ,oj, the department of justice quitting their positions there. the one major difference is that went as farn never as firing the sitting head of the fbi. there's only one other president who did so, and that was democratic president bill

clinton, in 1993, who fired the acting head of the fbi on grounds of an ethics violation. to be seen atns this point is whether or not, just like in 1973, republicans on the hill will step up to the plate and act on this. what is interesting at this point is that you have shock on both sides of the aisle up on the hill. some republicans are calling this decision by president trump to fire the head of the fbi, "deeply troubling." the question is how they will react. genie: gallagher fenwick reporting from washington. south korea posner president has been sworn in one day after he won the election in a landslide. the liberal moon jae-in puts in end to a decade of conservative rule. north korean of refugees, and he is promising a new era of negotiation with the north.

our correspondent reports. this is strange but not unprecedented. first plunge into politics was as chief of staff of the late president responsible for the sunshine policy, who committed suicide in 2009. in korea, we had nine or 10 years of the sunshine policy. now we had 10 years of conservative government, which was a reversal of that policy. it looks like moon will reignite this engagement of rapprochement policy with north korea. it is not entirely new, and there is the hope that it will work better than it did last time. continuing with its nuclear arms building. south korea knows very well, he

lost the last election. he was chief of staff to the late president. he is not new on the block to people here, but to people around the world, certainly. he is a pretty smart, charismatic individual. yous rather tiny, but when meet him, he fills the room and has the presence of a leader. he did his military service in the special forces, so a bit of --ough guy, but he also has he also is a human rights lawyer. he would call himself a liberal or progressive. we would probably call him a leftist. young gives great hope to south koreans for a better future for themselves, but whether he will be able to deliver, i cannot say. diplomaticrange of and domestic problems, so he needs to hit the ground running. genie: we will come back to paris, where you might remember the city's famous love locks. thousands of them were attached

by lovebirds. paris started removing them as their collective weight was threatening to make the ancient bridges collapse. now they are back and up for options. -- are up for auctions. worldks from around the were left on paris bridges. each one with its own message of affection. some are now being auctioned off. -- since being removed from two paris bridges, the love locks were kept in a state -- in a city storage facility. many were picked for the auction block. >> we chose according to the color, the shape, the variety, and -- >> the locks are estimated to

fetch between 165 euros for a few of them to up to 10,000 for entire panels. the proceeds will go to three charities that help migrants that have just arrived in the city of light and love. genie: it is time for business news with stephen carroll. we will start in australia, where the government has slapped a massive tax on banks. stephen: the country's five biggest lenders are being hit with a levy of over 4 billion euros. the tax will raise cash for the government to help plug its deficit. shares of the bank plunged on news of the levy. australia's finance minister has told the banks they are not to pass the tax on to consumers. >> my message is that they have to do their fair share of budget repair, and that is what they are being called on to do. rejected 3.5s million net, and that has to be

84, and the banks have to ensure that we are doing that. stephen: in europe we have things pretty calm. that is the same calm we have seen since the start of the week since the results of the french elections. these -- despite the news that donald trump fire the director of the fbi, trading is down slightly. the markets are still trading close to high-level's. genie: coal miners in west virginia say they are seeing benefits of the presidency under donald trump. stephen: he promised he would roll back environmental laws to boost coal mining. the coal mining industry says that jobs are already being created since he took office. julia kim has the story. julia: for coal miners like craig in west virginia, donald the --ledged to revise

to revive the mining industry, and it is not just hot air. around 700 coal mining jobs were created at the end of last year. >> we have seen a whole lot happened because he is in office. we have a little bit of hope somebody is looking out for us. wow. asthe mines are reopening the trump administration rolls back the environmental regulations of the obama era. but competition from natural gas and other energy sources means only 30% of power generation in the u.s. now comes from coal, half what it was in the 1950's. backe chances of it coming are slim to none. it could come back a little bit, but the days of west virginia mining anything over 120 million tons of coal are pretty much over. >> since the late 1940's, the number of jobs in mining have been shrinking from over 100,000 workers to just over 10,000.

automation and the switch to less labor intensive mining methods have hit the industry hard. >> you have 30, 35 men to a working section, and the last mining that i have done, we had like seven men, eight men. so it really did take its toll on employment. >> officials point out the small rise in west virginia jobs only amounts to 2% of state 'sployment, and coal inevitable downfall is only being delayed. stephen: toyota has seen the first drop in annual profits in five years. because of the strong japanese yen. net profit -- the carmaker is expected to make another profit in the years to come. sales rose slightly at the end of march. it is expected to remain static into 2018 as the u.s. car market

declines at a faster than expected rate. , -- ts at disney shares in the consumer -- plunged 25% in after-hours trading on tuesday after its latest results disappointed investors. its sales figures by $30 million, as well as profit estimates. and iconic american clothing brand is preparing to be taken over. stephen: this is abercrombie & fitch. certainty at this

stage the company will be sold, at a 17-year are low, which makes them vulnerable to a takeover. the brand has been suffering from falling sales in recent inrs, recently falling by 7% the last quarter of last year's. it seems like abercrombie plus days are over from its peak. genie: and what he peak it was. thank you for watching. it is time for the press review. florence villeminot is with us, taking a look at what the papers have been saying. a huge story coming out of the united states, president donald trump in the spotlight after the shock decision to fire james comey, the head of the fbi. flo: he fired him by a letter that is on the front page of "the new york times" today. trump essentially says that comey's job is terminated and removed from office, effective immediately.

you can see it is quite a short letter, which ends by saying i wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. according to "the new york times," comey learned that he had been fired while watching television here it at first, he thought it was a prank and left it off, but it was not a prank. politico is pointing out the timing of his fiery. officially -- of his firing. officially, it is because of the clinton emails, but comey was also cooperating with an intelligence committee investigation over trump's legit links to the kremlin in the u.s. election. politico points out that the senate probe is in serious jeopardy. has gotten firing many democrats to seek only as a victim and has raised the idea of the watergate scandal from the 1970's. flo: the new york times is talking about how comey's firing echoes the watergate scandal. you can see a photo of richard

nixon. not since watergate has a president dismissed a person leading an investigation bearing on him. if you want to go into more details, people are comparing this to the saturday night massacre, when president nexen ordered the firing of archibald cox. the special prosecutor was looking into the third rate burglary that led to the watergate scandal and brought nixon down. timothy naftali says that the timing deepens suspicions that president trump is covering something up. disagree,er papers saying president trump was right to fire comey. "the wallis what street journal" is saying in their editorial, that comey deserves dismissal, that the fbi director created more than enough mistakes in the last year

to be dismissed. comey has always been concerned more about the politics of his own reputation, political precisely in a way we do not want the leader of the fbi to be here it -- to be. genie: yesterday, the former socialist prime minister, manuel valls, says he is ready to the -- is ready to lead the socialist party. flo: there was a twist this saysng because on marche! -- in a way, the damage is already done for the socialists. -- can see this front page "the end of the socialist party." it was set on the radio

yesterday that the socialist party is dead and behind us. you can see the logo of the socialist party, a fist holding a rose -- the rose has been chopped off, and the party is about to implode. genie: emmanuel macron is a hopingt and he is members of the conservative party join him. flo: he needs to put together a majority in parliament. for him to do that, he will need help from socialists and conservatives. i like this cartoon. you can see macron is a pied piper, getting puzzled pieces -- getting puzzled pieces from the socialists, hoping that they will join him and form a new movement. does that, the original puzzle is starting to disappear. a bowling ballo in this one. macron is seriously shaking up the game. genie: the outgoing socialist

president is holding his last cabinet meeting today, part of his goodbye tour before he hands over power on sunday. flo: there is a good cartoon that talks about this. you can see the president had a goodbye party, with his economy minister. showing the president a card that says "we will miss you." says it is from political cartoonists. this is a very famous comic book cartoon about a lazy and clumsy guy. stephen: just a word -- genie: just a word on the far right party after marine le pen lost in the presidential election, but there is a new twist there as well. nice, aine le pen's rising star in the party, is

-- keep in she will mind, she is one of the national front's two mp's, and the youngest mp in f french

♪ music narrator: lima, peru, one of the driest cities on earth. a quarter of the population have no direct access to water. narrator: all over the globe water supplies are dwindling as temperatures rise and glaciers melt. as we head towards an ice-free earth, it will only get worse. everyone will be affected. lonnie thompson: it doesn't matter whether you're living in peru or the united states or china, you will be impacted by this change.e. narrator: but something can be done. people are already adapting to combat climate change.