russian president vladimir putin denies having anything to do with the u.s. election. out with the old and in with the new. francois hollande unveils plans for a slavery museum in paris. and infant mortality in venezuela source among chronic shortages of food and medicine.

protests continue across the country. first, the president of the united states has been explaining why he fired the head of the fbi. will simply not do any good job, according to donald trump, but democrats are questioning his motives. he was in charge of an investigation into russia's alleged meddling into the u.s. election in a few days ago, co mey asked for additional resources to assist in the investigation. >> he simply was not doing a good job. insists he fired james comey for badly managing the investigation into hillary clinton's private email server. the democrats say it was for his

successful handling of another investigation, the fbi probe into russian meddling in the 2016 election. just days before his dismissal, come had asked for more fundingy in the inquiry. >> the dismissal of director establishes aey very troubling pattern. >> james comey is the third high-profile official to be fired by president trump while involved in an investigation linked to his administration. democrats renewed their calls for an independent investigation into alleged russian ties, a demand that was preemptively dismissed by the republican senate majority leader. doubt hear will no calls for a new investigation. our democratic colleagues complaining about the removal of an fbi director whom they themselves repeatedly and sharply criticized. reporter: democrats also question the role jeff sessions

played in the dismissal. sessions had to recuse himself hisr failing to disclose with russia. laura: from hillary clinton's emails to trump half claims he was wiretapped by the obama administration, they have rarely seen eye-to-eye. we look at the love/hate relationship. lessspite the public entries, the relations between donald trump and james comey have always been rocky. it all began last july after the fbi director waited into the presidential campaign when he recommended no charges be brought against hillary clinton in her use of a private email while secretary of state. findthough we did not

clear evidence that secretary clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless. >> the fbi's decision not to pursue criminal charges against hillary clinton only emboldened her rival's argument that she was protected by a rigged system. >> today's the best evidence that our we have seen system is absolutely, totally rigged. text on a trump's impression of the fbi changed just days before the election, after james comey sent a letter to congress that the agency had come across additional emails in an unrelated case into its investigation of hillary clinton's private account. >> there is little doubt that and the greatomey special agents of the fbi will be able to collect more than enough evidence to garner indictments against hillary clinton.

mey was kept on his fbi director after donald trump assumed the presidency. despite this, relations between the two men remained tense. later that month, the agency confirmed it was investigating russia's alleged involvement in election.s >> i've been authorized by the department of justice to confirm that the fbi, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. >> the president took to twitter to dismiss any russian involvement. last week his former rival, hillary clinton, said comey's actions in october and alleged russian meddling cost her the election. is terrible. it makes me mildly nauseous to

think we might've had some impact on the election. reporter: donald trump sudden firing of james comey puts an abrupt into a troubled relationship. some are drawing parallels to the watergate scandal when richard nixon fired the man leading the investigation. laura: the russian president has waded into the controversy. sacking hadcomey nothing to do with russia and it will not affect relations between the two countries. there was even a joke during a press conference earlier. francois hollande has made his final speech is french president. he was speaking here in paris alongside incoming leader emmanuel macron who will be sworn in on sunday. he was unveiling plans for a new museum that will honor victims of the slave trade. side-by-side, francois

hollande and emmanuel macron, at a solemn ceremony whose significance reverberates into modern politics. as one presidency transitions to another. 2006, may 10 has been the day france commemorates its role in slavery. in his last public speech as .resident, hollande >> the same frantic can be glorious and sometimes fall back into error. culture.y of life, a it carries a message. is your job to carry this message here in france, in europe and everywhere in the

world. >> invoking the election would solve the national front advance to the second round, hollande indicated that the work of tolerance and openness was not complete. france's like community has long desired. money, but the's money to do things for cultural education, and this is why we're happy today. >> it scheduled to open in 2018 and will be housed in the same building where the appellation of slavery was signed in 1848. leaving office with the lowest approval ratings of any french president and modern times, he held his last cabinet

meeting, an emotional one for socialists. >> they met exception, allowing cameras to capture the ministers as they gathered around the president for his last meeting. >> we have obtained increased productivity. >> higher growth than five years ago. bids francois hollande farewell to his 17 ministers one by one, he showed special infection -- affection to his education minister, the first woman to have the job, and others. >> i'm proud of the work we have accomplished. a lot of things were done.

>> we are all in emotional, including the president. >> did you take any souvenirs with you? >> it's the pencil the president keeps during cabinet meetings. i will put it in a case and not let my kids play with it. were proud ofters their president as he retreated. he will be handing over the keys to emmanuel macron on sunday. laura: it was a case of thanks but no thanks for the former prime minister. he made the declaration during a radio interview in which he said his party, the socialist, were dead. -- they doo macron's not quite meet the criteria.

its candidate came in fifth in the presidential race, picking up 7% of the vote. he's calling all that's on all members of the left to unite under a new party. >> after saying he wanted to run on any political movement, his own socialist party is thinking of excluding him. >> there's a specific procedure to follow. >> meanwhile, emmanuel macron doesn't seem inclined to let them in on the new party ticket in next months elections. >> the rules are the same for everyone, even for men will lls.s -- four manuel va it is not in macron's interest to accept this new candidacy, no matter the history of valls.

valls should've waited longer. they are watching us, and we are proud of that. haves set aside past feelings for macron. we will know later on thursday whether he will accept his candidacy. moving to venezuela where more massive protests are underway across the country. there has been near daily unrest in recent, almost 36 people killed. arele in venezuela increasingly desperate. it emerged today that the crisis has led to a sharp rise in infant and maternal or tablet he. officials say the number of babies dying is up already percent while the number of women dying in childbirth is up 65%. the deaths due to a shortage of medicine. the return of diseases such as malaria and diphtheria.

been israeli does have the world, but according to the opposition, incompetence on the part of president nicholas maduro. to talk more about that i'm joined by daniel lance berkman northwestern university, joining us now from chicago. thanks for being with us on tonight. next the protests have been going on nearly every day. are they getting bigger are organized?re what changes do you see? >> thank you for having me on the program. changed but have not dramatically in terms of the number of people over the last couple of weeks. what is happening is that they remain organized in so far as

the organization would have a certain place they asked protesters to go to on a given day. many problems venezuela has, they are protesting. call it a rejection on principle of a, this by high levels shortage ofnd medicines. there could be any number of reasons, but where they do change and where they have changed over the last several , somewhere in levels of chaos. the people are becoming more desperate. the government is coming down with a very heavy hand. a lot of the early violence we saw was a bit opportunistic,

, for example. now there is violence that is taking place as protesters gather en masse. laura: and worrying for president maduro and his government is that it's spreading to towns and villages that used to be pro-government and pro-hugo chavez. some say tearing down the statues of hugo chavez was a real turning point. >> i wouldn't read so far into the tearing down of statues. statues,ng down of the twitterse been some statues andle where busts of chavez could be found that are going around. what i think is really a turning point more than the symbolism is

the makeup of the protest. you're starting to see more and more people not just in areas of the country that were previously pro-government, but also in areas of the city where the lower classes that had traditionally at least been the focal point of the attention paid by the government to the people and much of the rhetoric has now finally reached a tipping point. roughly 80% according to polls of venezuelans think maduro should allow election sometime soon. we're seeing a type of popular populism which in a country with very little money to his end, a charismatic leader is reaching the breaking point. that said, some of the wealthier segments of society that have ties with the government and the military remains, broadly speaking, in maduro's corner.

i would not expect an overnight change. what were seeing is a paradigm shift and of putting to rest of this long-standing fiction that the venezuelan government represents the will of the venezuelan people. laura: elections are supposed to take place next year. there are still concerns that maduro will not allow that to happen. that there may be a risk of the country sliding into a civil war if something is not done soon? >> think the civil war would be difficult. the opposition is not particularly well armed, so a civil war would be one-sided. you could have an explosion of violence with some of the armed gangs, one of the hallmarks of too byvernment is that legions from certain narcotics and criminal groups, they've given them a bit of a free in certain parts of the major -- you which are not

have well armed groups that if they turned on the government, you could have a lot of civil clashes, but i wouldn't call it organized enough to be a civil war. elections next year, i would say, are also very much up in the air. the constitution they are actively trying to change is only around 17 years old. there is little precedents for anything in the supreme court which is state squarely inmaduro's corner. there is already an election last year for governors that has not been done. the chaos on the streets gives the government at least talking points for why they might delay elections further, and even once thinko have elections, i they will argue that the governor's election comes first

on the docket so they have to get those out of the way first. so i'll consider the government .s seeking all options given the level of anger on the streets, they seem determined to hold fast to the reins of power as long as they possibly can, despite the mounting and very human cost to the population. laura: thank you very much indeed for talking to us. brazil's former president has appeared in court for the first of five corruption hearing. he is accused as part of the petrobras scandal that involves hundreds of brazilian politicians. if found guilty, you get beheaded for jail. but if not, he's expected to make a bid for reelection next year. they are meant to symbolize eternal love, but the padlocks changed by couples to bridges over the seine could be about to

fetch some cold hard class -- cash. city officials have decided to auction them off, with all the proceeds going to charity. >> locks from around the world that were left on paris bridges, each one with its own message of affection. some are now being auctioned off. group of a few locks to anan entire bridge panel that weighs in at halftime. since being removed from paris bridges, they were taken to a storage facility and the more original ones were picked for the auction block. >> we chose according to the color, the shape, the variety, and drawings. >> they are are estimated to fetch between 150 euros to of to

10,000 for an entire panel. the proceeds will go to three charities that help migrants that have just arrived in the city of light and love. very romantic indeed. let's get some business news, kate moody is with us. starting with a report about unemployment in the eurozone which suggest he could be higher than everybody previously thought. says there is steady improvement in the headline unemployment figures, but the concrete number of people looking for work may be nearly double that. wages have not been keeping pace with inflation. paper, the eurozone job market is doing well, but statistics can be misleading. the euro area official unemployment rate is at 9.5%, the lowest since 2009, but the figure does not take into account part-time workers seeking more hours, or those no

longer actively seeking work. when adjusted for these and other discrepancies, it's around 15%, almost double the official employment rate. companies are hiring more temporary workers, instead of giving current employees more hours. this could explain why wages have not risen, despite the best economic run in decades. argues of the ecb policy that an uptick in growth supports the case for lowering stimulus, but ecb president mario draghi is in no rush to change monetary policy, saying it's too early to declare victory in the quest to boost economic growth. european indices closed marginally higher after a mixed trading session. wall street slipped off session highs we saw in monday and tuesday. fairly muted trade there, the

dow jones down about .2%. markets have been called despite significant geopolitical risk around the world. the firing of james comey is something that could've injected panic into the markets but has not done so. analyst warned that the tranquility may not last long. >> basically it's concentrating on the good earnings season we've had so far. the market is shrugging this all for now, but once the earnings season is over with, that could change. kate: wall street will be closing in just under an hour. the snapchat parent company begin trading on the nasdaq in march. share prices drop since then and snapchat is expected to announce heavy losses. moving on to other business

, a green light to buy general motors european operation. it was announced in march it's offering 2.2 billion euros for the brand that will make it europe's second business -- second-biggest carmaker. profitpe to return to under the new ownership by 2020. a drop in annual profits because of the strong japanese yen. the market slump by 21% last year and toyota expects another fall in years to come. it's expecting the figure jermaine static in 2018. the u.s. car market decline. my land has seem revenue jumped 24% despite unveiling a cheaper, generic version of a popular allergy treatment. the american drugmaker was at

the center of controversy last year because of the skyrocketing price of its life-saving fbp and . sales have declined because of its new generic. states, coal miners in west virginia say they already been seeing the benefits of donald trump's presidency. campaign, election the president promised he would roll back environmental laws to help used coal mining. warned it could be short-lived. >> donald trump's pledge to revive the mining industry was not just hot air. three months into his presidency, craig is no longer unemployed. around 700 coal mining jobs were created at the end of last year. hope.have a little bit of somebody is looking out for us, finally. to reopening as the new administration rolls back regulations of the

obama era. but it's not enough to stop the decline in coal. competition for natural gas and other energy sources means only 30% of power generation in the u.s. now comes from coal, far from what it was in the 1950's. chances of it coming back 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. switching to less intensive mining efforts have hit the industry hard. >> you would have liked 35 men to a working section, and the last mining i done, we had like eightor a man -- seven or men. so it really did take its toll.

>> officials point out that the small rise in jobs in west virginia only amounts to 2% of the states employment. the lifeline to the industry is abdelelaying coal's and

05/10/17 05/10/17 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> i've it authorized by the department of justice to confirm th fbi, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the russian government efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. amy: president trump fires fbi director james comey just weeks after comey confirmed the fbi question is is a must getting trump's