"france 24." lawyers, formers, teachers and farmers, among those rementing emmanuel macron's new party. the party unveiled most of it's candidates with the vote a few weeks ago. donald trump seeks to justify his decision to fire james comey. he said he never pressured comey to crop his investigation into links with russia. a group ousted from a key town in syria. it has fallen to the kurdish

led syrian democratic forces. half of them are women, young, and more than half have never before held elected office. the party of the newly elected french president emmanuel macron has a new list of candidates to stand in next month's elections. 19,000 candidates have been whittled down to 488 candidates. still over 100 short. here is the report. >> the renewal of political life in france starts with a tactical rejection. emmanuel macron's movement, the republic on the move will not be supporting the former prime minister in the upcoming parliamentary elections, but

will not be outright opposing him and his constituency. >> the candidacy did not meet the criteria, one of which being he can't have already served three terms in parliament. we will not support this candidate. >> instead, the movement will be focusing on the return of citizens to the heart of political life. it's secretary-general asked that 95% of the 428 chosen candidates never held elected office before. among the new comers are students, business chiefs, and half of them are women. >> regarding parity, 214 candidates are women, 214 are men. >> their profiles speak for themselves. our candidates mark the definitive return of the citizens to the core of our political life and the republic

will move with them. >> emmanuel macron's movement will see its candidates face seasoned candidates in the parliamentary elections in june. the stakes are high for the newly elected president who, without a parliamentary majority, will find moving things through parliament difficult if not impossible. >> among the colts, a farmer, a police officer, who led elite raids on an islamic state cell, and a woman who lost her sister in the paris attacks. here is report on one of the first candidates. she is a 31-year-old lawyer running in the southeastern city of nice. >> caroline may have become a is c figure, but she is not a diva. >> i am here because i want to be. i want to help. i think it is great.

>> the 31-year-old is still adjusting to life on the campaign trail. the transition happened fast. she filled out an online application, and in april, emmanuel macron announced on live television that hui would be among his movement's first 14 candidates. it is her first political contest, and she is driving straight into the defense. she is running against a seasoned politician. he is head of the entire administrative area. but the new candidate isn't intimidated. >> it is the district where i live, where my kids go to school, where i work. district too. >> she said putting her career on hold wasn't a hard decision. she has always been tempted by politics. >> instead of defending my clients in court, i will defend my fellow citizens in the government and hopefully at the

national assembly. >> her first mission, getting to know those fellow citizens. >> do you know car line? >> we have heard about her recently. >> i know she is a lawyer. that's it so far. >> for her first public meeting, she chose to talk about security, a topic that has become a priority for voters in nice since last july's bastille day attack. >> we propose recruiting 7,500 police officers, 2,500 national guard. this is a necessity. >> i thought she was very clear, confident, determined, passionate. >> compared to traditional politicians who we couldn't relate to, candidates like her are young. they want to start a movement. they think like us. >> she now has one month to adjust to the media spotlight and convince voters in nice to join her on the move. >> the party is still reeling from its poor performance in

the presidential race. the party leader calls for politicians to unite, socialist heavyweight and the paris mayor is launching a movement herself called from tomorrow. to talk more about that, i am klugman, the ck deputy mayor of paris. it is a movement, not a political party, is it? is there a risk that you will detract from the job that emmanuel macron has? > first as we speak. he is is not a leader. he was a candidate. it is a new era that starts. but what is initiating that among others is totally different. it is not a party. the purpose of it is not to run or to win elections.

it is to i would say refresh the political reflection, the political life, to connect and ngage people who are speed politicians, former politicians as the former head of justice, and people who are entrepreneur , ecological activities. >> but not a part of macron's program? >> no, not at all. to draw the consequences of what we were face negligence this presidential campaign. more than three quarters of the voters were unhappy with the political offer, with the candidates, with the parties, and we want to just initiate a reflection. we want to locate what works in france. elsewhere you have three reign mayors signing up with

us. it is a reflection and giving back a taste of political involvement to our citizens. >> well, you have mayors from other european capitals signing up. emmanuel macron will be speaking to leaders of european countries. he is already developing a relationship with angela merkel. what about the candidates involving who don't have background in politics. isn't he the one shaking things up and getting away from the past? >> he is initiating something, but i would say he is turning to institutions, which is normal. the job of emmanuel macron starting now is to manage a country, which is france. he will need parliament. he will need a staff. what we are talking about here not need some reflection depending on elections. we need to go back to

territories, to citizens, to activities on values. what are these values? ecology, social inclusion and democracy. ee core values for us that were deeply shaken during the elections. >> that is something that he has talked about, a key policy for him. again, are you not taking away from him? >> no. people can be signatories or supporters of him in orrow and follow the socialist party. it is totally different. this is somewhere where we want to invent something. we want to share. we want to learn. we want to engage. it is not a political party. it is a political movement. >> you have mentioned one of

the signatories who was a member of the hollande government. isn't there a risk this sounds like sour grapes from a people who lost on the election and are complaining rather than supporting the new president? >> it is not linked or associated in the public opinion to hollande. she is a figure. she is one of the most powerful figures from the left. she is a great defender of human rights, of democracy. >> so why doesn't she help them get back into power? >> she does. but this is her contribution. we need reflection, not persons, not candidates, not leaders, not elections. we need reflection. we need to engage. we need to share. we need to do that. >> thank you very much for

joining us. >> you are welcome. >> moving to the united states, where the fall-out continues following donald trump's decision to fire f.b.i. director james comey. speaking to u.s. media, the president said he decided long ago to fire comey, who he called a grandstander and said the sacking was not intended to derail an investigation into his administration's alleged links to russia. comey has been contradicting the white house on why he was fired. here is more. >> all eyes on trump and the f.b.i. after james comey was sacked in controversial and unexpected circumstances on tuesday. many are starting to question the motives behind his dismissal, especially whether comey was getting close to discovering alleged links between the trump campaign and the kremlin. the acting head of the f.b.i. andrew mccabe says the f.b.i. investigation will continue unimpeded. >> as you know, senator, the work of the men and women of

the f.b.i. tips despite any changes in circumstance, any decisions. so there has been no effort to impede our investigation to indicate. simply put, sir, you cannot stop the men and women of the f.b.i. from doing the right thing, protecting the american people and upholding the constitution. >> donald trump and his team are under the spotlight as the senate tries to understand the reasons behind the dismissal. the democratic policy have called for a special prosecutor for take over the russian investigation, a move refused by the white house. contradictions are starting to emerge as sara called the investigation small, whereas mccabe said it was highly significant. comey was unpopular and unable to lead the bureau, statements again contradicted by mccabe.

>> i have the highest respect for his abilities and integrity. i can toll you that director comey enjoyed broad support in the f.b.i. >> on tuesday, james comey will appear behind closed doors in front of a senate committee to provide testimony in the trump investigation, a hearing that will undoubted shed some light on his sacking. >> just days after the trump administration announced plans to arm occurredic fighters in syria, a key development. the kurdish led syrian democratic forces, have recaptured a city from the jihadists. turkey has slammed washington's move. it considers the kurdish fighters to be terrorists. for more i am joined by our correspondent joining us live from beirut.

how significant is the fall of this city, which has been under isis control for sometime. this is not so far from the isis capital kapka. >> it is strategic because it is about 40 kilometers away from raca. you are seeing a shrinking of area of control that isis controls. secondly, that town is very important because it was mouth of the euphrates river. it controlled sources of water for sir in general. for isis it was strategic. it is being attacked inside mosul and being pushed towards the west and towards sir, and attacked on the east. but at the same time we can't forget the fact that what this battle is not going to be anywhere near over because you

have to deal with them. what we have seen is the withdrawl of fighters from mosul and to those two main cities. that is where the biggest battles will be. >> we have seen turkey's reaction to washington's decision to arm the kurdish fighters. the fight is far from open. what happens now? >> the u.s. has said they are going to be increasing support for the kurdish forces in northern sir. this actually isn't something new. we knew that the u.s. has been doing this for at least a couple of years now. but the fact is they have come out and publicly announced it. the turks that have responded depressively towards this. the leader has said something about having to deal with this before his trip to washington next week. but at the same time, what you have seen on the american side is you have seen them trying to

balance the blow-back by talking about the partnership with his partners, if we are talking turkey, saudi or egypt. the u.s. is playing a precarious game right now, talking about supporting the f. b. s., and support from the turkish fighters. we are going to be seeing a lot of diplomacy between the two sides to try and figure out how to move the battle against isis forward in this area. >> thank you very much indeed. now an affront to the dignity of women. that is how one activist has described the practice of triple talak. divorce me run man can his wife by representing the word three times. they are looking to ban.

a court is hearing arguments for and against. some muslim leaders recent the intervention into their religious beliefs. the chief direction it's negotiators is dealing with ireland. ireland feels it will be badly affected by the decision to leave the european union. northern ireland will be britain's only land border to the e.u. michelle sought today to alay some of those concerns. >> this departure from the e.u. will have consequences. we have the duty to speak the truth. we have a duty to speak the truth. controls are part of border management to protect the market.

to protect our food safety and our standards. but as i have already said many times. negotiation is should put peace at risk. >> a beach has come back to life. 33 years old a bash in a tiny town was washed away bo the ocean because of heavy storms. but strong winds have brought the beach back. that is good news for locals. here is the report. >> a long walk-on the beach at low tide, a typical scene on ireland's atlantic coast. but this 300 meter stretch of sand on ackel island used to look like this. it was over 30 years ago that strong storms stripped the peach of its sand, leaving more -- nothing more than rookie comes and rock.

but hasn't most, locals found the ocean had returned hundreds thousands of feet of sand. >> over past three years. we ones had three hotels. >> it is the largest off the coast of ireland, part of the wild atlantic way, a tourist trail along the western coast of the country. it has long been dependent on tourism. thanks to the fortunate tides, locals hope they will be back on the map. revitalizing the village's economy. >> that looks lovely. let's get to the business scene. kay, it has been a year since the brexit referendum.

time really flies. there have been concerns about how it will affect the economy tonight. today we got concrete sides of what is happening. >> and it is not looking great according to the bank of evening lannan, who has soderling households are going to start feeling effect. the bank has cut its growth forecast for 2017 and keep its interest rate on hold. brexit preags would issue usher in a period of uncertainty. >> the outlook for the british economy as households are warned to expect a squeeze on spending. under the shattenkirk shadow of brexit uncertainties, forecasts are to fall this year. the bank of eek land is patricking a rise in inflation, which wages won't keep up with. >> the wages people are getting won't be enough to compensate for prices in the shop. so this is going to be a more challenging time for british

households over the course of this year. real income growth, to use our terminology, will be negative. to use theirs, waging won't keep up with prices of the goods and services they consume. >> economic growth will edge up slightly from 1.% in 2016 to 1.9% in 2017, a slower pace than initially forecast. inflation is already at it's highest in three years, also expected to increase. the pound's weakness raises import costs. spite this rise, the bank of england is coming its separate low, erring on the side of caution after the presidential election it's vote. they are confident beyond 2017, but only if the transition of goes n leaving the e.u. smoothly.

>> eurozone has a brighter future ahead of it. the commission has raised its forecast for the block, growing 1.7% this year, and 1.% in 2020. the commission suspects unemployment to continue falling and to ease inflation slightly. they said the eurozone was entering his fifth consecutive year of growth with less uncertainty. checking in on markets. the ftse ending in the green despite that gloomy outlook from the central back. telecoms underperforming across the board, dragging down. wall street trading in the red day after the nasdaq notched up a record close. snapchat is down 20% since it reported disappointing earnings and user growth months after going public.

ther business highs. rule that s set to uber is a transport firm and will need licenses across europe. the european union has requested talks over reports the trump administration is travel expand its bans. they are looking and working with airports. are the dakota access pipeline had been leaking oil before becoming operational. gals, the equivalent of two barrels spilled at a pump station in south dakota. it was delayed by months of protests by native american and

environmental activists before being given the green light. finance ministers of the g-7 group have kick off in italy. they have agreed not to focus on trade. protectionism sparked issues in the last summit. the ability of the italian banking sector could be on the agenda. there are fierce that toxic loans and weak balance sheets could spill over to the rest of the e.u. our correspondent has been meeting with italians who lost their life savings. >> perched high in the village. is this today a symbol of the excesses of the italian banking sector. here, one in three people have lost their savings. just disappeared in thin area. the cause, the only bank in the village. this is where he goted all his

savings. >> one day the manager of the bank said your money isn't make any returns here. bank wants to do something for you. >> and he encouraged mario to buy the bank's shares. >> i said to him but sir i don't want to do anything risky. is the money safe? he said absolutely safe. >> and yet a few months later, mario and several other retirees from the village lose their money from these investments. etria and three other banks are liquidated, and nearly 800 million euros go up in smoke. today a laura paul:ed by the town council is working for many of those who invested. >> the bank managers knew that the high risk products were being told to people who did not have the right from file. they created a misleading system.

> the well-oil machine used to reasure investors and dupuis the monitoring bodies, this is what they are denouncing. >> they wanted to make us seem like we were financial speculators. because in order to sell these investments, the client had to have the profile of a seasoned investor. >> we have been ripped off, and now they say we are the speculators. imagine that. the world is upside down. it is truly zpick annual. it is not just our money they have taken, but our dignity as well. as a as a result of those that have been ruined, a benevolent fund has been set up to help them case by case. the pang will be taken to court, accused of aggravated fraud and fraudulent bankruptcy. >> thank you, katty with the

business. we are taking a short break. stay with us, much more still to come.

05/11/17 05/11/17 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from seattle, washington, this is democracy now! >> why did you five director comey? pres. trump: he was not doing a good job. amy: did president trump fire fbi director james comey just days after comey asked the justice department for more resources to investigate the trump campaign's ties to russia before the 2016 election? we'll speak with history professor ruth ben-ghiat who