10/05/2017 Outside Source

Hello, I'm Philippa Thomas, this is Outside Source. President Trump has

defended his shock decision to fire the FBI director James Comey. He

wasn't doing a good job, very simply, he was not doing a good job.

Outraged Democrats say there must now be an independent investigation

into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. Nothing less is at stake

than the American people's faith in our criminal justice system and the

integrity of the executive branch of our government. The sacking also

surprised the Russian Foreign Minister who met Donald Trump today

at the White House. Was he fired? Yes. You're kidding, you're kidding!

Syria was top of their agenda. We'll look at what came out of that

meeting. Turkey slams and American plan to armed Kurdish fighters

there. President Erdogan calls for the decision to be immediately

reversed. We'll speak to BBC Turkish about that and we have stories from

France, the Netherlands and the UK. All coming up an outside source.

Hello and welcome to Outside Source. Donald Trump needs a new FBI

director after his sudden sacking of James Comey as head of America's

domestic intelligence agency. Let's show you the letter he sent to Mr

Comey. You can see his signature. Its brief and brutal. This is what

Mr Trump says. You're not able to effectively lead the beer row. He

goes on to say it's essential we find new leadership in the FBI that

restores public trust and confidence. Let's show you how the

White House has been defending this decision that sent shock waves

around Washington and beyond. First Donald Trump himself and in the last

couple of hours his official spokeswoman. Why did you fire

director Comey? Because he wasn't doing a good job, very simple, he

wasn't doing a good job. Did it affect your meeting with the

Russians today? Will the new FBI director be in charge of the Russian

investigation? Thank you everybody. The basic atrocities and

circumventing the chain of command in the Department of Justice. Any

person of legal mind and authority knows what a big deal that is. So

why did Mr Trump do it? The White House has linked the sacking to Mr

Comey's treatment of Hillary Clinton back when the FBI was investigating

her e-mail use as Secretary of State. Many Democrats think it's

about something else. Anger at the current FBI inquiry into alleged

links between the Trump campaign and Russia. This is the view of the

leading Democratic senator, Chuck Schumer. I have said from the get go

I think a special prosecutor is the way to go, but now with what's

happened it is the only way to go, only way to go, to restore the

American people's faith. Are people going to suspect cover-up?

Absolutely. If an independent special prosecutor is appointment

there still can be some faith we can get to the bottom of this. If not,

everyone will suspect cover-up. Chuck Schumer isn't the only senator

urging the appointment of an independent special prosecutor to

delve into any Trump- Kremlin connections. Other Democratic

politicians are also piling on, like Senator Elizabeth Warren, a possible

presidential contender. She says we need a real independent prosecutor

who Donald Trump can't fire. Jeff Sessions can't intimidate, and

Congress can't muzzle. Another Democrat, Richard Blumenthal, the

firing of Comey come from ices the investigation of White House ties to

the Russians. No doubt a special prosecutor is necessary. It means

the man for you to watch now is this man, the deputy US Attorney General,

Rod Rosenstein. Recent watching, not only he write the argument for

removing Mr Comey, he's involved in finding a replacement, and he's the

only person with the power to appoint a special prosecutor. Let's

go to Washington and correspondent Anthony Zurcher. On this question of

whether it is a cover-up, it depends whether there is collusion to be

found between the Russians and the Trump campaign. Exactly. And whether

the Trump Administration had any indications of where that

investigation was headed. If there is any evidence the reason they

fired Comey was because he was getting too close to something, it

would be a serious matter and I think you would hear Republicans and

Democrats raise uproar about it. Right now, the Trump Administration

says this all goes back to the campaign in 2016. Comey's handling

of the Hillary Clinton investigation, her e-mail servers. I

don't think a lot of Democrats are buying that right now, they think

it's much more likely it has to do with what is being brought out right

now. The Russian investigations. I reckon we're hearing from everybody

except James Comey. When is it likely to change? He's been invited

to testify next week before a closed Senate committee. It wouldn't be a

public testimony. There hasn't been word on whether he'll show up or

not. He was supposed to testify tomorrow, but since he's been

sacked, it'll be the acting FBI director filling in for him. McCabe.

He hasn't made any public comment. We've heard some rumours and things,

the press defending his actions, saying he asked the Trump

Administration for more money to investigate the Russian ties. It's

been hinted that being a reason why he was fired. All of that is

floating around in the atmosphere and nothing hard directly from

Comey. Stay with us, we want to add what may matter most to President

Trump is whether top Republicans back his decision to sack the FBI

director. Many do, among them Senator Lindsay Graham, an

independent minded politician who has repeatedly accused Russia of

involvement in the US presidential election. We need new leadership of

the FBI. It's kind of what we're wondering about firing a guy when

both parties wanted him removed. Let me ask you this, did Russia have a

part to play in President Trump's decision, in your view? But

according to the letter but let me tell you about Russia: Russia

interfered in our election, I want to punish Russia. I'm 100% convinced

they interfered in trying to undermine the 2016 election, that it

was Russia intelligence services that hack into the DNC and Podesta,

that they didn't change the outcome but created a lot of discord. I want

to punish Russia. I have yet to see evidence of collusion between the

Trump campaign and the Russians, but we need to keep looking until we can

find out one way or the other. Anthony, I suppose the next question

is, who next to head the FBI? It'll tell us a lot about how independent

are. Absolutely, that's what everyone is looking at now. There is

concern certainly among Democrats that Donald Trump might name a

partisan, someone closely tied to him. If that happens, the outcry

this was an attempt to avoid a Russian investigation will reach

deafening pitch. Some of the indication so far is Donald Trump is

looking for people within the law enforcement community within the

FBI. If that is the case, if it's someone both sides trust and both

sides know, then I think maybe this will start to die down. There is a

big question right now, we haven't heard any names floated. We await

that. Thanks very much. At this point it's relevant to ask what

Russia's reaction is to the sacking of the FBI chief. Let's see what we

have a spokesman at the Kremlin. We heard from them that this is an

internal affair of the United States, a sovereign decision by the

US president, which has nothing to do, or should have nothing to do,

with the Russian Federation. All this is happening as the Russian

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is in Washington. He said talks with the

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and President Trump himself. Here is

Mr lava off's tongue in cheek reply when asked about the FBI director's

sacking. But he fired? You are kidding, you are kidding! Yes, he

was fired. Joking and distractions aside, Donald Trump and Sergey

Lavrov have had deadly serious things to discuss, like Syria, where

Moscow has set out its plans to establish safe zones, four. You can

see the plans to de-escalates fighting. Mr lover is looking for US

support for that proposal. Here is Sergey Lavrov speaking after his

meeting with President Trump. TRANSLATION: We discussed Syria in

great detail in the context of the ideas that have been put forward

regarding the setting up of the escalation areas. We've got a common

understanding regarding the fact that there should be a step that

would contribute to the cessation of violence through the territory of

Syria. Let's go to the US State Department where we can speak to

Barbara Plett Usher in Washington. This Russian plan for new safe zones

over Syria, are the Americans signing up to this, do we know? They

are interested in the concept because both Mr Trump and Mr

Tillerson have talked about zones of some kind. The Secretary of State

has talked about stabilisation zones. Not much detail to it but

what he has in mind in areas that could be secured, where refugees

could return, this would create facts on the ground that would

prevent Islamic State militants from setting up shop again. Sergey Lavrov

said he got the idea, Moscow got the idea from speaking with Mr Trump and

Mr Tillerson. And they wanted the US to have input. He said they talked

about specific ways they could be jointly implemented. In terms of the

Americans, they'd be much more circumspect about this particular

proposal, they broadly welcomed anything that would lower the

violence, set the stage for a political resolution. They've had

reservations about the plan, not least because Iran is one of the

guarantors for it, which makes them worried. Mr Trump called on the

Russians to rein in Iran and Iranians militias after his meeting

with Mr lover. They are sceptical a ceasefire could hold because it

hasn't held until now. -- with Sergey Lavrov. The secretary of

defence says he is studying the proposal closely but they need to

know who would secure an patrol these areas, how this would all

work. So much of the political drama in Washington revolves around the

US- Russian relationship and the meetings today were pretty

significant from that point of view. They were very good apparently,

according to Mr Trump, that is how he referred to them. The protocol

was interesting because the Foreign Minister visited the White House, he

was at a meeting with the president in the Oval Office and that doesn't

usually happen. Their President Putin did invite Mr Tillerson to the

Kremlin, so it may have been a factor. You did get this image of

comedy from the White House. Neither side have been at all holding back

in terms of how they view the relations, they both admitted

relations not good, are things are tense. Mr said today they were not

encouraging. Though he again mostly blames the Obama administration for

creating the circumstances because Mr Obama imposed sanctions after the

Russians annexed Crimea and relations deteriorated from that

point on. Mr lover of call this an ideological approach. -- Mr Lavrov

called this. He seemed to feel the businesslike approach of Mr Trump

help more promise for a pragmatic working relationship though the

State Department said after the meeting he had with Mr Tillerson

sanctions would not be lifted unless and until Russia reversed the

reactions that triggered them. After weeks of fighting a Kurdish led

militia has recaptured the strategically important Syrian town

from the so-called Islamic State group. We draw you the news last

night of the US decision to start arming Kurdish fighters in Syria. It

got quite a reaction from the Turkish President Recep Tayyip

Erdogan, who said, I hope very much this mistake will be reversed

immediately. No room for doubt there. Who will be USB providing

these weapons to? I asked BBC Turkish service. They are why PGE, a

wing of the Turkish democratic union party, YPG claims to have 50,000

fighters and controls the enclaves. In northern Syria. Along the Turkish

border. They are also the backbone of Syrian democratic forces, who are

ready to assault on Raqqa to take the city back from so-called Islamic

State. Potentially significant players in the fight and taking the

fight to so-called Islamic State. Why is Turkey so opposed to the

Americans helping them? Turkey is furious with the latest decision.

Ankara considers YPG as a terrorist organisation like PKK. Turkey has

long asked the United States to stop its support for the YPG. However,

the US makes a distinction between PKK and YPG. And doesn't consider

YPG a terrorist organisation. The Washington Administration considers

them a very useful ally against the fight in Syria. You have a real

problem, Washington thinks the Kurdish fighters are an ally but

they want to keep President Erdogan onside. The only you can feel from

the Turkish leader, there could be a backlash. As we watched earlier,

doing your report, Recep Tayyip Erdogan sharply criticised the US

administration and calls Mr Trump's latest decision a mistake. Both

leaders will meet on Monday, for the first time, as heads of state, and

definitely discuss this issue. Certainly it's going to be top of

the agenda. Is that meeting going ahead as far as we know? Yes, they

can meet again during the Nato summit in Brussels. After all these

developments we have been witnessing since the last 48 hours, this issue,

the American support for the Kurds is going to be key. Stay with us and

outside stores. A snub for Manuel Valls, the former French Prime

Minister, as he's turned down by the movement President-elect Emmanuel

Macron. We ask party spokesman wife. The family of 11-year-old who died

yesterday after falling from a water ride at a theme park say their world

has been torn apart. A safety investigation is underway at Drayton

Manor in Staffordshire which was closed today and will remain so

tomorrow. Our correspondent Simon Ward has been to the girls school in

Leicester, which was also closed for the day. Special councillors were

brought in to help the students. We know that she was on a school trip

with this cool when she died at Drayton Manor yesterday. But today

here in Leicester we had a written statement released by her family.

They said yesterday our world was torn apart by the news that our

daughter and sister had lost her life in tragic circumstances. She

was a beautiful girl, they say, full of love and always smiling. Words

cannot describe the pain and loss we feel, we will not see our beautiful

little girl again. You're watching Outside Source from

the BBC newsroom. President Trump has defended his decision to sack

the head of the FBI. The White House said the president had been

considering firing Mr Comey since taking office. Elsewhere around the

BBC in Hong Kong, the organisers of the weakest pro-democracy march say

their application to protest this year has been rejected. That is an

BBC Chinese. Brazil's former President Lula has arrived at a

courthouse to give testimony before the top anti-corruption judge, he

says the trial is politically motivated and denies any wrongdoing.

Among the most read on our website is the story Senator Larissa Waters

has become the first politician to breast-feed in the Australian

Parliament. This is embarrassing, the former

French Prime Minister and socialist Manuel Valls has been turned down as

parliamentary candidate for President-elect Emmanuel Macron's

movement. This was him speaking confidently on Tuesday. TRANSLATION:

The Socialist party is dead, behind us, not its history and values, but

it has to move on. Times like this one must be capable of moving on,

forget the bitterness and personal issues, there is something that

interests me above everything else, France, the Republican success of

this Parliament. I don't forget the fight against the far right will

continue and everyone needs to be vigilant in the parliamentary

elections. Speaking to the BBC, an adviser to President Macron said

Manuel Valls didn't meet their criteria. We've already said we will

not give in, we will not endorse his candidacy, because I come back to my

point, we had some public criteria on the renewal and procedure.

Created an independent commission. People looking at the candidates,

the applications we receive, we received more than 14,000

applications for more or less 300 seats. You can see that interview in

full on hard talk on BBC News on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

Let's get you to OS business. The company behind Snapchat has unveiled

its first earnings since launching on the stock exchange in the United

States. In the last few minutes it has recorded a loss of $2.2 billion

in the first quarter of the year. We can go to Dave Lee and San

Francisco's covering this. A loss was expected, why? A loss was

expected because Snapchat's never made a profit. That wasn't

surprising, the size of the loss, though, is staggering. $2.2 billion

in the last three months, the previous three months since this

year. The only had revenues of 150 million. That gap was enormous.

Other worrying thing is for the company, they grew their user base

5%, something particularly worrying for Snapchat or their investors.

Facebook as we know is one of its main rivals and they've been doing

everything they can to stop Snapchat from growing. Adding many of

Snapchat's popular features to Instagram and Facebook. It seems the

tactic is working, Snapchat has barely added any new users in the

last three months and as a result their shares are down about 20%. In

the US politicians, not least the president, want to talk about

immigration, undocumented workers and border walls. The real concern

of many businesses is they need more, not less migration.

Businesses, particularly farming and tourism, want to hire seasonal staff

to plant seeds for example and pick produce, at Samira Hussain has been

finding out in Chester, New Jersey. This farmer doesn't get to spend as

much time in the field as used, as he'd like. His first generation

farmer, for him agriculture was according, to do God's work. As we

to his 600 acre property he admits his business would not be thriving

without outside help. Agriculture as we know it would not be able to

survive if the people who were working today as undocumented

workers were not in the workforce. During peak season farmer Kurt has

more than 200 people working for him. 50 are here today on temporary

visas. Like Ivan, he leaves his wife and two daughters in Costa Rica

eight months of the year and has been doing so for the last six

years. For him, the reason is simple. Little money. You can't find

sufficient labour and you don't know from year to year if you're going to

be able to find the workers illegally, so you wonder why people

turn to doing things under the table and why they turned to an

undocumented worker, because we don't even have the resources in

place to allow legitimate employers the legal means to hire people

properly. This farm depends on guest workers but the application process

for temporary visas is expensive and cumbersome. Farmer Kurt needs more

workers underneath them faster. It would seem so does the US economy.

We have close to full employment. That's great, we want there to be a

tight labour market but we also want the economy to be able to expand

beyond the current labour force. You need immigrants to be able to come

in and help that to expand. I think it's a good thing. The rhetoric

surrounding immigration has become harsher and focused on more and more

constraints. But the fact is that a huge number of American businesses

in different industries are dependent on the labour of overseas

workers. And what these businesses want is for the president and for

Congress to focus on the reality. Samira Hussain, BBC News, Chester,

New Jersey. The Forbes rich list for hip-hop is

out. Let's show you who came at the top. In third place Doctor dre with

a net worth of 740 million dollars. Then came Jay-Z with $810 million.

At the very top, we have Diddy, it ten and $20 million is his fortune.

In common with many on the list the vast majority of his income is in

fact not from music. When you look at Diddy one and annual earnings

basis and net worth basis, probably only ten, 20% as anything to do with

music. It started with the music but is is the businesses he built off

the music that are pushing him into that near billionaire territory.

It's not just endorsements, it's getting this piece of the pie,

whether profit share or equity stake in the company from something like

the deal YPG has fought so Roquefort, it's been one of the

biggest deals of his career. -- the deal Diddy has with a brand of

vodka. He's investing in a deal, he puts not just that, but his own

money into it, it's boosting his bottom line in terms of net worth.

Do stay with us, lots more to come on our top story about the sacking

of the FBI director. I've been looking at the BBC news app. If you

go to that, while I have been on air they have filed their latest story,

saying Donald Trump has considered firing James Comey since taking

office. Lots of tweets from Donald Trump today saying for example James

Comey lost the confidence of almost everyone in Washington. He says when

things calm down they'll be thanking me. It's safe to say things are not

calm in Washington and in the next edition of outside source I'll talk

to Daniel Lipman from politico about how feverish things are. Thanks for

being with us here on outside source.

Welcome to a little journey around the world as we look