york talking about the latest developments relating to the free trade agreement in north america. donald trump has given his first interview since he sacked fbi directorjames comey. he sat down with nbc news. here is some of it. he isa he is a showboat. he is a grandstand. the fbi has been in turmoil. you know that, everybody knows that. you take a look at the fbi a year ago, it was in virtual turmoil. less than a year ago. it hasn't recovered from that. monday, e—mail with rosenstein. hasn't recovered from that. monday, e-mailwith rosenstein. it was hasn't recovered from that. monday, e-mail with rosenstein. it was my decision. i was going to fire comey. donald trump calling mr comey a showboat and saying the fbi was in turmoil. this was the view of mr comey‘s replacement — acting fbi director andrew mccabe, who appeared before the senate intelligence committee earlier. we have heard in the news that claims that director comey had lost the confidence of rank and file fbi employees. you have been there for 21 yea rs. employees. you have been there for 21 years. in your opinion, is it accurate that the rank and file no longer supported director comey? no, sir. that is not accurate. i can tell you that i worked very closely with director comey. from the moment he worked at the fbi was his assistant national director. i worked for him, running the washington field office. i served as his deputy for the last year. i can tell you i hold director comey in the highest regard. i have the highest respect for his abilities and integrity. it has been the greatest privilege and honour in my professional life to work with him. there's a ringing endorsement of james comey. that's doesn't match this assessment from white house spokeswoman sarah huckabee sanders. she told cbs news mr comey had lost the confidence of the rank and file members of the fbi. earlier i spoke with with aaron blake from the washington post. here is the update. we have certainly heard a lot about concerns over whatjim coric did during the 2016 campaign. we have not had a recording saying there was a revolt against him in the fbi. this seems to be reasoning is offered by the trump administration for his firing, more so trump administration for his firing, more so than something we have actually seen bubbling up from inside europe. we can see the washington post website behind you. your article is at the top of the most red list, looking at why mr comey was sacked. what is your understanding of the real reasons? from the very beginning, it looked like this was a situation wherejim comey was somebody who is president trump did not trust. it was not his pointy, it was somebody who had been put in there by president obama. president trump is big on loyalty. he likes to have people around him he feels he can depend upon. he has an fbi director investigating his alleged ties with russia. that was a lwa ys alleged ties with russia. that was always the underlying assumption that maybe that was the deep—seated reason. the white house said this was basically the recommendation of the justice department, was basically the recommendation of thejustice department, of the deputy attorney general who had come to donald trump saying this man should be fired. we found out from the clip that trump is not pretending that is what happens. it seems clear that this is a situation that trump did not like james comey. it is about whether coric was doing it for his own political purposes whether he thought james comey was not a good fbi director. whether he thought james comey was not a good fbi directori whether he thought james comey was not a good fbi director. i want to play little more of what we played from andrew mccabe. the work of the fbi continues. there has been no effort to impede our investigation today. do you feel like you have the adequate resources for the existing investigations that the bureau is invested in right now to follow them wherever they may lead? invested in right now to follow them wherever they may lead ?m invested in right now to follow them wherever they may lead? if you are referring to the russian investigation, i do. referring to the russian investigation, ido. i referring to the russian investigation, i do. i believe we have the adequate resources to do it. i know we have resource that investigation adequately. he also said this investigation is highly significant. it is directly in line with what the white house has been saying. the president last week said it was a tax payer funded, basically waste of time. that has been the line from trump for a while. not a lot of republicans acknowledge this was an issue worth looking into. they say it is more about russian hacking as opposed to allege it ties with the trump campaign. the white house is on an island in saying it was a waste of time. the fbi was pressing for investigations led by publicans, including one in the senate he said he was troubled by the timing of comey‘s firing. it is progressing forward. the real question is who will be in charge of the fbi investigation if and when president trump chooses a replacement? what is the process from where we are now to having a new director of the fbi? it depends on when he will make the nomination. it isa on when he will make the nomination. it is a big nomination for a couple of reasons. one is the investigation. it'll be very difficult at this point for the president to install somebody who is a political ally of his, someone like chris christie, i'm not sure even some republicans would go along with that. the other thing is it is a ten—year appointment. director comey was fibre in the midst of a ten—year term. this decision will not be taken lightly by anyone in the senate. i presume the white house make a very careful decision. the senate will take time in deciding this is the right person for thejob deciding this is the right person for the job because it deciding this is the right person for thejob because it is deciding this is the right person for the job because it is such a lengthy term relatively speaking for any political appointee. emmanuel macron will become president of france on sunday. all along he's promised to bring new blood into french politicis. and he's getting on with that. his republique en marche party has announced the names of its first a28 candidates. exactly half are women, and 52% are from civil society with no prior experience of political office. france will vote for all the seats in its national assembly next month. richard ferrand, secretary general of the party was speaking earlier. translation: candidates come from the entire republican political spectrum which reflects the political landscape that the president wants to hold for the country. regarding the parity, 214 candidates are women, 214 are men. 428 candidates are included in the list provided to you. i have been speaking about mr macron and his mission to reshape french politics. most of the candidates are com plete politics. most of the candidates are complete unknowns. half of them are women. that is very important in a country where only one in four mps are women. it is a very male dominated world. there are retired people, lawyers. a farmer. a famous mathematician. a broad spectrum. there are also some outgoing mps. mathematician. a broad spectrum. there are also some outgoing mp5. 24 of them. they are all from the socialist party. it has a strength. it is wide open. in terms of opening to all sides of the political spectrum, it is only to the left at the moment. this party has not been around for very long at all. all people he has found, do they have a shared vision of france? they were asked to share macron's reformist agenda. he is trying to redraw the political landscape into a broad, reformist, progressive camp. he is calling on all the progressives. that is how he is trying to redraw the map. the other political parties, the traditional ones, are generally in prices, some worse than others. the socialist party is dying. the national front did lose the election but it is going through its own crisis. do you ever stop for a moment and think, i cannot believe this is happening. have a 39 your president who has created a party from nothing which has suddenly dominated. it is historic. to succeed he will need a majority in parliament next month. in terms of changes in the political landscape, it is extraordinary. it is a dream ofa it is extraordinary. it is a dream of a political centre in france which never really happened. it is happening now and is fascinating. we will keep you right up to date with everything emmanuel macron is doing and have full coverage of his inauguration on sunday. stay with us on outside source. we will be live in alaska. there is a meeting to discuss the future of the region. waiting times for a number of key nhs services in england were the worst in five years, according to analysis of figures for the year to the end of march. for the year 2016—2017, 2.5 million patients waited longer than the four hour target in a&e. the figure five years ago wasjust over 700,000. the target for cancer treatment is to be seen within 62 days, 26,000 patients waited longer. the nhs is treating more and more people and that is what has always happen. funding must keep up with that. the figure they have with put on it is funding has to increased by 496. on it is funding has to increased by 4%. since 2010 funding has increased by around 1%. the labour party today said the failure on the targets is about the funding. there is not enough of it. the conservatives said today at the labour government was in place, it is economic policy that the nhs would be worse off and have less lib dems said they were the anyone's with a clear strategy in terms of investment. this is outside source live from the bbc newsroom. our lead story is? donald trump has been defending his decision to fire the director of the fbi. in an interview with a us tv network, he called james comey a showboat and a grandstander and said the fbi had been in turmoil. the chinese leader has told the new president of south korea to cancel the deployment of a us missile defence shield. the shield is designed to counter possible missiles from north korea. the iraqi army chief says his forces are only days away from completing the operation to recapture mosul from the islamic state group. that's on bbc arabic. and among the most read on our website, a russian billionaire has been ordered to pay his estranged wife £453 million in a divorce settlement. one of the biggest awards ever made by a uk court. the land that makes up the arctic circle is owned by eight different countries. today their foreign ministers are meeting in alaska — and some of them are worried about donald trump's intentions. that meeting is under way in fairbanks. the bbc‘s james cookjoins us from fairbanks in alaska. the meeting has in fact broken up in the last few minutes. i can tell you that the declaration has been issued, the fairbanks declaration. it is several pages long full you will be interested to learn that the key pa rt, will be interested to learn that the key part, about climate change, with the united states except language that recognised human contribution to climate change and the need of action? it goes very close to doing so. action? it goes very close to doing so. activities taking place outside the arctic region, including those occurring outside of arctic states. saying they are the main contributors to climate change effects and contributors in the arctic. it says the arctic is warming up more than twice the rate of the global average and says it is having a big impact. it also accepts the pressing need for adaptation actions. it fudges essentially on paris, the climate change agreement in paris, which agreed to reduce emissions in 2015. with the us withdrawal? it is still the question. it does reiterate the need for global action to reduce long—lived greenhouse gases and short lived climate products? that is what has been agreed by these nations, including the us. professor, what make of what has just been agreed that the united states seven other members want to reducejune states seven other members want to reduce june —— greenhouse states seven other members want to reducejune —— greenhouse gases. there was a lot of hedging on whether or not we were going to acce pt whether or not we were going to accept climate change, about whether it was about the cost —— there was a human cost. i am hopeful hearing this statement. i am part of the arctic social sciences that oration. we are working hard to understand what it means to respond to climate change. —— federation. the place which invests the largest amount of money in arctic research will continue to support our efforts to look at this. it does not go so far as to permit all of the nations cup all eight nations, russia, canada, the us, scandinavian nations, including iceland as well. it does not commit them explicitly to implementing the paris agreement. that will be crucial in coming days and weeks. will the us pull—out of that agreement? we are wondering ourselves as us and international research is what action the us will take. the comments that were made by ministers from the other arctic nations clearly acknowledged that we needed to be working on climate issues. i don't anticipate active opposition to paris will stop the other conversation we are having is a lot of actions have been taken which will not be reversed, regardless of the rhetoric. what we are most concerned about is whether there will not be investment in the work needed on the research side and the change in business practices. on that note, rex tillerson, who was chairing this meeting and has handed over to finland, did not mention climate change. in terms of science, they are committing themselves to continuing the scientific endeavour. that is from your perspective. what is, from an alaskan point of view, what is alaska experiencing? how does it affect all walks of life? we are seeing a lot of impact from climate change. that is part of the biggest issue, that it is not predictable. our experience has been winters where we have had very little snowfall, her great deal of ice. absolutely horrid windstorms coming in following torrential downpours. in one case they have not doubt one third of the trees in our beautiful city. others can definitely speak first hand to what is happening in rural and remote communities. certainly, we have entire villages that are making very difficult decisions about relocating from places they have been for thousands of years. there are a lot of other issues that matter to the arctic. what is the most important being the arctic council should look at, other bank climate change? we must look at the sustainability of communities, not just economically but well— being communities, not just economically but well—being as communities, not just economically but well— being as well. well communities, not just economically but well—being as well. well being very broadly on our young people, who are experiencing ger matic social problems, whether suicide, domestic violence. also issues and causes which had to do with a loss of culture, a loss of self—determination. that, for me, is the big thing. indigenous communities have more control over their own lives. if that happened we would see less of the negative outcomes which have to do in some parts with where your future is going. interesting to speak to you. just to reiterate what has happened in the past few minutes. an agreement has been reached among the eight nations with territory in the arctic. they have agreed activities taking place in their own states contribute to climate change and they have agreed to take urgent action to reduce greenhouse gases as action to reduce greenhouse gases as a result. we appreciate the update and the interview. fascinating to listen to james and his guest. also the beautiful location as well. donald trump has been talking a lot about trade since he became president of the usa. he does not like the north american free trade agreement. he said it was one of the worst deals ever done and said he was going to ditch it. now he has said he will change it. this man is crucial to how he can change that. in the last couple of hours, he has been confirmed by the senate as the new us trade representative. over the last few weeks, we have been trying to see where the president is taking theirs. with this appointment, do we get a better picture of the direction he may go? we get a better picture in terms of action. part of the problem has a lwa ys action. part of the problem has always been, we have heard president trump is talking a lot about nafta but there has been no action. in this appointment as us trade representative, he will push the us closer to being able to start negotiations with canada and mexico. the problem has always been the white house has to notified congress they will be doing this. having a trade representative is crucial of starting that process of alerting conquests. the united states has someone conquests. the united states has someone who will be able to take charge in terms of renegotiating, so it seems like we might be getting there soon. sticking with canada, mexico and the usa. those three countries will almost certainly get to host the 2026 world cup. that's something we learnt from fifa's congress in bahrain today. but big changes are on the cards when it comes to sponsorship of the tournament, with the cash increasingly coming from china and the middle east. last year fifa managed to make a loss of $369m. a significant reason why was the cost of the corruption scandal that has been engulfing it. bear in mind the world cup is the most profitable sporting event in the world. if you look where the new money is coming from, it is coming from china and the middle east. in the short term, i think big, global, and the middle east. in the short term, ithink big, global, western european brands web based in western european brands web based in western europe and the us will be fearful about their image. i think we will wait until the world cup 2026 is revealed. i think they are fast tracking that. once that goes out, if it goes back into the us, canada and mexico is a joint bid, i think that will have an effect. i think they will want to take a punt on it. it is arguably the biggest sports eventin it is arguably the biggest sports event in the world for them it is quite a small window of activity. i think brands will step back in. whether they will lose out to china and the middle east and the emerging markets remains to be seen. in the next half of the programme, we will hearan next half of the programme, we will hear an interview with one of the chibok fathers who has been reunited with his daughter. time to take a look at the weather. we are watching tropical cyclone a la will stop it has started to head towards fiji and intensified. it looks as if it will bring some dangerously strong winds and significant waves. some late season rainfall. further south, this is the re m na nts of rainfall. further south, this is the rem na nts of cyclone rainfall. further south, this is the remnants of cyclone donna. lots of tropical air which has been pounding new zealand, the north island in particular. thursday night into friday were still a lot of wet weather. you may have seen the tightly packed ice bars, including windy weather for a tightly packed ice bars, including windy weatherfor a time. tightly packed ice bars, including windy weather for a time. things will settle down as we start the weekend. we also have wet weather crossing into patagonia. nevertheless, some nasty weather to come with significant snow over the andes. that will we intensify around the river plate northwards. some big showers around we had interesting weather. storm adrian has been downgraded. there is still a lot of energy and we are keeping a close eye on it. it will enhance the rains intergraph tamara and honduras as well. there will be some stormy conditions out to sea. it may well yet form into a storm again. lots to play for. clearly it looks u nsettled. play for. clearly it looks unsettled. heading into the usa, more storms in the mississippi valley and heading into missouri and kansas. into the weekend, it will head into the eastern seaboard into parts of canada. we have had very significant flooding. more rain further west. no storms through thursday night and friday across the plains. it could be torrential and true matic. we have had wet weather from mombasa. it is the east african rainy season at the moment. the tanzania, kenya, lake victoria. we are seeing more than we have been seeing at this time of year. we had storms developing across france. all tied in around the area of low pressure which pushed its way northwards. by friday it is starting to affect the alpine regions as well. thursday night looks u nsettled. well. thursday night looks unsettled. plenty of storms around the stock more comes in across iberia into the alps into the low country. we have seen big showers and big thunderstorms in these areas. into the weekend it is looking fresher. see you again soon. welcome back to outside source. the fallout from donald trump's decision to sack his fbi director very much continues. he's a showboat, he's a grandstand. the fbi has been in turmoil. you know that, i know that. ican turmoil. you know that, i know that. i can tell you that i hold director comey in the highest regard. i have considerable respect for his ability and integrity. that's the acting fbi director who says his agency will continue their investigation into allegations of russian collusion with the tramp campaign. —— with the