Crystal blue caribbean sea. Nonstop flights are available from most major airports. More information for your vacation planning is available at aruba. Com. And now, bbc world news america. Tim this is bbc world news america. Im tim wilcox. The firing of fbi director james comey sent shockwaves through the u. S. Political system. The search begins for his replacement. The president says he wasnt up to the job. Doing ap he was not good job, very simply. He was not doing a good job. Tim democrats in congress are up in arms as are some republicans. Theyre calling for a special prosecutor to be appointed. A beautiful voice and the place of adversity. How this death musician has overcome adversity and returned to the stage. Hello and welcome to our viewers on Public Television and around the globe. Sacked for not doing a good job says the president , or fired for doing it too well . If donald trump thought the dismissal of james comey would be a political win win at uniting democrats and republicans alike, he has been sorely disappointed. The man whog investigated Hillary Clintons emails and was also crucially in charge of the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia, the political low back has been in cindy ari. Has been incendiary. Fbi director james comey has been fired by the president of the United States. Reporter the term breaking news is bandied around with abandon, but last night it was justified. The first they knew the director had been fired was when it flashed on their tv screen. James comey, who was in los angeles, knew nothing about it either until and eight handed him a note. President trump was brutal. You are hereby terminated and are moved from Office Effective immediately. At least they left him the government jet to fly back to the east coast a private citizen, a turbulent career cut short. Today, the president was unrepentant. Mr. Trump he was not doing a good job, very simply. He was not doing a good job. Was the james comey person who confirmed in bombshell testimony in march that the Trump Campaign was under investigation for its links to russian during the election. Of ourfbi, as part counterintelligence mission, is investigating the russian government efforts to interfere in the 2016 president ial election. Reporter the president has railed consistency consistently that it has been fake news and there has been no improper contact. Last night, he fired the man. We know director comey was leading an investigation into whether the Trump Campaign colluded with the russians. A serious offense. For those investigations getting too close to home for the president . The dismissal of director comey establishes a very troubling pattern. Reporter democrats wasted no time trying parallels with the dark days of the nixon presidency when Richard Nixon in 1973 fired the special prosecutor investigating him over the break at the watergate building. The saturdayas night massacre. One year later, nixon would resign. ,he special prosecutor then insert fbi director today. It was brazen, one of the most staggering, stunning act of a president compromising an investigation since the saturday night massacre involving Richard Nixon. In fact, it was a nick sony and act and reminds us of the importance of the rule of law which evidently donald trump does not respect. Reporter but the white house is seeking to persuade people that the decision to fire comey had nothing to do with russia or the fbi investigation. It was time for a fresh start at the fbi and i think the president has done as he has done in similar cases he took Decisive Action and provided strong leadership, and to act on the recommendation of the Deputy Attorney general. Reporter the white house says the loss of confidence stems from the investigation into Hillary Clintons use of primary email server. Ms. Clinton i made a mistake using a private email. Reporter he decided to be no prosecution, just a rap on the knuckles. Republicans were furious. Stunningly, he reopened his inquiry 11 days before polling. Mr. Trump it took guts for director comey to make the move he made. Abouter but is it really the way the fbi conducted the Hillary Clinton investigation . Why not do it when donald trump first came to office . How do you reconcile it with the praise that was heaped on james comey . Left the fbihas feeling very sore about the way their director has been treated. And into the washington maelstrom, but who should arrive today . None other than sergey lavrov, the Russian Foreign minister in a joking mood. Was he fired . You are kidding. Curiously, for the camera loving president , the press was kept away. This feels like a house of cards on steroids. Theyand other world when another whirlwind day in washington. Question ise big the timing and the justification. Guest yes. It is the why and why now . It feels a bit like house of cards, but spending the day at the senate felt like we were back in an Election Campaign where you have people from both parties at loggerheads and very different positions. Lets start with the democrats. They are now calling for an independent prosecutor to take over the investigation. Spoke to senator ben cardin on the Foreign Relations committee. What was your reaction the moment you heard the president fired james comey . Senator cardin i was shocked and felt the president crossed the line. Here you have an active investigation into criminal matters involving people close to the president of the United States and the president dismisses the person in charge that investigation. To me, that crosses the line. It is not something that should happen in our country and calls into question whether the department of justice can do an adequate criminal investigation. I mentioned the white se and their rationale they say it is because of the way comey handled the clinton investigation. Senator cardin we know russia has been very involved in this country. There have been subpoenas issued in regards to the probe and we know russia has not only been engaged in the United States but engaged in European Countries to try to bring down their Democratic Free elections. This involves russia and we need to know what they are doing and how they are operating and what contact they have in the United States in order to protect ourselves. , independentrough investigation. Thats why i called on an independent commission that would not have the restrictions of politics or jurisdiction to report to congress and the American People on exactly what russia was doing and the contacts that they made. Guest while some republicans have criticized comeys sacking, they do not support the idea of an independent prosecutor or commission. Largely, they fall largely long party lines. Most senators support the president s actions, even those who are big recs of him, such as senator lindsey graham, who has been an outspoken critic of mr. Trump. We need new leadership at the fbi. It is odd we are worried about firing a guy when both parties wanted him removed. Guest did russia have a part to of view . Our point not according to the letter but let me tell you about russia. Russia interfered in our election and i want to punish russia. Im 100 convinced in tried to undermine the election, that it was russian intelligence that packed into the dnc. They didnt change the outcome but a created a lot of discord. Evidencet to see any of collusion between the the Trump Campaign and the russians, but we need to keep looking until we can find out one way or the other. Guest what happens next . Democratic senator mark warner has invited james comey to appear before a closeddoor session next week. To explain a bit more about why he thinks this all happened. We dont know at the moment whether mr. Comey has accepted that invitation. Thank thank you tim you very much indeed. For more reaction to comeys Alberto Gonzales is now dean of the Bellevue University college of law. Judge gonzales, what did you make of the way in which james comey has been fired . Thef you are referring to fact that he was on the west coast as the announcement was being made on the east coast and he learned about a reportedly by seeing it on television, i ,hought it was, quite frankly disappointing. Someone in that position given his Long Public Service deserved more than that. I found that disappointing. There is a great deal of questions about the timing of the firing and obviously, that is something we will have to work through. Was intended or based on a desire to interfere with an Ongoing Investigation about possible ties between the Trump Campaign and russia, then the firing was totally improper. If, however, the firing was based on the actions and words of jim comey catalogued by the Deputy Attorney general attached to the letter, thats another thing. And a lot of Unanswered Questions today about what actually happened here and the motivation behind it. I think there are many people, particularly within the department of justice who are disappointed about the way it was carried out. Tim irrespective of what is meant, isnt the perception the reality . The perception is years the guy heading the investigation into Trump Campaign links with russia and hes fired. That is certainly one of the questions that has to be answered because there are many people asking whether or not this was a way for the white house to in fact stop a possible investigation. What i try to reassure people is that if that was the motivation, it is going to fail because i think it raises the stakes even higher. The fbi is going to find out what happened here. Congress is going to find out what happened, or the press is going to find out. This is too big an issue, made even more sensational i would happened yesterday and people will be very interested in learning exactly what, if anything happened between the Trump Campaign and the russian government. Again, im not aware of any kind of collusion between the Trump Campaign manager russian government, but that is the purpose of the investigation. Tim thank you very much for being with us. You are watching bbc world news america. Turkey has reacted angrily to the decision to supply weapons. O the Kurdish Militia they warned it would have negative consequences for america. The defense secretary said he was confident tensions with turkey could be resolved. Protecting key size between social and economic tensions. Protests included siddons and blocked access to important facilities. Six years on from the tunisian revolution, the country continues to be bothered by unemployment, poverty, corruption. The Trump Administration is said to expand the ban on items smaller than laptops on airplanes. In march, a band was imposed as an antiterrorist precaution. Fromvered inbound flights the middle east and north africa. You are watching bbc world news america. Still to come, they left the west to fight for Islamic State, but as the group loses ground in syria, europe doesnt want them back. So what next for these i. S. Defectors . South koreas new president has been sworn in following his victory and tuesdays election. He says he will work for peace and will be prepared to visit north korea if the conditions were right. Our correspondent has this report. Tone. Er certainly a new where the last president was reclusive, this new one appeared in full view of the people. Security, certainly, but not total. And where previous president s basked, this president took a bear 10 minutes. His predecessor is in jail awaiting trial, accused of corruption. He set a different tone. I take office with empty pockets and i will leave with empty pockets and returned to my hometown. But tone is easy. A hard bit is policy and action. The military is an alliance against north korea, but President Trump in washington and president moon in seoul have different policies. Hardline trump and softer moon, how well that worked out . Said he would go to pyongyang if the conditions were right. He said he wanted to meet President Trump and signaled he is not antiamerican. The difficulty would be if President Trump decides on a military attack on north korea when president moon says you simply cannot do that. North has kepte silent about a new man in the south. Kim jongil and wanted someone who would talk to him. His media said so. Moon keep his more conciliatory approach . Tim in syria, u. S. Backed forces made significant gains as they prepare an assault on Islamic State in their last qqa. R stronghold of ra as the extremists lose ground, some fighters are trying to get back to europe. Dozens are currently being held in Northern Syria. Our middle east correspondent and our cameramen sent this report. Reporter the Free Syrian Army are driving out i. S. Here in Northern Syria, socalled Islamic State is collapsing. To itst happens believers and converts, those who abandoned europe to live under the caliphate . Civilians, are for the most desperate. But lurking here is a threat, i. S. Fighters living among them. The camps here in Northern Syria are doing overwhelmed. People are fleeing the fighting and this is before the biggest attack on the capital. Fighters and their families are trying to get out. Some are trying to defect. Many are being captured here before they make it to the border with turkey. We were given exclusive access to one jail Holding European i. S. Fighters. They are a threat and distrusted, so they are heavily guarded. These are the personal belongings of i. S. Prisoners and defectors. Hundreds have been captured, including cold families heading back to europe. Mohammed and his wife left france to join Islamic State. A. Ey had a baby while in raqq he says he doesnt hate france and wants to return. Me ifriend came and told should leave and join Islamic State. I let him rain wash me. Followed him. Life under Islamic State is difficult. Its not a life i would wish on anyone. I had a normal life in france. I was happy. I was in school. Europe does not want them back. The fighters here do not want them to stay. Are a burden on us. Ability tove the look after them. From the more help countries in europe, many more members would defect. The bbc spoke to a british man inside syria. Despite joining i. S. Willingly, he appealed for rescue. We need help and im aware the turkish government is not willing to help. We asked if you have spoken to the brits. He replied the British Embassy said theyre not able to do anything. We asked who is preventing you from leaving. None of the groups in Northern Syria are preventing people from leaving, he said. In matter as a matter of fact, they do not warn people. Escaped turkey and is held in jail. Set traps foras those fleeing. The number defecting is increasing a lot, but the main problem is i. S. Sleeper cells pretending to be smugglers. They make contact with members trying to leave and hand them over to i. S. Security officials. I. S. Prisons are full of people who tried to defect. The scale of the problem is enormous. We visited three different prisons, all holding i. S. Fighters from across the globe. Hey are battle hardened this man came from palestine. Compulsion kind of for fighters to go to the front line. We fought and we did not ask questions. The caliphate is in ruins and its conduct our loss. The Free Syrian Army cannot hold the much longer, so the dangerous and unwanted from i. S. Have nowhere to go except to come home. Now something very different. Mandy harvey is american singer and songwriter who always knew she wanted to be a musician, but as an 18yearold, a university student, tragedy struck. She lost her hearing due to a connective tissue disorder and with it, potentially her career. Now a decade later, just three albums under her belt and tours with a band. How did she do it . Bbc1 to find out. Went to find out. Music is an expression of the soul. Its like a painting, false memories and emotions that you felt. Emotions you long to feel. I went to college. I wanted to teach vocal jazz. Andst my residual hearing was dropped from the program. Anything otheras than watching myself die, i dont feel it has enough weight to it. I died that day. And now up music again i have been performing professionally for about eight years. Dreams are not the same. I feel a lot of music. When im playing with the band, i play with my shoes off and i can feel the ripples through the floor and you can feel it single on your skin and everything is visual communication. So if this person is going to lay a solo, i look at them, they look at me, they acknowledge they are taking it and they go. Acknowledge and start singing. Not being able to hear other music, it allows me the ability to not necessarily be pushed into sounding like someone else. I sound like myself and i will consistently sound like myself. I think to encourage other people, that is what makes me happy. I made it through a horribly difficult time in my life, so my passion, the whole reason why i sing is so i can say this is what ive done. I hope i can encourage you to do the same thing. Tim the incredible talent of mandy harvey. More on her and the other days stories on bbc. Com. From the end the team here in washington, goodbye. Make sense of International News at bbc. Com news. Funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation. Newmans own foundation, giving all profits from newmans own to charity and pursuing the common good. Kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for americas neglected needs. And aruba tourism authority. Planning a vacation escape that is relaxing, inviting, and exciting is a lot easier than you think. You can find it here, in aruba. Families, couples, and friends can all find their escape on the island with warm, sunny days, cooling trade winds, and the crystal blue caribbean sea. Nonstop flights are available from most major airports. More information for your vacation planning is available at aruba. Com. Bbc world news was presented by kcet, los angeles. Captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc woodruff good evening, im judy woodruff. On the newshour tonight. He wasnt doing a good job. Very simply, he was not doing a good job. Woodruff . President trumps firing of f. B. I. Director james comey raises serious questions among republicans and has democrats calling for a special counsel to investigate russia. Then, with that backdrop, mr. Trump, in the oval office, welcomes russias foreign minister and their ambassador to the u. S. , someone at the center of collusion allegations with the Trump Campaign. We devote the bulk of the program to this story, as we unpack what we do and dont know this day after the firing. Thats tonights pbs newshour
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