fritz, president, emanuel micron spent a lot of time trying to stop vladimir putin from starting a war here in europe. the pursuit of peace came with a price macaroni began his reelection campaign late and he has some catching up to do in 2 weeks. french voters will decide between the incumbent who tried to prevent a russian invasion and the far right leader at marin le pen, whose campaign funds may include a russian donation. i broke off in berlin. this is the day. ah, with the french people gave me the honor of qualifying for the 2nd round against the outgoing president. is the 1st president of the $53.00 b which is which i suppose so i you level of we jake don't,

don't be fooled. nothing is to cite the candy 3 and i would used another level of eggs. this is why i extend my hand to all those who want to work for france. even a winning the election may be more. he's a footman in michael than managing frost in a 2nd monday. also coming up loaded me a zalinski, the ukranian president, who knows how to win an election. now he's campaigning to win a war. it dear? yes, little love. we will fight in the forests in the fields on the shores, in the streets of joy, ah, and to our viewers watching on p b. s in the united states into all of you around the world. welcome. we begin the day where russian president vladimir putin can already report

a victory or 2 at the european ballot box long before russia invaded ukraine, voters across the european union had begun digging into their own trenches of political extreme. just as keep in moscow are unable to arrive at a meeting of the minds. more and more voters here in europe are no longer able to meet in the middle. the moderate center is becoming a no man's land winning elections is about polling highest among the polarized. consider hungary last week, prime minister victor orbit and lead his ruling. fidel party to victory by openly criticizing what he calls the extreme liberal values of the european union. and in france, voters will go to the polls in 2 weeks to choose. a president and neck in neck race between encumbered emanuel met crohn and a former political pariah. the far right leader, marine le pen la pin in paris, or bon in budapest,

have to populous to political points in their favor. they are sworn enemies of the european left, and they are openly friendly with vladimir poot. ah, he may have won the 1st round, but for a manual mach crone, this was no time for a victory lap. down don't be fooled. nothing is decided if we barely a month ago. micron looks like a shoe in, instead the incumbent president ended up in the fight for his political life. with critics accusing him of focusing on global crises rather than the ones at home. at juno comp at the a to all those who chose to abstain or to vote on the extreme deliver. because i want to convince you in the coming days of any that are project is a much stronger respons sorted out of the far right lot. and there scare mancha, it would iffy you don't. you can count on, you know, my growing anger of

a rising inflation created an opening for the populace marine le pen as she softened her image as a far right nationalist and re cost herself as a champion for struggling households. now that have been a dual, during this 1st round, the french people have clearly wanted to arbitrate a fundamental choice between 2 opposite visions of the future. either the division, the injustice and the disorder, imposed by ma norma call for the benefit of a few or the gathering of the french people around social justice and protection. guaranteed by fraternal framework around the age old idea of nation and people in there. the next you a defer with macaroni headed for a potentially bruising run off. he's hoping to stave off the threat from the right with the help of more mainstream parties. but his biggest boose could come from an unlikely backer. far less leader john look, mellon sean, who came in 3rd with over

a 5th of the vote. coming down on that, we will never lose her trusted democracy. so you must not give a vote to mrs. le penny. we must not give one boat to mississippi and revenge in an election that saw the extremes celebrate and traditional parties flatline. the battle lines for francis future have been drawn. florida corresponded in paris is lisa louise. she joins winowski to see you. lisa me, this is now suddenly a neck and neck race between macaroni and marine le pen. it may surprise people outside of france, but this did not come out of nowhere did what it didn't. although people here are kind of surprised to because this is only something bad ahead of the past few weeks, you know,

for months on end it look like my call would win this election with a large lead. he was in the lead marine le pen was behind him, but she kept no doing the leg work, leg work. she went from town to town, from market to market and talked to people, telling them that she was the candidate place to the. but she was worried about their day to day to day worries and mesa for about spending on that she would help them get through get by and make ends meet. 0 now what then happened was the war in ukraine started and that 1st course of course, the so called flag a fact that that means that people rallied around the leader in times of crisis. my call went up even further in the polls marina and went down a bit. and it seemed really like a done deal. but that flag had waned, waned after a few weeks really. and what then happened was that a man on my call,

he did not enter the campaign and that was his big mistake. he thought it is a done deal. it wasn't a done deal. he went down the post because people felt that he was too far away from, you know, from people reality. they felt he was doing an international drop, but not being a national leader. meanwhile, marina pen continue to do to get her to talk to people on the ground. she actually didn't really talk about the immigration part of her program. junior talked about how she would help people get by, for example, by blocking the prices of essential goods and controlling fuel prices. and that had people really forget that she's still a, quite a general public candidate with accent for the platform. first thing that she would do, for example, if she were elected, would be to hold a referendum and take away some rights when people that don't have french nationality. yeah, exactly. this is a kinder, gentler marine le pen, but i want to talk a little bit about the vladimir putin factor here. i mean,

there are reports that a russian bank donated to marine le pen in the past. we know that there were campaign posters in this election showing le pen with blood putin. they were taken down when the war began. does putin in this war? do they help la pens chances? i mean, do they make the voters think that she's better pick because she does have a connection to put i don't think that the french make that connection and majority of the french, according to polls are in favor of ukraine. they strongly opposed to what putin's russ russia is doing and ukraine at this very moment. but you know, what happened was actually that this, this proximity with preaching could have had a negative impact on emma really pens, image in france,

especially during this campaign. but when the war broke out, she right away said this is not right, there should be no invasion. i don't agree with clinton and that kind of covered her proximity with who 10 days another fall, right? candidate for it. it was a lot stronger when it comes to his words, although he has kind of the same platform as a pen. but he did not do the same thing as she did. he was a bit, he was a bit less coming than her really. he said it is full, but it's nato's responsibility that this war is happening and that could off quite a lot of faces. marina pan didn't do that, and it looks like she get through this, you know, the past few weeks, and she even climbed up in the polls. yeah, it's amazing how quickly the numbers changed. and now we've got 2 weeks to go. is it clear of what emanuel micron strategy will have to be in the next

14 days if he wants to keep his jaw? well, he has to win over vegas that so far, not willing to vote for him. he has to convince, as you mentioned beforehand, for example, versus that in the 1st round of aging and they to for only middle shaw from the far less. and he strategy seems to be he started today actually he, he, the campaign trail. it looks like he will really hold one meeting after the other as a place to beforehand actually didn't up to the 1st round of rates. and you only had a few small meetings, one big from pain meeting. he was very much absent from the campaign trade, and that is likely to change now. and he has talked to the media today as saying that he might even think about some measures yet. announce, for example, he had said that he would increase the retirement age in france from 62 to 65. now that's obviously a very controversial measure here in france. remember, you know,

during the, for the last 5 years over his term and power, he tried to push through pension reform that triggered huge protest. now as to this measure, pushing up the retirement ation. $62.00 to $65.00. you know, is it, well, maybe it's only going to be $64.00 and maybe we're going to hold a referendum if the grant agrees that he has understood that he needs to move to the left. and also he needs to move to towards more environmentally friendly measures. he said he would maybe include some ecological measures in his program to convince thursday just to vote for him. the 2nd round of thinking. yeah it's, it's a fascinating we will certainly be following the next 2 weeks very closely as we know you will. as will our correspondent, the wheaton parish tonight. michelle, thank ah ukrainian president brought him. his zalinski says that tens of thousands are dead in mar,

you pull. the port city have seen the most intense fighting since the russian invasion began. more than 6 weeks ago. maria pope has been under relentless, russian bombardment for weeks. officials say much of it lies in ruins. tens of thousands are trapped with little or no food and water. and russia have said that it plans to focus moving forward on eastern ukraine and to intensify its military efforts there. that means the kremlin is pulling its forces out of northern ukraine, and that includes the city of charity, which was besieged by russian forces. for weeks of following the russian withdrawal from the reach and the horrors of what happened. they are there now coming to light or correspondent alexandra phenomena. she filed this report from sharon heath. this city of jenny heath after weeks of thieves and have a shelling by resting forces. we need see atlanta and valentino city and coin and

local hospital. they survived, but were both injured in an air strike that hit their house. the ballistic wounded some will get, took less than a 2nd. loosely sweet. we just heard a whistle yet, could he gloom? jim, i screamed, get down and covered my son. feeling like little some lloyd school valentin still has surgeries ahead of him. atlanta is doing a little bit better. she showed me pictures of their house before and after the attack, this done up on why did they attack us? i don't know. we didn't do anything bad, where civilians are still. the quinn is love. the hospital itself was not spirit either bought and rushed load. the hat of the trauma center here tells us after russian strike his team struggled to keep going. for 2 hours before we worked without water and electricity,

willingly would headlamps on and took care of those seeking medical assistance. also, it was very hard on me, but we stayed here and did what was necessary. raleigh williams, social wellness, and the situation worse than when russian forces completely encircled the city. residents tell us journey heath and you are to weeks of russian siege. and just burley came through water and electricity were almost completely cut off. no age could come in. local officials say at times the city buried up to 100 people in a single day. some of them were killed by russian troops. others died because they could not reach the hospital. due to heavy shelling and a local morgue, edward slept with using refrigerated trucks for the bodies that still needs to be identified or pick up by relatives. due to bother they were you follow. many people left the country to escape. the fighting is that they are not in ukraine and cannot

get back to bury their relatives, came from warner. so that's why there are still many bodies here to preserve the right. listen here was that would be those who come here to claim their loved ones are overwhelmed by grief. like ego's family, he was a husband, a father, a brother, shut debt by russian soldiers. when he was the best buy there, he could have, i was so proud of him. and now something this terrible has happened to his mother wouldn't. death and destruction is all that is left of to the withdrawal of russian forces from turned the heath. and what those who survived fear most is that the russian army might return before the war in ukraine. the imprisonment volume is zalinski was considered a political white weight, a man out of his depth, an actor comedian who was thrust into the biggest role of his life,

post invasion. he's become the lead actor in a social media campaign that appears to be winning hearts and minds. so lens, he is now seen as a stirring war time, communicate or a modern day. winston churchill, some have said who rallied britons during the darkest days of the 2nd world war. why then zalinski has inspired his people to fight against dramatic odds. always striking the right tone for the white global audience. he has rallied the world around him and against russian. president vladimir, put it there yet. we will fight in the forests in the fields on the shores, in the streets of joy. hullo, did ms. lansky addressing the british parliament, a standing ovation after a speech that recalled wartime leader, winston churchill from a career as an actor, playing a fixedly ukrainian president. in a satirical tv show,

zelinski has become the face of ukrainian resistance. when the war started, he dumped his politician suit and tie for a green t shirt. a signal that business as usual was over. and that the stakes for him, for life and death, than the lessons that much of wood according to our information, the enemy has listed me as target number one and my family as target number 2. they want to destroy the country politically, terminating the head of state. soleski has surrounded himself with communications specialist. his chief of staff andrei year mac has a background in media production, including films, and the man who directs the information policy me hydro padaya is a former journalist. the communications they help him craft are intended to convey the stakes for ukraine and to inspire the audience to act. zalinski messages are

simple, emotional, and memorable. that's helped change longstanding policies in his favor. just one example, germany up and a decades of foreign policy to send weapons to ukraine. gentlemen, his recent address to finland's parliament had a particular nerve for the country which also borders. russia is prior. think you do understand that in the russian army will count the order to invade your country . they will do the same with your country as well. something i don't want you to witness. they will do the same what they did in the city of gotcha to your cities as well to the cities of any country. the power of words to inspire action from an actor who became a war hero. it's a remarkable evolution of fest evolution. we want to talk about that to night. i'm joined now by ayana. she sarlin, she's

a professor of information systems and responsible artificial intelligence in michigan state university. in the u. s. professor, it's good to have you on the program. a lot of miss zalinski. he obviously, we can't say that ukraine is close to winning this war by, you know, any shot. but can we say that he's, he's already won the social media war against russia. absolutely. i think the one of the very 1st videos that was posted on not february 26th, 25th and 25th to read yours. they were posted on instagram telegram, youtube and other channels within, i think, and our they've been watching 3000000 times. and the most effective thing about zelinski social media is how i think the city and the immediacy in the sense of connection of his message. it turned everyone who watched it into soda,

they became champions of the ukrainian cars. so i think he has been remarkably effective at converting people over and the urgency of the message was really very, very, very effective. yeah, it is amazing considering that, you know, he's up against russia, which is a country with a huge arsenal of when we're talking about military weapons. but russia also has an arsenal of hackers and it knows how to use social media. look at the presidential election back in 2016 in the us. are you surprised that vladimir putin in russia have really been so easily pushed to the side by zalinski? absolutely. i think that before the, this ukrainian invasion happened. qualifies probably studying social media. we

expected that russians would be very good at this sort of, you know, you want to call it this information or amplification of information. but sort of, we thought that they would be very good at navigating their side of the story. and they have done it in the past, but i think what the ukraine, the last few weeks have shown us is not only the platforms, i think the big technology platforms have done a very good job of being proactive with ms information. so that was part of the story. the other part of the story is just the, the appeal and the immediacy. and i think the, the communication team ought zelinski. they are what i would call out of the digital natives. they understand the medium. and that's more effective probably than you know, any other propaganda. because in a war there are competing narratives in salem guess when really effective ukrainian

had getting their side of the story that making us all be, you know, their champions, you know, there are numerous reports, almost daily, of mercenaries, russian forces at a position to strike. and kill zalinski if they can me. that is a real possibility. what would social media mean for the consequences of that assassination? if that assassination were to take place? i'm i mean, you know, it's so it will make him an instant my tires quite obviously and zelinski has been very open about that from the beginning. i think that's part of the reason why this all social media campaign by ukrainians has been so effective. because all of us, when we watch the videos, there is no mistaking that this is really authentic, and it's very immediate. one of the earliest videos on 25th or 26th february,

actually i'm one of the ukrainian odd of the cabinet members shows the timestamp shows in cellphone with the timestamp. so there is no mistaking the urgency zelinski has said, right from the beginning that i, you know, he could be a dead person. he said, i need a munition. not a ride. he said we are here. so i think yes, those are those bite saved messages. and they are so powerful lender is meeting with all of us because maybe it's the pan to make maybe it's the connectedness of social media. but when we watch those images, you see someone who is just like everybody else. um, you know, dad, with young children, all these people are fairly young is cabinet members. it's just someone who has like any off eyes and suddenly their lives have been up ended in ukraine. and this is the number one reaction i'm hearing on social media and people see those

messages. they feel disc. what happened to any of us? i think that's the most powerful part of the appeal of so she media is the sense of solidarity from morrison. ali fights may be, watch those videos. revisit, got about a minute. let me ask you about that. there is so much negative news about social media out there right now. you don't have to tell you about them for everything from what facebook is done. on instagram, tick, tock, teenagers, and teenage suicide. you name it in here, we have an example of social media that may actually be helping to redeem a little bit of humanity. are you surprised to see this? i am surprised and also hardened because i think this is an example where all the platforms have done the right thing. the technology platforms have done the right thing. and the american, at least from where i see it, the technology industry has really rallied behind ukraine. and they have been very

proactive controlling the some of the noise sources of misinformation. so i think one of the good things is in 2016. what came out of it is a lot of conversation and dialogue. facebook actually cooperated with the authorities and turned over a lot of data so that we can analyze the bought activity professor unfortunately, we're out of time, but it's fascinating conversation with you and please come back again because i have a feeling that we'll be talking about this for a long time to come on a solid with michigan state university. thank you. thank you. for the day's almost done, the conversation continues online. your focus on twitter is richie w. news, you could follow me of bright golf t v. i remember whatever happens between now and then tomorrow is another day we'll see you then if

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