captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, may 6: the campaign of france's leading presidential candidate is hacked and thousands of documents are posted online; and in our signature segment, which side will win the youth vote in france? also, the politics of health care reform and what could be coming up. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust-- supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided

by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thanks for joining us. before public campaigning in france's presidential election ended at midnight, the high- stakes contest between centrist emmanuel macron and far-right candidate marine le pen suffered a kind of disruption familiar to americans: the frontrunner was hacked. while france itself votes tomorrow, voting is already under way in french territories overseas and among french citizens living abroad, including 120,000 here in the united states. just before those first voters went to the polls today, macron confirmed he'd been targeted by

a "massive hacking attack" after thousands of campaign emails and financial records were posted online. macron condemned the hackers f"" seeding doubt and disinformation." his campaign said some documents were authentic, but the postings included many fakes. france's election commission asked french media and citizens not to republish or share the hacked content and risk distorting the vote. no one has claimed responsibility for the hack. for more on this developing story, i am joined by skype by reuters reporter eric auchard, who's in berlin. thanks for joining us. first of all, what were documents that were revealed on the internet yesterday? >> well, there's a whole trove of what purport to be the e-mails of various campaign members of macron's campaign. there's questions about whether all of them are the real thing or whether there have been some fake e-mails added in to kind of embarrass the campaign. it appears to be e-mails from at least four members of the macron

campaign, senior advisers, speech writers, et cetera. >> sreenivasan: put this in perspective. in the last couple days, the candidates aren't allowed to campaign. >> the documents were dropped just hours before all the campaigns, the media are restricted from saying anything for 24 hours before the election begins. >> sreenivasan: is there likely to be an impact? what do the polls say? there are lots of undecided voters who could have been influenced by this information. >> the problem is this is a run-off. the two candidates that are in the run-off attract a total of around 45%, certainly under 50% of the total vote. so a lot of people are having to consider second choices. so there is the possibility of people changing their minds late in the game. >> sreenivasan: eric, is there concern in germany and other parts of europe that have

elections and votes coming up about this type of hacking influencing the outcome? >> many parties were very concerned about this. there's been more signs of it, reports of attacks on think tanks connected to the two top german parties, the tdu and the std. that follows a series of attacks against the german parliament and the main political party of german chancellor angela merkel last year. >> sreenivasan: has the computer science or the computer forensic community that looks at all of this, i know they haven't gone through these particular hacks, but in the previous one, have they started to point any fingers or figure out the general drengs -- direction of where this is coming from? >> some are veteran researchers that have been tracking the activities of a particular group connected to the russian government. they connect to the russian military intelligence directorate called the gru.

their fingerprints have been found both in attacks on the macron campaign a few weeks ago as well as some of the attacks in germany. they've been... this is a group that's been active for more than a decade and has attacked militaries, foreign ministries, political parties in many countries, and yet this is digital technology. it is very hard to prove. so absolute certainty is simply not possible here. >> sreenivasan: all right, eric auchard of reuters joining us live via skype from berlin. thank you very much. >> certainly. >> sreenivasan: the associated press and "washington post" reported today the trump transition team had warned michael flynn about his contacts with the russian ambassador to the u.s. before flynn became president trump's national security adviser. the reports say transition officials told flynn last november that his meetings and calls with ambassador sergey kislyak were monitored by u.s. intelligence agencies. in december, flynn talked with kislyak about the sanctions

against russia imposed by the obama administration for hacking hillary clinton's emails and meddling in the election. flynn resigned in february after his misleading statements about those communications were exposed. a white, suburban dallas police officer charged with murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager last saturday night has been released on $300,000 bail. 37-year-old roy oliver, who was also fired this week by the police department in balch springs, texas, allegedly shot his rifle into a car carrying 15-year-old jordan edwards, his two brothers and two other teens as they were leaving a house party. jordan edwards was killed, and funeral services were held for him today. oliver initially claimed the car had been backing up toward him and other officers, but the police department now says body camera video reveals the car was driving away when oliver fired. iowa's new law restricting abortions is on hold. the law requires women seeking a legal abortion to wait 72 hours after their first appointment about undergoing the procedure.

hours after republican governor terry branstad signed the law yesterday, iowa's state supreme court issued a temporary injunction blocking it. planned parenthood, the state's largest abortion provider, and the a.c.l.u. sought the injunction, saying the law is unconstitutional. iowa could become the sixth state to require a 72-hour waiting period. 22 other states require shorter waiting periods, usually for 24 hours. >> sreenivasan: returning to france, the two candidates in tomorrow's presidential election runoff offer starkly different plans for their country. centrist emmanuel macron, who's ahead in the polls, would become france's youngest president ever at 39 years old. he's pro-european union and supports immigration. the other candidate, far right nationalist marine le pen, would be the country's first female president. she wants france to pull out of the e.u. and to curb immigration. in tonight's signature segment, we look at how a key demographic group is choosing sides: young

voters. throughout the campaign, le pen has been buoyed by an energetic youth vote, but, as special correspondent christopher livesay reports, macron may have the upper hand. >> reporter: as france went to the polls two weeks ago to decide which of 11 candidates would make the presidential election runoff, we watched the returns at an election party hosted by eric barbosa. he's the 20-year-old president of the paris chapter of the youth wing of marine le pen's party, the national front-- le front national, in french. le pen's second place finish that night, qualifying her for the final round, propelled the once fringe party into the mainstream. >> she's a great woman. and everybody is like, "we are going to win!" >> reporter: barbosa, a part- time baker and full-time party volunteer, says le pen's populism and patriotism inspire him. what is her vision for young people in the front national? >> be proud, be strong, be ready. >> reporter: be ready?

>> yes, because we are the future for france. >> i am quite happy. >> reporter: euryanthe mercier, a 22-year-old college student, joined the party three years ago and volunteered for le pen's campaign. >> i like her personality, and i trust her so. i don't trust a lot of politicians. >> reporter: manon bouquin is secretary general of a national pro-le pen student group. >> ( translated ): we did manage the feat of making it to the second round. three years ago, nobody would have believed it. and we think there's a new world that can emerge, and the old world can collapse. >> reporter: the youth vote is an important source of strength for the national front, which says its membership among 18- year-olds to 25-year-olds has more than tripled in the past five years. reporter: a poll of france's youngest voters before the first round found a majority were anti-establishment, supporting either le pen or the left-wing

populist, jean-luc melenchon. centrist emmanuel macron, le pen's opponent in the runoff, was third choice despite being the only candidate under 40. but not long ago, le pen was considered so controversial, few would admit to supporting her. >> why when you are french, why when you are 20, you want to go to the front national? why? >> reporter: journalist charlotte rotman spent 18 months traveling the country and getting to know young le pen activists for her book "20 years old and at the front." >> she knows how to welcome them, the young people. also, when you are 20 and when somebody trusts you, i don't know in the united states, but in france, it's very rare. and when the front national says, "okay, you are 22, but you are going to be the head of this list for this next election," they feel really like... >> reporter: like they are appreciated. >> yes. really. >> reporter: in fact, the party has asked bouquin, who is just 24, to run for a paris seat in

parliament next month. >> ( translated ): i was given new responsibilities. these were offered to me. i've never asked for anything. i was happy the party was placing their trust in me, for them to think of me as someone reasonable and ready to take on this role. it made me quite proud. >> reporter: and you go through these points with people on the street? on issues, bouquin says she sees eye to eye with le pen over concerns about radical islam. but bouquin and the other young le pen supporters we met say what matters most in this election is france's stagnating economy, with 10% unemployment that's approaching 26% among people under 25. >> young people have a lot of hope. france is not going well, and the young people see it. >> reporter: they blame globalization and share le pen's call for a referendum for france to leave the european union, like britain voted to do last year. they want france to tighten the

borders, now open in accordance with e.u. rules, and have france revert from the euro to the franc. they also want this familiar sight seen all over paris, the french flag alongside the multi- starred e.u. flag, to be a thing of the past. aren't there any benefits of being in the european union that you are worried about losing? what about freedom to travel? >> before the european union, you can go where you want. a lot of people say, oh, it takes a lot of time to the border. okay, one minute more. one minute! >> ( translated ): not to close the borders, of course, but to regulate them. to be able to manage our currency, devalue it if we want to. and to have weapons against globalization. >> reporter: le pen says restricting immigration will protect france from terrorism, cheap foreign labor and save french culture itself. >> i'm against massive immigration, of course. and actually, we've seen some

parts in france-- and some parts close to paris, especially-- where people don't speak anymore french together. they don't celebrate french national days. so, they don't want to be french. and when they go to a country and they don't want to be a member of the french community, i think it's a problem. >> reporter: support for le pen among young voters is not only about policy, according to author charlotte rotman. she says the movement's appeal is also personal. >> it's like you have a new family. it's us. it's the front national. the young supporters i've been talking to, they are describing something that looks like a family for them. >> reporter: have you met marine le pen? >> oh, yes, a few times. >> reporter: what was your impression of her when you met her? >> she's a very warm woman. she's smiling every time, like the mother of france. like, she wants to protect us, and that's the message, i think. >> reporter: but her political

opponents call her a dangerous right-wing extremist, and certainly there are those on the streets of paris who agree. right outside this polling station, there is a picture of marine le pen, and, as you can see, she is not very popular here in paris. this one has been graffitied on top of it, calls her a fascist. three hours south of paris, in the town of limoges, we caught up with young people who are strongly opposed to le pen. they're backing macron, the former economy minister making his first run for office. a poll out this week showed macron with the advantage among voters age 18-24, with 62% saying they intend to vote for him and 38% for le pen. supporter rachel-flore pardo discusses the high unemployment rate with this potential voter. >> emmanuel macron has a very interesting proposal on that. so, i think it is very likely she will vote for macron. i don't know.

not 100%. but i think seeing us here may have made a difference. >> reporter: she's one of four young people we met, all in their 20s, campaigning in a creative way for macron. >> i was explaining to him that it's not about capitalism and big banks; it's more about entrepreneurs and helping them hire people, because, in the end, that's what creates employment. >> reporter: they're all traveling in a van named "en marche le tour" after macron's movement, "on the move." since february, they've driven almost 3,000 miles and talked to thousands of people in more than 60 different cities. >> it's a small office. >> reporter: they say they felt compelled to take this road trip to understand what they see as a frightening trend in european and american politics. >> we were a bit worried by all the populist votes all around the world, and even more worried for france. >> with both the brexit then trump's election, that really shocked me. >> and so, for that election in france, we wanted to do something before, try to

understand why people are interested in voting for a populist candidate. and this is how we got the idea. >> reporter: they focus on the french countryside, where le pen's anti-e.u. and anti- globalization message has struck a chord with struggling farmers and factory workers. they say they've met two types of le pen supporters, the true believers who generally blame immigrants for france's problems, and those who are protesting politics as usual. >> they tell us, "i am just tired with them all. i'm going to vote for her for a change." and those people, when we chat with them, they can realize that marine le pen is not necessarily the person who offers them a solution. what she does well is speak about their problems, but i don't think any solution she offers is realistic. and sometimes we can actually convince those people or at least open their mind and make them doubt about it. >> reporter: in the past two weeks since the runoff was set, they've tried to persuade people to consider macron's pro-e.u.

message as the best way to ensure peace and prosperity, and move forward on issues like climate change >> i don't think france alone can be, like, the leading country for the environment, but europe together can. and the same thing for diplomacy in the world. i don't think france matters a lot, but i think europe together matters. and so, this is why i think the election in france is very important for the future of europe, and so, in a sense, for the future of the world. >> we have two visions of france that are confronting each other. it's the le pen and the macron vision. it's a nationalist versus a more modern and open european vision. it's a vision of france that is scared of the future and that is scared of europe and of the world versus one that is hopeful about the opportunities that come with europe and with modernity. so, this is what it's about. >> sreenivasan: this mural project is encouraging kids to learn the alphabet from their

everyday surroundings. read more at www.pbs.org/newshour. the debate over replacing the seven-year-old affordable care act is now in the hands of the united states senate. this follows thursday's passage of a revamped bill from the house that would end the employer mandate to provide insurance and the individual mandate to have it. the republican plan would replace government subsidies to buy health insurance with tax credits. among other things, it would allow insurance companies to charge higher premiums for elderly americans and people with pre-existing conditions while it would limit medicaid coverage for low income americans. the nonpartisan congressional budget office has yet to offer its analysis, but the c.b.o. predicted the previous version of the house bill could knock 24 million americans uninsured in the next few years. for more on this debate, i'm joined from santa barbara, california, by newshour weekend special correspondent jeff greenfield.

>> it's hard to get into too much of a policy discussion, because we know that this is going to change in some significant form by the time it gets to the senate, but let's talk a little bit about the politics of this here. what are the risks for the republicans who decided to get this through the house? >> well, you can see the risks that have already emerged. if you look at the people who take the political temperature, the "cook political report," which is a non-partisan site, has just in the day or two since that bill passed moved 20 seats in the house toward the democrats. the democratic congressional campaign committee, granted that's not non-partisan, says they now contend to contest not 45 or 50 seats but well over 100. one thing i would definitely keep watching is whether or not formidable democratic contenders agree to challenge entrenched republican incumbents as the mid-terms get nearer. that would be a real sign that democrats think they've got the republicans because of health care in a vulnerable position. >> sreenivasan: what happens in the senate going forward?

what kind of resistance will there be to some of the underpinnings in this legislation now in >> like they say in the ballpark, we can't tell the players without a scorecard. this passed the house because the hard right freedom caucus got significant concessions, which, in turn, really worried moderates, and in the senate, there are enough moderate republicans to derail this. the republicans in the senate have already said to the house, look, thank you very much. we're going to write our own bill. and in answer to this, the fact that in many states republican governors have expanded medicaid, and part of this bill, at least the house version, would severely limit how much is available to these states to keep expanding or even keep medicaid where it is. so these republican governors may be putting pressure on republican senators to fix what the house did. it's a byzantine picture.

>> sreenivasan: let's talk about obamacare. a lot of people point out that was along party lines. that was a different move for the country. are the consequences going to be similar in this case? >> there is no question when obamacare finally got through -- i believe the president signed the bill in march 2010 -- it was very unpopular. the benefits didn't begin to kick in for a couple more years, so by the time the mid-terms happened in 2010, the s not mitigated by anyill, which benefits by then, produced a 62-seat loss in the house for the democrats. if you measure public opinion polls, trumpcare, if that's what we want the call this, is even more unpopular now than obamacare was then. >> sreenivasan: one of the things that's a little different is obamacare passed in the same year as an election. we have quite a bit of time between now and november of 2018. this is just one piece of legislation, one part of the history. will voters remember this when they go to the polls?

>> if we've learned anything from the last election is trying to project a year and a half out was a huge error. but one thing we should remember, or maybe two things, but one is any attempt to radically change health care comes with a political cost. look back to 1993 and '94 when hillary clinton was in charge of developing bill clinton's health care plan. that crashed and burns, never even got to a vote, and the democrats lost both the house and the senate that year. conservatives have always worried about entitlements. but once they are in place, the public doesn't want to give them up. and it's interesting. now as obamacare is threatened with repeal and replace, it's more popular than it ever has been. and i think for a lot of conservatives, their concern, once you pass entitlement, you can't undo it, is going to be tested assuming the republicans ever get a bill between the house and the senate and the president that is enacted into

law. >> sreenivasan: jeff greenefield, thanks so much. >> thank you. >> this is pbs newshour weekend, saturday. >> sreenivasan: in the east african nation of tanzania, at least 35 people, almost all of them children, died today in a school bus accident. all but three of the fatalities were 12-year-old and 13-year-old students on their way to take an exam. two teachers and the driver also died. police say the driver had lost control of the bus as it descended a steep hill in the rain. tanzania's president calls the accident a "national tragedy." a de-escalation plan took effect in syria today, and a human rights monitoring group says fighting has appeared to ease. the arrangement brokered by russia, turkey and iran creates safe zones in four areas of syria where rebels fighting the regime of president bashar al- assad have a large presence. the u.s. says it is "cautious" about the safe zone deal working. the assad government says it will abide by it while reserving the right to fight what it cal"" terrorists" across syria.

in afghanistan, after two days of heavy fighting, taliban militants have seized a district just west of the northern city of kunduz, forcing afghan soldiers to pull back. the territory has switched hands multiple times in the past 18 months between taliban forces and government troops. u.s. officials estimate the government controls only 60% of afghanistan. next week, the pentagon is expected to brief president trump on future afghan strategy options, including deploying more american troops. u.s. military forces have been in the country for 16 years following 9/11. the pentagon has identified the u.s. navy seal commando killed this week fighting an al qaeda affiliate in somalia. he was senior chief petty officer kyle milliken of falmouth, maine. officials say milliken died thursday in an operation with somali troops against al-shabab militants west of mogadishu. milliken is the first american soldier to die in somalia since 1993. he was 38. on pbs newshour weekend sunday, hundreds of cambodian refugees who grew up in america, deported because they committed a felony. >> we changed our lives.

we had families. then, knock-knock, you know. "you've got to go because you're not a citizen." >> sreenivasan: finally, the nigerian government says the islamic extremist group boko haram has freed 83 more schoolgirls it kidnapped two years ago. the girls were kidnapped in april 2013. today's release is the largest group the militants have released, but more than 100 of the girls remain in captivity. that's all for this edition of "pbs newshour weekend." thanks for watching. i'm hari captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made

possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. judy and josh weston. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the john and helen glessner family trust-- supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

♪ >> who is out there at six a.m.? the man throwing newspapers onto the porch, and the roaming souls suddenly drawn down into their sleeping bodies. >> robert bly -- he is, without question, one of the most influential poets in american history. >> i have daughters and i have sons. when one of them lays a hand on my shoulder, shining fish turn suddenly in the deep sea. >> robert was a father figure to a lot of us. >> we really saw him as a threat to the feminist movement. >> perhaps our life is made of