y captioning sponsored bwnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, february 25: the coinuing debate over guns, and the release ofushe latest hointelligence committee memo. and in our signature segment, saile fear and violence loom, the youth of el ador find work and hope. next on pbs newshour weend. >> "pbs newshour weekend" is made posble by: bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. the anderson family fund. rosalind p. walter barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individuai and group ment products. that's why we're your retirement company.

>> additional support has beenov ed by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and bon contributo your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at ncoln center in new york hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. nearly two weeks after the marjory stoneman douglas highin school sho florida republicans are debating significant changes to gun laws to protect studeans and prevent her mass shooting. on friday, florida's governor rick scott proposed a set of measures that includes a" violent threat restraining order" that would allow a court to temporarily stop a violent or mentally ill person from purchasing firearm. >> i'm going to do what i can to make sure gu are not in the hands of the wrong people. if you have mental illness, you shouldn't have a gun. if you've threatened others or you threaten yourself, you shouldn't have a g.

>> sreenivasan: governor scott is also proposing raising the age for gun purchases to 21, something the n.r.a. opposes. in addition, he wants to ban bump stocks, and spend $450 million on school security and $50 million on mental health initiatives. so far, florida congressman brian mast who losboth his legs serving in afghanistan is the only republican to support a ban on the a.r.-15, the semi- automatic rifle used during the florida massacre and other mass shootings. >> it pains me to know that i went out there, willing to defend my country, willing to give everything, with almost the exact same weapon that's used to go out there and unfortunately to kill children here in parkland. l sreenivasan: n.r.a. spokeswoman danaoesch responded. >> theiscussion is about banning all semiautomatic firearms. and that's really the discussion. ivasan: turning to the russia investigation, there is new fallout following yesterday's release of the fisa memo b intelligence committee. it rebuts the republican memo w released a fks ago questioning the evidence used to surveil a former trump campaign associate during the 2016

campaign. joining me now from santa barbara, california is newshour weekend special correspondent jeff greenfield. jeff, a couple of weeks ago we had the republican memo that wasse rel now we have the democratic memo. where does this leaveus? >> it leaves us with a partisan decide about the size of the grand canyon. what you are seeingen fundlly, is a continuing pattern on the part of republicans for laying the groundwork for saying the entire mueller investigation is biased, ismes there people with a partisan cast and not to be trusted. >> sreenivasan: this is a bit of a side show in that regard. and then as you're saying this is at its core trying to undermine the credibility of the work that mueiller's ng. >> yes, and the reason i think it is essentially a side show is the real action is what's going on with th mueller investigation just this past week or so. you have 13reductions indicted

for illegally trying to muddle in the election of016, with no allegation they were involved with truu . ve rick gates the deputy campaign manager turning state's evidence if you wilinl aga paul mooferred, i -- manafort, a money laundering scheme, and generality flynn pleading guilty to not telling the truth to investigators. these are three different paths but the concern in the trump whithouse is if theget connected, if for instanc the procure on manafort pressures him to offer information that might look bad about the trump campaign then this thing begins to escalate to defcon 1. nobody can figure that out yet and we'lle hav figure out what mueller does. >> sreenivasan: let's tur the fallout for the parkland shootings. something different politically this time around. i remember hi to report on the

sandy hook shootings. i remember vistledly, president obama standing in thse roe garden flanked by the parents of e sandy hook elementary school and nothing got done. >> something is different this me. maybe the fact that the survivors themselves, the high school students were bold enough to actually stand upper almost immediately after the ent -- up almost immediately after the event and say we've got to get something done, go to tallahassee, around maybe a number of companiesairline companies, hotels and caren agencies haved their association with the national riflunassociation. ss they can feel the political winds blowing they don't usually do this. >> sreenivasan: what about the break, the seeming break with republicans florida governor rick scott o evn marco rubio that is beginning to challenge e nra and some of their

fundamental opposition to ckground checks? >> right, you have amass ina strong second amended advocate, for a lot of op ed that the nra liked, but the local cliche has to be raised. there is a special election going on in western pennsylvanih where democratk they have a chance to pick up a long held republican seat. the republican connor polem eses not favor any new gun laws. although this su that in some places this fall in the suburbs of philadelphia,nen jersey, in new york, in california where republican congressmen are already facing trouble, when yogo into e deep red states, indiana, north dakota, it may play out very

differently. >> sreenivasan: jeff mueenfield, thank you so ch. >> thank you. ym sreenivasan: in south korea today, the winter pics drew to a close. tensions in the koreannsaw to penia. south korea's president moon jae-in met with north korean officials attending the esosing ceremo a statement from moon's office said the north indicated it would like to improve ties with washington, and that it had" ample intentions of holding talks" with the united states. in a statement today, the white house said "we we if pyeongyang's message today represents the first steps along the path to denuclearization." also at the olympics, u.s. intelligence says russian hackers targeted the opening ceremonies with a cyber attack designed to appear as if it came fr north korea. the "washington post" spoke to two u.s. officials under the condition of anonymity the" false-flag" operation. the attack disrupted the stadium's internet and broadcast systems along with the olymaic website anhave compromised other data. in syria, the u.n. security council's 30-day ceasefire lasted less than 24 hours. the syrian government forces launched a new round of airstrikes in the damascus suburb of eastern ghouta today. members of the secury council

are calling on russian president vladimir putin to pressure the syrian government to stothe attacks. human rights observers in syriae say nine peopl killed today, adding to the more than 500 reported dead in the region last week. china's communist party is setting the stagfor president xi jinping to remain in power far beyond the end of his term in 2023.rn the gont announced today that officials proposed removing term limits from china's constitution. if passed by china's legislature, the 64-year-old xi could remain in power atdefinitely. read the full demoic memo released by the house intelligence comwettee on our ite at pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: since 2014, hundreds of ousands of teenagers have poured into the

united states from central america fleeinpoverty and violence. newshour special correspondent fred de sam lazaro repor from el salvador's capital, san salvador, about one program that is trying to give them a reason to stay. >> reporter: over the past four years, more than 250,000 unaccompanied minors have made the dangerous journey north foot, hitchhiking, even riding on freight train cars, trying to cross the u.s. border. remarkably, 40% of them come from one tiny country, el salvador. el salvador is a daunting place to grow up. there are few job opportunities for young people and the specter of gang violence is everywhere, in graffiti that dominates the walls and in the graphic headlines th dominate the front pages. el salvador now has the one of the world's hight homicide rates, as rival gangs fight for territory and clash with the police.s there'en a special section

of this cemetery just outside ansan salvador where young members are buried.ad ned with the hallmark graffiti, the headstones show that most of the dead are teenagers. young people we spoke with confirmed that fear and violence dominate their neighborhoods. >> ( translated ): it's on the street. don't en keep >> ( translated ): it's the same for me. i e the soldiers and polic going after the gangs. you cannot go hang out in the park. so i go home and stay at home in order to be safe. >> reporter: these teens are luckier than most. they're part of a new public- private partnership that's aimed at giving young people a way out of the violencand into a lifelong career. it's called youthbuild and it's m sed on a u.s. program that was started in harle years ago. in el salvador, the program, funded with a mix of u.s. government aid and private philanthropy is managed by catholic relief services.

and provides vocational skills, leadership training and academic coaching for youth ages 15 to 25. >> it's really critical to create a safe space for young people. especially when they're coming ieom environments in the street where they expere violence. in my own family, my nephew, by the time he was in 9th grade, had seen three kids assassinated on his way to school. >> reporter: youthbuild's rick jones has lived in el salvador for 27 years and has witnessed i transformaon of this country.al the brutivil war of the 1980s destroyed the country's economy lives.med about 75,000 ma young salvadorans fled los angeles where they formed gangs. many were en deported, bringing back their u.s. gang affiliation and expanding locally. >> they came into el salvador into a situation where most young men were unemployed and out of school. and they organized like wildfire

on the prairie. >> reporter: youthbuild goes to some of the most troubled areas of el salvador's capitalec toit students. >> in our programs, we ask young people, "how many people know somebody who has been affected directly by the violence or has been killed?" half the kids in thewill raise their hand. they know what violence looks like. they don't know what the alternatives look like. >> reporter: youthbuild tries to show them those alternatives through programs that teach marketable skills, such as baking and cooking, car mechanics, computer technology, cosmetology, or building a small business. there's also a focus on empathy, on collaboration, conflict resolution and self-confidence. each day begins at 8:00 a.m. with a prayer and a check-in about what's going on in theirli ves and then it's onto teamng buildictivities.

director sara mena ramos says the goal is to give thewyoung peopleools to deal with the dysfunction they see all around them. >> ( translated ): we work a lot onife and job skills. areas such as self esteem. dealing with the emotional psycho-social parts of their lives. and job skills to learn how to interact with employers. >> most kids come into the program because they c get a job at the end of it. but while they're in the program, they also take leadership in building community assets, like refurbishing playgrounds, community centers. taking resnsibility for their own lives, the lives of their family, and their community. >> reporter: jefferson guevara graduated a year ago and is now employed full-time at a bakery. amid pervasive violence, his employer didn't want the attention a foreign tv camera could attract, so we can't show him on the job. but he came back to his old classroom to show-off his skills to current students.

>> ( translated ): i like the job. i'm still learning a lot. you have to be faster, dealing with all of the clients. but this program gave me the .kills to handle the j >> reporter: youthbuild el salvador began in 2009 with 110 students at two sites gradually .adding four more locatio two years ago the salvadoran government deced to adopt the program, funding an expansion to 30 sites serving nearly 4000 students this year. carlos gomez directs that fort. >> ( translated ): businesses in our country are demanding youth with different attitudes, with principles and values thatthor some reaso didn't develop at home.ho a young persons responsible, who is a leader, who works well in teams, who communicates well, and has an attitude of rsevering. we've seen that youthbuild encompasses those characteristics. t reporter: businessman rodrigo bolanos agrees tograms like this are desperately needed if el salvador is to begin to attract investment and rebuild

its economy. >> a lot of young people have not much to offer because they're not educated. so you have communities now the gangs do not allow kids to go to school and there's really no opportunities for them whatsoever. if we want to get the country back on its feet, we have to develop a way of teaching or of educating our labor force. >> reporter: and el salvador must scale up such efforts, he says, given that 50% of the country's six million people are below the age of 18. even wit youthbuild meets just a tiny fraction of the need. and even when youthbuild gets students to enroll, the dropout rate is significant, according to director mena. >> ( translated ): they drop out beuse of drug use or becau they don't really know what they

want or they come from completely dysfunctional families. this current class started with 34 students but 14 dropped out. >> reporter: for those who stay, there is the possibili of a better life. jefferson guevara is happyith his current job. but for him, as for el salvador, there are limits to the dream a program like youthbuild can prove. >> ( translated ): i'd really like to go to the u.s. >> reporter:hy is that? >> ( translated ): because i know in the u.s. i could move freely. ere may be some dangerous things, but not like here in el salvadow. i knn the u.s. you can feel free. >> reporter: el salvador remains a difficult, violent place to live, so it's not surprising that even for those on a path to a decent livelihood, the journey north continues to loom large in the imagination of many young salvadorans.

>> sreenivasan: as italianse prepr next weekend's election, a relatively new populist party founded by an anti-establishment comedian is leading the polls.l but the lodia is not laughing along with the party's leader luigi di maio. we man they disparagingly refer to as a "formter," could become italy's next prime minister. special correspondentsa christopher licaught up with him in rome to bring us this report. >> reporter: italy hg been known for its revolving door series of ime ministers. its had 65 different governments since world war ii. shbut now there's a very f face trying to lead number 66. member of parlment luigi di maio says he's out to turn the country around. just 31 years old, he wants to be italy's youngt prime minister ever. at this ro university, where he's making a campaign stop, he could almost blend in with the students. it's an unlikely setting for a man who has done everything from waiting tables to being a stadium attendant at soccer matches and never graduated from college himself.

so, you're 31 years old, dropped out of college and now you're running to become the minister of italy. how do you respond to that allegation tt you are just not cut out to run this country? >> ( translated ): berluscon for example, criticizes me for having worked as a steward at the soccer stadium in naples. but it's his fault, and the fault of people like him, for such high youth unemployment in italy.he wheny make fun of me for my jobs, they're making fun of ann entire generatthat they'vebe ayed. >> reporter: berlusconi is of s courvio berlusconi, the larger-than-life, three-time prime ministermoas equally faus for a tax fraudic convon amid a slew of scandals. upon resigning in 2011, he left d.e country reeling, and it has never quite recove youth unemployment has skyrocted above 40%, while the economy has endured a double-dip recession. di mo says he's out to remed that. his party, the five star

movement, was founded less than nine years ago, claiming it would clean up the country's bloated bureaucracy and revolving-door politics. what makes it unique is that it rejects the traditional right- left political dichotomy. its members run the gamut from former communists to staunch right-wiers. di maio's own father was a local councilor for a neo-fascist party. the five stars applauded the election of a fellow populist outsider donald trump. di maio says he wants to enact trump-style tax cuts, and like the american president, thinks there are too many migrants in his country. but di maio also shares traits with another political newcomer: recently elected french president emmanuel macron. macron too was hard to peg politically and his popularity was dangerously underestimated by the elites in his country.es what mhe five five star movement so popular at this moment?

it's leading the country in the polls. >> ( translated s a political power that's lived up to its promises. we're the only political group that doesn't accept taxpayer money double salaries, chauffeured cars and flights. we're funded entirely by our membership. the movement takes donations, but no funding from the state or big loies. >> reporter: di miao and the fivetars are skeptical of italy's traditional westernhe allies, like tnited states and favor dropng sanctions on ssia. former u.s. vice president joe biden recently accused rusa of meddling in italy's voting process just as it did in america's 2016 presidential ection. and in 2016, buzzfd reported that the five stars had an tstire network of websites and scial media accoromoting pro-kremlin stories. s di miao denies the russie out to help him. >> ( translated ): our role as a party and as a countrys to have excellent relations with russia and other countries. >> reporter: the five star movement has never run italy's national government, so it's

hard to know what its polies would look likin practice. but in 2016, it scored a major victory when its candidate was elected mayor of rome. and if the italian capital is any prelude, say critics, the results haven't been promising. a growing chorus of romans has accused the party of letting the city fall into ruins. the bad kind. streets and parks edutinely fiith garbage. for the ancient romans, the tiber river is what made the eternal city, a thriving city. but for modernome, it's become an unofficial dump site. many people blame the current administration of rome, which is governed by the five star movement. >> ( translated ): practically the entire city has realized that they didn't care about anything but grabbing poweas >> reporter:miliano tonelli is an italian journalist, and a co-founder of the popular blog roma fa schifo. translatio rome is gross. romans post photos and videos of their city getting tshed. the site used to have a strong affinity with di maio's five

star movement. that changed, tonelli says, after they came into power. this translated ): one o government's first acts was to block the construction of a waste management plant that would have greatly alleviad this trash emergency.no the situation has only gotten worse. their voters have been completely conned. this is very dangerous and should sound the alarm for the entire continent. >> reporter: di maio says the accusations are nothing more than a media smear job. and despite his critics, this posterboy of the anti- establishment just might have an ace up his sleeve: many italian voters, like their american counterparts in 2016, are fed uh wihe same old faces. and he has a message for any candidate hoping to turn back the populist tide. slatedr): anyone else who wants to add their voice can do so, but let me be clear: there will bshno games over ing power. anyone who wants to give a government to italy,thill have to gugh us.

>> this is pbs newshour weekend, sunday. >> sreenivasan: one of the films up for an oscar nexty is the short documentary, "knife skills."th film, from director thomas lennon, follows the opening of an upscale restaurant in cleveland that's staffed entirely by people who've recently left prison. most have no experience cooking or serving. in this clip, we meet dorian, ano spent 11 years locked up for drug trafficking, has now been given a second chance. >> i didn't think about at 14 and 15 ad 16 that i would be -- that i was a mass of -- be a ug dealer and be the scourge of society and bring down homes and happy families and people.

who plans to do something lik that? ot just was something to do. and then it wasething that i and then it was something that i became good at. it's a tangled web we weave, when we practice to deceive. yes,sir. my official title was the plossier. and the way i remember it isit is spell id lie po its poseidone fish guy. i would never imagine to wrap fish with potatoes. >> okay, okay. >> you have fish and french fries together. but to encrust a fish with potatoes, it st bl my mind,

even thinking about it right now. >> sreenivasan: finally tonight, former first lady chelle obama is telling her story. her book "becoming" will go on sale november , one week after the midterm elections. in a tweet, she says she hopes her journey inspires readers "to find the courage to become whoever they aspire to be." tomorrow on the newshour, salvadorans caught in the middle as the trump administration decides to revoke their protected immigration status. that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend.as i'm hari sreen. thanks for watching. captioning sponsored by wnet ca ioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and plip milstein

mily. sue and gar wachenheim, iii. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. the anderson family fund. rosalind p. walter baara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirementompany. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for casting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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