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narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. announcer: and now, "bbc news". >> this is "bbc world news america." u.s. guardman jack teixeira appears in a boston court. the 21-year-old has been charged in connection to a leak of documents. pensioners in france clear their final legal hurdle. the ages to rise to 64. a temporary hold on a ruling that would limit access to an abortion pill.

a european space mission blasts off to explore the moons of jupiter. welcome to "bbc world news america" on pbs and around the globe. we start in the u.s., where 21-year-old jack teixeira has appeared before a judge in boston, accused of leaking highly sensitive military intelligence. criminal charges filed against mr. teixeira, a member of the massachusetts air national guard shed light on his access to documents, his career in military and a timeline of events leading up to his arrest on april 13. he faces one count of unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense

information at one count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material. together the charges carry a maximum sentence of 15 years imprisonment. our correspondent is outside the court in boston right now. what took place in that courthouse behind you today? barbara: we heard more details about how investigators tracked teixeira down essentially through the discord messaging platform where the documents were posted. they checked out his billing records and interviewed some of his social media friends. he does have top-secret clearance because of its role as an i.t. specialist in the intelligence unit in the air national guard. there are questions about how he was able to leak classified information over time without being detected and that is under investigation. his parents were in the courtroom. they did not speak to media but there was a brief exchange with their son.

he did not enter a plea. he is being detained until the next court hearing on wednesday. here is my report. jack teixeira's parents left the courthouse without commenting. they watch their son face charges that could lead to many years in prison. he is a national guardsman, video gamer and chief suspect in a major intelligence leak. he gave up without a fight when the fbi knocked on his door. to his neighbors, he was just a regular guy. >> i have seen him walk around with a group. they are also big into video games. i am not surprised it would have been over minecraft. it is crazy. >> i think it is nuts. nothing like this has ever happened around here. this is a very small neighborhood. >> these are some of the documents he revealed. sensitive secrets about american allies, assessments over the ukraine's fight against russia.

jack teixeira worked in the intelligence wing of the air national guard. he was an i.t. specialist and a relatively junior position. yes but identified in the leader of an online chat group. they were posted on discord, a social media platform popular with videogamers. the group teixeira led had two dozen members. u.s. officials were not aware of the leak until material was posted outside the chat group on other platforms like messageboard 4chan and eventually twitter. teixeira's friends said he was not trying to undermine the government. >> any claims he is a russian operative is categorically false. he is not interested in helping any foreign agencies with their attack on the u.s. he was a young, charismatic man who loves nature, god, shooting

guns and racing cars. >> washington is facing a major diplomatic embarrassment. the pentagon is investigating how such a low ranking officer could cause such a high profile intelligence leak. >> this particular leak of classified information is so unique and damaging in many other instances that we have that in the past where there has been a leak of classified information, it is dated, old information or about broader programs. it does not mean it is not sensitive oragwhat you have herd information that is about real-time national security foreign policy issues, military conflicts. >> it is the third big leak in 13 years. the u.s. needs to convince allies it can keep secrets. >> short time ago i spoke about

all of this with congressman jim himes he serves as the top democrat on the house intelligence committee. joining us now is the ranking member of the house intelligence committee, congressman jim himes appeared the first question on many people's minds is how did a 21-year-old national guardsmen, relatively junior position, how did he have access to such highly classified material? >> thank you for having me. it is not a function of the individual's age. we charge 21 euros with living combat troops. it is more a question of did an obscure network journeyman in massachusetts working for the air national guard, did that individual need to have actual access to these documents to do the network maintenance or administration that was required?

why in the world was he permitted to print these documents? there are serious questions about why the system is set up to permit what happened. to happen. it is not so much about his age. >> presumably he would not have been the only one of his rank or age to have access to this kinds of information. to remind everyone, this had to do with military preparedness, america's allies and enemies and very specific information about russia and ukraine and the war there. why would someone like him and his position able to access, print out and share the documents? >> that is the question. as a senior member of the intelligence committee charged with oversight i can tell you that is the question we will be asking. edward snowden, in excess of 10 years ago, released a highly classified information.

he was a network administrator. in edward snowden's case, he had been fired from or moved on from different jobs for underperformance. you had behavioral issues. more than 10 years ago, how is it possible more was not done to plug a leak we had already catastrophically witnessed? >> in your opinion, how damaging is this leak? >> it is hard to say because first of all it appears the documents -- i caution people to not assume what they are seeing online is accurate. i also caution people that i spent a decade-plus around intelligence. just because the cia or pentagon assesses something does not mean it is true. they will make assessments with lower levels. i am particularly animated at this issue because the potential damage -- much of this material

appears to pertain to the fight happening right now when ukraine were showing unbelievable courage and fortitude, ukrainians are fighting off the russians. if this results in russians getting wind and how intelligence is gathered this could mean more fatalities on the battlefield. this is a particularly ugly one. >> is there a deeper proem and what with that problem be if this is not just u.s. defense material or leaks coming from agencies? this appears to be a broader problem across multiple areas of the u.s. government. >> it is. this is not a problem we will ever fix in its entirety. edward snowden, this individual, teixeira, printed out some classified documents and carried them out of the facility. intelligence is most valuable when it is hard to share. one lesson of 9/11 is our intelligence committee was not

sharing enough information. tha a fbi were not talking and that can lead to tragic outcomes. when we share information, the more the possibility that one individual can -- there are two things region do. number one, look at the culture. i want to understand why the culture was so lackadaisical at this base in massachusetts. i want to look at the culture that resulted in classified documents finding their way to mar-a-lago. it is a leadership and culture issue and a technological issue. computers are very, very sophisticated today. they can grant different levels of access. they can keep records. i do not think we are doing nearly well enough in that regard. >> we know this was not a traditional leak. this was not the way that edward snowden did things, leaking things out of a thumb drive. this involved a platform called

discord. is the u.s. prepared for what could be a new era of digital leaking that may not involve whistleblowers or spies? as we think we know now, this might just be a 21-year-old individual who might not have had an agenda and simply want to share some documents online with some buddies? >> we will never run out of motives for white individual would make a bad decision and betray his country. traditional motives have been ideological, money. apparently impressing other people. what is ironic about this is it was the lowest of low-tech leaks. printing things out and carrying them out in your pocket. there is nothing 21st-century or high-tech about that. we have a lot of time and energy defending against sophisticated cyber attacks and network exportation by our enemies but we need to remember not lucite

that you can stick -- and not lose sight that you can stick this stuff in your pocket and walk out the door. >> thank you so much for your time. we turn now to france, where president emmanuel macron's controversial plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 have cleared their final hurdle. there have been weeks of angry protests across the country including in the capital paris. >> the demonstrators outside city hall have clearly been hoping the constitutional council would find in their favor. declare the pension reform law nolan void. it turns out that was -- men and women did decide that no part in a financial bill and they struck them down. at the heart of the reform, raising the pension age from 62

to 64, they have no problem with that. it means president macron is free to -- he wants to put this episode behind him. once it is the law, there will be no point for people to protest anymore. for them, they will keep protesting. this is far too important for them to give up the fight. basically, the battle is not over. >> the u.s. supreme court is temporarily halting a lower court ruling that would have set limits on access to and abortion pill. it is the lowest -- latest legal step in a complicated debate over the drug. hanging in the balance is the level of access that millions of american women will have to the pill moving forward. we have been following this story for us all week.

this has become quite complicated. what does this latest ruling mean? jessica: this is an 11th hour ruling handed down from the supreme court. it essentially means that for now nothing really changes. what could have happened tomorrow if this the freeman court had not handed down this ruling is you could have seen access to the pill, which is widely used as part of a two drug regimen by the majority of women who have abortions across america, it could have been limited so women could not take it beyond seven weeks of pregnancy and they could not have gotten delivered by mail. those changes are not happening for now. it does follow a week of headlines, a lot of uncertainty. that uncertainty to some extent does continue as the legal battle goes on. >> the legal battle goes on. thank you so much for following that story.

now the influential u.s. gun lobby, the national rifle association is holding its annual meeting after recent deadly shootings in kentucky and tennessee. now on american streets, experts are also sounding the alarm over so-called ghost guns. these are homemade untraceable firearms that can be built with parts bought online. >> targeting gun violence got harder for law enforcement. at this center run by the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives, ballistic evidence is matched to crime scenes. and essential part on cracking down on the illegal use and trafficking of firearms. >> these do not have serial numbers on them. >> a growing phenomenon, so-called ghost guns that are unregistered and untraceable has added a new layer of complexity. in my hand is a ghost gun.

it looks, feels, shoots like a regular traceable weapon. the problem is these are flooding the streets. at crime scenes, it is increasingly ghost guns. the number of ghost guns recovered has risen more than 1000% since 2017. because they do not have serial numbers, there is no way to know how many are in circulation, making them the fastest growing gun safety problem according to experts. >> they are hard to trace. the firearms are ultimately identified by the -- >> online anyone can buy parts without a background check. tutorials explain how to assemble the pieces into a fully functioning firearm in less than one hour. a 17-year-old had this gun? >> yes. >> he had never heard of a ghost gun until his daughter was killed by one, according to prosecutors. she was one block from her school in the bronx in new york when she and two other teenagers

got caught in the crossfire of a gunfire. >> she was nontarget. it was someone else. you would think that things like that, you cannot just order it online like it was a toy. >> where is the problem here? >> i will say the manufacturers. >> he is a ghost gun manufacture. he feels for the family but despite data showing firearms are the leading cause of death for american children use against government regulation. >> people need to separate in their minds violence and guns. the have to separate them. they are oftentimes in certain situations related but violence is anything to itself. ♪ it is a distinction this family does not make. she died just a few months after

her 16th birthday. they are now hoping to turn their personal tragedy into something positive with a foundation in her name to prevent the lo o another child. >> now to some other stories making headlines. 28 members of mexico's drug cartel have been charged with running a huge operation supplying the opioid fentanyl to the u.s. the u.s. attorney general. . announced the charges today among those accused are sons of el chapo and chinese chemical producers. nearly 107 thousand americans died from drug overdoses. austli hit by a powerful tropical storm. the cyclone made landfall last night but afforded the most populated areas. residents have been told to stay indoors as the storm continues to move inland. this is the strongest storm the

region has witnessed in 14 years. a large-scale prisoner exchange has begun between yemen's -- around 900 prisoners will be reunited with their families during the holy month of ramadan. a civil war has led to the deaths of thousands of ople swap is the result of weeks of negotiations held right here in switzerland's capital. united nations international committee of the red cross worked with yemen's warring parties to craft a deal to release 900 prisoners and send them home to their families. some of those men have been held for years. you can see the jubilation on the faces of waiting families as the planes landed. this should be more planes over

the next two days. the real question is, is this a positive step but the sign of something bigger? maybe that big prize of peace after eight years of conflict. there have been some other positive signs. we know the warring parties, the rebels and the government forces have been holding talks about restoring a truce. we also know that iran and saudi arabia backed opposing sides and activists supported them in yemen's war. they have agreed to renew diplomatic ties. that is looking maybe a bit optimistic but the problem for yemen is this has been a long and brutal war, at least 150,000 people it is estimated have lost their lives. millions are close to famine and millions more have lost their

homes and schools and hospitals have been destroyed. even if peace was agreed tomorrow, yemen's recovery will be a long one. >> u.s. president biden has been wrapping up his visit to ireland. it has been a trip close to his heart. he enjoyed a warm welcome and a homecoming celebration in his ancestral home. mr. biden also greeted well-wishers in the hometown of his great great grandfather who emigrated to the u.s. in the year 1851. the trip was primarily to mark 25 years. since the good friday agreement as has been noted throughout the week, the visit has been personal and political. the european space agency has launched one of its most ambitious missions to date, sending a spacecraft toward jupiter. it will take eight years to get there. when it finally does, it will begin a detailed study of the

planet's moons, including exploring whether they have the conditions to sustain human life. here is our science editor. >> the start of a journey to the outer reaches of the solar system. this is the european space agency's mission. it has a 4 billion mile voyage ahead. it is traveling here to jupiter's moons, some of the largest in the solar system. they are shouted -- they are shrouded in thick layers. of ice scientist want to figure outs if they can have life. >> what we are looking at is the flight of our instrument. the black box is electronics box where the data is seen. that is put into a fault of the spacecraft. >> it will help us to see if the

oceans have the conditions that are right for life >> volcanic thermal vents on the earth in the deep oceans where bacteria, there could easily be something similar. not like little people running around the surface. >> this mission will get us closer views of three of jupiter's moons. it is hoping to spot plumes of water erecting. with this heavily cratered surface of ice and rock. the solar system's largest moon with an icy crust that could reach 100 miles. that is 160 kilometers down. it will search for a liquid ocean underneath the could be 10 times deeper than anything we have on earth. >> the pictures, the visible images will be incredible. it is covered in dark terrain,

interesting impact craters in the footprint of the activy that would have taken place early on when it was formed. orbit will produce imaging resolution of a few meters. we will be emma to see exquisite detail in those pictures. >> for the mission team, it is a chance to celebrate that they have a long road ahead. it will take eight years to reach the jupiter system. scientists say it will be worth it if these moons are found to be habitable. where else could life exist in the u.s.? >> back down to earth now, and if you thought covid lockdowns were rough, consider this -- they spanish endurance athlete has emerged from a cave after spending 500 days without human contact and what is thought to be a world record. beatrice entered the cave 70 meters underground when the road

was in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic. she spent her time exercising, painting and knitting. scientists monitored her but did not make contact. thank you for watching. that is all we have time for today. this is "bbc world news america narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. man: bdo. accountants and advisors. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ ♪

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geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna nawaz is on assignment. on the newshour tonight, the supreme court steps into the battle over the abortion pill. the 21-year-old suspected of leaking highly-classified government documents appears in court to face criminal charges. pressure mounts on democratic senator dianne feinstein to resign oveher prolonged absence from capitol hill. and david brooks and jonathan capehart offer their takes on the week's political news. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by