>> i'm molly hall. it's good to have you with us. here's a look at the headlines. presidential campaign blitz in france. emmanuel macron urges voters to turn out while marine la pen rallies in nice for stronger border control. we'll have that plus florence will join us with the campaign beat. it is the day of rage in the est bank with play-in --

palestinian protestors. and peace between muslims and christians as egypt's community faces threat in the islamic state group. molly: there's just over a week to go before france's second round of presidential vote. both emmanuel macron and marine la pen are trying to win over voter who is backed their ousted rivals. on thursday, le pen held a rally martin pollard has more. >> marine la pen took to nice on thursday night for a rally.

fillon last d to sunday but she's got a new slogan. choose france. and in her speech, she said she would protect french jobs and keep france safe. >> the election of mr. macron will mean france will increasingly be swamped from immigrants. this election therefore, asks the french people on mass immigration. mass immigration stop or more. >> stop brought back several how to supporters brought back chants of "this is our home." >> this is our very last chance to see france re-establish our greatness and save our judeo christian civilization. >> nice is symbolic for her party because it is where 86 people were killed in a terrific attack last july but some voters

resent her tactics. >> i think it's appalling to try and benefit from such attacks when she says with me, nothing like this would have never appened. >> when it comes to security, i'm not afraid. you have to get by. marine la pen does not impress me. i won't vote for her. >> le pen is also calling voters across the country who opted for ar lest candidate on april 23. he gained around 20% of the vote but he hadn't pledge support for her rival, macron. molly: emmanuel macron is urging voters to back him. he went on national television to warn against low turnout in the second round saying it helps his opponents. macron is ahead of le pen in the polls by some 20%.

speaking on the french channel, he described two visions of france. >> the one who must unite the republican camp. i am the one who must create unity in a fractured france in the face of mrs. le pen who carries a vision of the offend that we have known since all these years. i unfortunately grew up with a french political landscape marked by her party, the party of hate, intolerance and a smaller france. it's a clear opposition between two offers that rebuild french political life. on the one hand, progressism and nationalism. molly: the fatah party called for a day of rage this friday in the west bank. it's in solidarity with palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in israeli jails.

let's bring in iris. what are we expecting to see today? >> what we are expecting to see is perhaps clashes with israeli police at the check points between the wang -- west bank and israel. today after the prayers, after the midday prayers is when we are expecting to see those question which is have been called for by the fatah party. we saw some palestinians left their mosques and prayed outside near jerusalem as part of this solidarity with the palestinian prisoners who are in the 12th day of their hunger strike. molly: tell us more about this hunger strike then. >> the prisoners are incredibly moat tiff issue in the palestinian society. something like 40% of all palestinians have been in press

s -- prison some time or another. one leader of the palestinians from the fatah party who is in prison, 15th year in prison, he is the one who instigated this -- because he wanted palestinians to end international tension drawn to the conditions on which palestinians prisons are held. there are about 6,500 prisoners. and he also wants to bring the palestinian issue back into the world agenda. it's been pushed aside slightly by the iraqi war, syria and it's his leadership beat against the president. he is from the same party. he wants to stake his name. he is a very popular wleered the palestinians and he has instituted a very severe hunger strike. they are taking only salt and water and that's his instigation.

molly: thank you. next pope francis is in cairo today and he is calling for peace between muslims and christians. his visit follows a string of deadly attacks against egypt's community carried by the islamic group. they threatened to wipe out with that community. earlier, we spoke to our correspondent for more on this historic visit. >> this is the first visit to egypt by a catholic pope in 17 years. and so that in itself is quite a big event and it comes at a moment of violence against christians in egypt. he talked about friendship and respect and also reconciliation for the inhabit tabts and you will the children of abraham so much that means all the three major religion. it is a powerful message despite the danger. visit -- his powerful messages of fighting

division, fighting sectarianism. egypt is hope to the largest christian community in the middle east for the two religious from the christians i spoke to here, they expect them to be attacked. it will be a moment where what they think going through it will get international attention. and i think it's an important time basically for that divide to be crossed and it does allow the pope will be speaking to many people from across egypt which were necessarily be possible for other key leaders. fors speaking to the bishop sheik ahmed the el-tayeb and after that, he will be speaking with diplomatic leaders and the pope. he is cross the divide in this

visit. he will be able to raise issues sectarian violence across all these leaders. but as he said, it's a 24-hour visit. he can't fix all the problems here in egypt and the middle east but a powerful sort of image and message. molly: now for years, christians in egypt had been subjected to persecution but violence has steadily risen over the few years. our reporter reports. >> egyptian christians, a target of choice for jihaddists. in recent monthses, islamists have increased their attacks on the community, culminating in the devastating double bomb attack on churches april 9, which left 45 people dead. >> the government has to respect our rights and keep us safe. we should feel that society is supporting us rather than crushing us. if not, i think eventually the christians will be ready for a

new revolution. >> the islamic state groups' first attack came in november 16 en a church in cairo was bombed claiming the lives of 28. after that, they operated in the esert of the sinai center. after losingng ground in libya, iraq and syria, the group wanted to open a new front to destabilizing the middle east's most popular country. >> egypt deserves to receive some support, especially given everything that's been happening with the criminal and terrorist attacks in this country. >> recent events piled the pressure to ensure the security of christians. molly: for more on that story,

you can head for our website, it's france24.com. and those are the latest as pope francis does head to kai reform it is a call for peace between muslims and christians. calls for justice in venezuela. the son of a top human rights official is urging his father to help stop the deadly political violence. street protests have left dozens of people dead and many were surprised to see the official's son, a law student break ranks with his powerful father and said that he himself had been a victim of what he called government repression against marchers. >> nearly a month of clashes and anti-government protests has left nearly 30 people dead. venezuela's opposition took the streetens thursday blame the president for the repeat deaths. >> no venezuelan should lose his life demanding what he deserves

which the president that we are living right now. from now on, every time i refer to this man, i will call him what he really is, a mass 34urder. - -- murderer. the latest was a student shot dead. his death has divided the nation. the opposition accuses tarik, the defender of people's right. a constitutional independents position. and siding with president maduro. his son, i've been ram took to youtube to call on his father to stop the injustice. dad, from this moment, you have the power to end the injustice that has sunk this country. i ask as your on and in the name of sequence ray la that you reflect and do what you must. i understand it's hard but it's e right thing to

>> the president's son saying he's been manipulated by the opposition, an opposition that hopes the video will spur protesters to keep up street action despite fatigue, injuries, arrests and no sign ffing concessions from maduro. molly: the day of rage in the west bank. 2k pope francis is in cairo. he calls for peace between muslims and christians as egypt's community faces threat from the islamic state group. the presidential campaign blitz in france. emmanuel macron urges voters to turn out while marine la pen urges for stronger border control. and come up right now, the campaign beat.

>> it is time for the "campaign beat." it is our daily round-up of news from the french presidential campaign trail. we are going to start off with some news. the far right national front. it has a new president. >> a new new president. remember on monday, marine la pen said she was taking a temporary break from leading the party to focus on her campaign and she was replaced by a man jayhawks butancois he doesn't last that long. it announced this morning that he was being replaced as acting president so. what went wrong? a controversial comments jacques made in the past has resurfaced back in twaw, he cast doubt over the use of the gas that was used in nazi death camps. he has contested these

allegations of holocaust a denial which are a crime here in france. he says he doesn't want to take up the post in the encouragement climate. >> le pen is busy on the campaign trail. it can be said. but she did start off by fishing. >> she spent thursday morning on a fishing boat, a fishing troller on the mediterranean sea. you can see images from her fishing trip there. she had a lot of fun throwing around an octopus. poor little octopus there. later she held a rally in nice. this is the first official rally leading up to round two. the choice of nice wasn't randolph it's a conservative voting territory and marine la pen is trying to fish for votes in the conservative camp, trying to get people who supported fillon to support her. and she obviously took advantage of this opportunity to swing out at her rival. take a listen. >> we're david fighting goliath

and the love we have for our country is as solid as david's. and with it, we will bring down the season miffness and the treason they're trying to impose on our people. >> le pen speaking there. some of our viewers might not be clear between the choice of macron and le pen is not that easy to make for some voters. >> and it's causing friction within some party. the conservative party. now remember when fillon came in third in round one, he called on voters to vote for'em tony romo block the national front and they called on their voters to block the national. they never mentioned the name macron. within the party, some people are opposed to this strategy. james tells us more. >> nicolas sarkozy intends to vote for emmanuel macron on his facebook page, the former president said he regrets the result of the elections but the

choice of the french people must be accepted. he said his decision to vote for macron is a personal one and not an official endorsement. in publishing the message, sarkozy is expecting to win over influence. the party is decided whether or not to openly vote for emmanuel macron. >> if we continue to throw ourselves for emmanuel macron, there is a chance that our party could cease to exist politically. >> it is somewhat vague. a compromised tax calls for voters to block the national front without explicit endorsing emmanuel macron. former prime minister is unambiguous about the need to clearly support emmanuel macron. >> when you want to beat someone, there are not a thousand choices. you vote for the other candidate. that's why i said openly i will not vote for macron. >> to endorse or not to endorse? two very different positions within a divided party.

>> that is james creeden reporting there. the duel continues. we have le pen in the south and we have macron. he was visiting a working class suburb of paris. >> macron was in an inner city while outer city suburb, the projects as they're called here. now you can see in the images that we're going to see shortly that he got quite a warm welcome there. you can see him shaking hands. he even played soccer with some of the young kids that were there. but the truth is that he has a lot of convincing to do in round one of the elections. the conservative came in first. so ahead of him. so he's trying to pick up votes there in the suburbs. he also took advantage of the moment to tackle his rival. remember this week, we were talking a lot about what happened in northern france. emmanuel macron had staged a meeting there but he was

one-upped by marine la pen who arrived, took selfies with workers at a factory. and emmanuel macron, yesterday, he said that it is unlikely that le pen could have teenaged a coup there. cue -- >> ji come with false promise. i didn't say if we meet, tomorrow will be better. i said you'll keep working. >> macron is very busy today and just a few hours, he will be visiting a very iconic village in france. it's in west central france and you might remember it was completely destroyed during the second world war. inhabit tants were massacred by the nazis and he said this is a very symbolic visit to "measure the weight of the threat." >> this is the first rounded. it was a major setback for all the traditional parties,

mainstream parties. we're seeing a bit more unity from the socialists. >> for now. the first round of the election was a real slap in the face for the socialists. and must be said that he threw just over 6% of the vote. so the party is going to have a lot of soul searching to do but the priority right now is to make sure that the national doesn't make it into round two of the election. you'll see that even the leader of the socialist party has gotten involved at the grassroots level. >> the moment the dream died. few thought socialist party candidates would make to it the second round. but no one expected him to gain just 6% of the vote. it left the party scrambling to prevent a slide further to the right. >> president marine la pen, never. we have to block the far right and vote for republican values.

>> two days later, party activists went out in force, distributing millions of leaflets printed urging support for emmanuel macron. >> i don't think france will ever accept marine la pen but we have to be careful about abstention. the fewer people who turn out, the more le pen will get. you never know what could happen. and this is not over the question and that's why we have to campaign as socialists. values.presented true without him running, their hope is to block the national front from getting through. >> it's quite hard and painful but we'll take you to see our stride and we're trying to support the candidate that's better than the other one. >> a lot of people are disappointed and won't turn up to vote but that just means you have to work harder to get people, especially the young out

to vote. >> so many people, however, the decision's already been made. >> i see a real gap between macron and le pen so much i don't think just reading something like this will change anyone's mind from one round the next. not mine, at least. but you never know. >> such optimism may be the only thing that the socialist have left. -- socialists have left. their overwhelming hope is that the political group will end up on the scrappy of history. molly: all right, thank you so much for a look at the latest campaign action. time now for our business update. i jim joined by anca -- and am joined by anca. unemployment. >> unemployment young young people age 24 and younger hit an all-time high in 2012. more than one in four young people were unemployed in february, it was sitting over

23%. "france 24"'s reporter takes a look at one of the major factors preventing young people from getting a job. a lack on the a driver's license. >> at night, there are not any buss and during the day there, are few and further in between. without a car, getting to work is a challenge, especially for young people. passing the driver's license this is costly. >> it is practical especially when it is cold in the winter. >> this man only has his bicycle to get around. so even if he has a good agree, he's stuck looking for work in his hometown where offers are scarce. >> big cities like -- have better jobs. i could have commuted even further if i had my driver's license. as it is without a license, i'm limited. >> getting a license on average costs over 1,000 euros in

france. the chances of fail for the test is higher and it can be a vicious cycle for young job seekers. >> you can't get to the jobs. so you're not hired. you don't have a job, you don't have the money to pay for a license or a car. so it's pretty costingly. >> programs to help young people pay for lessons do exist. that's how this woman got her license. she says getting the state financing was a lucky break. >> since i received my license, i've been able to get a job to be free, to go where i want without the help of my apartments. it's really a necessity. >> after months of unemployment, she's now a waitress. but getting to work remains a challenge for many. nearly half of french youths said they had to turn down a job or schooling because they couldn't get there. molly: we're going to stay in france to talk about some new economic figures that were released today. the french economy lost momentum.

it was down 0.3% in the first three months of the year compared to .5% last quarter. the g.d.p. growth has been rising since q-2 of 2016. the latest comes as a disappointment after the euros on the second largest economy showed rejill sense ahead of the presidential election. in spite of consumer confidence reports which are at their highest in 2007. u.k. economy is taking a hit. had its weakest growth rate miss analyst expectations down from 7% last quarter. though it performed better than the same quarter last year. the office for national statistics said that the first quarter slowdown was driven by a pullback in growth in the dominant services sector. investors are still trying to sort through the flurry of data along with a range of different companies. after opening in the red, european markets recovered. paris in the green with

frankfurt d.a.x. above the flat line. euro's own core inflation has jumped to its highest in 2013. the ftse 100 is on track for its biggest one-month fall down three times a percent. and the big news for quite a few european banks that shared the latest earnings reports today. swiss bank u.b.s. is having great day. first they reported a net profit rise of 79% far exceeding analyst expectations and showing a recovery from crime outflows. its shares jumped 3% after the news. u.k. based barclays day not so great. its shares drops in the most in almost six months. they sell about 5% after a poor performance this quarter compared to its wall street rivals despite seeing profits double to 1.2 billion pounds. the bank still missed expectations due to weak fixed income trading. and something a bit leiter for

you. the force will be with some lucky siths this year which they have a chunk of change lying around. a s

[captions made possible by kcet television] >> in this episode, jackrabbit homesteads, the study ofof the cultural legacy of the small ackback inin c california's rara layson. >> it is on the -- morongo basi