Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by lincoln financial committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. Bnsf railway. And by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. Carnegie corporation of new york. Supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of International Peace and security. At carnegie. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff it may be unprecedented, and it lit up the president ial Campaign Today a sitting pope crossed verbal swords with a candidate for president of the United States, just ahead of a crucial primary. Political director Lisa Desjardins has our report. Reporter this is not your typical president ial critic. And definitely not your typical criticism. Reporter on his flight home from mexico, pope francis directly addressed donald trump. The republican frontrunner has advocated building a wall along the length of the u. S. Mexican border. And last week, he said the popes trip to the u. S. Mexico border was a political ploy encouraged by mexico. translated and am i a pawn . Well maybe. Ill leave that to your judgment. Told reporters he is not reporter the pope pointedly told reporters he is not recommending how anyone votes. In South Carolina, the candidate wasted no time in issuing his retort. No leader, especially a religious leader, should have the right to question another mans religion or faith especially when they feed all sorts of false information into him. Reporter trump quickly transformed the debate over christian values into a fight over security. If and when the vatican is attacked by isis, which as everyone knows is isis ultimate trophy, i can promise you that the pope had only wished and prayed that donald trump would have been president because this would not have happened. Isis would have been eradicated unlike what is happening now with our all talk, no action politicians. Reporter while the wouldbe president took on the pontiff, marco rubio happily joined forces with South Carolina governor nikki haley, one day after her endorsement. We need to show that South Carolina makes president s and that our next president will be marco rubio reporter two days before South Carolinas primary, most nontrump republicans are playing it safe and sticking to stump lines. But in greenville last night, rubio confronted the volatile issue of racism by police and the criminal system but whether you agree with them or not, if a significant percentage of the American Family believes that they are being treated differently than everyone else, we have a problem. And we have to address it as a society and as a country, because i do not believe we can fulfill our potential as a nation unless we address that. Reporter as for the democrats. Im going to do everything i can so you dont have to be scared. Reporter . In a new ad, Hillary Clinton sought to reach latino voters in nevada by stressing her opposition to most deportations. Bernie sanders too was appealing to latinos, with this ad highlighting a key endorsement before the states democratic caucuses on saturday. The two, who are currently neck and neck in the firstinthe west contest, will take voter questions at a town hall event tonight in las vegas. Woodruff the pope also made headlines today on the zika virus suggesting that women threatened with it could use artificial contraception. Roman catholic doctrine teaches Birth Control is wrong, but francis said under the circumstances, it might be necessary. translated avoiding a pregnancy is not an absolute evil. In certain cases, as in this one, it is clear. I would also exhort the doctors that they do everything they can to find vaccines, things against these mosquitoes that bring this sickness. Woodruff well take a closer look at all of the popes statements today, after the news summary. The pentagon said today it has asked russia to steer clear of bombing near u. S. Special forces in northern syria. It said the Russian Military was given broad areas to avoid, but not the exact locations of american troops. And, a spokesman said, the russians have honored the request so far. Turkey is blaming kurdish militants at home and in syria for a suicide bombing in ankara. Yesterdays blast killed 28 people and wounded dozens more. The turks answered today with air raids in northern iraq, on the outlawed kurdish rebel group pkk, and they insisted again the group is linked to syrian kurds backed by the u. S. translated we have not been able to convince the international community, and in particular our friends, of the strong ties between kurdish militias in northern syria, and the pkk. In the face of this bombing they will probably be conducive to a better understanding. Woodruff meanwhile, the leader of a kurdish Umbrella Organization said its possible that rogue militants carried out the bombing. In uganda, delays and protests plagued president ial and parliamentary elections today. And, at one point, the main opposition candidate was briefly arrested. Some voters waited more than five hours because ballots had not been delivered. That sent protesters into the streets claiming the delays were deliberate, to help the countrys president. Yoweri museveni has been in power for 30 years and is seeking reelection. Leaders of the European Union have opened a crucial summit in brussels that could determine whether britain stays or goes as a member. Prime minister David Cameron arrived today, calling for a deal that safeguards british sovereignty, and helps him win a summer referendum on keeping london in the e. U. We have some important work to do today and tomorrow and its going to be hard. Ill be battling for britain, if we can get a good deal ill take that deal. But i will not take a deal that doesnt meet what we need. I think its much more important to get this right than to do anything in a rush. Woodruff britain already opts out of the unified Euro Currency and it wants the freedom to curb various benefits for immigrants from elsewhere in europe. Back in this country, a Los Angeles Area hospital confirms it paid 17,000 dollars in ransom to hackers who seized control of its computer network. Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center says it happened earlier this month. It regained access to its network by paying the ransom in bitcoins, an online currency. The fbi says thereve been numerous similar attacks. And, wall streets rally ran out of gas today, after advancing since monday. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 40 points to close at 16,413. The nasdaq fell 46 points, and the s p 500 shed nine. Still to come on the newshour Pope Franciss surprising remarks on contraceptives and on donald trump. The first president ial visit to cuba in nearly 90 years. Whos taking bets on the president ial election, and much more. Woodruff now, back to that Rare Exchange we saw play out today between the pope and president ial candidate donald trump. John allen covers the vatican and the Catholic Church for the boston globe and its web site, crux. And susan page is the Washington Bureau chief for usa today. Welcome to you both. Susan, to you first, what did you make of the popes remarks and is there any precedent for a pope injecting himself this way into a president ial race . Ive covered ten campaigns. Ive never seen anything like this. The pope talking specifically about a particularly candidate, criticizing him, saying hes behaving in a way thats not christian. Ive never seen anything like it. The candidate immediately shooting back with very harsh language saying the popes language was disgraceful. I think this is truly Uncharted Waters here. Woodruff john allen, youve covered the vatican for many years. Are you aware of any precedent, has there been a situation like this where the pope has spoken to directly about a American Election . Ive covered the vatican 20 years, three popes, and i am keenly aware this is an institution that has an awful lot of history under its belt so i am reluctant to use the word unprecedented. As the cardinal put it, in the Catholic Church, everything happened at least once. Im not sure this happened before. Ive certainly covered tensions between sitting president s and popes. There were titanic battles between the Clinton Administration and the vatican over reproductive freedom in the 1990s. Pope john paul ii now st. John paul was very critical of president bushs invasion in iraq. We saw tensions between Pope Benedict and the Obama Administration over contraception mandates imposed by the white house as part of healthcare reform, but for a pope to go for a president ial candidate in quite an incendiary fashion, forks i dont think weve seen this before. Woodruff john allen, how did you read it . Not just donald trump, but a number of republicans said there should be a big wall along the mexican border. How did you read the pope just addressing trump . If you read the full transcript of the remarks, it is clear the pope not in any detail does he know who donald trump is. Questions were put to him about trump and the popes response was, listen, assuming trump said what you say he said, and he said that all has to be verified, im giving you the benefit of the doubt, but assuming that, it is not a christian attitude. I think, basically, the popes point is someone who wants to build walls rather than bridges, who wants to try to separate themselves from people in need rather than opening their hearts to them and in trying to be of assistance to them, but that is not that that is not a christian attitude in keeping with the christian gospel. What makes this particularly saucy is that he said that in the context of donald trump and, thereby, perhaps not deliberately but thereby injected himself into the 2016 campaign in the United States. Woodruff susan, what is the effect likely to be on donald trump . Could it hurt him . Could it help him . I think weve all learned not to predict things are catastrophic for trump before because hes said one thing after the other and its not hurt him. I think this could help in the short term. Hes doing totally what he always does. You hit him, he hits you back, even if youre the pope. Hes also talking about an issue that launched his president ial campaign which is immigration, building a wall, stopping the flow of Illegal Immigrants from mexico and elsewhere so in that way i think its helpful. I think it could be harmful to him in a general election against democrats making big inroads. Catholics are the most crucial swing votes in a general election, but in the republican nomination, im not sure this hurts him. Woodruff i was discussing with john allen, the pope is taking on the entire Republican Party because their position se wie need to shore up the border and stop mexicans and other south american immigrants from coming into the u. S. Thats why the republican rivals chose not to go against him on this. Jeb bush who is catholic on john kasich or marco rubio were asked about it today, they all reiterated the importance of a secure border and didnt go after trump. Woodruff john allen, the pope made more news today, not just on donald trump, when he said it may be acceptable for women deal with the potential zika virus, the mosquito bite that could lead to the zika virus for them to use contraception. How significant is this that he said that . Woodruff i think its far more consequential than comments on donald trump because pope francis is not in a position to control the election in the United States but can control what the Catholic Church does and does not approve. In this case, the pope was taking a fairly traditional position. He actually cited a precedent from the early 1960s when then pope paul vi allowed catholic nones in the belgian congresso to take contraception because they were in a situation with widespread Sexual Violence and trying to protect themselves from pregnancy as a result of rape and, basically, the vaticans position was, okay, this is not an issue of using Birth Control to try to prevent the transmission of new life, it is trying to prevent an unjust harm. By a similar logic, the vatican has for years taken the position that in the context of africa and hiv aids where you have a married couple where one person is h. I. V. Positive and the other is not and they wish to use contraception to try to prevent the other partner from being infected, the vatican has consistently described that as an open question to which there is no definitive church dogma, and that is essentially what francis said again today in the context of the zika virus. We should be careful in saying he did not directly say i therefore approve the use of contraception to try to prevent infection with zika but clearly left the door open to that which is going to encourage pastors and moral theologians and Church Officials to continue to debate. Woodruff quickly, john allen, is that likely to be controversial inside the church . Pretty much ive thing is likely to be controversial inside the church so, yes, i think this will be a healthy debate. Some will say this is the wrong tame to weaken our position on Birth Control. Others will say this is a kind of commonsense adaptation that they welcome. I think there will be a robust conversation about it. John allen, susan page, another extraordinary day in american politics and covering religion around the world. Thank you both. Thank you. Youre welcome. Woodruff on march 21st, president obama will make cuba the first stop on a trip to latin america. It will be an historic moment that comes 14 months after cuba and the United States announced renewed diplomatic ties. Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent Margaret Warner begins our coverage. Warner it will be the first visit to cuba by a sitting american president since Calvin Coolidge in 1928. President obama announced the plans on his official twitter feed today. And Deputy National security advisor ben rhodes outlined the goals. We see it as a means of pushing forward this normalization process trying to achieve greater opening between the United States and cuba commercially but also supporting and advancing the values that we care about. Warner the visit, including talks with cuban leader raul castro, follows more than a year of work to thaw relations. Embassies reopened in both countries and the two nations this week agreed to start daily commercial flights. But normalization hasnt produced results as quickly as hoped. Commerce secretary penny pritzker, meeting cubas trade minister in washington this week, complained that despite washington easing restrictions on u. S. Companies wanting to do business there, havana hasnt done the same. Rhodes echoed that today. What we would like to see is that they are taking the types of steps that allow those regulatory changes to take hold that allow us business to be able to operate in cuba in ways that benefit the cuban people. Warner cuba argues the u. S. Is to blame for lack of progress, as a top cuban official underscored today. translated of course to achieve fully reestablishment of those bilateral relations, outstanding issues would have to be resolved, including the lift of the embargo and the return to cuba of the territory occupied by a naval base in guantanamo. Warner congress is refusing to lift the trade embargo and the white house said today the u. S. Position on retaining guantanamo has not changed. Human rights also remains a point of contention. Rhodes said today that mr. Obama will meet with Civil Society activists during his visit. But leading republicans urged him not to go at all. President ial candidate marco rubio, son of cuban immigrants, spoke in a cnn town hall last night. Theres no elections in cuba, theres no choice in cuba. And so my whole problem i want the whole relationship between the us and cuba change but it has to be reciprocal. And so today a year and two months after the opening of cuba, the cuba government remain as repressive as ever but now warner even so, the white house said lawmakers from both parties will accompany the president. For the pbs newshour, im Margaret Warner. Woodruff for more on this, im joined now by william leogrande, a specialist in latin america at american university, hes written a number of books on u. S. Cuban relations. Welcome back to the newshour, good to see you. Thank you. Woodruff how big a deal is this visit by the president next months . I think its historic and when we look back on it i think its as signature as Richard Nixons 1972 trip to china which was the symbolic break in the old policy and a new policy of engagement with china. In the same way this trip by president obama is symbolic of the fundamental shift that he made in u. S. Cuba policy back