>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> fathom travel-- carnival corporation's small ship line. offering seven-day cruises to three cities in cuba. exploring the culture, cuisine and historic sites through its people. more at fathom.org. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your financial futureg >> genentech. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on thes frontlines of social change worldwide. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and friends of the newshour. >> 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: the campaign combat cooled off some today in the presidential race. two of the three republicans took a break from campaigning, and the two democrats took a step back from open warfare. hillary clinton and bernie sanders reached a kind of verbal truce this morning-- after doing battle over who's qualified to be president. >> i've known hillary clinton for 25 years.ll i respect hillary clinton. we were colleagues in the senate, and on her worst day, she will be, she would be an infinitely better president than either of the republicanre candidates. >> i think in the heat of the campaign, people say lots of things. i want to stay focused on the issues. there are contrasts between us, and i think that's fair game. >> woodruff: the frontrunner's camp also dealt with former president clinton's confrontation with protestersco yesterday. at an event in philadelphia, they jeered his record-- and his wife's-- on crime and race.. >> you are defending the people who kill the lives you say matter. tell the truth. >> woodruff: today, in erie, pennsylvania, he voiced regret about the incident. >> i almost want to apologize for it, but i want to use it as an example of the danger threatening our country. i was talking past the protester the way she was talking past me. >> woodruff: both hillary clinton and bernie sanders campaigned in new york state today, and sanders announced he'll visit the vatican next week to speak at a conference on social issues. on the republican side, donald trump canceled an event in california to stay in his home state. he said in a tweet: "so great to be in new york. catching up on many things-- remember, i am still running a major business while i campaign-- and loving it!" meanwhile, trump's newly hired convention manager, paul manafort, insisted the frontrunner will win enough delegates before the convention that there'll be no need for brokering. >> the reality is: ted cruz has seen his best days.en the reality is: this convention process will be over withes sometime in june, probably june 7. and it will be apparent to the world that trump is over that 1,237 number, and at that point in time, when it is apparent, everything's going to come together.s >> woodruff: ted cruz was off the campaign trail today, while john kasich campaigned inmp connecticut. in the day's other news, pope francis called for catholics to put conscience over dogma on critical moral issues. his statement-- 256 pages long-- suggested that some clergy might allow divorced catholics to take communion. there was no change in the church's opposition to same-sex marriage. we'll explore the pope's statement, after the news summary. police in belgium say they've arrested the last fugitive from the paris attacks in november. mohamed abrini was picked up in a raid in brussels, along with four others. prosecutors say he may also be the hat-wearing suspect who escaped after the bombings in brussels. b >> at the moment, the investigators are verifying whether abrini, mohamed can be positively identified as being the third person present during the attacks in brussels nationaa airport, the so-called man with the hat. >> woodruff: mohammed abrini's exact role in the paris attacks has never been made clear. greece resumed deporting migrants to turkey today, after a four-day pause. more than 120 people were ferried away from the greek island of lesbos under a deal with the european union. human rights activists haveha condemned the deportations. the government of syria has released an american who's been held since 2012. he's identified as kevin dawes, a freelance photographer. russia says it aided in his release, flying him to moscow last week. meanwhile, syrian activists report that scores of kidnapped workers are being released byas islamic state militants. they were seized earlier this week. secretary of state john kerry made an un-announced visit to baghdad today, and urged iraqis to focus on fighting isis. he met with prime minister haider al-abadi, who's facing a political crisis over corruption, a struggling economy and poor security. >> it is important to have a unified and functioning government as rapidly as possible in order to move forward, so that all of these operations are not affected, and so that we give confidence to the coalition. >> woodruff: kerry said abadi did not ask for more u.s. troops. the obama administration today turned over thousands of documents on "operation fast and furious." the material involves a gun- running investigation that mayg have let mexican drug gangs get their hands on 2,000 weapons. house republicans demanded the documents four years ago, but the president initially claimedn executive privilege. in january, a federal judge rejected that claim. wall street finished the week with modest gains. the dow jones industrial average was up 35 points to close near 17,577. the nasdaq rose two points, and the s&p 500 added five. and, an inflatable room is headed toward the international space station. it was launched today on a space-x rocket, for a two-year test. nasa animation shows how the pop-up module will be attached to the orbiting lab and inflated. it could prove an alternative tl metal enclosures. in another first, the booster rocket landed on an ocean barge today, to be reused. still to come on the newshour: the pope's views on the church and the modern family; a look inside the most overcrowded prison system in the nation; why kenya is being targeted by the terror group al shabab, and much more. >> woodruff: today's pronouncement from the pope on family life was two years in thi making. pope francis explicitly called for the church to be less judgmental. instead, he said more support is needed for single and unmarried parents, as well as same sex couples. divorced or remarried catholics should not be judged or discriminated against in church life. priests can be merciful when it comes to delivering communion. but he did not change doctrine on same-sex marriage, or on the role of contraception. we sample some of the reactionea now. amanda june gargus is the student administrator at campus ministry at georgetownet university's law center; gloria purvis is the host of a radio show on the ewtn catholic television network called "morning glory;" and marianne duddy-burke is the executive director of dignity u.s.a., which works on support and changes for l.g.b.t. community in the church. and we welcome all three of you to the program. so let's begin, i just want to ask each one of you, what do you think of this latest statement by pope francis? let me start with you, miss gargus. >> i think it's a great thing. i think it falls well within what the pope has been saying all year about mercy and being in love with our neighbors and how we show mercy to people around us. so the saints and the sinners, those who conform with how we see god's love and those who may not necessarily be acting in the way that maybe traditional catholics tend to think of the church acting. >> woodruff: gloria purvis, what about you? >> my reaction was this is quite a message. it had a lot for everyone. i think it was a challenge for everyone. he clearly speaks within the confines of marriage faithful forever, but he says you need to be merciful to everyone. walk with them, and one of myl&" "love coexists with imperfection." i think there is a hopeful message for all of us. we all fall short of perfection and if we're willing to listen and think with the mind of the church and try the form our conscious properly, the church c is with us. >> woodruff: marianneia duddy-burke, what about you? what did you think when you read this? >> i find it to be a very uneven document. there arent certainly places whe it soars. i love the emphasis on respecting the formed consciences of so many of us and looking at the needs of the person. i think those are fantastic and really consistent with a lot of what pope francis has beene about. and then there are areas where it really falls short of what i think people were hoping for, and that's certainly true on the issue of l.g.b.t. people where there really isn't a lot of progress in this piece. >> woodruff: what were you expecting him to say in that regard? >> well, i think what was most encouraging about this process was at the end of the first session, when there was some beautiful language that came out about l.g.b.t. people and how we should... our gifts should be welcomed and honored by the church and how commitment between same-sex couples could be a sign of real grace.ce and that language was rolled back very quickly, but i think there was some hope that pope francis might take at least some of that and move it forward a bit. and he really doesn't. >> woodruff: gar -- amanda june gargus, whether it's the language on same-sex marriage that affect the l.g.b.t. community or on the statement broadly, where do you think it could have gone further than it did? >> well, i think the important thing to remember when it comes to documents like this is that the pope isn't in a position when making these types of statements to change church doctrine. so he has to be very realist nick our expectations of what's going to come out of these sessions and out of these features. but i think that one thing that he didn't touch on that i think is very pervasive and very of course is the church's role with contraception. we've seen the pope make statements about contraception, particularly in central and south america with the current issues of the zika virus, but we don't see him talking more broadly about how familiess should be treating contraception. is that still the church's doctrine? are we goingn to remain in that vein? or are we going to have a more fluid concept of when contraception is appropriate and not. but i think he at least touched on it somewhat when talking about the importance of sex education and that that was an important aspect of child development, but i think he could have gone a step further in helping catholics, helpingng everyday catholics understand exactly what the role of contraception is going to be in our community going forward. >> woodruff: gloria purviss what about the language or the missing language on contraception? >> i think it was there when he was talking about that each child is to be welcomed and that the mother can dream about the child. what i'd like the say, what i would have liked to have seen, and we talked about structures of sin, is the consideration that perhaps how society is set up to make the male the model of perfection and that's so contrary to us as women, which is why we think our fertility or motherhood is the enemy of progress. that's how high society is set up. i'd like to see us challenge that setup because i think there's nothing defective abouta women. there's nothing detective in our fertility, but society is defective in our view of us. >> woodruff: how would you like to see him change that? >> i would like to see him specifically say, women, you are not defective because of your ability to bear children, and, in fact, society needs to make more places available for you in respect of that awesome gift that you have. if the economy exists to serve the human person, so much so that the economy exists to serve the human family, and we need to make sure women can participate in that economy. >> woodruff: marianne duddy-burke, what practical effect do you think this is going to have? we spoke about the role of individual priests in interpreting this and being more compassionate. how do you think priests are going to look at this? >> well, i think this has really far-ranging impact places in the church and at the level of policy all across the globe. certainly in the area of pastoral care, i hope that it will lead to less dogmaticti interaction with people across s the board. i hope that, you know, there's more of a sense that the church is first and foremost here to help care for people and help us care for each other and that that really needs to be the starting point. i think there is a lot of that kind of language there. i think that we really have to see what the response is going to be certainly at the level of the bishops and cardinals, because that trickles down to what happens in the everyday lives of where people encounterr the church in its pastors and in each other. and that comes from the peoplele of the church giving it to one another. >> woodruff: right. >> souf that level, i think the responsiveness has often been there. mostly been there. really at the level of the hierarchy where we start struggling more with rigidity. >> woodruff: amanda junema gargus, let me pick up on that point. how much do you thinkpo is going the change either in the teaching, the decision-making by priests, by bishops, but individual catholics? as a result of this? >> i'd like to hope that there's going to be some change, but -- that priests are going to start using this as a divide for how to deal with married and divorced cathocs especially,ia since that was a huge part of the pope's message. i think you're going to see a lot of more liberal priests using this as an opportunity to advance their feelings on it. they're going to see this as an okay to go forward. but i think those everyday catholics, the ones who aren't in the middle easthood, i think this should be the point where we see our role as evangelicals, as part of the clergy of christ as it were, to love our neighbor and to make sure that we are protecting the family, that we're guiding the family, that we're loving the family, but we're also loving those who may not conform to our particular ideas about the family, and we're showing the love of christ in that environment, as well. >> woodruff: and gloria purvis, what do you see changing as a result of this? >> well, i think really it's a challenge to the priests. it is an awesome responsibility to walk with the sheep, if you will, and to keep us on the straight path. i don't like the terms "liberal" or "conservative." i like the term "the truth." what is the truth of what i'm teaching? it is not compassionate to make people feel comfortable. i think the pope is calling on the priests to walk with each of the sheep wherever they are and help us to grow in holiness, which means properly forming our conscience and being willing to listen. the priest will have to be a bride of christ and deal with the mother of some very troubled children. >> woodruff: well, we thank all three of you for helping us look through, think through what it is that the pope has said in this important statement. gloria purvis, thank you. amanda june gargus and marianne duddy-burke, we appreciate it. thank you. >> woodruff: next, alabama's prison system at a breakingis point. the state currently packs more than 24,000 inmates into a system designed to house about half that number. jeffrey brown looks inside the most overcrowded prison system in the nation, as part of our ongoing series, "broken justice," about new approaches to criminal justice. >> brown: the william c. holman maximum security prison in atmore, alabama-- loud, crowded, and when we visited just weeks after a riot broke out here, still in partial lockdown. on march 11, with just 17 guards overseeing more than 900 prisoners, a fight broke outt between two inmates. an officer trying to break it up was stabbed, as was the warden. video uploaded to facebook by an inmate using a smuggled cell phone captured some of the mayhem. and it took the prison's rapid response emergency squads to re- establish order. as shocking as the events here at the holman correctionalti facility on march 11 were, perhaps the most shocking thingk is that no one we spoke to was surprised by what happened. >> unfortunately i think things like that will continue. that's why i think it's essential that we solve this problem. that we solve it once and for all. >> brown: we joined alabama governor robert bentley as he toured julia tutwiler prison, a maximum security facility for women outside montgomery. the u.s. department of justice sued tutwiler in 2014, citing corruption, sexual assault and harassment of inmates by staff, just one of a number of lawsuits accusing the alabama corrections system of violating inmates' rights. the violence, the overcrowding and the federal measures have pushed the solidly republican state government into action: a penal reform bill passed last year by an overwhelming majority in the republican-controlled legislature, and signed into law by the republican governor. >> in alabama, just like in a lot of states, it was a "three strikes and you're out"-typeyp thing. and so our prison population has just dramatically increased ovea the last 20 years. so we need to look at that. we need to look at a different approach. and that's what we're doing in the state with our prison reforo bill. >> brown: republican state senator cam ward spearheaded the legislative effort. >> it took many years to get into this mess; it's going to take as many years to get out. it was easy to get votes by saying "i'm going to be tough ob crime." it's a lot harder to say "i'm going to maintain a healthy, constitutional system." doesn't quite fit on the bumper sticker the same way the first slogan did. >> brown: among other things, the new law, which just went into effect in january, creates a new class of felonies for lown level drug and property crimes that keeps offenders out of state prisons. alabama was the only state that considered all forms of property theft as violent crimes. it's now re-classified third degree burglary as a non-violent crime.gl the law requires the hiring of 100 additional probation and parole officers. it mandates that parole boards create standardized guidelines statewide, give reasons why inmates are denied parole, and reduces punishments for minor parole violations. for the first time the new law uses risk assessment to focus resources on those who most need them, and funds drug treatment and mental health programs for those released underea correctional supervision. >> 98% of everybody who's anry inmate in a prison today in the united states eventually gets released. however what we're not doing is putting the adequate resources there to monitor them when they're on their parole. making sure they're complying with all the stuff they're supposed to be complying with. we didn't do that. this legislation did. >> brown: are you making this push for budgetary reasons, or for moral reasons? >> it depends on who you ask why they support it. you have some who say, "hey, for budgetary purposes--" >> brown: we just have to do this.w >> this is the second-largest item in our budget. we've got to do something about it. then you have those for moral purposes. i would say many of my democrat colleagues would say it's a moral issue for them. they've had to deal or hear people about this. and then finally i would say myself, i look at it from a legal aspect. you're going to run afoul of the 8th amendment to the constitution if you continue running facilities and a system like we have been. >> brown: the eighth amendment prohibits punishment considered "cruel and unusual"-- and the threat of a federal takeover motivates ward and many others. >> i think the conditions weon have in most of these prisons are unquestionably unconstitutional.ti they violate the 8th amendment. >> brown: bryan stevenson is a lawyer and prison reform activist who founded the equal justice initiative, a montgomery-based nonprofit that represents prisoners and indigent defendants. he says the state's reform efforts don't go nearly far enough. >> alabama hasn't done anything that i would call significant reform. we had a prison task force that didn't talk about prisons,, didn't talk about conditions, didn't talk about anything related to the prisons. we passed some really moderate, minor even, changes in some of our sentencing schemes. >> it's rough when you're kind'r of elbow to elbow to person. >> brown: in dothan, alabama, we asked men who had recently been released from prison about the conditions. >> it's harder to keep clean when you got all the people in there like that. >> brown: did you have that, dwight, was it crowded? >> yeah it started about every day, there was stabbing, fighting, cutting--g- >> brown: every day you saw things like that? >> every day. >> brown: these men are now receiving help from pastor kenneth glasgow, who after serving 14 years on a drug charge, created the "ordinary people society," an organization and halfway house to help people transition out of prison. glasgow applauds the efforts made by the legislature so far, but is also calling for a more fundamental change to the way people view inmates. >> we're not ex-convicts. we're not ex-offenders. we're not ex-felons. don't classify us. we are people with felonyel convictions. people that have paid their debt to society. people. people. >> look, it's still legal in this state to impose a mandatory "life without parole" sentence on someone in simple possession of 2.5 pounds of marijuana, using it for their personal use. i'm representing a man who's a 75-year-old disabled combat veteran, who was found to have 2.5 pounds of pot, because he was using it to deal with stents in his heart and spinal injuries, etc. and because he had convictions from 30 years ago in alabama, the judge had to impose a mandatory "life without parole"i sentence on this man. and that's the kind of sentencing regime we still have in this state. the metric that matters is the number of people in jails or prisons. you can talk about reform all night long, you can talk about building prisons, you can talk about all kinds of things. the truth is, we've got thousands of people in jails and prisons who don't need to be t there. we haven't found the courage yet to get them out. >> brown: even if the new reforms do work, they'll only limit the overcrowding. governor bentley now wants to take a dramatic next step: he'st proposed building four supermax prisons, costing $800 million, to replace outdated facilities like tutwiler. >> the facilities we have right now with 190% occupancy rate, almost 200%, i mean this is just unacceptable. and it's dangerous, not only to the prisoners, to our corrections officers, and really to the public, and it's costing hundreds of millions of dollars. and so we can modernize the system, and we can try toca correct and help those who are here, and that's our goal. >> brown: but now the governor faces a more immediate political threat: a state ethics investigation into his time in office, including whether he violated state laws in conducting an alleged affair with a former advisor. the state house, including members of the governor's own party, just moved ahead on impeachment proceedings. the ethics investigation now, does that have any impact do you think on your potential to pass reform, prison reform with the new prisons? >> you know, i think that, look, some people will think that, and some people may use that. i really do not-- i think that the legislators who understand the seriousness of this will not look at that. they will try to solve problems just like i'm trying to do. >> brown: and how big a priority is this for you?u? >> this is very high. this is, right now is my highest priority. highest right now. we're the closest right now to solving this problem. that will solve a problem for the state of alabama for the next 30-50 years. and that's major. and we're going from, as i say, the worst in the country, we're going to go to the best in the country. >> brown: in the meantime, everyone agrees there's certain to be continued overcrowding and more violence. from atmore, alabama, i'm jeffrey brown for the pbs newshour. >> brown: stay with us. coming up on the newshour, david brooks and ruth marcus analyze the week's news. plus, how a paralyzed man finished a 10-k race. but first, tonight we begin a series, "inside kenya." the east african nation is the united states' primary ally in the region, and in the fight against the deadly terror group al-shabab, based in somalia. al-shabab attacks government ane military institutions in somalia, but it has also launched major attacks in neighboring kenya. special correspondent nick schifrin and producer zach fannin traveled extensively throughout northeastern kenya, along the somali border.a, tonight, with the help of the pulitzer center on crisis reporting, we start our series with a look at how al-shabab is targeting kenya, and how kenya is fighting back. and a warning: the story s contains images some viewers may find disturbing. >> reporter: on kenya's front line against al shabab, police on patrol are armed like soldiers. they search traditional straw houses, checking i.d.s at the barrel of a gun. >> the main threat here is the al shabab. that is terrorism. because they are associated with al qaeda and you know what al qaeda's are. >> reporter: officer julius kiragu heads kenya's administrative police in wajir, only miles from the somali border. every night, they search for smuggled weapons and hiding fighters. >> they pretend they are selling milk and all these things, but they are waiting for the appropriate time to strike. >> reporter: most of his officers are ethnic somali, like the majority of the local population. some officers wear civilian clothing, and ride around in unmarked cars. they work with local tribal chiefs, like zein abdullay. what kinds of weapons have youap found here? >> there were guns, there were grenades, there were ammunitions and such things. >> reporter: shabab has supporters even here? >> they have representative at least in every district. >> reporter: al shabab has wagel a decade-long war in somalia. in 2011 kenya invaded somalia, in a campaign called protect the country. emanuel chirchir was the face of the campaign in somalia, and on twitter. this gives an opportunity to tell the rest of the world whaty is true and what is happening ii the battlespace. >> reporter: at first, kenyan and other african troops pushed shabab out of its strongholds, and raised the somali flag. but after an operational pause, shabab is strengthening. in january, shabab fighters took over a kenyan base. it was kenya's worst ever military disaster. more than 100 soldiers died, including chirchir's brother. >> my brother died immediately, instantly. this is what he loved most. i am happy that he actually died doing what he loved most. >> reporter: 29-year-old dan chirchir had only been in somalia for three weeks. his funeral, with full military honors, was held at the family's estate in western kenya. the explosion that killed him was unprecedented. al-shabab got inside the el adde base to detonate a car bomb, or v.b.i.e.d. >> the penetration of that v.b.i.e.d. changed the game. >> reporter: what can you tell me about the el-adde attack? >> ( translated ): the attack was carried out by one of our brigades. they were trained commandos. >> reporter: this 40-year-old somali says he's a member of al shabab. he says the el adde attack took eight months to plan. he threatened to kill me if we didn't keep him anonymous. what's the main motivation for you and your men to have joined al-shabab? >> ( translated ): i joined thee group to get a job. somalia is a place where there a is no government and no work. >> reporter: what is the main goal for you and your men in al- shabab? >> ( translated ): we want to have an islamic state in somalia, where sharia law isa practiced. >> reporter: why you launch attacks inside kenya? >> ( translated ): kenya has invaded our land. >> reporter: shabab claims to be fighting for kenyan muslims. it recruits kenyans to carry out attacks in kenya. the worst in 20 years, was ons, garissa university. how bad was the scene here when you arrived? >> it was terrible. >> reporter: hamo mohamed is garissa's dean of students. this classroom is still scarred from last year's attack. shabab murdered 19 students in this room, for singing christian prayers. >> bodies of the students that you know them by names, young, aspiring and you're seeing the body lying down, you know, their blood all over. >> if they came when i was here then i would be no more too. so i'm just lucky. >> reporter: sofie gatriwiri is a junior. she was part of the christian prayer group that was attacked. how many friends did you lose?d >> i lost like 15. i don't like this discussing that story about those people, those students who passed, i don't like at all. >> reporter: the gunmen lured the students down into this courtyard, right? the courtyard is in garissa'sa' largest dorm, with students' rooms upstairs. this was the gunmen's final stop. >> it was ugly what had happened here. and you see, you could find the bodies-- you know what the manner the way they arranged. they put them so close. >> reporter: side by side. >> yeah, side by side. so they were just lying all over. >> reporter: shabab gunmen locked the doors and killed everyone. this photo was taken a few hours later and posted online. this is the same spot today. 120 bodies filled this atrium. the gunmen had gone from bedroom to bedroom, claiming they just wanted to talk to the students. so many students willingly camed down here. but when they were all lined up, they were all shot in the head, execution style. today, police patrol the campus. kenya says the school represents resistance to terror. but in this community, it's a reminder of decades of neglect. >> 50 years of independence and yet we don't have even a single university in the whole of the northern region, northern kenya. that's marginalization. >> reporter: when kenya became independent in 1963, the northern frontier district covered nearly half the country's land mass. but it had no higher education. today, garissa is the region's only university. and for 50 years, northeastern cities and the ethnic somali residents have received barely any development funds from the central government. for years, has wajir and the north eastern region been neglected? >> yeah. it was terribly neglected for 50 years since independence we never knew roads. we never had good health facilities. we have no good education, we're still drinking from dried upti wells. >> reporter: hashim elmoge is a former police officer turned community organizer. today, roads are be being built, and local governance established. but it's the first new road in wajir in half a century. that neglect becomes toxic, when combined with accusations thaten security services abuse ethnic somalis. were you proud of your son? >> ( translated ): i loved him so much. >> reporter: adow abdullahi'sll son was picked up by police--and disappeared. and then he got a call from a town 40 miles away. local media covered how his son's body had been found in a river. was your son's body tortured? >> ( translated ): he was strangled. he had marks on his genitals. he was tortured. he had marks. >> reporter: how shocked were you when you saw your son's body? >> ( translated ): i am a muslim. i have faith in god. what a father could feel, is what i felt. >> reporter: can you point where they hit you? >> ( translated ): they hit me here, all the way up and also below here. >> reporter: omar bashir is 19 years old. he says security services stopped him on the street, took him away, and tortured him for four days. >> reporter: do you feel pain? >> yeah. >> reporter: physical pain? >> reporter: what was your son like before this happened?e >> ( translated ): he was sharp. he was healthy and he went to school. >> reporter: mashir ulmak is bashir's father. he is worried about his son. these days, bashir skips school and is depressed. does the government single out somali kenyans? >> ( translated ): they singley out ethnic somalis. they are not doing this to other communities in kenya. >> reporter: when a community feels like prey, they want toan become the hunter. >> i know what i have gone through. i was innocent. i will treat people the same wae i was treated. >> because of the seething discontent, kenyan ethnic somalis are feeling that kenya is not their home. so some are joining terrorist organizations in somalia. >> reporter: the police deny p wrongdoing. they say everything they do, is to fight al shabab. >> the people may not like the operation but we have to do it. >> reporter: why did you have ty do this operations?at >> the operations? >> reporter: yeah. >> to wipe out the criminals. these are the al shabab. >> reporter: the relationship between national security services and local ethnic somalis has always been strained. today, human rights activists say it's close to breaking. >> the war against terror is valid, it is legitimate. as muslims, and as ethnic somalis, we support it. overwhelmingly. that said, our government is using terror to suppress terror. and the people are more angry. and that is why al shabaab is tapping into that anger to radicalize and use bitter young men against our security agents. >> reporter: until kenya stopsil breeding its own enemies, the country will remain divided, and al shabaab will continue to exploit those divisions to wageg war. for the pbs newshour, i'm nick schifrin in garissa, kenya. >> woodruff: our reporting from kenya continues on saturday when the newshour weekend looks at why young men join al-shabab and the efforts by some to get them out. and then on monday, we examine the epidemic of corruption in kenya and the people fighting back. >> woodruff: now, the week's political news. the renewed war of words between the two democratic candidates for president; a former president's skirmish with protesters; and how wisconsin has altered the race for the republican nomination. we get analysis now from brooks and marcus. that's "new york times" columnist david brooks, joining us from new york; and here on set, "washington post" columnist ruth marcus. mark shields is away this week. we welcome both of you. so let's talk about this war of words that's beenk going on the last few days between the two democrats. david, it's gotten... the language has gotten tougher. it's gotten more personal. what do you make of this? >> they're like 1/100th of the republican level so far. i'm most amazed that bernie sanders wasn't here months ago franklin. you know, he made a decision early on, i think wrong decision, to take the e-mail issue off the table and take a bunch of issues off the table and not go after health care, so he really wasn't as tough on hillary clinton as he could be. now he's going after her to me on the least promising possible grounds that she's unqualified. whatever else hillary clinton may be, unqualified at least by any conventional measure is not one of them. and so i'm a little mystified. i do not think it will hurt the democratic party. if you look at thear polling numbers, most... the vast majority people who support either candidate would be happy with the other. and so i think you'll still get a reasonably united democraticic party. >> woodruff: ruth, what do you make of this and why do you think it's happening now? >> it's happening now because this is the stage in every protracted primary campaign where candidates are tired, nerves are frayed. everybody kind of wants it to be over and wants the other guy to go away, or woman to go away, and the win finally. so this is the moment when these things tend to happen. and they always tend, david is right, this is really rather tame compared to what happened on the republican side. on the republican side this week, you had donald trump accusing his main rival of having committed a federal felony by coordinating with his super pac. so this is pretty mild. these things also always look worse at the time than they do in retrospect. if you look back at some of the words that occurred between hillary clinton and barack obama in 2008, there was a lot of angst at the time about how hillary clinton's supporters would never ever be willing to vote for barack obama after what had happened to her. back in june of 2008, only 60% of them said they would vote for obama. well, guess what? they did. he's president.. so this is going to... we had ramp-up thursday yesterday. today was kind of tamp-it-down friday. >> woodruff: david, yao don't see this having an effect on the fall? you don't think this could come back and bite whoever the democratic nominee is? we assume it's hillary clinton, but we don't know for sure. >> i don't think so. wounds get healed, especially around convention time. everyone has a party.. they feel good with each other. and then, you know, ted cruz or donald trump or somebody like that is out there, a very good unifying device for democrats. >> woodruff: what about this exchange yesterday between billy clinton and these black lives matter protesters in philadelphia. they brought up the crime bill. they criticized him, criticizing secretary clinton, hisg wife, fr being his wife, for supporting him at the time. now she's saying this is something she would change. but is this something that has traction do you think? >> well, there's a few different risks embedded in there. one is the sort of continuing role of bill clinton, who is simultaneously her most powerful surrogate in chief and also hillary clinton's most dangerous surrogate in chief. so when he tends to have that finger japanning red in the face moment, it can be a dangerous moment for hillary clinton. in terms of black lives matter, again, it sort of depends on the context, compared to what, blac lives matter protesters have an issue with bill clinton and to some extent hillary clinton and the criminal justice system and the 1994 crime bill, but they have the same issue with bernie sanders, and guess what, they're going to have a bigger issue in a general election with a ted cruz or donald trump. so it's an irritant, but it's an irritant, and i don't mean to dismiss it, but it's an issue that hillary clinton has tried on the campaign trail the diffuse by saying she's sorry for mentioning super predator and she regrets a piece of the 1994 piece of the crime bell went too far. so to me this is another one of those things that looks like a bigger deal this week than it's going to look in a few months. >> woodruff: david, what do you think? >> i think there are a couple true fangs, most of which were uttered by bill clinton, one that wasn't was that the clinton crime bill didn't have a huge effect on crime or incarceration rates particularly. some pieces of legislation don't have much effect. that was one of them. the second thing to be said is there are such a thing as super predator, clinton made that point, that some people are really doing harm to their neighborhoods, and the third thing to be said is we have too much incarceration in this country, so any honest appreciation of this issue contains two opposite facts. one is that there is a crime problem and that has to be cracked down on, and second that there is racism within the enforcement community, and there is overincarceration.ce i think the clintons sort of stand for those two ends of the spectrum here, and that's probably what most voters recognize, that we have to be tough on crime and as tom tony r said, tough on racism and tough on the causes of crime. >> woodruff: to wrap up the democrats' week, it's looking like what in new york in another week and a half, the new york primary? >> well, bernie sanders is a natural-born new yorker, to uses a constitutional phrase.e. hillary clinton is an adopted new yorker. but she is in a much stronger position. this is a state that she's won, as she likes to point out, three time, two senate races and in a presidential primary previously. and so she is in a quite good position with new york. in a lesser position. i have to say, as for new york, i can't let the week go when it's such a great week many american politics when ted cruz is going to a matzo factory and bernie sanders is going to go to the vatican next week. how great is american politics? >> woodruff: he just revealed that. we'll get to the republicans a minute, but david, anything to add on the democrats in new york? what do you see with the two new yorkers confronting each other, one adopted and one home born? >> yeah, if hillary lost here, it would be... that would be bad. i think if she lost here, if she lost in california, that would be bad. otherwise she's still got the math on her side and she's rolling along. >> woodruff: david, let's turn to the republicans. donald trump took quite aub drubbing in wisconsin this week. ted cruz picked up almost all the delegates i guess in wisconsin, and he just keeps picking up a delegate here and a delegate there. how much less inevitable is donald trump as the republican nominee or is he? >> well, in the corridors, if any of us are to be believed, there's been like a 180 in the conventional wisdom.m. a couple weeks ago, trump was inevitable. now it's cruz is inevitable. there's a lot of chattering that suddenly it's going to be ted cruz. the basic argument is trump will not get a first-ballot majority and the sorts of people who are delegates at a republican convention are the sorts of people who like ted cruz. and given the chance on a second or third ballot, they would love to dump trump and go to cruz. magnifying the fact is events that is about to happen tomorrow in colorado where the actual delegate selection process is something the trump campaign is fumbling proliveically and the cruz campaign is pretty good at. so as we focus on the delegates and less the raw vote totals, ted cruz is looking pretty. i think it's overstated because i think cruz is about to suffer some really bad defeats. i think he will look a lot worse off after the trump-cruz civil war goes on for another couple months, but riiht now the glow of inevitability has shifted over the ted cruz. >> christa: do you see the glow the same way david is describing? >> i think to use the word "inevitable" about the republican race inbo 2016 is gog to be constantly wrong. but it's undeniable that donald trump had a very bad night in wisconsin and a very bad couple weeks leading up to that. and those both affect this aura... this shift in the aura of inevitability, because what we see with donald trump is underperforming, underperforming on an electoral level, right? he won new hampshire with 35% of the vote. but he lost wisconsin with 35% of the vote. he is not... as the field has winnowed, he is not increasing his vote total. probably more significant is something david eluded to, which is that he is not doing well in the tension between being possible president trump and being real donald trump. he's not doing well alleviating the tension between professionalizing his campaign, which he's trying to do by bringing paul manafort in and add libbing his campaign, which is what he wants to do, and add libbing his way through editorial board interviews and different discussions of abortion has not served him well over the last few weeks. >> woodruff: he's been off the trail. we haven't seen donald trump for day or so other than that tweet today about tending to his business, david, but is there room for donald trump to come back and be this term we keep hearing him say, his wife wants him to be more presidential and to get his act together when it comes to building up his delegate lead? >> i think a lot of wives have imagined wishes for their husband's change in behavior, but they rarely come about, certainly not in the case of donald trump.se you know, i do not think he's going to be more presidential. he is an aggressor. he's an attacker. he's been doing that since 1990. since anybody ever heard of o donald trump. so he is the same thing. he's just not that substantive. i think some of the organizational problems with th campaign could be fixed. if you look at what's happening in colorado, you know, people show up at the congressional district delegate committee hearings and the trump campaign hands them who to vote for, but the people on the list that they're handed who to vote for don't match the people actually on the ballot. that's just a basic organizational incompetence. i do think, however, he's going to have a bunch of rebounding. he's going to look a lot better as we head to the northeast. ted cruz is just not a northeast-mid atlantic candidate some the vibe around trumpte ase starts racking up some big wins will probably change. right now he's probably at a little nader, but a big nader could come in cleveland. it could come down to that first or second ball will the or the negotiations up to that first or second ballot. there is a much higher likelihood than a couple weeks ago that he will get there. >> woodruff: of course, trump's people are saying that's not the case. >> it's inevitable. >> woodruff: but they are hanging this phrase that ted cruz used in a debate in january critical of new york values around his neck, making it a little bit harder for mr. cruz. >> what a surprise that they would dredge up that phrase. it was... new york was going to be hard, as david mentioned, for ted cruz. it's not his natural territory. the northeast is not his natural territory, even if he hadn't derided new york values that was going to be difficult for him. so that leads to the situation we're going to see trump in going forward, which is things are going to look better. he's going to rack up these wins. at the same time there is this subterranean war for delegates going on that he needs to really improve his performance on to not have more of this kind of colorado debacle that we're seeing. >> meaghan:>> woodruff: well, we watching it. ruth marcus and david brooks, have a great weekend. thank you both. >> woodruff: finally to oural "newshour shares," something that caught our eye that we thought might be of interest to you too. ten years ago, a car accident severed adam gorlitsky's spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. but that did not stop the former high school cross country and track runner from finishing a 10-k race last weekend-- thanks, in part, to a special robotic suit. >> reporter: step by step, and mile by mile, 29-year-old adam gorlitsky walked the entire length of the cooper river bridge run in charleston, south carolina saturday. >> i'm feeling good. i'm feeling very good. very confident. >> reporter: gorlitsky used a robotic exo-skeleton machine to accomplish the feat. he received the system in december and has trained 2-3 hours a day with it ever since to prepare for the race. >> not only are you walking, but you're walking in the cooper river bridge run. come on! >> reporter: friends and familyn walked beside gorlitsky on race day as he battled hills, high winds and physical pain along the way. >> my wrists man, my wrists feel like they're about to snap in half. >> reporter: and seven hours after his journey began, the man who was once told he'd never walk again, finally crossed the finish line. ( cheers ) >> oh man. it feels really good. i'm speechless man, i really am. >> woodruff: what an inspiiration. and a news update: the state department has sent congress more than 1,100 pages of records on the benghazi, libya attack. a house select committee requested those documents inin 2014. the u.s. ambassador and three other americans died in benghazi when islamist militants attacked a diplomatic mission and c.i.a. compound back in 2012. on the newshour online: more than 25 years ago, an indiana high school student became one of the early heroes in the fight against aids. ryan white was 18 when he died, 26 years ago today. newshour columnist doctor howard markel recalls white's bravee' fight. all that and more is on our web site, www.pbs.org/newshour. and tune in later this evening: on "washington week," gwen ifill and her panelists tackle the week's big news. gwen? >> ifill: hey, judy. the democrats are battling; the republicans are jockeying; and everyone is riding the subways, eating pasta and making matzoh. not making that up. yes, it's the new york primary.i but we take you behind the scenes to the real fights-- over delegates-- and to the secret- world of offshore tax havens, with reporters from the "washington post," cnn, the "wall street journal" and theet "los angeles times," later tonight on "washington week." judy? >> woodruff: thanks, gwen. and we'll be back, right here, on monday, with a look at an extensive effort to document war crimes in syria, as detailed in the upcoming issue of "the new yorker." that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. have a great weekend. thank you, and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> fathom travel-- carnivala corporation's small ship line. offering seven-day cruises to three cities in cuba. exploring the culture, cuisine and historic sites through its people.pe more at fathom.org. >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your financial future. >> bnsf railway. >> genentech. >> and the william and flora hewlett foundation, helpingda people build immeasurably better lives. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutionson >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you.ut thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llcio this is "nightly business report." with tyler mathisen and sue herera. center of the scandal. hear from the man whose firm helped the world's wealthy hide their money, now known as the panama papers. hidden money. why not all tax savings are overseas. some are right here in our own backyard. off the beaten patch. >> you don't want to give your oil away at this rate. we laid our rig down about a month ago. >> how a small new mexico town once booming from rising oil prices is now trying to manage the fallout from crude's crush. all that and more tonight on "nightly business report" for friday, welcome, i'm sue herera.

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