thing. the administration gets a do-over here. the israelis and egyptians have helped them out a lot and what the administration needs to take advantage of that, they need to build a relationship with sisi and marginalize hamas. >> stephanie cutter. i'll be back co-anchoring live and for now i'll turn you over to wolf blitzer in "the situation room. shalom and salam. happening now, breaking news. ebola alert. the cdc raises its response to the highest level as suspected cases of the deadly disease are reported far from the west african epicenter. obama news conference. the president is due to speak any moment now and likely to discuss the ebola outbreak and other world crises from gaza to the ukraine and hackers steal 1.2 billion internet user names and passwords. your information may be among

them. we'll tell you what you need to know. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com this is cnn breaking news. we're awaiting a news conference from president obama and it's expected to be under way very shortly. the deadly ebola virus is spreading and the world health organization reports more than a hundred new cases in the west african epicenter of the outbreak. ebola is suspected in the deaths of patients in nigeria and saudi arabia and one patient will be flown from liberia to spain for treatment with two americans undergoing treatment in atlanta right now, the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention has put the emergency operation center at level one. that is the highest state of alert. let's go live to our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. he spent time in that operation center earlier today. sanjay, this outbreak is growing. nine cases now in nigeria. are they taking a new strategy

to try to contain this because it seems to be getting a whole lot worse. >> i think it's a strategy of trying to flood the zone a little bit more if you will, wolf. level one alert, the increase in status went up while we were at this emergency operation center. it's sort of a nerve center for the centers for disease control and where they monitor real time lots of these activities all over the world and where they're trying to figure out where they could possibly make certain interventions. we know, for example, the cdc has increased the number of folks that will be over in that area in west africa and this means more people as well as higher level people are not going to be sitting in that emergency operation center and be working on ebola specifically. so it's -- the last time this happened was h1n1 back in 2009, the mflu. wolf, you remember that time and this isn't something that happens often and it's a message from the cdc that they'll devote a lot of their resources to

this. >> if they do find some sort of outbreak, are they prepared here in the united states specifically, what about a vaccine? is that in the works? >> well, let me answer the first part of that question. the idea that an outbreak would occur in the united states, it's very unlikely and part of the reason why is that these outbreaks occur in part because when it spreads, when ebola spreads from person who is sick with a viral disease it's to someone who has not been protected in some way, the patient has not been isolated and oftentimes it's family members who subsequently get that infection and it spreads from there. here in the united states you've seen over the last couple of days how these patients are being treated. they're in isolation. precautions are being taken by the health care workers so they don't get sick. we know that those precautions are pretty strong here and it's very unlikely that you'll get secondary cases, but there is work on a vaccine, wolf. there's been work on a vaccine

for some time and labs all over the world that have been working on this. we report as you know, wolf, earlier this week about an experimental serum, if you will, an experimental medication that could be given after somebody had become sick or had become exposed to the ebola virus to try and reduce their likelihood of getting sicker or dying from the disease. that was the first time it had ever been tried on a human being. we're talking about this in real time. this is happening right now and as a result, you know, when you hear about the scientific rationale for doing things, it's based on what's happening right now. this isn't some study that we're looking at that's unfolding in front of us. >> how about those two patients at emory university hospital who came down with ebola and were flown to the united states. what's the latest on them? how are they doing? >> we heard from nancy writebol's son today and he basically said she's doing well. he was able to spend a little bit of time with her.

she's very tired. it sounded like she was obviously getting her care, but she wasn't able to spend a lot of time with him. she's probably having all of her vital signs and her vital organs sort of assessed, if you will, to see how much of an impact this viral disease had on her body, how did her lungs do, her kidneys and liver. that takes time. much of that was not done when she was in liberia. we don't know if at some point today, she was going get a third dose of that experimental serum that we reported on. she got two doses in liberia and she'll get the third dose today. as far as mr. brantly, dr. brantly goes, he was able to see his wife and was able to speak to her for 45 minutes and he was able to walk off the ambulance and take a few steps with assistance. we're waiting to hear how things will move forward for him and maybe even when they start thinking about discharge. it won't be for some time, but

that's sort of the plan going forward, wolf. >> he got the experimental serum. it seemed to have helped him dramatically. >> he was the first. he was the first human being in the world to receive this experimental therapy, and again, it was described to me by some of the people who -- who sort of witnessed what happened, he was quite sick. he was having difficulty breathing. his vital signs had started to fluctuate. he had a profound rash that went from his belt line up his trunk, and again, as was described to me, a profound reaction to the medication. within an hour, 20 minutes to an hour, i was told the rash started to dissipate. you could see it starting to go away. his breathing improved and by the next morning he went from being, you know, they were worried that he would die. by the next morning he was able to stand up and take a shower on his own before he got on the pre-arranged medevac operation. there will be a lot of people discussing this, the ethics of it, the science of it, should it

have happened? should it happen more in the future for patients? fascinating questions, but for him, wolf, it seems to have made an impact. >> here's the question, sanjay. i understand only these two americans have received this experimental, top secret if you want to call it, serum. what about the other hundred of people in africa who have come down in ebola. why aren't they receiving it? >> it's a very fair question and certainly the folks at the nih and the fda should be answering, as well. i will tell you this, that typically what happens in these situations is, you know, this is an unusual thing that happened. typically medications go through a trial process. they're tested to see if they are safe, tested to see if they're effected and tests are made to see if you can offer them more broadly to larger numbers of people. that didn't happen here. it was a little bit of a hail mary to say let's give this medication to someone who is really, really sick, got his

consent from what i'm told and he understood the risks and took the medication. i think they'll want more data, wolf, before saying, look, hundreds of other people, thousands of other people should start taking this and they'll want more data to make sure it's the right thing to do. two patients alone, one patient alone, that's not enough data for them to make decisions. >> these are life and death decisions as our viewers appreciate. thanks very much. sanjay gupta, our chief medical correspondent. we're awaiting a news conference by the president. he's wrapping up an extraordinary three-day summit of dozens of african leaders who have come here to washington. the summit has taken place in the deadly ebola outbreak gripping african nations. he'll be asked, i suspect about that, and he'll be asked about the bloody conflict of gas and hamas now on hold with a very fragile cease-fire. other issues likely to come up including the crises in ukraine and iraq.

you will see it live, the entire news conference, the president once he gets ready for that we'll have live coverage. our correspondents and our guests are standing by with the kind of kind that only cnn can deliver. let's go to our senior white house correspondent jim acosta, he's getting ready to ask the president a question. set the scene for us, jim. >> that's right. a pretty rare press conference for the president being at the state department, but the president is expected to recap what has been a pretty historic summit for washington, bringing together dozens of leaders from across the continent of africa, and it's been a challenge to get the billions of dollars being committed by both government and business to develop africa and part of that is because of the ebola scare and we saw a couple of leaders from africa, from sierra leone and liberia who was forced to skip the summit and the president earlier today was committing u.s. resources to combat that back in west africa. the other part of this, wolf,

for the president is what's happening on the world stage and his diplomatic efforts to stop vladimir putin's steps to deescalate the situation in ukraine have failed as well as what's happening in gaza. so far the president suffers and the secretary of state's, forts to broker some sort of lasting peace or cease-fire in the middle east have fallen short and so the president will likely be asked about all of that and i've been talking to senior white house officials today, they are keenly aware of these poll numbers that are out this week and something that has been below the radar screen with everything happening in the middle east and these poll numbers that are at historic lows to the president and nbc news and wall street journal in addition to the cbs news and new york times poll show the president with disarc proval numbers at the basement of his presidency and the white house knows about that all too well. the question is whether or not there's enough time for the president to reverse that in time for the midterm elections

which are, of course, rapidly approaching. >> jim acosta, will stand by live. the president will make a statement and answer reporters' questions and i want to bring in john king. let's talk about the poll and this new wall street journal/nbc news poll. only 40% approve and 54% d disappro disapprove. in 2009, 61% approve. this is the low point as far as this poll and job approval number. >> just about everything striking him down. you always look and say what is the one thing dragging him down, there's profound economic anxiety. a majority of americans think the kaunt row is off on the wrong track. we've watched his own numbers on leadership and the government dropped down and wolf, if you went through the set of issues and the global issues right now and the president gets low grades and a very critical point of his presidency. >> the same wall street

journal/nbc poll, we took a look at historic records and the low point for the president is at 40%. george w. bush back in april of '08, 27% job approval number and the low point for bill clinton in his first year as president, 41%. it went up significantly after that. everybody stand by. we'll take a quick break. we're waiting for the president of the united states. he's getting ready to make a statement over at the state department and then answer reporters' questions. he's just wrapping up a critically important summit with dozens of african leaders who have come to washington. we'll take a look at why africa is also a new focus for u.s. counterterrorism operations. would you believe it? a billion stolen passwords. a security firm has uncovered the biggest cyber theft in history.

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>> we're standing by. the president is about to go to that microphone over well. that's the state department. he's wrapping up a very important summit with african leaders that came to washington. the president will make a statement and answer reporters' questions. we anticipate the questions will be far ranging between what's going on with israel, hamas and gaza to ukraine, the ebola outbreak in africa. lots of issues on the agenda. let's bring in john king, elise, and john are here. he always has a news conference, but this is a little different. >> it is.

he has a message he has to get across. 40% approval rating and his approval is 46% now, and it's even lower and handling isis in iraq, 47 approval rating and handling russia, 36%. it is in tune with what the american people want, withdrawing from iraq and withdrawing from afghanistan in a number of months, but clearly it's hard for the american people to turn their eyes away from the crisis and how they're exploding and how so far the adhad minh statia administration's policies, and calming the situation in gaza or, frankly, standing up to the threat of isis. >> right now there's a real threat and thousands of russian troops who have massed on the border with ukraine. >> the real worry among intelligence officials about what russia is going do next. they don't know that an invasion is imminent, but they are worried about it and i was speaking to pentagon officials,

it's not the numbers of troops along the border and it's their capability and they have the capability to invade and it's their position that they can invade very quickly and they might not know they're invading until it happens. >> they're wrapping up day two of the cease-fire in hamas and gaza. there is an israeli delegation and palestinian delegation and u.s. officials will join in on the sidelines, as they say. the immediate need is to extend, this is day two, it's a three-day cease-fire and go beyond three days and make it go on longer. >> right. i've talked to egyptian officials helping mediate this and the u.s. will really not be taking part in the talks and they'll be in a supportive and advisory role helping to advise and assist, but what they're saying is liszen for another extension and the talks rid now are in their exploratory stage and no one is in a rush for the

cease-fire to end and they can extend and as these talks build momentum there's more trust and confidence to maintain a cease-fire while they try to resolve not final status issues for a peace deal, but some of the underlying issues that keep bringing us to this point of conflict again and again. the easing of the blockade of gas which we discussed. the decision to possibly disarm hamas, empower president abbas to take over parts of gaza to ease up those crossings and make sure that hamas cannot rearm and attack israel. >> the key is the demille tarization of gaza. if gaza is demilitarized, they don't have rockets, missiles or mort mortars for israel. then you can talk about the other issues to make life for the palestinians and 1.7, 1.8 million palestinians there a lot easier and we'll have a lot more on this story coming up. guys, stand by because i want to go to the pentagon right now. barbara starr, as we await the

president and his news conference, barbara, terrorism is certainly on the agenda, and it's a key issue confronting the african leaders as well. what are you hearing over there? >> look, wolf, what pentagon and intelligence officials will tell you is africa is on the front line of terror now, but very different than what we've seen over the years in iraq and afghanistan. in africa, from north africa to nigeria and somalia and kenya on the east coast of africa. you are seeing the rise of al qaeda affiliates and individual militant groups growing in power in their areas, launching more and more attacks. what this summit has been about is to foster economic development and investment in africa and the way to do that, the the way to start getting western or european countries to invest in africa and asian countries to invest in africa is to ensure there is security and they will not invest if there is not security. that takes you right back to terrorism. the u.s. strategy now, no more

big land wars and u.s. special operations all over africa, training, helping, training, advising local african forces. in somalia, we all remember black hawk down and the somali people, very anti-american and it's one of the case studies. they are now very quietly, a significant number of u.s. special operations in somalia helping track down militants, conducting operations and the somali government wants them there because they want the security so they can get their country back on their feet. the u.s. has been a problem and the u.s. has been helping train nigerian forces and that is limiting what the u.s. can do in north africa and places like mali. there has been political unrest and the rise of al qaeda. that has limb r iited what the can do, but africa is the place where you are seeing this new model, small, lethal, u.s. forces conducting

counterterrorism when they need to, conducting those operations, but really working to help train local african forces. that's what the u.s. thinks the way ahead in africa is to ensure that security and deal with terrorism and get that investment moving on the continent. barbara, stand by, bob baird is our national security analyst and former cia operative. i suspect this has been a big issue at this summit that the president has held over the last couple of days with these african leaders and it will probably come up in the news conference, boko haram and some of these other al qaeda-inspired terrorist groups are gaining ground throughout much of africa. >> exactly, wolf, but it's a very chaotic situation because there's no indication that these groups are in touch with each other or any sort of central command. we call them al qaeda-affiliated and that means they share an ideology which makes them much

more difficult to destroy. secondly, libya is a complete mess. there's been fighting in benghazi and it looks like the army has been completely kicked out. there are weapon caches making their way into mali and into niger, and we have s.e.a.l.s in delta, and well qualified to take care of this and then we have places like nigeria, northern nigeria which as far as i can tell has been lost to the central government. the army has a hard time moving up there and it's moved as we know into the cameroons. >> another huge issue, these isis terrorists in iraq and syria, they're moving around and they're causing enormous, enormous destruction and death right now. we haven't been paying a whole lot of attention in recent days with so much of the focus of what's going on in gaza, but hundreds if not thousands of people have been killed in recent days. >> no question, the administration extremely worried

about this. i was speaking to a state department official about it. this is an army. it has strategic objectives and it's meeting many of those objectives and the principal one being to occupy and hold land and they're doing that very well and to the point, to barbara's point about training and equipping in africa to counter the terrorist threat there. training and, quipping was central central and it has not worked. soouf seen it in libya, as well and you've seen the weakness of that response. the iraqi army has had a lot of resources and a lot of money and weapons and it is not standing up to isis. >> i suspect all of these issues will be at the news conference. we're standing by awaiting the president of the united states and he'll make a statement and answer are the reporters' questions. you'll see it live and hear it

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live pictures of the state department. the president of the united states will be walking up to that microphone, we are told, fairly soon. he'll be making a statement at the end of the summit involving african leads are. so many of them have come to washington for the past few days and our senior white house correspondent jim acosta is there for us. the president will then answer reporters' questions and we'll have live coverage. jim, this is a sensitive issue. second terms of presidencies, they're supposed to be doing well in foreign policy. if you look at the polls, not so much. >> not so much, wolf, and who would have thought that these midterms would have been about foreign policy ask that foreign

policy might be weighing down the president's poll numbers and how that might affect the democratic party and that may be the case headed into the crucial stretch in november. and the question asked by reporters, that the news conference may be falling behind and may not be happening for several minutes now. the president will talk about major general harold green. officials have been saying inside the administration that part of the reason for that is the president doesn't want to give special attention to a general when so many soldiers have lost their lives in afghanistan. we also may hear the the president talk about what's happening in russia. vladimir putin and the kremlin announced counter sanctions today. these counter sanctions announced by russia will only further isolate russia on the world stage and damage its already fragile economy. you may hear the president talk about that and there is the situation in gaza which is unfolding minute by minute and

wolf, getting back to foreign policy and how it relates on the poll numbers and it is very interesting to talk about something earlier, the president has taken a diplomatic path in trying to address all of these crises. that seems to be what the public wants him to do upon. the public doesn't want him intervening militarily in all of the different hot spots and for some reason that is not translating into giving him better poll numbers and that's part of the problem that he's facing right now. the policy is not adding up to better politics. the economy getting better isn't adding up and the people are adding in the right direction and as much as the white house hates to hear questions about poll numbers and it may be unavoidable today, wolf. >> the right track, wrong track number that is not very good for the president and coyou feel do the country is going on the right track, wrong track. stand by, john king. in this new nbc news-wall street journal poll, are you satisfied or dissatisfied in the

immigration, illegal border crossings issue. 64% say they're dissatisfied. are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the u.s. handling of, let's go through some of the other issues, russia-ukraine conflict 23% satisfied. gaza conflict, 17%. isis in iraq, 14% satisfied. immigration, border crossings 11% satisfied. these are major issues and not a whole lot of satisfaction there. the high point, there was 23%. so the the world is on fire essentially and that includes the u.s.-mexico border if you want to include the border issue and people look to the president of the united states. his approval rating is down to 40% and people feel pessimistic about the recovery at home and nobody can get anything done. as jim noted a second-term president and we covered the white house together, they tend to look around the world for a few places to plant the flag. yes, the american people do not want military intervention in the united states and they do

want success. they do want to think that their country, whether it's a primal lie like israel and a prime adversary like russia that the president of the united states can be the one to pick up the phone or call the meeting and get results. i'm not blaming the president for this. it's a complicated world and it's not all his fault, but when people look around the world and look at home, there's not much to cheer about right now and we have one president at a time and he's paying the price. >> the criticism, and the article that ryan wrote in "the new yorker" with the headline, leading from behind. a lot of people don't like the united states leading from behind. they want the united states leading. >> no question. and this has been the thing. the administration will say we're in line with the public's desires here like withdrawing from iraq and beginning to withdraw from afghanistan and they can't turn their eyes away from what we show them every day and these countries are in real trouble and specifically to iraq.

i don't think we can underestimate how bad it is. a religious minority there, they are stuck on an island, in effect. they're stuck on a hill top surrounded by isis, a group sworn to slaughter them. this is a massacre in danger and i spoke to senior administration officials are talking about dropping aid and talking about opening a corridor just to save them. that would be a victory in iraq. saving a whole people, in effect, from a massacre. at this point when will you gain the ground back and look iraq look ache a success that it was meant to be after the troops. >> and billions of dollar, to train the iraqi military and to train the the infrastructure. the lives that were lost and you see the country falling apart, no wonder why the job approval is so bad right now. >> then you look to what's

happening in the death of the general and the wounding of soldiers the other day, that makes you wonder whether the president's strategy of withdrawing as the troops withdraw, a lot of the end of 2014 and leaving some behind. is this the right strategy? should we be staying? i think what the american people are reflecting is that they don't see a strategy by the president and he's not very good at explaining what the strategy is, yes, it's diplomacy, but what does diplomacy entail and this confusion and lack of direction is what these poll numbers are reflecting. >> if you're getting 23% approval on russia, 14% approval on iraq and 11% approval, and we talked about the issues and the democrats for one place and another, who were unhappy at the moment, too. they're looking for success and looking for results and it's not all of the president's fault, but he ran in washington and it it doesn't work and he ran, and

they were going to work. they're not working. in some ways, the people who voted for him now are disappointed in the performance. >> a huge issue right now with what's going on in gaza. hundreds of thousands palestinians were displaced during the fighting and many have returned to their neighborhoods to find their homes that may no longer be in existence. let's go to gaza right now. cnn's martin savidge is standing by. martin, we're waiting for the president of the united states. i assume an issue on the agenda may be in his opening statement and maybe in response to the president. the president will speak about what's going on. you're there. you're in gaza stay on the end of day two of this three-day cease-fire. what's going on there? >> reporter: well, the good news is we are in day two and it is still a cease-fire. both sidesa adhering to it. this is not a cease fir without an expiration point and that will come at 8:00 a.m. on friday and the problem is from what

we're hearing out of egypt, not a whole lot of progress has been made so unless they decide to extend that time limit, we could be up against a potential for the recurrence of violence. we went down to rafah today, it was the last place that saw violence before israeli forces withdrew from gaza. we went down there and found that there were scenes of intense fighting that took place and not the kind of flattening of neighborhoods that you see in gaza city, and very intense fighting and the other thing you saw at the graveyard was just a sheer number of new graves, almost to where they're burying people in an assembly line kind of fashion row after row. in some cases, for instance, we witnessed a funeral today and they had died in the first two days of the conflict and their bodies were not pulled from the rubble until today and they were laid to rest this afternoon. there is still an increasing

death toll. we saw power crews out and trying to get electricity out and they've got a big job ahead of them. also, we saw truck after truck after truck, bursting at the seams bringing in relief aid, food and other kinds of products into gaza. wolf? >> martin, we'll get back to you. we'll check in with jake tapper in jerusalem, as well. we're waiting for the president of the united states. we'll take another quick break. when we come back we'll go back to the state department and see if that news conference has started. (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. the cadillac summer collection is here. ♪

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so we're awaiting the president of the united states, the start of the news conference

at the state department wrapping up a summit with african leaders and there will be a wide range of questions and we'll have live coverage, of course, here in "the situation room." the president will be asked about the u.s. army major general harold green gunned down in a mass shooting in a facility in afghanistan, supposedly, allegedly someone who was friendly to the u.s., an afghan soldier. our pentagon correspondent barbara starr is getting details about the shocking shooting that occurred yesterday. what are you learning, barbara? >> reporter: at this hour, general green's casket is on its way to dover air force base where it will arrive in the next several hours. what we learn side the shooter undertook his attack and opened fire from a nearby building in a bathroom, shooting through a window at general green and the others standing out there. no indication he knew a u.s. army general was there. it really was very much a sneak

insider attack, two or three short bursts and it was all over very quickly. we talked about how the u.s. hasn't really succeeded as it it might have hoped in training in afghanistan, and the forces there and we've seen those places run into trouble so as we come up on this press conference, why might africa be slightly different? because this is the fundamental strategy now in africa, post-had aflg of aing and post iraq, training african forces. it gives the u.s. a foothold in africa to conduct counter terror imoperations when it needs to, but short of another big land or air war. clearly, the president knows with his approval rating, the american people are not interested in another land war and there are all these al qaeda organizations affiliated with al qaeda from north africa to nigeria to the horn of africa in the east. all of them presenting threats in their own right, in their own areas and not the kind of nationwide threat we've seen in afghanistan with the taliban.

so africa, perhaps, a little bit different, but the urgency is to deal with the al qaeda affiliates there before they can grow so strong that they could present a threat to the homeland, that they being attco attack here in the united states. they're very much on the priority list very much wanting to get a handle on it, many african countries wanting to get a handle on it to bring the security and the investment in their countries which is what a large part of this summit is all about. investment and security. wolf? >> getting back to the shooting of major general harold green, barbara, you're saying that the investigators don't believe this major general, this high-ranking u.s. military officer was deliberately targeted? that it was just a matter of bad luck that he was hit by this killer? >> well, the killer was about a hundred yards away inside a

bathroom, shooting through a window at a group of, there were americans, british and german there. at the moment, they don't know of any reason, any direct threat against general green. they don't have any reason to believe that the shooter necessarily knew he was there. in fact, it's very odd, but what they've learn individual of these insider attacks over the years and there have been so many of them, about a third of them they never know what the motive is. >> the shooter is dead. do we know if he was killed by an afghan or coalition force? >> the initial indications that it was afghan security forces who may have moved very quickly to take him down. >> all right, barbara, stand by. we are standing by ourselves to hear the president of the united states. he's getting ready for the news conference at the state department. let's take one more quick break. we'll be right back. ♪

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the president of the united states is about to answer reporters' questions at the state department. lots of questions on international crises underway. let's bring back our panel. if you look at the new poll, how is the president handling foreign policy, only 36% approve. 60% disapprove. in may of 2011, 57% in the same poll approved. why has it gone down? >> i think to the point jim was making earlier. it's gone down because you have a number of world crises. we're talking about russia and ukraine. israel and gaza, ebola, we don't talk as much about libya or iraq. the administration hoped we would be talking about a pivot to asia and dealing with china.

if you pulled out a map or a globe, what you find is trouble. syria, and so that's drag iging the president down. the fact that, again, some of this is beyond his control, but the american people look to their president to have some success stories, for some good news. especially on the big ones. they don't see it it right now. >> jim, the more the numberings go down, the less credible he will be with world leaders. are you satisfied with america's role in the world? 35% are satisfied back in december of '95. when bill clinton was president, 52% said they were satisfy ied. it undermines his credible with world leaders. they look at these domestic polls as well. >> it's also the results. there's a perception in the middle east and europe and asia. i have spent a lot of of time of declining american influence. that's not all about the president. some is about the economy. and some of the perception,

frankly, is unfair. but there's that perception. you hear it not just in the middle east, but you'll hear it in europe even with the response american leadership in terms of herding the cats of europe for a unified response to vladimir putin and aggression in ukraine. some of this you can never win. i spent a lot of time in the middle east during the bush years when they were saying get out of our lives, you're only causing trouble here. but this is america. that's the tough position america has. people don't want you when you're there necessarily, but when you're not around leading, people often hunger for american leadership. >> they certainly do. these numbers are clearly not very encouraging to the white house. we'll see if the president can turn some numbers around. he's about to make a major statement. clearly on the agenda right now is foreign policy. special coverage here in "the situation room." the president of the united states at the state department, states at the state department, coming up after this. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

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happening now, breaking news. ebola emergency. the cdc raises its response to the highest level. we'll take you inside the ebola war room as we standby for remarks from president obama. we expect him to talk about this deadly epidemic. we want o welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." >> this is cnn breaking news. let's get to the breaking news. tonight the equivalent of a red

alert in the ebola crisis. the cdc in atlanta, georgia, now ratcheting up emergency operation center to level one. that's the highest level in response to the biggest outbreak of the deadly disease in history. we're standing by for a news conference by president obama. we expect him to talk about the ebola crisis among other things he will be talking about the fe fears of the disease spreading from africa too the united states, to europe and elsewhere. our correspondents are standing by. they are covering all the breaking news here in the united states and around the world. as we await the president of the united states, let's go to our chief medical responsibility dr. sanjay gupta. it's now the ebola war room. when the alert level was raised to the highest level of concern, tell us what it was like. >> this is something that doesn't happen very often. the last time that the nerve center for the cdc raised their level to a level one was during the h1n1 epidemic back in 2009.

so this is something that they give careful thought to. it's like flooding the zone, if you will, adding more staff and also adding more high level staff to the resources for trying to address this particular problem. we heard from the cdc director last week that they were going to send at least 50 more people to west africa to try to help this epidemic. those levels may increase, but the number of people who are now focused on this particular problem at the cdc is going to increase. they are bringing a lot more of the resources together, wolf. >> sanjay, we also just learned that the patient in new york city has now tested negative for ebola. that determination -- explain how that determination was made. a couple days ago, this patient had symptoms, high fever, just came back from west africa. there were serious concern that the patient may have come down

with ebola. fortunately that test has shown it's negative. >> this was a blood test that was done. it was after some consideration because you're not going to test everybody who has a fever that co comes back from west africa. but they decided to go ahead and send this to the cdc that's raised their level one. and it came back negative, as you mentioned. took just a couple days for that result to come back. a quick recap, wolf. this was a person who was in west africa, flew back to the united states, had a fever and abdominal pain and went to the hospital as a result of that and was quickly isolated. within minutes, he was isolated and tested for ebola. when the department of health started to look into this particular story, they had already realized this gentleman was probably low risk for having ebola. why? he was in west africa, but he

didn't come in contact with patient who is had ebola, who were sick with ebola. simply being in west africa is not a risk factor. but i think out of an abundance of cautious and the level of concern, the ebola test was performed. it came back negative. i'll also share with you, wolf. we heard a lot about this particular story, but this has happened several times over the last couple weeks. at least a half dozen situations around the country where people there was concern that the person might have ebola and they have all come back negative. >> half a dozen, fortunately that's the case. but the test takes what, 24, 48 hours to get the results, is that right? >> yeah, they are sending the blood now to the cdc. they are doing the tests. so part of the time it's simply getting the specimen to where it needs to be and getting the test results back. >> those two patients at emory

university hospital who were flown back to the united states from west africa, how are they doing? >> well, the patient who arrived more recently, we understand from her son who released a statement today that she is awake. she was able to talk to him. quite tired, he had written, but recovering. being assessed by the doctors to get an idea of what the impact of this ebola disease has been on her body. she was scheduled, and i believe, received the third dose of this experimental serum or experimental treatment today. she received two doses prior in liberia and got the third dose today. it sounds like she responded well to the third dose. dr. brantley was the first patient to arrive here. the first patient to have ebola ever in the united states in this part of the world. he walked off that ambulance. so obviously his prognosis

pretty good at that time. he's in the same isolation ward. he had a pretty dramatic response, according to close inside sources. he had a dramatic response to that experimental medication. seemed to help him u. we hope to hear more from him and what that medication did for him in the days to come. >> seemed to have worked wonders for him. normally to use a medication like that, you'd have to spend a few years testing it out before you give it to a patient, right? >> yeah, this was a very unusual situation. we started hearing about this just from a reporting standpoint on sunday and started talking to other sources. it's unusual to have a medication, as you might guess, that's never been used in human beings before. only in nonhuman primates, specifically, monkeys. . it had never been used in humans before, to be used in this fashion, it was sent in at sub

zero temperatures to liberia. instructions were to let it thaw for 8 to 10 hours. don't administer any heat, just to let it thaw naturally and then administer it through an i.v. dr. brantley suggested she receive the first dose. during the time it was thawing, he started to have a significant decline. his breathing became quite labored, his vital signs started to fluctuate. he asked to the medication be given to him. it was. this dramatic result by the next morning he went from thinking he was going to die, having a phone call with his wife telling her he thought he was going to die, the health care team around him very concerned obviously. by the next morning, he was able to get up, shower by himself and get on that prearranged jet out of africa to atlanta. so you don't want to read too much into a single patient's

story, but it seemed to be quite dramatic as it was described. >> we'll hear what the president has to say. we're standing by for his news conference at the end of this summit of african leaders who have come here to washington. let's go to the state department, jim acosta is standing by. it was supposed to start about an hour ago. he's running late. the african leaders obviously running late as well. >> that's right. we may be getting a little closer. we saw an aid put a a new notebook on the podium. that may be an indication that remarks were revised and the notebook came back out again just a few moments ago, so we may be getting closer. you were talking about the ebola scare. that's had an exact on this summit. a couple leaders who were supposed to attend this summit were not able to attend because of that. the president was asked about this last week whether or not this was going to cause a health

scare here in washington. the president said, no, those leaders were going to be screened at the airports as they arrived here for this summit. and i talked to some officials here. they feel pretty good about the fact that did not develop during the course of this summit. at the same time, the president has had a challenging time trying to get the good news out of the summit. the billions of dollars being committed by government and business in african development and part of that is because of the ebola scare, but also because of the foreign crisis around the world. not only in the middle east and ukraine, but as jim sciutto has been mentioning, in iraq as well. all of this is weighing on the president's poll numbers. he may be asked about that. it's a good thing he's not being polled on his punk wactuality. >> he is the president of the united states. standby, we'll have live coverage of the president once he shows up at the microphone. one of the top issues, i assume,

will come up at the news conference what's going on in gaza right now. this war that's unfolded in israel and hamas. it's nearing the end of day two of this cease-fire. let's check in with jake tapper. he's joining us from jerusalem. how does it look right now? what's going on as far as the cease-fire is concerned and trying to keep it going? >> reporter: right now, the palestinian factions ha had been trying to get a cease-fire for quite some time in the west bank, they are trying to push the other organizations participating in these cease-fire negotiations in cairo, egypt, to agree to extend them. the government has said they are willing to extend the cease-fire indefinitely, but right now, hamas said they have not agreed to anything. this evening a small delegation from the u.s. state department did arrive in cairo. they will not be mediating. they will be taking a very small

observatory and advisory role when it comes to these negotiations. but right now, frankly, the clock is ticking. the cease-fire expires and the immediate order of business is to get it extended so that this whole area does not dissolve back into the war footing we saw just a few days ago. >> you have heard and i have heard, as you say shs the israelis are ready to extend. the egyptians want to extend it. the palestinian authority want to extend it. there's a question mark whether hamas is on board yet, is that right? >> reporter: that's right, they have not agreed to go on board. i'm not sure about the jihad, which is the other organization that both the u.s. and israel classify as terrorist, which is part of these indirect negotiations. as you know, egypt serving as an intermediator since israel will not sit down at a table directly with hamas and palestinian

islamic jihad. there's some pressure on the other organizations to agree to extend the cease-fire. i mean one of the big things going on now is there's a lot of jockeying behind the scenes. before the negotiators get to the big, thorny issues of sitting down to try to create some sort of path to a peace process, there are other questions, such as israel's demand that hamas demilitarize. they lift the siege of gaza, lifts up the blockade so commercial goods can come in, there's an easier in and out of the border crossings in egypt. fishermen are allowed to fish farther away from shore. there's also questions about whether or not the palestinian authority will be able to take over some of the security at these border crossings if they are opened.

hamas is not trusted by egypt o to take that role. some of the groups that are negotiating in cairo want the palestinian authority to play more of a leadership role there. hamas does not want that. they were the elected representatives in gaza. so there's so many thorny issues going on now. and the cease-fire is the first one. >> jake, standby. right after the president speaks, i assume the crisis in gaza will come up. another crisis on the agenda, what's going on in ukraine right now as thousands of russian troops mass on the border. let's check in with nick paton walsh. i may have to cut you off if the president comes to the microphone, but give us the very latest. >> reporter: well, we have been said in the last few hours. we have heard explosions to the north. that seems to be potentially where the ukrainian army is making one advance today. we heard anti-aircraft behind me as well. it's still very tense around the

city today. we saw the destruction by the explosions we heard in some of the streets here and heavy gunfight a few blocks from where i'm sit now. not sure who was fighting who there, but a real sense of tension there. militants filling out in number prepa preparing for a fast advance and the big unknown question, where does moscow really lie in all of this? they have 20,000 troops just across the border, double the number they had a week ago. russia today, dismissive. claims of bolstering troop numbers saying the west was trying to auction soap bubbles. but the real question, too, is exactly what the militants expect from moscow. we spoke to a rare appearance here of one of the separatest leaders and he really wouldn't address the question, do you explicitly want russian military

help. they would face complex economic sanctions were that the case, but they think the separatist militants are holding out pretty well against the ukrainian military here. so a tense city. quiet as i speak to you. small arms fire around here, but a real sense the ukrainian army is moving fast toward the city center here and without russian help this could be a bad moment for the separatest militants. >> the mt. of the united states is coming to the microphone. he will open with a statement. >> please be seated. as i think everyone knows by now, this first u.s./africa leader summit has been the largest gathering we have ever hosted and that includes about 50 motorcades. i want to thank the people of washington, d.c. for helping us host this historic event and especially for their patience with the traffic. as i have said, this summit

reflects the reality that even as africa continues to face great challenges, we're also seeing the emergence of a new, more prosperous africa. africa's progress is being led by africans, including leaders here today. i want to take this opportunity to thank my fellow leaders for being here. rather than a lot of prepared speeches, our sessions were genuine discussions, a chance to truly listen skpo to try to come together around some pragmatic steps that we can take together, and that's what we have done this week. first, we made important progress in expanding our trade. the $33 billion in new trade and investments that aannounced yesterday will spur african development and sport tens of thousands of american jobs. with major new commitments to our power africa initiative, we have tripled our goal and aimed to bring electricity to 60 million african homes and businesses. and today i reiterated that

we'll continue to work with congress to achieve a seamless and long-term renewal of the african growth and opportunity act. we agreed that africa's growth depends, first and foremost, on continued reforms in africa by africans. the leaders here pledged to step up efforts to pursue reforms that attract investment, reduce barriers that cycle trade, es pearly between african countries and to promote regional integration. and as i afouns announced yesterday, the united states will increase sport to trade with itself and with the world. ultimately africa's prosperity depends on its people. i have been very encouraged by the desire of leaders here to partner with us in supporting young entrepreneurs, including through our young african leaders initiative. i think there's an increasing reck rek in addition that if countries are going to reach full economic potential, they have to invest in women, their

education, their skills, and protect them from gender-based violence. that was a topic of conversation this it afternoon. this week the united states announced a range of initiatives to empower women across africa. our new alliance for food security and nutrition continues to grow aiming to lift 50 million africans from poverty in our fight against hiv aids will work with ten countries to help them double the number of their children on life-saving drugs. even as the united states is deploying first responders to west africa to help control the ebola outbreak, we're working to strengthen public health systems including to pursue the creation of an an african centers for disease control. i also want to note that the american people are e newing their commitment to africa. today interaction, the leading alliance. of american ngos is announcing

over the next three years its members will invest $4 billion to promote health, children's health and the delivery u of vaccines and drugs. this is not just a government effort. it's also an effort that spurred on by the private sector. combined with the investments we announced yesterday and the agreements made today, this summit has helped to mobilize some $37 billion for africa's progress on top of obviously the substantial efforts that have been made in the past. second, we address good governance, which is a foundation of free societies. some african nations are making impressive progress, but we see troubling restrictions on universal rights. so today was an opportunity to highlight the importance of rule of law, open an accountable institutions, strong civil societies and protection of human rights for all citizens and all communities. and i made the point during our

discussion that nations that uphold these rights and principles will be more prosperous and more economically successful. in particular, we agreed to step up our collective efforts against the corruption that cost tens of billions every year, money that ought to be invested in the people of africa. several leaders raised the idea of a new partnership to combat elicit finance, so we decided to convene experts and develop an action plan to promote the transparency that's essential to economic growth. third, we're deepening our security cooperation to meet common threats from terrorism to human trafficking. we're launching a new security governance to help african countries continue to build strong, professional security forces to provide for their own security. we're starting with kenya, mali, nigeria, ghana and tunisia.

during our discussions, our partners made clear they want to increase their capacity to respond to crises. so the united states will launch an effort to bolster the early warning and response network and increase ability to share u information about e emerging crises. we also agreed to make significant new investments in peace keeping. the united states will provide additional equipment to african peace keepers in somalia and the central african republic. we will support the efforts to strengthen its peace keeping institutions and most importantly we're launching a new peace keeping rapid response partnership with the goal of quickly deploying african peace keepers in support of u.n. missio missions. we will join with six countries that have demonstrated a track record as peace keepers. we're going to invite countries beyond africa to join us in supporting this effort because

the entire world has a stake in the success of peace keeping in africa. in closing, i just want to say this it has been an extraordinary event and extraordinary summit. given the success we have had this week, we agreed the summits like this can be a critical part of our work together going forward. a forcing mechanism for decisions and action, so we agreed that the u.s./africa leaders summit will be a recurring event to hold ourselves accountable for our commitments and to sustain our momentum. i'll strongly encourage my successor to carry on this work because africa must know that they will always have a strong and reliable partner in the united states of america. so with that, i'm going to take a couple questions. i'm going to start with associated press. where's julie? >> thank you, mr. president. there's been a lot of discussion about the ebola outbreak in west africa. there's an untested and unapproved drug in the u.s. that appears to be helping some of the americans who are infected.

is your administration considering sending supplies of this drug if it becomes to available? and could you discuss a bit the ethics of either providing an untested drug to a foreign country or only providing it to american if it koulds possibly save lives? >> well, i think we have to let the science guide us. and i don't think all the information is in on whether this drug is helpful. what we do know is that the ebola virus, both currently and in the past, is controllable if you have a strong public health infrastructure in place. and the countries affected are the first to admit that what's happened here is the public health systems have been overwhelmed. they weren't able to identify and then isolate cases quickly

enough. you did not have a strong trust relationship between some of the communities that were affected and public health workers. as a consequence, it spread more rapidly than has been typical with the periodic ebola outbreaks that occurred previously. but despite the pain and hardship of the families and persons who have been affected and despite the fact we have to take this very seriously, it is important to remind ourselves this is not an airborne disease. this is one that can be controlled and contained very effectively if we use the right protocols. so what we have done is to make sure we're surging not just u.s. resources, but we have reached out to european partners and partners from other countries working with the w.h.o. let's get all the health workers that we need on the ground.

let's hep to bolster the systems that they already have in place. let's nip as early as possible any additional outbreaks of the disease, and then during the course of that process, i think it's entirely appropriate for us to see if there are additional drugs or medical treatments that can improve the survivability of what is a very deadly and obviously brutal disease. so we're going to -- we're focusing on the public health approach right now because we know how to do that, but i will continue to seek information about what we're learning with respect to these drugs going forward. >> if it seems to be effective, would you support fast tracking its approval in the united states? >> it's premature to say that because i don't have enough information, i don't have enough data to offer an opinion on

that. john carl, abc news. >> thank you, mr. president. when you were running for president you said, quote, the biggest problems we're facing right now have to do with george bush trying to bring more and more power into the executive branch and not go through congress at all and that's what i intend to reverse. so my question to you, has congress's inability to do anything significant given you a green light to push the limits of executive power, even a duty to do so, or put another way, does it bother you more to be accused of being an imperial president of pushing the limits or a do-nothing president who couldn't get anything done because he faced a dysfunctional congress? >> i think that i never have a green light. i'm bound by the constitution. i'm bound by separation of powers. there's some things we can't do. congress has the power of the purse, for example. i would love to fund a large

infrastructure proposal right now that would put millions of people to work and boost our gdp. we know we have roads and bridges and airports and electrical grids that need to be rebuilt, but without the cooperation of congress, what i can do is speed up permitting process, for example, i can make sure we're working with the private sector to see if we can channel investment into much-ne much-needed projects. but ultimately, congress has to pass a budget and authorize spending. so i don't have a green light. what i am consistently going to do is wherever i have the legal authorities to make progress on behalf of middle-class americans and folks working to get to the middle class, whether it's by making sure that federal contractors are paying a fair

wage to workers, making sure that women had the opportunity to make sure this they are getting paid the same as men for doing the same job, where i have the capacity to expand some of the student loan programs that we have already put in place so repayments are a little more affordable for college graduates, i'm going to seize those opportunities. and that's what i think the american people expect me to do. my preference in all these instances is to work with congress because not only can congress do more, but it's going to be longer lasting. and when you look at, for example, congressional inaction and, in particular, the inaction on the part of house republicans when it comes to immigration reform, here's an area, as i have said before, not only the

american people want to see action, not only is there 80% overlap between what republicans say they want and democrats say they want, we actually passed a bill out of the senate that was bipartisan. and in those circumstances, what the american people expect is that despite the differences between the parties, there should at least be the capacity to move forward on the things we agree on. and that's not what we're seeing right now. so in the face of that kind of dysfunction, what i can do is, you know, scour our authorities to try to make progress. and we're going to make sure that every time we take one of these steps that we are working within the confines of my executive power, but i promise you the american people don't want me just standing around twid ling my thumbs and waiting for congress to get something

done. even as we take these executive actions, i'm going to continue to reach out to democrats and republicans, to the speaker, to the leadership on both sides and in both chambers to try to come up with formulas where we can make progress, even if it's incremental. >> do you have the power to grant work permits to those who are here illegally? >> what i everyone isly -- i've said that we have a broken system. it's underresourced, and we have to make choices in terms of how we allocate personnel and resources. so if i'm going to, for example, send more immigration judges down to the border to process some of these unaccompanied children that have arrived at the border, then that's coming from some place else, and we're going to have to prioritize.

that's well within our author y authorities and discretion. my preference would be an actual comprehensive immigration law, and we already have a bipartisan law that would solve a whole bunch of these problems. until that happens, i'm going to have to make choices. that's what i was elected to do. >> bloomberg? >> thank you, mr. president. along the lines of executive authority, jack lew has previously said that the executive branch of government doesn't have the authority to slow or stop corporate inversions. the practice that called distasteful, et cetera. now he's reviewing options to do so, and this is an issue that a lot of businesses probably including some of the ones paying a lot of attention to this summit were interested in. what i wanted to ask you was, what prompted this apparent reversal? what actions are now under consideration?