>> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. thank you all for being here. and thanks to congressman weeks for making this possible. i'm honored to be here with you all. i want to begin by thanking forcing thisma for summit and for recognizing that there is in fact a growing [indiscernible] for mutual economic benefit. thank the people that i see innent

front of me. ambassadors of the african private and public sectors. thepecially want to thank staff of congressman gregg meeks dialogueng this allowing us to meet and interact and defined u.s.-african business relations. i'm here to deliver a message. one to the u.s. private sector and the other to the u.s. congress.

two american ceo's, i want to thank you for being open to expanding your business interests to the african continent. you have learned plenty about the warmth of the african people , a warmth you can actually see in front of you. i have a couple of points i want to share here. withs that african ceo's the confidence of the african by any global, standard. they have made significant africa, and the countries are part of the growing countries in the world as evidence in countries like andria, rwanda, mozambique,

tanzania. countries that are making strides in spite of the negative press stories we hear every day, stories of terrorism, disease, and corruption. , isria, for instance established is the countries largest economy driven by the private sector. like telecom and the private industry. proving that we have a lot more to offer investors. lastly, i hope you see before you business leaders who have come here to seek american partners want to invest, want to see partners investing in the sectors of our economy for the

long-term. they share our goal of creating local value and contributing to the aspirations of our people. this long-term investment is what we call african capitalism. that is long-term investment in key sectors that would yield -- my second message is to the united states congress. i come offering thanks and appreciation to this congress and to the american people also. this body, the u.s. congress, is responsible for appropriating the funds that demonstrate america's values to the world. i speak of the plan for relief

which galvanized action regarding the global aids pandemic. also.s. government formdes assistance in the of vaccines, food, and refugee assistance. u.s. but in the entire world. the african private sector needs help. the programs have all impacted on the business sector [indiscernible]

so we are faithful. -- so we are grateful. no country or region should be defined by -- drug should not be feature of u.s. relations with latin america. religion define the relation between the u.s. and the middle east. assistance should not constitute the totality of african policy in the united states. , we have beenmit discussing the challenges and privateities in the sector in africa. there are nearly 600 million

africans who are living without access to electricity an opportunity. has made a great start. include longtime priorities for u.s. and foreign policy. it should not be an initiative that dies with the current administration. currently trying to resolve the differences between the africa act and the electrify africa act, which is already passed in the house of representatives. i want to say to members of the thatess that we understand we have differences. we also understand that nearly 2 million people are dying from -- every year.

90 million kids who cannot study at night and the staggering rate of unemployment on the continent are much bigger and our viewpoint than our differences. if our africa is enhanced and expanded through this legislation, it can pay economic dividends to both the u.s. and africa. once again it will be a significant reduction in the present cost of businesses that are coming to invest in that aspect of the continent.

with agislation, along reauthorization act would have laid the foundations for a new relations, one that is being characterized not by but onerian assistance, that is based on mutual economic thefit, and one that allows engine for future development. in closing, i want to say that for a long time, the position of africa has been one of money leaving your wallet through charities and taxes. i am here with fellow african business leaders to tell you

that engaging with africa in business in the 21st century will put money in your wallet. [applause] but this will happen only if you americans to as invest in africa, or as the american congress to look past the electrify africa bill. after you have made that call to american private business leaders, please make a call to your senators. you want to pass the energize africa act, so you can do more business in africa and increase your wallet.

thank you very much. [applause] >> i would like to call it my co-moderator, director of the private capital group for africa for usaid. welcoming her.in today, and aalk notof talk this week about wanting handouts, not morning aid, but wanting partnerships. and the companies you see up here are your prospective partners. what i would like just to set the stage for our brief conversation is for each individual to very briefly introduce his company, what they

, and what they are trying to do to help electrify africa or their home countries. >> hello, everyone. i am from the arab republic of egypt. i'm chairman and chief executive i am an industrial entrepreneur, i guess would be the best way to describe myself. my company originated in the .niversity dormitory

i think i have a technical problem. >> i think it's working now. i will start again. this time amplified. i am from the arab republic of egypt and i am the chairman and chief executive officer of carbon holdings. my story is somewhat different than most other chief executives, in the sense that my company was a university start up with one employee in a university dormitory. it began with a simple loan application to the united states trade and development agency to fund a feasibility study, an idea. it seemed to make sense. and from there, that feasibility study was submitted to the export import bank of the united

states for a comprehensive loan guarantee. on a limited recourse basis. pestering years of the bank, the loan was approved. if you take a snapshot today, we have over 1400 employees with assets in excess of $1 billion. [applause] now talking about a potential public offering. when i take a look at africa some veryre are important logistics we have to keep in mind. egypt produces 27 kilowatts of power per year. we account for 20% of africa's power production. the united states produces approximately 1100 gigawatts of power. these are important numbers to fully understand. at the free a look trade agreements that we so desperately need on the

continent, only one country has been successful, and that is morocco. no other african country has a free trade agreement with the united states. it is important that we begin to push this through as africans, because this ultimately will help us develop. , this would have been the opportune time to have the 47 heads of state and prime ministers to sign signatory pages for the moroccan free-trade agreement and call it the u.s.-african free-trade agreement. [applause] the importance of an agency like the u.s. trade and development usaid, like opec, light are critical towards our goals. there are things i see that are

confusing, such as this discussion of not reauthorizing u.s. xm. $1 billionthorized of power generation financing for the continent of africa. it is u.s. firms supplying u.s. manufactured goods and services that are coming in under these programs. so to the members of congress, i ite you to reauthorize because failure to do so is effectively voting against the development of africa. if you take a look at turkey, brazil, those economies that have passed through basic developments and begun the real industrialization process, you a linear that there is basis to their borrowing. look at the amount of applications from sub-saharan africa and from north africa.

look at brazil, turkey. we want to get into the -- >> we want to give the others a chance to introduce their company. >> absolutely. [applause] >> good afternoon. my company is from tanzania, focusing on clean energy. the issue of power deficiency in africa is well documented. it is the description of a crisis. there are people in the dark. that means our children cannot do homework. clinics and hospitals cannot store essential medicines.

this has to change. good intention is not good enough. is, we are devoting -- it a pathway to generate up to 200 inawatts of clean energy five years. as you all know, the difference between a stepping stone and a stumbling block is how you step on them. i would like to take this thank they to american government, president usaid.and in particular, there is a debt financing .uarantee from the usa

it has changed our positioning in the marketplace. final mile tothe reach financial growth. thank you very much. [applause] >> i am coming from mali in west africa, one of the french speaking countries and i'm trying very hard to speak english like you guys. i am not a power supplier, but with the community of business people within different feels, i'm coming here because i want companiesss and u.s.

working with these people to make sure we have enough power to produce and do what we have to do and be able to export to the u.s. that is my reason to be here. >> thank you. thank you for this opportunity. clearly i'm not a power producer , but i represent the east african business council and i am current chairman of the kenya private sector alliance. i think the energy departments are there. the african consumer is growing. a billion people today, there will be 2 billion people in 2050. i think it's open for business. i ask anybody here in the

states, if you had no power for a week tom a how would you live? would your life be the same? you can answer that for yourselves, but some people told me they would be turned upside down. if 600 million people have been living in that manner, that is serious opportunity. it is like saying there is no shoe market because no one here is wearing shoes. , we are energyer short overall. small business, medium, it's for suppliers in the supply chain. we are talking about power generation. servicee also small industries. there is massive opportunity. this is going to happen, whether

it's the u.s. doing it or china or africa doing it. who ever is going to do it, it's going to happen. the question is, do you want to be in that space or not? that is the important issue. where you see double-digit margin still there, where you see double-digit growth rates per and him, it's just a no-brainer that you want to be there. [applause] >> since agnes has already introduced herself, maybe i could start out with the question. we will ask a few questions and then open it up briefly for the audience to ask some questions as well. this session is really about oftnerships, and the issue crisis and opportunity has come up. in fact, my freebie it --

previous posting was china. i wanted to ask agnes, when you are looking for prospective partners, looking to invest, -- what do you think is the most important criteria for determining your investment decisions? >> the first thing i wanted to just note is that we are really privileged to be working with several of you, including the gentleman here on this stage. who are ournvestors african partners. they are actually power partners from africa. when we launched our africa, what we started looking at is where are there not only investment opportunities in

energy on the continent, but also how can we mobilize the , including the african private sector, to really start partnering with the u.s. and start delivering on those opportunities. this is how we really came across. a huge group of fabulous businesses and business people who are based on the continent who are really making a difference in how energy is delivered there. therefore contributing to their own economic growth. the idea was really, get the commitments of the private sector from africa, from the u.s., and we have several commitments from europe and other places, and to really start making the linkages where those partnerships together with the help of perish u.s. government agencies such as u.s. tda, live years development to really and others, start creating that ecosystem

that works well together, that provides feedback on what's working and not working, and really categorize things from the energy sector. how can we find partners who can take advantage of the goals the u.s. government has to offer and really deliver change in the energy sector. >> thank you. i received a message with lots of exclamation points that we are under a severe time crunch and we have to move on to our next panel. just offer the panelists of for the networking session, if you're interested in getting in touch with them and following up on the points that they raised in their introductions, please do that. now please join me in thanking them for their remarks. [applause]

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] numbers bring up session two, the ceo's for infrastructure, technology, and agriculture. this eventg to leave at this point and remind you lots of our coverage is available online at www.c-span.org. coming up in about 35 minutes, president obama will wrap up the summit on his own with a news conference. we'll have that live for you at 5 p.m. eastern. we have been asking you to weigh in on facebook with your thoughts to the question about u.s. investment in africa. is it better than government aid? you can post your thoughts at

facebook.com/cspan. members of congress's first full week of the five-week congressional recess, posting what they have been up to during the august recess so far. the michigan rep public and puts this out -- the report came out just before congress went on their break. democrat john lewis tweeting that 49 years ago today, the voting rights act was signed into law. president johnson gave me one of the pnc used. the story that came out a short while ago said campaign

spokeswoman said senator john walsh is taking personal time in his helena home in montana but abouted to take questions whether he plans to remain in the u.s. senate race. a reminder that coming up tonight, the annual net roots nation conference that took place this year in detroit. our coverage tonight includes discussions on super pac's, including the ready for hillary super pac which recently inounced 2.5 million donations. here is a preview. >> won the things that is unique that this organization is it would be presumptuous to we are ready to dictate what hillary clinton's message would be. this is not a campaign.

focused on building grass-roots army and grassroots infrastructure. for every time that hillary goes out and gives a speech about recent things that have happened in voter suppression, we are echoing that, making sure our e-mail list knows the key point she has it on and giving people to really join in the effort she is promoting. and also just using her as a force of personality. a lot of the imagery you see on the facebook page and the e-mail list and other social network channels are things we have done a lot of testing on and seen that people really respond to. she is an inspiring figure. >> a reminder our coverage of the net roots discussion on the ready for hillary super pac, and comments from activists, that's coming up tonight at 8:00 eastern, 5:00 pacific, here on

c-span. coming up in about 30 minutes we will take you live to a news conference with president obama as the three-day u.s.-africa summit wraps up. we will have it live once the president gets underway. until then we will look at politics in 2014 and 2016 from this morning's washington journal. >> we welcome back bill kristol. let's begin where we just ended with our viewers. that is the immigration bill. president obama said congress didn't do anything thomas so i'm going to act alone. how should the gop respond if he does that? is on washington post president obama on the big immigration debate. it's not a question of whether you like or don't like his policies. it's almost unprecedented and illegitimate use of presidential power to suddenly provide

5 million people. excuse if congress chooses not to go along with it. secondly, the house of representatives did pass two bills. president obama did not like them and threatened to veto them. the house of representatives did pass legislation. i think what republicans will say it president obama does this is this is the kind of presidential amnesty and this is why we need republican senate to help check this president for excessive use of presidential power. secondly, i think the house will say we pass legislation that stops the president from doing this, that review sit -- reverses the executive order, and let the senate take it up. today notes that we

look at how the district breakdown. there's not going to be a lot of backlash for the gop on this immigration issue because the hispanic vote makes up a very small portion and even less so in some of the contested races. what does that mean for beyond 2014 and 2016? >> there are people who don't --ieve in it simply because let's have a national debate on the policy. i really don't like the kind of ethnic politics here. it's not just about hispanic immigration. i think having a healthy immigration debate is a good thing. one issue is the immigration

debate, but then there is the border crisis. there's very little question that his amnesty, first the announcement in 2011 which basically indicates he wants to enforce the law against youngsters, and then the official announcement in 2012 spur on people in central america to go ahead and try to send young people to the night it states. questionhere's little that there was a cause and effect there. it turns out giving people amnesty is in asset. i think the conservative worries about amnesty have turned out to be vindicated, and let's debate this going forward the next few months. on righthe headline meinerssite was, until

border bill our faith -- face the wrath. of your constituents. draft was weak, i thought. it was in a strong on either counteracting the forthcoming second border or toughening up the amnesty and asylum for vision so we could send back adults as quickly as possible. , cut back the length of time they can delay the ross s and so forth. so they toughened up the bill, there were negotiations thursday. another objection, this is a serious problem that both parties are guilty of. it's one reason there's so much discussion in washington.

as the whole house to vote on thursday. what kind of way is that to pass serious legislation? there are committees that are supposed to have jurisdiction in these areas. you can call experts to hearings, you can have amendments. that's the way legislation should pass. i was pleased that some of the conservatives in the house rebelled and approved the bill and hopefully in the future we can get back to more of a lead -- regular legislative process. nancy pelosi started in a big in 2010 the republicans ran against us. they have veered away from it ready badly. i have been involved in this a little bit over the years and if you think they're going to draft

legislation in a back room without having -- there's a reason we have hearings and open markup in committee. people raise questions and objections that people have not thought of. people at least make take another look at the legislation in 24 hours. >> good morning, mr. kristol. i've watched you on the sunday shows and stuff. i went to a john began in meeting just a little while ago and i asked them why don't we have a front door instead of a back door, and he had no answer. everybody wanted to get rid of

the irs that was in the audience. i'm sure you have employers or paymentsnd i bet their request from you go up every year. >> we have several people waiting to talk to mr. kristol. can you get to your question here? life is ation is that moving and evolving thing and republicans think it is stuck in the past, and they don't evolve. i want to know why they don't evolve with the world. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] >> on what issue specifically? give us an example pretty >> let's go is just health care.

>> we spent a lot of time on health care in the last few years. probably more than our readers want, laying out a republican health care alternative, which is a pretty big change. obamacare, iive to think it has been evolving, like everyone else. republicans are trying to set forth a conservative reform agenda. it's the democrats who are trying to still replicate big government welfare state programs. they don't work very well. this.a. is an emblem of i'm happy to have a debate about which party is committed to

reform over the next few years. i think it is a good debate for conservatives. >> the recent edition here of why wekly standard, fought. what is this about? there was an interesting ande about u.s. involvement it challenges the notion that some wars we have to fight, but other wars we choose to fight. the world probably paid a big rise when it set out for 2.5 years. if you look at the arguments for why we had to fight those wars, and for subsequent roles in the cold war, it's an interesting historical piece. >> are we in a new cold war with russia?

guest: rush is a troublemaking power, that's for sure. and a very aggressive leader, and leaders matter. i don't think the people of russia are sitting around saying let's pick a fight with the u.s.. he would like to re-create as much of the old empire as possible. i think he is nostalgic for the soviet union, and he has said has much. you can let them get away with annexing part of neighboring countries, armed thugs could airplanes over that country's airspace and so forth. i'm afraid that he feels emboldened. where he lot of stuff

might try to chop off a bigger part of eastern ukraine. to have that happen in europe is bad. we went to war in the 1990's and i supported president clinton on that to save a lot of lives, and to establish the principle that in europe you cannot go around invading other countries or doing ethnic cleansing, even in a country that is your own. we are letting putin getaway with something, and we guaranteed ukraine's sovereignty when they got rid of nuclear weapons. caller: thank you for taking my call. i think blaming congress -- they played it out so long with leaning bush, they are being left that. they do control the executive branch in the senate.

why there is a question why our border should be controlled after 9/11, this could be a smokescreen where we have a flood of people come through that is organized and 20 miles, 30 miles away, there could be some type of event taking place that is planned. my question is, do you think -- in your opinion, do you think president obama is incompetent or he does not care, or is it part of the plan? some of the things happening in this country, it fis logic -- defies logic. he is the president of our country and we try to respect him and understand, but it is getting to the point where it is so foggy comic -- foggy, i do not understand any of it. host: thank you. mr. kristol?

guest: i think he has run -- i do not think he is on a very tight ship. i think it is his view on things. with foreign policy, we can disagree, try to stop him -- foreign policy, he is the only president we have, and some of the stuff that he has done and not done is damaging to the country. libya -- i supported that intervention and ethic i was right, and a lot of republicans did. to intervene, and then lose interest, it was too hard. there was benghazi, where we already lost interest to some degree, and now the place is in total chaos and god knows what kind of terror breeding ground it is going to be, but that is a place we intervened. that is not a war he inherited.

i supported the intervention. you have to be serious once you go into somewhere. you have to expend some effort to try to see that it comes out decently. i was traveling abroad late last year, and the world thinks libya, they don't not even care about it. syria, hugely redline, an and american president, and did nothing. elsewhere, john kerry flies around the middle east, president obama says he will be tough with putin and he kind of mocks him. i hope the republicans can win the senate, do some things on iran and prevent a bad deal there, but we basically have only one president and i worry a lot about the next two years in foreign policy. host: senator bob corker, the top republican on the foreign relations committee in the senate has an opinion piece

echoing what you just said dealing with libya, syria, and situation in russia. then there is this article in "the washington times," the u.s. terror suspect list has doubled since 2009 to more than one million. chuck, you are on the line with bill kristol of "weekly standard ." go ahead, chuck. caller: i think the president has done a good job. if you read what is going on as far as this foreign policy, there is not going to be another tony blair to get stuck out like bush stuck out with england, and he has to get a job at the world bank. that is not going to happen. he is standing alone, and he is getting a sandwich.

that is all he can get. host: let's take that point, chuck. not getting cooperation from our alleys -- allies. guest: i think our allies would want a stronger presence. france would like us to be stronger. canada and australia have been strong on russia, israel, and other parts of the world. host: you think rick -- europe has been strong on russia? guest: no, they have economic interests at stake, but if the u.n. -- u.s. is going to go only in the median position where the u.n. allows us to, the world is gotten more dangerous. we have taken for granted american leadership that is produced on a whole a peaceful world in a much more prosperous world, and where the guarantor. -- we are the guarantor.

we have taken that for granted and i think we can see how dangerous things can get and how fast when the american guarantee is viewed as not serious and not reliable. host: frank, largo, florida. independent caller. caller: i have a comment and a question -- i was curious about the origins of modern neoconservativism, and i came across some quotes from your father in which he described himself as a neo-marxist and a trotskyist, so that leads to the question couldn't the modern neoconservative movement, which until has just recently taken over the republican party, be described as nothing but a gaggle of this placed commie trotskyites? we have read your project for a new american century, and every

country has either been attacked or is under attack like syria or is about to be attacked like iran. the cia is softening them up. host: let's get a response. guest: that was a document from 2000 where we said defenses have slid, terrorism would be a threat, and one year later was not 11. -- 9/11. my father was a trotskyite as a very young man in his early-20's. he wrote a lot of things that the caller is free to read and judge, and then became a little more conservative and the world changed as well. he became the godfather of neoconservatism in the 1970's, which i think did help change the conservative moment in certain ways, get it to come to grips with the modern welfare state, and ended up supported reagan in 1980, and i think he

has been right about a lot of these issues. not have to go back that far where -- to see where today's conservatives are coming from. i'm happy to debate foreign policy. there is no conspiracy. if we had a conspiracy to do things, as people alleged them everywhere not have published that document. i am happy if people go back and look at the document i think it stands up and well. host: sheila. oklahoma. republican caller. caller: hi. thank you for taking my call. my question is about the children that are coming over -- the legal children. oklahoma steel closes this friday. there were 1200. they have no idea where the children have gone. i think they're being sent to other people to take care of them. we have foster care in oklahoma where they check up on them. nobody is checking up on them.

i have heard some blogs that they are trying to send six children to a home, $8,000 a year they will get for taking these children and -- medical care, dental care, and if they're only taking them in for the money, my concern is the children will be worse off here and there is nobody checking on them. how will anybody know what happens to demo where they are? host: all right, sheila. guest: i think that is a legitimate concern and i hope the government is keeping track of them. obviously we are not set up to do this kind of thing, foster care -- we already have difficulties with some of the systems we have to try to take care of kids in distress already here in the u.s. and kids that are immigrating in the normal way. we have one million immigrants a year. people talk about how the conservative position or the status quo is anti-immigration. it is not. we have 11 million illegal

immigrants, and most relatives did not expect them to be deported -- republicans do not expect them to be deported, but that is different than holding up a sign at the border, show up, you will get in the u.s., maybe there will be a hearing. you cannot run a country that went. -- that way. if vietnam falls and cambodia as a genocidal communist regime, you figure out how to take care of them, but when you are just throwing open the border, these people are going through mexico. why don't they stay in mexico? mexico has funneled them into the u.s.. mexico could closes border. should the secretary of state be talking to mexico about the fact that they're throwing open their southern border?

there is a lot that can be done, not in an inhumane way. host: kristen powers article in "usa today," as a quote from kevin appleby, director of immigration policy of the u.s. conference of catholic bishops, who says -- guest: the causes violence, they can go to mexico. some of them are preyed upon by gangs that have difficult

situations, but our immigration policy is to let people being that are genuinely persecuted. the republican bill does have hearings and some percentage will get asylum, the current system allows them to disappear into the u.s.. the liberals -- i like kristen powers, she is well-intentioned, but i have to say these arguments are playing into the hands of really bad people were given $6,000, -- who are getting $6,000, $7,000 apiece from parents who believe that their children are going to have a brighter future. host: atlanta, georgia. steve. democrats find. caller: how are you doing this morning? how are you doing mr. kristol? democrats have been saying this is the right thing to do for the children, but we voted god out of our platform four times.

nancy pelosi is suffering from a progressive disorder, and i would like to say we are sorry about the religious thing because we do not believe in god. we voted him out, sir. i would like to hear what you think about that? thank you. guest: there are people with strong religious persuasions in both party -- both parties, and i do not think it tells you what to do about immigration policy. there are plenty of devout christians that have -- that think we should have 2 million immigrants a year, one million a year, this system, or that system. if you have concrete grounds for asylum, you can stay. again, if they are being persecuted in honduras, why don't they go to guatemala, mexico? presumably the mexican government has care for people

from nations next to them, and if they want to come here, they need to have a specific explanation of why they want to come here. we have u.s. embassies. they can go to those embassies. none of that is happening. we should not kid ourselves. they were not peaceful countries that suddenly became violent and 80,000 people showed up here. it is because they think they can stay in the u.s.. host: charlie is watching us in new jersey. independent caller. welcome to the conversation. caller: i can speak now? host: yes, you can. caller: ok. i am concerned by the influence, mike bill kristol has on our country. when people wrote a letter to president clinton asking him to attack iraq, 25,000 to 40,000

americans were killed or wounded and it literally bankrupt the country. there was no reason to go into iraq. our country is to involve all over the middle east and all over the world. i have four grown sons. i do not want my neighbors son to be fighting in the middle east or get killed in the middle east. there is no reason for it. we are getting like the roman empire -- we have sons everywhere, and it is weakening the country, hurting the country. we make enemies everywhere because we are in. people's personal battles. host: all right. we will have mr. kristol respond. guest: i wish i had more influence, that the clinton administration, the obama administration would just hop to it. the bush administration did not do a lot of things that i suggested.

i do not think the problem is we are to involve. look what happens when we do not get involved. look at syria. look at afghanistan. how did that work out 10 years later? i am fearful of what we are not doing in syria and now in iraq, has led to a caliphate, a jihadist state and it could be the basis for further attacks. in any case, if we could secure the homeland and put up huge walls and build an iron dome of our own, which would not be a bad idea, even so, do you want to live in a world where people are just slaughtering each other? that is not a world that ultimately will be good for us, and not a world and a great partner -- power wants to sit back and say we cannot do anything about it. individual decisions and interventions can be debated. i would be happy to defend the intervention in iraq, which i think was the right thing to do,

necessary, and a just war. it was a difficult war, not fought well, anyway criticized the word in real time. in 2003 i called for rumsfeld to be fired or resigned. i might be wrong, but i have tried to be honest. i do not think saying the world is a mess let's get out of it does not work that well. world war i did an unbelievable amount of damage to western civilization. maybe we could not have stopped that from happening, but it is a case study of what can happen when we are not involved. and world war ii, we did not get involved -- we were directly attacked. if that is a criterion people want to use -- we do not get involved until we are directly attacked, you will let 49 -- you will let 1939, 1940, 1941 happen, and if that really a

will you want to live in? host: on the domestic side, from twitter, and do you think john boehner is an effective leader, would you vote for him to be speaker? guest: i like john boehner personally. he has a tough job. there are 232 republicans. 218 is a majority. a lot of them can cause trouble if you can hold 15 back. the democrats are not any help. on the whole, he has been a good job. having said that, should he be the face of the republican party? not particularly. i think he will be leader. house republicans will pick up some seats, and it would be difficult to dump him after you have been successful off-year election, which will happen likely. it is important that young republican leader stuff for as they have been doing -- step forward, as they have been doing.

one thing that has been underreported about this coming election is the quality of republican candidates, many of whom are likely to win, how young a lot of them are, and how many are not career politicians. if you look at tom harkin, judy aaronson, house candidates, lee zeldin and celfin connie -- you are looking at people in 40's, semi early rack war vets, afghanistan -- some iraq war vets, afghanistan vets. they're an interesting group of an impressived group of candidates. i think the republican party is undergoing, a little belatedly, a real generational shift.

>> wolf was not able to defeat roberts. who would you have voted for in that race? i thought wolf was a good challenger. but they put up some pretty flawed candidates. pat roberts has been elected and reelected for decades. he wins by seven points. i think one should not underestimate to be anti-incumbent, anti-washington feeling, including the anti-leadership feeling in washington, including among republican primary voters. it's really pretty striking. i think it would be a big mistake -- and i think roberts outspent wolf by 3-1. it's a big mistake if republicans around the country decide hey, we can just be proud of what we are doing in washington, no change needed. is ay, bush, boehner, that

recipe for disaster, i think. .

it really has to be that marco rubio, ted cruz, kelly i got, republican party. host: john in maryland. republican caller. caller: good morning. i do not hear --did not hear the thing,. host: no worries. guest: --caller: bill kristol, you are euro of mine, it is a shame -- you are a hero of mine, it is a shame gets it, not defend your father. guest: i'm happy to defend my father. caller: i read a book about world war i, and you said we got in late, you are right. we made the difference. our performance in both those world wars is the reason why the 20th century was called the american century. we have a president that thinks we are not exceptional. i do not know who could have been more exceptional in the previous century. anyway, the thing about getting in at the last minute, the germans were winning in world war i, and actually, they were winning and world war ii when we came in. so, we turned the tide. i guess we declared war somewhere in 1917. by the time i got the american expeditionary force to europe, it was already 1918, and this feat that alvin york performed, capturing, almost single-handedly 132 of the imperial pershing guard, these were not just any old german soldiers. he captured the best. it is a wonderful story. he was a tremendous guy. i ordered a book -- there is a new biography out about him that just came out this year.

so, i'm not know what happened to him after this heroic deed. host: and john -- caller: let me finish. he did this on october 8, which happens to be my mother's birthday. the war ended on november 11. he did it on october 8. within almost all month, that ms. oregon -- news oregon offended -- offensive brought a war to end. host: i will leave it there and have mr. kristol jump in. guest: i actually do not know -- like many americans, i know a little bit about world war ii, but that was the war we all grew up reading about or watching movies about. the caller is right. the heroism of american troops in both wars is remarkable, especially given that we were not fighting to directly defend

our homeland and fighting thousands of miles away. i visited the d-day beaches to your four years ago and it is amazing to see what they did there. world war i is the forgotten war -- we forget the many americans fought and how high our casualties were, actually. if one studies what happened in 1918, there was some gray generalship and finding by an awful lot of people below the recs -- ranks of general. those are both wars to be proud of in the sense of the u.s. contribution on the right side and bring about a good outcome. i think this 100th anniversary might lead people to read up a little bit world war i. it is an interesting war. from our point of view, world war ii, since we were directly attacked and all corners of world war ii are fresher in everyone's mind -- the horrors of world war ii are fresher in everyone's mind. host: "why we fought in world

war i" is the cover story of the most recent edition of "weekly standard ." we will go to robert next. -- pittsburgh. democratic caller. caller: i have been watching bill kristol for a while on fox, and it seems like we forget history. the constitution -- when it was first presented, slaves, we were not even part of this country. we always talk about liberals and conservatives. with jim crow, if it were not for liberals, we would not have gotten rid of jim crow. my brother was in the second world war, he tried to buy a home, and they were redlining people. if there were no liberals, we would not have a chance to buy homes in certain areas.

as far as the iraq war, i do not know if bill kristol has been in the military, where i spent 20 years, and i do not know thea spent a day in the military, but the iraq war, a lot of people got killed, but i'm a military person and i did not support that war. host: i'm sorry, robert. i thought you were finished. guest: thank you for your service. the republican party, as it happens, was more anti-jim crow and hyatt -- provided a -- provided more support for civil rights bills. that is why my father was a liberal. they could not go along with barry goldwater who thought the constitution did not support the civil rights act. that is why many americans voted for lyndon johnson and state democrats with humphrey in 1968. in all of american history, i do not think conservatives have been right and liberals have

been wrong, but the question is now who offers better hope for the poor question reich which is the party of education reform? which is the party that wants to provide upward mobility? i think republicans can do more to think through those issues and be more aggressive in i think it is the democrats that are -- aggressive? i think the democrats are not providing a probity. host: what about this article from "the hill," with purpose and abraxane only whites can be lawfully discriminated against -- representative books -- brooks saying only whites can be discriminated against lawfully. guest: i think it is a stupid thing to say. there is not a war against whites going on. i think it is a stupid thing to say, and if you look at a republican candidates, this comes back to my point. look at the republican

candidates running. oklahoma, nebraska, arkansas -- than up the status quo republicans, and people will look at republicans over the next couple years, hopefully the republican presidential candidate, and see the characters do not hold and the republicans are the party of reform much more than democrats these days. host: donald. cleveland, ohio. caller: hello? host: you are on the air. caller: it is actually the united states environment that

makes things -- involvement that makes things worse. in russia, we overthrew the government, stoke the fires to overthrow the elected government. it might be a bad government, but we overthrew it, and now we have what we have. as far as our allies ago, it is our allies -- saudi arabia, qatar, and the emirates that finance isis, that make isis happened. it is our allies, france, that is selling russia two aircraft carriers. our ally england takes all of their money in their banking system. we should never worry about our allies because our allies do not worry about us. we should do what is good for america. host: all right, mr. kristol guest: i agree we should do what is right for america. i do not think we overthrew the

government of the ukraine, i think the ukrainian people did that and we were right to support a change of government there, and a peaceful, democratic, and pro-western government there. i agree that our allies do not behave very well, but what is the choice? we cannot trust anyone, we cannot work with anyone? it is hard to run the world just by ourselves. it is good to have nato and western europe on board all of those years. even though they were a pain in a difficulty to deal with at times. i think there is no alternative for leadership. i will say this -- this administration, one thing i thought they might be able to do is be more effective in diplomacy, which is a little ham-handed, and fairly or unfairly there was so much baggage by the end that was hard for them to work with some countries in europe, but they dropped the ball on that. there is no evidence that president obama, secretary

clinton, or secretary john kerry have been effective diplomatically. if you talk to people from europe, european citizens, citizens from different nations in europe, diplomats here in washington, the obama administration is not doing a good job of roping them into do more effective things with regard to russia were the middle east. from that respect, i think the obama administration has just neglected, basically, some of the basic tasks of foreign policy, whatever their ideological problems. host: on the israeli-gaza conflict, cnn is reporting the cease-fire seems to be holding. you had david ignatius yesterday in his column say that the israeli prime minister mr. been -- mr. benjamin netanyahu should negotiate and the get a deal with moderate palestinian leaders. guest: i think he would love to have a deal with moderate palestinian leaders if there were moderate palestinian leaders or if there were strong enough to deliver on the deal, but they do not control gaza. they denied the control entirely the west bank.

look at that deal. the u.s. was involved in totally messed things up. john kerry infuriated the palestinian authority, we can the moderates, try to cut egypt out, met with the qataris and the turks in paris. i mean, really? that drove people crazy. he was denounced. john kerry goes home. isn't he literally bicycling around nantucket and martha's vineyard or someplace? that is when they cut the cease-fire. benjamin netanyahu does not want soldiers fighting in gaza if he can deal with the tunnel threat and the rocket threat and provide peace and security. the last thing israelis want to do is go back into gaza. they did it because they had to. it took casualties. they are out of there. no thanks to the u.s.. it is embarrassing almost. the u.s. has been no help at all in resolving the conflict over the last month, and it now looks like it might be result at least lease for a while because of

benjamin netanyahu's hard headedness and his willingness to take a cease-fire even though he knows it will not last forever and you cannot trust thomas, -- hamas, and because of egypt, when the u.s. mistreated through the crisis. the u.s. has not played a role. david ignatius thinks john kerry should get involved. that is the last thing we need. host: you also have this on your website that former president jimmy carter says hamas is a legitimate actor and should be negotiated with. guest: the entire world thinks it is a terrorist group and it is a terrorist group. it hosted about killing three teenagers, the destruction of the jews. why is it a legitimate group? host: thank you for your time and talking to our viewers. guest: my pleasure.

>> here on c-span we are live at the state department were some of this week's u.s. africa summit has been held. the three-day summit wrapping up today. this is the site where president obama will be giving a news conference shortly. abc tweets that this is the conference room where jfk held press conferences during his presidency. we will have live coverage once a gets underway on c-span. as we mentioned, the u.s.-africa summit wrapping up today. one event featured first lady michelle obama, former first lady michelle -- first lady laura bush and former president george bush. they were looking at educational opportunities for women and girls in africa. we will show you as much of that as we can while we wait for

president obama. >> hello, everyone. a pleasure to be here. i would like to thank everyone for joining us this afternoon. to thankspecially like mrs. obama, mrs. bush, and all of the wonderful first ladies who are here. we are thrilled to have you. in the united states, we have a notion we hear about from the time we are children that education is the key to us and every successive generation. i certainly heard about it and mrs. obama spoke about it today. we referred to, it as the american dream, but in my travels, i have discovered it is not an american dream at all.

it is a universal dream. theirns of parents want children to learn more, do better, achieve greater things than they did. i sighed in sierra leone. we all sighed with girls trying so hard and against incredible odds to get an education in northern ireland area. parents know intuitively that girls -- in northern nigeria. parents know intuitively the girls education is one of the best investments they can make. who stay in school longer through adolescence are up to six times less likely to be married with children. girls attendance in school is correlated with later childbearing, lower rates of hiv

and aids, fewer hours of domestic and labor market work, and greater gender equality. in addition, a child born to a mother who can read his 50% more age ofto live past the five and more likely to remain healthy, safe, and in school herself. girls inhat keeping school through secondary school is better for girls, their families, and their communities. is critical to expanding meaningful participation in the the key to the universal dream of empowering the next generation to do better than the last. here topleased to be discuss what we can do to make sure girls in africa get the education they deserve and need to become the leaders of tomorrow. let me briefly introduce our wonderful panelist.

dr. cerro ryutaro is the -- directorect her for a citizen driven initiative operating in kenya, uganda, and tanzania that seeks to draw public attention to children's learning. she will speak about completion of primary education and about getting parents involved in supporting education. aisha is the chairperson and founding member of the forum for african women educational is. it's an ngo working throughout africa to make sure that education is tailored to the specific needs of girls. she will share some of her thoughts on girls completing secondary education. president of an organization working to address poverty in africa through girls education. she will speak about empowering the next generation of women and expertise in working

with governments and other partners. and finally, the board chair of ofel and vice president corporate affairs. the intel foundation is working to get girls and women more opportunities to participate in the global economy. she will speak about empowering girls through access to technology. wakes what barriers do you see that keep girls from pursuing and obtaining primary education and what methods of intervention do you think are most successful? looking atare barriers, there is tremendous progress we have made. we have reached about a million children since we started in 2009.

the children have had at least five years of schooling in africa. then there is 10% who are missing. to be found in public hotspots or rural remote districts. not culturects are specific. if you look at kenya and uganda, they are neighboring. the reasons that are keeping them out have been talked about so many -- by so many people. attitude, religion. resources. we need to be looking at the evidence a little bit more. but given the 90% who are in go for about five years. when you look at gender parity, it is almost equal for boys and

girls. at that level, girls are not any better or any worse than boys. but later on, you find the disparity, in the preteen ages. our data tells us that in uganda, for example, the school is supposed to be seven years but children are taking 11 years to complete. the older girl gets, the more vulnerable she becomes. in terms of successes, let me talk about three of them. the data tells us that when a mother has a primary education, and especially secondary education, you see that her daughters and children generally have higher learning outcomes. the evidence is there. it's not so much for the men. more so for the mothers.

the second piece of evidence which we need to be looking at is the role of school leadership. where does the school have a dynamic leader? they are in charge of 500, maybe 1000 children. girls and boys. is, when you introduce girls too many isivities, whether it support or building confidence, they will have to draw on their own strength. so you have the families, the mothers, the school, and then the girls themselves. >> could you talk a little bit about the role of the family and in particular what you could do to convince families, particularly when they're facing situations of limited resources, how you deal with that problem and convince them that if they have a couple of children or have to choose between sending

boys or girls to school, how you encourage them to send their girls to make those decisions and that it is worth the investment to send the girls to school? see that 90% of the children are in school and it is near gender parity, for me it looks like at least half the battle is done. believe in sending their girls to school. i think the biggest thing that will lead to skepticism, that will destroy this belief, is if our girls, our children, have nothing to show for the years they spent in school. so we need evidence of the success of schooling. -- i remember when i went to a village one time and there was fund-raising. money to thent church because our mother told us this was very important. it isstor told us

important is in the girls. they build the church. it was evidence of success. >> so you are the evidence. aisha, i understand that you're working in 33 different african countries to foster positive policies and attitudes towards girls education. you work with governments, communities, civil society to make adolescent girls a priority. can you talk a little bit about what you see that works best, what more can be done, and if you could deal with some specific examples of gender-based violence, vocational training, and give us your -- just based on your experience -- what your views are about what the best opportunities are? >> let me start by giving you some statistics. million kids out of

girls. 54% are gerd 22% of those are adolescent. therefore, we have to do something. we cannot just sit and wait. we have to work together, to give to these people the right to quality education. are working for gender equity and equality for all children, in particular girls. what we have to do is develop innovation to convince. ,ecause if you don't convince you cannot reach the results you want. we need advocacy at the community level. you talk about a. -- it. you have to convince both male to female because these have

take the decision. are we going to take the girls or the boys to school? you have to tell them and oflain to them the value education, the benefits of educating girls. i think today we have seen it. we have shown the evidence. i don't have to go into it. what we have found today is that men are supporting girls education. they even form what we call mother clubs. tracking the girls who haven't gone to school for school attendance. cool attendance is look at by the bureaucrats. we have another innovation which is very important, empowering .irls and boys it means to speak out. in the school, men, girls, boys together,r -- get

underline their problems and find solutions to some of them. out through found these activities is that now girls are empowered to speak out. they have self-confidence. -- andve equation skills they are fighting against cultural barriers. they have rights, so they claim their rights. we have another innovation, giving birth rates. when you give a birthright to a girl who is bright to go to a secondary school, it makes a difference.

so more than 46,000 girls and boys. you see, you cannot just discriminate against boys either. they have to work together. foundation, we are going to have 1200 scholars in in ethiopia, 800 scholarships, and it is going to make a big difference. you affect the family and the nation. we also have what we call the center of excellence. , we havechool transformed it into a gender

responsive school. girls are empowered and boys also. now they know how to treat poison girls equally and it is amazing how the schools have an environment that is conducive to learning, with no gender violence, which is important. you have trained out of school adolescent girls in six countries which were conflict affected. what we did was give them schools -- skills and competencies in disciplines such as mechanics, electricity, carpentry. and they did very well. went tohey finished, we

lobby the companies to hire them. and it made a big difference. when you have confidence in a work.she can do i say that because africa in 2011, the population was one billion. and 20% were used. -- youth. 2015,ediction is that in 50% of the population will be youth. africa will have to invest in its youth if we want the continent to be a dynamic, productive economy. because we were educated.

girls to gonted his to a good school. therefore, please, let's get together and work for a good education. [applause] >> thank you very much. i would like to ask you a little bit about the unique approach, which i understand you call the virtuous cycle, which i would like you to explain for a moment, if you could. you have educated girls since 1993 and supported young women to help tackle poverty in rural communities, working through national and local systems with parents, teachers, government officials, and traditional authorities on the which is critical in many of these communities. like to understand you have worked with girls through development and education and beyond that, and if you could give us some idea, and you could also explain the virtuous cycle, i would appreciate that. >> of course. thank you.

we work in rural areas, where poverty is deep this. many families are not in a position to make choices. in fact, they make decisions based on social economic realities. the choices are false. so we understand and want to respect the decision-making. so the process is one of partnership with parents, in addition with parents. and the transition from primary to secondary school is where so many girls dropped out. parentsartnership with means that they don't have the means, but they certainly have an abundance of love. our data shows that that support , with that encouragement, we are seeing between 80% and 93% of attendants across five countries, the numbers are high. 108000 and secondary education. parents are not preventing the girls from going to school.

, the teacher mentors, the networks, because girls are coming to school with problems, we have a network of trained teacher mentors across 5000 government schools. that is having a significant impact on progression, which is 90% across all programs. you mentioned traditional leaders. they can be powerful advocates. one traditional leaders said a few years ago in zimbabwe, i have understood in speaking with girls that they are refugees in their own motherland. he is an advocate in a network a traditional leaders working on child protection and child marriage. our partnership with government is a foundation stone. we work in government schools, and our partnerships at the district level and national africaour directors in

work very closely with ministries of education. they share data, strategies, they are at the policy table. so it is a very inclusive program to the education of girls. see significant improvements in academic results . when they leave secondary ,ducation, they are confronted sometimes by a lack of employment, and often they will be under pressure to marry. they may also go to town in search of work. beyond secondary education, depending on grades and aspiration, into university, technical training colleges, and business training and grants. that is where you see investment in education start to pay highly

significant dividends. for families as well as themselves. but how do you make that dividend growth? how do you make that dividend grow for the district, for the nation? what we have done is created alumni. this is the leadership emerging of young women. there are 24,435 graduates in ghana,work across tanzania, malawi, and zimbabwe. extraordinary young women. one of the indicators of the cycle is every one of those members is supporting between two and three children in schools. outside of her own family. she is also supporting within her family. so this is really the power. i think what they understand, they say they are united by a background and a commitment to change. and they are proud of their

rights -- roots. so often, policy carries with it marks of embarrassment and shame. but they have transformed that to pry and empathy -- pride and empathy, and that is at the heart of their activism. so we have incredibly powerful group of people here, all the first spouses. i am curious about how an organization, including government spouses, can engage in this process. anit is an extraordinary -- extraordinarily powerful group. i am honored to be here. the partnership is brought, with the private sector as well as government. partners is a foundation in ghana. we are working on a long-term program to supports and dairy and tertiary -- secondary and

tertiary education. the young girls have prepared to chronicle their experience for the first lady's that they want to share. to give you an indication, one of them in junior high school was living with her family in one room. it was so noisy that she did not have time or opportunity to study. but what she decided to do was to go to bed at 7:00 p.m. every evening, get up at 2:00 a.m., and study when everybody else was asleep. and then go to school. now, she wants to be a pediatrician. she says, i want to be a pediatrician because i see that my role is being with children. i love being with children because i see the vulnerability. and time again, girls and young women who we support who have not had a background in

education, sharing our personal experiences, there was no one more committed to education than my grandmother. educationtment to grows exponentially when you suddenly have that opportunity. suddenly, that nascent power becomes alive, part of your education. so they all sat, we wanted to be adopted because we wanted -- we wanted to be doctors because we wanted to change our committee -- communities. we wanted to be journalists because we wanted to tell the world about our communities. it is about them and what they want to do in the world. they are so ready to work with you. as you mentioned, they have tremendous ideas to share. the platforms that you have to really bring their voices ,orward are just extraordinary and i would urge you to raise your voices and use these

platforms, these extraordinary platforms effectively. >> thank you so much. i am -- i have a couple questions. i was struck. all these networks of people that you mentioned, it strikes me that that might be a good project for you also, to network all these people available. i know you are busy, but it seems there are so many groups of people here we could try to get together. in any case, internet is obviously a powerful 12 for education, and intel is doing so much to address gender gaps. i'm curious about how you see technological tools really advancing literacy and economic opportunities for women, and i would hope you could give us some idea of the things you are doing in that field. >> absolutely. thank you for the great ideas. we were talking about that this morning, how we network all these people together and make

it easy for people to access them. so at intel we have been very committed to education and sharing that women and girls have access to quality education. we have a three-pronged approach. first, raising awareness and ensuring access. the second is inspiring girls and women to not just be consumers of technology, but creators. we want girls and women to know that they can create the next solution that will solve the problem the community is facing, and we want them to know they can play an active role, because women often do not take that role in most parts of the world. the idea ofea is bringing people together in an ecosystem and connecting people so that they have a platform to communicate and have a network to support them. we find that this idea of the community is critical, even when we are using technology. that people need to know there are people that are behind them. one young woman told us, i know

there is an army of women ready to support me, and they are all over the world, and that kind of confidence comes from knowing that they exist. but what we found when we did a study in 2013 is that women are sadly left behind in terms of internet access. web,r report, women on the which we did with your office and -- we identified for the first time just how large this gap is. unfortunately in sub-saharan africa, it is the largest gap we identified. and these women and girls are being left behind for a variety of reasons that have been mentioned here today. we found that when they have access to the internet, they have access to education, to information that can help them with health care, job creation, development, and empowerment that comes from eating others that are like you. so we know that by closing that gap, we can make a tremendous impact. so we have been committed to a

inl of reducing the gap sub-saharan africa by 50% in the next five years, and we have a and -- a number of tremendous partners that we are working with on that project. we are very excited about the possibilities, because as we know, the possibilities of education, the possibilities of information, what i can do in the hands of young women all over africa. we are looking forward to welcoming more partners and working with more governments with the goal of bringing access and closing the gender gap. >> could you talk a little bit about the role of public-private partnerships in your work? >> absolutely. it has been shared today, and we firmly believe it is only through partnership that we are going to have a sustainable impact. we have worked with partners and government for many years, and for -- most of our education programs. now we are reaching out to a larger ecosystem.

many technology companies are interested in the work, and other players in the foundation, said bringing on those people together toward a common goal is really what we are trying to do, creating an ecosystem of people who care about the gender issue and want to help educate girls and empower them to really be a voice and a leader in their local community. >> great. i was wondering if you could talk a little -- i was struck by what mrs. obama said earlier about the important roles men and boys play in this effort. it is something that when i travel, sometimes i get an initial schedule and it is a lot of meetings or visits proposed with women and visits to women's centers. i will say, wait a second, i think i need to talk to the men, too, understand what they are doing as well. i think that sometimes we spend a lot of time talking to ourselves, and i wonder if

either of you had some insights into the really critical role that men and boys play, and how we need to engage them, how best to engage them. and if either of you have thoughts about that? most ofe family, areitional africa, men the ones who are doing the chores. you have to talk to both men and .omen these examples of the benefits of education. then they will understand. otherwise, they will always send the boys if they don't have enough money to send both. second, in the school room, if you don't bring them together to talk to each other, in life are they going to live separate?

they will be together. therefore, it is better to bring them together, to make them understand the concept of learning to live together. that is where the teacher has a key role to play. so training teachers for them to be gender-aware, gender-responsive, to know that any child there is a potential teacher -- potential, and they need to tap into that potential to make both boys and girls succeed. >> i think one of the things we need to do is more multidisciplinary projects. whenever we look at the missing 10% in east africa, the thing that is keeping them out of school is not because their mothers do not want them to go to school. it is a culture of something where you have to look at who has the power, who is the decision-maker.

so you have to go and talk to them. when you are talking about times of fgm, for a long we had a culture of victims. you need to understand who is the decision-maker, where the power lies, and give them to be your friends and partners in creating change. means thef attitudes discussion can move on and you start bringing those changes and -- re >> one example i want to give, i will not tell you in what country we did this, but what we showingwe took a movie how girls were suffering when they were going to that operation. we gathered the males.

when they saw the pictures they said, oh, my god, we did not know. they were shocked, and they said we will be the advocate to fight this fgm. >> i think the power of film is very important, because it somehow mediates the dialogue, takes away the tension. because there is a story, and everyone is connecting with the story. we have a film called "the child within," about pregnancy. that film has unlocked tremendous understanding in communities. my colleague in africa, who is one of the first, the regional director, she was telling me about an incident in malawi. they had gathered together a ch

said,eeting, men, and she how about wives? the chief was not keen on the idea, but then there was a discussion, and suddenly he went off on his mobile phone and his wife came. ,nd then the other wives came and they had a very interesting for him. -- forum. the power of the film, introducing stories, really understanding. we are seeing in our data coming through the extraordinary impact of education on child marriage. , the -- 1/10 of girls are becoming mothers in that age group when the national rate is one and eight. -- in eight.

it is preventing another generation being born into poverty. >> i would like to thank you all very much. >> we wanted to make an announcement, if it is all right. we are very thrilled to announce a new alliance called the women in the web alliance. our goal is to bring 600,000 young women online in nigeria and kenya in the next three years, and we are going to do that by catalyzing an ecosystem. right now, the alliance includes usaid, intel, nethope, world vision, u.n. women, and women in technology nigeria. i wanted to share that news with you, because we are open and welcoming of all partners who are interested. we think it is very critical that we create local content, localized training with

gender-specific resources for women and try to create this network so they can support each other. i am proud to make that announcement. [applause] >> i would like to thank all of you so much, first for being here, but also for the tremendous work you do every day to support women and girls. , iet a woman many years ago think she was, i cannot remember what country she was in, maybe the drc. her name was christine, and she told me something that always stuck with me. one woman can do anything, but many women can do everything. it always resonated with me. when i see amazing women like all of you, i believe that, and i believe we can do tremendous things for women and girls everywhere. thank you all for being here. [applause] >> a press conference with

president obama to close the is running about 15 minutes late getting started. we have been covering the summit over the last few days. first lady michelle obama hosted a spouses event. a story on the hill writes that former president george w. bush made a rare appearance in washington to press african leaders to stop hiv aids and more sexually transmitted diseases. mr. bush said to many people in africa are dying because they do not seek treatment for the disease is because of false rumors. we will have that even for you overnight and right now at www.c-span.org. as we wait for live coverage of president obama, we will hear about the recent algae bloom in late. that shut down the water supply in toledo and left 500,000 people without tap water over the weekend. >> we are back with melissa

harrison of the national resources defense council, the communication director. what happened with toledo? >> good morning, thanks for having me. they reason i'm here this morning is because i am from ohio and worked with the ohio epa for four years, and i was on the forefront of when we started the lake sampling will be found these toxins for the first time and realized this is also happening in late. . in toledo over the weekend, we had the perfect storm of algae, a bunch of different factors. if you think about it in ingredients in making a soup, you have the instance where in the western basin it is a sollow area of lake erie, water temperature tends to be warmer. we had some rain previously in a few days leading up to that, which washes nutrients into the water. when it mixes together in the warm water, that is where this algae really survives. so what is interesting about the

weekend is that while there is warm water and rain and runoff, this is not the worst algae bloom we have ian leigh geary. -- we have seen in lake erie. there was one a few years ago from toledo all the way to cleveland, but was difficult about this one is the toxins formed from the algae were concentrated right around the toledo drinking water intake valve. this alat toxins cause gae bloom? guest: algae and phosphorus from industrial livestock pollution, urban and suburban runoff. ingredientsifferent in nitrogen and phosphorus that create the blue-green algae that thrived in warm water, which is typical for the western basin. so farmingost: practices. host: also suburban and urban

runoff, septic systems. a number of different ways this can all end up in water. how does he get into the water supply? guest: with climate change, we not only see warming water, but more severe weather events like heavy rainfall, and when the rain comes down into the land it washes those types of nutrients into the waters that feed into lake erie. host: how can it be due to climate change if you say at the same time that when it rains a lot or you have runoff from human activity, i mean, we have seen that in the past, too. guest: we see now there is more extreme weather due to climate change, so warmer temperatures, warmer lake water, more extreme weather like heavy rains coming in. two years ago, ohio was suffering from a drought. host: so it gets into the water supply and half a million people

in the city are not allowed to drink their water. how does the city decide, we will put a ban on drinking water? guest: from what i heard in media reports, they do two types of testing. one is on raw water from lake erie, where they saw a huge cystin, thee micro toxin they shut the water done for. it can make you very sick and cause diarrhea and vomiting and things like that. they saw a spike in the raw wa ter, and also in the finished water. finished water is what we get when we turn on the tap. they saw there was a significant spike and a second round of testing, and looks like early friday to saturday morning the mayor made the decision they needed to do a full do not drink advisory, and the other thing to keep in mind, it's not like you can boil the water.

boiling the water actually makes the microcystin escape faster and more concentrated, so this is a full do not drink order for nearly 500,000 toledoans. host: so are algae blooms just specific to lake erie? could this happen other places? guest: absolutely. in ohio, the first time we saw it was in an inland lake. i stood and watched as the algae bloom was growing and coming in. the water is the consistency and color of pea soup. i never saw anything quite like it. we saw this pop up in other inland lakes, but it is not just in ohio. this is happening all across the united states. we see this in florida, north carolina, california, kansas, new york. this is happening all across the united states. host: bigger bodies of water,

smaller bodies of water? guest: it totally varies. it is about the runoff and the mixture of warm water and potentially heavy rains, things like that that are factors. host: so what are federal and state regulators doing? what can they do? guest: in ohio, the state regulators have been working closely with the communities that are affected by this issue, .rying to do voluntary measures but we believe the only way to effectively make change in this area is to do some type of and , not only onrds industrial livestock runoff but on urban and suburban pollution. we believe we have one of the best will in our pocket right -- . pocket right now, the clean water protection rule. it protects streams and wetlands that are the best filters for these types of pollutants before they get to our drinking water. host: we will get to phone calls. paul in north carolina. caller: good morning.

i have worked for almost 20 years as an environmental activist and conservationist in regard to water and protection of the water. here in north carolina, we largest population of municipalities. we are suffering from this largelynow, and it is with development practices, as you see. to be faced throughout the nation, this last rush for what is left in the ground, fossil fuels. doing a geographical study on the upper appalachians to frack, and it's going to be devastating to the water supply. our water table is totally

different than other places, and you cannot drill on the top of these mounds and not affect water in the basins. water should be the most protected thing protected thing that we have and the way water is treated throughout this nation is insane. we allow all these industries to treat water like it's nothing and people are fighting in other places in the world over water and we're contaminating our water at an incredible pace. hypolet's have melissa harrison jump in. guest: i couldn't agree more. water and one of our most vital sources. right now we have the clean power act pending with the