we'll turn in a moment to nicholas kristof on that subject.day the two women focused on the shared passion for education initiatives a school in beijing for first stop. for the latest on the trip we'll go to nia malika. >> it's great to be here. >> how do you think the trip is playing so far and what do you and for the rest of it? >> it was announced and a lot of people questioned whether or not this would be about soft power or hard power. hard power being her talking about human rights, doesn't look like she's going to do that. the white house has been adamant and saying this is more about michelle obama expanding what she does here and that is reaching out to students, reaching out to young kids and really talking about youth empowerment. that's what i expect to see throughout this trip. she of course has met with the chinese first lady. she's women are in some ways very similar coming from very humble simple beginnings and then reaching to the highest heights in terms of education and popularity and prominence. of course the chinese first

anyone who knows the work done by nicholas kristof knows he's seen a lost places in the world -- a lot of places in the world where there's terrible misery and suffering. so for him to say that is a substantial indication of how bad the conditions are in syria. and, of course, when he made that statement, it was back in september, many months ago. as bad it is it was then, it's even worse now. so today i call on all senators of both partie party and the international community to support the efforts to bring this terrible chapter in syria's history to a close. peace talks could be a way to end the conflict. however, i'm disappointed that the talks this past month did not lead to any tangible progress. the assad regime has refused to negotiate in good faith. diplomats idiplomacy is part ofe solution, but what we need nowew -- need now is to change the momentum on the ground. peace talks and diplomacy are fine, but unless something changes on the ground, unless we can take some action or take a series of steps to affect what's happening on the ground, all the talks in the world will be t