I there, im can vanilla dough with the top stories on al jazeera u. S President Joe Biden has concluded his 4 date, middle east trip. His 1st since taking office. He started in israel and ended in saudi arabia. It was a toy aimed at countering iran and carving russia, and china is growing influence in the region. But as our white house correspondent, kimberly, how could reports i hadnt failed to achieve what matters most americans back home bringing down oil prices. Joe biden wrapped up his 4 day middle east tour with this pledge. United states is not going anywhere. The u. S. President spent his final day of his trap meeting with leaders from the gulf cooperation council, along with jordan, egypt, and iraq. His goal is to reassert americas leadership role. One he fears is slowly being eroded by geopolitical rivals, zone becoming clear to me. Now how closely interwoven americas interests are with the successes. Normally, we will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by china. Russia were ran binding faces high inflation back home, driven partly by a spike in energy prices. So hes pushing gulf leaders, including saudi arabia, to ramp up Oil Production and bring down fuel costs a goal. Hes failed to achieve the comb looking. We dont have to, heather magick the kingdom of carry out. Its rolled with regards to oil and gas production, as it announced increasing its Production Capacity to 13000000. 00 barrels a day. But saudi arabia will no longer be able to increase production beyond that multiple. Returning to the u. S. Empty handed is a problem for president grappling with low approval ratings. Bidens also being criticized for resetting relations with leaders, accused of Human Rights Violations among them, the saudi crown prince, the c i a believes mohammed bin selman may have approved the killing in 2018 of journalist shemelle cas shall g. But referring to the invasion of iraq, the saudis counter that america has lost its moral high ground mistakes like this happened in other countries. And we saw a mistake like this pain committed by the United States in a border. Despite the controversy, the white house insists the meetings were a diplomatic when, even as biden returns to the United States with little to show for them. Kimberly help hit on al jazeera. Extreme temperatures have caused wild fives to spread across western europe and north africa. Out of control blazes of force, thousands of people from their homes and hundreds of died from heap related causes. A vigil has been held and tr lanka to remember. Those who died in the recent political unrest. President got to buy it or to pox. It was forced to resign this week of the months of Anti Government protests. The parliament has begun the process of choosing the next. President. Roches military has 5 missiles and shells across ukraine, after declaring its plans to ramp up a tax in the east. Ukrainian Officials Say at least 17 civilians have been killed, including 3 in the northeast in city of to who is russia says its destroyed Ukrainian Military targets in the western city of denise pro. Moscow says long range missiles hit, schools of ukrainian fight is out of military facility on friday. Ukraine says the rockets hit an industrial plant and an air by street. At least 3 people were killed in the strike. In sudan, at least 33 people have been killed and more than 100. Others injured during days of violence between rival tribes. The government has declared an overnight curfew in 2 towns and Blue Nile State members of the house and voter ethnic groups began fighting after a farmer was killed earlier this week. Around 1000 hungarians have held a protest against Prime Minister victor or bon demonstrations began after a major attack cycle. And Small Businesses or bond has been in power for more than a decade. But discontent of inflation is posing a major challenge to his role. As a headlines, ill have another up a few here on al jazeera right after the bottom line. See then bye bye. A. Hi, im Steve Clements and i have a question. The United States prides itself on being the worlds best start up nation. But can it stay that way . Lets get to the bottom line. Ah, americas legendary for its startups. Think of google, facebook goober, amazon, apple, netflix. Hes all started small and skyrocketed to become household names all over the world. But its the startup ecosystem, what it should be in the United States is their genius out there in america. Its being ignored, while the digitally leads in the San Francisco bay area in new york and boston scarf up. All the funding of america is strong because of its entrepreneurs and micro businesses, some of which can become huge. Whats the state of the ecosystem that helps them grow . My guess today is literally one of the real founders of the internet, at least as far as you and i are concerned, because he got us all on line. He has steve case, who more than 30 years ago, co founded America Online, americas 1st major tech start up that transformed our relationship with the digital universe. And hes the founder of revolution, which has invested nearly 1000000000. 00 in startups all over the country. Hes the author of the 3rd wave and entrepreneurs vision of the future. And coming this september, the rise of the rest, how entrepreneurs and surprising places are building the new american dream. Steve is great to be with you on. Look, ive been on the big red bus, the rise of the red bust in the heartland of america, going from city to city to city, and meeting people that you have been. Im asking the come forward and pitch to you, their ideas. Give our audience what thats about, why werent you doing that in cupertino or san jose or boston . Well, Silicon Valley continues to be the pride of america, india, the world as the most innovative ecosystem for the creation of new startup. So that will, that will continue about in our view too much Venture Capital is focused on a few places like Silicon Valley and not enough on the rest of the country over the last decade. 75 percent of Venture Capital dollars in United States gone to just 3 states, california, new york and massachusetts. So the capital has gone with just a few places, but entrepreneurs are everywhere, are creating great ideas, new companies everywhere. So were trying to do really is sort of a level of Playing Field. So if you have a idea, no matter where you live, you have a chance of starting that company and scaling that company and the process creating jobs in that community and driving Economic Growth in that, in that community. So it starts with an Investment Strategy to back the entrepreneurs of the future, building the industries of the future and doing it all across the country. But it also ties in with some broader gotta impacts on communities even even more. But in terms of policy and politics, because one of the challenges in the United States is this divide, we now have where some people are doing well. But a lot of people are feeling left out and left behind. We think we can address that in part by creating more companies all across the country that really are driving economic dynamism and build helping build and these new these communities look i, i think ive known you for close to 30 years and when you got i saw online when America Online was, was a vibrant and it was the pathway for people to experience the digital universe and just this transformed this planet. I guess my, my question is i understood and sort of felt like you were one of the worlds great entrepreneurs. I saw so many other great entrepreneurs come along and i felt that was vital to the american message. It was vital to the health of the american economy. I have to say, im not sure that weve done all the things we need to do in america to create more steve cases to create many more. We have a lot of em, as i just mentioned. But the question is not just having a lot, the question is given. Americas place in the world is china beating us . Is india beating us . Are other nations out there looking at our experiment saying hey, we can do what they did. What are we getting right and what are we getting wrong by way of that, but entrepreneurship ecosystem. A great way to frame it, because in many ways, america still a start up nation started just arent 250 years ago. As an idea was a fragile nation. Almost like a start, i almost didnt make it. But then finally got through and succeed at the last century. Has really been a pioneer and kind of driving the innovation, the agriculture revolution than Industrial Revolution than more recently the digital revolution. So as a result, america is a leader. The free world has the leading economy. It is viewed as the most innovative onto girl nation. But other countries, as you say, i figure it out that thats sort of the secret sauce, the sort of howard the american story and are trying to do what they can do to invest in technology, to invest in education, to invest in building startup community. So that these ideas can, can turn into companies and, and, and, and have been quite successful. So i think we need to recognize that we, we cant rest on our laurels. Weve had a pretty good run in this country, but we, we need to kind of lead into the future a need to recognize. Weve seen now the globalization of innovation and entrepreneurship 25 years ago over 90 percent of Venture Capital in the United States. Now its less than 50 percent more, its really proves that it, its global isaac. And then with in the United States, we need to make sure were backing entrepreneur everywhere and not just in a few places on, on, on the coast. So i think its a great opportunity, but i think it also could be framed as a challenge if we only are backing entrepreneurs in a few places like Silicon Valley, were probably not gonna be building the industries of the future. We probably wont be creating jobs and driving Economic Growth everywhere, which will mean our countrys more divided in our lead in the world will likely diminished when you go out and you kind of dig beneath the surface and say where these are, these new micro ventures that have come on, you can see that a lot of them are entrepreneurs of color, black and brown, entrepreneurs, people who have come to the nation. Immigrants that are taking risks. Theyre all over the country, like you said in their, in pockets. And those places that have done these micro ventures turned out to be more economically nimble and resilient than places that dont have them. But when you sort of step back and talk to this town in washington, dc, or policy makers, they dont even have these folks on their radar screen. So what is the gap in the literacy and awareness of what it takes and the kind of entrepreneurship ecosystem that, that between the reality of the language and what these folks need versus what policy makers see on their dashboard. I think its improving that little bit. I got involved over a decade ago was asked to co chair, somebody called the National Advisory council on innovation and entrepreneurship, part of the department of commerce. We identified a number of a priorities that led to a launching an initiative at the white house called start up america that i like chair and was it fine and nimble, or was it bridging evian . Well, it did, it did what you had to be patient. You had to be persistent, but we were able, as part of that, the kick start of discussion around changing some laws around raising capital, which pat of jobs act passed about 10 years ago. Kind of part based on some of those, those efforts. And i think the big insight that i had at the time, and now other people are now better understand, is that while Small Business is important and accounts for a lot of jobs and big business fortune 500 companies are count for a lot of jobs. Most new jobs are created by new Companies Company under 5 years, so start up not just text our was but many forms of startups. So were not creating new start ups. Were, were not gonna really be able to kind of replenish some of the jobs that are going to be lost just based on the nature of how markets work and sort of some Companies Rise in some Companies Fall the other data point that interesting every 25 years about half of the fortune 500 turns over again that some of that you cant just rest on your laurels with assuming your big company. So to be a half the fortune 500. 00 turns over means half the fortune 500. 00 disappears or falls right . So maybe in, usually because new companies emerge that, that surprise people and, and either disrupt existing industries or in some cases, great new industry. Thats a healthy process. Its an if you dont want to slow that down, you want to keep innovating and leaning in the future. But if youre only back in companies or few places and some of those innovations, some of those disruptions destroyed jobs, other places, and sometimes manufacturing jobs or other other kinds of things. Youre not investing in the entrepreneurs in those places. So they can create, reset, can create jobs, it will at least in part offset some of the job loss. Youre going to wake up and, and find a situation where as i said earlier, some people are doing well. A lot of people are not doing well, a lot of commit people are mad that they feel like theyre being kind of left out of the economy. Have to be in a place like Silicon Valley to be relevant in the innovation economy to raise capital. And so forth, but the good news is thats started changing over the last decade. I think it will accelerate over the next decade in part because of the pandemic which has kind of created this unlock between how you work and how you live and where you work and where you live. More Remote Worker is when people deciding to live at other places, still working for some company and some other other place. And that also is unleashing more capital. Now, in the last decade, weve see that 1400 new regional venture firms backing start ups e merge. So its, its starting to move away from being so dominated by the coast, but theres still a lot of work to be done. And thats what weve been trying to do with that with this initially with start of america. More recently with our efforts around rise with the rest. No, one of the things that you have really done a good job, but i think youve kind of done it surreptitiously is youve brought in republicans and democrats out of the policy space and kind of taught them or inculcated them with the you know, what the language is and why this is so important. So how have you, i mean, i just sort of want to our audience to get an understanding of how youve been able without controversy to really bring these different people in there. And as youve done that, what does your gut tell you . Are you going to be able to get a bi partisan commitment to get the policy scaffolding right for this, this new form of entrepreneurship rise of the rest lawyer kind of obviously a, its a Broader Group of people that are focused on, on these issues. Somebody is just building the relationships which then builds good will entrust with, make people more likely to listen to what you say. I think people hopefully really do believe i care about the country, care about trying to drive innovation, care about job creation. And the other aspect is we found including on the, on these bus stores, weve done our visiting over nearly the cities by boston, and now investing through our various rise the rest funds in a 100 different different cities that they idea, backing the entrepreneurs, creating the companies of the future and creating jobs in those communities is a bipartisan issue. And when were on that boss or in our various meetings, if i hadnt read my briefing documents, i would know whos a democrat, who is the original book, and theyre all joining together to celebrate whats happening in the cities to celebrate the entrepreneurs that are building these companies and taking risks to identify ways to how to lift up those communities and take them to the next level. So it helps that at such a bipartisan issue. And i work 10 years ago on the jobs ag working with president obama and also with eric canner, who on the on the house side. And really went back and forth to try to try to make sure we were building bridges between the republicans and democrats, and ultimately came together with a broad bipartisan bill support. Terms of your question of whats, whats next there right now, as were talking is a conference effort underway to take some bills that have passed in the house and passed in the senate, you know, initially called emmas frontier and then when called you seek. And then when called the compete sac, which deals with things like semiconductors, investment in r, and d, and other things, but also has its part of it funding for regional hub so that we can, its not always easy as it did and it, it picks them cities to make a bigger investment in cuz some of the cities that now are these innovation power houses like a Silicon Valley or even in austin. Were in part made that because of government funding in the, in certain technologies in certain, in, you know, decades ago whos getting it right. Whos getting it wrong . Well, the great thing on this is dozens of cities are getting it right. People ask me. So whats the next Silicon Valley where theyre going to be one or 2 cities that are really going to rise up . And weve now seen this in, in, doesnt the city ill give you some examples. Whe