The infrastructures not built, so part of what we have to do is to find ways to integrate africa. Much of that is a question of infrastructure, some of it has to do with coordinating regulatory systems between countries. Were embarking on some experiments starting in east africa to see if we can get uganda, kenya, tanzania see, you guys know all of them. [laughter] were starting to work with these countries to see can we get some blocs of effective trading taking place . Because, look, obviously theres going to be a certain market for certain goods. I mentioned flowers from kenya. The market, thats primarily going to be in some of the wealthier countries. But there are going to be some goods that its going to be much easier to sell if im a kenyan businessman, its going to be easier for me to sell my goods as a tans any january or ugandan than it is for me to try to compete with nike or, you know, you know, apple in the United States. Right . And historically, when you look at how trade develops, if you look at asia, for example, which obviously has grown extraordinarily fast, a huge volume of that trade is within the region first, and then over time that becomes a launching pad from which to trade globally. So this is an area where i think we can also provide some assistance and help. But my just to answer directly your question, we are very strongly committed to making sure that agoa is reauthorized and, obviously, weve got a bunch of members of congress here who care about this deeply as well. Okay. How much time do we have, by the way . I just want to make sure [inaudible] theyre saying one hour. [laughter] okay. I think weve got time for two more questions. Well, im sorry, but [laughter] you know, the all right. So its a gentlemans turn. Let me, let me see. This gentleman in the white right here. That guy right there. Hold on a minute. Hi, im james [inaudible] from liberia. It is a pleasure meeting you, mr. President. My question has to do with the issue of antitrust law. You will be meeting our leader next week. Will you discuss the issue of antitrust law, are you willing to include it on your agenda, please, to solve our problems back home . Well, you know, obviously each countrys different, and ill be honest with you, im not familiar with the antitrust laws in every country. But what i would certainly commit to doing is to talk about antitrust in the broader context of what i said at the beginning after maybe the first question, and that is the issue of rule of law and how it interacts with the economy. If you have monopolyies or collusion between a few companies that create artificial barriers to new entrants, then economic theory will tell you that invariably that is inefficient. It means consumers are going to pay more for worse products. It means those companies can concentrate more and more wealth without actually improving what they produce. And over time the economy stagnates. And here in the United States we have a history of huge, big corporations controlling huge sectors of the economy, and over time we put in laws to break up those monopolies and to create laws to guard against artificial monopolies that prevented competition. So antitrust is one element of a broader set of laws and principles that every country should be adopting with the notion that, look, if youre successful, if you are a company like apple that innovated, or a company like microsoft that came up with a new concept, you should be able to get big, and you should be able to be successful. And those who founded it, like bill gates, should be wealthy. But what you also want to make sure of is the next generation, the googles or the facebooks, that they can be successful too in that space. And that means that you have to make sure that those who got there first arent closing the door behind them. Which all too often, i think, happens in many countries, not just in african countries. So you make an excellent point, and i will make sure that thats incorporated into the broader discussion. Okay. This young lady right here. Yes. Because she looks so nice. [laughter] [applause] thank you very much. My name is josephine, im from kenya no, weve got a [inaudible] [laughter] thats it. Go ahead. Thank you for these good initiatives for young people and thank you for believing the young people. I know youre going to ask them all [inaudible] people back in our countries, and my concern would be how will you be able to engage them to commit to their promises . Because i know theyre going to promise you [laughter] well [applause] all right, dont, dont get carried away here. [laughter] well, look, part of what weve done here by building this network that were going to be doubling over the next couple of years is were going directly to the young people and creating these networks and these opportunities. And i, what were already seeing, i think, is many countries are excited by this. Theyre saying, you know what . This is something that can be an empowering tool for us, so lets take advantage of it. There are going to be some that may feel somewhat threatened by it. Theres no doubt about that. But the good thing is we will be creating this network. There are a whole bunch of people who are following this online, who are following it on social media. Well have these regional centers. You will help to make sure that some of these promises are observed, because the continent of young people is going to be paying attention and will be able to see which countries are really embracing this opportunity to get new young people involved and which ones are ignoring it. This promise. And so i will say to every one of these leaders you need to take advantage of the most important resource you have, and thats the amazing youth in these countries. [applause] but youre going to have to also help to hold them accountable collectively, across countries. And thats part of why this network can be so important. So this is sad, but i have to go. Oh i have other work to do. [laughter] the good news is youve got all these really amazing people who are still going to be meeting with you and talking with you, and most importantly, this what an amazing opportunity it is for all of you to get to know each other and to talk and to compare ideas and share concepts going forward. The main message i want to leave you with is that in the same way im inspired by you, you should be inspired by each other. That africa has enormous challenges, the world has enormous challenges. But i tell the young people that intern in the white house and i usually meet with them at the end of their internship after six months i always tell them, you know, despite all the bad news that you read about or you see on television, despite all the terrible things that happen in places around the world, if you had to choose a time in World History in which to be born and you didnt know who you were or what your status or position would be, youd choose today because for all the difficultyies, the world has made progress, and africas making progress. And its growing. And there are fewer conflicts, and theres less war. And theres more opportunity. And theres greater democracy, and theres greater observance of human rights. You know, progress sometimes can be slow, and it can be frustrating, and sometimes you take two steps forward and then you take one step back. But the great thing about being young is you are not bound by the past. And you can shape the future. And if all of you work hard and Work Together and remain confident in your possibilities and arent deterred when you suffer a setback, but you get back up and you dust yourself off and you go back at it, i have no confidence i have no doubt that youre going to leave behind for the next generation and the generation after that an africa that is strong and vibrant and prosperous and is ascendant on the world stage. So i cant wait to see what all of you do. Good luck. [applause] [cheers and applause] and president obama is going to be awarding the National Medal of arts and humanities later today to a number of performers and artists. You can watch that online, well bring it to you live, just go to cspan. Org. Hell be awarding that medal to singer linda ronstadt, film maker jeffrey catsen burg and public radios diane rehm. Michelle obama also expected to be there at 3 00 this afternoon, and again, you can watch it streaming live at cspan. Org. And after six weeks of talks over an capitol hill, house and Senate Negotiators have agreed on a compromise plan to work toward fixing Veterans Health care programs. The chairs of the house and Senate Veterans aappears committee have scheduled a News Conference today to unveil their plan. Well have live coverage at 1 30 eastern. And the house and senate both meeting today for legislative work at 2 00 eastern time. The house has 16 bills scheduled today including one that deals with airfare fees and one on sanctions against north korea. The senate will be voting on a number of nominations and later this week highway funding. You can watch live coverage of the senate debait here on cspan2 and the house over on cspan. And some developments in the israel palestinian conflict. U. N. Secretarygeneral ban kimoon just returned from a trip to the middle east. He says gaza is in Critical Condition and that all Occupying Powers have an obligation to protect their civilians. He made those remarks just before reports of an airstrike hitting a hospital in gaza. Lets take a look at some of his remarks. As the world marks [inaudible] it is time for an immediate, unconditional humanitarian ceasefire. In the name of humanity, the violence must stop. As you know, i have just returned from the region. Over the course of six days, i held extensive consultations with the leaders in the region in eight countries in the middle east as well as the u. S. Secretary of state john kerry who has been working tirelessly and valiantly to end the fighting. Since my return during the weekend, i have continued with a number of calls to all the leaders including Prime Minister netanyahu of israel this morning. I had a long talk with him, again, urging him to stop this violence and agree and honor the international communitys joint, common efforts and call for urgent i humanitarian, unconditional ceasefire as a Critical Condition. Israeli missiles have pummeled gaza. Hamas rockets have randomly struck israel. No country would accept the threat of rockets from above and tunnels from below. At the same time, all Occupying Powers have an International Legal obligation to protect the civilians. I was deeply disappointed that dangerous hostilities resumed on sunday, but since sunday evening a relative and very fragile calm on the ground has been established. The temporary pause in fighting brought a brief respite to warweary civilians, it also revealed how much the massive israeli assault has devastated the lives of the people of gaza. We saw scenes of indiscriminate destruction. Some described it as a manmade hurricane, a whole neighborhood reduced to debris, rubble. Blocks are flattened, apartment buildings, scores of bodies still buried under mountains of twisted wreckage. The death toll kept climbing. The fighting has claimed well over 1,000 palestinian lives, most of them civilians, hundreds of them children. Hamas rocket fire has claimed the lives of three israeli civilians. At least 16 palestinian civilian deaths and more than 200 injuries came as a result of an appalling assault on a u. N. School. We were sheltering families, women and children, who had sought refuge from the fighting. Ongoing hostilities have prevented establishing conclusive responsibility and this imperative to do so and to have accountability for this outrageous crime. Indeed, there must be accountability and us have disfor crimes and justice for crimes committed by all sides. On friday i spoke with some of our staff to thank them for their heroic work. All of our colleagues told me there is no safer place in gaza. The people of gaza have nowhere to run. They are trapped and besieged on a speck of land. Every area is a civilian area. Every home, every school, every refuge has become a target. The casualty and damage figures also raise serious questions about proportionality. Today more than 173,000 gazans are seeking protection in facilityings. That means about 10 facilityings. That means about 10 of the entire population is sheltering under the u. N. Flag. I repeat yet again my call on israel and all parties to do vastly more to insure the safety of these u. N. Sites and the security of the people who have sought sanctuary there. Israelis and palestinians have a responsibility to stop the fighting now, to start the dialogue now and to address the root causes that will finally break the endless cycles of senseless suffering. That means securing peace through mutual respect, an end to the economic strangulation of gaza and nearly half century of occupation. More suffering and siege conditions in gaza will only hurt innocent civilians, further isolate israel, empower extremists on all sides and leave our world far less safe. That is why i will continue to work with the palestinian president , mahmoud abbas, and other regional and Global Leaders to deliver the peace that the israeli and Palestinian People so desperately need and so fully deserve. Thank you. That was some of the comments today from if u. N. Secretary general from the u. N. Secretarygeneral. Well continue to keep you posted on any updates. Fox News National security analyst k. T. Mcfarland also had comments recently about the middle east and the illegal immigration situation on the u. S. Southern border. She spoke at the centennial institutes annual western conservative summit in denver for about 20 minutes. Alyssa, ive got to tell you that when i wrote that column about president obamas west point speech and compared it to a krispy kreme doughnut, they wrote back to say, no way. [laughter] i was first here two years ago, and my dear friend, ambassador marilyn ware, introduced me. So i got up and said who here watches fox news . Everybodys hand went up. And i said, im the brunette. And they all got it. [laughter] by the way, everybody still watch fox news . Raise your hand. Okay. Fox news, in its infinite wisdom, has now started hiring brunettes. We now have kimberly guilfoyle, we have Andrea Tanner the process, you just 45erd from my new colleague, Mary Katherine hamm, and even katie pavlich, shes a blond, but shes a dark blond. [laughter] so were very excited that this is a new trend. I was very pleased when john wanted me to come back and talk about foreign policy, and i started writing my remarks about two weeks ago. And i was listening on monday to the president s press secretary who said president obama had ushered in a new era of global tranquility. [laughter] so i wrote this speech, right . Guess what . By thursday there were several wars. So i decided im going to rewrite the speech and talk to you about why we are not in an era of global tranquility. In fact, i think that the last six years of American Foreign policy we have never seen a more dangerous world with bad leaders. I mean, we have been in bad places before, dont get me wrong. We have, you know, weve had civil war, we had world war ii. There have been very difficult and dark times in americas history. But this is one of the few times where weve had, i think, extremely weak leadership and leadership which wants to step back from the world stage. When president obama started declaring the era of leading from behind, which is what i think the Obama Doctrine is all about, he didnt understand that you lead from behind, youre not leading, youre leaving a big gap up front. And what we have seep in the last several years, in particular in the last several months, is a number of regional countries rushing to fill that gap. I think the president honestly and the people around him, their idea of leading are from behind was that everything that had happened before, you know, americas leadership in the world, george bush, was creating a more difficult and destabilized world. So they thought if they could take america down a notch, then everybody would be sort of equal, and then we would have some, usher in this era of Global Governance and global community, and its been an unmitigated disaster. If i ask you to raise your hands, how many of you think thatter in an era of greater tranquility in the globe . [laughter] yeah, well, youre all really smart. Nobody raised their hands, and youre right. I want to go around the world and do a quick sort of summary of why weve got a lot of problems in various regions of the world and what i think may be the way out of it. So if you look at whats happened in the last 72 hours, yesterday we had the russian, two days ago we had Russian Forces in Eastern Ukraine shoot a civilian airliner out of the air. I dont think they would have done that, i dont think the russians would have been in Eastern Ukraine without a sense that the United States had withdrawn from its and abdicated its leadership role in the world. We also then in the afternoon on thursday afternoon israel went into gaza to try to destroy the tunnels that have been plaguing israels security. So it went into gaza, addressed the hamas military threats. I dont think we would have hamas be as bold as they have been and certainly not as well supplied from iran without a sense that america wasnt going to do anything about it. So those are two very stark examples in the last 72 hours of americas withdrawal from leadership in the world. But i think its bigger than that. As i go around the world in a quick tour of the global crises, look at iraq and syria. Isis, its a more radical form, believe it or not, than alqaeda. Its the Islamic State of iraq and syria which theyve now just renamed themselves the Islamic State. Its in part of syria, its in part of iraq, its robbed a bank, its the Richest Terrorist Group in the world, probably 2 billion under their belt. Theyve seized oil fields so that theyre going to have replenishment of that money in the years to come, and their goal is to expand