MTV President Ms. Christina Norman is speaking of the responsibility that MTV feels in helping to set the environment young people grow up in.

And now, she appears to be announcing President Bill Clinton…

Jerry Lee Lewis and country music icon Solomon Burke are opening up the show.

(Some people are standing and may or may not be blocking my view now. I’m not naming any names but one of them sends ONE members a lot of email….)

(ps- Trevor gives a shout out)

…Watch it live on our stream.

Your view will probably be better than mine;)

The show will feature President Clinton, Bono, Chris Rock, Alicia Keys, Shakira, and Christina Norman – all launching new initiatives – and should be starting any moments now….

Importantly, you don’t have to get all your updates from me!

We’re live streaming the whole evening at one.org/campus.

Tonight, I have the pleasure of live blogging live from the Apollo theater where the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), MTV and ONE are hosting “Giving” – a roundtable discussion on youth activism.

At the event – we’ll officially launch the ONE Campus Challenge – although we did go out of our way to leak it to our members and blog readers beforehand:)

The event’s set to start at 9 but a bunch of us ONE loyalist have been here for hours making sure to get the word about ONE out to the more than 1,000 young people attending.

In a moment I’ll post a few great shots of the crew and crowd. Even as I sit here, I see more and more people in ONE shirts walking by.

ONE co-founder Bono and ONE founding partner DATA received the Liberty Medal in Philadelphia, PA, yesterday for their inspiring work fighting poverty and disease in Africa.

The National Constitution Center awards the Medal annually to recognize leadership in the pursuit of freedom. Previous winners include Nelson Mandela, Sandra Day O’Connor, Kofi Annan, Shimon Peres, and Colin Powell, Doctors Without Borders and CNN International.

In this clip, watch Bono receiving the award. (The full text of his speech is below.)

“Thank you. Thank you Mr. President. (George H.W. Bush) Thanks Joe. (Joseph Torsella, President and CEO, National Constitution Center) and everyone here at the National Constitution Center. It’s an inspiring place. In the words of Robert Zimmerman – Bob Dylan – “ring those bells…ring those bells.”

I want to thank my wife, Ali. And I also want to thank the members of U2 for not firing me when they hear I’m in Philadelphia this evening because they’re in the studio expecting me, and I know they won’t fire me because it is Philadelphia and we’ve played everywhere here. From 70 people to 70,000 people here. An important city for the U2ers, as well as these both Live 8 concerts which really turned my life upside down.

I’ve got 5 minutes to talk and I can spend that doing the shout-outs, but I want to thank Ngozi. (Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former Finance Minister of Nigeria and current member of DATA’s Policy Advisory Board) Really for what she said, for what she is and for what she does. This is the kind of leader we all want to work for. This is the reason we in DATA do what we do. We love you dear.

I must tell you it’s a bit humbling for me to be here where it all got started. Where America got started. Because along with a mayor, a governor, a former president, and so many others that served the cause of freedom while I, it has to be said, have served the cause of my own ego. President Bush, you may remember that when you were in office in 1992 and U2 was touring America, I used to do this bit every night in the show where I would bring a phone out and I’d ring you up at the White House. You never took my calls, Sir. You had far too much sense. That’s the truth. Now your son, he did not have your sense. He not only took my call, he had me over to lunch. And then I wouldn’t leave. I think he’s been regretting it ever since because when I come over to the house, I’m not exactly what you call “house trained” – even White House trained. I’m not exactly what you call a good guest either. I can be rude and I ask for things before we even sit down for tea, like billions of dollars to fight AIDS in Africa. Things like that.

I’d like to think that I’ve always left the White House with more than I arrived. Not only budget commitments, cutlery, silverware, candelabras, one or two Bush family photos, – OK one Gilbert Stuart portrait…of George Washington; it was in the bathroom – nobody could see, I’ll give it back.

I have to say that people took risks in working with us. (more…)

The new ONE Campus Challenge video!

At the end, note our very own Weldon Kennedy.

The World Bank has pledged $3.5B to developing countries – twice what the Bank pledged in the last replenishment of IDA, its development wing, in 2005.

Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, says the pledge is designed to encourage rich countries to increase their donations to the Bank and so that the Bank can do more work in “middle-income countries.”

Background info: The World Bank is composed of the IDA (which loans money to poor countries), the IFC (which loans money to the private sector) and the IBRD (which loans money to middle-income countries). The increased pledge is possible because the IFC and IBRD are in a strong financial situations right now.

Read more about the pledge in this BBC News piece.

At the MySpace/MTV forum in Durham, NH, (my hometown!) UNH student and ONE member Alex asks Senator Edwards:

“Do you believe that AIDS and poverty are national security issues for the United States?

Edwards’ short answer: “Yes.” More in the clip below: