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Obama Warns Of Trade Issues If U.K. Leaves E.U.; Obama To Tour Shakespeare's Globe Theatre; It Could Be Weeks Before Autopsy Results; Prince's Last Days; The Brussels Airport A Month After Attacks; One Hundred Seventy Five Nations Sign Historic Climate Change Pact; Obama Holds Town Hall In London. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired April 23, 2016 - 05:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(HEADLINES)

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Live from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm George Howell. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

We begin this hour in London. The U.S. president is there and facing some backlash for his thoughts on the debate over Britain leaving the E.U. A Brexit as it's called and he warns there are consequences to consider.

The president's visit there comes just as some Britons say Mr. Obama has been meddling after he weighed in on this touchy debate. He urged Britain to stay in the E.U. and warned that leaving it would do the British and American relationship more harm than good.

Let's go live to London this hour. CNN's Athena Jones is there following developments. Athena, good day to you. So these two nations have always had what's been considered a special relationship.

The president says as a friend he should offer an opinion, but there are those who say he should, instead, butt out.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely true. Hi, George. There are a lot of folks on the leave campaign, the folks who want the U.K. to leave the European Union, who feel that the U.S. president is meddling in the affairs of the U.K. in a way that the U.S. would never accept.

The U.S. would accept another country telling their American voters what they should do. And you can imagine during this political season, there are a lot of opinions in other countries about what American voters should do.

But as you say, the president said, look, there's no closer friend to the U.S. than the U.K. As a friend, I'm offering my opinion. I'm not going to cast a vote. I'm not trying to fix a vote, but in a democracy people should want more information.

I'm here to provide the U.S. perspective. You talked about this special relationship. You've heard talk of the U.S. and U.K. being kindred spirits. No closer ally, no stronger ally, well, the U.S. wants its closest and strongest ally to remain in Europe, to have a voice in the debates and the affairs affecting Europe at a time of turmoil.

If you look at the migrants crossing across European borders from these conflicts in the Middle East and other issues, of course. One of the main arguments being made is an economic one which is that the U.K. is a stronger in Europe.

Some in the leave campaign have argued that look, even if the U.K. were to leave the E.U., they could have to negotiate a separate trade deal directly with the U.S. The president said not so fast. That's not something that would happen too quickly. Take a listen to what else he had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think it's fair to say that maybe at some point down the line there might be a U.K.-U.S. trade agreement, but it's not going to happen anytime soon because our focus is in negotiating with a big block of the European Union to get a trade agreement done. U.K. is going to be in the back of the queue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: So the back of the queue. That is a warning, more or less, from President Obama to U.K. voters approaching this big vote in June just a few weeks away, a very economic argument. Also security, they believe that the U.K. is stronger in Europe and will be stronger security-wise and economic-wise as a part of the European Union -- George.

HOWELL: Athena, that comment, the back of the queue, a lot of people didn't like that on Twitter. Twitter just blew up over that. I know that the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, did not mind the frank talk from the U.S. president, a friend, chiming in on this. What more can you tell us about the U.S. president's schedule while there in the U.K.?

JONES: He just now wrapped up a visit to the Globe Theater. It's a replica of the theater which burned down centuries ago. It was rebuilt in the spot. This is a theater where many of William Shakespeare's plays were originally performed.

So the president made a stop there at the Globe Theater and he's now on his way, he should be arriving any minute now at the town hall he'll be having with young people here in the U.K.

He has these town halls oftentimes on these foreign trips so he can speak with ordinary folks, not just the politicians and the leaders of countries. He'll be having that town hall.

We expect this Brexit issue to come up again among other issues. Later in the day, he'll meet with the opposition leader, the leader of the Labor Party, Jeremy Corbyn (ph). So a jam packed day here in London on his second day here.

[05:05:07]Tomorrow morning, he heads to Germany, to Hanover to take part in this international trade fair, the biggest trade fair in the world -- George.

HOWELL: CNN correspondent, Athena Jones, live in London at this hour. Athena, thank you for your reporting.

Again, that comment about the back of the queue and the possibility of the U.K. leaving the E.U. London's mayor, Boris Johnson hit back about the president's comments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, LONDON MAYOR: I do think it's perverse that we're being urged by the United States to embroil ourselves evermore deeply in a system where our laws, 60 percent of them are now emanating from the E.U. when the United States would not dream of subjugating itself in any way to any other international jurisdiction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: So Britain's biggest partner in Europe is the European Union. Max Foster tells us more about the relationship.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What is the E.U.? The European Union is a group of countries that work together to create a single market. This allows goods, capital, services and people to move between the member states as long as they follow rules and pay the entry fee.

We're getting ahead of ourselves. To start this story we need to go right back to the end of World War II. After six years of fighting, Europe was disseminated. Economies were collapsing and mistrust was ripe as old enemies faced the prospect of recreating trade ties.

France and previous occupiers, Germany, faced the difficult task of creating a unity for profit. So they started talking, mainly about steel and coal.

In 1951 a total of six country, France, Belgium, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands reached their first accord by uniting the steal and coal industries creating the European Coal and Steel Community or the ECSC.

They later introduced the European Economic Community, the EEC in 1958. These two organizations are seen as the origin of the modern European Union that wouldn't adopt its new name until 1993.

More than six decades later, the European Union now represents more than half a billion people across 28 countries and with a common currency, the euro, which generates an estimated 14 trillion euro in GDP per year. The premise, countries economically linked are less likely to have conflict. But it isn't a totally happy marriage for many counties as some are affected differently by world events.

There have been arguments over financial regulations, bailouts and different approaches to migration. This has given rise to anti-EU parties across Europe with many calling for their countries to withdraw from arguably the world's most powerful union. Max Foster, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: So the referendum about the U.K.'s future in the E.U. is set for June 23rd. Those who support an exit or Brexit as it's called argue that Britain would be better off economically if it were to leave.

But experts are not so sure. The think tank Open Europe projects a worst case scenario would cost Britain 2.2 percent of its Gross Domestic Product by 2030. Their best case scenario predicts GDP would rise 1.6 percent over the same period.

On the flip side, the U.K. currently contributes 5.8 percent of the E.U.'s operating budget, second only to Germany and one-third of all foreign direct investment. Experts say if the British exit is approved, the European Union stands to lose 15 percent of its GDP.

The death investigation of Prince. Medical examiners in Minnesota have completed their autopsy, but say it could take weeks before we know exactly how this music legend died. Paramedics found Prince unresponsive on Thursday in his estate. He was 57 years old.

The sheriff says there was no obvious sign of trauma or suicide. Prince had some medical scares though in the past few weeks. A spokesperson for the medical examiner thanked everyone for respecting the investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTHA WEAVER, MIDWEST MEDICAL EXAMINER'S OFFICE: This is something that we remember and we take very, very seriously, and we appreciate the respect and the dignity and the outpouring of support that everyone has shown not only to his family, but to the law enforcement officers working on this.

[05:10:05]To the state of Minnesota that so proudly claimed him and adored him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Our Kyung Lah takes us through Prince's last week including exclusive video of the artist riding his bike just days before his death. Here is her report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was outside and saw a gentleman riding a bike and noticed right away that it was Prince.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kelly Collins seeing what she and others at the mall saywas their famous neighbor couldn't resist recording even though he indicated he didn't want to be filmed.

KELLY COLLINS, SAW PRINCE AT THE MALL: I couldn't blame him. I was looking at him especially hearing that he had not been feeling well the day before.

LAH: That video taken on Saturday just five days before Prince's death. Prince had not been feeling well for weeks. On April 7th anxious fans in Atlanta learned that two shows that night are postponed.

According to the Fox Theater, Prince is ill, battling the flu, but one week later, April 14th, Prince takes the stage in Atlanta, the makeup concerts, two shows, 80-minute sets. No sign of illness. He finishes to a standing ovation.

Prince seems to relish the moment tweeting "I am transformed." The next day, April 15th, Prince is flying home to Minneapolis. His private jet makes an unexpected detour, an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois, rushed to the hospital.

But Prince doesn't stay long instead continuing his flight back to Minneapolis. The next day Saturday, April 16th is when Kelly Collins says she sees Prince on that bike ride.

COLLINS: He looked like Prince. He looked really good.

LAH (on camera): Did anything appear wrong?

COLLINS: No. I was actually shocked to see him riding his bike after learning just the day before his plane landed and he wasn't doing well.

LAH (voice-over): That same day, Prince post this announcement, an impromptu dance party at his residence, Paisley Park, Michael Holtz went as a spectator to the Saturday night gathering. Prince speaks to the small crowd of about 200 people for 20 minutes he says.

MICHAEL HOLTZ, PRINCE'S STUDIO DJ: He addressed the crowd. He's like, hey, if you hear any news, give it a couple days before you waste any prayers.

LAH (on camera): How did he look Saturday versus the other time?

HOLTZ: Just the same, as far as I've ever seen him. Always healthy looking, always energetic. He was definitely a worker. He had the worker mentality, nothing is going to keep him down. I thought we're going to be seeing Prince well into his 80s.

LAH (voice-over): The next day, Sunday, April 17th, Prince tweets, #feelingrejuvenated, feeling well enough that he heads out to a local live music spot. (on camera): Tuesday night Prince came here to the Dakota Jazz Club. He sat at this table, watched some live music and talked to the staff. They say nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was here for that show on Tuesday.

LAH: And everything seemed fine and normal?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like any other night when he would come.

LAH (voice-over): The Sheriff's Department said the next night, Wednesday, April 20th, Prince is dropped off at his home at 8:00 p.m. He spends the night alone. No one is concerned until the next morning when employees can't reach him. They find him collapsed in an elevator then a panic call to 911.

DISPATCHER: Person down not breathing.

PARAMEDIC: CPR started.

LAH: The CPR fails. He's pronounced dead at 10:07 Thursday morning. There remain big gaps in Prince's last days. Did he visit any doctors? Did he take any prescriptions?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is part of the investigation, and that would be our normal protocol.

LAH: Kyung Lah, CNN, Chanhassen, Minnesota.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: An investigation we will of course continue to follow on CNN. You're watching NEWSROOM. Still ahead, it has been a month since the devastating terror attacks in Belgium. Now for the first time, we're getting to see the reconstruction of the Brussels airport. We'll show you.

Plus a historic climate change accord is one step closer now to taking effect. What this could mean for the air you and your children breathe as NEWSROOM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:17:12]

HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell. Police say a university professor was hacked to death near his home in Western Bangladesh along the Indian border. Investigators say 58-year-old Risal Karim Sadiki (ph) was waiting for a bus when two or three assailants attacked him from behind.

The reason for that assault is still unclear, but it's all under investigation. Earlier this month, blogger, Nasimudin Sammad (ph) was murdered when attackers hacked him with machetes and then shot dead. That is one of a string of killings in Bangladesh that targeted secular writers. We are learning more information now about one of the terrorists who attacked the city of Brussels one month ago. Najim Laachraoui was one of two suicide bombers who blew himself up at the Brussels airport on March 22nd.

Now we've learned that he actually worked at the airport for 11 days in 2011 and for a week in 2012. He was contracted by a company there to do general cleaning.

In the meantime, an attorney representing former ISIS hostages says her client have also identified Laachraoui as their jailer in Syria. Four former French hostages say the Brussels bomber guarded them alongside another man. That man happens to be in custody at the moment for an attack on a Jewish museum in 2014.

In Belgium, the nation is still trying to recover from the attacks that killed 32 people there. On Friday, the victims were remembered in a ceremony at the Metro station that was targeted. It is presently set to reopen on Monday.

Now we're just getting ready to see the reconstruction at the Brussels airport, which is set to resume full operations in June. Erin McLaughlin has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the first time we have been able to access the departure hall here at the Zaventem International Airport. A month ago, this was the scene of complete and utter devastation, but now it is very much a construction site.

It is surreal standing here knowing the chaos that unfolded that tragic day. Surveillance footage shows the three alleged attackers wheeling their luggage trolleys through this hall.

The first suicide blast happening just seconds apart. The third bomb was detonated by authorities once the hall had been evacuated. The (inaudible) construction belies what was a scene of terror as tons of people running for their lives in fear.

The image of a flight attendant sitting shocked, her face covered in blood found of a child crying, these are the images that will be with this country forever.

[05:20:02]Now as you can see, they are working to get this airport back up and running. It is still not operating at full capacity. They set up a temporary check-in facility not far from here.

There's multiple layers of security there. Passengers are screened before and after they check in. Military's also present as authorities are taking no chances. Erin McLaughlin, CNN, Zaventem Airport, Brussels.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: Erin, thank you. In Syria, ISIS claims it shut down a Syrian Air Force jet and took the pilot prisoner. A news agency affiliated with the terror group says the warplane was downed east of Damascus on Friday. Video purportedly shows the wreckage in flames. CNN has not confirmed its authenticity. ISIS claims the pilot parachuted from the aircraft and then was captured alive.

Now we move on to the migrant crisis in Europe. Hundreds of migrants apparently are making their way to Greece once again, and it's happening despite the recent deal between the E.U. and Turkey, aimed at reducing the flow of asylum seekers.

The International Organization for Migration says about 150 migrants are arriving in Greece each day by boat from Turkey. It says the number may be rising again because smugglers are getting more creative or it may simply be that weather is improving.

Talking about weather now, climate change is taking center stage at the United Nations, 175 countries signed on to a history pact aimed at slowing global warming. The next step is ratification by participating countries.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held his 2-year-old granddaughter, Isabel, as he signed the accord, 196 other children were also there.

After Leonardo Dicaprio, an official U.N. messenger of peace whose focus is on climate change told world leaders they're giving future generations hope.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEONARDO DICAPRIO, ACTOR: An upheaval, a massive change is required right now, one that leads to a new collective consciousness, a new collective evolution of the human race, inspired and enabled by a sense of urgency from all of you. We all know that reversing the course of climate change will not be easy, but the tools are in our hands if we apply them before it is too late.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: The Paris agreement aims to keep the average global warming below a two-degree rise from preindustrial levels. It even strives to curb it to a 1.5 degree mark and to rapidly reduce global emissions and greenhouse gases.

It also requires all participating countries to implement their proposed action plans. Leaders have one year to sign on to the document, which is meant to take effect in 2020, but that could start sooner once 55 countries representing 55 percent of global emissions sign on.

Climate changing, the milestones, many have occurred since that Paris agreement was actually established back in December. Meteorologist, Derek Van Dam is here to tell us more about it.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: George, it's ironic there's this ambitious goal of wanting to curb that global warming temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius because what I'm about to show you on this latest graph is astounding.

We actually are reaching just over 1.2 degrees above preindustrial average temperatures in 2016. So we are blowing records away, and Mother Nature really probably not willing to wait along too much for us, meaning us collectively as a whole, trying to get our act together.

The good news is we've had over 170 countries, world leaders, coming together putting the ink to paper to sign the legal agreement binding us to certain carbon reductions and so forth. This is astounding.

The top three warmest years, 2010, 2014, 2015, and then we've got 2016. On top of that we have the other ominous milestones that have occurred, the record warmest month ever recorded, March of 2016, on the heels of ten consecutive months that were also record setting in terms of heat.

That started in May of 2015. We're also starting to correlate some of these extreme weather events with climate change as well. So stronger evidence pointing towards heavy rain events, coastal flooding, heat waves and to a lesser extent hurricanes and tornadoes.

You can actually see on this particular graph we've actually seen an increase in weather disasters by about 50 percent, at least in the past decade, compared to 1985 to 1995. A significant uptick in the amount of weather disasters.

[05:25:00]Speaking of weather disasters, we have the potential for severe weather. This is giving our viewers in the United States a heads up as to what's to come for Sunday, working into Monday and Tuesday of next week.

We have the potential for a multiday severe weather setup. This is what's taking place over the eastern half. We have a ridge bringing in warm weather.

We've got strong Gulf of Mexico moisture and a trough that's going to drop south across the Rockies and have a lot of energy associated with it.

Let's talk Sunday first. Here is our potential of severe weather, Omaha, Nebraska to Kansas City and Wichita, damaging winds and large hail. That's the main concern.

But when we start to focus our attention on the strong upper level energy forming over the four corners, move eastward and that will set our jet stream.

The upper level winds in that perfect position for the potential for severe weathers, large supercell storms and the potential for tornadoes, watch for that severe weather this Monday and Tuesday around the Oklahoma City region.

So that is something that the CNN Weather Center, George, we'll be monitoring very closely. HOWELL: Right there in Oklahoma, a hotbed for tornadoes. We'll continue to stay in touch with you and monitor, Derek. Thanks so much.

This is CNN NEWSROOM, still ahead, Donald Trump is trying to ensure that he is the Republican nominee in November. We'll tell you how he might be changing his public persona and try to help his chances for that.

Plus 400 years since Shakespeare's death. We'll show you how the world is celebrating its most famous play write. Live across the United States and around the world this hour, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWELL: We're going to take you live to London. The U.S. president is holding a town hall meeting with young people speaking about other things including the strong bond between the United States and Great Britain. Mr. Obama often speaks of the U.K. as being America's closest ally. Let's listen in.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: It's wonderful to see all of you. I guess, you all know why I came this week. It's no secret. Nothing is going to stop me from wishing happy birthday to her majesty and meeting George who is adorable. Michelle and I had the privilege to visit with her majesty and the duke of Edinburg yesterday.

I can't tell you what we talked about. I can tell you that I hope I am such an engaging lunch partner when I am 90. And I'd like to thank her majesty for letting us use one of her horticultural halls from this town hall.

I also just came from touring Shakespeare's Globe, which is a good way to start your Saturday morning. Today is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare death and as he once wrote brevity is the soul of wit. So I will try to be brief on the front end so we have time for a conversation.

These are some of the favorite things that I do when I travel around the world is have a chance to meet with young people and hear from them directly. It's inspiring to me. It gives me new ideas and underscores the how young people are rising up in every continent to seize the possibilities of tomorrow.

Now, whenever I get together with leaders of the United States and U.K., you hear a lot about the special relationship and the shared values and interests that bind us together in the way our cooperation makes the world safer and more secure and more just and prosperous place, and all of that is true.

We go back a pretty long way, the U.K. and the U.S. We've had our quarrels. There was that whole tea incident, and the British burned my house down.

[05:30:11]But we made up. Ultimately, we made up and ended up spilling blood on the battlefield together side by side against fascism and against tyranny, for freedom and for democracy.

And from the ashes of war we led the charge to create the institutions and initiatives that sustained a prosperous peace, NATO, Bretton Woods, the Marshall plan, the E.U. The joint efforts and sacrifices of previous generations of Americans and brats are a big part of why we've known decades of relative peace and prosperity in Europe.

And that, in turn, has helped us spread peace and prosperity around the world. And think about how extraordinary that is. For more than 1,000 years this continent was darkened by war and violence.

It was taken for granted. It was assumed that that was the fate of man. Now, that's not to say that your generation has had it easy. Both here and in the United States, your generation has grown up at a time of breathtaking change. You've come of age through 9/11 and 7/7.

You've had friends go off to war. You've seen families endure recession. The challenges of our time, economic inequality and climate change, terrorism, migration, all these things are real.

And in an age of instant information where TV and Twitter can feed us a steady stream of bad news, I know it can sometimes seem like the order we've created is fragile, maybe even crumbling, maybe the center cannot hold.

We see new calls for isolationism or xenophobia. We see those who would call for rolling back the rights of people, people hunkering down in their own point of view and unwilling to engage in a democratic debate.

And those impulses I think we can understand. They are reactions to changing times and uncertainty. But when I speak to young people I implore them and implore you to reject those calls to hold back.

I'm here to ask you to reject the notion that we're gripped by forces that we can't control. I want you to take a longer and more optimistic view of history and the part you can play in it.

I ask you to embrace the view of one of my predecessors, President John F. Kennedy, who once said our problems are man-made. Therefore, they can be solved by man and man can be as big as he wants.

That's how since 1950 the global average life expectancy has grown by 25 years. Since 1990, we've cut extreme poverty around the world in half. That's how over the past hundred years we've come from a world where only a small fraction of woman can vote to one where almost every woman can.

That's how since just the year 2000 we've come from a world without marriage equality to one where it's a reality in nearly two dozen countries including here and in the United States.

Every few months I speak with a new group of White House interns. They're roughly your age. They come in for six months. They are assigned to various aspects of the White House, and I often talk to them about the fact that, if you could choose one moment in history in which to be born.

And you didn't know ahead of time what you were to be, didn't know if you were a man or a woman, what nationality, what ethnicity, what religion, who your parents were, what class status you might have.

If you could choose one time in history where the chances that you led a fulfilling life were most promising, you'd choose right now, this moment.

Because the world for all of its travails, for all its challenges has never been healthier, better educated, wealthier, more tolerant, less violent, more attentive to the rights of all people, then it is today.

[05:35:12]That doesn't mean we don't have big problems. That's not a cause for complacency, but it is a cause for optimism. You are standing in a moment where your capacity to shape this world is unmatched.

What an incredible privilege that is, and you've never have better tools to make a difference, to forge a better U.K. and a better Europe and a better world.

So my primary message today is going to be to reject pessimism and cynicism, know that progress is possible, that our problems can be solved.

Progress requires the harder path of breaking down barriers and building bridges and standing up for the values of tolerance and diversity that our nations have worked and sacrificed to secure and defend.

Progress is not inevitable. It requires struggle, perseverance, discipline, faith. But that's the story of how we won voting rights and women's rights and workers' rights and civil rights and immigration rights and gay rights.

Because of those who came before us often risked their lives to give us a chance to know something better. That's what gives me so much hope about your generation. So many of you are driven by that same impulse.

You are a generation that has seen integration and globalization not as threats, but as opportunities for education, exploration, employment, and exchange. You're a generation who sees differences of pluralism and diversity, not as a curse, but as a great gift.

That's one of the reasons why the United States has invested in young leader initiatives around the globe, in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and right here in the U.K.

Last summer, we launched Young Leaders U.K. It's grown from four students and plummet to more than 1,000 nationwide, a diverse group of Brits aged 18 to 30 from government and NGOs in the private sector including many of you here today.

I know the ambassador has held town hall workshops at more than 100 high schools with more than 14,006 performers. He's worked to create more of the U.S. Embassy Exchange Programs that have graduated alumni like Margaret Thatcher, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.

Because we want you to have the tools, connections and resources that you need to make yourselves change agents, the change that you are looking for in the world. So your young leaders like Michael Sonig who is here today. Where is Michael? There he is.

Michael was inspired by America's "Rock The Vote" voter registration initiative. So he started his own bite the bullet -- bite the ballot, excuse me -- initiative here in the U.K. He spent time in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he learned about our civil rights movement.

He said, I have a new understanding of the meaning of perseverance, resilience and delayed gratification, about fighting for change you may not live to see, but your children will live to see.

Fighting for change that you may not live to see, but your children will live to see. That's what this is all about. That's what we are all about.

Whether in the cold war or world war movements for economic or social justice, efforts to combat climate change, our best impulses have always been to leave a better world for the next generation.

Miriam Ahmed is also here, there is Miriam up top. It's that impulse to a young leader like Miriam to say I may have grown up one of eight in a small West London house, but I'll use the education I got at Oxford to help any child have the same opportunities that I have.

And Ali Hashim is here. It's the same impulse that lead him to say I may have fled Syria as a child, but now that I'm in elected office, I'm going to use my power to help other refugees like me.

And Becca Bunts is here. It's that impulse that compels a young leader like Becca to say, as a woman with a disability, I may have fallen down at times, but people who believed in me picked me up.

[05:40:08]And I'm going to pay it forward by fighting for people with disabilities and against violence against women because I believe the world can be a better place.

You can't help but be inspired by the stories of young people like these, both in the United States and in the United Kingdom, and think of all the good that we can do together, think of all the good that we have yet to accomplish.

There is not a challenge on this planet that our two countries don't take on together. As long as your generation nurtures that special relationship and learns from one another and stands together, I'm confident the future is brighter than the past and that our best days are still ahead of us.

So with that, let's have a conversation. All right, you guys were ready. Here is what we're going to do. I am going to go boy-girl, boy-girl to make sure that it's fair. I'll try to get as many questions as I can.

Introduce yourself. We have mics right there. Tell me who you are and where you're from, and then try to keep your question or comment relatively brief so I can get as many as possible. All right? We will start right here.

KAYLA MCCARNEY: Mr. President, my name is Kayla McCarney from Northern Ireland. The special relationship is felt nowhere any stronger than Northern Ireland where America has played a really important role in our peace process. How will your predecessor and those that come after you help to foster that?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, Northern Ireland is a story of perseverance and the fact that your generation -- how old are you now, 21. Your experience has been entirely different than your parents. There's still huge problems there. Some of them political, some of them economic.

But every year we have, on St. Patrick's Day folks from Ireland come, and we have both either first prime minister and deputy prime minister come. Folks are working these issues through.

And what's interesting is the degree to which the example of peace making in Northern Ireland is now inspiring others. So in Colombia, Latin America right now, they're trying to undergo a peace process.

They've actually brought people from Northern Ireland to come and describe how do you overcome years of enmity and hatred and intolerance and try to shape a country that is unified?

You know this better than I do, but one of the things you see in Northern Ireland that's most important is the very simple act of recognizing the humanity of those on the other side of the argument, having empathy and a sense of connection to people who are not like you.

That's taken time, but you're now seeing that. I think among young people who are interacting more you're seeing that. It requires, also, forging a new identity that is about being from Northern Ireland as opposed to being unionist or shenfane (ph) or just deciding the country as a whole is more important than any particular faction or any particular flight.

But this is a challenging time to do that. Because there's so much uncertainty in the world right now, because things are changing so fast, there's a temptation to forge identities, tribal identities that give you a sense of certainty, a buffer against change.

That's something that our young people, we have to fight against, whether you're talking about Africa or the Middle East or Northern Ireland or Burma, the forces that lead to the most violence and the most injustice typically spring out of people saying I want to feel important by dividing the world into us and them.

[05:45:11]And them threatens me. So I've got to make sure that my tribe strikes out first. Fighting that mentality and that impulse requires us to begin very young with our kids.

One of the most encouraging things I've seen in Northern Ireland is children starting to go to school together and having a sense of -- that we're all in this together as opposed to it's us against them. It's going to take some time.

It will depend on leaders like you to make it happen. No pressure. You're going to be fine. You're going to do it. Good question. That gentleman right there. There's nobody behind you, right there. You. I was pointing down there. Go ahead. I'll call on him next.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Peter from London.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Hi, Peter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If your successor comes to you and she says so -- I suppose it could be Bernie -- and she says he's prioritized education, health care and defense. These are three issues we've got. What's your priority? How do you go about ranking those? What do you like to see there?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: For the next president.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And yourself as well, but yes.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: You know, one of the things I've learned as president is I don't always have the luxury of just choosing one or two things. It turns out that how well we do in the United States and how well the globe does depends on a lot of things.

My first priority is to keep the American people safe just like I'm sure Prime Minister Cameron, if you asked him what is his first priority, it's keeping the United Kingdom safe. So security is always going to be a top-of-the-list item.

The threats from ISIL and transnational terrorism are absolutely critical to address. But how we address them is important, and recognizing that security is not just a matter of military actions.

But is a matter of the messages we send and the institutions that we build and the diplomacy we engage in and the opportunities we present to people.

That is going to be important for the next president of the United States and any global leader to recognize. I am in awe of our respective militaries, the men and women in uniform who serve their country and make such extraordinary sacrifices.

But we do them a disservice if we think the entire burden of keeping the world safe is just placed on those who are in uniform. That's where diplomacy comes from.

You look at something like Iran where obviously the United States and Iran has had a terrible relationship since 1979. The theocracy there has engaged in all kinds of very dangerous and provocative behaviors, and they were on the path to obtain a nuclear weapon. The hard diplomatic work we did along with the U.K. and the E.U. and members of the security council to forge an agreement where they are no longer on the path to get a nuclear weapon, we never engaged in a military strike to do it, but it resulted in a much safer world.

The same is true when you think about development in Sub-Saharan Africa. An organization like Boko Haram is ideologically driven and we have to help countries like Nigeria fight against the brutality and the rape and the pillage that they engage in.

[05:50:00]But if there are communities where children can't read or feed themselves, they are much more vulnerable to fostering these kinds of demented ideologies. So I think it's not an either-or question.

It's important for young people -- very many thoughtful young people I think instinctually are suspicious of military action because too often it's been used as a knee jerk response to problems as opposed to part of a broader set of solutions, but we have to do both and we can do both.

In terms of the United States right now, I would love to see a focus on early childhood education as the next step in filling out our social safety net. We don't yet have institutions that are fully adapted to the fact that, guess what, women work and support families.

And they need things like paid family leave and high quality child care. We know that when we invest in children between the ages of 0 and 3 that the outcomes in terms of them getting effective educations and having thrives lives are enormous.

We end up saving huge amounts of money from reduced crime and poverty if we just make that early investment. That's something that some countries do better than others.

And we can learn from other countries along those lines across the board, across the developing world I think we have to tend to issues of inequality. One of the places to start addressing these issues of inequality is making sure every child is getting a decent education.

A lot of our countries are not doing as well as they should on that front. All right. Who's next? Young lady right there. You, yes, you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, my name is Fatima. My question is do you think signing the TTIP agreement will have a negative impact on the E.U. due to standards of regulation enforced?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: For those of you who are not aware, TTIP as we call it is the trade deal that is being negotiated between the United States and the European Union. We haven't gotten it done yet. The truth is the United States and Europe already have enormous amounts of trade.

But there's still barriers that exist that prevent businesses and individuals that are providing services to each other to be able to do so seamlessly.

If we are able to get this deal done, it's estimated it will create millions of jobs and billions of dollars of benefits on both sides of the Atlantic. But getting trade deals done is tough because each country has its own parochial interests and factions.

In order to get a trade deal done, each country has to give something up. So it's a time consuming process. And people right now are especially suspicious of trade deals because trade deals feel as if they are accelerating some of these globalizing trends that have weakened labor unions and allow for jobs to be shipped to low-wage countries.

And some of the criticism in the past of trade deals are legitimate. Sometimes they have served the interests of large corporations and not necessarily of workers in the countries that participate in them.

But we've gone through this exercise between the United States and Asia where we organized a large regional trade deal with 11 countries, and part of the argument that I'm making in the United States is that the answer to globalization and income inequality and lack of wage growth is not to try to pull up the drawbridge and shut off trade.

[05:55:08]The idea is to make sure that in these trade deals we are embedding standards and values that help lift workers' rights and help lift environmental standards and help fight against things like human trafficking and child labor, and our values should be embedded in how countries trade with each other.

For example, Vietnam was one of the countries that is part of this Transpacific Partnership. We said to Vietnam, if you want access to our markets, we understand you have a different political system than us.

But if workers have no rights and there's no possibility of organizing labor unions, we're not going to let you sell a bunch of sneakers and t-shirts into our country because, by definition, you're going to be undercutting the standards of living of folks in our country.

So for the first time the government of Vietnam has started to change its laws to recognize labor unions. Now, they're still suppressed. Those standards are not where they are in the United States or the U.K., but it gives us a lever by which to begin to raise standards all around the world.

Now, that's less of an issue between the United States and Europe, main thing between the United States and Europe is trying to just break down some of the regulatory differences that make it difficult to do business back and forth, plus making sure those light sockets are all matched up.

Those light sockets are really irritating. I promised I would call on this gentleman back here. Right here, right here. You keep passing by this poor guy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is Elijah, and I'm from London. After eight years, what would you say you want your legacy to be?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Well, I still have a few more month months. Actually eight months and 52 days, not that I'm counting. I just made that up. I actually don't know. It's roughly something like that.

It's interesting. When you're in the job, you're not thinking on a day-to-day basis about your legacy. You're thinking about how do I get done what I'm trying to get done right now.

I don't think I'll have a good sense of my legacy until ten years from now and I can look back with some perspective and get a sense of what worked and what didn't. There are things I'm proud of.

The basic principle that in a country as wealthy as the United States every person should have access to high quality health care that they can afford. That's something I'm proud of. I believe in.

Saving the world economy from a great depression. That was pretty good. The first time I came to London was April of 2009 and the world economy was in a free fall, in part because of the reckless behavior of folks on Wall Street, but in part because of reckless behavior of a lot of financial institutions around the globe.

For us to be able to mobilize the world's community, to take rapid action, to stabilize the financial markets and then in the United States to pass Wall Street reforms that make it much less likely that a crisis like that can happen again, I'm proud of that.

I think on the international stage the world we did to get the possible nuclear weapons that Iran was developing out of Iran, and doing so without going to war is something I'm very proud of.

There are things that people don't pay a lot of attention to now, but the response to the Ebola crisis. For about three weeks everybody was sure that everybody was going to die.