:00:08. > :00:09.This is BBC World News today with me, Alice Baxter.
:00:10. > :00:13.President Barak Obama delivers his end of the year presss
:00:14. > :00:27.conference - it's expected to deal with a huge range of issues.
:00:28. > :00:30.World powers discuss an ambitious plan aimed at ending
:00:31. > :00:33.An advisor to President Assad tells the BBC the West must
:00:34. > :00:43.I think there is a certain reality that has been created in the heads
:00:44. > :00:45.of Western media and people that has no relation to our reality
:00:46. > :00:46.whatsoever. Rwandans vote on changes
:00:47. > :00:47.to the constitution, which could mean President Paul
:00:48. > :01:12.Kagame remaining in power A warm welcome to you. We are
:01:13. > :01:17.waiting and expecting President Obama to speak in just a few minutes
:01:18. > :01:23.at his end of the year press conference. Now we can go live to
:01:24. > :01:27.Washington, DC to speak to our correspondent who is waiting for
:01:28. > :01:33.President Obama to take to the podium. What only expecting? There
:01:34. > :01:37.is no doubt that he is going to try to trump and what he sees as his
:01:38. > :01:41.achievements. I'm sure he will talk about the climate agreement from
:01:42. > :01:47.Paris and the Iranians are killer deal and the importance of diplomacy
:01:48. > :01:53.and the talks going on in New York right now over Syria. -- nuclear
:01:54. > :02:03.deal. He doesn't want to send graduates to Syria or carpet bomb,
:02:04. > :02:07.but he will have to refer to the fact that Americans are very anxious
:02:08. > :02:14.following the attacks in Paris by Islamic State and an Islamic State
:02:15. > :02:20.attack in San Bernardino in California, in fact the president
:02:21. > :02:25.before he goes on the occasion will fly to Sam Bernadino to meet some of
:02:26. > :02:31.the families of those 14 victims who were killed in that mass shooting a
:02:32. > :02:36.couple of weeks ago. There is always a difficulty between the press and
:02:37. > :02:40.the president. You can see that the room is packed and reporters are
:02:41. > :02:45.eagerly awaiting the president. They will want to ask him about that
:02:46. > :02:55.exciting race to be the next occupant of the White House,
:02:56. > :02:59.especially the Republican race where the businessman Donald Trump is
:03:00. > :03:02.leading the polls. Reporters will want to ask the president what he
:03:03. > :03:08.thinks about Donald Trump and people want to tell them. It should be a
:03:09. > :03:12.good show. I think it will be indeed, because journalists can ask
:03:13. > :03:17.whatever want. You mention some of the topics that are going to make
:03:18. > :03:23.the agenda, terrorism, gun control, climate change, immigration reform
:03:24. > :03:27.is also something that has frustrated President Obama as he has
:03:28. > :03:32.tried to push forward his plans and the Republican-controlled Congress.
:03:33. > :03:35.On both gun control and immigration the president has found it very
:03:36. > :03:44.difficult to get his plans through and on immigration reform and a path
:03:45. > :03:46.to citizenship for people who are in the country illegally, the president
:03:47. > :03:53.did want to take action on that by himself but it has become marred in
:03:54. > :03:57.the courts. On gun control, in wake of the shooting three years ago when
:03:58. > :04:01.all of those tiny children were gunned down with their teachers,
:04:02. > :04:05.even in the wake of that, the president couldn't get gun control
:04:06. > :04:09.through Congress. The White House has been talking about executive
:04:10. > :04:13.action, asking if there is something the president can do independently
:04:14. > :04:18.of Congress, is there anything he can do to get background checks on
:04:19. > :04:23.people who are buying guns on the Internet or at gun shows, those are
:04:24. > :04:26.two areas that are exempt. It will be an extremely interesting about
:04:27. > :04:31.and there is always quite a lot of humour in this, and end of time
:04:32. > :04:36.feeling, everyone is getting out of time, the president is going to the
:04:37. > :04:38.beach in Hawaii and will be playing golf, he still gets security
:04:39. > :04:44.briefings on vocation but he does get out of Washington, DC, which is
:04:45. > :04:49.not his favourite place in the whole world. -- while on the occasion. The
:04:50. > :04:55.White House does get to select who asks the questions, so that gives
:04:56. > :05:01.them some control over the agenda. They have called women reporters, in
:05:02. > :05:06.previous years, they have tried to play around with the order of what
:05:07. > :05:17.is asked and who asks that. This is the President's panel pin it --
:05:18. > :05:20.penultimate press statement. In this specimen he will want to tell the
:05:21. > :05:23.American people what he thinks his achievements have been in the last
:05:24. > :05:29.year and no doubt he will talk about the climate accord and diplomatic
:05:30. > :05:35.relations with Cuba, and the importance of diplomacy in trying to
:05:36. > :05:40.change the complex and difficult world that we live in. He will not
:05:41. > :05:47.be able to escape from what he has called a new phase of terrorism.
:05:48. > :05:54.This is the fact that there are apparently Islamic State implied
:05:55. > :06:00.spill back inspired attacks, -- Islamic State inspired attacks and
:06:01. > :06:05.the president will be trying to reassure people about this. Another
:06:06. > :06:09.achievement that has eluded him recently and other has the talk of
:06:10. > :06:13.him taking executive action on is the closing down of Guantanamo Bay,
:06:14. > :06:21.I wonder if that is good to come up? That has come up at pretty much
:06:22. > :06:26.every single press conference and that has been a fight with Congress,
:06:27. > :06:31.there is so much detail that has bogged down the White House and
:06:32. > :06:39.Congress about closing the facility, how did people that are still there
:06:40. > :06:43.will be transported away from the islands to wherever they are going.
:06:44. > :06:48.There have been rows about whether they can be transported in US
:06:49. > :06:56.military aircraft. This is the level of detail. The president is still a
:06:57. > :06:59.lot -- the president is still frustrated by that one. There is a
:07:00. > :07:04.lot of concern in America by terrorism. He is now speaking. This
:07:05. > :07:11.is not the most important event that is taking place in the White House
:07:12. > :07:16.today, there is a screening of Sarwar is -- Star Wars coming up. I
:07:17. > :07:21.will try to be this link. Let me say something about the year behind us
:07:22. > :07:29.and the year ahead and questions. As I look back on this year, one thing
:07:30. > :07:32.I see is that so much of our steady and persistent work is paying off
:07:33. > :07:37.for the American people in big and tangible ways. Our early action to
:07:38. > :07:43.rescue the economy set the stage for the longest streak of private sector
:07:44. > :07:49.job growth in Blackwood, with new jobs being created in that time. The
:07:50. > :07:52.unemployment rate has been cut in half, 25%, and most importantly
:07:53. > :07:57.wages grew faster than any time since the recovery began, so over
:07:58. > :08:03.this year a lot of the decisions that we made early on he paid off.
:08:04. > :08:07.Years of steady implementation of the affordable care act helped to
:08:08. > :08:12.drive the rate of the uninsured in America below 10% for the first time
:08:13. > :08:17.since records were kept on that. Health care prices have grown at the
:08:18. > :08:22.lowest level in five decades, 17 million more Americans have, and we
:08:23. > :08:26.know that 6 million people have signed up through the website for
:08:27. > :08:31.coverage beginning on the 1st of January. 600,000 on Tuesday alone.
:08:32. > :08:37.New customers are up one third over the last year and more who sign up
:08:38. > :08:42.-- and the more who sign up the stronger the system becomes.
:08:43. > :08:46.Americans no longer need to worry about only being one accident away
:08:47. > :08:53.from financial hardship. On climate, investment on clean energy ignited a
:08:54. > :08:58.clean energy industry boom. Our actions to help reduce our carbon
:08:59. > :09:02.emissions brought China to the table and last week in Paris nearly 200
:09:03. > :09:10.nations forged a historic agreement that was only possible because of
:09:11. > :09:15.American leadership. Around the world, we have been reaching a deal
:09:16. > :09:18.to stop Iran developing a nuclear weapon, establishing better
:09:19. > :09:23.relationships with Cuba, to concluding a landmark trade
:09:24. > :09:26.agreement ensures American businesses are operating on a level
:09:27. > :09:31.playing field and that we rather than China by setting the rules for
:09:32. > :09:38.global trade. We have shown what is possible when America needs. After
:09:39. > :09:45.decades of dedicated advocacy, marriage equality became a reality
:09:46. > :09:50.in all 50 states. I want to point out, I said at the beginning of this
:09:51. > :09:53.year that interesting things happen in the fourth quarter and we are
:09:54. > :09:58.only half way through. I want to help Congress for ending the year on
:09:59. > :10:03.a high note. I got to sign an education bill that is going to fix
:10:04. > :10:10.some of the challenges that we have but no Child left behind, promises
:10:11. > :10:14.to invest more in high-quality early education, and we signed a
:10:15. > :10:22.transportation bill, although it is not as robust as I think that we
:10:23. > :10:28.need, it allows local governments to plan and get people back to work by
:10:29. > :10:35.rebuilding roads and bridges. We have support for American exports
:10:36. > :10:43.and they have passed a budget deal. I'm not wild about everything in it
:10:44. > :10:47.but it is a budget that, as I insisted, invest in our military and
:10:48. > :10:54.middle class without ideological provisions that would have weakened
:10:55. > :10:57.Wall Street reform. It is part of an agreement that will extend tax
:10:58. > :11:05.credits to 24 million working families. It includes strengthening
:11:06. > :11:07.America's leadership at the IMF and because it eliminates the
:11:08. > :11:15.possibility of a shotgun for the first time, or for the first nine
:11:16. > :11:20.months of next year, we have a long time to get some important things
:11:21. > :11:25.than of the American people. There is still a lot of work to do. There
:11:26. > :11:31.is still more that Congress can do to promote job growth and increase
:11:32. > :11:34.wages in this country. I want to work with Congress, Democrats and
:11:35. > :11:40.Republicans, to reform our criminal justice system. Today I committed
:11:41. > :11:45.the sentences of 95 men and women who observed a debt to society,
:11:46. > :11:50.another step forward in upholding our fundamental ideas of justice and
:11:51. > :11:55.fairness. Are most important job is to keep Americans safe. I have had a
:11:56. > :11:58.lot to say about that this week but let me reiterate, the United States
:11:59. > :12:05.continues to be the global coalition to destroy Islamic State. They have
:12:06. > :12:13.already lost about 40% of the popular -- populated areas in Iraq
:12:14. > :12:18.and it is losing territory in Syria. We will continue to hit them harder
:12:19. > :12:22.than ever, taking out the leaders and forces. We are stepping up our
:12:23. > :12:27.support for partners on the ground as they push back. Our men and women
:12:28. > :12:31.in uniform are carrying out their mission with the trademark
:12:32. > :12:34.professionalism, courage, and this holiday season we are united in our
:12:35. > :12:40.gratitude to them for the their service and we are vital to their
:12:41. > :12:48.families because they serve along with those two are deployed.
:12:49. > :12:52.Squeezing Isil's heart will make it harder for them to spread the
:12:53. > :13:00.propaganda to the rest of the world. As we know from San Bernardino, we
:13:01. > :13:08.have to remain vigilant at home. Our counter terrorism intelligence are
:13:09. > :13:12.working 24-7 to protect our homeland. We can do our part by
:13:13. > :13:16.staying vigilant, by saying something if we see something that
:13:17. > :13:23.is suspicious, by refusing to be terrorised and staying united as one
:13:24. > :13:27.American family. For all the progress that America has made in
:13:28. > :13:30.the last seven years, we have some unfinished business and I plan on
:13:31. > :13:33.doing everything I can with every minute and David I have left as
:13:34. > :13:41.president to deliver on behalf of the American people. -- every minute
:13:42. > :13:54.and every day. I am optimistic, more so than I have been before. Let me
:13:55. > :14:02.take some questions. Mr President, as you said earlier this week he
:14:03. > :14:07.told the nation there is no credible threat of a similar attack, but how
:14:08. > :14:13.is it possible to know? Are similar plots not going to be as hard as
:14:14. > :14:18.detect beforehand? Some people are saying that the government should
:14:19. > :14:25.review the social media of people coming to this country. What do you
:14:26. > :14:38.think of that idea? You are right that it is very difficult for us to
:14:39. > :14:44.detect plots involving a husband-and-wife because despite the
:14:45. > :14:50.incredible vigilance and professionalism of our law
:14:51. > :14:58.enforcement, it is not that different from us trying to detect
:14:59. > :15:00.the next mass shooting. They are not always communicated publicly and if
:15:01. > :15:07.you do not catch what they are saying publicly it is a challenge.
:15:08. > :15:15.We are continuing to work at every level to make sure there is no slip
:15:16. > :15:20.between information sharing among agencies. We are continuing to
:15:21. > :15:27.strengthen our information sharing with foreign countries and because
:15:28. > :15:31.of the tragedy in Paris you are seeing much greater cooperation from
:15:32. > :15:41.our European partners on these issues. This is a different kind of
:15:42. > :15:47.challenge than the sort that we had with an organisation like Al-Qaeda,
:15:48. > :15:53.that involved highly trained activists who wrote working
:15:54. > :16:03.ourselves or a network. Here you have Isil trying to encourage or
:16:04. > :16:09.induce somebody who may be prayed to the sort of propaganda and it
:16:10. > :16:13.becomes more difficult to see. It does mean that they are less likely
:16:14. > :16:23.to carry out large-scale attacks, but as we saw in San Bernardino
:16:24. > :16:30.utensil do enormous damage. The issue of reviewing social media for
:16:31. > :16:40.those who are obtaining visas may have got a little bit garbled, it is
:16:41. > :16:45.important to distinguish between posts that are public, social media
:16:46. > :16:55.on a Facebook page, versus private medication is through various social
:16:56. > :16:59.media or apps. Private revocation. Our law enforcement and intelligence
:17:00. > :17:08.confessionals are constantly monitoring public posts and that is
:17:09. > :17:17.part of the Visa process that people are investigating what individuals
:17:18. > :17:24.have said publicly and questioned about any statements they may make.
:17:25. > :17:31.If you have private and occasions between two individuals that is
:17:32. > :17:35.harder to discern by definition. One of the things that we will be doing
:17:36. > :17:41.is engaging with the high-tech community to find out how we can in
:17:42. > :17:50.an appropriate way do a better job if we have a lead to be able to
:17:51. > :17:55.track a suspected terrorist, but we're going to have to recognise
:17:56. > :18:00.that no government is going to have the capacity to read every single
:18:01. > :18:09.text and e-mail or social media. If it is not posted publicly then there
:18:10. > :18:14.are going to be feasibility issues that are probably insurmountable at
:18:15. > :18:19.some level and it raises questions about our values. Keep in mind that
:18:20. > :18:24.it was only a couple of years ago when we were having a major debates
:18:25. > :18:28.about whether the government was becoming like Big Brother and
:18:29. > :18:35.overall I think we have struck the right balance in protecting Civil
:18:36. > :18:41.Liberties and making sure that US citizens' privacy is preserved and
:18:42. > :18:48.there is oversight of what our intelligence agencies do, but we are
:18:49. > :18:55.going to have to continue to balance our needs for security with people's
:18:56. > :19:04.legitimate concerns about privacy and because the Internet is global
:19:05. > :19:14.application systems are global the values that we apply here are often
:19:15. > :19:16.people who are trying to come into the country are benefiting from
:19:17. > :19:22.because they're using the same technology. This is why we're
:19:23. > :19:24.working very hard to bring law-enforcement intelligence and
:19:25. > :19:31.high-tech companies together, because we need to review what we
:19:32. > :19:36.can do both technically and consistent with our laws and values
:19:37. > :19:46.in order to try and discern more rapidly some of the potential
:19:47. > :19:50.threats that may be out there. Congress has made it clear it will
:19:51. > :19:55.not let you transfer prisoners to the United States for trial. Do you
:19:56. > :20:04.believe you have the authority and are you willing to exercise a? We
:20:05. > :20:09.have been working systematically. Another example of persistence. We
:20:10. > :20:14.have been reducing the population. We have our review process for those
:20:15. > :20:18.eligible for transfer, we located in countries that have accepted some of
:20:19. > :20:30.these detainees, they monitor them and it has been determined they can
:20:31. > :20:34.be transferred. My expectation is that by early next year we should
:20:35. > :20:41.average as their population below 100 and we will continue to steadily
:20:42. > :20:46.chipped away at the numbers and Guantanamo Bay. It will come to a
:20:47. > :20:49.point where we have an irreducible population, people who pose a
:20:50. > :20:55.significant threat but for various reasons it is difficult for us to
:20:56. > :20:59.try them in an article three court. Some of them are going through the
:21:00. > :21:06.military commission process, but there is going to be a challenge
:21:07. > :21:12.there. At that stage, I am presenting a plan to Congress about
:21:13. > :21:17.how we can" animal Bay. I am not going to automatically assume that
:21:18. > :21:22.Congress will soon know, I am not being coy, there is going to be
:21:23. > :21:28.significant resistance from some quarters to that, but I think we can
:21:29. > :21:41.make a strong argument that it makes sense for us to be spending an extra
:21:42. > :21:53.100,000,000-$500,000,000 to have a secure setting for 50-70 people. We
:21:54. > :21:57.will wait until Congress has definitively said no to a well
:21:58. > :22:05.thought out plan with numbers attached to it before we say
:22:06. > :22:12.anything definitive about my accepted authority. I think it is
:22:13. > :22:20.preferable if I can get things done with Congress. I think you have seen
:22:21. > :22:30.me on a bunch of issues like immigration, I'm not going to
:22:31. > :22:33.forward leaning on what I can do without Congress before I have
:22:34. > :22:39.tested what I can do with Congress will sometimes they will surprise
:22:40. > :22:43.you and this may be one of those places because I think you can make
:22:44. > :22:51.a strong argument. Guantanamo Bay continues to be one of the main
:22:52. > :22:58.magnets for jihadi recruitment. The question earlier was about how do
:22:59. > :23:01.they convince someone in the United States who may not have a criminal
:23:02. > :23:08.record or history of terrorist activity to start shooting people.
:23:09. > :23:11.This is part of what they feed, this notion of a gross injustice, that
:23:12. > :23:18.America is not living up to its professed ideals. We see the
:23:19. > :23:23.Internet traffic, we see how Guantanamo Bay has been used to
:23:24. > :23:29.create this mythology that America is at war with Islam and for us to
:23:30. > :23:34.close it is part of our counterterrorism strategy that is
:23:35. > :23:38.supported by our military, diplomatic, and intelligence teams.
:23:39. > :23:50.When you combine that with the fact that it is very expensive, that we
:23:51. > :23:57.are detaining a handful of people and each person is costing several
:23:58. > :24:01.million dollars to detain, when there are more efficient ways of
:24:02. > :24:07.doing it. I think we can make a strong argument. I will take your
:24:08. > :24:13.points that it will be an uphill battle. Every battle I have had with
:24:14. > :24:20.Congress and the last five years has been uphill, but we keep surprising
:24:21. > :24:30.everyone by getting things done. We try not to get ahead of ourselves. I
:24:31. > :24:38.want to ask you about some of the broader challenges in the Middle
:24:39. > :24:40.East. Some people argue that the Middle East and America would be
:24:41. > :24:45.safer if you had had resumed changes. Considering the experiences
:24:46. > :24:52.of the Arab Spring, I wonder what you think is the American role in
:24:53. > :24:55.the Middle East in terms of pushing dictators out of power. Could you
:24:56. > :25:02.advise future presidents and on Syria, is that your expectation that
:25:03. > :25:08.President Assad's presidency will outlast yours? There has been a lot
:25:09. > :25:11.of revisionist history, sometimes by the same people eating different
:25:12. > :25:18.arguments depending on the situation. Maybe it is useful for us
:25:19. > :25:25.to go back over some of these issues. We did not dispose them
:25:26. > :25:33.barrack. Projections that because of their dissatisfaction with the
:25:34. > :25:37.corruption and authoritarianism of the regime. We had a working
:25:38. > :25:42.relationship with them. We did not trigger the Arab Spring. The notion
:25:43. > :25:49.that the US was in a position to pull the strings on the largest
:25:50. > :25:57.country in the Arab world is mistaken. For our viewers on BBC
:25:58. > :26:00.Four we're taking you away from Washington DCE for President Obama
:26:01. > :26:04.has been delivering his end of your press conference. For those who want
:26:05. > :26:12.to hear what the president has to say, stay with us on BBC World Cup
:26:13. > :26:15.magnets. The first part of the recount will be a continuation of
:26:16. > :26:22.what many of us are seen in the past couple of days, it will be cloudy,
:26:23. > :26:23.mild and be some rain. But the whole weekend will not be a