Obama says UK has a stronger world presence within the EU

IN a major interview with the BBC, US president Barack Obama, has said that the UK’s membership of the European Union helps maintain the country’s place on the world stage.
In an interview broadcast on Thursday night (July 23), the president said: “Having the UK in the EU gives us much greater confidence about the strength of the transatlantic union, and is part of the cornerstone of the institutions built after [the second world war] that has made the world safer and more prosperous. We want to make sure that the United Kingdom continues to have that influence.”
The president was also frank about America’s gun laws, saying it was “distressing” that progress had not been made in reforms, “even in the face of repeated mass killings.” Just hours after he spoke to the BBC, two people were gunned down in a cinema in Louisiana.
The interview precedes Obama’s trip to Kenya, where he is due to arrive on Friday (July 24). He told the BBC that he would be blunt in raising concerns, in the country of his father’s birth, on its record on corruption and human rights violations, and would defend his support of gay rights.