We've been able to build up the Afghan security forces and stabilize it.

But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized - at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do - it's important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.

This is the defining issue of our time. This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class and for all those who are fighting to get into the middle class.

America's not just [about] looking out for yourself, it's not just about greed, it's not just about trying to climb to the very top and keep everybody else down. ... Hard work, that's a value. Looking out for one another, that's a value. The idea that we're all in it together and [that] I'm my brother's keeper and [my] sister's keeper, that's a value.

After my election there was talk of a postracial America. And such a vision, however well intended, was never realistic.

Singapore was the very first South-east Asian nation to join the global coalition against ISIL (ISIS) coalition, and we'll work to sustain our momentum in destroying that terrorist organisation.

I don't believe people should to be able to own guns.