Convert string to datetime object and then manipulate this
>>> x = ["2016-05-19 08:25:00","2016-05-19 16:00:00","2016-05-20 07:45:00","2016-05-24 12:50:00","2016-05-25 23:00:00","2016-05-26 19:45:00"]
>>> for i in x:
... y = datetime.datetime.strptime(i, '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')
... z = datetime.datetime.strftime(y, '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M')
... print (y, type(y))
... print (z, type(z))
...
(datetime.datetime(2016, 5, 19, 8, 25), <type 'datetime.datetime'>)
('2016-05-19 08:25', <type 'str'>)
(datetime.datetime(2016, 5, 19, 16, 0), <type 'datetime.datetime'>)
('2016-05-19 16:00', <type 'str'>)
(datetime.datetime(2016, 5, 20, 7, 45), <type 'datetime.datetime'>)
('2016-05-20 07:45', <type 'str'>)
(datetime.datetime(2016, 5, 24, 12, 50), <type 'datetime.datetime'>)
('2016-05-24 12:50', <type 'str'>)
(datetime.datetime(2016, 5, 25, 23, 0), <type 'datetime.datetime'>)
('2016-05-25 23:00', <type 'str'>)
(datetime.datetime(2016, 5, 26, 19, 45), <type 'datetime.datetime'>)
('2016-05-26 19:45', <type 'str'>)