live from washington. this is a bbc news special on us presidentjoe biden's state of the union address. amid calls for more weaponry for ukraine and greater humanitarian assistance for people in gaza. we'll break down a speech which was heavy on foreign policy. the economy, immigration and reproductive rights also featured. so how is his big night playing out with voters? and we will look at the response from the republicans who hit back at the president's record, calling the current american dream a nightmare underjoe biden. i'm helena humphrey, glad you could join me. it's 2a hours since us presidentjoe biden delivered his state of the union address, and in it, he touched on key issues at home, the economy, immigration, and reproductive rights,

the type of issues you'd expect to hear in an election year. biden set out his achievements and what's next for his presidency. he also took aim at his likely republican opponent in november, former president donald trump without mentioning him by name. and it was clear that the president saw his speech notjust as a state of the union address but also an address about the state of the world — and america's role at the centre of it. history is watching. the united states walks away, it put ukraine at risk. it is at risk, everyone will be at risk, and broadening others to do what they wish to do us harm. my message to president putin will ever know for long time a simple, we will not walk away. i'v e i've heard many of my republican and democratic friends say china is on the

rise and america is falling behind. they've got it backwards. to the leadership of israel i say this, humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip. protecting and saving innocent lives have to be parity. as we look to the future, the only real solution to the situation is a two state solution over time. for more on president biden�*s comments on the israel—gaza war, i spoke with barbara starr, senior fellow at the usc annenberg school of communications, leadership and policy and veteran pentagon correspondent. barbara, everyone is analysing what the president biden had to say on stage. especially with regards to israel. i want to play you something that was said off stage, and get your take on it.

president biden saying he would have a come tojesus with prime minister netanyahu, bibi. there is no such thing as off the record on a state of the union night. what you think the contours of that would look like? what do you think he meant by that? front and centre, the president is pressing the israelis on the issue of aid and assistance and civilian casualties. the whole idea i think is to get an immediate ceasefire, to get more aid in, to get the hostages out of there. so far the immediate ceasefire does not appear to be going anywhere. release of hostages, we had a lot of mixed reports but it does not seem like it is imminent at this point. on more aid, this

is now a crisis. there's been no accountability, most aid organisations will tell you, children are dying of starvation, people are dying by the hundreds, if not more due to combat from the situation, due to starvation and illness, lack of healthcare, lack of basic food and water. getting more aid in front and centre and the president unveiled his latest idea of sort of maritime asset to supplement the air drops and try and bring some aid in by ships from the sea into gaza. touching on the announcement about a seaport to be set up off gaza, for the pentagon operationally, how do they go about this and how much of a challenge is it? it is going to be very tough. already today the pentagon has said about 1,000 us troops will be devoted to trying to build the floating pier

and the causeway that will run to the gaza shore and also be devoted to facilitating getting that aid into gaza at the same time saying it is not a combat operation, no boots on the ground in gaza, that old cliche. we are talking hundreds of us troops very close, very much involved in that and it is a combat zone. what are we looking at? we're looking at the possibility of the reality, actually, of the backup that these forces will need. they will need security, they will need overhead from aircraft and satellites, reconnaissance and surveillance, intelligence gathering. they will need to know where the israelis are and where hamas is. very importantly, they need to know where civilians are and they are going to have a rescue capability if us troops get into trouble because they will in fact be very close to the shore of gaza. let's zoom out

a little bit on this. what does this say about the fact that the administration has chosen to go this route, essentially taking matters into their own hands when it comes to getting aid as opposed to using diplomatic channels, powers of persuasion to try and ensure that israel is able to get more aid in? what does that say about the relationship between the us and speaking to netanyahu? right, i think it is tough, isn't it? there is a complete global understanding that they can't wait for that. everyone who does agree that the way to get massive amounts of, the largest amounts of aid into gaza is over land. for the israelis to open up crossing points and facilitate massive truck convoys coming in literally every day with hundreds and hundreds of trucks into gaza with aid and assistance, medicine, food, water that is so desperately needed.

but they so far are not doing that, no indication they will. maybe biden can persuade netanyahu but he has not been able to do that yet. so we're having air drops which are very minimal, sadly, but needed, and this new initiative, but it is may still take up to 60 days to build that floating port, and the causway and port into gaza, 60 days, and children are dying of starvation already. on that point, briefly, if you don't mind, in regards to efforts for a temporary ceasefire was something president biden could not come to the podium and tout. any thoughts on where that option might be about a ceasefire being likely anytime soon? it appears to be very much tied to the notion of the hostage release. the us has had moments of being fairly hopeful in recent days that they have made progress on this very quietly, top us intelligence officials are still talking to their counterparts

in the region, they hope to make progress, but we're not seeing it yet. really good to talk to you. thank you. another country that featured in the us president's speech: china. i spoke with democratic congressman raja krishnamoorthi of illinois. he's the ranking member on the house select committee on china. congressmen, thank you for joining us again on bbc news. this address is now being digested. some people have reacted to it, calling it a campaign speech. what do you make of that assessment? i think it was a presentation of the contrast in positions the president has taken and people on the other side have taken on a number of issues whether it is ukraine

or the border, or whether it is what type of america people want to live and work in, people are embraced, with people of diverse backgrounds and come together and do great things or is it one where people are otherised and we practice xenophobia and we discriminate against each other. i think that's the hope of set of contrasts he was hinting last night. do you think it was a speech with an eye on the election and going head—to—head with donald trump? sure. i think that the extent that the agenda that we are facing right now in congress is an issue even in the presidential election, i do think that making it clear what the choices are probably serves both purposes. unfortunately, what we have found out very quickly is that there's been benefit from trumpification of the republican caucus.

donald trump, essentially when he says don't do a border deal because that would provide a when tojoe biden and people on the other side listen to him, unfortunately there is a merging of the presidential contest and the republican caucus. in other words, it appears that the interests of his presidential campaign over the interests of the constituents and that's wrong. i want to touch a little bit on some of the foreign policy that was spoken about in that speech, including on china. president biden saying, quote, the us is in a stronger position to win the competition for the 21st century against china or anyone else, for that matter. what do you think beijing will be taking away from last night's speech? they would say he is right. they know the us economy is ascending. they know that our economy is growing, it is resilient, and that whatever they have been doing with regard to their own economy

has not been working. their own economies is sputtering, as you know. they have 25% youth unemployment, they have a demographic problem in the population is getting much older and pretty much is going to start, the population is falling over time. and there is a crisis of confidence at the grassroots in economic leadership of the country. in light of all those problems, i think they probably think thatjoe biden is right. i want to touch on a bill that you've introduced which would force bytedance, the company owning tiktok to sell the video sharing platform or will be banned in the us. why is it dangerous? there are two reasons. bytedance is beholden to the chinese communist party, is required by the chinese laws, specifically the national security laws, to provide access to american user data upon its request. the second issue

which is even more insidious is that bytedance routinely manipulates the algorithm of tiktok to suppress content that is critical of the ccp and amplify content that is favourable to the ccp. and now that has become well documented. after yesterday's stunts that bytedance and tiktok pulled to try to interfere in a vote in congress on the very bill that you are talking about, it has been clear to many legislators that this legislation is necessary. the stunt was very simple. they basically used the app to geolocate minor children to call correctional offices to spread misinformation about legislation. our offices were flooded with calls from kids asked the question, what is a congressmen, what is congress? they had no idea what was going on and of course their parents

did not either. this caused the commerce committee to the unanimously, 15—0, in favour of this legislation. what that does show there is young people becoming very engaged in a political topic which is not always the case. tiktok is a way of life for many young people. do you understand their concerns? i definitely don't want to see tiktok go dark, i don't want to see people not be able to enjoy the content on tiktok. however, the ownership of tiktok via bytedance is deeply problematic and that is why we have arrived at this bill that requires the divestment of tiktok by bytedance. this is not without precedent. we done this before with regard to grindr, the popular lg btiq dating site. at one point that was owned by a chinese company but because it possessed sensitive personal data about military and government officials

in the us government and military, the american administration required the chinese to divest that app and they did. there was no change whatsoever to the user experiences of americans and that's exactly what's going to happen with tiktok. but we know how critical and sensitive data can be. critics might say here in america for example, with us social media giants when it comes to meta for example owning facebook, instagram and whatsapp, why not also cut down on us social media giants? we have to do all of the above but we have to start with this. why? this is a unique social media company. it is a social media app that is controlled by a foreign adversary, namely the chinese communist party. and we can hopefully work on those other issues, but as a start, we can agree that this has to be addressed right away.

congressman raja krishnamoorthi, thank you for being with us again on bbc news. thank you. foreign policy was a key part of the address — but coming just days after super tuesday, major domestic issues were also top of the agenda. biden touted his economic record, citing 50—year low unemployment rates and a record number of americans starting small businesses since he came to office, claiming that the us economy is now "the envy of the world". and in a preview of what to expect from his campaign, president biden touched on reproductive rights, january 6 and immigration laws. many of you in this chamber and my predecessor promising a national ban on reproductive freedom. my god, what freedom else would you take away? it is a decision to overturn ropey weight and supreme court majority wrote the following, with all due respect, justices, women are not without collateral power, excuse me,

electoral or political power. you are about to realise just how much you are right. those bragging about overturn brody would have no clue by the power of women but they found out when it was on the ballot, wanted 2022 and 2020 and we will win again in 202a. i must be honest, the threat to democracy must be defended. my predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth about january six. i here seek to bury the truth aboutjanuary six. i will here seek to bury the truth about january six. i will not do that. this is a member to speak the truth and bury the lies. he was the simple truth, you cannot love your country only when you win. a simple choice, we can fight about fixing the border or we can fix it. i am fixing the border or we can fix it. iam ready fixing the border or we can fix it. i am ready to fix it. send me the border bill now!

a cnn poll on the reaction to the state of the union says 65% of americans had a positive response to mr biden�*s address. but that may not be the case for the republican rebuttal which has been making waves for quite a different reason. with a majority of voters concerned about president biden�*s age, republicans instead put forward the youngest woman ever elected to the senate, 42—year—old alabama senator katie boyd britt for their traditional rebuttal. take a listen. right now, our commander in chief is not in command. the free world deserves better than a dithering and diminished leader. america deserves leaders who recognise that secure borders, stable prices, safe streets and a strong defence are actually the cornerstones of a great nation.

in an unofficial reply former president donald trump posted this video friday morning in response to president biden�*s references to him biden is on the run from his record and lying like crazy to try and escape accountability for the horrific devastation he and his party have created, all the while they continue the very policies that are causing this horror show to go. we cannot take it any longer as a country. to break this down, i was joined by matt terrill — republican strategist and former chief of staff for senator marco rubio�*s presidential campaign, and stephanie rawlings blake, former democratic mayor of baltimore. stephanie, i'd like to begin with you, if i may. the day after the night before, do you think president biden did what he needed to? absolutely. present biden was strong, powerful, he talked directly

to the democratic base. he is energised the democratic base. they raised over $1 million since the state of the union and he did what he to do. he spoke about the things important american families. your thoughts on that, matt? certainly, many americans thought about notjust a speech that was playing to his political base, the party and the reason for that is president biden recognises he has had many struggles with respect uniting the democratic party, having enthusiasm among many democrats for his candidacy. last night he spoke to the base. that is something he certainly did and as we head in a general election, the critical for president biden only

to reach out to voters but having going to the upcoming election. talking about how we started off, he spoke about freedom and democracy, saying it was under attack and started to speak about ukraine and pivoted to january the sixth. do you think those themes of freedom, democracy being under attack, resonates with voters? if you look at polling, believe it or not, voters run out you former president trump and president biden the same with democracy. in the end this election will be about a lot of issues, much of it about immigration, the economy. the issues will drive the election. ultimately 100,000 voters and five key battleground states decide the election. the question is what do they care about? pocketbook issues, certainly foreign policy and how they feel. we'll see how that takes shape. we have a long way.

but the issues front and centre among many americans going into election day. stephanie, over to you. that idea freedom, democracy being under attack, the point from matt that much of the election will be decided in battleground states. what did you make of that the way through and even biden starting with ukraine and linking it to 6 january? the race will be decided by a small number of people at a small number of states and those small number of people are tired of being gaslit at by former president trump and the republican party. everyone saw their own eyes what happened onjanuary 6. congressional members that were there. as the world looks at our country, republicans are trying to refrain and redirect

and like the people into thinking they're interested in protecting democracy. the voters that are moderate, the voters that are not on the fringes of either party are going to have a huge impact on the race in november and those voters don't want to return to chaos. i think that protecting our democracy is really going to resonate with them. matt, the argument from stephanie that as biden put it, this is about the soul of our nation is what he said. you talked about the pocketbook issues, something that president biden sometimes faces criticism for republicans will say is an abstract way about talking about the economy, not being able to penetrate when it comes to on paper what are some strong economic wins for the biden administration. he has spoken, economically,

about a comeback for america. do you think voters will have the patience for that soft landing that he has promised? voters want action and we saw at the state of the union address is president trump touch on economy day—to—day, essential issues. ultimately, it will come down to the five critical battleground states, what suburban voters think, how they feel on the price of goods and services, how they feel about inflation. in the end we saw president biden point the finger at corporate america, shrink inflation, he said in the speech, and tax policy, all those things were addressed promoters care about records and the future. election is about the future, what president biden has done, how they feel about the trump years. we'll see how that unfolds

in terms of campaigns going forward but the economy will be front and centre. i want to touch on the rebuttal, stephanie, did you make on the message that, the fact that she was very likely chosen to contract directly with president biden in age? that was a big mistake by the republicans. i have not heard very many people in either party except the ones that are forced to be talking heads for the republicans applaud her performance last night. i think it was disturbing and it was out of touch with the performance of the president. i think the republicans had hoped that president biden would fall on his face, that he would have missteps, that he would mispeak, that he would not bring the power and force that he brought in his speech. the republican response was incongruous to the very

powerful message biden put forward and the fear that the senator was trying to portray in her voice, this feeling that republicans do very well with their messaging around what americans are feeling and trying to spark this division and contention and fearof immigrants. all of this things. at the end of the day, the facts show that biden has been strong for our company, jobs are growing, unemployment is down, investing in our infrastructure, he has a record and none of this includes the chaos that we saw under the trump administration. stephanie rawlings—blake and matt terrill, thank you for discussing all of this with us tonight. that's all we have time for in this special look at last nights state of the union address. stay with us here on bbc news, more headlines at the top of the hour.

hello there. there was a lot of dry weather around on friday, but cloud varied quite a bit from place to place. southern england had some lovely sunshine, with temperatures reaching 12 celsius in hampshire, 13 celsius in wiggonholt, in sussex — which was the warmest spot in the country — whereas eastern scotland, with all this cloud around, temperatures struggled to around six celsius. we also had something called the helm wind that blew across northern england. this is the uk's only named wind — prevailing winds 20—30mph across northern england. but look at that, 7imph up over the top of great dun fell, and those strong, gusty winds were pulled down into the eden valley, with gusts reaching 55mph there. that is the helm wind, the uk's only named wind. now, at the moment, we've got still a lot of cloud across the country, still with gusty winds — that's keeping the temperatures up at around 4—5 celsius

as we head into saturday. but the weekend really is dominated by this area of low pressure to our south. these weather fronts get a little bit closer and start moving across the uk as we head through the weekend, so there will be some rain at times. now, the greatest risk of seeing some rain, really, saturday morning will be southwest england, wales, northern england. through the day, we'll see some thicker cloud push into northern ireland and scotland, bringing the threat of some rain, as well. the rain is likely to be quite light and patchy. eastern coasts of england and scotland will stay cold, with that chilly north sea wind. but there should be some hazy sunshine for the midlands, east anglia, and south east england — and that will boost temperatures to around 13 celsius. 0n into the second half of the weekend — well, generally speaking, we're looking at further outbreaks of rain coming up from the south. this time, the will be a bit more extensive, and it'll be a bit heavier, as well. there'll be a few places that dodge the downpours — maybe south west england and southern wales doing 0k. generally, temperature�*s a little

bit lower and, on the whole, below average for the time of year, but feeling particularly cold around those north sea coasts once again. into next week, well, the weather becomes quieter for a time, but then we start to see some weather fronts move in off the atlantic from the west. and so, there will be something of an east—west split, i think, for eastern areas. computer's probably a bit pessimistic, really — there will be some days that are dry and generally bright, probably tuesday and wednesday not looking bad at all. whereas across the western side of the uk, yes, you are more likely to see outbreaks of rain, and the rain will be quite heavy at times, especially towards southern wales and south west england.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. a police inquiry that has taken seven years at a cost of £40 million is lifting the curtain on the secret intelligence war between the british state and the ira. it was a dirty war, peter, as you know. it was a dirty, dirty war. the investigation, known as 0peration kenova, examined the role of agents and informers in the northern ireland conflict, epitomised

by the notorious british spy within the ira codenamed sta keknife.