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>> hello. i am christian fraser and this is the context. >> probably the biggest chance he has until the convention in the summer to talk to the americans to show him that he is anyone's years old but still energetic, still coherent, he has still got it. christian: a growing sense of frustration with the israelis that has been on display publicly and it looks as though joe biden wanted something to anunce on the humanitarian front in the state of the union address. >> what they are planning is to build a sort of temporary pause on gaza's coast on the mediterranean coast, and ship aid into there from cyprus. ♪ christian: there is not much deta on what joe biden would do with another four years. tonight he has the bully pulpit

to launch his reelection campaign. it is perhaps one of the most significant state of the union addresses in living memory. we will look ahead to tonight's speech and the company of katty kay and hear from one of the invited guests who will be sitting in the gallery. in that speech tonight, joe biden will announce the military is to launch an emergency mission to establish a port on gaza's coast. and what is going on at red bull? the team manager is still in place but the investigation into him has put the skids on red bull's challenge this weekend. welcome to the program. let me show you a live shot of the white house tonight where president biden is putting the final touches to his state of the union speech. there will be eyes of tens of millions of americans trained on the capital in a few hours for the annual state of the union address. it could be one of the most important speeches joe biden has

ever delivered. the concerns over the president's age has intensified and his average approval rating right now is 38%, the lowest in his presidency. he is facing a host of international crises and domestic challenges. but it is not just what he says tonight, it is how he delivers it. the white house certainly cognizes the significance. they have been rehearsing this for days because they know right now the election is a coin flip and this is a precious opportunity for president biden to state his case for four more years. we are told that in his speech tonight, president biden will announce to congress he has ordered the u.s. military to build a temporary port in gaza to help with the transfer of humanitarian aid from cyprus. the pontoon on gaza's mediterranean coast, which we think will be close to the existing port in gaza city, will be used to bring in food, water and medicine. the shortage is particularly

acute in the northern sections of the strip, and we know u.s. allies will be involved on the cyprus end of the operation, where of course the u.k. has a big presence. let's bring in tom bateman who has been looking over the news the last few hours. certainly welcome but some might say it comes too late and it is pretty scant at the moment on the details. tom: very late and very scant on details and in terms of the timing issues this will take up to two months alone just to build and that is before you get to all of the very challenging logistical and security issues involved in all of this. why is it happening now? it has been nearly a week now that joe biden has made it clear publicly that his patience has run out with the israelis when it comes to the issue of delivering humanitarian aid inside the gaza strip. remember, the absolutely desperate and chaotic situation on the ground. we saw last week more than 100

palestinians killed around an aid convoy, desperate and hungry people. palestinians say they were shot by the israelis. israelis say most of them were killed in a stampede. but the reality is you now have the u.n. warning that more than a quarter of the population is on the brink of famine. so joe biden has been under growing pressure, given that the u.s. is israel's key ally. it's the key superpower that arms the israelis. and that has increased the pressure on joe biden to come up with some kinds of solutions to the humanitarian crisis. but they are saying now there is no excuses for the israelis about more -- about why more aid cannot get in. they blame the u.n., the u.n. largely blames the israelis for those failures. this announcement is about a seaport that would be built by the u.s. navy off the shore, then floated towards the

coastline of gaza. at that point the details get very sketchy and tends to run out when questions are being asked about crucially, who will build the temporary pier that connect the seaport to the coast itself, and then what happens on the beach. because once the a's gets delivered you are in the same scenario we have been seeing in the north of gaza, this desperate situation where there is no security left. so who will secure the packages of aid once they are there on the beach? we don't have answers from the administration in full yet on t hose questions. likely they will be looking for some sort of longer-term plan, perhaps involving gulf allies around security, but that is one of the big unanswered questions. christian: politics obviously plays a part of this. it is the state of the union tonight and there will be people within his own caucus, democrats who want a cease-fire, do not think he is putting enough pressure on the israelis, and he has to show them he has a grip on it.

tom: that is absolutely right. there is politics involved at every step of this. the way out that the administration has seen for many months now is a cease-fire for hostage lease deal. we know that that has gotten pretty close but at the moment it has fallen apart temporarily in cairo with hamas not agreeing to the ter put on the table by the israelis. hamas have said they would back at the negotiating table in egypt nexteek, but then you are basically getting into the start of ramadan, the islamic holy month. that makes every harder in a sense in terms of both the negotiations taking place, but also the security situation on the ground throughout the region , particularly the dangers it brings in jerusalem. so that will focus minds but we are still no further forward. and as you say, it only increases the pressure on joe biden. because without this way out, without a cease-fire, for him politically the closer you get

to an election that is putting huge pressure on him and it will make things much more difficult. christian: just a real quick one, there will be relatives of those who were taken hostages, some of them released, some of them who died in captivity, some of them who are still there, who will be in the gallery tonight listening to the speech. what can joe biden say to them, given that today hamas walked away from discussions in cairo? tom: that i think is another way in which this absolutely focuses minds. remember that agonizing wait that is now five months in for those families. one of the sticking points has been around the demand by israel to release a list of hostages for the first tron chubb release by hamas, said to be around 40 people. because the israelis still don't know which hostages have survived and which have been killed in gaza. mr. biden would have hoped he is

now in a position to announce or confirm that they were going to get this deal and yet they are not here. so it is another very serious problefor him. christian: thank you very much for that. let's bring in katty kay who is looking at the wider aspects of the speech for this evening. she will be repeal or -- she will be reporting tonight for our bbc special. as we were saying, the detail is important because he is launching effectively his campaign at the start of the general election. but it is how he launches it tonight is what will be closely watched. katty: part content and part performance. you have the preure on job biden -- joe biden -- in uncertain times people want to hear the plan for the next four years, that he knows what he is going to be doing. i think as much as anything he actually says tonight, it is going to be how he says it, how

he delivers it, how he engages. it is interesting that the chief of staff has been telling reporters that the president is very energized. that is the language they are using. and he is excited to be delivering this speech and that is what the american public, that is what they want to see. they want to see his -- that he is coherent, he is energetic, that he is quick on his feet. the state of the union last year he had this off script exchange with republicans that was deemed to have done him well. will he be able to command that kind of performance again? it's a high-stakes state of the union. another fun fact, i was going over polling on history and in the last four decades, i wish i had a little chart here -- in the last four decades guess how much a state of the union has actually changed a president's approval ring? zero. christian: how many still watch?

how widely is it washed? -- watched? katty: it will be tens of millions. how many tens of millions i cannot tell you in advance, but it is usually between 30 million and 40 million. now, if it is a republican president there will be more republican viewers. joe biden will get more democratic viewers. to some extend that means you are preaching to the converted. people who bothered to stay up on a thursday night at 9:00 p.m. for 90 minutes to watch the state of the union, they tend to do so because they already like that president. also watching tonight the republican response. the speaker mike johnson already lost his caucus, tone it down a little bit. we don't want to look like the rowdy, heckling party that cannot govern. we want to look like responsible adults. there was heckling from them last year, so let's watch them tonight.

christian: because the democrats want more fire from their candidates. and of course with marjorie taylor greene, it is great for her ratings locally, but it could hand the president an opportunity. katty: that is what -- i think they will hope for some of th. let's zoom out for the campaign. going forwards, here is what joe biden wants to do. here's what i have heard from the team that they are focused on. they want to push donald trump into being the worst possible version of himself. that includes the trump acolytes. they want maga to overreach, they want those maga members of congress who are big trump supporters to do and say and act the way that they think suburban voters will not like. so, this election is going to be about how many republicans decide not to vote for donald trump because they don't like his character, and how many democrats don't vote for joe biden because of his age, or because they feel that he is not on their side on things like

gaza or progressive policies. that is going to be the fault line, how many people peel away from their party tendencies. in the white house thinks if they can push nald trump to say things that are extreme, to say things that people find obnoxious, to be out there in the way that he can be, and remind people we are going to see an awful lot of clips of the day you covered, january 6, remind people of the chaos and the insurrection on capitol hill. then they think they have the best chance of winning. and i think tonight you are going to see joe biden kind of push some of those buttons on the republican side. christian: it is amazing when you look at these polls how people forget some of what went on in those four years of the trump presidency. i mean, we used to change our top story three times a day. it was real firebrand stuff. and yet, when you read the polls, there is a belief that the economy was better during that time. there's always nostalgia for the

better times pre-pandemic. katty: yeah. the onus on the democrats and what the biden campaign believes is there is this phrase going around, trump amnesia, that people have forgotten what it was like under donald trump, the chaos of the four years you referred to, that we covered every day. the extraordinary amount of churn in the white house. the things that donald trump said, the lawsuits he tried to bring about, shutting the border. but particularly what happened after the 2020 election, his refusal to attend the inauguration of joe biden, the events of january 6 even people have forgotten. so they will be a lot in campaign ad after campaign ad, i can guarantee you the images of durant you are a sixth -- images of january 6, particularly the pro-trump signs, they are going to feature very prominently in

democratic tv ads, because the white house wants to remind people what it was like to have donald trump as president, and what it was like in those extraordinary -- and we should not forget, they were extraordinary, those scenes on january 6, it felt like american democracy on that day came close to being toppled. when people were calling for the hanging of mike pence, saying they wanted to kill nancy pelosi. all of that, the president is going to spend the next eight months reminding voters of. because he knows his own approval ratings are so weak. he does not do well on the age question, on the economy question, on the immigration question. listen to immigration tonight, there has to be some kind of plan about what he is going to do on immigration, because he is getting crushed on immigration compared to donald trump. on a whole host of issues he has to go on offense. christian: and he has to thread the needle between the whole

israel and gaza thing and the southern borde what i am embarrassed about is him being 81 and being better on twitter than i am. so he's really getting quite proficient at it. and his preparations for his speech tonight, he's been speaking to people who have been president, or at least have played president. >> somebody -- any advice you have for me when i deliver my speech? >> well, sir, in my capacity as president, all i had to deal with was a meteor. one of the things that i came out of that with, in my speech to the people -- hope. hope is the strongest force we have in this country. it's the most useful and the most effective. my advice is just keep telling us how you're working for us and

building hope. christian: it is very smart, that. two thirds of the country say they don't want this rematch, i think they would vote for some of those fictional presidents. katty: they may well. i am not sure the youngest. it is interesting to see how the biden campaign are using social media. they like putting out videos that then get replayed and picked up by influencers and actors. all of those actors who send the videos out to their millions of followers, that is very useful for the white house. and we are going to see more from the communications shop. it might not be joe biden himself, so you don't need to feel so bad. christian: if that meteor hits the capital tonight, is there a designated survivor? katty:eah, we won't know what though until the cabinet walks in. they get flown out to a secure location in virginia. as the cabinet walks in,

everyone looks around and says who is not here, their seat is gone, and that will be the designated survivor. christian: i bet it is kiefer sutherland. katty kay, thank you very much. lovely to see you. around the world and across the u.k., this is bbc news. let's take a quick look for our u.k. viewers at some of our stories here today. three teenage boys have been found guilty of killing a 16-year-old from bristol, stabbed with a large zombie knife during a house party last year. one boy was found guilty of murder and the other two guilty of manslaughter. they cannot be named for legal reasons. a committee of mp's has concluded the post office is not fit to run the compensation schemes for some postmasters wrongly convicted because of the horizon i.t. scandal. the business and trade committee said it was a disgrace that 80% of the money still have not been spent. and the nationwide building society has reached an agreement

to buy virgin money in a 2.9 billion pound deal which would see the browned eventually disappear. it would create one of the uk's longest -- largest mortgage and savings group. nationwide said it would not make any material changes to virgin money's 7300 employees in the near term. you're watching bbc news. when u.s. president biden delivers his state of the union speech tonight, the audience will include 17 relatives of americans held captive or murdered by hamas terrorist in israel. a list published by the families of the american hostages in gaza named relatives of six hostages still held captive, and two who were killed. i am pased to bring you the father of the released american hostage with us tonight before he heads off to the capital. thank you very much for your time. before we get to the occasion

and the speech, please remind our viewers if you would what your family has been through. >> first of all, thank you for having me. my daughter and her husband were members of the kibbutz on october 7. my daughter was kidnapped from her home at around 11:20 that day. my son-in-law was defending his home and eventually killed while defending his home. subsequently, after a great deal of effort, my daughter was released from hamas captivity on november 29. and unfortunately, we were informed by the idf that aviv had been. killed. when he was killed, his body was taken to gaza, and his death was only confirmed on november 30,

actually. christian: i am so sorry for your loss. yehuda: thank you. christian: how was your daughter? yehuda: my daughter is as well as can be expected. she's putting her life back together. she's a high school history and civics teacher, as well as a youth educator. and her students are behind her 100%. and they are moving forward. you need to understand that many of her students were also hostages and many were also killed, because they were all coming from the same gaza envelope area. so obviously the kids in her school, some of the kids in her class, were victims as well. christian: that is really tough, isn't it. let's talk about the main news tonight. first, that american troops are

going to head off to the region to build this pontoon or port to get more aid into gaza. that seems to be the main announcement to the night. how do you feel about that? yehuda: i think that as someone who is connected to the hostage families in general, and to the american dual citizens in particular, i think that it is upon the players, whether it is the united stas or israel, egypt, saudi arabia, qatar, and so on, to do what is needed to be done in order to achieve a deal. and if part of that deal is allowing aid into gaza, then that's what will happen. there's an additional element to this that president biden pointed out quite a while ago, that allowing aid into gaza, the

civilian population, is something required by international law. unfortunately, the issue is complicated by the behavior of hamas, and how the aid is distributed. so it is not clear. there are a sorts of reports in the media. i tend to be skeptical of what g/ reported in the media. we don't really know what is going on on the ground. everybody has their propaganda campaign. christian: in the context of benny gantz coming to washington to speak with the vice president and secretary of state this week , do you trust the prime minister to do the best for the families? yehuda: this is a complicated question that needs to be understood in two ways.

i believe that based on what i know, that up until about two weeks ago, it would have been fair to say that netanyahu was as much a part of the probm as hamas. apparently he has changed his positions and has proven to be much more cooperative with the americans in achieving a deal. and that, today, the ball is clearly in hamas's court. and they need to make a decision. christian: they have walked away from the talks in cairo today, i am sure you are aware of that. largely because they have not produced a list of those alive and those who are dead. they say they can't prode that list because of the chaos in gaza that has unfolded during the war.

the israelis say until you provide at list, there is no negotiation. so we're at an impasse. how do we get past that? yehuda: first of all, i want to remind you and your leaders that hamas is a brutal terrorist organization, and this is their way of negotiating. it's not the first time they have pulled this kind of stuff off. the hamas bears a great deal of responsibility for'on)$)5ho' ths situation altogether. and i don't think they should be coddled more than necessary. my understanding is that if hamas does not sign onto this deal, then there will be repercussions for qatar. so it's not clear.

again, i need to make clear to everyone that listening to media reports about different things, there's no real indication of what is being reported being the actualruth of the matter. we simply don't know. we know what people want us to hear, but we don't know what is actually going on. so i'm n too excited about this. christian: just very quickly, where will you be sitting tonight? yehuda: in the gallery where all the other guests sit. christian: ok. we're wishing you the best of luck, and we hope it is a good evening tonight at the capitol. thank you for coming on the program. we much appreciate it. yehuda beinin there. annocer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by...

financial services firm, raymond james. bdo. accountants and advisors. cunard is a proud supporter of public television. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... woman: two retiring executives turn their focus to greyhounds, giving these former race dogs a real chance to win. a raymond james financial advisor gets to know you, your purpose, and the way you give back. life well planned. brook: these are people who are trying to change the world.