President Trump hails the golden age of America

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0:30to make those markets work for you. Follow Merrin Talks Money on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Pete Ross and at 16 hours GMT on Wednesday, the 25th of February, these are our main stories. We'll take a closer look at Donald Trump's claim in his State of the Union address that America is in a golden age. In Sudan, four leaders of the paramilitary Sudanese group, the Rapid Support Forces, have had sanctions imposed on them by the United Nations. Police in Sri Lanka have arrested a former intelligence chief in connection with the deadly 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed nearly 280 people.

1:18Also in this podcast, Japan says it will deploy missiles on a small but strategic island close to Taiwan. amid rising tensions with China. And... If you're in a tall building looking out, it will help, or just somewhere over the sea. All those things really help to find planets when they're low down in the sky. A rare opportunity to see six planets lined up on parade.

1:45In our previous podcast, you heard about Donald Trump's historically long State of the Union speech, during which the US president told a sharply divided Congress that his administration had heralded, in his words, the golden age of America. In nearly two hours of remarks, Mr Trump talked up his successes, railed against Democrats over the economy and immigration, and warned Iran against developing its nuclear programme. We'll have an assessment of the key points made by Mr Trump during his address in a moment. But first, here's a reminder of the highlights of the speech from Helena Humphrey. Mr Speaker, the President of the United States.

2:25A prime time pitch to the nation from a president not known for his brevity. True to form, Donald Trump delivered the longest State of the Union address in history. As his approval ratings slide and concerns about affordability grow, the president insisted Americans have never had it so good. Our nation is back. Bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before. His greatest hits were on full display. No tax on tips, doubling down on tariffs and a promise to stay tough on immigration. The only thing standing between Americans and a wide open border right now is President Donald J. Trump and our great Republican patriots in Congress.

3:10Thank you. His speech was often interrupted by cheers and chants of USA. The Olympic gold medal winners in the US men's hockey team received a standing ovation. But at times, tensions spilled into the chamber. You should be ashamed of yourself. That is why I'm also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals. Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar shouted in protest during the president's remarks on immigration and the Somali community in her home city of Minneapolis. Fellow Democratic lawmaker Al Green was escorted from the chamber. He had waved a sign protesting a video the president had posted depicting the Obamas as apes.

4:04Boy, oh boy. We're lucky we have a country. With people like this, Democrats are destroying our country. And dozens of other Democrats had refused to show up in the first place. We are in negotiations with them. They want to make a deal. But Donald Trump's speech was also aimed at an audience beyond the chamber. With a military strike on the table, the world watched closely for what the president had to say about Iran. My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world's number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far. To have a nuclear weapon, can't let that happen.

4:44What was not said was notable too, including the Epstein files and growing calls for accountability here in Washington. We did not hear the truth from our president. Delivering the Democratic response, Virginia's governor, Abigail Spanberger, accused the president of misleading Americans. Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family? We all know the answer is no. The 250th anniversary of our glorious American independence. In a speech marking nearly 250 years since America's founding, the president made his case that Republicans should shape its future. As the country heads towards November's midterm elections, it's up to voters to decide.

5:33We've seen nothing yet. We're going to do better and better and better. This is the golden age of America. Helena Humphrey. So what about some of the economic accomplishments asserted by President Trump? I spoke to Ben Chew from BBC Verify. He told us what stood out for him from the president's speech. I think really the economy and the claims about the cost of living were the standout theme of this State of the Union, obviously with the midterms coming up and that being the top priority we know for American voters. He really wanted to emphasise that a corner has been turned, that things are getting better and that people will be feeling it.

6:08And can we have some specifics on the actual claims that he made? Well, he made a claim that inflation in general is under control, but also actually the prices of things are coming down. I think we're going to hear specific items which he singled out. The price of eggs is down 60 percent. The cost of chicken, butter, fruit, hotels, automobiles, rent is lower today than when I took office by a lot. And even beef, which was very high, is starting to come down significantly. Just hold on a little while. We're getting it down. So, look, the price of eggs is a sort of iconic one, isn't it, in terms of the traditional shopping basket?

6:51We think his number is a bit exaggerated there. We're not quite sure over what period he's talking about. They are down year on year eggs quite significantly. That is true. Beef is down very slightly month on month. But the point is, these are specific things in the shopping basket. If you look at the overall consumer price index, which is the main measure of inflation in the US, it's running at about 2.4%. So that's down from about 3 % at the end of Joe Biden's term. So it's true that the overall inflation rate has declined under him, but there's not been a radical shift. Now, the economy was just one area that the president focused on last night.

7:30Another area that he claimed success was immigration. Can you tell us a bit more about that? Yeah, he said that basically he had managed to cut off illegal immigration entirely. I think we can hear exactly what he said. After four years in which millions and millions of illegal aliens poured across our borders totally unvetted and unchecked, we now have the strongest and most secure border in American history by far. In the past nine months, zero illegal aliens have been admitted to the United States. So this claim needs a bit of context. So he's talking about zero admitted, but that's not the same thing as zero illegal migrants crossing the border.

8:13He's talking about them being enabled and permitted to stay while their claim is scrutinized by the courts. Actually, there've been about 6 ,000 a month illegal migrants across that Mexican-US border crossing detected rather than zero. That's the appropriate figure to use. But to be fair to the president and the White House, that is dramatically down on what it was under Joe Biden. And sometimes under Joe Biden, it was more than 200 ,000 a month. So it is radically down, not quite to zero. Ben Chu. On Iran, Donald Trump said that while his preference would be to settle the issue through diplomacy, he won't allow Tehran to develop a nuclear weapon.

8:51Our chief international correspondent, Lise Dessette, told us more. It's a measure of President Trump's style of leadership. Here it is, as we've been reporting, the longest ever State of the Union address taking place at the very moment where there's the biggest US military build-up since the Iraq invasion of 2003. And yet he leaves remarks on Iran to the very end and doesn't say that much. And some of our viewers, our listeners may remember that when George W. Bush was preparing to go into Iraq. He traveled the country to make the case. Okay, much of the case turned out to be incorrect, but he still felt the need to make the case to the people of America.

9:26Two points on what he said. He said, we haven't heard from them the words, we do not want nuclear weapons ever. The foreign minister of Iran put up almost exactly those same words into a post he put on X as he was preparing to go to Geneva for another round of talks tomorrow. The question is, will Iran offer the kind of verification for that claim that they do not want ever to develop nuclear weapons? And I understand from diplomats who are being briefed on these negotiations that they are within reach of a narrow nuclear deal. And that is what they're discussing. Then suddenly, President Trump starts talking about ballistic missiles.

10:05And I don't think we've heard him say this before, that Iran is working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America. In other words, not only is it the issue of nuclear weapons, but we in America are affected by that ballistic missile program, which, as far as we know, Iran, in fact, it's made it clear it will not discuss ballistic missiles in detail in this deal. Lise de Sette. For more on this story, you can go on YouTube, search for BBC News, click on the logo, then choose podcasts and global news podcast. There's a new story available every weekday. The UN Security Council has imposed new sanctions on four leaders of Sudan's paramilitary rapid support forces over atrocities committed in El Fashur in the western Darfur region.

10:49Among them is the group's deputy commander, Abdurrahim Hamdan Dagalow. The RSF's capture of the city from the army last October was one of the most brutal chapters in Sudan's nearly three-year civil war. Last week, a UN fact-finding mission concluded that the violent takeover bore the hallmarks of genocide. Our Africa correspondent, Barbara Plett Usher, told me who'd been sanctioned and what they'd been accused of. Well, all four of them have been accused of engaging in actions or policies that threaten the peace, security or stability of Darfur, including acts of violence and human rights abuses.

11:22That's the UN language for why they are sanctioned. The key figure is Abdurrahim Dagalo, who's the second in command of the RSF. And they essentially say that he was in control of the operation, that there was video of him in the city the day that it fell, on a day that there were many reported atrocities, and that he was in charge of the operation. Now, the fact that he was there obviously placed him in immediate proximity to those atrocities, and so the conclusion was that he had operational authority. Also, he's been in charge of other RSF operations. Two other senior commanders who were present in Al-Fashr on the same day, there was video of them there, they were also sanctioned, and then a commander known as Abu Lulu, who earned the nickname Butcher of Al-Fashir because of horrific videos that he posted, which showed him killing unarmed civilians, boasting about it, smiling as he did it.

12:12That wasn't, of course, the only incidence of atrocities. But I think that the very graphic nature of those videos really highlighted to the international community what was going on in Al-Fashir, and he has also been sanctioned. And what are the practical consequences of these sanctions? What happens next? Well, there's travel bans and asset freezes, and that's the norm. More generally, there's going to be increased scrutiny on financial transactions, long-term monitoring, access to services may be difficult internationally, and so on. I think the reputational damage is another factor. This is a very high-profile international stigma, and especially, I think, for the RSF, which is trying to get legitimacy and recognition as a parallel government in Sudan, which set up last year as a national player with a legitimate seat at the table.

12:58So this is not helping that project. And bear in mind that this is the fourth time that Abdurrahim Dagalow has been sanctioned. The leader of the RSF has been sanctioned, as has the head of the Sudanese army. And these three commanders who were sanctioned have also been designated by the US and the UK. So you're getting a kind of consistent pattern of targeting, you know, the same officials. But whether or not that actually makes a difference, I mean, as I said, this has happened before in terms of sanctions and it hasn't had an impact on the ground. Barbara Plets-Oscher. In Spain, dozens of documents relating to a failed coup d 'etat that took place 45 years ago have been declassified.

13:35In February 1981, about 200 officers in the Civil Guard stormed into Congress during a vote to swear in a new Prime Minister. Then, this happened.

13:55Spain at that time was just a young democracy. The military dictator Francisco Franco had died a few years earlier and the country was now a parliamentary democracy with King Juan Carlos as its constitutional figurehead. But elements loyal to Franco weren't happy with the way the transition to democracy was going. Many of the facts of this pivotal moment in Spanish history are known, but not all, and earlier today the government released a bundle of classified documents relating to the failed coup. Elma Saiz is a government spokesperson. There are 153 documents that have remained classified for decades under Francoist regulations, but can now be consulted by historians, researchers and the general public through official channels.

14:40Under Franco's regime in our country, everything was secret by default and forever, unless otherwise stated. We are thus putting an end to a situation that is atypical in modern democracies regarding the declassification of state information. Our correspondent Guy Hedgco in Madrid has more details. It's regarded as the defining moment in Spain's transition to democracy. On 23 February 1981, a group of civil guards burst into Parliament and took MPs hostage at gunpoint for several hours in an attempt to push the country back to authoritarianism. The uprising was put down after the young King Juan Carlos addressed the nation, voicing his opposition to the rebels, and the declassified documents include police and judicial reports and details of conversations between the king and officials.

15:32The socialist-led administration says it's correcting an historical anomaly. It's not clear whether there will be any shocking revelations. Perhaps the most interest will be focused on the former King Juan Carlos, who some observers believe did not play as heroic a role as the history books suggest. Guy Hedgeco. Scientists say they fear thousands of emperor penguins may have died because the platforms of sea ice where they go to regrow their feathers are disappearing due to climate change. Shrinking sea ice means they're re-entering the icy waters before their waterproof coats are ready. Dr Peter Fretwell from the British Antarctic Survey is the scientist behind the findings.

16:14We know that over the last few years, the sea ice in Antarctica has changed dramatically. And in 2022, 23, 24, we had record low sea ice years. And in those years, in the areas that we've been looking at, which is about 30 to 40 percent of the emperor penguin population. The sea ice went out from underneath the malting emperor penguins which possibly led to many of them going into water and many fatalities. Our climate and science correspondent Georgina Renard told us more. In order to survive the cold, emperor penguins must remain on platforms of sea ice for long enough every year to replace weather-beaten feathers with new waterproof coats.

16:56But global warming is rapidly changing Antarctica. Satellite pictures show that after summer sea ice shrank dramatically in 2022 and 23, there now appear to be far fewer penguins in West Antarctica. Researchers at the British Antarctic Survey fear thousands of the birds may have died in the continent's icy waters, but there is some hope that a few groups managed to adapt and move to safer ice.

17:27Still to come in this podcast... We came round the corner and then we were confronted by a convoy of must have been ten vehicles loaded with cartel members, heavily armoured with automatics. There were guns mounted on the roofs of the trucks and they were blocked their own and they stopped us. Cam is returning to the streets of Mexico after a wave of violence across the country sparked by the army's killing of the country's most wanted drug lord known as El Mencho.

18:02This is not the future we were promised. Like, how about that for a tagline for the show? From the BBC, this is The Interface, the show that explores how tech is rewiring your week and your world. This isn't about quarterly earnings or about tech reviews. It's about what technology is actually doing to your work and your politics, your everyday life. and all the bizarre ways people are using the internet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

18:37This is the Global News Podcast. Nearly seven years ago, terror attacks on churches and hotels in Sri Lanka saw nearly 280 people killed. Now the police have arrested the former intelligence chief in connection with the deadly Easter Sunday bombings. Retired Major General Surash Saleh had previously been accused of involvement in coordinating the attacks, a charge he's denied. Our correspondent in the region, Arundi Mukherjee, told me more. Well, this was something that Sri Lanka was really jolted by. The bombings shook the country. It had not seen such levels of violence since the end of the bloody civil war in 2009, which is why it was extremely shocking, where three very high-profile hotels, as well as other installations, were attacked, and the blame had gone on Islamist groups.

19:24And it was Easter Sunday, so it was a sensitive day as well, which is why it was a targeted attack, is how a lot of people saw it. So it was something that really, really shook the country, which is why even now, so long after the attacks, people have been looking for justice. And this arrest is the most high-profile arrest in the case since the new president, Anurag Kumar, this NIK assumed office in 2024. And securing justice for the victims of those bombings was among his key pre-poll pledges, which is why this is being seen as a massive, major development. A major development, but these bombings happened in 2019.

20:00Can you tell us more about why this arrest has happened now? This was something that had happened in 2019. There was a lot of angst among the public and the families of the victims who essentially claimed and made accusations that the government of the day was involved, which is why this became a political issue as well for the new government which took over in 2024 because there was political pressure to try and get to the bottom of what really happened which is why this was an important pre-poll promise from Anuragumara Desanayake who is the current president that when he comes to power he is going to get to the bottom of what really happened and this is being seen as a result of that investigation which in a sense has borne fruit under this new government.

20:43This was something that the people at that time had blamed the establishment, which is why Major General Suresh Saleh's role becomes all the most significant, because the allegation was that he'd known about this attack that was going to take place, and he'd allowed it to go ahead, because the allegation was that he wanted to influence the upcoming shins in favor of the candidate then Mr. Gautabaya Rajapakse, and he actually went ahead and won the elections. Now, these are allegations that the general has denied completely, but it is an investigation that is currently undergoing and this is the first significant arrest.

21:14Arundae Mukherjee. Yonaguni is a small remote Japanese island that's around 2 ,000 kilometers southwest of Tokyo. But Japan's westernmost inhabited island is little more than 100 kilometers off the coast of Taiwan. And now the Japanese government has, for the first time, given a timeline for the deployment of surface-to-air missiles there. It comes amid growing tension with China, which claims Taiwan as its own and has not ruled out the use of force to reunify it. Our correspondent in Tokyo, Shauma Khalil, says the timing of this announcement was significant. The plans themselves have been in place since 2022.

21:51I think this is the first time that the government has announced a solid timeline for them, with the defence minister Shinjiro Koizumi saying that we're likely to see the deployment of these surface-to-air missiles between April 2030 and March 2031. Beijing will be watching this closely. This is the latest development in a simmering regional tension between those two neighbours. I think they'll be watching with alarm, with worry, but without much surprise, because remember that this comes under the heavy cloud of the sharp intentions between Tokyo and Beijing. because of the remarks by Prime Minister Sinai Takeuchi in November that Japan would become militarily involved if China were to attack Taiwan.

22:37And in the same month, Shinjiro Koizumi visited Yonaguni, this beautiful, idyllic, sleepy island. He visited there for the first time to announce that these plans were moving steadily forward. And at the time, China slammed the proposal saying it was extremely dangerous. And within days of that, back in November, Japanese aircraft were scrambled near Yonaguni because of suspected Chinese drones. You mentioned there, Shaima, that the defence minister had made a visit there recently. But what about the role of the prime minister, Sane Takahichi? She secured a landslide victory in parliamentary elections recently.

23:16Has that had an impact on all of this, do you think? I think what it does is it gives it a big push forward because Tsai Takayichi is a well-known China hawk. She's very, very strong on defense. And this landslide victory in parliament essentially gives her political space, gives her the impetus to double down on boosting Japan's defense capabilities. And remember that in her announcement, big policy announcement, a couple of weeks after this landslide victory where she won a big two-thirds majority, one of the things that she discussed was to revise the pacifist constitution, essentially have a national discussion about the situation that Japan is in right now diplomatically but also regionally.

24:02regionally. Her and her party's stance is that Japan should be able to defend itself. The Japanese army should be able to behave like a conventional army, which they don't at the moment. So the planned deployment of medium-range surface-to-air missiles to Yonaguni feels like this opening chapter of a more assertive Tokyo led by Sanai Takeuchi. What you're seeing really is Japan becoming more assertive on defense come to fruition by bringing these plans forward, starting with Yonaguni, which is closest to Taiwan, and that's what makes it so sensitive, and that's why it's likely to anger China further.

24:37Shaima Khalil in Tokyo. Schoolchildren returned to classes in Mexico on Wednesday following a wave of violence on Sunday that came in response to the army's killing of the country's most wanted drug lord known as El Mencho. Some of the worst violence took place in the popular tourist resort of Puerto Vallarta, from where Will Grant reports. After moving to Puerto Vallarta from the UK nine years ago, Alan Percy and his family began adopting dogs. Eventually they'd adopted so many, they opened a dog sanctuary called the Sula Society. Today they care for 300 abandoned dogs in the largest animal refuge in Jalisco State.

25:20It's all-consuming work. But on Sunday their task became even harder. Alan was held up at gunpoint by masked cartel members who pulled him from his vehicle and stole his truck. Probably ten minutes into the journey, five minutes driving from my house, we came round the corner and then we were confronted by a convoy of must have been ten vehicles loaded with cartel members, heavily armoured with automatics. There were guns mounted on the roofs of the trucks and they would block the road and they stopped us. I know enough Spanish that when they were saying, Solo coche, solo coche. They just wanted a car.

25:57Alan must now rely on a loaned car to bring in food and supplies, the rescued animals unwittingly affected by the violence which swept across Mexico following the death of the cartel boss El Menchon. The cartel's show of force shook Puerto Vallarta, with videos of the violence still circulating on social media, including one in Puerto Vallarta where numerous cars in the parking lot of the Costco store were attacked.