Trump delivers longest-ever State of the Union

0:00Global News Team:This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Available now on the documentary from the BBC World Service. In the US, increasing numbers of Americans are embracing Russian orthodoxy. Many new converts say the churches they were raised in are too woke and they're looking for a faith which promotes traditional values. I'm Lucy Ash. Join me to find out more. Listen now by searching for the documentary wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

0:56Global News Team:intersection where the world and America meet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:07This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Ankur Desai. And in the early hours of Wednesday, the 25th of February, these are our main stories. President Trump has delivered a stridently America first State of the Union address to Congress. He lavishly praised his own administration's record while attacking that of the Democrats, some of whom walked out and heckled the president during some heated exchanges. At just under two hours, the speech was the longest in history. We'll hear some of the highlights from the speech and get analysis from our correspondent in Washington.

1:48Also in this podcast, if you're traveling to the UK, keep listening. As from today, you'll need to apply for a new electronic travel authorisation. If you apply for a visa, if you're a country that needs to apply for a visa, you've already had pre-authorisation. Up until now, we've not had that. Elsewhere, authorities in Thailand are investigating the deaths of dozens of tigers at a popular tourist attraction. And... This is an extraordinary golden ram's head, some 20 centimetres across, and it weighs, I think, 1.2 kilos. You'll hear the story of a golden ram's head from Ghana and other stolen artifacts from colonial times, which the public are being denied access to.

2:35Donald Trump has delivered the annual State of the Union address. He spoke for nearly two hours, making it the longest such speech in history. The president began by saying his administration had heralded what he called the Golden Age of America. When I last spoke in this chamber 12 months ago, I had just inherited a nation in crisis with a stagnant economy, inflation at record levels, a wide open border, horrendous recruitment for military and police, rampant crime at home and wars and chaos all over the world. But tonight, after just one year, I can say with dignity and pride that we have achieved a transformation like no one has ever seen before and a turnaround for the ages.

3:24It is indeed a turnaround for the ages.

3:31And we will never go back to where we were just a very short time ago. We're not going back. USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! Thank you. Today, our border is secure. Our spirit is restored. Inflation is plummeting. Incomes are rising fast. The roaring economy is roaring like never before. And our enemies are scared. Our military and police are stacked and America is respected again, perhaps like never before. President Trump also touted America's military strength, but said it would seldom have to use this great power as he chose what he called peace through strength. Our country has never been stronger.

4:25My first 10 months, I ended eight wars. Cambodia and Thailand, Pakistan and India would have been a nuclear war. 35 million people said the Prime Minister of Pakistan would have died if it were not for my involvement. Kosovo and Serbia, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Congo and Rwanda, and of course the war in Gaza which proceeds at a very low level. It's just about there.

5:02And we're working very hard to end the Ninth War, the killing and slaughter between Russia and Ukraine, where 25 ,000 soldiers are dying each and every month. Think of that. 25 ,000 soldiers are dying a month. A war which would have never happened if I were President. Would have never happened. As President, I will make peace wherever I can, but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must. That's why in a breakthrough operation last June, the United States military obliterated Iran's nuclear weapons program with an attack on Iranian soil known as Operation Midnight Hammer.

5:47The U.S. military has also been active closer to home, fighting what it alleges are drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Pacific region. President Trump claimed that as another the win. For years, large swaths of territory in our region, including large parts of Mexico, have been controlled by murderous drug cartels. That's why I designated these cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and I declared illicit fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. And with our new military campaign, we have stopped record amounts of drugs coming into our country and virtually stopped it, completely coming in by water or sea.

6:33You probably noticed that. We very seriously damaged their fishing industry also. Nobody wants to go fishing anymore. We've also taken down one of the most sinister cartel kingpins of all. You saw that yesterday. Dozens of Democrats boycotted the State of the Union address. Some of those who were there heckled the president. If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support. The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.

7:14Isn't that a shame? You should be ashamed of yourself not standing up. You should be ashamed of yourself. That is why I'm also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens. In many cases, drug lords, murderers all over our country, they're blocking the removal of these people out of our country. And you should be ashamed of yourself. And there were also clashes over another polarizing issue, that of transgender rights. Look, nobody stands up. These people are crazy, I'm telling you.

7:58They're crazy. Amazing. Boy, oh boy. We're lucky we have a country. With people like this, Democrats are destroying our country, but we've stopped it just in the nick of time, didn't we? Well, our correspondent in Washington, Simi Jola, also was watching the address and she gave me her analysis. It was interesting that President Trump focused on issues that will rally his Republican base. He didn't seem to really touch on issues that might attract a broader base, especially independents, because polls show he's lost significant support within that key group. He defended his own record as we expected him to when he spoke about the economy, a reduction in crime rates.

8:49He spoke about foreign policy. He touted his claim of having stopped eight wars. He reflected on the strength of the American military. But then he repeatedly attacked Democrats on issues related to gender affirming care, corruption, the Save America Act that he's trying to push. And then he also used the opportunity to call on Congress to pass certain laws, like one he called the Delilah Law. He also mentioned trying to ban children from accessing gender related medical care. He spoke about tough legislation with regards to immigration and halting the release of violent repeat offenders. We could see from the reaction of the Republicans and Democrats, even Democrats shouting back at him when he was talking about corruption within the country.

9:42You could hear Ilhan Omar shout that he calling him a liar. We saw one Democrat walk out as well. But the Republicans were applauding pretty much everything President Trump said. So when it comes to the impression he's going to make to the people who try and vote in the midterm elections away from his MAGA core base, would he have said enough to try to convince them that he's still the man and the Republicans should still hold the House going forward? I don't think so. I think he could have said a bit more about the economy and his plan going forward. He did mention tax cuts. But he also kept pushing the narrative of tariffs being better for Americans.

10:28But what a lot of Americans have been seeing are higher costs. Economists have said that it's Americans that are feeling the cost of the tariffs. And it's not actually improving the economy. But President Trump keeps saying that tariffs are needed to boost American manufacturing and production. He also spoke about immigration. We of course know what's happened in Minnesota with the killing of two US citizens and President Trump at the time said he would take a softer approach but he hasn't really said that this time around. He's pushed for a tougher approach on immigration and he's praised what's happened so far with regards to enforcement officials in and around the country.

11:14So whether he's done enough to bring the independents, the people who might have been supporting him at the start of last year and now isn't so sure, it's not very clear. Simi Jalaoso reporting. As we heard, President Trump said in his State of the Union address that he was working hard to end the war in Ukraine, which has just marked its fourth anniversary. In advance of the speech, the BBC's James Kumrasani asked Mikhailo Podolyak, one of the Ukrainian president's closest advisors, what he'd like to hear Donald Trump say.

11:50Global News Team:That Ukraine undoubtedly is the partner of the United States and Europe, and that Russia now is completely different from Russia before 2022, and Russia today is not a global leader. Have you ever heard Donald Trump talk about Russia in those terms? You asked what I would like to hear. Trump has his own interest and everybody is hearing his words, but nobody is taking into account what he is doing. He is pushing Russia from the international markets. What of the current peace negotiations? The point of the talks is to see what decides in the talks what countries want. We know that Ukraine wants peace.

12:43Global News Team:Russia still wants war. The United States, they want to gain some dividends from this process. They want to get some preferences for themselves. Can I just ask you about the view of the Ukrainian public? The opinion polls suggest that more and more want a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible. How long do you have? How long do you think you can continue this war without losing the public support?

13:15Global News Team:Russia is not offering anything. It's just offering more war, more violence, and there is only one option to go to the end.

13:29Meanwhile, the UN General Assembly has passed a resolution in support of Ukrainian sovereignty. The resolution has called for a full ceasefire and lasting peace. The US was among 51 countries to abstain, with the conflict now into its fifth year. Our international editor Jeremy Bowen has this assessment.

13:48Global News Team:The full-scale invasion four years ago was the first clear sign that the world had changed. What's happened since then is not just about the impact of four years of killing and destruction on Ukraine and Russia. It's also about the impact on the rest of Europe and the wider world. Old assumptions about security, about the safety of the future, have been overturned. Leaders are finding ways to spend more money on the military. That's because the world is more dangerous now than at any time since the height of the Cold War. Russia's war effort depends on allies in China, North Korea and Iran. Ukraine relies on NATO countries.

14:29Global News Team:Perhaps President Zelensky had a point when he told me at the weekend that it amounted to a world war. Other principles are at stake. President Trump has abandoned the idea held since 1945 that big countries should not take land from smaller ones by force. He is pushing Ukraine to accept President Putin's demand to give up territory that Russia has tried and failed to capture in return for a ceasefire. The war between Russia and Ukraine is still flashing danger signals across Europe. Will the war end this year? Not the way things look now. Jeremy Bowen reporting. Next, the authorities in Thailand are investigating the deaths of dozens of tigers at a popular tourist attraction.

15:15At least 72 captive animals died this month after being infected with a virus at a specialist tiger park in the northern city of Chiang Mai. Thailand has several such parks where tourists pay to take photos and have contact with the big cats. But conservationists have long criticised the zoos as unsuitable, as Jonathan Head reports from Bangkok.

15:38Global News Team:Tiger parks are a familiar site in Thailand, popular in particular with Chinese tourists, but criticised by conservation and animal welfare groups for the conditions in which hundreds of animals are kept together in small spaces. This leaves them vulnerable to outbreaks of disease. More than 70 have died over the past week in one zoo after contracting canine distemper, possibly from the chicken carcasses which make up the bulk of their diet. Officials from the Department of Agriculture say the outbreak is now under control, but it is bound to prompt more calls to shut the tiger parks down completely.

16:14Global News Team:Most of them hold Bengal tigers, which breed well in captivity, but Thailand also has a small, though endangered, wild population of Indochinese tigers in its forests. Conservationists fear the large number of tigers held in zoos can help to conceal the illegal trade in tiger parts, which is still rife in much of Asia. Jonathan Head reporting. Still to come on this podcast, what went wrong when one man in the US tried to hack his robot vacuum? He basically just requested his data from DJI's servers and suddenly it showed him everybody's data and everybody's robots in their homes all over the world.

16:55This is absolutely terrible for cyber security.

17:06Available now on the documentary from the BBC World Service. In the US, increasing numbers of Americans are embracing Russian orthodoxy. Many new converts say the churches they were raised in are too woke and they're looking for a faith which promotes traditional values. I'm Lucy Ash. Join me to find out more. Listen now by searching for the documentary wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

17:36Global News Team:America is changing. And so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere. I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. I'm Tristan Redman in London and this is The Global Story. Every weekday we'll bring you a story from this intersection where the world and America meet. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

18:20The president of Poland, Carol Nowrowski.

18:25Global News Team:The US president, Donald Trump. To cultural icons. Two-time Oscar-winning actor, Sir Anthony Hopkins. The interview from the BBC World Service. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Deepfake porn didn't come out of nowhere. It was allowed to spread, while governments dragged their feet and tech companies shrugged. I'm staring at myself in this video that I know I haven't made. This is what it looks like to feel violated. This season on Understood. If you follow the trail, who does it lead to? These images, they were like hunting me. And the biggest platform was Mr. Deepfakes. Understood.

19:03Global News Team:Deepfake Porn Empire. Available now on CBC Listen or wherever you get your podcasts. From today, almost all visitors to the UK will need to apply for an ETA. That's an electronic travel authorisation before they can enter this country. It costs about US$21 and follows similar schemes already in place in the US and Australia. The European Union will also bring in its own compulsory visa later in the year. And the UK government says it prevents those who are a threat from getting into the country. But as Rick Kelsey reports, some travel groups say it's an unnecessary burden on tourists. I'm coming through airport passport security, a biometric scan and I'm through.

19:50Global News Team:From now on, people from outside the UK coming through these gates will need to have a UK ETA, an electronic travel authorisation. You'll need to apply three days before to guarantee you'll get it on time. We hear week on week about people who have been unable to board flights, have wasted huge amounts of money, and they just haven't understood fully the paperwork that they need to cross the border. Claire Irwin is travel editor for the Sunday Times in the UK. If you are relying on your consumer rights to get you a refund for a flight you're not able to take because you haven't got the right paperwork, you're sadly mistaken.

20:34Global News Team:You are the only one who's going to miss out. It is complicated. The European Union's new entry and exit scheme will come in from October. There are thousands of messages on travel forums you can read about people missing flights because, frankly, they didn't know about these new visas. There's also the problem of fraud and businesses making large profits off the new arrangements. Almost all the visas ask that people book directly from the government or official site of the country that you're visiting. But this has not stopped companies charging sometimes hundreds of dollars for doing it for them, even masking as official partners, which is what happened to Jasmine Gallant from New Brunswick in Canada.

21:18Global News Team:We had paid our flight. This link appeared and said all travellers to the UK need a travelling visa. So I applied for it. They never mentioned any fees. I just assumed that it was going to be the same fees as before. But I ended up paying£100, which the first time I had applied cost me£20. Esther Fraud is frequent enough that US Customs and Borders Protection regularly warns travellers about these type of scams. Julia Lobusayad is from the Advantage Travel Partnership, a global group of independent travel businesses. This is all about anyone that doesn't need a visa to travel to a country. How do we know who's in the country?

22:03How do we control security from that point of view? If you apply for a visa, if you're a country that needs to apply for a visa, you've already had pre-authorisation. But up until now, we've not had that.

22:13Global News Team:Most of these new travel authorisations cost between$15 and$30 and they last for up to three years. But don't forget to do it before you head to the airport. Rick Kelsey with that report. As the West begins to return some stolen artefacts to the countries they were taken from in colonial times, the British Royal Artillery has come under fire for denying all public access to looted Ashante treasure. A golden ram's head pillaged from what is now Ghana remains hidden in an officer's mess. The British Army says access to military locations is controlled for security, operational and safety reasons.

22:52But Barnaby Phillips, one of the expert authors denied access, told us the artefact should at least be loaned to museums. This is an extraordinary golden ram's head, some 20 centimetres across, and it weighs I think 1.2 kilos. It's perhaps the single most striking object which the British looted from the palace of the Ashanti King in Kumasi, today in the centre of Ghana, on a military expedition in 1874. And it was taken by a group of officers. They were caught by their superiors, red-handed, as it were, and they were able to buy it directly. They paid£135 in 1874. That's about£16 ,000, over$20 ,000 today.

23:41And they were able to take it back to the Royal Artillery officer's mess. The Royal Artillery decided it needed to be better protected. They put it in a glass dome and then they put a stand underneath it. And that stand is comprised of the figures of three West African boys, so described, naked except for loincloths. From the point of view of the 21st century, it is in shockingly bad taste. And I should say, I'm not alone in my frustrations, Tim. I know even museum curators who struggle to see these objects. They are very, very closely kept by the Royal Artillery, and only they and their invited guests can go into the mess and see them.

24:26In fact, I spoke to one curator, director of a national museum here in Britain, and I should say he's a fairly temperamentally conservative man. He did manage to go and see these objects. He said, when you see these things and you realise no one else can see them and they will never leave this place, it's like a punch in the stomach. Barnaby Phillips. To the US now and the story of an AI computer engineer who wanted to be able to remotely control his new robot vacuum cleaner. And so he used his skills to link it to a PlayStation game controller. But by doing that, he accidentally gained access to thousands of the vacuum devices.