♪ e of the union address saying the crisis has passed. his a dress more aimed at the battle to succeed him -- address seemed more aimed at the battle to succeed him. new anti-terror measures aimed at curbing the threat of attacks in france. a palestinian man stabs 12

people on a bus in central tel aviv before being chased down, shot, and arrested. also, the global elite are now gathering in davos for the world economic forum. they are being joined by the world's top ngo's. could britain's infamous girls be a thing of the past? the end of the topless newspaper could be on the way. ♪ welcome. it was a very confident and defiant barack obama who gave his state of the union address to congress on tuesday.

he focused on the middle-class economy with a stronger safety net for the middle class and the poor. with the republicans in control of congress, those measures turning into law looks very likely -- unlikely. >> after a breakthrough year for america, our economy is growing and creating jobs at the fastest pace since 1999. our unemployment rate is lower than what it was before the financial crisis. we have seen the fastest economic growth in over a decade. a stock market that has doubled and health care inflation at its lowest rate in 50 years. that is good news, people. [laughter] [applause] >> for more, let's bring in our washington correspondent. good morning. we heard a very confident barack obama in his address.

the republicans were quick to shoot him down after the speech. tell us about the reaction. >> don't look much further than the official republican response. this time, joni ernst from iowa she is one of the new group of the members of congress on capitol hill. those who came in during the midterm elections and gained republican control in the senate for republicans. she said it has been a difficult past six years and said that republicans will now make congress function again. those could be the same words coming from the white house saying that the fault lies entirely with congress rather than the white house. you can see the type of dysfunction we have at the moment with washington.

there was also a call from president obama for more bipartisanship. that is a lot easier said than done and very wishful thinking indeed because there were plenty of republican rebuttals after the speech. there were also printed pre-but tals. republicans who put out their opposition before the speech to what they thought would be in it. there were plenty of reactions. one of them from senator rand paul. he is possibly vying to run for president in 2016. he put out his own youtube response separate to the official response. he said the qualities that barack obama that have allowed the poor to get poorer and the rich to get richer. sergei lavrov said it shows that

the united states wants to dominate the world. >> president obama did really seem to be positioning himself as a champion of the middle class and giving them more. >> absolutely. the white house tried to frame this as a speech about middle class economics. who would have thought that on the front cover of "the washington post" we would see a title like this one? "the shadow of the crisis has passed." that was the framework of the state of the union address. the unemployment rate is as low as it has been in six years they financial crisis is over -- that is why president obama, for the first time, was able to say that he believes that the state of the union is strong. he was defiant, in the sense

that the proposals he suggested have very little chance of getting through congress in the first place. his middle-class agenda will be voted down, if there even is a vote in congress. he has suggested more taxes for the wealthy and big financial institutions, lower taxes for lower income and middle class working families. this is a populist approach. it is not the kind of thing that is easily pushed through congress. a lot of these proposals will never come to fruition. >> thank you. back here in france, prime minister manuel valls has outlined plans to stop would be terrorists. 425 million euros to be spent to boost counterterrorism forces. >> over the next three years, we

will create 2680 more jobs to fight against terrorism. on top of that, we will have to invest in more equipment. 233 million euros will be unblocked for the interior ministry and 181 million euros will go to the justice ministry. >> melissa bell was at the press conference this morning. she has more on how the french government says it is going to finance the 420 million euro commitment. >> manuel valls made it clear that the new demands would be balanced against old ones and judgments made, but the money would be found. it was obvious that he had to make this particular point that balances -- budgets would be balanced the spending commitments would be respected and not overshot. it will be a difficult balancing act.

they enjoy across parliamentary support for the time being. as they try to reallocate the new resources and start cutting back on cuts they had been planning to make for the time being, they enjoy the cross party support they need to make the readjustments. >> that is melissa bell reporting. new details have come out on those attacks that left 17 people dead over three days in paris. the chief prosecutor said four men have been placed under formal investigation link to the second attack on a kosher supermarket. the suspects are reportedly linked to the gunman, amedy coulibaly, who shot dead four jewish men in that market one day after he killed a policewoman in the street. these men are the forced --

first to face formal prosecution. >> concerning the four men, they have been placed under formal investigation. one of the four is placed under investigation for the possession of weaponry in connection with the terrorist operation and transporting at least two people in relation to the terrorist operation. all are now in custody. >> in the wake of the attacks many parisians were shocked to hear u.s. news channel fox news reporting about certain neighborhoods in the french capital, saying they were no go zones. that provoked a campaign from a french tv station that led to

fox news retracting that information is incorrect. for the mayor of paris, that is not enough. she says the city will sue fox news, saying the channel insulted its image. a palestinian man stabbed at least 12 people on a bus before being shot and arrested in tel aviv. the man reportedly tried to escape before being shot by a passing prison officer and detained. police are calling the incident a terror attack. >> ambulances and police vehicles block of central tel aviv. the number 40 bus was traveling through the city when a man began stabbing several fellow passengers and the driver. police identified him as a palestinian from the west bank who entered israel illegally. the attacker fled the scene, but

was followed by special patrol units. >> he was shot in his leg and is now in police custody. we are still searching to make sure there are no further terrorists around the area. >> hamas praised to the attack is brave and heroic, but did not claim responsibility for it. in november, five people were killed by two men armed with a meat cleaver and a gun in a bloody assault on a synagogue in jerusalem. >> cluster 30 people have been killed in protests in the democratic republic of congo on monday. crowds have turned out and kinshasa to protest a law that would allow president kabila to stay in office. the eu has called for calm and

for respect of the elections on the table. new revelations of the crash of the airasia flight say the plane climbed to fast before stalling and plunging into the sea. that would point to striking similarities between this crash and a 2009 crash of an air france jet. it was reported to climb at speeds two to three times normal. bob crane -- bahrain has sentenced a democratic demonstrator to six months in jail. in yemen, the leader of the country's powerful houthi movement said the president has

shielded corruption. those comments came as the houthis have been controlling more and more of the capital. houthi fighters battled guards at the president's home and entered the presidential palace amid fears that yemen is descending into chaos. >> the message comes from the most senior houthi leader. there is reassurance that the militia men are not trying to depose him. >> the president and his allies are protecting corruption in this country, instead of fighting it. partnership is of paramount importance in getting rid of political tyranny. >> the shiite insurgents get control of president abd-rabbu mansour hadi's palace.

an an observer reported on the attention that gripped the capital for days. >> almost all military personnel have evacuated the roads and have been replaced by houthi militia men that are taking their locations and checkpoints. the entries of the city are controlled by the houthi. the yemenis minister tweeted that the president was under attack by armed militia seeking an overthrow. >> state run media outlets and headquarters of the yemeni intelligence and now the presidential palace have been overtaken by the houthi. they maintain that the priority is negotiations. >> a defiant barack obama delivers his state of the union

address, saying the shadow of crisis has passed. he lays out his vision of a bigger safety net for the middle classes. his address seemed more aimed at the battle to succeed him. new french anti-terror measures are unveiled to counter the threat of new attacks. cluster 3000 jobs will be created over the next three years. a palestinian man twice -- steps 12 people on a bus in tel aviv before being chased down, shot and arrested. the world economic forum is taking place in davos in tehhe swiss alps. our business editor is there for "france 24." >> matteo renzi's campaign to

defend the reforms in italy -- he had comments about the general european attitude toward the economy. he said there needs to be a focus on growth rather than austerity. his point was to try to sell italy as a place to invest into those 1500 chief executives that are here at the world economic forum. he said that italy should be an innovation laborde tory -- laboratory and not a museum. he is just one of many leaders here to sell their countries to investors. this is a meeting -- forum dominated by economic affairs. you were saying, looking at the

overall atmosphere this year that the economic environment we are looking at is reminiscent. >> it is sort of back to the future. it looks very much the 1980's and 1990's. the u.s. is back to being a locomotive of growth the dollar is strong again, the u.s. is the biggest producer of oil -- that is where we were in the 1980's and 1990's. in that sense, this is familiar territory. >> oil prices are a dominant issue. do you see it going lower again? >> it could go as low as $30. then it will come back up. we think the average oil price is around $50 this year for 2015. >> what effect is that going to have on the global economy? >> we were very much aware that the imf is higher than our forecast and they have met us.

we agree with them now in terms of where they are right now. they and we believe that the net effect of lower oil prices is positive. it is helping oil consuming company -- countries. it is hurting oil exporting economies. >> what about the european central bank? do you see monetary stimulus having a big effect on the eurozone? >> our best guess is that we think the ecb will put in place a program of about 500 billion in bond purchases. that is important. it is necessary. it is probably not big enough. the evidence from the u.s., the u.k. and japan as the quantitative easing helps growth. this is a necessary thing. >> how do you read the atmosphere here at davos?

what are people saying? >> it depends very much on where they are coming from, where geographically they are coming from. from the u.s., they are quite upbeat. from europe, they are a little more cautious. from china, they are a little worried. it very much depends. last year, there was hope. this year, there is more caution, i would say. >> we have the ukrainian president, the chinese prime minister. are you expecting big announcements from either of those? >> they are usually not big announcements, but people will read between the lines. i'm interested to hear what the chinese prime minister has to say. growth is weak right now. what are they going to do? will they try to prop growth up or not? that is a big deal. >> thank you for joining us. as we were just saying, plenty

more big-name speeches coming before the end of today. petro poroshenko, the ukrainian president. the chinese prime minister is also due to speak. >> thank you so much for that. it is time for the press review. ♪ we are talking through the papers today. let's start in france, or someone he papers are focusing on a new series of anti-terror measures today. >> and antiterrorist arsenal that the government is going to have. more phone tapping, internet surveillance, all sorts of measures to help fight terrorism in france. lots of papers are wondering, how much is all this going to cost and how is the government going to pay for it? if you increase the resources of

the police, army, and intelligence services, this might risk increasing france's deficit which is being watched like a hawk from brussels. this could cost an extra 400 million euros. the government is actually counting on savings made by falling oil prices to finance all of this. >> many papers are focusing on one controversial anti-terror measure -- whether or not to bring back the punishment of national disgrace. >> this is a sentence invented in 1944, right after the second world war. it was set up to punish people who had collaborated with the not sees -- nazis, by taking away civil and political rights. people have been talking about it, about bringing it back to punish people who were fighting with jihadists in syria and

iraq. francois hollande and a lot of people on the left are against it. the question of how to fight or deal with these french jihadists returning from syria and iraq is a real question in the press. there are a number of french citizens going to fight jihad in the middle east and it is going up. when you're ago there were 555 french jihadists. now there are nearly 1300. that is a 130% increase in one year. >> other papers are focusing on this video released by the islamic state yesterday. >> the islamic state group is demanding $200 million to spare these two japanese men. what you can see here is a photo taken in tokyo of people watching this video. it is on the front page of the

"wall street journal" today. it is major news in japan. this hostage crisis really comes at an interesting time. shinzo abe is on the final leg of a six-day tour in the middle east. he has pledged $200 million of nonmilitary aid to countries in the region. >> this comes as a shock, not least of all because it is a pacifist constitution. >> "the guardian" focuses on why this might be happening. this says it highlights the risk in the prime minister's drive to raise japan's profile on the international stage. this is another analysis in "the daily beast." what does it mean for the prime minister? critics say he is a hawkish prime minister and he is moving

forward to rebuild to rise japan. he can either let these two japanese citizens be killed and face negative reaction at home or he can negotiate with the terrorists and loose face as a hawk. he is very stressed about the situation and has vowed to save the two men. the fact that japan is being targeted by terrorism could give him impetus to change the japanese constitution. if the two men die, the antiwar constitution could go with them. a lot is at stake. >> a terrible situation. let's wrap up on a lighter note. in the u.k. "the sun" will no longer have its page three girls? >> this has been a feature of the paper since 1970. 41 years.

shortly after rupert murdoch bought the tabloid this page three featuring topless women has attracted a lot of criticism in england and abroad. according to a lot of papers things have changed subtly. monday, the paper featured a woman wearing a broad. tuesday, it was actresses wearing bikinis. it seems like the topless news is out. the newspaper has failed to a dress the important policy reversal. "the guardian" applauds the work of "no more page three." the fight is a long way from over for gender equality in the u.k. let's and with a cartoon. this is in "the independent." they have their own page three where you see a topless rupert murdoch.

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