We're ending our live coverage of Joe Biden's second State of the Union address as president.

He repeatedly called on lawmakers to "finish the job" and deliver for the American people in a speech largely seen as laying out his 2024 re-election campaign platform.

For all the latest, read our news story here and analysis from our correspondent Anthony Zurcher here.

Our live coverage was produced by Madeline Halpert, Natalie Sherman, Bernd Debussman, Brandon Drenon, Chelsea Bailey, Sam Cabral, Max Matza, Kayla Epstein, Anthony Zurcher, Nomia Iqbal, Jonathan Csapo, Sarah Smith, Marianna Brady and George Bowden.

Was this a soft campaign launch for Biden?published at 04:25 Greenwich Mean Time 8 February 2023

04:25 GMT 8 February 2023

Sarah Smith
North America Editor, Washington

It is widely expected that President Biden will announce in the next couple of months that he will runs for a second presidential term in 2024. Tonight we got a preview of his election platform.

He boasted about the job creation under his presidency, passage of the infrastructure bill, and manufucturing returning to America.

Add to that the much better than expected results for Democrats in last years midterm elections and you can see why Biden feels he is a good position to win a second term.

At the moment, he doesn’t have any serious challengers for the nomination. No other senior Democrats have dared put their names forward as potential candidates before Biden says he is running.

Yet convincing Americans he is fit to serve another term will be his big challenge. With low poll numbers, it doesn't necessarily look good for Biden.

But what his team are relying on is that by election day in 2024 voters will be feeling the benefit of some of the legislation that Biden has already passed.

Nomia Iqbal
Reporting from House chamber

This was President Joe Biden in game-playing-form tonight. Whilst it felt like a ridiculous pantomime at times with a mix of boos, heckles and cheers, Biden seemed to lean into it and enjoy it.

Despite saying he wanted unity he also took shots at the Republicans and in a dramatic moment accused them of wanting to cut social security and Medicare. The Republicans erupted at this, with Marjorie Taylor Greene - the main heckler of the night - shouting “you’re a liar.”

Some deft negotiation perhaps, because Biden more or less baited his opponents to supporting those benefits on national television.

Republicans quickly exited after the speech wrapped up and as Biden mingled with some of the lawmakers, one Democrat yelled with a thumbs up “Mr President, that was awesome!”

Biden beamed.

He will be hoping audiences at home will agree.

Image source, Reuters

Let's have a quick re-cap of some of the main points from US President Joe Biden's speech tonight:

• America's economy has emerged from the Covid pandemic and its aftermath "stronger than when we entered it", he said, and hailed bipartisan achievements over the past two years
• But he conceded that inflation and other issues remain potent, and that "too many people have been left behind or treated like they're invisible"
• The US is "at last stepping up" to the existential threat of climate change, he said, but more needs to be done
• He drew heckles and boos in the chamber when he criticised former President Donald Trump for adding more to the national debt than any other president
• He again called on Congress to pass policing reforms and an assault weapons ban, both of which have been championed by his Democratic Party
• He also vowed to veto any national abortion ban passed by House Republicans
• He ended by reminding the crowd of the US Capitol riots two years ago, and the recent hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, declaring that democracy "must be an American issue" and not a partisan one

Sanders draws her speech to a close with a story about traveling with President Donald Trump to meet American soldiers stationed overseas during the Christmas holiday.

The former Trump official says that the troops she met "deserve to know they have a country and community back home doing our part in the fight for freedom".

"America is great because we are free," she says. "But today, our freedom is under attack, and the America we love is in danger."

"President Biden and the Democrats have failed you. It’s time for a change.

She adds that a "new generation" of Republicans are "stepping up, not to be caretakers of the status quo, but to be changemakers for the American people."

And with that, she ends her speech with calls for God to bless the American people.

Sanders was sworn in four weeks ago as the first female governor of Arkansas.

Speaking from the governor's mansion in Little Rock, the state capital, she set out some of the state executive orders she has signed since taking office.

They include banning the teaching of critical race theory (CRT) in Arkansas public schools, eliminating the use of the term 'Latinx' in government and repealing Covid-era mandates.

Sanders criticises what she calls "the radical left's America" which - in her words - is characterised by "high gas prices, empty grocery shelves" and an education system in which "our children are taught to hate one another on account of their race".

Sanders claims that the Biden administration portrays weakness on domestic issues, too.

She argues that a refusal to secure the border and repeated attacks on law enforcement have cost American lives.

Sanders continues by criticising Democrats for letting "violent criminals roam free" with calls to "defund the police".

"Beyond our border, from Afghanistan to Ukraine, from North Korea to Iran, President Biden’s weakness puts our nation and the world at risk.

"And the president’s refusal to stand up to China, our most formidable adversary, is dangerous and unacceptable.

"President Biden is unwilling to defend our border, defend our skies, and defend our people. He is unfit to serve as commander in chief."

The remark about China and "our skies" is a clear reference to the alleged Chinese surveillance balloon that was shot down after traversing the US mainland.

"President Biden and I don't have a lot in common," says Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who is the Republican governor of Arkansas, and a former White House press secretary.

"I'm for freedom. He's for government control," says Sanders, who at 40 notes the huge age difference between her and Biden, 80.

"The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left. The choice is between normal or crazy."

She adds: "It is time for a new generation of Republican leadership."

Image source, Getty Images

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders will soon deliver the opposition party's response to President Biden.

According to pre-released excerpts of her address from the governor's mansion in Little Rock, Arkansas, Sanders will critique the Biden administration's "woke fantasies" and argue her party values American freedoms.

"In the radical left’s America, Washington taxes you and lights your hard-earned money on fire, but you get crushed with high gas prices, empty grocery shelves, and our children are taught to hate one another on account of their race, but not to love one another or our great country," she is expected to say.

"Most Americans simply want to live their lives in freedom and peace, but we are under attack in a left-wing culture war we didn’t start and never wanted to fight," reads another excerpt.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from New York

The State of the Union serves as both a president's policy report card and wish list.

Tonight, Biden put forth multiple policies that will require an act of Congress to become reality - including tax hikes for billionaires, and restoring the child tax credit.

However, Congress is now a house divided, with Republicans controlling the US House and Democrats holding the US Senate.

All federal legislation must pass both chambers of Congress before arriving at the president's desk for a signature that will enshrine it in law. And Republican's aren't inclined to give Biden any big wins.

You can read more about what a divided Congress will mean for Biden's agenda here.

Stay tuned to our special programme on BBC World News as we analyse US President Joe Biden's State of the Union address.

To watch, click the play button at the top of this page.

And here's some more reaction from our panel of American voters.

And with that, Biden declares "the state of the union is strong" and ends his speech.

Stay tuned for all the reaction and analysis - and for the official response from the Republican opposition.

Biden links the attack on Paul Pelosi to the attack on 6 January, which took place as Trump supporters attempted to stop the democratic transfer of power.

"Here tonight in this chamber is the man who bears the scars of that brutal attack, but is as tough and strong and as resilient as they get," he says of Pelosi, who is married to former Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

"Just a few months ago, unhinged by the Big Lie, an assailant unleashed political violence in the home of the then-Speaker of this House of Representatives," says Biden.

The attacker, he says, was "using the very same language that insurrectionists who stalked these halls chanted on January 6th."

The attacker's motive has not been identified, but it is widely believed that he was opposed to Democratic priorities.

Biden ends his speech with an attack on Trumpism, without mentioning the man himself.

President Biden tells the story of a young cancer survivor beating the odds.

The girl's parents - Maurice and Kandice Barron - are seated inside the chamber.

Their daughter Ava was diagnosed with a rare kidney cancer when she was just one, and underwent multiple rounds of treatment, including having one kidney removed.

Biden says the Barrons connected with his own family's experience with cancer. His son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015.

"Ava never gave up hope. She turns four next month," she says Biden.

"They just found out that Ava beat the odds and is on her way to being cancer free."

Image source, Reuters

Your eyes and ears are not deceiving you.

U2 frontman Bono, 62, is sitting in the First Lady’s viewing box and was just recognised during President Biden’s speech for his activism in fighting HIV/AIDS and extreme poverty.

The Dublin-born singer-songwriter helped build public support for a Bush-era programme credited with improving the provision of life-saving HIV medication and saving 25 million lives worldwide.

He is also the cofounder of the ONE Campaign, which works with governments to fight poverty and preventable disease, and (RED), which has raised more than $700m (£581m) from the private sector to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa.

In December, Bono attended a reception at the White House after he and his bandmates were chosen among the John F Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts' 2022 honourees.