WASHINGTON — US President Donald J. Trump boasted in his State of the Union address on Tuesday that he had ushered in “the golden age of America,” seeking to project an aura of success despite sagging approval ratings and deepening voter frustration ahead of November’s midterm election.

Heeding calls from Republican lawmakers worried they could lose their congressional majority later this year, Mr. Trump spent the first hour of his televised speech focused on the economy, saying he had slowed inflation, driven the stock market to record heights, signed sweeping tax cuts and lowered drug prices.

But it was unclear whether his rosy assessment would assuage Americans’ anger about the cost of living. Mr. Trump sought to blame his Democratic predecessor, Joseph R. Biden, for high prices, but opinion polls show voters hold Mr. Trump responsible for not doing more to ease an affordability crisis after he campaigned relentlessly on the issue.

“Our nation is back — bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before,” Mr. Trump said after taking the stage to cheers of “USA, USA” from fellow Republicans in Congress, with dozens of empty seats on the Democratic side a reminder that many lawmakers skipped the speech for anti-Trump rallies outside.

The annual speech to Congress came at a fraught moment for Mr. Trump’s presidency, with polls showing a majority of Americans have soured on his performance, anxieties rising over Iran and his signature tariff policy foundering after the US Supreme Court struck down most of his import taxes.

For much of the speech, Mr. Trump was uncharacteristically disciplined, mostly appearing to stick to his prepared remarks and eschewing his usual stream-of-consciousness digressions. But he flashed his combative side while discussing his immigration crackdown, exchanging shouted insults with several Democratic lawmakers.

The former reality television star injected plenty of spectacle into the event. At one point, he bragged about all the “winning” that the US has experienced during his term, before introducing some other winners: members of the US men’s ice hockey team, who entered the chamber wearing the gold medals they won at the Winter Olympics on Sunday.

He declared that the team’s goaltender, Connor Hellebuyck, would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of half a dozen medals handed out to various guests with typical Trumpian fanfare.

The 79-year-old Mr. Trump’s speech lasted approximately an hour and 47 minutes, breaking the record he set last year for the longest presidential address to Congress.

NO CLARITY ON IRAN
While Mr. Trump said inflation is “plummeting,” prices for groceries, housing, insurance and utilities remain significantly higher than they were a few years ago. New data released on Friday showed the economy slowed more than expected last quarter while inflation accelerated.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll found only 36% of Americans approve of his handling of the economy. Democrats hope to seize control of both houses of Congress from Republicans in November when all 435 seats are on the ballot for the House of Representatives and about a third of the 100 seats in the Senate.

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat whose decisive victory in November was an early midterm warning sign for Republicans, delivered her party’s official response, criticizing Mr. Trump for abandoning struggling Americans.

“Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family?” she said. “We all know the answer is no.”

Mr. Trump, who attacked the Supreme Court in personal terms after the tariff decision on Friday, held his fire on Tuesday, shaking hands with the four justices present as he entered the chamber. He called the ruling “unfortunate” but argued that it would ultimately have little impact on his trade policy.

Mr. Trump did not discuss artificial intelligence, at a time when the technology is fueling both the stock market and growing worries among workers about the threat it poses to job security.

He also spent little time on foreign policy, even though he has focused much of his energies in office on issues abroad.

Mr. Trump again claimed he “ended” eight wars, an exaggeration, and barely mentioned Ukraine, despite Tuesday marking the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion. He did not discuss China, America’s chief economic rival, or Greenland, the semi-autonomous Danish territory he has threatened to take over.

Mr. Trump also did not offer clarity regarding his plans for Iran amid signs he is inching closer to a military conflict with Tehran.

“My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy,” he said. “But one thing is certain: I will never allow the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon.”

TRUMP, DEMOCRATS CLASH
When Mr. Trump turned to his favorite topic, immigration, he repeated the same rhetoric that animated his 2024 campaign, claiming undocumented migrants were responsible for a wave of violent crime despite studies showing that is not the case.

“You should be ashamed,” he told Democrats, chastising them for refusing to fund the Department of Homeland Security unless measures are taken to curb the aggressive tactics of immigration agents under Mr. Trump.

Opinion polls show a majority of Americans believe Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown has gone too far, after two US citizens were shot dead by masked federal agents in Minneapolis.

As Mr. Trump praised his immigration enforcement, Democrat Ilhan Omar, who represents a Minneapolis US House district, shouted in his direction, “You have killed Americans!”

Mr. Trump, who has falsely claimed for years that election fraud in the US is rampant, also attacked Democrats for not supporting a voter identification requirement.

“They want to cheat,” he said. Democrats argue that the Republican-backed legislation would impose unnecessary burdens on voters and suppress turnout.

Democratic US Representative Al Green was removed from the House chamber for the second consecutive year after waving a sign at Mr. Trump that read, “Black people aren’t apes.” The message referred to a social media video Mr. Trump posted with a clip depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.

The White House eventually took down the video, which Mr. Trump said was posted by a staffer. Mr. Green, who is Black, was also ejected during last year’s address after shouting at Mr. Trump.

Other Democrats offered quieter messages of protest. US Representative Jill Tokuda, a Hawaii Democrat, wore a white jacket emblazoned with words like “affordability” and “healthcare.”

A number of Democratic women wore tags saying “release the files,” a reference to the scandal surrounding convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. About a dozen Mr. Epstein accusers attended as guests of Democrats. — Reuters

BEIJING — China and Germany want to deepen cooperation, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Chinese Premier Li Qiang said in Beijing on Wednesday, as Mr. Merz began a visit aimed at resetting ties against the backdrop of a widening trade imbalance.

Mr. Merz told Mr. Li that Germany attached great importance on maintaining and deepening its intensive economic exchanges with China, its largest trading partner last year, while emphasizing the need to ensure fair cooperation and open communication.

“We have very specific concerns regarding our cooperation, which we want to improve and make fair,” said Mr. Merz, who faces a tough balancing act of redefining an economic relationship that is increasingly unfavorable to German interests.

Mr. Li called on both sides to work together to safeguard multilateralism and free trade, in a reference to US President Donald Trump’s trade war, that has upended the global trading system.

“China and Germany, as two of the world’s largest economies and major countries with important influence, should strengthen our confidence in cooperation, jointly safeguard multilateralism and free trade, and strive to build a more just and fair global governance system,” Mr. Li said.

China is seeking to pitch itself as a reliable economic partner, in contrast to the United States, as Europe struggles to address vulnerabilities in its supply chains and worries about growing dependence on China.

Europe is witnessing an acceleration of concerning trends in China, Europe’s Trade Commissioner Maroљ Љefčovič told the European Parliament on Tuesday, citing China’s growing dominance in key manufacturing sectors, a rising imbalance in bilateral trade, and falling market share of EU companies in China.

Mr. Merz, on his first visit to China, becomes the latest European leader seeking to reset ties with China after Britain’s Mr. Starmer and Canada’s Mr. Carney earlier this year, while Beijing touts the benefits of engaging with its massive consumer market and advanced manufacturing base.

Engagement between Europe’s largest economy and China could set the stage for EU-China relations this year.

Mr. Merz comes accompanied by a delegation of 30 firms including top carmakers such as Volkswagen and BMW which are acutely feeling the strain of Chinese competition – contributing to a growing trade imbalance that has sparked concern in Berlin and led to calls for protectionist policies.

Germany’s heavily manufacturing-based economy has been particularly hard hit by competition from China’s manufacturers, Rhodium Group’s China analyst Noah Barkin said in a recent research note.

The face of China’s market, once coveted by foreign businesses for its wide consumer base and rising spending power, has changed in the last several years with a slowing economy capping consumer demand and manufacturing overcapacity increasingly pushing domestic firms to look for opportunities abroad.

In editorials ahead of the visit, Chinese state media emphasised the potential for EU-China cooperation to become a stabilizing force while US tariff policies upend global trade.

Xinhua, in an editorial published early on Wednesday, cited a German chamber of commerce survey finding that innovation gains in China are feeding back into German headquarters.

State-backed newspaper the Global Times said concerns about competition with China would be outweighed by the lure of China’s massive market.

“Rhetoric such as ‘systemic rival’ and ‘de-risking’ has at times complicated Germany’s China policy,” it said in an early Wednesday editorial.

“Yet the enthusiasm and actions of the German business community speak louder than political slogans.” — Reuters

SEOUL — South Korea’s birthrate rose for a second-straight year in 2025, government data showed on Wednesday, in a further sign that a country facing a demographic crisis for nearly a decade may be starting to turn a corner.

South Korea’s total fertility rate, the average number of babies a woman is expected to have during her reproductive life, stood at 0.80 in 2025, up from 0.75 in 2024, according to preliminary data from the Ministry of Data and Statistics.

New births began rebounding in 2024 on a post-pandemic boost and government policies, after eight consecutive years of declines that saw South Korea register the world’s lowest birthrate at 0.72 in 2023, a period marked by sky-rocketing house prices and higher economic participation by women.

There were 5.0 new births per 1,000 people in 2025, up from 4.7 in 2024. That compared with 5.6 in China last year, 4.6 in Taiwan last year and 5.7 in Japan in 2024, where the trend remains downwards.

The pace of the rebound is faster than the government’s optimistic-case projection of 0.75 in 2025 and 0.80 in 2026, which forecasts the total fertility rate to break above 1.0 per woman in 2031.

Marriages, a leading indicator of new births with a time lag of one to two years, rose 8.1% in 2025, after recording the biggest-ever jump of 14.8% in 2024.

“The biggest part is that marriages are increasing a lot accumulatively,” Park Hyun-jung, a ministry official, told a briefing. She also noted an increase in the number of people in their 30s, when most people get married and have babies, and changes in social attitudes.

The sharpest rise in new births was in the capital, with Seoul’s fertility rate at 0.63, up 8.9% from 0.58 in 2024, though still the lowest across the country.

Shin Kyung-ah, a sociology professor at Hallym University, said the data needed more scrutiny because of statistical effects such as population composition changes.

“Still, it is meaningful as an indicator suggesting positive changes, which will, at least indirectly, also help make people become more positive about having a baby,” Ms. Shin said.

In a biennial government survey in 2024, 52.5% of South Koreans expressed positive views about marriage, up from 50.1% in 2022. The average number of children people ideally wanted to have stood at 1.89.

Last year, new births rose 6.8% to 254,457, the biggest percentage rise since 2007, while deaths rose 1.3% to 363,389, resulting in the population naturally shrinking for the sixth consecutive year.

ECONOMIC SHOCK
President Lee Jae Myung’s administration plans a five-year policy roadmap this year to respond to demographic changes, amid concern about an economic shock from an ageing population.

It also plans to expand policy support rolled out in recent years for childbirth, and to introduce measures to attract skilled foreign workers to offset a shrinking workforce.

“The government will further strengthen support for young people in their 20s and early 30s, low-income earners and the unemployed,” the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy said last month, citing evidence policy efforts were bearing fruit.

South Korea’s potential economic growth rate, estimated at around an annual rate of 2%, fell by six percentage points in the last three decades, more sharply than in most major economies, and is expected to drop to 0.6% by 2045-2049, according to the central bank.

Credit ratings agencies warn of growing strains on public finances from welfare expenditure. The country’s public pension fund, the world’s third largest with $1 trillion in assets, is projected to run out by 2071.

President Lee has called for regional cooperation on demographic challenges and proposed at last year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit to hold the group’s first population policy forum in South Korea this year.

During visits to China and Japan in January, Mr. Lee also agreed with President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to seek collaboration on ageing populations.

South Korea’s population of 51.8 million is expected to shrink by almost a third to 36.2 million by 2072, according to the latest government projection in 2022. — Reuters