In his sixth state-of-the-union address, delivered last night in Washington, Barack Obama argued for “middle-class economics”: tax credits for child care, free community college, paid sick leave, increased infrastructure spending and a higher minimum wage. His other requests to Congress included lifting the embargo on Cuba and authorising the use of force against Islamic State.

Up to a dozen people were stabbed on a bus in Tel Aviv; three of them were reported to be seriously wounded. The attacker, said by police to be a 23-year-old Palestinian man from the West Bank, was shot in the leg and arrested as he tried to escape.

Zambians voted in a presidential election following the death of the previous incumbent, Michael Sata, in 2014. Guy Scott, the (white) interim president, was not eligible to run because his parents were born abroad.

SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space-transport company, said it had raised $1 billion from Google and Fidelity Investments in a deal valuing the firm at around $10 billion. Recently SpaceX failed in an attempt to return the first stage of a rocket safely to a platform in the ocean after launch.​

Shares in Netflix rose by 15% in after-hours trading after the video-streaming service announced better results than expected, including record subscriber growth in international markets. Reed Hastings, the firm’s boss, said Netflix would be available in “every country but North Korea” by 2017.

Jeffrey Smith, boss of Starboard Value, an activist investment firm, wrote to Ronald Sargent, chief executive of Staples, urging a merger with Office Depot, another American office-supplies company. Starboard has stakes in both firms. This month Mr Smith sent a similar letter to Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer, repeating his suggestion that she pursue a tie-up with AOL.