Hello, and a very warm welcome to the program. I'm Sally Bundock. We start in the United States, where we now know it's going to be a President Biden versus Donald Trump in this November's presidential election. This will mark the first US presidential election rematch since 1956. Joe Biden secured sufficient delegates to become the democratic candidate for President. He said he was honored the party had put its faith in him again. He faces only token opposition and will be formally anointed at his party's National Convention in Chicago in August. Donald Trump clinched the nomination for the Republicans after primary races in several states. His main rival, the former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, dropped out of the race last week. His campaign for a second term in the White House has zeroed in on strict immigration laws as well as fighting crime and ending the war in Ukraine rain so far. Well, let's talk this through with our North America correspondent, David Willis. Hello to you, David. It is now official that these two are going head-to-head.

That's right, Sally. Now, the stage is formally set, as you say, for a rematch of the 2020 election. We've been here before, haven't we? Trump versus Biden, and both candidates, as you mentioned there, have put out statements saying they are honored to be their respective party's presidential nominees. President Biden faced only really token opposition during his run for his party's presidential nomination. Donald Trump won 14 out of 15 state contests on Super Tuesday, and that prompted his lone surviving rival, Nikki Haley, the former UN ambassador, to drop out of the Republican race. Even though Donald Trump is facing more than 90 criminal indictments, he still has a lead in most of the opinion polls here over Nikki Haley. The early conclusion to these nominating contests means that people in this country are now facing a very long, ugly, and expensive election campaign, one which culminates, as you mentioned there, Sally, in the national conventions that either party will hold over the summer.

Is Is it fair to say most Americans, according to polls, et cetera, would rather not be in this position and choosing between these two men again?

I think it is fair to say that, Sally, not least because there is a feeling that at '77 and '81, respectively, Donald Trump and Joe Biden are simply too old. A lot of people here would rather see fresh faces going into this presidential campaign. And indeed, were Joe Biden to be re-elected and serve another four years, he would be 86 years old by the time he leaves office. There's a feeling that there is time, there will be a much more interest in this election, were there to have been candidates that people haven't seen before or perhaps had seen before but hadn't been competing at this particular level in American politics? We should wait to see. Turnout, of course, could be a crucial factor.

It's likely it will be, won't it? I mean, there is all to play for in this election because it's very hard to say what the outcome will be.

All to play for. Some of the key issues, I think, will be immigration. Donald Trump has vow to close the border, as he's put it. Also, inflation. The economy here is improving, but Joe Biden doesn't seem to be getting the credit for that. And of course, there's the issue of reproductive rights, which has been thrown into the mix, particularly of late in the wake of the revocation of Roe versus Wade, the constitutional right of all Americans to have an abortion. So a lot of very important issues will weigh in on this election. Donald Trump, I think, will be hoping, Sally, that his legal woes can provide some rallying cry, if you like, for the base of the Republican Party, amongst whom he remains, of course, extremely popular.