Harris was the clear victor on Tuesday – but will the debate shift the US election needle?

Tuesday evening’s US presidential election debate was a crucial test for Kamala Harris as she attempts to keep Donald Trump from returning to the White House. In good news for all those worried that a re-elected Trump is a clear and present danger to American democracy and the future of the planet, the vice-president was, for almost all observers, the clear winner. Our panel of expert commentators thought so, too. (Although, as they noted, some clearer policy detail and big ideas wouldn’t have gone amiss either).

Debating with a man like Trump is no easy task. Our US team offered a thorough debunking of his most erroneous statements, including those about infanticide, his handling of the “best” economy in US history and his already infamous claim that immigrants are eating Ohio residents’ pet cats and dogs.

Several times, Trump strolled straight into Harris’s rhetorical traps, notably one about crowd sizes that provided good fodder for David Smith’s sketch of the debate. While Trump blustered, “Harris laughed derisively and rested her chin on her hand, glaring at Trump like a principal listening to the lame excuses of a student who burned down the school.” As Moira Donegan put it in another great column: “There was no bait she offered him that he didn’t take.”

Though perhaps the killer blow on Tuesday wasn’t provided by Harris, but by “childless cat lady” Taylor Swift who, minutes after the broadcast was over, sent out her endorsement of Harris and urged fans to register to vote. Carter Sherman looked at what difference – if any – Swift’s backing could make, while Sian Cain was brilliant in analysing how “the most powerful musician that ever lived” was annoyed enough (by an AI-generated Trump endorsement) to break cover and publicly back Harris.

It will be fascinating to see whether the debate (or indeed Swift’s intervention) does shift the dial. The race will probably remain on a knife-edge until polling day, and potentially beyond. As our interactive last week showed, the outcome is likely to be decided by just a handful of voters in the swing states. Last weekend I was in Austin, a blue city in a red state, for the Texas Tribune festival where politicians, journalists, artists, activists and people in business discussed the threat another Trump presidency would pose, including to the most important issue of our time, the climate crisis. (Guardian US was a media partner and programmed some excellent events.) Ahead of the presidential debate Bill McKibben set out the dangers: “If we elect Donald Trump … We may read our mistake in the geological record a million years hence.”

Harris has some way to go on that front, too, but the stakes could not be higher. We’ll continue to put them at the forefront of our reporting until November. And maybe beyond.

After the killing in the West Bank of the American-Turkish activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, Andrew Roth interviewed the parents of Rachel Corrie, who saw clear parallels with the death of their own daughter. Rachel was crushed by an Israeli armed bulldozer in 2003 and her parents were pessimistic the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would ever be held accountable in either case. After the US imposed sanctions on extremist Israeli settlers, Julian Borger profiled one of those on the list: Yitzhak Levi Filant, a self-styled warlord who has imposed a brutal reign of terror on Palestinians in the West Bank, with the apparent collusion of the IDF. Bethan McKernan reported from Jenin, where residents are reeling from the recent eight-day raid by Israeli forces.

Damian Carrington visited Greenland to produce what one scientist described as “one of the best adventure stories of science, risk, awe, danger and urgency I’ve read in a while”. The pioneering mission was to explore how Greenland’s glaciers could slow future sea level rise. Guardian Australia’s environment editor, Adam Morton, broke the news that sea ice surrounding Antarctica is on the brink of reaching a record winter low for a second year running, in what scientists say is a combination of “two incredible extreme events”.

Daniel Boffey and Emily Dugan covered the case of Oliver Campbell, a man with severe learning difficulties who had his life sentence for the murder of a London shopkeeper three decades ago quashed by the court of appeal. It has been described as one of the longest miscarriages of justice in British criminal history, and is a case that Daniel has been following for years.

Investigative reporter Tom Burgis has delved deep into the decade-long battle between the UK’s Serious Fraud Office and a trio of oligarchs. The case has rewritten UK law and now looks set to end with an enormous bill handed to taxpayers. Tom has worked tirelessly on this long read for 18 months, and the result was referenced in the UK parliament this week as an exceptional piece of public-interest journalism.

Ariel Bogle examined how domestic violence perpetrators in Australia are using private investigators to track down family members trying to escape harm.

Hilary Osborne, a recent cancer patient, wrote personally and powerfully on the dangers of a “soft focus” view of cancer recovery in light of the Princess of Wales’s post-chemotherapy video.

Guardian photographer and writer Jonny Weeks compiled a brilliant Paralympics photo essay that showcased the best work of four photographers with disabilities who covered the Games in Paris. And as the curtain came down on Paris’s wonderful summer of sport, Jonathan Liew offered a warning from London 2012 on post-Games legacy and broken promises.

It’s six decades since the Observer’s editor and publisher David Astor launched the first issue of the Observer Magazine. “Radical, tolerant, enquiring, pro-consumer, lid-off, helpful,” wrote the magazine’s first editor, Michael Davie, explaining his intentions. The cover story for its 60th anniversary issue explored the magazine’s remarkable past.

Why are restaurants in Auckland all empty by 8pm? Michelle Duff wrote about how residents of New Zealand’s biggest city revel in their status as the world’s earliest diners.

I was appalled by Emma Beddington’s article on how dangerous cows really are – dear God! And I enjoyed Alex Needham’s interview with Holly Johnson (those of us of a certain age will never recover from the release of Relax) and Jonathan Jones’s stunning five-star review of London’s new Van Gogh exhibition. And don’t miss Today in Focus on The Spark, complete with hilarious interviews with the Cork kids behind the year’s surprise summer hit.

One more thing … I can recommend a fascinating article in the London Review of Books about women’s gymnastics, by Jean McNicol. It is full of astonishing detail, much of it disturbing (abuse, starvation), all of it fascinating (athletics v aesthetics, the role of Romania), and the author brings an expert eye.

Listen to this | Elle Macpherson, misinformation and making sense of the wellness industry – Full Story podcast

After stories about supermodel Elle Macpherson and her decision to forgo standard breast cancer treatment choices, Guardian Australia’s medical editor, Melissa Davey, spoke to Nour Haydar about the controversy and how to make sense of the claims and products pushed by the wellness industry.

Cook this | The perfect corn chowder

Felicity Cloake’s tried-and-tested take on a late-summer New England speciality that you’ll devour with glee.

Come to this | Book Club with Bernardine Evaristo: Mr Loverman

Join the Booker-winning novelist live in London and online, as she revisits her much-loved novel, Mr Loverman, ahead of a BBC adaptation.

Thursday 26 September 2024, 7.30pm-9pm (BST)

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