Good morning from Philadelphia As the dust settles after the hotly awaited debate between US presidential candidates, current Vice President Kamala Harris and ex-president Donald Trump, the consensus seems to be that the former pipped the latter to the post. Weighing in on the post-debate analysis, Dr Liana Fix, political scientist and fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington told Euractiv that Harris performed better than Trump, who spent too much time defending himself. You can listen to her podcast with Giada Santana here. Trump was called out for his various controversies, making erroneous claims, and parroting conspiracy theories. Harris was not shy in calling him “weak”, “wrong”, and even “a disgrace”. On the policy level, abortion dominated the domestic debate, a key issue among voters, along with crime, and, according to Trump, the issue of migrants in some states eating cats and dogs. On the international stage, the two candidates failed to be drawn on key issues such as Israel and Gaza. Instead they both offered surface-level statements on restoring peace and “getting it done”, but very little in terms of substance. Regarding NATO, Trump said Europe should increase its spending to equalise it with the US’, dovetailing with earlier comments that the US would not support allies who didn’t meet their NATO spending goals- something that sent allies on the other side of the Atlantic into a tailspin earlier this year. Alexandra Brzozowski has the story. As for whether this will be the last we will hear from them both before November’s vote, rumour has it that a second debate could be in the works, although nothing has been confirmed thus far. | 
