When is the presidential debate between Trump and Harris, and how can I watch it?

 When is the presidential debate between Trump and Harris, and how can I watch it?

US Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are scheduled to debate each other in Philadelphia. Photo: Chris duMond Bloomberg. Source: Getty Images

This marks the first time the two nominees will debate each other. In 2020, Trump debated President Joe Biden, while Harris faced Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence.

Biden exited the race in July following a poor showing in the June debate against Trump. He endorsed Harris as the Democratic nominee, reshaping the political landscape ahead of the November election.

When is the presidential debate?

The debate between Trump and Harris will start at 9 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, September 10, and run for 90 minutes with just two commercial breaks.

Who will be moderating the debate?

David Muir, host of ABC News' "World News Tonight," and "Prime Live" anchor Linsey Davis will moderate the debate.

None of the two anchors has moderated a presidential general election debate before, but each has moderated a presidential primary debate: Muir in 2016 and Linsey in 2020.

Which channel can I watch the debate on?

The debate will air live on ABC News and streamed on ABC News Live, Disney+, and Hulu.

It will also be available on ABC channels through DirecTV Stream, Fubo, and Sling TV. ABC holds the exclusive broadcasting rights for the debate.

Where is the debate happening?

The debate will take place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Unlike the June debate at the Techwood Turner campus in Atlanta, Georgia, this event will not have an audience present.

Harris and Trump have been campaigning heavily in Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state that could decide the November election.

Why is Philadelphia strategic for the 2 nominees?

In 2020, Biden won the election by defeating Trump in Pennsylvania. In 2016, Trump secured Pennsylvania’s electoral votes and the presidency by defeating Hillary Clinton.

This is a crucial state for both nominees, and neither is taking any chances.

Harris unveiled Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate in Philadelphia in August. In July, Trump was shot by a gunman while campaigning in western Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia is, therefore, a strategic venue for the September 10 presidential debate.

Trump and Harris debate: What to expect

The debate will occur 75 days after President Biden's poor performance in the June presidential debate, which led top Democratic officials to urge him to withdraw and support Harris.

It was the first time a sitting president and a former president had debated each other.

The two candidates clashed on issues such as abortion, immigration, foreign policy, and inflation. Despite Trump’s history of dishonesty, corruption, and other felonies, he gained an advantage as Biden's incoherence made him appear as a stronger contender.

On Tuesday, Trump will be seeking to extend his dominance as he faces off with Harris, who will be on a mission to do what Biden failed to do in June.

Recent polls rank her slightly above Trump in some swing states, so Democrats are optimistic that Harris will do better as a substitute candidate and restore the party’s hope of retaining power.

The world will also be watching if Harris, a former courtroom prosecutor, can prosecute Trump’s glaring liabilities in a face-to-face debate.

The former president will be walking to the podium on Tuesday night shouldering a burden of 34 felony convictions coupled with his penchant for making false statements. Will Harris succeed in prosecuting him in a court of public opinion? Time will tell.

But Trump is no pushover. He can be cunning and brutal in his responses. He is an experienced debater who has mastered the art of dominating television coverage.

He knows how to appeal to public emotions and can be deliberately cunning to throw his opponent off balance.

His biggest weapon against Harris will be to paint her as a Biden agent on a mission to continue with his failed policies.

Which candidates will be on stage?

Vice President Kamala Harris of the Democratic party and former president Donald Trump (Republican) will be on stage at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.

The two nominees will meet for a presidential debate for the first time. In June, Trump debated President Joe Biden, who later bolted out after a disastrous performance, paving the way for Harris to enter the fray.

Trump had earlier threatened to boycott the debate, arguing he had made a prior commitment to engage Biden and not Harris.

In her recent campaigns, Harris challenged the Republican candidate to reconsider the decision and face her in the debate.

What are the debate rules? Will there be hot mics?

Just like in the June debate, there will be no hot mics in the Tuesday night debate. Each candidate’s mic will be switched off when their opponent is speaking. This is a departure from the 2020 rules where hot mics were allowed.

Harris' campaign team wanted the mics to be on during the debate to allow interjections, but Trump’s camp rejected the idea.

In June, Biden's campaign team requested the mics be muted. Harris hoped that allowing the mics to be on would tempt Trump to interject and make his usual “intemperate outbursts” to his own detriment.

hat are the other rules?W

The campaign teams have agreed on several rules for the debate. Here is a list of the agreed-upon guidelines;

Candidates will have two minutes for their answers, two minutes for rebuttals, and one minute for follow-ups, responses to rebuttals, or clarifications.

Candidates will also have two minutes for their closing remarks.

No candidate will be allowed to pose a question to the opponent during the debate.

Candidates cannot interact with their campaign teams during the two commercial breaks.

Props or pre-written notes will not be allowed.

Each candidate will receive a pen, paper pad, and bottle of water.

Harris will stand on the right side of the viewers’ screen, while Trump will be on the left.

The debate will last for 90 minutes with two commercial breaks.

There will be no audience present during the debate

Trump will give the last closing statement after Harris.

Wrapping up

The presidential debate between Trump and Harris is not just a political showdown, but a momentous event in the history of American elections that could make or break either candidate’s chances of winning the November polls.

Trump and Harris will have the chance to outline their principles, policies, and governance plans to the American people.

The outcome will definitely shape public opinion and might as well tilt voting patterns in the swing states.

China, India and Brazil Could Mediate Russia-Ukraine Talks, Russia's Putin Says

 China, India and Brazil Could Mediate Russia-Ukraine Talks, Russia's Putin Says

China, India and Brazil Could Mediate Russia-Ukraine Talks, Russia's Putin Say

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that China, India and Brazil could act as mediators in potential peace talks over Ukraine.

Putin said a preliminary agreement reached between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in the first weeks of the war at talks in Istanbul, which was never implemented, could serve as the basis for talks.

(Reporting by Vladimir  Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters.

Why an ominous warning didn't stop Georgia school shooting

 Why an ominous warning didn't stop Georgia school shooting

Keep your guns locked up. 

That’s what sheriff’s deputies told Colin Gray when they came to investigate a school shooting threat in May of 2023. Sixteen months later, Gray’s 14-year-old son Colt is accused of opening fire at his high school, killing two students and two teachers and wounding nine others. 

Both Colin Gray and his son are now in custody, with the former charged with second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children because authorities said he gave access to firearms to his son despite knowing he was a threat to others. 

Experts say it's unsurprising that the May 2023 investigation didn't prevent this week's tragedy.

There’s only so much law enforcement can do to stop a crime like a mass shooting from occurring in advance, said Adam Winkler, a law professor and gun policy expert at UCLA. 

“We have to be realistic about what you can accomplish in a society that has over 400 million guns and they're very easy to obtain,” Winkler said.

Was the FBI tracking the accused shooter?

The notion that the shooting suspect was on the FBI’s “radar” for over a year is a misunderstanding of how law enforcement operates, according to Katherine Schweit, a former FBI agent who created the FBI’s active shooter program.

“Because somebody interacts with law enforcement doesn't give law enforcement the authority – federal, state or local or tribal – to constantly go back into somebody's personal life and check on them and check on them,” Schweit said.

What did law enforcement do in 2023?

The FBI alerted local law enforcement about threats to commit a school shooting made on the online platform Discord. They traced the account that made the threats to an address where Colin Gray and his son previously lived and had since moved from in Jefferson, Georgia. 

The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office went to speak with them. The then 13-year-old told investigators at the time that he did not make the threat and that he had deleted his Discord account because it had been hacked, according to a report by the sheriff’s office. When authorities tried to trace the source of the threat further using IP addresses, they said they could not confirm that it was made by the teen. The account appeared to have been accessed from multiple places in the U.S.

Colin Gray told them that he had rifles for hunting in the home, but that his son did not have unsupervised access to them.

“I urged Colin to keep his firearms locked away,” wrote Daniel Miller Jr., lead investigator.

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They were due to leave for their dream cruise in May. Three months on they’re still stuck at the departure port

 

They were due to leave for their dream cruise in May. Three months on they’re still stuck at the departure port

The Villa Vie Odyssey was due to leave in May, but is still in the harbor at Belfast. 

Peter Morrison/AP

It was the years-long cruise that was supposed to set sail, but saw its departure postponed… postponed… and postponed again.

The Villa Vie Odyssey was set to depart in May for the trip of a lifetime: three and a half years chasing the sun around the globe, allowing its passengers to wallow in an eternal summer.

But more than three months on, the ship has yet to depart. It is holed up in the harbor at Belfast, Northern Ireland, still waiting on certification that it is safe to set sail.

If this sounds familiar, it’s not déjà vu. Another company, Life at Sea Cruises, had scheduled a three year round-the-world cruise – the first of its kind to be relatively affordable - for departure in 2023. That voyage was postponed again and again, before being canceled definitively in November.

However, there’s one crucial difference between Life at Sea and Villa Vie Residences, the company attempting the 3.5-year cruise: Villa Vie has a ship.

The company took possession of the Braemar from Fred. Olsen Cruises in March. The 31-year-old vessel, now renamed and refurbished as the Odyssey, has just completed sea trials – essentially a test drive – in the waters off Belfast.

And while the weeks may be dragging on, many would-be passengers – who have arrived in Belfast in May ready for boarding – are keeping their mood buoyed.

“We’re having a good time,” said Lanette Canen, who is booked to sail with her partner, Johan Bodin. The pair – who were previously living in Hawaii – paid $100,000 for their cabin, which will remain theirs for the ship’s lifetime, estimated to be around 15 years. They then pay a $3,500 monthly fee to be onboard.

Canen and  spoke to CNN from Stirling, Scotland, which they were visiting after Edinburgh and Glasgow. The pair have spent the summer traveling northern Europe, taking in nine countries, from Sweden – where is originally from – to Scotland.

“We’re not stuck in Belfast, we’ve been traveling,” she said.

“It’s a start-up and we’ve both run businesses – we know there will be hiccups when starting something so we weren’t that worried,” said 

“It’s been three months but they’ve been transparent about what the hiccups are. We’ve learned a lot about ships.”

Starting from scratch

The 31-year-old ship went through final 'sea trials' this week. 

Peter Morrison/AP

They’re not the only ones. Villa Vie CEO Mike Petterson had told CNN on July 27 that the ship was ready to sail on July 30 – but it did not. He blames a longer than usual certification process for the delay.

The ship finally had sea trials – a kind of monitored test drive for both the vessel and its crew – on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

said that the company has already been given the results: “Everything was good, we passed everything.”

He said that they were given “a couple of takeaways” of “adjustments” to be made, including regarding staff training, but that these wouldn’t impede the certification and departure of the ship. He said that “any outstanding items will be done over the weekend.”

Sea trials are one of the last stages in getting PSSC (Passenger Ship Survey Certification), which allows the vessel to start its voyage.

The final stage is getting coastguard clearance, which he hopes will happen on Monday or Tuesday, enabling the ship to set sail next week.

Angela and Steve Theriac have been traveling around Europe while waiting to set sail. 

Midlife Cruising

Americans Angela and Steve Theriac, who say they’ve taken around 50 cruises together in the past, say that they plan to set sail but then might leave the ship and pick it up again once it reaches the Caribbean, since he gets seasick, and the Odyssey is a relatively small ship.

“It’s definitely not what we were expecting, and it’s been frustrating at times, but we know we’re about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime,” said Angela.

The pair arrived on May 27, and have taken two cruises and traveled around Spain, Denmark and Liverpool in the intervening weeks.

“We’ve done all the touristy things around Belfast,” said Angela. “We’ve been to Bushmills, the Giant’s Causeway, we went to Dublin and did the Guinness tour.”

The pair are now back in Belfast and have been eating their meals on the ship for the past two weeks. Villa Vie is covering their hotel stay.

The couple – she is a retired high school teacher, and he was a sheriff’s deputy – are in an ocean view cabin.

“Some people say, ‘How can you live in such a small space?’,” said Angela. “Firstly, I’d live in a tent if it meant I can travel. Secondly, that’s just my bedroom – the ship is my home and you should see my back yard.”

For Steve Theriac, the ship’s smaller size is a bonus – “its easy to get around,” he said.