Trump lied while Biden struggled to mount a coherent response. Our panelists weigh in on the first presidential debate

What a catastrophe. From the moment the debate started, Joe Biden was meandering, confused and charmless. It never improved. Donald Trump, however, was relatively restrained, at least for Trump. Of course, he resorted to lies, insults and exaggerations throughout the 90 minutes. By citing things called “Black jobs” and “Hispanic jobs” and by calling Biden a “bad Palestinian”, Trump managed to hit all his usual racist notes.

Moustafa Bayoumi is a Guardian US columnist

Jill Filipovic is the author of the The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness

Lloyd Green is an attorney in New York and served in the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist and the author of Strong Female Lead

Osita Nwanevu is a Guardian US columnist

The numbers that have been coming out of Gaza have been almost too shocking to comprehend

Dead or dismembered Palestinians don’t seem to shock anyone any more. A couple of hundred killed over here, dozens burned to death over there, a bunch of children dead from malnutrition: every day there seems to be another massacre that barely makes a blip on public consciousness. After eight months of intense bombing, the most abject civilian suffering has been dangerously normalized.

Still, as steeled as people may have become to the horrors in Gaza, you’d have to be completely broken not to be devastated by Save the Children’s new report on the missing children of Gaza. While more than 15,000 children are estimated to have been killed by Israel’s relentless assault on the strip, Save the Children has estimated that up to 21,000 children are missing.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist and the author of Strong Female Lead

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.