Caitlin Wilson
Live editor

We are now ending our live coverage of the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

Thank you for joining us as we brought you all the news and analysis.

You can keep up with the story through the rest of our coverage:

• What the world thought of US debate
• Watch key moments from the Harris-Trump clash in Philadelphia
• Undecided Americans impressed by Harris - but did debate shift their votes?
• Watch:US voters weigh in on debate performance
• US election polls: Who is ahead - Harris or Trump?
• Who won the Harris-Trump presidential debate?
• Taylor Swift endorses Harris in post signed 'Childless Cat Lady'
• Eating pets, inflation, abortion - key debate claims fact-checked

The writers for this page have been Sam Cabral, Madeline Halpert, Rachel Looker, Brandon Drenon, Bernd Debusmann Jr, Ana Faguy, Kayla Epstein, Max Matza, Nadine Yousif, Natalie Sherman, Indrani Basu, Anthony Zurcher and Courtney Subramanian, along with contributions from BBC reporters and correspondents from around the US and the world.

This page was edited by Phil McCausland, Robin Levinson-King, Brandon Livesay, Gareth Evans and myself.

With November's election now just several weeks away, we'll be bringing you more live coverage of US politics soon, so stay tuned.

And in the meantime, catch up with key moments from the debate below:

Image source, Getty Images

Debate night in America has come and gone. Here's a quick recap of the past 24 hours:

• Former President Donald Trump and sitting Vice-President Kamala Harris faced off on a debate stage for 90 minutes on Tuesday, in their first-ever in-person meeting
• The showdown unfolded on ABC News in an empty room inside the National Constitution Center museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with microphones muted when a candidate was not speaking
• The two presidential hopefuls clashed over everything from crowd size to gun control
• In a fiery exchange over abortion rights, both accused the other of misstating their policy positions
• Harris frequently rattled her Republican opponent with personal attacks, which led to him responding with lengthy defensive remarks
• Trump alleged that Americans were doing better under his leadership and asked why Harris had not implemented her policy ideas over the past three years
• Most US viewers and media outlets agreed that Harris had performed better on stage
• Trump is drawing flak, particularly among Haitian Americans, after he repeated a baseless social media rumour that Haitian immigrants in small-town Ohio are eating residents' pets as food
• BBC Verify, which debunked the pet story, also fact-checked other claims from both candidates at the debate on topics including abortion, crime and the economy
• Immediately after the debate, pop culture icon Taylor Swift endorsed Harris
• Trump made a rare appearance in the post-debate spin room, arguing that the contest had been "three against one" with biased moderators, but also insisting it was "the best debate, personally, that I have ever had"

• Undecided voters told the BBC they were impressed with Harris's performance on stage - but not everybody has yet made up their minds on who they'll vote for
• Reactions to the debate have poured in from China, Hungary, Russia and elsewhere around the world

• Harris and Trump met for a second time in as many days as they marked the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks alongside President Joe Biden and other politicians
• The impact of their Tuesday night face-off is yet to be factored into polling of the 2024 race, which remains deadlocked according to most national and swing state surveys

As is typical following any presidential debate, dozens of memes poking fun at the best moments from the 90 minutes of exchanges are making the rounds on social media.

Several photos of various characters - including Greg Hirsch from the show Succession - were captioned, external with Trump's comments "I have the concepts of a plan". Trump said the remarks in response to a question about how he would approach health care in the US.

Dozens of other memes poked fun at Trump's comments that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio were eating people's cats and dogs. Several posts on social media included pictures, external of pets from the show the Simpsons, which is set in a town called Springfield.

Harris's many facial expressions - including her notable smirks, external - during the debate also become a subject of the jokes.

The US is headed towards a competitive election in November, and the BBC wants to raise your voices.

Throughout the campaign season, the BBC speaks to voters to get their opinions on the leading candidates, big issues and news events of the day. You can be part of this project: We’re looking for voters with unique perspectives to join our panel.

Do you live in a swing state? Are you voting for the first time? Did you recently become a US citizen? We want to hear from you.

Contact us through this form to be considered. Tell us about yourself, which issues matter to you and how you’re feeling. We may contact you for an interview for our future coverage.

One audience that didn’t like what they saw from Donald Trump at last night’s debate?

Investors in Trump Media, the publicly-traded firm that runs the platform Truth Social.

The company’s shares began Wednesday trading for about $15.68, a new low and more than 15% less than what they fetched when the market closed on Tuesday, after a sell-off overnight.

The company has seen its fortunes rise and fall alongside its former president namesake.

His emergence as the 2024 Republican candidate for president helped stir a wave of buying and prices jumped when the company started formally trading on the stock exchange in March.

But their value has been on a largely downward slide since Kamala Harris entered the race in July, falling more than 70% from the peak.

The company, which has been losing money, still boasts a market value of more than $3bn. Trump, who has a majority stake, can start selling shares this month.

North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of the race for the White House in his weekly US Election Unspun newsletter.

Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

Sam Cabral
Reporting from Washington

Image source, Getty Images

The emerging post-debate consensus is that Tuesday night was a rough one for Donald Trump - but allies argue he did what he needed to do despite an unfair format.

"Even though the contest was three to one yesterday, he clearly prevailed," House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News, claiming that ABC's moderators were "fact-checking only one side".

Steve Hilton, a Fox News contributor, said Harris had shown "she doesn't actually stand for anything" and would pose "a terrible danger" if elected.

"Trump showed us clearly where he stands. No one could mistake what his positions are on any issue, or that he holds those positions seriously and sincerely.”

Other Fox personalities echoed that view, with Harris Faulkner slamming the "unfair fight" and Sean Hannity claiming media coverage of Harris is akin to a "candidate protection programme".

Senator Marco Rubio, a Trump surrogate who has gone up against him on primary debate stages before, hailed Trump's "big win" and said that his performance had "moved the needle" for voters.

"There are a lot of real people in the real world who are not political junkies, who are going to vote and decide this election, who watched tonight. They saw the man that was president and they remember their lives were better when he was president."

BBC OS

About 1.2 million people of Haitian ancestry live in the United States - more than anywhere else in the world aside from the Caribbean island nation itself.

Many are reacting with fury to the baseless claim last night from Donald Trump that Haitian migrants to small-town Ohio are eating residents' pets.

"We will not stand for any assault, any attack on Haitians," Wolf, a Haitian American man who lives in Washington DC, says. "It does not matter from which party it is coming from."

Watching the debate "further reinforced the perspective he has on our community and how he values us," Wolf adds.

"The Haitian community will not forget this."

Jude, an Arizona resident of Haitian descent, agrees.

"All I can say - it is outrageous," he says. "It is a very sensitive topic for Haitians and I know Republicans are doing it for one reason - it is all political to play into anti-immigration feelings."

Image source, Getty Images

Back in the US, voting for the 2024 election began in one American state - just hours after the debate ended.

In Alabama, eligible voters can now cast their absentee ballots. Voters must meet certain requirements to cast a ballot this way.

Voting was supposed to start even earlier in North Carolina, but it has been delayed after the state's supreme court ruled that ballots needed to be reprinted to remove independent Robert F Kennedy Jr's name after he dropped out.

RFK Jr - who has since announced his support for Trump - sued to have his name taken off the ballot in the swing state of Michigan to avoid taking votes away from the former president.

He lost the challenge, however, meaning his name will stay on there.

The German government is hitting back at Trump after he attacked the country's energy system.

Speaking at the debate last night, Trump criticised Harris and Democrats for their support of renewable energy. He claimed they wanted to give up fracking and fossil fuels.

"Germany tried that and within one year they were back to building normal energy plants," Trump said.

In a post on X, the German Foreign Ministry responded to Trump's claims, saying: "Like it or not: Germany’s energy system is fully operational, with more than 50% renewables. And we are shutting down - not building - coal & nuclear plants. Coal will be off the grid by 2038 at the latest."

The ministry added in a "PS", "We also don’t eat cats and dogs".

That's a reference to a bogus claim Trump repeated about Haitian immigrants in the US killing and eating people's house pets.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

In Venezuela, Donald Trump's mentions of the country during the debate elicited some reaction but the “gringo debate”, external – as government outlet Ultimas Noticias described it dismissively – was not much commented on otherwise.

Opposition news website La Patilla fact-checked his assertion that "many millions" of criminals and drug-traffickers were now in the US and that “countries like Venezuela tell them: don't come back ever or we will kill you”, pointing out that migrants with criminal backgrounds represented only 1% of the more than 8 million people that had attempted to cross into the country, since 2021.

Opposition news website Alberto News agreed, saying: "There is no proof to back Trump's affirmations, external."

Trump's comment that, if Harris won, the US would become "Venezuela on steroids" was also noted, with one journalist saying, however, that mentions of Venezuela were just “a rhetorical attack resource, external”.

Venezuela’s government officials have not yet publicly commented on the debate but US-sanctioned President Nicolas Maduro had complained earlier that he would have attended it "If they hadn't stolen my plane in the Dominican Republic" – a reference to his presidential plane being seized by US authorities on 2 September for its alleged use in contraband operations.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Beijing officials are staying tight-lipped on the debate and race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, maintaining that they will not comment on a US internal affair.

Media reports have also said surprisingly little on last night’s debate, even though Harris said Trump had "invited trade wars" and sold US chips to "modernise [China's] military", and Trump suggested President Joe Biden had been paid "millions of dollars" by China and allowed it to harm US business manufacturing.

State media did, however, comment on the debate’s aggressive tone, which aligns with their usual characterisation of US democracy as “chaotic, external” and “messy, external”, while framing China’s own system as founded on harmony and “stability, external”.

State news agency Xinhua said Harris and Trump “fiercely attacked each other with all guns blazing, external”, while The Paper said their clash over immigration and foreign policy was full of “thunder words, external”.

Nationalist news commentary site Guancha, which has close links to the Chinese Communist Party, prominently featured a commentary arguing Trump had “a slight advantage this year, external”, saying “invisible supporters” not reflected in polls could help him.

Another report in The Paper, however, thought “Harris has won a dream start, external”, while cautioning she still had to “stabilise her base, develop new sources of votes” and win over swing states.

BBC Monitoring
The world through its media

Israeli media followed the Harris-Trump debate with keen interest, with most outlets agreeing Harris had dominated the stage. The outlets focused particularly on how it touched on Israel and the war in Gaza.

Centrist news website Ynet quoted Harris, external as saying that Israel had the right to defend itself, and contrasted this with Trump saying that Harris "hates Israel" and claiming that, if he had been president, the 7 October attack would never have happened.

The left-leaning daily Haaretz wrote, external that Harris had managed to unsettle Trump while clearly presenting the Democratic Party's talking points, dominating the agenda and throwing Trump off balance.

Right-leaning Channel 12 described the debate as "stormy", saying that Trump had lost the debate early on, giving Harris a "clear victory".

The right-wing Channel 14 discussed, external the potential impact of the debate on efforts to secure arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

It cited Israeli attorney and legal scholar Professor Moshe Cohen-Eliya as saying that Trump was likely to block such actions. According to Eliya, if Harris were to win, Israel could face a serious predicament, as it would be more likely to see the arrest warrants issued against its leaders, which could trigger numerous lawsuits against other officials.

Nick Thorpe
reporting from Budapest

During the debate on Tuesday night, Kamala Harris said world leaders were "laughing" at Donald Trump over his baseless claims the 2020 election was rigged.

Trump hit back by pointing to support from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who he called a "a tough, smart man."

There’s been a swift reaction in both pro-government and government-critical Hungarian media.

"Huge recognition" ran the headline in the pro-government flagship, Magyar Nemzet.

By contrast, the government-critical news portal 444 quoted the reaction of Kamala Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz.

"He was asked to name one world leader who was with him, and he said Orbán. Dear God. That's all we need to know," Walz has said.

The headline in another pro-government outlet, Mandiner, was "Trump lost the debate but won the election."

Phil McCausland
Reporting from New York

BBC Monitoring and our other colleagues abroad have followed how different countries responded to Tuesday's US presidential debate.

Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris were questioned multiple times about America's allies, rivals and foes - and how each politician might lead the US has certainly elicited some responses.

Follow here for some of the latest global reactions.

Sam Cabral
Reporting from Washington

Image source, Getty Images

Elon Musk has shared - and then deleted - a cryptic reaction to Taylor Swift's endorsement of Kamala Harris.

"Fine Taylor... you win... I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life," the world's richest man wrote on X, the platform he owns. The tweet references Swift calling herself a "childless cat lady" in response to comments from Donald Trump's running mate JD Vance.

Musk is backing Trump and reportedly committing $45m a month to his re-election bid. Critics have in recent weeks blasted the billionaire's use of his wide reach on X, where he has nearly 200 million followers, to spread false claims from Trump supporters.

That is particularly the case on the issue of illegal immigration. The SpaceX and Tesla boss has repeatedly fanned the baseless rumour that Haitian migrants in small-town Ohio are eating residents' pets.

Sharing his review of the debate, Musk wrote that Harris "exceeded most people's expectations" but "I strongly believe that Trump will do a far better job".

"After all, if Kamala can do great things, why hasn’t she?" he asked. "The question comes down to this: do you want current trends to continue for 4 more years or do you want change?"

Here's a chance to watch back Donald Trump in the spin room in the immediate aftermath of Tuesday night's showdown.

He was critical of his opponent Kamala Harris and the ABC News moderators - but claimed it had been his "best debate".

Pascal Fletcher
Latin American Specialist, BBC Monitoring

Haitian officials and media commentators have been reacting with alarm to the Trump campaign narrative of Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio eating domestic pets.

They made a point of highlighting that Donald Trump repeated what they call a xenophobic and "racist" onslaught of "fake news" in the debate last night.

"'They eat cats' Donald Trump takes up again the fake news, external about the migrants in Springfield," Radio RFM said.

"There is a big anti-Haitian campaign, external going on in the social media networks in the United States, it's a terrible thing ... be very careful my friends," journalist Windy Phele posted on X.

Haitian Radio Tele Metronome has reported, external that Foreign Minister Dominique Dupuy plans to meet Haitian diaspora organisations following this "defamatory campaign".

Dupuy earlier also posted a quote by the late American novelist Toni Morrison that notes that "the very serious function of racism is distraction, external".

An editorial, external in the leading Haitian daily Le Nouvelliste earlier this week lamented that “a whole galaxy of news inventers and alternative reality addicts have taken over social media and raised their voices to stigmatise Haitians”.

It urged Haitians in the US to get involved in politics.

"If you don't exist, then somebody is going to make you the protagonist of a story that is not you," editor-in-chief Frantz Duval wrote

A man whose 11-year-old son was killed when a Haitian immigrant hit his school bus last year has said that Trump and Vance are "morally bankrupt" for using the boy's death for political gain.

Both Vance and Trump have invoked Aiden Clark's death in Springfield, Ohio, in recent weeks to attack immigrants and Harris's record on the border.

“You look at Springfield, Ohio,” Trump said during the debate last night. "These are the people that she and Biden led into our country, and they’re destroying our country."

There are up to 15,000 Haitian immigrants now living in Springfield, according to local government figures.

Speaking during public comment at a meeting of the Springfield City Commission just an hour before the debate, Aiden's father, Nathan Clark, said he did not blame the Haitian community and condemned Vance and Trump for invoking his son's name.

“Using Aiden as a political tool is, to say the least, reprehensible for any political purpose,” he said.

“My son was not murdered,” he added. “He was accidentally killed by an immigrant from Haiti.”

The former president also repeated a debunked conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were "eating people's pets" - a claim Vance has promoted as well.

"This needs to stop now," Clark said at the comment period. "They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis and even untrue claims about fluffy pets being ravaged and eaten by community members.

"However, they are not allowed - nor have they ever been allowed - to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio. I will listen to them (Trump and Vance) one more time to hear their apologies.”

The full picture remains to be seen - but a limited snap poll that came immediately after the debate, which focused only on the showdown itself, suggested that Harris had a favourable showing.

In a CNN/SSRS poll of 600 registered voters who watched the TV spectacle, 63% said Harris was the better performer, while 37% went with Trump. Prior to the debate, the same voters were evenly split on who they thought would perform best.

That does not necessarily translate to votes, though. Only 4% said the debate changed their minds about who they might vote for.

The Washington Post polled a group of 25 swing state voters in real time during the debate. Twenty-three of them said that Harris had won the debate by the end, while only two voted for Trump's performance.

Those are just snapshots, however. We will have to wait a few days until the bigger national and state-level polls reflect any changes in the overall picture ahead of the US election.

You can see BBC's round up of the latest US election polling here.