Biden's presidential debate performance shocks Democrats, Trump's five-minute advantage: Australia news live

Despite losing his train of thought often, Joe Biden has remained positive after a difficult debate for the US president.

“I think we did well," he told reporters afterwards while stopping at an Atlanta waffle house.

Pressed on if he was concerned about his performance and the reaction to the debate, he remained defiant. "No, it's hard to debate a liar."

A flash poll conducted by CNN after the debate revealed viewers believed Donald Trump won the debate, with 67 per cent of people voting in his favour.

The mother of Jay Slater, the British teen missing for close to two weeks in Tenerife, says the family plans to use funds from a GoFundMe page that has raised more than $60,000.

The funds have been the source of one unfounded conspiracy online which claims Slater has been taken hostage after becoming involved in organised crime on the Spanish island and the money raised would be used as a ransom payment. Police have not put the theory forward and have said such commentary is unhelpful.

Slater's mother Debbie Duncan has said some of the money will be used to fly family and "loved ones" to Tenerife as the search goes on, so that "we can support each other during these dark times", Sky News reported.

Slater was last seen 40km north of his accomodation after attending an Airbnb with two men following a festival.

Vice President Kamala Harris has tried to put a positive spin on the US Presidential Debate, arguing Joe Biden had "a strong finish".

"It was a slow start. That's obvious. To everyone. I'm not going to debate that point. I'm talking about the choice in November. I'm talking about one of the most important elections in our collective lifetime," she told CNN.

She also called out a series of false claims made by Donald Trump throughout.

Moving to Australian politics now, former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce has quit booze and shed 15kg after a drunken night out in Canberra ended with video of the politician rolling around a footpath swearing going viral.

The 57-year old said he did not remember big parts of the night in February – something that had never happened to him before – and decided afterwards to stop drinking.

“I never, ever want it to happen again,” he said in an interview with Nine Newspapers.

“I disgraced myself and I just woke up the next morning and said ‘that’ll do’, so I didn’t have another drink.”

Democrats have been left dismayed by Joe Biden's performance during the debate with Donald Trump.

One former Biden White House and campaign aide told Politico Biden was “terrible" early on in the debate, and was left confused over what he was trying to say.

At one point during the debate Trump offered a brutal assessment of Biden after addressing immigration issues.

“I don’t know what he said at the end there. I don’t think he knows what he said," Trump said.

Read more here.

At the end of the debate, CNN said Donald Trump had spoken for 40 minutes and 12 seconds, close to five minutes more than Joe Biden's 35 minutes and 41 seconds.

Both were given an equal share of the time however were not required to utilise all of their allotted time if they did not want to.

Political analyst Van Jones, a special advisor to Barack Obama when Joe Biden was vice-president, has offered a damning assessment of the president's performance during the debate with Trump.

"I love Joe Biden. I worked for Joe Biden. He didn't do well at all," he said as part of a post-debate CNN panel.

"I love that guy, he's a good man and he loves his country, he's doing the best that he can but he had a test to meet tonight to restore the confidence of the country and he failed to do that

"I think there's a lot of people who will want to see him consider taking a different course now. There is time for this party to figure out a different way forward if he will allow us to do that.

"That was not what we needed from Joe Biden."

The elephant in the room has been addressed and Trump and Biden's ages were discussed. But conversations quickly turned to their golf games.

Trump started it by boasting that he recently won two club championships before suggesting Biden couldn't drive a golf ball more than 50 yards.

Biden countered by saying that when he was vice president, he got his golf handicap down to a 6. As Trump disputed the claim, co-moderator Dana Bash interjected: "Let's not act like children."

It's not just Donald Trump making false claims, with Joe Biden wrongly declaring Trump wants to "get rid of Social Security".

Trump has said that there may be some room to reduce spending on Social Security and proposed a budget that included some cuts to the program, but has not stated any intention to eliminate Social Security.

All eyes – and ears – today are on the performance of Joe Biden, who will be 82 by the time the next presidential term starts. And from the outset viewers were quick to note how his voice sounded hoarse and occasionally weak.

“My focus group is very disturbed by Biden’s voice,” Republican aligned political consultant and pollster Frank Luntz tweeted.

Meanwhile Politico reported shortly after the opening rounds of the debate that “Democrats were panicking” over Biden’s performance which was “defined by a hoarse voice and meandering answers”.

But according to NBC's Senior White House Correspondent Kelly O'Donnell, sources from inside the president’s camp told her "Biden has a cold”.

During discussion on border security, Donald Trump called Joe Biden 'Brandon', and it's unlikely it was just a slip of the tongue.

It is a nickname Republicans adopted in 2021 and right-wing circles originally used 'Let's go, Brandon!' as an insult to Biden. Here's how the nickname came about.

Trump has so far made a series of claims in the debate that are false.

He wrongly stated Democrats "will take the life of a child in the 8th month, the 9th month, even after birth." Killing a person after birth is illegal in every US state.

Trump also said Biden had allowed "millions of people here from prisons, jails and mental institutions to come into our country and destroy our country". There is no data to suggest former prisoners are being sent to the US.

Joe Biden suffered an unfortunate early stumble, which Donald Trump quickly capitalised on.

Speaking about the US's health system, he surprisingly declared "we finally beat Medicare" just before his allotted time ran out.

“Well, he’s right - he did beat Medicare. He beat it to death. He’s destroying Medicare,” Trump quickly hit back.

“Because all of these people are coming in. They’re putting them on Medicare, putting them on Social Security. They’re gonna destroy Social Security.”

The debate is underway and as expected, Biden and Trump did not shake hands. They didn't the last time they debated in 2020, though that was during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Joe Biden has just poked fun at Trump's claim he'll use supplements to get "jacked up" before the debate, taking to Instagram with a picture of him ready to go with his "secret sauce".

"It's just water," a can in Biden's hand promising 'zero malarkey' reads.

"See you in a bit," he tells America.

There continues to be a strong focus on Joe Biden's age ahead of today's presidential debate. But did you know that if Donald Trump was to become the US president once again, he would break 81-year-old Biden's record as the oldest president before the end of his term.

A poll from the New York Times earlier this year found 73 per ent of voters believed Biden was "just too old", with only 42 per cent concerned about Trump's age.

“It ought to be about both of them, but Biden looks his age,” Larry Sabato, the director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, told the BBC.

Ahead of today's debate, first lady Jill Biden said the president was "ready to go".

"We've got to keep working together, working harder than we've ever worked before," she said.

So what do you think? Is Joe Biden too old for another term? Have your say below.

A 42-year-old man has been charged with murder after the body of a woman was found in a home in Sydney’s inner west.

NSW Police were called to a home on Clements St in Russell Lea, where officers arrived to find the deceased woman, believed to be in her 50s.

She is yet to be formally identified.

Police allege the woman was stabbed to death by her housemate and suffered gruesome injuries, including a cut to her throat.

Read more here.

Vladimir Putin has slapped bans on former prime ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard with 27 Australians now denied access into Russia for an “indefinite term” under new sanctions issued by the country.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry released the list on Wednesday, declaring the decision was “in response to politically motivated sanctions against Russian individuals and legal entities, imposed by the Government of Australia as part of the Russophobic campaign by the collective West”.

Unlike the last US election, the presidential debate this time will not have a studio audience.

CNN says it's to "ensure candidates may maximise the time allotted in the debate".

Biden's advisers requested the empty studio because it will "deprive their GOP rival of a major advantage," namely, a roomful of rowdy Trump supporters, Politico reported.

“Trump feeds off the crowd, they give him life,” one unnamed Biden adviser said. “We wanted to take that away.”

CNN will also mute Trump or Biden when the other candidate is speaking during their allotted time. Watch the video below to see how it works.

In true US-style, the presidential debate will have a couple of ad breaks.

Trump's campaign is looking to capitalise on this by airing an ad showing President Joe Biden, 81, stumbling on a flight of stairs to his plane and falling off his bike.

“Do you think the guy who was defeated by the stairs … got taken down by his bike … lost a fight with his jacket … and regularly gets lost … makes it four more years in the White House?” a narrator says during the 30-second ad.

It's part of an ongoing tactic to portray Biden as a frail, old man who is unfit for office. Trump is just three years younger than Biden at 78.

Watch the ad below.