Kamala Harris was the big winner of the first round of Democratic party debates in the US. This week, her poll numbers surged and so did donations to her campaign. But as Lauren Gambino in Washington notes, it was bad news for the frontrunners as Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders faltered. Also today: Daniel Boffey on the new cast of characters taking over the EU’s top jobs

The race for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination is intensifying after two rounds of televised debates in which the candidates squared up to each other on major issues and their past records. The big winner was the California senator Kamala Harris, who denounced the record of the frontrunner, Joe Biden, on race.

The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino joins Anushka Asthana to look across the diverse field of potential presidential nominees and the debates that highlighted the generational and ideological divides in the party.

Will the Democrats coalesce around a centrist such as Biden, a former vice-president? Or could they opt for the more radical figure of Bernie Sanders, four years after he lost out to Hillary Clinton? Or will the torch pass to a new generation?

Also today: Daniel Boffey on the changing of the guard in the European Union’s clutch of top jobs and what it could mean for the Brexit negotiations.