Joe Biden’s age is written on his resting face, the one that stares into camera like it’s your fault.

It’s the look of his 81 years and it doesn’t look great on a debate stage – more ready for bed than for a second term.

It matters in Atlanta.

Biden enters the TV face-off ridiculed by opponents as mentally unfit for the job.

It’s a perception embedded in the public consciousness, fed by high-profile episodes of supposed “brain freeze” – this, despite a robust rejection of frailty by the White House.

A CBS/YouGov poll earlier this month found that only about a third of voters thought Biden had the cognitive ability to serve as president, compared with half for Trump.

How Biden performs in the hostile environment of a no-notes, live TV debate could be an occasion to confirm or confound age concern.

He needs to avoid reinforcing the notion of weakness.

If this occasion is pivotal in the presidential race, that’s where the pivot point lies.

Millions will watch the debate from start to finish but millions won’t – they’ll consume it via the social media breakdown and base their judgements accordingly.

Ninety minutes of television will come down, largely, to viral “moments”, cut and pasted as campaign touchstones to drive fundraising and political ads.

In the modern era, they are the moments that can define a political campaign and the difference between success and failure – a TV contest, and so more, could be lost on a momentary lapse.

Biden ‘shadow-boxing’ ahead of main event

The president and his team have been shadow-boxing through mock debates at his Camp David retreat. Biden’s personal lawyer, Bob Bauer has been playing the role of Trump.

Faking it in the Maryland hills will be in stark contrast to the real thing in Atlanta.

Presidential advisers who micro-manage their man and his environment will be throwing him solo into a situation uncontrolled and unpredictable.

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They will settle for “State of the Union” Biden. In addressing America’s political establishment in March, his performance was suitably presidential.

As Democrats sighed relief, Trump growled resentment, accusing Biden of being “all jacked up” on cocaine.

He’s at it again, suggesting that the president will take a “shot in the ass” as a chemical booster ahead of the TV debate – in doing so, he’s laying the ground for a strong Biden performance, having previously written him off.

Trump’s less structured preparations

Donald Trump’s preparations have been less structured than Biden’s. Advisers have told him to focus on subject matter with which he scores best with voters – inflation, immigration and crime among them.

The two men haven’t been in the same room together since they last debated before the 2020 election.

Four years on, the conditions are different. There will be no studio audience for punchline response and reassurance, only a penetrating silence that will sharpen scrutiny – from the moderators and from each other.

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Trump supporters suggest he’ll benefit from the absence of an audience because a calming effect will rein in his instinct towards belligerence.

His detractors counter that a Trump performance is built on crowd interaction and he’ll struggle in a sterile setting that requires rounded argument.

We’ll find out when the two old foes enter the stage, presumably with a handshake although that’s not been confirmed.

If the choreography allows, it will be the coldest greeting ahead of a hotly anticipated night.

A white couple from West Virginia have been accused of child neglect after allegedly forcing their adopted black children to work as ‘slaves’ and locking them in a barn.

Donald Ray Lantz, 63, and Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, 62, pleaded not guilty at Kanawha County court on Tuesday to multiple charges, including human trafficking of a minor child, use of a minor child in forced labour, and child neglect creating substantial risk of serious bodily injury or death, according to local news outlet Metro News.

They also face allegations of human rights violations, over specifically targeting black children and forcing them to work because of their race, Metro News said.

Kanawha County circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers claimed that the children were “used basically as slaves”, citing what the indictment alleges.

The couple were first arrested in October 2023 after a wellness check led to the discovery of two of the couple’s five adopted children – aged six, nine, 11, 14 and 16 – living in inhumane conditions at a property in Sissonville.

In a previous statement made to the court, Whitefeather alleged that the barn where the 14 and 16-year-old were found in was a “teenage clubhouse” and denied that they were locked in.

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A nine-year-old girl was found inside the main house before Lantz came home with an 11-year-old boy and later, Whitefeather returned with a six-year-old.

Their bail has been set at $500,000 each, up from the previous amount of $200,000.

A trial date for the couple has been set for 9 September.

Evan Gershkovich has been seen with a shaved head as he went on trial behind-closed-doors in Russia accused of spying.

Reporters were allowed to briefly film the US journalist on Wednesday before the start of the hearing in the city of Yekaterinburg where he is charged with espionage, which he denies.

Mr Gershkovich was seen standing in a glass box wearing a black-and-blue checked shirt before the proceedings were closed.

The next hearing was set for 13 August.

The Wall Street Journal reporter was first arrested and detained in March 2023 after Russia claimed he had been “gathering secret information” on orders from the CIA.

The 32-year-old reporter, who has already spent nearly 15 months behind bars in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo jail, faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.

Russian courts convict more than 99% of the defendants who come before them, and prosecutors can appeal sentences they regard as too lenient, and can even appeal acquittals.

Last week, the first details of the allegations against him emerged as it was claimed he was seeking details about Uralvagonzavod, a facility that produces and repairs military equipment, the prosecutor general’s office said.

The authorities have not publicly disclosed any evidence to back up the accusations.

The trial is due to take place behind closed doors – something Russia says is normal in espionage cases.

Mr Gershkovich, his employer and the US government strongly deny the claims and Washington has designated him wrongfully detained.

Jay Conti, executive vice president and general counsel for Dow Jones, which publishes the Journal, described the trial as a sham, saying: “He was an accredited journalist doing journalism, and this is a sham trial, bogus charges that are completely trumped up.”

“Evan has done nothing wrong. He should never have been arrested in the first place. Journalism is not a crime,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said last week.

He added: “The charges against him are false. And the Russian government knows that they’re false. He should be released immediately.”

The White House has sought to negotiate Mr Gershkovich’s release, but Russia’s foreign ministry said Moscow would consider a prisoner swap only after a trial verdict.

However, that could be months away, because Russian trials often adjourn for weeks.

While Russia-US relations are fraught over the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin and Washington did agree a high-profile prisoner exchange in 2022 that secured the release of basketball star star Brittney Griner, who was serving a lengthy sentence for cannabis possession.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested Mr Gershkovic could be swapped in return for the release of Vadim Krasikov, a Russian imprisoned in Germany for assassinating a Chechen rebel leader in Berlin.

However, this would require the cooperation of Germany in a Russia-US dispute.

Mr Gershkovich, the American-born son of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, was the first US journalist detained on espionage charges since Nicholas Daniloff in 1986 at the height of the Cold War.

It followed a crackdown on freedom of speech after Mr Putin sent troops into Ukraine.