The New York Times is analyzing patterns in Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate between Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Senator JD Vance of Ohio. We are tracking the candidates’ speaking time, breaking it down by issues and measuring how many minutes each side spends on the attack.

Minutes of speaking time and length of attacks

The debate is scheduled to last 90 minutes.

Attacking each other and the presidential candidates

Microphones will not be muted during the debate, raising the possibility of lively exchanges of ideas and insults.

The debate, which is taking place in New York City, is the only matchup between Mr. Walz and Mr. Vance. It will give the men their last prime-time opportunity to argue in defense of their ticket and to serve as an attack dog, a role often expected of running mates.

But the presidential nominees themselves have not shied away from lobbing personal attacks, as last month’s debate showed.

With polls consistently showing a tight race, both campaigns are hoping to use the debate as an opportunity to reach undecided voters just 35 days before Election Day.

Which issues are being discussed the most?

A live measurement of how much time the candidates are speaking on 15 key issues and how much time they spend attacking their rival on that topic.

How tonight’s attacks compare with previous debates

Percentage of time the candidates spend attacking each other’s policies and character.

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Vice-presidential candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz sparred over US foreign policy in a debate in New York on Tuesday night, laying out sharply contrasting visions of America’s role in the world at a pivotal moment in the final stretch of the 2024 White House race.

The first, and probably only, debate between Donald Trump’s and Kamala Harris’s running mates came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate against Iran after the Islamic republic fired a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel. Both vice-presidential candidates were asked whether they would support a pre-emptive strike by Israel on Iran.

Walz echoed Harris’s comments earlier on Tuesday, when the vice-president said she “unequivocally” condemned Iran’s attack and said she would “always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself”.

But Walz also quickly turned his focus to Trump, accusing the Republican former president of being a “fickle” leader who had abandoned multilateral coalitions, including pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal.

Vance defended Trump, saying the former president had projected “peace through strength” during his four years in the White House, adding it was “up to Israel to do what they think they need to do to keep their country safe”.

“When was the last time that an American president didn’t have a major conflict break out?” asked Vance. “The only answer was during the four years of Donald Trump’s presidency.”

Tuesday’s debate was seen as a chance for Vance, in particular, to improve his tepid approval ratings.

An Associated Press poll last week showed more than half — 57 per cent — of registered voters had an unfavourable view of Vance, a Republican senator from Ohio, compared with just under a third who disliked Walz, Minnesota’s Democratic governor.

Tuesday’s showdown, hosted by CBS News, is also probably the last televised debate of the 2024 presidential election cycle. While Harris has accepted an invitation from CNN for another presidential debate in late October, Trump has said he has no intention of taking the stage again.

The Financial Times poll tracker shows that while Harris enjoys a 3.6 percentage point lead over Trump in national polls, the two candidates remain in a virtual tie in all seven swing states that are likely to decide who wins the White House.

The first presidential debate between Harris and Trump last month on ABC News was viewed by more than 60mn people, according to Nielsen estimates, and was widely seen as a “win” for Harris, who repeatedly put Trump on the defensive.

Yet the showdown has failed to have a significant impact on either candidate’s polling numbers, and few political operatives — including insiders from both campaigns — believe Tuesday’s debate will move the needle.

Still, the stakes remain high for Vance and Walz, as the debate offers both men arguably their biggest platform to pitch themselves — and more importantly their bosses — to the American electorate.

Vance, 40, had been seen as a rising star in the Republican party since he was elected to the US Senate in 2022. But his time on the campaign trail has been controversial, with the one-time Trump critic-turned-Maga loyalist’s approval ratings falling, particularly among women.

Even so, allies and critics say Vance — a Yale Law School graduate, Marine veteran and former venture capitalist — is likely to deliver a strong performance on Tuesday night. The Ohio senator prepared for the debate with help from top Trump campaign advisers; his wife, former US Supreme Court clerk Usha Vance; and Minnesota congressman Tom Emmer, who has played the role of Walz in mock debates.

Walz, a 60-year-old former teacher and high school football coach who served several terms in Congress before running for governor of Minnesota, is generally seen as a less enthusiastic debater. He also dedicated significant time to preparing for the event, with US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg — arguably one of the Democratic party’s most effective communicators — playing the part of Vance.

Iran fired a barrage of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday evening, hours after Israeli forces launched a ground offensive against Hizbollah in southern Lebanon as the region slid closer towards all-out war.

Israeli army radio said that nearly 200 missiles had been fired into Israel from Iran. Sirens sounded across the country amid the boom of interceptor missiles being fired at the Iranian projectiles.

“This attack will have consequences,” said Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson. “We have plans, and we will operate at the place and time we decide.”

“We have carried out a large number of interceptions,” Hagari added. “There were a few hits in the centre and other areas in the south of the country,” he said, adding that the military was not aware of any casualties.

Israel’s home front command also issued a message telling citizens that it was safe to leave their shelters, adding that “we do not identify any additional aerial threats from Iran”.

The Iranian attack, which came with little warning, marked a significant escalation in tensions between Iran and Israel, which has stepped up attacks on Tehran’s proxies, notably Hizbollah in Lebanon.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it had launched tens of ballistic missiles into Israeli airspace in retaliation for the assassinations last week of Hizbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah and a senior guards commander in Beirut.

The Guards said the assault was also in response to a suspected Israeli attack that killed Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July.

“The Aerospace Forces of the Guards have targeted the heart of the occupied territories,” it said, noting that the decision to launch the missile attack had been approved by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, chaired by President Masoud Pezeshkian.

“This comes after a period of restraint . . . following the escalation of the Zionist regime’s aggressive actions,” it said, warning that any Israeli response would result in “devastating” attacks on targets in the country.

Iran later announced that all flights to and from Tehran’s international airport had been cancelled.

In Washington, US President Joe Biden convened an emergency meeting with vice-president Kamala Harris and their national security team to discuss the attack.

Biden has directed the US military “to aid Israel’s defence against Iranian attacks [and] shoot down missiles targeting Israel”, the White House said.

Hours before, a US official had warned that Iran was “preparing to imminently launch a ballistic missile attack against Israel”.

Following the first reports of the missile warning, Brent crude, the international benchmark oil price, rose 5.2 per cent to $75.39 a barrel on Tuesday, after having previously traded down on the day. Gold prices also rose.

The Iranian attack is likely to trigger a robust Israeli response and came with much less notice than a previous barrage in April.

On that occasion, Tehran launched more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel in a telegraphed assault that caused limited damage. The US and its allies helped defend Israel, intercepting most of the projectiles. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government retaliated with a calibrated missile attack on a base near the Iranian city Isfahan.

But Netanyahu has stepped up his rhetoric against Tehran in recent weeks. On Monday, he warned Iran “there is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach”.

Tuesday’s Iranian assault came hours after Israel launched a ground offensive in Lebanon, intensifying its campaign against Iranian-backed Hizbollah after launching waves of devastating air strikes against the militant group.

In the past two weeks, Israel has assassinated Nasrallah, carried out a bombing campaign that has killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, and moved troops across the border.

Israel has characterised its incursion into Lebanon as “limited, localised, and targeted ground raids” against Hizbollah in the south of the country.

It says it is seeking to make northern Israel safe for the return of about 60,000 people displaced by Hizbollah’s rocket fire.

The regional escalation has been accompanied by a ratcheting up of Israel’s rhetoric, with officials talking about “defeating” Hizbollah and Netanyahu pledging last week to “change the balance of power in the region for years”.

As Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza has lowered in intensity, Israeli forces have stepped up strikes on Iranian proxies in the region.

Iranian leaders have repeatedly said they do not want to be drawn into a broader Middle East war, adding that the Islamic republic would not fall into what they have described as Israel’s “trap”.

But after the Islamic republic appeared weak at home and in the region as Hizbollah, its most important proxy, took devastating blows from Israel, the regime decided to risk a direct attack on the Jewish state. 

The US has been deploying additional forces to the region since Israel assassinated Nasrallah on Friday and ramped up its bombing campaign on Lebanon. It has about 40,000 troops in the region.

At least eight people were killed near a Jaffa light-rail station, and several injured in a shooting attack on Tuesday that Israeli police blamed on “terrorists”.

The shooters were “neutralised,” the police said.

Additional reporting by Raya Jalabi in Beirut, Mehul Srivastava in Tel Aviv and Rafe Uddin in London