Democratic debate second night: Which candidates are appearing tonight in Miami?

The Democratic Party debates resume in Miami, Florida, on Thursday evening for a second instalment, as the opposition begins the process of whittling down its long list of contenders in search of the candidate best placed to challenge Donald Trump for the presidency in 2020.

This second serving features the two front-runners in the polls: Barack Obama‘s former vice-president Joe Biden and the maverick senator for Vermont, Bernie Sanders, who ran Hillary Clinton close in 2016.

Other popular would-be nominees being given their turn this time out at the city's Adrienne Arsht Center are progressive rising star Pete Buttigieg - the openly gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana – and senators Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand, both of whom have been outspoken critics of the president.

Mr Trump made his opinion on Wednesday’s broadcast clear, denouncing it as “BORING!” on Twitter live from Air Force One as he jetted out to attend the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. Or, “to save the Free World”, as he put it.

The commander-in-chief also gloated over technical glitches suffered by broadcasters NBC and MSNBC, posting a video of the latter’s power outage to the humiliation of anchor Chuck Todd, who had given over his previous weekend to interviewing the president at length.