First Thing: ‘America is ready for a better story,’ says Barack Obama

Ex-president praises Kamala Harris as a champion of the people. Plus, US woman breaks record for widest tongue

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Good morning.

Barack Obama returned to the scene of past triumphs yesterday to pass the mantle of political history to Kamala Harris amid chants of Yes, she can!". The former US president gave the closing speech on night two of the Democratic national convention (DNC) in his home city of Chicago, delivering a withering critique of Donald Trump.

What was Obama's best line? I'm feeling hopeful because this convention has always been pretty good to kids with funny names who believe in a country where anything is possible" - a nod to his 2004 convention speech as a relatively lowly Illinois state senator that shot him to fame.

What did Bernie Sanders focus on? In his speech, Sanders detailed an extensive progressive agenda that he said Democrats must enact if Harris is elected as president, stressing the need to expand healthcare access, reduce the cost of higher education and raise the minimum wage.

What is Trump saying privately? According to Stephanie Grisham, the ex-president's former press secretary who has since said she abhors Trump and spoke at the DNC to excoriate him, Trump has called his supporters basement dwellers".