The debate deteriorated into a debacle. US president Donald Trump and former vice president Joe Biden thrashed through a range of domestic issues during their first presidential debate on Tuesday night. The event began with a discussion of Supreme Court vacancies and went on to cover the US coronavirus response, racial justice movements, and the economic recovery.



Disney and Shell announced huge layoffs. Disney is losing 28,000 workers, mostly in California, where its parks are closed, and in Florida, where it has operated at restricted capacity. Meanwhile, Shell is shedding up to 9,000 staff worldwide because of the slump in demand for oil.

Palantir and Asana go public with direct listings. With a reference price that values it at $15.7 billion, Palantir, the data-mining firm backed by Peter Thiel, is hoping a direct listing will leave less money on the table than a plain-vanilla IPO. Asana, a productivity tool built by ex-Facebook staff also starts trading today.

The owner of Caesars casinos is buying a British bookmaker. The $3.7 billion deal for William Hill, which has 170 sites in 13 US states, gives Caesars control of the lucrative sports betting market in the US. The company intends to sell off William Hill’s non-US sites.

A court in India acquitted everyone over the destruction of a mosque. The Babri Masjid stood on a site that many Hindus claim is the birthplace of one of their most revered deities, and its demolition in 1992—for which the former deputy prime minister was among the accused—sparked decades of unrest.