Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos lost his title as the richest man in the world during after-hours trading on Thursday, after his ecommerce behemoth reported lackluster third-quarter earnings.
Amazon shares fell 7% in after-hours trading, knocking Bezos’ fortune down to $103.9 billion. That puts him at number two among the world’s richest. The new number one: Microsoft cofounder and fellow Washington state resident Bill Gates, who is worth $105.7 billion.
Bezos became the richest man in the world in 2018 and the first centibillionaire to ever appear on the The Forbes 400 that year with a net worth of $160 billion, ending Gates’ 24-year run as number one.

As it was for countless others, the last Siyum Hashas was an inspiration for many at Eastern Union to begin and complete the Daf Yomi. Since that Siyum seven years ago, the daf has become a part of Ira Zlotowitz, Abraham Bergman and so many other of Eastern Union’s staff’s lives, a daily Daf Yomi shiur is given in Eastern’s offices, and a 30-minutes recording of each day’s office Daf is emailed to the many who have signed up for it.
In an effort to share Eastern Union’s inspiration and provide an extra push to those who have always wanted to start the Daf but didn’t, Eastern Union will be giving out a free ArtScroll Schottenstein Gemara to anyone who decides to start Daf Yomi now with Maseches Niddah for the first time.

The Justice Department has reportedly opened a criminal investigation into its own Russia probe The New York Times reports.
The newspaper reports that after former special counsel Robert Mueller closed the official investigation months ago, a new criminal inquiry will proceed to find out how the investigation of Russian interference into the 2016 presidential election and Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia “all began.”
The Times reported it was unclear what specific crime Durham would look into or when the investigation changed from an administrative review.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}

The Israel Defense Forces is becoming an organ of the country’s Chief Rabbinate, Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman said on Wednesday.
Lieberman’s comments, which he posted on Facebook, came in reaction to a booklet authored by senior rabbinical figures, among them military rabbis, with instructions for religious Jewish soldiers on how to avoid interactions with women forbidden by Jewish law.
“This … booklet for religious soldiers on the halachic laws of modesty, written by military rabbis … with the support of senior rabbinical figures, is yet another proof of the growing radicalization of religious Zionism that is being led by the ultra-Orthodox wing,” wrote Lieberman, warning that the IDF was becoming “Hashem’s army”.

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The White House’s trade representative in late August withdrew a recommendation to restore some of Ukraine’s trade privileges after John Bolton, then-national security adviser, warned him that President Donald Trump probably would oppose any action that benefited the government in Kyiv, according to people briefed on the matter.

Up to 19 students from an exclusive private school in Vancouver, British Columbia, faced strong disciplinary action — including expulsion — after they were recently discovered making Nazi salutes on campus and mocking the Holocaust on a private online messaging channel, among other racist and antisemitic offenses.
The students attending the $45,000-per-year St. George’s School in the Canadian city were reported to school staff by another student who discovered their antisemitic posts on a direct message group earlier this month.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Thursday that Turkey and its proxies broke the ceasefire and launched a heavy assault on three villages outside the area covered by the truce deal.
The assault uprooted thousands, Syrian Kurds said, urging the United States to intervene after most of its troops were withdrawn from northeast Syria on President Trump’s orders.
A senior SDF official said on his Twitter account that the Kurdish-led forces would not shy away from using their right to self-defense.
Read more at i24NEWS.
{Matzav.com}