Amazon is on a hiring spree. In the latest sign of how it’s prospering while others are faltering during the pandemic, Amazon said Wednesday it is seeking to bring aboard 33,000 people for corporate and tech roles in the next few months. It’s the largest number of job openings it’s had at one time, and the Seattle-based online behemoth said the hiring is not related to the jobs it typically offers ahead of the busy holiday shopping season. Amazon can afford to grow its workforce: It is one of the few companies that has thrived during the coronavirus outbreak. People have turned to it to order groceries, supplies and other items online, helping the company bring in record revenue and profits between April and June.

The U.S. Treasury on Tuesday sanctioned two former Lebanese Cabinet ministers who are allied with militant Hezbollah in a rare move against politicians close to the Iran-backed group. The sanctioned officials are former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil and former public works and transportation minister Youssef Fenianos. Khalil is currently a member of the Lebanese Parliament. The sanctions appear to be a strong message to politicians in the country, which is experiencing its worst economic and financial crisis in decades. It is also a strong warning to Hezbollah and its allies who control majority seats in Parliament that the sanctions could target more politicians.

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com Most Bais Yaakov high schools generally have davening take place in school. In the pre-COVID days many of them had it in the large auditorium, but in COVID times – they generally daven in the classrooms.  But what do they do about breakfast?  Unlike the Yeshiva high schools – which provide breakfast for their talmidim after davening – the Bais Yaakovs do not.  The halacha is that one should not take care of one’s own needs before davening to Hashem. What is the rationale for allowing it? NOT EATING BEFORE DAVENING The source of the halacha that forbids eating before davening is based upon a Gemorah in Brachos (10b).  The halacha is further codified in Shulchan Aruch (Orech Chaim 89:3).

New York City restaurants can resume indoor dining on Sept. 30 at 25% capacity with other restrictions, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday. Cuomo said all customers will undergo temperature checks at the door and one member of each party will have to provide information for contact tracing if needed. Customers will not be served drinks at bars, which will be to provide drinks for table service, and restaurants must close at midnight. Tables will be required to be 6 feet apart and customers must wear masks while not at the table. Indoor dining is already allowed in restaurants elsewhere in New York state. “We knew that compliance was lacking in New York City. That was a reason for caution,” Cuomo said at a Wednesday briefing. Neighboring New Jersey recently enacted similar rules.

President Donald Trump seemed to understand the severity of the coronavirus threat even as he was telling the nation that the virus was no worse than the seasonal flu and insisting that the U.S. government had it totally under control, according to a new book by journalist Bob Woodward. “You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed,” Trump said in a Feb. 7 call with Woodward. “And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu.” “This is deadly stuff,” the president repeated for emphasis. Trump told Woodward on March 19 that he deliberately minimized the danger. “I wanted to always play it down,” the president said.

The morning after the curfew on 40 “red cities” in Israel went into effect, the number of daily cases continues to soar, with the Health Ministry stating that 3,506 people tested positive for the coronavirus. A total of 9,571 people have tested positive for the coronavirus since the beginning of the week. There are currently 30,079 active virus cases, with 458 seriously ill patients, of whom 140 are ventilated. The death toll has risen to 1,048. The curfew on 40 red cities went into effect on Tuesday evening and will be in effect for a week before being re-evaluated by the cabinet. Israel’s senior health officials, including coronavirus czar Prof.

In anticipation of a stream of Jewish tourists following the United Arab Emirates-Israel peace deal, Abu Dhabi government officials have instructed the hotels in the city to prepare to offer options for kosher food, Times of Israel reported. “All hotel establishments are advised to include Kosher food options on room service menus and at all food and beverage outlets in their establishments,” stated a letter from the Abu Dhabi Culture and Tourism Department to city hotel managers.

When Covid-19 hit and the world started to shut down, everyone scrambled to figure out how to resume life as normally as possible, albeit virtually. Schools and work-places switched to zoom and tele-health became the standard. Although many of these innovations were clearly only band-aids tiding us over until we could resume in-person contact, certain lifestyle changes have been greatly welcome and may long outlast the time of Corona.  One such change is the explosion of live Torah content available online since the start of the pandemic in March. Of course, there has long been a plethora of online Torah content and yet obviously no pre-recorded shiur can ever compare to participating in a live shiur at your local shul.

The head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday defended his response to protests in Portland, Oregon, amid criticism that the agency overstepped its authority with a heavy-handed deployment that reflected the law-and-order re-election campaign of President Donald Trump. Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf ranked the civil unrest in downtown Portland as among the top threats facing the United States, along with the COVID-19 pandemic, election interference and drug trafficking along the southern border. “Let me be clear.

President Donald Trump unveiled a new list of potential Supreme Court nominees Wednesday in an effort to energize the conservative legal movement and help his flagging re-election campaign. The list, fashioned after those he put out during his 2016 race for the White House, when there was an existing vacancy, is intended to elevate the nation’s highest court as an issue in 2020 – and put pressure on Democratic nominee Joe Biden to follow suit. The list of 20 new names is composed of federal appeals and district court judges, U.S. senators and others who he might nominate to the high court if given the chance in a second term. They include Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri.