Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink have joined JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon and a growing list of other business titans who have withdrawn from Saudi Arabia’s “Davos in the Desert” investment conference next week “in the wake of the disappearance, and potential murder of a prominent Saudi journalist” – NYTimes and Bloomberg

In related news, Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank empire saw its shares fall on Monday based on its close ties to Saudi Arabia – NYTimes

Microsoft Corp. co-founder and billionaire Paul Allen—who parlayed his fortune into a pro sports, cable TV, and real estate empire—has died at age 65 from complications with cancer – Bloomberg and NYTimes and WSJ

With Sears now officially in the bankruptcy system, our national papers of record reflect on the store’s heyday, and the many ways that it and its brands transformed America over 125 years – WSJ and NYTimes

Hey Twitter.  Welcome to the post-GDPR world. On Monday, the Irish Data Protection Commission confirmed that it’s investigating the platform for “potential violations” of Europe’s new blockbuster privacy law, based on the company’s refusal “to disclose whether it tracks users who click on links in tweets” – Law360

Former Fed Chair Yellen is taking issue with the White House’s recent comments criticizing the Fed’s monetary policy, calling the move “essentially damaging to the Fed and to financial stability” – Bloomberg and WSJ

Check out this rather incredible look at the ways that AI and robots are transforming retail forever as part of the emergence of what some are dubbing the “physical cloud”—an “e-commerce ecosystem that functions like the internet itself” – WSJ

S&P Global Ratings warns that China’s local governments (tasked with raise financing for regional infrastructure projects) may be sitting on a hidden $5.8 trillion of off-balance sheet debt, raising significant concerns about a coming wave of defaults – Bloomberg

Anthem Inc. will pay a record $16 million to U.S. health officials to resolve “alleged privacy violations stemming from the largest health care cyberattack in U.S. history, which exposed the personal information of some 79 million people” in 2015 – Law360

A closing-arguments-update from the SDNY-based trial of former Deutsche Bank traders accused of rigging Libor – Law360

Struggling to get your company’s cybersecurity approach up to snuff? Never fear. IBM (and its mobile command center) will come to you, semitrailer truck and all – NYTimes

On Halloween and the whims of tiny humans.  Trust me, the struggle is real – WSJ