New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was on hand for a major step in the LaGuardia Airport restoration as Delta celebrates the opening of its first new concourse.
It is part of the $3.9 billion terminal built at LaGuardia to replace terminals C and D.
The new concourse opens to travelers on Monday.
“The opening of the first new concourse at Terminal C is a major milestone that takes us one step closer to transforming LaGuardia Airport into a global gateway worthy of this state,” Governor Cuomo said Tuesday. “We’re building the nation’s first completely new airport in 25 years and showing the nation and the world that you can be ambitious and get big things done.”

Joe Biden risks a humiliating third- or fourth-place finish in Iowa early next year, according to nearly a dozen senior Democrats in the state who attribute the prospect to what they see as a poorly organized operation that has failed to engage with voters and party leaders.
With fewer than 100 days until the Feb. 3 caucuses, Biden is failing to spend the time with small groups of voters and party officials that Iowans expect and his campaign’s outreach has been largely ineffective, according to 11 senior Democrats in the state. That could send Biden to a crippling loss behind Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg, who have highly organized campaigns in Iowa, said the Democrats, most of whom requested anonymity to speak candidly about the campaign.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley criticized Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday for proposing to divert some of the United States’ military aid to Israel towards humanitarian relief in the Gaza Strip.
“Just when you thought Bernie Sanders couldn’t get any more radical, he outdid himself,” Haley wrote on Twitter. “He wants to take money we give to Israel to defend itself from terrorists, and give it to Gaza, which is run by terrorists?? Unreal. Why isn’t every other Dem pres candidate saying he’s wrong?”
Speaking at the annual J Street conference in Washington, D.C., on Monday, Sanders said the Netanyahu government was “racist,” and that to say so was not anti-Semitic.

Resolution provides rules for open hearings in the House Intelligence Committee and authorizes the public release of transcripts; insight from Chad Pergram, Fox News senior producer for Capitol Hill.
WATCH:

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that former Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s replacement has also been killed by U.S. troops.
“Just confirmed that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s number one replacement has been terminated by American troops,” tweeted Trump. “Most likely would have taken the top spot. Now he is also Dead!”
Trump did not give the name of the person killed or any further details.
Al-Baghdadi led ISIS from 2010 until his death on Saturday, when U.S. forces raided his compound in Syria, leading to the capture of ISIS members along with the death of al-Baghdadi and three of his children after he apparently activated his suicide vest.
(JNS)
{Matzav.com}

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced he is submitting his resignation during a televised address Tuesday, after nearly two weeks of anti-government protests that have paralyzed the country and led Hariri to suggest that he is out of options to fix the country’s problems.
“I have reached a dead-end, and we need a big shock to counter this crisis,” he said. “My call to all the Lebanese is to prioritize the interest of Lebanon, the safety of Lebanon, the protection of civil peace, and the prevention of economic collapse before everything else.”

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran on Monday of deploying precision-guided missiles in Yemen for use against Israel, adding that Iran is already using Iraq, Syria and Lebanon for this purpose.
Speaking at a press conference following a meeting with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Netanyahu said Iran’s aim was to be capable of targeting not only Israel, but any location in the Mideast, according to Reuters.
“Iran wants to develop precision-guided missiles that can hit any target in Israel within five to 10 meters,” said Netanyahu, according to the report. He added that Iran’s use of “Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen as bases to attack Israel” was a “great, great danger.”

Belgium’s first female prime minister, Sophie Wilmès, is Jewish.
On Sunday, she replaced Charles Michel and will lead an interim government until a coalition is formed. Michel left for a European Union position after his cabinet broke up last year. Both belong to the center-left MR Party.
Wilmès’s mother is an Ashkenazic Jew who lost several relatives in the Holocaust.
The 44-year-old holds a degree in applied communication and a degree in financial management, and previously worked as an economic and financial adviser in a law firm.
Wilmès is married to an Australian named Christopher Stone, and they have four children: Jonathan, Victoria, Charlotte and Elizabeth.
The Jewish population of Belgium numbers about 35,000.

The Boston Red Sox on Monday officially announced the hiring of the Tampa Bay Rays’ senior vice president Chaim Bloom as its new chief baseball officer.
Bloom, 36, will be “responsible for all baseball operations matters” for the team. He previously spent 15 years with the Rays.
Bloom grew up in Philadelphia and went to Jewish day school before studying Latin classics at Yale University, where he graduated in 2004.
He is an observant Jew and as such will not work on Shabbos and Yom Tov, despite the demanding schedule as a baseball executive. In 2011, he missed the Rays’ final game against the New York Yankees, which would determine whether the Rays would make the playoffs, because of Rosh Hashanah.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, stated on Monday that a portion of the U.S. military assistance to Israel should go towards humanitarian relief in the Gaza Strip.
“I would use the leverage of $3.8 billion,” Sanders said, referring to the 10-year Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Israel negotiated by former President Barack Obama. “It is a lot of money, and we cannot give it carte blanche to the Israeli government or for that matter to any government at all. We have a right to demand respect for human rights and democracy.”