Not Purdy: 49ers hit Green Bay with backup QB, no Bosa
NoneJimmy Carter -- the 39th President of the United States, a renowned philanthropist and a Nobel Peace Prize winner -- has died. The news of his death was confirmed by his son, Jimmy Carter III also known as Chip to the Washington Post Sunday. In February 2023, it was revealed Carter was entering hospice care after being in and out of the hospital. His grandson also gave an update on the ex-Prez's condition, noting that Carter was no longer able to stay awake every day. His grandkid did say, however, that Carter was still able to crack jokes with his loved ones at his home in Plains, GA ... so it sounds like he was still in good spirits up until the end. President Biden said the former President asked him to deliver his eulogy. Carter's dealt with several health issues over the past few years, starting with a cancer diagnosis in 2015. He suffered a broken hip in May 2019, and that same year had a procedure to relieve pressure on his brain due to internal bleeding from recent falls. A Georgia man through and through, Carter's political career began as a Georgia State Senator in the '60s. He was elected Governor of the state in 1970 as a Democrat, and during his inauguration speech, he declared ... "The time of racial discrimination is over," adding, "No poor, rural, weak, or Black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity for an education, a job or simple justice." Carter's words came as a shock to many voters -- including segregationists who supported him -- especially after he ran a conservative campaign. Yet, it marked the beginning of Carter speaking out against racist politics. Near the end of his time as Governor, Carter announced his candidacy for U.S. President, and although he started out as a long shot ... he quickly became the Democratic front-runner and defeated President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election. His election came just weeks after Playboy published what became a very famous interview in which then-candidate Carter admitted, "I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times." While the remark was considered controversial at the time, it's certainly tame compared to what we now tend to know about politicians' private lives. In any event, Carter took office in 1977 and served one term as president. His tenure is remembered as a time of economic difficulty, as well as for the energy crisis -- however, he's also credited with brokering an historic peace agreement. In 1979, Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin together at Camp David. They ended up signing a peace treaty that ended decades of war, and made Egypt the first Arab state to recognize Israel. His final year in office was marred by the Iran hostage crisis ... which contributed to Ronald Reagan beating him in the 1980 election. After losing to Reagan, Carter remained very active in the public eye and diplomacy. He founded his famed Carter Center in Atlanta in 1982 to advance human rights and alleviate human suffering ... which led to him being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work. Carter and his late wife, Rosalynn , were also well-known for their work with Habitat for Humanity. Couple more fun facts -- Carter served in the Navy, which is where he met Rosalynn. They wed in 1946 and were the longest-married presidential couple ... more than 77 years! Jimmy was also the first U.S. president to be born in a hospital ... of course, it was a hospital in Plains, Georgia. Carter is survived by his 4 children and numerous grandchildren. Rosalynn predeceased the president ... passing away at age 96 in November 2023, days after entering hospice care. Rosalynn had been diagnosed with dementia, with the Carter Center confirming the diagnosis 6 months before her death. Despite his ailing health, Carter attended the former First Lady's funeral, wearing a blanket with her face on it at the time. He was 100. RIP
A majority of likely voters support an FBI investigation of Liz Cheney, a key member of the partisan January 6 Committee, Rasmussen Reports poll found on Thursday. Some House Republicans demand the FBI investigate Cheney for allegedly tampering with “at least one” witness of the partisan panel. Cheney said she should not go to jail for alleged wrongdoing. Fifty-seven percent of likely voters, however, would support an FBI investigation into the matter. The poll sampled 1,099 likely voters from December 17-19 with a three percentage point margin of error. Loudermilk’s press release on the report alleged three key facts against Cheney: 1. Former Representative Liz Cheney colluded with “star witness” Cassidy Hutchinson without Hutchinson’s attorney’s knowledge. 2. Former Representative Liz Cheney should be investigated for potential criminal witness tampering based on new information about her communication. 3. Cassidy Hutchinson’s most outrageous claims lacked any evidence, and the Select Committee had knowledge that her claims were false when they publicly promoted her. Read the full report here . JD Vance: Liz Cheney Is a “Resentful, Petty, Small Person” Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
Honoring Ambedkar: A Legacy of Equality and JusticeLiverpool manager Arne Slot opted not to make a double change at half-time against West Ham despite Jamie Carragher's pleas. The trip to the London Stadium rounded off the 19th gameweek of the season for Slot's team, though they have played just 18 times as a match against Everton was postponed . Players picking up five yellow cards during the first 19 games in the league earn a one-match ban, though the threshold for a ban climbs to 10 bookings after that point. With Liverpool up against Manchester United in their next game, Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo needed to avoid bookings against West Ham if they wanted to play a part at Anfield on January 5. Gakpo was one of three Reds stars to score before half=time in an eventual 5-0 win , prompting Carragher to call for changes. "Gravenberch & Gakpo off at [half-time] please Arne," the former Liverpool defender wrote on social media. Slot ended up waiting a little longer, though, only withdrawing the pair after a fourth goal had gone in. Luis Diaz put Liverpool in front at the London Stadium, with Mohammed Kudus inches away from an equaliser as he beat Alisson but only found the foot of the post. Gakpo doubled the lead after fine work from Mohamed Salah , and there was no way back for the hosts when Salah made it three before the break, Gravenberch had a hand in the fourth, feeding Trent Alexander-Arnold to fire a deflected effort out of the reach of Alphonse Areola in the West Ham goal, The Dutch international then made way for Wataru Endo shortly before the hour mark, with compatriot Gakpo leaving the field to be replaced by Diogo Jota. Jota scored the fifth in the closing stages, with West Ham hitting the woodwork two more times but failing to deliver a shot on target. The result kept Liverpool eight points clear of Nottingham Forest , who beat Everton earlier in the afternoon, while Chelsea and Arsenal can close the gap to Slot's side in the coming days. Should Arne Slot have made changes sooner? Have your say in the comments section "Yeah [lots of goals] but loads of chances as well," Slot told Match of the Day after Liverpool's win. "It was 3-0 at half time but soon after that we could have scored three. "On the other side it was good that not every chance that they had went in, they had two or three, one hit the post and one hit the bar. Against Leicester they had one chance and scored. We were a bit unlucky that we did not score in the first few minutes but as well we were lucky that at 1-0 Kudus hit the post." Hammers boss Julen Lopetegui was full of praise for Liverpool, who had already put five past his team in the Carabao Cup earlier in the season. "Today we have played against one of the best teams in the world in this current moment, but it is true that we have to do much better," he said. Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Sky has slashed the price of its Sky Sports, Sky Stream, Sky TV and Netflix bundle in an unbeatable new deal that saves £240 and includes 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.
Jimmy Carter , the 39th president of the United States, who may have left an even greater legacy with his efforts in his post-White House years, in which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in resolving international conflicts, died Sunday, according to the Washington Post . He was 100. Carter had entered hospice care in 2023 after surviving metastatic brain cancer, liver cancer and brain surgery after a 2019 fall. He appeared at his wife Rosalyn’s memorial service in late 2023. The former president, who remained active well into his ’90s, served from 1977 to 1981. He had been the oldest living president since the death of George H.W. Bush and was the longest-lived U.S. President. Elected in the wake of the Watergate scandal, Carter was unknown nationally when he began his presidential campaign in December 1974, with pundits asking, “Jimmy who?” He even appeared on the game show “What’s My Line,” in which a panel of celebrities, usually blindfolded, try to guess a guest’s profession is. Carter was so unrecognizable that the panel was allowed to keep their blindfolds off. But a savvy campaign strategy that emphasized Carter’s honesty as a counterweight to the D.C. establishment, propelled him to the Democratic nomination over a handful of senators and other contenders. His personal biography — a Georgia peanut farmer, with a wide grin, from the small town of Plains — seemed like a breath of fresh air against a Washington still reeling from the resignation of Richard Nixon, his pardon by his successor Gerald R. Ford and the after-effects of failed American policy in Vietnam. Carter’s accessibility was reflected in his inauguration, in which he and his wife Rosalynn got out of their limousine and walked down Pennsylvania Avenue on their way to the reviewing stand to watch the parade. Carter also shunned some of the ceremonial aspects — for a time banning “Hail to the Chief” when he entered a room for an event, or carrying his own bags. He even resurrected the fireside chat, a throwback to the era of Franklin D. Roosevelt. His presidency paralleled the disco era and what could best be described as “rural chic,” with movies like “Smokey and the Bandit” and TV shows like “The Dukes of Hazzard” drawing on Southern humor while avoiding the thorny civil rights struggles of the previous decade. There was even a sitcom, “Carter Country,” that was a nod to his roots as a peanut farmer from Plains, Ga. The 2020 documentary “Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President” detailed how Carter rallied support from musicians including the Allman Brothers, Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and Jimmy Buffett during his campaign. The sense of optimism that greeted the arrival of a Washington outsider eventually gave way to the realities of governing. Even with substantial Democratic majorities, Carter and his team grappled with high inflation and then stagnant growth, as well as the lingering crisis over the taking of American hostages in Iran. Even decades later, Carter still expressed frustration that some of his signature initiatives, like comprehensive health care, were blocked by Democrats. “There were times when a Congress member would try to blackmail me, or when a Congress member would make a demand that I thought was inappropriate,” Carter told CBS News years later. In 1979 Carter gave what has generally been referred to as the “malaise” speech (even though he never used that term) in which he talked of a “crisis of confidence” in the country. By that point, the country was facing rising costs of oil imports; the president’s policies directed at conservation initiatives like solar power, energy initiatives later proved prescient, but his attempts to sell conservation came across as lecturing about wastefulness. The speech only seemed to reinforce the notion that his presidency was faltering, bottoming out with a failed 1980 attempt to rescue American hostages from Iran. By that point, Carter was facing formidable opposition within his own party from Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), who waged a spirited yet unsuccessful effort to wrest the nomination away from a sitting president. Carter’s resounding defeat in 1980 and Ronald Reagan’s victory signaled the triumph of the conservative movement. But rather than retire, Carter re-emerged in the role of peace negotiator and humanitarian activist, supervising election integrity in foreign countries and working to eradicate disease, like ringworm, in sub-Saharan Africa. Although his post-presidency efforts built on some of his accomplishments while in office — like brokering the Israel-Egypt peace accords — only after he left the White House did that achievement earn widespread acclaim. His work earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Later in life, Carter’s outspokenness, particularly about international issues, made him a polarizing figure at times. His 2007 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” drew criticism for its Israel position. Carter, however, defended the book, and his promotion of it was a central feature of Jonathan Demme’s 2007 documentary “Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains.” In the movie, Carter is shown much as he was during his unlikely campaign: Free of trappings, full of faith and occasionally flashing his signature grin. Perhaps the signature moment was when he and Rosalynn sit down for their own dinner of hamburgers. James Earl Carter Jr. was born in Plains, Georgia. After his rural upbringing, he entered the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., serving seven years. He went into state politics in 1962, before running for governor in 1970 and winning. He was among a handful of governors elected in the South in the early 1970s who were billed as a sign that the region was moving away from its segregationist past. On racial issues, Carter was progressive, and he reformed the state bureaucracy. Then prohibited from running for another term, he announced in late 1974 that he was running for the White House; the New York Times noted that his supporters considered him a “Southern-style Kennedy.” His centrism was a selling point in his campaign, but a primary message was that he would bring honesty and integrity to the White House, with Watergate still fresh in voters’ minds. He defeated incumbent Gerald Ford, whose short tenure also was untarnished by scandal but who nevertheless suffered backlash from his decision to pardon Nixon. Carter’s out-of-the-blue rise to the top of the Democratic field in 1976 was not lost on Hollywood. According to Dennis McDougal’s book “The Last Mogul,” after deciding to run, one of the first people that Carter reached out to from outside Georgia was Lew Wasserman. “When he let friends know he had confidence in me, it was extremely helpful,” Carter said. The Carters and the Wassermans became good friends during his presidency. But Wasserman, not too surprisingly, switched his allegiance to a former client, Reagan. In many ways Carter’s post-presidency built on some of his accomplishments while president, including a foreign policy based on human rights. His work for Habitat for Humanity, in which he would frequently be seen helping to build homes in low-income areas, elevated the non-profit’s visibility. Carter published more than 30 books, including “Faith: A Journey for All,” “Christmas in Plains,” “A White House Diary” and “A Full Life: Reflections at 90,” about which New York Times columnist Nick Kristof wrote, “Carter, the one-termer who was a pariah in his own party, may well have improved the lives of more people in more places over a longer period of time than any other recent president.” Carter is survived by sons Jack, Chip and Jeff and daughter Amy.
A three-goal performance from Arttu Hyry sealed the deal for the Texas Stars in their 6-2 win over the Manitoba Moose. Two other Stars players recorded three-point (1G, 2A) games. Manitoba got the early jump as they found themselves with a 4-1 shot advantage as the period started. A couple of notable plays from the Moose nearly gave them an early lead too, but Magnus Hellberg kept the game scoreless and gave Texas that extra advantage. Dmitry Kuzmin would fly up the left wing and make a couple of good moves to beat two Texas defenders, when he ran out of real estate, he passed the puck to Parker Ford right in front of Hellberg who made the pad save to keep Manitoba off the board. Texas continued to build momentum as time wound down and they ramped up their physicality. While Manitoba would get the only power play chance of the first period, Texas would prevent Manitoba from registering a shot for the last 12:09 of the first period. Arttu Hyry, who took a bad elbowing penalty, would redeem himself after the Moose would bobble the puck in front of the net and Hyry would bury the puck to put the Stars up 1-0. Closing out the first period, Manitoba trailed 1-0 and were outshot 10-4, including nine straight shots for the Stars. The second period didn’t get any easier for Manitoba as they added another 1:24 to their total without a shot on goal. Manitoba found themselves on the power play again, which would fall flat again. As soon as Kyle Capobianco got out of the penalty box, he would find Matej Blumel with a nice cross-ice feed for Blumel’s first of the game. The 2-0 insurance marker gave Texas some extra breathing room against the Moose who were pushing heavy in the early going of the second frame. Just seconds after Blumel’s goal, Tyrel Bauer would get called for interference, and Alex Petrovic took exception to the hit. Both players engaged in a lengthy fight that evened the momentum between both teams. Here’s the full fight and the play that led up to the Tyrel Bauer and Alex Petrovic fight. #MBMoose #ITR pic.twitter.com/LvLpFpZKfX Manitoba and Texas kept going back and forth, but the Moose found themselves on the penalty kill. They kept Texas at bay, and a 2-on-1 shorthanded break presented itself for Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Dominic Toninato. Anderson-Dolan was unable to find the stick of Toninato and the play shot back the other way. Minutes after the Moose’s successful penalty kill, Arttu Hyry got his second of the game after a back-and-forth passing sequence between Cameron Hughes and Hyry. Hyry buried it for his second of the game to put the Stars up 3-0. Just 1:01 later, Mason Shaw shot up the right wing and had more than enough time and space. His first shot was blocked by a Stars defender, but the puck bounced right back to him and Shaw fired it low for his fifth goal of the season. Manitoba closed the second period trailing 3-1 and being outshot 21-12, but they had more offensive zone rushes and more momentum in their favour after Shaw’s goal. The third period was the final dagger for the Moose as Arttu Hyry scored the hat-trick goal to make it 4-1 for Texas. Following some more back-and-forth play, Cameron Hughes took a tripping penalty and seconds after he got out of the box, he would score top shelf to put Texas up 5-1. The Moose didn’t go away quietly as Toninato got behind the net and found Simon Lundmark who got the initial shot off for Simon Lundmark to pick up the rebound and make it 5-2. However, the Moose’s celebration wouldn’t last long as Antonio Stranges scored 47 seconds later to make it a final score of 6-2 Texas. Both teams are back in action on Tuesday, December 31st with a 4:00 pm CST puck drop for the Manitoba Moose’s annual New Years Eve game. This article first appeared on Inside The Rink and was syndicated with permission.
By BILL BARROW, Associated Press PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Newly married and sworn as a Naval officer, Jimmy Carter left his tiny hometown in 1946 hoping to climb the ranks and see the world. Less than a decade later, the death of his father and namesake, a merchant farmer and local politician who went by “Mr. Earl,” prompted the submariner and his wife, Rosalynn, to return to the rural life of Plains, Georgia, they thought they’d escaped. The lieutenant never would be an admiral. Instead, he became commander in chief. Years after his presidency ended in humbling defeat, he would add a Nobel Peace Prize, awarded not for his White House accomplishments but “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” The life of James Earl Carter Jr., the 39th and longest-lived U.S. president, ended Sunday at the age of 100 where it began: Plains, the town of 600 that fueled his political rise, welcomed him after his fall and sustained him during 40 years of service that redefined what it means to be a former president. With the stubborn confidence of an engineer and an optimism rooted in his Baptist faith, Carter described his motivations in politics and beyond in the same way: an almost missionary zeal to solve problems and improve lives. Carter was raised amid racism, abject poverty and hard rural living — realities that shaped both his deliberate politics and emphasis on human rights. “He always felt a responsibility to help people,” said Jill Stuckey, a longtime friend of Carter’s in Plains. “And when he couldn’t make change wherever he was, he decided he had to go higher.” Carter’s path, a mix of happenstance and calculation , pitted moral imperatives against political pragmatism; and it defied typical labels of American politics, especially caricatures of one-term presidents as failures. “We shouldn’t judge presidents by how popular they are in their day. That’s a very narrow way of assessing them,” Carter biographer Jonathan Alter told the Associated Press. “We should judge them by how they changed the country and the world for the better. On that score, Jimmy Carter is not in the first rank of American presidents, but he stands up quite well.” Later in life, Carter conceded that many Americans, even those too young to remember his tenure, judged him ineffective for failing to contain inflation or interest rates, end the energy crisis or quickly bring home American hostages in Iran. He gained admirers instead for his work at The Carter Center — advocating globally for public health, human rights and democracy since 1982 — and the decades he and Rosalynn wore hardhats and swung hammers with Habitat for Humanity. Yet the common view that he was better after the Oval Office than in it annoyed Carter, and his allies relished him living long enough to see historians reassess his presidency. “He doesn’t quite fit in today’s terms” of a left-right, red-blue scoreboard, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who visited the former president multiple times during his own White House bid. At various points in his political career, Carter labeled himself “progressive” or “conservative” — sometimes both at once. His most ambitious health care bill failed — perhaps one of his biggest legislative disappointments — because it didn’t go far enough to suit liberals. Republicans, especially after his 1980 defeat, cast him as a left-wing cartoon. It would be easiest to classify Carter as a centrist, Buttigieg said, “but there’s also something radical about the depth of his commitment to looking after those who are left out of society and out of the economy.” Indeed, Carter’s legacy is stitched with complexities, contradictions and evolutions — personal and political. The self-styled peacemaker was a war-trained Naval Academy graduate who promised Democratic challenger Ted Kennedy that he’d “kick his ass.” But he campaigned with a call to treat everyone with “respect and compassion and with love.” Carter vowed to restore America’s virtue after the shame of Vietnam and Watergate, and his technocratic, good-government approach didn’t suit Republicans who tagged government itself as the problem. It also sometimes put Carter at odds with fellow Democrats. The result still was a notable legislative record, with wins on the environment, education, and mental health care. He dramatically expanded federally protected lands, began deregulating air travel, railroads and trucking, and he put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy. As a fiscal hawk, Carter added a relative pittance to the national debt, unlike successors from both parties. Carter nonetheless struggled to make his achievements resonate with the electorate he charmed in 1976. Quoting Bob Dylan and grinning enthusiastically, he had promised voters he would “never tell a lie.” Once in Washington, though, he led like a joyless engineer, insisting his ideas would become reality and he’d be rewarded politically if only he could convince enough people with facts and logic. This served him well at Camp David, where he brokered peace between Israel’s Menachem Begin and Epypt’s Anwar Sadat, an experience that later sparked the idea of The Carter Center in Atlanta. Carter’s tenacity helped the center grow to a global force that monitored elections across five continents, enabled his freelance diplomacy and sent public health experts across the developing world. The center’s wins were personal for Carter, who hoped to outlive the last Guinea worm parasite, and nearly did. As president, though, the approach fell short when he urged consumers beleaguered by energy costs to turn down their thermostats. Or when he tried to be the nation’s cheerleader, beseeching Americans to overcome a collective “crisis of confidence.” Republican Ronald Reagan exploited Carter’s lecturing tone with a belittling quip in their lone 1980 debate. “There you go again,” the former Hollywood actor said in response to a wonky answer from the sitting president. “The Great Communicator” outpaced Carter in all but six states. Carter later suggested he “tried to do too much, too soon” and mused that he was incompatible with Washington culture: media figures, lobbyists and Georgetown social elites who looked down on the Georgians and their inner circle as “country come to town.” Carter carefully navigated divides on race and class on his way to the Oval Office. Born Oct. 1, 1924 , Carter was raised in the mostly Black community of Archery, just outside Plains, by a progressive mother and white supremacist father. Their home had no running water or electricity but the future president still grew up with the relative advantages of a locally prominent, land-owning family in a system of Jim Crow segregation. He wrote of President Franklin Roosevelt’s towering presence and his family’s Democratic Party roots, but his father soured on FDR, and Jimmy Carter never campaigned or governed as a New Deal liberal. He offered himself as a small-town peanut farmer with an understated style, carrying his own luggage, bunking with supporters during his first presidential campaign and always using his nickname. And he began his political career in a whites-only Democratic Party. As private citizens, he and Rosalynn supported integration as early as the 1950s and believed it inevitable. Carter refused to join the White Citizens Council in Plains and spoke out in his Baptist church against denying Black people access to worship services. “This is not my house; this is not your house,” he said in a churchwide meeting, reminding fellow parishioners their sanctuary belonged to God. Yet as the appointed chairman of Sumter County schools he never pushed to desegregate, thinking it impractical after the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board decision. And while presidential candidate Carter would hail the 1965 Voting Rights Act, signed by fellow Democrat Lyndon Johnson when Carter was a state senator, there is no record of Carter publicly supporting it at the time. Carter overcame a ballot-stuffing opponent to win his legislative seat, then lost the 1966 governor’s race to an arch-segregationist. He won four years later by avoiding explicit mentions of race and campaigning to the right of his rival, who he mocked as “Cufflinks Carl” — the insult of an ascendant politician who never saw himself as part the establishment. Carter’s rural and small-town coalition in 1970 would match any victorious Republican electoral map in 2024. Once elected, though, Carter shocked his white conservative supporters — and landed on the cover of Time magazine — by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.” Before making the jump to Washington, Carter befriended the family of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., whom he’d never sought out as he eyed the governor’s office. Carter lamented his foot-dragging on school integration as a “mistake.” But he also met, conspicuously, with Alabama’s segregationist Gov. George Wallace to accept his primary rival’s endorsement ahead of the 1976 Democratic convention. “He very shrewdly took advantage of his own Southerness,” said Amber Roessner, a University of Tennessee professor and expert on Carter’s campaigns. A coalition of Black voters and white moderate Democrats ultimately made Carter the last Democratic presidential nominee to sweep the Deep South. Then, just as he did in Georgia, he used his power in office to appoint more non-whites than all his predecessors had, combined. He once acknowledged “the secret shame” of white Americans who didn’t fight segregation. But he also told Alter that doing more would have sacrificed his political viability – and thus everything he accomplished in office and after. King’s daughter, Bernice King, described Carter as wisely “strategic” in winning higher offices to enact change. “He was a leader of conscience,” she said in an interview. Rosalynn Carter, who died on Nov. 19 at the age of 96, was identified by both husband and wife as the “more political” of the pair; she sat in on Cabinet meetings and urged him to postpone certain priorities, like pressing the Senate to relinquish control of the Panama Canal. “Let that go until the second term,” she would sometimes say. The president, recalled her former aide Kathy Cade, retorted that he was “going to do what’s right” even if “it might cut short the time I have.” Rosalynn held firm, Cade said: “She’d remind him you have to win to govern.” Carter also was the first president to appoint multiple women as Cabinet officers. Yet by his own telling, his career sprouted from chauvinism in the Carters’ early marriage: He did not consult Rosalynn when deciding to move back to Plains in 1953 or before launching his state Senate bid a decade later. Many years later, he called it “inconceivable” that he didn’t confer with the woman he described as his “full partner,” at home, in government and at The Carter Center. “We developed a partnership when we were working in the farm supply business, and it continued when Jimmy got involved in politics,” Rosalynn Carter told AP in 2021. So deep was their trust that when Carter remained tethered to the White House in 1980 as 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran, it was Rosalynn who campaigned on her husband’s behalf. “I just loved it,” she said, despite the bitterness of defeat. Fair or not, the label of a disastrous presidency had leading Democrats keep their distance, at least publicly, for many years, but Carter managed to remain relevant, writing books and weighing in on societal challenges. He lamented widening wealth gaps and the influence of money in politics. He voted for democratic socialist Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in 2016, and later declared that America had devolved from fully functioning democracy to “oligarchy.” Yet looking ahead to 2020, with Sanders running again, Carter warned Democrats not to “move to a very liberal program,” lest they help re-elect President Donald Trump. Carter scolded the Republican for his serial lies and threats to democracy, and chided the U.S. establishment for misunderstanding Trump’s populist appeal. He delighted in yearly convocations with Emory University freshmen, often asking them to guess how much he’d raised in his two general election campaigns. “Zero,” he’d gesture with a smile, explaining the public financing system candidates now avoid so they can raise billions. Carter still remained quite practical in partnering with wealthy corporations and foundations to advance Carter Center programs. Carter recognized that economic woes and the Iran crisis doomed his presidency, but offered no apologies for appointing Paul Volcker as the Federal Reserve chairman whose interest rate hikes would not curb inflation until Reagan’s presidency. He was proud of getting all the hostages home without starting a shooting war, even though Tehran would not free them until Reagan’s Inauguration Day. “Carter didn’t look at it” as a failure, Alter emphasized. “He said, ‘They came home safely.’ And that’s what he wanted.” Well into their 90s, the Carters greeted visitors at Plains’ Maranatha Baptist Church, where he taught Sunday School and where he will have his last funeral before being buried on family property alongside Rosalynn . Carter, who made the congregation’s collection plates in his woodworking shop, still garnered headlines there, calling for women’s rights within religious institutions, many of which, he said, “subjugate” women in church and society. Carter was not one to dwell on regrets. “I am at peace with the accomplishments, regret the unrealized goals and utilize my former political position to enhance everything we do,” he wrote around his 90th birthday. The politician who had supposedly hated Washington politics also enjoyed hosting Democratic presidential contenders as public pilgrimages to Plains became advantageous again. Carter sat with Buttigieg for the final time March 1, 2020, hours before the Indiana mayor ended his campaign and endorsed eventual winner Joe Biden. “He asked me how I thought the campaign was going,” Buttigieg said, recalling that Carter flashed his signature grin and nodded along as the young candidate, born a year after Carter left office, “put the best face” on the walloping he endured the day before in South Carolina. Never breaking his smile, the 95-year-old host fired back, “I think you ought to drop out.” “So matter of fact,” Buttigieg said with a laugh. “It was somehow encouraging.” Carter had lived enough, won plenty and lost enough to take the long view. “He talked a lot about coming from nowhere,” Buttigieg said, not just to attain the presidency but to leverage “all of the instruments you have in life” and “make the world more peaceful.” In his farewell address as president, Carter said as much to the country that had embraced and rejected him. “The struggle for human rights overrides all differences of color, nation or language,” he declared. “Those who hunger for freedom, who thirst for human dignity and who suffer for the sake of justice — they are the patriots of this cause.” Carter pledged to remain engaged with and for them as he returned “home to the South where I was born and raised,” home to Plains, where that young lieutenant had indeed become “a fellow citizen of the world.” —- Bill Barrow, based in Atlanta, has covered national politics including multiple presidential campaigns for the AP since 2012.Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP Reminds Investors of Looming Deadline in the Class Action Lawsuit Against Hasbro, Inc. (HAS)Moment Prince William makes hilarious dig at cheeky Prince Louis as family are gifted chocolates from wellwishers
Meta Announces Quarterly Cash Dividend
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Biden administration plans on reducing part of Intel's $8.5 billion in federal funding for computer chip plants around the country, according to three people familiar with the grant who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. The reduction is largely a byproduct of the $3 billion that Intel is also receiving to provide computer chips to the military. President Joe Biden announced the agreement to provide Intel with up to $8.5 billion in direct funding and $11 billion in loans in March. The changes to Intel’s funding are not related to the company’s financial record or milestones, the people familiar with the grant told The Associated Press. In August, the chipmaker announced that it would cut 15% of its workforce — about 15,000 jobs — in an attempt to turn its business around to compete with more successful rivals like Nvidia and AMD. Unlike some of its rivals, Intel manufactures chips in addition to designing them. Two years ago, President Biden hailed Intel as a job creator with its plans to open a new plant near Columbus, Ohio. The president praised the company for plans to “build a workforce of the future” for the $20 billion project, which he said would generate 7,000 construction jobs and 3,000 full-time jobs set to pay an average of $135,000 a year. The California-based tech giant's funding is tied to a sweeping 2022 law that President Biden has celebrated and which is designed to revive U.S. semiconductor manufacturing. Known as the CHIPS and Science Act , the $280 billion package is aimed at sharpening the U.S. edge in military technology and manufacturing while minimizing the kinds of supply disruptions that occurred in 2021, after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, when a shortage of chips stalled factory assembly lines and fueled inflation . The Biden administration helped shepherd the legislation following pandemic-era concerns that the loss of access to chips made in Asia could plunge the U.S. economy into recession. When pushing for the investment, lawmakers expressed concern about efforts by China to control Taiwan, which accounts for more than 90% of advanced computer chip production. In August, the administration pledged to provide up to $6.6 billion so that a Taiwanese semiconductor giant could expand the facilities it is already building in Arizona and better ensure that the most advanced microchips are produced domestically for the first time. The Commerce Department said the funding for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. meant the company could expand on its existing plans for two facilities in Phoenix and add a third, newly announced production hub. The administration has promised tens of billions of dollars to support construction of U.S. chip foundries and reduce reliance on Asian suppliers, which Washington sees as a security weakness. _____ Boak reported from Washington. Josh Boak And Sarah Parvini, The Associated Press
The Los Angeles Chargers activated running back J.K. Dobbins from injured reserve on Friday. Dobbins is formally listed as questionable but figures to be the team's top running threat for Saturday's road game against the New England Patriots. Teammate Gus Edwards (ankle) was ruled out Thursday. Dobbins has missed the past four games since sustaining a knee injury against the Baltimore Ravens on Nov. 25. He was a full practice participant Thursday before receiving the questionable label. The injury-prone Dobbins was enjoying a solid season prior to the knee ailment, with 766 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground and 28 receptions for 134 yards in 11 games. His career high for rushing yardage is 805 for the Ravens in 2020. Dobbins' return comes with the Chargers (9-6) just one win from clinching an AFC wild-card playoff spot. Los Angeles also elevated safeties Eddie Jackson and Kendall Williamson from the practice squad. --Field Level Media
NEW YORK (AP) — Shortly before he was to be flogged and imprisoned for eight years, Mohammad Rasoulof fled Iran. His weekslong journey would take him from Tehran, through rural Iranian villages, on foot across a mountainous borderland and ultimately to Hamburg, Germany. As arduous and dangerous as the trip was, Rasoulof’s travels had an added wrinkle: He was trying to finish a movie at the same time. A week after arriving in Germany, Rasoulof would premiere his film, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” at the Cannes Film Festival in France. As he fled, Rasoulof was preoccupied with the movie’s edit, which was being carried out in Germany. “I remember when I was sitting in the car that was driving me to the border,” Rasoulof says. “I had my laptop and I was taking notes and sending them to my editor. The two friends who were taking me kept saying, ‘Put that thing away for a second.’” In Cannes, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” won a special jury prize and Rasoulof was celebrated with a 13-minute standing ovation. The movie has since been hailed as one of the best of the year, and arguably its most daring. Rasoulof made “Sacred Fig” clandestinely in Iran, directing scenes from a separate location to avoid raising suspicions. (The opening titles read: “When there is no way, a way must be made.”) Its story — a devastating family drama set during the 2022 protests that engulfed Iran — would surely only add to Rasoulof’s prison sentence. So after all of this, how is he feeling? When he recently met with The Associated Press for an interview, Rasoulof shrugged. “Ordinary,” he says. Rasoulof, 52, has a more gentle, bemused presence than some of his films would suggest. But how could Rasoulof, after what he’s lived through this year, feel anything like ordinary? “I still haven’t grasped the meaning of exile,” he explains. “I think it will take some time. The feeling of that void has not hit me yet, and I think it may never come.” Rasoulof has been busy traveling from film festival to film festival. In September, he and his 24-year-old daughter attended the Telluride festival in Colorado. Many more such stops were to come. Since fleeing Iran, Rasoulof has effectively been immersed in the world he’s long known: cinema. “Maybe I am living in the world of cinema, and maybe that’s why things are so familiar,” he agrees. “Maybe that’s why I don’t feel I’m in exile.” “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” currently playing in theaters, is the Oscar submission from Rasoulof’s adoptive home, Germany. He’s settled in with his family, grateful for how the country has welcomed him. Speaking through an interpreter, Rasoulof grants that he’ll probably always mentally have a bag packed, ready to return to Iran should the chance ever come. But what “home” constitutes has changed for him. “I might be able to change this concept of home for myself,” he says. “I walk on the streets here and I see people of different colors and forms from all over the place, and they all call this place home. So there’s always the chance that one can build something new.” How oppressive politics can infiltrate the home is central to “The Seed of the Sacred Fig.” It concerns a family of four: Iman (Missagh Zareh), a lawyer newly appointed to the Revolutionary Court in Tehran; his wife, Najmeh (Soheila Golestani) and their two daughters, Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki). Iman is proud of his high position, but, when the government crackdown on protesters following the death of Mahsa Amini accelerates, his daughters are increasingly at odds with him. After Iman's gun goes missing, his wife and daughters turn into suspects. “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” populated with real cellphone videos from the protests, plays out as an excruciating microcosm of Iranian society. “It wasn’t like I put those videos in. They just came in,” says Rasoulof. “The reality is that it was through those videos I realized what happened. When the Woman, Life, Freedom movement occurred, I was in prison.” Rasoulof has spent several spells in Tehran’s Evin Prison. In 2010, he was arrested on set for filming without a permit. In 2022, he was jailed for seven months after pursuing the release of another of Iran’s most prominent filmmakers, Jafar Panahi. Panahi, who secretly made the film “No Bears,” was only released in 2023 after commencing a hunger strike. “My windows at home opened to the hills that have the Evin prison in them,” says Rasoulof. “I knew behind those walls many of my friends were sitting.” Rasoulof, inspired by the courage of the younger generation, resolved to pour the same spirit into “The Seed of the Sacred Fig.” Although it wasn’t until Rasoulof’s appeal of his sentence failed that he resolved to flee, he grants that deciding to make “Sacred Fig” essentially sealed his fate. “Making this film was part of that decision,” he says. “Although I had made up my mind earlier, because it was such a bitter decision, I was denying it and delaying it, waiting for a miracle to allow me to stay.” “I would open the fridge to make sure there was nothing there that would go bad,” he adds. “It was a strange circumstance.” For the film's actors and crew members, signing up for the movie meant also becoming co-conspirators. Everyone knew the risks. And, like Rasoulof, many of them have since left Iran. Rostami and Maleki also now live in Germany. Asked if his collaborators are all currently safe, Rasoulof responds: “No one is safe from the Islamic Republic.” In his new life, Rasoulof is experiencing freedoms he never had in Iran. His films, for example, are widely available outside his native country but not in Iran. His prize-winning 2020 drama “There Is No Evil,” about capital punishment in Iran, is banned — though, ironically, Rasoulof’s prison guards enjoyed watching it with him from a flash drive. “I haven’t seen many of my films on a big screen, especially my last film,” he says. “I really want to see ‘There Is No Evil’ on a big screen. A festival in Portugal has promised to take me to see my own film.” The name of Rasoulof’s film comes from his memory of an ancient fig tree he once visited on an island in the south of Iran. It’s a tree that, with apparent metaphorical meaning for the Iranian government, spreads its seeds onto other trees, killing them and growing in their place. Rasoulof pulls out his phone to share a photo of his apartment in Tehran. Outside a large window, you can see the walls of Evin running along a craggy hillside. Inside are many houseplants. “This is my home,” he says. “I have a lot of plants. I really miss my plants. I have a neighbor who takes care of them for me. I actually have a fig tree at home.”
A new motion filed by the lawyers for makes some pretty lofty allegations against the government which has imprisoned him. Combs is accusing authorities of spying on the disgraced music mogul while he’s been behind bars. Combs was arrested in Brooklyn back in September after he was indicted on charges of racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. This is not the first time has accused the federal government of misconduct. They have previously asserted that Combs’ cell search at the Metropolitan Detention Center included a federal investigator taking pictures of his handwritten notes, which were privileged. He has pleaded not guilty but has been denied bail three different times. In a filing obtained by , the defense stated “the evidence shows [that] the government is using Mr. Combs’ detention to spy on him and invade his confidential communications with his counsel.” The defense says the images were then sent to prosecutors, though they insisted it was part of a pre-planned sweep and did not target certain inmates. Combs’ team stated that the government “knowingly, intentionally and secretly” attempted to use them against their client. A hearing was previously held in which Judge Arun Subramanian ruled that he would not consider any evidence that was gathered in the jail sweep at a November bail hearing. However, he still refused to grant Combs bail and called the Bad Boy Records founder “a serious risk of witness tampering.” This is just the latest development in Combs’ legal woes. Earlier this week, fashion designer Bryana “Bana” Bongolan filed a lawsuit against Combs accusing him of dangling her over the 17th-floor balcony of his ex ’s apartment. According to documents obtained by , Bongolan claimed in one instance, she even saw Combs , who then allegedly threw one back in self-defense. Bongolan is seeking $10 million in damages.None