Lewis scores 21, Marist beats Binghamton 69-51How Labor lost the argument over nuclear power
The Associated Press 7:53 JST, December 30, 2024 ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who tried to restore virtue to the White House after the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, then rebounded from a landslide defeat to become a global advocate of human rights and democracy, has died. He was 100 years old. The Carter Center said the 39th president died Sunday afternoon, more than a year after entering hospice care, at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died in November 2023, lived most of their lives. The center said he died peacefully, surrounded by his family. As reaction poured in from around the world, President Joe Biden mourned Carter’s death, saying the world lost an “extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian” and he lost a dear friend. Biden cited Carter’s compassion and moral clarity, his work to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless and advocacy for the disadvantaged as an example for others. “To all of the young people in this nation and for anyone in search of what it means to live a life of purpose and meaning – the good life – study Jimmy Carter, a man of principle, faith, and humility,” Biden said in a statement. “He showed that we are a great nation because we are a good people – decent and honorable, courageous and compassionate, humble and strong.” Biden said he is ordering a state funeral for Carter in Washington. A moderate Democrat, Carter ran for president in 1976 as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad grin, effusive Baptist faith and technocratic plans for efficient government. His promise to never deceive the American people resonated after Richard Nixon’s disgrace and U.S. defeat in southeast Asia. “If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. I would not deserve to be your president,” Carter said. Carter’s victory over Republican Gerald Ford, whose fortunes fell after pardoning Nixon, came amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over race, women’s rights and America’s role in the world. His achievements included brokering Mideast peace by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David for 13 days in 1978. But his coalition splintered under double-digit inflation and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His negotiations ultimately brought all the hostages home alive, but in a final insult, Iran didn’t release them until the inauguration of Ronald Reagan, who had trounced him in the 1980 election. Humbled and back home in Georgia, Carter said his faith demanded that he keep doing whatever he could, for as long as he could, to try to make a difference. He and Rosalynn co-founded The Carter Center in 1982 and spent the next 40 years traveling the world as peacemakers, human rights advocates and champions of democracy and public health. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, Carter helped ease nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti and negotiate cease-fires in Bosnia and Sudan. By 2022, the center had monitored at least 113 elections around the world. Carter was determined to eradicate guinea worm infections as one of many health initiatives. Swinging hammers into their 90s, the Carters built homes with Habitat for Humanity. The common observation that he was better as an ex-president rankled Carter. His allies were pleased that he lived long enough to see biographers and historians revisit his presidency and declare it more impactful than many understood at the time. Propelled in 1976 by voters in Iowa and then across the South, Carter ran a no-frills campaign. Americans were captivated by the earnest engineer, and while an election-year Playboy interview drew snickers when he said he “had looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times,” voters tired of political cynicism found it endearing. The first family set an informal tone in the White House, carrying their own luggage, trying to silence the Marine Band’s traditional “Hail to the Chief” and enrolling daughter, Amy, in public schools. Carter was lampooned for wearing a cardigan and urging Americans to turn down their thermostats. But Carter set the stage for an economic revival and sharply reduced America’s dependence on foreign oil by deregulating the energy industry along with airlines, trains and trucking. He established the departments of Energy and Education, appointed record numbers of women and nonwhites to federal posts, preserved millions of acres of Alaskan wilderness and pardoned most Vietnam draft evaders. Emphasizing human rights, he ended most support for military dictators and took on bribery by multinational corporations by signing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He persuaded the Senate to ratify the Panama Canal treaties and normalized relations with China, an outgrowth of Nixon’s outreach to Beijing. But crippling turns in foreign affairs took their toll. When OPEC hiked crude prices, making drivers line up for gasoline as inflation spiked to 11%, Carter tried to encourage Americans to overcome “a crisis of confidence.” Many voters lost confidence in Carter instead after the infamous address that media dubbed his “malaise” speech, even though he never used that word. After Carter reluctantly agreed to admit the exiled Shah of Iran to the U.S. for medical treatment, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979. Negotiations to quickly free the hostages broke down, and then eight Americans died when a top-secret military rescue attempt failed. Carter also had to reverse course on the SALT II nuclear arms treaty after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Though historians would later credit Carter’s diplomatic efforts for hastening the end of the Cold war, Republicans labeled his soft power weak. Reagan’s “make America great again” appeals resonated, and he beat Carter in all but six states. Born Oct. 1, 1924, James Earl Carter Jr. married fellow Plains native Rosalynn Smith in 1946, the year he graduated from the Naval Academy. He brought his young family back to Plains after his father died, abandoning his Navy career, and they soon turned their ambitions to politics. Carter reached the state Senate in 1962. After rural white and Black voters elected him governor in 1970, he drew national attention by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.” Carter published more than 30 books and remained influential as his center turned its democracy advocacy onto U.S. politics, monitoring an audit of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results. After a 2015 cancer diagnosis, Carter said he felt “perfectly at ease with whatever comes.” “I’ve had a wonderful life,” he said. “I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.”
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court seemed likely Wednesday to uphold Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors. The justices' decision, not expected for several months, could affect similar laws enacted by another 25 states and a range of other efforts to regulate the lives of transgender people, including which sports competitions they can join and which restrooms they can use. The case is being weighed by a conservative-dominated court after a presidential election in which Donald Trump and his allies promised to roll back protections for transgender people. The Biden administration's top Supreme Court lawyer warned a decision favorable to Tennessee also could be used to justify nationwide restrictions on transgender health care for minors. Supporters of transgender rights rally Wednesday outside the Supreme Court in Washington. In arguments that lasted more than two hours, five of the six conservative justices voiced varying degrees of skepticism over arguments made by the administration and Chase Strangio, the ACLU lawyer for Tennessee families challenging the ban. Chief Justice John Roberts, who voted in the majority in a 2020 case in favor of transgender rights, questioned whether judges, rather than lawmakers, should weigh in on a question of regulating medical procedures, an area usually left to the states. "The Constitution leaves that question to the people's representatives, rather than to nine people, none of whom is a doctor," Roberts said in an exchange with Strangio. Justice Neil Gorsuch, who wrote the majority opinion in 2020, said nothing during the arguments. The court's three liberal justices seemed firmly on the side of the challengers, but it's not clear that any conservatives will go along. People attend a rally March 31, 2023, as part of a Transgender Day of Visibility, near the Capitol in Washington. Justice Sonia Sotomayor pushed back against the assertion that the democratic process would be the best way to address objections to the law. She cited a history of laws discriminating against others, noting that transgender people make up less than 1% of the U.S. population, according to studies. There are an estimated 1.3 million adults and 300,000 adolescents ages 13 to 17 who identify as transgender, according the UCLA law school's Williams Institute. "Blacks were a much larger part of the population and it didn't protect them. It didn't protect women for whole centuries," Sotomayor said in an exchange with Tennessee Solicitor General Matt Rice. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said she saw some troubling parallels between arguments made by Tennessee and those advanced by Virginia and rejected by a unanimous court, in the 1967 Loving decision that legalized interracial marriage nationwide. Quoting from that decision, Jackson noted that Virginia argued then that "the scientific evidence is substantially in doubt and, consequently, the court should defer to the wisdom of the state legislature." ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio, left, and plaintiff Joaquin Carcano address reporters after a June 25, 2018, hearing in Winston-Salem, N.C., on their lawsuit challenging the law that replaced North Carolina's "bathroom bill." Justice Samuel Alito repeatedly pressed Strangio, the first openly transgender lawyer to argue at the nation's highest court, about whether transgender people should be legally designated as a group that's susceptible to discrimination. Strangio answered that being transgender does fit that legal definition, though he acknowledged under Alito's questioning there are a small number of people who de-transition. "So it's not an immutable characteristic, is it?" Alito said. Strangio did not retreat from his view, though he said the court did not have to decide the issue to resolve the case in his clients' favor. There were dueling rallies outside the court in the hours before the arguments. Speeches and music filled the air on the sidewalk below the court's marble steps. Advocates of the ban bore signs like "Champion God's Design" and "Kids Health Matters," while the other side proclaimed "Fight like a Mother for Trans Rights" and "Freedom to be Ourselves." Four years ago, the court ruled in favor of Aimee Stephens, who was fired by a Michigan funeral home after she informed its owner she was a transgender woman. The court held that transgender people, as well as gay and lesbian people, are protected by a landmark federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in the workplace. The Biden administration and the families and health care providers who challenged the Tennessee law urged the justices to apply the same sort of analysis that the majority, made up of liberal and conservative justices, embraced in the case four years ago when it found that "sex plays an unmistakable role" in employers' decisions to punish transgender people for traits and behavior they otherwise tolerate. Demonstrators against transgender rights protest Wednesday during a rally outside of the Supreme Court in Washington. The issue in the Tennessee case is whether the law violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which requires the government to treat similarly situated people the same. Tennessee's law bans puberty blockers and hormone treatments for transgender minors, but allows the same drugs to be used for other purposes. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the administration's top Supreme Court lawyer, called the law sex-based line drawing to ban the use of drugs that have been safely prescribed for decades and said the state "decided to completely override the views of the patients, the parents, the doctors." She contrasted the Tennessee law with one enacted by West Virginia, which set conditions for the health care for transgender minors, but stopped short of an outright ban. Gender-affirming care for youth is supported by every major medical organization, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association. For many trans and nonbinary people, bathrooms can be complicated places to navigate — a fact highlighted by in Oklahoma. Oklahoma is far from an outlier when it comes to failing to provide safe and equitable bathrooms for transgender people. According to the Movement Advancement Project, which tracks LGBTQ+ policy, prevents transgender people from safely or legally using public bathrooms. But data shows that even in states with trans-friendly policies, transgender and nonbinary people report high rates of harassment in public bathrooms. Advocates say everyday people can have a big impact in interrupting discrimination in gendered restrooms. shows how anyone can help prevent abuse. Sex-segregated restrooms have historically been a hostile space for Tat Bellamy-Walker, a Seattle-based journalist and Black gender-fluid trans person. In graduate school and at journalism internships, they had to go far out of their way to find all-gender single-stall restrooms they could use safely. "You never forget being told you don't belong in a restroom, you never forget not having a place to dispose of sanitary products if you're on your period in the men's bathroom," Bellamy-Walker said. "It's just clear you do not belong in public spaces." Allies can help tremendously by locating and pointing out gender-neutral bathrooms to friends or family who might need them. This is especially important for people planning events or parties. Make sure your space has safe bathrooms. Carrie Soto, a South Dakota parent of a transgender child, said she lives by the mantra "see something, say something." That means speaking up when there is bullying and harassment and volunteering to accompany a trans/nonbinary friend or family member when they have to head into a public bathroom. "Validate a trans person's fears and anxiety about the situation," Soto said. " If [my daughter] uses a gendered restroom and feels anxious, I go with." It may seem obvious, but transgender health advocate Jamison Green notes this step can really help trans people feel safe. Consider first that according to , 59 percent of trans people avoided using a public restroom due to fear of harassment. Data from said they were physically or verbally attacked while trying to use a bathroom, while 4 percent were denied access to a bathroom. "If you see someone who you clock as trans or nonbinary, just smile or pay them a non-provocative compliment. ... Wish them good day or good evening, and move on," Green said. "Of course that only goes for the women's room! In the men's room, talking is extremely rare." Green recommends that cisgender people offer a kind, silent nod. Twenty-two states and Washington, D.C., allow residents to opt for "X" gender markers on their IDs in addition to selecting "M" or "F." Still, in every state, regardless of laws, most bathrooms in government buildings, schools, businesses, places of worship and cultural institutions are gendered. Advocates say people can help change this by simply asking businesses and building owners for more options to accommodate all genders. "Advocacy is the most important part of the fight for transgender rights," "And if employers adopt pro-trans policies proactively, instead of waiting for a transgender person to pave the way, there's much less chance of having problems down the line." The internet is full of rants not appropriate for a news article about people using the only single-stall gender-neutral bathrooms available not for safety but for ... well, pooping. As a result, gender-neutral bathrooms, especially in airports, are almost always occupied. There are many reasons why a cisgender person might need a single-occupancy bathroom (accessibility, illness, child care and, yes, even a little more privacy). Just like accessible stalls, it's a kindness to leave gender-neutral restrooms unoccupied when you don't need them. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.
STARKVILLE, Miss. — KeShawn Murphy scored a season-high 20 points and Mississippi State led from start to finish in thumping No. 18 Pittsburgh 90-57 on Wednesday night in the SEC/ACC Challenge. Mississippi State (7-1) opened a 35-point advantage in the second half and was never threatened. Michael Nwoko had his first double-double of the season with a career-high 18 points and 11 rebounds. Josh Hubbard scored 12 for the Bulldogs, while Claudell Harris and RJ Melendez each had 10 points. Jaland Lowe led Pittsburgh (7-2) with 19 points and Brandin Cummings added 12 for the Panthers, who shot 31% and were outrebounded 49-27. Takeaways Pittsburgh: After making their season debut in the AP Top 25 poll this week, the Panthers were blown out from the start during their second loss in three games. Mississippi State: The Bulldogs bounced back from their first loss of the season, 87-77 to Butler last Friday in the Arizona Tipoff championship game. Key moment Mississippi State jumped on Pitt right away and built a 25-11 cushion on a 3-pointer by Hubbard. The Bulldogs led by 23 in the first half and were up 47-25 at the break. Pittsburgh guard Jaland Lowe (15) shoots the ball past Mississippi State guard Claudell Harris Jr. (0) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Starkville, Miss. Credit: AP/Rogelio V. Solis Key stats Pitt went 3 of 11 from 3-point range in the first half. The Panthers took only two free throws and committed eight turnovers before halftime. Mississippi State shot 54% in the opening period and went 4 of 13 beyond the arc. The Bulldogs outscored the Panthers 11-0 in points off turnovers. MSU also controlled the glass, 27-14, including 10 offensive boards. Up next Pittsburgh: Plays at Virginia Tech on Saturday to open ACC play. Mississippi State: The Bulldogs host Prairie View A&M on Sunday.On December 25, India celebrated the birth centenary of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. As army chief and chairman, chiefs of staff committee, I had the good fortune to work with him closely, particularly during the Kargil War. A statesman par excellence, Vajpayee ji was genteel, soft spoken and a great listener. He was a persuasive leader; never dictatorial in our conversations and discussions. During the Kargil War, as chairman of the cabinet committee for security, he directed that the Indian armed forces would not cross the Line of Control or the international border. Once he spoke about this restriction on us in public, I advised him immediately not to do so. I reasoned with him that if we were unable to fully succeed in our mission in Kargil, I would need his permission to cross the LoC/border somewhere else. He realised the implications and asked national security adviser Brajesh Mishra to announce on a TV channel that “not crossing the LoC holds good today, we can’t say about that for tomorrow”. In the second week of July 1999, Vajpayee ji called me to his office and said that Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had asked for a ceasefire so that his army could withdraw from 10% of the intruded area which they still occupied. I promptly disagreed in the first instance. I argued that we were now achieving rapid successes and could cross into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir territory within a few days. Vajpayee ji, Mishra and I had three meetings that day. Finally, Vajpayee ji convinced me that geo-politically and keeping in view the domestic socio-political circumstances (including the necessity to hold elections), that was the best option and in national interest. In the third week of July, after the ceasefire and our permission to withdraw, Pakistan army continued to hold three posts close to our side of the LoC. By now, the election commission had given the notice for the parliamentary elections. Most ministers were more focused on election issues than the war. I sought Vajpayee ji’s permission to get the posts vacated by force. He promptly gave the go-ahead. Our troops attacked the Pakistani posts and we fully succeeded in our mission. Vajpayee ji had great respect and empathy for soldiers. After the Kargil War, whatever suggestions I made to him for the welfare of soldiers were accepted readily. Besides enhanced compensation, he sanctioned and laid the foundation stone of the Vijayee Veer Awas for Veer Naris in Dwarka, New Delhi. In August 2000, as we were walking together in the South Block corridors, I mentioned to him that in the earlier days, the Prime Minister usually had a meal with the army chief at Army House. He looked at me and asked, “Kya aap hamen bula rahe hain? Agar aisa hai to hum zaroor aayenge (Are you inviting me over? In that case, I shall certainly come).” For us, it was a great honour to host him, his daughter Namita and his son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya for dinner. A few other guests included raksha mantri George Fernandes, Mishra and his wife Pushpa, air chief marshal AY Tipnis and his wife Molina and army vice-chief Lt Gen Chandra Shekhar and his wife Aruna. The navy chief was abroad that day. The meal was prepared at home and thoroughly relished by him. There was no jostling of security men or official photographers around us in the house. On September 30, 2000, the day I retired, my wife and I were invited to the Prime Minister’s residence for the farewell dinner. It was also our 32nd wedding anniversary. At the dining table, sitting next to Vajpayee ji, my wife requested him to sign on the menu card, specially printed for the occasion. Obligingly, he wrote ‘To remember Kargil Conflict’ and signed it. vedmalik@gmail.com The writer is a Panchkula-based former chief of army staff.
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ORONO, Maine (AP) — Michael McNair scored 16 points to lead Boston University and Malcolm Chimezie sealed the victory with a layup with 20 seconds left as the Terriers took down Maine 59-56 on Sunday. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * ORONO, Maine (AP) — Michael McNair scored 16 points to lead Boston University and Malcolm Chimezie sealed the victory with a layup with 20 seconds left as the Terriers took down Maine 59-56 on Sunday. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? ORONO, Maine (AP) — Michael McNair scored 16 points to lead Boston University and Malcolm Chimezie sealed the victory with a layup with 20 seconds left as the Terriers took down Maine 59-56 on Sunday. McNair also had six rebounds for the Terriers (6-7). Kyrone Alexander scored 13 points and added five rebounds. Chimezie shot 4 of 7 from the field and 0 for 3 from the line to finish with eight points. Kellen Tynes led the way for the Black Bears (8-7) with 17 points, four assists and three steals. Maine also got 12 points from Christopher Mantis. Quion Burns had eight points. McNair scored seven points in the first half and Boston University went into halftime trailing 27-19. Alexander scored a team-high 10 points for Boston University in the second half. Boston University outscored Maine by 11 points over the final half. Boston University’s next game is Thursday against Lafayette on the road, and Maine visits Bryant on Saturday. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar. AdvertisementMaking It Like Malaysia
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