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sg777 com login registration gcash Work and pensions minister Sir Stephen Timms said the move aims to drive “real improvements” for disabled people, whom the ministers will be encouraged to engage with on a regular basis. He told the Commons: “I am very pleased to be able to announce today the appointment of new lead ministers for disability in each Government department, they will represent the interests of disabled people, champion disability inclusion and accessibility within their departments. “I’m going to chair regular meetings with them and will encourage them to engage directly with disabled people and their representative organisations, as they take forward their departmental priorities. “And I look forward to this new group of lead ministers for disability together driving real improvements across Government for disabled people.” This came during an adjournment debate on International Day of Persons with Disabilities, where Liberal Democrat MP Steve Darling raised concerns about “floating bus stops”, which have a cycle lane between the stop and the pavement. Intervening, the MP for Torbay, who is registered blind, said: “The Government needs to ban floating bus stops.” Sir Stephen said: “I do think this issue about floating bus stops is an important issue which we need to work across Government to reflect on.” Labour MP Debbie Abrahams, who led the debate, had earlier criticised the lack of accessibility for disabled people on trains. The Oldham East and Saddleworth MP said: “Our train network does not have level access, and we heard Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson from the other place make this plea back in the summer, absolutely outrageous what she was put through. “But I was absolutely shocked to find, when I had a presentation of the TransPennine route upgrade, that the rolling stock yet to be commissioned is not going to provide that level access. “It’s absolute nonsense, it’s not even in the design of that procurement, so we must do better than this.”L et us go straight to the point. The Tax Reform Bills sent to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu is not exactly a policy document. There is more to it than meets the eyes. The truth and facts about the bills will hardly be known until they reach implementation stage. What we are seeing now are mere preambles. As a matter of fact, the bills represent the next stage of the Tinubu surprise packages. Like other unexpected agenda that the President had earlier rolled out, the tax bills have come with their own controversy. The North was quick to smell a rat. It said the bills will not serve the best interest of the region. The originators of the bills, led by Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the Presidential Committee on Tax Policy and Fiscal Reforms, have tried to allay the region’s fears. But that is not working. What appears to be uppermost in the minds of many is Tinubu’s penchant for sectionalism. He is running the most nepotistic regime in the history of Nigeria. Many interpreters of the bills see the document as intended to advance the economic fortunes of the President and his cronies. They believe that many of those supporting the bills are doing so blindly. They hardly know, let alone understand, what the President and his inner cabinet are scheming to achieve with the bills, if they become law. Akpabio As we earlier noted, the tax bills, if they become law, will be the next phase of the disruption that the Tinubu administration has come to be. Before it, we had the unspeakable disruption that was the removal of subsidy on petroleum products. The country is still squirming from that poorly-digested, ill-thought-out policy that saw the country’s economy tailspin into chaos. Hardship has taken over the landscape so much so that Nigerians are still wondering how they got to this messy curve. Now the tax reform agenda is on. The Tinubu administration is pushing the bills with frenzy. The discerning among the people are not taken in by the promise of reforms. What manner of reforms? Whose interest will be served by them? These are some of the issues in contention. The difference between the current brouhaha and others before it is that while the President’s haphazard economic policies are stifling Nigerians of all shades and strata, the tax bills are being suspected by the North of having sectional undertones. Northern leaders and stakeholders are suspicious of its intent and content. This suspicion is already breeding bad blood and distrust among the top players in the Tinubu administration. The Vice President, Kassim Shettima, was the first to tear presidential cohesion apart in this matter. Following the unease that pervades the North over the proposed tax reforms, Shettima got the National Econimic Council (NEC), which he chairs, to resolve that the President should withdraw the bills from the National Assembly for wider consultations. But the President has since shunned the resolution of NEC and asked the National Assembly, instead, to ensure that the bills pass through the required legislative processes. But the road has been bumpy for the bills. Its ride to the floor of both chambers of the National Assembly has been tumultuous. It is causing cracks in the system. The harmony that used to exist in the leadership of the Senate suffered a setback last week following the conflicting decisions that were taken at the plenaries. A plenary presided over by Deputy President of the Senate, Jibrin Barau, had resolved that further legislative action should be suspended on the tax bills until the contentious issues around them are resolved. Strangely, however, Barau was overruled the next day by the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, who maintained that the Senate neither suspended nor withdrew the bills. Legislative actions on the bills are, therefore, to go on. From the foregoing, it can be deduced that all is not well with the Tinubu administration. There are divisions and dissents within. But Tinubu will not lose sleep over the internal wrangling because he was forward-looking in putting together his administration. Shettima, as Vice President, will not be a threat to Tinubu. He is easily dispensable. Tinubu and the hawks around him have, even before now, clipped the wings of the Vice President. Perhaps Tinubu would have had something to worry about if he were working with an independent-minded leader of the National Assembly. Akpabio, Tinubu’s hand-picked Senate president, is a factotum. He will do whatever the President says. That is what qualified him for the job. He was programmed by Tinubu to become the President of the Senate, if Tinubu won the presidency. The understanding was reached even before the primary elections that produced Tinubu as the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress. All the role that Akpabio played on the day of the primary was based on that. So far, Akpabio is keeping his own side of the bargain. The Senate under his leadership must do the President’s bidding. That is why the 10th Senate has remained no more than a rubber stamp. But beyond the politics that surrounds the tax bills, the practical impact of what is already being done around taxes and taxation in Nigeria is adding to the woes of the ordinary Nigerian. The Federal Inland Revenue Service, which one of the tax reform bills seeks to replace with Nigeria Revenue Service, is already taking it out on Nigerians. It has instructed all banks to charge stamp duty of N50 on inflows of N10,000 and above and remit same to it. This tax regime has since begun. The revenue service has not explained to Nigerians why they should bear this extra burden in a depressed economy. The people should know who benefits from this tax. How will the proceeds be deployed? So far, transparency is lacking in all this. This partly explains the suspicion surrounding the Tax Reform Bills. Even though the North has pointed to specific areas of concern around the bills such as the derivative clause and Value Added Tax sharing formula, there is still more to the bills than the ordinary eyes can see. The bad situation is not helped by the fact that partisan and regional considerations have been introduced into the matter. While northern leaders and groups are expressing fears and suspicions over the tax bills, Akpabio, a South-southerner, has galvanized senators from his zone to express support for the bills and solidarity with the President for introducing them. The regional and partisan slant that has been injected into the matter may ultimately become its Achilles heel. A well-reasoned, properly articulated tax policy that is well explained and understood by the taxpayer is what will serve everyone’s purpose. Sectionalism can only drive a further wedge into an already burdensome tax regime.

ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who won the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, endured humbling defeat after one tumultuous term and then redefined life after the White House as a global humanitarian, has died. He was 100 years old. The longest-lived American president died on Sunday, more than a year after entering hospice care , at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died at 96 in November 2023 , spent most of their lives, The Carter Center said. “Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia,” the center said in posting about his death on the social media platform X. It added in a statement that 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. Businessman, Navy officer, evangelist, politician, negotiator, author, woodworker, citizen of the world — Carter forged a path that still challenges political assumptions and stands out among the 45 men who reached the nation’s highest office. The 39th president leveraged his ambition with a keen intellect, deep religious faith and prodigious work ethic, conducting diplomatic missions into his 80s and building houses for the poor well into his 90s. “My faith demands — this is not optional — my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try to make a difference,” Carter once said. A moderate Democrat, Carter entered the 1976 presidential race as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad smile, outspoken Baptist mores and technocratic plans reflecting his education as an engineer. His no-frills campaign depended on public financing, and his promise not to 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 repeated before narrowly beating Republican incumbent Gerald Ford, who had lost popularity pardoning Nixon. Carter governed amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over racism, women’s rights and America’s global role. His most acclaimed achievement in office was a Mideast peace deal that he brokered by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the bargaining table for 13 days in 1978. That Camp David experience inspired the post-presidential center where Carter would establish so much of his legacy. Yet Carter’s electoral coalition splintered under double-digit inflation, gasoline lines and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His bleakest hour came when eight Americans died in a failed hostage rescue in April 1980, helping to ensure his landslide defeat to Republican Ronald Reagan. Carter acknowledged in his 2020 “White House Diary” that he could be “micromanaging” and “excessively autocratic,” complicating dealings with Congress and the federal bureaucracy. He also turned a cold shoulder to Washington’s news media and lobbyists, not fully appreciating their influence on his political fortunes. “It didn’t take us long to realize that the underestimation existed, but by that time we were not able to repair the mistake,” Carter told historians in 1982, suggesting that he had “an inherent incompatibility” with Washington insiders. Carter insisted his overall approach was sound and that he achieved his primary objectives — to “protect our nation’s security and interests peacefully” and “enhance human rights here and abroad” — even if he fell spectacularly short of a second term. Ignominious defeat, though, allowed for renewal. The Carters founded The Carter Center in 1982 as a first-of-its-kind base of operations, asserting themselves as international peacemakers and champions of democracy, public health and human rights. “I was not interested in just building a museum or storing my White House records and memorabilia,” Carter wrote in a memoir published after his 90th birthday. “I wanted a place where we could work.” That work included easing nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, helping to avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti and negotiating cease-fires in Bosnia and Sudan. By 2022, The Carter Center had declared at least 113 elections in Latin America, Asia and Africa to be free or fraudulent. Recently, the center began monitoring U.S. elections as well. Carter’s stubborn self-assuredness and even self-righteousness proved effective once he was unencumbered by the Washington order, sometimes to the point of frustrating his successors . He went “where others are not treading,” he said, to places like Ethiopia, Liberia and North Korea, where he secured the release of an American who had wandered across the border in 2010. “I can say what I like. I can meet whom I want. I can take on projects that please me and reject the ones that don’t,” Carter said. He announced an arms-reduction-for-aid deal with North Korea without clearing the details with Bill Clinton’s White House. He openly criticized President George W. Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He also criticized America’s approach to Israel with his 2006 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” And he repeatedly countered U.S. administrations by insisting North Korea should be included in international affairs, a position that most aligned Carter with Republican President Donald Trump. Among the center’s many public health initiatives, Carter vowed to eradicate the guinea worm parasite during his lifetime, and nearly achieved it: Cases dropped from millions in the 1980s to nearly a handful. With hardhats and hammers, the Carters also built homes with Habitat for Humanity. The Nobel committee’s 2002 Peace Prize cites his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” Carter should have won it alongside Sadat and Begin in 1978, the chairman added. Carter accepted the recognition saying there was more work to be done. “The world is now, in many ways, a more dangerous place,” he said. “The greater ease of travel and communication has not been matched by equal understanding and mutual respect.” Carter’s globetrotting took him to remote villages where he met little “Jimmy Carters,” so named by admiring parents. But he spent most of his days in the same one-story Plains house — expanded and guarded by Secret Service agents — where they lived before he became governor. He regularly taught Sunday School lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church until his mobility declined and the coronavirus pandemic raged. Those sessions drew visitors from around the world to the small sanctuary where Carter will receive his final send-off after a state funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral. The common assessment that he was a better ex-president than president rankled Carter and his allies. His prolific post-presidency gave him a brand above politics, particularly for Americans too young to witness him in office. But Carter also lived long enough to see biographers and historians reassess his White House years more generously. His record includes the deregulation of key industries, reduction of U.S. dependence on foreign oil, cautious management of the national debt and notable legislation on the environment, education and mental health. He focused on human rights in foreign policy, pressuring dictators to release thousands of political prisoners . He acknowledged America’s historical imperialism, pardoned Vietnam War draft evaders and relinquished control of the Panama Canal. He normalized relations with China. “I am not nominating Jimmy Carter for a place on Mount Rushmore,” Stuart Eizenstat, Carter’s domestic policy director, wrote in a 2018 book. “He was not a great president” but also not the “hapless and weak” caricature voters rejected in 1980, Eizenstat said. Rather, Carter was “good and productive” and “delivered results, many of which were realized only after he left office.” Madeleine Albright, a national security staffer for Carter and Clinton’s secretary of state, wrote in Eizenstat’s forward that Carter was “consequential and successful” and expressed hope that “perceptions will continue to evolve” about his presidency. “Our country was lucky to have him as our leader,” said Albright, who died in 2022. Jonathan Alter, who penned a comprehensive Carter biography published in 2020, said in an interview that Carter should be remembered for “an epic American life” spanning from a humble start in a home with no electricity or indoor plumbing through decades on the world stage across two centuries. “He will likely go down as one of the most misunderstood and underestimated figures in American history,” Alter told The Associated Press. James Earl Carter Jr. was born Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains and spent his early years in nearby Archery. His family was a minority in the mostly Black community, decades before the civil rights movement played out at the dawn of Carter’s political career. Carter, who campaigned as a moderate on race relations but governed more progressively, talked often of the influence of his Black caregivers and playmates but also noted his advantages: His land-owning father sat atop Archery’s tenant-farming system and owned a main street grocery. His mother, Lillian , would become a staple of his political campaigns. Seeking to broaden his world beyond Plains and its population of fewer than 1,000 — then and now — Carter won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1946. That same year he married Rosalynn Smith, another Plains native, a decision he considered more important than any he made as head of state. She shared his desire to see the world, sacrificing college to support his Navy career. Carter climbed in rank to lieutenant, but then his father was diagnosed with cancer, so the submarine officer set aside his ambitions of admiralty and moved the family back to Plains. His decision angered Rosalynn, even as she dived into the peanut business alongside her husband. Carter again failed to talk with his wife before his first run for office — he later called it “inconceivable” not to have consulted her on such major life decisions — but this time, she was on board. “My wife is much more political,” Carter told the AP in 2021. He won a state Senate seat in 1962 but wasn’t long for the General Assembly and its back-slapping, deal-cutting ways. He ran for governor in 1966 — losing to arch-segregationist Lester Maddox — and then immediately focused on the next campaign. Carter had spoken out against church segregation as a Baptist deacon and opposed racist “Dixiecrats” as a state senator. Yet as a local school board leader in the 1950s he had not pushed to end school segregation even after the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, despite his private support for integration. And in 1970, Carter ran for governor again as the more conservative Democrat against Carl Sanders, a wealthy businessman Carter mocked as “Cufflinks Carl.” Sanders never forgave him for anonymous, race-baiting flyers, which Carter disavowed. Ultimately, Carter won his races by attracting both Black voters and culturally conservative whites. Once in office, he was more direct. “I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over,” he declared in his 1971 inaugural address, setting a new standard for Southern governors that landed him on the cover of Time magazine. His statehouse initiatives included environmental protection, boosting rural education and overhauling antiquated executive branch structures. He proclaimed Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the slain civil rights leader’s home state. And he decided, as he received presidential candidates in 1972, that they were no more talented than he was. In 1974, he ran Democrats’ national campaign arm. Then he declared his own candidacy for 1976. An Atlanta newspaper responded with the headline: “Jimmy Who?” The Carters and a “Peanut Brigade” of family members and Georgia supporters camped out in Iowa and New Hampshire, establishing both states as presidential proving grounds. His first Senate endorsement: a young first-termer from Delaware named Joe Biden. Yet it was Carter’s ability to navigate America’s complex racial and rural politics that cemented the nomination. He swept the Deep South that November, the last Democrat to do so, as many white Southerners shifted to Republicans in response to civil rights initiatives. A self-declared “born-again Christian,” Carter drew snickers by referring to Scripture in a Playboy magazine interview, saying he “had looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.” The remarks gave Ford a new foothold and television comedians pounced — including NBC’s new “Saturday Night Live” show. But voters weary of cynicism in politics found it endearing. Carter chose Minnesota Sen. Walter “Fritz” Mondale as his running mate on a “Grits and Fritz” ticket. In office, he elevated the vice presidency and the first lady’s office. Mondale’s governing partnership was a model for influential successors Al Gore, Dick Cheney and Biden. Rosalynn Carter was one of the most involved presidential spouses in history, welcomed into Cabinet meetings and huddles with lawmakers and top aides. The Carters presided with uncommon informality: He used his nickname “Jimmy” even when taking the oath of office, carried his own luggage and tried to silence the Marine Band’s “Hail to the Chief.” They bought their clothes off the rack. Carter wore a cardigan for a White House address, urging Americans to conserve energy by turning down their thermostats. Amy, the youngest of four children, attended District of Columbia public school. Washington’s social and media elite scorned their style. But the larger concern was that “he hated politics,” according to Eizenstat, leaving him nowhere to turn politically once economic turmoil and foreign policy challenges took their toll. Carter partially deregulated the airline, railroad and trucking industries and established the departments of Education and Energy, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He designated millions of acres of Alaska as national parks or wildlife refuges. He appointed a then-record number of women and nonwhite people to federal posts. He never had a Supreme Court nomination, but he elevated civil rights attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the nation’s second highest court, positioning her for a promotion in 1993. He appointed Paul Volker, the Federal Reserve chairman whose policies would help the economy boom in the 1980s — after Carter left office. He built on Nixon’s opening with China, and though he tolerated autocrats in Asia, pushed Latin America from dictatorships to democracy. But he couldn’t immediately tame inflation or the related energy crisis. And then came Iran. After he admitted the exiled Shah of Iran to the U.S. for medical treatment, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979 by followers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Negotiations to free the hostages broke down repeatedly ahead of the failed rescue attempt. The same year, Carter signed SALT II, the new strategic arms treaty with Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union, only to pull it back, impose trade sanctions and order a U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. Hoping to instill optimism, he delivered what the media dubbed his “malaise” speech, although he didn’t use that word. He declared the nation was suffering “a crisis of confidence.” By then, many Americans had lost confidence in the president, not themselves. Carter campaigned sparingly for reelection because of the hostage crisis, instead sending Rosalynn as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy challenged him for the Democratic nomination. Carter famously said he’d “kick his ass,” but was hobbled by Kennedy as Reagan rallied a broad coalition with “make America great again” appeals and asking voters whether they were “better off than you were four years ago.” Reagan further capitalized on Carter’s lecturing tone, eviscerating him in their lone fall debate with the quip: “There you go again.” Carter lost all but six states and Republicans rolled to a new Senate majority. Carter successfully negotiated the hostages’ freedom after the election, but in one final, bitter turn of events, Tehran waited until hours after Carter left office to let them walk free. At 56, Carter returned to Georgia with “no idea what I would do with the rest of my life.” Four decades after launching The Carter Center, he still talked of unfinished business. “I thought when we got into politics we would have resolved everything,” Carter told the AP in 2021. “But it’s turned out to be much more long-lasting and insidious than I had thought it was. I think in general, the world itself is much more divided than in previous years.” Still, he affirmed what he said when he underwent treatment for a cancer diagnosis in his 10th decade of life. “I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” he said in 2015 . “I’ve had a wonderful life. I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.” Sanz is a former Associated Press reporter.

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Huawei cuts prices of a variety of high-end devicesThe Bank of Scotland’s business barometer poll showed 73% of Scottish businesses expect to see turnover increase in 2025, up from 60% polled in 2023. Almost a quarter (23%) of businesses expect to see their revenue rise by between six and 10% over the next 12 months, with just over a fifth (21%) expecting it to grow by even more. The poll found that 70% of businesses were confident they would become more profitable in 2025, a two per cent increase when compared with the previous year. Revenue and profitability growth was firms’ top priority at 52%, though 40% said they will be targeting improved productivity, and the same proportion said they will be aiming to enhance their technology – such as automation or AI – or upskill their staff (both 29%). More than one in five (22%) want to improve their environmental sustainability. Other areas businesses are hoping to build upon AI-assisted technology (19%), and 24% will be investing in expanding into new UK markets and 23% plan to invest in staff training. The business barometer has surveyed 1,200 businesses every month since 2002, providing early signals about UK economic trends. Martyn Kendrick, Scotland director at Bank of Scotland commercial banking, said: “Scottish businesses are looking ahead to 2025 with stronger growth expectations, and setting out clear plans to drive this expansion through investments in new technology, new markets and their own teams. “As we enter the new year, we’ll continue to by their side to help them pursue their ambitions and seize all opportunities that lie ahead.”

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Jimmy Carter, 100, the peanut farmer who became the commander in chief, whose ceaseless humanitarian work around the globe superseded his one tumultuous term as 39th president of the United States, died Sunday, Dec. 29, in hospice care at his longtime home in Plains, Ga., according to his nonprofit organization. Born Oct. 1, 1924, Carter died a little more than a year after his beloved wife, Rosalynn, who died on Nov. 19, 2023, at 96. He lived longer than any other U.S. president, surpassing George H.W. Bush, who died in 2018 at 94. He endured melanoma skin cancer that spread to his liver and brain in 2015, underwent brain surgery in 2019 after a fall, and had returned to his ranch house in Plains in February 2023 after a series of short hospital stays. Still, up until 2015, Carter continued to teach Sunday school classes, work on Habitat for Humanity building projects, lecture at Emory University in Atlanta, and flash those bright blue eyes at ribbon cuttings, book signings, and other public events. "I'm perfectly at ease with whatever comes," he said in 2015 when his health began to decline. "I've had a wonderful life. I've had thousands of friends. I've had an exciting, adventurous, gratifying existence." When news of Carter's move to hospice care first circulated on Feb. 18, 2023, admirers flocked to his boyhood home in Plains and the Carter Center in Atlanta, and tributes poured in from world leaders, American politicians, social activists, journalists, and everyday citizens across the globe. Former President Bill Clinton tweeted an old photo showing him and Carter sitting together, smiling and chatting. U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. of New Jersey tweeted: "Jimmy Carter is the model of kindness, generosity, and decency that is the finest part of America." Word of his death late Sunday afternoon brought swift and heartfelt reactions from elected officials. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden called Carter "an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian. ... What's extraordinary about Jimmy Carter, though, is that millions of people throughout America and the world who never met him thought of him as a dear friend as well." In a statement on Truth Social, President-elect Donald Trump said Carter, as president, "did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude." On X, formerly Twitter, former President Barack Obama said Carter "taught all of us what it means to live a life of grace, dignity, justice and service." In a joint statement, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised Carter for having "worked tirelessly for a better, fairer world. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro ordered flags at half-staff throughout the commonwealth, and remembered Carter on X as "a humble, generous, and admirable public servant — both as our President and in his years after as a citizen in service." "We pray that, in rest, President Carter will be reunited with his beloved wife Rosalynn," New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement on X. Calling Carter "one of the foremost advocates of affordable housing in this country," Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker took to X to recall a visit by him to North Philadelphia to help build homes with Habitat for Humanity "that are still in use today." Carter, a Democrat, served a single, turbulent term in the White House from 1977 to 1981, and it is largely for his efforts after leaving office that he will be remembered. He constructed homes for Habitat for Humanity, wrote dozens of books sharing his own life details, shared advice on health and diet, and guided the Carter Center toward at least one remarkable public health breakthrough in Asia and Africa. A man of profound faith and optimism, Carter remained sanguine about the future despite constant conflict among religious groups. "I am convinced that Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, and others can embrace each other in a common effort to alleviate suffering and to espouse peace," Carter said in Oslo, Norway, on Dec. 10, 2002, as he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. Carter surprised political pundits when he emerged from small-town Georgia to win the White House in 1976. He was the only Democratic president during a 24-year period in which Republican chief executives were the rule. A relative unknown before attaining the presidency, he was considered an outsider, even in his own party. The singular achievement of his years in power was his role in negotiating a milestone peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, longtime rivals in the Middle East. But to millions of Americans, Carter, who once vowed to make government "as good and as decent as the American people," seemed overwhelmed by the job. He had the misfortune to serve in stormy times and, in the eyes of his critics, came to embody ineptitude at home and weakness abroad. His four years in office are remembered most for the traumas that played out in his last year. Fifty-two Americans spent 444 days, from Nov. 4, 1979, to Jan. 20, 1981, held hostage in Iran while the U.S. economy faltered under the highest inflation and interest rates in a generation. The year culminated when voters went to the polls in November and gave Carter one of the most resounding votes of no-confidence ever dealt an incumbent president. And the Iranians delivered the final insult, refusing to end the hostages' imprisonment until a half hour after he left office and Ronald Reagan was sworn in. "That was the image that I left behind in the White House," Carter recalled later, "that I was not strong enough or not macho enough to take military action to bring these hostages home." Asked in 2015 if he wished he had done anything differently, Carter did not grandstand. He drew laughs by saying he wished he had sent "one more helicopter" on the botched attempt in 1980 to rescue the hostages. "We would have rescued them, and I would have been reelected," said Carter, flashing his famous toothy grin. For all of his troubles in office, he earned renewed respect in his post-White House years for his intelligence, integrity, and commitment to peace and human rights. He was frequently said to be a model ex-president. Unlike some other former chief executives, he did not spend his time playing golf or selling his services as a public speaker or a private consultant. Instead, he took tools in hand and built homes for the needy in the United States and villages in Africa and Latin America. And through the work of the Carter Center, he devoted himself to resolving conflicts, promoting democracy, and combating health problems throughout the world. He was proud of the Carter Center's success in helping to eradicate the debilitating illness known as Guinea worm. In 1986, when the Carter Center began its efforts against the disease, its officials said there were an estimated 3.5 million cases occurring annually in Africa and Asia. The center said the incidence of Guinea worm fell to 28 cases in 2018. "I'd like for the last Guinea worm to die before I do," Mr. Carter said in 2015. A humble start James Earl Carter Jr. was born in the town of Plains, Ga., population 550. His ties to the barren landscape of southwest Georgia were deep and lasting. He spent most of his adult life in his birthplace, living in Plains from 1953 until his death, except for the years he spent in executive mansions in Atlanta and Washington. Actually, Carter grew up three miles west of Plains, in the unincorporated hamlet of Archery, in a clapboard farmhouse alongside a dirt road. But it was in Plains that he attended school and church and sold boiled peanuts on the street. His father, James Earl Carter, known as Mr. Earl, was a stocky, conservative authority figure. His mother, Lillian Gordy Carter, known as Miss Lillian, was something of a rebel, a liberal with a curious mind and training as a registered nurse. As he came of age, Carter's goal was to attend the U.S. Naval Academy. He got there in 1943, graduating 59th in a class of 820, and going on to work with the unit that developed the first nuclear submarine. But, after the death of his father, he left the Navy and brought his wife, the former Rosalynn Smith, and their three sons, Jack, Chip, and Jeff, home to Plains to run the peanut-growing and farm-supply business. In 1962, at 37, Carter entered politics, winning a seat in the Georgia State Senate. Four years later, he ran for governor and lost in the Democratic primary. The defeat sent him into a deep funk, causing him to question the entire direction of his life. He resolved his self-doubts by becoming born-again, spending much of the next year working as a lay missionary. The experience left him with a renewed commitment to become governor. In 1970, he won the job and, upon being inaugurated, declared: "The time for racial discrimination is over." He ordered that a portrait of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. be hung in the state Capitol, a move that won him the undying affection and political support of Dr. King's widow and father. His public statements and symbolic acts won him considerable publicity, and he was seen as one of a new breed of politicians from the New South. Perhaps the most important thing that happened to Carter as governor was that he invited politicians from around the country to stay at the governor's mansion when they were in Atlanta. They did not impress him. He figured he was as talented as any of them. If some of them could run for president, he asked, why couldn't he? So, in 1976, he did. And, as the election year approached, events broke his way. The Watergate scandal forced Richard M. Nixon to resign the presidency in disgrace in 1974, leaving the office to the unelected Gerald R. Ford. All that did severe damage to the Republican Party and federal establishment, setting the stage for someone like Carter, a Democrat who came from the outside talking about decency and morality. He was the first real long shot to prevail in the age of media politics, the first man to demonstrate how to get elected by running full-time for two years. Speaking softly but with a missionary's zeal, Carter promised voters that he would "never tell a lie." He was liberal on civil rights, conservative on economics, and hard to categorize on almost everything else. When he accepted the Democratic Party's presidential nomination at its convention in New York, he had a lead of more than 30 points in the polls over President Gerald Ford. In the end, he won narrowly, getting 51% of the vote to Ford's 48%, 297 electoral votes to Ford's 241. On Inauguration Day 1977, Carter reinforced his image as the humble outsider in an unforgettable way. After being sworn in on the Capitol steps, Carter, his wife, and young daughter, Amy, got into a limousine for the traditional ride down the parade route to the White House. Then, despite the bitter cold, the three of them climbed out and walked the rest of the way. The idea, he said, was to show that the "imperial presidency" of the Nixon era was dead and gone. "It was," he wrote later, "one of those few perfect moments in life when everything seems absolutely right." Tough times There were few more moments like that in the Carter administration. Even though the Democrats held overwhelming majorities in both houses, he found it hard to get things done. His proposals for welfare, tax reform, and a national health program all disappeared without a trace. His attempt to get the government to adopt a national energy policy — an effort he described as "the moral equivalent of war" — did not fare much better. Inflation crippled the economy, and frayed relations between the White House and Congress crippled the government. So he turned his attention to foreign affairs. First came Panama. For several years before Carter took office, the United States had been negotiating about the future of the U.S.-built Panama Canal, the vital waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Carter completed the negotiations. Under the final agreement, the canal would be turned over to Panama in 1999, although the U.S. retained the right to use force to keep the canal open. After a bruising, yearlong battle, the Senate ratified the treaty. Then came the Middle East. No other foreign policy area so absorbed him. Indeed, few presidents in the 20th century were so consumed with trying to bring peace to the Holy Land. Almost immediately after taking office, Carter began meeting frequently with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Progress seemed possible when Sadat, on Nov. 19, 1977, took the risky and unexpected step of traveling to Jerusalem, the Israeli capital, to address the Israeli parliament. But the inability of Egypt and Israel to convert the opening into a peace agreement left Carter ever more frustrated. "There was only one thing to do, as dismal and unpleasant as the prospect seemed," he later recalled. "I would try to bring Sadat and Begin together for an extensive negotiating session with me." On Sept. 5, 1978, Mr. Carter, Sadat, Begin, and their staffs gathered at Camp David, the presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains, and shut themselves off from the world. For Carter, as host and mediator, the stay at Camp David would prove to be the highlight of his presidency. On Sept. 17, an agreement was reached on a framework for peace. Egypt would recognize Israel's right to exist. In return, Israel would withdraw from the Egyptian territory in the Sinai it had occupied since the Six Day War of 1967. That night, in the East Room of the White House, the three world leaders signed that framework. Six months later, the framework blossomed into a full-fledged peace treaty. While the Camp David process resulted in peace between Israel and Egypt, it did not produce significant progress toward peace throughout the region. That became a source of increasing disappointment to Carter after he left office. Nor did Carter achieve any major breakthroughs in U.S.-Soviet relations. The two nations negotiated a second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, SALT II, which Carter and Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev signed on June 18, 1979, at a summit meeting in Vienna. But the pact did not call for cuts in nuclear arsenals, only ceilings. Opposition to the treaty sprang up in the Senate almost immediately. Whatever chance it had of ratification expired at the end of that year, when Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan. Carter reacted to the Soviet invasion by imposing an embargo on American grain sales to the Soviet Union and by having the United States boycott the 1980 Summer Olympic Games, which were set for Moscow. By then, his presidency was in deep political trouble. These were unsettling times in America. Gasoline prices were high, and lines at fuel pumps were long. Inflation and unemployment were rising. So, too, was national pessimism. Awareness of that pessimism had caused Carter to retreat to Camp David in July 1979 for an extended, loosely structured domestic summit. When it was over, he delivered a nationally televised speech on what ailed the nation and then fired three members of his cabinet. The episode came to be known as the "malaise speech." Carter seemed, in the view of his critics, to be trying to shift the blame for the nation's problems away from his administration and onto the American people. He seemed to be confessing his impotence. Within days, there was a large and growing body of thought in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts should challenge Carter in the 1980 presidential primaries. Kennedy did run. But by the time he announced his candidacy, the political landscape had been transformed. On Nov. 4, 1979, in the Iranian capital of Tehran, about 3,000 militants loyal to Iran's new revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, overran the U.S. Embassy. They denounced America as "the Great Satan." And they took hostages. The number of hostages would vary in the long days ahead. Ultimately it would settle at 52. Thus began, Carter recalled later, "the most difficult period of my life." It was not just 52 individuals who were held captive. It was an entire nation. The episode crystallized the general sense that U.S. power and prestige had deteriorated. At first, the crisis worked to Carter's political benefit. Americans rallied around their president, and the prospects of his two main challengers within the Democratic Party, Kennedy and California Gov. Jerry Brown, seemed to flag. But, as months passed and the hostages remained in captivity, the nation's patience with Carter grew thin, as did his own patience with Iran. After months of intensive and fruitless negotiations behind the scenes, the president decided to try to rescue the hostages. On April 24, 1980, the mission was launched. Success depended largely on eight helicopters, which were to ferry the rescuers from a makeshift base in the Iranian desert to Tehran itself. But two of the helicopters malfunctioned, and one of them crashed into a transport plane in the desert, killing eight servicemen. The failure of the mission undercut what was left of the nation's confidence in Carter. He carried on and was renominated by a deeply divided Democratic Party. The atmosphere on the final night of the convention in New York was so bitter that Kennedy refused to raise Carter's hand in the traditional display of party unity. In the general election campaign, the Republican nominee, former California Gov. Ronald Reagan, sealed Carter's defeat by posing to the nation: "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" Many Americans — thinking of the hostages, double-digit inflation, and soaring interest rates — couldn't help but answer "No." In the end, Carter got only 41% of the vote, to Reagan's 51% and 7% for independent John Anderson. But there was a landslide in the Electoral College — 489 for Reagan and only 49 for Mr. Carter. He devoted what remained of his term to getting the hostages out. They were released on Jan. 20, 1981, Inauguration Day. Never slowing down After leaving the White House, Carter went home to Plains. There, he wrote his memoirs and raised the money to build his presidential library in Atlanta. He devoted much of his time and effort to open the Carter Center in 1982. In the mid-1980s, Carter staged well-publicized sessions on the Middle East and arms control, both of which were cochaired by Gerald Ford. Carter described the friendship between the old rivals as "a surprise to both of us." As the years passed, Carter kept pursuing his causes, traveling throughout the Middle East and Latin America to foster democracy and human rights. He became almost universally recognized as an "honest broker" whose word was accepted by one and all. "It's possible under some circumstances that I could be more meaningful as a human being this way than if I'd had a second term in the White House," he said in 1985. In 1989, he arranged for peace talks between the Ethiopian government and the Eritrean rebels. In 1990, he monitored the elections in Nicaragua. In 1994, he mediated the end of a military coup in Haiti, went to North Korea, and brokered a truce in Bosnia. His accumulated efforts won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, the citation praising him for standing by the principles that "conflicts must as far as possible be resolved through mediation and international cooperation based on international law." "My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love," son Chip posted on the Carter Center's website. "My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs." In addition to his three sons and daughter, Carter is survived by 12 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, and other relatives. Two sisters, a brother, and a grandson died earlier. Services are pending. Biden said Sunday he will be ordering an official state funeral to be held in Washington. Staff writers Julia Terruso, Michelle Myers and Diane Mastrull contributed to this article. ©2024 The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC. Visit at inquirer.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.RapidTranslate.org Centralizes Language Resources and Expands Certified Translation Services GloballyBrowns get 497-yard performance from QB Jameis Winston and lose anyway in season long gone sourLuigi Mangione, who was arrested and charged with murder in the shooting death of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, once belonged to a group of Ivy League gamers who played assassins, a member of the group told NBC News. In the game, called "Among Us," some players are secretly assigned to be killers in space who perform other tasks while trying to avoid suspicion from other players. Alejandro Romero, who attended the University of Pennsylvania with Mangione and was a member of the same Discord group, said he was shocked when news broke on social media that Mangione had been taken into police custody. "I just found it extremely ironic that, you know, we were in this game and there could actually be a true killer among us," he said. "As soon as his photo and name popped up on X, my friend texted me asking if I knew him, and then either I was calling some 10 friends or they were calling me," Romero added. "I didn't speak to anybody today who wasn't already aware of what had happened." Mangione, 26, was arrested Monday morning in a McDonald's restaurant in Altoona, Pennsylvania, after an employee spotted him. Police found a firearm, believed to have been 3D-printed, and a handwritten document on Mangione "that speaks to both his motivation and mindset," New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference. He was also carrying fake identification and a passport, authorities said. In New York, Mangione was charged with murder, possession of a loaded firearm, possession of a forged instrument and criminal possession of a weapon, according to court documents. Authorities in Pennsylvania charged Mangione with carrying firearms without a license, forgery, tampering with records or identification, possessing instruments of crime and providing false identification to police. In a statement on X on Monday night, a member of the Mangione family said they are "shocked and devastated by Luigi's arrest." "We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved," wrote Nino Mangione, a Republican member of the Maryland House of Delegates. Romero, who said he has not spoken to or seen Mangione since 2020, described him as a typical college student who did not stand out to him. "He just fit a mold," Romero said. "He just seemed like any other normal frat dude that you could see at a frat party." His final year in college was cut short when the pandemic hit. Students were forced off campus in their last semester and did not return for commencement. The Discord group was one way to stay connected, Romero said, but members began to go their separate ways as they got full-time jobs or embarked on long trips. During some of those years, Mangione left behind a digital footprint that included reviewing “Industrial Society and Its Future,” also known as the “Unabomber Manifesto” by Ted Kaczynski, on Goodreads, a platform for book reviews and recommendations. It served as the ideological reasoning for Kaczynski’s yearslong mail bomb campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others. Mangione became significantly more active on X in 2021 after five years not posting or reposting content, according to a review of his account. Asked about the change in Mangione's online persona, Romero said that question is circulating among his friend group. "I feel like people are unsure how to label him," he said. "I'm personally struggling to understand how this all fits." This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is the latest lawmaker targeted by a bomb threat Trump pick to head ICE is agency vet who will be able to start deportation effort on day one Man accused of duping churchgoers into investing in video Covid-test tech to plead guilty

Kansas once required voters to prove citizenship. That didn't work out so well

RapidTranslate.org Centralizes Language Resources and Expands Certified Translation Services GloballyNorthern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. ( TSE:NDM – Get Free Report ) (NYSE:NAK)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as C$0.82 and last traded at C$0.81, with a volume of 539606 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at C$0.73. Northern Dynasty Minerals Stock Up 12.3 % The stock has a market cap of C$440.93 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -27.33 and a beta of 0.75. The business’s 50 day moving average is C$0.66 and its 200-day moving average is C$0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.65, a quick ratio of 3.93 and a current ratio of 0.61. Insider Activity at Northern Dynasty Minerals In related news, Director Robert Allan Dickinson sold 100,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$0.59, for a total transaction of C$59,010.00. 1.86% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders. About Northern Dynasty Minerals Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. engages in the exploration of mineral properties in the United States. It holds a 100% interest in the Pebble Copper-Gold-Molybdenum-Silver-Rhenium project comprising 1,840 mineral claims that covers an area of approximately 274 square miles located in southwest Alaska, the United States. Further Reading Receive News & Ratings for Northern Dynasty Minerals Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Northern Dynasty Minerals and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .

Cashew Exporters Target N4.1trn Earnings In 2025By Michelle Conlin NEW YORK (Reuters) - Several key players in President-elect Donald Trump's new cryptocurrency venture head to Abu Dhabi on Monday for the largest bitcoin gathering in the Gulf region as the digital currency sets record highs. Speakers include the president-elect's son Eric and billionaire Steve Witkoff, the new White House envoy for the Middle East and co-founder of World Liberty Financial, a crypto platform launched in September that Donald Trump and his family helped form. Eric Trump will deliver Tuesday's keynote address at the Bitcoin MENA conference, which is projected to draw more than 6,000 people, and will then hold a "whale-only" chat in the conference's VIP lounge, according to the event's agenda. Witkoff will also speak separately to that more exclusive crowd, which requires a $9,999 "whale" pass, a nickname for large players who have potential to move a market. The president-elect is World Liberty Financial's chief crypto advocate, and sons Eric, Don Jr. and Barron are ambassadors, according to the WLF website. Company filings show Donald Trump is entitled to 22.5 billion WLF tokens and a share of its revenues. "The bitcoin conference carries a lot of significance for crypto as it's one of the longest-running conferences focused on bringing our industry together," said Marshall Beard, chief operating officer of Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by Trump backers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. "It’s been incredible to see the rise of bitcoin alongside the growth of the conference ... and crypto became a major campaign issue in this year’s presidential election." Other speakers also have close ties to World Liberty Financial, including Justin Sun, the 32-year-old Chinese founder of blockchain platform Tron. Three weeks after Trump won the Nov. 5 election, Sun posted on X that he bought $30 million worth of WLF tokens, making him the venture's largest investor. Sun was charged with crypto-related fraud and securities violations under the Biden administration. The Gulf gathering is occurring at an inflection point for the industry as Trump, once a crypto skeptic, has vowed he will be the "crypto president" and make America the new "crypto capital of the planet." Buoyed by these promises, bitcoin smashed records last week when it hit $100,000. Trump also named a White House czar for artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies, former PayPal executive David Sacks, a close friend of Trump adviser and megadonor Elon Musk. Musk, whose companies include X, SpaceX and Tesla, spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect Trump in 2024, records show. Other technology and digital asset veterans also gave millions to candidates friendly to the industry, according to analytics firm Breadcrumbs. Trump's 2016 campaign manager, Paul Manafort, will address the conference on "A Life of Politics with the Man Closest to Donald Trump." Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who served a four-month U.S. prison sentence this year for crypto-tied money-laundering law violations, will also hold a whale session at the conference. Trump, his family members, other speakers and their firms did not respond to requests for comment. (Reporting By Michelle Conlin; editing by Megan Davies and Cynthia Osterman)

Today's NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Monday, Dec. 30

The Bank of Scotland’s business barometer poll showed 73% of Scottish businesses expect to see turnover increase in 2025, up from 60% polled in 2023. Almost a quarter (23%) of businesses expect to see their revenue rise by between six and 10% over the next 12 months, with just over a fifth (21%) expecting it to grow by even more. The poll found that 70% of businesses were confident they would become more profitable in 2025, a two per cent increase when compared with the previous year. Revenue and profitability growth was firms’ top priority at 52%, though 40% said they will be targeting improved productivity, and the same proportion said they will be aiming to enhance their technology – such as automation or AI – or upskill their staff (both 29%). More than one in five (22%) want to improve their environmental sustainability. Other areas businesses are hoping to build upon AI-assisted technology (19%), and 24% will be investing in expanding into new UK markets and 23% plan to invest in staff training. The business barometer has surveyed 1,200 businesses every month since 2002, providing early signals about UK economic trends. Martyn Kendrick, Scotland director at Bank of Scotland commercial banking, said: “Scottish businesses are looking ahead to 2025 with stronger growth expectations, and setting out clear plans to drive this expansion through investments in new technology, new markets and their own teams. “As we enter the new year, we’ll continue to by their side to help them pursue their ambitions and seize all opportunities that lie ahead.”Samsonov stops 31 shots as Golden Knights earn sixth straight win, 3-0 over the FlamesMichail Antonio had video call with West Ham team before their win over Wolves

The suspect in the high-profile killing of a health insurance CEO that has gripped the United States graduated from an Ivy League university, reportedly hails from a wealthy family, and wrote social media posts brimming with cerebral musings. Luigi Mangione, 26, was thrust into the spotlight Monday after police revealed he is their person of interest in the brutal murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a father of two, last week in broad daylight in Manhattan in a case that laid bare deep frustration and anger with America's privatized medical system. News of his capture in Pennsylvania -- following a tip from a McDonald's worker --triggered an explosion of online activity, with Mangione quickly amassing new followers on social media as citizen sleuths and US media tried to understand who he is. While some lauded him as a hero and lamented his arrest, others analyzed his intellectual takes in search of ideological clues. A photo on one of his social media accounts includes an X-ray of an apparently injured spine. No explicit political affiliation has emerged. Meanwhile, memes and jokes proliferated, many riffing on his first name and comparing him to the "Mario Bros." character Luigi, sometimes depicted in AI-altered images wielding a gun or holding a Big Mac. "Godspeed. Please know that we all hear you," wrote one user on Facebook. "I want to donate to your defense fund," added another. According to Mangione's LinkedIn profile, he is employed as a data engineer at TrueCar, a California-based online auto marketplace. A company spokesperson told AFP Mangione "has not been an employee of our company since 2023." Although he had been living in Hawaii ahead of the killing, he originally hails from Towson, Maryland, near Baltimore. He comes from a prominent and wealthy Italian-American family, according to the Baltimore Banner. The family owns local businesses, including the Hayfields Country Club, its website says. A standout student, Mangione graduated at the top of his high school class in 2016. In an interview with his local paper at the time, he praised his teachers for fostering a passion for learning beyond grades and encouraging intellectual curiosity. A former student who knew Mangione at the Gilman School told AFP the suspect struck him as "a normal guy, nice kid." Sign up to get our free daily email of the biggest stories! "There was nothing about him that was off, at least from my perception," this person said, asking that their name not be used. "Seemed to just be smiling, and kind of seemed like he was a smart kid. Ended up being valedictorian, which confirmed that," the former student said. Mangione went on to attend the prestigious University of Pennsylvania, where he completed both a bachelor's and master's degree in computer science by 2020, according to a university spokesperson. While at Penn, Mangione co-led a group of 60 undergraduates who collaborated on video game projects, as noted in a now-deleted university webpage, archived on the Wayback Machine. On Instagram, where his following has skyrocketed from hundreds to tens of thousands, Mangione shared snapshots of his travels in Mexico, Puerto Rico and Hawaii. He also posted shirtless photos flaunting a six-pack and appeared in celebratory posts with fellow members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. However, it is on X (formerly Twitter) that users have scoured Mangione's posts for potential motives. His header photo -- an X-ray of a spine with bolts -- remains cryptic, with no public explanation. Finding a coherent political ideology has also proved elusive, though he had written a review of Ted Kaczynski's manifesto on the online site goodreads, calling it "prescient." Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, carried out a string of bombings in the United States from 1978 to 1995, a campaign he said was aimed at halting the advance of modern society and technology. Mangione called Kaczynski "rightfully imprisoned," while also saying "'violence never solved anything' is a statement uttered by cowards and predators." According to CNN, handwritten documents recovered when Mangione was arrested included the phrase "these parasites had it coming." Mangione has also linked approvingly to posts criticizing secularism as a harmful consequence of Christianity's decline. In April, he wrote, "Horror vacui (nature abhors a vacuum)." The following month, he posted an essay he wrote in high school titled "How Christianity Prospered by Appealing to the Lower Classes of Ancient Rome." In another post from April, he speculated that Japan's low birthrate stems from societal disconnection, adding that "fleshlights" and other vaginal-replica sex toys should be banned. ia/nro/dw