Despite a resounding defeat at the hands of Ronald Reagan in 1980, the Democrat forged a new path promoting causes such as electoral probity abroad, social justice and drives to rid the world of medical conditions. His first foreign visit as president was to the UK where then prime minister James Callaghan, as well as the usual visits in London, took his guest to the North East with a visit to Newcastle, Sunderland and Washington – the village bearing the name of the first ever president. Mr Carter delighted crowds in the North East by saying “Howay the lads” during a speech to the assembled throng. He also received a miner’s lamp from 12-year-old Ian McEree in Washington. The 39th US president also carried out more traditional presidential duties, including meetings with western European leaders during his time in London while the Cold War was still ongoing. The practising Baptist continued his globetrotting ways after leaving power, even without Air Force One as his vehicle. He was also part of the Elders, a group of experienced statesmen and women drawn from all corners of the world.Asia-Pacific markets are set to open lower on the penultimate trading day of 2024
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Passive home project in north Minneapolis aims to provide buyers affordable, environmentally friendly living
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis will visit the French Mediterranean island of Corsica in December, days after skipping the reopening of Paris's Notre Dame Cathedral which was ravaged by a fire in 2019, the Vatican said on Saturday. Francis, 87, declined an invitation from French President Emmanuel Macron to attend the Notre Dame reopening ceremony in Paris on December 7. He will however head to Corsica's capital Ajaccio for a conference on the Catholic faith in the Mediterranean one week later on December 15, the Vatican said. Some French bishops were "annoyed" by the Pope's decision to stay away from the Notre Dame gala, according to one bishop speaking on condition of anonymity. But the head of the Bishops' Conference of France (CEF) Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort said: "The star of the Notre Dame reopening ceremony is Notre Dame itself." The Pope had not wanted his presence to be a distraction from the essential point of the occasion, he added. "It's not a snub aimed at France," said another bishop. Francis's one-day trip to Corsica will be the first papal visit to the island, where 90 percent of its 350,000 population is Catholic, according to the local Church, and religious traditions remain deeply rooted. He will give two speeches, preside over a mass and meet Macron during his nine hours on the island, the Vatican said. "It is a historic event, we will give ourselves the extraordinary means to put on an exceptional welcome for the Holy Father," said Bishop of Ajaccio Francois-Xavier Bustillo said in a video posted on social media. Francis, who will celebrate his 88th birthday on December 17, has been to France twice since becoming head of the worldwide Catholic Church in 2013. He visited Strasbourg in 2014, where he addressed the European Parliament, and last year went to Marseille for a meeting of Mediterranean area bishops, where he met Macron. He has yet to make a state visit to France, one of Europe's main majority-Catholic countries. He is also yet to make state visits to Spain, the United Kingdom or Germany. The Argentine pontiff prefers visiting smaller or less established Catholic communities, from Malta to Mongolia. The Corsica visit was championed by the popular media-friendly Bustillo, who was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in September 2023. "It will not be a state visit, but a pastoral visit. It will be a beautiful moment, a moment of hope and joy," he told AFP. In addition, the head of the Catholic Church is scheduled to be at the Vatican on December 7-8 for a service at which he will create 21 new cardinals. Rescheduling appointments over coming months would appear to be tricky, given the multitude of events due to take place in Rome in 2025, a Catholic jubilee year. Bustillo is one of the active cardinals Francis has appointed in the Mediterranean region, with the pope keen they "work together to meet the specific challenges of the area", a bishop told AFP on condition of anonymity. Those issues include migration, global warming and interreligious dialogue. Corsica will be the 47th overseas visit for Francis and his third this year, after a long tour of the Asia Pacific in early September and a trip to Belgium and Luxembourg the same month.None
NoneTech entrepreneur Elon Musk caused uproar after backing Germany's far-right party in a major newspaper ahead of key parliamentary elections in the Western European country, leading to the resignation of the paper's opinion editor in protest. Germany is to vote in an early election on Feb. 23 after Chancellor Olaf Schol z's three-party governing coalition collapsed last month in a dispute over how to revitalize the country's stagnant economy. Musk's guest opinion piece for Welt am Sonntag —a sister publication of POLITICO owned by the Axel Springer Group — published in German over the weekend, was the second time this month he supported the Alternative for Germany, or AfD. "The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the last spark of hope for this country," Musk wrote in his translated commentary. He went on to say the far-right party "can lead the country into a future where economic prosperity, cultural integrity and technological innovation are not just wishes, but reality." The Tesla Motors CEO also wrote that his investment in Germany gave him the right to comment on the country's condition. The AfD is polling strongly, but its candidate for the top job, Alice Weidel, has no realistic chance of becoming chancellor because other parties refuse to work with the far-right party. An ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, the technology billionaire challenged in his opinion piece the party's public image. "The portrayal of the AfD as right-wing extremist is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party's leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!" Musk's commentary has led to a debate in German media over the boundaries of free speech, with the paper's own opinion editor announcing her resignation, pointedly on Musk's social media platform, X. "I always enjoyed leading the opinion section of WELT and WAMS. Today an article by Elon Musk appeared in Welt am Sonntag. I handed in my resignation yesterday after it went to print," Eva Marie Kogel wrote. A critical article by the future editor-in-chief of the Welt group, Jan Philipp Burgard, accompanied Musk's opinion piece. "Musk's diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic approach, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally wrong," Burgard wrote. Responding to a request for comment from the German Press Agency, dpa, the current editor-in-chief of the Welt group, Ulf Poschardt, and Burgard — who is due to take over on Jan. 1 — said in a joint statement that the discussion over Musk's piece was "very insightful. Democracy and journalism thrive on freedom of expression." "This will continue to determine the compass of the "world" in the future. We will develop "Die Welt" even more decisively as a forum for such debates," they wrote to dpa.