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Jimmy Carter: Many Evolutions For A Centenarian ‘Citizen Of The World’
BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. (AP) — Po'Boigh King had 28 points in North Carolina Central's 78-77 victory over Gardner-Webb on Saturday. King added six rebounds for the Eagles (4-7). Isaac Parson scored 13 points and added seven assists and three steals. Keishon Porter shot 2 of 7 from the field, including 1 for 3 from 3-point range, and went 3 for 4 from the line to finish with eight points. The Runnin' Bulldogs (4-6) were led in scoring by Anthony Selden, who finished with 25 points. Jamaine Mann added 15 points for Gardner-Webb. Shahar Lazar finished with 10 points and four assists. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .
Cade Lucas This story was one of the top stories from 2024 and was originally published in January. A Wyndham councillor suspended for misconduct has been reinstated until an appeal hearing in June. On January 9, VCAT granted Cr Jasmine Hill a stay on her suspension after deciding it would be prejudicial for it to remain in place until her appeal is heard. VCAT has confirmed Cr Hill’s appeal is provisionally set for June 13 and 14, meaning she will remain on council for at least another six months, longer than her original four month suspension from December 2023 to April 2024. Cr Hill has already returned to councillor duties and was seen alongside other council members at Australia Day celebrations in Wyndham Park on Friday. Cr Hill confirmed to Star Weekly that her reinstatement comes with a series of restrictions imposed by Wyndham council CEO Stephen Wall, though neither party would detail what these restrictions involved. Just before Christmas Cr Hill lodged an appeal with VCAT seeking to overturn the suspension imposed by the Councillor Conduct Panel which found she engaged in serious misconduct by bullying two council officers during 2021 and 2022. Cr Hill disputed the finding, claiming she is the victim of a ‘political machine’ determined to silence her. In statement to Star Weekly she again denied any wrong doing and said the matter wouldn’t distract from her role on council. “Throughout my life, I’ve never had a record of bullying. My Christian beliefs, instilled from a young age, emphasise forgiveness as a core value,” she said. “I value feedback from our officers. Despite the challenges, I remain dedicated to serving the community and overseeing the performance of the council, ensuring that it operates efficiently and effectively.” The Councillor Conduct Panel found Cr Hill engaged in misconduct by repeatedly screaming and shouting at two council staffers on multiple occasions, affecting their health and underminding council operations. On one such occasion, during a telephone call with one of the staffers on April 14, 2022, Cr Hill screamed: “why can’t you do your job properly?” and “You should hire new staff from culturally diverse backgrounds because the staff you have won’t accommodate other cultures“. The staff member said Cr Hill screamed “I am not a communist” over and over during the 40 minute conversation which was so loud she had to turn down the volume on her Bluetooth. Both staff members have since resigned, citing Cr Hill’s behaviour as a major factor in their decisions. The bullying allegations against Cr Hill were originally brought by fellow councillor and now Wyndham deputy mayor Josh Gilligan. Wyndham council’s first meeting for 2024 is on Tuesday February 27.
After the US, Elon Musk now plans to shake up UK politics with a $100 million donation
WASHINGTON D.C., DC — Jimmy Carter, the longest-lived American president died 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. President Joe Biden gave an address Sunday evening from a hotel in the U.S. Virgin Islands where he's on a holiday vacation with his family. "Millions of people all over the world feel like they've lost a friend as well, even without meeting him," said Biden. "(He was) someone who embodied the most human values we can never let slip away... He really believed everyone deserved a shot." The president and First Lady Jill Biden are among the many Americans mourning the loss Sunday, also putting out a joint statement honoring the late Carters. “Today, America and the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian,” they said in a statement . “He saved, lifted, and changed the lives of people all across the globe. He was a man of great character and courage, hope and optimism. We will always cherish seeing him and Rosalynn together.” Their statement continued to recognize the work Carter did for the country and encouraged "young people" in the country to study Carter and his life if they're in "search of what it means to live a life of purpose and meaning." 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 father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights and unselfish love,” said Chip Carter, the former president’s son, in a statement . “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.” President Carter is survived by his children — Jack, Chip, Jeff, and Amy; 11 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Rosalynn, and one grandchild, according to the Carter Center . “We will miss them both dearly, but take solace knowing they are reunited once again and will remain forever in our hearts,” said Jill and Joe Biden. “To the entire Carter family, we send our gratitude for sharing them with America and the world.” President-elect Donald Trump took to his social media website Truth Social to offer the family his condolences and remember Carter. "The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude," he said. "Melania and I are thinking warmly of the Carter Family and their loved ones during this difficult time. We urge everyone to keep them in their hearts and prayers." In a statement issued Sunday, former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama said Carter’s beloved Maranatha Baptist Church “will be a little quieter on Sunday's” but added that the late former president “will never be far away — buried alongside Rosalynn next to a willow tree down the road, his memory calling all of us to heed our better angels.” Noting the “hundreds of tourists from around the world crammed into the pews” to see the former president teach Sunday school, as he did “for most of his adult life,” the Obamas listed Carter’s accomplishments as president. But they made special note of the Sunday school lessons, saying they were catalysts for people making a pilgrimage to the church. “Many people in that church on Sunday morning were there, at least in part, because of something more fundamental: President Carter’s decency.” Former Vice President Al Gore praised Jimmy Carter for living “a life full of purpose, commitment and kindness” and for being a “lifelong role model for the entire environmental movement.” Carter, who left the White House in 1981 after a landslide defeat to Ronald Reagan. concentrated on conflict resolution, defending democracy and fighting disease in the developing world. Gore, who lost the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush, remains a leading advocate for action to fight climate change. Both won Nobel Peace Prizes. Gore said it is a testament to his "unyielding determination to help build a more just and peaceful world” that Carter is often “remembered equally for the work he did as President as he is for his leadership over the 42 years after he left office.” During Gore’s time in the White House, President Bill Clinton had an uneasy relationship with Carter. Former President Bill Clinton and his wife former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, remember Carter as a man who lived to serve others. “Hillary and I mourn the passing of President Jimmy Carter and give thanks for his long, good life. Guided by his faith, President Carter lived to serve others — until the very end," they said in a statement . The statement recalled Carter's many achievements and priorities, including efforts “to protect our natural resources in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, make energy conservation a national priority, return the Panama Canal to Panama, and secure peace between Egypt and Israel at Camp David." After he left office, the Clinton statement said, Carter continued efforts in "supporting honest elections, advancing peace, combating disease, and promoting democracy; to his and Rosalynn’s devotion and hard work at Habitat for Humanity — he worked tirelessly for a better, fairer world,” the statement said. Biden issued an official state funeral to be held in Washington D.C. for James Earl Carter, Jr., 39th President of the United States, 76th Governor of Georgia, Lieutenant of the United States Navy, graduate of the United States Naval Academy, and favorite son of Plains, Georgia, who gave his full life in service to God and country.Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have become essential technologies across industries, automating tasks at a speed and scale far beyond human capabilities. However, building these systems at scale requires deep engineering expertise and skilled teams to ensure success. Niloy Gupta, Machine Learning Engineer Tech Lead at Attentive Mobile, is an expert in scaling machine learning systems for various industry verticals. Gupta’s experience spans critical roles, including CTO of Lambent Logic and a pivotal position in scaling Affirm’s Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) platform, one of the largest in the U.S. He was also instrumental in scaling Yelp’s Ads Targeting system. Niloy holds a graduate degree from the School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University. His research focused on machine learning systems. Engineering AI/ML Applications Niloy’s journey as a technology leader showcases his ability to build scalable AI/ML systems for diverse industries. At Affirm, he contributed to production-scale systems while advancing model interpretability. Niloy shares, “AI/ML models must be interpretable to understand why a loan is approved or denied. If a FinTech company were to deny a loan, they would be legally obligated to tell the consumer why their loan application was rejected. As a result, companies are biased toward simpler and more interpretable models.” Niloy’s work reflects the complexities of regulated FinTech systems, where model updates need regularity approval, in contrast to AdTech’s fast feedback cycles and rapid iterations. At Yelp, he developed a distributed ML training system and online model inference to handle billions of training samples and efficiently ensure real-time predictions. Leveraging distributed computing tools, Niloy built a fault-tolerant system optimized for cost and performance. “Since model predictions need to be served in real-time, having a model inference service that meets the SLA requirements is paramount. We applied novel model compression techniques to reduce the memory footprint of the model and thereby reduce cache misses,” Niloy notes. Niloy’s ability to adapt engineering principles to meet industry-specific challenges demonstrates his expertise. He blends technical skills with leadership to create high-impact AI/ML solutions in finance and advertising. Building large-scale AI/ML systems AI/ML systems intersect with machine learning theory and software engineering. The system should scale to large data sets, train models reliably and cost-effectively, and serve the model predictions while meeting latency requirements. All these stages must be monitored effectively to catch any degradation or bugs. The system should also support failure management and rollbacks. An engineering team needs to leverage the right technologies and tools to automate all three stages of a machine learning system—feature generation, model training, and model serving. These include distributed computing, microservices, security, and feature stores. The design of the AI/ML system also depends upon the industry vertical and product. Typically, in credit underwriting, labels (defaults or repayments) arrive weeks, if not months, after the loans have been issued. This creates a long lag between model deployment and evaluation. Investing in a reliable experimentation platform is crucial for any company working with AI/ML models. Niloy’s career reflects his ability to solve these challenges efficiently, ensuring models perform well and comply with industry standards. His expertise is building robust, high-performance systems that balance regulatory demands with technical innovation. AI/ML system quality assurance Building effective AI/ML systems requires careful planning, from data collection to model monitoring, based on Niloy’s experience. He shares, “The first AI/ML model provides the biggest lift to the product, so it should be kept simple. This allows the engineering team to focus on infrastructure where typically more issues lie.” Good data is essential—ML models can only perform as well as the training data they are fed. Niloy emphasizes the importance of validating data to catch issues like missing values and shifts in distribution. Features must be cataloged with ownership if they originate from multiple sources, ensuring accountability. Monitoring is critical for maintaining performance over time. Niloy explains, “Any AI/ML pipelines should invest in monitoring. The major one is checking for any training-serving skew. If the data at inference time has a different distribution than what was used for training, the model performance could not meet expectations.” To address challenges like feedback loops and skew, Niloy recommends piping inference data back into training pipelines and reusing code between training and serving environments. Testing models on holdout datasets ensures robustness beyond the original training data. While complex to build, these pipelines ultimately automate processes and unlock new growth opportunities. Niloy’s expertise and contributions to production-scale machine learning reflect engineers' vital role in shaping the future of AI/ML across industries.
In the hours after former President Jimmy Carter’s death Sunday , Illinois elected officials shared their condolences and reflections on the legacy of the 100-year-old Nobel Peace Prize-recipient’s life. The longest-lived American president died in his hometown 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. Jimmy Carter entered hospice care in February 2023. President Joe Biden said he is ordering a state funeral for Carter in Washington. Former President Barack Obama reflected not only on Carter’s legacy as president but on his decency as a person, which Obama said was evident whenever the two spent time together. “He believed some things were more important than reelection — things like integrity, respect, and compassion,” Obama said in a statement. “Because Jimmy Carter believed, as deeply as he believed anything, that we are all created in God’s image. Whenever I had a chance to spend time with President Carter, it was clear that he didn’t just profess these values. He embodied them. And in doing so, he taught all of us what it means to live a life of grace, dignity, justice, and service.” Mayor Brandon Johnson said Carter was a personal inspiration of his as a “man of deep faith in the political arena” whose values continue to show the way forward. “President Jimmy Carter lived the American dream in every way,” Johnson said in a statement. “His legacy of love and his service to God and country are admirable beyond measure. President Carter valiantly fought for human rights and peace across the world during his presidency and beyond.” Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth both stated admiration for his time as a public servant, and Durbin called Carter an “inspiration to those of us who aspire to lead a life of service.” “Jimmy Carter proved that excellence in public service can extend beyond the White House,” Durbin said in a statement Sunday. “I offer my condolences to the entire Carter family, to his friends and former staff members, and to the untold millions of people throughout the world whose lives are better because Jimmy Carter lived.” Rep. Mike Quigley lauded Carter’s time in office, but he said Carter’s most important accomplishments came after his presidency, calling him “the greatest former president our nation has ever known.” “His work, alongside former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, at the Carter Center, with Habitat for Humanity, and his successful two-decade-long effort to eradicate the Guinea worm made him the epitome of a public servant,” Quigley said. “Those of us in elected office should look to President Carter’s example as a model for what we aspire to after leaving office.” Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia remembered Carter as a “giant” of progressive politics who was able to pursue an agenda focused on social and human services for working families through his administration. “His post-presidency, however, was perhaps the most productive era of President Carter’s life,” Garcia said in a statement. “His efforts to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to unwaveringly advance human rights and alleviate human suffering, earned him the Nobel Peace Prize decades after leaving the White House. His steadfast pursuit of truth and peace leaves a powerful legacy to uphold.” They were joined by a chorus of others honoring his legacy, including Gov. JB Pritzker, who said Carter exemplified what it means to live a life full of service. “His towering legacy of compassion for others set a standard that will always be remembered,” Pritzker said in a statement. “Illinois Democrats mourn the passing of President Jimmy Carter, a leader who embodied humility and service,” the Democratic Party of Illinois wrote on social media. “His unwavering dedication to peace and justice will inspire generations. We extend our condolences to the Carter family and honor his extraordinary life.”ROSE BOWLLIPHOOK, United Kingdom, Dec. 19, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — , a global leader in technology-driven meeting solutions across Annual General Meetings, Investor Relations, and Member meetings, proudly announces the acquisition of Assembly Voting, a technology company specializing in end-to-end verifiable, cloud-based elections and voting solutions via its proprietary platform, Electa. This strategic acquisition reinforces Lumi Global’s commitment to innovation while expanding its capabilities beyond the live meeting environment to new market opportunities. “This acquisition marks a bold step forward for Lumi Global, as we extend our product capabilities beyond the meeting day and into the wider elections market,” said Richard Taylor, CEO of Lumi Global. “The integration of Assembly Voting’s innovative technologies with Lumi’s Global platform will unlock new opportunities, ensuring we remain at the forefront of technology-driven meeting, election and voting solutions in Annual General Meetings, Investor Relations, and Member organization worldwide.” “We are thrilled to join Lumi Global, a company whose vision and innovative approach align perfectly with ours,” said Jacob Gyldenkaerne, CEO of Assembly Voting. “This partnership not only expands the reach of our technology but also enhances our ability to serve an even more diverse, global client base with end-to-end verifiable election solutions.” Lumi Global’s acquisition of Assembly Voting underscores its dedication to powering the meetings and elections that matter for trusted decisions worldwide. As live meetings and general assemblies transition to increasingly digital formats, elections have similarly evolved from traditional paper ballots to more secure and reliable digital platforms. This digital transformation creates the opportunity for a unified platform that seamlessly serves both needs. Lumi Global’s clients are increasingly seeking a comprehensive solution that delivers this integration. Lumi Global powers the meetings and elections that matter for the world’s most trusted decisions, ensuring seamless, engaging experiences for in-room and online participants. Lumi Global’s cutting-edge technology and unique global presence empower informed decision-making across annual meetings, elections, member meetings, legislative meetings, IR meetings, and earnings calls. For over 30 years, Lumi has driven industry innovation, co-creating solutions with customers to simplify the complex and deliver stress-free, flawless meetings that foster accountability and meaningful engagement. For more information, please contact: Chief Business Strategy Officer A video accompanying this announcement is available at