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on Saturday reached the BJP headquarters in Delhi after the Maharashtra Assembly election 2024 result and said that the message of development was endorsed and the politics of lies was defeated. Addressing a gathering at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters in New Delhi, PM Modi said divisive forces, negative politics and dynasticism have been defeated in the Maharashtra election and bypolls in various states, reported the PTI. He said the people of Maharashtra have voted for stability and taught a lesson to those who tried to create instability. The prime minister asserted that the message from the Maharashtra election is that of unity and it is also an endorsement of the "ek hai toh safe hai" slogan. PM Modi also said he bows down before the people of Jharkhand and that the BJP will work more zealously for the development of the state. 'Ek hai toh safe hai' has become the 'maha-mantra' for the entire nation and it has punished those who wanted to divide the country on caste and religious lines," he said, adding that all sections of the society have voted for the BJP, reported the PTI. "The Congress and its ecosystem had thought that by spreading lies in the name of the Constitution, they could divide the Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) in small groups. This is a solid slap on their faces," he said, according to the PTI. "People have made divisive forces bite the dust. The Congress and its allies have failed to grasp the changed realities of the country's mood," the prime minister added. He asserted that voters do not want instability and they believe in nation first and do not like those dreaming about "chair first". The voters in Maharashtra also evaluated Congress on the basis of the false promises made in other states like Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh, he added. "Neither their false promises nor their dangerous agenda worked in Maharashtra," PM Modi said. The prime minister said the Maharashtra election also shows that only one Constitution will work in India and that was given to the people of the country by B R Ambedkar. The Congress and its allies were again trying to create a wall of Article 370 of the Constitution in Jammu and Kashmir, he said. "I want to say this to the and its allies that no force in the world can bring back Article 370 and insult our Constitution," PM Modi said. He said the Congress and its allies were double-faced on various issues, including the Wafq Board, the news agency reported on Saturday. (with PTI inputs)
Diego Simeone Reflects On 700th Game In Charge As Atletico Madrid Edge Deportivo Alaves 2-1WEBCO INDUSTRIES, INC. REPORTS FISCAL 2025 FIRST QUARTER RESULTSDocMorris (OTCMKTS:ZRSEF) Trading Up 12.2% – Should You Buy?
Buccaneers are back to .500 and in position to control their playoff hopes down the stretch
Grid costs means heat pumps 'make no sense' without solar panels warns energy bossShares of Vesper Healthcare Acquisition Corp. ( OTCMKTS:VSPRU – Get Free Report ) traded down 2.2% on Friday . The stock traded as low as $13.83 and last traded at $14.00. 4,200 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 24,185 shares. The stock had previously closed at $14.31. Vesper Healthcare Acquisition Price Performance The company’s 50-day moving average price is $14.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $14.00. Vesper Healthcare Acquisition Company Profile ( Get Free Report ) Vesper Healthcare Acquisition Corp. does not have significant operations. It focuses on effecting a merger, capital stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization, or similar business combination with one or more businesses or entities. The company was incorporated in 2020 and is based in Miami Beach, Florida. Featured Articles Receive News & Ratings for Vesper Healthcare Acquisition Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Vesper Healthcare Acquisition and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .
The chief of Ukraine's defense intelligence, Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, has said that Kyiv is aware of Russian "execution lists" targeting teachers, journalists, and Ukrainian priests, among others. "[The execution lists] were supposed to include teachers of the Ukrainian language, literature, history, ATO [Anti-Terrorist Operation] veterans, journalists, scientists, writers, priests of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and other denominations who supported Ukraine, public and political figures, heads of state authorities and self-government," said Budanov. A release from the agency also said that "maniacal" instructions were implemented in different regions of Ukraine invaded by Russia. Budanov added: "We have seen horrific mass crimes against Ukrainian citizens, the facts of which have become known to the whole world. "The atrocities of units of the Russian armed forces in Borodyanka, Bucha, Hostomel, Izyum, Mariupol and many other settlements of Ukraine showed that these identical and synchronized actions were based on clear doctrinal provisions of the Russian genocidal policy of the authorities and military leadership." The intelligence head also said that "Ukrainophobia" has affected the entire society of Russia. "The genocide of Ukrainians is not only the state policy of the Russian Federation, but also a mandatory social conviction from above," he said. Newsweek contacted Russian authorities for comment on Saturday outside of standard working hours. Budanov's comments follow several significant developments in the Russia-Ukraine conflict over the past week. On Tuesday, Moscow launched a hypersonic missile strike on the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, targeting a military facility. The attack utilized the experimental Oreshnik hypersonic missile, an intermediate-range weapon reportedly capable of carrying either nuclear or conventional warheads. In a televised address, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the strike was a response to Ukraine's deployment of U.S. and British long-range missiles, which have been used to target sites within Russia. "No one in the world has weapons like these," Putin said. This followed President Joe Biden 's recent decision to authorize the use of U.S.-supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) for strikes inside Russian territory—a significant policy shift announced last weekend. Kyiv had long been advocating for access to these missiles. Biden justified the move as a response to the involvement of North Korean troops in the conflict. "ATACMS will significantly enhance Ukraine's ability to disrupt Russian operations deep behind the front lines," Andriy Zagorodnyuk, Ukraine's former defense minister, told the Financial Times . "These missiles allow us to address high-value targets that other systems cannot." Do you have a story we should be covering? Do you have any questions about this article or the war in Ukraine? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.co mTAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Tampa Bay’s bid for a fourth straight NFC South title and fifth consecutive playoff berth is gaining momentum. Back-to-back wins over a pair of last-place teams , combined with Atlanta’s three-game losing streak, have propelled the Bucs (6-6) to a tie atop the division. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get any of our free email newsletters — news headlines, obituaries, sports, and more.
As 2024 winds down, I checked records to check the last time common Nigerians celebrated Christmas and New Year with desired joy, jubilation and happiness. For over two decades, the story had been of hoping that the incoming year would be better. Yet the succeeding year was always worse than the preceding one. We are on the same trend today. The year 2024 is ending not only on a bad but also on a deadly note. Friendly palliative gatherings became deadly palliative assemblies. Calling to question the policies that made palliative an option in caregiving. Pervasive poverty and hunger have turned hitherto decent communities in Nigeria into beggars’ enclaves. This year started on a bad note with high interest rates from the carryover policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Monetary Policy Committee, rising domestic prices or inflation partly as a result of rising energy prices generally and fuel prices in particular, coupled with massive depreciation of the naira, which turned out to be deliberate devaluation to keep the exchange rate at over N1,500 per US dollar! The aim was to make the monetisation of the oil money look huge and federal allocations to the three tiers of government bigger than they used to be. These policies were inimical to economic growth and the development or survival of businesses and human existence. These negative factors or policies that fuelled the deepening hardship being witnessed throughout 2024 started early, even from 2023 and with progressive intensity. Many medium and small businesses went under, and large businesses had to scale down production because of the high cost of production and declining consumer spending. Loss of jobs for many hitherto employed became a common phenomenon with loss of income for households and extended families, as well as loss of revenue to the government in terms of taxes. The expectations that all the presidential travels in search of foreign investments would start yielding fruits came to zero as some existing foreign businesses were leaving due to a bad policy mix. Foreign investors will prefer to invest in an economy with 50 million high- or middle-income citizens who can buy their products than a country of 200 million with two-thirds of the low-income or poverty-stricken citizens. The majority of such country’s citizens would not be able to buy the products despite the low unit cost of production. Foreign businessmen and women will prefer to invest in a country with stable or low inflation that assures them of moderate cost of production to make their outputs and products competitive in prices such that imported commodities of the same nature would not be cheaper and preferred by citizens. Foreign investors would prefer countries with strong and stable domestic currencies such that when they feel they have made huge profits, the exchange rate would not, at the repatriation stage, turn it into a massive loss. One wonders how much brainstorming goes into Nigeria’s policy initiatives, implementation and evaluation. More appropriately, with the doggedness with which our government stuck to its policies once it is introduced, we may ask if there are alternative policies or Plan B to every policy made, such that a fall-back position is created when policy outcomes are not producing the expected feedback. The economy is swimming in huge local and foreign debts and requiring humongous debt servicing which deprives the economy of funds for development, more so when the borrowed funds were hardly used for projects that could yield return and payback. Nigeria’s government now spends over 65 per cent of its revenue on servicing debts. Sometimes citizens are made to believe that there is nothing bad in borrowing. In addition, they claim that the United States is the biggest debtor in the world. They even go as far as saying that the US owes China humongous debt. All those statements are half-truths. Related News Justice ministry to renovate buildings with N2bn in 2025 Afenifere leader hopeful of better life in 2025 FG spends N8.73bn on airport power infrastructure in 2024 —Report If the government borrows too much from the domestic market, it deprives the private sector of the opportunity to borrow money for investments, even cheaply. In competition for funds or loans from the financial market between the public and private sectors, the lenders will give preference to the public because a government exists forever while businesses can go bankrupt. Also, it is the government that will be able to pay the high interest rates that the banks will demand in the face of high demand for loans. This is what is referred to as ‘crowding out effects’. Unfortunately, the public sector is unlikely to put the funds into efficient use that the private sector would. Part of the loans will be spent on consumption, part stolen and part mismanaged or expended on over-invoice projects. The same thing would likely happen to foreign loans. On the issue of the United States and the rest of us, it is fallacious to deride America with its debt. Virtually every country is working for the US as we all want to have our reserves in dollars, thus making us indebted to the country. When a country borrows from the World Bank or IMF, the currency in the dollar, the US currency which makes such debtor indebted to America! If the US owes a country, it can easily print dollars, its currency (it does not need to do that anyway), to offset the debt whereas other countries will have to work to earn dollars to pay off their debts. More importantly, the US has enough assets over and above its debt value. Until another global currency emerges and the US is borrowing and paying back in that currency, we are not on the same level. So, don’t be deceived by the statement on the US indebtedness. The important thing to note is that no highly indebted country can develop until it has been able to reduce the debt to below 20 per cent of revenue and less than 40 per cent of GDP. Our condition in this respect is precarious. Yet, the 2025 budget is largely dependent on fresh loans! Debt, particularly foreign debt, is like opium that countries get addicted to and require rehabilitation to get over it. Nigeria is already hooked! The year 2024 witnessed the actual rebirth in the oil sector with production output from the Dangote refinery and for the first time in decades, one of Nigeria’s nearly forgotten local refineries, the Port Harcourt refinery, came alive with production to compete with Dangote’s business. It is a good sign of possible good things to come. But with the pre-determined or manipulated price far above production cost, the citizens may not reap the benefits. The Nigerian factor from the government and the business community will not make the benefits of the fuel sector trickle down. For instance, the manipulated price was, by some agreement and as announced, brought down below N1,000 per litre at pump price but the prices at the fuel stations, including NNPC outlets remained above N1,000 for one week thereafter. What a country! The outgoing year sees some fight against corruption outside the political circle. Two major events are quite recent and have to do with the Abuja duplexes pinned to an ex-CBN governor but are yet to be confirmed officially beyond the confiscation of the property. The arrests of foreigners and Nigerians involved in cybercrime activities, are still in Abuja. The issues of ex-governors and now legislators, the former accountant-general, and other people at the corridor of power whose files have been with the Economic Financial Crime Commission over the years are being deliberately and gradually forgotten. The high cost of education at all levels is causing another dimension in the drop-out saga and rising number of ‘Yahoo boys’ and Association of Yahoo mothers; the rising cost of Medicare that is returning people to the elewe omo (traditional medicine) with attendant high mortality rates among pregnant women and children; the absence of clear cut policy on agriculture, particularly ranching that is sustaining farmers-herders clash and food insecurity; the government’s principal officers and hangers-on arrogance and carefree attitude about the precarious living conditions of ordinary Nigerians; and other glaring nefarious activities of the political class are a carryover from 2024 to 2025. Such situations are indicative that those who survive 2025 will only thank God that they did not live good lives in the year. I wish the government could disappoint me.Until recently, the Mount Washington Observatory had about 17 remote weather monitoring stations. At the end of a four-year expansion, it’ll have more than 50, said its executive director. Those expanded data points will help a variety of constituents across sectors spanning from climate science to outdoor recreation. The first leg of the expansion — which came in November in the form of five new automated stations along the Cog Railway on the west side of Mount Washington — paves the way to improved weather forecasts. “It’ll just make our ability to give accurate forecasts so very much enhanced,” said Drew Bush, the executive director of the observatory. “... When you look at storm tracks for our region, most storms are coming from the west, and our observation team on the summit of Mount Washington has been asking for this data for years.” These stations — with locations around Mount Washington and other spots in the White Mountains — collect data on temperature, precipitation, wind speed, relative humidity, and more, which is available to the public online. They’re part of the Mount Washington Regional Mesonet, which the observatory describes as “a network of automated stations in and around the White Mountains that continuously collect weather data.” This provides valuable information to researchers and meteorologists, including the National Weather Service. Stations vary, but the majority are tripods that stand about 10 feet tall, Bush said. Most are equipped with solar panels, due to their remote locations, though a few can plug directly into the electrical grid, he said. Sometimes snow can cover solar panels and cause delays, but if the stations have power, they transmit data in real time, Bush said. Federal money has facilitated this expansion, which will also include modernizing 11 existing stations, Bush said. One of those funding sources is a Northern Border Regional Commission Catalyst Grant. Other funds come from a request appropriated by Congress, an effort Bush said was spearheaded by U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. The enhanced forecasting abilities will help the observatory better inform hikers, skiers, and other visitors to the White Mountains of the weather conditions, Bush said. It will also assist search-and-rescue teams. “There’s, I think, just a huge amount of desire from the community to have this data,” Bush said. “... I think just from a very basic level, to try to really help people stay safe when they’re here as guests and visitors and they’re recreating outdoors.” People have observed the weather from Mount Washington for more than 150 years, according to a history of the observatory by its curator Dr. Peter Crane. Its extreme weather — which can feature sub-zero temperatures, snow, and strong winds — has attracted researchers and visitors to New England’s highest peak. The stations can pay a price for their observations, with the harsh weather sometimes damaging equipment. “Pretty much every year” they make repairs at stations or update their technology, Bush said. “It’s an iterative process,” Bush said, “so we’re always looking to improve them, to make sure that they can really survive the elements, you know, to make sure we have sort of the latest, most cutting-edge technology for them.” Part of the observatory’s role is developing technology for weather stations. As part of work with a professor who is a National Geographic Explorer, for instance, a piece of the observatory’s technology is on Mount Everest tracking wind speeds, Bush said. Closer to home, decades of weather observations make Mount Washington a valuable tool for viewing how Earth’s climate has changed in recent decades. Researchers, using data from sites across the White Mountains, have found warming air temperatures, wetter summers, an increase in heavy precipitation events, and a loss in snow, according to a fact sheet from the observatory and partners. This expansion will help establish a more comprehensive history of the White Mountains’ climate and a closer look at how it’s changing. “Looking forward into the future, it really allows us to establish this much more detailed record,” Bush said.Players of Pokémon Go may not have realized it, but they've been training more than their Pokémon. Niantic, the developer behind the popular mobile game Pokémon Go, announced last week it is building an AI model to map the physical world. This "large geospatial model" would utilize data collected from players to the company said in a blog post. , first released in 2016, is an augmented reality game where players use their mobile phones to find and catch virtual Pokémon in the real world. In the game, which has had more than since release, players can also collect items at PokéStops and battle at gyms, which are both located at real-world landmarks. Niantic's model is training and processing data using geolocation information from scans players submit of those real-world locations while playing Pokémon Go and other Niantic games. "Over the past five years, Niantic has focused on building our (VPS), which uses a single image from a phone to determine its position and orientation using a 3D map built from people scanning interesting locations in our games and Scaniverse," the company said in the announcement. The company said it currently has 10 million scanned locations from around the world for with about 1 million new scans each week. The model will process these geolocated images and create a 3D map, while also filling in information about geographic locations, "implementing a shared understanding of geographic locations, and comprehending places yet to be fully scanned," according to the blog post. Companies looking for more ways to utilize customer data is becoming the "new normal," , the executive director of the Information Security Institute at Johns Hopkins University, told USA TODAY. Niantic said the data is unique since it is taken from a "pedestrian perspective," unlike other mapping systems that rely on images captured by vehicles and may not include places inaccessible to cars. According to Niantic's , the company collects location data, and other personal data, such as name and email address. The privacy policy outlines what is and isn't shared with third-party vendors, but not what the company does with the data. Niantic has a separate who play the developer's games, and a portal where parents can set up and manage their child's profile. "It's a typical problem with data privacy and the state of technology today," Dahbura said. "In fact, it's almost par for the course that companies are looking for ways to use their data, and it's even expected by investors." It's understandable for users to worry about how their collected personal data is being stored or shared. "Even with the best intentions, having troves of data that contain so much personal information can be dangerous," he said. "It can fall into the wrong hands, there can be a major data breach, and so on." For users who are worried about their privacy, Dahbura suggests players think carefully about their usage. "Use it exclusively in very public places, not places that you consider to be private, such as the interior of your home," he said. Users should also minimize having other people in images, "especially your loved ones," he said. Players should also be aware of location and how it is interwoven into so much personal data. "A lot of people really underestimate the importance of location data," Dahbura said. "Our critical infrastructure is much broader than people realize, including transportation systems, pharmaceutical, financial, food manufacturing and so on. If people with bad intentions figure out that you have access to these kinds of facilities, it can be used not only against you but also against national security."TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Tampa Bay’s bid for a fourth straight NFC South title and fifth consecutive playoff berth is gaining momentum. Back-to-back wins over a pair of last-place teams , combined with Atlanta’s three-game losing streak, have propelled the Bucs (6-6) to a tie atop the division. Although the Falcons (6-6) hold a tiebreaker after sweeping the season series between the teams, Tampa Bay can control its own destiny by finishing strong against a less than imposing schedule. The Bucs, who are back in the thick of the race after beating the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers, figure to be favored in four of their five remaining games. “Every week, we said it’s a playoff game, we got to take care of us. It’s not going to be easy. As it was (Sunday), it’s going to be a dog fight every week,” coach Todd Bowles said after Sunday’s 26-23 overtime win at Carolina. “We got to clean up some things, we know that, but it's hard to win in this league,” the coach said of the mistake-filled victory that lifted the Bucs back to .500. “We’ll take a win any way we can get it.” After facing Las Vegas (2-10) this week, the Bucs will finish with road games against the Los Angeles Chargers (8-4) and Dallas Cowboys (5-7), followed by home dates vs. Carolina (3-9) and the New Orleans Saints (4-8). Kicker Chase McLaughlin has been one of team’s most consistent performers, converting 21 of 23 field goal attempts. He was 4 of 5 against the Panthers, including 51-yarder to force overtime on the final play of regulation. He missed from 55 yards in OT before winning it with a 30-yard field goal on Tampa Bay’s next possession. Just when it appeared the defense was beginning to trend in the right direction, Carolina's Bryce Young threw for 298 yards without an interception against the Bucs in one of his better outings of the season. “In the first half, he did it with his feet and the second half he did it with his arm,” Bowles said. Running back Bucky Irving rushed for a career-best 152 yards and finished with 185 from scrimmage against Carolina, making him the first rookie since Miles Sanders in 2019 to have consecutive games with 150-plus yards from scrimmage. A week after playing well offensively and defensively in a 23-point rout of the New York Giants, the Bucs were sloppy against the Panthers. In addition to throwing two interceptions, Mayfield was sacked four times. Tampa Bay was penalized seven times for 54 yards, and the defense was only able to sack Young once. Mayfield (sore leg), linebacker K.J. Britt (sprained ankle) and safety Mike Edwards (hamstring) will be on the injury report this week. Bowles said he’s not sure what Mayfield's practice status will be when the team reconvenes Wednesday, however he expects the quarterback to play Sunday. 37 and 101 — Wide receiver Mike Evans had another big day against Carolina, posting the 37th 100-yard receiving performance of his career — fifth among active players. He also moved ahead of Hall of Famers Steve Largent and Tim Brown for sole possession of ninth place on the all-time list for TD receptions with 101. The Buccaneers host Las Vegas in Tampa Bay's first home game in a month and the third consecutive outing against a last-place team. The Raiders (2-10) have lost eight in a row. NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Newly married and sworn as a Naval officer, Jimmy Carter left his tiny hometown in 1946 hoping to climb the ranks and see the world. Less than a decade later, the death of his father and namesake, a merchant farmer and local politician who went by “Mr. Earl,” prompted the submariner and his wife, Rosalynn, to return to the rural life of Plains, Georgia, they thought they’d escaped. The lieutenant never would be an admiral. Instead, he became commander in chief. Years after his presidency ended in humbling defeat, he would add a Nobel Peace Prize, awarded not for his White House accomplishments but “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” The life of James Earl Carter Jr., the 39th and longest-lived U.S. president, ended Sunday at the age of 100 where it began: Plains, the town of 600 that fueled his political rise, welcomed him after his fall and sustained him during 40 years of service that redefined what it means to be a former president. With the stubborn confidence of an engineer and an optimism rooted in his Baptist faith, Carter described his motivations in politics and beyond in the same way: an almost missionary zeal to solve problems and improve lives. Carter was raised amid racism, abject poverty and hard rural living — realities that shaped both his deliberate politics and emphasis on human rights. “He always felt a responsibility to help people,” said Jill Stuckey, a longtime friend of Carter's in Plains. “And when he couldn’t make change wherever he was, he decided he had to go higher.” Carter's path, a mix of happenstance and calculation , pitted moral imperatives against political pragmatism; and it defied typical labels of American politics, especially caricatures of one-term presidents as failures. “We shouldn’t judge presidents by how popular they are in their day. That's a very narrow way of assessing them," Carter biographer Jonathan Alter told the Associated Press. “We should judge them by how they changed the country and the world for the better. On that score, Jimmy Carter is not in the first rank of American presidents, but he stands up quite well.” Later in life, Carter conceded that many Americans, even those too young to remember his tenure, judged him ineffective for failing to contain inflation or interest rates, end the energy crisis or quickly bring home American hostages in Iran. He gained admirers instead for his work at The Carter Center — advocating globally for public health, human rights and democracy since 1982 — and the decades he and Rosalynn wore hardhats and swung hammers with Habitat for Humanity. Yet the common view that he was better after the Oval Office than in it annoyed Carter, and his allies relished him living long enough to see historians reassess his presidency. “He doesn’t quite fit in today’s terms” of a left-right, red-blue scoreboard, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who visited the former president multiple times during his own White House bid. At various points in his political career, Carter labeled himself “progressive” or “conservative” — sometimes both at once. His most ambitious health care bill failed — perhaps one of his biggest legislative disappointments — because it didn’t go far enough to suit liberals. Republicans, especially after his 1980 defeat, cast him as a left-wing cartoon. It would be easiest to classify Carter as a centrist, Buttigieg said, “but there’s also something radical about the depth of his commitment to looking after those who are left out of society and out of the economy.” Indeed, Carter’s legacy is stitched with complexities, contradictions and evolutions — personal and political. The self-styled peacemaker was a war-trained Naval Academy graduate who promised Democratic challenger Ted Kennedy that he’d “kick his ass.” But he campaigned with a call to treat everyone with “respect and compassion and with love.” Carter vowed to restore America’s virtue after the shame of Vietnam and Watergate, and his technocratic, good-government approach didn't suit Republicans who tagged government itself as the problem. It also sometimes put Carter at odds with fellow Democrats. The result still was a notable legislative record, with wins on the environment, education, and mental health care. He dramatically expanded federally protected lands, began deregulating air travel, railroads and trucking, and he put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy. As a fiscal hawk, Carter added a relative pittance to the national debt, unlike successors from both parties. Carter nonetheless struggled to make his achievements resonate with the electorate he charmed in 1976. Quoting Bob Dylan and grinning enthusiastically, he had promised voters he would “never tell a lie.” Once in Washington, though, he led like a joyless engineer, insisting his ideas would become reality and he'd be rewarded politically if only he could convince enough people with facts and logic. This served him well at Camp David, where he brokered peace between Israel’s Menachem Begin and Epypt’s Anwar Sadat, an experience that later sparked the idea of The Carter Center in Atlanta. Carter's tenacity helped the center grow to a global force that monitored elections across five continents, enabled his freelance diplomacy and sent public health experts across the developing world. The center’s wins were personal for Carter, who hoped to outlive the last Guinea worm parasite, and nearly did. As president, though, the approach fell short when he urged consumers beleaguered by energy costs to turn down their thermostats. Or when he tried to be the nation’s cheerleader, beseeching Americans to overcome a collective “crisis of confidence.” Republican Ronald Reagan exploited Carter's lecturing tone with a belittling quip in their lone 1980 debate. “There you go again,” the former Hollywood actor said in response to a wonky answer from the sitting president. “The Great Communicator” outpaced Carter in all but six states. Carter later suggested he “tried to do too much, too soon” and mused that he was incompatible with Washington culture: media figures, lobbyists and Georgetown social elites who looked down on the Georgians and their inner circle as “country come to town.” Carter carefully navigated divides on race and class on his way to the Oval Office. Born Oct. 1, 1924 , Carter was raised in the mostly Black community of Archery, just outside Plains, by a progressive mother and white supremacist father. Their home had no running water or electricity but the future president still grew up with the relative advantages of a locally prominent, land-owning family in a system of Jim Crow segregation. He wrote of President Franklin Roosevelt’s towering presence and his family’s Democratic Party roots, but his father soured on FDR, and Jimmy Carter never campaigned or governed as a New Deal liberal. He offered himself as a small-town peanut farmer with an understated style, carrying his own luggage, bunking with supporters during his first presidential campaign and always using his nickname. And he began his political career in a whites-only Democratic Party. As private citizens, he and Rosalynn supported integration as early as the 1950s and believed it inevitable. Carter refused to join the White Citizens Council in Plains and spoke out in his Baptist church against denying Black people access to worship services. “This is not my house; this is not your house,” he said in a churchwide meeting, reminding fellow parishioners their sanctuary belonged to God. Yet as the appointed chairman of Sumter County schools he never pushed to desegregate, thinking it impractical after the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board decision. And while presidential candidate Carter would hail the 1965 Voting Rights Act, signed by fellow Democrat Lyndon Johnson when Carter was a state senator, there is no record of Carter publicly supporting it at the time. Carter overcame a ballot-stuffing opponent to win his legislative seat, then lost the 1966 governor's race to an arch-segregationist. He won four years later by avoiding explicit mentions of race and campaigning to the right of his rival, who he mocked as “Cufflinks Carl” — the insult of an ascendant politician who never saw himself as part the establishment. Carter’s rural and small-town coalition in 1970 would match any victorious Republican electoral map in 2024. Once elected, though, Carter shocked his white conservative supporters — and landed on the cover of Time magazine — by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.” Before making the jump to Washington, Carter befriended the family of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., whom he’d never sought out as he eyed the governor’s office. Carter lamented his foot-dragging on school integration as a “mistake.” But he also met, conspicuously, with Alabama's segregationist Gov. George Wallace to accept his primary rival's endorsement ahead of the 1976 Democratic convention. “He very shrewdly took advantage of his own Southerness,” said Amber Roessner, a University of Tennessee professor and expert on Carter’s campaigns. A coalition of Black voters and white moderate Democrats ultimately made Carter the last Democratic presidential nominee to sweep the Deep South. Then, just as he did in Georgia, he used his power in office to appoint more non-whites than all his predecessors had, combined. He once acknowledged “the secret shame” of white Americans who didn’t fight segregation. But he also told Alter that doing more would have sacrificed his political viability – and thus everything he accomplished in office and after. King's daughter, Bernice King, described Carter as wisely “strategic” in winning higher offices to enact change. “He was a leader of conscience,” she said in an interview. Rosalynn Carter, who died on Nov. 19 at the age of 96, was identified by both husband and wife as the “more political” of the pair; she sat in on Cabinet meetings and urged him to postpone certain priorities, like pressing the Senate to relinquish control of the Panama Canal. “Let that go until the second term,” she would sometimes say. The president, recalled her former aide Kathy Cade, retorted that he was “going to do what’s right” even if “it might cut short the time I have.” Rosalynn held firm, Cade said: “She’d remind him you have to win to govern.” Carter also was the first president to appoint multiple women as Cabinet officers. Yet by his own telling, his career sprouted from chauvinism in the Carters' early marriage: He did not consult Rosalynn when deciding to move back to Plains in 1953 or before launching his state Senate bid a decade later. Many years later, he called it “inconceivable” that he didn’t confer with the woman he described as his “full partner,” at home, in government and at The Carter Center. “We developed a partnership when we were working in the farm supply business, and it continued when Jimmy got involved in politics,” Rosalynn Carter told AP in 2021. So deep was their trust that when Carter remained tethered to the White House in 1980 as 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran, it was Rosalynn who campaigned on her husband’s behalf. “I just loved it,” she said, despite the bitterness of defeat. Fair or not, the label of a disastrous presidency had leading Democrats keep their distance, at least publicly, for many years, but Carter managed to remain relevant, writing books and weighing in on societal challenges. He lamented widening wealth gaps and the influence of money in politics. He voted for democratic socialist Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in 2016, and later declared that America had devolved from fully functioning democracy to “oligarchy.” Yet looking ahead to 2020, with Sanders running again, Carter warned Democrats not to “move to a very liberal program,” lest they help re-elect President Donald Trump. Carter scolded the Republican for his serial lies and threats to democracy, and chided the U.S. establishment for misunderstanding Trump’s populist appeal. He delighted in yearly convocations with Emory University freshmen, often asking them to guess how much he’d raised in his two general election campaigns. “Zero,” he’d gesture with a smile, explaining the public financing system candidates now avoid so they can raise billions. Carter still remained quite practical in partnering with wealthy corporations and foundations to advance Carter Center programs. Carter recognized that economic woes and the Iran crisis doomed his presidency, but offered no apologies for appointing Paul Volcker as the Federal Reserve chairman whose interest rate hikes would not curb inflation until Reagan's presidency. He was proud of getting all the hostages home without starting a shooting war, even though Tehran would not free them until Reagan's Inauguration Day. “Carter didn’t look at it” as a failure, Alter emphasized. “He said, ‘They came home safely.’ And that’s what he wanted.” Well into their 90s, the Carters greeted visitors at Plains’ Maranatha Baptist Church, where he taught Sunday School and where he will have his last funeral before being buried on family property alongside Rosalynn . Carter, who made the congregation’s collection plates in his woodworking shop, still garnered headlines there, calling for women’s rights within religious institutions, many of which, he said, “subjugate” women in church and society. Carter was not one to dwell on regrets. “I am at peace with the accomplishments, regret the unrealized goals and utilize my former political position to enhance everything we do,” he wrote around his 90th birthday. The politician who had supposedly hated Washington politics also enjoyed hosting Democratic presidential contenders as public pilgrimages to Plains became advantageous again. Carter sat with Buttigieg for the final time March 1, 2020, hours before the Indiana mayor ended his campaign and endorsed eventual winner Joe Biden. “He asked me how I thought the campaign was going,” Buttigieg said, recalling that Carter flashed his signature grin and nodded along as the young candidate, born a year after Carter left office, “put the best face” on the walloping he endured the day before in South Carolina. Never breaking his smile, the 95-year-old host fired back, “I think you ought to drop out.” “So matter of fact,” Buttigieg said with a laugh. “It was somehow encouraging.” Carter had lived enough, won plenty and lost enough to take the long view. “He talked a lot about coming from nowhere,” Buttigieg said, not just to attain the presidency but to leverage “all of the instruments you have in life” and “make the world more peaceful.” In his farewell address as president, Carter said as much to the country that had embraced and rejected him. “The struggle for human rights overrides all differences of color, nation or language,” he declared. “Those who hunger for freedom, who thirst for human dignity and who suffer for the sake of justice — they are the patriots of this cause.” Carter pledged to remain engaged with and for them as he returned “home to the South where I was born and raised,” home to Plains, where that young lieutenant had indeed become “a fellow citizen of the world.” —- Bill Barrow, based in Atlanta, has covered national politics including multiple presidential campaigns for the AP since 2012.None
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