The 26-year-old man charged in last week’s killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO in New York City made an appearance on Tuesday in a Pennsylvania courthouse . Police arrested Luigi Nicholas Mangione on Monday in last Wednesday's attack on Brian Thompson after they say a worker at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, alerted authorities to a customer who resembled the suspected gunman. Mangione had on him a gun that investigators believe was used in last Wednesday’s attack, as well as writings expressing anger at corporate America, police said. As Mangione arrived at the courthouse Tuesday, he struggled with officers and shouted something that was partly unintelligible but referred to an “insult to the intelligence of the American people.” Mangione is being held without bail in Pennsylvania on charges of possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police. Manhattan prosecutors have charged him with five counts, including murder, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a forged instrument. Here are some of the latest developments: During Tuesday's hearing, Mangione was denied bail. His attorney, Thomas Dickey, told the court that his client wants a hearing on the extradition issue. Mangione, wearing an orange jumpsuit, mostly stared straight ahead at the hearing, occasionally consulting papers, rocking in his chair, or looking back at the gallery. At one point, he began to speak to respond to the court discussion, but was quieted by his lawyer. In addition to a three-page, handwritten document that suggests he harbored “ill will toward corporate America,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said Monday that Mangione also had a ghost gun, a type of weapon that can be assembled at home and is difficult to trace. Officers questioned Mangione, who was acting suspiciously and carrying multiple fraudulent IDs, as well as a U.S. passport, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. Officers also found a sound suppressor, or silencer, “consistent with the weapon used in the murder,” she said. He had clothing and a mask similar to those worn by the shooter and a fraudulent New Jersey ID matching one the suspect used to check into a New York City hostel before the shooting, the commissioner said. Kenny said Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, has ties to San Francisco and that his last known address is in Honolulu. Mangione, who was valedictorian of his Maryland prep school, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania, a university spokesman told The Associated Press on Monday. Mangione comes from a prominent Maryland family. His grandfather Nick Mangione, who died in 2008, was a successful real estate developer. One of his best-known projects was Turf Valley Resort, a sprawling luxury retreat and conference center outside Baltimore that he purchased in 1978. Mangione likely was motivated by his anger with what he called “parasitic” health insurance companies and a disdain with corporate greed, said a law enforcement bulletin obtained by The Associated Press. He wrote that the U.S. has the most expensive healthcare system in the world and that the profits of major corporations continue to rise while “our life expectancy” does not, according to the bulletin, which was based on a review of the suspect’s hand-written notes and social media postings. The defendant appeared to view the targeted killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO as a symbolic takedown and may have been inspired by “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski, whom he called a “political revolutionary,” the document said. Police said the person who killed Thompson left a hostel on Manhattan's Upper West Side at 5:41 a.m. on Wednesday. Eleven minutes later, he was seen on surveillance video walking back and forth in front of the New York Hilton Midtown, wearing a distinctive backpack. At 6:44 a.m., he shot Thompson at a side entrance to the hotel, fled on foot, then climbed aboard a bicycle and within four minutes had entered Central Park, according to police. Another security camera recorded the gunman leaving the park near the American Museum of Natural History at 6:56 a.m. still on the bicycle but without the backpack, police said. After getting in a taxi, he headed north to a bus terminal near the George Washington Bridge, arriving at around 7:30 a.m. From there, the trail of video evidence runs cold. Police have not located video of the suspect exiting the building, leading them to believe he likely took a bus out of town. Police said they are still investigating the path the suspect took to Pennsylvania. “This just happened this morning," Kenny said. "We’ll be working, backtracking his steps from New York to Altoona, Pennsylvania,” Kenny said. Associated Press reporters Lea Skene, Matt O'Brien, Sean Murphy and Cedar Attanasio contributed to this report. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.Azma accuses PTI leaders of exploiting ‘Pashtun Card’ for political gainsExpedition 71 Astronauts to Discuss Mission in NASA Welcome Home Event

Cole Anthony hit the game-winning basket with 1.3 seconds left to cap a furious rally as the host Orlando Magic erased a 21-point deficit and completed a season sweep of the Brooklyn Nets with a 102-101 victory on Sunday. The Magic ended their fourth win over the Nets this season on a 22-4 run over the final 7:16 and capped the comeback on Anthony's dramatic shot. After Jalen Wilson sank two free throws with 6.2 seconds left, Orlando called its final timeout. Rookie Tristan da Silva inbounded to Anthony from the left sideline and the guard moved to the basket. Anthony got by Keon Johnson and Simmons and hit an uncontested stepback four-foot jumper. After Anthony's clutch shot, Da Silva blanketed Cam Thomas at the left corner as the Brooklyn guard missed a 3-point try at the horn. Da Silva led the Magic with 21 points to go along with seven assists and six rebounds. Goga Bitadze collected 11 rebounds and added 19 points, including a free throw that gave Orlando its first lead since the opening quarter with 17.7 seconds left. Caleb Houstan hit two 3s in the comeback and added 12 while fellow reserve Anthony contributed 10. Anthony did not play in the first half but replaced Jalen Suggs, who exited at halftime with a sprained wrist. Thomas returned from a hamstring injury and led all scorers with 25 off the bench but the Nets did not make a field goal in the final 7:16 and lost for the 10th time in 13 games. Wilson added 16 and Keon Johnson contributed 14 as the Nets also lost Cameron Johnson to a sore left hip after the third. The Nets took the loss after trading Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton to the Los Angeles Lakers for D'Angelo Russell and Maxwell Lewis. After taking a 61-43 lead by halftime, the Nets held a 71-50 lead when Keon Johnson hit three free throws with 7:55 left in the third. Thomas scored Brooklyn's final six points of the third to give the Nets an 83-68 lead into the fourth and Wilson sank three triples in a span of 47 seconds to up the lead to 97-80 before Orlando stormed back. --Field Level Media/Reuters

MALIBU, Calif. (AP) — The wildfire alert came in the middle of the night as some college students in Southern California were cramming for final exams and others were woken up in their dorms. But rather than run away from the impending blaze, some 3,000 students at Pepperdine University headed toward two buildings at the heart of the 830-acre (336 hectare) campus in coastal Malibu, California, to shelter in place. The protocol at the Christian university with picturesque views of the Pacific Ocean may seem to defy logic to those accustomed to scenes elsewhere in wildfire-prone California of thousands of residents evacuating fire zones in lengthy caravans of cars. For years, the university nestled in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains has had a special protocol due to its unique terrain and design that calls for students to be brought to a library and campus center where they can get food and water and have their basic needs met, said Michael Friel, a Pepperdine spokesperson. The school began preparing students and community members on what to do in case of a wildfire during new student orientation at the beginning of the academic year. When the fire broke out Monday night, school officials started communicating with students around 11 p.m. and activated the shelter-in-place protocol about two hours later, spreading the word through text messages, email, social media and by going door to door. “A lot of our students were woken up by a knock on the door, and we made sure they were aware of the conditions and we were able to get them out of harm’s way,” Friel said. The quickly moved south, jumping over the famous Pacific Coast Highway and stretching to the coast, where large homes line the beach. Thousands of Southern California residents were under evacuation orders and warnings Tuesday with more than 8,100 homes and other structures under threat. County fire officials estimated that more than 3.5 square miles (9 square kilometers) of trees and dry brush had burned amid dangerous conditions fanned by dry, gusty that were expected to last into Wednesday. The cause of the fire was not immediately known. Ryan Song, a resident assistant at Pepperdine University, said he noticed the power went out at his dorm late Monday. When he looked out the window, he saw a huge pink glow. “I thought, ‘This is too bright,’ and it got bigger and bigger,” the 20-year-old junior said. “I immediately went outside and saw that it was a real fire.” Song and the other assistants went door to door to get students out. Most were calm and followed instructions, he said; a few who were scared rushed to their cars to get off campus. Song said he spent the next few hours racing back and forth in the dark between his dorm and the main campus to ensure no one was left behind. Pepperdine University officials said the campus was designed in the 1960s with fire safety in mind due to the region’s experience with wildfires. Buildings were clustered together and covered in stucco while roadways were constructed to make it easy for firefighters to get in, said Phil Phillips, the school’s executive vice president. During the 1990s, campus officials worked with Los Angeles County fire authorities to develop a safety plan, and authorities said the safest option for students would be to remain on campus. The school is diligent about brush clearance and has a plan to reduce smoke in shelter-in-place locations by taping shut doors and using air filters, he said. The nearby stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway can also become congested during an emergency, Phillips said, such as during the deadly in 2018. “What you don’t want is to be stuck,” said Phillips, who has been at the campus for three decades — including as a student — and said he has been through seven fires. “Protecting our students, providing for their safety is a moral obligation for us, so we take it really, really seriously.” On Tuesday, heavy smoke from the Franklin Fire, burning northeast of the school, billowed over the campus 29 miles (47 kilometers) west of Los Angeles, and classes were cancelled and final exams postponed. Firefighters had not contained any part of the blaze as of Tuesday afternoon. The campus was singed but no injuries were reported, and only one structure possibly was minimally damaged thanks to firefighters’ hard work and collaboration from students, faculty and others on campus, Friel said. Jim Gash, the college’s president, said the campus was no longer threatened on Tuesday afternoon. “I am grateful that through prayer, preparation, and cooperation, our Pepperdine community safely navigated the challenges encountered over the last 12 hours,” Gash said in a statement. “Our prayers continue to go out to the Malibu community.” ___ Taxin reported from Santa Ana, Calif. Associated Press writer Julie Watson in San Diego contributed to this report.

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With about 40 days until President-elect Donald Trump takes office, President Joe Biden is expected to block a Japanese company’s acquisition of U.S. Steel. On Tuesday, Bloomberg reported that Biden plans to block the $1.4 billion sale. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States panel must refer its decision to Biden by Dec. 22 or 23, according to Bloomberg. If CFIUS finds national security risks with the deal, members could either negotiate mitigation terms between the two parties or recommend the president block the deal, Sarah Bauerle Danzman, an associate professor of international studies at Indiana University-Bloomington, told the Post-Tribune. Biden had shared in March that he opposed the sale, and Trump had vowed during his campaign that he would block the deal. “U.S. Steel has been an iconic American steel company for more than a century, and it is vital for it to remain an American steel company that is domestically owned and operated,” Biden said in a March statement. In December 2023, it was announced that Nippon Steel would acquire the American company, according to U.S. Steel’s website. If the deal passed, Nippon Steel plans to invest about $300 million into the local Gary Works facility, which would’ve been invested into the blast furnace. Gary Mayor Eddie Melton in a Dec. 3 statement said that he supports the deal because Nippon has committed to modernizing U.S. Steel’s plants, relining the blast furnaces and deploying modern technology. Nippon also planned to maintain current union employment levels and honor the bargaining agreement with United Steelworkers. “The CEO of U.S. Steel has stated publicly that there will be plant closures should this deal fail,” Melton said. “This will clearly hurt communities like Gary, who hosts the most productive plant in the U.S. portfolio.” Melton and Takahiro Mori, vice chairman of Nippon Steel, on Thursday are set to host a news conference at Gary City Hall, according to a Tuesday news release. In a Dec. 3 statement, a U.S. Steel spokesman said the deal provides the brightest future for the American steel company. The spokesman didn’t address whether they believed Biden would approve the deal before Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration. Nippon Steel planned to preserve U.S. Steel as an American company and keep it headquartered in Pennsylvania, the statement said. The Japanese company planned to invest nearly $3 billion into its union-represented facilities. U.S. Steel employs about 4,500 steelworkers at both Gary Works and its Midwest plant in Portage. “The transaction should be approved on its merits,” U.S. Steel’s statement said. “The benefits are overwhelmingly clear. Our communities, customers, investors and employees strongly support this transaction, and we will continue to advocate for them and adherence to the rule of law.” mwilkins@chicagotribune.comUnited Airlines travelers with lost luggage have a new tool to track their bags. If the lost bag has an Apple AirTag in it, that information can now be passed directly to United, the airline announced Thursday. The new feature, called Share Item Location, allows travelers with an AirTag or other Find My network accessory to share the location with the airline’s customer service team to help locate their luggage in the event it’s misplaced. United says more than 99% of its customers pick up their luggage without a hitch. Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images/File via CNN Newsource The feature is now available with iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2 or macOS 15.2. “Apple’s new Share Item Location feature will help customers travel with even more confidence, knowing they have another way to access their bag’s precise location with AirTag or their Find My accessory of choice,” said David Kinzelman, United’s chief customer officer. Travelers on United whose bags do not arrive at their destination can file a delayed baggage report with United and share the link to the item’s location either through the United app or via text message. After the report has been submitted, customer service agents will be able to locate the item on an interactive map alongside a timestamp of a recent update. The shared location will be disabled after a customer has the bag, and customers can also stop sharing the location of the item at any time on their own. The location link will also automatically expire after seven days. Using AirTags or other tracking devices on luggage is increasingly popular among frequent travelers, with a significant boom following the 2022 Southwest Airlines holiday meltdown , which displaced thousands of travelers over Christmas and into 2023, alongside much of their belongings. United says lost bags are rare, with more than 99% of its customers arriving with their bags. It says the new technology will help those with lost bags to recover them more quickly because the airline will have more information about them. Apple previously announced the new service will also be integrated at other air carriers, including Delta Air Lines. Others include Aer Lingus, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Iberia, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Swiss International Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Vueling.

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Biden is considering preemptive pardons for officials and allies before Trump takes officeEXCLUSIVE Donald Trump announces he is making Kimberly Guilfoyle his ambassador to Greece in stunning move Guilfoyle is a former Fox News host and a big Trump fundraiser By ROB CRILLY, CHIEF U.S. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT FOR DAILYMAIL.COM IN WASHINGTON, D.C. Published: 17:35 EST, 10 December 2024 | Updated: 18:24 EST, 10 December 2024 e-mail 32 shares 136 View comments Donald Trump announced Tuesday he was appointing ex-Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle as his ambassador to Greece . Guilfoyle, 55, studied international law and entered public life as a prosecutor in San Francisco and Los Angeles , but entered the Trump orbit as fiancee to the president-elect's son Don Jr , 46. 'Her extensive experience and leadership in law, media, and politics along with her sharp intellect make her supremely qualified to represent the United States, and safeguard its interests abroad,' Trump said in a Truth Social post. 'Kimberly is perfectly suited to foster strong bilateral relations with Greece, advancing our interests on issues ranging from defense cooperation to trade and economic innovation.' The announcement comes just hours after Daily Mail published photographs of Don Jr. hand-in-hand with the Palm Beach socialite , Bettina Anderson, showing his days with Guilfoyle are clearly over. Don Jnr and Guilfoyle began dating in 2018 and became engaged in 2020. However, Daily Mail has reported extensively that their relationship is all but over since September. Donald Jr. continued to be photographed with 55-year-old Guilfoyle after our revelation, but she has not been snapped with him since November 12 – and was reported to have been 'blindsided'. 'There are a ton of people vying for this. It is one of the hottest posts in the world,' said a source familiar with the president-elect's thinking. 'Not just because it's an amazing place place to live, but because it's a hotbed of activity with everything that is happening in Syria , throughout the middle east, and the migrant crisis.' The source added that Guilfoyle, aside from her relationship with Don Jr. had known Trump for 20 years, and raised hundreds of millions of dollars for his campaigns. 'He wants her to represent him on the world stage,' the source added. Kimberly Guilfoyle is the favorite to be Donald Trump's next ambassador to Greece Guilfoyle was a host on Fox News for more than a decade and has known Trump for 20 years 'She studied international law and will be amazing spokeswoman for Donald Trump. 'She'll be the Jackie O of the MAGA movement.' Guilfoyle was assistant district attorney in San Francisco from 2000 to 2004. But it was her marriage to Democratic politician Gavin Newsom that brought into the public eye, when she was first lady of San Francisco during his first two years as mayor of that city. Insiders said that experience would help her cope with the demands of being Trump's representative overseas. Guilfoyle was an energetic campaigner for Trump and appeared on stage with the family at the election night party in West Palm Beach. She addressed foreign policy during her convention speech in Milwaukee. 'In our vision, America will combat foreign aggressors and ensure our service members are protected, not abandoned, as they carry out their dangerous missions abroad, because we know we can only have peace through strength,' she said in July. Donald Trump, Jr., and Bettina Anderson hold hands leaving Buccan restaurant in Palm Beach, Florida on Monday Donald Trump, Jr., and Bettina Anderson leave Buccan together on Monday night She appeared with other members of the Trump family in their box at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in July Guilfoyle addressed the party faithful on day three of the Republican National Convention But the appointment comes as her fiancee Don Jr. has been repeatedly pictured with Bettina Anderson , 38, around Palm Beach, suggesting his six-year engagement in well an truly over. The new couple's latest date saw them attend exclusive hotspot Buccan for two hours to celebrate Anderson's birthday. The restaurant is just three miles from Bettina's townhouse, where Don often stays. They looked every bit a new couple, with Don Jr holding her Bettina's hand as they left the venue just before 10pm. Guilfoyle's new role means she will likely be swapping life in Florida for Jefferson House, the American ambassador's residence in the Greek capital Athens. It comes with a swimming pool in the backyard and enough reception space to entertain hundreds of dignitaries. It was named for Thomas Jefferson who held up Greek democracy as the most important influence on the founding of the American republic. Donald Trump Jr Politics Greece Los Angeles Share or comment on this article: Donald Trump announces he is making Kimberly Guilfoyle his ambassador to Greece in stunning move e-mail 32 shares Add comment

Jimmy Carter: Many evolutions for a centenarian ‘citizen of the world’IT workers secretly funded North Korean weapons program, St. Louis FBI saysStewart cooked critics with Superwoman strength

By BILL BARROW, Associated Press 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.” Defying expectations 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.” ‘Country come to town’ 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.” A ‘leader of conscience’ on race and class 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 was Carter’s closest advisor 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. Reevaluating his legacy 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. Pilgrimages to Plains 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.

Arizona WR Tetairoa McMillan to enter 2025 NFL DraftFrom revisiting the political scandal that sparked a cultural reckoning in Canberra to a rich-lister’s unravelling, there were no shortage of court battles being waged — or defended — by the top end of town in 2024. We revisit some of the cases that dominated headlines and left us shocked, perplexed, and — at times — even entertained. Brittany Higgins defended a defamation action launched by Senator Linda Reynolds. Credit: Composite image/Holly Thompson Villain or victim? Reynolds v Higgins It was a story of an alleged rape in the halls of Parliament House and a covert political cover-up, and like all “fairytales”, it needed a villain. That was how WA Senator Linda Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett began the five-week-long trial in her defamation suit against former staffer Brittany Higgins and her husband David Sharaz, the most high-profile case to go before WA’s civil courts in 2024. The former defence minister sued Higgins over social media posts accusing her of mishandling the former staffer’s alleged rape by Bruce Lehrmann in March 2019 — a claim that was later aired by the media and created a storm that led to Reynolds’ political demise. Loading Higgins fiercely defended the action on the basis her posts were true, but opted against taking the stand at the eleventh hour amid concerns for her health. The trial, which the pair mortgaged and sold their homes to pursue, pored over the events of 2019 in excruciating detail, dragged in high-profile figures — from former prime minister Scott Morrison to broadcaster Peta Credlin — and threw private texts into the public arena we imagine the parties would have preferred to remain private.Romanian court upholds presidential election first-round resultsSeaspan Selects KVH to Equip Fleet with OneWeb Low Earth Orbit Solution

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Off the couch and into the fire