The suspect involved in the car-ramming attack in New Orleans has been identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old US military veteran from Texas. According to the FBI, Jabbar deliberately drove a pick-up truck into a crowd of New Year’s revellers on Bourbon Street, killing at least 15 people and injuring many others. The suspect was killed in a subsequent police shootout. The FBI is investigating the attack as a potential act of “terrorism” but has not specified the evidence behind this classification. Authorities believe that Jabbar may not have acted alone in the attack on this popular tourist destination. Jabbar, a US citizen, rented the F-150 Lightning electric truck used in the attack through the car rental website Turo. This website was also connected to another incident in Las Vegas, where a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside a Trump hotel, though it remains unclear whether the two incidents are linked. 15 killed in US truck attack Jabbar served in the US military from 2007 until 2020 and had a deployment to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010. He earned a degree in computer information systems from Georgia State University in 2017. The FBI discovered an ISIL (ISIS) flag inside the truck, prompting an investigation into any potential links between Jabbar and terrorist organisations. New Orleans City Council President Helena Moreno stated that Jabbar was wearing full military gear, and police described his actions as intentional. Court records show Jabbar had financial troubles in 2022, including falling behind on house payments by $27,000 and accumulating $16,000 in credit card debt, while going through a divorce. He expressed a desire to quickly finalise the divorce and avoid foreclosure. Jabbar had worked for consulting firm Deloitte, earning around $10,000 a month. The company confirmed that he served in a staff-level role since being hired in 2021 and is cooperating with authorities. Colin Clarke from the Soufan Center remarked, “There’s a number of red flags when you look at this [attack], including the attacker’s age – not really the kind of prototype for an individual to be radicalised. The fact that he was in the US military, so I think it bears caution for sure.”   Source: With inputs from Al Jazeera  

A gunman who fatally shot at least 12 people, including two children, in Montenegro has killed himself while surrounded by police, officials said Thursday. At least four others were wounded in the shooting rampage in the western town of Cetinje on Wednesday that followed a bar brawl, officials said. The shooter, identified as 45-year-old Aco Martinović, killed the owner of the bar, the bar owner's children and his own family members, Interior Minister Danilo Šaranović said. The attacker, who was fled after the rampage, was later located and surrounded by police. He died after shooting himself in the head, Šaranović said. Police had dispatched a special unit to search for the attacker in the town, which is located about 30 kilometers (18 miles) northwest of the capital, Podgorica. All the roads in and out of the city have been blocked as police swarmed the streets. Šaranović said that Martinović had died while being taken to a hospital in the capital and succumbed from the “severity of his injuries.” Read: Serbian president cancels visit to Serbs in Montenegro The government has declared three days of national mourning starting on Thursday, with Prime Minister Milojko Spajić describing the shooting as a “terrible tragedy.” “The level of rage and brutality shows that sometimes such people ... are even more dangerous than members of organized criminal gangs,” Šaranović said. Martinović was at the bar throughout the day with other guests when the brawl erupted, Police Commissioner Lazar Šćepanović said. He said that Martinović then went home, brought back a weapon and opened fire at around 5:30 p.m. “He killed four people” at the bar before heading out, and then continued shooting at three more locations, Šćepanović said. He said that the suspect received a suspended sentence in 2005 for violent behavior and had appealed his latest conviction for illegal weapons possession. Montenegrin media have reported that he was known for erratic and violent behavior. The small country of Montenegro, which has a population of around 620,000 people, is known for its gun culture and many people traditionally have weapons. Wednesday’s shooting was the second shooting rampage over the past three years in Cetinje, Montenegro’s historic capital. An attacker killed 10 people, including two children, in August 2022 before he was shot and killed by a passerby in Cetinje. Read more: Montenegro adopts law on religion amid protests by pro-Serbs President Jakov Milatović said that he was “shocked and stunned” by the tragedy. “Instead of holiday joy ... we have been gripped by sadness over the loss of innocent lives,” Milatovic said in a post on X.

Authorities say the driver of a pickup truck sped through a crowd of pedestrians gathered in New Orleans’ bustling French Quarter district early on New Year's Day, killing 10 people and injuring more than 30 other revelers. The suspect was killed in a shootout with police. Wednesday's attack unfolded on Bourbon Street, known worldwide as one of the largest destinations for New Year’s Eve parties, as crowds gathered in the city in anticipation of the Sugar Bowl college football playoff game later Wednesday at the nearby Superdome. Here’s what we know about the attack: What happened? Police said the driver sped through a crowd along Bourbon Street around 3:15 a.m. Wednesday as revelers had gathered to celebrate the New Year. Ten people were killed and 33 were injured and taken to five local hospitals. Two police officers wounded in the shootout with the suspect were in stable condition. Who is the driver and what was his motive? The FBI said the driver was 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, a U.S. citizen from Texas. A flag representing the Islamic State group was found in the truck and the FBI is trying to determine if he was associated with any terrorist organizations, the agency said in a statement. 10 killed, 30 injured as car drives into crowd in New Orleans The FBI is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism. Police Commissioner Anne Kirkpatrick said the driver was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did” and he tried “to run over as many people as he could.” What have authorities found in their investigation? Weapons and a possible explosive device were found in the pickup truck and other possible explosive devices were found elsewhere in the French Quarter, the FBI said. Who was in the crowd? Authorities said Bourbon Street was filled with revelers toasting the start of 2025 and attending New Year’s Eve parties when the attack occurred. Crowds in New Orleans have been ballooning in anticipation of Wednesday night’s Sugar Bowl college football playoff game between No. 2 Georgia and No. 3 Notre Dame. Officials said that game would go on as scheduled. What protections are there for pedestrians on Bourbon Street? City documents show New Orleans has been in the midst of a major project to remove and replace post-like barriers called bollards designed to prevent vehicle attacks along Bourbon Street. That project began in November and involves replacing old bollards with new removable stainless steel bollards. Have there been similar deadly attacks involving vehicles? Wednesday's attack in New Orleans is the latest example of a vehicle being used as a weapon around the world to carry out mass violence. The trend has alarmed law enforcement officials because such attacks can be difficult to protect against. Last month, a 50-year-old Saudi doctor plowed into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers in the German city of Magdeburg, killing four women and a 9-year-old boy.  

Aaron Brown, a veteran television news anchor whose steady hand helped guide CNN viewers through the unfolding tragedy of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has died. CNN, citing a statement from Brown's family, reported that he died Sunday. A cause of death was not given. He was 76. Brown began his career in Minneapolis as a radio talk show host. His career in TV began in Seattle before he was named the founding anchor of ABC's “World News Now.” He also anchored “ABC's World News Tonight Saturday,” and was a reporter for “World News Tonight with Peter Jennings,” “Nightline," and other ABC news programs. But it was at CNN where he made a lasting mark — even before he was supposed to be on the air. On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Brown started his career at the network earlier than expected, anchoring from a Manhattan rooftop as the attacks were happening. When the second tower fell that morning, Brown responded with the horror most viewers no doubt felt. “Good lord,” he said. “There are no words.” His coverage of the attacks earned Brown the Edward R. Murrow Award. He also won three Emmy awards during his career, along with other honors. Brown’s quirky, cerebral 10 p.m. CNN newscast “NewsNight” had a following with fans who enjoyed his commentaries and “The Whip,” a quick review of top international stories, but he lost ratings ground to Greta Van Susteren of Fox News. Read: Jimmy Carter: Many evolutions for a centenarian ‘citizen of the world’ Brown left CNN during a shakeup in November 2005, when his time slot went to rising star Anderson Cooper. Looking back at this time at CNN, Brown said he was confronted by the challenge of doing serious journalism while also being in a “very ratings-driven environment.” “I don’t want to get into the business of indicting cable TV, but some of what went on was just television, not journalism,” he told The Associated Press in 2008. “I didn’t practice the ‘high church’ of journalism all the time, but I think there was some sense that I was uncomfortable in that other, tabloidy world, and I think viewers knew that and I couldn’t pull it off," Brown said in that 2008 interview. After leaving CNN, Brown taught for years at Arizona State University as its first Walter Cronkite professor of journalism. In 2008, he came back to TV on PBS’ "Wide Angle," a weekly public affairs show. “Aaron got to do the work that he loved - and he felt lucky to do that work as part of a community of people who were dedicated to good journalism and who became good friends,” Brown’s wife, Charlotte Raynor, said in a statement. Read more: 39th US President Jimmy Carter dies at 100 She noted that Brown worked varying shifts over his career, but “he always found a way to make both ordinary and special times with our daughter Gabby and me."

Chinese hackers remotely accessed several US Treasury Department workstations and unclassified documents after compromising a third-party software service provider, the agency said Monday. The department did not provide details on how many workstations had been accessed or what sort of documents the hackers may have obtained, but it said in a letter to lawmakers revealing the breach that “at this time there is no evidence indicating the threat actor has continued access to Treasury information.” The hack was being investigated as a “major cybersecurity incident,” it added. “Treasury takes very seriously all threats against our systems, and the data it holds,” a department spokesperson said in a separate statement. “Over the last four years, Treasury has significantly bolstered its cyber defense, and we will continue to work with both private and public sector partners to protect our financial system from threat actors.” China's manufacturing activity slows in December as trade risks grow In Beijing, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson gave China’s standard response to hacking allegations. “We have repeatedly stated our position on such groundless accusations that lack evidence,” Mao Ning said at a daily briefing. “China consistently opposes all forms of hacking, and we are even more opposed to the dissemination of false information against China for political purposes.” The incident comes as US officials are continuing to grapple with the fallout of a massive Chinese cyberespionage campaign known as Salt Typhoon that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. A senior White House official said Friday that the number of telecommunications companies confirmed to have been affected by the hack has now risen to nine. The Treasury Department said it learned of the latest problem on Dec. 8, when a third-party software service provider, BeyondTrust, flagged that hackers had stolen a key “used by the vendor to secure a cloud-based service used to remotely provide technical support” to workers. That key helped the hackers override the service's security and gain remote access to several employee workstations. The compromised service has since been taken offline, and there's no evidence that the hackers still have access to department information, Aditi Hardikar, an assistant Treasury secretary, said in the letter Monday to leaders of the Senate Banking Committee. The department said it was working with the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and others to investigate the impact of the hack, and that the hack had been attributed to Chinese state-sponsored culprits. It did not elaborate.

President-elect Donald Trump has expressed support for Elon Musk's stance on the H-1B visa programme, a day after the tech billionaire vowed to "go to war" to defend the initiative that facilitates skilled foreign workers’ entry into the US. Musk, who has been tapped alongside Indian-American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to lead Trump’s newly proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), recently argued that foreign workers are essential for tech companies like SpaceX and Tesla. On December 27, Musk took to X (formerly Twitter) to respond to criticism of his pro-H-1B stance, highlighting the importance of skilled immigrants in building successful American businesses. "The reason I’m in America, along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla, and hundreds of other companies that strengthened America, is because of H-1B," Musk wrote. In a fiery exchange, Musk used a profane quote from Tom Cruise's character in the film Tropic Thunder to hit back at critics: "Take a big step back and F--- YOURSELF in the face." Trump's Support for H-1B Visas On December 28, Trump voiced his backing for Musk, stating his longstanding support for the visa programme. "I’ve always liked the visas; I’ve always been in favour of them. That’s why we have them," Trump told the New York Post. "I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve used it many times. It’s a great programme." The H-1B visa, a non-immigrant visa, allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialised fields such as technology and engineering. Tech firms depend on this programme to hire talent, particularly from countries like India and China. While Trump’s first administration imposed restrictions on H-1B visas in 2020, citing concerns about replacing American workers with lower-paid foreign labour, his recent comments mark a shift that aligns with the tech industry's demands. Musk Defends Skilled Immigration   Musk, who was once on an H-1B visa himself, reiterated his support for the programme, emphasising its role in maintaining America’s competitive edge. "Anyone – of any race, creed, or nationality – who came to America and worked like hell to contribute to this country will forever have my respect. America is the land of freedom and opportunity. Fight with every fibre of your being to keep it that way!" Musk posted on X. He also criticised individuals he deemed prioritise personal gain over national interest. "This is the right position for those who want America to win. For those who want America to lose for their own personal gain, I have no respect. Zero," he wrote. Musk has been consistently vocal about the need for more skilled immigration, noting on December 25: "There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent. It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley." Backlash and Division Trump’s support for H-1B visas has faced pushback from some of his supporters and immigration hardliners. The debate intensified when right-wing influencer Laura Loomer criticised Trump’s choice of Indian-American entrepreneur Sriram Krishnan as an adviser on artificial intelligence policy in his forthcoming administration. Loomer labelled the pro-immigration stance as "not America First policy," accusing tech executives of prioritising their financial interests. Ramaswamy also stirred controversy, criticising American culture for "promoting mediocrity" over excellence. "Trump’s election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up – prioritising achievement over normalcy, excellence over mediocrity, nerdiness over conformity, and hard work over laziness," Ramaswamy said on December 26. While his remarks drew criticism, Musk defended Ramaswamy, calling for the Republican Party to purge "contemptible fools" who oppose progressive immigration policies. Musk clarified that his comments targeted "hateful, unrepentant racists" whom he sees as a threat to the party's future. Source: With inputs from PTI

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.”

Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who tried to restore virtue to the White House after the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, then rebounded from a landslide defeat to become a global advocate of human rights and democracy, has died. He was 100 years old. The Carter Center said the 39th president died Sunday afternoon, roughly 22 months after entering hospice care, at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died in November 2023, lived most of their lives. The center said he died peacefully, surrounded by his family. President Joe Biden mourned Carter’s death, saying the world lost an “extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian” and he also lost a dear friend. Biden cited Carter’s work to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil and human rights, promote free and fair elections and house the homeless as an example for others. Biden spoke later Sunday evening about Carter, calling it a “sad day” but one that “brings back an incredible amount of good memories." “I’ve been hanging out with Jimmy Carter for over 50 years,” Biden said in his remarks. He recalled the former president being a comfort to him and his wife Jill when their son Beau died in 2015 of cancer. The president remarked how cancer was a common bond between their families, with Carter himself having cancer later in his life. “Jimmy knew the ravages of the disease too well,” said Biden. The president has ordered a state funeral for Carter in Washington. A moderate Democrat, Carter ran for president in 1976 as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad grin, effusive Baptist faith and technocratic plans for efficient government. His promise to never deceive the American people resonated after Richard Nixon’s disgrace and U.S. defeat in southeast Asia. Read: Biden says Jimmy Carter has asked him to deliver his eulogy “If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. I would not deserve to be your president,” Carter said. Carter’s victory over Republican Gerald Ford, whose fortunes fell after pardoning Nixon, came amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over race, women’s rights and America’s role in the world. His achievements included brokering Mideast peace by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David for 13 days in 1978. But his coalition splintered under double-digit inflation and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His negotiations ultimately brought all the hostages home alive, but in a final insult, Iran didn’t release them until the inauguration of Ronald Reagan, who had trounced him in the 1980 election. Humbled and back home in Georgia, Carter said his faith demanded he keep doing whatever he could, for as long as he could, to try to make a difference. He and Rosalynn co-founded The Carter Center in 1982 and spent the next 40 years traveling the world as peacemakers, human rights advocates and champions of democracy and public health. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, Carter helped ease nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti and negotiate cease-fires in Bosnia and Sudan. By 2022, the center had monitored at least 113 elections around the world. Carter was determined to eradicate guinea worm infections as one of many health initiatives. Swinging hammers into their 90s, the Carters built homes with Habitat for Humanity. The common observation that he was better as an ex-president rankled Carter. His allies were pleased he lived long enough to see biographers and historians revisit his presidency and declare it more impactful than many understood at the time. Propelled in 1976 by voters in Iowa and then across the South, Carter ran a no-frills campaign. Americans were captivated by the earnest engineer, and while an election-year Playboy interview drew snickers when he said he “had looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times,” voters weary of political cynicism found it endearing. The first family set an informal tone in the White House, carrying their own luggage, trying to silence the Marine Band’s traditional “Hail to the Chief" and enrolling daughter Amy in public schools. Carter was lampooned for wearing a cardigan and urging Americans to turn down their thermostats. But Carter set the stage for an economic revival and sharply reduced America's dependence on foreign oil by deregulating the energy industry along with airlines, trains and trucking. He established the departments of Energy and Education, appointed record numbers of women and nonwhites to federal posts, preserved millions of acres of Alaskan wilderness and pardoned most Vietnam draft evaders. Read more: After brain surgery, Jimmy Carter returns to hometown church Emphasizing human rights, he ended most support for military dictators and took on bribery by multinational corporations by signing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He persuaded the Senate to ratify the Panama Canal treaties and normalized relations with China, an outgrowth of Nixon’s outreach to Beijing. But crippling turns in foreign affairs took their toll. When OPEC hiked crude prices, making drivers line up for gasoline as inflation spiked to 11%, Carter tried to encourage Americans to overcome “a crisis of confidence.” Many voters lost confidence in Carter instead after the infamous address that media dubbed his “malaise" speech, even though he never used that word. After Carter reluctantly agreed to admit the exiled Shah of Iran to the U.S. for medical treatment, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979. Negotiations to quickly free the hostages broke down, and then eight Americans died when a top-secret military rescue attempt failed. Carter also had to reverse course on the SALT II nuclear arms treaty after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Though historians would later credit Carter's diplomatic efforts for hastening the end of the Cold war, Republicans labeled his soft power weak. Reagan’s “make America great again” appeals resonated, and he beat Carter in all but six states. Born Oct. 1, 1924, James Earl Carter Jr. married fellow Plains native Rosalynn Smith in 1946, the year he graduated from the Naval Academy. He brought his young family back to Plains after his father died, abandoning his Navy career, and they soon turned their ambitions to politics. Carter reached the state Senate in 1962. After rural white and Black voters elected him governor in 1970, he drew national attention by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.” Carter published more than 30 books and remained influential as his center turned its democracy advocacy onto U.S. politics, monitoring an audit of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results. After a 2015 cancer diagnosis, Carter said he felt “perfectly at ease with whatever comes.” “I’ve had a wonderful life,” he said. “I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.”

President-elect Donald Trump appears to be siding with Elon Musk and his other backers in the tech industry as a dispute over immigration visas has divided his supporters. Trump, in an interview with the New York Post on Saturday, praised the use of visas to bring skilled foreign workers to the U.S. The topic has become a flashpoint within his conservative base. “I’ve always liked the visas, I have always been in favor of the visas. That’s why we have them," Trump said. In fact, Trump has in the past criticized the H-1B visas, calling them “very bad” and “unfair” for U.S. workers. During his first term as president, he unveiled a “Hire American” policy that directed changes to the program to try to ensure the visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most-skilled applicants. Despite his criticism of them and attempts to curb their use, he has also used the visas at his businesses in the past, something he acknowledged in his interview Saturday. “I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program," Trump told the newspaper. Read: Elon Musk wants to turn SpaceX's Starbase site into Texas He did not appear to address questions about whether he would pursue any changes to the number or use of the visas once he takes office Jan. 20. Trump's hardline immigration policies, focused mostly on immigrants who are in the country illegally, were a cornerstone of his presidential campaign and a priority issue for his supporters. But in recent days, his coalition has split in a public debate largely taking place online about the tech industry's hiring of foreign workers. Hard-right members of Trump's movement have accused Musk and others in Trump's new flank of tech-world supporters of pushing policies at odds with Trump's “America First" vision. Software engineers and others in the tech industry have used H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers and say they are a critical tool for hard-to-fill positions. But critics have said they undercut U.S. citizens who could take those jobs. Some on the right have called for the program to be eliminated.

Four people died in a New Hampshire home on Christmas Day due to suspected carbon monoxide poisoning, authorities said. Police were called to the house in the town of Wakefield around 4:20 p.m. for a welfare check, said New Hampshire State Fire Marshal Sean Toomey. He said that when officers arrived, they found the bodies of four adults. "While the investigation remains active and ongoing, at this time, investigators believe the victims died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning," Toomey and other officials said in a release. Toomey said it was a reminder of the importance of people having working carbon monoxide alarms in their homes. Toomey told television station WMUR the deceased included two older adults and two younger adults, and that other family members had called police to check on them after they did not show up as expected at a Christmas Day gathering. Officials believe the deaths were accidental, and are investigating a gas heating system after finding the home did not have any carbon monoxide detectors, WMUR reported. Striking students in Serbia tell chief prosecutor to 'fight for law and justice' Authorities have not released the names of those who died pending notification of their next of kin. Autopsies to confirm the causes of death were scheduled for Thursday. Temperatures in Wakefield on Christmas Day reached a low of about 13 degrees Fahrenheit (-11 degrees Celsius).