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Former President Jimmy Carter, who served from 1977 to 1981, has died at age 100. The 39th president of the United States was widely admired for his global humanitarian work. Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He was the son of a peanut farmer from Georgia. Former President Jimmy Carter, who rose from humble beginnings in rural Georgia to the White House and was renowned for his global charity work, has died at age 100. He died Sunday in his Plains, Georgia home, The Carter Center — the former president's nonprofit organization — confirmed in a statement posted to social media. "My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love," said Chip Carter, the former president's son, said in the statement released by the Carter Center. "My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs." President Joe Biden in an address to the nation said a major service for former president Carter would be hosted in Washington DC. "Jimmy Carter lived a life measured not by words, but by his deeds," Biden said. "On behalf of the world, and the whole nation, we send our whole heartfelt sympathies and our gratitude for sharing President Carter for so many years." The Carter Center in February 2023 announced that the former president care to "spend his remaining time at home with his family" following several hospital stays. After almost a year and a half in hospice, Carter's grandson, Jason, said the former president was "coming to the end." Carter had previously been treated for brain and liver cancer, was hospitalized after a fall in 2019, and had surgery the same year to relieve a buildup of pressure around his brain. Presidents often fade into the background after they leave the White House, but Carter — the 39th president of the United States — was in many ways a more popular, impactful figure after his single tumultuous term from 1977 to 1981. Carter has often been referred to as the best ex-president in history, . He came to be admired for his amiable demeanor and lifelong dedication to public service and humanitarianism. Carter was a US Navy veteran and a Nobel laureate. He was preceded in death by his of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter, who died in November 2023 at age 96. He is survived by his , 11 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren. Carter, whose full name was James Earl Carter Jr., was born October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia. His father was a peanut farmer who'd served in the Georgia state legislature. His mother, Lillian Gordy Carter, served as a nurse, civil- and women's-rights activist, and Peace Corps volunteer in India at the age of 68 in 1966. The Carters were deeply tied to their Baptist faith. Carter graduated from the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1946. He served in the Navy for seven years before returning to Georgia to take over his family's peanut farm after his father died. Carter entered state politics as a Democrat in the early 1960s and in 1970 was elected to the Georgia governorship. In 1974, he announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president. Initially, Carter was pegged as a long shot given his lack of political connections and the fact he was relatively unknown nationally. But Carter painted himself as an honest outsider with strong morals at a time when many Americans were disillusioned with Washington over the Watergate scandal, and his campaign gradually gained momentum. He repeatedly told voters, "I'll never tell a lie." Carter's longtime embrace of civil rights was also crucial to his victory. After being elected governor, Carter declared during his inaugural address, "I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over." He carried these sentiments into his presidential campaign and allied himself with key Black members of Congress. Carter received overwhelming support from Black voters, especially in the South, which propelled him to the White House. Carter won the Democratic nomination in July 1976, choosing then-Sen. of Minnesota as his running mate against President Gerald Ford, the Republican incumbent. Carter defeated Ford in November of that year, winning 50.1% of the popular vote and capturing 297 electoral votes to Ford's 240. The Georgian swept the Deep South, the last Democrat to do so on the presidential level, while also carrying important battlegrounds like Ohio and Pennsylvania. As president, Carter sought to portray himself as a man of the people and make the presidency more accessible. After he was sworn in, Carter and his wife walked to the White House, launching an informal tradition followed by subsequent presidents at their inaugurations. He also spoke and dressed in a less formal manner and held frequent press conferences. Carter entered office as a popular figure pushing for ambitious programs to address the country's myriad social and economic woes. His administration had a members and staff. Though Carter's image as an "outsider" seemed to be advantageous during his campaign, it hurt him with Congress once he was in the White House. He struggled to get lawmakers on board with his bold proposals for reform, and his approval ratings tanked as he struggled to push his proposals through the legislative branch. A scandal in the summer of 1977 didn't help matters. At the time, Bert Lance, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, was accused of being involved in dubious financial activities as a Georgia banker. Carter at first defended Lance, whom he saw as a close friend, but ultimately called on him to resign. In 1979, amid an energy crisis and recession, Carter delivered his infamous "crisis in confidence" speech, contending that the nation needed to restore its faith in itself. The speech was well-received at first but was ultimately not a particularly successful selling point. Despite the many challenges Carter faced, his presidency wasn't without major accomplishments. On the domestic front, his achievements included establishing the Department of Education and the Department of Energy and expanding the national parks system. His actions helped lay the framework for future administrations to tackle America's educational and energy needs. But Carter's biggest accomplishments as president came in the foreign-policy arena. He facilitated the first peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, known as the Camp David Accords. Carter also established full diplomatic relations between the US and China and orchestrated two important treaties between the US and Panama. Carter also stood up to the Soviet Union on human rights and completed negotiation of the SALT II nuclear-limitation treaty (though the treaty ultimately fell through with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan). Carter's progress in the realm of foreign policy was in many ways overshadowed by the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. Amid a revolution in Iran that saw a pro-US government ousted, a mob of students stormed the US Embassy in Tehran and took the staff members as hostages. The revolutionary Iranian government, led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, supported the actions of the students. The US Embassy staff members were ultimately held hostage for hundreds of days. The timing of the crisis and Carter's perceived failure to secure the release of the hostages, which included a disastrous military operation that failed to rescue them, was deeply damaging to his image domestically. Combined with an economy in turmoil, the hostage crisis was a large part of the reason Carter lost reelection in a landslide to former Gov. Ronald Reagan of California in 1980. In that race, Carter's support had diminished across the South and in the Midwestern and Northeastern states that boosted his first presidential bid; he earned 49 electoral votes to Reagan's 489. Carter's administration negotiated the release of the hostages during his final days in office, and they were freed the same day as Reagan's inauguration. Carter spent most of his postpresidential years championing human rights and pushing for peace in various corners of the world. He founded The Carter Center to focus on such issues in 1982 and played an active role with Habitat for Humanity until the end of his life. As a private citizen, Carter worked for peace everywhere from North Korea to Haiti. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for what the Norwegian Nobel Committee described as 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." After he left the White House, Carter moved back to Plains, Georgia. He's the only US president in the modern era to before ascending to the highest office in the land. Carter favored a humble lifestyle. He was known to fly on commercial airliners, unlike other past presidents who preferred private jets, and was filmed walking up and down the aisle to shake the hands of other passengers. —USA TODAY (@USATODAY) He also cost US taxpayers far less per year than any other former president, according to the General Services Administration, in large part because he avoided extravagances. Carter was a former president longer than anyone else in US history. In 1954, the chief of police and a Baptist minister in Plains asked Carter to join the local White Citizens' Council, a pro-segregation organization. The peanut farmer said no, and a few days later the men came back to tell Carter he was the only white man in the community who hadn't joined. Carter told them he didn't care. The police chief and minister returned a third time and said they would pay the $5 membership fee for Carter if that's what was holding him back. He was also warned that his peanut business would face a boycott if he didn't join. In response, : "I've got $5. And I'd flush it down the toilet before I'd give it to you." Throughout Carter's long life, he frequently proved unafraid to stray from the pack, even if it made him at times unpopular. Read the original article onIOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Addison O'Grady scored 12 points and No. 24 Iowa defeated Purdue 84-63 on Sunday in a game in which only two players reached double figures in scoring. O'Grady made 4 of 7 shots and 4 of 6 free throws for the Hawkeyes (10-3, 1-1 Big Ten). Iowa's balanced scoring was so thorough that five players scored nine points and one had eight. Among that group, Sydney Affolter had nine points, seven rebounds and six assists. Ava Heiden had nine points and eight rebounds. Destini Lombard had 12 points for Purdue (7-6, 0-2). Iowa shot 67% in the first quarter, seven players scored, and the Hawkeyes led 27-13. Iowa outscored the Boilermakers 15-3 over the final 4 1/2 minutes of the second quarter to take a 50-32 lead at the half. Five players scored in that run. In the third quarter, the Hawkeyes again dominated the final few minutes, outscoring Purdue 11-0 over the final 3 1/2 minutes. The Hawkeyes made 6 of their last 8 shots in the fourth quarter. Coming up, Iowa has a road game against Penn State on Wednesday and a home game against No. 8 Maryland on Jan. 5. Purdue will be at No. 19 Michigan State on Wednesday. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball
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Photos: Remembering Jimmy Carter, the 39th US president
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For years, patients in the U.S. health care system have grown frustrated with a bureaucracy they don’t understand. Doctors are included in an insurer’s network one year but not the next. Getting someone on the phone to help can be next to impossible. Coverage of care and prescriptions is often unceremoniously denied. This week’s fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has unleashed a wave of public feeling — exasperation, anger, resentment, helplessness — from Americans sharing personal stories of interactions with insurance companies, often seen as faceless corporate giants. In particular, the words written on ammunition found at the shooting scene — “delay,” “deny” and “depose,” echoing a phrase used to describe how insurers dodge claim payouts — amplified voices that have long been critical of the industry. “All of a sudden, I am fired up again,” said Tim Anderson, describing how his wife, Mary, had to deal with UnitedHealthcare coverage denials before she died from Lou Gehrig’s disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, in 2022. Anderson said they couldn’t get coverage for machines to help his wife breathe or talk — toward the end, she communicated by blinking when he showed her pictures. The family had to rely on donations from a local ALS group, he said. “The business model for insurance is don’t pay,” said Anderson, 67, of Centerville, Ohio. “When Mary could still talk, she said to me to keep fighting this,” he added. “It needs to be exposed.” For Anderson and others, Thompson’s death and the message left at the scene have created an opportunity to vent their frustrations. Conversations at dinner tables, office water coolers, social gatherings and on social media have pivoted to the topic, as police efforts to find the gunman keep the case in the news. Hans Maristela said he understands why the chatter is bubbling up. The 54-year-old caregiver in California was moved to comment on Facebook about UnitedHealthcare’s reputation of denying coverage. As a Catholic, he said, he grieves Thompson’s death and feels for his family, especially with the holidays around the corner. But he sees frustration with insurers even among his clients, most of them wealthy older people who’ve not been shielded from high out-of-pocket costs. “And then you know the CEO of this company you pay a lot of money to gets $10 million dollars a year, you won’t have a lot of sympathy for the guy,” Maristela said, citing Thompson’s compensation package that included base pay and stock options. “Health care is a business, I understand, but the obsession with share price, with profit, has to be reevaluated.” University of Pennsylvania researcher Michael Anne Kyle said she’s not surprised by the growth of conversation around insurers. “People are often struggling with this by themselves, and when you see someone else talk about it, that may prompt you to join the conversation,” she said. Kyle studies how patients access care and said she’s seen frustration with the system build for years. Costs are rising, and insurers are using more controls such as prior authorizations and doctor networks to manage them. Patients are often stuck in the middle of disputes between doctors and insurers. “Patients are already spending a lot of money on health care, and then they’re still facing problems with the service,” she said. Insurers often note that most of the money they bring in goes back out the door to pay claims, and that they try to corral soaring costs and the overuse of some care. In Ohio, Anderson said his initial reaction to the CEO shooting was to question whether it was connected to a coverage denial, like the ones he’d experienced with his wife. “I definitely do not condone killing people,” he said. “But I read it and said, ‘I wonder if somebody had a spouse whose coverage was denied.’” It’s something Will Flanary, a Portland-based ophthalmologist and comedian with a large social media following, saw online a lot in the shooting’s immediate aftermath and found very telling. “It’s zero sympathy,” he said. “And the lesson to take away from that is not, ‘Let’s shame people for celebrating a murder.’ No, it’s: ‘Look at the amount of anger that people have toward this system that’s taken advantage of people and do something to try to fix that.’” Flanary’s content, published under the name Dr. Glaucomflecken, started out as niche eye doctor jokes and a way to cope with his own experiences with two cancer diagnoses and a sudden cardiac arrest. But it has evolved, featuring character skits that call attention to and satirize the decisions of large health insurers, including UnitedHealthcare. He said he’s never seen conversations around health insurance policy take off the way they did this week — and he hopes these new voices can help bring about change. “I’m always talking about how powerful social media can be with advocacy,” he said, “because it really is the only way to put a significant amount of pressure on these corporations who are doing bad things for patients.”
EWY: South Korea Looks Like One Of The Most Attractive Picks In AsiaFancy becoming a stock market millionaire in future? I think that can actually be a realistic target for many people. It does not even necessarily involve investing in little-known or fast-growing companies. My approach is to aim for a million over time by building up stakes in just a few great companies and . Some basic principles of stock market success How to turn such a pipe dream into reality? I think a realistic approach is required. I believe three things can help or hinder me depending on whether or not I have enough of them: money, time, and . Time can help great investment choices show their true worth Let’s go through those in turn. First is money. I do not plan to aim for a million in some hare-brained scheme, hoping to put just a few pounds in the market and strike gold. The more I invest, the easier it should be to achieve my target. Putting in £200,000, for example, I need to grow my portfolio value five times. That is not easy – but it is far easier than the 50 times growth I would need to aim for a million with a £20k investment. So, as circumstances allow, I plan to put aside a serious amount of money on a regular basis to invest. As for time, it can let a business show its true value and also help brilliant investments rise exponentially. stock has soared 180% this year. But that incredible performance actually pales in comparison to the five-year price growth of . Getting the right shares Nvidia’s performance has been exceptional but it shows that a fivefold increase in value over time can be achieved. In fact, even at the more modest annual growth rate of 10%, I could turn £200,000 into a million pounds in just 25 years. I think 10% is achievable while sticking to well-known blue-chip shares with a proven business model. One potential strategy could be to try and “ ” by . But imagine if instead of that, I weeded out the poor and middling performers and bought just the top five to 10 performing shares of coming years. My portfolio’s compound annual growth rate would likely be far better than the FTSE 100 average. Spend time making smart choices My Christmas stocking did not contain a crystal ball, so like everyone else I do not know what will be the best-performing shares of years to come. But I can make choices about what shares I could hopefully perform strongly as I build my portfolio to aim for a million. For example, I think ( ) could perform well and is a stock that investors should consider. The FSTE 100 consumer goods maker has risen 18% since July. However, that still puts it 23% below its level five years back. Reckitt certainly has its share of risks that help explain that price fall, including ongoing litigation in the US that could eat into future profits. But the market for cleaning and personal care products is large and resilient. Thanks to a stable of unique brands like , Reckitt has pricing power. That helps it earn profits that can be used to fund shareholder dividends.
https://arab.news/ce8cq RIYADH: Artificial intelligence will help Saudi Arabia to achieve its ambitious goals for growth, while reducing its reliance on other targets, according to a top executive. Jad Haddad, partner and global head of consultancy Oliver Wyman’s AI division Quotient, spoke to Arab News recently about how technological advances are reshaping the workforce. “Today, there is a shortage of labor, particularly in Saudi Arabia,” he said. “If the Kingdom’s going to reach its very ambitious targets of growth, in a way AI and the embracement of AI will basically help achieving those very aggressive, but also achievable, as we’ve seen, targets, with less dependency on others.” Saudi workplaces are already well advanced in using generative AI tools, such as text generator Chat GPT, with 68 percent of employees surveyed by Oliver Wyman making use of the technology compared with a global average of 55 percent. Haddad noted how another survey found that more than 90 percent of CEOs at New York Stock Exchange-listed companies also invest heavily in AI and believe in its promise. “But yet we haven’t seen a lot of disruption to jobs.” He added: “Will we see disruption in the job market? Probably. I think AI already is augmenting a lot of the things that we do, and as we have applications that are implemented and scaled within organizations, things are going to change. “But at the same time, we can look at it from the other way around. I think it is already creating a lot of jobs as well.” The forward-looking Gulf is a leader in the adoption of AI technologies, according Haddad, who highlighted the fact that some of the region’s biggest companies are employing the technology. National oil companies such as Aramco and ADNOC “are really taking up AI, and that’s also great because they are a big part of the society but also of the economy,” he said. “I think the region is really embracing AI, much faster than any other region, and is really seeing the benefit and the promise of AI.” Saudi Arabia’s early focus on the new technology was evidenced when the Kingdom founded its government AI agency SDAIA in 2019. The entity employs around 3,000 people, and is focused on establishing governance related to AI, and positioning the country as a leader in the field. A November report from SDAIA highlighted Saudi Arabia’s global leadership in AI, as evidenced by its top ranking in the pillar of government strategy in the 2023 Global AI Index by Tortoise Media. In 2023, the Kingdom joined the UN AI Advisory Body, aiming to promote the responsible use of AI. Government spending on technologies, including AI, grew at a compound annual growth rate of 59 percent between 2019 and 2023, according to the Saudi Press Agency. In September 2024, at the third edition of SDAIA’s Global AI Summit, the authority unveiled the AI Adoption Framework Document, providing a guiding reference for adopting AI in the public and private sectors. SDAIA also recently announced the activation of AI offices in 23 government entities.