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Banco Popular was recognized as the Best Real Estate Bank in the Dominican Republic by the prestigious financial magazine Euromoney. This recognition highlighted Banco Popular’s leadership in the real estate and construction market and commitment to the sector’s development in the country. The magazine, based in England, has been awarding this prize for 27 years, although this is the first time it has been granted to a bank in the Dominican Republic. In its analysis, the magazine valued Banco Popular’s financial performance in the real estate sector. It noted a market share of 31.2% in mortgage loans and 34.5% in the commercial portfolio dedicated to the construction sector. During the last twelve months, Banco Popular’s mortgage portfolio grew by 13%, reaching RD$62,000 million. This has benefited more than 3,500 clients, with RD$17,229 million disbursed. Similarly, construction loans recorded a 41% increase in approvals, which exceeded RD$12,622 million. Meanwhile, disbursements amounted to RD$17,710 million, benefiting more than 355 clients. Euromoney magazine recognized Popular’s innovative strategies and capacity to promote the growth of the real estate and construction sector through alliances with construction companies and real estate agencies. In the last five years, the institution has facilitated more than RD$41.2 billion in mortgage loans and approved more than RD$22.8 billion in construction loans, positively impacting the national economy. Euromoney highlighted Popular’s technological leadership and the strategy of using its digital channels to facilitate the operations of real estate developers and acquirers, improving the efficiency and experience of its customers. A press release highlights that the magazine cited the bank’s commitment to sustainable development, allocating RD$2.8 billion to compliance with the UN Principles of Responsible Banking, including RD$56 million in loans for homes certified as sustainable. Speaking about the recognition, Popular’s executive president, Christopher Paniagua, highlighted how the award highlights the bank’s efforts to “offer innovative and sustainable solutions that bring value to its clients and to the development of the Dominican Republic.”
Squid Game Season 2 Trailer Shows New Games With New StakesTyrese Haliburton had 31 points, six rebounds and seven assists as the visiting Indiana Pacers pulled away late for a 123-114 victory over the Boston Celtics on Sunday night. Six players scored in double figures for Indiana, which beat Boston in two of the teams' three regular-season meetings. Andrew Nembhard returned from a one-game absence (left knee) and added 17 points, eight rebounds and eight assists for the Pacers, who also got 17 points, eight boards and six assists from Pascal Siakam. Bennedict Mathurin scored 14 points, Myles Turner netted 13 and Jarace Walker contributed 12 points off the bench to help Indiana snap its two-game losing streak. Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 31 points and six assists. Jayson Tatum added 22 points, nine rebounds and six assists but was just 2-of-10 from 3-point range. Al Horford went just 1-of-10 from deep and finished with five points. Reserve Payton Pritchard scored 19 of his 21 points in the first half for Boston, which has lost three of its last four games. A three-point play by Tatum completed a 9-0 spurt that pulled the Celtics within 105-103 with 7:38 left, but the Pacers scored the next 13 points to put the game out of reach. Although Indiana led by 11 early, Boston had a 29-27 advantage after one quarter. The Pacers scored 38 points in the second quarter and had a 65-58 halftime lead. Indiana shot 59.5 percent from the field in the first half (25-of-42). Each team scored 33 points in the third quarter, which gave the Pacers a 98-91 edge entering the fourth. The Celtics were again without Jrue Holiday (right shoulder impingement) and Kristaps Porzingis (left ankle), both of whom didn't play in Friday's 142-105 home victory over Indiana. Holiday has missed the last three games, and Porzingis turned his angle during a loss to Philadelphia on Wednesday. The Pacers' Obi Toppin missed his second straight game with a left ankle sprain. This article first appeared on Field Level Media and was syndicated with permission.
UP CM governor other leaders condole Manmohan Singh's demiseHow money, disadvantage and resources risk holding back our brightest students When Ashton was a toddler, his mother noticed something extraordinary: Her little boy was talking long before other kids his age and his curiosity was off the charts. Soon after turning three Ashton could read and write. He wanted to chat over the complex ideas he read about and his language skills were well and truly up to the task. "Mum was really stimulating me, and all of those things came quite naturally," says Ashton*, recounting trips to museums and behind-the-scenes tours that kept his little brain buzzing. An intelligence test later estimated Ashton's IQ at 149: not quite Australia's " " Terence Tao, but with the average human clocking in at around 100, Ashton's level of brain power is found in fewer than about one-in-1800 of us, in the 99.95 percentile. A primary school teacher may encounter a child like Ashton in their classroom only once in a career. But with research showing up to 50 per cent of these high potential, or "gifted", students also underachieve at school, there's another layer to the story of Ashton and kids like him. Most at risk of languishing are those from low socio-economic status families, and gifted programs often still place more boys than girl. What is Australia's obligation to develop the potential of bright students within a stretched education system? Is the system equitable? And what is at stake if their brilliant minds are not cared for in the classroom? What does it mean to be 'gifted'? Humans are remarkably predictable. Cognitive intelligence tests are designed so that scores fall across a symmetrical bell curve with 50 per cent above the benchmark of 100, and 50 per cent below. An IQ score between 85 and 115 is considered average and is reported 68 per cent of the time. This pattern is repeated in the classroom with most students clustering around the centre of the curve. Those on the lower end are likely to need extra help and those at the other are the "bright sparks", the kids who consistently bubble towards the top of the grade. But how should we teach the top 10 per cent, the group considered "high potential", with an IQ above 120? Geraldine Townend, a researcher with UNSW's Gifted Education Research and Resource Information Centre (GERRIC), has spent years looking for the answer. "Everyone has abilities," she says, noting some humans display exceptional capacity in a range of spheres, from art and music, to sport, or emotional and social intelligence as well as intellectual and academic. Townend says academically gifted students learn at a pace and complexity significantly higher and deeper than somebody with an average IQ. Just over four million students are enrolled in schools across Australia. It means as many as 400,000 of them will have a cognitive ability of 120 and above including about 80,000 who have IQs over 130, Townend says. That's higher than 98 per cent of the population. Raising a child with exceptional academic potential, perhaps destined solve the world's most pressing problems, sounds exciting. From to , culture and entertainment reflects our fascination with child geniuses. Many parents anticipate the school years will be a breeze. Yet as the stories of Matilda and Sheldon also show, these "gifties" — as they are known among parents who lurk in social media groups seeking out others who understand — often have a difficult school life. In 1955, an American psychology professor described gifted students as . Almost 70 years later, Townend believes not enough has changed, arguing these top 10 percenters need as much differentiation in learning as a child in the bottom 10 per cent. "If I'm working with a student with an IQ of around 130, they're 30 points above the average. Imagine the speed at which you're capable of learning compared with how things are being taught. Very often these students switch off," Townend says. "Thirteen years of school is a long time to be working at such a different level." But there is a view out there that gifted kids should be left to their own devices, Townend says. The argument goes they have enough brains to sort themselves out, and focusing on these children is elitist when so many others are struggling. In reality, high ability children are at risk of disconnecting from school. The world's most famous dropout is surely Albert Einstein who left high school at 15 without graduating and later wrote: "It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry". Like Einstein, some gifted students leave school having never been recognised by the narrowly focused assessments favoured by educational systems the world over, says Michelle Ronksley-Pavia, a senior lecturer in inclusion and special education at Griffith University. The result is that uninspired and even ignored, they . Some become disruptive, the class clown, and others simply give up: as many as 20 per cent never finish high school and 40 per cent never complete a tertiary degree. Townend goes further. She argues failing to identify gifted children, or leaving them to fend for themselves, is a loss not just to the child but to society. At a time when the world is grappling with complex questions from climate change to pandemics, global conflict and AI, Townend says our brightest students are a resource from where Australia's next generation of scientists, politicians, artists and entrepreneurs could be drawn. What are we doing to find them? Why do so many gifted students underperform? In November, a group of about 300 academics and teachers from across the education sector came together to hear an address from a charming and eccentric 84-year-old Canadian psychologist, Professor Françoys Gagné. For five decades Gagné has been among the on educating gifted and talented students. His (DMGT) is used in most Australian states and territories to underpin gifted education policies. Appearing on Zoom from his office in Montreal, with "my feet in my slippers needing just a nice shirt and tie to appear professional", Gagné talked participants through his theory that explains how the development of academic and other skills relates to the interaction between natural ability, chance, personal qualities and the environment in which a child is raised. The symposium — organised by Ronksley-Pavia from Griffith University — heard that high performing students fell into two categories: those with innate intelligence, the gifted, who would receive high marks on an IQ test. And those with high academic performance, the talented, whose skills would return high scores on, for example, a NAPLAN test. Gagné's message: please do not confuse them as the same thing. All gifted students have capacity to be talented, Gagné emphasised. But not all talented students are gifted. In a group of 100 students, 50 gifted and 50 talented, as few as 20 would be both gifted and talented, once again highlighting the large numbers who underachieve. A student with ability but who does not achieve at school should concern Australian parents and educators, Gagné believes. It can be the , or of a student who has emotionally checked out: less Young Sheldon, more Matt Damon's genius janitor in . The goal must be to find gifted students, with a sharp eye for identifying that underachieving cohort, and clear a path for them to develop their talents, Gagné says. Ronksley-Pavia says Australia's education system is deeply rooted in social justice and inclusive education that enshrines the idea no child is left behind. Yet she believes too often that philosophy does not extend to gifted kids. "Truly inclusive education means supporting all learners across the full range of abilities. Talent development is the ultimate goal of gifted education," she says. But there is wider impact, too, when gifted kids underperform. Australia's stagnation — or fall, depending on how you interpret the figures — in for things like maths, science and literacy could reflect, in part, the fact that that too many gifted students are not reaching their potential and their talents are not being expressed. On the one hand a solution for this underachievement must be found in the classroom: how are gifted children identified, how is their learning differentiated. On the other, research points to an uncomfortable truth: many of those underachievers are from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Researchers are increasingly discovering that high ability but low-SES children are the most likely to miss out on the education they need. have an impact too, with to be found in classes for gifted children. suggests that Australia is also showing a worsening gender gap. Girls have fallen further behind boys in both maths and science subjects with Australia ranked worst among 58 countries. It's about equity, not elitism A child's ease of access to the education they need raises questions that go to the heart of concerns about educational equality in Australia, and makes access to gifted education an issue of equity, not elitism. Children from low-SES areas or from less advantaged backgrounds — including — are at risk of not even being offered opportunities in gifted programs. noted that teachers who are not trained in how to identify gifted students are more likely to recognise it in well-behaved children from a dominant culture and in disadvantaged or minority groups. US research showed smart kids from low-SES areas were or nominated for extension programs than equivalent students at schools with average or above SES. And this was true even after controlling for achievement in standardised maths and reading tests. In Australia, education policies and offer guides on how to . But the outcomes are imperfect. Ashton grew up in a low-SES home and knows he could have been one of those statistics: the smart kid who missed out. It was only his mother's relentless advocacy on his behalf that ensured the government schools he attended acted on his potential. However, the solution — to push him faster and faster through the curriculum, joining classes of children much older than he was — came with unanticipated collateral damage that reflects the mental health risks that can emerge when education systems get the balance wrong. But more on that later. Whatever background a child is from, making gifted education policies work in the real world is complex. Part of the reason is that each state and territory approaches it differently — using strategies including selective schools or classes, streaming, enrichment through special projects or excursions and grade skipping specific subjects or entire year groups. The Catholic school system offers the and independent schools typically have capacity and resources to provide a variety of approaches to gifted students that can be individually tailored. The variety of approaches can feel scattered and overwhelming, leaving parents — and kids — wondering what will work best for them while balancing an individual child's social development. Social media groups are full of parents asking anxious questions about how to take the right step forward. Ashton moved between two Australian states seeking the right mix. But there's another problem. Who anoints the smart? While the gifted policies are research-backed using theories like Gagné's DMGT, agreeing on which kids are gifted learners is less straightforward and typically left to individual teachers and principals. Some may be highly trained and motivated, having taken on additional study in gifted education. And states and territories are with updated programs such as in NSW where gifted education is set to be offered at every school. But unlike special needs — which has compulsory units in teacher training — training to identify gifted students is generally not a core part of teacher training in Australia. Through no fault of their own, many teachers have no formal training in the traits of gifted students and how to identify them. However elective units and post-graduate degrees in gifted ed are offered at universities including UNSW and Griffith where Townend and Ronksley-Pavia work. There can be clashes of opinion between educators and families. And while the reasons are vast and can include unrealistic expectations from pushy parents, the result is that comparatively large numbers of gifted children are removed from formal education altogether and . It's a story advocates for gifted education interviewed for this story have heard plenty of times before, with many noting that a lack of formal pathways to identify high potential children contributes to a perception of elitism. "What very often happens is a systematic program in a particular school is based on one teacher who may or may not have had training in gifted education and has the enthusiasm and the time to be able to do a load of extra work to deliver a gifted program," says Townend from UNSW. "But when that teacher leaves, the risk is that the programme dies." Until the 1980s primary-aged students were commonly given IQ tests to identify children with exceptional academic potential, and then quietly offered extension opportunities related to their results. There is rightly plenty of : cultural biases in testing, particularly towards those who are middle class with Western educations, are well-established. The test environment can be stressful for some. It all adds to the risk of skewed results. Teachers identify gifted children from things like classroom behaviour and standardised test results. The result-focused approach also risks missing the large cohort of gifted kids who underachieve as well as bright kids whose ability is masked by neurodiversity. Some parents send their kids off for a psychometric test administered by a psychologist that can identify high cognitive potential, and also flag neurodiversity. It's relatively common for , a combination known as Twice Exceptional or 2E. But these tests can cost up to $1500 — another blow to the low-SES kids whose families are unlikely to be able to spend so much to prove their child's capacities. Money makes all the difference You can't talk about gifted education in Australia without talking about selective schools. It is a phenomenon that has exploded in NSW that has a network of 17 competitive entry fully selective high schools, far more than any other state or territory. For example, . They have come to represent what many believe gifted education should be. From a pool of around 16,000 applicants, offers are handed out for just over 4000 places in NSW, including to 27 partially-selective schools, with competition for the most prestigious and high performing of these schools far tougher. work on the theory that bright kids are grouped together and challenged with advanced work leading to exceptional exam results. It has similarities with Victoria's program (SEAL) but rather than a separate school, these classes are run within a comprehensive high school environment. Students have opportunities to zoom through the curriculum or add depth and complexity even completing university level courses. Victoria also has that take students from years nine-12. Other states and territories have different systems again. Yet the important point is that fierce competition for entry means potential students are for months and even years before the exams, drilling content and exam technique in order to maximise the chance of gaining a place. Applying Gagné's theory suggests competitive entry schools are not always selecting the brightest children, but the ones who are talented and most successful in learning how to tackle the entry exam. Proponents of gifted education question whether these selective programs are effective in identifying gifted students, particularly those whose response to feeling out of place at school is to underperform. In NSW attempts have been made to change the entry test to of tutored preparation but whether this will be successful is not yet clear. Of course, some extremely gifted or talented children head in for the test and blitz it with no preparation, but the majority do not. And if you a wondering how much that preparation costs, the answer is a lot. Private tutoring often costs around $100 an hour, or a can be $800 and above per 10-week term for one three or four-hour lesson a week. Some kids are tutored for a few months in advance of the test. For others, it's a lifestyle that begins . This outlay is perhaps one of the reasons why students who access competitive entry programs like selective schools or the SEAL program — even higher on average than students from independent private and Catholic schools. And once again, questions about equity emerge: how can gifted students from low socio-economic families possibly participate? Dr Christina Ho from the University of Technology Sydney is an expert on urban inter-cultural relations with a focus on education. She points out gifted students come from all ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds but the way access to selective schools is carried out "may disadvantage some people". "The problem is that gifted and talented students from disadvantaged backgrounds simply don't apply," she says. Stimulating high potential children outside school also comes at a cost: Music lessons (upwards of $35 for a 30-minute weekly lesson); school holiday camps in drama, coding or science ($100 a day). And how this gifted economy works against inclusion for children from low-income families doesn't end there. Better-resourced private schools that have capacity to differentiate curriculum delivery for different abilities come at significant cost. Even low-cost government schools with good reputations can drive demand for housing in the catchment that . And there can be an emotional cost, too At the heart of all this research and strategy around how best to develop and extend gifted and talented students one voice is often silent: how do the children themselves experience the often high-pressure environment of pursuing academic excellence in 2024? For some it is a game changer, a chance to "find their tribe" and finally flourish and feel like they fit in at school. For others, like Ashton, the social isolation of being extracted from a peer group in pursuit of intellectual challenge came at a cost. Now 27, with a higher degree in science and a job he loves, Ashton says the rapid trajectory of his primary and high school years took a toll on his mental health that continues to affect him. At nine and 10, he was in the classroom with 13-year-olds who didn't welcome his presence. At 15 he had graduated from high school and with a special exemption was at university before he turned 16, studying among adults who were not social peers. Academically he was well-catered for in the end, but Ashton believes now that spending his childhood among much older students harmed his emotional development and left him desperately lonely. "I can't think of a time that I was happy for my entire childhood," he says. He believes his experience should be a warning about what can go wrong when the balance between intellectual and social development fails. "The overriding memory I have of my school years was how isolated I felt from my peers," he says. "I've gained a lot of knowledge and skills, and I do think that I am smart, but that feeling crushes any of the benefits of the advanced learning I was attempted to be given. "The lasting damage and genuine trauma those years inflicted make me concerned about the social cost of what I went through, even though it came from the best intentions." He's not alone. Hannah* is another former child giftie. At 12, she spent one day a week at a different school, in a special class for students whose IQ had been assessed at over 130. "I loved that class. It was creative and off-piste and super engaging. I made great friends," she remembers. "But it made things really awkward for me at my actual school. I got hassled a bit by some kids. I was pretty good at shaking it off, but it did upset me." The experience also possibly impacted other areas of her development. "It amped up the pressure I put on myself," she says. "I burned myself out in high school topping the year every year until Year 10. By the time Year 12 came around I had swung the pendulum too far the other way and cruised through without trying. I regret that I didn't engage fully in the learning but by then I'd rebelled against it." An Australian clinical psychologist who works regularly with gifted students but wants to remain anonymous to protect her patients' privacy, says retaining a peer group is vital for children who are still developing social and emotional maturity. "Skipping grades based on academic achievement alone does feel a bit like a sausage factory," she believes. "I've seen people in the mental health system that have been absolutely scarred by it socially and emotionally." Instead of advancing the curriculum, the psychologist — with personal experience of her own gifted education and that of her children — recommends broadening it out. But importantly she argues this broadening does not have to occur only in a school setting. "You might be able to skip ahead academically but you can't skip ahead in your emotional maturity," she says. "If you skip ahead of your peer group for academic purposes you are missing the richest part of school life, the relationships you form with others and learning about yourself." What works? What might a perfect gifted education look like? Gagné urges schools to move beyond the "age-grade lockstep" that restricts most students to a one-step-per-year learning system even when a gifted student may be capable of learning twice as fast as one with average intelligence. And once again the key is how to spot the underachieving gifties in among the talented over-achievers. In 2016 a group of researchers sifted through into the impact of ability grouping and acceleration on academic achievement. They found grouping children into small ability-based teams within their regular class was more effective than grouping kids in separate streamed classes. Even better was what's known as cross-grade subject grouping whereby students of different grade levels are grouped based on achievement rather than age while also retaining links to their age peers. This is the system used by Adelaide's which has developed cult-like status among certain families searching for a different way to educate their giftie. Some families even move states to access this independent school that accepts students from age five until graduation. "Every child at this school is gifted whereas a lot of other schools have special programs tacked on that cater to gifted students," says Dr Lynda McInnes, the principal and co-founder of Dara that opened in 2017. "There are so many myths about gifted children: they will just learn regardless, you can't accelerate gifted children because it will harm them emotionally," McInnes says. "They actually really need to be with like-minded peers. They need to be nurtured just like any other child. They just need to do it faster." Dara uses standardised testing such as NAPLAN, psychological tests, teacher recommendations and parent insights to screen for entry — a deliberate move away from the competitive entry tests relied on by selective schools. Once accepted, students join classes — mostly taken by teachers with specialised gifted training — based on ability, not age, allowing students to shuffle between year groups and subjects according to which best fits their aptitude. "We'll keep moving the student until they get to a stage where the curriculum is relevant and challenging for them," McInnes says, acknowledging the bespoke nature of the school and complex timetabling only works because it remains very small. Fewer than 100 students attend. While hitting many of the gold standard targets gifted research promotes, how Dara performs over time is yet to be tested. It's most recent NAPLAN results show students performing well above state and national averages, perhaps a sign that these gifted students are also displaying their talents. And of course, as a private school, attending Dara comes at a cost. At just over $7000 a year, Dara is modestly priced compared with some private schools, but it again shows that money and access are everything. Overall, the picture that emerges is that all the research and thoughtful policy in the world can't predict how an individual child will respond. For some, advanced and enriched work is the sweet spot. For others social connection with like minds is the most important goal. Either way educators and parents have their work cut out. And the solution will be as unique as the intriguing minds of the individual children it's designed to serve. *Names have been changed Credits Catherine Taylor Gabrielle Flood and Lindsay Dunbar
Jimmy Carter: Many evolutions for a centenarian ‘citizen of the world’Ex-ESPN employee Jemele Hill defends Lebron James' social media break, says X is 'at an all-time low'
Housing reform bills 'not a silver bullet': ministerPLAINS, 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.
WASHINGTON – Former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s withdrawal as Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general has created an opening for one of the criminal defense lawyers he designated for top posts at the Justice Department – or to other firebrands the president-elect was previously considering. Trump could potentially elevate defense lawyer Todd Blanche , who he had already named as deputy attorney general, the department's #2 job. Other candidates included Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, former intelligence official Kash Patel and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton . “It basically comes down to whoever can demonstrate the most fealty to Trump, and be a Matt Gaetz without the baggage,” said Jeff Breinholt, a former senior lawyer and counterterrorism official at the Justice Department. Gaetz withdrew from consideration on Thursday amid continuing disclosures of damaging testimony from federal and House Ethics Committee probes into allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use . Gaetz denied the allegations. Here is what we know about potential candidates for attorney general: Sign-up for Your Vote: Text with the USA TODAY elections team. Todd Blanche Blanche and Emil Bove, who was named principal associate deputy attorney general, defended Trump in his New York hush money trial and federal investigations over his alleged election interference and mishandling classified documents . Their delaying strategy held off action in both federal cases until after the election. After Trump’s victory, Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith is winding down both cases under department policy barring prosecution of a sitting president. Despite Trump's conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records, Blanche represented him aggressively, calling his former lawyer Michael Cohen a liar. Sentencing in the Manhattan conviction has been postponed while District Attorney Alvin Bragg urged a postponement until after Trump leaves office , while Trump’s lawyers contend the charges should dropped entirely. Blanche had previously been a federal prosecutor in New York and clerked for two federal judges. "Todd is an excellent attorney who will be a crucial leader in the Justice Department, fixing what has been a broken System of Justice for far too long," Trump said in announcing his choice for deputy attorney general. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah Lee, who has served 14 years in the Senate and sits on the Judiciary Committee, was considered a top candidate for attorney general before Gaetz was chosen and could potentially face an easier path to confirmation from his fellow senators. Lee was a vocal advocate for Trump during his first term and exchanged emails with Trump’s White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, conferring over how to challenge the 2020 election results. In texts obtained by CNN , Lee voiced “unequivocal support for you to exhaust every legal and constitutional remedy at your disposal,” although the senator ultimately voted to certify Joe Biden's election victory. "He is clearly one of these guys that has great respect in the United States Senate,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D. Kash Patel, former defense and intelligence official Patel served as a National Security Council official, a senior adviser to the Director of National Intelligence and as chief of staff to the Defense secretary during Trump’s first term. He is also under consideration as FBI director. Patel has frequently posted on social media and made public appearances to support Trump and his agenda since leaving office in 2021, especially in opposing and destroying what both have called the “deep state" of the national security bureaucracy. “We’ve got to put in all American patriots top to bottom,” Patel told another Trump surrogate, Steve Bannon in one recent post-election interview. Patel said he and Trump administration leaders “will go out and find the conspirators not just in government but in the media” deemed disloyal to Trump. Patel has shown a willingness to do whatever Trump wants of him, but he rubbed a lot of people at the department the wrong way, along with judges in counterterrorism cases, Breinholt said. “Kash was very unpopular with the Judiciary during his time at Justice, so we sent him up to the Hill,” where Patel worked for Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., on the House Intelligence Committee, Breinholt said. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Paxton has been a vocal supporter of Trump who spoke at the former president’s rally near the White House on Jan. 6, 2021, and attended his election night party at Mar-a-Lago. Paxton, who was previously a state lawmaker, has served as Texas attorney general since 2015. He filed 27 lawsuits against the Obama administration during a two-year period, with six cases heard at the Supreme Court. Like Trump, Paxton has been the subject of criminal investigations and an impeachment. He settled a longstanding indictment on charges of securities fraud in March without entering a plea but agreeing to pay $271,000 and performing community service. More: Ken Paxton stretching boundaries of consumer protection laws to pursue political targets Paxton was earlier impeached on 20 misconduct charges but the state Senate acquitted him in September 2023 . “Ken was made to suffer for a long period of time but it worked out very well,” Trump said after the acquittal.AS Bryden plans full takeover of Jamaican distributorDhindsa for a united Akali Dal