6,000 inmates escape from a high-security prison as post-election violence roils MozambiqueULTA has updated one of its policies for the holiday season, but there are some strict stipulations customers must be aware of. Much of the benefit from it hinges on having a gift receipt, and it's best to get one no matter where you shop for Christmas . Similar to many retailers, Ulta is extending the window consumers can make returns, per its website . Those who made purchases in-person at Ulta store locations or online between November 1 and December 31, 2024, can benefit if they need to return an item. Instead of the typical 30 days from the date of purchase that Ulta's policy typically allows, it's now up to 90 days with the extension. Merchandise purchased after December 31 will fall under the standard return policy. Read More on Ulta That means if customers purchase something on December 31 and return it after 30 days, they won't be eligible for a full refund but instead store credit. In general, customers can return any new or gently used merchandise with proof of purchase and, within 30 days, back to Ulta for a full refund to the "original form of payment." Items must also include all of the components that they originally came with. Therefore, having a receipt, specifically a gift receipt, is one of the most important things to remember for Ulta customers when returning gifts during the holidays to take advantage of the extension. Most read in Money Those customers who meet the requirements for the holiday return extension at Ulta and have their gift receipt will still face several strict requirements. REFUND REJECTS For one, Ulta "reserves the right" to double-check government IDs and deny a return if there's suspicion of fraud or if they cannot verify the original purchase in their system for whatever reason. Additionally, even within the extension window, returns with a gift receipt brought back 60 days after the purchase date won't be eligible for a full refund but instead merchandise credit or "a different product of equal or lesser value." Customers who bought items with an Ulta gift card also get refunds through a gift card. Gift cards themselves can also not be returned. That applies to single-use coupons, as well. Retailers who have switched up their return policies for Christmas include: Amazon: The usual 30-day return window has been extended until January 31, 2025 for items bought from November 1 to December 31, 2024. The deadline for returning Apple products however, is January 15, 2025. Walmart: Consumers have until January 31, 2025 to return goods purchased online or in store between October 1 and December 31, 2024. Target: Shoppers have until January 24, 2025 to return most electronics and entertainment products purchased between November 7 and December 24. The deadline for mobile phones, Beat and Apple products however is January 8, 2025. Best Buy: The deadline to return items bought from November 1 to December 31, 2024 is January 14, 2025 for many products. Consumers have 15 days in which to return holiday decorations, while for activatable devices such as cell phones it’s 15 days. Check individual retailer websites for full details of return policies as deadlines can vary, depending on product. Ulta also does not allow customers with a gift receipt to return products "for the purpose of repurchasing and applying a coupon, special offer, and/or Ulta Beauty Rewards points." Mini Brands capsules, intimate wellness devices, wigs, and hair extensions that were bought at one of Ulta's salons can also not be returned. 'TIS THE SEASON Competitors like Sephora have also put in a holiday extension for returns. Amazon's extension is virtually identical to Ulta's, with some slight differences. Best Buy, Target, and Walmart have also done the same. Read More on The US Sun Ulta also plans to open up about 200 more locations over the next several years to compete with top rivals. The beauty retailer also announced back in May that it expanded its partnership with DoorDash to all 50 states, offering customers product drop-off times in under 60 minutes on average.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The grinding war between Ukraine and its Russian invaders has escalated ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration, with President Joe Biden rushing out billions of dollars more in military aid before U.S. support for Kyiv’s defenses is thrown into question under the new administration. Russia, Ukraine and their global allies are scrambling to put their side in the best possible position for any changes that Trump may bring to American policy in the nearly 3-year-old war . The president-elect insisted in recent days that Russia and Ukraine immediately reach a ceasefire and said Ukraine should likely prepare to receive less U.S. military aid. On the war's front lines, Ukraine's forces are mindful of Trump's fast-approaching presidency and the risk of losing their biggest backer . If that happens, “those people who are with me, my unit, we are not going to retreat," a Ukrainian strike-drone company commander, fighting in Russia's Kursk region with the 47th Brigade, told The Associated Press by phone. “As long as we have ammunition, as long as we have weapons, as long as we have some means to defeat the enemy, we will fight,” said the commander, who goes by his military call sign, Hummer. He spoke on condition he not be identified by name, citing Ukrainian military rules and security concerns. “But, when all means run out, you must understand, we will be destroyed very quickly,” he said. The Biden administration is pushing every available dollar out the door to shore up Ukraine's defenses before leaving office in six weeks, announcing more than $2 billion in additional support since Trump won the presidential election last month. The U.S. has sent a total of $62 billion in military aid since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. And more help is on the way. The Treasury Department said Tuesday it would disburse $20 billion — the U.S. portion of a $50 billion multinational loan to Ukraine , backed by Russia's frozen central bank assets — before Biden leaves the White House. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the funds “will provide Ukraine a critical infusion of support.” And the State Department said Tuesday it had approved the sale of a $266 million package to help Ukraine with the long-term operation and maintenance of F-16 fighter aircraft from the U.S. and other allies. Biden also has eased limits on Ukraine using American longer-range missiles against military targets deeper inside Russia, following months of refusing those appeals over fears of provoking Russia into nuclear war or attacks on the West. He's also newly allowed Ukraine to employ antipersonnel mines , which are banned by many countries. Biden and his senior advisers, however, are skeptical that allowing freer use of longer-range missiles will change the broader trajectory of the war, according to two senior administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. But the administration has at least a measure of confidence that its scramble, combined with continued strong European support , means it will leave office having given Ukraine the tools it needs to sustain its fight for some time, the officials said. Enough to hold on, but not enough to defeat Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces, according to Ukraine and some of its allies. Even now, “the Biden administration has been very careful not to run up against the possibility of a defeated Putin or a defeated Russia” for fear of the tumult that could bring, said retired Gen. Philip Breedlove, a former supreme allied commander of NATO. He is critical of Biden’s cautious pace of military support for Ukraine. Events far from the front lines this past weekend demonstrated the war's impact on Russia’s military . In Syria, rebels seized the capital and toppled Russia-allied President Bashar Assad . Russian forces in Syria had propped up Assad for years, but they moved out of the way of the rebels’ assault , unwilling to take losses to defend their ally. Biden said it was further evidence that U.S. support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was wearing down Russia’s military. Trump, who has long spoken favorably of Putin and described Zelenskyy as a “showman" wheedling money from the U.S., used that moment to call for an immediate ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. And asked in a TV interview — taped before he met with Zelenskyy over the weekend in Paris — if Ukraine should prepare for the possibility of reduced aid, Trump said, “Yeah. Probably. Sure.” Trump's supporters call that pre-negotiation maneuvering by an avowed deal-maker. His critics say they fear it shows he is in Putin's sway. Zelenskyy said Monday that Russian forces’ retrenchment from outposts worldwide demonstrates that “the entire army of this great pseudo-empire is fighting against the Ukrainian people today.” “Forcing Putin to end the war requires Ukraine to be strong on the battlefield before it can be strong diplomatically,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media, repeating near-daily appeals for more longer-range missiles from the U.S. and Europe. In Kursk, Hummer, the Ukrainian commander, said he notices Russian artillery strikes and shelling easing up since the U.S. and its European allies loosened limits on the use of longer-range missiles. But Moscow has been escalating its offensives in other ways in the past six months, burning through men and materiel in infantry assaults and other attacks far faster than it can replace them, according to the Institute for the Study of War. In Kursk, that includes Russia sending waves of soldiers on motorcycles and golf carts to storm Ukrainian positions, Hummer said. The Ukrainian drone commander and his comrades defend the ground they have seized from Russia with firearms, tanks and armored vehicles provided by the U.S. and other allies. Ukraine’s supporters fear that the kind of immediate ceasefire Trump is urging would be mostly on Putin’s terms and allow the Russian leader to resume the war when his military has recovered. “Putin is sacrificing his own soldiers at a grotesque rate to take whatever territory he can on the assumption that the U.S. will tell Ukraine that U.S. aid is over unless Russia gets to keep what it has taken,” Phillips O’Brien, a professor of strategic studies at Scotland’s University of St. Andrews, wrote on his Substack channel. Putin's need for troops led him to bring in North Korean forces . Biden's decision to allow Ukraine to use longer-range missiles more broadly in Russia was partly in response, intended to discourage North Korea from deeper involvement in the war, one of the senior administration officials said. Since 2022, Russia already had been pulling forces and other military assets from Syria, Central Asia and elsewhere to throw into the Ukraine fight, said George Burros, an expert on the Russia-Ukraine conflict at the Institute for the Study of War. Any combat power that Russia has left in Syria that it could deploy to Ukraine is unlikely to change battlefield momentum, Burros said. “The Kremlin has prioritized Ukraine as much as it can,” he said. Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.
Rapper Sean 'Diddy' Combs returns to jail as judge considers bail bidCava Group ( CAVA -1.82% ) was one of the better-performing names in 2024. Even after a recent pullback, the stock has risen by more than 175% over the last year, likely because many saw it as a second-chance Chipotle as it works to bring fast, healthy Mediterranean food to more customers. However, the stock has dropped almost 25% since early December. Hence, the question for investors: Is Cava in a temporary bear market and will continue surging in 2025, or will it face considerable pain as the value of the restaurant stock continues to slide? The state of Cava Group stock Admittedly, the narrative that Cava is "Mediterranean Chipotle" is oversimplified but difficult to ignore. Indeed, consumers and investors will probably recall that Chipotle built its success by offering healthy, reasonably priced food that is fast and delicious. Moreover, American consumers have grown more health-conscious in recent years, and various segments of the media have long promoted Mediterranean cuisine as a healthy alternative. Hence, the times seem to call for a fast-casual restaurant like Cava. Additionally, Cava's growth has outpaced Chipotle's. In the first 40 weeks of fiscal 2024 (ended Oct. 6), revenue of $736 million grew 34% compared with the same period in fiscal 2023. In comparison, Chipotle's revenue rose 15% over approximately the same period. Also, Cava's restaurant count, which had reached 352 at the end of fiscal Q3, rose 21% year over year, and its same-restaurant sales grew 11% during that period. Furthermore, its costs and expenses rose 28% during the first 40 weeks of fiscal 2024, slightly lagging the revenue increase over the same period. That led to a $52 million net income, well above the $12 million during the same time frame in fiscal 2023. Cava looks set to improve its performance, as it has guided for 12% to 13% same-restaurant sales growth for fiscal 2024. Since analysts predict 32% revenue growth for Cava for the fiscal year, it appears set for continued prosperity, at least for now. Cava's growing pains Nonetheless, the recent decline in the stock may face a challenge that tends to hurt growth stocks : slowing revenue increases. In fiscal 2025, analysts predict 24% yearly revenue growth. While that still represents robust growth, it also marks a significant slowdown from the last fiscal year. Moreover, it compares less favorably in other ways to its larger fast-casual rival, Chipotle. Unfortunately for Cava investors, this goes well beyond the fact that Mexican cuisine is more popular than Mediterranean food. Cava's goal of 1,000 restaurants by 2032 would approximately triple its number of locations. However, Chipotle intends to operate 7,000 restaurants in North America, not including its international plans (it operates over 3,600 locations now). Since Cava has not outlined any publicly outlined goals to expand outside the U.S., Chipotle may have a larger growth goal, even in percentage terms. Amid that future, valuation differences favor Chipotle. Cava's recent turn to profitability probably makes its P/E ratio a misleading valuation comparison. Still, Cava's price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 15 is far above Chipotle's sales multiple of 8, which may leave investors wondering whether Cava is worth that extra expense. CAVA PS Ratio data by YCharts Where will Cava stock go in 2025? Given current conditions, investors should expect Cava stock to struggle over the next year. Indeed, with its rapid growth and potential to add new locations, Cava Group stock should prosper longer term, meaning current shareholders should probably not sell. However, slowing revenue growth tends to hurt stocks with high valuations, a factor that may have already begun to weigh on Chipotle's stock performance. Additionally, comparing Cava's valuation to Chipotle's highlights how expensive the stock has become, making investors less inclined to buy Cava shares. Ultimately, Cava Group stock should turn into a winning investment for long-term shareholders. Nonetheless, its long-term investment case appears more favorable than its potential performance in 2025.
ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who won the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, endured humbling defeat after one tumultuous term and then redefined life after the White House as a global humanitarian, has died. He was 100 years old. The longest-lived American president died on Sunday, more than a year after entering hospice care , at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died at 96 in November 2023 , spent most of their lives, The Carter Center said. Businessman, Navy officer, evangelist, politician, negotiator, author, woodworker, citizen of the world — Carter forged a path that still challenges political assumptions and stands out among the 45 men who reached the nation’s highest office. The 39th president leveraged his ambition with a keen intellect, deep religious faith and prodigious work ethic, conducting diplomatic missions into his 80s and building houses for the poor well into his 90s. “My faith demands — this is not optional — my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try to make a difference,” Carter once said. A president from Plains A moderate Democrat, Carter entered the 1976 presidential race as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad smile, outspoken Baptist mores and technocratic plans reflecting his education as an engineer. His no-frills campaign depended on public financing, and his promise not to deceive the American people resonated after Richard Nixon’s disgrace and U.S. defeat in southeast Asia. “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 repeated before narrowly beating Republican incumbent Gerald Ford, who had lost popularity pardoning Nixon. Carter governed amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over racism, women’s rights and America’s global role. His most acclaimed achievement in office was a Mideast peace deal that he brokered by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the bargaining table for 13 days in 1978. That Camp David experience inspired the post-presidential center where Carter would establish so much of his legacy. Yet Carter’s electoral coalition splintered under double-digit inflation, gasoline lines and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His bleakest hour came when eight Americans died in a failed hostage rescue in April 1980, helping to ensure his landslide defeat to Republican Ronald Reagan. Carter acknowledged in his 2020 “White House Diary” that he could be “micromanaging” and “excessively autocratic,” complicating dealings with Congress and the federal bureaucracy. He also turned a cold shoulder to Washington’s news media and lobbyists, not fully appreciating their influence on his political fortunes. “It didn’t take us long to realize that the underestimation existed, but by that time we were not able to repair the mistake,” Carter told historians in 1982, suggesting that he had “an inherent incompatibility” with Washington insiders. Carter insisted his overall approach was sound and that he achieved his primary objectives — to “protect our nation’s security and interests peacefully” and “enhance human rights here and abroad” — even if he fell spectacularly short of a second term. And then, the world Ignominious defeat, though, allowed for renewal. The Carters founded The Carter Center in 1982 as a first-of-its-kind base of operations, asserting themselves as international peacemakers and champions of democracy, public health and human rights. “I was not interested in just building a museum or storing my White House records and memorabilia,” Carter wrote in a memoir published after his 90th birthday. “I wanted a place where we could work.” That work included easing nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, helping to avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti and negotiating cease-fires in Bosnia and Sudan. By 2022, The Carter Center had declared at least 113 elections in Latin America, Asia and Africa to be free or fraudulent. Recently, the center began monitoring U.S. elections as well. Carter’s stubborn self-assuredness and even self-righteousness proved effective once he was unencumbered by the Washington order, sometimes to the point of frustrating his successors . He went “where others are not treading,” he said, to places like Ethiopia, Liberia and North Korea, where he secured the release of an American who had wandered across the border in 2010. “I can say what I like. I can meet whom I want. I can take on projects that please me and reject the ones that don’t,” Carter said. He announced an arms-reduction-for-aid deal with North Korea without clearing the details with Bill Clinton’s White House. He openly criticized President George W. Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He also criticized America’s approach to Israel with his 2006 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” And he repeatedly countered U.S. administrations by insisting North Korea should be included in international affairs, a position that most aligned Carter with Republican President Donald Trump. Among the center’s many public health initiatives, Carter vowed to eradicate the guinea worm parasite during his lifetime, and nearly achieved it: Cases dropped from millions in the 1980s to nearly a handful. With hardhats and hammers, the Carters also built homes with Habitat for Humanity. The Nobel committee’s 2002 Peace Prize cites his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” Carter should have won it alongside Sadat and Begin in 1978, the chairman added. Carter accepted the recognition saying there was more work to be done. “The world is now, in many ways, a more dangerous place,” he said. “The greater ease of travel and communication has not been matched by equal understanding and mutual respect.” ‘An epic American life’ Carter’s globetrotting took him to remote villages where he met little “Jimmy Carters,” so named by admiring parents. But he spent most of his days in the same one-story Plains house — expanded and guarded by Secret Service agents — where they lived before he became governor. He regularly taught Sunday School lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church until his mobility declined and the coronavirus pandemic raged. Those sessions drew visitors from around the world to the small sanctuary where Carter will receive his final send-off after a state funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral. The common assessment that he was a better ex-president than president rankled Carter and his allies. His prolific post-presidency gave him a brand above politics, particularly for Americans too young to witness him in office. But Carter also lived long enough to see biographers and historians reassess his White House years more generously. His record includes the deregulation of key industries, reduction of U.S. dependence on foreign oil, cautious management of the national debt and notable legislation on the environment, education and mental health. He focused on human rights in foreign policy, pressuring dictators to release thousands of political prisoners . He acknowledged America’s historical imperialism, pardoned Vietnam War draft evaders and relinquished control of the Panama Canal. He normalized relations with China. “I am not nominating Jimmy Carter for a place on Mount Rushmore,” Stuart Eizenstat, Carter’s domestic policy director, wrote in a 2018 book. “He was not a great president” but also not the “hapless and weak” caricature voters rejected in 1980, Eizenstat said. Rather, Carter was “good and productive” and “delivered results, many of which were realized only after he left office.” Madeleine Albright, a national security staffer for Carter and Clinton’s secretary of state, wrote in Eizenstat’s forward that Carter was “consequential and successful” and expressed hope that “perceptions will continue to evolve” about his presidency. “Our country was lucky to have him as our leader,” said Albright, who died in 2022. Jonathan Alter, who penned a comprehensive Carter biography published in 2020, said in an interview that Carter should be remembered for “an epic American life” spanning from a humble start in a home with no electricity or indoor plumbing through decades on the world stage across two centuries. “He will likely go down as one of the most misunderstood and underestimated figures in American history,” Alter told The Associated Press. A small-town start James Earl Carter Jr. was born Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains and spent his early years in nearby Archery. His family was a minority in the mostly Black community, decades before the civil rights movement played out at the dawn of Carter’s political career. Carter, who campaigned as a moderate on race relations but governed more progressively, talked often of the influence of his Black caregivers and playmates but also noted his advantages: His land-owning father sat atop Archery’s tenant-farming system and owned a main street grocery. His mother, Lillian , would become a staple of his political campaigns. Seeking to broaden his world beyond Plains and its population of fewer than 1,000 — then and now — Carter won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1946. That same year he married Rosalynn Smith, another Plains native, a decision he considered more important than any he made as head of state. She shared his desire to see the world, sacrificing college to support his Navy career. Carter climbed in rank to lieutenant, but then his father was diagnosed with cancer, so the submarine officer set aside his ambitions of admiralty and moved the family back to Plains. His decision angered Rosalynn, even as she dived into the peanut business alongside her husband. Carter again failed to talk with his wife before his first run for office — he later called it “inconceivable” not to have consulted her on such major life decisions — but this time, she was on board. “My wife is much more political,” Carter told the AP in 2021. He won a state Senate seat in 1962 but wasn’t long for the General Assembly and its back-slapping, deal-cutting ways. He ran for governor in 1966 — losing to arch-segregationist Lester Maddox — and then immediately focused on the next campaign. Carter had spoken out against church segregation as a Baptist deacon and opposed racist “Dixiecrats” as a state senator. Yet as a local school board leader in the 1950s he had not pushed to end school segregation even after the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, despite his private support for integration. And in 1970, Carter ran for governor again as the more conservative Democrat against Carl Sanders, a wealthy businessman Carter mocked as “Cufflinks Carl.” Sanders never forgave him for anonymous, race-baiting flyers, which Carter disavowed. Ultimately, Carter won his races by attracting both Black voters and culturally conservative whites. Once in office, he was more direct. “I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over,” he declared in his 1971 inaugural address, setting a new standard for Southern governors that landed him on the cover of Time magazine. ‘Jimmy Who?’ His statehouse initiatives included environmental protection, boosting rural education and overhauling antiquated executive branch structures. He proclaimed Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the slain civil rights leader’s home state. And he decided, as he received presidential candidates in 1972, that they were no more talented than he was. In 1974, he ran Democrats’ national campaign arm. Then he declared his own candidacy for 1976. An Atlanta newspaper responded with the headline: “Jimmy Who?” The Carters and a “Peanut Brigade” of family members and Georgia supporters camped out in Iowa and New Hampshire, establishing both states as presidential proving grounds. His first Senate endorsement: a young first-termer from Delaware named Joe Biden. Yet it was Carter’s ability to navigate America’s complex racial and rural politics that cemented the nomination. He swept the Deep South that November, the last Democrat to do so, as many white Southerners shifted to Republicans in response to civil rights initiatives. A self-declared “born-again Christian,” Carter drew snickers by referring to Scripture in a Playboy magazine interview, saying he “had looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.” The remarks gave Ford a new foothold and television comedians pounced — including NBC’s new “Saturday Night Live” show. But voters weary of cynicism in politics found it endearing. Carter chose Minnesota Sen. Walter “Fritz” Mondale as his running mate on a “Grits and Fritz” ticket. In office, he elevated the vice presidency and the first lady’s office. Mondale’s governing partnership was a model for influential successors Al Gore, Dick Cheney and Biden. Rosalynn Carter was one of the most involved presidential spouses in history, welcomed into Cabinet meetings and huddles with lawmakers and top aides. The Carters presided with uncommon informality: He used his nickname “Jimmy” even when taking the oath of office, carried his own luggage and tried to silence the Marine Band’s “Hail to the Chief.” They bought their clothes off the rack. Carter wore a cardigan for a White House address, urging Americans to conserve energy by turning down their thermostats. Amy, the youngest of four children, attended District of Columbia public school. Washington’s social and media elite scorned their style. But the larger concern was that “he hated politics,” according to Eizenstat, leaving him nowhere to turn politically once economic turmoil and foreign policy challenges took their toll. Accomplishments, and ‘malaise’ Carter partially deregulated the airline, railroad and trucking industries and established the departments of Education and Energy, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He designated millions of acres of Alaska as national parks or wildlife refuges. He appointed a then-record number of women and nonwhite people to federal posts. He never had a Supreme Court nomination, but he elevated civil rights attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the nation’s second highest court, positioning her for a promotion in 1993. He appointed Paul Volker, the Federal Reserve chairman whose policies would help the economy boom in the 1980s — after Carter left office. He built on Nixon’s opening with China, and though he tolerated autocrats in Asia, pushed Latin America from dictatorships to democracy. But he couldn’t immediately tame inflation or the related energy crisis. And then came Iran. After he admitted the exiled Shah of Iran to the U.S. for medical treatment, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979 by followers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Negotiations to free the hostages broke down repeatedly ahead of the failed rescue attempt. The same year, Carter signed SALT II, the new strategic arms treaty with Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union, only to pull it back, impose trade sanctions and order a U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. Hoping to instill optimism, he delivered what the media dubbed his “malaise” speech, although he didn’t use that word. He declared the nation was suffering “a crisis of confidence.” By then, many Americans had lost confidence in the president, not themselves. Carter campaigned sparingly for reelection because of the hostage crisis, instead sending Rosalynn as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy challenged him for the Democratic nomination. Carter famously said he’d “kick his ass,” but was hobbled by Kennedy as Reagan rallied a broad coalition with “make America great again” appeals and asking voters whether they were “better off than you were four years ago.” Reagan further capitalized on Carter’s lecturing tone, eviscerating him in their lone fall debate with the quip: “There you go again.” Carter lost all but six states and Republicans rolled to a new Senate majority. Carter successfully negotiated the hostages’ freedom after the election, but in one final, bitter turn of events, Tehran waited until hours after Carter left office to let them walk free. ‘A wonderful life’ At 56, Carter returned to Georgia with “no idea what I would do with the rest of my life.” Four decades after launching The Carter Center, he still talked of unfinished business. “I thought when we got into politics we would have resolved everything,” Carter told the AP in 2021. “But it’s turned out to be much more long-lasting and insidious than I had thought it was. I think in general, the world itself is much more divided than in previous years.” Still, he affirmed what he said when he underwent treatment for a cancer diagnosis in his 10th decade of life. “I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” he said in 2015 . “I’ve had a wonderful life. I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.” ___ Former Associated Press journalist Alex Sanz contributed to this report.
Former President Jimmy Carter, the longest-lived president in U.S. history, died at his home, his family and the Carter Center confirmed Sunday. He was 100. Carter, a Democrat, served as president for one term from 1977 to 1981. He’s also well-known for his humanitarian work after leaving the White House, including for Habitat for Humanity and peace deal negotiations. Remembered for his quick rise in national politics and dedication to world conflict resolution in the decades after he left office, Carter’s years in the White House marked a transition from the Watergate era to the Reagan conservatism of the 1980s. He oversaw major changes to the U.S. government during a time of high inflation, high interest rates, unemployment, and international instability, including the Iran hostage crisis. The former peanut farmer was also one of four presidents to win the Nobel Peace Prize, cited for decades advancing “peaceful solutions” to international conflict and advancing human rights, democracy, and social and economic development. “The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices,” Carter said during his acceptance speech in 2002. “God gives us the capacity for choice. We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace.” Carter, whose full name is James Earl Carter, Jr., was born on Oct. 1, 1924, in the small farming town of Plains, Georgia. The future politician was raised in the nearby community of Archery by his father, James Earl Carter, Sr., a farmer and businessman, and by his mother, Lillian Gordy Carter, a registered nurse. After attending public school in Plains, Carter spent his college years at Georgia Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology before earning a science degree in 1946 from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The same year, he married Rosalynn Smith, a union that lasted until she died in 2023. He soon entered the Navy, serving as a submariner in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets and rising to the rank of lieutenant. Admiral Hyman Rickover chose him for the nuclear submarine program before assigning Carter to Schenectady, New York. He completed graduate work at Union College in reactor technology and nuclear physics. This proved pivotal for the future peanut farmer, as he soon became the senior officer of the pre-commissioning crew on the Seawolf, the second nuclear submarine. Carter served as a naval officer for seven years until his father died from pancreatic cancer in 1953, prompting a move back to Plains, where he took over the family business, Carter Farms. He and his wife also operated Carter’s Warehouse, a farm supply and general-purpose seed company. He first ran for governor in 1966, losing in the primary to Ellis Arnall and Lester Maddox, but won the 1970 gubernatorial election. As Georgia’s 76th governor, Carter declared in his inaugural address that “the time for racial discrimination is over” while also emphasizing the importance of ecology and government efficiency. The Democratic National Committee selected him to be the campaign chairman for the 1974 congressional and gubernatorial elections, which saw Democrats expand their majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives in the wake of the Watergate scandal. He announced his presidential campaign on Dec. 12, 1974, and was nominated on the first ballot at the 1976 Democratic National Convention, choosing former Sen. Walter F. Mondale (D-Minn.) as his running mate. During the 1976 presidential election, he pitched himself as a reformer “untainted” by Washington politics, striking a contrast with former President Gerald Ford, who faced mounting scrutiny for pardoning his predecessor during the Watergate fallout. Carter also presided over the new Departments of Energy and Education, instituting new programs in both agencies. He also signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, doubling the size of the national park system and tripling its wilderness areas. Two notable achievements during his presidency were the Camp David Agreement in 1978, establishing amity between Egypt and Israel, and the Panama Canal treaties in 1977, returning control of the canal to Panama in 1999. Carter also established full diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, following in the footsteps of his predecessors. In 1979, he negotiated the SALT II nuclear limitation treaty with the Soviet Union in an effort to reduce the manufacturing of strategic nuclear weapons. However, his presidency also hit roadblocks, as the country was bedeviled by rising energy costs and unemployment, historically high levels of inflation, soaring interest rates, and tensions with international politics. Efforts to reduce the increasing inflation and interest rates resulted in a short recession, further swamping Carter’s administration. He withdrew the SALT II treaty after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Yet one of the central flashpoints for the end of Carter’s time in the White House was the Iran Hostage Crisis when Iranian militants kidnapped 52 American diplomats and citizens from the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. With the Carter Center, he helped with conflict mediation in countries and regions around the world, including Ethiopia (1989), North Korea (1994), Liberia (1994), Haiti (1994), Sudan (1999), Uganda (1999), Venezuela (2002-2003), Colombia (2008), and the Middle East (2003-present). The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Carter the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize 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.” He and his wife volunteered with Habitat for Humanity for one week every year until 2020. Rosalynn Carter died in 2023 at the age of 96. “Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished. She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me,” Carter said in a statement after her death. He entered hospice care on Feb. 18, 2023, and remained there until his death. The former president had been diagnosed with skin cancer in 2015 that soon spread to his liver and brain, but after receiving treatment, the cancer went into remission. He is survived by his four children, 11 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren. President Joe Biden accepted a request to deliver Carter’s eulogy when he visited the former president during hospice care in 2023.