
MINNEAPOLIS — Politicians from Minnesota are reacting to the death of former President Jimmy Carter . Carter was the oldest former president in the country's history and the only one to live to the age of 100. Carter "died peacefully Sunday, Dec. 29, at his home in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family," the Carter Center said in a statement. He had been receiving hospice care at his home for nearly two years following a series of short hospital stays. Read reactions to his death from Minnesotan politicians below. "President Carter defined what it means to be a servant leader," Walz said in a post on X. He fought for our democracy, our climate, humanity, and civil rights around the world. We can find peace today knowing that he is reunited with the love his life, Rosalynn." "As President Carter reunites with his beloved wife Rosalynn, we should recognize his passing for what it is — the culmination of a life well lived. He will be remembered not as a politician, but as an unrelenting force for good," Klobuchar said. "John's and my prayers are with Jack, Chip, Jeff, Amy, and the entire Carter family at this time." "Jacquie and I join the rest of the country in honoring the life and legacy of our 39th President, Jimmy Carter," Emmer said on X. "We are grateful for his decades of service — from his time in the military to public office and beyond — and pray for peace and comfort for the Carter family during this difficult time." "Jimmy Carter personified moral leadership for our country & the world," Smith wrote on X. "I was blessed to meet him several times. My favorite moment...he had just finished an energetic conversation w/ Archie about the virtues of fly fishing. May his memory be a blessing." Riley Moser is a digital producer who covers breaking news and feature stories for CBS Minnesota. Riley started her career at CBS Minnesota in June 2022 and earned an honorable mention for sports writing from the Iowa College Media Association the same year.
CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) — Cade Klubnik threw for three touchdowns, backup running back Jay Haynes scored twice on the ground and defensive tackle Payton Page had a 57-yard pick-6 score as No. 17 Clemson routed The Citadel 51-14 Saturday to move to 39-0 all-time against FCS opponents. The Tigers (9-2) won their third straight and still held on to feint hopes of reaching the Atlantic Coast Conference title game and the College Football Playoff.
A major protest led by National Conference’s (NC) member parliament from Srinagar Ruhullah Mehdi and joined by some opposition leaders and youth against the recently amended job reservation policy was held outside the residence of chief minister Omar Abdullah in Srinagar on Monday. Amid the protest, CM Omar called a group of students to talk. “Omar sab listened to our concerns, including rationalisation of reservation and time bound outcome of cabinet sub-committee. He said that they will work on it. He sought a six month time frame as they have to talk to all other stakeholders. We wanted a shorter time frame,” said a student leader Aqib Ahmad after the meeting with Omar. Omar also tweeted over the issue. “Today I met the representatives of the Open Merit Students Association. The beauty of democracy is the right to be heard and dialogue in a spirit of mutual cooperation. I have made certain requests of them and given them a number of assurances. This channel of communication will remain open without any intermediaries or hangers on,” he said. Earlier, Mehdi along with hundreds of youth, including young doctors and students of Government Medical College, Srinagar, marched on the Gupkar Road and assembled outside the residential office of the CM. The protesters shouted slogans against the reservation policy which had increased the reservation in jobs and admissions for reserved categories to over 60% earlier this year. Opposition leaders from Peoples Democratic Party, including Waheed Parra and Iltija Mufti also joined the protest alongside Mehdi. Awami Ittihad Party leader Sheikh Khursheed, brother of incarcerated Baramulla MP Engineer Rashid, also became part of the protest demonstration. Mehdi acknowledged the presence of all the opposition leaders. Mehdi clarified that they were not against the reservation of any disadvantaged group in Jammu and Kashmir. “Like our Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, backward areas and other groups face challenges and need handholding. Then providing them the reservation is justice. Similarly, extending reservation to an irrational level that affects the open merit candidates, then that is injustice for the open merit. Our demand is to rationalise the reservation policy,” he said. Mehdi said that the government needs to use logic and provide reservation as per the population of each category or follow Supreme Court guidelines. “There are two ways for rationalisation of the policy. Provide reservation as per the population ratio. If their population is not more than 40% or is less than 60%, then this injustice should not be done with open merit... The other way is honouring the ruling by Supreme Court and set the open merit percentage at at-least 50%,” he said. The Omar Abdullah-led Jammu and Kashmir government on December 10 constituted a three-member panel for a relook at the policy. Mehdi said that the youth were not satisfied with the pace of work by the cabinet sub-committee. “The CM formed cabinet sub-committee. As I returned from my parliamentary duties, I came to know that the people so far are not satisfied by the working and result of the sub-committee. For me, students are important. So I stood up on your behalf,” he said. Mehdi said that the new government has been formed to solve the issues of people. He also lashed out at the way administration of the union territory has worked since the Abrogation of article 370 in 2019. He said that the roads here would reverberate with the voices of people and the pen should be raised in secretariat as per those wishes not as per the dictates from Delhi. “We all voted after facing the ‘dictatorship’ and ‘forced administration’ of past five years and formed our government. We all tried to restore democracy here. Democracy was murdered here. Our (special) status was snatched away against our will... We have not forgotten 2019. We will answer through democracy not violence or undemocratic means. We will say goodbye to dictatorship and viceroy system from here...,” he said. The resentment is also brewing within the general category population for curtailment of quota in both jobs and NEET and post graduate (PG) seats. Recently, when PG seats were announced in one of the prestigious medical institutes, just 30% postgraduate seats were left for general open merit candidates while the rest were reserved for candidates belonging to various categories. At-least three petitions have been moved in the J&K high court challenging the present status of reservation in seats and jobs. Opposition leader and Pulwama MLA Waheed Parra said that the youth of Jammu and Kashmir should be granted pro rata representation. “Opportunities should be as per the population...Ruhullah sb has initiated this and we all say this that there will be no politics on this. We are with you and trust you for this initiative for youth,” he said. Iltija Mufti sought a time bound result. “We sincerely hope that the government rationalises the reservation policy and most importantly it should be in a ‘time-bound’ manner. We don’t want any politics over the issue. There is massive unemployment and there are no jobs for our students. We want to secure their future,” she said.
India's former prime minister Manmohan Singh, architect of economic reforms, dies at 92How Horizontal Splicing Box Solves Common Connectivity Challenges
Netflix getting set to air NFL on Christmas Day
NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, widely regarded as the architect of India’s economic reform program and a landmark nuclear deal with the United States, has died. He was 92. Singh was admitted to New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences late Thursday after his health deteriorated due to a “sudden loss of consciousness at home,” the hospital said in a statement. “Resuscitative measures were started immediately at home. He was brought to the Medical Emergency” at 8:06 p.m., the hospital said, but “despite all efforts, he could not be revived and was declared dead at 9:51 p.m.” Singh was being treated for “age-related medical conditions,” the statement said. A mild-mannered technocrat, Singh became one of India’s longest-serving prime ministers for 10 years and leader of the Congress Party in the Parliament's Upper House, earning a reputation as a man of great personal integrity. He was chosen to fill the role in 2004 by Sonia Gandhi, the widow of assassinated Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi . But his sterling image was tainted by allegations of corruption against his ministers. Singh was reelected in 2009, but his second term as prime minister was clouded by financial scandals and corruption charges over the organization of the 2010 Commonwealth Games. This led to the Congress Party’s crushing defeat in the 2014 national election by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party under the leadership of Narendra Modi . Singh adopted a low profile after relinquishing the post of prime minister. Prime Minister Modi, who succeeded Singh in 2014, called him one of India’s “most distinguished leaders” who rose from humble origins and left “a strong imprint on our economic policy over the years.” “As our Prime Minister, he made extensive efforts to improve people’s lives,” Modi said in a post on the social platform X. He called Singh’s interventions in Parliament as a lawmaker “insightful” and said “his wisdom and humility were always visible.” Rahul Gandhi, from the same party as Singh and the opposition leader in the lower house of the Indian Parliament, said Singh’s “deep understanding of economics inspired the nation” and that he “led India with immense wisdom and integrity.” “I have lost a mentor and guide. Millions of us who admired him will remember him with the utmost pride,” Gandhi wrote on X. The United States offered its condolences, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying that Singh was “one of the greatest champions of the U.S.-India strategic partnership.” “We mourn Dr. Singh’s passing and will always remember his dedication to bringing the United States and India closer together,” Blinken said. Born on Sept. 26, 1932, in a village in the Punjab province of undivided India, Singh’s brilliant academic career took him to Cambridge University in Britain, where he earned a degree in economics in 1957. He then got his doctorate in economics from Nuffield College at Oxford University in 1962. Singh taught at Panjab University and the prestigious Delhi School of Economics before joining the Indian government in 1971 as economic advisor in the Commerce Ministry. In 1982, he became chief economic adviser to the Finance Ministry. He also served as deputy chair of the Planning Commission and governor of the Reserve Bank of India. As finance minister, Singh in 1991 instituted reforms that opened up the economy and moved India away from a socialist-patterned economy and toward a capitalist model in the face of a huge balance of payments deficit, skirting a potential economic crisis. His accolades include the 1987 Padma Vibhushan Award, India’s second-highest civilian honor; the Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Award of the Indian Science Congress in 1995; and the Asia Money Award for Finance Minister of the Year in 1993 and 1994. Singh was a member of India’s Upper House of Parliament and was leader of the opposition from 1998 to 2004 before he was named prime minister. He was the first Sikh to hold the country’s top post and made a public apology in Parliament for the 1984 Sikh Massacre in which some 3,000 Sikhs were killed after then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by Sikh bodyguards. Under Singh, India adopted a Right to Information Act in 2005 to promote accountability and transparency from government officials and bureaucrats. He was also instrumental in implementing a welfare scheme that guaranteed at least 100 paid workdays for Indian rural citizens. The coalition government he headed for a decade brought together politicians and parties with differing ideologies that were rivals in the country’s various states. In a move hailed as one of his biggest achievements apart from economic reforms, Singh ended India’s nuclear isolation by signing a deal with the U.S. that gave India access to American nuclear technology. But the deal hit his government adversely, with Communist allies withdrawing support and criticism of the agreement growing within India in 2008 when it was finalized. Singh adopted a pragmatic foreign policy approach, pursuing a peace process with nuclear rival and neighbor Pakistan. But his efforts suffered a major setback after Pakistani militants carried out a massive gun and bomb attack in Mumbai in November 2008. He also tried to end the border dispute with China, brokering a deal to reopen the Nathu La pass into Tibet, which had been closed for more than 40 years. His 1965 book, “India’s Export Trends and Prospects for Self-Sustained Growth,” dealt with India’s inward-oriented trade policy. Singh is survived by his wife Gursharan Kaur and three daughters. Associated Press writer Sheikh Saaliq in New Delhi contributed to this report.Coralogix acquires AI observability platform Aporia
NASA's pioneering Parker Solar Probe made history Tuesday, flying closer to the Sun than any other spacecraft, with its heat shield exposed to scorching temperatures topping 1,700 degrees Fahrenheit (930 degrees Celsius). Launched in August 2018 , the spaceship is on a seven-year mission to deepen scientific understanding of our star and help forecast space-weather events that can affect life on Earth. Tuesday's historic flyby should have occurred at precisely 6:53 am (11:53 GMT), although mission scientists will have to wait until Friday for confirmation as they lose contact with the craft for several days due to its proximity to the Sun. "Right now, Parker Solar Probe is flying closer to a star than anything has ever been before," at 3.8 million miles (6.1 million kilometers) away, NASA official Nicky Fox said in a video on social media Tuesday morning. "It is just a total 'yay, we did it,' moment." HAPPENING RIGHT NOW: NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is making its closest-ever approach to the Sun! 🛰️ ☀️ More on this historic moment from @NASAScienceAA Nicola Fox 👇 Follow Parker’s journey: https://t.co/MtDPCEK6w6 #3point8 pic.twitter.com/Bq85XFa1QS If the distance between Earth and the Sun is the equivalent to the length of an American football field, the spacecraft should have been about four yards (meters) from the end zone at the moment of closest approach – known as perihelion. "This is one example of NASA's bold missions, doing something that no one else has ever done before to answer long-standing questions about our Universe," Parker Solar Probe program scientist Arik Posner said in a statement on Monday. "We can't wait to receive that first status update from the spacecraft and start receiving the science data in the coming weeks." So effective is the heat shield that the probe's internal instruments remain near room temperature – around 85 °F (29 °C) – as it explores the Sun's outer atmosphere, called the corona. Parker will also be moving at a blistering pace of around 430,000 mph (690,000 kph), fast enough to fly from the US capital Washington to Japan's Tokyo in under a minute. "Parker will truly be returning data from uncharted territory," said Nick Pinkine, mission operations manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. "We're excited to hear back from the spacecraft when it swings back around the Sun." By venturing into these extreme conditions, Parker has been helping scientists tackle some of the Sun's biggest mysteries: how solar wind originates, why the corona is hotter than the surface below, and how coronal mass ejections – massive clouds of plasma that hurl through space – are formed. The Christmas Eve flyby is the first of three record-setting close passes, with the next two – on March 22 and June 19, 2025 – both expected to bring the probe back to a similarly close distance from the Sun. © Agence France-PresseUS President-elect Donald Trump has sided with key supporter and billionaire tech CEO Elon Musk in a public dispute over the use of the H-1B visa, saying he fully backs the program for foreign tech workers opposed by some of his supporters. or signup to continue reading Trump's remarks followed a series of social media posts from Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who vowed to go to "war" to defend the visa program for foreign tech workers. Trump, who moved to limit the visas' use during his first presidency, told The New York Post on Saturday he was likewise in favour of the visa program. "I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I've been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It's a great program," he was quoted as saying. Musk, a naturalised US citizen born in South Africa, has held an H-1B visa, and his electric-car company Tesla obtained 724 of the visas this year. H-1B visas are typically for three-year periods, though holders can extend them or apply for green cards. The altercation was set off earlier this week by far-right activists who criticised Trump's selection of Sriram Krishnan, an Indian American venture capitalist, to be an adviser on artificial intelligence, saying he would have influence on the Trump administration's immigration policies. Musk's tweet was directed at Trump's supporters and immigration hard-liners who have increasingly pushed for the H-1B visa program to be scrapped amid a heated debate over immigration and the place of skilled immigrants and foreign workers brought into the country on work visas. On Friday, Steve Bannon, a longtime Trump confidante, critiqued "big tech oligarchs" for supporting the H-1B program and cast immigration as a threat to Western civilisation. In response, Musk and many other tech billionaires drew a line between what they view as legal immigration and illegal immigration. Trump has promised to deport all immigrants who are in the US illegally, deploy tariffs to help create more jobs for American citizens and severely restrict immigration. The visa issue highlights how tech leaders like Musk -- who has taken an important role in the presidential transition, advising on key personnel and policy areas -- are now drawing scrutiny from his base. The US tech industry relies on the government's H-1B visa program to hire foreign skilled workers to help run its companies, a labour force that critics say undercuts wages for American citizens. Musk has spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars helping Trump get elected in November. He has posted regularly this week about the lack of homegrown talent to fill all the needed positions within American tech companies. Advertisement Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date. We care about the protection of your data. Read our . Advertisement"NFL Christmas Gameday on Netflix" begins with a two-hour pregame show at 11 a.m., before Pittsburgh hosts Kansas City. Baltimore faces Houston in the second game. The streaming giant agreed to a three-year contract in May to carry Christmas Day games. Netflix's 282.3 million subscribers in over 190 countries will be able to stream the games, marking the first time one outlet has distributed an NFL game globally. Netflix will have the games available in five languages — English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. The games will also air on CBS affiliates in Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Houston. NFL policy dictates that games on cable or being exclusively streamed must also be on an over-the-air station in the competing teams' markets. It will also be available on mobile devices in the U.S. for those who have NFL+. The biggest reason is money. The league is getting $150 million from Netflix for the two games this season. It also continues the NFL's moves into streaming — Thursday night games are in their third season on Amazon Prime Video and the "Sunday Ticket" package moved to YouTube TV last year. But Christmas is on a Wednesday when games usually aren't played. That's true, but the league wasn't about to give up Christmas after seeing the ratings. Last year's three games averaged 28.68 million viewers. The early afternoon contest between the Las Vegas Raiders and Chiefs led the way, averaging 29.48 million. The Chiefs, Steelers, Ravens and Texans played on Saturday, giving them the same turnaround they would have if they played on Sunday and then Thursday. All four have clinched playoff spots in the AFC, but seeding remains up for grabs. Kansas City (14-1) can clinch the top seed — which would mean a first-round bye and home field throughout the playoffs — with a win over the Steelers. Pittsburgh and Baltimore are tied atop the AFC North at 10-5, with the Steelers holding the tiebreaker due to a better conference record. Houston (9-6) has wrapped up the AFC South and holds the fourth seed. Netflix hopes so. Brandon Riegg, Netflix's vice president of nonfiction series and sports, said the system was stress tested, and then some, during the Nov. 14 bout, along with internet service providers reporting they were also overwhelmed by the surge that occurred before and during the fight. The bout peaked at 65 million concurrent streams, including 38 million concurrent streams in the United States. According to the website Down Detector, nearly 85,000 viewers logged problems with outages or streaming leading up to and during the fight. Possible? Yes. Likely? No. The largest audience for a streamed-exclusive NFL game was 23 million on Peacock for last season's AFC wild-card game between the Miami Dolphins and Chiefs. Nielsen will measure the ratings for the Christmas Day games, with early numbers expected late afternoon on Thursday. It will probably be at kickoff for both games, but especially around 5:45 p.m. EST. That would be near halftime of the Ravens-Texans game, and when Beyoncé will be performing. Mariah Carey will kick off the day with a taped performance of "All I Want for Christmas is You." There is no word if Taylor Swift will make the trip to Pittsburgh to watch her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Swift has been spending time in Kansas City since she wrapped up her Eras Tour two weeks ago. How many Christmas games will Netflix carry in the next two seasons? The NFL will have at least two games on Dec. 25 in 2025 and '26, with Netflix slated to have at least one each year. Amazon Prime Video will have a night game with Christmas on a Thursday next year. Netflix's worldwide partnership with World Wrestling Entertainment will begin on Jan. 6 when "Monday Night Raw" moves to the streaming service. On Friday, Netflix secured the U.S. rights for the 2027 and 2031 FIFA Women's World Cup.