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Jimmy Carter, 39th U.S. president, Nobel winner, dies at 100Strong top and bottom-line results driven by ongoing strength of the Marketing & Distribution segment Operating cash flow for full year fiscal 2024 increased by $64.2 million versus fiscal 2023 OXNARD, Calif., Dec. 19, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mission Produce, Inc. (Nasdaq: AVO) ("Mission” or the "Company”), a world leader in sourcing, producing, and distributing fresh Hass avocados with additional offerings in mangos and blueberries, today reported its financial results for the fiscal fourth quarter ended October 31, 2024. Fiscal Fourth Quarter 2024 Financial Overview: "Mission delivered a strong fourth quarter that rounded out an exceptional full year fiscal 2024 performance where we realized $1.23 billion in revenue and generated $107.8 million in adjusted EBITDA, demonstrating the strength of our business model and industry leading positioning,” stated Steve Barnard, CEO of Mission. "As previously announced, our Marketing & Distribution segment drove the strong fourth quarter performance, successfully leveraging our global sourcing network amid a sustained higher pricing environment to achieve per-unit margins exceeding our targeted range. The positive impact of our fourth quarter performance combined with our solid operational execution across the fiscal year drove a $64.2 million increase in operating cash flow versus fiscal 2023, further strengthening our capital structure and enhancing our flexibility.” Mr. Barnard continued, "Looking ahead to fiscal 2025, we will continue to focus on operational excellence, strategic growth initiatives, and sound capital allocation to drive shareholder value. While we anticipate some pricing moderation as additional supply sources become available, this environment typically supports increased consumption, and we remain well-positioned to capitalize on this growth through our unique capability to provide consistent year-round avocado supply. Beyond avocados, we are also excited about growing our mango program and expanding our presence in blueberries this year, both of which leverage our existing assets and capabilities while providing additional long-term growth opportunities.” Fiscal Fourth Quarter 2024 Consolidated Financial Review Total revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 increased $96.5 million or 37% to $354.4 million compared to the same period last year. The increase was primarily driven by the Marketing & Distribution segment, where average per-unit avocado sales prices increased 36% on relatively flat avocado volume sold. These price and volume dynamics resulted from constrained avocado supply during the quarter due to weather impacts on fruit development and production in Peru. Despite lower Peruvian volumes, the Company effectively leveraged its diverse sourcing network across California, Colombia, and Mexico to drive a 9% increase in North American avocado sales volumes compared to the prior year. Mission's strategic decision to prioritize the North American market, combined with strong consumer demand at higher price points and retail promotional activity contributed to the favorable pricing dynamics. Gross profit increased $28.0 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 to $55.8 million, compared to the same period last year, and gross profit percentage increased 490 basis points, to 15.7% of revenue. The increases were primarily attributed to strong per-unit margins on avocados sold in the Marketing and Distribution segment. The Blueberries segment also contributed to the increase with higher volumes while per-unit margins remained generally consistent with the prior year. Selling, general and administrative expense ("SG&A”) for the fourth quarter increased $6.6 million or 32% to $27.2 million, compared to the same period last year primarily due to higher employee related costs, including performance-based incentive compensation and stock-based compensation expense and statutory profit-sharing expense. Higher performance-based incentive compensation is largely explained by the Company's improved operating performance for the fiscal year relative to the prior year. Net income for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 was $17.3 million, or $0.24 per diluted share, compared to $4.0 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, for the same period last year. Adjusted net income for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 was $19.6 million, or $0.28 per diluted share, compared to $7.5 million, or $0.11 per diluted share, for the same period last year. Adjusted EBITDA was $36.9 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024, an increase of $19.6 million or 113% as compared to $17.3 million in the prior year period, driven primarily by stronger per-unit gross profit performance from the Marketing & Distribution and Blueberries segments. Fiscal Fourth Quarter Business Segment Performance Marketing & Distribution Net sales in the Marketing & Distribution segment increased 35% to $319.6 million for the fourth quarter, driven by avocado pricing increases as described previously. Segment adjusted EBITDA increased $14.8 million or 137% to $25.6 million, primarily due to improved per-unit gross margin on avocados sold. International Farming Total sales in the International Farming segment for the fourth quarter were $30.3 million, compared to $40.3 million for the same period last year primarily due to lower volumes of owned avocados sold, stemming from unfavorably warm weather conditions in Peru during the early stages of fruit development, partially offset by higher average sales prices that were supported by constrained industry volumes. Segment adjusted EBITDA was $2.7 million, compared to $1.1 million for the same period last year, as higher sales prices and cost savings measures more than offset the adverse impact of lower harvest yields on fixed cost absorption. Blueberries Sales in the Blueberries segment have traditionally been concentrated in the first and fourth quarters of the fiscal year in alignment with the Peruvian blueberry harvest season. Net sales in the Blueberries segment increased 62% to $31.6 million for the fourth quarter, compared to $19.5 million for the same period last year, driven by volume from new plantings and yield improvements. Yield growth was driven by improved weather patterns during the current harvest season in Peru, as cooler temperatures have been experienced since the end of El Niño conditions in May 2024. Segment adjusted EBITDA increased 59% to $8.6 million for the fourth quarter, compared to $5.4 million for the same period last year, as a result of the growth in volumes. Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Cash and cash equivalents were $58.0 million as of October 31, 2024, compared to $42.9 million as of October 31, 2023. Net cash provided by operating activities improved by $64.2 million to $93.4 million for the year ended October 31, 2024, as compared to $29.2 million last year. The growth in operating cash flow was primarily driven by improved operating performance during fiscal 2024. Further supporting the improvement in operating cash flow was favorable working capital management. While higher avocado pricing drove increases in inventory and accounts receivable, these increases were more than offset by higher grower payable balances, driven primarily by those same higher prices, and higher accounts payable and accrued expenses, the latter of which was significantly impacted by incentive compensation and statutory profit-sharing accruals in the current year. In addition, higher accounts payable and accrued expenses were attributed to the impact of higher volume and increased acreage within our Blueberries segment. Capital expenditures were $32.2 million for the year ended October 31, 2024 compared to $49.8 million last year. Capital expenditures were comprised primarily of avocado orchard development, pre-production orchard maintenance and land improvements in Guatemala; pre-production avocado orchard maintenance, blueberry land development and plant cultivation, and blueberry cooling facility construction costs in Peru; and distribution facility construction costs in the United Kingdom. During 2024, the International Farming segment also began construction of a pack house in Guatemala. Outlook For the first quarter of fiscal year 2025, the Company is providing the following industry outlooks that will drive performance: As previously announced, the Company will host a conference call to discuss its fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 financial results today at 5:00 p.m. ET. The conference call can be accessed live over the phone by dialing (877) 407-9039 or for international callers by dialing (201) 689-8470. A replay of the call will be available through January 2, 2025 by dialing (844) 512-2921 or for international callers by dialing (412) 317-6671; the passcode is 13750485. The live audio webcast of the conference call will be accessible in the News & Events section on the Company's Investor Relations website at https://investors.missionproduce.com. An archived replay of the webcast will also be available shortly after the live event has concluded. Non-GAAP Financial Measures This press release contains the non-GAAP financial measures "adjusted net income” and "adjusted EBITDA.” Management believes these measures provide useful information for analyzing the underlying business results. These measures are not in accordance with, nor are they a substitute for or superior to, the comparable financial measures by generally accepted accounting principles. Adjusted net income (loss) refers to net income (loss) attributable to Mission Produce, before stock-based compensation expense, unrealized gain (loss) on derivative financial instruments, foreign currency gain (loss), farming costs for nonproductive orchards (which represents land lease costs), recognition of deferred ERP costs, transaction costs, amortization of inventory adjustments and intangible asset recognized from business combinations, further adjusted by any special, non-recurring, or one-time items such as remeasurement, impairment or discrete tax charges that are distortive to results, and tax effects of these items, if any, and the tax-effected impact of these non-GAAP adjustments attributable to noncontrolling interest, allocable to the noncontrolling owners based on their percentage of ownership interest. Adjusted EBITDA refers to net income (loss), before interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization expense, stock-based compensation expense, other income (expense), and income (loss) from equity method investees, further adjusted by asset impairment and disposals, net of insurance recoveries, farming costs for nonproductive orchards (which represents land lease costs), recognition of deferred ERP costs, transaction costs, amortization of inventory adjustments recognized from business combinations, and any special, non-recurring, or one-time items such as remeasurements or impairments, and any portion of these items attributable to the noncontrolling interest. Effective for the fourth quarter of 2024, the Company made a change in presentation of its reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to its comparable GAAP financial measure to include a subtotal of the non-GAAP adjustments before the effect of the noncontrolling interest adjustment called "adjusted EBITDA before adjustment for noncontrolling interest.” The presentation change has no impact to total adjusted EBITDA. The Company believes the addition of the subtotal within the reconciliation is useful because it better aligns with management's sequence of review of the information in the reconciliation. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measure are provided in the table at the end of this press release. About Mission Produce, Inc. Mission Produce is a global leader in the worldwide avocado business with additional offerings in mangos and blueberries. Since 1983, Mission Produce has been sourcing, producing and distributing fresh Hass avocados, and currently services retail, wholesale and foodservice customers in over 25 countries. The vertically integrated Company owns and operates four state-of-the-art packing facilities in key growing locations globally, including California, Mexico and Peru and has additional sourcing capabilities in Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Brazil, Ecuador, South Africa and more, which allow the company to provide a year-round supply of premium fruit. Mission's global distribution network includes strategically positioned forward distribution centers across key markets throughout North America, China, Europe, and the UK, offering value-added services such as ripening, bagging, custom packing and logistical management. For more information, please visit www.missionproduce.com . Forward-Looking Statements Statements in this press release that are not historical in nature are forward-looking statements that, within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Words such as "may", "will", "expect", "intend", "plan", "believe", "seek", "could", "estimate", "judgment", "targeting", "should", "anticipate", "goal" and variations of these words and similar expressions, are also intended to identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this press release address a variety of subjects, including statements about our short-term and long-term assumptions, goals and targets. Many of these assumptions relate to matters that are beyond our control and changing rapidly. Although we believe the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurances that our expectations will be attained. Readers are cautioned that actual results could differ materially from those implied by such forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including: reliance on primarily one main product; limitations regarding the supply of fruit, either through purchasing or growing; fluctuations in the market price of fruit; increasing competition; risks associated with doing business internationally, including Mexican and Peruvian economic, political and/or societal conditions; inflationary pressures; establishment of sales channels and geographic markets; loss of one or more of our largest customers; general economic conditions or downturns; supply chain failures or disruptions; disruption to the supply of reliable and cost-effective transportation; failure to recruit or retain employees, poor employee relations, and/or ineffective organizational structure; inherent farming risks, including climate change; seasonality in operating results; failures associated with information technology infrastructure, system security and cyber risks; new and changing privacy laws and our compliance with such laws; food safety events and recalls; failure to comply with laws and regulations; changes to trade policy and/or export/import laws and regulations; risks from business acquisitions, if any; lack of or failure of infrastructure; material litigation or governmental inquiries/actions; failure to maintain or protect our brand; changes in tax rates or international tax legislation; risks associated with global conflicts; inability to accurately forecast future performance; the viability of an active, liquid, and orderly market for our common stock; volatility in the trading price of our common stock; concentration of control in our executive officers, and directors over matters submitted to stockholders for approval; limited sources of capital appreciation; significant costs associated with being a public company and the allocation of significant management resources thereto; reliance on analyst reports; failure to maintain proper and effective internal control over financial reporting; restrictions on takeover attempts in our charter documents and under Delaware law; the selection of Delaware as the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders; risks related to restrictive covenants under our credit facility, which could affect our flexibility to fund ongoing operations, uses of capital and strategic initiatives, and, if we are unable to maintain compliance with such covenants, lead to significant challenges in meeting our liquidity requirements and acceleration of our debt; and other risks and factors discussed from time to time in our Annual and Quarterly Reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You can obtain copies of our SEC filings on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and the Corporation does not intend to, nor does it assume any obligation to, update or supplement any forward-looking statements after the date hereof to reflect actual results or future events or circumstances. Contacts: Investor Relations ICR Jeff Sonnek 646-277-1263 [email protected] Media Jenna Aguilera Marketing Communications Manager Mission Produce, Inc. [email protected] October 31, October 31,
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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.” 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.” 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.” 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 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. 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. 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.Content Credits Launches The Cincinnati Exchange
By MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers urged a judge again Friday to throw out his hush money conviction, balking at the prosecution’s suggestion of preserving the verdict by treating the case the way some courts do when a defendant dies. They called the idea “absurd.” Related Articles National Politics | Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time National Politics | Ruling by a conservative Supreme Court could help blue states resist Trump policies National Politics | A nonprofit leader, a social worker: Here are the stories of the people on Biden’s clemency list National Politics | Nancy Pelosi hospitalized after she ‘sustained an injury’ on official trip to Luxembourg National Politics | Veteran Daniel Penny, acquitted in NYC subway chokehold, will join Trump’s suite at football game The Manhattan district attorney’s office is asking Judge Juan M. Merchan to “pretend as if one of the assassination attempts against President Trump had been successful,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a blistering 23-page response. In court papers made public Tuesday, District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office proposed an array of options for keeping the historic conviction on the books after Trump’s lawyers filed paperwork earlier this month asking for the case to be dismissed. They include freezing the case until Trump leaves office in 2029, agreeing that any future sentence won’t include jail time, or closing the case by noting he was convicted but that he wasn’t sentenced and his appeal wasn’t resolved because of presidential immunity. Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove reiterated Friday their position that the only acceptable option is overturning his conviction and dismissing his indictment, writing that anything less will interfere with the transition process and his ability to lead the country. The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined comment. It’s unclear how soon Merchan will decide. He could grant Trump’s request for dismissal, go with one of the prosecution’s suggestions, wait until a federal appeals court rules on Trump’s parallel effort to get the case moved out of state court, or choose some other option. In their response Friday, Blanche and Bove ripped each of the prosecution’s suggestions. Halting the case until Trump leaves office would force the incoming president to govern while facing the “ongoing threat” that he’ll be sentenced to imprisonment, fines or other punishment as soon as his term ends, Blanche and Bove wrote. Trump, a Republican, takes office Jan. 20. “To be clear, President Trump will never deviate from the public interest in response to these thuggish tactics,” the defense lawyers wrote. “However, the threat itself is unconstitutional.” The prosecution’s suggestion that Merchan could mitigate those concerns by promising not to sentence Trump to jail time on presidential immunity grounds is also a non-starter, Blanche and Bove wrote. The immunity statute requires dropping the case, not merely limiting sentencing options, they argued. Blanche and Bove, both of whom Trump has tabbed for high-ranking Justice Department positions, expressed outrage at the prosecution’s novel suggestion that Merchan borrow from Alabama and other states and treat the case as if Trump had died. Blanche and Bove accused prosecutors of ignoring New York precedent and attempting to “fabricate” a solution “based on an extremely troubling and irresponsible analogy between President Trump” who survived assassination attempts in Pennsylvania in July and Florida in September “and a hypothetical dead defendant.” Such an option normally comes into play when a defendant dies after being convicted but before appeals are exhausted. It is unclear whether it is viable under New York law, but prosecutors suggested that Merchan could innovate in what’s already a unique case. “This remedy would prevent defendant from being burdened during his presidency by an ongoing criminal proceeding,” prosecutors wrote in their filing this week. But at the same time, it wouldn’t “precipitously discard” the “meaningful fact that defendant was indicted and found guilty by a jury of his peers.” Prosecutors acknowledged that “presidential immunity requires accommodation” during Trump’s impending return to the White House but argued that his election to a second term should not upend the jury’s verdict, which came when he was out of office. Longstanding Justice Department policy says sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution . Other world leaders don’t enjoy the same protection. For example, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on trial on corruption charges even as he leads that nation’s wars in Lebanon and Gaza . Trump has been fighting for months to reverse his May 30 conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records . Prosecutors said he fudged the documents to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to suppress her claim that they had sex a decade earlier, which Trump denies. In their filing Friday, Trump’s lawyers citing a social media post in which Sen. John Fetterman used profane language to criticize Trump’s hush money prosecution. The Pennsylvania Democrat suggested that Trump deserved a pardon, comparing his case to that of President Joe Biden’s pardoned son Hunter Biden, who had been convicted of tax and gun charges . “Weaponizing the judiciary for blatant, partisan gain diminishes the collective faith in our institutions and sows further division,” Fetterman wrote Wednesday on Truth Social. Trump’s hush money conviction was in state court, meaning a presidential pardon — issued by Biden or himself when he takes office — would not apply to the case. Presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes. Since the election, special counsel Jack Smith has ended his two federal cases , which pertained to Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and allegations that he hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. A separate state election interference case in Fulton County, Georgia, is largely on hold. Trump denies wrongdoing in all. Trump had been scheduled for sentencing in the hush money case in late November. But following Trump’s Nov. 5 election victory, Merchan halted proceedings and indefinitely postponed the former and future president’s sentencing so the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case. Merchan also delayed a decision on Trump’s prior bid to dismiss the case on immunity grounds. A dismissal would erase Trump’s conviction, sparing him the cloud of a criminal record and possible prison sentence. Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a crime and the first convicted criminal to be elected to the office.Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen returns to a tournament after a dispute over jeans is resolvedDave & Buster’s Entertainment Inc PLAY shares are trading lower in Tuesday’s after-hours session after the company reported third-quarter financial results and announced a CEO transition . What Happened: Dave & Buster’s reported third-quarter revenue of $453 million, missing analyst estimates of $563.6 million, according to estimates from Benzinga Pro . The company reported an adjusted loss of 45 cents per share, well below estimates for positive earnings of 90 cents per share. Total revenue decreased 3% year-over-year as comparable store sales fell 7.7%. The company ended the quarter with $8.6 million in cash and $537.4 million of availability under its $650 million revolving credit facility. “During the quarter, we continued to make progress towards our long-term strategic goals. We opened up three new stores, which are on track to generate strong cash on cash returns as we have consistently demonstrated throughout our history,” said Darin Harper , CFO of Dave & Buster’s. “We completed 11 new fully programmed remodels and are on track to have 44 completed by the end of fiscal 2024. Our fully programmed remodels continue to outperform the rest of the store base and we are excited for the opportunity these remodels give us to drive traffic, sales and EBITDA.” See Also: GameStop Q3 Earnings: Revenue Miss, $4B+ Cash, No More Offerings Planned In Fiscal Year The company also announced that CEO Chris Morris handed in his resignation to pursue other interests. The board said it has been working with a global executive search firm in recent months to assist in identifying the company’s next permanent CEO. In the meantime, board chair Kevin Sheehan will serve as interim CEO. The board has also appointed director James Chambers as vice chair of the board. During the transition period, director Michael Griffith will temporarily assume the role of lead independent director. PLAY Price Action: Dave & Buster’s shares were down 10.87% in after-hours, trading at $32.80 at the time of publication Tuesday, according to Benzinga Pro . Photo: Shutterstock. © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has died. He was 100 years old and had spent more than a year in hospice care. The Georgia peanut farmer served one turbulent term in the White House before building a reputation as a global humanitarian and champion of democracy. He defeated President Gerald Ford in 1976 promising to restore trust in government but lost to Ronald Reagan four years later amid soaring inflation, gas station lines and the Iran hostage crisis. He and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, then formed The Carter Center, and he earned a Nobel Peace Prize while making himself the most active and internationally engaged of former presidents. The Carter Center said the former president died Sunday afternoon in Plains, Georgia. Contributing: Associated Press
The New England Patriots ’ players did not have to report to Gillette Stadium on Tuesday, but the team as a whole was still quite busy, making four total transactions. Offensive lineman Cole Strange was activated from the physically unable to perform list; wide receiver K.J. Osborn was waived; kicker John Parker Romo was signed to the practice squad; outside linebacker Keshawn Banks was released from the practice squad. With the dust settling, the Patriots still have a full 53-man roster and 16-player practice squad. What else do the moves mean for the team, though, especially those regarding Strange and Osborn? Let’s take a closer look at them. Improvement up front: Even though he has been the subject of frequent criticism since arriving in New England as the 29th overall selection in the 2022 NFL Draft, there is no denying Strange is a talented football player. Adding him to the Patriots offense is therefore a definitive improvement for a unit in need of all the help it can get. After all, he has the athletic skillset to perform in the team’s zone-focused blocking scheme, and has more starts on his career résumé than all but one member of the team’s current O-line. While it remains to be seen how long it will take him to shake off the rust, or indeed which position he will ultimately play, his presence is making the entire group a better one. Another new configuration: All 27 of Strange’s career starts so far have come at left guard, and inserting him in that position over rookie Layden Robinson would make sense; the former has proven his starter qualities at the NFL level, the latter has not. However, it appears New England is adamant that Robinson deserves to see reps with the first-team offensive line regardless of his uneven play. As a consequence, the Patriots might move Strange to center to replace eight-game starter Ben Brown. Inserting him in that spot is more of a gamble — Brown has played better than Robinson, and Strange has no in-game experience at center — but apparently one the team is willing to take with the future in mind. Regardless of where the 26-year-old ends up, though, the Patriots will continue playing their game of musical chairs up front deep into the season. So far, the team has already started 11 players along its offensive line this year. Strange will be No. 12. Crowded interior offensive line: While there are definitive and legitimate questions about quality, the Patriots do have quantity along their interior O-line. With Strange added to the mix, New England now has seven(ish) guards or centers on its 53-man roster plus another on the practice squad. The group as a whole looks as follows, with Strange projected as the starting center: 53-man roster (7): Layden Robinson (64 | LG), Cole Strange (69 | C), Michael Onwenu (71 | RG), Ben Brown (77), Lecitus Smith (68), Lester Cotton (61), Tyrese Robinson (65) Practice squad (1): Liam Fornadel (63) Injured reserve (2): David Andrews (60), Jake Andrews (67) In addition to those eight players, second-year lineman Sidy Sow also could be added to the mix as a guard-tackle hybrid. Even if he remains more of a tackle moving forward, the Patriots have numbers son the interior. Whether that makes the position group a strength is a different story. One-year saga is nearing its end: Strange suffered a torn patellar tendon in his left knee in Week 15 last season, and the injury will have kept him out for an entire year. He went down on December 17 and could be in line to make his comeback on December 15, which would be the same Sunday just one (leap) year removed. Of course, there is no telling whether or not he will actually suit up, let alone play, this week against the Arizona Cardinals ; his return window closing could simply have forced New England’s hand. That said, his activation is in itself a big step for the former first-round draft pick. No surprise: The Patriots announcing their parting of the ways with Osborn comes as no real surprise considering his impact so far this season. While joining the team in the offseason with the hopes of contributing as a Z-receiver with some inside-out capabilities, he never managed to earn himself a consistent role. His final numbers make this painfully clear. Osborn’s tenure ends with the same number of in-game appearances and receptions — seven each — as well as only 57 receiving yards and one touchdown. In total, he was on the field for 232 offensive snaps including zero in four of the last five games. Even with rookies Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker struggling, the Patriots continued to give them snaps over the veteran. The writing was therefore very much on the wall. Wide receiver depth takes a hit: The Patriots entered the week with six wide receivers on their active roster plus two more on the practice squad. Removing Osborn reduces the numbers, but given his recent usage (or lack thereof) the actual impact will be more theoretical than anything. Still, there are new “next men up” in case the injury bug decides to bite higher up on a depth chart that now looks as follows: 53-man roster (5): Kayshon Boutte (9), Kendrick Bourne (84), DeMario Douglas (3), Ja’Lynn Polk (1), Javon Baker (6) Practice squad (2): John Jiles (83), Braylon Sanders (80) Injured reserve (1): JaQuae Jackson (82) Leadership questions: Osborn may not have been part of the game plan lately, but as one of the two most experienced players in the wide receiver room — the other being Kendrick Bourne — he still played a role as a mentor and leader. Now, it appears even more of those responsibilities will have to fall on Bourne. Underwhelming return on investment: When the Patriots added Osborn in March, they did so via a one-year, $4 million contract that included $3.18 million in guarantees. At a cost of $500,000 per catch, it goes without saying that the price tag and the production did not align. In that regard, Osborn is in some good company. He is one of several free agency signings made by first-year GM Eliot Wolf that did not work out: the 27-year-old joins offensive linemen Chukwuma Okorafor and Nick Leverett as well as defensive tackle Armon Watts as March pickups no longer with the team. Salary cap ramifications: Speaking of the price tag associated with Osborn, waiving him gives the Patriots some more salary cap space to work with (i.e. roll over into 2025). Eight per-game roster bonuses that were originally considered likely to be earned are now no longer on New England’s books, resulting in combined savings of $320,000. Eye on the future? The Patriots signing John Parker Romo to their practice squad seemingly serves two purposes. For one, he will provide depth at kicker behind Joey Slye over the last four weeks of the season. The team additionally will be able to get an extended look at the 27-year-old heading into 2025. Fact is that the kicker position is a need for the Patriots moving toward the offseason. Slye is not just an unrestricted free agent, he also has made just 78.6 percent of his field goal attempts this season. Not all of his six misses this year were necessarily his fault — one was a block, for example, and one a 68-yard try — but they were costly nonetheless for a team not good enough to leave points on the board. Will Romo challenge Slye this year, though? Maybe, but it seems more likely his signing was made with an eye on the future and on possibly limiting Slye’s practice workload in a long season. Core special teamer wanted: The Patriots have gone through multiple core special teamers lately. Raekwon McMillan was the first to go, followed by Joe Giles-Harris. Now, Keshawn Banks is off the team as well after playing a combined 78 percent of special teams snaps in his three game day elevations from the practice squad. The last two weeks, he was employed on five units: kickoff and punt return, kickoff and punt coverage, and field goal/extra point block. The Patriots need to find a way to replace that production, either by finding another practice squad member to regularly elevate for that specific usage or by giving his snaps to others already on the roster.Museum Showing Pussy Riot Artwork Targeted in Apparent Vandalism
Kay Patterson, who rose from janitor at segregated South Carolina capitol to state senator, dies
PLAINS, 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.” 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.” 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.” 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 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. 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. 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.Vancouver city council approves 3.9% property tax increase
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With a focus on human rights, US policy toward Latin America under Jimmy Carter briefly tempered a long tradition of interventionism in a key sphere of American influence, analysts say. Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100, defied the furor of US conservatives to negotiate the handover of the Panama Canal to Panamanian control, suspended aid to multiple authoritarian governments in the region, and even attempted to normalize relations with Cuba. Carter's resolve to chart a course toward democracy and diplomacy, however, was severely tested in Central America and Cuba, where he was forced to balance his human rights priorities with pressure from adversaries to combat the spread of communism amid the Cold War standoff with the Soviet Union. "Latin America was fundamental and his global policy was oriented toward human rights, democratic values and multilateral cooperation," political analyst Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue, a think tank in Washington, told AFP. During his 1977-1981 administration, which was sandwiched between the Republican presidencies of Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, the Democrat sought to take a step back from US alignment with right-wing dictatorships in Latin America. An important symbol of Carter's approach was the signing of two treaties in 1977 to officially turn over the Panama Canal in 1999. "Jimmy Carter understood that if he did not return the canal to Panama, the relationship between the United States and Panama could lead to a new crisis in a country where Washington could not afford the luxury of instability," said Luis Guillermo Solis, a political scientist and former president of Costa Rica. Carter called the decision, which was wildly unpopular back home, "the most difficult political challenge I ever had," as he accepted Panama's highest honor in 2016. He also hailed the move as "a notable achievement of moving toward democracy and freedom." On Sunday, Panamanian President Jose Mulino praised Carter for helping his country achieve "full sovereignty." During his term, Carter opted not to support Nicaraguan strongman Anastasio Somoza, who was subsequently overthrown by the leftist Sandinista Front in 1979. But in El Salvador, the American president had to "make a very uncomfortable pact with the government," said Shifter. To prevent communists from taking power, Carter resumed US military assistance for a junta which then became more radical, engaging in civilian massacres and plunging El Salvador into a long civil war. Carter took a critical approach to South American dictatorships in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Paraguay, suspending arms deliveries and imposing sanctions in some cases. But his efforts "did not achieve any progress in terms of democratization," said Argentine political scientist Rosendo Fraga. More from this section The American president also tried to normalize relations with Cuba 15 years after the missile crisis. He relaxed sanctions that had been in force since 1962, supported secret talks and enabled limited diplomatic representation in both countries. "With him, for the first time, the possibility of dialogue rather than confrontation as a framework for political relations opened up," Jesus Arboleya, a former Cuban diplomat, told AFP. But in 1980, a mass exodus of 125,000 Cubans to the United States, with Fidel Castro's blessing, created an unexpected crisis. It "hurt Carter politically with the swarm of unexpected immigrants," said Jennifer McCoy, a professor of political science at Georgia State University. Castro continued to support Soviet-backed African governments and even deployed troops against Washington's wishes, finally putting an end to the normalization process. However, more than 20 years later, Carter made a historic visit to Havana as ex-president, at the time becoming the highest-profile American politician to set foot on Cuban soil since 1959. During the 2002 visit, "he made a bold call for the US to lift its embargo, but he also called on Castro to embrace democratic opening," said McCoy, who was part of the US delegation for the trip, during which Castro encouraged Carter to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at a Cuban All-Star baseball game. "Castro was sitting in the front row and we were afraid he would rise to give a long rebuttal to Carter's speech. But he didn't. He just said, 'Let's go to the ball game.'" Cubans "will remember with gratitude his efforts to improve relations," the island's current leader Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Sunday. In the years following Carter's presidency, Ronald Reagan (1981-1989) would go on to resume a full-frontal confrontation with Cuba. Decades later, Barack Obama (2009-2017) opened a new phase of measured normalization, which Donald Trump (2017-2021) brought to an end. US President Joe Biden promised to review US policy toward Cuba, but hardened his stance after Havana cracked down on anti-government protests in 2021. "Carter showed that engagement and diplomacy are more fruitful than isolation," McCoy said. bur-lp-rd-jb/lbc/mlr/bfm/sst/bbk/nro/acbIf the book "Fifty Shades of Grey" left an impression on you, you’re not alone. The 2024 Intimacy Status Report by Israeli company Arya reveals that 35% of respondents expressed interest in spicing up their relationships. 3 View gallery Arya app ( Photo: Arya ) According to the report, which is akin to a modern version of the legendary Masters and Johnson studies, 100,000 users of Arya’s platform aren’t looking for casual flings. Instead, they’re searching for ways to reignite romance and passion in long-term relationships that have fallen into routine. Unsurprisingly, 90% of users dissatisfied with their sex lives reported that this dissatisfaction negatively impacted their overall relationship. If you’re wondering how technology fits into all of this, the answer lies in artificial intelligence. Arya is a relationship-enhancement app currently making waves in the U.S. market. It uses AI to learn couples’ preferences and desires, offering tailored “scenarios” that encourage them to explore new dimensions of intimacy. To complement this experience, Arya sends couples a “surprise box” containing curated items designed to enhance their connection and, of course, their user experience. So far, 200,000 users have registered on Arya’s platform in the U.S., with tens of thousands actively engaging – couples receiving new activities to try every month. The user base has grown tenfold over the past year, likely fueling the company’s recent announcement of an $8.5 million Series A funding round, just a year after its previous round. To date, Arya has raised a total of $16 million. The funding round was led by Ibex Investors, with participation from previous backers Play Ventures, Patron Fund, and BigBets.vc, as well as private investors like Yasmine Lukatz (“The Shark”), Naama Barkler, founder and CEO of BetterHealth, Neil Parikh, co-founder of Casper, and others. Ofer Yehudai, Arya’s co-founder and CEO, explained in an interview with Ynet that there has been a major shift in quality-of-life investments in recent years. People are increasingly willing to spend on mental health, nutrition and sleep quality, and, in line with this, couple wellness is becoming an equally important part of the conversation. 3 View gallery Arya surprise box ( Photo: Arya ) “People are used to finding love online,” Yehudai explained. “But how do you maintain it? That’s where there’s a gap. It’s easy to forget that between online dating, couples therapy, and divorce, there are years of good, healthy relationships. But the tools to sustain them are quite limited.” A possible successor to Tinder? Could Arya be the next step after Tinder, designed for those who found love online and now want to preserve it using online tools? “Eighty percent of our customers are millennial moms aged 35 to 45 – women who decided to take responsibility for their relationships and intimacy. What unites all our users is that they’re people willing to invest in their quality of life. They care about nutrition, put effort into looking better, and want to live their lives to the fullest.” Why is the majority of your user base women? “When you speak to professionals, they’re not surprised that, in most cases, the woman takes the lead. It’s a well-documented phenomenon in the realms of intimacy and relationships. In most cases, the woman takes responsibility for the relationship in this area, while the partner goes along. Interestingly, in the 20% of cases where the man is the client, these couples tend to stay together much longer.” Shaping intimate connections Arya provides a variety of activities for its users, although Ynet refrains from delving into specifics due to its family-friendly nature. Ultimately, most people know what’s being referenced, but many feel uncomfortable discussing such topics – even with their partner. Yehudai recounted a story about a friend, Yaniv, and his wife. Everyone has a “Yaniv” in their life, but in this case, Yaniv decided to playfully gift the couple an adult toy. It became a subject of jokes but also sparked curiosity without either partner feeling pressured. “Arya is like Yaniv,” Yehudai said. “It knows both of us, picks the gift, and if it misses the mark it’s Arya’s fault – not ours.” 3 View gallery ( Photo: shutterstock ) Arya operates differently from other relationship apps. Users communicate with its AI, called the “concierge,” via text. Couples share what interests them, what they want to learn, and where their boundaries lie. The concierge, much like Yaniv, suggests ideas from its “experience” and surprises them with exciting gifts. Get the Ynetnews app on your smartphone: Google Play : https://bit.ly/4eJ37pE | Apple App Store : https://bit.ly/3ZL7iNv The company was founded in 2022 by entrepreneurs Ofer Yehudai and Tomer Magid, both seasoned innovators with multiple successful startup exits. They partnered with Dr. Yael Doron, known as “Yael from Married at First Sight,” as a scientific advisor. Recently, Arya appointed renowned intimacy coach and sexologist Shan Boodram – AASECT certified sex educator, an American Board of Sexology certified Sexologist, with a M.S. in psychology – as its Chief Intimacy Officer (CIO). In addition to its scientific team and experts who developed the platform’s content and activities, Arya also operates a human support center to assist when the AI encounters situations it cannot handle. Does the AI serve as a replacement for a partner? “Today, you see many apps offering virtual partners, friends, or companions. We’re trying to show that our AI is different – it connects you to someone in real life in a better way, rather than replacing them.” Insights into relationship dynamics With hundreds of thousands of users, Arya has amassed rich data on the romantic and intimate preferences of Americans. For example, one-third of couples want to be more adventurous than they currently are, one-third aim to reignite the spark in their relationship, and one-third are looking to try completely new experiences. Most users engage with the concierge three to four times a week, and once a month, they receive a new “scenario” featuring intriguing items from the world of intimacy. Over the past two years, Arya’s AI has been trained on texts that no other AI models are familiar with – or perhaps wouldn’t even want to be. This specialized data is invaluable for identifying behavioral patterns, human preferences, and suggestions to enhance users’ satisfaction with their lives. For Yehudai, Arya’s mission feels deeply meaningful. “There are 72 million couples in the U.S. Our goal, without cynicism, is to create couple wellness. When you see feedback from couples saying, ‘I rediscovered my spouse,’ it gives you energy. There’s enormous potential here. The trend among millennials and younger generations is that they’re having less intimacy. We’re here to offer them new tools to invest in their intimacy and relationships.” >Trump picks Andrew Ferguson to chair FTC