Fast forward to the present day, and Setien finds himself in a new challenge as the manager of Beijing Guoan in the Chinese Super League. The experience of the 2-8 defeat with Barcelona has undoubtedly shaped his approach to coaching and his understanding of the complexities of football management.
For many residents, the sight of snowflakes drifting down from the sky brings a sense of excitement and wonder. Children eagerly anticipate the chance to build snowmen and engage in snowball fights, while adults prepare for the challenges of navigating icy roads and sidewalks.DWS Municipal Income Trust Declares Monthly Distribution"Indiana Jones: The Ancient Circle" Hits 12,000 Concurrent Players on Steam! Is Fighting Nazis Exciting?
In recent years, collaborations between video games and consumer brands have become increasingly popular, creating unique and limited edition products that resonate with fans. The latest in this trend is the partnership between the highly anticipated video game "Black Myth: Wukong" and a well-known cola brand, resulting in the launch of a special co-branded cola set on JD.com - 46.12 bottles in total. The question is, would you buy it?
New novel "The Pope's Jew" by Eva Mekler is released, a thrilling tale of betrayal, secrecy, and romance set in WWII France 11-26-2024 10:56 PM CET | Associations & Organizations Press release from: ABNewswire "The Pope's Jew" by Eva Mekler has been released worldwide. This 288-page work of historical fiction follows the mysterious Luc Kasten, who decides to share his tumultuous story with a journalist, Diane Jameson, 35 years after the end of World War II. As romance blossoms between the pair, wartime secrets from Luc's past threaten to tear down the life he has built. After a chance encounter with an old enemy turns Kasten's circumstances from tenuous to dire, he and Diane are drawn into a tense game of cat-and-mouse that could destroy everything they hold dear. Deeply embedded in the history of WWII and captured in beautifully descriptive language, Mekler's portrait of love and fear examines the lasting effects of persecution, the horrors of war, and the complexities of identity. Despite their differences, which only become more apparent as hidden truths come to light, Luc and Diane's connection gives them the strength to face the past and come to terms with troubling memories of the war. Spanning decades from the late 1930s through the 1980s, the story draws readers into the vibrant streets of Paris, illustrating the attitudes of the times and the long-term cultural impact of Nazism on the French people. Through Kasten's story, Mekler illuminates the experiences of many European Jews and the incredible lengths they went to for the sake of survival. While the novel serves as a fascinating look at the real history of WWII France, the intrigue surrounding Kasten's past and the fraught love affair he develops with Diane create a riveting narrative that both deepens and transcends the story's historical context. This powerful tale is emotional and exciting, poignantly exploring what it means to be free of the past. The Pope's Jew (ISBN: 9781963844443) can be purchased through retailers worldwide, including Barnes & Noble and Amazon. The paperback retails for $14.59 and the ebook retails for $2.99. Review copies and interviews are available upon request. From the back cover: Who is Luc Kasten? A wealthy French industrialist? A wanted man? A Jew from Avignon who has led a forged life? Or is he all three? Now, 35 years after the end of WWII, he is ready to unburden himself and hires a veteran journalist, Diane Jameson, to write his memoir. But years of hiding his identity make him hesitate to share his grim secret. A chance encounter with a past enemy spurs him to violence, and Diane, who finds herself falling in love with him, joins Kasten in his struggle to outwit the man who can expose him. What ensues is a cat-and-mouse thriller and a love story set against the somber background of France during and after WWII. About the author: Eva Mekler is a writer and psychologist known for her work in fiction and non-fiction, often exploring themes related to Jewish identity, history, and psychological resilience. She has authored novels as well as books that delve into the psychology and dynamics of the acting profession. One of her well-known books, The New Generation of Acting Teachers, profiles influential acting coaches and explores their techniques and philosophies. Mekler's fiction work frequently draws from Jewish cultural and historical contexts, sometimes addressing the Holocaust and its aftermath. Her novels tend to focus on characters navigating personal and historical trauma, resilience, and identity. About Manhattan Book Group: Manhattan Book Group ("MBG"), located on Broadway in New York City, is a registered trade name of Mindstir Media LLC. MBG is widely known as a premier hybrid book publisher. We have combined the best of traditional publishing with the best of self- publishing to provide authors with the "best of both worlds" in a sense. To learn more about MBG, visit https://www.manhattanbookgroup.com/ Media Contact Company Name: Manhattan Book Group Contact Person: Jen McNabney Email:Send Email [ https://www.abnewswire.com/email_contact_us.php?pr=new-novel-the-popes-jew-by-eva-mekler-is-released-a-thrilling-tale-of-betrayal-secrecy-and-romance-set-in-wwii-france ] Phone: 212-634-7677 Address:447 Broadway 2nd Floor #354 City: New York State: New York Country: United States Website: https://www.manhattanbookgroup.com/ This release was published on openPR.One of the major hurdles faced by the development team is striking a balance between nostalgia and innovation. The original "Yakuza" games hold a special place in the hearts of many players, and any changes made in the remake must be done with utmost care to preserve the essence of what made the original games great. At the same time, the team must also find ways to introduce new elements and features that can enhance the player experience and bring the game up to modern standards.After closing the books on a banner year for US stocks, investors expect to ride seasonal momentum into mid-January when a slew of economic data and a transition of power in Washington could send markets moving. The S&P 500 rose almost 27% in 2024 through Dec. 26, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite index, which surpassed 20,000 for the first time in December, is up 33.4%. November through January is traditionally a strong period in the market, said Michael Rosen, chief investment officer at Angeles Investments. Additionally, stocks tend to do well in the last five trading days of December and into the first two days of January, a phenomenon dubbed the Santa Claus rally, which has driven S&P gains of an average of 1.3% since 1969, according to the Stock Trader's Almanac. For the last four trading sessions, the S&P rose 2.91%, while the Nasdaq is up 3.3%, lifting hopes for a repeat. "The underlying data suggests that that's likely to continue," Rosen said. Just how long that momentum lasts will depend on several forces that could help drive markets in 2025. Monthly US employment data on Jan. 10 should give investors a fresh view into the health and strength of the US economy. Job growth rebounded in November following hurricane- and strike-related setbacks earlier in the year. The market's strength will be tested again shortly after, when US companies start reporting fourth-quarter earnings. Investors anticipate a 10.6% earnings per share growth in 2025, versus a 12.16% expected rise in 2024, according to LSEG data, although excitement over President-elect Donald Trump's policies is expected to boost the outlook for some sectors, like banks, energy and crypto. "There's the hope that taxes and regulations will be lowered or reduced next year, that will help support corporate profits, which are what drive the market in the first place," said Rosen. Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20 could also throw the markets some curve balls. He is expected to release at least 25 executive orders in his first day on a range of issues from immigration to energy and crypto policy. Trump has also threatened tariffs on goods from China and levies on products from both Mexico and Canada, as well as to crack down on immigration, creating costs that companies could ultimately pass on to consumers. Helen Given, associate director of trading at Monex USA, said a new administration always brings with it a large degree of uncertainty. There is also a good chance the impact of the Trump administration's expected trade policies is far from fully priced into global currency markets, she added. "We're looking ahead to see which of those proposed policies actually are enacted, which might be further down the pipeline," Given said, adding she expected a big impact on the euro, Mexican peso, the Canadian dollar, and the Chinese yuan. The conclusion of the Federal Reserve's first monetary policy meeting of the year in late January could also present a challenge to the US stocks rally. Stocks tumbled on December 18 when the Fed implemented its third interest-rate cut for the year and signalled fewer cuts in 2025 because of an uncertain inflation outlook, disappointing investors who had expected lower rates to boost corporate profits and valuations. Still, that could be good for alternative assets like cryptocurrencies. The incoming crypto-friendly Trump administration is adding to a number of catalysts that are boosting crypto investors' confidence, said Damon Polistina, head of research at investment platform Eaglebrook Advisors. Bitcoin surged above $107,000 this month on hopes of friendlier Trump policies. "Crypto is viewed broadly as a kind of risk on assets. So, any Fed cutting rates is a positive... Any positive economic data in early January will help maintain the momentum that we're seeing," Polistina added.
Biden's public lands director named to lead environmental groupIn conclusion, the release of version 2.5 of Yuelingxi AI represents a significant milestone in the company's journey towards excellence. With its groundbreaking technological innovations and expanded application capabilities, the platform is poised to revolutionize the way we interact with AI and unlock new possibilities for innovation and growth. As we look to the future, one thing is certain: Yuelingxi AI is at the forefront of the AI revolution, and the best is yet to come.ON the plus side – at least the run of five straight defeats is over. But the slump goes on for Manchester City as they somehow blew a three goal lead by conceding three goals in 14 minutes. City are the first team in Uefa Champions League history to be leading a match by three goals as late as the 75th minute and fail to go on to win. It leaves their European hopes in serious peril with games at Juventus and Paris Saint Germain still to come - as they sit 15th in the competition's standings. But where does it leave their season with a huge trip to Liverpool looming on Sunday? It looked like normal service was resumed as they took a three goal lead in the 53 rd minute – thanks to two goals from Erling Haaland . READ MORE ON MAN CITY Somehow though they let it slip as the Dutch side came storming back and grabbed an astonishing equaliser a minute from time. It was Bernardo Silva who said City were in a dark place after they were beaten at Sporting Lisbon earlier this month. Guardiola didn’t agree then – but they have lost twice more since then, including a 4-0 hammering by Spurs last Saturday. Kevin De Bruyne admitted it has been ‘chaotic’ with all their problems. Most read in Champions League But last night it got that little bit darker. FOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS There were flashes of the City we have come to know over recent seasons though – but also of how fragile their confidence has become in their dismal run. With tricky games still to come, this was one City simply had to win. It is the kind of European tie they have normally made light work of in recent years but these are not normal times for Pep Guardiola’s men. A run of five straight defeats – across three different competitions – made it the worst run of the Catalan’s managerial career. In fact it was 2006 last time a City team last went on a six match losing streak – back in the days when Stuart Pearce was in charge. Early on they looked in determined mood and came to going ahead as Haaland’s flick header hit the base of the post before Timon Wellenreuther clawed away the rebound A volley from Jack Grealish looked destined for the net but hit the back of team-mate Phil Foden and ballooned over the bar. Foden almost made amends with a low shot that was pushed around the post by Wellenreuther at full stretch. The home side were in full control and should have been ahead – and weren’t, before a triple change in the 60th minute. City fans were starting to worry they have seen this script before. Brian Priske said beforehand he was worried about a backlash from the English champions but they had held firm. And their first decent chance of the night came when Igor Paixao got through but fluffed his attempt to chip Ederson . Back at the other end Dutch defender Nathan Ake came close as his header from a Grealish corner drifted just wide. Haaland was denied by a last ditch tackle from David Hancko but from the resulting corner he went down under challenge by Quinten Timber. The Romanian ref pointed to the spot and there was even some suggestion it was given for a handball. Whichever way, it looked a soft one but apparently there was not enough to suggest a clear and obvious error. City’s top scorer – who missed his last spot-kick in Lisbon earlier this month – was made to wait but looked confident as he sent Wellenreuther the wrong way. That’s 16 for the season already for the Norwegian – and people say he has been struggling recently. Yet as Guardiola said on Monday – with hardly anyone else chipping in, where would they be without Haaland’s goals? It's now 51 goal involvements for Haaland – 46 goals and five assists – in just 44 games in his favourite competition. That lifted some of the tension that was building around the Etihad and Matheus Nunes went close as his effort was deflected into the side netting. The resulting corner was only half cleared and Ilkay Gundogan’s 20 yard shot was deflected past his own keeper by Hancko. It might not have gone in without the defender’s help but a bit of good fortune was just what the German needed. City’s treble winning skipper has found it difficult since returning to the Etihad after a year in Barcelona but that will do his confidence no harm. And three minutes later, the tie was over as Nunes burst clear down the right and sent over a low cross that a stretching Haaland turned in. Having reached his half century in the first half, he had now made a start towards the next one. You could see the confidence returning to the home side and now it seemed just a question of how many they would score. But Josko Gvardiol gifted the visitors a way back in as his lazy pass back to the keeper did not have the legs to reach Ederson . Anis Hadj Moussa nipped in and went round the keeper to give the Dutch a bit of hope. And they were dreaming of a famous comeback as Gvardiol again gave the ball away to put the visitors on the attack. Jordan Lotomba’s cross somehow squeezed between Ederson and the post and sub Santiago Giminez chested it over the line. Now it was panic stations and as Paixao got in ahead of Ederson who had dashed out of goal. He then kept his cool and crossed for Hancko to head home at the back post. A truly astonishing ending. Alan Shearer believes the draw could be WORSE for morale, than City's recent five consecutive defeats. It's the first time Guardoila - whose head went down at 3-1 - failed to win a game from 3-0 up in his managerial career. And the first time City have not won form 3-0 up since 1989 against Bournemouth. Amazon pundit Shearer said: "This could spell disaster for Guardiola. I can't believe the decision making at the end of that game. "They looked light, they looked weak, they looked frail. "You cannot give the opposition a chance, give them hope, and that's exactly what they did. READ MORE SUN STORIES "With two minutes to go they tried to take a quick free-kick. Why? Their game management was awful. It's been a disaster for them." City head to Prem leaders Liverpool on Sunday looking rather shaky.In conclusion, the GPD WIN4 is a must-have for gamers who want to take their gaming experience to the next level. With its AMD technology, compact size, and impressive features, this device is set to revolutionize the world of portable gaming. Get ready to game anytime, anywhere with the GPD WIN4!
The appointment of Changqiang Zhou as Party Secretary of Qionghai City, Hainan Province, reflects the central government's confidence in his leadership capabilities and vision for the region. It also signals a new chapter in the city's development, characterized by progress, innovation, and sustainable growth.The implications of this clandestine deal are far-reaching and could have wide-ranging consequences for the digital advertising ecosystem. By monopolizing access to advertising inventory and sharing user data without explicit consent, Google and Meta may have violated European Union regulations that protect user privacy and promote fair competition.
NFL ends sex assault investigation of Browns' Deshaun WatsonFormer President Jimmy Carter, a Georgia peanut farmer who vowed to restore morality and truth to politics after an era of White House scandal and who redefined post-presidential service, died Sunday at the age of 100. The Carter Center said the 39th president died in Plains, Georgia, surrounded by his family. The White House has been notified that Carter has died, per a Biden administration official. Preparations for the state funeral have begun, according to a law enforcement official. Carter had been in home hospice care since February 2023 after a series of short hospital stays. Carter, a Democrat, served a single term from 1977 to 1981, losing a reelection bid to Ronald Reagan. Despite his notable achievements as a peacemaker, Carter’s presidency is largely remembered as an unfulfilled four years shaken by blows to America’s economy and standing overseas. His most enduring legacy, though, might be as a globetrotting elder statesman and human rights pioneer during an indefatigable 43-year “retirement.” Carter became the oldest living former president when he surpassed the record held by the late George H.W. Bush in March 2019. Carter’s beloved wife, Rosalynn, died in November 2023. They had been inseparable during their 77-year marriage, and after she passed away, the former president said in a statement that “as long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.” The former president attended his wife’s memorial events, including a private burial and a televised tribute service in Atlanta, where he was seated in the front row in a reclined wheelchair. He did not deliver any remarks. Carter took office in 1977 with the earnest promise to lead a government as “good and honest and decent and compassionate and filled with love as are the American people” following what had started as an unlikely long-shot bid for the Democratic Party’s nomination. The Southerner with a flashing smile did enjoy significant successes, particularly abroad. He forged a rare, enduring Middle East peace deal between Israel and Egypt that stands to this day, formalized President Richard Nixon’s opening to communist China and put human rights at the center of US foreign policy. But Carter was ultimately felled by a 444-day hostage crisis in Iran, in which revolutionary students flouted the US superpower by holding dozens of Americans in Tehran. The feeling of US malaise triggered by the crisis was exacerbated by Carter’s domestic struggles, including a sluggish economy, inflation and an energy crisis. At times, Carter’s principled moral tone and determination to strip the presidency of ostentation, such as by selling the official yacht, Sequoia, seemed to verge on sanctimony. But out of office, Carter won admiration by living his values. Just a day after one of several falls he suffered in 2019, he was back out building homes for Habitat for Humanity, even with an ugly black eye and 14 stitches — and teaching Sunday school as he had done several hundreds of times . The devout Southern Baptist’s life’s work was only just beginning when he limped out of the White House, humiliated by Reagan’s 1980 Republican landslide, in which the incumbent won only six states and the District of Columbia. “As one of the youngest of former presidents, I expected to have many useful years ahead of me,” Carter wrote in his 1982 memoir, “Keeping Faith.” He proved as good as his word, going on to become a humanitarian icon, perhaps more popular outside the United States than he was at home. Over four decades, Carter, Rosalynn and his Atlanta-based organization monitored hot-spot elections, negotiated with despots, battled poverty and homelessness, fought disease and epidemics, and promoted public health in the developing world. In the process, Carter did nothing less than reinvent the concept of the post-presidency, blazing a philanthropic path since adopted by successors such as Bill Clinton and, in Africa, George W. Bush. His efforts on behalf of his Carter Center, founded to “wage peace, fight disease and build hope,” yielded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Even into old age, Carter remained a polarizing political figure. He was an uneasy member of the ex-presidents’ club, sometimes frustrating successors like Clinton and criticizing the foreign policies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and of US allies such as Israel. In recent years, he came full circle as he warned of the corrosive impact on American politics of a scandal-plagued White House — just as he did when his critique of the Nixon era helped him beat the disgraced Republican ex-president’s unelected successor, Gerald Ford, in 1976. (After Carter left office, he and Ford became close friends.) In September 2019, Carter warned Americans against reelecting President Donald Trump . “I think it will be a disaster to have four more years of Trump,” he said. After losing reelection, his work at the Carter Center became a great consolation. The ex-president said in a moving news conference detailing a cancer diagnosis in August 2015 that being president had been the highlight of his political career, even if it ended prematurely — though he would not swap another four years in the White House for the joy he had taken after leaving office in working with the Carter Center. And he said he was at peace with his legacy after a rich, fulfilling life: “I think I have been as blessed as any human being in the world.” Carter also said at that August news conference that marrying Rosalynn was the “pinnacle” of his life. He is survived by four children — Jack, Chip, Jeff and Amy — 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren, according to the Carter Center. In April 2021, President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited the Carters at their home in Plains, after the former presidential couple was unable to travel to Washington for the 46th president’s inauguration. An unlikely president Carter had always seemed an unlikely president. No one gave the Georgia governor and former Navy submariner a hope when he launched his campaign for the White House. But Carter spent months crisscrossing the cornfields and small towns of Iowa, building support voter by voter. In many ways, his success created the political lore of the modern Iowa caucuses as a place where little-known outsiders — Obama, for instance — could build a grassroots campaign that could lead to the White House. Democrats have recently downgraded the Hawkeye State’s role in their nominating process, reasoning that its mostly White demographic doesn’t represent the diversity of their supporters or the nation. Timing is crucial for presidential hopefuls, and as it turned out, Carter proved to be the right man at the right time in 1976. The deep political wounds of the Watergate scandal, which had forced the resignation of Nixon, remained raw. The nation was still deeply cynical about politicians following the social dislocation of the Vietnam War. “I’ll never lie to you,” Carter promised voters, forging a public image as an honest, humble, God-fearing, racially inclusive son of the “New South.” “He was never embarrassed to have a Georgian accent or be in blue jeans and play horseshoes and softball,” said his biographer Douglas Brinkley. That down-to-earth persona of Carter proved alluring. He followed up victory in the Iowa caucuses with wins in New Hampshire and Florida, beating out Democratic candidates including George Wallace of Alabama, Morris Udall of Arizona and Jerry Brown of California. “My name is Jimmy Carter and I’m running for president,” Carter said, poking fun at his leap from obscurity as he accepted his party’s nomination at the 1976 Democratic convention in New York City, where he tapped Sen. Walter Mondale of Minnesota as his running mate. Carter’s openness was crucial to his appeal with voters — but occasionally, his truth-telling appeared off-key. On one such occasion, Carter admitted to Playboy that he had looked on women with lust and “committed adultery in my heart many times.” A focus on human rights Carter beat Ford by 297 to 240 electoral votes and vowed in his inaugural address to put universal rights at the center of US foreign policy. “Our moral sense dictates a clear-cut preference for those societies which share with us an abiding respect for individual human rights. We do not seek to intimidate, but it is clear that a world which others can dominate with impunity would be inhospitable to decency and a threat to the well-being of all people,” he said. Carter’s most significant achievement as president was the Camp David Accords, reached after exhaustive negotiations between Egypt and Israel that peaked at the presidential retreat in Maryland. It was the first peace deal between the Jewish state and one of its Arab enemies. The agreement, signed by Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1978, called for a formal peace between the foes and the establishment of diplomatic relations. It resulted in the Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula and called for an Israeli exit from the West Bank and Gaza, with promised future negotiations to resolve the Palestinian question. While it did not settle the question of East Jerusalem, and subsequent violence and political unrest between Israel and the Palestinians meant the deal’s full potential was never realized, the enduring peace between Israel and Egypt remains a linchpin of US diplomacy in the region. In subsequent decades, Carter soured on the Israeli leadership, becoming deeply critical of what he saw as a failure to live up to obligations toward the Palestinians. He sparked controversy in 2006 by saying that Israel’s settlement policies on the West Bank were tantamount to the apartheid policies of South Africa. The Carter administration also forged progress outside the Middle East, in Latin America and Asia. He countered growing hostility to the United States throughout the Western Hemisphere by concluding the Panama Canal treaties in 1977, which would return the strategic waterway between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans to the control of its host nation in 1999. There had been fears that the Panamanians, increasingly resentful of US sovereignty, could trigger a showdown by closing the canal — a step that would have had significant economic and strategic consequences. Carter also built on Nixon’s achievement of opening China by formalizing an agreement to establish full diplomatic relations in January 1979. An iconic visit to the United States by a cowboy-hat-wearing Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping followed. The decision was a tough one for Carter and required him to sever formal diplomatic relations with the renegade government and US ally in Taiwan — which had claimed to be the legitimate government of China — in favor of the communists in Beijing. That June, Carter and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev signed the treaty concluding the second round of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II), which placed broad limits on strategic nuclear arms. Some analysts also give Carter credit for beginning the buildup of sophisticated weaponry that later helped Reagan outpace the Soviet Union and win the Cold War — a heavy political lift as the Pentagon remained unpopular in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Crises at home and abroad At home, meanwhile, Carter established the Department of Energy and exhorted Americans to cut down on consumption amid an oil price spike. He installed solar panels on the White House roof. He also began the process of deregulating the airline and trucking industries. But in 1979, Carter did himself significant political damage in an extraordinary address to the nation on the energy crisis in which he listed criticisms of his presidency, painting a picture of a listless nation trapped in a moral and spiritual funk. “It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation,” Carter said. Ultimately, the speech came back to haunt Carter and made it easy for opponents, not least Reagan, to portray him as a pessimistic and uninspiring leader. Still, in the late 1970s, it seemed conceivable that Carter’s command of foreign policy at the height of the Cold War would give him a fair shot at a second term. But a swelling of revolutionary Islam — heralding a trend that would confound future presidents — conspired to sweep him out of the White House. In October 1979, the United States let the shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi — who had been overthrown by the Iranian Revolution a few months earlier — enter the country for medical treatment. That infuriated Islamic revolutionaries who saw him as an oppressive US puppet and wanted him returned to Iran for trial. On November 4, a year before the US election, students who supported the Islamic revolution seized the US Embassy in Tehran and took 66 Americans hostage. The 444-day standoff transfixed the nation, souring the national mood day by day as television news bulletins tallied how long the hostages had been in custody. Gradually it dashed Carter’s hopes of a second term. His fortunes were also battered by a daring and ultimately disastrous rescue bid in which a US helicopter carrying special forces crashed in the desert, killing eight US servicemen. At the same time, the Cold War was approaching a pivotal point. After the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in December 1979, Carter decided to boycott the Summer Olympics in Moscow and asked the Senate to delay ratification of SALT II. As November 1980 approached, a sense of Soviet belligerence and the lengthening humiliation of the hostage crisis fostered an impression of US power under siege. “It was a perfect storm of unpleasant events, and that inability of Carter to get those Iranian hostages released before the 1980 elections spelled doomsday,” Brinkley said. Carter wrote in his memoirs that his destiny was out of his hands as the election approached, but he prayed the hostages would be released. “Now, my political future might well be determined by irrational people on the other side of the world over whom I had no control,” he said. “If the hostages were released, I was convinced my election would be assured; if the expectations of the American people were dashed again, there was little chance I could win.” Throughout the campaign, Reagan berated Carter as an ineffectual leader consigning America to perpetual decline. “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his,” Reagan charged. The actor-turned-California governor pulled off a stunning landslide on Election Day 1980, winning 489 electoral votes. In the final humiliation for Carter, on January 20, 1981, 20 minutes after Reagan was sworn in, Iran released the hostages. Humble beginnings Carter was born on October 1, 1924, to James Earl Carter Sr. and Lillian Gordy Carter, who lived in a house without electricity in the south Georgia village of Plains. The oldest of four children, he was the first future US president to be born in a hospital. Growing up during the Great Depression in the segregated Deep South, Carter showed a flair for music, art and literature, and often played with African American children — a factor influencing his thoughts on integration that played out in his political career. After studying reactor technology and nuclear physics at Union College in Schenectady, New York, Carter was assigned to the submarine force. The future peacemaker served in the Atlantic and Pacific fleets before he was tapped by Adm. Hyman Rickover, the crotchety “Father of the Nuclear Navy,” to serve as a senior officer of the pre-commissioning crew of the Seawolf, the second US nuclear submarine. After leaving active Navy duty in 1953, Carter spent time raising his children, running the family peanut farm and taking his first political steps, winning election to the Georgia Senate in 1962. He lost the Democratic nomination to run for governor to segregationist Lester Maddox in 1966 but ran successfully for the same office four years later. Political energy undimmed Carter was 56 when he left the White House, and he soon looked for new outlets for his undimmed political energy. “In the presidency, he got a sense of the fact that the world can be changed, and it doesn’t take a government to change it; it can be changed one person at a time, one disease at a time, building one house at a time,” said Andrew Young, who was a US ambassador to the United Nations under Carter. The former president and first lady visited more than 130 countries to meet with foreign leaders and other prominent individuals. Carter was still traveling after his 90th birthday. As recently as May 2015, Carter went to Guyana to monitor the country’s most important election in two decades. The Carter Center has observed more than 125 elections in 40 nations since its founding in 1982. “We try to fill vacuums in the world,” Carter told an audience at the center in 2010, “by doing things that others don’t want to do or cannot do because of diplomatic niceties. That’s part of bringing peace.” Sometimes that meant mixing with unsavory company. In 1994, the United States and North Korea were edging toward conflict over US concerns that Pyongyang was building a nuclear weapon. Absent diplomatic relations between the two countries, President Clinton gave Carter and Rosalynn permission to travel to the isolated Stalinist state to meet its supreme leader, Kim Il-Sung. In exchange for dialogue with the United States, North Korea agreed to freeze its nuclear program, which defused the crisis — for a few years at least. The same year, Carter was credited with helping avert a US invasion of Haiti and restoring President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. In 2002, he became the first former or sitting US president since 1928 to visit Cuba, where he called on the United States to end its “ineffective” economic embargo and challenged President Fidel Castro to hold free elections, grant more civil liberties and improve human rights. In 2008, he met with leaders from the Palestinian militant organization Hamas, designated a terrorist group by the US State Department, and from Syria. At times, Carter also criticized the United States in public. In a June 2012 op-ed in The New York Times, Carter accused the United States of “abandoning its role as the global champion of human rights.” He cited revelations that officials were targeting people — including US citizens — for assassination abroad as “disturbing proof” that the nation’s stance on human rights had changed for the worse. An enduring partnership In the summer of 1945, Carter, then a fresh-faced US Naval Academy student, met Eleanor Rosalynn Smith and, after their first date, told his mother, “She’s the girl I want to marry.” Rosalynn rejected his first proposal but accepted the second a few weeks later. They wed in 1946 and would eventually become the longest-married presidential couple in history. Carter was asked the secret of his enduring marriage on CNN’s “The Lead” in July 2015. “Rosalynn has been the foundation for my entire enjoyment of life. ... First of all, it’s best to choose the right woman, which I did. And secondly, we give each other space to do our own things,” Carter told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “We try to be reconciled before we go to sleep at night and try to find everything we can think of that we like to do together. So we have a lot of good times.” When he published his book “A Full Life” shortly before he was diagnosed with cancer in 2015, Carter contemplated his own mortality. He wrote that he was at peace with his accomplishments as president as well as his unrealized goals. He said he and Rosalynn were “blessed with good health and look to the future with eagerness and confidence, but are prepared for inevitable adversity when it comes.” This story has been updated with additional information. Tom Watkins and CNN’s Jeff Zeleny and Haley Talbot contributed to this report.
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