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HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 transforma tu bienestar con tecnología avanzadaOn the corner of Fort Lane and Gentile Street, beside an aging strip mall with a drugstore, a five-and-dime and a Safeway, was an empty lot—empty except for the yellow, knee-high grass typical of August summers in my hometown. The whole field smelled drier than a canvas sack of wheat; some days the heat of the sun by itself was enough to burn it up. And there, along the trail, my old Huffster soared, leaning and squeaking all the way, with dust flying from its deflated tires. My best friend Tracy and I had been stress-testing our pedal bikes. His was a sparkling red Schwinn with a white stripe down the side, chrome fenders and all; mine was a weary old street bike Santa had picked up at the five-and-dime. It had started as a blue-and-yellow Huffy road bike with a banana seat, and in 1984, vintage road bikes weren’t super cool. BMX bikes were cool. So my 1977 Huffy had been rattle-can painted flat white. It now sported an orange saddle seat from my brother’s discarded ten-speed. The tires were balding and weather cracked, not BMX dirt-track style—road style. It was a Franken-bike. And it had spent way too many frigid winters leaning against the side of our trailer house.By BILL BARROW, Associated Press 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.None

Chase Artopoeus has two TD passes, TD run as Chattanooga tops Austin Peay 24-17 in season finale

won’t be taking over from Cathie Wood at ARK Invest – you heard it here first. But there are some other things that are unlikely in 2025 that investors should pay attention to. While risk is inevitable, working out how to minimise it is key. And that involves working out where it would take something big for things to go wrong. “Diageo cuts dividend” ( ) is facing a dual threat of US tariffs and anti-obesity drugs. But I don’t see either of these causing the business to lower its dividend in 2025. With the tariff issue, I think it’s worth noting that a decent part of the company’s portfolio – including , , and is produced in the US. These would be unaffected by taxes on imports. On the subject of anti-obesity drugs, the majority of users are people who already tend to consume less alcohol anyway. So I’m sceptical of the idea that this is likely to have a significant impact on demand. The risks can’t be ignored entirely, but the discounted share price means I’m looking to buy the stock in 2025. And I think the chances of the dividend doing any thing but go up in 2025 are extremely remote. “Rightmove accepts takeover bid” Earlier this year, REA group made a bid to acquire ( ). The offer was rejected and I don’t think anyone is going to succeed with a similar proposal in 2025. There are two reasons for this. The first is the company is doing well by itself – it’s growing strongly and it has a strong balance sheet, meaning there’s nearly no pressure to sell. The second is the stock isn’t exactly cheap, at a of 27. I’m not buying it at today’s levels and I can’t see anyone paying significantly over this to acquire the firm outright. The next year will be an interesting one for Rightmove, with the possibility of increased competition from OnTheMarket a potential threat. But as far as the chance of a takeover goes, I don’t think so. “Interest rates return to Covid-19 levels” Interest rates going back to 0.1% would almost certainly cause a huge rally in stock prices. But unless there’s another emergency on the scale of the Covid-19 pandemic, I just don’t see it. Even in that situation, I think the Bank of England might be more cautious than it was last time. The resulting is proving resilient and the last measurement of 2024 revealed CPI rising to 2.6%. Rising costs are unwelcome, but higher interest rates might be no bad thing for investors. These should weigh on share prices, creating opportunities to earn higher returns over the long term. Of course, that depends on which stocks investors choose to buy. But companies that can pass on higher costs to customers could make for very attractive investments. I could be wrong... With investing, uncertainty is inevitable. Dividends are never guaranteed, strange takeovers happen, and exogenous shocks can cause all kinds of macroeconomic instability. I could be wrong, but I don’t see Diageo cutting its dividend, Rightmove being acquired, or interest rates going to zero. I think this is about as likely as Warren Buffett taking over a disruptive innovation fund.

AP Trending SummaryBrief at 9:15 a.m. ESTNone

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Sports San Diego announced Thursday that DirecTV has extended its agreement as title sponsor of the Holiday Bowl. Neither side would say how long the agreement is for. DirecTV sponsored the previous two Holiday Bowls. After two editions at Petco Park, the downtown home of the San Diego Padres, the Holiday Bowl is moving to Snapdragon Stadium in Mission Valley. It will be played Dec. 27 and match a top team from the ACC against current and former teams from the Pac-12. The Associated PressNone

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Chase Artopoeus threw two touchdown passes and ran for a score to lead Chattanooga to a 24-17 victory over Austin Peay in a nonconference regular-season finale on Saturday. Chattanooga (7-5) jumped out to a 10-0 first-quarter lead on Jude Kelley's 28-yard field goal and Artopoeus' 9-yard touchdown toss to Javin Whatley with 42 seconds left. The score came five plays after Alex Mitchell intercepted a pass from Austin Smith, giving the Mocs the ball at the Governors' 26-yard line. Austin Peay answered in the second quarter with help from a Chattanooga turnover. Ellis Ellis Jr. picked off Artopoeus and the Governors took over at the Mocs' 30. Smith completed three straight passes — the last one covering 4 yards to Jaden Barnes to get Austin Peay within three points. Carson Smith followed with a 35-yard field goal to tie it at 10. Chattanooga regained the lead with 4:01 left in the third quarter when Artopoeus capped a nine-play drive with a 3-yard touchdown run. Smith had a 23-yard touchdown run to get Austin Peay within seven with 8:08 left in the game. The Governors drove to the Mocs' 30, but Smith's fourth-down pass fell incomplete with 41 seconds to go. Artopoeus completed 15 of 21 passes for 161 yards for Chattanooga. He had a 7-yard scoring toss to John McIntyre to put the Mocs up 24-10 early in the final quarter. Smith finished with 192 yards on 21-for-36 passing for Austin Peay, which finishes its first season under head coach Jeff Faris with a 4-8 record. Rusty Wright became the first Chattanooga coach to finish .500 or better in each of his first six seasons. Chattanooga snapped Austin Peay's nine-game win streak with a 24-21 victory on the road to close out the regular season last year. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

> Philadelphia news 24/7: Watch NBC10 free wherever you are Jimmy Carter, the Georgia peanut farmer who became a U.S. president and a Nobel Prize-winning activist for peace and human rights, has died. He was 100. Carter's post-presidency had been widely seen as more successful than his time in the White House, and he called it " more gratifying ." even into his 90s, crusading for human rights, writing books, building homes for the needy with his own hands, teaching Sunday school, and traveling the world in the pursuit of peace. Carter graduated from the United States Naval Academy, participated in the Navy's fledgling nuclear-powered submarine program, and served two terms as a Georgia state senator and one as governor before he was elected to the White House. He became the nation's 39th president in 1977, defeating President Gerald Ford in the election more than two years after the Watergate scandal drove Richard Nixon from the Oval Office. Carter had been on hospice care for more than a year. His family announced in February 2023 that he had entered end-of-life care in his home after a series of hospital visits. His wife, Rosalynn , who had been diagnosed with dementia in early 2023, briefly entered hospice herself at age 96 before dying on Nov. 19, 2023. Carter turned 100 in October, bringing a new flood of tributes and accolades. His grandson Jason Carter said it was gratifying for Jimmy Carter to see a reassessment of his presidency and legacy. After losing his reelection bid in 1980, he remained active in public issues, including speaking at age 95 in support of Joe Biden at the virtual Democratic National Convention in August 2020. Some commentators viewed him as the nation's "most successful ex-president." He wrote more than 40 books , including "Faith," which he released when he was in his mid-90s. Days after his 93rd birthday, he offered to go to North Korea amid a nuclear crisis in an attempt to establish a permanent peace between Pyongyang and Washington. And at age 96, he denounced Republican efforts to restrict voter access in his home state. Carter lived longer than any other U.S. president, surpassing the late George H.W. Bush, who died in November 2018 at age 94. When Carter reached that milestone in March 2019, Carter Center spokeswoman Deanna Congileo said he was still active. "Both President and Mrs. Carter are determined to use their influence for as long as they can to make the world a better place," Congileo said at the time. "Their tireless resolve and heart have helped to improve life for millions of the world's poorest people." U.S. stock markets have historically closed for a day of mourning to honor the death of a president. James Earl Carter Jr. was born Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia — the first U.S. president born in a hospital. His father ran a general store and invested in farmland. His mother, known as "Miss Lillian," was a nurse. Carter attended the U.S. Naval Academy. During one of his visits home from Annapolis, his younger sister Ruth set up a date with their neighbor and lifelong friend. Upon graduation in 1946 from the academy, he married that young woman, Eleanor Rosalynn Smith, when she was 18. (On July 7, 2023, the Carters celebrated their 77th wedding anniversary , marking a record-long marriage for a first couple.) In the Navy, he served on submarines in the Atlantic and Pacific fleets and attained the rank of lieutenant. He joined then-Capt. Hyman Rickover's nuclear submarine development program. He did graduate work at Union College in reactor technology and nuclear physics and became senior officer of the pre-commissioning crew of the second nuclear submarine, the Seawolf. After his father died in 1953, Carter resigned from the Navy and returned to Georgia, taking over the family farms and becoming active in local politics. He served in the Navy Reserve until 1961. Elected governor in 1971, he was considered one of the leaders of the "New South" — a progressive who condemned racial segregation and inequality. During his presidential campaign, he ran as an outsider, hoping to capitalize on the anti-Washington sentiment in the post-Vietnam/Watergate era. "My name is Jimmy Carter, and I'm running for president," a beaming Carter said in the opening of his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in July 1976. He offered to create jobs in a nasty economy with a 7.9% unemployment rate, and to set a squeaky-clean example as a born-again Christian from outside the Beltway, unblemished by Washington's scandals. On the eve of the election, however, he gave an interview to Playboy magazine in which he made this shocking confession: "I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times." Still, the man with the huge smile and genteel Georgia drawl handily won the Electoral College by 297-240 but received only 50.1% of the popular vote to Ford's 48%. Once in office, Carter empowered his running mate, Walter Mondale, to transform the vice presidency into a policy-driving office. On the domestic front, in addition to stagflation and recession, Carter had to deal with the Love Canal ecological disaster in Niagara Falls, New York, which led to the creation of the environmental Superfund. He also ended federal price regulations for airlines, trucking and railroads; signed the bailout of Chrysler in 1979; and elevated the Department of Education into a separate Cabinet-level agency. One of his biggest domestic problems was the festering energy crisis, which stemmed from the Arab oil embargo that began during the 1973 Middle East war. He termed the crisis "the moral equivalent of war." In symbolic gestures, he wore a Mister Rogers-styled cardigan, turned down the White House heat, installed solar heating panels in the executive mansion, created the Department of Energy and pressed for tax incentives for installation of home insulation. In international affairs, he campaigned for human rights, successfully concluded the Camp David peace accords between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, negotiated the return to Panama of the Canal Zone, established full diplomatic relations with communist China and reached an agreement on the SALT II nuclear arms limitation treaty with Moscow. Then came the fateful end of the year 1979: The disastrous 444-day Iranian hostage standoff began in November, and the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in December, resulting in Carter's call for a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. The seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran by radical student followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on Nov. 4, 1979, and the subsequent siege made the Carter administration seem impotent. Even the first lady recalled during a CNBC interview in 2014 that she urged her husband to "do something, anything!" Five months into the crisis, Carter ordered a military mission, Operation Eagle Claw, to rescue the American hostages. The mission ended in humiliation: In the process of aborting the plan because of operational difficulties, a U.S. helicopter crashed into a transport plane at the desert staging area, killing eight servicemen. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who advocated diplomacy over force to resolve the hostage crisis, resigned. "I know this is a matter of principle with you, and I respect the reasons you have expressed to me," Carter said in a handwritten note to Vance. The crisis finally ended with the release of 52 Americans on Jan. 20, 1981, the day the man who ended Carter's single-term presidency took the oath of office — Ronald Reagan. Before the 1980 election between Carter, Reagan and independent John Anderson, Sen. Ted Kennedy waged an unsuccessful challenge to the president for the Democratic nomination. In a 2014 interview with CNBC, Carter said he probably would have been easily reelected had he rescued the hostages. "It would have shown that I was strong and resolute and manly," he said. "I could have wiped Iran off the map with the weapons that we had. But in the process a lot of innocent people would have been killed, probably including the hostages. And so I stood up against all that advice, and then eventually all my prayers were answered and all the hostages came home safe and free." Summing up the Carter presidency, former aide Stuart Eizenstat wrote in a 2015 op-ed in The New York Times that the nation's 39th president had numerous accomplishments. "It is enormously frustrating for those of us who worked closely with him in the White House to witness his presidency caricatured as a failure, and to see how he has been marginalized, even by his fellow Democrats," Eizenstat wrote. "His defining characteristic was confronting intractable problems regardless of their political cost." Carter remained active after he left Washington at age 56. He and Rosalynn volunteered for Habitat for Humanity , building affordable housing for the needy, and he established the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and The Carter Center in Atlanta. Founded in 1982, the center has sent observers to monitor elections in more than three dozen countries. The center has also led health efforts, including the push to eradicate the tropical parasitic Guinea worm disease. The center's motto is "Waging peace. Fighting disease. Building hope." "I still hope to outlive the last Guinea worm ," Carter told CNN in May 2018. (He came close. The Carter Center reported there were only 13 human cases in 2023.) Carter, who also taught at Emory University, traveled extensively to promote peace, human rights and economic progress. In one mission, President Bill Clinton secretly dispatched him to North Korea in 1994 to help mediate a nuclear dispute with dictator Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Un's grandfather. In 2002, Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize for what the awards committee called "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." However, his actions were not always well-received. His efforts in his long campaign for peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors included the 2006 book "Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid," which was perceived as antisemitic and biased against Israel. In particular, one sentence provoked an outcry: "It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they will end the suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism when international laws and the ultimate goals of the Roadmap for Peace are accepted by Israel." In an interview with NPR , Carter was asked about the passage. "That was a terribly worded sentence which implied, obviously in a ridiculous way, that I approved terrorism and terrorist acts against Israeli citizens," he said. "The 'when' was obviously a crazy and stupid word. My publishers have been informed about that and have changed the sentence in all future editions of the book." (It became: "It is imperative that the general Arab community and all significant Palestinian groups make it clear that they renounce all acts of violence against innocent civilians and will accept international laws, the Arab peace proposal of 2002, and the ultimate goals of the Roadmap for Peace.") In the 2014 CNBC interview, Carter said the Camp David Accords and other peacemaking stood among his greatest achievements as president. "I kept our country at peace, which has happened very rarely since the Second World War, and I tried to work for peace between other people who were not directly related to the United States, like between Egypt and Israel. I normalized diplomatic relations with China, and I implemented a very strong human rights commitment that brought about a change throughout Latin America, for instance, from totalitarian military dictatorships to democracies," he said. "So I would say the promotion of peace and human rights were the two things that I'm most proud." Had he been elected to a second term, he told CNBC, "I could have implemented very firmly the peace agreement that I negotiated with Israel and its neighbors that was never fully implemented." "I'd like to be remembered as a champion of peace and human rights. Those are the two things I've found as a kind of guide for my life. I've done the best I could with those, not always successful, of course," he told CNBC. "I would hope the American people would see that I tried to do what was best for our country every day I was in office." Survivors include sons John "Jack," James "Chip," and Donnel "Jeff" and daughter Amy. Jack ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in Nevada in 2006. Jack's son Jason lost a bid for Georgia governor in 2014 to then-incumbent Republican Nathan Deal. Carter's brother Billy, whose antics stirred up unwanted attention during the Carter White House years, died in 1988. On Aug. 12, 2015, the former president revealed that he had melanoma and that surgery on his liver confirmed that it had metastasized there and to his brain. A week after his cancer diagnosis announcement, Carter held a remarkably frank news conference at the Carter Center to discuss his prognosis and the prospect of facing death. "I've had a wonderful life, I've had thousands of friends, and I've had an exciting and adventurous and gratifying existence," he told reporters. Illustrating that peace of mind, the former president took this picture when he returned home from the news conference: After four months of treatment, including targeted radiation and immunotherapy, Carter announced in early December 2015 that a subsequent brain scan showed no signs of the original cancer spots and no new ones. Then in March 2016, he announced he no longer needed regular cancer treatments. Months later, in July, he addressed the Democratic National Convention by video, urging people to vote for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump . And at an Atlanta Braves game in September 2015, the former first couple was caught on the "kiss cam." Former President Jimmy Carter smooches wife on Atlanta Braves' kiss cam http://t.co/eq5KbHftsn #NBCNightlyNews pic.twitter.com/QT5Prl6T8f In 2019, at age 94, Carter fell in his home and broke a hip when he was preparing to go turkey hunting. "President Carter said his main concern is that turkey season ends this week, and he has not reached his limit," the Carter Center said. He underwent hip replacement surgery but had to cancel plans to resume teaching Sunday school six days after the accident. Later that year, just before a planned week at an October 2019 Habitat for Humanity project in Tennessee, the 95-year-old Carter fell in his home while heading to church. Although he suffered a black eye and needed 14 stitches in his head, Carter appeared 400 miles away at a concert that night in Nashville to support the project. Wielding a power drill and other building tools, he soon joined the volunteer construction crews. Then, two weeks later, he fell in his house and suffered a pelvic fracture. But in another two weeks, he was back at church, giving a lesson on the Book of Job and talking about facing death during his 2015 cancer treatment. "I obviously prayed about it. I didn't ask God to let me live, but I just asked God to give me a proper attitude toward death. And I found that I was absolutely and completely at ease with death. It didn't really matter to me whether I died or lived," Carter told the congregation of 400 people at Maranatha Baptist Church on Nov. 3, 2019, according to the church's feed on Facebook. "I have since that time been absolutely confident that my Christian faith includes complete confidence in life after death." During the Covid pandemic, the Carters decided not to travel to Biden's inauguration, but weeks later, they were fully vaccinated and were back in their usual seats in the front pew of Maranatha Baptist for Sunday services. " It's hard to live until you're 95 years old," Carter told People magazine days after reaching that milestone. "I think the best explanation for that is to marry the best spouse: Someone who will take care of you and engage and do things to challenge you and keep you alive and interested in life." — Michele Luhn and Lynne Pate contributed to this report.AFC standouts meet when Herbert, Chargers host Jackson's Ravens on Monday nightSWAMPSCOTT — Swampscott Recreation is partnering with the North East chapter of Robothink to teach students everything from robotics and engineering, to what it’s like to roam on Mars using high-tech rovers. According to its website, Robothink is a leading provider of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs to children across 23 countries. The program runs for six weeks, on Saturdays between Jan. 4 to Feb. 8 from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the Swampscott Highschool Cafeteria. Cost of entry is $250. “Swampscott recreation is thrilled to welcome back Robothink for another session of its STEM programming this winter,” the Facebook post said. This year’s theme of the winter session will be a “Mars expedition”. Students who participate will get a hands-on experience, learning about what it’s like to engineer and operate the state-of-the-art rovers NASA uses to explore the alien terrain of Mars. With an array of tools and hardware provided by Robothink, students will get to work with gears, motors, axles and everything in between. Students will also have the opportunity to craft their own spaceship.

Rays push back on county ultimatum: Stadium agreement ‘in effect’ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Workers pushing for an end to smoking in Atlantic City casinos say the main employee union has been won over by tobacco companies seeking allies in the fight against smoking restrictions. An official of a union involved in the anti-smoking push on Monday called for the head of the Atlantic City casino workers’ union, Donna DeCaprio, to resign for failing to protect her members from the dangers of secondhand smoke. DeCaprio is president of Local 54 of the Unite Here union, which opposes a smoking ban on the grounds that so much business would be lost by smokers taking their money elsewhere that it could cause one or more casinos to shut down, costing thousands of workers their jobs. “She should be ashamed of herself,” said Ray Jensen, assistant director of United Auto Workers Region 9, which represents dealers at three Atlantic City casinos and is part of a lawsuit seeking to have the courts force an end to smoking in the gambling halls. “She should hand in her union card.” DeCaprio said her union supports the health and safety of its members, adding improvements to the workplace environment need to be made. “A balance needs to be reached that will both protect worker health and preserve good jobs,” she said. “We are protecting our members against multiple casino closures and job losses. The UAW is eager to sacrifice the entire casino industry and put 25,000 good jobs with benefits at risk.” DeCaprio said between 50% and 72% of all in-person casino revenue in Atlantic City comes from smoking sections, which occupy only 25% of the casino floor. She said her union “and the vast majority of the labor movement” support that would improve ventilation in casinos and prevent any employee from being assigned to work in a smoking section against their will. Whether to ban smoking is one of the most controversial issues not only in Atlantic City casinos but in other states where workers have expressed concern about secondhand smoke. They are waging similar campaigns in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Kansas and Virginia. Workers have been pushing for four years to end an exemption in New Jersey’s clean air law that allows smoking inside the nine casinos. They say they or their co-workers are becoming ill with cancer, heart disease and other conditions related to exposure to second-hand smoke. Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, has said he will sign a bill to end casino smoking if it reaches his desk. The casinos, joined by Local 54, oppose that effort, saying it will cost Atlantic City thousands of jobs and lead to decreased tax revenue for state programs for senior citizens and the disabled. On Monday, the workers group that calls itself CEASE (Casino Employees Against Smoking’s Effects) filed an appeal of a that allowed smoking to continue in the nine casinos. The Casino Association of New Jersey declined to comment Monday. Attorney Nancy Erika Smith said as far back as 1993, tobacco companies targeted labor unions in the hospitality industry as potential allies to work against smoking bans in the restaurant and hospitality industries. That effort included the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, a precursor of the Unite Here union. “HERE and the related AFL-CIO affiliates are critical allies which should be cultivated as supporters of the effort to prevent smoking bans,” a public relations firm wrote in Companies that was made public during several states’ litigation against tobacco companies. The memo said having HERE “as an ally in this effort would be a very powerful voice.” As far back as 2001, HERE was part of a 12-member coalition including labor unions advocating for improved indoor ventilation instead of government-imposed smoking bans, according to cited in Monday’s appeal. The anti-smoking campaigners cite a by Las Vegas-based C3 Gaming, a consulting firm, showing that casinos that went smoke-free “appear to be performing better than their counterparts that continue to allow smoking.” ___ Follow Wayne Parry on X at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC Wayne Parry, The Associated Press

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Pep Guardiola’s record-breaking time with Manchester City is far from over. The City manager has signed a two-year contract extension, ending speculation about his future by agreeing to a deal that would prolong his tenure to 11 seasons. Guardiola’s contract was due to expire at the end of this season. The four-time defending Premier League champions announced the deal Thursday. “Manchester City means so much to me. This is my ninth season here. We have experienced so many amazing times together. I have a really special feeling for this football club,” the 53-year-old Guardiola said. “That is why I am so happy to be staying for another two more seasons.” The Catalan coach has overseen a period of unprecedented dominance since joining City in 2016. He has gone on to win six Premier League titles in seven years and also lifted the Champions League among 15 major trophies at the club. Under Guardiola, City became the first team to win four-straight English league titles. He also led City to the treble in 2023, winning the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup in one season — matching Manchester United's achievement in 1999. “I have said this many times before,” Guardiola continued in his statement, “but I have everything a manager could ever wish for, and I appreciate that so much. Hopefully now we can add more trophies to the ones we have already won. That will be my focus.” Guardiola’s decision to stay also comes as City faces a slew of alleged financial breaches . Punishment could be as extreme as expulsion from the league. City faces more than 100 charges ranging over a nine-year period when it was trying to establish itself as the biggest force in English soccer. The club denies the charges and Guardiola had said in September — when a closed-door hearing was scheduled — that he welcomed the chance to clear the club’s name. A verdict is not expected until next year. Guardiola has managed City for longer than any his former clubs, having spent four years at Barcelona and three at Bayern Munich. City Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said he was “delighted” that Guardiola is staying. “His hunger for improvement and success remains insatiable and the direct beneficiaries of that will continue to be our players and coaching staff, the culture of our club, and the English game at large,” he said. "This renewal will take Pep beyond a decade of coaching Manchester City and the opportunity to continue to re-write the managerial record books.” James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccerUNC closes nonconference schedule vs. in-state foe Campbell

New 2025 laws hit hot topics from AI in movies to rapid-fire gunsMixed reviews for the sequel to Netflix's smash series "Squid Game" tanked shares of the South Korean companies tied to the show Friday. Marketing firm Artist United, in which "Squid Game" star Lee Jung-jae is the largest shareholder, plunged 30%, the daily limit on the Korean exchange KOSDAQ. Wysiwyg Studios, another Artist United investor, plummeted 25.3%. Dexter Studios, a Korean production company and Netflix partner, saw its shares drop 24%. 3 Shares in South Korean production companies tanked Friday after a disappointing premiere for "Squid Game 2." No Ju-han/Netflix The Korean thriller was a surprise hit in 2021, leading Netflix's most-watched titles list on every continent and becoming the... Taylor HerzlichSome Atlantic City casino workers call on union boss to resign for opposing a smoking ban

Colorado political, civic leaders react to passing of former President Carter

LOS ANGELES (AP) — After struggling to run the ball consistently all season, the Los Angeles Rams finally made some progress on the ground in New Orleans. Kyren Williams and rookie Blake Corum carried the Rams (6-6) to a 21-14 win that kept them squarely in the playoff race for another week. Los Angeles racked up a season-high 156 yards rushing against the Saints, with Williams going for 104 yards and a touchdown while Corum added 42 yards on a season high-tying eight carries. The game was the inverse of most afternoons this season for the Rams, who came into the week averaging fewer than 100 yards rushing per game. The running game was sturdy and productive, while Matthew Stafford and his receivers struggled to get into a rhythm at the Superdome. Coach Sean McVay always prefers to use his run game to set up the pass, and it finally worked for once this season. “I thought Kyren ran really well," McVay said. “I thought Corum ran really well. I thought our offensive line set the line of scrimmage in the run game. We really started slow in the pass game, but I thought Matthew was excellent in the second half. We were able to get some different things off of those run actions going, and that ended up being the difference in the game.” Not coincidentally, the Rams' running game worked well on the Sunday when the offensive line finally had a starting five uncompromised by injuries or suspension for the first time all season. Right tackle Rob Havenstein returned from an ankle injury, making the group whole around rookie center Beaux Limmer, who has beaten out high-priced free agent Jonah Jackson for a starting job. The Rams still had yet another slow start in a season full of them. They ran only three plays in the entire first quarter, and they were held scoreless in the first half when their other two drives resulted in a turnover on downs and a punt. But Los Angeles rebounded with an 11-play scoring drive to open the second half featuring seven runs by Williams. He eventually moved up to fifth in the NFL with 926 yards rushing despite averaging just 4.2 yards per carry — nearly a yard less than he had last season, and the lowest average among the league's top 10 rushers this season. The Rams have thrived without a strong rushing attack before: They averaged just 99.0 yards per game on the ground, ranking 25th in the NFL, during their Super Bowl championship season in 2021-22. But McVay prefers his first option to be a strong running attack, which he had during his first three seasons in charge with Todd Gurley in the backfield and Andrew Whitworth at left tackle. “Anytime the guys up front are moving them, and (Williams) is making great reads and moves on the second level, then that is a fun feeling for the offense," Stafford said. “It’s great when you can hand the ball off and get big creases. We converted when we needed to in short-yardage stuff. I thought our guys did a really great job up front, and Kyren ran it great.” What's working The Rams have struggled in the red zone all season, but they scored touchdowns on all three trips in New Orleans. They did it by committing to the run game up the middle, setting up TD passes on the outside to Demarcus Robinson and Puka Nacua. What needs help Alvin Kamara racked up 112 yards rushing in the latest strong game by an opposing running back. Los Angeles is 28th in the league against the run, allowing 144.2 yards rushing per game — including 194 per game over the past three weeks. Stock up Rookie edge rusher Jared Verse had another outstanding game, racking up five tackles, three quarterback hits and numerous big plays that don't show up on stat sheets. He capped the performance by hitting Derek Carr from behind and forcing an incompletion from the Los Angeles 9 on New Orleans' final play. Stock down Cornerback Darious Williams gave up a touchdown pass to Marquez Valdes-Scantling and the ensuing 2-point conversion pass to Dante Pettis early in the fourth quarter, capping a second straight rough week for the free-agent signee. Williams is the Rams' best cornerback, but they haven't had an above-average shutdown pass defender since trading Jalen Ramsey. Los Angeles added cornerback depth Monday, claiming 2023 first-round pick Emmanuel Forbes off waivers from Washington. Injuries Robinson injured his hand during the game, and Stafford incurred a lateral ankle sprain. McVay said he doesn't expect either injury to affect the veterans' preparations this week. Key number 17 — Cooper Kupp's yards receiving. That's his lowest total in a game in which he didn't get injured since Oct. 18, 2020. Kupp had only six targets, few downfield routes and curiously scant chances to make big plays. Next steps The Rams are home underdogs this week against powerhouse Buffalo, followed by a Thursday night game at San Francisco. Getting even one win out of these two matchups will be difficult, but probably necessary to keep pace with Seattle and Arizona in the NFC West. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL Greg Beacham, The Associated Press