2 slots Dana Hull | (TNS) Bloomberg News Jared Birchall, Elon Musk’s money manager and the head of his family office, is listed as the chief executive officer. Jehn Balajadia, a longtime Musk aide who has worked at SpaceX and the Boring Co., is named as an official contact. Related Articles National Politics | Trump’s picks for top health jobs not just team of rivals but ‘team of opponents’ National Politics | Biden will decide on US Steel acquisition after influential panel fails to reach consensus National Politics | Biden vetoes once-bipartisan effort to add 66 federal judgeships, citing ‘hurried’ House action National Politics | A history of the Panama Canal — and why Trump can’t take it back on his own National Politics | President-elect Trump wants to again rename North America’s tallest peak But they’re not connected to Musk’s new technology venture, or the political operation that’s endeared him to Donald Trump. Instead, they’re tied to the billionaire’s new Montessori school outside Bastrop, Texas, called Ad Astra, according to documents filed with state authorities and obtained via a Texas Public Information Act request. The world’s richest person oversees an overlapping empire of six companies — or seven, if you include his political action committee. Alongside rockets, electric cars, brain implants, social media and the next Trump administration, he is increasingly focused on education, spanning preschool to college. One part of his endeavor was revealed last year, when Bloomberg News reported that his foundation had set aside roughly $100 million to create a technology-focused primary and secondary school in Austin, with eventual plans for a university. An additional $137 million in cash and stock was allotted last year, according to the most recent tax filing for the Musk Foundation. Ad Astra is closer to fruition. The state documents show Texas authorities issued an initial permit last month, clearing the way for the center to operate with as many as 21 pupils. Ad Astra’s website says it’s “currently open to all children ages 3 to 9.” The school’s account on X includes job postings for an assistant teacher for preschool and kindergarten and an assistant teacher for students ages 6 to 9. To run the school, Ad Astra is partnering with a company that has experience with billionaires: Xplor Education, which developed Hala Kahiki Montessori school in Lanai, Hawaii, the island 98% owned by Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison. Ad Astra sits on a highway outside Bastrop, a bedroom community about 30 miles from Austin and part of a region that’s home to several of Musk’s businesses. On a visit during a recent weekday morning, there was a single Toyota Prius in the parking lot and no one answered the door at the white building with a gray metal roof. The school’s main entrance was blocked by a gate, and there was no sign of any children on the grounds. But what information there is about Ad Astra makes it sound like a fairly typical, if high-end, Montessori preschool. The proposed schedule includes “thematic, STEM-based activities and projects” as well as outdoor play and nap time. A sample snack calendar features carrots and hummus. While Birchall’s and Balajadia’s names appear in the application, it isn’t clear that they’ll have substantive roles at the school once it’s operational. Musk, Birchall and Balajadia didn’t respond to emailed questions. A phone call and email to the school went unanswered. Access to high quality, affordable childcare is a huge issue for working parents across the country, and tends to be an especially vexing problem in rural areas like Bastrop. Many families live in “childcare deserts” where there is either not a facility or there isn’t an available slot. Opening Ad Astra gives Musk a chance to showcase his vision for education, and his support for the hands-on learning and problem solving that are a hallmark of his industrial companies. His public comments about learning frequently overlap with cultural concerns popular among conservatives and the Make America Great Again crowd, often focusing on what he sees as young minds being indoctrinated by teachers spewing left-wing propaganda. He has railed against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, and in August posted that “a lot of schools are teaching white boys to hate themselves.” Musk’s educational interests dovetail with his new role as Trump’s “first buddy.” The billionaire has pitched a role for himself that he — and now the incoming Trump administration — call “DOGE,” or the Department of Government Efficiency. Though it’s not an actual department, DOGE now posts on X, the social media platform that Musk owns. “The Department of Education spent over $1 billion promoting DEI in America’s schools,” the account posted Dec. 12. Back in Texas, Bastrop is quickly becoming a key Musk point of interest. The Boring Co., his tunneling venture, is based in an unincorporated area there. Across the road, SpaceX produces Starlink satellites at a 500,000-square-foot (46,000-square-meter) facility. Nearby, X is constructing a building for trust and safety workers. Musk employees, as well as the general public, can grab snacks at the Boring Bodega, a convenience store housed within Musk’s Hyperloop Plaza, which also contains a bar, candy shop and hair salon. Ad Astra is just a five-minute drive away. It seems to have been designed with the children of Musk’s employees — if not Musk’s own offspring — in mind. Musk has fathered at least 12 children, six of them in the last five years. “Ad Astra’s mission is to foster curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking in the next generation of problem solvers and builders,” reads the school’s website. A job posting on the website of the Montessori Institute of North Texas says “While their parents support the breakthroughs that expand the realm of human possibility, their children will grow into the next generation of innovators in a way that only authentic Montessori can provide.” The school has hired an executive director, according to documents Bloomberg obtained from Texas Health and Human Services. Ad Astra is located on 40 acres of land, according to the documents, which said a 4,000-square-foot house would be remodeled for the preschool. It isn’t uncommon for entrepreneurs to take an interest in education, according to Bill Gormley, a professor emeritus at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University who studies early childhood education. Charles Butt, the chairman of the Texas-based H-E-B grocery chain, has made public education a focus of his philanthropy. Along with other business and community leaders, Butt founded “Raise Your Hand Texas,” which advocates on school funding, teacher workforce and retention issues and fully funding pre-kindergarten. “Musk is not the only entrepreneur to recognize the value of preschool for Texas workers,” Gormley said. “A lot of politicians and business people get enthusiastic about education in general — and preschool in particular — because they salivate at the prospect of a better workforce.” Political Moves Musk spent much of October actively campaigning for Trump’s presidential effort, becoming the most prolific donor of the election cycle. He poured at least $274 million into political groups in 2024, including $238 million to America PAC, the political action committee he founded. While the vast majority of money raised by America PAC came from Musk himself, it also had support from other donors. Betsy DeVos, who served as education secretary in Trump’s first term, donated $250,000, federal filings show. The Department of Education is already in the new administration’s cross hairs. Trump campaigned on the idea of disbanding the department and dismantling diversity initiatives, and he has also taken aim at transgender rights. “Rather than indoctrinating young people with inappropriate racial, sexual, and political material, which is what we’re doing now, our schools must be totally refocused to prepare our children to succeed in the world of work,” Trump wrote in Agenda 47, his campaign platform. Musk has three children with the musician Grimes and three with Shivon Zilis, who in the past was actively involved at Neuralink, his brain machine interface company. All are under the age of five. Musk took X, his son with Grimes, with him on a recent trip to Capitol Hill. After his visit, he shared a graphic that showed the growth of administrators in America’s public schools since 2000. Tuition Costs Musk is a fan of hands-on education. During a Tesla earnings call in 2018, he talked about the need for more electricians as the electric-car maker scaled up the energy side of its business. On the Joe Rogan podcast in 2020, Musk said that “too many smart people go into finance and law.” “I have a lot of respect for people who work with their hands and we need electricians and plumbers and carpenters,” Musk said while campaigning for Trump in Pennsylvania in October. “That’s a lot more important than having incremental political science majors.” Ad Astra’s website says the cost of tuition will be initially subsidized, but in future years “tuition will be in line with local private schools that include an extended day program.” “I do think we need significant reform in education,” Musk said at a separate Trump campaign event. “The priority should be to teach kids skills that they will find useful later in life, and to leave any sort of social propaganda out of the classroom.” With assistance from Sophie Alexander and Kara Carlson. ©2024 Bloomberg News. Visit at bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Family of Hamas hostage Edan Alexander celebrates his 21st birthday in NYC's Central Park

MEXICO CITY (Reuters): Amid a fresh wave of violence, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has sent her security chief and thousands of troops to stem a bloody escalation of drug cartel crime in Sinaloa state, signaling a shift in security strategy in the Latin American nation. On the campaign trail, Sheinbaum had promised to largely continue the security policy of her mentor and predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, which prioritized addressing the root social causes of crime rather than attacking the cartels – an approach nicknamed “hugs not bullets” after a catchphrase of the former president. But initial signs from her first months in office suggest a more aggressive approach with the most substantial deployment in at least six years of military and naval troops, as well as special forces and heavy weaponry to Sinaloa since an intra-cartel war broke out in September. High-profile arrests and large drug seizures have followed, including a record bust of over a ton of fentanyl. That more front-footed strategy could align well with President-elect Donald Trump, who has called on Mexico to do more to stop the flow of drugs, and migrants, to the U.S. But it also risks further inflaming violence and homicides, as a more confrontational position has done in the past in a country where cartels are heavily armed with military-grade weapons. Sheinbaum’s office did not reply to a request for comment. “There is a change without a doubt ... we are seeing signs that the strategy of hugs and not bullets is on the way out,” said Vicente Sanchez, a security expert and member of Mexico’s National System of Investigators, a government agency that works to improve the quality of Mexican research. Security experts said they believe the new strategy is partly a response to Trump’s threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on products from Mexico if the country does not curb drug trafficking and the illegal crossing of migrants into the United States. Some have also taken it as an indirect admission that Lopez Obrador’s less confrontational strategy did not work, with many experts saying it helped organized crime groups entrench power in vast swaths of the country. The U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, publicly criticized the approach, saying it had “failed” and “Mexico is not safe.” MILITARY TO THE STREETS Some security experts have drawn comparisons between the operations in Sinaloa and the military war waged on the cartels by then-President Felipe Calderon in 2006. That triggered a spiral of violence to which many analysts trace the continued high homicide rates Mexico. The United Nations has repeatedly criticized the use of the armed forces in the fight against crime in Mexico, arguing that it encourages human rights violations. The Mexican government denies that security in the country has been militarized or that human rights abuses are common. Key to Sheinbaum’s crime-fighting strategy is her new security chief Omar Garcia Harfuch, an experienced policeman who worked for the president while she was mayor of Mexico City. Sheinbaum sent Garcia Harfuch to Sinaloa to oversee operations. “We know how difficult it is to pacify the country,” he said last week after an investigator from his ministry was killed in Sinaloa. The confrontation between rival groups in Sinaloa, which intensified on Sept. 9, has so far killed some 650 people, with more reported missing. In an attempt to contain the conflict, the local security chief was replaced by a military officer over the weekend. In the same week, at least three soldiers were killed by land mines laid by organized crime in two separate locations in the western state of Michoacan. For some experts there is a danger if Sheinbaum seeks to replicate her strategy in Sinaloa across the country. “Each one (criminal group) has its own personality, its own mark, and we have to find the part that hurts them,” said Tomas Guevara, an expert on security issues in Sinaloa.

Oklahoma residents on Sunday mourned the death of former Democratic U.S. Sen. Fred Harris , a trailblazer in progressive politics in the state who ran an unsuccessful presidential bid in 1976. Harris died on Saturday at 94. Democratic Party members across Oklahoma remembered Harris for his commitment to economic and social justice during the 1960s — a period of historical turbulence. Harris chaired the Democratic National Committee from 1969 to 1970 and helped unify the party after its tumultuous national convention in 1968 when protesters and police clashed in Chicago. “Fred Harris showed us what is possible when we lead with both heart and principle. He worked to ensure everyone had a voice and a seat at the table,” said Alicia Andrews, chair of the Oklahoma Democratic Party. Harris appeared at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago earlier this year as a guest speaker for the Oklahoma delegation, where he reflected on progress and unity. "Standing alongside him in Chicago this summer was a reminder of how his legacy continues to inspire,” Andrews said. Kalyn Free, a member of the Choctaw nation of Oklahoma and the DNC, said that there is no one else in public service whom she admired more than the former senator. “He was a friend, a mentor, a hero and my True North. Oklahoma and America have lost a powerful advocate and voice,” Free said in a statement. “His work for Indian Country will always be remembered.” “Senator Harris truly was an Oklahoma treasure and was ahead of his time in so many ways,” said Jeff Berrong, whose grandfather served in the state Senate with Harris. “He never forgot where he came from and he always remained focused on building a society that would provide equality of opportunity for all.” Harris served eight years in the state Senate before he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served another eight years before his 1976 presidential campaign. State party leaders commemorated his work on the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, or the Kerner Commission, to investigate the 1960s riots. Harris was the last surviving member of the commission. Shortly after his presidential campaign, Harris left politics and moved to New Mexico and became a political science professor at the University of New Mexico. —- Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (NYSEARCA:EWY) Position Reduced by OneDigital Investment Advisors LLCCollingwood will head into next season with 10 players on their list over 30 – two more than any other team, and with Scott Pendlebury leading the age bracket at 37. When the Pies won the flag in 2023, the team contained eight players over 30; the 2024 premiership Lions had six players aged above 30 and Geelong defied the critics to win the flag in 2022 with seven players aged above 30. The ultra-consistent Magpie Jack Crisp shows no signs of slowing down as he charges into his 30s. Credit: AFL Photos via Getty Images But three of this year’s preliminary finalists – Geelong, the Lions and the Sydney – are the only other teams to have more than six players aged above 30 on their list. Premiership midfielder Jack Crisp, one of the 10 over-30s in Collingwood’s team, says age is just a number. At 31, the dual best and fairest winner is the ninth-oldest player on the Magpies list as the club goes all in with their veterans to win next year’s flag after injury and form derailed this year’s campaign. Though he’s over 30, Crisp is hardly a concern. He has not missed a game in 10 seasons at the Magpies to draw his consecutive games tally to 237. He is now just seven games shy of the league record, held by Melbourne legend Jim Stynes who played 244 consecutive games from 1987-1998. He finished fourth in the club best and fairest in 2024 and could break Stynes’ record against Geelong in round eight. The midfielder was speaking at Kingston Heath, where he played on Sunday ahead of the Australian Open that starts on Thursday. “Times have changed now. Blokes are really professional and look after their body and if they can keep playing at the high level, why do they have to retire?” Crisp said. It’s the question the Magpies have had to ponder as they chased Port Adelaide’s All-Australian defender Dan Houston in the trade period, giving up a first-round pick from this year and the next year in the process. The club also added the Giants’ Harry Perryman as a free agent and veteran Saints forward Tim Membrey as a delisted free agent. Their first selection in this year’s draft was pick 47 , which they used on Sydney academy graduate Joel Cochran. Crisp said he was looking forward to several younger players on the list making their way into the team next season and cementing a spot. Ed Allan was impressive in the final round last season while Tew Jiath, Harry DeMattia, Jakob Ryan and Harvey Harrison will be looking to edge out their more experienced teammates for a spot in the line-up. “No doubt they’ll continue their development over the pre-season and probably get some looks early,” Crisp said. He finished just ahead of champion midfielder Scott Pendlebury (fifth) and his All-Australian sidekick Steele Sidebottom (sixth) to be one of the three 30-pluses to finish top 10 in the club best and fairest. Crisp said he was very optimistic the Pies could regain the form that helped them to a one-point preliminary final loss in 2022, coach Craig McRae’s first year in charge, and then become premiers in 2023 after winning a tight grand final against the Lions. Only Nathan Murphy (retired) and Jack Ginnivan (Hawthorn) are missing from their 2023 premiership team. “Last year [2024 season] we had a fair few things go wrong, particularly with injuries. We had makeshift midfields and forward lines and we didn’t really have a set team all year,” Crisp said. “If all goes to plan this year and we don’t have any injuries ... we bought in some good players, Harry Perryman and Dan Houston, to help lighten the load on a few blokes in different roles. “We’ve got what it takes. It’s just about making sure we play consistent football.” The absence of experienced football manager Graham Wright through 2024 unsettled the Collingwood football department as people were asked to step into unfamiliar roles. The Magpies are yet to appoint a football manager to replace Wright, who has since joined Carlton as their CEO elect , but are expected to do so soon. Keep up to date with the best AFL coverage in the country. Sign up for the Real Footy newsletter .Sunday marked the latest in a series of protests against plans to build tent-like "sprung-structures" to house asylum seekers in Ottawa. Protesters lined up the street on Woodroffe Avenue beside the site of one of those proposed structures. The protest was organized by a group of residents from Merivale Gardens, including Robert Carberry who is asking the city to find a different location. "This is an environmentally sensitive piece of the Greenbelt. It just it doesn't make sense for so many reasons," said Carberry. "Putting 300 people where 300 people live just doesn't seem to work." One Ottawa city councillor says these protests are becoming more politically charged as the debate over the sites rages on. "My ward is screaming for more resources and more help from upper levels of government," said Rideau-Vanier Coun. Stephanie Plante. "Those conversations have to be measured. They must be nuanced, and they have to not be weaponized to help further other people's political ambitions." Plante took to social media highlighting concerns about a planned protest later in the week that is asking residents to sign up to attend by asking for phone numbers and emails. "They sort of identified themselves as concerned residents. And that's a bit weird to be asking that much personal information from people," Plante said. "I have been to a million community meetings over the years. You don't need that kind of personal information to organize a community meeting." At the Ottawa Mission, shelter space has reached a breaking point. The Mission said in its latest impact report that about 61 per cent of the shelter population is made up of asylum seekers. Mission CEO Peter Tilley says something needs to change. "It's been an incredible pressure, an incredible push on our capacity in terms of meals, frontline services, medical services" Tilley said. "We can understand the city coming up with one of the solutions being sprung shelters where that has to go. That's not our decision. But we do appreciate that the City of Ottawa is trying to find solutions to this overcrowding process." The City of Ottawa shows off examples of sprung structures. (City of Ottawa memo) Another protest on Woodroffe Avenue is planned for Thursday as the debate continues. Meantime, there are many who support the structures. This month, hundreds of people, including Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe attended a rally in support of asylum seekers. The city says there are 600 asylum seekers currently using Ottawa's shelter spaces. 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Dave & Buster's Enter's Options: A Look at What the Big Money is Thinking

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.Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's political party, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), reignited its planned march toward the capital, Islamabad, on Monday. The march, led by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and Khan's wife Bushra Bibi, proceeded despite significant governmental resistance and legal obstacles. The protestors claim the government has stolen mandates and unjustly arrested PTI supporters. Authorities have banned rallies and blocked routes with shipping containers, but the PTI members have persisted, attempting to remove barriers and continue their journey. As tensions rise, the government cites security concerns, especially amid an official visit from a Belarusian delegation. Arrests have been made, with PTI alleging a conspiracy to disrupt their protests. The escalating situation remains volatile as PTI leaders vow to continue until Khan's release. (With inputs from agencies.)Even when Milwaukee opened the season by losing eight of its first 10 games, Bucks coach Doc Rivers knew it was only a matter of time before his team returned to form. Sure enough, the Bucks have won four of their last five games heading into an NBA Cup matchup against the visiting Indiana Pacers on Friday. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.Bethlehem marks a second subdued Christmas Eve during the war in Gaza

Lamont Paris admittedly hadn’t started his prep for USC Upstate this weekend. He planned to get around to studying his new opponent on Wednesday night, but he can’t help but know what game comes after this next one. South Carolina's Lamont Paris gestures from the sidelines during the game against East Carolina on Saturday, Dec. 7. After South Carolina plays the Spartans on Saturday, the focus will shift to the marquee matchup of the non-conference slate — the one that holds a little extra meaning in this state. Especially coming off a big win in football not too long ago. With the Gamecocks up 3-0-2 in the Palmetto Series, Paris knows his team has a chance to create a little more separation when No. 16 Clemson comes to Columbia next Tuesday. “With some of the Gamecock performances this year against the ole Tigers,” Paris said on ‘Carolina Calls’ with Derek Scott on the Gamecocks Sports Network, “we feel like we gotta hold up our end of the bargain.” Each of the first two games that Paris has coached in this rivalry have been thrilling to say the least. In only his second game as the program’s head coach, which happened to come on his birthday, Chico Carter Jr. hit a go-ahead jumper with 0.3 seconds remaining. Then last season, one year removed from South Carolina’s 60-58 win, the Gamecocks blew a late second-half lead at Littlejohn Coliseum to allow Clemson to pick up a 72-67 comeback win. Now this year, with both teams coming off great seasons — South Carolina reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time in seven years and the Tigers advancing to the Elite Eight — the stakes are sure to be high come Tuesday night. “They’ve been good games. No reason to think this one won’t be either,” Paris said. “It’s a good game for us. Good game for them. Fun for the state to be able to rally around.” Clemson has picked up right where it left off from last season by winning nine of its first 10 games. The lone blemish on the schedule has been an 84-71 loss on the road to Boise State last month. Otherwise, it’s been a tremendous start for the Tigers with their signature win coming against No. 5 Kentucky in the SEC/ACC Challenge last Tuesday. Paris said, without mentioning what exactly, he notices “some similarities stylistically in some of our foundational beliefs.” Clemson no longer has PJ Hall or Joseph Girard III, its two leading scorers from a season ago. But the Tigers do return key contributors like Chase Hunter and Ian Schieffelin, who have already been impact players so far this year. Meanwhile, South Carolina has been playing a lot better basketball recently, rattling off three straight wins heading into Saturday’s game with Upstate. The Gamecocks have already beaten two other ACC opponents this year and seem to have put some of their early losses behind them. And this rivalry game gives them a chance to get right back in the mix for the early postseason hunt. With a win, it would also serve as a building block as the team gets ready for a grueling SEC schedule after the new year. “If you took our conference schedule as it stands right now, we have 15 of our 18 games are Quad I. 15 of our 18 games are Quad I. That’s crazy. That is just silly,” Paris said. “And some of that is you’re on the road and at Vandy, which would make it a Quad I. Whereas, if that game was a home game, maybe it’s a Quad II. “The way the cards shook out with the schedule, I told them it was a hard schedule before the season. I look pathetic now. It’s 15 out of 18 games being Quad I. That’s ridiculous.” South Carolina will face Clemson next Tuesday, Dec. 17 at Colonial Life Arena. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. on SEC Network. WHEN: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 17 WHERE: Colonial Life Arena, Columbia WATCH: SEC Network Get local news delivered to your inbox!

By BEN FINLEY The Christmas tradition has become nearly global in scope: Children from around the world track Santa Claus as he sweeps across the earth, delivering presents and defying time. Related Articles National News | Heavy travel day off to a rough start after American Airlines briefly grounds all flights National News | Prosecutors withdraw appeal of dismissed case against Alec Baldwin in fatal movie set shooting National News | Judge rules Arkansas law allowing criminal charges against librarians is unconstitutional National News | Bill Clinton is hospitalized with a fever but in good spirits, spokesperson says National News | President-elect Trump wants to again rename North America’s tallest peak Each year, at least 100,000 kids call into the North American Aerospace Defense Command to inquire about Santa’s location. Millions more follow online in nine languages , from English to Japanese. On any other night, NORAD is scanning the heavens for potential threats , such as last year’s Chinese spy balloon . But on Christmas Eve, volunteers in Colorado Springs are fielding questions like, “When is Santa coming to my house?” and, “Am I on the naughty or nice list?” “There are screams and giggles and laughter,” said Bob Sommers, 63, a civilian contractor and NORAD volunteer. Sommers often says on the call that everyone must be asleep before Santa arrives, prompting parents to say, “Do you hear what he said? We got to go to bed early.” NORAD’s annual tracking of Santa has endured since the Cold War , predating ugly sweater parties and Mariah Carey classics . The tradition continues regardless of government shutdowns, such as the one in 2018 , and this year . Here’s how it began and why the phones keep ringing. It started with a child’s accidental phone call in 1955. The Colorado Springs newspaper printed a Sears advertisement that encouraged children to call Santa, listing a phone number. A boy called. But he reached the Continental Air Defense Command, now NORAD, a joint U.S. and Canadian effort to spot potential enemy attacks. Tensions were growing with the Soviet Union, along with anxieties about nuclear war. Air Force Col. Harry W. Shoup picked up an emergency-only “red phone” and was greeted by a tiny voice that began to recite a Christmas wish list. “He went on a little bit, and he takes a breath, then says, ‘Hey, you’re not Santa,’” Shoup told The Associated Press in 1999. Realizing an explanation would be lost on the youngster, Shoup summoned a deep, jolly voice and replied, “Ho, ho, ho! Yes, I am Santa Claus. Have you been a good boy?” Shoup said he learned from the boy’s mother that Sears mistakenly printed the top-secret number. He hung up, but the phone soon rang again with a young girl reciting her Christmas list. Fifty calls a day followed, he said. In the pre-digital age, the agency used a 60-by-80 foot (18-by-24 meter) plexiglass map of North America to track unidentified objects. A staff member jokingly drew Santa and his sleigh over the North Pole. The tradition was born. “Note to the kiddies,” began an AP story from Colorado Springs on Dec. 23, 1955. “Santa Claus Friday was assured safe passage into the United States by the Continental Air Defense Command.” In a likely reference to the Soviets, the article noted that Santa was guarded against possible attack from “those who do not believe in Christmas.” Some grinchy journalists have nitpicked Shoup’s story, questioning whether a misprint or a misdial prompted the boy’s call. In 2014, tech news site Gizmodo cited an International News Service story from Dec. 1, 1955, about a child’s call to Shoup. Published in the Pasadena Independent, the article said the child reversed two digits in the Sears number. “When a childish voice asked COC commander Col. Harry Shoup, if there was a Santa Claus at the North Pole, he answered much more roughly than he should — considering the season: ‘There may be a guy called Santa Claus at the North Pole, but he’s not the one I worry about coming from that direction,’” Shoup said in the brief piece. In 2015, The Atlantic magazine doubted the flood of calls to the secret line, while noting that Shoup had a flair for public relations. Phone calls aside, Shoup was indeed media savvy. In 1986, he told the Scripps Howard News Service that he recognized an opportunity when a staff member drew Santa on the glass map in 1955. A lieutenant colonel promised to have it erased. But Shoup said, “You leave it right there,” and summoned public affairs. Shoup wanted to boost morale for the troops and public alike. “Why, it made the military look good — like we’re not all a bunch of snobs who don’t care about Santa Claus,” he said. Shoup died in 2009. His children told the StoryCorps podcast in 2014 that it was a misprinted Sears ad that prompted the phone calls. “And later in life he got letters from all over the world,” said Terri Van Keuren, a daughter. “People saying ‘Thank you, Colonel, for having, you know, this sense of humor.’” NORAD’s tradition is one of the few modern additions to the centuries-old Santa story that have endured, according to Gerry Bowler, a Canadian historian who spoke to the AP in 2010. Ad campaigns or movies try to “kidnap” Santa for commercial purposes, said Bowler, who wrote “Santa Claus: A Biography.” NORAD, by contrast, takes an essential element of Santa’s story and views it through a technological lens. In a recent interview with the AP, Air Force Lt. Gen. Case Cunningham explained that NORAD radars in Alaska and Canada —- known as the northern warning system — are the first to detect Santa. He leaves the North Pole and typically heads for the international dateline in the Pacific Ocean. From there he moves west, following the night. “That’s when the satellite systems we use to track and identify targets of interest every single day start to kick in,” Cunningham said. “A probably little-known fact is that Rudolph’s nose that glows red emanates a lot of heat. And so those satellites track (Santa) through that heat source.” NORAD has an app and website, www.noradsanta.org , that will track Santa on Christmas Eve from 4 a.m. to midnight, mountain standard time. People can call 1-877-HI-NORAD to ask live operators about Santa’s location from 6 a.m. to midnight, mountain time.

Victory Capital Management Inc. Sells 5,445 Shares of Qualys, Inc. (NASDAQ:QLYS)Butler falls to Presbyterian 30-27 in season finaleTragic tale of shortchanged pensioners after decades of loyal serviceHALIFAX — A Nova Scotia charity is serving at least 600 free traditional dinners over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to spread a little bit of holiday cheer. The Souls Harbour Rescue Mission is offering a sit-down turkey dinner with all the fixings for people who need "food or friends" at mission locations across the province. It's the first time the group is serving the meals over the holidays since it started providing community service in 2010. Michelle Porter, the CEO, says the charity has been raising funds for Christmas festivities since November and estimates the cost for events during the holiday season is around $1 million. Meals will differ slightly at mission locations across the province, but Porter says all plates will have turkey, potatoes, cranberry, gravy and some vegetables. People who attend will also get a Christmas stocking that includes a mini hygiene set and a few treats like chocolate, gloves and socks. About 400 people will eat today in Lower Sackville, Bridgewater, Truro and Sydney Mines, while Porter estimates 200 people will share a meal together in Halifax on Christmas Day. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 24, 2024. The Canadian Press