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Jimmy Carter -- the 39th President of the United States, a renowned philanthropist and a Nobel Peace Prize winner -- has died. The news of his death was confirmed by his son, Jimmy Carter III also known as Chip to the Washington Post Sunday. In February 2023, it was revealed Carter was entering hospice care after being in and out of the hospital. His grandson also gave an update on the ex-Prez's condition, noting that Carter was no longer able to stay awake every day. His grandkid did say, however, that Carter was still able to crack jokes with his loved ones at his home in Plains, GA ... so it sounds like he was still in good spirits up until the end. President Biden said the former President asked him to deliver his eulogy. Carter's dealt with several health issues over the past few years, starting with a cancer diagnosis in 2015. He suffered a broken hip in May 2019, and that same year had a procedure to relieve pressure on his brain due to internal bleeding from recent falls. A Georgia man through and through, Carter's political career began as a Georgia State Senator in the '60s. He was elected Governor of the state in 1970 as a Democrat, and during his inauguration speech, he declared ... "The time of racial discrimination is over," adding, "No poor, rural, weak, or Black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity for an education, a job or simple justice." Carter's words came as a shock to many voters -- including segregationists who supported him -- especially after he ran a conservative campaign. Yet, it marked the beginning of Carter speaking out against racist politics. Near the end of his time as Governor, Carter announced his candidacy for U.S. President, and although he started out as a long shot ... he quickly became the Democratic front-runner and defeated President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election. His election came just weeks after Playboy published what became a very famous interview in which then-candidate Carter admitted, "I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times." While the remark was considered controversial at the time, it's certainly tame compared to what we now tend to know about politicians' private lives. In any event, Carter took office in 1977 and served one term as president. His tenure is remembered as a time of economic difficulty, as well as for the energy crisis -- however, he's also credited with brokering an historic peace agreement. In 1979, Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin together at Camp David. They ended up signing a peace treaty that ended decades of war, and made Egypt the first Arab state to recognize Israel. His final year in office was marred by the Iran hostage crisis ... which contributed to Ronald Reagan beating him in the 1980 election. After losing to Reagan, Carter remained very active in the public eye and diplomacy. He founded his famed Carter Center in Atlanta in 1982 to advance human rights and alleviate human suffering ... which led to him being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work. Carter and his late wife, Rosalynn , were also well-known for their work with Habitat for Humanity. Couple more fun facts -- Carter served in the Navy, which is where he met Rosalynn. They wed in 1946 and were the longest-married presidential couple ... more than 77 years! Jimmy was also the first U.S. president to be born in a hospital ... of course, it was a hospital in Plains, Georgia. Carter is survived by his 4 children and numerous grandchildren. Rosalynn predeceased the president ... passing away at age 96 in November 2023, days after entering hospice care. Rosalynn had been diagnosed with dementia, with the Carter Center confirming the diagnosis 6 months before her death. Despite his ailing health, Carter attended the former First Lady's funeral, wearing a blanket with her face on it at the time. He was 100. RIP

I n the summer of 2015, three Syrian girls who had narrowly survived an airstrike some weeks earlier stood before Tulsi Gabbard with horrific burns all over their bodies. Gabbard, then a US congresswoman on a visit to the Syria-Turkey border as part of her duties for the foreign affairs committee, had a question for them. “How do you know it was Bashar al Assad or Russia that bombed you, and not Isis?’” she asked, according to Mouaz Moustafa, a Syrian activist who was translating her conversation with the girls. It was a revealing insight into Gabbard’s conspiratorial views of the conflict, and it shocked Moustafa to silence. He knew, as even the young children did, that Isis did not have jets to launch airstrikes. It was such an absurd question that he chose not to translate it because he didn’t want to upset the girls, the eldest of whom was 12. “From that point on, I’m sorry to say I was inaccurate in my translations of anything she said,” Moustafa told The Independent. “It was more like: How do I get these girls away from this devil?” Before Gabbard left the Democratic Party, ingratiated herself with Donald Trump and secured his nomination to become director of National Intelligence, she was known as a prolific peddler of Russian propaganda. In almost every foreign conflict in which Russia had a hand, Gabbard backed Moscow and railed against the US. Her past promotion of Kremlin propaganda has caused significant opposition on both sides of the aisle to her nomination. Her journey from anti-war Democrat to Moscow-friendly MAGA warrior began in Syria. The devastating conflict was sparked by pro-democracy uprisings in 2011, which were brutally crushed by the Assad regime. It descended into a complex web of factions that drew extremist Islamists from around the world and global powers into the fray. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group with a network of sources on the ground, documented the deaths of 503,064 people by March 2023 . It said at least 162,390 civilians had died in that same time, with the Syrian government and its allies responsible for 139,609 of those deaths. But Gabbard, a veteran of the Iraq War, viewed it all as a Western-fuelled “ regime-change war ” aimed at removing the dictator from power. She saw Assad — and Russia, when it entered the conflict — as legitimate defenders of the state against an extremist uprising. In 2015, when Russia entered the Syrian war on the side of the dictator Assad, Gabbard expressed support for the move, even as the civilian toll from Moscow’s devastating airstrikes grew into the thousands . “Al-Qaeda attacked us on 9/11 and must be defeated. Obama won’t bomb them in Syria. Putin did. #neverforget911,” she wrote on Twitter. It was precisely because of her support for Assad and Russia’s war that Moustafa was keen for her to attend the congressional delegation to southern Turkey to meet the victims of the conflict. “From experience, everyone that we bring over to the border, and they see the victims, they always come back with a realistic view of what’s happening and who is behind the mass displacement and killing and atrocities and so on, and so that was the objective,” he said. “What was shocking was her lack of empathy. She’ll sacrifice the facts, even when it came to little girls in front of her telling her they got bombed by a plane — it didn’t matter.” Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute who testified twice on Syria to the House Foreign Affairs Committee when Gabbard was a member, spent years debunking her various conspiracy theories about the war. “Her consistent denial of the Syrian regime’s crimes is so wildly fringe that her potential appointment as DNI is genuinely alarming,” he told The Independent. Lister said her views “appear to be driven by a strange fusion of America First isolationism and a belief in the value of autocratic and secular leaders in confronting extremism.” They included a suggestion that Syrian rebels staged a false-flag chemical weapons attack against their supporters to provoke Western intervention against Bashar al-Assad — something that the US intelligence agencies she will soon lead had concluded was false. She declined to call Assad a war criminal when pressed , despite masses of evidence, and used a video of Syrian government bombings to criticize US involvement in the war. “Her descriptions of the crisis in Syria read like they were composed in Assad’s personal office, or in Tehran or Moscow – not Washington,” Lister added. Gabbard was not swayed by meeting the victims of Assad’s airstrikes in 2015. In fact, two years later, she went to Damascus to meet the Syrian president in person and came away even more convinced of her opinions. The congresswoman said her visit to meet Assad — the first by a sitting US lawmaker since the conflict began — was aimed at bringing an end to the war. “I felt it’s important that if we profess to truly care about the Syrian people, about their suffering, then we’ve got to be able to meet with anyone that we need to if there is a possibility that we could achieve peace,” she told CNN at the time. Gabbard was forced to defend her embrace of Assad and other dictators during her 2020 run for the Democratic presidential nomination. During the Democratic primary debate, she clashed with Kamala Harris, who accused her of being “an apologist for an individual — Assad — who has murdered the people of his country like cockroaches.” “She has embraced and been an apologist for him in a way that she refuses to call him a war criminal. I can only take what she says and her opinion so seriously and so I’m prepared to move on,” added Harris, who would drop out of the race and later be selected as Joe Biden’s running mate. When Russia invaded Ukraine, Gabbard again found herself defending Russian aggression. “This war and suffering could have easily been avoided if Biden Admin/NATO had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns,” she posted on Twitter, in 2022. Gabbard appeared to fall for various conspiracy theories about the conflict that were promoted by Russia, as she had done in Syria. One of those conspiracy theories was a Russian claim about the existence of dozens of US-funded biolabs in Ukraine that were supposedly producing deadly pathogens. She later walked back those remarks, suggesting that there might have been some “miscommunication and misunderstanding.” Gabbard’s frequent echoing of Kremlin talking points earned her praise in Russian state media. Indeed, an article published on 15 November in Russian-state controlled outlet RIA Novosti went so far as to call Gabbard a “superwoman.” The possibility that Trump would tap someone with Gabbard’s history to be America’s top intelligence official shouldn’t be a surprise for anyone who followed the president-elect’s first four years in the White House. During his 2018 summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, the then-president was asked if he believed the US intelligence community’s assessment which stated that Russia had interfered in the 2016 presidential election on his behalf. That assessment was based on analysis of what was determined to have been state-sponsored campaigns of fake social media posts and ersatz news sites to spread false stories about his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, as well as cyberattacks targeting the Democratic National Committee and prominent operatives associated with the Clinton campaign. But Trump, who’d just spent several hours in a closed-door meeting with Putin, stunned the assembled press and the entire world by declaring that he trusted the Russian leader’s word over that of his own advisers. ​​"President Putin says it’s not Russia. I don’t see any reason why it would be," he replied. Trump would go on to repeatedly clash with his own intelligence appointees during the remainder of his term. He sacked his first DNI, former Indiana senator Dan Coats, after Coats had repeatedly declined to back away from the government’s assessment of what Russia had done during the 2016 presidential race. Larry Pfeiffer, the director of George Mason University’s Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security, said Gabbard’s apparent susceptibility to foreign disinformation and her affinity for strongmen will give pause to American allies with whom the United States routinely shares intelligence on common threats. Intelligence services, he explained, are notoriously territorial and tight-lipped on sources and methods — particularly when it comes to so-called human intelligence, or HUMINT, which refers to information collected by and from spies and sources within hostile governments. Pfeiffer said foreign allies are likely already concerned about how a second Trump administration would handle intelligence, given the president-elect’s record. He also predicted that Gabbard’s confirmation as DNI would cause even more problems among skittish partners. “I think they wouldn’t feel like they’ve got an American confidant that they can deal with on a mature level,” he said. “I can guarantee you that the foreign intelligence services of Europe, including the Brits, are all having little side conversations right now about ... what is this going to mean, and how are we going to operate, and what are we going to do now.” The former US intelligence veteran also said Gabbard’s record of spreading foreign talking points calls into question whether she’d be able to carry out the DNI’s important responsibility of briefing the president on threats to the nation. He told The Independent: “Somebody like Tulsi Gabbard, you look at her long history of statements that seem to come out of the Kremlin’s notebook, her propensity to be influenced by their viewpoint — [it] raises questions as to whether she has the ability to present the intel community’s perspective as it is, or is she going to be one who’s going to want to discount it, influence it, color and change it, or ignore it and just present her own view? “I think it also raises questions of judgment. You know, here’s an individual who seems very prone to misinformation, prone to conspiracy theory. That should worry anybody who’s worried about America’s national security,” he added. Trump’s selection of the ex-Hawaii congresswoman could be a problem for the senators tasked with confirming her on several different levels. For one, the position is unique among cabinet agencies in that there are strict requirements for who can serve in the director’s role. The text of the 2004 law which established the ODNI in the wake of the September 11, 2024 terror attacks on New York and Washington and the intelligence community’s failures leading up to the US invasion of Iraq specifically states that any person who serves in the DNI job “shall have extensive national security expertise.” The first person to serve as DNI, Ambassador John Negroponte, was a widely respected foreign service veteran who’d served as the top US diplomat in Iraq, Mexico, Honduras and the Philippines, as the country’s ambassador to the United Nations, and as a deputy national security adviser during the Reagan administration. The next three people to hold the office were flag-rank military officers with significant intelligence experience. Pfeiffer, a three-decade American intelligence veteran who once ran the White House Situation Room and served as chief of staff to then-CIA director General Michael Hayden, told The Independent that Gabbard’s experience in the House and her military service, while admirable, doesn’t match what was envisioned by the authors of the 2004 law which established the office. “That’s national security experience ... but she was a freaking military cop ... operating at a largely tactical level, not that strategic, long-term national security perspective that one would expect,” he said. Gabbard may have left the Syrian conflict behind, but Moustafa still works with its victims every day. And he believes the connection between her views on Syria and Ukraine is clear. “What happened in Syria is what allowed the Russians to feel that they could do the very same in Ukraine,” he said. “And what she is doing with Ukraine shows that it goes beyond her maybe a misunderstanding of one conflict — she is, hook, line and sinker, a Russian puppet.”Online child exploitation spiked during lockdowns. Police worry it's here to stayby Shanthilal Nanayakkara Retired Principal Engineer, Digital Transition Division, Australian Communications and Media Authority A Japanese delegation recently announced the resumption of the previously stalled digital television project in Sri Lanka following a meeting with the newly-elected President Anura Kumara Dissanayake. The commencement of the digitisation project is now imminent. Once terrestrial television transmissions are digitised in Sri Lanka, it will replace the old analogue terrestrial television forever. Therefore, it is critically important that the final outcome is better than the current analogue television, if not far superior. Setting such a goal prior to the implementation of the project is crucial for its fruitful completion. To achieve this outcome, deficiencies in the current parameters in the Japanese Digital Plans need to be revisited and appropriately addressed for the benefit of all stakeholders. Otherwise, as it stands today, there is a high potential for rural and regional viewers in Sri Lanka to miss out on the digital coverage. (This is further illustrated below). Such an unwarranted outcome could become a highly ‘politically sensitive’ issue for the new government . Why Digital In analogue transmissions, radio waves encounter several problems. When radio waves are subjected to multipath, ghosting images appear on television screen. They are also subjected to cancellation of their own signals and interference. Digital technology overcomes these analogue transmission weaknesses and, as a huge value addition, is able to carry more information than its analogue counterpart. As this capacity enhancement feature helps carry multiple programmes on one frequency or channel, digital television transmission technology is considered to be highly spectrum productive. Once analogue is switched off, the vacant spectrum that can be harnessed, commonly known as Digital Dividend (DD), becomes an income earner for the Government, as spare spectrum can be sold to Telcos for broadband internet use. Thus, this digitisation project is effectively a self-financing venture for the government and a win-win for all stakeholders. Stakeholder benefits of digital Many countries in the world have now moved or are in the process of moving to the digital domain. Irrespective of the digital television transmission standard adopted in Sri Lanka, benefits of a conversion from analogue to digital television are many for the majority of stakeholders. These are listed below against the various stakeholders: * Government – a significant income from selling the vacant spare spectrum to Telcos, following full conversion to digital, provided appropriate modifications are made to the JICA plan; * Broadcasters – increased television channels and scope for increase of advertising revenue; * Viewers – increased number of television channels to facilitate a wider selection of content, with True High Definition (True HD) quality and potential 5.1 Surround Sound; * Content providers – opportunity to produce a wide range of programmes that are in demand; * Production houses – larger revenue from vastly increased niche productions; * Creators of social media and other internet-based content – opportunities to develop novel visual and aural media content; * Electronic Manufacturing/Testing – opportunities to manufacture digital television receivers and set up a receiver harmonisation/compatibility centre; * Broadcast Towers (similar to Lotus Tower) – Opportunities to establish and operate consolidated broadcast towers in the country; * Telcos- opportunity to purchase superior vacant spectrum for future fixed and mobile broadband applications. Funding arrangements or self-financing The current funding arrangement for digitisation of television in Sri Lanka is a ‘soft loan’ from the Japanese government, and it is tied up in ‘one bundle’ with loans for other projects. This loan is also based on the premise that the deployment of the Japanese digital television standard, Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting-Terrestrial (ISDB-T) is mandatory. As the vacant spectrum can be sold after Analogue Switch Off (ASO), the venture could also be a self-financing project, albeit with bridging finance. Purpose of this essay The main purpose of this article is to suggest ways of optimising the benefits of the digitisation project while retaining the support of the Japanese government. If the bulk of problems for viewers and broadcasters can be removed by making appropriate adjustments to the current plans at a minimal cost, with broadcasters becoming willing participants, the digitisation of television in Sri Lanka would no doubt be a success for all stakeholders, including the new government. Otherwise, there is an urgent need to review the bi-lateral agreement that was signed previously. The broadcasting fraternity in Sri Lanka is fully aware that the Japanese system is not as efficient as the second generation European standard, Digital Video Broadcast-Terrestrial 2 (DVB-T2). Understanding Digital Simply put, digitisation of analogue vision and sound enables radio waves to carry more information within the same channel or bandwidth than in the analogue era. This allows producers of visual and aural content to be more creative than before. The technology also facilitates easy communication in both fixed and mobile environments and facilitates two-way communication more than in the analogue era. However, there are two main pitfalls that one needs to address in order to make the venture a success. They are as follows: Cliff effect (sudden loss of signal): – * to avoid the ‘cliff effect’ a robust signal (with higher reliability and availability at a receive location than in analogue era) is needed at the receiver to prevent momentary picture pixelation and/or sudden loss of signal; and * it is also necessary to ensure that all television digital services reaching viewer locations are of the same signal strength to ensure equity of services and therefore must originate from ONE location such as the Lotus Tower. * Absence of ‘graceful degradation’ and its effect on signal level – even with a degraded signal with ‘snowy pictures’, analogue signal is still watchable. It is not so with digital due to ‘cliff effect’. Therefore, there is a need to ensure that the digital coverage is the same or better than the existing watchable analogue coverage that is defined by a signal level of 43 dBuV/m in VHF Band III. This limit was adopted for digitisation in Australia. Deficiencies of the Japanese standard/plan In planning to deploy the ISDB-T system in our country, everyone should aim for a cost-beneficial outcome as it is of paramount importance to all stakeholders. There are several issues in the Japanese documentation of 2014/2018, which should be addressed to suit the needs of the public/consumers, broadcasters and government. They range from policy issues at the outset, technical areas during planning and management issues during the proposed phases of ASO and Digital Switch On (DSO). Spectrum for Digital: VHF/UHF issue In particular, the proposal to use only a part of the available broadcast spectrum has an impact on the eventual DD income for the Government. The Japanese have deployed both VHF and UHF spectrum in Brazil, strangely not offered to Sri Lanka. In that context, it is not clear why the Japanese team has not proposed a VHF and UHF combined solution as deployed in Brazil. This was pointed out by the writer when a Japanese team, including a senior Embassy official Sato Takefumi, met him in 2017 in Colombo to discuss Lotus Tower issues (after his disclosure in an article in The Island about the Lotus tower) and digitisation in general. Their response was ‘no one asked for it’. As it stands today in Sri Lanka, analogue television transmissions are based on frequencies using both VHF and UHF Bands, but the proposed Japanese digital conversion is not utilising the VHF Band. In particular, VHF Band III exhibits superior propagation characteristics, while contributing to lower the consumption of electricity by the transmitters. More importantly, VHF radio waves carry longer distances than UHF due to lower propagation losses, are able to travel around obstacles comparatively and therefore VHF is more suitable for wide coverage transmissions. Currently, the VHF spectrum is occupied by three television broadcasting networks i.e. Rupavahini, ITN and TNL. These networks will lose their inherent wide coverage VHF Band advantage. They also have the additional burden of occupying a digital channel in the UHF spectrum, especially when the earmarked UHF channels for digital are almost at the bottom of the UHF Band V, where propagation losses are higher than in UHF Band IV. ISDB-T New Coder H.265 It is a known fact that the Japanese ISDB-T standard, in payload capacity terms, is second to the second generation European Standard DVB-T2 that provides 45 Mb/s capacity. However, the Japanese standard can only carry about 1/2 of the European standard per channel at 23 Mb/s. But as the Japanese are now offering to change the content source coder to H.265, they will be able to provide HD at 1080P at a rate of 2-4 Mb/s. This change would now allow all HD TV ready broadcasters to provide True HD content at 1920 x 1080P and possibly can accommodate all television channels in Colombo. But the downside is that the receivers are going to be more complex with the new coder. This may then lead to more expensive ISDB-T receivers or STBs in Sri Lanka. Vacant VHF Band III The unused VHF Band III is likely to reduce the DD for the government though the Japanese strategy is to achieve some productivity by the use of single frequency networks in the UHF Band (SFNs-a technique to use the same frequency multiple times to improve spectrum productivity). However, in practice receiving of SFNs is not simplistic as the reception of SFN signals are subject to receiver complexities. The Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (TRC) may be exclusively reserving the VHF band for future digital radio, but the same band could be co-shared with digital television without any problems. For example, Australia is co-sharing VHF Band III for both digital television and radio without any issues. Once all analogue transmissions are switched off with the deployment of UHF band per se for digital, the unused VHF Band III spectrum, where 7 MHz bandwidth, 8 VHF Frequency channels exists, will become vacant. This is clearly a waste of unused spectrum. Additionally, as Restacking [restack is the re-arrangement of frequencies ideally in the two bands of VHF and UHF, to maximise the spectrum productivity] is in the Japanese Plan, additional expenditure on broadcasting infrastructure is also on the cards. Where are the funds coming from? There is no mention of new funding arrangements for Restacking of the spectrum, and it also raises questions about the STB/Receiver specifications as frequencies may need to change after Restacking. If some broadcasters are not keen to use ISDB-T, they may canvass for the opportunity to use the vacant VHF Band for the potential deployment of DVB-T2 standard. This MUST be avoided at all costs! If this happens, there will be two digital systems in Sri Lanka. This issue, in particular, could become another potential headache for the government as it is likely to be under heavy pressure from commercial broadcasters to release the vacant VHF Band III for the more efficient DVB-T2. This issue, too, was pointed out by the writer when another Japanese team consisting of a Senior Engineer from Yacheo Engineering along with Sato Takefumi of the Japanese Embassy met him in 2017/2018. Unless there are plans to use the vacant VHF Band III by Restacking the spectrum, this spectrum specifically allocated for broadcasting would go to waste. Digital Signal Reliability & Availability Unlike in the analogue domain, television signal reliability and its availability becomes crucial in digital reception. In the analogue era, television broadcasting service field strength was planned for 50% of the locations and 50% of the time at a receiving height of 10 m. But in digital this becomes 80%-95% of the locations and 90% of the time to ensure reliability and availability of the digital signal. Hence the planned field strength would need to be adjusted to ensure the required reliability and availability at a higher field strength. In Australia, field strength used was 50 dBuV/m for Band IV and 54 dBuV/m for Band V frequencies in a rural environment However, it is not clear from the published documents of the Japanese plans 2014/2018 whether this issue had been addressed or otherwise. The signal level at 51 dBuV/m identified in the 2018 Japanese documentation is certainly not adequate for a rural grade of service in the UHF Band! It ought to be in the region of 54-74 dBuV/m in the UHF Band V. For example, the Australian Broadcasting Planning Handbook for Digital Television Broadcasting has clearly identified these requirements and provided information on how they were derived. Duplication Parameter The potential impact of the proposals for duplication of coverage is illustrated in the diagram. (See Figure 01) The signal threshold of a planned analogue coverage is 50 dBuV/m for VHF Band III. However, some regional and rural viewers in Sri Lanka are currently receiving watchable analogue signals well below this value. If, as planned by the Japanese studies in 2014, the analogue coverage is converted at the planned cut-off level of 55 dBuV/m, then the majority of regional and rural viewers, who are currently watching the analogue television with no issues, will not be able to receive digital television coverage. This could potentially become a political nightmare for the new government. Therefore, the cut-off signal level, as illustrated above, should be lowered to 43 dBuV/m. Though Single Frequency Networks (SFNs) are a solution to mitigate this difference in coverage, it is not easy to implement them at the receiver-end due to the variation in receiver profiles of Set-Top-Boxes (STBs) and complexities in receiver SFN signal detection. The Japanese designers, while being aware of this issue, may have been heavily constrained due to the requirement for spectrum productivity. Most probably, given the limits of the available UHF spectrum for digital and the lower data efficacy of the Japanese ISDB-T standard, this higher limit of duplication may have been proposed by the designers in order to preserve some spectrum productivity. One Network Operator for Digital The advent of digital terrestrial television also signifies the end of individual transmission facilities for broadcasters, as several content feeds are carried on one frequency or the channel and the requirement to consolidate all transmissions at one site. A combined digital transmission service provider may, in the future, be an independent entity and the facilities may be offered to the broadcasters on a fee-levying basis, based on a pragmatic business plan. In a future digital broadcasting landscape, the broadcasters will essentially be ‘content’ providers. Perhaps, there ought to be some sort of protection provided to the existing broadcasters in the event new content providers also express a desire to use digital transmissions. Cost to viewers and broadcasters All consumer television sets require digital receivers to extract video and audio content from digital transmissions. Therefore, either in-built ISDB-T receivers or compatible STBs are required. For example, there are flat TVs that do not have in-built ISDB-T receivers. The cost of an STB for ISDB-T with H.265 decoders, is likely to be around US $ 50-100, depending on their complexity and economies of scale. If in the event, there is likely to be a Restack of frequencies including the VHF Band, two band STBs or receivers may be needed; one during the first phase and another after the Restack of channels with the ability to tune into the VHF Band. Additionally, at some household locations, there may also be a requirement for new receiver antenna installation to receive VHF/UHF channels. If so, this is also an additional cost to the viewer. There is also a significant cost to the commercial television broadcasters to provide HD ready studios, Outside Broadcast (OB)/Electronic News Gathering (ENG) equipment, and content feeding arrangements. However, once the commercial television broadcasters elect to use consolidated broadcast towers, analogue era transmission costs would also disappear as their independent transmission networks are no longer needed, in a digital environment. It is noteworthy to highlight that the Japanese financial proposal for digitisation of television is primarily for Rupavahini, and limited to funding the analogue to digital transfer of Rupavahini facilities, including the provision of a True HD studio, OB unit, Transmission equipment and a Central Command centre for the proposed Digital Broadcast Network Operations (DBNO) at the Lotus Tower. At this stage, there are no signs of any discussions with the broadcasters to develop a ‘road map’ to facilitate the smooth transition from analogue to digital of commercial channels. If Restack is to take place, there is likely to be additional costs but there is no mention of further Japanese funding for Restack of channels either. As additional costs to the commercial television broadcasters are likely, strategic government policy initiatives to compensate for the additional capital expenditure in a highly competitive market are in order. Way forward It is heartening to note that the Japanese plan has now incorporated the more efficient coder in H.265 with an intention to maximise the use of limited payload capacity of an ISDB-T channel, which then will result in providing True HD transmission (1920 x 1080P) for ALL licensed television channels in Colombo. If Japanese consultants can pay attention to the issues of using VHF Band III, changing receiving the field strength requirements to that of the ITU signal level requirements for UHF and address the duplication parameter issue, then ALL stakeholders including the government and broadcasters will no doubt look forward to the venture of digitisation of television in Sri Lanka.

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Viral: Cobra blocks road in MP's Chhatarpur district Nigeria: Lion kills zookeeper at Obafemi Awolowo University CCTV: Biker crushed to death by speeding bus in Madhya Pradesh's Ujjain district Four women steal tray full of earrings from a jewellery shop in MP's Raisen Shirtless British man punches air steward after destroying aircraft toilet, arrested A shirtless British man punched an air steward after destroying the aircraft toilet. The man was arrested. The man went berserk soon after the flight took off . He went up to smash the plane’s toilet. The incident took place on February 7 when the flight took off from Bangkok to London. A video of the incident went viral on social media. On cam: Several injured after swarm of bees attacks guests during wedding ceremony in MP's Guna On cam: Man hurls abuses at government school teacher in MP's Chhatarpur district On cam: Man thrashes youth with stick in MP's Ujjain Doctor loses cool, misbehaves with home guard in MP's Chhatarpur On cam: Goons thrash Dalit youth in MP's Betul A Dalit youth was thrashed in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul. The man was brutally thrashed and forced to squat while holding his ears. A video of the incident has gone viral on social media. Congress leader Jitu Patwari highlighted the plight of the Dalit man. The police have launched a probe into the matter. On cam: Govt employee consumes alcohol at work place in MP's Singrauli On cam: Goons thrash liquor shop employee in MP's Gwalior CCTV: Man thrashed, abducted in Madhya Pradesh's Betul district Fight breaks out between CHC employee and patient in UP's Barabanki Short Videos BJP Orchestrated Attack On Kejriwal During ‘Padyatra’ Campaign: Delhi CM Atishi Your Autistic Child Can Also Make A Difference Your Autistic Child Can Also Make A Difference Kejriwal Questions RSS Over BJP’s 'Dirty' Tactics Against Opposition | Watch Atishi's 1st Statement After Being Picked As Delhi CM; 'Kejriwal Made Biggest Sacrifice' Kejriwal To Give Up CM Residence; AAP's Sanjay Singh Issues Big Warning... Haryana Polls: Vinesh Phogat & Bajrang Punia Join Congress; Sakshi Malik next? Putin's Big Pledge For Russian Speakers In Ukraine; 'Will Fight For...' Ukraine’s Kursk Incursion Has Failed To Achieve Objectives, Declares Putin Putin Says Russia Will Support Kamala Harris In U.S. Elections Related Articles ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrant for Myanmar's military leader over crimes against Rohingya Muslim minority Trump’s 2.0 cabinet: Who’s on the waiting list? NYT Opinion: How resilient is the emerging Trump coalition? Trump names immigration hawk as 'border czar' Citizenship row: Why Himanta isn’t so happy with SC nod to 1971 cutoff year Watch: JD Vance schools journalist on Venezuelan gangs in fiery on-air exchange 'I was called witch, nasty woman...Kamala will face unique additional challenges' Trump is returning to Capitol Hill to meet with republican lawmakers, first since Jan. 6 attackJalon Moore led No. 12 Oklahoma with 22 points in an 89-67 home win against pesky Prairie View A&M in Norman on Sunday. Jeremiah Fears scored 19 points and Duke Miles added 17 for the Sooners, who are 13-0 for the fourth time in program history and the first time since the 1987-88 season. Tanahj Pettway led PVAMU with 22 points while Marcel Bryant added 14. Braelon Bush and Jordan Tillmon each chipped in 11 points for PVAMU (1-13) which played without leading scorer Nick Anderson (18.9 points per game). The Sooners finally pulled away from the determined Panthers with 5:20 left on a 10-3 run that started when Sam Goodwin tipped in a rebound and was capped by a Glenn Taylor Jr. rebound for an 80-63 lead. A Kobe Elvis 3-pointer capped a game-closing 9-0 Sooners run. Pettway connected on a 3-pointer from the wing that gave the Panthers a 5-2 lead. PVAMU hung tight on a Bryant jumper that tied the game at 7. Even though they were short-handed, the Panthers' largest first-half deficit was only 11. A Pettway layup and his steal in the full-court press that led to Bryant's turnaround jumper in the lane as the Panthers closed within 34-30. PVAMU's rally prompted an Oklahoma timeout after which Miles drilled a 3-pointer to kick off a half-closing 9-2 spurt for a 43-32 halftime lead. Braelon Bush's 3-pointer pulled the Panthers within 58-50 with 11:17 left in the game. It was the Panthers' 12th straight nonconference road game. PVAMU returns to its home court Saturday against Grambling. Oklahoma kicks off its first season in the SEC at No. 5 Alabama on Saturday. --Field Level MediaATLANTA (AP) — the peanut farmer who won the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, endured humbling defeat after one tumultuous term and then redefined life after the White House as a global humanitarian, has died. years old. The died on Sunday, more than a year after entering , at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, who , spent most of their lives, The Carter Center said. “Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia,” the center said in posting about his death on the social media platform X. It added in a statement that he died peacefully, surrounded by his family. Businessman, Navy officer, evangelist, politician, negotiator, author, woodworker, citizen of the world — Carter forged a path that still challenges political assumptions and stands out among the 45 men who reached the nation’s highest office. The 39th president leveraged his ambition with a keen intellect, deep religious faith and prodigious work ethic, and well into his 90s. “My faith demands — this is not optional — my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try to make a difference,” Carter once said. A president from Plains A moderate Democrat, as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad smile, outspoken Baptist mores and technocratic plans reflecting his education as an engineer. His no-frills campaign depended on public financing, and his promise not to deceive the American people resonated after Richard Nixon’s disgrace and U.S. defeat in southeast Asia. “If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. I would not deserve to be your president,” Carter repeated before narrowly beating Republican incumbent Gerald Ford, who had lost popularity pardoning Nixon. Carter governed amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over racism, women’s rights and America’s global role. His most acclaimed achievement in office was a Mideast peace deal that he brokered by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the bargaining table for 13 days in 1978. That Camp David experience inspired the post-presidential center where Carter would establish so much of his legacy. Yet Carter’s electoral coalition splintered under double-digit inflation, gasoline lines and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His bleakest hour came when eight Americans died in a failed hostage rescue in April 1980, helping to ensure his landslide defeat to Republican Ronald Reagan. Carter acknowledged in his 2020 “White House Diary” that he could be “micromanaging” and “excessively autocratic,” complicating dealings with Congress and the federal bureaucracy. He also turned a cold shoulder to Washington’s news media and lobbyists, not fully appreciating their influence on his political fortunes. “It didn’t take us long to realize that the underestimation existed, but by that time we were not able to repair the mistake,” Carter told historians in 1982, suggesting that he had “an inherent incompatibility” with Washington insiders. Carter insisted his overall approach was sound and that he achieved his primary objectives — to “protect our nation’s security and interests peacefully” and “enhance human rights here and abroad” — even if he fell spectacularly short of a second term. And then, the world Ignominious defeat, though, allowed for renewal. The Carters founded The Carter Center in 1982 as a first-of-its-kind base of operations, asserting themselves as international peacemakers and champions of democracy, public health and human rights. “I was not interested in just building a museum or storing my White House records and memorabilia,” Carter wrote in a memoir published after his 90th birthday. “I wanted a place where we could work.” That work included easing nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, helping to avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti and negotiating cease-fires in Bosnia and Sudan. By 2022, The Carter Center had declared at least 113 elections in Latin America, Asia and Africa to be free or fraudulent. Recently, the center as well. Carter’s stubborn self-assuredness and even self-righteousness proved effective once he was unencumbered by the Washington order, sometimes to the point of . He went “where others are not treading,” he said, to places like Ethiopia, Liberia and North Korea, where he secured the release of an American who had wandered across the border in 2010. “I can say what I like. I can meet whom I want. I can take on projects that please me and reject the ones that don’t,” Carter said. He announced an arms-reduction-for-aid deal with North Korea without clearing the details with Bill Clinton’s White House. He openly criticized President George W. Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He also criticized America’s approach to Israel with his 2006 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” And he repeatedly countered U.S. administrations by insisting North Korea should be included in international affairs, a position that most aligned Carter Among the center’s many public health initiatives, Carter vowed to eradicate the guinea worm parasite during his lifetime, and Cases dropped from millions in the 1980s to nearly a handful. With hardhats and hammers, the Carters also built homes with Habitat for Humanity. The Nobel committee’s 2002 Peace Prize cites his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” Carter should have won it alongside Sadat and Begin in 1978, the chairman added. Carter accepted the recognition saying there was more work to be done. “The world is now, in many ways, a more dangerous place,” he said. “The greater ease of travel and communication has not been matched by equal understanding and mutual respect.” ‘An epic American life’ Carter’s globetrotting took him to remote villages where he met little “Jimmy Carters,” so named by admiring parents. But he spent most of his days in the same one-story Plains house — expanded and guarded by Secret Service agents — where they lived before he became governor. He regularly at Maranatha Baptist Church until his mobility declined and the coronavirus pandemic raged. Those sessions drew visitors from around the world to the small sanctuary where Carter will receive his final send-off after a state funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral. The common assessment that he was a rankled Carter and his allies. His prolific post-presidency gave him a brand above politics, particularly for Americans too young to witness him in office. But Carter also lived long enough to see biographers and historians reassess his White House years more generously. His record includes the deregulation of key industries, reduction of U.S. dependence on foreign oil, cautious management of the national debt and notable legislation on the environment, education and mental health. He focused on human rights in foreign policy, . He acknowledged America’s historical imperialism, pardoned Vietnam War draft evaders and relinquished control of the Panama Canal. He normalized relations with China. “I am not nominating Jimmy Carter for a place on Mount Rushmore,” Stuart Eizenstat, Carter’s domestic policy director, wrote in a 2018 book. “He was not a great president” but also not the “hapless and weak” caricature voters rejected in 1980, Eizenstat said. Rather, Carter was “good and productive” and “delivered results, many of which were realized only after he left office.” Madeleine Albright, a national security staffer for Carter and Clinton’s secretary of state, wrote in Eizenstat’s forward that Carter was “consequential and successful” and expressed hope that “perceptions will continue to evolve” about his presidency. “Our country was lucky to have him as our leader,” said Albright, Jonathan Alter, who penned a comprehensive Carter biography published in 2020, said in an interview that Carter should be remembered for “an epic American life” spanning from a humble start in a home with no electricity or indoor plumbing through decades on the world stage across two centuries. “He will likely go down as one of the most misunderstood and underestimated figures in American history,” Alter told The Associated Press. A small-town start James Earl Carter Jr. was born Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains and spent his early years in nearby Archery. His family was a minority in the mostly Black community, decades before the civil rights movement played out at the dawn of Carter’s political career. Carter, who campaigned as a moderate on race relations but governed more progressively, talked often of the influence of his Black caregivers and playmates but also noted his advantages: His land-owning father sat atop Archery’s tenant-farming system and owned a main street grocery. , would become a staple of his political campaigns. Seeking to broaden his world beyond Plains and its population of fewer than 1,000 — then and now — Carter won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1946. That same year another Plains native, a decision he considered more important than any he made as head of state. She shared his desire to see the world, sacrificing college to support his Navy career. Carter climbed in rank to lieutenant, but then his father was diagnosed with cancer, so the submarine officer set aside his ambitions of admiralty and moved the family back to Plains. even as she dived into the peanut business alongside her husband. Carter again failed to talk with his wife before his first run for office — he later called it “inconceivable” not to have consulted her on such major life decisions — but this time, she was on board. “My wife is much more political,” Carter told the AP in 2021. He won a state Senate seat in 1962 and its back-slapping, deal-cutting ways. He ran for governor in 1966 — losing to arch-segregationist Lester Maddox — and then immediately focused on the next campaign. Carter had spoken out against church segregation as a Baptist deacon and opposed racist “Dixiecrats” as a state senator. Yet as a local school board leader in the 1950s he had not pushed to end school segregation even after the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, despite his private support for integration. And in 1970, Carter ran for governor again as the more conservative Democrat against Carl Sanders, a wealthy businessman Carter mocked as “Cufflinks Carl.” Sanders never forgave him for anonymous, race-baiting flyers, which Carter disavowed. Ultimately, Carter won his races by attracting both Black voters and culturally conservative whites. Once in office, he was more direct. “I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over,” he declared in his 1971 inaugural address, setting a new standard for Southern governors that landed him on the cover of Time magazine. 'Jimmy Who?' His statehouse initiatives included environmental protection, boosting rural education and overhauling antiquated executive branch structures. He proclaimed Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the slain civil rights leader’s home state. And he decided, as he received presidential candidates in 1972, that they were In 1974, he ran Democrats’ national campaign arm. Then he declared his own candidacy for 1976. An Atlanta newspaper responded with the headline: “Jimmy Who?” and Georgia supporters camped out in Iowa and New Hampshire, establishing both states as presidential proving grounds. His first Senate endorsement: a young first-termer from Delaware named Joe Biden. Yet it was Carter’s ability to navigate America’s complex racial and rural politics that cemented the nomination. He swept the Deep South that November, the last Democrat to do so, as many white Southerners shifted to Republicans in response to civil rights initiatives. A self-declared “born-again Christian,” Carter drew snickers by referring to Scripture in a Playboy magazine interview, saying he “had looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.” The remarks gave Ford a new foothold and television comedians pounced — including NBC’s new “Saturday Night Live” show. But voters weary of cynicism in politics found it endearing. Carter chose Minnesota Sen. as his running mate on a “Grits and Fritz” ticket. In office, he elevated the vice presidency and the first lady’s office. Mondale’s governing partnership was a model for influential successors Al Gore, Dick Cheney and Biden. Rosalynn Carter was one of the most involved presidential spouses in history, welcomed into Cabinet meetings and huddles with lawmakers and top aides. The Carters presided with uncommon informality: He used his nickname “Jimmy” even when taking the oath of office, carried his own luggage and tried to silence the Marine Band’s “Hail to the Chief.” They bought their clothes off the rack. Carter wore a cardigan for a White House address, urging Americans to conserve energy by turning down their thermostats. Amy, the youngest of four children, attended District of Columbia public school. Washington’s social and media elite scorned their style. But the larger concern was that “he hated politics,” according to Eizenstat, leaving him nowhere to turn politically once economic turmoil and foreign policy challenges took their toll. Accomplishments, and ‘malaise’ Carter partially deregulated the airline, railroad and trucking industries and established the departments of Education and Energy, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He designated millions of acres of Alaska as national parks or wildlife refuges. He appointed a then-record number of women and nonwhite people to federal posts. He never had a Supreme Court nomination, but he elevated civil rights attorney to the nation’s second highest court, positioning her for a promotion in 1993. He appointed Paul Volker, the Federal Reserve chairman whose policies would help the economy boom in the 1980s — after Carter left office. He built on Nixon’s opening with China, and though he tolerated autocrats in Asia, pushed Latin America from dictatorships to democracy. But he couldn’t immediately tame inflation or the related energy crisis. And then came Iran. After he admitted the exiled Shah of Iran to the U.S. for medical treatment, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979 by followers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Negotiations to free the hostages broke down repeatedly ahead of the failed rescue attempt. The same year, Carter signed SALT II, the new strategic arms treaty with Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union, only to pull it back, impose trade sanctions and order a U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. Hoping to instill optimism, he delivered what the media dubbed his “malaise” speech, although he didn’t use that word. He declared the nation was suffering “a crisis of confidence.” By then, many Americans had lost confidence in the president, not themselves. Carter campaigned sparingly for reelection because of the hostage crisis, instead for the Democratic nomination. Carter famously said he’d “kick his ass,” but was hobbled by Kennedy as Reagan rallied a broad coalition with “make America great again” appeals and asking voters whether they were “better off than you were four years ago.” Reagan further capitalized on Carter’s lecturing tone, eviscerating him in their lone fall debate with the quip: “There you go again.” Carter lost all but six states and Republicans rolled to a new Senate majority. Carter successfully negotiated the hostages’ freedom after the election, but in one final, bitter turn of events, Tehran waited until hours after Carter left office to let them walk free. 'A wonderful life' At 56, Carter returned to Georgia with “no idea what I would do with the rest of my life.” Four decades after launching The Carter Center, he still talked of unfinished business. “I thought when we got into politics we would have resolved everything,” Carter told the AP in 2021. “But it’s turned out to be much more long-lasting and insidious than I had thought it was. I think in general, the world itself is much more divided than in previous years.” Still, he affirmed what he said when he underwent treatment for a in his 10th decade of life. “I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” . “I’ve had a wonderful life. I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.”

Jimmy Carter -- the 39th President of the United States, a renowned philanthropist and a Nobel Peace Prize winner -- has died. The news of his death was confirmed by his son, Jimmy Carter III also known as Chip to the Washington Post Sunday. In February 2023, it was revealed Carter was entering hospice care after being in and out of the hospital. His grandson also gave an update on the ex-Prez's condition, noting that Carter was no longer able to stay awake every day. His grandkid did say, however, that Carter was still able to crack jokes with his loved ones at his home in Plains, GA ... so it sounds like he was still in good spirits up until the end. President Biden said the former President asked him to deliver his eulogy. Carter's dealt with several health issues over the past few years, starting with a cancer diagnosis in 2015. He suffered a broken hip in May 2019, and that same year had a procedure to relieve pressure on his brain due to internal bleeding from recent falls. A Georgia man through and through, Carter's political career began as a Georgia State Senator in the '60s. He was elected Governor of the state in 1970 as a Democrat, and during his inauguration speech, he declared ... "The time of racial discrimination is over," adding, "No poor, rural, weak, or Black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity for an education, a job or simple justice." Carter's words came as a shock to many voters -- including segregationists who supported him -- especially after he ran a conservative campaign. Yet, it marked the beginning of Carter speaking out against racist politics. Near the end of his time as Governor, Carter announced his candidacy for U.S. President, and although he started out as a long shot ... he quickly became the Democratic front-runner and defeated President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election. His election came just weeks after Playboy published what became a very famous interview in which then-candidate Carter admitted, "I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times." While the remark was considered controversial at the time, it's certainly tame compared to what we now tend to know about politicians' private lives. In any event, Carter took office in 1977 and served one term as president. His tenure is remembered as a time of economic difficulty, as well as for the energy crisis -- however, he's also credited with brokering an historic peace agreement. In 1979, Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin together at Camp David. They ended up signing a peace treaty that ended decades of war, and made Egypt the first Arab state to recognize Israel. His final year in office was marred by the Iran hostage crisis ... which contributed to Ronald Reagan beating him in the 1980 election. After losing to Reagan, Carter remained very active in the public eye and diplomacy. He founded his famed Carter Center in Atlanta in 1982 to advance human rights and alleviate human suffering ... which led to him being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work. Carter and his late wife, Rosalynn , were also well-known for their work with Habitat for Humanity. Couple more fun facts -- Carter served in the Navy, which is where he met Rosalynn. They wed in 1946 and were the longest-married presidential couple ... more than 77 years! Jimmy was also the first U.S. president to be born in a hospital ... of course, it was a hospital in Plains, Georgia. Carter is survived by his 4 children and numerous grandchildren. Rosalynn predeceased the president ... passing away at age 96 in November 2023, days after entering hospice care. Rosalynn had been diagnosed with dementia, with the Carter Center confirming the diagnosis 6 months before her death. Despite his ailing health, Carter attended the former First Lady's funeral, wearing a blanket with her face on it at the time. He was 100. RIPNone

A try, a scrap with a star and a trophy from grandma: Sione’s incredible dayA slow-down in TV commissioning has led to a "crisis" behind the cameras, with growing numbers of freelance crews leaving the industry altogether. Despite the success of Christmas TV shows like Gavin and Stacey, the union Bectu said half of freelancers were out of work as broadcasters grappled with tighter budgets and falling advertising revenue. The head of one independent production company said it had been "frightening" to see other companies go bust in 2024. Freelancers who had seen drastic reductions in their work said they were struggling to get by. Producers said changing priorities by broadcasters had led to fewer programmes being commissioned, particularly entertainment shows and documentaries. Commercial broadcasters have faced rising costs and falling advertising revenue, while the BBC is also cutting costs. The lack of work for freelance crews eventually forced Amy Mills to quit the industry altogether. "I couldn't understand how I was going to make it work," she said, having spent 10 years working on network TV productions in Wales before the jobs stopped coming. "I had to make the decision to put everything else first." Significant changes have taken place, including the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic and a boom in productions which followed before quickly going bust. Amy, from Bridgend, now works in public relations for a charity and said her friends who are freelancing were "hanging on" in the hope the situation improved. "They are really starting to consider other options." She said she felt "grief" for the career she had left behind, but now had greater financial security in a reliable job. Freelancers who were considering leaving TV could also continue to use their skills. Amy said: "In TV, we are born multi-taskers. We are used to working to high-pressure deadlines, quick timelines, and those skills are useful in so many other industries." TV and games composer Ben Randall is one of the freelancers hoping to ride out the storm. "I had to sell a bunch of gear to get through," he said, reflecting on how he coped with a lack of work in November. "It was completely dry." And he is not alone. "Unless you're an A-list Hollywood composer, you're struggling." Some new commissions have now arrived, but the 22-year-old from Port Talbot said he was anxious about the future. "I'm not really good at anything else, so I don't have another game plan," he said. There's also a mental strain on freelancers who face greater uncertainty than ever when looking for work. "There's a psychological element," he said. "I was quite lucky that when I left uni, then I met all these brilliant people, and I was really busy for a few months, like most of the year. "And then suddenly, dry. You get no replies. "The events get either more exclusive or more expensive, and just trying to convince people online through email to hire you is becoming harder and harder." Unscripted programmes, such as entertainment shows and documentaries, have been particularly badly hit by reduced commissioning from broadcasters. Bectu said over half of its freelance members were out of work, with 78% reporting that they were struggling to pay their bills. Carwyn Donovan, who leads the Wales branch of Bectu, said: "Nearly half of this workforce is considering how to leave the industry within the next five years, and that should be of significant concern to the Welsh government, but also the UK government. "The screen industry is a significant success story and a significant contributor to our economy. But the success of the industry is underpinned by those workers, and one cannot overstate the role that they play in culture as well, in telling Wales' story to the rest of the world." Bectu wants the UK government to create a freelancers' commissioner to oversee the workforce and protect their rights. In a statement the UK government said: "Without the self-employed, our first-class TV industry would not be able to entertain millions of people around the world and drive billions into our economy. These workers must feel that a creative career is sustainable for them. "We welcome the work the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority is doing to put a robust set of standards in place to ensure the sector remains one of the best in the world to work in." The Welsh government said it was "a challenging time for the TV industry" and that its investments in the creative industries were "targeted towards strengthening the industry for the long term". Welsh independent production company Wildflame closed in August, along with Label 1 which had made Saving Lives in Cardiff for BBC Wales. BBC Wales said broadcasters were "having to adapt and change the way they commission programmes" in light of changing audience behaviour. It said it was "investing in more content from Wales for our online services" and "premium titles" from BBC Wales had included dramas like Lost Boys and Fairies and "impactful" documentaries. Welsh language broadcaster S4C said it "continued to commission as usual" but it recognised "how difficult the media landscape is for freelancers" in Wales. "It has been frightening for a lot of companies," said Emyr Afan. As the chief executive of Afanti, he makes programmes for the BBC, Channel 5 and S4C. "We've lost a few companies in the last few months, which has not been easy. But we also need to pivot," he added. The company had already diversified for "a more digital era, where people are consuming television in a different way, where the budget is tighter and we have to work differently," Mr Afan said. After a boom in spending on programmes after the pandemic, Mr Afan said the "crash" over the past two years had been "more difficult than Covid" for TV workers. "The broadcasters aren't responsible for us. We're responsible for our own future. I don't believe in a handout culture, we work hard for the ideas we win," he said. "And as hard as it gets, winning those commissions are even more treasured than they were before," he said, adding that succeeding in business was about "innovation, it's about entrepreneurship. And I think, unfortunately, we are going to see a period of survival of the fittest."After final game, Iowa State's Jaylin Noel roasts Iowa Hawkeye fans on social media

NonePutin, Erdoğan hold phone call on economy, global issues

As Zayn Malik closed out his first stop on his Stairway to the Sky Tour , he paid homage to late former bandmate Liam Payne . Ahead of Malik’s encore during the Saturday, November 23, show at the O2 Academy in Leeds, the lights flickered off and back on. When the power returned, a memorial graphic was shown on the wall. “Liam Payne 1993-2024,” the sign read. “Love you bro ❤️ .” According to additional fan footage , Malik’s song “Stardust” played in the background. Malik, 31, and Payne met as two-fifths of British boy band One Direction alongside Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Harry Styles . Malik was the first to leave the group , announcing his exit in March 2015. The remaining 1D lads went on their own indefinite hiatus in January 2016. Nearly eight years later, Payne died at the age of 31 after suffering a fatal fall from a hotel balcony in Argentina. Malik and the other 1D singers offered their condolences via heartfelt social media tributes. “Liam, I have found myself talking out loud to you, hoping you can hear me, I can’t help but think selfishly that there are so many more conversations for us to have in our lives,” Malik wrote via Instagram on October 17. “I never got to thank you for supporting me through some of the most difficult times in my life. When I was missing home as a 17-year-old kid you would always be there with a positive outlook and reassuring smile and let me know that you were my friend and that I [was] loved.” You have successfully subscribed. By signing up, I agree to the Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive emails from Us Weekly Check our latest news in Google News Check our latest news in Apple News He added, “Even though you were younger than me you were always more sensible than me, you were headstrong, opinionated, and gave no f— about telling people when they were wrong. Even though we butted heads because of this a few times, I always secretly respected you for it. When it came to the music Liam, you were the most qualified in every sense.” Malik reunited with Tomlinson, 32, Horan, 31, and Styles, 30, at Payne’s funeral in England earlier this week. The musicians were spotted entering St Mary’s Church separately, all accompanied by former tour manager Paul Higgins . Their cars even featured the bat signal in a subtle tribute to Payne, who was a fan of the Batman franchise. Payne is survived by parents Geoff and Karen , older sisters Ruth and Nicola and 7-year-old son Bear. The late “Teardrops” singer shared his only child with ex Cheryl Cole , who also attended the funeral alongside Payne’s family.WASHINGTON, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Jimmy Carter, the earnest Georgia peanut farmer who as U.S. president struggled with a bad economy and the Iran hostage crisis but brokered peace between Israel and Egypt and later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work, died at his home in Plains, Georgia, on Sunday, the Carter Center said. He was 100. “My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” said Chip Carter, the former president’s son. “My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.” A Democrat, he served as president from January 1977 to January 1981 after defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 U.S. election. Carter was swept from office four years later in an electoral landslide as voters embraced Republican challenger Ronald Reagan, the former actor and California governor. Carter lived longer after his term in office than any other U.S. president. Along the way, he earned a reputation as a better former president than he was a president - a status he readily acknowledged. His one-term presidency was marked by the highs of the 1978 Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt, bringing some stability to the Middle East. But it was dogged by an economy in recession, persistent unpopularity and the embarrassment of the Iran hostage crisis that consumed his final 444 days in office. In recent years, Carter had experienced several health issues including melanoma that spread to his liver and brain. Carter decided to receive hospice care in February 2023 instead of undergoing additional medical intervention. His wife, Rosalynn Carter, died on Nov. 19, 2023, at age 96. He looked frail when he attended her memorial service and funeral in a wheelchair. Carter left office profoundly unpopular but worked energetically for decades on humanitarian causes. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 in recognition of his "untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." Carter had been a centrist as governor of Georgia with populist tendencies when he moved into the White House as the 39th U.S. president. He was a Washington outsider at a time when America was still reeling from the Watergate scandal that led Republican Richard Nixon to resign as president in 1974 and elevated Ford from vice president. "I'm Jimmy Carter and I'm running for president. I will never lie to you," Carter promised with an ear-to-ear smile. Asked to assess his presidency, Carter said in a 1991 documentary: "The biggest failure we had was a political failure. I never was able to convince the American people that I was a forceful and strong leader." Despite his difficulties in office, Carter had few rivals for accomplishments as a former president. He gained global acclaim as a tireless human rights advocate, a voice for the disenfranchised and a leader in the fight against hunger and poverty, winning the respect that eluded him in the White House. Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts to promote human rights and resolve conflicts around the world, from Ethiopia and Eritrea to Bosnia and Haiti. His Carter Center in Atlanta sent international election-monitoring delegations to polls around the world. A Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher since his teens, Carter brought a strong sense of morality to the presidency, speaking openly about his religious faith. He also sought to take some pomp out of an increasingly imperial presidency - walking, rather than riding in a limousine, in his 1977 inauguration parade. The Middle East was the focus of Carter's foreign policy. The 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, based on the 1978 Camp David accords, ended a state of war between the two neighbors. Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland for talks. Later, as the accords seemed to be unraveling, Carter saved the day by flying to Cairo and Jerusalem for personal shuttle diplomacy. The treaty provided for Israeli withdrawal from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and establishment of diplomatic relations. Begin and Sadat each won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1978. By the 1980 election, the overriding issues were double-digit inflation, interest rates that exceeded 20% and soaring gas prices, as well as the Iran hostage crisis that brought humiliation to America. These issues marred Carter's presidency and undermined his chances of winning a second term. On Nov. 4, 1979, revolutionaries devoted to Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, seized the Americans present and demanded the return of the ousted shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was backed by the United States and was being treated in a U.S. hospital. The American public initially rallied behind Carter. But his support faded in April 1980 when a commando raid failed to rescue the hostages, with eight U.S. soldiers killed in an aircraft accident in the Iranian desert. Carter's final ignominy was that Iran held the 52 hostages until minutes after Reagan took his oath of office on Jan. 20, 1981, to replace Carter, then released the planes carrying them to freedom. In another crisis, Carter protested the former Soviet Union's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by boycotting the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. He also asked the U.S. Senate to defer consideration of a major nuclear arms accord with Moscow. Unswayed, the Soviets remained in Afghanistan for a decade. Carter won narrow Senate approval in 1978 of a treaty to transfer the Panama Canal to the control of Panama despite critics who argued the waterway was vital to American security. He also completed negotiations on full U.S. ties with China. Carter created two new U.S. Cabinet departments - education and energy. Amid high gas prices, he said America's "energy crisis" was "the moral equivalent of war" and urged the country to embrace conservation. "Ours is the most wasteful nation on earth," he told Americans in 1977. In 1979, Carter delivered what became known as his "malaise" speech to the nation, although he never used that word. "After listening to the American people I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can't fix what's wrong with America," he said in his televised address. "The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America." As president, the strait-laced Carter was embarrassed by the behavior of his hard-drinking younger brother, Billy Carter, who had boasted: "I got a red neck, white socks, and Blue Ribbon beer." Jimmy Carter withstood a challenge from Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination but was politically diminished heading into his general election battle against a vigorous Republican adversary. Reagan, the conservative who projected an image of strength, kept Carter off balance during their debates before the November 1980 election. Reagan dismissively told Carter, "There you go again," when the Republican challenger felt the president had misrepresented Reagan's views during one debate. Carter lost the 1980 election to Reagan, who won 44 of the 50 states and amassed an Electoral College landslide. James Earl Carter Jr. was born on Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, one of four children of a farmer and shopkeeper. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946, served in the nuclear submarine program and left to manage the family peanut farming business. He married his wife, Rosalynn, in 1946, a union he called "the most important thing in my life." They had three sons and a daughter. Carter became a millionaire, a Georgia state legislator and Georgia's governor from 1971 to 1975. He mounted an underdog bid for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination, and out-hustled his rivals for the right to face Ford in the general election. With Walter Mondale as his vice presidential running mate, Carter was given a boost by a major Ford gaffe during one of their debates. Ford said that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration," despite decades of just such domination. Carter edged Ford in the election, even though Ford actually won more states - 27 to Carter's 23. Not all of Carter's post-presidential work was appreciated. Former President George W. Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, both Republicans, were said to have been displeased by Carter's freelance diplomacy in Iraq and elsewhere. In 2004, Carter called the Iraq war launched in 2003 by the younger Bush one of the most "gross and damaging mistakes our nation ever made." He called George W. Bush's administration "the worst in history" and said Vice President Dick Cheney was "a disaster for our country." In 2019, Carter questioned Republican Donald Trump's legitimacy as president, saying "he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf." Trump responded by calling Carter "a terrible president." Carter also made trips to communist North Korea. A 1994 visit defused a nuclear crisis, as President Kim Il Sung agreed to freeze his nuclear program in exchange for resumed dialogue with the United States. That led to a deal in which North Korea, in return for aid, promised not to restart its nuclear reactor or reprocess the plant's spent fuel. But Carter irked Democratic President Bill Clinton's administration by announcing the deal with North Korea's leader without first checking with Washington. In 2010, Carter won the release of an American sentenced to eight years hard labor for illegally entering North Korea. Carter wrote more than two dozen books, ranging from a presidential memoir to a children's book and poetry, as well as works about religious faith and diplomacy. His book "Faith: A Journey for All," was published in 2018. Sign up here. Reporting and writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Bill Trott and Diane Craft Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tab Thomson Reuters Jasper Ward is a breaking news reporter in Washington. She primarily covers national affairs and U.S. politics. Jasper was previously based in The Bahamas where she covered the collapse of FTX and the subsequent arrest of its founder Sam Bankman-Fried. She was a part of the Reuters team that won the Gerald Loeb Award for breaking news for its FTX coverage.