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The Chinese communist regime has replaced its political commissar for its ground forces amid a purge in the country’s defense sector that has raised questions about the military’s modernization efforts. Gen. Chen Hui has been appointed as the political commissar of the Army of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), according to a statement released by China’s defense ministry on Dec. 23. In the hierarchical structure of the PLA, an army force controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the political commissar is responsible for ensuring political loyalty among service members and overseeing personnel issue. Chen succeeds Gen. Qin Shutong, who had held this position since at least January 2022. As of the time of publication, no official explanation has been provided regarding Qin’s removal, leaving his current role and whereabouts shrouded in mystery. Qin, 61, was absent from the Dec. 23 ceremony where Chen was promoted to the rank of general, according to footage aired by China Central Television (CCTV). Defying customary practice, also missing from the event was the commander of the PLA’s ground forces, Gen. Li Qiaoming, fueling speculation among outside observers amid an ongoing anti-corruption campaign. For example, as the authorities look into corruption in a particular sector in the defense industry, it “can have the effect of slowing them down as they try to conduct thorough investigations and try to understand the depth and the extent of corruption in a particular case,” the official said. Nonetheless, Beijing is unlikely to scale back its anti-graft campaign, the officials said, as Xi has made such a drive a “hallmark of his tenure.” Ely Ratner, U.S. assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, has cautioned that the anti-corruption campaign could lead to “paralysis” within lower levels of the military who may fear attracting scrutiny.
FBI investigating ‘numerous bomb threats’ against Trump administration nominees
AP / THE CONVERSATION – Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used in countless ways – and the ethical headaches it raises are countless, too. Consider “adult content creators” – not necessarily the first field that comes to mind. In 2024, there was a surge in AI-generated influencers on Instagram: fake models with faces made by AI, attached to stolen photos and videos of real models’ bodies. Not only did the original content creators not consent to having their images used, but they were not compensated. Across industries, workers encounter more immediate ethical questions about whether to use AI every day. In a trial by the United Kingdom-based law firm Ashurst, three AI systems dramatically sped up document review but missed subtle legal nuances that experienced lawyers would catch. Similarly, journalists must balance AI’s efficiency for summarising background research with the rigor required by fact-checking standards. These examples highlight the growing tension between innovation and ethics. What do AI users owe the creators whose work forms the backbone of those technologies? How do we navigate a world where AI challenges the meaning of creativity – and humans’ role in it? As a dean overseeing university libraries, academic programs and the university press, I witness daily how students, staff and faculty grapple with generative AI. Looking at three different schools of ethics can help us go beyond gut reactions to address core questions about how to use AI tools with honesty and integrity. RIGHTS AND DUTIES At its core, deontological ethics asks what fundamental duties people have toward one another – what’s right or wrong, regardless of consequences. Applied to AI, this approach focuses on basic rights and obligations. Through this lens, we must examine not only what AI enables us to do, but what responsibilities we have toward other people in our professional communities. For instance, AI systems often learn by analysing vast collections of human-created work, which challenges traditional notions of creative rights. A photographer whose work was used to train an AI model might question whether their labour has been appropriated without fair compensation – whether their basic ownership of their own work has been violated. PHOTO: ENVATO PHOTO: ENVATO On the other hand, deontological ethics also emphasises people’s positive duties toward others – responsibilities that certain AI programs can assist in fulfilling. The nonprofit Tarjimly aims to use an AI-powered platform to connect refugees with volunteer translators. The organisation’s AI tool also gives real-time translation, which the human volunteers can revise for accuracy. This dual focus on respecting creators’ rights while fulfilling duties to other people illustrates how deontological ethics can guide ethical AI use. AI’S IMPLICATIONS Another approach comes from consequentialism, a philosophy that evaluates actions by their outcomes. This perspective shifts focus from individuals’ rights and responsibilities to AI’s broader effects. Do the potential boons of generative AI justify the economic and cultural impact? Is AI advancing innovation at the expense of creative livelihoods? This ethical tension of weighing benefits and harms drives current debates – and lawsuits. Organisations such as Getty Images have taken legal action to protect human contributors’ work from unauthorised AI training. Some platforms that use AI to create images, such as DeviantArt and Shutterstock, are offering artists options to opt out or receive compensation, a shift toward recognising creative rights in the AI era. The implications of adopting AI extend far beyond individual creators’ rights and could fundamentally reshape creative industries. Publishing, entertainment and design sectors face unprecedented automation, which could affect workers along the entire production pipeline, from conceptualisation to distribution. These disruptions have sparked significant resistance. In 2023, for example, labour unions for screenwriters and actors initiated strikes that brought Hollywood productions to a halt. A consequentialist approach, however, compels us to look beyond immediate economic threats, or individuals’ rights and responsibilities, to examine AI’s broader societal impact. From this wider perspective, consequentialism suggests that concerns about social harms must be balanced with potential societal benefits. Sophisticated AI tools are already transforming fields such as scientific research, accelerating drug discovery and climate change solutions. In education, AI supports personalised learning for struggling students. Small businesses and entrepreneurs in developing regions can now compete globally by accessing professional-level capabilities once reserved for larger enterprises. Even artists need to weigh the pros and cons of AI’s impact: It’s not just negative. AI has given rise to new ways to express creativity, such as AI-generated music and visual art. These technologies enable complex compositions and visuals that might be challenging to produce by hand – making it an especially valuable collaborator for artists with disabilities. CHARACTER FOR THE AI ERA Virtue ethics, the third approach, asks how using AI shapes who users become as professionals and people. Unlike approaches that focus on rules or consequences, this framework centers on character and judgment. Recent cases illustrate what’s at stake. A lawyer’s reliance on AI-generated legal citations led to court sanctions, highlighting how automation can erode professional diligence. In health care, discovering racial bias in medical AI chatbots forced providers to confront how automation might compromise their commitment to equitable care. These failures reveal a deeper truth: Mastering AI requires cultivating sound judgment. Lawyers’ professional integrity demands that they verify AI-generated claims. Doctors’ commitment to patient welfare requires questioning AI recommendations that might perpetuate bias. Each decision to use or reject AI tools shapes not just immediate outcomes but professional character. Individual workers often have limited control over how their workplaces implement AI, so it is all the more important that professional organisations develop clear guidelines. What’s more, individuals need space to maintain professional integrity within their employers’ rules to exercise their own sound judgment. – Leo S Lo
Kirk LaPointe: Alberta's 'get things done' edge leaves B.C. behind in investment race From permits to profits, neighbouring province's model proves hard to beat Kirk LaPointe Nov 27, 2024 12:00 PM Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Alberta's proactive investment strategy, led by Invest Alberta, is attracting businesses with swift regulatory changes, lower costs, and a "get things done" approach, positioning the province as a more attractive destination than British Columbia. Photo via benedek/E+/Getty Images Listen to this article 00:05:18 Dow wanted to expand its Path2Zero zero-emission project from outside Fort Saskatchewan with a significant investment, but didn’t think the province’s depreciation rates were suitable. No problem: the rates were changed by the province – in seven days. The international pulp and paper behemoth, Mondi, wanted to promptly get environmental permits to move into the province. No problem: the permits came from the province in a speedy 90 days. The problem was: the province was Alberta, not British Columbia. And a bigger problem looms: Alberta is more aggressively big-game-hunting for investment now in Vancouver. It has opened an office here of the prodigious Crown corporation, Invest Alberta, and hired what it calls an “investment attraction advisor” – Brock Lalla, a former economist with PwC’s Canadian economic and policy practice. Based on its history of less than a half-decade, it would not be surprising to see some serious migration and expansion of B.C. businesses into our neighbouring province. In four years, Invest Alberta has attracted $24.9 billion in investment from around the world, counting for 33,481 jobs. Its CEO is himself a Vancouver expat appointed in 2021, Rick Christiaanse, and in keeping with the red-tape-averse culture, he reports directly to Premier Danielle Smith and not into the province’s bureaucracy. It is old news now that Alberta can put to shame most anything British Columbia might try to make for a better business and worker climate. Corporate taxes and housing prices are lower, salaries are higher, regulations are changed faster, construction permits are swifter. Little wonder an Angus Reid Institute poll earlier this year indicated more one-third of British Columbians – and half of all young people – were seriously considering leaving because of housing unaffordability. But housing costs are simply a symptom of a wider ailment, some of it tangible and some of it attitudinal. “Alberta’s claim to fame is that it can get things done,” Christiaanse told me. “We were in the wilderness for 10 years. We got desperate enough here that we had to figure out how to do this.” What it does is court investment, offering a concierge-like tailored suite of services to smooth the entry into the market – navigational assistance to streamline setup, marketing intelligence, networking leads, after-care services – in using its 17 offices worldwide to scout and secure significant investment. What it doesn’t do, though, might surprise you: It won’t write any cheques when business comes calling. It refuses to engage in the race to the bottom that many American cities and states will. “Our cheque-writing capacity is zero,” he says. “If you’re looking for a subsidy, that’s not our province.” Christiaanse, whose career includes stints as chief operating officer of the Skidmore Group and senior director of sales and marketing for Telus International, has been campaigning of late to demonstrate Alberta is not simply an oil and gas province. The province leads Canada in renewable energy growth. Amazon is building its first Canadian wind farm in southern Alberta; it already owns a solar project in the province, one of the largest in North America. Edmonton alone has four $1-billion-plus hydrogen energy plants under construction. Japanese firms Sumitomo and Itochu have extensive climate-change mitigation projects there. It is Alberta’s access to abundant energy, though, that often clinches the deal. “B.C. can’t build any more dams,” he notes. Mainly, he says though, business is saying: “I want stability.” The BC NDP government has its hands full at the moment, with a large and expanding deficit, declining per capita GDP, expensive health-care challenges, a CleanBC plan that will be costly across the province’s economy and relatively little business savvy at the helm. Even former NDP premier Glen Clark chided the Eby government to focus more on wealth creation than wealth redistribution. Christiaanse defines the challenge little differently than Clark: “We see the role as building prosperity.” What the world is saying when it takes its investment elsewhere are three things, he notes: “Bring me food security. Bring me energy security. And lately, bring me cybersecurity.” He plays down any B.C.-Alberta rivalry. “We need to be aligned,” he says. But he also notes that Alberta “had to hit rock bottom” before it initiated the changes it now offers investors as a calling card, without specifically suggesting that’s where B.C. now finds itself. “Vancouver is an incredible place to live,” he says. “But if you’re looking to take your business to a new level . . .” Kirk LaPointe is a Glacier Media columnist with an extensive background in journalism. See a typo/mistake? Have a story/tip? This has been shared 0 times 0 Shares Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Get your daily Victoria news briefing Email Sign Up Related Kirk LaPointe: John Horgan made his mark mixing fiscal competence with social prescription Nov 13, 2024 11:30 AM Opinion: Trump 2.0 will be a test of Canada's resolve Nov 6, 2024 11:00 AM Opinion: Time to tackle the scourge of online anonymity and political intimidation Nov 4, 2024 11:30 AM Opinion: Rebuilding trust in journalism starts with busting misconceptions Oct 30, 2024 4:30 PMLearning a new language with this app so I can leave the country
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PCB Encapsulation Market Emerging Trends in Industry Dynamics, Size Insights, Share, and Future Growth by 2029Defense contractors that have embraced diversity, equity, and inclusion policies could find themselves targeted under the new Trump administration, especially as Republican lawmakers have full control of Congress for the next two years. President-elect Donald Trump is set to issue a wave of changes to the defense industry when he takes office and is expected to overturn several Biden administration policies focused on DEI initiatives. That puts several defense contractors under the microscope as Republican lawmakers make plans to bring an end to diversity programs in the Pentagon and the defense industry as a whole. “Under the Trump administration, extreme and divisive DEI initiatives across the Pentagon and government agencies will come to an end,” Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) told the Washington Examiner. “Taxpayer dollars should strengthen our military and national security — not fund radical agendas that distract and divide us. America’s defense industries must focus on protecting our nation and ensuring we lead with strength and unity on the world stage.” Republicans have long sought to crack down on DEI initiatives in the defense sector but have lacked the power to do so over the last four years with Democrats in charge of the White House and Senate. But GOP lawmakers in the House have attempted to use their majority to pass bills signaling their plans to dismantle DEI programs, as evidenced by the lower chamber’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act passed earlier this summer. The spending bill included a number of culture war amendments targeting abortion access and transgender military members — proposals deemed dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate but could see new light when Republicans take control of the upper chamber in January. “The American people spoke loud and clear when they elected President Trump and Republican majorities: they are sick of the Left’s obsession with DEI,” Sen.-elect Jim Banks (R-IN) told the Washington Examiner. “Taxpayers should not subsidize this radical woke agenda, and President Trump will put a stop to it.” Republicans are already preparing for a massive defense overhaul under the Trump administration, which was seemingly confirmed with the president-elect’s nomination of Pete Hegset h to become the next secretary of defense. Hegseth has repeatedly criticized diversity concerning the military, once referring to it as the “dumbest phrase on planet earth.” With his nomination and others in Trump’s administration, those in his close circles have hinted that organizations outside of the defense industry may also come under fire. “President Trump is putting together a stellar Cabinet that is focused on America First and helping all Americans,” Kimberly Guilfoyle, fiancée to Donald Trump Jr. and who worked on Trump’s 2020 campaign, told the Washington Examiner. “Companies pushing woke policies like DEI are in for a rude awakening.” Several GOP sources close to the president-elect’s team and the Senate told the Washington Examiner that Lockheed Martin will be among the targeted defense contractors in the forthcoming Trump era. “Lockheed Martin has been the poster child for DEI,” one source close to the Trump transition said. “I imagine the Trump administration will give them increased scrutiny for embracing the left. It could harm Lockheed’s ability to navigate this new Washington.” Those involved with those plans pointed to the firm’s policies implemented over the last several years, including a training program reported by Fox News that Lockheed Martin executives and employees underwent that reportedly taught being “a white male was analogous to being a KKK member.” CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER But, while some of those in GOP circles seek to paint Lockheed as an anti-Trump entity with its DEI policies, the defense contractor has aligned itself with the president-elect in the past — working closely with his administration and benefitting from many of his policies. "As we did in his first term, we look forward to a strong working relationship with President Trump, his team, and also with the new Congress to strengthen our national defense," a spokesperson for Lockheed Martin told the Washington Examiner. "We are aligned with the focus of building mission-critical defense technology that helps keep Americans and our allies safe, and to that end, we follow responsible business practices expected by our customers, investors, employees, and other stakeholders." Other defense contractors that could come under fire include RTX Corporation , Boeing , and Northrop Grumman Corporation . All have DEI programs publicly listed on their websites, although Boeing has since reportedly dismantled its diversity department. The Washington Examiner reached out to those defense contractors known for its DEI policies for comment.
Betty White Forever: New stamp will honor the much-beloved 'Golden Girls' actorWhen the snow is falling and hot chocolate is piping, few activities are more refreshing and relaxing than plopping down on the couch and turning on the television. Some will watch live Christmas events from Rockefeller Center, while others will tune into a bowl game. But if you’re of a certain age, you clearly remember the excitement when Nickelodeon began to roll out its litany of timeless Christmas specials. From Kenan & Kel in the 1990s to Danny Phantom in the late 2000s, Nickelodeon has entered the pantheon of networks that have consistently rolled out classic holiday specials. While Nickelodeon’s legacy is cemented, the ranking of its best holiday season episodes is and will always be hotly contested. Not to start a debate at the holiday dinner table, but here are the 10 best classic Nickelodeon holiday specials. Show: Keenan & Kel Air Date: December 14, 1996 Kel ( Kel Mitchell ) loves orange soda and Kenan ( Kenan Thompson ) loves Christmas. He spends the entire year saving money to buy a new bike and takes an extra job as Santa at the mall to help get the last few dollars he needs. However, his plans are derailed when he comes across a brother and sister who dream of a great Christmas filled with presents that their mother can’t afford. In a selfless mood, Kenan uses the money he makes as Santa to surprise the kids and their mom with presents. Kenan’s upset that he didn’t get the bike he wanted, but he knows he did the right thing and Santa rewards him with a bike of his own. As with many Nickelodeon holiday specials, Kenan’s act of giving underscores the importance of family, friends, community, and giving throughout the holiday season. Show: Invader Zim Air Date: December 10, 2002 Name two more idiotically entertaining rivals than Zim ( Richard Steven Horvitz ) and Dib (Andy Berman). I’ll wait. While I wait, also figure out why Dib’s dad, Professor Membrane ( Rodger Bumpass ), named him Dib. Anyway, Zim and Dib’s rivalry takes center stage when Zim learns about the lure of Santa, kidnaps a man dressed up in a Santa suit and drains his brain. Normal holiday festivities, right? Once Zim drains the man’s brain and learns more about the lure of Santa, he devises a plan to build a Santa suit and convince all of humankind that he’s worthy of following and giving their undying devotion too. For the most part, it works and Zim is close to bringing all of human kind to the Tallest in order to extend his rule. However, Dib intervenes and garners the support of his sister, Gaz (Melissa Fahn), and his father, Professor Membrane, and stops Zim before he’s able to fully takeover. Overall, it’s a pretty weird storyline for a kid’s show during the holiday season, but Invader Zim is at its best when it’s weird. Show: Rocko’s Modern Life Air Date: December 1, 1994 Rocko ( Carlos Alazraqui ) is a better person than most because his grace throughout this Christmas special is unmatched. For nearly the entire episode, Rocko works to put together beautiful holiday decorations and host a lovely holiday party. Instead, his friends treat him poorly, other characters bully him, and no one except a magic elf shows up to his party. The elf works his magic and creates a memorable snowfall around Rocko’s house and Rocko’s house only. When the blizzard leaves a perfect amount of snow and holiday cheer around his house, Rocko’s friends show up at his front door to apologize and make the most of the holiday party. Rocko, being the kind soul he is, lets them in and thanks them for coming. Show: iCarly Air Date: December 13, 2008 Timmy Turner ( Tara Strong ) isn’t the only character in the Nickelodeon multiverse to have their dreams come true during the holiday season. When Carly’s brother, Spencer ( Jerry Trainor ), builds an electromagnet Christmas tree that sets fire to holiday gifts, Carly ( Miranda Cosgrove ) wishes that her brother was a bit more normal. However, things aren’t as great as Carly hoped they’d be. Spencer becomes a “normal” lawyer dating Ms. Benson (Mary Scheer) while Freddie ( Nathan Kress ) no longer has a crush on Carly, and Sam ( Jennette McCurdy ) is in a juvenile detention center. Most shockingly, Carly, Spencer, and Freddie were never friends in this alternate universe and never launched a webcast. The weirdness of the episode pays off in the end because Carly realizes what we’ve always known: her life is pretty great as is. Show: As Told by Ginger Air Date: December 10, 2001 As Told by Ginger is one of the most underrated series in the Nickelodeon catalog for various reasons, including its humor and ability to reach both young and older audiences. Case in point, the show’s “Even Steven” holiday special is immaculate. In the tertiary plot, Ginger (Melissa Disney) discovers that her grandfather is Jewish and immediately pivots from celebrating Christmas to celebrating Hanukkah. Her shift from Christmas to Hanukkah happens so quickly that it causes a rift between her and Dodie (Aspen Miller) because Ginger refuses to go to Dodie’s Christmas party and hosts her own instead. Splitting the room down the middle, half of Ginger’s party is devoted to celebrating Hanukkah, and the other half is adorned with Christmas decorations. Meanwhile, Hoodsie ( Tress MacNeille) is writing letters to Santa, asking him to give him rhythm for Christmas. Yes, you read that correctly. He genuinely asked Santa for rhythm, the ability to dance on beat. When Ginger’s brother, Carl (Jeannie Elias), finds Hoodsie begging Santa for rhythm, he not only makes fun of him, but also declares that Santa isn’t real. As a result, Carl spends the remainder of the episode attempting to prove that Santa is real. Through this effort, he learns that Carl is not a fan of the holiday season because he routinely asked Santa to bring his father home for Christmas as a kid, and his dad rarely stopped by on the holidays. With this information, Hoodsie runs up to a man dressed as Santa on the street and asks him to bring Hoodsie’s Dad home for Christmas. Little does Hoodsie know, the man dressed up as Santa is Carl’s dad. In the end, Carl’s dad visits him for Christmas, and while they’re talking in the driveway, a fire starts inside as Ginger is hosting her holiday party. Carl’s dad runs in, puts out the fire, and saves the day, making Ginger realize that the most important part of the holidays is being surrounded by family and friends. And no, Carl does not get rhythm. Show: The Fairly OddParents Air Date: December 12, 2001 Clichés may be annoying, but they’ve stood the test of time for a reason. However, when an elder said, “Be careful what you wish for,” Timmy Turner clearly wasn’t listening. Instead, he had to learn the hard way when he told Wanda (Susanne Blakeslee) and Cosmo ( Daran Norris ) that he’d like it to be Christmas every day. In his head, there’d never be school, and he’d get presents every time he woke up. Conversely, Wanda and Cosmo are magically depleted, his parents can’t work, and the other holidays become envious of Santa Claus. As a result, Timmy must make a trip up to the North Pole all alone. Tough luck for a kid who can literally wish for whatever he wants every other day of the year already. Show: Drake & Josh Air Date: December 5, 2008 Give a little girl named Mary Alice the best Christmas ever, or go back to jail. That’s essentially the plot of “Merry Christmas, Drake and Josh.” Drake ( Drake Bell ) desperately wants to host a party on the rooftop of Josh’s workplace, Premier Theater. To the surprise of just about everyone, Josh’s boss agrees to let Drake host the party as long as he volunteers to dress up as Santa for kids in the mall. Drake agrees, but things go haywire when a woman tries to kiss him, and he runs away. While hiding, he runs into a little girl named Mary Alice ( Bailee Madison ) and promises to give her the best Christmas ever. Drake finishes his shift as Santa and gets to host the party after all, but it’s cut short when a few uninvited guests show up, and Josh ( Josh Peck ) calls the police. However, there’s a mixup when the police arrive and Josh gets arrested. Being the good stepbrother he is, Drake tries to break Josh out of jail. Unfortunately, Drake gets arrested, too. When Drake and Josh get to speak to a judge, they explain that they need to get out to fulfill Drake’s promises to Mary Alice. The judge releases them, but warns that they will be brought back if they do not give Mary Alice the best Christmas ever. No pressure, right? Show: Rugrats Air Date: December 6, 1992 It may not seem like it, but there is not much of a difference between The Boondocks ‘ Huey Freeman ( Regina King ) and the children of Rugrats . Huey chases Santa around the mall with a BB gun, screaming, “You gon’ pay what you owe.” Meanwhile, Tommy ( Elizabeth Daily ), Chuckie (Christine Cavanaugh), and the crew are setting dangerous traps for Santa , so they can question him about his character. “The Santa Experience” kicks off at the mall where Angelica (Cheryl Chase) bum rushes the line to see Santa and tells Mr. Claus how much she needs a dream dollhouse for Cynthia. While Mr. Claus pushed her away, mall staff gave her a box of free toys to apologize for Santa rightfully pushing her away. Even with the free presents, Angelica is ungrateful and doesn’t want them. Meanwhile, Tommy and Chuckie are debating whether or not Santa is a good person. You know, typical baby stuff, right? Tommy is convinced Santa is a great guy, while Chuckie is, of course, scared of Saint Nick and thinks he’s a bad guy. In the kitchen, the parents are having a relatable conversation about their challenges and struggles, trying to ensure each of their children has a good holiday season. Later, the kids and parents head north to celebrate Christmas in a cabin. There, Chuckie and Tommy set up a booby trap to catch Santa. Much to their disappointment, the trap only manages to catch Stu ( Jack Riley ). Ultimately, everything turns out for the best as Santa just rings the front doorbell and delivers the presents face-to-face. Angelica gets her doll house, Chuckie determines Santa is a good person after all, and the Rugrats get the perfect Christmas. Show: SpongeBob SquarePants Air Date: December 6, 2000 If you ask most fans of SpongeBob SquarePants about Squidward (Rodger Bumpass), most would say he’s closer to being the Grinch than Santa Claus. However, “Christmas Who?” proves otherwise. Spongebob ( Tom Kenny ) visits Sandy ( Carolyn Lawrence ) and finds the proud Texan setting up Christmas decorations around her house. Instead of helping her, Spongebob freaks out because he thinks the lights and decorations have started a fire. It would be nearly impossible to start a fire that far underwater, but I digress. Anyway, Sandy stops him and explains to Spongebob who Santa Claus is and what happens on Christmas. Excited and enchanted, Spongebob shares the story of Christmas and Santa Claus with nearly everyone in Bikini Bottom. As a result, everyone but Squidward sends letters to Santa and spends all night caroling. When Santa doesn’t show up, everyone calls Spongebob a fraud and mocks him, including Squidward. However, Spongebob turns Squidward’s heart from coal to gold when he gives him a handcrafted clarinet for Christmas so that he won’t go without a gift. In return, Squidward dresses up as Santa and surprises Spongebob, who is delighted, and wishes him a merry Christmas. Squidward didn’t account for all of the other citizens of Bikini Bottom spotting him and asking for gifts. Instead of ruining the charade, Squidward ends up giving away nearly everything in his home away as a gift. Thankfully, Squidward is rewarded when the real Santa Claus sends a letter thanking Squidward for helping keep the spirit of Christmas alive. Show: Hey Arnold! Air Date: December 11, 1996 “Arnold’s Christmas” is not only the best Nickelodeon late-year holiday special, but it’s arguably one of the best episodes of the entire series. The series revolves around Arnold (Toran Caudell) attempting to pull off a Christmas miracle for his neighbor, Mr. Hyunh (Baoan Coleman). Through this endeavor, much of Mr. Hyunh’s backstory is revealed, including the heartbreaking story of how he and his daughter, Mai (Hiep Thi Le), have been separated for more than 20 years. While Arnold and his best friend, Gerald (Jamil Walker Smith), fall short in their quest to find Mai and reconnect her with Mr. Hyunh, Helga (Francesca Marie Smith) unexpectedly saves the day and gets Mai in touch with her father. Helga never gets the credit for creating this touching reunion, but she will always be remembered for being the driving force behind one of the most touching moments in Nickelodeon history. More Headlines:
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.LPL Financial Reports Monthly Activity for October 2024
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