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In 2024, Kerala witnessed a series of impactful events, from natural disasters to political upheavals and cultural revelations. Devastating landslides in Wayanad underlined the urgent need for enhanced disaster management, as the region grappled with over 200 fatalities and widespread displacement due to torrential rains. The political landscape saw a significant shift as Congress secured a landslide victory in the Lok Sabha polls, while the BJP celebrated its first electoral win in Kerala with actor-politician Suresh Gopi. Revelations from the Justice Hema Committee report exposed deep-seated issues within the Malayalam film industry, leading to the dissolution of AMMA's executive committee. Tragedy struck culturally with the death of acclaimed writer MT Vasudevan Nair, leaving a profound void in Malayalam literature and cinema. (With inputs from agencies.)SPRINGFIELD – Eleventh graders Anthony Paredes and David Nyarko adjusted the sound levels Thursday on new podcasting equipment in the Business Technology classroom at Springfield High School of Science and Technology . Saying they’re still trying to figure podcasting out, Paredes, who hopes to join the Air Force after graduation, hopes his classmates can create a podcast version of their analysis of commercial real estate.
LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — Jimmy Carter was honored with a moment of silence before the Atlanta Falcons’ game at the Washington Commanders on Sunday night, hours after the 39th president of the United States died at the age of 100 in Plains, Georgia. Beyond being a Georgia native who led the country from the White House less than 8 miles (12 kilometers) away during his time in office from 1977-81, Carter was the first president to host the NFL's Super Bowl champions there when he welcomed the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1980. Falcons owner Arthur Blank in a statement released by the team before kickoff said he was deeply saddened by the loss of his dear friend and mentor, calling Carter “a great American, a proud Georgian and an inspirational global humanitarian.” “He lived his life with great civic responsibility and took it upon himself to be the change he wished to see amongst other,” Blank said, recalling meeting Carter at The Home Depot. “President Carter’s kind and uniting spirit touched so many lives. He was a man of deep faith, and did everything with principal and grace, doing things the right way for the right reasons." AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nflThe NFL Network is reportedly considering whether to continue featuring ads on RedZone, a decision that has sparked significant backlash from viewers online. During Week 15 of the NFL season, fans were surprised by the presence of commercials on RedZone, particularly as NFL Network's Scott Hanson began the show with his well-known phrase: "Seven hours of commercial-free football starts now." According to Front Office Sports , the NFL Network is "undecided" about future RedZone commercials, although one source suggests the league may experiment with double-box ads in the final two weeks of the season. Terry Bradshaw secured Fox NFL role after simple gesture won over producer Andy Reid leaves Michael Vick reeling with FOX NFL Sunday message The insider also speculated that the NFL might delay until the 2025 regular season, at which point it would introduce RedZone advertisements more extensively. The introduction of ads to NFL's RedZone has left many fans disgruntled and considering abandoning the show, which was previously commercial-free. A fan on social media protested, "It's official, redzone has sold out. The commercial free era is over. what a shame,". Another voiced indignation by saying: "Not to be dramatic but red zone doing commercials now is such an indictment on the current state of things. They are choosing to ruin their reputation with their fans just so they can run a couple ads. Absolutely pathetic.." In response, a third individual lamented: "Redzone commercials the latest example of companies making a product worse for a few bucks just because they can and the consumer being completely impotent to do anything about it. sucks. your brand loyalty is just money for some company.". In light of the significant pushback from viewers, host Hanson extended an apology, "Hey everyone, as we kick off a great football weekend, I just wanted to take a quick second and apologize for using the commercial-free catchphrase at the top of the last show," he confessed. "I was conflicted about it beforehand. I had a tough decision to make, and I made the wrong decision, and I'm sorry. I try to be the best host I can possibly be. DON'T MISS: Robert Griffin III sends message to Netflix team after NFL Christmas broadcast Andy Reid confirms unwanted blow for Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City Chiefs Bryce Underwood turns heads at first Michigan practice after alarming NIL deal "What we have shared together for 16 seasons on NFL RedZone is unlike anything else. I love it. I hope to do it for 16 more years. But being a great host means being accurate, being truthful, and having integrity. And so I hope you consider accepting this apology." In a notable deviation, Hanson refrained from using "commercial-free" in his usual introduction. Just one week after his broadcast blunder, he started Sunday's show by saying: "And you know what? You love RedZone football, we love RedZone football. So from now on it's... seven hours of RedZone football starts now." Despite the concerning change in his slogan, the most recent RedZone broadcast surprisingly went ahead without commercials. According to Sportico , the previous Week 15 commercials were actually just "tests", and a source has claimed that the NFL "does not currently have plans to test the ads again."
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes continues to build great chemistry with his tight end — just not the one you might think. Mahomes threw two touchdown passes to Noah Gray for the second straight week as the Kansas City Chiefs held off the Carolina Panthers 30-27 on Sunday. A week after losing at Buffalo, the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs (10-1) maintained their position atop the AFC. Mahomes completed a 35-yard touchdown strike to Gray on the game’s opening possession and found him again for an 11-yard TD in the second quarter. Gray has four touchdown catches in the last two weeks — twice as many as nine-time Pro Bowler Travis Kelce has all season — and has become a weapon in the passing game for the Chiefs, who lost top wide receiver Rashee Rice to a season-ending knee injury in Week 4. Kelce was still a factor Sunday with a team-high six catches for 62 yards, although the four-time All-Pro looked dejected after dropping one easy pass. Kelce has 62 receptions for 507 yards this season, while Gray has 26 catches for 249 yards. But Gray’s development is a good sign for the Chiefs — and he’s on the same page with Mahomes. RELATED COVERAGE NBC’s Mike Tirico calls Eagles-Rams game after suffering Achilles injury last Monday Rams once again fall flat in prime time with a chance to move into a tie atop the NFC West Brandon Graham expects to miss rest of season after tearing triceps in Eagles’ win over Rams On his second TD, Gray said Mahomes “gave me the answer to the test there” before the play. “He told me what coverage it was pre-snap,” said Gray, who had four receptions for 66 yards. “That’s just the blessing you have of playing with a quarterback like that. Offensive line did a great job blocking that up and the receivers did a great job running their routes to pop me open. Really just a group effort right there on that touchdown.” Gray said that’s nothing new. The AP Top 25 college football poll is back every week throughout the season! Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here . “Pat’s preparation, his leadership is just something that I’m fortunate enough to play alongside,” Gray said. “I love it. It gets me motivated every time we go out there for a long drive. Having a leader like that, that prepares every single week in-and out, knows defenses, knows the game plans. “I’m just fortunate enough to play alongside a guy like that.” Mahomes completed 27 of 37 passes for 269 yards and three TDs, and he knew what to do on the second TD to Gray. “It’s not just me, it’s the quarterback coaches and the players, we go through certain checks you get to versus certain coverages,” Mahomes said. “I was able to see by the way they lined up they were getting into their cover-zero look. I alerted the guys to make sure they saw what I saw and I gave the check at the line of scrimmage.” ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
EDITOR'S NOTE: On Football analyzes the biggest topics in the NFL from week to week. No one wants to see any player take a vicious hit like the one that knocked Trevor Lawrence out of the game. It’s easy to agree on that point. Eliminating violent shots is the hard part. The NFL has instituted several rules to protect quarterbacks but football is a physical sport and players have to react instantly and make split-second decisions going at high speeds so injuries keep occurring. Lawrence was carted off the field in the first half of Jacksonville’s 23-20 loss to Houston on Sunday after Azeez Al-Shaair leveled the defenseless quarterback with a forearm to the facemask. The late hit put Lawrence in the fencing position — both fists clenched — and he stayed on the ground for several minutes, while a brawl ensued. Lawrence didn’t require hospitalization for his concussion but it’s unknown when he’ll return. “Thank you to everyone who has reached out/been praying for me,” Lawrence wrote on X. “I’m home and feeling better. Means a lot, thank you all.” Al-Shaair was ejected from the game and faces a fine and potential suspension after his latest unsportsmanlike penalty. The Texans' linebacker was flagged and later fined $11,255 for a late hit out of bounds on Titans running back Tony Pollard last week. He was fined earlier this year after he punched Bears running back Roschon Johnson on the sideline in Week 2. That occurred during a scuffle that started after his hard shot on quarterback Caleb Williams near the sideline that wasn’t flagged. Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence slides in front of Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair during the first half of a game on Sunday in Jacksonville, Fla. Lawrence was injured on the play. Al-Shaair once got away with grabbing Tom Brady by the throat on a pass rush in a game between the 49ers and Buccaneers. Outraged Jaguars players called Al-Shaair’s hit “dirty” and Texans coach DeMeco Ryans made it known he didn’t condone it. “It’s not what we’re coaching,” Ryans said. “Want to be smart in everything we do and not hurt the team, get a penalty there. Have to be smarter when the quarterback is going down. Unfortunate play. Not representative of who Azeez is. He’s a smart player, really great leader for us. We felt his presence not being there. His loss really affected us on the defensive side. Just not what we’re coaching. Didn’t want to see the melee and all the aftermath. That’s not what we’re about. Not representative of us. I’ll talk to Azeez, address him personally, and we’ll move forward from it.” Fox Sports color analyst Daryl Johnston, a former fullback for the Dallas Cowboys, didn’t hold back his criticism, calling it a “cheap shot.” “It’s everything you’re not supposed to do,” Johnston said. “Everything. You’ll see this in slow motion and Azeez Al-Shaair does everything you’re trying to prevent in this situation. It’s reckless. It’s disrespectful. There’s an honor that you give to your opponent on the football field and you respect him. And there’s opportunities to be physical and give big hits and play this game in that manner. And there’s other times when there’s a respect that you grant to your opponent.” Some former NFL quarterbacks blasted Al-Shaair on social media. “There is no place in the game of football for dirty hits like this one,” Robert Griffin III wrote on X. Chase Daniel called it “one of the dirtiest hits” he’s ever seen on a quarterback. Jacksonville Jaguars tight end Evan Engram, right, jumps on Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair after his late hit on quarterback Trevor Lawrence, bottom, during the first half of a game on Sunday in Jacksonville, Fla. Even defensive players struggled to defend Al-Shaair. “That was uncalled for,” Hall of Fame defensive lineman Michael Strahan said on Fox’s studio show while fellow Hall of Famer Howie Long agreed. But the play also sparked debate about the quarterback slide. Lawrence slid feet first, which signals that he’s giving himself up on the play. The NFL rulebook states: “A defender must pull up when a runner begins a feet-first slide.” But defensive players aren’t automatically penalized if they make contact with a sliding quarterback if they already committed and the contact is unavoidable. The rules state it’s a foul when “the defender makes forcible contact into the head or neck area of the runner with the helmet, shoulder, or forearm, or commits some other act that is unnecessary roughness.” Al-Shaair did that so he was penalized and will face other repercussions. Still, given the hard-hitting nature of the sport, it won’t be the last time this happens. When Caleb Williams took the field for the Chicago Bears' first regular season game against the Tennessee Titans, the anticipation for the rookie's debut game—possibly the most ever—was on full display. Despite a tough debut for the quarterback, the Bears secured a 24-17 win, a notable feat for the rookie. The victory made Williams the first #1 overall pick with a Week 1 win in over 20 years. Going forward this season, Williams is expected to eclipse C.J. Stroud's record-breaking 2023 rookie campaign with the Houston Texans. However, Stroud's success is an anomaly. Drafting a successful quarterback, especially one who is effective right away, is difficult. When teams have a high first-round draft pick, and they're coming off an unsuccessful few seasons, it's assumed that they will use their first pick on a quarterback . That player will assume the title of "the face of the franchise" and will get the central attention, win or lose. To see which quarterbacks have faced that challenge and triumphed, ATS.io compiled a ranking of the 10 best rookie quarterbacks since 1960 using data from StatHead . Rookies were defined as players who are in their first season of professional football and have not been on the roster of another professional team. Quarterbacks were ranked according to adjusted net yards per pass attempt, which quantifies efficient passing skill. Ties were broken using passer rating. Only rookie quarterbacks with at least 10 games played and 200 total passing attempts were considered. Since 1967, 130 quarterbacks have been drafted in the first round. Of those drafted, only 61 have won a playoff game as a starter, according to The Athletic, which used data from NFL Research . The biggest reason this success rate is not guaranteed is because there are differences between college and pro offensive systems. In the collegiate game, the ball is snapped at different points on the field, passing windows are wider, and defenders and linemen are not as quick, making the adjustment to the pro level more difficult. NFL scouts and general managers are gambling on what skills can be transferable and how long those adjustments might take, which is why some teams prefer redshirt quarterbacks to ease the transition. However, just because a team may not want to use their first-round pick on a quarterback, doesn't mean they can't find a diamond in the rough later in the draft. Think about Tom Brady, Russell Wilson, and Dak Prescott, all of which were not first-round picks, but have gone on to make a name for themselves in the NFL. - Adjusted net yards per pass attempt: 6.44 - Passer rating: 91.2 - Season stats: 3,271 yards, 21 touchdowns, 6 interceptions Coming out of college, Gardner Minshew was not a highly sought-after quarterback for NFL teams. He was drafted in the sixth round of the 2019 draft—a draft that was headlined by Kyler Murray, Dwayne Haskins, and Daniel Jones. Nonetheless, Minshew's rookie season with the Jacksonville Jaguars was filled with many accomplishments. He won Rookie of the Week seven times despite not winning NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. Minshew also had the highest passer rating of any rookie quarterback that started in 2019. - Adjusted net yards per pass attempt: 6.77 - Passer rating: 93.7 - Season stats: 3,725 yards, 27 touchdowns, 14 interceptions Pressure was high for Baker Mayfield as the first overall pick in the 2018 draft. When he joined the Cleveland Browns, there was an expectation that once the team figured out the quarterback position, it could be playoff-ready. After trading for Jarvis Landry, a young wide receiver from the Miami Dolphins, in the offseason, the Browns were on their way. Mayfield's rookie season was filled with many firsts, and the Landry-Mayfield connection filled the stat sheet. Mayfield set the record for most passing touchdowns by a rookie quarterback in 2019 with 27 surpassing prior marks from Payton Manning and Russell Wilson. - Adjusted net yards per pass attempt: 6.84 - Passer rating: 98.3 - Season stats: 4,336 yards, 31 touchdowns, 10 interceptions Justin Herbert was the third quarterback selected in the 2020 NFL draft behind Joe Burrow and Tua Tagovailoa. As the No. 6 overall pick, expectations were high, but there was also an assumption that it would be a few years before Herbert's development would take shape. Then, Chargers starting quarterback Tyrod Taylor was accidentally punctured in the lung by a team doctor administering a painkiller before the second game of the season, and it wasn't clear what Taylor's status would be moving forward. When Herbert was given the nod to start minutes before the game, fans didn't know what to expect. Herbert shocked viewers when he threw for over 300 yards and only one interception in that game. He continued his strong rookie showing throughout the season and went on to win NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. - Adjusted net yards per pass attempt: 6.93 - Passer rating: 98.1 - Season stats: 2,621 yards, 17 touchdowns, 11 interceptions Ben Roethlisberger was the third quarterback selected in his draft class behind the likes of Eli Manning and Philip Rivers—though fans wouldn't have been able to tell. From the moment Roethlisberger was called up by the Pittsburgh Steelers to play in his first game—Week 2 against the Baltimore Ravens—it was clear he had a special arm, gaining the nickname "Golden Arm." While the next several games were bumpy for Steelers fans, it was clear that Roethlisberger was the future of the franchise. The Steelers had a solid running game and its receiving core, led by Hines Ward, was one of the best in the league . Once Roethlisberger gained his footing a few games in, he was unstoppable. He led Pittsburgh to its best record ever: 15-1. He also started the season on an eight-game winning streak, becoming the first rookie to do so. Additionally, Roethlisberger became the first quarterback to win AP Offensive Rookie of the Year. - Adjusted net yards per pass attempt: 7.01 - Passer rating: 87.7 - Season stats: 3,440 yards, 16 touchdowns, 11 interceptions As the No. 3 overall pick in the 2008 NFL draft, there were high expectations on Matt Ryan's shoulders heading to the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons were coming off back-to-back losing seasons and off-the-field legal troubles with its starting quarterback Michael Vick overshadowing the team's play. Ryan was expected to pick up the pieces. He did that immediately, leading the Falcons to an 11-5 record in his rookie season and becoming the clear favorite for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year halfway through the season, which he went on to win. The tag team of Ryan and running back Michael Turner was one of the best offensive forces in the sport that season. - Adjusted net yards per pass attempt: 7.01 - Passer rating: 100 - Season stats: 3,118 yards, 26 touchdowns, 10 interceptions Russell Wilson was drafted in the third round of the 2012 NFL Draft by the Seattle Seahawks. Considering Robert Griffin III and Andrew Luck headlined the NFL Draft that year, it was not believed that Wilson would be a starter come Week 1, but that quickly changed. Going into the 2012 NFL Draft, Tarvaris Jackson was the Seattle Seahawks' starting quarterback, and the team signed NFL veteran quarterback Matt Flynn as an insurance policy on the injury-prone Jackson . It was assumed in the short term that either Jackson or Flynn would lead the franchise. Once training camp arrived, however, the Seahawks' quarterback position was uncertain. Jackson was traded to the Buffalo Bills, and Flynn was underwhelming at camp, forcing Head Coach Pete Carroll to take a gamble on his rookie quarterback, Wilson, in Week 1. Carroll, nor Wilson, ever looked back. Wilson was one of the best passing quarterbacks that season. He led the Seahawks to an 11-5 record and went on to win NFL Rookie of the Year. - Adjusted net yards per pass attempt: 7.39 - Passer rating: 96 - Season stats: 2,210 yards, 20 touchdowns, 6 interceptions When Dan Marino was drafted by the Miami Dolphins in 1983, the NFL looked very different. Running the ball was the name of the game. The quarterback would either run the football himself at the line of scrimmage or hand it off to the running back, and the offensive linemen would claw and push the pile forward as the runner powered his legs. It was not a pretty sight. However, Marino took a different approach, throwing the ball with a unique quick release for that era. He led the Dolphins to a 9-1 record after replacing David Woodley midway through his rookie season, ending with a 12-4 record. He went on to win Rookie of the Year and was the first rookie to start a Pro Bowl. - Adjusted net yards per pass attempt: 7.47 - Passer rating: 102.4 - Season stats: 3,200 yards, 20 touchdowns, 5 interceptions Leading into the 2012 draft, it wasn't a matter of whether Washington would pick a quarterback, it was a matter of who. After several seasons of mediocre quarterback play and losing seasons from the likes of Jason Campbell, Donovan McNabb, and Rex Grossman, it was time for a new face to lead the offense. At No. 2, Washington selected Robert Griffin III making him the second quarterback selected in the 2012 NFL draft behind Andrew Luck. Griffin started his rookie year campaign with one of the best performances football fans have ever seen. He completed 19 of his 26 pass attempts for 320 yards and 2 touchdowns, beating the New Orleans Saints. That game earned him the highest passer rating by a rookie ever, 158.3. He now shares that record with Kirk Cousins and Marcus Mariota. Griffin III went on to win NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2012. - Adjusted net yards per pass attempt: 7.86 - Passer rating: 104.9 - Season stats: 3,667 yards, 23 touchdowns, 4 interceptions Dak Prescott is statistically the best rookie quarterback ever, racking up the best passer rating as a rookie. After losing his first game, he led the Cowboys on an 11-game winning streak. That season, he led the team to its fourth-best season ever with a 13-3 record. Prescott was the 2016 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and became the first NFL quarterback to be drafted in the fourth round or later to start all 16 regular season games. Data reporting by Karim Noorani. Story editing by Shanna Kelly. Additional editing by Kelly Glass. Copy editing by Robert Wickwire. Photo selection by Clarese Moller. This story originally appeared on ATS.io and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio. - Adjusted net yards per pass attempt: 7.47 - Passer rating: 100.8 - Season stats: 4,108 yards, 23 touchdowns, 5 interceptions When C.J. Stroud was drafted No. 2 by the Houston Texans last year, there were a lot of questions, not about his ability, but about the organization that he would be playing for. The Texans were coming off of a 3-13-1 season in 2022, finishing with the worst record in the league, and a lot of volatility in its front office. The team fired its head coach and a top executive before the draft. Weeks later, the team hired former Texans linebacker DeMeco Ryans as its next head coach. While Ryans is a defensive-minded coach, Stroud was seen as a key ingredient to the team's success since Ryans hired his coaching staff around the quarterback. Stroud led the NFL in yards and TD-to-interception ratio during his rookie season, which is an efficiency statistic considering he didn't get his first interception until his sixth regular-season game against the New Orleans Saints. While Stroud was a part of the league MVP conversation for most of the season, he didn't ultimately win the title. However, he was named 2023 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, and his rookie season is seen as one of the best in NFL history. Respond: Write a letter to the editor | Write a guest opinion Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!
Croatia's incumbent president gains most votes for re-election, but not enough to avoid a runoffJimmy Carter, a no-frills and steel-willed Southern governor who was elected president in 1976, was rejected by disillusioned voters after a single term and went on to an extraordinary post-presidential life that included winning the Nobel Peace Prize, died Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia, according to his son James E. Carter III, known as Chip. He was 100 and the oldest living U.S. president of all time. His son confirmed the death but did not provide an immediate cause. In a statement in February 2023, the Carter Center said the former president, after a series of hospital stays, would stop further medical treatment and spend his remaining time at home under hospice care. He had been treated in recent years for an aggressive form of melanoma skin cancer, with tumors that spread to his liver and brain. His wife, Rosalynn, died Nov. 19, 2023, at 96. The Carters, who were close partners in public life, had been married for more than 77 years, the longest presidential marriage in U.S. history. His final public appearance was at her funeral in Plains, where he sat in the front row in a wheelchair. Mr. Carter, a small-town peanut farmer, U.S. Navy veteran, and Georgia governor from 1971 to 1975, was the first president from the Deep South since 1837, and the only Democrat elected president between Lyndon B. Johnson’s and Bill Clinton’s terms in the White House. As the nation’s 39th president, he governed with strong Democratic majorities in Congress but in a country that was growing more conservative. Four years after taking office, Mr. Carter lost his bid for reelection, in a landslide, to one of the most conservative political figures of the era, Ronald Reagan. When Mr. Carter left Washington in January 1981, he was widely regarded as a mediocre president, if not an outright failure. The list of what had gone wrong during his presidency, not all of it his fault, was long. It was a time of economic distress, with a stagnant economy and stubbornly high unemployment and inflation. “Stagflation,” connoting both low growth and high inflation, was a description that critics used to attack Mr. Carter’s economic policies. In the summer of 1979, Americans waited in long lines at service stations as gasoline supplies dwindled and prices soared after revolution in Iran disrupted the global oil supply. Mr. Carter made energy his signature domestic policy initiative, and he had some success, but events outside his control intervened. In March 1979, a unit of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pa., suffered a core meltdown. The accident was the worst ever for the U.S. nuclear-energy industry and a severe setback to hopes that nuclear power would provide a safe alternative to oil and other fossil fuels. Mr. Carter’s fortunes were no better overseas. In November 1979, an Iranian mob seized control of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans as hostages. It was the beginning of a 444-day ordeal that played out daily on television and did not end until Jan. 20, 1981, the day Mr. Carter left office, when the hostages were released. In the midst of the crisis, in April 1980, Mr. Carter authorized a rescue attempt that ended disastrously in the Iranian desert when two U.S. aircraft collided on the ground, killing eight American servicemen. Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance, who had opposed the mission, resigned. “I may have overemphasized the plight of the hostages when I was in my final year,” Mr. Carter said in a 2018 interview with The Washington Post in Plains. “But I was so obsessed with them personally, and with their families, that I wanted to do anything to get them home safely, which I did.” A month after the Iranian hostage crisis erupted, an emboldened Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Mr. Carter ordered an embargo of grain sales to the Soviet Union, angering American farmers, and a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, a step that was unpopular with many Americans and was widely seen as weak and ineffectual. As the years wore on, the judgment on Mr. Carter’s presidency gradually gave way to a more positive view. He lived long enough to see his record largely vindicated by history, with a widespread acknowledgment that his presidency had been far more than long lines at the gas station and U.S. hostages in Iran. Near the end of Mr. Carter’s life, two biographies argued forcefully that he had been a more consequential president than most people realized - “perhaps the most misunderstood president in American history,” author Jonathan Alter wrote in his 2020 book, “His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life.” Both books - the other was Kai Bird’s 2021 volume, “The Outlier: The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter” - said Mr. Carter was often ahead of his time, especially with his early focus on reducing fossil fuel use and his efforts to mitigate the nation’s racial divide, including by expanding the number of people of color in federal judgeships. The biographies concluded that Mr. Carter’s reputation as a poor president was unfair and came largely from his stubborn insistence on doing what he thought was correct even when it cost him politically. “He insisted on telling us what was wrong and what it would take to make things better,” Bird wrote. “And for most Americans, it was easier to label the messenger a ‘failure’ than to grapple with the hard problems.” Mr. Carter, noted for his mile-wide smile in public, was also tenacious and resolute, and those qualities were critical to achieving the Camp David Accords, a signature success of his presidency. He spent 13 days at the presidential retreat in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains in September 1978, shuttling between cabins that housed Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. In a process that almost collapsed several times, Mr. Carter was instrumental in brokering a historic agreement between bitter rivals. The Camp David Accords led to the first significant Israeli withdrawal from territory captured in the Six-Day War of 1967 and a peace treaty that has endured between Israel and its largest Arab neighbor. In 1978, Begin and Sadat were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor conferred on Mr. Carter 24 years later for a lifetime of working for peace. Against fierce conservative opposition, Mr. Carter pushed through the Panama Canal treaties, which ultimately placed the economically and strategically critical waterway under Panamanian control, a major step toward better U.S. relations with Latin American neighbors. He signed a nuclear-arms-reduction treaty, SALT II, with the Soviets, but he withdrew it from Senate consideration when Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan. Taking advantage of the opening made by President Richard M. Nixon, Mr. Carter granted full diplomatic recognition to China. He made human rights a central theme of U.S. foreign policy, a sharp departure from the approach of Nixon and his national security adviser and second secretary of state, Henry A. Kissinger. Two Cabinet-level departments - Energy and Education - were created under Mr. Carter, as was the Superfund to clean up toxic-waste sites. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act more than doubled the size of the national park and wildlife refuge system. Mr. Carter was ahead of his time on environmental issues. In June 1979, he installed 32 solar panels on the roof of the West Wing of the White House, telling reporters that the point was to harness “the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.” “A generation from now, this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people,” Mr. Carter said. Reagan removed the panels in 1986. His relations with Congress were often strained, even though it was controlled by his party, but he had more success than most modern presidents at winning passage of his legislative proposals. With the deregulation of the airline and trucking industries, Mr. Carter set in motion a movement that picked up steam under Reagan and his conservative allies. The military buildup under Reagan was often credited with hastening the collapse of the Soviet Union, but that buildup began under Mr. Carter. Inflation was a constant scourge to his administration, but it was Mr. Carter who appointed Paul Volcker chairman of the Federal Reserve. Volcker was later hailed as the man who broke the back of inflation in the early 1980s, when Reagan was president. In the 2018 Post interview, Mr. Carter said he had “a lot of regrets” from his time in office, mainly over the Iran hostage crisis and his not having done more to unify the Democratic Party. He said he was most proud of the Camp David Accords, his work to normalize relations with China and his focus on human rights. “I kept our country at peace and championed human rights, and that’s a rare thing for post-World War II presidents to say,” he said, adding that he was also proud that he “always told the truth.” Mr. Carter was a former president for more than four decades - longer than anyone else in history - and he was only the second to live to 94, after George H.W. Bush, who died in 2018. He dedicated his post-presidential life to public service at home and supporting democracy and human rights abroad. It was a career that even some of his supporters said seemed better suited to him than being president. “Nothing about the White House so became Mr. Carter as his having left it,” historian Douglas Brinkley wrote in “The Unfinished Presidency,” a 1998 account of Mr. Carter’s life after the presidency. Mr. Carter lived more modestly than any ex-president since Harry S. Truman, whom Mr. Carter called his favorite president. He and Rosalynn lived in Plains until the end in the ranch house that they built for themselves in 1961, and where Mr. Carter will be buried with her next to a shady willow tree near a pond that he helped dig. Mr. Carter declined the corporate board memberships and lucrative speaking engagements that have made other ex-presidents tens of millions of dollars. He said in the 2018 interview that he didn’t want to “capitalize financially on being in the White House.” “I don’t see anything wrong with it; I don’t blame other people for doing it,” Mr. Carter said. “It just never had been my ambition to be rich.” Instead, he wrote 33 books on topics ranging from war to woodworking, which gave him a comfortable retirement income. He also won three Grammy Awards for his recordings of audio versions of his books. For decades, the Carters spent a week a year building homes with Habitat for Humanity, the Georgia-based nonprofit organization that constructs housing for low-income people. Wearing their own tool belts, they helped build or renovate about 4,300 homes in 14 countries. In 1982, the Carters founded the Carter Center at Emory University in Atlanta. It became the base from which they traveled widely on peacemaking and other humanitarian missions. The Carter Center sponsors programs in education, agricultural development and health care and supports fair elections in countries around the world. Mr. Carter became an unofficial roving ambassador, monitoring elections, mediating disputes and promoting human rights and democracy. In 1994, at the request of President Clinton, he helped forge an agreement that removed a brutal military regime in Haiti and averted a possible U.S. invasion of that country. Mr. Carter’s missions required meeting with some of the world’s most notorious despots, including Kim Il Sung of North Korea and Moammar Gaddafi of Libya. Fledgling democracies trusted him, and he was asked to monitor elections in Panama, Nicaragua, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Zambia, the West Bank and Gaza. The Carter Center has monitored 115 elections in 40 countries, according to its website. He was not always successful, but Mr. Carter never seemed discouraged about his efforts to resolve conflicts. He spent the days leading up to the 1994 Christmas holiday in the Balkans, engaging in negotiations that included a shouted conversation by shortwave radio with Serbian strongman Radovan Karadzic, who in 2016 was convicted of genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Mr. Carter’s efforts resulted in a four-month cease-fire in the bloody conflict. From Atlanta, the Carter Center coordinated dozens of initiatives, including a decades-long effort that helped to virtually eradicate Guinea worm disease, a painful and disabling condition that once afflicted millions of people in some of Africa's poorest countries. Mr. Carter’s freelance diplomacy, which at times included outspoken criticism of U.S. policies, could provoke outrage. He angered Clinton in 1994 by thrusting himself into a dispute over U.N. inspections of North Korea’s nuclear facilities. In his book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid” (2006), Mr. Carter set off a storm of criticism by seeming to equate Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories with the former apartheid regime in South Africa. Over the years, Mr. Carter was a constant source of irritation to conservative critics. In a book about Mr. Carter’s life after the White House - a book whose subtitle called him “Our Worst Ex-President” - conservative political commentator Steven F. Hayward accused him of engaging in “usually embarrassing and often disastrous peace missions around the world.” The far more common judgment was that Mr. Carter’s tireless pursuit of peace and human rights was admirable and set a new standard for ex-presidents. In awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, the Nobel committee lauded him “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.” Introducing the 2002 Peace Prize laureate in Oslo, Gunnar Berge, a member of the Nobel committee, said: “Jimmy Carter will probably not go down in American history as the most effective president. But he is certainly the best ex-president the country ever had.” That Mr. Carter became president was something of a historical accident, one that followed an unprecedented chain of events. The progression began in 1973 with the resignation of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, who was caught in a web of corruption dating from his time as a Maryland politician. That led to the appointment of then-Minority Leader Gerald Ford, a respected but relatively little-known U.S. House member from Michigan, as Agnew’s successor. And, finally, in 1974, there was the resignation of Nixon to avoid impeachment stemming from the Watergate scandal. Two years later, Mr. Carter narrowly defeated Ford, but the person he really campaigned against was Nixon. Mr. Carter was the peanut farmer from Georgia, the candidate who carried his own garment bag off the aircraft and promised to bring an open and honest style of leadership to the nation’s capital. It later became commonplace for presidential candidates, and most challengers to incumbents, to run “against Washington.” Mr. Carter was among the first of the modern era to do so. Mr. Carter signaled his disdain for the “imperial” trappings of the presidency on Inauguration Day in 1977, when he, Rosalynn and their daughter, Amy, stepped out of the presidential limousine on Pennsylvania Avenue and walked the parade route to the White House. “He didn’t feel suited to the grandeur,” Stuart E. Eizenstat, a Carter aide and biographer, said in 2018. While that seemed refreshing to many people after the Nixon years, it ultimately grated on those who thought that Mr. Carter’s style - refusing, for example, to have “Hail to the Chief” played when he entered rooms - demeaned and diminished the presidency. Eizenstat said Mr. Carter’s order eliminating drivers for top staff members was meant to signal a more frugal approach to governing. Instead, he said, it meant that busy officials were driving instead of reading and working for an hour or two every day. Two years later, in 1979, Americans were in a sour mood, and Mr. Carter’s response to events seemed to make matters worse. In July, he abruptly canceled a speech on energy and retreated to Camp David, where he held a series of intense discussions with a cross section of guests. When he emerged July 15, he delivered a nationally televised address that was soon dubbed the “malaise” speech, although Mr. Carter never used that word in his address. In the speech, Mr. Carter spoke of a “crisis of the American spirit” and, before setting out a series of energy policy proposals, warned that “we are at a turning point in our history.” “There are two paths to choose,” he continued. “One is a path I've warned about tonight, the path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest. Down that road lies a mistaken idea of freedom, the right to grasp for ourselves some advantage over others. That path would be one of constant conflict between narrow interests ending in chaos and immobility. It is a certain route to failure.” The speech, initially well received, was soon turned against Mr. Carter, who was accused of blaming the American people for the failures of his administration. Mr. Carter did not help his cause when, two days later, he demanded the resignation of his entire Cabinet and fired five of the secretaries. Then came the takeover of the U.S. Embassy by Iranian student protesters. By the early 21st century, Mr. Carter’s warning about the fragmentation of American society leading to political paralysis appeared prescient to many. So, too, did his emphasis on concerns then only dimly perceived as threats - foremost among them, the spread of nuclear weapons to unfriendly and unstable regimes. But hindsight was of no benefit to him then. Mr. Carter’s dignity was ruthlessly assailed by reports in August 1979 of his encounter with a “killer rabbit” a few months before while fishing in Georgia. “President Attacked by Rabbit,” a front-page headline in The Post proclaimed. His use of a paddle to fend off a rabbit swimming toward his small boat was widely lampooned as a desperate struggle. The story, inconsequential in itself, reinforced an impression, cultivated by his political opponents, that Mr. Carter was a hapless bumbler unequal to his office. He also had been mocked for wearing a cardigan in February 1977 while sitting next to a fire to deliver his first speech on energy, in which he called the nation’s response to a growing energy crisis “the moral equivalent of war.” But his energy policies led to a reduction in U.S. consumption of foreign oil. Long after he left public office, there was a public outcry over congressional “earmarks” and other forms of pork-barrel spending because of the soaring federal budget deficit. One of Mr. Carter’s first acts as president was to veto a bill authorizing a number of federal water projects he considered wasteful, incurring the lasting enmity of some of the Democratic barons of Capitol Hill. “If you are president and you’re going to diagnose a problem, you better have a solution to it,” journalist Hendrik Hertzberg, who as a White House speechwriter worked on the “malaise” speech, later observed. “While he turned out to be a true prophet, he turned out not to be a savior.” To many who were sympathetic to Mr. Carter and considered his presidency underrated, his shortcomings stemmed largely from the way he defined the role more in moral than political terms, which reflected his deep religious faith. He craved political power to do good as he saw it, and he was adept at gaining power. But he was not a natural politician, and he was never at home in the messy world of politics and governing in an unruly democracy. He was always far more at home in Plains, the speck of a town in South Georgia that he never really left. Until late in their lives, he and Mrs. Carter frequently were seen walking hand in hand along Church Street on their way home from Saturday dinners at the home of their friend Jill Stuckey. Mr. Carter was a champion for the town, which is essentially a living museum of his life, with old-fashioned storefronts and shops selling everything from Carter Christmas ornaments to campaign memorabilia. He helped woo a Dollar General store to Plains, then shopped for his clothes there. In the 2018 interview, Mr. Carter said he and Mrs. Carter wanted to be buried in Plains partly because they knew their gravesite would draw tourists and provide a much-needed economic boost to their hometown. They celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary in 2021 with a party for more than 300 people at Plains High School, which they both had attended about eight decades earlier. The guests included country music stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, a married couple who had worked with the Carters for years building homes for Habitat for Humanity. (Brooks and Yearwood quietly presented the Carters with a 1946 Ford Super Deluxe convertible, in honor of the year they were married.) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came to the party, as did billionaire and CNN founder Ted Turner, who was Mr. Carter’s longtime friend and fly-fishing buddy, and civil rights leader Andrew Young, whom President Carter appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and who later served as mayor of Atlanta. Also there was Mary Prince, an African American woman who was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1970. She met the Carters when she was a prisoner assigned to work at the Georgia governor’s mansion. Rosalynn Carter was convinced of her innocence and hired her to be Amy Carter’s nanny. After he became president, Mr. Carter persuaded the parole board to let him be Prince’s parole officer. She moved into the White House and lived there for all of Mr. Carter’s presidency, looking after Amy. She later received a full pardon. She still lives in Plains and sometimes cares for the Carters’ grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Most notably, Bill and Hillary Clinton made the long trip to Plains. The Carters and the Clintons had tense relations for decades but seemed ready to set their differences aside in the twilight of Carter’s life. Onstage, Mr. Carter, who was then 96, spoke haltingly, showing the combined effects of his age and many health problems, including brain cancer that appeared to have been treated successfully in 2015. Seated next to his wife, Mr. Carter expressed “particular gratitude” to her for “being the right woman.” Then he flashed his trademark toothy grin, looked out at an auditorium jammed with family and friends, many of them choking up, and declared, “I love you all very much.” Friends said it felt like a goodbye. The next morning, an exhausted Mr. Carter was wheeled into the Baptist church where he had until recently taught Sunday school. He kissed Pelosi’s hand when she walked in. “I thought he was a great president because he was a president of values, and he acted upon the values,” Pelosi said later. She admired him for his vision, for his striving to help free the world of nuclear weapons, and for the way he inspired people by his good works in his post-presidency. “He went from the White House to building houses for poor people,” she said. “He glorified that work. Others wanted to do it because he did it. That’s powerful.” Despite the feeling of farewell in Plains that summer weekend, Mr. Carter did not fade completely from public view. Nearly five months later, on the eve of the first anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters, he wrote an op-ed for the New York Times decrying “unscrupulous politicians” who guided the mob and the “lie” that the 2020 election had been stolen. He called on Americans to reject political violence, polarization, disinformation and embrace “fairness, civility and respect for the rule of law.” “Our great nation now teeters on the brink of a widening abyss,” Mr. Carter warned. “Without immediate action, we are at genuine risk of civil conflict and losing our precious democracy. Americans must set aside differences and work together before it is too late.” Survivors include their four children, John W. “Jack” Carter, James E. “Chip” Carter III, Donnel J. “Jeff” Carter and Amy Carter; 11 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren. James Earl L. “Buddy” Carter Jr., the eldest of four children, was born Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains, a farming town about 150 miles south of Atlanta. The Carters lived on the family farm in Archery, Ga., about two miles west of Plains, in a house with no electricity or running water. But that was not uncommon in the rural South of the time, and the Carters, though not wealthy, were not poor. As they prospered, the Carters eventually moved to a larger and more modern, although still modest, home in Plains. Mr. Carter’s father, who was known as Earl, was ambitious, hard-working and shrewd. Over the years, he enlarged his farm holdings in the region and branched into other business ventures, including a peanut warehouse. Running for president, Jimmy Carter was often described, and described himself, as a peanut farmer, but that label did not capture the full extent of the family’s business interests. By the time he entered state politics in the early 1960s, Mr. Carter was an affluent agribusinessman, the head of a sizable and thriving commercial enterprise. It was his mother who probably had the most influence on the future president. A nurse by training, Lillian Gordy Carter was talkative, outgoing, at times irrepressible. In 1966, at the age of 68, “Miss Lillian,” as she came to be known, decided to join the Peace Corps, and she spent nearly two years serving in India. She slipped quietly out of town to begin her training because, she said later, the family thought her joining the Peace Corps might arouse conservative suspicions about her son’s campaign for governor. Mr. Carter grew up in the rigidly segregated South of the 1920s and ’30s. But unlike in much of the North, which was segregated in fact if not in law, contact between Black and White people was part of everyday life in much of the South. There was only one other White family in Archery, and many of Mr. Carter’s boyhood friends were Black. His mother turned the family home into a social center where Black and White people were welcome and where she dispensed medical treatment and advice to the sharecropper families who worked the Carter land. In his youth, Mr. Carter made no attempt to conceal his ambition. Perhaps influenced by an uncle, Tom Watson Gordy, a Navy enlisted man who sent messages to the family from exotic places, he declared at an early age that he intended to enter the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and eventually become chief of naval operations. He also told a friend that one day he would be governor of Georgia. Mr. Carter graduated from Plains High School in 1941. To qualify for the Naval Academy, he enrolled at Georgia Southwestern College in nearby Americus, and he later spent a year studying at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. In 1943, as World War II raged, he was admitted to the Naval Academy. He was a good student, a quick study who seemed to move through the academy’s rigorous academic schedule with ease. He was also popular with his classmates, viewed as a “nice guy,” but not necessarily destined to be a leader. He was officially a member of the Class of 1947, but under the Navy’s accelerated wartime schedule, he graduated in 1946, ranking 59th in a class of more than 800. Shortly after his graduation, Mr. Carter married Eleanor Rosalynn Smith of Plains, a close friend of his sister Ruth’s. The new Mrs. Carter, three years younger than her husband, was from a respectable Plains family and shared Mr. Carter’s values and outlook. After graduating from the Naval Academy, Mr. Carter spent two compulsory years on Navy surface ships and then applied for the submarine service. He was accepted and soon won entry to the Navy’s newest and most glamorous program, which was developing the nation’s first nuclear-powered submarines under the iron-fisted direction of a captain (later admiral) named Hyman G. Rickover. Rickover was a cold man who drove his subordinates relentlessly. He never praised his men; he signaled his approval by allowing them to remain in their jobs. Years later, Mr. Carter would say, “I think, second to my own father, Rickover had more effect on my life than any other man.” The title of his 1975 presidential campaign autobiography, “Why Not the Best?” was based on his first encounter with Rickover, who asked him whether he had always done his best at the Naval Academy. The young lieutenant junior grade answered honestly that, no, he had not always done his best. After a long pause, Rickover asked icily, “Why not?” Rickover was not a man who cultivated friendships, and his influence on Mr. Carter might have reinforced the same tendency in the future president. Supremely self-confident, Mr. Carter, too, was a taskmaster, and he was not a favorite president among those who served on the permanent White House staff and saw chief executives come and go. When Mr. Carter came to Washington as the newly elected “outsider” president, he had few real friends in the capital, even among members of his own party. In four years, he did little to forge the bonds of friendship and loyalty that can help carry a president through times of turmoil. He alienated potential allies, and the engineer in him was given to micromanagement. Early in his term, Mr. Carter personally controlled access to the White House tennis court. “Although most considered Mr. Carter a kind, amiable man, he could turn nasty in an instant,” Brinkley wrote in “The Unfinished Presidency.” He added, “At times he was downright vicious; in fact, his trademark steely, laser-sharp stare usually preceded a hurtful put-down. Even in the most informal settings, Mr. Carter had to let everybody know he was in charge.” Mr. Carter, however, did develop deep friendships. One of them, surprisingly, was with Ford, the man he defeated in 1976. Out of office, the two men saw each other frequently and collaborated on various projects. Mr. Carter delivered a eulogy at Ford’s funeral in Grand Rapids, Mich., in 2007. Mr. Carter never stopped taking positions on personally and politically difficult issues. He cut ties with the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000, citing its “increasingly rigid” views, especially on the role of women in society. “I’ve made this decision with a great deal of pain and reluctance,” Mr. Carter told the Associated Press at the time. “For me, being a Southern Baptist has always been like being an American. ... My father and his father were deacons and Sunday school teachers. It’s something that’s just like breathing for us.” But he added: “I personally feel the Bible says all people are equal in the eyes of God. I personally feel that women should play an absolutely equal role in service of Jesus in the church.” By 1952, promoted to lieutenant and assigned as the engineering officer on the USS Sea Wolf, the fleet’s second nuclear submarine, Mr. Carter’s Navy career was off to a good start. But his father died in July 1953, leaving the farm and other family business interests in shaky financial condition. As the oldest of the Carter siblings, the young naval officer felt a duty to return to Georgia and take his place as head of the family. And his mother wanted him at home to hold things together through a challenging time. He resigned from the Navy on Oct. 9, 1953, and headed home. His return to Plains reunited him with his sisters, Gloria and Ruth, and his brother, Billy, who became a well-known figure during the Carter presidency. Always the family rebel, Billy Carter reveled in the role of Georgia good ol’ boy at the gas station he owned in Plains. He also marketed a beer - Billy Beer - under his own name. But he became an embarrassment to his brother when it was disclosed that he had accepted a $220,000 loan from Libya and registered as a foreign agent of the Libyan government. Mr. Carter’s siblings all died before him - all from pancreatic cancer. Mr. Carter’s Navy resignation was a difficult decision, especially for Rosalynn. She enjoyed the adventure and security of military life, and as a young girl, she had yearned to leave the confines of Plains for the wider world. Now, at 26, with three small children, she headed back to the small town amid the dusty farm fields of southwest Georgia and a life she thought she had escaped. But the Carters soon found their footing in their native region. They formed an effective business partnership, with Rosalynn handling the bookkeeping and other managerial duties at the warehouse and her husband immersing himself in the technical and scientific details of modern farming. They began to prosper. The Carters remained partners in all facets of life. At the White House, Rosalynn Carter was an unusually activist first lady, regularly attending Cabinet meetings and policy sessions and serving as a trusted adviser to the president. She placed special emphasis on mental health issues and served as the active honorary chairman of the President’s Commission on Mental Health. After the White House years, she accompanied her husband on his global missions. Like his father before him, Mr. Carter became an active member in community institutions - Plains Baptist Church, the Lions Club, the local school and library boards, and the county planning commission. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter had been elected to the Georgia legislature the year before his death, and in 1962, his elder son embarked on a political career. He ran for a state Senate seat representing Sumter and six other counties. Mr. Carter ran an energetic campaign for the Democratic primary, the only election that counted at that time in the Deep South, but he came up just short against the incumbent. On the day of the primary, however, his operatives in the small city of Quitman witnessed widespread voting irregularities, including ballot stuffing. It was the way things had been done in Quitman for years. Mr. Carter convinced John Pennington, a young investigative reporter for the Atlanta Journal, that there was a good story to be had in Quitman. Pennington’s subsequent stories exposed the extent of voter fraud in the county and brought Mr. Carter statewide attention. Through intermediaries, including Griffin Bell, who became attorney general in the Carter administration, Mr. Carter made contact with Charles Kirbo, a partner in a prestigious Atlanta law firm. Kirbo, who had never met the Georgia peanut farmer, agreed to represent him in a challenge to the primary election’s outcome. Kirbo remained a friend and trusted adviser. Mr. Carter prevailed, and in January 1963 he took his seat in the Georgia Senate. He served four years, his only legislative experience, generally keeping a low profile while achieving a reputation for diligence and hard work. He promised to read every bill introduced in the legislature, and when he had trouble keeping up, he took a speed-reading course. In 1966, Mr. Carter announced that he was running for the congressional seat held by Howard “Bo” Calloway, a wealthy Republican and graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. When Calloway unexpectedly dropped his reelection bid and entered the race for the Republican nomination for governor, Mr. Carter jumped into the race for the Democratic nomination. His primary opponents included Ellis Arnall, a former governor who was regarded as a progressive, and Lester Maddox, an Atlanta restaurant owner who dispensed ax handles to patrons as a symbol of his resistance to the civil rights advances of the 1960s. Mr. Carter finished third in the primary, which was won by Maddox. The 1966 defeat affected Mr. Carter profoundly. It was then, he later wrote, that he underwent a deep religious transformation, a “born-again” experience that guided him for the rest of his life. From then on, he pursued a moral as much as a political agenda and tended to define issues in terms of right and wrong. When he ran for president, he described himself as a “born-again Christian,” at the time a new and somewhat jarring term in the lexicon of presidential politics. He almost immediately began planning to run a second campaign for governor in 1970. His main rival in the Democratic primary was Carl Sanders, a well-regarded former governor with a moderate record on race. Mr. Carter had taken courageous stands on the issue of race, although he was never in the forefront of the civil rights movement, which was gathering momentum and tearing the South apart. In the 1950s, he withstood intense pressure from his neighbors and threats to the family business as one of the few White men in Plains who would not join the local chapter of the White Citizens Council, an organization whose thinly veiled purpose was the continued subjugation of Black people. In 1965, he and other members of his family stood virtually alone in opposing a resolution barring Black people from Plains Baptist Church. But in the 1970 campaign, Mr. Carter aggressively courted the state’s conservative, rural voters, kept his distance from the African American community and relentlessly attacked Sanders as the wealthy crony of the “bigwigs” of Atlanta’s business establishment. Sanders had refused to allow Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace (D), the most prominent segregationist politician in the country, to address the Georgia legislature. Mr. Carter promised repeatedly to invite Wallace to the state. Mr. Carter was endorsed by some of Georgia’s leading segregationists, but the 1970 campaign cost him the support of some old allies. Mr. Carter defeated Sanders in a primary runoff and easily won the general election. He then executed a stunning political pivot. On Jan. 12, 1971, Mr. Carter delivered his inaugural address in front of the Georgia Capitol, declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over. ... No poor, rural, weak or Black person should ever have to bear the additional burden of being deprived of the opportunity of an education, a job or simple justice.” The speech was probably the most important of his life, including those he delivered as president. It brought him national attention and soon landed him on the cover of Time magazine. Mr. Carter became a leading figure in a generation of young New South politicians who were seen as determined to move their region beyond the rancorous politics of race. As governor, Mr. Carter largely lived up to his lofty words. He appointed more women and minorities to state government positions than all of his predecessors combined. He also continued efforts, begun in the state Senate, to upgrade Georgia’s public schools, and he overhauled the prison system and judiciary. Mr. Carter was constitutionally limited to one term as governor (Georgia governors can now serve two consecutive terms), but his ambitions were not similarly constrained. He began to think of running for president, a goal that might seem wildly out of reach even for a bright young governor with a progressive reputation. As late as October 1975, a public-opinion poll on possible 1976 Democratic presidential contenders did not include his name. By the 1970 gubernatorial campaign, Mr. Carter had acquired the services, and the fierce loyalty, of two young Georgians who would be at his side through his presidency. One was Hamilton Jordan, a political science student who volunteered to work for Mr. Carter in 1966 and became his closest political strategist and White House chief of staff. The other was Jody Powell, who began as Mr. Carter’s driver in the 1970 campaign and went on to be his chief spokesman and White House press secretary. Jordan died in 2008; Powell died in 2009. While still governor of Georgia, Mr. Carter quietly pursued the presidency with the same determination that marked all of his endeavors. He managed to get appointed to an important Democratic National Committee campaign post, providing a vehicle to meet Democratic politicians and activists around the county. Jordan, his executive assistant, left Atlanta for a job with the DNC in Washington, where he served as the unannounced candidate’s eyes and ears at national party headquarters. Jordan also wrote a long memo setting out the changing contours of the nomination process and a strategy that would lead to victory. Mr. Carter, with Powell at his side, crisscrossed the country tirelessly, impressing the people he met and gradually building a foundation of support. It all came together on a cold January night in Iowa. Mr. Carter did not win the Iowa caucuses in 1976 - the most votes were cast for uncommitted delegates - but he finished first among those who competed. That gave him a burst of publicity and momentum that carried him to victory in the New Hampshire primary and eventually to the nomination as his rivals dropped out of the race one by one. It was the 1976 Carter campaign that firmly established Iowa as the starting point of the road to the White House. After Watergate and the other scandals of the Nixon administration, it was a good year to be a Democrat. Mr. Carter chose Sen. Walter F. Mondale of Minnesota, a Northern liberal with strong ties to organized labor, as his running mate, and they headed into the fall campaign with a 30-point lead in the polls over their Republican opponents. They almost lost. Ford ran a disciplined campaign that made maximum use of his status as the incumbent, and Mr. Carter’s lead in the polls steadily dwindled. Shortly before Election Day, Playboy magazine published a long interview with the Democratic nominee. As a final question, Mr. Carter was asked whether he thought that he had reassured people who were uneasy about his religious beliefs and fearful that he would be a rigid, unbending president. In the midst of a long, rambling response, Mr. Carter said: “I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times.” Public doubts about the born-again peanut farmer and one-term governor deepened. Mr. Carter won the election by two percentage points. His steep slide during the 1976 campaign was an early warning signal of his political vulnerability. Four years later, Mr. Carter was the incumbent, but that was hardly an advantage. One July 1980 poll put his approval rating at 21 percent, one of the lowest ever recorded for a president. Mr. Carter was the first president to openly embrace rock-and-roll music, and he credits the Allman Brothers and other musicians with helping him win election in 1976. “I was practically a nonentity, but everyone knew the Allman Brothers,” Mr. Carter said in a 2020 documentary, “Jimmy Carter: Rock-and-roll President.” “When they endorsed me, all the young people said, ‘Well, if the Allman Brothers like him, we can vote for him.’” Mr. Carter was challenged for his party’s nomination by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a hero to Democratic liberals who had come to detest Mr. Carter for what they considered his conservative policies. The Kennedy campaign badly damaged Mr. Carter’s reelection chances, but it also exposed weaknesses in Kennedy’s presidential aspirations. Mr. Carter won the nomination, and the youngest of the Kennedy brothers never again sought the presidency. In the fall, Mr. Carter faced Reagan, the hero of a rising conservative movement. As he had in the 1970 campaign for governor of Georgia, Mr. Carter played to win. He mounted a negative assault that depicted Reagan as a right-wing ideologue who was too dangerous to entrust with the nation’s future. In the only nationally televised debate of the fall campaign, Reagan disarmed that portrayal. “There you go again,” he said in his avuncular, optimistic style, responding to Mr. Carter’s accusations. Reagan won by almost 10 percentage points, sweeping 44 of the 50 states. For years, people in Mr. Carter’s orbit believed that Reagan supporters had been in contact with Iranian officials and urged them to delay the release of the U.S. hostages in Tehran until after the 1980 election. The purpose, allegedly, was to make sure that Mr. Carter didn’t pull off an “October surprise” that could swing the election in his favor. Investigations by the U.S. House and Senate concluded that there was no credible evidence of any such plot. In March 2023, while Mr. Carter was in hospice care, the New York Times reported allegations made by Ben Barnes, a longtime politician and operative from Texas, that supported those suspicions. Barnes said that he had accompanied his mentor, former Texas governor and former U.S. treasury secretary John B. Connally Jr., to several Middle East countries in the summer of 1980 and that Connally urged leaders there to pass a message to Iranian officials that they should wait until Reagan was president to release the hostages. Connally and most other key players had died, and Barnes’s allegations could not be independently confirmed. But the Times story felt like a vindication to Mr. Carter’s allies. Gerald Rafshoon, Mr. Carter’s White House communications director, told the Times that the allegations were “pretty damn outrageous.” After the Times story was published, grandson Jason Carter told The Post that he believed that Mr. Carter remained alert enough to know about the article and that the family was gratified by what it added to the historical record, but “my grandfather had moved on.” Jason Carter said he never once - despite all that had been written about dirty politics played at the expense of the hostages and Mr. Carter - heard his grandfather talk about it. “I think that tells you a lot,” Jason Carter said. “He believed there were other things more important than politics.” In his first act as a former president, performed at the request of the new president, Mr. Carter flew to a U.S. air base in Germany to greet the American hostages who were returning from Iran. He was 56 and could not know how much time he had left or how he would use it. But in a farewell address a week earlier, Mr. Carter suggested that although he had lost an election, he was not finished with what he saw as his life’s work. “In a few days,” he said, “I will lay down my official responsibilities in this office to take up once more the only title in our democracy superior to that of president, the title of ‘citizen.’” Mary Jordan contributed to this report. Edward Walsh, who died in 2014, served as The Washington Post’s White House correspondent during the Carter administration.
Though dyslexia is common, it's not always picked up and can be misunderstood. The learning difficulty can mean that your child is struggling with reading, writing and understanding overall. However, if picked up early your child can get the support they need. This is why it's vital to understand the signs which could help identify whether your child has dyslexia. Vasilii Kiselev, CEO and co-founder of Legacy Online School , an online education platform that provides high-quality online education has put together a list of signs to look out for so that your child gets the help they need. 1. Struggling with nursery rhymes If your child struggles to learn or remember nursery rhymes, it could be more than just a temporary issue. Difficulty with rhyming may indicate a challenge with sound recognition, a key reading skill that is often impacted by dyslexia. 2. Little interest in letters or words Children with dyslexia may love listening to stories but often show little interest in letters or words. "They’re drawn to the story itself but have difficulty connecting with written language," says Vasilii. "This can lead to early struggles with reading." 3. Alphabet aversion Learning to sing or recite the alphabet is a common early milestone, but for children with dyslexia, it can be a challenging task. If your child has noticeable difficulty remembering or singing their ABCs, it may be worth paying closer attention. 4. Speech mix-ups Mixing up parts of words, such as saying "cubumber" instead of "cucumber" or "flutterby" instead of "butterfly," can suggest difficulty in processing and recalling sounds. While these word mix-ups can be cute, they may also be early signs of a speech or language challenge. 5. Rhythm roadblocks Children with dyslexia often find it difficult to maintain a simple rhythm, like clapping to a beat. This struggle with rhythm can indicate challenges with sequencing and auditory processing, which are both associated with dyslexia. 6. Two-step tro uble If your child has difficulty following multi-step instructions, such as "put the toys in the box, then place the box on the shelf," they may feel overwhelmed by too much information at once. Frequently struggling with tasks that require following a sequence could be a sign of dyslexia. 7. Forgetfulness with familiar names Children with dyslexia often struggle to recall the names of familiar people, colours, or objects. "This forgetfulness isn’t due to a lack of attention, but rather because they have difficulty linking names with the concepts they represent," says Vasilii. 8. Directional confusion If your child often confuses words like "up" and "down" or other directional terms, it may be more than just typical early learning mix-ups. Difficulty distinguishing directions is common in dyslexia and can be an early indicator of spatial awareness challenges. 9. Family history of reading struggles A family history of dyslexia or reading difficulties can raise the likelihood that a child will face similar challenges. While it's not certain, genetics often contribute, making early observation even more important. 10. Good days and bad days Does it seem like your child has "good" and "bad" days without any clear reason? "Children with dyslexia may have fluctuating performance due to factors like fatigue or stress, which can affect their focus and behaviour," says Vasilii. Vasilii adds: “Identifying dyslexia early on allows parents and educators to introduce support strategies that target a child’s specific needs, rather than letting them struggle silently or lose confidence in themselves. When children feel understood and supported, they begin to realise that their difficulties with reading or writing are just one part of their learning profile, not a reflection of their intelligence. “Early intervention can help them develop the skills they need while preserving their natural curiosity and love for learning. Targeted support, such as phonics-based reading programs, multisensory learning methods, and assistive technology, can open up pathways to success that might otherwise feel blocked. "But perhaps most importantly, when we acknowledge and address dyslexia from the start, we’re sending a powerful message that every child learns differently - and that’s okay.”NoneSaag: a dish rooted in culture and togetherness
Syracuse vs. Tennessee prediction, odds, best bets for college basketball TuesdayWheel of Fortune contestants whiffing their bonus puzzles is nothing new, but on December 4’s episode, a player came up short on a $40,000 puzzle that left fans joking that she may never want to visit a Disney theme park again. The game show’s latest big miss involved Vandana Patel, an Indian fusion food expert from Chicago. She won the episode and proceeded to the coveted bonus round with $20,600, a trip to Florida, and the selection of “What Are You Wearing?” as her category. Joined by host Ryan Seacrest and the off-side support of her waving mom, daughter, and husband, she faced the two-word puzzle. Choosing a “DMH” and “A,” Vanna White added a mere “H” to the first word. “We want more!” Seacrest chanted. With that tough break, the 10-second timer began. The puzzle read as, “‘_ H _ T E’ ‘_ L _ _ E S.'” A stern Patel did her very best to concentrate on cracking it, successfully saying “White” was the first word. But she couldn’t figure out the second word, and the timer ran out. The full puzzle was unveiled, “WHITE GLOVES.” Seacrest revealed the gold envelope contained the $40,000 amount and put a consoling arm around Patel’s shoulder. “This was on your bucket list!” he told her. “It was,” she replied. The game show shared the big miss on Youtube, where fans reacted to the loss with the top comment being about how the contestant will likely never want to see Mickey Mouse, or Mario of the Nintendo games, again given their white gloves. “Now she never wants to see mickey or mario again,” the fan wrote scoring 20 likes. “Or the keeper of the Stanley Cup,” replied another. A third fan wrote, “I knew it said WHITE GLOVES and I even solved it before the timer was displayed.” A fourth penned, “Don’t worry, Vandana, I was stumped too. I got the first word, but not the second. That’s alright, you’re a winner regardless. $20K is nothing to sneeze at. Great job! A fifth said, “I knew gloves from the initial and her h got me white. Tough puzzle “Wow. At least it wasn’t the hundred thousand dollar wedge,” wrote one more. Meanwhile , Seacrest, of course, had huge shoes to fill replacing the legendary Pat Sajak after four decades for Season 42. His debut month was the strongest ratings month for WoF in the past three years, and viewers were already treated to a viral moment (via a round of sausage) . That said, there have been some questionable hosting moments. Ryan Seacrest's Real Height Revealed as 'Wheel of Fortune' Host Gets 'Short Shamed' In September, Seacrest suffered what fans dubbed his “first blooper” , involving a prolonged reaction to rewarding a bonus round. Fans also called out the host for ruling against another player before the timer was up. Most controversially, last month, fans called out the host for not reminding a player to pick a letter , leading to him losing the game in a misunderstanding and by a mere $147. This past two weeks, a more puzzling issue has come to light, which is that there has been a mere one bonus puzzle win out of the last eight episodes , many fans blaming the players and not the host. Wheel of Fortune , Weeknights, Check your local listings More Headlines: ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Player Misses $40,000 Win After Disney Disaster ‘Harry Potter’ TV Show Sets Filming Start: All the Details Danny Trejo on How ‘Mysteries Unearthed’ Brings His Career ‘Full Circle’ ‘Scrubs’ Revival in the Works at ABC ‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Say Colin Jost Is ‘Funnier’ Than Ken Jennings & Suggest He Hosts Big Special
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Consumers in the United States scoured the internet for online deals as they looked to take advantage of the post-Thanksgiving shopping marathon with Cyber Monday. Even though e-commerce is now part and parcel of many people's regular routines and the holiday shopping season, Cyber Monday — a term coined in 2005 by the National Retail Federation — has become the biggest online shopping day of the year, thanks to the deals and the hype the industry has created to fuel it. Adobe Analytics, which tracks online shopping, expected consumers to spend $13.2 billion Monday — a record, and 6.1% more than last year. That would make it the biggest shopping day for e-commerce for the season — and the year. Online spending was expected to peak between the hours of 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Monday night, per Adobe — reaching an estimated $15.7 million spent every minute. For several major retailers, a Cyber Monday sale is a dayslong event that began over the Thanksgiving weekend. An Amazon Prime delivery person lifts packages while making a stop Nov. 28, 2023, in Denver. Amazon kicked off its sales event right after midnight Pacific time on Saturday. Target's two days of discount offers on its website and app began overnight Sunday. Walmart rolled out its Cyber Monday offers for Walmart+ members Sunday afternoon and opened it up to all customers three hours later, at 8 p.m. Eastern time. Consumer spending for Cyber Week — the five major shopping days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday — provides a strong indication of how much shoppers are willing to spend for the holidays. Many U.S. consumers continue to experience sticker shock after the period of post-pandemic inflation, which left prices for many goods and services higher than they were three years ago. But retail sales nonetheless remain strong, and the economy kept growing at a healthy pace. At the same time, credit card debt and delinquencies are rising. More shoppers than ever are also on track to use "buy now, pay later" plans this holiday season, which allows them to delay payments on holiday decor, gifts and other items. Many economists also warned that President-elect Donald Trump's plan to impose tariffs next year on foreign goods coming into the United States would lead to higher prices on everything from food to clothing to automobiles. A FedEx delivery person carries a package from a truck Nov. 17, 2022, in Denver. The National Retail Federation expects holiday shoppers to spend more this year both in stores and online than last year. But the pace of spending growth will slow slightly, the trade group said, growing 2.5% to 3.5% — compared to 3.9% in 2023. A clear sense of consumer spending patterns during the holiday season won't emerge until the government releases sales data for the period, but some preliminary data from other sources shows some encouraging signs for retailers. Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, noted that discounts from Thanksgiving onward "exceeded expectations" and online spending throughout Cyber Week is on track to cross a record $40 billion mark combined. U.S. shoppers spent $10.8 billion online on Black Friday, a 10.2% increase over last year, according to Adobe Analytics. That's also more than double what consumers spent in 2017, when Black Friday pulled in about $5 billion in online sales. Consumers also spent a record $6.1 billion online on Thanksgiving Day, Adobe said. Meanwhile, software company Salesforce, which also tracks online shopping, estimated that Black Friday online sales totaled $17.5 billion in the U.S. and $74.4 billion globally. Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks in-person and online spending, reported that overall Black Friday sales excluding automotive rose 3.4% from a year ago. A United Parcel Service driver sorts deliveries July 15, 2023, on New York's Upper West Side. E-commerce platform Shopify said its merchants raked in a record $5 billion in sales worldwide on Black Friday. At its peak, sales reached $4.6 million per minute — with top categories by volume including clothing, cosmetics and fitness products, according to the Canadian company. Toys, electronics, home goods, self-care and beauty categories were among the key drivers of holiday spending on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, according to Adobe. "Hot products" included Lego sets, espresso machines, fitness trackers, makeup and skin care. Other data showed physical stores saw fewer customers on Black Friday, underscoring how the huge crowds that were once synonymous with the day after Thanksgiving are now more than happy to shop from the comfort of their homes. RetailNext, which measures real-time foot traffic in stores, said its early data showed store traffic on Friday was down 3.2% in the U.S. compared to last year, with the biggest dip happening in the Midwest. Sensormatic Solutions, which also tracks store traffic, said its preliminary analysis showed retail store traffic on Black Friday was down 8.2% compared to 2023. Grant Gustafson, head of retail consulting and analytics at Sensormatic Solutions, noted that in-store traffic was getting spread across multiple days since many retailers offered generous discounts before and after Black Friday. "Some of the extended Black Friday promotions really ended up leading to a little bit of a softer day-of traffic than expected," Gustafson said. In 2024, staying small on purpose seems to be paying off big for small businesses. They're keeping operations small and targeting niche, highly specialized customers. And some business owners find this strategy results in more time, energy, and money to intentionally capitalize on unique, small cap opportunities. The data tells the story of growth in small businesses for the year. According to NEXT , the Small Business Administration (SBA) reports awarding 38,000 SBA 7(a) loans under $150,000: double the amount they awarded in 2020. Here are the related small-business trends paying off in 2024. Commercial real estate agent Ryan Beckenhauer of Market Real Estate in Boulder, Colorado, has noticed that small businesses are growing smaller, and that their office and warehouse spaces are starting to reflect that as they shop for business space. In commercial real estate, many small business owners gravitate toward industrial condos and other flexible spaces. These are small-scale industrial spaces with a 90:10 or 80:20 split of warehouse to office. "More individuals are leveraging skills acquired at larger organizations to venture out on their own," explains Beckenhauer. And he goes on to say that they don't need a large commercial space as they make that leap to start a business. His clients include engineers, consultants, builders and other tradespeople. Beckenhauer's clients like the flexibility of being out of an office and being close to their inventory and workshop space. "The clients want to see and touch the finishes," he says. Small business owners both rent or buy these spaces. But he's seeing his clients opt to own industrial condos to stabilize costs due to rent increases in Boulder. And because these spaces are smaller, it can be easier for new buyers to qualify for financing. Mariana Alvarez, owner of Controller Works , an online bookkeeping and advisory firm, has noticed that small business owners outsource financial support services because they don't want to increase headcount. "Outsourcing gives them the possibility of having access to the knowledge and the skills of a CFO without having to pay for the salary," she says. "They don't have to manage or deal with the workload, employment taxes , and all that comes with it," says Alvarez. Additionally, many small business owners in fields like construction are family-owned, and this makes it easier for business owners to hand off delicate financial work to a trusted person with financial experience. Every small business has recurring tasks that can benefit from some level of artificial intelligence automation . And Alvarez sees a lot of value in using AI for small business bookkeeping. She explains that you can automate the data entry on Quickbooks. "When you create rules, as long as you create the rules correctly, it pretty much does itself," says Alvarez. From there, you can lean on financial experts to help you analyze the data and make more informed decisions. She uses AI as a background resource when guiding her accounting clients. "I believe that we still need the human-to-human interaction that comes with more perspective for financial analysis," she explains. According to the SBA , 77% of consumers feel that human interaction is still required for a positive customer experience. People turn to small businesses every day for a human experience. According to Arvind Rongala, CEO of Edstellar , small business workers can show up for their customers but still use AI for routine tasks like customer queries. "This balance allows companies to scale their operations without losing the personal touch that makes them unique. It's important to remember that AI isn't there to replace the human element—it's there to enhance it," he says. "By really focusing on one very small weakness that Amazon has, I've been able to carve out a successful business by offering something different," says Lou Harvey owner of Tank Retailer , a retailer of commercial water and fuel tanks. "When you read our customer reviews, many of them actually mention me by name because of how much we focus on customer service and go the extra mile." One of Harvey's most successful business strategies this year has been to lean into his small, niche market and offer the kind of customer experience that large retailers like Amazon don't. "Any small weaknesses that Amazon has (however small those weaknesses may be) needs to become a strength of a smaller business focusing on a niche market," says Harvey. Harvey has his company's customer service phone number front and center on the website to help earn customer trust. "I prominently feature our phone number, and a real person always answers the phone (usually it's me)," says Harvey. Lucie Voves, CEO and founder of Church Hill Classics , an online, woman-owned diploma framing company that uses sustainable materials, has noticed an uptick in customers seeking services from a business on a mission. "This year, we've seen a growing inclination for consumers to actively seek out and support small businesses owned by women and minorities," says Voves. When consumers shop small, they choose to make their dollars count. "Customers are fueled by a desire to promote social impact through purchasing power," says Voves. Long gone are the days of online retailers "building it and they will come." In 2024 we've seen more small businesses than ever turn to social commerce to sell directly on social media platforms like Instagram Shopping , Facebook Marketplace , and TikTok . Small business owners are turning toward influencers, social media ads, and organic content to target their customers. Mike Vannelli of Envy Creative creates online ads for businesses, and he has seen his clients succeed on TikTok of late. "I've seen businesses, especially in retail, use TikTok's short-form video format to make their products go viral. Think of it as word-of-mouth marketing on steroids," says Vannelli. He uses the platform's algorithm to push a company's content to the right audiences, and it works because TikTok loves storytelling. "I know small brands that use behind-the-scenes videos, customer testimonials, and even playful challenges that tap into trends to humanize their products and build trust," explains Vannelli. To stand out on TikTok, he says, smaller brands need to embrace authenticity and emotional connection. Show your team, share your journey, and involve your community in content creation. This story was produced by NEXT and reviewed and distributed by Stacker. Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.SC’s Gerald Malloy drops protest over election election results in state Senate district
NEW YORK: Investors are expecting more gains for the US stock market in 2025 after two straight standout years, fueled by a solid economy supporting corporate profits, moderating interest rates and pro-growth policies from incoming president Donald Trump. The benchmark S&P 500 up over 23 percent year-to-date, even with a recent speed bump, and is on pace for its second straight year of gains exceeding 20 percent, lifted by megacap tech stocks and excitement over the business potential of artificial intelligence. Investors are more confident about the economy than this time a year ago, with consumers and businesses having absorbed higher interest rates and the Federal Reserve now lowering them - albeit by not as much as hoped. Corporate profits are also expected to be strong, with S&P 500 earnings projected to rise 14 percent in 2025, according to LSEG IBES. On the other side of the ledger, inflation remains stubborn, and Wall Street is wary of a rebound that could lead the Fed to change course on its easing cycle. Indeed, stocks pulled back sharply on Wednesday after the central bank projected fewer rate cuts next year as it braced for firmer inflation. Such prospects could become more likely if Trump implements tariffs on US imports that lead to higher consumer prices. Stock valuations, meanwhile, are around their steepest levels in more than three years, leaving greater potential for turbulence. “We’ve been on quite the tear coming off the lows back at the end of 2022. It’s been pretty eye-watering,” said Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers. “Animal spirits... are certainly running pretty wild right now, but you might need to temper that a little bit as you start to move through the year,” said Melson, who thinks the stock market could still produce solid gains of around 10 percent in 2025 if not the returns of the prior two years. Wall Street firms are mostly projecting gains for the market next year, with S&P 500 year-end targets ranging from 6,000 to 7,000. The index was last hovering around 5,900. Optimistic investors can point to a bull market that is neither old nor over-extended, by historic measures. The current bull market for the S&P 500 that began in October 2022 is less than half as long as the average length of the 10 prior ones, according to Keith Lerner, co-chief investment officer at Truist Advisory Services. The S&P 500’s roughly 64 percent gain during this latest run trails the 108 percent median gain and 184 percent average rise of the prior bull markets, according to Lerner. “If you zoom out a little bit, yes, we have a lot of gains, but if you look at a typical bull market, it suggests that we still have further gains to go,” Lerner said. Other historic signs also bode well. The S&P 500 has gained an average of 12.3 percent following the eight instances of back-to-back 20 percent annual gains since 1950, according to Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group, compared to a 9.3 percent overall average increase over that time. The index increased six of the eight times. Bolstering the upbeat sentiment is the prevailing sense on Wall Street that the economy has weathered the rate hikes the Fed implemented starting in 2022 to quell inflation. A Natixis Investment Managers survey conducted in recent weeks found 73 percent of institutional investors said the US will avoid a recession in 2025. That’s a sharp turnaround from a year ago, when 62 percent projected such a downturn in the coming year. Citigroup’s economic surprise index, which measures how economic data performs versus expectations, has been solidly positive for the past two months, another rosy sign for investors. Adding to expectations of a solid economy, Trump is expected to pursue an agenda that includes tax cuts and deregulation that supports growth. “We’re leaving 2024 on pretty good footing, and we think there is some re-acceleration in 2025,” said Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “Markets tend to front-run the economy, so they will position for that economic re-acceleration sooner rather than later.” However, stocks are also leaving 2024 at elevated valuations: The S&P 500 is trading at nearly 22 times expected earnings over the next 12 months, according to LSEG. That is well above its long-term average of 15.8, and not far from the 22.6 level it reached earlier this month, its highest since early 2021. Investors maintain that valuations can stay high for long periods and do not necessarily indicate imminent declines. But future gains may rest more on earnings growth, while higher valuations could make stocks more easily rattled by any disappointments. Risks include policy uncertainty such as Trump’s expected push to raise tariffs on imports from China and other trading partners, which analysts estimate could hurt corporate profits. Higher tariffs could also increase inflation, which is another worry for investors. The pace of inflation has fallen dramatically since hitting 40-year highs in 2022, but remains above the Fed’s 2 percent target. The latest reading of the consumer price index found a 2.7 percent annual inflation rate. “How low we can get rates is really going to be dependent on how low we can get inflation,” said Michael Reynolds, vice president of investment strategy at Glenmede. “If we see inflation settling out to the 3-ish percent range, we think the Fed’s not going to be as aggressive next year.” Glenmede is recommending investors take a neutral posture on overall portfolio risk, including for equities. “Investors should be what I would call cautiously optimistic,” Reynolds said. “We ... have an economy that’s showing signs of late-stage expansion alongside valuations that are pretty rich.” — Reuters
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Calgary, Alberta–(Newsfile Corp. – December 5, 2024) – Olympia Financial Group Inc. (TSX: OLY) announces that its Board of Directors has declared a monthly cash dividend on its common shares of $0.60 per common share. The dividend will be payable on December 31, 2024, to shareholders on record as at December 18, 2024. The ex-dividend date is also December 18, 2024. Olympia Financial Group Inc. designates the entire amount of this taxable dividend to be an “eligible dividend” for purposes of the Income Tax Act (Canada), as amended from time to time. Please contact your tax advisor if you have any questions with regards to the designation of the eligible dividend. About Olympia Financial Group Inc. Olympia Financial Group Inc. (“OFGI”) conducts most of its operations through its subsidiary Olympia Trust Company, a non-deposit taking trust company. Olympia Trust Company is licensed to conduct trust activities in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. Olympia Trust Company administers self-directed registered plan accounts, corporate trust, and transfer agency services. OFGI also provides currency exchange and global payment services through its subsidiary Olympia Currency and Global Payments Inc., and offers private health services plans and information technology services to exempt market dealers, registrants, and issuers through its subsidiary Olympia Benefits Inc. OFGI’s common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “OLY”. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/232715 #distroRoth Mkm Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Walmart (NYSE:WMT) StockStock futures are little changed as Wall Street readies for the final trading week of 2024: Live updates
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