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PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Newly married and sworn as a Naval officer, Jimmy Carter left his tiny hometown in 1946 hoping to climb the ranks and see the world. Less than a decade later, the death of his father and namesake, a merchant farmer and local politician who went by “Mr. Earl,” prompted the submariner and his wife, Rosalynn, to return to the rural life of Plains, Georgia, they thought they’d escaped. The lieutenant never would be an admiral. Instead, he became commander in chief. Years after his presidency ended in humbling defeat, he would add a Nobel Peace Prize, awarded not for his White House accomplishments but “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” The life of James Earl Carter Jr., the 39th and longest-lived U.S. president, ended Sunday at the age of 100 where it began: Plains, the town of 600 that fueled his political rise, welcomed him after his fall and sustained him during 40 years of service that redefined what it means to be a former president. With the stubborn confidence of an engineer and an optimism rooted in his Baptist faith, Carter described his motivations in politics and beyond in the same way: an almost missionary zeal to solve problems and improve lives. Carter was raised amid racism, abject poverty and hard rural living — realities that shaped both his deliberate politics and emphasis on human rights. “He always felt a responsibility to help people,” said Jill Stuckey, a longtime friend of Carter's in Plains. “And when he couldn’t make change wherever he was, he decided he had to go higher.” Carter's path, a mix of happenstance and calculation , pitted moral imperatives against political pragmatism; and it defied typical labels of American politics, especially caricatures of one-term presidents as failures. “We shouldn’t judge presidents by how popular they are in their day. That's a very narrow way of assessing them," Carter biographer Jonathan Alter told the Associated Press. “We should judge them by how they changed the country and the world for the better. On that score, Jimmy Carter is not in the first rank of American presidents, but he stands up quite well.” Later in life, Carter conceded that many Americans, even those too young to remember his tenure, judged him ineffective for failing to contain inflation or interest rates, end the energy crisis or quickly bring home American hostages in Iran. He gained admirers instead for his work at The Carter Center — advocating globally for public health, human rights and democracy since 1982 — and the decades he and Rosalynn wore hardhats and swung hammers with Habitat for Humanity. Yet the common view that he was better after the Oval Office than in it annoyed Carter, and his allies relished him living long enough to see historians reassess his presidency. “He doesn’t quite fit in today’s terms” of a left-right, red-blue scoreboard, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who visited the former president multiple times during his own White House bid. At various points in his political career, Carter labeled himself “progressive” or “conservative” — sometimes both at once. His most ambitious health care bill failed — perhaps one of his biggest legislative disappointments — because it didn’t go far enough to suit liberals. Republicans, especially after his 1980 defeat, cast him as a left-wing cartoon. It would be easiest to classify Carter as a centrist, Buttigieg said, “but there’s also something radical about the depth of his commitment to looking after those who are left out of society and out of the economy.” Indeed, Carter’s legacy is stitched with complexities, contradictions and evolutions — personal and political. The self-styled peacemaker was a war-trained Naval Academy graduate who promised Democratic challenger Ted Kennedy that he’d “kick his ass.” But he campaigned with a call to treat everyone with “respect and compassion and with love.” Carter vowed to restore America’s virtue after the shame of Vietnam and Watergate, and his technocratic, good-government approach didn't suit Republicans who tagged government itself as the problem. It also sometimes put Carter at odds with fellow Democrats. The result still was a notable legislative record, with wins on the environment, education, and mental health care. He dramatically expanded federally protected lands, began deregulating air travel, railroads and trucking, and he put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy. As a fiscal hawk, Carter added a relative pittance to the national debt, unlike successors from both parties. Carter nonetheless struggled to make his achievements resonate with the electorate he charmed in 1976. Quoting Bob Dylan and grinning enthusiastically, he had promised voters he would “never tell a lie.” Once in Washington, though, he led like a joyless engineer, insisting his ideas would become reality and he'd be rewarded politically if only he could convince enough people with facts and logic. This served him well at Camp David, where he brokered peace between Israel’s Menachem Begin and Epypt’s Anwar Sadat, an experience that later sparked the idea of The Carter Center in Atlanta. Carter's tenacity helped the center grow to a global force that monitored elections across five continents, enabled his freelance diplomacy and sent public health experts across the developing world. The center’s wins were personal for Carter, who hoped to outlive the last Guinea worm parasite, and nearly did. As president, though, the approach fell short when he urged consumers beleaguered by energy costs to turn down their thermostats. Or when he tried to be the nation’s cheerleader, beseeching Americans to overcome a collective “crisis of confidence.” Republican Ronald Reagan exploited Carter's lecturing tone with a belittling quip in their lone 1980 debate. “There you go again,” the former Hollywood actor said in response to a wonky answer from the sitting president. “The Great Communicator” outpaced Carter in all but six states. Carter later suggested he “tried to do too much, too soon” and mused that he was incompatible with Washington culture: media figures, lobbyists and Georgetown social elites who looked down on the Georgians and their inner circle as “country come to town.” Carter carefully navigated divides on race and class on his way to the Oval Office. Born Oct. 1, 1924 , Carter was raised in the mostly Black community of Archery, just outside Plains, by a progressive mother and white supremacist father. Their home had no running water or electricity but the future president still grew up with the relative advantages of a locally prominent, land-owning family in a system of Jim Crow segregation. He wrote of President Franklin Roosevelt’s towering presence and his family’s Democratic Party roots, but his father soured on FDR, and Jimmy Carter never campaigned or governed as a New Deal liberal. He offered himself as a small-town peanut farmer with an understated style, carrying his own luggage, bunking with supporters during his first presidential campaign and always using his nickname. And he began his political career in a whites-only Democratic Party. As private citizens, he and Rosalynn supported integration as early as the 1950s and believed it inevitable. Carter refused to join the White Citizens Council in Plains and spoke out in his Baptist church against denying Black people access to worship services. “This is not my house; this is not your house,” he said in a churchwide meeting, reminding fellow parishioners their sanctuary belonged to God. Yet as the appointed chairman of Sumter County schools he never pushed to desegregate, thinking it impractical after the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board decision. And while presidential candidate Carter would hail the 1965 Voting Rights Act, signed by fellow Democrat Lyndon Johnson when Carter was a state senator, there is no record of Carter publicly supporting it at the time. Carter overcame a ballot-stuffing opponent to win his legislative seat, then lost the 1966 governor's race to an arch-segregationist. He won four years later by avoiding explicit mentions of race and campaigning to the right of his rival, who he mocked as “Cufflinks Carl” — the insult of an ascendant politician who never saw himself as part the establishment. Carter’s rural and small-town coalition in 1970 would match any victorious Republican electoral map in 2024. Once elected, though, Carter shocked his white conservative supporters — and landed on the cover of Time magazine — by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.” Before making the jump to Washington, Carter befriended the family of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., whom he’d never sought out as he eyed the governor’s office. Carter lamented his foot-dragging on school integration as a “mistake.” But he also met, conspicuously, with Alabama's segregationist Gov. George Wallace to accept his primary rival's endorsement ahead of the 1976 Democratic convention. “He very shrewdly took advantage of his own Southerness,” said Amber Roessner, a University of Tennessee professor and expert on Carter’s campaigns. A coalition of Black voters and white moderate Democrats ultimately made Carter the last Democratic presidential nominee to sweep the Deep South. Then, just as he did in Georgia, he used his power in office to appoint more non-whites than all his predecessors had, combined. He once acknowledged “the secret shame” of white Americans who didn’t fight segregation. But he also told Alter that doing more would have sacrificed his political viability – and thus everything he accomplished in office and after. King's daughter, Bernice King, described Carter as wisely “strategic” in winning higher offices to enact change. “He was a leader of conscience,” she said in an interview. Rosalynn Carter, who died on Nov. 19 at the age of 96, was identified by both husband and wife as the “more political” of the pair; she sat in on Cabinet meetings and urged him to postpone certain priorities, like pressing the Senate to relinquish control of the Panama Canal. “Let that go until the second term,” she would sometimes say. The president, recalled her former aide Kathy Cade, retorted that he was “going to do what’s right” even if “it might cut short the time I have.” Rosalynn held firm, Cade said: “She’d remind him you have to win to govern.” Carter also was the first president to appoint multiple women as Cabinet officers. Yet by his own telling, his career sprouted from chauvinism in the Carters' early marriage: He did not consult Rosalynn when deciding to move back to Plains in 1953 or before launching his state Senate bid a decade later. Many years later, he called it “inconceivable” that he didn’t confer with the woman he described as his “full partner,” at home, in government and at The Carter Center. “We developed a partnership when we were working in the farm supply business, and it continued when Jimmy got involved in politics,” Rosalynn Carter told AP in 2021. So deep was their trust that when Carter remained tethered to the White House in 1980 as 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran, it was Rosalynn who campaigned on her husband’s behalf. “I just loved it,” she said, despite the bitterness of defeat. Fair or not, the label of a disastrous presidency had leading Democrats keep their distance, at least publicly, for many years, but Carter managed to remain relevant, writing books and weighing in on societal challenges. He lamented widening wealth gaps and the influence of money in politics. He voted for democratic socialist Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in 2016, and later declared that America had devolved from fully functioning democracy to “oligarchy.” Yet looking ahead to 2020, with Sanders running again, Carter warned Democrats not to “move to a very liberal program,” lest they help re-elect President Donald Trump. Carter scolded the Republican for his serial lies and threats to democracy, and chided the U.S. establishment for misunderstanding Trump’s populist appeal. He delighted in yearly convocations with Emory University freshmen, often asking them to guess how much he’d raised in his two general election campaigns. “Zero,” he’d gesture with a smile, explaining the public financing system candidates now avoid so they can raise billions. Carter still remained quite practical in partnering with wealthy corporations and foundations to advance Carter Center programs. Carter recognized that economic woes and the Iran crisis doomed his presidency, but offered no apologies for appointing Paul Volcker as the Federal Reserve chairman whose interest rate hikes would not curb inflation until Reagan's presidency. He was proud of getting all the hostages home without starting a shooting war, even though Tehran would not free them until Reagan's Inauguration Day. “Carter didn’t look at it” as a failure, Alter emphasized. “He said, ‘They came home safely.’ And that’s what he wanted.” Well into their 90s, the Carters greeted visitors at Plains’ Maranatha Baptist Church, where he taught Sunday School and where he will have his last funeral before being buried on family property alongside Rosalynn . Carter, who made the congregation’s collection plates in his woodworking shop, still garnered headlines there, calling for women’s rights within religious institutions, many of which, he said, “subjugate” women in church and society. Carter was not one to dwell on regrets. “I am at peace with the accomplishments, regret the unrealized goals and utilize my former political position to enhance everything we do,” he wrote around his 90th birthday. The politician who had supposedly hated Washington politics also enjoyed hosting Democratic presidential contenders as public pilgrimages to Plains became advantageous again. Carter sat with Buttigieg for the final time March 1, 2020, hours before the Indiana mayor ended his campaign and endorsed eventual winner Joe Biden. “He asked me how I thought the campaign was going,” Buttigieg said, recalling that Carter flashed his signature grin and nodded along as the young candidate, born a year after Carter left office, “put the best face” on the walloping he endured the day before in South Carolina. Never breaking his smile, the 95-year-old host fired back, “I think you ought to drop out.” “So matter of fact,” Buttigieg said with a laugh. “It was somehow encouraging.” Carter had lived enough, won plenty and lost enough to take the long view. “He talked a lot about coming from nowhere,” Buttigieg said, not just to attain the presidency but to leverage “all of the instruments you have in life” and “make the world more peaceful.” In his farewell address as president, Carter said as much to the country that had embraced and rejected him. “The struggle for human rights overrides all differences of color, nation or language,” he declared. “Those who hunger for freedom, who thirst for human dignity and who suffer for the sake of justice — they are the patriots of this cause.” Carter pledged to remain engaged with and for them as he returned “home to the South where I was born and raised,” home to Plains, where that young lieutenant had indeed become “a fellow citizen of the world.” —- Bill Barrow, based in Atlanta, has covered national politics including multiple presidential campaigns for the AP since 2012.

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A young Jimmy Carter was no stranger to gospel music growing up in the small rural town of Plains, Georgia during the ’20s and early ’30’. He heard it sung by Black tenant farmers working on his father’s land. He heard it too during 24-hour gospel sings that occurred every fifth Sunday, where quartets, local and distant gospel groups, different denominations and communities came together to rejoice around prayer, all-day-singing, and a meal. This love of gospel music, along with a deep religiosity, was implanted in Carter’s heart at a young age and stayed with him throughout his lifetime. And you could tell by the way the late president’s face would light up that his connection to not only gospel music, but also rock, folk, country, jazz, and rhythm and blues ran through the deepest parts of his soul. Jimmy Carter’s deep connection to music, especially gospel, was more than just a personal joy — it was a reflection of his broader worldview and presidency. Music served as both solace and strategy, uniting Americans across divides of race, region and politics. Carter used music as a powerful tool to embody and promote his vision of unity, human rights, and healing — a vision that resonates even more poignantly as the nation reflects on his legacy following his death on Sunday at 100. In the late summer of 1979, partway through his third year as president, Jimmy Carter hosted an afternoon of gospel music at the White House. Blankets covered the grass on the South Lawn as over 800 attendees ate fried chicken, potato salad and coleslaw on paper plates. “Gospel music is really rural music from the country. It has both Black and white derivations; it’s not a racial kind of music,” President Carter said to the crowd. “But I think it’s important to recognize that gospel music is derived from deep within the heart of human beings — it’s a music of pain, a music of longing, a music of searching, a music of hope, and a music of faith.” Since he entered hospice care in February 2023, a lot has been shared about his life. The first president to be born in a hospital was a man of many anomalies. He grew up without electricity and running water in the segregated south, yet most of his friends before he left for the Naval Academy in 1943 were African Americans. He was a peanut farmer, a nuclear engineer, a carpenter and a poet whose simple writing illuminated the historical reckoning and soul of America. One of his first official acts as governor of Georgia in 1971 was to refute the segregationist pride of his predecessor Lester Maddox, the former Georgia governor and Democratic populist, by displaying a portrait of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the capitol and by stating “the time for racial discrimination is over.” This surprised many Georgians who voted for Carter. During his presidency, he was a champion for the environment, installing solar panels at the White House. He was a staunch advocate for women’s rights, civil rights and human rights, and was a pivotal figure in the progressive New South movement, looking to modernize social attitudes ingrained in the culture of the Old South. Though arguably one of the most pietistic, genuine and well-intentioned presidents of the 20th century, Carter’s presidency was clouded by challenges, many of which were out of his control. In 1979, Iranian students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking 52 American diplomats hostage for 444 days. “I would play Willie Nelson music primarily,” Carter said, of the time that he spent alone, in his study, “so I could think about my problems and say a few prayers.” A failed rescue attempt was also a significant blow to his presidency, ultimately stymieing his reelection. Fuel shortages created high oil prices. Carter struggled to effectively address high inflation, high unemployment and slow economic growth that came to be known as “stagflation.” Also, the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan marked a setback in the Cold War. “Music was a way Carter could insulate himself from the political noise,” says Iwan Morgan, emeritus professor of U.S. Studies at University College London. Morgan was in the United States, doing an exchange teaching job from August 1979 to September 1980 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He recalled that the hostages were the most fundamental thing on people’s minds ultimately blighting the final years of Carter’s presidency. “Music was a way of touching the soul, probably the closest man has to do that. And music was a comfort for Carter,” Morgan says. “I’m not saying it helped him make good decisions. By any standard the attempted rescue of the Iranian hostages was a longshot highly likely to end in failure and gave Carter no real chance thereafter of negotiating the release of the hostages.” Chuck Leavell, the keyboardist for the Allman Brothers Band during the band’s rise to fame in the 1970s, came to know Jimmy Carter when he was governor of Georgia. They’d been friends ever since. Leavell would visit the Carters in Plains or Jimmy and Rosalyn would visit Leavell’s homeplace at the Charlane Woodlands and Preserve in Dry Branch, Georgia for hunting trips. Carter would always ask Leavell to play something on the piano. “I played ‘Georgia on My Mind’ for him and probably did the Allman Brothers song ‘Statesboro Blues’,” Leavell told me. “And again, just, you know, the smile that would get on his face and his eyes would light up. And, you know, it’s not like he was jumping around and dancing. Don’t get me wrong. You know, he wasn’t that kind of guy. He didn’t react in that way, but he was listening, always listening intently. You could just see it. And, you know, even though he didn’t play an instrument himself, I think he had something in his DNA that felt the music, not only heard it, but felt it.” Carter wasn’t initially well-known outside of Georgia, and an endorsement from the Allman Brothers Band in 1975, some three months before the Iowa caucuses, helped increase his candidacy, particularly among young Americans. There was a feeling at the time that young people were in charge. 1972 was the first year that 18-to-21-year-olds could cast a ballot, making the youth vote more important than ever before. So Carter both naturally and strategically aligned himself with musicians to give him a crucial boost during the Democratic primaries. A major strategy for Carter’s presidential campaign was to put on concerts on the campaign trail. It started with the Marshall Tucker Band headlining a concert at the Fox Theater in Atlanta on Oct. 31, 1975, then the Allman Brothers Band on Nov. 25 at Providence Civic Center in Providence Rhode Island, and Charlie Daniels at the Fox Theater in Atlanta on Jan. 14, 1976. Jimmy Buffett put on a benefit for Carter in Portland, Oregon. These concerts not only brought notoriety to the Carter campaign, they also brought in a lot of money that could be matched by the federal government. “Musicians don’t always feel safe with somebody except other musicians,” says Chris Farrell, lead producer of the documentary “Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President.” “His authenticity definitely played a great role in his ability to connect with musicians.” The music of change at that time was rock and roll. When Gregg Allman was arrested for trying to acquire pharmaceutical grade cocaine, and testified to get out of serving a prison sentence, Jimmy never turned on Allman. He could have said, “this is too big of a risk for me” and ended his association with the Allman Brothers. “But he didn’t judge people,” Farrell says. “He just cared about who you were as an individual and that’s very spiritual in a very Christian sort of view of the world. And I think that carried over into politics; he didn’t care if you were a Republican or a Democrat. If you’re trying to do the right thing, then why can’t we all do this together? So I think it was not political expediency or effectiveness or, you know, a gimmick. I think that’s just who he was.” Carter won the presidency in 1976, and was inaugurated in 1977. The cowboy-Western film star John Wayne spoke at the inaugural ball. As a conservative, he still wished Carter well. Paul Simon sang. So did Charlie Daniels. Aretha Franklin sang “God Bless America.” Coming out of Watergate, there was a sense too that America needed to heal together. Through music, but also through unifying Republicans and Democrats alike. “John Wayne worked with President Carter to give the Panama Canal back to the Panamanian people,” says Mary Wharton, director of “Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President.” “It’s that old line about people who forget about history are doomed to repeat it. And unfortunately, we’re repeating the things in history that we didn’t pay attention to.” When he was president, dozens of musicians came to the White House for themed music nights. In April, 1978 Loretta Lynn, Tom T. Hall, and Conway Twitty were invited to an evening devoted to celebrating country music. Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Dexter Gordon, George Benson, Ron Carter and Tony Williams played a jazz event. It was an honor for Carter to bring jazz musicians who hadn’t been recognized by the government to the White House. He used music as a way for people to see a common humanity among different races, religions and cultural backgrounds. He felt jazz helped break down the racial divide in the country. Cecil Taylor, Chick Correa — their presence wasn’t just for performance. Their inclusion was a statement against racial prejudice, a reminder of music’s potential to dissolve barriers. Carter felt deeply that jazz and country music represented America. Carter also used music to entertain and educate members of Congress. He held a Nascar event, where country singer Willie Nelson performed on the South Lawn. It’s as if Carter used music as a reflective mindfulness practice, decades before the mainstream was aware of what mindfulness is. The Carter administration never dropped a bomb, fired a missile or shot a bullet to kill another person. After his presidency, the Carter Center helped eradicate Guinea worm disease. For 35 years, he spent at least a week every year building houses for Habitat for Humanity. In the days and weeks to come, I imagine a revisionist history about Carter’s presidency will begin to unravel. This began in 2020, with the release of the documentary “Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President,” and will continue, especially now during a time where the world seems more divided than ever. Carter was a president with a lot of faith and a lot of soul. He cried when thinking of his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn. The man was calculated and believed in the power of music. Scholars and historians will remember that Carter wanted to represent America’s value system by making human rights the center of his foreign policy. He helped broker the Camp David Accords, a negotiated peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, marking the first time an Arab country recognized Israel. When I remember Carter, I will think of a man listening to the painful ballads of Willie Nelson when trying to be mindful and make sense of complex problems. I will also think of Jan Williams, the pianist at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia. “Carter said he couldn’t sing,” she told me. “But I liked his voice.” The late president first attended Maranatha Baptist Church in 1981 and started teaching Sunday School there until 2015. “His favorite song was always ‘When I Get To Heaven’,” Williams says, thinking of Jimmy reunited with his Rosalynn again.Jimmy Carter: Many evolutions for a centenarian ‘citizen of the world’None

Asia spot prices gain amid Russia-Ukraine gas transit concernsCONCORD, N.H. -- School district officials who punished two parents for wearing pink wristbands marked “XX” during a soccer game featuring a transgender player defended their decision Friday at a hearing on whether they can take similar action while they are being sued. Kyle Fellers and Anthony Foote were banned from school grounds after the September game by officials who viewed the wristbands as intimidation or harassment of a transgender player. They later sued the Bow school district, and while the no-trespass orders have since expired, a judge is deciding whether the plaintiffs should be allowed to wear the wristbands and carry signs at upcoming school events, including basketball games, swim meets and a music concert, while the case proceeds. Both men testified Thursday that they didn’t intend to harass or otherwise target a transgender player on the opposing team, and their attorneys have argued they did nothing more than silently express their support for reserving girls’ sports for those born female. But school officials testified Friday that they had reason to believe the men wouldn’t stop there. Superintendent Marcy Kelley and Bow High School Athletic Director Michael Desiletes described receiving strongly-worded emails from Foote in which he called himself a “real leader” who was prepared to take action and seeing his social media posts urging others to attend the game. In the days leading up to the game, another parent told school officials she overheard others talk about showing up to the game wearing dresses and heckling the transgender player. “When we suspect there’s some sort of threat ... we don’t wait for it to happen,” Kelley said, comparing it to the way school officials wouldn’t wait until a fight broke out between two students to intervene if they got wind of it beforehand. Kelley also pushed back on the idea that the plaintiffs were simply expressing support for their daughters and their teammates in general, noting that they chose the one game involving a transgender player to begin wearing the wristbands. “This was organized and targeted,” she said. “If we were to allow harassment, we’re liable.” The transgender player in question, Parker Tirrell, and another student athlete are challenging the state law that bans transgender athletes in grades 5 to 12 from teams that align with their gender identity. A federal judge ruled in their case that they can play sports during the ongoing lawsuit that seeks to overturn the law. Gov. Chris Sununu, who signed the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act into law in July, has said it “ensures fairness and safety in women’s sports by maintaining integrity and competitive balance in athletic competitions.” About half of states have adopted similar measures.Percentages: FG .540, FT .720. 3-Point Goals: 11-23, .478 (Lilly 5-9, Erold 3-6, Lesburt 2-4, Cooley 1-3, Wrisby-Jefferson 0-1). Team Rebounds: 1. Team Turnovers: 1. Blocked Shots: 5 (Cooley 2, DeGraaf, Erold, Lilly). Turnovers: 10 (Jenkins 2, Lewis 2, Wrisby-Jefferson 2, Cooley, Erold, Lesburt, Lilly). Steals: 3 (Lesburt, Lilly, Wrisby-Jefferson). Technical Fouls: None. Percentages: FG .509, FT .833. 3-Point Goals: 8-19, .421 (Palesse 3-3, Benard 2-2, van der Plas 1-1, Kopa 1-4, Godfrey 1-5, Sangha 0-1, Thompson 0-1, McMillan 0-2). Team Rebounds: 6. Team Turnovers: 1. Blocked Shots: 1 (Kopa). Turnovers: 10 (Benard 3, McMillan 2, Sangha 2, Godfrey, Palesse, van der Plas). Steals: 5 (Benard 2, Kopa, McMillan, van der Plas). Technical Fouls: None. A_953 (2,176).'We owe him a debt of gratitude': Presidents remember Jimmy Carter after death at 100

A butterfly collector in Africa with more than 4.2 million seeks to share them for the future NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — What began as a childhood hobby more than six decades ago has led to what might be Africa’s largest butterfly collection in a suburb of Kenya’s capital. Steve Collins has a collection of 4.2 million butterflies representing hundreds of species. Now, running out of space and time, he hopes to hand it over to the next generation. One expert familiar with Collins and his work suggests that the collection should be digitized for global access. Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen returns to a tournament after a dispute over jeans is resolved NEW YORK (AP) — Top ranked chess player Magnus Carlsen is headed back to the World Blitz Championship on Monday. That's after its governing body agreed to loosen a dress code that got him fined and denied a late-round game in another tournament for refusing to change out of jeans. The International Chess Federation president said in a statement Sunday that he’d let World Blitz Championship tournament officials consider allowing “appropriate jeans” with a jacket, as well as other "minor deviations” from the dress code. Carlsen quit the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships on Friday. He said Sunday he would play — and wear jeans — in the World Blitz Championship. 'Sonic 3' and 'Mufasa' battle for No. 1 at the holiday box office Two family films are dominating the holiday box office, with “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” winning the three-day weekend over “Mufasa” by a blue hair. According to studio estimates Sunday, the Sonic movie earned $38 million, while “Mufasa” brought in $37.1 million from theaters in the U.S. and Canada. The R-rated horror “Nosferatu” placed third with an unexpectedly strong $21.2 million. Thanksgiving release holdovers “Wicked” and “Moana 2” rounded out the top five. Christmas Day had several big film openings, including the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” the Nicole Kidman erotic drama “Babygirl” and the boxing drama “The Fire Inside.” Charles Shyer, ‘Father of the Bride’ and ‘Baby Boom’ filmmaker, dies at 83 An Oscar-nominated writer and filmmaker known for classic comedies like “Private Benjamin,” “Baby Boom” and “Father of the Bride," Charles Shyer has died. He was 83. On Sunday his daughter Hallie Meyers-Shyer told The Associated Press that he died Friday in Los Angeles. No cause was disclosed. Born in Los Angeles in 1941 to a filmmaker father, Shyer's big breakthrough came with co-writing “Private Benjamin” for which he and Nancy Meyers received an Oscar nomination. He and Nancy Meyers were frequent collaborators through their nearly 20-year marriage, including on the remake of “The Parent Trap," starring Lindsay Lohan. LeBron James at 40: A milestone birthday arrives Monday for the NBA's all-time scoring leader When LeBron James broke another NBA record earlier this month, the one for most regular-season minutes played in a career, his Los Angeles Lakers teammates handled the moment in typical locker room fashion. They made fun of him. Dubbed The Kid from Akron, with a limitless future, James is now the 40-year-old from Los Angeles with wisps of gray in his beard, his milestone birthday coming Monday, one that will make him the first player in NBA history to play in his teens, 20s, 30s and 40s. He has stood and excelled in the spotlight his entire career. Belgium will ban sales of disposable e-cigarettes in a first for the EU BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgium will ban the sale of disposable electronic cigarettes as of Jan. 1 on health and environmental grounds in a groundbreaking move for European Union nations. Health minister Frank Vandenbroucke tells The Associated Press that the inexpensive e-cigarettes have turned into a health threat since they are an easy way for teenagers to be drawn into smoking and get hooked on nicotine. Australia outlawed the sale of “vapes” outside pharmacies earlier this year in some of the world’s toughest restrictions on electronic cigarettes. Now Belgium is leading the EU drive. Belgium's minister wants tougher tobacco measures in the 27-nation bloc. Charles Dolan, HBO and Cablevision founder, dies at 98 Charles F. Dolan, who founded some of the most prominent U.S. media companies including Home Box Office Inc. and Cablevision Systems Corp., has died at age 98. Newsday reports that a statement issued Saturday by his family says Dolan died of natural causes. Dolan’s legacy in cable broadcasting includes founding HBO in 1972, Cablevision in 1973 and the American Movie Classics television station in 1984. He also launched News 12 in New York City, the first U.S. 24-hour cable channel for local news. Dolan also held controlling stakes in companies that owned Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall and the New York Knicks and New York Rangers sports franchises. Snoop's game: Snoop Dogg thrills the crowd in the bowl that bears his name TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Miami of Ohio beat Colorado State in the Arizona Bowl, but Snoop Dogg was the main attraction. The Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl presented by Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop was much a spectacle as a football game. Snoop Dogg seemed to be everywhere all at once, from a pregame tailgate to the postgame trophy presentation. Snoop Dog donned a headset on Colorado State's sideline, spent some time in the broadcast and even led both marching bands as conductor during their halftime performance. Snoop Dogg saved the best for last, rolling out in a light green, lowrider Chevy Impala with gold rims and accents, the shiny Arizona Bowl trophy in his hand as fans screamed his name. Mavs star Luka Doncic is latest pro athlete whose home was burglarized, business manager says DALLAS (AP) — Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks is the latest professional athlete whose home has been burglarized. The star guard’s business manager tells multiple media outlets there was a break-in at Doncic’s home Friday night. Lara Beth Seager says nobody was home, and Doncic filed a police report. The Dallas Morning News reports that jewelry valued at about $30,000 was stolen. Doncic is the sixth known pro athlete in the U.S. whose home was burglarized since October. Star NFL quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City and Joe Burrow of Cincinnati are among them. The NFL and NBA have issued security alerts to players over the break-ins. Victor Wembanyama plays 1-on-1 chess with fans in New York Victor Wembanyama went to a park in New York City and played 1-on-1 with fans on Saturday. He even lost a couple of games. Not in basketball, though. Wemby was playing chess. Before the San Antonio Spurs left New York for a flight to Minnesota, Wembanyama put out the call on social media: “Who wants to meet me at the SW corner of Washington Square park to play chess? Im there,” Wembanyama wrote. It was 9:36 a.m. And people began showing up almost immediately.

This article contains spoilers for Squid Game. Netflix’s Squid Game isn’t a particularly subtle TV show. It’s a screed against capitalism and wealth inequity to the point that characters say this all out loud, in the dialogue, in the very first episode. Yet since it premiered in 2021, both viewers and even Netflix itself have been gleefully engaging with the show as a capitalist enterprise. So why does everyone keep missing the point of Squid Game? Squid Game first hit Netflix on September 17, 2021 – and it might be hard to remember now, given the show is a global sensation, but at the time at least in America, it was one of those classic “drop it on Netflix and see what happens” series that wasn’t really promoted by the streamer. No screeners for the press, no rabid red carpets full of screaming fans... And yet it caught on and grew almost immediately. On Nielsen’s report for the week of September 20-26, the show clocked 1.9 billion minutes – and that was only on TV screens, and only in the US. The next week, it garnered over 3.2 billion minutes on Nielsen’s chart , growing to become a clear viral success. The show itself didn’t seem like a likely breakout hit, given its ultra-violence and dark subject matter. Squid Game (in case you forgot over the past three years, or have yet to check out Season 2) revolves around a death game played by 456 players competing for cold, hard cash. Run by the mysterious Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), the games are framed as a way for the players to even the playing field. They can by majority vote decide to leave at any time – and even do, in Season 1, Episode 2, before promptly returning to the game – but whoever wins gets a sum of cash equal to the amount of people who died playing. Time and again, it’s clear the game is rigged for the enjoyment of the billionaire VIPs who bet on it from the safety of their cushy lounge. And in the middle of this all? The sometimes good-hearted, perhaps naive loser Seong Gi-hun ( Lee Jung-jae ), who goes on to – spoilers here – win the game, though perhaps at the cost of his basic belief in the goodness of humanity. Season 2 widens things out further . We get to see what economically drives one of the Squid Game guards to join up and become a stone-faced murderer. We see a lot more of the outside world in Korea, and how every interaction, no matter how small, is a game driven by commerce. And the Squid Game itself changes to allow a majority vote to leave after every challenge. That latter tweak allows Hwang Dong-hyuk, throughout the season’s seven episodes, to dig into how capitalism controls even the existence of democracy and freedom of choice, and our divides (political, gender, monetary) are exacerbated by the very existence of money dangling over our heads. In this case, literally, thanks to the omnipresent piggy bank hanging over the room where the Squid Game contestants sleep and eat. While there was some international promotion for the series when it first launched, including an appearance by the Red Light/Green Light doll in a mall in the Philippines, and a replica of the jungle gym set in a Seoul subway station, for the most part, the show traveled by word of mouth. Netflix had to play catch-up over the next few months. In an interview with the New York Times in advance of Season 2, Marian Lee, Netflix’s chief marketing officer, copped to as much. “Everything we did outside of Korea was reactive, because we didn’t know,” she said. “Even the content executives didn’t anticipate that it would be such a global phenomenon.” By the time Squid Game had become the most-watched Netflix launch in the streamer’s history a month after release (one month later, it would become the most-watched show of all time , period), there was a pop-up store in Paris , and a Red Light/Green Light game complete with actors dressed as Squid Game guards in the Netherlands . What followed was total Squid Game domination. Dalgona, the honeycomb candy at the center of one of the games in the series, began showing up at homegrown candy stores and even official Netflix pop-ups in malls everywhere, alongside costumes from the show, just in time for Halloween. The press tour eventually caught up, too, leading to the stars of the series growing to international sensations “overnight” (check with your local Korean TV and movie viewer to hear them furiously explain how many of these “overnight sensations” have been celebrities in non-US countries for years). Then came the Golden Globes wins, SAG Award wins, and 14 Emmy nominations, of which the show won five. The Funko Pop!s followed the next year, and as Netflix proudly includes in all of its press releases about Season 2 of the series, based on the footwear of the mostly deceased contestants in the show, “Vans slip-on sneakers sales increased 8,000%.” While Dong-hyuk was mulling plans for a second, and third season of the series, Netflix began referring to a Squid Game “universe” as early as January of 2022. And they paid off on that promise. Squid Game: The Challenge, a reality game show that reproduced the initial TV series without all the killing hit the service in November 2023, though it was marred by multiple safety and health issues , as well as (per the point of this article) critics pointing out it vastly missed the whole thesis of Squid Game. Similarly, the online multiplayer game Squid Game: Unleashed is a 32-player party game for Netflix subscribers (currently free for everyone in time for the release of Squid Game Season 2) which the streamer’s own press outlet, TUDUM , describes as “takes all the thrills of the hit Netflix show and puts them in your pocket.” To be clear, there is no option in the game to hang yourself in anguish and shame after you’re forced to take your wife’s life in a deadly game of marbles, so perhaps not all the thrills. Why do people keep engaging with Squid Game as something “fun?” Why is Netflix able to make a cottage industry out of products sold around the show? How are there corporate retreats where actors dress up as the Front Man and Squid Game guards and have employees run through games from the show, ostensibly for team-building purposes? There’s even an official Netflix Squid Game Experience that claims it’s perfect for “School and Camp Visits,” and if the thought of children playing the games from the hyperviolent TV show Squid Game doesn’t make you viscerally uncomfortable, you may be entirely devoid of human empathy. Part of the issue is that Squid Game, for all its cultural cache, is nothing new. Gladiatorial battles go back millennia. More to the point, everything from Battle Royale to Hunger Games thrives on the idea of people – usually children – fighting to the death for a possible prize, and rich people’s amusement. Those, too, are often misinterpreted by the public (see any of the Hunger Games theme park rides worldwide). Like how society gets dulled by repeated violence in the real world, so too are we inured to it on screen. Squid Game is perhaps not as shocking as it could be, because it’s not the first out of the gate; it’s just another death games series in a long line of series and movies. And like any genre, it has its fans, detractors, and culture that surrounds it. There’s the question of why we like to watch these things, though, with at least two major reasons. One is the broad sense of why we watch horror movies, violent action spectacles, or even ride rollercoasters: to confront our own real fear of death and overcome it. But to the point of the death game genre, it raises the question of what you would do in the situation, something that Squid Game confronts head-on. There’s a deeper, more horrifying reason why both viewers and Netflix are able to engage with Squid Game on the most surface level possible, though, and it’s that Hwang Dong-hyuk... Is right. We are under the yoke of corporations and billionaires. They inure us into thinking that capitalism is a game we can win, but it’s rigged to their benefit, and not ours. Think about how the central action of the show features humans, reduced to numbers instead of names, forced to kill each other playing children’s games. Dong-hyuk distills it down even more simply in Seong Gi-hun’s first encounter with the Squid Game in the series premiere. Penniless, defeated, and beaten up, he encounters a clean-cut man in a business suit (Gong Yoo) on the subway. The man tells Seong Gi-hun he can play a simple children’s game (called ddakji), and after losing the first round is told that if Seong Gi-hun wins, he gets money. If he loses, the businessman gets to slap him. What follows is a series of increasingly harder, more humiliating slaps as the businessman beats down Seong Gi-hun. When he finally wins, Seong Gi-hun goes to slap the businessman back – but no, the game is over. He gets paid. It’s done. In Season 2, Dong-hyuk drives this home even harder, throwing any sort of subtly out the window in a desperate attempt to get his point across to the section of the audience who saw “die for money” as too opaque a metaphor. The businessman has graduated from ddakji to giving hungry homeless people the choice between bread, and a lottery ticket. Would you rather eat, or have the chance for money you’ll likely never receive? Guess which most of them choose (and lose)? As the second season continues, in small ways and big Seong Gi-hun is as controlling of the men he sends on a treasure hunt city-wide to find that businessman as anyone running the Squid Game. There’s a major sequence early in the season set on Halloween that is clearly pointed at anyone who thinks it might be fun to dress as a Squid Game guard. Once Seong Gi-hun is back in the game, his seeming heroism turns self-centered, and his vision of bringing down the game is less about saving people than redeeming himself for his own complicated actions. It muddies the waters of the conversation, but also turns the camera towards the audience, practically screaming that if you thought you were a hero like Seong Gi-hun... Well, you’re bad, too. But what can you do about it? The game is rigged. The billionaires are in charge of it all. Netflix is able to sell you those Funko Pop!s, the Vans, and the Red Light/Green Light Mattel doll for kids because the alternative – you cannot beat the system, we will all die in here – is too horrifying to contemplate. Netflix is worth nearly $400 billion. They are the VIPS in this scenario, seeing no repercussions for their actions. While they’re not literally making us walk a glass bridge until we plummet to our deaths, they are hiding behind their golden animal masks, and reducing us to streaming numbers controlled by the algorithm. As the Front Man explains early in Season 2 when Seong Gi-hun tells him he wants to end Squid Game once and for all, the key isn’t killing one man, or even multiple men, as Seong Gi-hun has planned. It’s so much bigger than that. “If the world doesn’t change, the game doesn’t end,” the Front Man says. So how do you change the world? How can anyone? To grasp that in any fashion is to know the system is everywhere, and it’s overwhelming. That’s what the contestants in the show realize during their brief sojourn back to Seoul in Season 1, that dying playing a children’s game is essentially the same as living in society. For us here in the real world, it’s easier to giggle about the actor dressed as the Front Man telling everyone on our corporate team that the Squid Games have begun, taking selfies and eventually heading back to our safe, identical hotel rooms, than contemplate we’re all trapped in one, large Squid Game ourselves, every day of our lives.VANCOUVER, BC , Nov. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - Lumina Gold Corp. LUM LMGDF (the "Company" or "Lumina") is pleased to announce that the Ministry of Energy and Mines of Ecuador has extended the Los Cangrejos mining concession until 2049. This decision by the Government of Ecuador creates positive conditions to continue the investment plans for Cangrejos. The Company can apply for another 25-year extension beyond 2049. The Company continues to execute its plans to advance the Cangrejos project to a fully permitted, ready to construct project with the following projected milestones: Signing of the binding terms (Acta de Negociación Final) for the Exploitation Contract – Q4 2024 Addendum of the existing Exploration Investment Protection Agreement to include historical investment up to 2024 – Q4 2024 Signing of the Complementary Investment Protection Agreement for the construction period – Q1 2025 Completion of the Feasibility Study – Q2 2025 Submission of the Environmental Impact Study for permitting – Q2 2025 Change of Mining Title phase to exploitation – H1 2025 Signing of the Exploitation Contract – H2 2025 Public Environmental Consultation – Specific timing to be determined Lumina continues to advance specific components of the Feasibility Study, including: Completion of a metallurgical test work program at C. H. Plenge & CIA S.A., an independent metallurgical laboratory based in Lima, Peru . Completion of a geotechnical field program for facility siting was completed to finalize designs, including a total of 20 boreholes, 53 test pits, and over 9,500 metres of geophysics lines. Completion of a Regional Hydrogeology Program, which included the drilling and pump-testing of 12 new wells to support the Feasibility Study and Environmental Impact Study baseline. Advancement of an updated resource estimate and mine plan design is near completion by Sim Geological and IMC Tucson. Advancement of final site plans, plant design and receipt of vendor quotes for all major equipment required to generate capital and operating cost estimates for the Feasibility Study are being undertaken by Ausenco Engineering Canada ULC. Qualified Persons Ron Halas , P.Eng., Chief Operating Officer of Lumina and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101 has reviewed, verified, and approved the contents of this news release. About Lumina Gold Lumina Gold Corp. LUM is a Vancouver, Canada based precious and base metals development company focused on the Cangrejos Gold-Copper Project located in El Oro Province, southwest Ecuador . In 2023, the Company completed a Pre-Feasibility Study for Cangrejos, which is the largest primary gold deposit in Ecuador . Lumina has an experienced management team with a successful track record of advancing and monetizing exploration projects. Follow us on: Twitter , Linkedin or Facebook . Further details are available on the Company's website at https://luminagold.com/ . To receive future news releases please sign up at https://luminagold.com/contact . LUMINA GOLD CORP. Signed: "Marshall Koval" Marshall Koval , President & CEO, Director Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information Certain statements and information herein, including all statements that are not historical facts, contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such forward-looking statements or information include but are not limited to statements or information with respect to the timing and completion of the items listed as projected milestones. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements or information can be identified by the use of words such as "will" or "projected" or variations of those words or statements that certain actions, events or results "will", "could", "are proposed to", "are planned to", "are expected to" or "are anticipated to" be taken, occur or be achieved. With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, the Company has made numerous assumptions including among other things, assumptions about general business and economic conditions, the prices of gold and copper, and anticipated costs and expenditures. The foregoing list of assumptions is not exhaustive. Although management of the Company believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such statements or information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that a forward-looking statement or information herein will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. These factors include, but are not limited to: risks associated with the business of the Company; business and economic conditions in the mining industry generally; the supply and demand for labour and other project inputs; changes in commodity prices; changes in interest and currency exchange rates; risks relating to inaccurate geological and engineering assumptions (including with respect to the tonnage, grade and recoverability of reserves and resources); risks relating to unanticipated operational difficulties (including failure of equipment or processes to operate in accordance with specifications or expectations, cost escalation, unavailability of materials and equipment, government action or delays in the receipt of government approvals, industrial disturbances or other job action, and unanticipated events related to health, safety and environmental matters); risks relating to adverse weather conditions; political risk and social unrest; changes in general economic conditions or conditions in the financial markets; and other risk factors as detailed from time to time in the Company's continuous disclosure documents filed with Canadian securities administrators. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lumina-gold-announces-concession-extension-until-2049-302313698.html SOURCE Lumina Gold Corp. © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.