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Matt Gaetz says he won’t return to Congress next year after withdrawing name for attorney general

Jimmy Carter , the 39th President of the United States, has died at 100. The longest-living president in U.S. history died almost two years after entering hospice care in his Georgia home in lieu of continued medical intervention for his various health issues. Carter was a one-term but popular president, holding office from 1977-1981, and was unseated by Ronald Reagan. The former Commander in Chief’s nonprofit organization announced he was entering hospice care in February 2023. “After a series of short hospital stays, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention,” the February 18 Twitter announcement read. “He has the full support of his family and his medical team. The Carter family asks for privacy during this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers.” Carter had undergone multiple hospital stints in recent years for various health issues, such as melanoma and several falls. On August 2, 2015, Carter underwent surgery to remove a small cancerous mass in his liver, and he recovered easily. However, the procedure revealed further health complications. On August 11, 2015, it was announced that the cancer had spread to other parts of Carter’s body. In an August 20, 2015 press conference, his doctor revealed the melanoma had spread to four parts of his brain. Hulton Archive/Getty Images The politician-turned-humanitarian had a history of cancer in his family. Carter’s parents and three siblings (two sisters and a brother) all died of different forms of cancer. His mother died of breast cancer; his father and siblings all died of pancreatic cancer. Age 90 at the time of his melanoma diagnosis, Carter believed he was nearing the end of his life but was at peace. “I just thought I had a few weeks left, but I was surprisingly at ease,” he said at the time, per ABC News . “I’ve had a wonderful life. I have thousands of friends...so I was surprisingly at ease, much more so than my wife was.” The former president underwent treatment (surgery, radiation therapy, and immunotherapy) to “extend” his life as much as possible. The treatment was successful, with Carter announcing in March 2016 that doctors stopped his treatment. Carter was hospitalized again the next year for dehydration due to building homes for Habitat for Humanity in Winnipeg, Canada. He was back at work on the homes the next day after some hours of observation. In May 2019, Carter broke his hip in a fall on his way out of his Plains, Georgia, home to go turkey hunting. He had a hip replacement a few days later and suffered another fall in October 2016, needing stitches over one of his eyebrows. In November 2019, he underwent surgery to address pressure in his brain caused by bleeding from the falls and recovered fine. Carter first served as a Georgia senator from 1963 to 1967 and then served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975. He beat incumbent President Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election. The 2002 Nobel Peace Prize winner sought to make the government “competent and compassionate” during his tenure. His accomplishments as president include creating the Department of Education, bolstering the Social Security system, hiring a record number of minority groups in government jobs, and protecting/improving the environment. Part of that effort was successfully adding 103 million acres of Alaskan land to the national park system. Carter was determined to see the U.S. switch from fossil fuel to clean energy with renewable resources. To that end, he had 32 solar panels installed on the roof of the West Wing in the summer of 1979, hoping to set an example for the future of renewable energy. The panels were used for seven years before Reagan had them removed. While he had notable accomplishments, rising energy costs, mounting inflation, and continuing tensions made it difficult for Carter to meet the high expectations he set for his administration. He shepherded in nearly eight million new jobs and a decrease in the budget deficit (per WhiteHouse.org ), but near record-high inflation and interest rates of the time, and the efforts to fix them, triggered a short recession in the economy. In foreign affairs, Carter led the Camp David Accords in 1978, a political agreement between Egypt and Israel reached through 12 days of secret negotiations at the President’s Maryland country retreat. His focus on human rights didn’t sit well with the leaders of the Soviet Union and some other nations. He obtained ratification of the Panama Canal treaties, set up diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, and finished the negotiation of the SALT II nuclear limitation treaty with the Soviet Union. Born James Earl Carter, Jr. on October 1, 1924, Carter’s family ran a peanut farm in Plains, Georgia. Talk of politics and his Baptist faith were tenets of his childhood. He graduated from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1946, serving seven years as a naval officer. Carter married his wife, Rosalynn Carter — who died in November 2023 — after graduating from the Academy in 1946. They share three sons, John William (Jack), James Earl III (Chip), Donnel Jeffrey (Jeff), and a daughter, Amy Lynn. Carter became a career politician in 1962 when elected to the Georgia State Senate. After his presidency, Carter focused his public efforts on humanitarian aid. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 “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.” More Headlines: Jimmy Carter Dies: Longest-Living U.S. President Was 100 Hallmark Alums Tease Reunion in ‘When Hope Calls’ Season 2 and Possible Kiss Dayle Haddon’s Son-in-Law Marc Blucas Spent Years Renovating 1700s House Where She Died The 6 Saddest Scenes in ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 ‘Sister Wives’ Star Meri Brown Debuts ‘Mystery Man’ 2 Years After Kody Brown SplitWith Marc de Grandpre as president and GM and Julian de Guzman as sporting director, the New York Red Bulls come with a distinctly Canadian flavour. On Saturday, both will be cheering on their team as it takes on the Los Angeles Galaxy, led by former Toronto FC coach Greg Vanney, in the MLS Cup final in Carson, Calif. De Grandpre is in his second stint with the Major League Soccer club while de Guzman, a Toronto native and former Canada captain, joined the front office in February. "We're all excited. This is a big moment for the club," said de Grandpre, a Montreal native. "We haven't been here since 2008 (when the Red Bulls lost 3-1 to Columbus in their first final appearance). "This is like a Game 7 ultimately and we're going to leave it all out there and hope for the best," he added. "We're very proud of the team, the players and where we're at. (Saturday), I guess, before kickoff anxiety will kick in but we have to enjoy the moment. These are not moments that occur every year or every other year. We're lucky, fortunate and we're grateful to be here and we'll soak it all in as an organization." While the fourth-place Galaxy (19-8-7) finished 12 places and 17 points ahead of the Red Bulls (11-9-14) in the overall league standings, one can argue the New Yorkers arrive at Dignity Health Sports Park as the team of destiny. Entering the playoffs as the seventh-ranked team in the Eastern Conference, the Red Bulls are the lowest-ever seed to reach the MLS championship game. The Red Bulls started the season with just one loss in their first 10 league outings (4-1-5) and went unbeaten in their first 12 league outings at Red Bull Arena (7-0-5) before losing 2-0 to Philadelphia on Aug. 31. But they limped into the playoffs after winning just one of their last nine regular-season outings (1-5-3). The lone win (4-1) during that run came Oct. 2 at lowly Toronto. De Grandpre points to the break for the Leagues Cup, which ran July 26 to Aug. 25, for the loss of form during that run. The Red Bulls played just two Leagues Cup games, losing to Toronto and Mexico's Pachuca both on penalty kicks, with a 25-day pause before resuming MLS play. "The team managed to persevere, stay resilient and get us into the playoffs," said de Grandpre. "And they're true to the form they were showing early in the season. "It's a group of players who truly enjoy being with each other, love each (other), care for each other and have totally embraced what (German coach) Sandro (Schwarz) has brought to the table in terms of culture and the way we approach the matches. You can feel it in the room. It's a special group of people." The Red Bulls are making the most of their record 15th-straight post-season appearance. They started the playoffs with a bang, upsetting defended champion and second-seeded Columbus 1-0 on the road and then via penalty shootout in Harrison, N.J., to win the best-of-three first-round series. They went on to dispatch No. 6 New York City FC 2-0 in the Eastern Conference semifinal and No. 4 Orlando City 1-0 in the conference final. The Red Bulls have made sure their fans will be on hand to cheer on the team. The club bought almost 2,000 tickets for members of its supporters groups and season-ticket holders as well as for its front office, custodial and security staff from its stadium and training facility, and food and beverage partners. "We want to make sure we reward our fans and that our most important human capital is with us — our staff, the people who make it happen ever day. We want to reward them as well," said de Grandpre. Some 700 members of the Red Bulls supporters groups also each received US$300 as well as a ticket to help defray travel costs. De Grandpre started with Bauer Hockey in Montreal and then, after graduate school in the U.S., became one of the first marketing employees for Red Bull North America in late 1999. In 2006, when the Austria-based energy drink giant bought the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, de Grandpre was tasked with rebranding the franchise to the Red Bulls. He spent two years as the team's managing director before moving on to Qualcomm (wireless technology), Imax (immersive cinema) and KIND (healthy snack foods), rejoining the Red Bulls in April 2014 as GM. "Ever since then, it's been a pleasurable experience, very rewarding. I've surrounded myself and the organization with the best talent in the business," he said. "And I believe that is why we are here today. It's been a long road, but the right way to get there, that's for sure." In 2015, de Grandpre was honoured with the league's Doug Hamilton Executive of the Year award. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 6, 2024. Follow @NeilMDavidson on the X platform. Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press

Bills clinch the AFC’s No. 2 seed with a 40-14 rout of the undisciplined Jets

Disney Influencer Dominique Brown Dies at 34 After Reportedly Experiencing Allergic Reaction at Holiday Food Event

Tech billionaire Elon Musk spent at least $270 million to help Donald Trump win the US presidency, according to new federal filings, making him the country's biggest political donor. SpaceX and Tesla CEO Musk, the world's richest person, was an ardent supporter of Trump's White House campaign -- funneling money into door knocking operations and speaking at his rallies. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.Luckily, the city has scores of great museums to choose from: Everything from small and quirky, to elegant gems housed in historic mansions, to preserved Lower East Side tenement apartments and hands-on experiences that might surprise even longtime New Yorkers. “Going to the Museum of Modern Art or the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the American Museum of Natural History is fantastic. But they can be like a big super-sized coffee drink, while we’re more like a cup of espresso,” says Alex Kalman, director of two of the city’s tiniest museums, Mmuseumm1 and Mmuseumm2. One is built into an old elevator shaft in a downtown alleyway. At other small museums you’ll find a cozy, Viennese-style coffee shop; kosher Jewish comfort food; and edgy gift shops. You could view the chair that George Washington sat in before giving his inaugural address to Congress. Or you might make seltzer or solve math puzzles. Here’s some of what’s happening at NYC’s “other” museums: Neue Galerie 1048 5th Ave. This museum, housed in a 1914 Gilded Age mansion that was once home to society doyenne Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III, focuses on art and design from Austria and Germany. Its Cafe Sabarsky is a destination of its own, with 1912 upholstery, period decor, and a grand piano in the corner used for cabaret, chamber and classical music performances. On view now is “Egon Schiele: Living Landscapes” and “Austrian Masterworks from the Neue Galerie.” The Museum at FIT 227 W 27th St. Tucked inside the Fashion Institute of Technology, behind the big sculpture in front, is the city’s only museum solely devoted to fashion. And it’s free. Opening in February is “Fashioning Wonder: A Cabinet of Curiosities,” exploring connections between cabinets of curiosities and fashion. The Jewish Museum 1109 5th Ave. at 92nd St. On view now are “Illit Azouley: Mere Things,” the first solo exhibit in a U.S. museum dedicated to the Berlin-based artist, and “Engaging with History: Works from the Collection.” Other displays include the “Tel Dan Stele,” a 9th century BCE stone monument fragment containing the earliest mention of the royal House of David outside of the Bible. The gift shop features an impressive array of specialty gifts, including works by artist Oded Halahmy. There’s a cafe with updated takes on traditional bagels, blintzes, herring and house-cured salmon. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum 2 East 91st St. One of the city’s two Smithsonian museums, the Cooper Hewitt focuses on innovative design. Its gift shop rivals MoMA’s, and there’s a private garden and small restaurant. The museum is housed in the former home of industrial magnate Andrew Carnegie. Completed in 1902, the mansion was the first in the U.S. to have a structural steel frame, and one of the first in the city to have a passenger elevator and central heating. It is now LEED-certified and features other cutting-edge technologies. A major exhibit on now, “Making Home: Smithsonian Design Triennial,” explores design’s role in shaping concepts of home, physically and emotionally. It sprawls over the entire mansion and will be on view through Aug. 10. National Museum of the American Indian 1 Bowling Green The other Smithsonian in town, it’s at the lower end of Manhattan inside the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Customs House, now a city landmark. Admission is free, and current exhibitions include “Jeffrey Veregge: Of Gods and Heroes,” “Native New York” and “Infinity of Nations.” The gift shop features authentic Native American art, crafts, apparel and jewelry from a wide representation of groups, in addition to books by and about Native Americans. Tenement Museum 103 Orchard St. With something for all ages, the Tenement Museum is housed in two preserved tenement buildings, one from 1863 and the other from 1888. Each apartment is a kind of time capsule, telling the story of a different immigrant or migrant family who lived there. The museum also offers walking tours of the neighborhood. “What is most unique about the Tenement Museum is that it shines the spotlight on ‘ordinary people’ — working-class families who never imagined they’d one day be the subject of a museum,” says Tenement Museum President Annie Polland. The New York Historical 170 Central Park West A great way to learn more about the city’s history, including the fact that Washington was inaugurated here. A permanent gallery on the fourth floor features a detailed recreation of the White House Oval Office in Washington, D.C., where presidents have worked since 1909. The Meet the Presidents Gallery traces, through artwork and objects, the evolution of the presidency and executive branch. Also on view is the chair from Washington’s inauguration at Federal Hall, on Wall Street, the only presidential inauguration held in New York City. Other current exhibits include “Pets and the City,” “Fred W. McDarrah: Pride and Protest.” There’s a permanent “Gallery of Tiffany Lamps.” MoMath (National Museum of Mathematics) 225 Fifth Ave. A hands-on museum with all kinds of math-oriented puzzles and thought-inspiring curiosities, like a tricycle with square wheels that rides smoothly on a zigzagged surface. In an exhibit called “Human Tree,” visitors can make successively smaller images of themselves that combine to make a “fractal tree” that sways in response to their movements. Brooklyn Seltzer Museum 474 Hemlock St, Brooklyn An interactive museum and factory tour run in partnership with the city’s oldest seltzer works, a family business now in its fourth generation. The museum, inside Brooklyn Seltzer Boys’ active factory, is “dedicated to preserving and promoting the effervescent history of seltzer water,” and celebrates “the manufacturing of seltzer, the science of seltzer, and seltzer as a cultural force in New York City and the world beyond.” Not to mention, guests can spritz each other with seltzer.

Caitlin Whyte netted 14 points with six rebounds,four assists and three steals to lead Middletown South to a 51-34 win over rival Middletown North during the WOBM Classic at RWJ Barnabas Arena in Toms River. The Eagles (5-2) jumped out to a quick 19-6 lead. 12/29 - 2:00 PM Girls Basketball Final Middletown North 34 Middletown South 51 Amanda MacGregor added 11 points, four assists and three steals to the win. Ava Loucopoulos chipped in with eight points, five of which came during Midd. South’s first-quarter run. Kaelyn Gibson scored a game-high 22 points for Midd North (2-5). Gibson scored 12 of her points in the fourth. The N.J. High School Sports newsletter is now appearing in mailboxes 5 days a week. Sign up now! Follow us on social: Facebook | Instagram | X (formerly Twitter)

Scandar Copti ’s “ Happy Holidays ” won top honors at the Marrakech Film Festival on Saturday, capping an emotional and politically resonant ceremony while adding Marrakech’s Étoile d’Or to a list of accolades that also includes best screenplay from Venice’s Orizzonti and best in show from the Thessaloniki Film Festival. The acclaimed title also claimed a shared best actress prize for leads Manar Shehab and Wafaa Aoun. Split into four chapters, the Palestinian film follows an ensemble of characters – Arab and Jewish alike – living in contemporary Haifa. Family secrets and domestic tensions underscore scenes from everyday life as the film traces out an expansive social circle with a novelistic attention to cultural and interpersonal dynamics. This year’s jury – led by Luca Guadagnino alongside Andrew Garfield, Jacob Elordi, Virginie Efira, Patricia Arquette, Zoya Akhtar, Ali Abbasi, Nadia Kounda and Santiago Mitre – together awarded the winning title with a unanimous vote. As she accepted the award on behalf of her filmmaking partner, screenwriter Mona Copti cast her joy for the accolades against the harsher reality of the ongoing war in Gaza. “How did we get here,” she asked. “How did dehumanization become normalized? How have killing, destruction, and martyrdom become almost acceptable? How did we lose our moral compass and reach this point of ethical collapse?” “We hope this film offers some answers to these questions by shedding light on the repercussions of indoctrination in societies and its impact on individual behavior—particularly in communities where women remain constrained by customs and traditions that deny them personal freedom above all else. Our struggle is interconnected, and true liberation cannot be achieved in isolation. None of us is truly free until all of us are.” Indeed, nearly all the night’s speeches carried a political charge. As director Silvina Schnicer accepted the jury prize for her film “The Cottage” – an honor the film shared with Mo Harawe’s “The Village Next to Paradise” – the Argentine auteur decried the heavy hand of her country’s Javier Milei government, specifically when it comes to cutting cinema funding. Finally, Polish drama “Under the Volcano” was the night’s other big winner, claiming the director prize for filmmaker Damian Kocur and the best actor trophy for star Roman Lutskyi. In another riveting speech — this time delivered via video — the actor dedicated his award to the armed forces of Ukraine. For its 21st edition, the Marrakech Film Festival exceeded 40,000 attendees, marking a 5000-admission increase from the previous year’s record, with young adults and students from Moroccan film schools in large parts accounting for the surge. Alongside its wider outreach programs, Marrakech also introduced an expanded festival hub that spread out over a half-mile, incorporating new venues while fostering a more vibrant and encompassing atmosphere. Awards season hopefuls like Walter Salles’ “I’m Still Here” and Gints Zilbalodis’ “Flow” screened for rapturous crowds, while Jean-Claude Barny’s political biopic “Fanon” made its world premiere – bolstering the festival’s reputation as a continental showcase for African cinema. Pursuant to those goals, the festival will double down on its Atlas Distribution Award – a recent initiative meant to fuel wider domestic and international distribution for the Moroccan, Arab and Pan-African films presented in Marrakech. 22 titles from this year’s selection will be eligible for Atlas support, including the night’s big winner. “We realized that these projects, outside of their time in festivals, were often not distributed in the Arab world or in Africa,” says festival coordinator Ali Hajji. “To ensure the viability and longevity — both culturally and economically — we saw the need to create a distribution system to better reach those audiences. Quite simply, we want Arab and African audiences to see these films.”Author and former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson announced Thursday she’s running to lead the Democratic National Committee. “I’m proud to announce I’m running for Chair of the DNC. In order to respond to the challenge of this moment, the Democratic Party needs transformation,” she posted on social media, with a link to a lengthy letter addressed to DNC members outlining her ambitions for the office. Williamson ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 and 2024. In 2020, she dropped out in January before the Iowa caucus after failing to meet the polling qualifications for several debates. In 2024, her best performance was 4% in the New Hampshire primary, behind Joe Biden, who received 63.8% of the vote despite not officially competing in the primary, and outgoing Rep. Dean Phillips, who received nearly 20%. She ended her candidacy and reentered the 2024 race twice before ending her campaign for a third and final time in July. She joins a growing field to replace outgoing chair Jaime Harrison that includes former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who ran for president in 2016; Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chair Ken Martin; Wisconsin Democratic Party chair Ben Wikler; and New York state Sen. James Skoufis.

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