Biden calls former VP Mondale 'giant' of political history
President Joe Biden has saluted his “friend of five decades” Walter Mondale, traveling to the University of Minnesota to remember the former vice president and Democratic Party elder whose memorial service was delayed for a year due to the pandemic.
Black lawmakers blast plans for monument to Justice Thomas
Georgia’s Republican-controlled Senate voted Monday to erect a monument to conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Georgia native Clarence Thomas after heated debate and objections from several Black senators, one of whom called Thomas a “hypocrite and a traitor.” The monument would be financed by private donations and would be erected somewhere at the state Capitol if the measure were to receive final passage. Statues honoring people at the state Capitol are generally put up after their deaths.
news.yahoo.comCarter's dream, almost reached: Guinea worm cases drop to 14
Guinea Worm FILE - In this March 9, 2007, file photo, a Guinea worm is extracted by a health worker from a child's foot at a containment center in Savelugu, Ghana. (AP Photo/Olivier Asselin, File) (Olivier Asselin)ATLANTA — (AP) — Guinea worm infections dropped to just over a dozen worldwide last year, getting closer to fulfilling former President Jimmy Carter's dream of completely eradicating the disease during his lifetime. Guinea worm infections in animals, such as dogs and cats, also declined 45% last year compared to 2020. Guinea worm affects some of the world's more vulnerable people and can be prevented by training people to filter and drink clean water. Guinea worm isn't fatal by itself.
wftv.comThe Green Lantern Theory Destroyed Jimmy Carter’s Presidency. Now It’s Hitting Joe Biden.
Mario Tama/GettyThe problem with being a president who promises to clean things up after a villainous predecessor is that the press corps treats you like a superhero—which sounds like a good thing until you realize that just means you get blamed for things you can’t control.That’s what happened to Jimmy Carter, and it’s what’s happening to Joe Biden now thanks to what Dartmouth political scientist Brendan Nyhad has called “the Green Lantern Theory” in which voters believe a president can do anyt
news.yahoo.comWhy people clean the bones of their dead relatives every year in this Mexican village
In the days leading up to Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, families in Pomuch, Mexico, take their deceased relatives' skeletons out of their tombs for their annual cleaning. The ritual is said to originate with the Mayans, and today, only Catholics here practice it. The pandemic has kept people away from the cemetery for the past two years, and younger generations are unlikely to carry on the tradition for much longer.
news.yahoo.comFormer President Jimmy Carter turns 97
(John Amis/AP Photo, File)The nation’s oldest former president, Jimmy Carter, marks his 97th birthday on Friday. Happy Birthday President Carter! pic.twitter.com/kCNdi0oKpF — Jimmy Carter Presidential Library (@CarterLibrary) October 1, 2021Online, The Carter Center collected birthday wishes for the former president and dozens of people shared well-wishes. President Carter turns 97 TODAY! pic.twitter.com/QcA33iUev4 — The Carter Center (@CarterCenter) May 4, 2021>> Related: Presidential sit-down: Carter, Biden visit photo releasedIn 2015, Jimmy Carter disclosed that doctors had discovered four melanoma lesions on his brain.
wftv.comFormer President Jimmy Carter quietly marks 97th birthday
Jimmy Carter Birthday FILE - In this Nov. 3, 2019, file photo, former President Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga. Carter, the oldest former U.S. chief executive ever, will quietly mark his 97th birthday at home in southwest Georgia on Friday, Oct. 1, 2021, an aide said. (AP Photo/John Amis, File) (John Amis)PLAINS, Ga. — (AP) — Ex-President Jimmy Carter, the oldest former U.S. chief executive ever, will quietly mark his 97th birthday at home in southwest Georgia on Friday, an aide said. Workers at the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site in tiny Plains recorded greetings for the former president, and members of the public can sign an online birthday card at www.cartercenter.org. Many shared photos of themselves with Carter and his wife Rosalynn, who celebrated 75 years of marriage in July. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited the Carters at their home in April.
wftv.comAnnette Carter, daughter-in-law of former president, dies
Annette Davis Carter, who campaigned for father-in-law Jimmy Carter during his successful bid for the White House in 1976 and spent nearly 50 years in Georgia's Carter clan, has died. Carter's son Josh Carter wrote an online obituary for his mother that was shared by the former president's church in Plains, on Wednesday. Annette Davis met Jeff Carter at Georgia Southwestern State University and the two married in April 1975, Josh Carter wrote.
news.yahoo.comJimmy Carter, wife Rosalynn celebrate 75 years of marriage
Carters Anniversary FILE - In this Feb. 8, 2017, file photo former President Jimmy Carter, right, and his wife Rosalynn arrive for a ribbon cutting ceremony for a solar panel project on farmland he owns in their hometown of Plains, Ga. Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn celebrate their 75th anniversary this week on Thursday, July 7, 2021. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File) (David Goldman)PLAINS, Ga. — (AP) — Former President Jimmy Carter on Saturday turned to his wife Rosalynn and thanked her for 75 years of marriage, telling her that she's always been right for him. Rosalynn Carter, sitting by his side, recounted how she didn't care for young men while growing up and never thought she'd get married. “And then, along came Jimmy Carter and my life has been an adventure ever since," she said. The two met in Georgia when Jimmy Carter, at the time a young midshipman, was home from the U.S. Navy Academy.
wftv.comJimmy Carter, wife Rosalynn celebrate 75 years of marriage
Former President Jimmy Carter on Saturday turned to his wife Rosalynn and thanked her for 75 years of marriage, telling her that she's always been right for him. “I want to express particular gratitude for being the right woman that I chose for my wife," Carter said at a 75th wedding anniversary celebration in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. About 300 friends and family members attended the event at Plains High School, a portion of which was livestreamed.
news.yahoo.comJimmy, Rosalynn Carter mark 75 years of ‘full partnership’
Carters Anniversary FILE - In this Aug. 6, 2001, file photo former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, left, and his wife Rosalynn help build a house for the Jimmy Carter Work Project 2001, at Asan near Chonan city, south of Seoul, South Korea. Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn celebrate their 75th anniversary this week on Thursday, July 7, 2021. Nearly eight decades later, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are still together in the same tiny town where they were born, grew up and had that first outing. “My biggest secret is to marry the right person if you want to have a long-lasting marriage,” Carter said. That’s really important.”As first lady, Rosalynn Carter carved her own identity even as she supported her husband.
wftv.comJimmy, Rosalynn Carter mark 75 years of ‘full partnership’
The young midshipman needed a date one evening while he was home from the U.S. Naval Academy, so his younger sister paired him with a family friend who already had a crush. Nearly eight decades later, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are still together in the same tiny town where they were born, grew up and had that first outing. In between, they’ve traveled the world as Naval officer and military spouse, American president and first lady, and finally as human rights and public health ambassadors.
news.yahoo.comMike Gravel, former US senator for Alaska, dies at 91
Obit Mike Gravel FILE - Democratic presidential hopeful and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel speaks at the "Take Back America" political conference in Washington, in this Tuesday, June 19, 2007, file photo. Gravel, a former U.S. senator from Alaska who read the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record and confronted Barack Obama about nuclear weapons during a later presidential run, has died. Gravel, who represented Alaska as a Democrat in the Senate from 1969 to 1981, died Saturday, June 26, 2021. Gravel, who represented Alaska as a Democrat in the Senate from 1969 to 1981, died Saturday, according to his daughter, Lynne Mosier. He launched his quest for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination as a critic of the Iraq war.
wftv.comBiden pledges aggressive response to pipeline cyberattackers
Biden President Joe Biden delivers remarks about the Colonial Pipeline hack, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Thursday, May 13, 2021, in Washington. “Do not, I repeat, do not try to take advantage of consumers during this time,” Biden said at the White House. Republican lawmakers found an opening after the shutdown to blast Biden for previously canceling plans to construct the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada. Key ways for Biden to respond have included showing he understands how rising gas prices can hurt family budgets as well as moving quickly to help fix the pipeline problem. “Gas prices are something that don’t affect the elite — and our politicians are all among the elite.”
wftv.comEgypt, Turkey officials meet for talks to reset frayed ties
Egyptian and Turkish officials met Wednesday for talks aiming to reset ties between the two regional powers after years of enmity. The two-day “political consultations” in Cairo are chaired by Hamdi Loza, Egypt’s deputy foreign minister, and his Turkish counterpart Sedat Onal. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry, which announced the meetings in a statement late Tuesday, described the talks as “exploratory discussions” that would focus on “the necessary steps that may lead towards the normalization of relations between the two countries, bilaterally and in the regional context.”
news.yahoo.comAmerican Troops in Iraq Have Been Pummeled by 3 Attacks in 3 Days. Will Biden Strike Back?
AHMAD AL-RUBAYEFor the third day in a row, U.S. bases in Iraq have come under fire from rocket attacks.No one has claimed responsibility for the latest spate of attacks, which has not proved deadly so far, but the U.S. has routinely accused Iran-backed militias of attacking American interests in Iraq.The question now—as the attacks escalate—is what is President Joe Biden going to do about it?The Biden administration faces a Herculean task in confronting these incidents, in part because it was left with a blueprint from the last administration that sought retaliation every time American personnel were killed.When an American contractor was killed in a 2019 rocket attack targeting a K-1 base—which the U.S. blamed on Kataib Hezbollah—U.S. forces carried out retaliatory airstrikes against Iran-backed militants that December, setting off a cycle of violent back-to-back clashes. Within days, the U.S. embassy was hit by protests, American forces killed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, and Iran fired ballistic missiles at Al-Asad base, where U.S. troops were stationed, in January 2020.That cycle is one that the Biden administration wants to avoid. And while Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has been adamant that the U.S. will defend its forces in Iraq, its troops are backed into a corner in weeks like this when rocket attacks strike three U.S. positions. Rockets were fired into the Ayn al Asad airbase in Western Iraq on Tuesday, there was an attack on the Balad air base north of Baghdad, which houses U.S. contractors on Monday, and another on the U.S. base at Baghdad airport on Sunday.The Biden administration doesn’t want to rush into a violent response, but it doesn’t want to look like it’s doing nothing. That is why State Department and Pentagon officials often evade questions about which specific groups are responsible for a given attack, and how they intend to react. If they don’t name the culprit, then there is no onus on them to respond.In February, the U.S. launched airstrikes on Iranian-backed militias in Syria in response to a previous attack on American forces.This was an example of the delicate balancing act the U.S. is so desperately trying to perfect: to respond without escalating. By attacking Iranian-backed forces in Syria, the U.S. did not violate Iraqi sovereignty, which is a sensitive issue in Iraq and has led to calls for the U.S. to leave. American forces are in Iraq at the invitation of Baghdad to help fight ISIS. When the Trump administration hinted in December 2018 that the U.S. might withdraw from Syria and use Iraq to “watch” Iran, many Iraqi politicians were stunned by the proposal.During the war against ISIS, an uneasy truce existed between the U.S. and Iran. When the Iran deal was in the works in 2015, U.S.-led Coalition forces came to Iraq to help train, equip, advise, and assist Iraqis to push back ISIS. But by 2017, with Trump in office and ISIS largely defeated in Iraq, tensions began to grow between the U.S. and pro-Iranian politicians in Iraq.The Badr Organization, whose leader Hadi al-Amiri served alongside the Iranians in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, called for the U.S. to leave. Qais Khazali, a militia leader who had once been detained by the U.S. at Camp Cropper, amplified threats against the U.S.By May 2019, rocket attacks—often using 107mm rockets linked to Iran—were targeting the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, a U.S. facility at Baghdad International Airport, and U.S. forces at Camp Taji and other bases. By July 2020 attacks increased to weekly incidents, and the U.S. sent air defense, including Patriots, to Iraq to protect against ballistic missile threats from Iran.This could mean that pro-Iranian groups in Iraq are seeking a kind of maximum-pressure campaign against the U.S., similar to the Trump administration’s maximum pressure on Iran.This puts the Biden administration in a precarious position. Unlike in Afghanistan—where the U.S. is withdrawing—it wants to preserve a presence in Iraq, and today, American troops have been drawn down and consolidated in more easily defended locations, in part due to the frequent attacks. Consolidation means fewer potential targets, and forces left K-1, Q-West, Camp Taji, and a series of other posts in 2020.Still, recent attacks in the past three months show just how vulnerable U.S. forces are, regardless of the consolidation tactics they take. The message appears to be that Iranian-backed forces will continue to strike wherever U.S. forces are located, whether on the giant sprawling Asad base or in Erbil.The White House is left with several options in response. It can hold Iran directly responsible, but that could lead to a military escalation. It can also use the attacks as leverage to levy a new regional Iran deal, requiring them to stop as part of the agreement. Alternatively, it could demand these groups be held responsible by Iraqi authorities, but the track records of those investigations are bleak. No militias have ever been charged for these attacks by the government, which is often reluctant to prosecute these groups because of their links to powerful political parties who have threatened Iraq’s president and prime minister in the past.The final two options are to escalate U.S. airstrikes in Syria to punish groups linked to Iran, or to do nothing at all. Doing nothing means letting pro-Iran groups dictate the tempo and escalation of the conflict. More airstrikes risk the appearance of taking action while failing to send a serious message to Iran. Small, tit-for-tat attacks will not make Iran reconsider its policy of harassing U.S. forces in Iraq.The Trump administration tried to set the bar by retaliating in response to any casualties, which led to dozens of attacks by militias. Prior to Trump, other U.S. administrations preferred to err on the side of doing nothing, putting the U.S. on the backfoot and giving pro-Iranian groups the upper hand.The White House is facing two loaded questions here. Are the attacks in Iraq a purely Iraqi problem, with a local solution? Or is the goal to stop the attacks in Tehran, requiring a regional approach that would address tensions from Yemen to Syria, Lebanon to Israel? Either path presents the administration with challenges that three previous administrations haven’t been able to solve.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
news.yahoo.comIraq's health minister resigns over Baghdad hospital fire
Iraq's health minister resigned Tuesday over a week after a deadly blaze killed dozens of people in a Baghdad hospital for COVID-19 patients that officials said was caused by negligence. Iraq's prime minister approved the resignation request submitted by Health Minister Hasan al-Tamimi, according to a statement from his office. The resignation came shortly after the Cabinet voted on the recommendations of an investigative committee that probed the catastrophic fire at Ibn al-Khatib hospital.
news.yahoo.comVice presidents' policy projects come with political risks
That's likely to be the case for Vice President Kamala Harris, who this week was named the new point person on immigration. This is definitely not a ceremonial task,” said Nina Rees, a former deputy assistant for domestic policy to Vice President Dick Cheney. Harris' team has clarified that the vice president does not own all of immigration policy. Kamarck's argument bucks the traditional wisdom, which says if a vice president does well on thorny issues, more credit goes to the president and, if not, it gives the president some political cover. The matter of who gets praise, or blame, is even trickier when it's clear the vice president has White House aspirations.
‘I don’t need the vaccine’: GOP worries threaten virus fight
Laura Biggs, a 56-year-old who has already recovered from the virus, is wary of taking the vaccine. “The way I feel about it is: I don’t need the vaccine at this point," she said. She said partisan differences were obvious among her friends and family in all aspects of the pandemic, including vaccine acceptance. I don’t think it is the way God intended for us to be,” said Holloway. “The people who voted for Trump and don’t want to take the vaccine are committed in their opposition.
'I don’t need the vaccine': GOP worries threaten virus fight
Laura Biggs, a 56-year-old who has already recovered from the virus, is wary of taking the vaccine. “The way I feel about it is: I don’t need the vaccine at this point," she said. She said partisan differences were obvious among her friends and family in all aspects of the pandemic, including vaccine acceptance. I don’t think it is the way God intended for us to be,” said Holloway. “The people who voted for Trump and don’t want to take the vaccine are committed in their opposition.
Fauci: Trump should urge his followers to get vaccinated
Fauci said Sunday, March 14, he wishes former President Donald Trump would use his popularity among Republicans to persuade his followers to get the COVID-19 vaccine. In a round of interviews on the morning news shows, Fauci lamented polling showing that Trump supporters are more likely to refuse to get vaccinated, saying politics needs to be separated from commonsense, no-brainer public health measures. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday he wishes former President Donald Trump would use his popularity among Republicans to persuade more of his followers to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Fauci said it would be a “game changer” for the country’s vaccine efforts if the former president used his “incredible influence” among Republicans. Trump did not appear in a new public service campaign for the COVID-19 vaccine that included former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
NYC prosecutor leading Trump probe won't seek reelection
FILE - In this July 1, 2014 file photo, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., is interviewed on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. who sees the Trump case through. “I never imagined myself as District Attorney for decades like my predecessors. The Trump case will likely be an early test for the next district attorney. Vance's office reopened the Hadden case amid public outcry last year, and the doctor was indicted on federal charges.
Former presidents, first ladies urge Americans to get COVID-19 shots
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)WASHINGTON – Four former presidents are urging Americans to get vaccinated as soon as COVID-19 doses are available to them, as part of a campaign to overcome hesitancy about the shots. Two public service announcements from the Ad Council and the business-supported COVID Collaborative feature Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter as well as first ladies Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Rosalynn Carter. In a 60-second spot, the former presidents say what they're most looking forward to once the pandemic ends. It features Bush, Obama and Clinton encouraging vaccinations. The “It's Up to You” campaign encourages Americans to visit www.GetVaccineAnswers.org to get the facts about the vaccines.