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Fear and gloating about US at top democracy gathering

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:37:32 GMT

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — President Joe Biden is confident the United States can handle a world on fire. The reaction from dignitaries at a major international democracy forum: It’s too early to call.Diplomats, officials and military leaders gathered at the annual Halifax International Security Forum this weekend to rally the world’s democracies against autocratic forces. This year’s conference centered around the idea that Ukraine’s victory against Russia would make it easier for Israel to defeat Hamas and signal to Beijing that Washington backs its friends.That put American resolve in the spotlight, as questions about the Biden administration’s ability to stay the course swirled in public panel discussions and hallway conversations.Fear persists that Israel’s forceful retaliation, and what comes next in Gaza, will distract the U.S. from Kyiv’s needs. Biden is grappling with a funding fight at home, where Democrats express skepticism at more support for Israel while Republic...

Monsanto ordered to pay $1.5B in Roundup case

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:37:32 GMT

Bayer AG’s Monsanto unit was ordered by a Missouri jury to pay more than $1.5 billion to three former users of its Roundup weedkiller who blamed their cancers on the controversial product in one of its largest trial losses in the five-year litigation over the herbicide.Jurors in state court in Jefferson City, Missouri, late Friday awarded James Draeger, Valorie Gunther and Dan Anderson a total of $61.1 million in actual damages and $500 million each in punitive damages over their claims that years of using Roundup on their lawns and gardens caused their non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas.Monsanto has been hit with a recent spate of jury verdicts finding its Roundup contains carcinogens after winning nine cases against it. The more than $1.5 billion verdict is one of the largest damage awards handed down against a U.S. corporate defendant this year.A federal-court jury in Kansas City concluded Oct. 31 the National Association of Realtors and others conspired to artificially inflate commissions ...

Another year, another state championship for the Watertown field hockey dynasty

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:37:32 GMT

WORCESTER – The national-record, 41-game shutout streak has ended, but Watertown field hockey’s title reign is still very much alive.Senior Molly Driscoll snapped a tie early in the fourth quarter with her third goal of the Div. 3 state final at WPI on Saturday, helping the top-seeded Raiders (22-0) clinch a 4-3 win over No. 2 Newburyport for their third straight title.The Clippers twice rallied in this instant classic, scoring three times the amount of goals Watertown had allowed over the last two years combined. But Driscoll’s hat trick gave it the last laugh, sealing the program’s third three-peat while ending her career with 150 goals and zero losses.Only two other programs have three-peated. Watertown is the only to do it three times. Longtime head coach Eileen Donahue now has 23 state titles, though she’s focused on just one.“I don’t know what that feels like, I just know what this feels like – that I’m very proud of all the girls, and the coaches, and all the people that have...

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter dies at 96

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:37:32 GMT

Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, wife of former President Jimmy Carter, died Sunday afternoon. She was 96.The Carter Center said in a statement that the former first lady passed away at just after 2 p.m. Sunday at her home in Plains, Georgia, about two days after she entered hospice care. “Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” President Carter said in a statement. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”The Carters marked their 77th wedding anniversary in July. As of 2021, their marriage became the longest for a first couple in U.S. history, surpassing George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush’s 73 years of marriage.Rosalynn Carter was a longtime advocate for mental health issues. She was diagnosed with dementia in March, which the center said the family was hoping to help destigmatize. "Besides being a loving mother and extraordinary First Lady, my mothe...

Notable quotes from former first lady Rosalynn Carter

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:37:32 GMT

___Rosalynn Carter, from her 1984 book, “First Lady from Plains”On the campaign: “Later I was thankful for those early months when there were no large crowds, although I wanted them at the time, and when there were no press with me to record every slipup or misstatement. I was soon able to anticipate questions and to answer them, falteringly at times, but I learned. I also developed a standard stump speech and learned to get my message across in the often small time allotted no matter what questions were asked.”___On her relationship with the president: “I often acted as a sounding board for him. While explaining a particular issue to me, he could think it through himself; and I and the rest of the family often argued with him more strenuously than his advisers or staff did. To us he was the same participant in our nightly dinner table discussions that he had always been. I soon discovered that it was easier for me to learn about people’s needs as I traveled than it was for him. ...

A timeline of key moments from former first lady Rosalynn Carter’s 96 years

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:37:32 GMT

PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — ___Landmarks and notable events in the life of former U.S. first lady Rosalynn Carter:— Aug. 18, 1927: Eleanor Rosalynn Smith is born at her family home in Plains, Georgia. She is the daughter of Wilburn Edgar Smith, a mechanic, and Allie Murray Smith, a seamstress and postal worker.— Late August 1927: “Miss Lillian” Carter, a neighbor and nurse who delivered Rosalynn, brings her son, Jimmy, nearly 3 years old, to meet the new baby.— 1940: Rosalynn’s father dies, leaving her to help her mother raise her younger siblings.— 1945: She begins dating Jimmy Carter, now a Naval Academy midshipman and the brother of her close friend, Ruth Carter.— Spring 1946: She graduates from Georgia Southwestern College.— July 7, 1946: She marries Jimmy at Plains Methodist Church, her childhood congregation. They would have four children: John William (“Jack”), born 1947; James Earl III (“Chip”), 1950; Donnel Jeffrey, 1952; and Amy Lynn, 1967. — 1946-1953: Rosalynn manages the C...

Rosalynn Carter: Advocate for Jimmy Carter and many others, always leveraging her love of politics

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:37:32 GMT

PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — The Washington chattering class, often unsure what to make of outsiders, dubbed Rosalynn Carter the “Steel Magnolia” when she arrived as first lady.A devout Baptist and mother of four, she was diminutive and outwardly shy, with a soft smile and softer Southern accent. That was the “magnolia.” She also was a force behind Jimmy Carter’s rise from peanut farmer to winner of the 1976 presidential election. That was the “steel.”Yet that obvious, even trite moniker almost certainly undersold her role and impact across the Carters’ early life, their one White House term and their four decades afterward as global humanitarians advocating peace, democracy and the eradication of disease.Through more than 77 years of marriage, until her death Sunday at the age of 96, Rosalynn Carter was business and political partner, best friend and closest confidant to the 39th president. A Georgia Democrat like her husband, she became in her own right a leading advocate for people with me...

French performers lead a silent Paris march for peace between Israelis and Palestinians

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:37:32 GMT

PARIS (AP) — Holding olive branches and white banners, French performers from different religious and ethnic backgrounds led thousands of people on a silent march through central Paris on Sunday to call for peace between Israelis and Palestinians and unity in France.The crowd, which included actors Isabelle Adjani and Emmanuelle Beart as well as singers and other cultural figures, marched from the Arab World Institute toward the Museum of Art and History of Judaism, located across the Seine River.“We have a blue sky on top of our head today and in Israel, in Palestine, they’re having bombs, they’re having war. We’re not helping the situation by choosing sides or throwing hate on one side or another,’’ Nadia Fares said. The silence at Sunday’s march ‘’will balance, hopefully, the cacophony we have all over the world,” she said.France, home to significant Jewish and Muslim populations, has seen weeks of protests and tensions over the Israel-Hamas war.The French government is pus...

2 people killed, 3 injured when shots were fired during a gathering at an Oklahoma house, police say

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:37:32 GMT

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Two people were killed and three were wounded when shots were fired early Sunday during an argument at a gathering at an Oklahoma home, police said.Tulsa police said officers were called to the home at about 2 a.m. Police have not said how many people fired weapons or whether any suspects have been identified or arrested.Police said one of the victims died at the scene while four others were taken to hospitals with critical injuries. One of those taken to a hospital died after arriving.Police said four small children were in a back room of the home at the time, but they were not hurt.The Associated Press

A hat worn by Napoleon sold for $2.1 million at an auction of the French emperor’s belongings

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:37:32 GMT

PARIS (AP) — A faded and cracked felt bicorne hat worn by Napoléon Bonaparte sold for $2.1 million at an auction Sunday of the French emperor’s belongings.Yes, $2.1 million.The signature broad, black hat — one of a handful still in existence that Napoléon wore when he ruled 19th-century France and waged war in Europe — was initially valued at 600,000 to 800,000 euros ($650,000-870,000). It was the centerpiece of Sunday’s auction in Fontainebleau of memorabilia collected by a French industrialist who died last year.But the bidding quickly jumped higher and higher until Jean Pierre Osenat, president of the Osenat auction house, designated the winner.‘’We are at 1.5 million (euros) for Napoleon’s hat … for this major symbol of the Napoleonic epoch,” he said, as applause rang out in the auction hall. The buyer, whose identity was not released, must pay 28.8% in commissions according to Osenat, bringing the overall cost to 1.9 million euros ($2.1 million).While other of...