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Jimmy Carter death - latest news: Former president’s funeral set for Jan. 9 as Biden declares national day of mourning

President-elect Donald Trump and President Joe Biden lead tributes to Carter after he died at his home in Plains, Georgia, aged 100

Oliver O'Connell,Alex Croft,James Liddell
Tuesday 31 December 2024 01:04 GMT
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Jimmy Carter, former US president, dies aged 100

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Jimmy Carter’s funeral will be held on January 9 at the Washington National Cathedral, where President Joe Biden will give a eulogy, funeral organizers told The New York Times.

Carter, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and peanut farm operator who became the 39th president of the United States, died at his home in Plains, Georgia, on Sunday at 100 years old, the Carter Foundation confirmed.

The funeral is one of eight days of ceremonies and honors, which will include Carter’s body being flown to Washington, D.C. where he will lie in state at the Capitol Rotunda.

Biden has also marked January 9 as a national day of mourning and has called on U.S. citizens to assemble “in their respective places of worship” to pay homage to the former president.

Heartfelt tributes continue pouring in from world leaders celebrating Carter’s life and humanitarian achievements, including President-elect Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Pope Francis.

Voices: Jimmy Carter brokered peace in the Middle East – then triggered his greatest failure

“The Carter administration did, however, notch up one diplomatic success, which might have gained more recognition without what happened next. The success came with the Camp David accords that were signed in September 1978; that is a third of the way through his term, and constituted a diplomatic breakthrough of the first order.”

Mary Dejevsky writes:

Jimmy Carter brokered peace in the Middle East – then triggered his greatest failure

The one-term president’s humiliation by Iranian revolutionaries kicked off a decades-long American grudge, Mary Dejevsky writes

Mary Dejevsky30 December 2024 22:00

Jimmy Carter made eradicating Guinea worm disease a top mission

Noble Prize-winning peacemaker Jimmy Carter spent nearly four decades waging war to eliminate an ancient parasite plaguing the world’s poorest people.

Rarely fatal but searingly painful and debilitating, Guinea worm disease infects people who drink water tainted with larvae that grow inside the body into worms as much as 3-feet-long. The noodle-thin parasites then burrow their way out, breaking through the skin in burning blisters.

Carter made eradicating Guinea worm a top mission of The Carter Center, the nonprofit he and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, founded after leaving the White House. The former president rallied public health experts, billionaire donors, African heads of state and thousands of volunteer villagers to work toward eliminating a human disease for only the second time in history.

AP 30 December 2024 23:00

Carter’s presidency was marked by turmoil

Carter was full of ambition at the start of his presidency but beset with problems from the start.

The presidency was weighed down by multiple crises. In the 1970s, the economy struggled with a rare combination of simultaneous inflation and recession, an oil shortage sent gas prices soaring and the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, derailing negotiations for an important arms treaty.

Notably, in a struggle that lasted almost as long as his presidency, Carter fought over an energy program that was structured to make fuel expensive enough that consumers would be encouraged to conserve it.

The crisis required Carter to address the nation multiple times in 1979.

“In order to control energy price, production, and distribution, the Federal bureaucracy and red tape have become so complicated, it is almost unbelievable. Energy prices are high, and they’re going higher, no matter what we do,” he said in an April 1979 speech.

Ariana Baio, Andrew Feinberg31 December 2024 00:00

Editorial: America – and Donald Trump – have much to learn from the life and service of Jimmy Carter

“The contrast between the peanut farmer and the mogul could not be more different as the US marks the passing of its most humble president – and braces for the return of its most divisive”

America – and Trump – have much to learn from the life and service of Jimmy Carter

Editorial: The contrast between the peanut farmer and the mogul could not be more different as the US marks the passing of its most humble president – and braces for the return of its most divisive

The Independent31 December 2024 01:00

Thank you for following our liveblog, which will now be paused until President Jimmy Carter’s funeral in Washington, D.C. on January 9.

Gustaf Kilander31 December 2024 01:03

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