AP News in Brief at 11:04 p.m. EST
Jimmy Carter's funeral begins by tracing 100 years from rural Georgia to the world stage
ATLANTA, Ga. (AP) - Jimmy Carter 's extended public farewell began Saturday in Georgia, with the 39th U.S. president´s flag-draped casket tracing his long arc from the Depression-era South and family farming business to the pinnacle of American political power and decades as a global humanitarian.
Those chapters shone throughout the opening stanza of a six-day state funeral intended to blend personalized memorials with the ceremonial pomp afforded to former presidents. The longest-lived U.S. executive, Carter died on Dec. 29 at the age of 100.
"He was an amazing man. He was held up and propped up and soothed by an amazing woman," son James Earl "Chip" Carter III, told mourners at The Carter Center late Saturday afternoon, referring also to his mother, former first lady Rosalynn Carter, who died in 2023. "The two of them together changed the world. And it was an amazing thing to watch so close."
Grandson Jason Carter, who now chairs the center's governing board, said, "It's amazing what you can cram into a hundred years."
Carter´s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren accompanied their patriarch as his hearse rode first Saturday through his hometown of Plains, which at about 700 residents is not much bigger than when Carter was born there Oct. 1, 1924. The procession stopped at the farm where the future president toiled alongside the Black sharecroppers who worked for his father. The motorcade continued to Atlanta, stopping in front of the Georgia Capitol where Carter served as a state senator and reformist governor.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson held onto his job, but there are signs of trouble ahead
WASHINGTON (AP) - This time was supposed to be different.
But while House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday avoided the dayslong ordeal that his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, endured to become speaker, his relatively swift victory was hardly a unifying moment. The tumult of the day laid bare that Johnson retains only tenuous support from hard-line conservatives who gave him their votes for now, but stand ready to dispatch him just as they did McCarthy if their demands aren't met.
"Is he going to fight?" said Rep. Ralph Norman, a South Carolina Republican who initially opposed Johnson but ultimate changed his vote.
Republicans are relishing the moment as they take unified control of Washington and rally around President-elect Donald Trump. Yet the elements that made for a turbulent House the past two years remain stubbornly in place, except that the stakes are far higher now as Republicans try to deliver on Trump's agenda.
The scale of the conflict to come was apparent as Congress began its new session Friday. House Republicans took shots at each other on TV and argued on the House floor, the freshly elected speaker looked worried, and even after Johnson's victory, some GOP lawmakers openly discussed what might trigger his removal.
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Reminders of Jan. 6 attack fade in the Capitol as Trump retakes power
WASHINGTON (AP) - Inside the Capitol, reminders of the violence are increasingly hard to find.
Scars on the walls have been repaired. Windows and doors broken by the rioters have been replaced. And there is no plaque, display or remembrance of any kind.
Lawmakers rarely mention the attack, and many Republicans try to downplay it, echoing President-elect Donald Trump´s claims that the carnage of that day is overblown and that the rioters are victims.
In some ways, it´s like the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, that shook the foundations of American democracy, never happened.
"It´s been erased," said Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt. "Winners write history and Trump won. And his version is that it was a peaceful gathering. Obviously completely untrue."
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New Orleans attacker had suspected bomb materials at home, reserved truck weeks ago, officials say
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The man who rammed a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year's revelers in New Orleans had suspected bomb-making materials at his home and reserved the vehicle used in the deadly attack more than six weeks earlier, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press on Friday.
Federal authorities searching the home of Shamsud-Din Jabbar in Houston found a workbench in the garage and hazardous materials believed to have been used to make explosive devices, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the search. The officials were not authorized to speak about the ongoing inquiry and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity.
The FBI investigation also revealed that Jabbar purchased a cooler in Vidor, Texas, hours before the attack and gun oil from a store in Sulphur, Louisiana, the officials said. Authorities also determined Jabbar booked his rental of the pickup truck on Nov. 14, suggesting he may have been plotting the attack for more than six weeks.
Authorities say 14 people were killed and about 30 were injured in the attack early Wednesday by Jabbar, a former Army soldier who posted several videos on his Facebook hours before the attack previewing the violence he would unleash and proclaiming his support for the Islamic State militant group. The coroner´s office listed the cause of death for all 14 victims as "blunt force injuries."
Jabbar, 42, was fatally shot in a firefight with police at the scene of the deadly crash on Bourbon Street, famous worldwide for its festive vibes in New Orleans' historic French Quarter.
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Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kill at least 21, hospital workers say, as talks underway
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israeli airstrikes killed at least 21 people, including at least two children, on Saturday in Gaza, hospital staff said, while a new effort at ceasefire talks was underway in Qatar after nearly 15 months of war.
Thousands rallied again in Israel to press for a ceasefire deal, hours after Hamas released a video showing one of the hostages still held in Gaza. Such videos, like an uptick in airstrikes, have been seen as attempts to assert pressure during talks.
A small boy cried over his father in southern Gaza's Khan Younis, and a woman draped herself over one of the bodies wrapped in white plastic. Three airstrikes in the city hit a car, a house and people on the street, according to staff at Nasser Hospital.
The Civil Defense, first responders affiliated with the Hamas-run government, said an airstrike destroyed a residential area behind the Saraya complex in Gaza City, killing at least five people.
And Israeli strikes on Saturday evening killed three people in Bureij and three others in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were taken. One child was among the dead. A young man leaned against a hospital wall and wept.
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Drivers skid and crash as wintry mix grips central US before moving east
MISSION, Kan. (AP) - Road conditions were deteriorating Saturday in the central U.S. as a winter storm brought a mix of snow, ice and plunging temperatures, with forecasts calling for the dreaded combo to spread eastward in the coming days.
"Winter returned," said Bob Oravec, lead forecaster at the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.
The polar vortex of ultra-cold air usually stays penned up around the North Pole, spinning like a top. But sometimes it escapes or stretches down to the U.S., Europe or Asia - and that´s when large numbers of people experience intense doses of cold.
Studies show a fast-warming Arctic gets some of the blame for the increase in polar vortex stretching or wandering.
By Saturday evening, widespread heavy snow was likely between central Kansas and Indiana, especially along and north of Interstate 70. Part of the interstate was closed in central Kansas by the afternoon. Total snow and sleet accumulations for parts of Kansas and northern Missouri were predicted to be as high as 14 inches (35.6 centimeters).
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Hillary Clinton, George Soros and Denzel Washington received the highest US civilian honor
WASHINGTON (AP) - In the East Room of the White House on a particularly frigid Saturday afternoon, President Joe Biden bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 of the most famous names in politics, sports, entertainment, civil rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy and science.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aroused a standing ovation from the crowd as she received her medal. Clinton was accompanied to the event by her husband former President Bill Clinton, daughter Chelsea Clinton and grandchildren. Democratic philanthropist George Soros and actor-director Denzel Washington were also awarded the nation´s highest civilian honor in a White House ceremony.
"For the final time as president I have the honor bestowing the Medal of Freedom, our nation´s highest civilian honor, on a group of extraordinary, truly extraordinary people, who gave their sacred effort, their sacred effort, to shape the culture and the cause of America," Biden said in his opening remarks.
"Let me just say to each of you, thank you, thank you, thank you for all you´ve done to help this country," Biden said Saturday.
Four medals were awarded posthumously. They went to George W. Romney, who served as both a Michigan governor and secretary of housing and urban development; former Attorney General and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy; Ash Carter, a former secretary of defense; and Fannie Lou Hamer, who founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and laid the groundwork for the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
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How Congress will certify Trump's Electoral College victory on Jan. 6
WASHINGTON (AP) - The congressional joint session to count electoral votes on Monday is expected to be much less eventful than the certification four years ago that was interrupted by a violent mob of supporters of then-President Donald Trump who tried to stop the count and overturn the results of an election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
This time, Trump is returning to office after winning the 2024 election that began with Biden as his party's nominee and ended with Vice President Kamala Harris atop the ticket. She will preside over the certification of her own loss, fulfilling the constitutional role in the same way that Trump's vice president, Mike Pence, did after the violence subsided on Jan. 6, 2021.
Usually a routine affair, the congressional joint session on Jan. 6 every four years is the final step in reaffirming a presidential election after the Electoral College officially elects the winner in December. The meeting is required by the Constitution and includes several distinct steps.
A look at the joint session:
Under federal law, Congress must meet Jan. 6 to open sealed certificates from each state that contain a record of their electoral votes. The votes are brought into the chamber in special mahogany boxes that are used for the occasion.
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Austrian Chancellor Nehammer says he will resign after talks on forming a new government fail
VIENNA (AP) - Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said Saturday he will resign in the coming days after talks on forming a new government failed a second time.
The announcement came after the People´s Party and the Social Democrats on Saturday continued coalition talks a day after the liberal Neos party´s surprise withdrawal from discussions.
"Unfortunately I have to tell you today that the negotiations have ended and will not be continued by the People´s Party," said Nehammer, the conservative party's leader, in a statement on social media.
He said that "destructive forces" in the Social Democratic Party have "gained the upper hand" and that the People´s Party will not sign on to a program that it considers to be against economic competitiveness.
Social democratic leader Andreas Babler said he regretted the People´s Party decision to end the talks. "This is not a good decision for our country," he said.
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Tesla data helped police after Las Vegas truck explosion, but experts have wider privacy concerns
NEW YORK (AP) - Your car is spying on you.
That is one takeaway from the fast, detailed data that Tesla collected on the driver of one of its Cybertrucks that exploded in Las Vegas earlier this week. Privacy data experts say the deep dive by Elon Musk´s company was impressive, but also shines a spotlight on a difficult question as vehicles become less like cars and more like computers on wheels.
Is your car company violating your privacy rights?
"You might want law enforcement to have the data to crack down on criminals, but can anyone have access to it?" said Jodi Daniels, CEO of privacy consulting firm Red Clover Advisors. "Where is the line?"
Many of the latest cars not only know where you´ve been and where you are going, but also often have access to your contacts, your call logs, your texts and other sensitive information thanks to cell phone syncing.
