Rosalynn Carter tributes highlight her reach as first lady and humanitarian

AMERICUS, Ga. — Hundreds turned out to salute Rosalynn Carter on Monday with the former U.S. first lady and global humanitarian’s final journey from her rural hometown to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta as her family began three days of memorials following her death at age 96.

The former president, who is 99 and has spent the past 10 months in home hospice care, plans to attend a memorial church service Tuesday in Atlanta for his wife and partner of more than 77 years, The Carter Center confirmed. Rosalynn Carter died Nov. 19.

The tributes started Monday morning as Rosalynn Carter’s casket traveled by motorcade through the Carters’ native Sumter County, where well-wishers gathered along the route in their tiny hometown of Plains and attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the college from which she graduated in 1946.

Lyndea Brown drove to the short ceremony at Georgia Southwestern State University from nearby Albany, saying she wanted to salute “a remarkable woman” who attended local cancer benefits and fought for rural health services.

“They were always real hometown people,” Brown said. “We don’t get presidents and first ladies like that anymore, people who have true hometown roots and understand what it’s like to grow corn and peanuts and whatever else and to struggle over health care.”

During the stop at Rosalynn Carter’s alma mater, her four children — Jack, Chip, Jeff and Amy — watched as wreaths of white flowers were placed beside a statue of their mother on the campus where she founded the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving to advocate for millions of unpaid caregivers in American households.

Generations of the Carter family — including the former first lady’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren — accompanied the hearse to Atlanta, where she was to lie in repose as members of the public paid respects Monday evening at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum.

Two funerals, set for Tuesday in Atlanta and Wednesday in Plains, are for invited guests. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, longtime friends of the Carters, lead the dignitaries expected to attend the Atlanta service. Rosalynn Carter’s burial Wednesday in Plains is private.

The schedule, a product of detailed planning that involved the former first couple, reflects the range of Rosalynn Carter’s interests and impact. That includes her advocacy for better mental health treatment and the elevation of caregiving, her role as Jimmy Carter’s closest adviser and her status as matriarch of Plains and Maranatha Baptist Church, where she and the former president served in various roles after leaving the White House in 1981.

“All over the world, people are celebrating her life,” said Kim Fuller, the Carters’ niece, while teaching a Bible lesson Sunday at Maranatha. “And of course we’re coming into a week now where we’re gonna celebrate even more.”

A detailed schedule is available online. Events will be streamed and broadcast by independent media.

Some well-wishers began honoring Rosalynn Carter soon after her death, including an uptick in visitors to the Carter Presidential Center campus.

“Mental health is more openly talked about” because of Rosalynn Carter’s work to reduce the stigma attached to the conditions, said Brendan Green, a high school guidance counselor who came from Chicago.

“She was a pioneer in that field,” Green said. “What a great legacy.”

Elizabeth Laudig, a registered nurse from Dallas, said she drove 12 hours to be in Georgia this week, starting with the wreath-laying ceremony in Americus. She said Rosalynn Carter’s emphasis on mental health and caregivers was especially inspiring to her as a nurse.

“She just quietly went about the business of trying to make the world a better place,” said Laudig, 54. “You know, she was not a showy or extravagant first lady, but she was humble, you know, kind, hardworking, and got things done for people because she cared about people.”

After the motorcade arrived in Atlanta, the family joined staff at the Carter Presidential Center for a short, private service.

The campus near downtown Atlanta includes the library and museum, and The Carter Center. The former first couple founded the center in 1982 to champion democracy, mediate international conflicts and fight disease in the developing world. Their work around the world redefined what former White House occupants can do after ceding political power.

Carter Center CEO Paige Alexander recalled Rosalynn Carter as a tough and fiercely intelligent advocate who in every respect was her husband’s “full and equal partner.”

“Her compassion, her ability to connect, her political savvy was something that helped build the support for all of our programs over the past 40 years,” Alexander told co-workers and the family.

The largest single service will be held Tuesday at Glenn Memorial Church on the Emory University campus. Emory helped the former first couple establish The Carter Center. Besides the Bidens, Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, have announced plans to attend.

Also expected are former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as former first ladies Laura Bush, Michelle Obama and Melania Trump, according to The Carter Center.

Glenn is a Methodist congregation. The Carters married in 1946 at Plains Methodist Church, where Rosalynn Carter attended growing up. She joined her husband as a Baptist throughout their marriage.

Her final services at Maranatha will reflect their small-town Protestant roots: Church members are invited and will eat a funeral meal with the Carter family the day of the service.

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Elon Musk battle: UK’s Rishi Sunak says antisemitism ‘wrong in all its forms’

British PM distances himself from tech billionaire's controversial social media post.

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Eric Adams dismisses Cuomo for mayor talk

NEW YORK — Eric Adams threw cold water on the prospect of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo running for mayor of New York City.

Adams in a radio interview Monday dismissed talk of Cuomo seeking his job, though acknowledged the three-term former governor is considering some sort of comeback to politics following his 2021 resignation.

“We talk often,” Adams told La Mega 97.9. “I don’t see him running for mayor. I think he is looking at his next political move and there is a lot of things he can look at, but I have to be ready to run New York and that is what I’m focused on doing right now.”

POLITICO reported last week Cuomo is weighing a bid for mayor as Adams’ campaign is under scrutiny by federal investigators stemming from whether it colluded with the Turkish government in exchange for official favors.

Cuomo has indicated to allies this month he could be interested in a mayoral bid, and voters in New York City received a poll testing a variety of comeback messages for the former governor. Cuomo, 65, has not ruled out a return to politics, telling POLITICO in October he is keeping his options open.

But multiple people familiar with Cuomo’s thinking do not expect him to directly challenge Adams in a Democratic primary, a contest that would divide working class Black voters, unions and the business community — a coalition both men have drawn support from in their campaigns.

Adams’ woes have deepened further last week after he was accused in a lawsuit of sexually assaulting a woman in 1993 when he was a member of the NYPD. Adams has denied ever meeting the woman.

Cuomo, who resigned amid a barrage of sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct allegations, is also facing a new lawsuit filed against him by former aide Brittany Commisso.

Commisso alleges Cuomo groped her while at the governor’s mansion in Albany in 2020 — a claim that Albany County District Attorney David Soares declined pursue in a criminal case. Commisso was among the women whose allegations were included a bombshell report released by New York Attorney General Tish James that preceded Cuomo’s resignation weeks later.

Cuomo has denied any wrongdoing.

“Ms. Commisso’s claims are provably false, which is why the Albany District Attorney dismissed the case two years ago after a thorough investigation,” Cuomo attorney Rita Glavin said. “Ms. Commisso’s transparent attempt at a cash grab will fail. We look forward to seeing her in court.”

Commisso’s civil case joins two other lawsuits previously filed against Cuomo by former aide Charlotte Bennett and a former member of his State Police security detail who have also alleged the former governor sexually harassed them.

Joe Anuta contributed to this report.

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Pentagon: Suspected Somali pirates behind cargo ship attack in the Middle East

The five armed individuals who attacked a commercial vessel in the Gulf of Aden over the weekend were from Somalia, a Pentagon spokesperson said Monday, citing initial assessments.

The incident was “clearly … piracy-related,” Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters. The Defense Department is still assessing whether the attackers have any ties to the Houthi rebels in Yemen, he added.

The destroyer USS Mason and a number of allied ships from the nearby counter-piracy task force initially responded to the cargo ship Central Park’s distress calls that it was being attacked on Sunday, DOD said. Three Chinese navy vessels were also in the vicinity on a counter-piracy mission, but did not respond to the distress call, Ryder said.

Once the coalition ships arrived, the task force demanded the release of the civilian vessel, according to DOD. The Central Park is a small, Liberian-flagged tanker managed by London-based company Zodiac Maritime. The five individuals then left the ship and fled aboard a small boat.

The Mason pursued, firing gunshots at the boat, but did not cause any injury, Ryder said. The U.S. Navy crew apprehended the attackers, who are onboard the Mason.

About an hour and a half later, two ballistic missiles were fired from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen “toward the general location” of the Mason, according to DOD. The ship tracked the missiles, which landed harmlessly in the Gulf about 10 nautical miles away, but did not attempt to shoot them down, Ryder said.

DOD is still assessing whether the Mason was the intended target of the attack, Ryder said. If it was, the move would mark the first time Houthi rebels have deliberately targeted U.S. maritime forces with missiles in the Gulf since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

Meanwhile, the tally of attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria has risen to 73 since Oct. 17, Ryder told reporters. However, the last attacks occurred on Thursday.

Ryder declined to link the lack of attacks to the pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas, which began Friday and was initially slated to end at midnight on Monday Eastern time. The two parties have agreed to extend the truce for two days, Qatari negotiators announced Monday.

The developments come as the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group entered the Persian Gulf on Sunday, the military announced.

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China says surge in respiratory illnesses caused by flu and other known pathogens

BEIJING — A surge in respiratory illnesses across China that has drawn the attention of the World Health Organization is caused by the flu and other known pathogens and not by a novel virus, the country’s health ministry said Sunday.

Recent clusters of respiratory infections are caused by an overlap of common viruses such as the influenza virus, rhinoviruses, the respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, the adenovirus as well as bacteria such as mycoplasma pneumoniae, which is a common culprit for respiratory tract infections, a National Health Commission spokesperson said.

The ministry called on local authorities to open more fever clinics and promote vaccinations among children and the elderly as the country grapples with a wave of respiratory illnesses in its first full winter since the removal of Covid-19 restrictions.

“Efforts should be made to increase the opening of relevant clinics and treatment areas, extend service hours and increase the supply of medicines,” said ministry spokesman Mi Feng.

He advised people to wear masks and called on local authorities to focus on preventing the spread of illnesses in crowded places such as schools and nursing homes.

The WHO earlier this week formally requested that China provide information about a potentially worrying spike in respiratory illnesses and clusters of pneumonia in children, as mentioned by several media reports and a global infectious disease monitoring service.

The emergence of new flu strains or other viruses capable of triggering pandemics typically starts with undiagnosed clusters of respiratory illness. Both SARS and Covid-19 were first reported as unusual types of pneumonia.

Chinese authorities earlier this month blamed the increase in respiratory diseases on the lifting of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. Other countries also saw a jump in respiratory diseases such as RSV when pandemic restrictions ended.

The WHO said Chinese health officials on Thursday provided the data it requested during a teleconference. Those showed an increase in hospital admissions of children due to diseases including bacterial infection, RSV, influenza and common cold viruses since October.

Chinese officials maintained the spike in patients had not overloaded the country’s hospitals, according to the WHO.

It is rare for the U.N. health agency to publicly ask for more detailed information from countries, as such requests are typically made internally. WHO said it requested further data from China via an international legal mechanism.

According to internal accounts in China, the outbreaks have swamped some hospitals in northern China, including in Beijing, and health authorities have asked the public to take children with less severe symptoms to clinics and other facilities.

WHO said that there was too little information at the moment to properly assess the risk of these reported cases of respiratory illness in children.

Both Chinese authorities and WHO have been accused of a lack of transparency in their initial reports on the Covid-19 pandemic, which started in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019.

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3 men of Palestinian descent are shot and wounded in Vermont

Three men of Palestinian descent were shot and wounded on Saturday evening in Burlington, Vermont, according to police, in an attack that authorities say may have been a hate crime.

The three men, all 20 years old, were shot near the University of Vermont campus around 6:25 p.m. Saturday evening, Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said on Sunday. Two of the victims were in stable condition as of Sunday afternoon, while another had “more serious injuries,” according to police.

The group was staying with the family of one of the victims for the Thanksgiving holiday, according to a news release from Murad on Sunday afternoon. Two of the victims were wearing keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian headdresses, and all three were walking down the street when a white male with a handgun confronted them and fired at least four rounds, without speaking.

“In this charged moment, no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate-motivated crime,” Murad said in his statement. The next step is finding and apprehending the suspect, said Murad, who cautioned people against jumping to conclusions.

“The fact is that we don’t yet know as much as we want to right now,” he said. “But I urge the public to avoid making conclusions based on statements from uninvolved parties who know even less.”

The shooting comes amid an uptick in anti-Muslim and antisemitic hate crimes as Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas remain locked in a brutal conflict. The current fighting began after Hamas launched an attack into Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 Israelis and taking more than 200 more people hostage. Israeli attacks have since leveled entire neighborhoods in Gaza, killing more than 13,300 Palestinians and displacing over 1.7 million others.

Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said in a statement: “Violence of any kind against any person in our community is totally unacceptable and we will do everything in our power to find the perpetrator and hold them fully accountable. That there is an indication this shooting could have been motivated by hate is chilling, and this possibility is being prioritized in the BPD’s investigation.”

Police did not identify the victims on Sunday. In a post on Facebook, a Palestinian school lamented the shooting of three of its graduates — Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdel Hamid and Tahseen Ahmed — who, according to the post, were shot in Burlington on Saturday.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), once the mayor of the Vermont city where the shooting occurred, called the episode “shocking and deeply upsetting,” in a statement on Sunday afternoon.

“Hate has no place here, or anywhere. I look forward to a full investigation. My thoughts are with them and their families,” Sanders said.

Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) similarly condemned the shootings.

“I’m heartbroken by yesterday’s senseless shooting of three Palestinian-American students visiting Burlington,” Welch wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “We do not tolerate hate or Islamophobia in Vermont. I expect law enforcement to quickly identify the shooter and their motive, & will continue to monitor the situation.”

On Sunday morning, the Council on American-Islamic Relations announced that it would offer a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the shooter, and called on state and federal officials to investigate “a possible bias motive” for the shooting.

Before police sent a news release about the episode, the families of the victims issued a statement urging police to investigate the shootings as a hate crime.

“As parents, we are devastated by the horrific news that our children were targeted and shot in Burlington, VT,” they said in a statement issued by the Institute for Middle East Understanding. “At this time, our primary concern is their full recovery and that they receive the critical medical support they need to survive. We are extremely concerned about the safety and well-being of our children.”

As of Sunday afternoon, President Joe Biden has been briefed on the episode, according to the White House.

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Ken Buck blasts his party's hardliners for ‘lying to America’

Republican Rep. Ken Buck laid into his own party Sunday, blasting those who continue to propagate the lie that the 2020 election was stolen for “lying to America.”

“Everybody who thinks that the election was stolen or talks about the election being stolen is lying to America,” the Colorado Republican said during an interview in CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Buck didn’t stop there.

“Everyone who makes the argument that January 6 was, you know, an unguided tour of the Capitol is lying to America. Everyone who says that the prisoners who are being prosecuted right now for their involvement in January 6, that they are somehow political prisoners or that they didn't commit crimes, those folks are lying to America.”

It’s not the first time Buck, a member of the Trump-aligned House Freedom Caucus, has decried his party’s unwillingness to accept the results of Biden’s 2020 victory or condemn the violent attack on the Capitol. The Colorado Republican voiced a similar warning earlier this month in announcing that he would not seek reelection in 2024.

“Too many Republican leaders are lying to America,” he said in his announcement video in early November.

Buck didn’t name former President Donald Trump, who has brandished lies about the 2020 election and elevated Jan. 6 rioters (calling them "hostages" earlier this month) on his seemingly runaway road to the GOP presidential nomination. But he pleaded with his party to defeat President Joe Biden with “someone who’s not lying to the country.”

“I hope all of my Republican colleagues become more clear and recognize the fact that Joe Biden is an existential threat to this country. We need to defeat him and we do that with someone who's not lying to the country,” Buck told CBS’ Margaret Brennan.

When asked specifically about House Speaker Mike Johnson, who spearheaded an effort to undo the 2020 election results through a longshot legal scheme in Texas, Buck noted that he had signed onto the amicus brief Johnson was pushing.

“I signed on to that brief also and I believe that going through the courts to challenge an election is absolutely proper and it's been done dozens of times in American history. What’s wrong is to try to stop a legal function, a legislative function like counting the votes in an election, as happened on January 6,” he said.

Johnson took over as speaker after Rep. Kevin McCarthy was ousted in an effort led by a small faction of Republican hardliners, including Buck, who were unhappy the California Republican sought help from Democrats to pass a stopgap bill to keep the government open.

Though Johnson was forced to do much the same earlier this month, Buck said Sunday he doesn’t expect he’ll face the same blowback as McCarthy.

“I don't think that most Republicans blame Speaker Johnson for the problems that he is now facing, the challenges he's facing. Those were created during the McCarthy time period, and Speaker Johnson is doing a good job to work his way through those issues,” Buck said. “So no, I don't think he's going to face a rebellion.”

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