Foreign
Jimmy Carter’s funeral brings together 5 current and former US presidents to honor one of their own
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As they filed into the front pews at Washington National Cathedral, wearing dark suits and mostly solemn faces, five current and former presidents came together for Jimmy Carter’s funeral. During a service that stretched more than an hour, the feuding, grievances and enmity that had marked their rival campaigns and divergent politics gave way to a reverential moment for one of their own.
Barack Obama and Donald Trump, the first two of the group to take their seats Thursday, shook hands and chatted at length. Trump, the former president who will retake the Oval Office in 11 days, leaned in and listened intently to his predecessor, notwithstanding the political chasm between them. At times, the two flashed smiles.
Trump later returned to his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida Thursday night to meet with Republican governors and refused to say what he and Obama discussed, but joked, “It did look very friendly, I must say.”
“I didn’t realize how friendly it looked. I said, ‘Boy they look like two people who like each other and we probably do,” he said. “We have little different philosophies, right, but we probably do.”
The president-elect added, “I don’t know. We just got along. But I got along with just about everybody.”
Obama, who attended Carter’s funeral without his wife, Michelle, shared a second-row pew with former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, along with their spouses. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrived last and sat in the pew just in front of them.
Members of the exclusive presidents’ club were on their best behavior. Bonded by the presidency, they rarely criticize one another or the White House’s current occupant — though Trump has flouted those rules frequently. He has both praised and criticized Carter in recent days, and he complained that flags will still be at half-staff to honor the deceased president during his inauguration.
In one seemingly chilly moment, Trump looked up when Vice President Kamala Harris — whom he defeated in November’s hard-fought election — entered the cathedral, but he didn’t move to greet her as she and husband Doug Emhoff took seats directly in front of him and Melania Trump. Nor did Harris acknowledge him.
After the service, Emhoff made a point to turn around and shake hands with Trump.
Obama, with Trump on his left, also turned to his right to chat with Bush. Clinton, with wife Hillary, was the last of the ex-presidents to take a seat and got in some chatter with Bush as well.
The White House said the former presidents also met privately before taking their seats. There was no word on what was said then, though Trump said later of its participants, “We all got along very well.”
Funerals are among the few events that bring members of the presidents’ club together. In a way, former President Gerald Ford was there, too: Ford’s son Steven read a eulogy for Carter that Ford had written before he died in 2006.
Busy with personal pursuits, charitable endeavors and sometimes lucrative speaking gigs, the former leaders don’t mingle often. They all know the protocol of state funerals well — each has been involved in planning his own.
During the 2018 funeral for George H.W. Bush, then-President Trump sat with his predecessors and their spouses, including the Carters, and the interactions were stiff and sometimes awkward.
This time, Trump also didn’t appear to interact with Hillary Clinton, whom he defeated in the 2016 election.
Trump was seated in the pew in front of his former vice president, Mike Pence — one of the few times they have coincided at events since Pence refused to overturn the results of the 2020 election after Trump lost to Biden. The two shook hands but didn’t speak much beyond that. Pence’s wife, Karen, appeared to avoid engaging with the president-elect.
Trump, who largely avoided contact with the former presidents during his first term — and pointedly did not seek their advice — has been critical of Republican former presidents, particularly the Bush family, which made him an uneasy member of the former presidents’ club. Carter himself didn’t particularly relish being a member of the club, at times criticizing its staid traditions.
Many past presidents have built relationships with their predecessors, including Bill Clinton, who reached out to Richard Nixon for advice on Russian policy, and Harry S. Truman, who sought counsel from Herbert Hoover.
One of the first calls Obama made after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 was to George W. Bush to spread the word that the mission had been accomplished, said Kate Andersen Brower, author of “Team of Five: The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump.”
“It’s the loneliest job in the world, so usually they reach out and rely on each other,” said Andersen Brower. “But Trump didn’t have that the first term, so this will just be another four years where he doesn’t depend on anyone who came before him.”
She noted that Carter spent years as a proud Washington outsider and skipped the unveiling of his own portrait to avoid being in the same room with the man who beat him in 1980, President Ronald Reagan.
“Carter and Trump, even though they have the least in common about everything else, are similar,” Andersen Brower said, “in just how they approach telling what they actually think.”
President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Todd Blanche took a key step on Tuesday towards becoming the top US law enforcement officer after a Senate panel approved his nomination to head the Justice Department.
The 12-10 vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee was along party lines and came after two Republican senators dropped their opposition to Blanche’s nomination.
Blanche’s Senate confirmation had been held up by concerns from senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis over a $1.8 billion fund for alleged victims of politically motivated prosecution and a tax audit immunity deal with the Republican president.
Blanche issued a written order over the weekend scrapping the so-called “anti-weaponization fund” and said the audit immunity agreement with Trump, his two eldest sons and the Trump Organization would only apply “retroactively” to past tax years and not future filings.
The full Senate, where Republicans hold a majority, is expected to vote later this week to confirm Blanche as attorney general. He has been serving as acting attorney general since Trump fired Pam Bondi in April.
Senate Democrats have been united in their opposition to Blanche amid concerns he has treated the Department of Justice as an extension of the Republican president’s legal team.
“Todd Blanche has no business serving as our nation’s chief law enforcement officer,” Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said before Tuesday’s vote.
“The attorney general is supposed to be the people’s lawyer,” Durbin said. “Mr Blanche continues to operate as the president’s personal lawyer, treating the Justice Department like a law firm serving one client — the president.”
– ‘Retribution’ campaign –
Vice President JD Vance, in a post on X following the committee vote, said Blanche “will continue to serve the American people and the Trump Administration loyally, and he will make a great Attorney General.”
Blanche has been closely tied to what Democrats have dubbed a “retribution” campaign by the president against his perceived political enemies and he helped negotiate the extraordinary legal settlement between Trump and the government he controls.
The out-of-court settlement stems from Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over the illegal disclosure of his tax records by an agency contractor.
It proposed immunity from audits for past tax years and a $1.776 billion fund for people who say they were unfairly targeted by the Department of Justice, potentially including Trump supporters convicted over the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
Federal judges have separately blocked the fund and condemned the tax settlement, which according to US press reports could help the president avoid past liabilities of up to $100 million.
Blanche has also come in for criticism from victims of Jeffrey Epstein over his handling of the release of investigative files about the convicted sex offender, a one-time close friend of Trump.
Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Blanche represented Trump in his New York trial over alleged “hush money” paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.
He was also on the legal defense team in two federal cases brought against Trump by special counsel Jack Smith — for allegedly mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House and for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Both cases were dropped after Trump won the 2024 presidential election.
AFP
Foreign
Man Jailed for Keeping His Mom’s Dead Body in a Freezer for Nearly 3 Years While Receiving Her Financial Benefits
Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court in Wales court in Wales, United Kingdom, has sentenced Christopher Phillips, from Porthcawl, Bridgend, to two years and four months in prison after he kept the body of his deceased mother, Sylvia Phillips, in a freezer for nearly three years while continuing to receive her financial benefits.
Police were called to the property in February after concerns were raised about Sylvia’s welfare. She had not been seen by medical professionals since 2022, despite continuing to receive prescriptions and previously maintaining regular contact with healthcare services.
When officers arrived, Phillips claimed his mother was in London visiting cousins but failed to provide any further details, prompting a search of the house.
During the search, police discovered a freezer with flowers placed on top. Inside was the body of a woman in her 80s, later confirmed to be Sylvia Phillips.
Phillips initially answered “no comment” to all police questions but later pleaded guilty to preventing the lawful and decent burial of a d+ad body and fraud by false representation.
He has now been sentenced to two years and four months in prison for the offences.
Iran has executed two men convicted of spying for Israel, as authorities continue a surge in executions linked to alleged espionage during the country’s ongoing conflict with Israel and the United States.
The executions were carried out on Monday, according to Iran’s judiciary, marking the latest in a series of hangings involving individuals accused of working with Israeli intelligence since the war began in February.
“Omid Behzad and Pouria Safvat were hanged this morning for transmitting the coordinates of sensitive military and security sites to Mossad agents,” said Mizan, the media outlet for Iran’s judiciary, referring to Israel’s foreign intelligence service.
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Iranian authorities did not disclose when the two men were arrested or tried. However, Mizan said they were found guilty of “espionage and collaboration with the Zionist regime”.
“They helped the intelligence services achieve their objectives by providing them with information on military and security centres during the war,” Mizan added.
Executions in Iran have increased sharply since the conflict erupted on February 28 following large-scale US-Israeli strikes that resulted in the death of the country’s supreme leader.
According to international rights organisations, Iran remains the world’s second-highest user of the death penalty after China.
Figures released by Norway-based Iran Human Rights and Paris-headquartered Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) showed that at least 1,639 people were executed in Iran last year, the highest annual total recorded since 1989.
On Tuesday, Amnesty criticised what it described as an “escalation” in executions after Iranian authorities confirmed the hanging of two men convicted of participating in anti-government protests during the winter.
(AFP)
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