AP-Newswatch

How American presidents have planned their own funerals

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jimmy Carter’s funeral will feature an interstate choreography of grief, ceremony and logistics that is characteristic of state funerals. Ever since the nation’s founding, Americans have bid farewell to former presidents with an intricate series of events including longstanding traditions and personal touches. Presidents often help plan the memorials themselves, right down to the kind of casket, the seating arrangements or the route of the funeral procession. President Dwight Eisenhower wanted to be buried in a soldier’s casket. President Ronald Reagan wanted his casket carried up the west steps of the Capitol, facing his native California. Carter planned to be buried in his front yard in Plains, Georgia.

Jimmy Carter made eradicating Guinea worm disease a top mission

JARWENG, South Sudan (AP) — Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter spent decades waging war against an ancient parasite. Carter has tried to rid the Earth of Guinea worm, which infects people who drink unclean water tainted with larva. The worms can grow 3 feet long inside the body before breaking out in painful blisters. Rarely fatal but often crippling, the disease infected 3.5 million of the world’s poorest people in Africa and Asia when Carter launched the eradication campaign in 1986. The Carter Center trained an army of volunteers who trained villagers how to filter water and report infections. The parasite now stands at the brink of extinction, with just 13 human infections reported last year.

Jimmy Carter and Playboy: How ‘the weirdo factor’ rocked ’76

PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Jimmy Carter already had drawn months of media scrutiny as a devout Southern Baptist running for president. Then the 1976 Democratic nominee brought up sex and sin as he explained his religious faith to Playboy magazine. Nearly a half-century later, as Carter was receiving hospice care in the same south-Georgia home where he once spoke with Playboy journalists, his interviewer Robert Scheer said he believed Carter was treated unfairly. He recalled the former president as a “real” and “serious” figure whose intent was smothered by the intensity of a campaign’s closing stretch. Carter died Sunday at age 100.

Biden announces nearly $2.5 billion more in military aid for Ukraine

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden says the United States will send nearly $2.5 billion more in weapons to Ukraine. Biden’s administration is working quickly to spend all the money it has available to help Kyiv fight off Russia before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in three weeks. The package announced Monday includes $1.25 billion in presidential drawdown authority, which allows the military to pull existing stock from its shelves and gets weapons to the battlefield faster. The deal also puts more long-term weapons packages on contract through a separate Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which pays for longer-term weapons deliveries. Biden said all longer-term funds have now been spent and pledged to use the remaining drawdown money before leaving office.

An appeals court upholds a $5 million award in a sexual abuse verdict against President-elect Trump

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld a jury’s finding in a civil case that Donald Trump sexually abused a columnist in an upscale department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a written opinion on Monday upholding the $5 million award that the Manhattan jury granted to E. Jean Carroll for sex abuse and defamation. The longtime magazine columnist had testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly encounter in spring 1996 into a violent attack after they playfully entered the store’s dressing room. Trump skipped the defamation and sex abuse trial after repeatedly denying the attack ever happened.

Trump endorses Mike Johnson to stay on as House Speaker despite government funding turmoil

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has endorsed House Speaker Mike Johnson, providing crucial backing as the Louisiana Republican prepares for what is expected to be another contentious speakership race this week. Trump said in a social media post Monday that Johnson “is a good, hard working, religious man” who “will do the right thing.” The signal of support from Trump comes despite his frustration with a spending deal Johnson pushed through the House days before Christmas that failed to achieve his central goal of raising the debt limit. Other Republicans have been less forgiving

A caucus of military veterans seeks to bridge the political divide in a polarized Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a deeply partisan Congress, one group of lawmakers with a shared background is working in a bipartisan way to try to pass important legislation. The group consists of military veterans in the U.S. House who call themselves the “For Country Caucus.” Veterans in the caucus see it as one of the few places where members of both parties feel they can build relationships and work together. It’s one small sign of attempts to bridge the nation’s political polarization. The caucus began in 2019. Since then, it has been integral in getting more than 100 bills passed into law — on national security, support for veterans and more.

Middle East latest: Ukraine pledges support for a new Syria, once a key Russian ally

Ukraine is pledging support for the new authorities in Syria, which was once a key Russian ally in the Mideast. The Ukrainian foreign minister met with Syria’s de facto leader on Monday during a visit to Damascus. In the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Monday that recent hostilities in and around hospitals “have obliterated the health care system in northern Gaza.” Israel’s nearly 3-month-old military offensive in northern Gaza has largely isolated the area, with little medical or other aid allowed to reach hospitals there.

South Korea to inspect Boeing aircraft as it struggles to find cause of plane crash that killed 179

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean officials plan to conduct safety inspections of all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s airlines, as they struggle to determine what caused a weekend plane crash that killed 179 people. Acting President Choi Sang-mok also instructed authorities on Monday to conduct an emergency review of the country’s aircraft operation systems. The plane operated by South Korean budget airline Jeju Air skidded off a runway at Muan International Airport, slammed into a concrete fence and burst into a fireball. All but two of the 181 people aboard were killed.

Argentine judge charges 5 people over death of former One Direction star Liam Payne

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — An Argentine judge has confirmed charges against five people in connection with the death of Liam Payne, a former member of musical group One Direction. The judge has ordered preventive prison for two of them for having supplied Payne with drugs. A judicial officer said that one of the two people ordered to be put under preventive prison was an employee of the hotel in Buenos Aires where Payne stayed until he died after falling from the balcony of his room in October. The other person was a waiter Payne met in a restaurant. The officer requested not to be identified as a condition to talk about the ruling.